Search - 2016

 
 
A makeshift squat-style toilet is still used at an evacuation center in the city of Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, six months after the Noto Peninsula earthquake.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 2, 2024

Six months on from Noto quake, shelter toilets are still squat-style

Reports of health deterioration among evacuees, many of whom are elderly, due to the discomfort of having to use such toilets have emerged.
London's financial district in August 2023
BUSINESS
Jul 5, 2024

Labour win brings few hopes — or fears — to London's financial district

The Labour Party has assiduously courted the City of London, mindful that their plans for boosting economic growth will need a big dose of private capital.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his wife, Victoria Starmer, greet Labour campaigners and activists at No. 10 Downing Street, following the results of the election in London on Friday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 8, 2024

Investors put U.K. election winner Labour on credibility watch

U.K. markets that have struggled since 2016's Brexit vote and the chaos wreaked by former Prime Minister Liz Truss' 2022 mini-budget.
Caeleb Dressel dives into the pool during the men's 100-meter freestyle event at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in Indianapolis on June 18.
OLYMPICS / Swimming
Jul 11, 2024

Swimming star Caeleb Dressel preparing to dive into uncharted waters in Paris

Dressel will defend two of his three individual titles at the Paris Games.
Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump is surrounded by bodyguards after he was shot in the ear during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 14, 2024

How attacks on presidents and candidates have shaped U.S. history

Even before Saturday’s incident, polls showed voters worried about possible violence surrounding this year’s presidential election.
Ohio Senator JD Vance at Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Monday
WORLD / Politics
Jul 16, 2024

Trump taps Vance as running mate, picking populist protege

Sen. J.D. Vance’s selection saw Donald Trump bypass many of the senator’s own colleagues, including Tim Scott of South Carolina and Marco Rubio of Florida.
Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga warms up ahead of a game against the Giants at Oracle Park in San Francisco on June 27.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 16, 2024

'Shotamania' in Chicago: Cubs' Imanaga quickly becomes fan favorite

Imanaga, who has been one of the National League's top pitchers, has seamlessly inserted himself into the Chicago sports scene.
Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy participates in a practice round on Tuesday in Troon, Scotland, ahead of the British Open.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Jul 17, 2024

Scheffler and DeChambeau loom over McIlroy's bid for major redemption

McIlroy's major drought continued in last month's U.S. Open, where he agonizingly finished second after bogeying three of his last four holes.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris supports President Joe Biden as he speaks from the White House on Sunday about the shooting of his Republican challenger, Donald Trump.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 18, 2024

It’s no big deal that a woman may be the president. What a beautiful thing.

Despite some lingering biases, evidence suggests that female leaders often outperform male leaders, particularly in areas like public health.
People walk along a flooded street in Manila on Wednesday amid heavy rainfall from Typhoon Gaemi.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 24, 2024

Deadly Typhoon Gaemi floods Philippines, shuts Taiwan

The Philippines is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to extreme weather events, which have cost the nation about $1.2 billion annually between 2000 and 2016.
Former U.S. President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 26, 2024

Trump wants a weaker dollar, but Wall Street doubts he’ll get one

Donald Trump has completely overhauled the Republican Party in his populist image and named a fellow strong-dollar skeptic as his running mate.
Simone Biles reacts after her balance beam routine during the women's all-around final at the Paris Olympics on Thursday.
OLYMPICS / Gymnastics
Aug 2, 2024

Peerless Simone Biles wins second Olympic all-around title

Brazilian Rebeca Andrade earned silver for the second straight Games and defending champion Sunisa Lee of the United States finished with bronze.
Japan's Koki Kano shakes hands with Hungary's Gergely Siklosi at the end of the men's epee team gold medal bout between Japan and Hungary during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Grand Palais in Paris on Friday.
OLYMPICS / Fencing
Aug 3, 2024

Hungary upsets Japan to snatch gold in men's epee

Gergely Siklosi, scoring first, gave his team a lead that they kept for most of the bout, eventually winning 26-25 against the defending champions.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to a joint meeting of Congress at the Capitol in Washington on July 24.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Aug 3, 2024

Netanyahu, defiant, appears to have gone rogue, risking a regional war

Absent a clear goal in the war, the prime minister's defiance is dividing Israel from its allies and the country itself.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the U.S. Democratic vice presidential candidate, speaks as Vice President and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris looks on at Temple University in Philadelphia on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Aug 7, 2024

New Democratic VP pick Walz adds deep China experience to ticket

The Minnesota governor’s focus on China issues include a foray there as a teacher and a role on a key human rights panel as a congressman.
Yuka Kagami celebrates with her medal after winning the women's 76-kg freestyle wrestling event on the final day of the Paris Olympics on Sunday.
OLYMPICS
Aug 12, 2024

Japan finishes third on medal table after strong showing at Paris Olympics

Japan won 20 gold medals at the Paris Olympics for its best showing at an overseas Games.
The ability of Xi Jinping's government to control China's  industrial overcapacity crisis is limited, and stimulating domestic demand is difficult amid geopolitical tensions.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 2024

Xi’s supply-side panacea has lost its magic

China’s excess capacity problem will have to fester until even its industry leaders call it quits. That may be some years away.
U.S. Vice President and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and her husband, second gentleman Douglas Emhoff, wave from the stage on the fourth and last day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Aug 24, 2024

Harris faces challenge of translating convention joy to fall momentum

Trump is no pushover, and history is littered with presidential candidates who roused their partisans at conventions only to fall short come November.
Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa attends a new conference for the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) Ministerial Meeting in Tokyo on Aug. 25.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 3, 2024

Africa's rising importance for Japan’s Indo-Pacific goals

Africa is becoming an increasingly important element of Japanese FOIP strategy. It is a work in progress, but it is proceeding.
Sergei Kiriyenko, who is the first deputy head in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration, oversaw a yearslong Kremlin operation to meddle in U.S. elections and use disinformation to promote pro-Russian narratives online, according to a 277-page affidavit that U.S. officials unsealed Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 7, 2024

The evolution of Putin’s aide accused of gaming the U.S. election

The head of a Russian propaganda campaign that allegedly aimed to influence the upcoming U.S. elections began as a liberal politician.
Supporters cheer as U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign event at the Throwback Brewery, in North Hampton, New Hampshire, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 7, 2024

How the fight to define Harris will shape her debate with Trump

The debate in Philadelphia on Tuesday will be, by far, the longest unscripted setting for the U.S. vice president of her candidacy — a high-risk encounter.
Signage in the spin room ahead of the second presidential debate at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Monday
WORLD / Politics
Sep 10, 2024

What to watch for during the Harris-Trump presidential debate

Most opinion polls show Kamala Harris to be slightly ahead nationally and in the majority of battleground states, but Donald Trump is close behind.
Belmarsh prison in London. The financial, political and social stresses around prisons — and the potential danger they pose to the U.K.'s fledgling Labour government — were vividly exposed by widespread rioting within weeks of Labour taking power.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 12, 2024

Overcrowded prisons force U.K.’s Starmer to take first big gamble

Apart from Scotland, England and Wales lock up a bigger proportion of their combined population than anywhere else in Western Europe.
A destroyed car in the Biala Ladecka river following flooding in Zelazno, Poland, on Friday
ENVIRONMENT
Sep 22, 2024

U.S. election uncertainty clouds U.N. climate finance progress

Governments are analyzing a possible win by Kamala Harris, who promotes climate spending, or by Donald Trump, a climate denier who wants to boost fossil fuels.
Former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba reacts during a news conference ahead of the Liberal Democratic Party leadership election in Tokyo on Sept. 6.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 24, 2024

Why is Shigeru Ishiba so unpopular among his LDP peers?

The former defense minister is highly regarded among the public and local chapters of the ruling party, but it's a different story when it comes to LDP lawmakers.
Yonaguni Mayor Kenichi Itokazu speaks to a Ground Self-Defense Force soldier at the town hall on Yonaguni, Japan's westernmost inhabited island in Okinawa Prefecture last  November.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 26, 2024

Deterring Taiwan conflict is top priority for Japan's ‘front-line’ mayor

The mayor believes the U.S. and Japan must do away with "strategic ambiguity" over Taiwan if they intend to keep China in check.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz speaks during a debate with Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance in New York on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 2, 2024

Walz and Vance clash at policy-heavy vice presidential debate

The two rivals, who have savaged each other on the campaign trail, struck a cordial tone, instead saving their fire for the candidates at the top of their tickets.
Employees make pastries in the Princi bakery inside the Starbucks Reserve Roastery store in Shanghai in 2018.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 8, 2024

Starbucks cafes in Tokyo almost alone in keeping Princi baked goods

Starbucks is removing Howard Schultz's brand of Italian baked goods from many of its higher-end cafes, stepping back from an initiative championed by longtime leader.
Then-President Donald Trump (right) meets with President Vladimir Putin of Russia at the G20 Summit in Osaka on June 28, 2019. Trump and Putin have secretly spoken several times since Trump left office, according to a new book by journalist Bob Woodward.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 9, 2024

Trump sent COVID-19 tests to Putin, Bob Woodward says in his new book

Donald Trump also retains a personal relationship with Vladimir Putin, Woodward writes.
Han Kang is the first South Korean author to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 10, 2024

South Korean author Han Kang wins Nobel Prize in literature

Han is the first Asian woman and the first writer from South Korea to receive the award.

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?