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Smoke billows from a site in the city of Haifa, Israel, on Monday, following a fresh barrage of Iranian missiles.
WORLD
Jun 16, 2025

Iran lauds 'new method' as missiles hit Israel's Tel Aviv and Haifa

Iranian missiles struck the two large cities on Monday, fueling concerns that ongoing battles between the two archenemies could lead to a broader regional conflict.
A social media influencer photographs her meal for her followers.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 16, 2025

Influencers take bigger bite of ad pie as economic turmoil tightens budgets

Brands increased investment in influencer partnerships by 49% in 2024 and content creators topped social media marketing budgets, taking up a quarter of total annual spending.
Demonstrators shoot water pistols during a protest against mass tourism in Barcelona on Sunday.
WORLD / Society
Jun 16, 2025

Protesters against overtourism take to the streets of southern Europe

Groups across Spain, Italy and Portugal argue that uncontrolled tourism sends housing prices soaring and forces people out of their neighborhoods.
Local authorities in Tokyo are resorting to unconventional measures to raise voter turnout, including partnering with public bathhouses amid Japan’s ongoing sauna boom and collaborating with high school students to create promotional materials.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 16, 2025

Tokyo teams up with bathhouses to boost voter turnout for assembly election

The previous election in 2021 showed a much lower turnout rate among younger demographics.
People lay flowers and candles at a makeshift memorial site in front of a school in Graz, southeastern Austria, on Thursday, a day after 11 people died in a school shooting.
WORLD / Crime & Legal / ANALYSIS
Jun 16, 2025

Killings at European schools fan concern U.S. problem is spreading

The spate of school shootings is increasing momentum for tougher gun and security laws as well as more policing of social media.
Japan faces a growing crisis of social isolation, with over 1.4 million people — many middle-aged — living reclusive lifestyles, and experts say only long-term, trust-based community support can reverse the trend.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 16, 2025

Japan needs to rethink how it helps hikikomori

While hikikomori, the Japanese term for acute social withdrawal, often brings to mind young recluses in dark bedrooms, the reality is broader.
The Neuralink device, called Blindsight, stimulated areas of a monkey’s brain associated with vision, said engineer Joseph O’Doherty.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 16, 2025

Neuralink device helps monkey see something that’s not there

The device, called Blindsight, stimulated areas of a monkey’s brain associated with vision.
Shingo Kato, assistant manager at Homechigiru Driving School in Ise, Mie Prefecture, rides in a training vehicle with a smartphone equipped with the school’s translation app.
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Jun 30, 2025

Translation apps help break language barriers at Chubu driving schools

Some driving schools have refused enrollment of foreign nationals with limited Japanese skills, sources have said.
A DJ performs for attendees drinking coffee at an alcohol-free clubbing event in Singapore.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 16, 2025

Sober clubbing brews fresh beat for Singapore's Gen Z

Not into an environment filled with alcohol? Try hitting up a coffee rave in Singapore.
Smoke billows from an explosion at the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) building in Tehran on Monday after it was struck in an Israeli attack.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 17, 2025

Israel and Iran trade blows as air war rages into fifth day

The Israeli military said Tuesday it had killed Iran's top military commander — a close confidant of the country's supreme leader — amid rising fears of a wider conflict.
The United Nations' World Food Programme is expected to cut up to 30% of its staff.
WORLD
Jun 17, 2025

U.N. slashes global aid plan over 'deepest funding cuts ever'

The United States — the world's top donor — has heavily slashed foreign aid since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to office in January.
Mitsubishi could announce a deal to buy the assets of Aethon Energy Management in the next couple of months, sources have said.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 17, 2025

Mitsubishi said to be in advanced talks on $8 billion Aethon deal

The Japanese conglomerate could announce a deal with the U.S. energy-focused investment firm in the next couple of months, according to sources.
Taiwan is strengthening its capacity to produce blood bags domestically in preparation for emergencies.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 17, 2025

Taiwan targets blood-bag production as China steps up pressure

President Lai Ching-te has made preparing the self-ruled archipelago for a possible conflict with China a central part of his policymaking.
Yuichiro Tamaki, leader of the Democratic Party for the People (center right), and others on Tuesday at the Diet building after announcing their campaign promises for the upcoming House of Councilors election.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 17, 2025

Japan's opposition DPP pledges lower taxes and higher take-home pay

The Democratic Party for the People also emphasized support for young people and the working generation, proposing to double the budget for child-rearing and education.
Israeli air defense systems are activated to intercept Iranian ballistic missiles over Tel Aviv amid a fresh barrage from Iranian forces on Monday.
WORLD / FOCUS
Jun 17, 2025

Israel’s defense shield is tested like never before as Iran fires ballistic missiles

In total, Tehran has sent 370 ballistic missiles toward Israel, with around 30 hitting targets in the country, the Israeli government says.
Goldin Auctions CEO Ken Goldin speaks to a collector in Ikebukuro on Saturday.
MORE SPORTS
Jun 17, 2025

Ken Goldin brings his sports memorabilia from Netflix to Tokyo

Goldin Auctions CEO Ken Goldin brought some high-end sports memorabilia for the public to see on his first trip to Japan.
Residents react as Ukrainian rescuers conduct a search after a Russian missile strike in Kyiv on Tuesday.
WORLD
Jun 17, 2025

Russia kills at least 15 in strikes on Kyiv and other cities

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian forces sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine.
A farmer cuts down cocoa pods from a tree on his farm in Azaguie, Cote d'Ivoire.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jun 17, 2025

High cocoa prices drive smuggling surge, alarming traders

Cote d'Ivoire is the world's largest cocoa producer, but much higher prices in neighboring countries create an arbitrage that some can't resist exploiting.
A Ukrainian mother sits with her children near a refugee center in Sumy, Ukraine, on June 12.
WORLD
Jun 17, 2025

Stay or go? Ukrainian visa programs in U.K. leave refugees in limbo

Many Ukrainians who came to Britain on special visas from 2022 are running out of time.
In a recorded speech played on television Wednesday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected U.S. President Donald Trump's demand for unconditional surrender, saying Americans "should know that any U.S. military intervention will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable damage."
WORLD / Politics
Jun 18, 2025

Iran supreme leader rejects Trump's call for surrender as thousands flee Tehran

U.S. President Donald Trump has veered from proposing a swift diplomatic end to the Israel-Iran war to suggesting the United States might join it.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei listens to the national anthem as Air Force officers salute during a meeting in Tehran in February.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jun 18, 2025

Iran supreme leader sees his inner circle hollowed out by Israel

The killings of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's main military and security advisers has left major holes in his inner circle, raising the risk of strategic errors.
A dead sea star in 2015. About 5 billion sea stars died from a disease outbreak, likely including this one.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jun 18, 2025

Marine heat waves are spreading around the world

Some unusual ocean events have become so intense that scientists have coined a new term: super marine heat waves.
A video from the National Police Agency aimed at educating people about the illegality of online casinos is shown at a movie theater in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 18, 2025

Japan revises law to ban online casino ads as it cracks down on offshore gambling

The revised law makes gambling on overseas sites explicitly illegal, allowing internet service providers and social media platforms to remove content more proactively.
Trishit Banerjee moved to Japan in 2015, embarking on an academic and personal journey that taught him lessons about the collective and the individual.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jun 23, 2025

A singular ensemble: Indian food, science and Fukushima

After moving to Sendai for college, an Indian student began thinking about the dynamic between the individual and the ensemble — in food, science and society.
Shibuya’s iconic scramble crossing has helped put the district on the map globally.
BUSINESS
Jun 18, 2025

Shibuya, Tokyo's coolest ward, offers startups a leg up in Japan

It's offering international entrepreneurs free space, a good address and a wide range of support services.
Drone warfare in Ukraine has exposed the obsolescence of traditional military systems, the need for rapid, adaptive innovation and the terrifying potential of AI-driven autonomous weapons in future conflicts.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 18, 2025

The age of AI drone warfare is here and changing the rules

Drone technology, weapons and tactics now evolve at a blinding pace. A new drone will be useful for only two to six months.
The anti-interventionist part of the Republican Party is watching with alarm as U.S. President Donald Trump has gone from seeking a peaceful diplomatic settlement with Iran to possibly having the United States support Israel's military campaign.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 19, 2025

Trump faces uproar from MAGA base over possible Iran strike

Some of Trump's biggest Republican allies are in the unusual position of being at odds with a president who largely shares their isolationist tendencies.
A U.S. military plane takes off at the Kadena U.S. Air Force Base in Okinawa Prefecture in August 2023.
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2025

Okinawa marks 80 years since 'Typhoon of Steel,' with U.S. presence still a burden

On June 23, Japan’s southernmost prefecture commemorates the end of the Battle of Okinawa, among the bloodiest ground battles of World War II.
The Financial Services Agency headquarters in Tokyo. The regulator has called on regional banks to disclose the amount and market value of their high-yield loans backed by government bonds.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 19, 2025

Regulator to ramp up scrutiny of banks’ repackaged JGBs

A senior official at the Financial Services Agency called on lenders to disclose the amount and market value of their holdings, sources said.
KG Motors CEO Kazunari Kusunoki with the ultra compact electric vehicle Mibot
BUSINESS
Jun 19, 2025

This $7,000 single-seat electric car has become a hit in Japan

In the rural suburbs of Hiroshima, a Japanese startup is trying to kick-start the nation’s electric vehicle market with the smallest, cheapest car it can possibly make.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’