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One problem with globalization is American leaders have the power to disrupt numerous economies by severing supply chains or manipulating financial flows, but citizens of those countries have no influence over U.S. elections.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 29, 2024

Democracy and authoritarianism in a modern, globalized world

The bedrock principle of democracy is that people affected by the decisions of political leaders should have a say in selecting those leaders.
Studies have observed that patients eventually diagnosed with multiple sclerosis initially complain of common issues like anxiety, fatigue or bladder problems. Researcher may be on the road to developing a simple test that can definitively tell a patient if they have the disease.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 21, 2024

This multiple sclerosis discovery could be a breakthrough

Researchers have found evidence that neurons are being damaged years before the disease makes itself known.
A woman and baby at the Zamzam displacement camp, close to El Fasher in North Darfur, Sudan, in January.
WORLD
Apr 30, 2024

Surrounded by fighters and haunted by famine, Sudan city fears worst

The contest for control of El Fasher in Darfur has prompted alarmed warnings from American and United Nations officials who fear mass bloodshed.
An aerial view of Prince Heinrich XIII’s Waidmannsheil hunting lodge, where German police searched for evidence while arresting dozens across the country in December 2022 in connection to an alleged insurrectionist plot, in Bad Lobenstein, Germany, on Dec. 8, 2022.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Apr 30, 2024

The first court trial over alleged coup plot in Germany begins

A random assortment of people comprised a group that attempted a coup in Germany in 2022, but investigators say they were well-organized and dangerous.
For a little more than a decade, scientists have been studying a subset of people they call "super-agers.” These individuals are age 80 and older, but they have the memory ability of a person 20 to 30 years younger.
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 30, 2024

A peek inside the brains of ‘super-agers’

New research explores why some octogenarians have exceptional memories.
A team of scientists in 2009 set out to pick a date when the Holocene ended and the Anthropocene began. They settled on 1952, when humanity added detectable byproducts of atomic bomb testing to our planet’s surface.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2024

A century of bad choices will haunt Earth for 100,000 years

A group of scientists rejected a proposal to give our current epoch a new name: the Anthropocene, derived from the Greek word for human.
The trial hearing of Masumi Hayashi, who denied killing four people and poisoning 63 at a festival by lacing a pot of curry with arsenic, was the focus of The Japan Times’ front page of May 14, 1999.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
May 1, 2024

Japan Times 1999: Hayashi admits fraud, denies curry murders

The disturbing case of the Wakayama curry killer would continue for years, resulting in the eventual execution of the woman convicted of the crime.
Demonstrators rally against a controversial "foreign influence" bill, which Brussels warns would undermine Georgia's aspirations to join the European Union, in Tbilisi early on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
May 1, 2024

Police fire tear gas and rubber bullets at Georgia pro-EU protesters

Riot police beat and arrested scores of people protesting against a bill that critics say resembles Russian legislation used to silence dissent.
Mitsunobu Inoike talks about the Kanakura district of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, known for its terraced rice fields, on Friday.
JAPAN / Society
May 1, 2024

Noto quake survivors face tough choice: leave or remain

In the disaster-hit areas, many damaged houses are being left as they are.
The decision to cut the nearly 500-person group, including its senior director, Rebecca Tinucci, was made by CEO Elon Musk in the last week, according to a person familiar with the matter.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 1, 2024

Tesla axes most of supercharger team in blow to other automakers

The decision to cut the nearly 500-person group, including its senior director, Rebecca Tinucci, was made by CEO Elon Musk in the last week.
Kim Kyu-li holds a protest placard at her home in southwest London.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 1, 2024

As border reopens, North Koreans in China vanish

Hundreds of North Koreans have been repatriated by China in recent months, where they face imprisonment, torture and even execution.
A vacant house in Tokyo is seen demolished in January 2020.
JAPAN
May 1, 2024

Number of vacant homes in Japan hits record high of 9 million

The preliminary figure jumped by 510,000 from 2018, when the previous survey was taken, and doubled from 4.48 million in 1993.
Nepali TikTok influencers and twin sisters Princy (left) and Prisma Khatiwada take a selfie in Kathmandu on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
May 1, 2024

Nepalis challenge TikTok ban after losing earnings, fans and a voice

The lives of owners of popular accounts were transformed by the platform, which had about 2.2 million users in the country.
Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako speak to evacuees at a shelter in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in March.
JAPAN
May 1, 2024

Emperor Naruhito marks five years since enthronement

The emperor's first five years on the throne were largely overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward has offered a stationmaster experience at Shinjuku Station as a return gift for donations of ¥1 million to the ward.
JAPAN
May 1, 2024

Tokyo offers 'experience packages' as gifts to curb tax outflow

As their tax revenues continue to decline, Tokyo wards have begun diversifying their gift offerings under the hometown tax program.
A ceremony for the Self-Defense Forces' newly created cyberdefense force at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo in March 2022
JAPAN
May 1, 2024

Japanese government skips submitting active cyberdefense bill

The government planned to set up a panel of relevant experts in May, but this plan is now uncertain.
A worker organizes cannabis flowers before the opening of the first legal recreational marijuana dispensary, located in the East Village in the Manhattan borough of New York, on Dec. 29, 2022.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
May 1, 2024

Marijuana could be reclassified in U.S. as less dangerous

The rumored move would ease access to cannabis for patients and researchers studying its medical applications without decriminalizing it.
U.S. President Joe Biden makes an appearance at an infrastructure construction project in Woodstock, New Hampshire, in November 2021.  Bridges and sewage systems may seem unglamorous, but common assets such as these will form the basis of economic growth for years to come.
COMMENTARY / World
May 1, 2024

The West’s new infrastructure imperative

A dim future awaits any society that allows its infrastructure to degrade and underinvests in new needs.
A vacant lot on the site of the former Tsukiji fish market where a group of companies plans to develop a commercial and residential complex in the coming years
BUSINESS
May 1, 2024

Developer hopes to tap Tsukiji's 'rich history' to create a new Tokyo hot spot

Mitsui Fudosan, tasked with renovating the former site of the famous Tsukiji fish market, hopes to build the vacant lot into a new trendy hub.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
May 2, 2024

U.S. and Saudi Arabia near defense pact meant to reshape Middle East

Though many obstacles remain, there is optimism Washington and Riyadh could reach a framework defense deal within weeks.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks to reporters at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on Wednesday before embarking on a trip to France and South American countries.
JAPAN / Politics
May 2, 2024

Kishida and Attal vow to expand Japan-France ties

Attal also expressed his condolences over the recent death of renowned Japanese manga artist Akira Toriyama.
Counter-protesters strike a barricade at a pro-Palestinian encampment on the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus on Wednesday.
WORLD
May 2, 2024

Violence flares at UCLA as police end protests at New York's Columbia

Police said UCLA had called them to restore order and maintain public safety "due to multiple acts of violence" within the encampment.
A guide stands next to a CV9040 infantry fighting vehicle and other military hardware at an exhibition displaying equipment captured by the Russian army from Ukrainian forces in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, at the Victory Park open-air museum on Poklonnaya Gora in Moscow on Wednesday
WORLD / Politics
May 2, 2024

Russians who fled war return, in boost for Putin’s war economy

Many Russians are returning to their homeland after finding countries abroad have become less accommodating for them — a gain for the domestic economy.
Solomon Islands’ newly elected Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele speaks during a press conference outside the Parliament House in Honiara on Thursday. Manele was elected defeated an opposition leader intent on curbing Beijing's reach in the Pacific nation.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 2, 2024

China-friendly Manele elected as Solomon Islands PM

Manele chosen over an opposition leader intent on curbing Beijing's reach in the Pacific nation.
Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology, which allowed customers to grab grocery items from a shelf and walk out of the store, is reportedly being phased out of its grocery stores.
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2024

Amazon's AI stores seemed too magical. And they were.

There are plenty more examples of companies that have failed to mention humans pulling the levers behind supposedly cutting-edge AI technology.
Birdhead members Ji Weiyu (left) and Song Tao, who are exhibiting “The Matrix” facing the “chikuin no ma” garden at Kondaya Genbei as part of Kyotographie 2024.
CULTURE / Art
May 3, 2024

Shanghai duo Birdhead flips photography

Artists Ji Weiyu and Song Tao play with randomness and control in their Kyotographie exhibition, "Welcome to Birdhead World Again, Kyoto 2024."
Attendees at the Leap technology conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on March 6, 202. The oil-rich country is plowing money into glitzy events, computing power and artificial intelligence research, putting it in the middle of an escalating U.S.-China struggle for technological influence.
WORLD / Politics
May 2, 2024

‘To the future’: Saudi Arabia spends big to become an AI superpower

Saudi Arabia was long a financial spigot for tech, but is now building its own industry.
Senator Tim Scott (center), a Republican from South Carolina, speaks during a campaign event with former U.S. President Donald Trump, (left), and Doug Burgum (right), governor of North Dakota, in Laconia, New Hampshire, in January.
WORLD / Politics
May 3, 2024

Trump auditions VP picks before wealthy donors in Palm Beach

Trump’s running mate may have to take on an unusually large amount of campaigning if his legal troubles prevent him from keeping a robust travel schedule.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on March 20.
WORLD / Politics
May 3, 2024

U.S. and Saudi Arabia finalizing details of security pact, sources say

For now, negotiators have prioritized a bilateral security accord that would then be part of a wider package presented to Israel.
A boy next to a nearly dried-up lake during an electricity blackout in Yangon on Thursday
ASIA PACIFIC
May 3, 2024

Myanmar's junta stops issuing permits for men to work abroad

The junta said in February it would enforce a law allowing it to call up all men to serve in the military for at least two years.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years