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Firefighters extinguish a blaze in damaged private houses following Russian strike in Kyiv region on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
May 26, 2025

Calling Putin ‘crazy,’ Trump says he’s weighing Russia sanctions

The U.S. leader's remarks came after Moscow launched a second night of deadly missile and drone strikes across much of Ukraine.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (second from left), the businessman Dang Thanh Tam, (third from left), and Eric and Lara Trump (center) attend a groundbreaking ceremony for a new Trump hotel and golf course in the Hung Yen Province of Vietnam on May 21.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 26, 2025

Why Vietnam ignored its own laws to fast-track a Trump family golf complex

Hanoi faces intense pressure to strike a trade deal that would head off Trump’s threat of steep tariffs, which would hit about 30% of Vietnam’s exports.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's new plan to restrict updated COVID-19 vaccines to high-risk groups has sparked confusion and criticism, with experts warning it could limit public access and bypass established advisory channels.
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2025

The FDA’s new COVID-19 vaccine policy is clear as mud

The U.S. health agency's promises of transparency and choice for COVID-19 vaccines fall short in its first big test. 
Farm minister Shinjiro Koizumi visits a supermarket to check the prices of rice on Friday in Koto.
JAPAN
May 26, 2025

Bags of rice at half price will hit stores by early June, Koizumi says

With necessary costs added on, a 5-kilogram bag of rice is set to cost ¥2,160 at retailers in June.
A broker in the city of Osaka displays a sign for religious corporation deals.
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Jun 9, 2025

Religious corporation sales rising in Japan amid tax evasion concerns

There are increasing concerns that buyers may exploit the tax privileges granted to religious corporations.
Representatives of bereaved families lay flowers at a memorial service held at Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN
May 27, 2025

Remains of 368 Japanese war dead laid to rest in National Cemetery

The number of people laid to rest at the Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery now totals 371,008, including some who died after the war as detainees in Siberia.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz takes part in a discussion during the opening of the 'Re:publica 25' digital conference in Berlin on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
May 27, 2025

Ukraine's key allies no longer limiting range of weapons, Germany's Merz says

Kyiv has long pleaded for authorization to hit targets within Russian territory — and to hit weaponry used in attacks on Ukraine.
A person is taken away on a stretcher after multiple people were hit by a car during a parade marking Liverpool's Premier League title win, in Liverpool, England, on Monday.
WORLD
May 27, 2025

Car plows into fans at Liverpool title parade

Videos on social media showed people thrown into the air as the car rammed into spectators.
Children in Gaza City on May 21
WORLD
May 27, 2025

Israel-backed Gaza food plan starts amid dissent and delay

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said it has begun distributing food to Palestinians in the war-ravaged territory and appointed a new executive director
A photo provided by a witness shows the scene of an explosion in Tokyo's Edogawa Ward on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Society
May 27, 2025

Gas explosion injures 10 at Tokyo construction site, prompting evacuation

Police said workers had been driving piles into the ground for a new condominium when they likely struck an underground gas pipe, triggering the explosion.
Palestinians seeking aid gather near an aid distribution site run by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday.
WORLD
May 28, 2025

Palestinians rush U.S.-backed aid center despite concerns over checks

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said at one point the number of people seeking aid was so great that its team had to pull back to avoid casualties.
A total 37 million people in Southeast Asia suffered from cardiovascular disease in 2021 and 1.7 million died from it, according to new research.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
May 28, 2025

Southeast Asia sees near 150% rise in heart disease, study shows

A total 37 million people in the region suffered from cardiovascular disease in 2021 and 1.7 million died from it.
A Liverpool football club scarf lies on the ground at the scene of an incident where a car plowed into a crowd of Liverpool fans during a parade celebrating their side's Premier League soccer title, in central Liverpool, Britain, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
May 28, 2025

Man arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after Liverpool parade crash

British police believe the incident, in a packed Liverpool city center on Monday, was isolated and not an act of terrorism.
Mateusz Urbanowicz’s recent book “Imaginary Storefronts” collects his illustrations of the mundane Japanese street scenes that have given him immense inspiration.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
May 31, 2025

Mateusz Urbanowicz: ‘Miyazaki inspired me to put the audience first’

The Polish artist and animator talks about how he came to Japan and the inspiration he draws from ordinary streets and storefronts.
A Skechers store in Times Square in New York. The company has announced plans to sell to investment firm 3G Capital in a take-private deal for about $9.4 billion.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 28, 2025

Retailers pummeled by Trump's trade war entertain more 'take-private' offers

Such companies have been hard-hit by rapidly shifting tariff announcements and are frustrated with an inability to provide earnings guidance.
A worker produces a turbine engine component at PBS Group, in Velka Bites, Czech Republic, on May 6.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 28, 2025

Booming business has Europe's defense companies scrambling for workers

Arms makers are hiking wages and benefits, and even poaching from other sectors, as governments ramp up defense spending.
A view of the site of the chemical plant explosion in Gaomi, Shandong province, China, on Wednesday
ASIA PACIFIC
May 28, 2025

Residents pick up the pieces one day after deadly China chemical blast

Local officials have not yet released the results of air quality tests as emergency services continued to tend to the site.
Workers assemble a Nissan Juke at the production line at Nissan's factory in Sunderland, England, in November 2023.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 28, 2025

Nissan seeks to raise $7 billion with backing from U.K. government

The struggling automaker plans to issue debt and sell assets to raise funds for keeping its operations on track, according to internal documents.
AI hallucinations — when generative models fabricate information — are becoming more frequent, harder to detect and increasingly dangerous as we embed the technology deeper into society.
COMMENTARY / World
May 28, 2025

AI hallucinations? What could go wrong?

The notion that we can’t ensure that AI will produce accurate information is, uh, “disturbing” if we intend to integrate that product so deeply into our daily lives.
The Chinese Communist Party has significantly expanded its global influence operations by using tactics like election interference, disinformation, elite capture and pressure on the diaspora to sway politics and policies in democracies worldwide.
COMMENTARY / World
May 28, 2025

Is Beijing engineering election wins for 'soft on China' politicians?

Beijing legally requires all citizens to support Communist Party policies and views ethnic Chinese everywhere as instruments for advancing its global goals.
Displaced Palestinians carry bags of food aid after storming a World Food Program warehouse in the central Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
WORLD
May 29, 2025

Deadly break-in at U.N. warehouse as aid trickles into Gaza

The World Food Program appealed for an immediate scale-up of food aid "to reassure people that they will not starve."
A screengrab of Mohammed Sinwar, released on Dec. 17, 2023. Israeli media said Sinwar — Hamas' presumed Gaza leader — was targeted by strikes in southern Gaza earlier this month.
WORLD
May 29, 2025

Israel says it killed Hamas' presumed leader in Gaza

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed Israel's offensive, saying it had killed tens of thousands of militants including Mohammed Sinwar.
Products affected by the U.S. order to stop shipping goods to China without a license include design software and chemicals for semiconductors.
BUSINESS / Tech
May 29, 2025

U.S. curbs chip design software, chemicals and other shipments to China

The new restrictions appear aimed at choke points to prevent China from getting products necessary for key sectors.
Atsuko Okatsuka tries out some of the jokes from her new special, “Father,”  at the Tokyo Comedy Bar in Shibuya in January.
CULTURE / Stage
May 30, 2025

Atsuko Okatsuka brings big 'dad' energy to new special

The comedian’s upcoming special, titled “Father,” blends whimsical comedy and family drama — just in time for Father's Day.
The Hotaruan Royal Garden Suite, a renovated traditional "minka" home, will host the second iteration of the Minka Preservation Society's MinkaMeets event.
LIFE / Style & Design
May 31, 2025

Traditional home experts to gather at MinkaMeets event

Roof thatching expert Haruo Nishio is one of several experts scheduled to speak at the June 7-8 event.
Located in Nagano Prefecture, Samurai Gakuen tries to help young and old individuals who have withdrawn from society rediscover their places out in the world.
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 31, 2025

How ‘hikikomori’ shut-ins ‘start to have dreams for the future’

As many as 1.5 million “hikikomori” shut-ins withdraw from social life in Japan, but one school in Nagano is finding success is coaxing them back into the world.
The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 30, 2025

Trump aims at Chinese students and tech in threat to truce with Xi

Just weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump declared a "total reset” with China following a trade truce in Geneva, tensions are rising again between the world’s biggest economies.
Anime director Shunsuke Nakashige accepts the anime of the year award for “Solo Leveling” at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards.
CULTURE / Film
May 30, 2025

Anime's big night out is getting bigger — and more surreal

The soft-power spectacle at Crunchyroll's awards ceremony in Tokyo underscores anime's expanding global influence.
The Taiwanese military conducts its first High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) live-fire test launch at the Jiupeng base in Pingtung, Taiwan, on May 12.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 30, 2025

Trump aims to exceed first term's weapons sales to Taiwan, officials say

If U.S. arms sales to Taiwan do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump's commitment to the island.
U.S. President Donald Trump at the U.S. Steel Corporation Irvin Works facility in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, on Friday
BUSINESS / Companies
May 31, 2025

Trump to hike steel tariffs to 50% to aid Nippon-U.S. Steel

The U.S. president said the move would help protect American steelworkers during a visit to a United States Steel plant on Friday.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan