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JAPAN / Society
Mar 14, 2024

Phone relay service helps hard of hearing government staff

The service facilitates communication for workers hard of hearing and those with speech impediments by connecting them with operators online.
In the weeks leading up to the Academy Awards, analysts believed the winner for best animated feature to be a toss-up between Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron” and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.”
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Mar 15, 2024

An agile campaign helped Hayao Miyazaki score another Oscar award

Even the greats can use an assist when it comes to awards season in Hollywood, and Studio Ghibli has no shortage of supporters.
An image taken from video released by Roman Starovoit, governor of the Kursk region of Russia, last month purportedly shows firefighters working to extinguish flames at an oil depot after a Ukrainian drone strike.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 15, 2024

Ukraine, stalled on the battlefield, targets Russia’s oil industry

This year, Ukraine has claimed responsibility for nearly a dozen assaults on Russian oil infrastructure.
Paris Saint Germain's Kylian Mbappe celebrates scoring his team's first goal against OGC Nice in Paris on Wednesday.
OLYMPICS
Mar 15, 2024

Mbappe presence at Olympics 'very difficult,' says Deschamps

Deschamps said the Euro 2024 tournament, shortly before the Games, "remains the priority."
A student at Hanoi University of Science and Technology looking at a printed circuit board in the school's lab in Hanoi.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Mar 15, 2024

The Gen-Z students at the heart of Vietnam's chip plans

Long viewed as a low-cost destination to make clothes, shoes and furniture, the country is now eyeing a rapid climb up the global supply chain.
Residents remove snow from rooftops together with workers from a snow removal company in Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture, in January 2021. In fiscal 2022, 49 people in Japan died during activities related to the clearing of snow. Of these, 39 people — or roughly 80% — were age 65 or older.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 15, 2024

Land ministry goes digital to prevent snow-clearing accidents

The system is aimed at assessing the risks associated with snow removal at individual houses to avert mishaps, particularly ones involving the elderly.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 15, 2024

Japan’s labor unions win big pay raises for members

The preliminary figure for the average hike stands at a 33-year high of 5.28%, according to Japan’s largest labor organization.
People stand in front of a temporarily closed McDonald's in Tokyo's Shimbashi district on Friday as the chain experienced widespread tech issues.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 15, 2024

McDonald's suffers widespread tech outage in Japan and abroad

Many McDonald's stores in Japan stopped taking in-person and mobile customer orders because of the system disruption.
Smoke rises during an Israeli ground operation in Khan Younis, as seen from a tent camp sheltering displaced Palestinians in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 15, 2024

Hamas issues cease-fire proposal detailing exchange of hostages and prisoners

Hamas said the initial release of Israelis would include women, children, elderly, and ill hostages.
An offshore wind farm near Nysted, Denmark. Japan aims to become a major offshore wind power producer, with the government targeting projects totaling 10 gigawatts (GW) by 2030.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Mar 15, 2024

Japanese firms join forces to promote floating offshore wind

Floating offshore wind power is seen as a way to ensure Japan has a stable and sustainable energy supply.
Former FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried leaves Manhattan federal court in New York on Jan. 3.
BUSINESS
Mar 16, 2024

Sam Bankman-Fried should get up to 50 years in prison, U.S. says

A sentence of 40 to 50 years is necessary for the "historic” crime involving more than 1 million victims and losses of over $10 billion, prosecutors say.
Gold beans for sale inside a Luk Fook Holdings International jewelry store in Shanghai on Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Mar 16, 2024

Gold beans all the rage with China’s Gen Z as deflation bites

Weighing as little as 1 gram, the beans — and other forms of gold jewelry — are increasingly viewed as the safest investment bet for young Chinese.
French President Emmanuel Macron (left), German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (center) and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk join hands at a news conference at the Chancellery in Berlin on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 16, 2024

France and Germany to build arms plant in Ukraine as stakes rise

The announcement will do little to address Ukraine’s most pressing need: getting Kyiv enough ammunition in the short term.
Members of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council stage a "menthol funeral" to draw attention to the annual toll of smoking-related deaths outside the White House in Washington on Jan. 18.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Mar 16, 2024

Smokes and votes: Could menthol cigarette ban sway U.S. election?

A proposed ban from President Joe Biden's administration on the mint-flavored smokes has miffed some Black Americans, a key Democratic Party base.
Rock quartet Chai gained attention from fans and media in the late 2010s for its “neo kawaii” concept, which focused on self-confidence and celebrated individuality.
CULTURE
Mar 17, 2024

Champion of 'neo kawaii' Chai takes a final bow

The upbeat and eclectic rock quartet, which announced it would disband after its Japan tour, redefined what it meant to be cute.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his daughter inspect a drill by the Korean People's Army at an undisclosed location in North Korea in this image released Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 16, 2024

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversees paratrooper drills

The exercises were aimed at showing his soldiers' ability to occupy an "enemy region at a stroke," state media said.
Shohei Ohtani works out with his Dodgers teammates in Seoul on Saturday ahead of the team's two-game opening series against the Padres next week.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 16, 2024

Ohtani lifts Dodgers past Yankees for baseball's hottest ticket

The Dodgers are the top-selling team for the first time in StubHub’s history, after finishing eighth last season in the firm's annual preseason rankings.
Hezbollah members take part in the funeral of four members of one family killed by in an Israeli air raid in southern Lebanon, on March 11 in Blida, near the border with Israel.
WORLD / FOCUS
Mar 16, 2024

Hezbollah tells Iran it would fight alone in any war with Israel

Hezbollah, a sworn enemy of Israel, has shown support for Hamas in the form of limited volleys of rockets fired across Israel's northern border.
A closed McDonald's in Tokyo on Friday after a tech issue forced outlets of the burger chain to shut around the world.
BUSINESS
Mar 16, 2024

Big Mac goes Big Tech — with a few hiccups

McDonald's reliance on tech backfired on Friday when an outage forced it to shut stores around the world.
Supporters await the arrival of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a campaign event in Hyderabad on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 16, 2024

Data dump exposes the fuzzy lines between money and politics in India

Reading between the lines of the spreadsheets full of names poses questions about the intersection of government and business in India.
Supporters of South Korean plaintiffs in wartime labor lawsuits hold a rally in Seoul on March 6.
JAPAN
Mar 17, 2024

Wartime labor issue still overshadowing Japan-South Korea ties

Last month, a South Korean plaintiff received compensation deposited by Hitachi Zosen with a South Korean court handling the wartime labor suit.
This screen grab from a video purportedly shows an explosion at the Slavyansk oil refinery in Russia's Krasnodar region on Sunday.
WORLD
Mar 17, 2024

Ukraine drones attack refinery, target Moscow and disrupt power, Russia says

Moscow accuses Kyiv of election sabotage with its days of strikes on Russian infrastructure, one of the most sweeping air operations on Russian territory.
People walk past a television showing a news broadcast of a past North Korean missile test, at the main railway station in Seoul on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 18, 2024

North Korea launches three ballistic missiles as top U.S. diplomat visits Seoul

The latest launches came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Seoul for a multinational democracy summit.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) speaks during a joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz following their meeting in Jerusalem on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 18, 2024

Israeli PM says civilians can leave crowded Rafah before invasion

But the question "where should they go" remain unanswered as Israel continues its offensive against Hamas over five months after Gaza plunged into war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is extending his nearly quarter-century rule into a fifth term at a time when his troops are on the offensive in Ukraine.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 18, 2024

Putin warns Russia won’t be stopped after record election win

Putin is extending his nearly quarter-century rule into a fifth term at a time when his troops are on the offensive in Ukraine.
Fans cheer during a friendly match between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Kiwoon Heroes ahead of the Major League Baseball Seoul Series in Seoul on Sunday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 18, 2024

MLB brings Shohei Ohtani, season openers and big dreams to Seoul

With a set of stars from the region, 2024 is turning out to be baseball’s moment in Asia.
Airplane fuselages outside the Boeing manufacturing facility in Washington. Boeing’s recent problems are further widening the gap between supply and demand.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 18, 2024

Boeing’s pain spreads to travelers as airlines cut back on plans

As a result, passengers will face fewer flight options and potentially higher prices on at least some popular short and midrange routes.
The Bank of Japan will decide whether to end its negative interest rate policy at its policy board meeting, which ends on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 18, 2024

BOJ’s Ueda faces decision time on rate hike

With the end of Japan's negative rate being a near certainty, the only question that remains is whether it comes on Tuesday or at the end of April.
An Yong Hak, a former North Korean soccer player, in Yokohama on Thursday. An played 40 times in midfield for North Korea, and appeared with the team at the 2010 World Cup.
SOCCER
Mar 18, 2024

North Korean World Cup player says Japan game more than just soccer

This week's qualifier is a special occasion for some ethnic Koreans in Japan.
People make their way through the rubble in downtown Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in January.
WORLD
Mar 18, 2024

Haiti’s hospitals survived cholera and COVID. Gangs are closing them.

Many hospitals in Haiti’s capital have been looted by gangs or abandoned by their staffs amid the violence.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years