Search - things-to-do

 
 
Natural gas burns on a domestic kitchen stove in London.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 14, 2024

As war stems Russian gas, Norway's Equinor gains outsized market impact

Norway now supplies 30% of Europe's gas, and roughly two-thirds of Norway's exports last year were sold by Equinor.
A slogan reads "Accelerate Industrial Transformation With AI" at the Microsoft booth at the Hannover Messe 2024 trade fair in Hannover, Germany, on April 22.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 16, 2024

Microsoft’s AI push imperils climate goal as carbon emissions jump

The company’s total planet-warming impact is about 30% higher today than it was in 2020.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, soaked in rain,  pauses as he delivers a speech to announce July 4 as the date of the U.K.'s next general election, at 10 Downing Street in London on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
May 23, 2024

Sunak gambles on July 4 election as Tories struggle in polls

The leading opposition party holds a poll lead of about 20 points that Sunak has been unable to shift since he took over from Liz Truss in late 2022.
Josef Newgarden celebrates after winning the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
May 27, 2024

Newgarden wins second straight Indianapolis 500

Newgarden became the race's first back-to-back winner in 22 years.
Renho speaks to reporters on Wednesday in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jun 13, 2024

Renho, the liberal politician who might dethrone Tokyo's Koike

Her candidacy in July's gubernatorial race presents voters in the capital with two choices: Change or stability.
Digital crime in Sweden has doubled since 2021 and become a growing risk for the Nordic economy.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 22, 2024

Ditching paper money makes Sweden a haven for digital criminals

Digital crime in Sweden has doubled since 2021 and become a growing risk for the Nordic economy.
Labour Party leader Keir Starmer (center), shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves (left) and shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy in Paris in 2023
WORLD / Politics
Jun 24, 2024

Labour's Brexit red lines set to limit shift in U.K.'s ties with EU

Officials believe the party will struggle to deliver a significantly different trading relationship unless it U-turns on certain issues.
Tour guide and history buff Rory Dent left his job at a U.K.-based tour operator to move to Japan and start his own business.
LIFE / Travel / Longform
Jun 30, 2024

Guiding Japan through the challenges of overtourism

With the number of overseas tourists breaking records, guides and tour operators are seeing their businesses flourish.
The yen’s depreciation is largely down to the gap in interest rates between the U.S. and Japan. Therefore, U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is, to all intents and purposes, “Mr. Yen.”
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 1, 2024

There’s a new 'Mr. Yen' in town

No matter what the Bank of Japan or the Finance Ministry do, ultimate control over the yen's value lies in the hands of U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
The Defense Ministry holds a lecture for military and police officials from Pacific island countries at the ministry on Friday as part of its security-related capacity-building support.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 3, 2024

Japan Defense Ministry boosting aid to Pacific island nations

Only three out of 14 Pacific island nations — Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Tonga — have armed forces.
With the vegan lifestyle becoming more popular in recent years, Japanese restaurants and inns have begun to offer more vegetarian options.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 4, 2024

Asking for food substitutions at a Japanese restaurant

If you're vegetarian, vegan or have some kind of allergy, then knowing how to ask about what you're eating is an essential skill to have.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris greets the crowd during a rally where President Joe Biden also spoke, at a community center in Raleigh, North Carolina, in March.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 6, 2024

The reintroduction of Kamala Harris

With U.S. President Joe Biden’s candidacy on the line, Democrats are assessing whether his VP pick is up to being the nominee.
When it is in season, 'maguro' (tuna) from the Sea of Japan is one of the mainstay menu items at Tokiwa Sushi.
LIFE / Food & Drink / Destination Restaurants
Jul 21, 2024

Tokiwa Sushi: Niigata sushi master with a hometown, locavore focus

"Tuna from Niigata Prefecture is the mainstay of our menu, but it’s only available three months a year," chef Kosuke Kobayashi explains.
Former President Donald Trump gets ready to take the stage shortly before the assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July, 13. Four U.S. presidents have been killed in office.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 24, 2024

The U.S. presidency is a deadly job — and always will be

Roughly a quarter of all U.S. presidents have been victims of serious assassination attempts — four of which ended in death.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro spoke last week following the presidential elections, saying that Mara Corina Machado and Edmundo Gonzlez should go to prison.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 5, 2024

Humiliated and furious, Maduro arrests 2,000 Venezuelans over protests

Pressure to share election results has mounted from even Nicolás Maduro’s closest allies abroad.
Many market followers believe the pillars that had underpinned gains for years — a series of key assumptions that investors across the world were banking on — have been shaken.
BUSINESS
Aug 6, 2024

$6.4 trillion stock wipeout has traders fearing ‘great unwind’ is just starting

Many market followers believe the pillars that had underpinned gains for years have been shaken.
The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company facility in Phoenix. The tech giant modeled its facility in Phoenix on one at home. But bringing the company's highly complex manufacturing process to America has been a bigger challenge than it expected.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 10, 2024

What works in Taiwan doesn’t always work in Arizona, a chipmaking giant learns

Bringing TSMC's highly complex manufacturing process to America has been a bigger challenge than it expected.
Ami competes in the women's breaking competition at the Paris Olympics on Friday.
OLYMPICS / Breaking
Aug 11, 2024

Is breaking a sport? Even among competitors, the answer depends on who you ask.

There was not even consensus from the B-girls — though all agreed that it belongs in the Olympics.
The parliament building in Tokyo. With concerns about summer heat rising and many elections taking place in summertime, it may not be tenable to conduct campaigns as in the past given health risks to candidates, their staff and voters.
JAPAN / Politics / Boiling Point
Aug 17, 2024

Hotter summers pose a threat to Japan's tradition of stump speeches

Balancing health concerns with legal restrictions as well as candidates' desire to be as publicly visible as possible, even in super hot weather, might be tricky.
Masako Egawa forged a successful career in business and academia in the United States and Japan.
BUSINESS / WOMEN AT WORK
Sep 1, 2024

A quiet triumph of excellence in the worlds of banking and academia

Masako Egawa navigated a changing business world with her arms open to any opportunities that came along.
An ambulance is parked at the entrance of the emergency room of Saitama Hospital in Wako, Saitama Prefecture, on July 24.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Boiling Point
Aug 20, 2024

How Japan's health care system is gearing up for more heatstroke cases

Rising heatstroke cases are weighing on the nation’s health care system, which is already wrestling with the growing burden of a rapidly aging population.
A map of western Japan shows the Nankai Trough and, to its north, the hypocentral region where the energy for an earthquake is thought to be building.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 30, 2024

Did you feel that? It may be time to refresh your disaster kits — and vocabulary.

Part of Japan got a scare when the first-ever megaquake alert was issued earlier this month, a reminder that knowing the right terms in a disaster is crucial.
Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally at Enmarket Arena during a two-day campaign bus tour in Savannah, Georgia, on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 30, 2024

Seven takeaways from Harris’ first major interview

The vice president answered questions in the CNN interview without causing herself political harm or providing herself a significant boost.
Coco Gauff during her match against Emma Navarro on Day 7 of the 2024 U.S. Open tennis tournament in Flushing, New York, on Sunday
TENNIS
Sep 2, 2024

Holder Gauff ousted by Navarro in U.S. Open fourth round

Navarro's victory moved her into a second Grand Slam quarterfinal where she will play Spain's 26th seed Paula Badosa.
Shohei Ohtani connects on his 50th home run of the season during the seventh inning against the Marlins in Miami on Thursday. Ohtani became the first player in MLB history to reach 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in the same season.
BASEBALL / MLB
Sep 20, 2024

Shohei Ohtani records baseball's first 50-50 season with huge night in Miami

Shohei Ohtani is the first player in MLB history to reach 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in the same season.
A Russian Yars intercontinental ballistic missile system drives past an honor guard during a military parade on Victory Day in Red Square in central Moscow on May 9.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 27, 2024

Putin draws a nuclear red line for the West

Experts are debating how seriously to take Putin's new nuclear doctrine.
An Israeli soldier holds a weapon amid the an ongoing ground operation against the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Sept. 13.
WORLD
Sep 28, 2024

Israel likely to have enough weapons for multiple conflicts

Experts believe Israel could outlast adversaries in offensives on at least two fronts simultaneously.
While Shigeru Ishiba’s victory suggests a shift within the Liberal Democratic Party, he still faces challenges from those who remain loyal to the old party guard. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 29, 2024

Japan’s perennial political underdog finally gets a win

Ishiba margin of victory was slim, meaning that there is still a sizable portion of the party who will be resistant to his initiatives.
Annual festival Peter Barakan’s Live Magic! was born a decade ago when Barakan (left) decided to create a platform to share his love of roots music, which he attributes to growing up in 1960s England.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 11, 2024

Peter Barakan’s Live Magic! takes its final bow

The 11th edition of the annual blues, jazz and roots festival will also be its last, at least in its current form, but the core concept of the event will live on.
General Motors CEO Mary Barrabefore an investor meeting in Spring Hill, Tennessee, on Oct. 8. Barra said that the company had fixed battery-manufacturing problems and that its electric vehicles would soon be profitable.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 24, 2024

Electric vehicles may be struggling. GM’s leader is still a believer.

General Motors CEO Mary Barra says the company is still committed to doing away with combustion engine cars in the United States by 2035.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear