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Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy delivers remarks Tuesday during a press briefing outside his office on Capitol Hill in which he announces an impeachment inquiry into U.S. President Joe Biden with regard to his role in the business dealings of his son, Hunter Biden.
COMMENTARY
Sep 15, 2023

Republican impeachment inquiry marks low point in U.S. history

If any president can be impeached without reason, it is likely that every president will be impeached so long as the opposing party controls the House.
A sign outside the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple in Canada, where Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar was killed in June 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 19, 2023

India hits back at Canadian PM Trudeau, calling murder allegations ‘absurd’

The fraying ties center around Canada's Sikh population — one of the highest outside of India — and their demands for a separate homeland.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S President Joe Biden during a state dinner at the White House in Washington in June
WORLD / Politics
Sep 20, 2023

Trudeau’s murder claim risks upending U.S. courtship of India

The allegations leave U.S. President Joe Biden caught between one of the U.S.' closest allies and an increasingly important partner in countering China.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the 78th Session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 20, 2023

Climate fault lines in clear sight at U.N. General Assembly

Disconnects are likely to remain front and center when many of the same leaders gather in Dubai for COP28 in November.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi converses with Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar during the Group of 20 Leaders' Summit in Bali, Indonesia, in November.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 20, 2023

The Modi-Jaishankar partnership serves India’s global interests well

Important contributors to India’s rising global profile are the communication skills, professionalism and competence of Foreign Minister Jaishankar.
China's Xi Jinping (left) will attend the Asian Games opening ceremony in host city Hangzhou and meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad along with other visiting leaders there, state media said Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 21, 2023

Syria's Bashar Assad to visit China seeking financial support

With his trip to the Asian Games in Hangzhou, Assad also becomes the latest in a string of leaders ostracized by the West to be feted by Beijing.
The new invoice system, which goes into effect Oct. 1, is forcing many freelancers in Japan to choose between raising their prices or suffer a 10% loss in revenue.
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Sep 25, 2023

Freelancers aren’t happy with Japan’s new invoice system

For many freelancers and small businesses, the result will amount to a 10% increase in taxes.
A Filipino woman looks at pictures of fellow wartime survivors of sexual servitude at a resource center, in Quezon city, Manila, in August 2015.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 25, 2023

For Filipino wartime rape survivors, a last hope for reparations

For the few remaining elderly survivors, the reparations demand issued by a U.N. committee earlier this year is realistically their last hope.
Nintendo Tokyo at the Shibuya Parco department store complex, the first such official Nintendo store in Japan
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 27, 2023

Microsoft buying Nintendo would have been a disaster

Imagine the clash of cultures. Nintendo executives famously cut their own salaries rather than lay off workers during the failure of the Wii U.
Shell CEO Wael Sawan attends the China Development Forum 2023 in Beijing on March 25. At an investor day in June, Sawan outlined plans to slow investment in renewables and low-carbon business as part of a strategy to boost returns.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 28, 2023

Shell CEO faces pressure from within over renewables commitment

Employees have issued a rare open letter to Wael Sawan after he outlined plans to slow investment in renewables in a strategy to boost returns.
Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev prior to a meeting in Brussels on May 14
WORLD / Politics
Oct 1, 2023

In taking Karabakh, Azerbaijan's president avenged his father

A confluence of factors had convinced Ilham Aliyev, 61, that the time was right to do something his father couldn't.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits the Memory Wall of Fallen Defenders of Ukraine, during Defenders of Ukraine Day in Kyiv on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 2, 2023

Ukraine left out in cold by U.S. shutdown deal

Biden says the U.S. must help Ukraine stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin, warning that a failure to do so could embolden other autocrats.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy speaks to reporters following a GOP briefing at the Capitol in Washington on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 2, 2023

U.S. House speaker vows to survive ouster threat in shutdown showdown

Hard-line Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz said he would file a "motion to vacate," a call for a vote to remove McCarthy as speaker of the House.
A TotalEnergies tanker truck with sustainable aviation fuel at the 54th International Paris Airshow near Paris on June 19
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Oct 3, 2023

Too expensive, too scarce: Doubts grow over green aviation fuel

Generating the required quantities of alternative fuel would require huge areas of land and natural resources.
The World Trade Organization logo in Geneva
WORLD / Politics
Oct 3, 2023

At WTO, disregard for trade rules shows world is fragmenting

The WTO has warned a "polycrisis" of pandemic, war in Ukraine and inflation is sapping faith in globalization.
A pedestrian walks past a mobile recruitment point located to promote service in the Russian army and invite volunteers to sign a contract with the Defense Ministry, in a street in Moscow on May 3. The slogan reads: "Our profession is to defend fatherland."
WORLD / Politics
Oct 3, 2023

Russia deploys 'punishment battalions' in echo of Stalin

Drunk recruits, insubordinate soldiers and convicts are part of hundreds who've been pressed into Russian penal units known as "Storm-Z" squads.
Vehicles carrying refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh, a region inhabited by ethnic Armenians, pack the road leading towards the Armenian border on Sept. 25.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 3, 2023

Armenian exodus marks a new front in East-West power tussle

Azerbaijan has so far avoided sanctions despite calls before the assault by the U.S. and the EU not to undermine years of mediation efforts.
A woman walks past a market in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon. Lebanon is one of nine Arab nations using an algorithm-powered poverty assessment formula funded by the World Bank that ranks welfare applicants according to dozens of different data points.
WORLD / Society
Oct 5, 2023

In Middle East, poor excluded from welfare by 'faulty' algorithms

Around the world, 40 countries use an algorithm-powered poverty assessment formula funded by the World Bank to rank welfare applicants.
South Korean tourists shield themselves from the sun in Ronda, Spain, on Aug. 9. Much of the world sweltered through unseasonably warm weather in September, in a year expected to be the hottest in human history.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Oct 5, 2023

September hottest on record by 'extraordinary' margin: EU monitor

The average surface air temperature for the month was around 1.75 C hotter than the September average in the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period.
The PayPay app now seeks to keep its pace of double-digit growth with help from other SoftBank portfolio companies.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 5, 2023

SoftBank’s PayPay app showcases Masayoshi Son’s clout in Japan

Seen to be next in SoftBank’s initial public offering pipeline, the startup now holds two-thirds’ share in QR-code payments in Japan.
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2023

Nippon Ishin to expel lawmaker Muneo Suzuki over visit to Russia

The majority of Nippon Ishin members are calling for a severe punishment due to concerns about the impact of Suzuki's pro-Russian remarks and actions.
Bianca Vara, a Democrat and grandmother of five, at the flea market where she runs a stall in Chamblee, Georgia, on Thursday. American voters’ broad discontent with the disarray in Washington transcends political parties, race, age and geography. "Disgust isn’t a strong enough word,” said Vara.
WORLD
Oct 7, 2023

Americans are too turned off by Washington to even complain

Griping about politics is a time-honored American pastime — but lately, the country’s political mood has plunged to some of the worst levels on record.
British Labour Party leader Keir Starmer speaks to reporters in Wakefield, England, in 2022.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 7, 2023

Britain's Keir Starmer plots painstaking path to power

Taking lessons from center-left parties in Australia and Germany, Starmer has imbued Labour with a cautious and methodical approach.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, on Saturday, as Secretary of State Antony Blinken listens.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 8, 2023

Biden’s hopes for the Middle East imperiled by eruption of violence

The Hamas attack on Israel could narrow the chances of Saudi Arabia and Israel normalizing relations — and a new alignment in the region.
The Seagram Building in New York on April 24. Three years into a mass workplace experiment, we are beginning to understand more about how work from home is reshaping workers’ lives and the economy.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 11, 2023

Here’s what we do and don’t know about the effects of remote work

Over three years since the pandemic forced many to telework, studies of productivity in work-from-home arrangements are all over the map.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo gives a news conference at the Boeing aircraft hangar facility in Shanghai on Aug. 30.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 12, 2023

Foreign businesses face a hostile China

The Chinese government's "zero-COVID" policy and regulatory favoritism toward local companies have created obstacles for foreign businesses.
Gazprom's Power of Siberia pipeline in the Sakha Republic, Russia
WORLD / Politics
Oct 12, 2023

Putin to tap China as failed Europe energy play blunts leverage

Gas volumes to the Asian superpower would only match two-thirds of those that flowed to Europe, but prices will be lower and deliveries would take years.
The classic Japanese ghost story often features a vengeful female ghost.
PODCAST / deep dive
Oct 12, 2023

[Rebroadcast] Japan’s got ghosts

This week we discuss a few horror movies before “Uncanny Japan” podcast host Thersa Matsuura tells a classic Japanese ghost story.
Whether you see it as ceremonious or a “way” of living in the moment, the tea ceremony offers a chance to relax and think about the moment you are in.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 13, 2023

The linguistic influence of tea in Japan is more than ceremonial

The way of tea is one of inner peace and enjoying the moment. And it's good for understanding idioms, too.
Norman Cook, better known as Fatboy Slim, first came to Japan in 1990 as the bass player in Beats International. He says he shares a similar sense of silliness with Japanese people, and that is part of what keeps drawing him back to the country.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 13, 2023

Fatboy Slim: 'Let's just be stupid for one night'

The DJ shares his love of soccer and silliness with fans during his two-city Japan tour.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan