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British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during a news conference, at the Downing Street Briefing Room in central London on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 27, 2024

‘Operation Save Rishi’ aims to get U.K. leader through key vote

Rishi Sunak has said that he’s putting U.K. defense spending on a "war footing.” He might as well have been talking about his own position.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo on Friday
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 27, 2024

Japan party leaders make final pitches ahead of Sunday by-elections

The outcome of the Shimane by-election is expected to affect Kishida's grip on power and his strategy for a possible dissolution of the Lower House.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting in St. Petersburg on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 28, 2024

Putin’s war will soon reach Russians’ tax bills

The move reflects both the burgeoning costs of his war in Ukraine and the firm control he has over the Russian elite.
IOC President Thomas Bach speaks during an interview in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Thursday.
OLYMPICS
Apr 28, 2024

Interest in hosting Olympics 'never so high,' says IOC boss

After a string of Games in wealthy democracies, 2036 could be an opportunity for Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Indonesia or India.
A man, identified as Keith Siegel, 64, speaks in a video released Saturday by Hamas that appeared to show two Israeli hostages who have been held in the Gaza Strip since the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, in this screenshot.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 28, 2024

Hamas releases video of two hostages as it weighs cease-fire

The Palestinian militant group’s military wing posted a video showing American Israeli citizen Keith Siegel, 64, and Israeli Omri Miran, 47.
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Apr 28, 2024

Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers

As Japan’s rice farmers prepare for a new planting season, many will be hoping that this summer brings a reprieve from 2023’s brutal weather conditions.
Vendors wearing headwear for protection against the sun talk amid the heat in Manila on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Apr 28, 2024

Philippines suspends in-person classes due to heat and jeepney strike

The temperature in the city hit a record high of 38.8 degrees Celsius (101.8 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday with the heat index reaching 45 C.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during the White House Correspondents' Association dinner at the Washington Hilton, in Washington, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 28, 2024

Biden jabs Trump in election-year roast at correspondents' dinner

The U.S. president used the annual black-tie event to chide his Republican rival Donald Trump for immaturity and poke fun at his own advanced age.
At the State Department, an eight-person group informally known as "the firm” is taking steps to help embattled nations when China responds to political disputes with what the U.S. and its allies call "economic coercion."
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 29, 2024

U.S. ‘firm’ steps in when China is seen as a bully, not a partner

At the U.S. State Department, an eight-person group is taking steps to help nations when China responds to political disputes with "economic coercion."
Palestinian children stand in a camp for displaced people in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip by the border with Egypt on Sunday.
WORLD
Apr 29, 2024

U.S. pushes for Gaza truce and hostage release as Blinken visits

The White House said that Israel has agreed to hear out its concerns.
Lawmakers and TikTok creators during a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington on March 12
BUSINESS
Apr 29, 2024

TikTok creators brace for economic blow thanks to possible U.S. ban

TikTok has become an essential platform for small business starting out in the U.S., one eMarketer analyst said, as a ban on the social media app looms.
Chika Kon asks a question at a mock assembly session organized by the town assembly of Zao, Miyagi Prefecture, in July. Kon is now a member of the assembly.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 29, 2024

Local councils in Japan take measures to counter candidate shortfall

Efforts are being made to encourage participation to avoid undermining essential functions such as administrative oversight.
The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan's Natsumi Sakai (center) celebrates with other CDP officials and supporters on Sunday in Tokyo's Koto Ward after being announced as the winner of the Tokyo No. 15 district by-election.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Apr 29, 2024

Election trouncing a blow to Kishida, but snap election unlikely

The PM might order a Cabinet reshuffle and make leadership changes within the LDP to boost his popularity ahead of the party's presidential election.
Japan's vice minister of finance for international affairs, Masato Kanda, poses for a photograph during an interview at the Finance Ministry in Tokyo in January 2022.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 30, 2024

Japan forex authorities ready '24 hours,' top currency diplomat Kanda says

Masato Kanda again declined to comment on whether the Finance Ministry had intervened to prop up the yen a day earlier.
Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip in March
WORLD / Politics
Apr 30, 2024

U.S. implicates five Israeli units in rights violations before Gaza war

The incidents in question took place in October outside of Gaza before conflict broke out between Israel and Hamas.
Solomon Islands' Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare speaks during a bilateral meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing last July.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 30, 2024

Solomon Islands pro-China PM says not standing for new term

During four spasmodic spells as the Pacific nation's leader, the 69-year-old Sogavare has maneuvered through armed coups, riots and the rise of China.
Staff from ANA group pose during a Tokyo event in February to commemorate the launch of a comic featuring women in airport ground handling roles.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Apr 30, 2024

Japan steps up drive to secure airport ground handling workers

The initiative seeks to ramp up interest in the workforce responsible for ensuring on-time airplane departures behind the scenes.
Demonstrators surround a cardboard cutout of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a protest outside the Indian Consulate in Toronto after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised the prospect of New Delhi's involvement in the murder of Sikh separatist leader in the country last September.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 30, 2024

India’s spy chief cleared plot to kill Sikh activist, report says

An alleged plot to kill a U.S. citizen and Sikh activist on American soil last year was approved by senior-level members of India’s intelligence agency, including its chief at the time, the Washington Post reported, citing people familiar with the matter it didn’t identify.
The Ibaraki Prefectural Government has introduced an optional four-day workweek to serve as a model for work style reform.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 30, 2024

Are local governments in Japan ready to embrace a four-day workweek?

Several municipalities are testing the waters by allowing employees to opt for longer workdays in exchange for an extra weekday off.
An eruption from Mount Ruang volcano is seen from Tagulandang island in Sitaro, North Sulawesi, Indonesia, on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 30, 2024

Indonesia's Mount Ruang erupts again, closes international airport

Authorities created a 6-kilometer exclusion zone around the volcano, forced evacuations and closed Sam Ratulangi international airport.
A scene from "The Maiden Benten and the Bandits of the White Waves" ("Benten Kozo") at the University of Hawaii at Manoa
CULTURE / Stage
May 5, 2024

Students from Hawaii to perform English-language kabuki in Japan

The group will perform "Benten Kozo," a play depicting the twists and turns of five thieves following their own code of honor.
A Ukrainian serviceman stands guard at his position in a trench at a front line on the border with Russia, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Sumy region, Ukraine, on Jan. 20.
WORLD
Apr 30, 2024

Thirty men have died trying to leave Ukraine to avoid fighting since war started

Nearly 20,000 men have fled Ukraine since the beginning of the war to avoid being drafted, according to BBC reports.
Researcher Mercury Wong holds a rice plant on April 1.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Apr 30, 2024

Hong Kong team plants seeds to safeguard legacy grains

Scientists and farmers in Hong Kong are tending to local varieties of grain they say could be an important food source in the face of climate change.
This Israeli Army handout released on April 18 shows Israeli soldiers conducting operations in the Gaza Strip against Hamas militants.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2024

Freeing hostages matters more than destroying Hamas

After a joint plea from the US and 17 other nations focusing on Hamas, Israel should lean into a deal.
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.
A man walks past an electronic board displaying the exchange rate for the yen against the U.S. dollar (right) in Tokyo on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 30, 2024

Did Japan intervene to prop up the yen? Analysts think it did.

The size and timing of the swing indicates that the government stepped in after the currency fell significantly.
Spain's Rafael Nadal waves to the crowd after losing his fourth-round match at the Madrid Open on Tuesday in what was likely his final tournament in the Spanish capital.
TENNIS
May 1, 2024

'Emotional' Nadal knocked out of Madrid Open

The 37-year-old, 22-time Grand Slam singles champion — winner of a record five Madrid Open titles — bowed out 7-5, 6-4 to the 30th-seeded Czech Lehecka.
Children hold cork sheets to cover them from the sun while walking along a street during a countrywide heat wave in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Sunday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 1, 2024

Extreme heat is closing schools, widening learning gaps worldwide

Many countries experiencing heat waves are torn between closing schools or leaving them open, both of which negatively affect children's learning.
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.

Longform

"Shake hands with Lima-chan," a statue that shares the name of the Peruvian capital looks in the direction of Peru, where a sister statue, "Sakura-chan," is located. Erected in Yokohama's Rinko Park in 1999, it commemorates Peruvian-Japanese friendship.
The journey of Peru’s Nikkei: Finding identity in Japan