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Some of the same mistakes made during COVID-19 can be seen in the U.S. government's response to H5N1, which started in poultry before a new variant began infecting the nation’s dairy cows.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2024

Another pandemic is inevitable, and the U.S. isn't ready

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s picks to lead the nation’s top public health agencies also don’t inspire confidence.
People's Bank of China Gov. Pan Gongsheng meets with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in Beijing in April.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2024

What will happen to China’s economy in 2025?

Economic activity in China has been relatively weak since the COVID-19 crisis. This was not unexpected, at least not at first.
Hindu monks protest to stop the atrocities against Bangladesh's Hindu minority community, in Kolkata on Dec. 5.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Dec 23, 2024

Minorities fear targeted attacks in post-revolution Bangladesh

Hindus make up about 8% of the mainly Muslim nation of 170 million people.
A vendor selling spy cameras takes a phone call inside his shop at a market in New Delhi. Elaborate Indian weddings are big business, and for some families, the first step of celebration is not to call a priest or a party planner — but a private detective.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Dec 23, 2024

Bride, groom, spy: India's wedding detectives

In a country where social customs are changing rapidly, more and more couples are making their own matches.
A woman who was displaced by a flood shells cowpeas as she sits outside her shelter in Banki, in Maiduguri, Nigeria, in October.
COMMENTARY / World / The Year Ahead
Jan 6, 2025

The uphill battle against poverty

After the pandemic years, when tens of millions of people were pushed into poverty, the need for a renewed effort is obvious.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World / The Year Ahead
Jan 3, 2025

AI has not yet destroyed democracy

The worst predictions about AI disrupting the democratic process were not borne out in 2024.
The current focus on autonomous vehicles has obscured something else: AI has already de-skilled driving as a profession.
COMMENTARY / World / The Year Ahead
Jan 2, 2025

Our AI near-future

We can look forward to many years of instability as AI technology continues to make rapid progress.
People look at flowers and candles left as a tribute for the victims of the "Alter Markt" Christmas market on Monday, after a man drove a car into the crowd through an emergency exit route on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 24, 2024

Germany probing possible security lapses after Christmas market attack

Saudi Arabia had given Germany warnings about the suspect as far back as 2023, which German authorities investigated but found vague.
Orthopedic surgeon Mohammed al-Hanash sits at his clinic in Douma, east of the Syrian capital Damascus, on Saturday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 24, 2024

Syrian medics say were coerced into false chemical attack testimony

The medics, who treated the wounded at a field hospital near Damascus after the April 7, 2018, attack, said they were coerced into giving false testimony.
Indonesia takes on Saudi Arabia in a World Cup Asian qualifier match in Jakarta on Nov. 19.
SOCCER
Dec 24, 2024

Thohir determined to take 'sleeping giant' Indonesia back to World Cup

Thohir has overseen efforts to entice members of the Indonesian diaspora, mostly born in the Netherlands, to play for the land of their heritage.
Furaha Elisabeth applies medication on the skin of her child Sagesse Hakizimana, who is under treatment for Mpox, an infectious disease caused by the Mpox virus that causes a painful rash, enlarged lymph nodes and fever, at a health center in the Congo on Aug 19.
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 24, 2024

Global disease resurgence in 2024 shows rising health threat

The findings seek to renew the focus on the rise of preventable and climate-sensitive diseases, as well as a coordinated global response.
Small businesses in Ino, a town in Kochi Prefecture known for its paper industry, show how a labor shortage is a growing threat to smaller companies that provide seven out of every 10 jobs in Japan.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 24, 2024

Small businesses with low wages struggle to tackle labor shortages

A worker shortage is threatening firms that are otherwise robust, including those that have invested in automation and creative hiring.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (second from the left) making a statement at a meeting at the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 24, 2024

Japan eyes regional revitalization and economic growth

A basic concept for the promotion of regional revitalization was drawn up to promote economic growth and address the issue of overcrowding in Tokyo.
From Dec. 9 to Dec. 15, there were 94,259 flu cases reported across some 5,000 hospitals and clinics nationwide, according to the health ministry.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Dec 24, 2024

Health ministry urges caution as flu cases rise nationwide

There were 94,259 cases of the flu reported across some 5,000 hospitals and clinics nationwide in the second week of December.
A volunteer at a Sudanese mobile kitchen prepares food at one of the displacement centers in New Halfa, Sudan, on Nov. 2.
WORLD
Dec 24, 2024

Sudan drops out of hunger-monitor system on eve of famine report

The move is likely to undercut efforts to address one of the world’s largest hunger crises.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet speaks during the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Sept. 22, 2023.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 24, 2024

Under Cambodia’s new leader, room for dissent narrows

While Prime Minister Hun Manet has often spoken of the need for independent media and civil society in Cambodia, his government has moved in the opposite direction.
Toyota is negotiating with local authorities and other parties involved to set up a wholly owned production plant in Shanghai in the wake of the Chinese government's foreign investment deregulation.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 24, 2024

Toyota eyes solo Lexus EV plant in Shanghai

The automaker, which currently ships Lexus models from Japan to China, intends to put the plant into production as early as around 2027.
Rescuers work at a site of a residential building heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, in October 2022.
WORLD
Dec 24, 2024

How one man became a Ukrainian traitor and Russian spy

Before the full-scale invasion, Ukrainian nationals were mainly recruited during trips to Russia, but approaches are more often made online now using social networks.
One researcher claims that the much-touted long lifespans of Japan, Italy and other countries may be propped up by faulty data.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 25, 2024

The secret to living to 110? Bad record-keeping, says Ig Nobel Prize winner.

The true secret to extreme longevity seems to be to "move where birth certificates are rare, teach your kids pension fraud and start lying," the researcher has said.
Smoke rises following an Israeli strike near the Indonesian Hospital that ran out of fuel and electricity, in the northern Gaza Strip, on Nov. 12, 2023.
WORLD
Dec 25, 2024

Israeli army forces patients out of north Gaza hospital, medics say

Israel says its operation around the three northern Gaza communities surrounding the hospital is targeting Hamas militants.
Palestinians gather at a charity kitchen in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Dec. 4.
WORLD
Dec 25, 2024

Looting cripples Gaza food supply despite Israeli pledge to tackle gangs

Israel has failed to crack down on armed gangs attacking food convoys in Gaza, despite a pledge to do so in mid-October to help ward off famine in the Palestinian enclave, according to three U.N. and U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The commitment, made behind closed doors, seemed like a breakthrough...
"Ukiyoe Immersive Art Exhibition" includes an installation of Katsushika Hokusai’s “The Great Wave off Kanagawa.”
CULTURE / Art
Dec 25, 2024

Step into ukiyo-e: A digital journey through Japan’s traditional art form

"Ukiyoe Immersive Art Exhibition" uses 3D animation and projection mapping to reimagine Edo-era woodblock prints for modern audiences.
Christians take selfies after a Christmas Eve Mass at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia, on Tuesday, ahead of the 20th anniversary of a magnitude 9.1 earthquake that struck the coast of Sumatra on Dec. 26, 2004, triggering a huge tsunami across the Indian Ocean.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 25, 2024

Blogs to Bluesky: Social media shifts responses after 2004 tsunami

In two decades, the online social media landscape has experienced a vast change, allowing information — as well as rumor and misinformation — to flow in real time.
Workers retrieves tsunami buoy Thai 23461 in the Andaman Sea on Nov. 28.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Dec 25, 2024

The tsunami detection buoys safeguarding lives in Thailand

They form part of a warning system intended to ensure no disaster is as deadly as a huge December 2004 tsunami caused by an earthquake under the Indian Ocean.
A disinformation graphic spread via Telegram before a Russian offensive in Ukraine's Kharkiv region. The Kremlin has deployed its sophisticated propaganda machinery to justify its offensive in Ukraine, and China is learning from Russian influence tactics.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 25, 2024

China is taking a page from Russia’s disinformation playbook

Russian and Chinese influence operations are increasingly similar and complementary, showing how the two regimes are collaborating to dominate the information space.
Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya (left) and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, in Beijing on Wednesday
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 25, 2024

Japan's top diplomat visits China as a step toward mending ties

Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya's trip marks the first visit by a top Japanese diplomat to Beijing since April 2023.
Riot police march in front of the main building of Ssangyong Motor in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, on Aug. 6, 2009.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Dec 25, 2024

The real-life violence that inspired South Korea's 'Squid Game'

A struggling car giant in South Korea announcing in 2009 it was laying off more than 2,600 people resulted in an occupation of its factory.
In this handout picture released by Kazakhstan's emergency situations ministry, emergency specialists work at the crash site of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet near the western Kazakh city of Aktau on Dec. 25.
WORLD
Dec 26, 2024

Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashes in Kazakhstan, killing 38

A jet crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, killing 38 people.
A rescuer of the State Emergency Service works to put out a fire in a private house after a drone strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday.
WORLD
Dec 26, 2024

Russia launches 'inhuman' Christmas Day attacks, Ukraine says

Half a million people in the Kharkiv region were left without heating, in temperatures just a few degrees Celsius above zero.
People use their smartphones as they sit on motorbikes in Ho Chi Minh City on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 26, 2024

Sweeping Vietnam internet law comes into force

Under a new law, all tech giants operating in Vietnam must verify users' accounts via their phone numbers or Vietnamese identification numbers.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?