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Russian hockey star Alex Ovechkin walks along a street in Moscow decorated in his honor on Saturday.
MORE SPORTS / Ice Hockey
Jul 20, 2025

Ovechkin calls for Russian return to global sports

The Washington Capitals superstar received a jubilant reception during his first trip home since setting the NHL's all-time scoring record.
Manny Pacquiao (right) fights Mario Barrios in Las Vegas on Saturday in the 46-year-old's return to boxing after a four-year absence.
MORE SPORTS / Boxing
Jul 20, 2025

Pacquiao held to draw by Barrios in world title return

Barrios, 30, retained his belt despite being dominated for several rounds by Pacquiao, who was making a comeback to the ring after a four-year retirement.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba takes part in a campaign event in Yokohama on July 6. Japan faces deep structural challenges but lacks bold political vision and leaders willing to take risks for transformative change.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 20, 2025

Performative ‘elections’ expose a sad lack of vision

Political parties jostle for position and trade barbs but offer no clear plan for Japan’s growing structural challenges.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who serves concurrently as president of the Liberal Democratic Party, leaves at the party's headquarters following announcement of Upper House election result projections in Tokyo early Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 21, 2025

Japan ruling bloc loses majority in Upper House after election drubbing

The ruling LDP-Komeito coalition's devastating loss in Sunday’s poll could lead to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s resignation or political gridlock in parliament.
American lawyer Alan Dershowitz returns to the courtroom for the criminal trial of former U.S. President Donald Trump after a short break at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on May 20, 2024.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jul 21, 2025

Former Epstein lawyer calls for release of additional materials

U.S. President Donald Trump has been under mounting pressure from his supporters to release more information related to the government's sex-trafficking probe into Jeffrey Epstein.
China’s use of exit bans has been a point of contention between Beijing and Washington.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 21, 2025

China stops U.S. Department of Commerce worker from leaving country: reports

China’s use of exit bans has been a point of contention between Beijing and Washington.
A salesperson livestreams inside a BYD showroom in Shanghai on June 22.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 21, 2025

Life atop China’s car market is starting to look shaky for BYD

BYD’s monthly sales have stagnated of late and with the summer months being a traditionally slower time, that trajectory isn’t expected to reverse any time soon.
Modern global politics, marked by personal rivalries, nickname-driven rhetoric and apocalyptic religious fervor, resembles a “re-medievalization” that challenges the ideals of the Enlightenment.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2025

The Middle Ages are making a political comeback

Increasingly medieval language from the world’s leaders does not bode well for the rest of us.
Voters cast their ballots at a polling station in Tokyo on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 21, 2025

47% turn to social media and videos for voting decisions: exit poll

Of those, the largest proportion, at 23.9%, cast proportional representation votes for Sanseito.
Former residents of Russian-held islands claimed by Japan hold a memorial service aboard the exchange ship Etopirika, which arrived off Kunashiri, part of the Northern Territories, on Sunday.
JAPAN
Jul 21, 2025

Ex-residents of Japan-claimed isles hold memorial at sea

Former Japanese residents of the Russian-held islands cannot return to their hometowns because exchange programs between the two countries have been suspended.
Upper House votes being counted on Sunday. The Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito coalition lost its majority in the upper chamber of parliament, but could still be effective in thwarting the opposition.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 21, 2025

Consumption tax cut not a given even after Upper House election

Political and economic realities suggest that opposition policies will not skate through.
“As the first party in parliament, we have to fulfill our responsibility with the public so as to prevent politics from stagnating or drifting away,” Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said at a news conference at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 21, 2025

Ishiba clings to leadership after election setback

In the wake of another electoral setback, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s political capital has plunged.
Temporary shelters for abused or at-risk children in Japan's major cities are overwhelmed, as staff shortages and prolonged stays strain the child welfare system.
JAPAN
Jul 21, 2025

Temporary child protection facilities in major cities hit capacity as staff shortages deepen

Extended stays by children who have nowhere else to go also compound the problem.
Oliver Rowland of Team Nissan during qualifying for the ABB Formula E Series race at the Homestead Motor Speedway in Miami on April 12
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Jul 22, 2025

Rowland targets multiple titles after Formula E breakthrough

Rowland said his ambition for the future was to try to cement himself as one of the top drivers in the series.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the administration of President Donald Trump's priorities in tariff deals are not the inner workings of the Japanese government, but the American people.
BUSINESS
Jul 22, 2025

U.S. seeking best deal for Americans in talks with Japan, Bessent says

The treasury secretary said the inner workings of the Japanese government are not a priority, in an apparent check on Tokyo's aim to review U.S. automobile tariffs.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (left) shakes hands with Indonesian Minister for Foreign Affairs Sugiono during the 58th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' meeting and related meetings in Kuala Lumpur on July 10.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 22, 2025

Western aid cuts cede ground in Southeast Asia to China, study suggests

"The center of gravity in Southeast Asia's development finance landscape looks set to drift East, notably to Beijing but also Tokyo and Seoul," according to the study.
The Dragon Bravo Fire burns on the northern rim of the Grand Canyon as seen from Grandeur Point on the southern rim, in Arizona, on July 14.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jul 22, 2025

Trump staff cuts force firefighters to clean toilets, critics say

The U.S. is grappling with decade-high wildfire numbers this year.
Silver Dania, a Norwegian-owned ship suspected of cable sabotage in the Baltic Sea, whose crew are Russian citizens, in the port of Tromso, Norway, where it has been brought for investigation, on Jan. 31.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 22, 2025

Lawmakers want U.S. tech CEOs to address concerns about submarine cables

Washington has been sounding the alarm about the network of more than 400 subsea cables that handle 99% of international internet traffic and about threats from China and Russia.
A mine-detection rat sniffs for land mines in an area being demined in Preah Vihear province, Cambodia, in 2021.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 22, 2025

Land mine dispute escalates tensions between Thailand and Cambodia

Thai authorities said that three soldiers were injured by a land mine, with one losing a foot, while on a patrol on July 16 on the Thai side of the disputed border area.
Followers of doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo chant in religious training before a portrait of guru Shoko Asahara in 1999 at Aum's Adachi Ward office in Tokyo, where extensive facilities are located.
JAPAN
Jul 22, 2025

Son of executed Aum Shinrikyo founder identified as Aleph leader

The unnamed 31-year-old son of Chizuo Matsumoto has been “involved in organizational decision-making and is leading Aleph’s operations.”
Komeito head Tetsuo Saito speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 22, 2025

Upper House election confirms inexorable decline of voting blocs

Unaffiliated voters were the kingmakers in Sunday’s election.
Prime Minister and Liberal Democratic Party President Shigeru Ishiba speaks at a news conference at the party's headquarters in Tokyo on Monday, a day after the Upper House election.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 22, 2025

Frustration simmers in LDP as Ishiba clings to post after election defeat

The Liberal Democratic Party is expected to have a meeting on July 31 where the key focus will be on whether the party's leadership can dispel concerns about staying on.
Ozzy Osbourne performs with Black Sabbath as part of "The End" tour at Madison Square Garden in New York in 2016.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jul 23, 2025

Heavy metal icon Ozzy Osbourne dead at 76

Ozzy Osbourne, the legendary frontman of heavy metal group Black Sabbath, died just weeks after he had played a farewell concert.
Evacuees wishing to voluntarily return to Akuseki Island in Kagoshima Prefecture get on a ferry in the city of Kagoshima on July 16.
JAPAN
Jul 23, 2025

Evacuees from quake-hit Tokara Islands to return

Seismic activity near the islands has slowed in recent days, giving islanders the opportunity to return.
A police officer wears a neck cooler in Tokyo's Chuo Ward on July 10.
JAPAN
Jul 23, 2025

Tokyo police embrace cooling gear to protect officers from extreme heat


The number of days when temperatures in Tokyo exceed 35 degrees Celsius continues to rise each year, prompting the need to protect police officers.
Supporters of the Sanseito party leader react during the party’s rally in Tokyo on Monday, a day after the Upper House election.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 23, 2025

DPP backers abandoned party for Sanseito in Upper House poll, analysis shows

An analysis of voter trends in both parties in the months leading up to the election has indicated a significant shift to Sanseito by those who once voted for the DPP.
McKinsey’s 2025 Technology Trends Outlook, published Wednesday, says that the use of “sovereign AI” is a trend gaining significant global traction, including in Japan.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 23, 2025

Japan leans into homegrown AI amid rising competition

Japan is among the countries aiming to develop localized artificial intelligence models to target national priorities.
Norwegian Nobel Committee chair Jorgen Frydnes (right) lays flowers at the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims in the city of Hiroshima on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jul 23, 2025

Nobel committee chair visits Hiroshima

Last year, the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, also known as Nihon Hidankyo, won the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Japan Fair Trade Commission took an administrative step against Visa Worldwide for the first time ever following its investigation into a suspected violation of the antimonopoly law by the firm.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 23, 2025

JFTC gives OK to Visa Worldwide's business improvement plan

After investigating a suspected antimonopoly law violation, the JFTC concluded that swiftly executing proposed measures by Visa Worldwide would restore a competitive environment.
European Council President Antonio Costa (left) and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (right) join hands with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba prior to a meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 23, 2025

Japan and EU launch trade ‘alliance’ amid concerns over U.S. and China

The new agreement will expand bilateral trade ties, promote business cooperation and explore ways to diversify critical mineral supply chains.

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An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo