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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney finishes a news conference in Ottawa on May 2. U.S. President Donald Trump's persistent desire to annex its northern neighbor continues despite Canada's rejection the notion.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 12, 2025

Sorry, America. Canada’s just not that into you.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has been tactful but firm. Yet President Donald Trump can’t seem to take no for an answer.
Empowering nuns and laypeople could help preserve struggling parishes and restore the Catholic Church’s role as a vital community anchor, especially with nuns who have long been its most dedicated and overlooked servants.
COMMENTARY / World
May 12, 2025

To save Catholicism, let’s talk nuns, not popes

All eyes were on Rome as Pope Leo XIV was announced. But to secure the future of the faith, Catholics should look closer to home.
The Kanzeon Bodhisattva statue that was returned to the Kannonji Temple in Tsushima, Nagasaki Prefecture, on Monday
JAPAN
May 12, 2025

Stolen Buddha statue returned to Japanese temple after 12 years

A ritual was held at Kannoji Temple on the island of Tsushima to mark the return of the Kanzeon Bodhisattva statue after more than 12 years.
The Taiwanese military conducts its first High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) live-fire test launch at the Jiupeng base in Taiwan's Pingtung County on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC
May 13, 2025

Taiwan conducts first live-fire HIMARS test in signal to China

Supplying Taiwan with a system that proved devastatingly effective in Ukraine’s efforts to defend against the Russian invasion was once politically sensitive in Washington.
Sheffield United players celebrate the team's second goal against Bristol City in Bristol, England, on Monday.
SOCCER
May 13, 2025

Wilder backs Blades to end playoff curse

Sheffield United will face Sunderland or Coventry in the final at Wembley on May 24.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu enter the White House in Washington on April 7.
WORLD / Politics
May 13, 2025

Trump casts Netanyahu adrift with shifts on Iran, Houthis and Gaza

The freeing of the last living U.S. citizen held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip is another sign the U.S. president is starting to make unilateral decisions.
Damascus seen from Mount Qasioun on Jan. 7
WORLD / Politics
May 13, 2025

Syria makes bid to meet Trump, hoping for sanctions relief and reset with Israel

Syria has struggled to implement conditions set out by Washington for relief from U.S. sanctions, while Israel has escalated air strikes and occupied Syrian territory.
Shoichi Kojima holding a cheesecake made with funazushi on May 6 in the city of Hikone, Shiga Prefecture
JAPAN
May 13, 2025

Shiga chef turns stinky sushi into cheesecake

Girasole, a restaurant in the city of Hikone, has been serving the funazushi-derived Basque-style cheesecake since April 2021.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping speaks during the opening ceremony of the China-CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) Forum in Beijing on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 13, 2025

China's Xi slams 'bullying' as Beijing hosts Latin American leaders

The Chinese leader also pledged $9.2 billion in credit toward "development" for the region — part of a broad set of initiatives aimed at deepening cooperation.
People who fled the Zamzam camp, a refuge for the internally displaced, after it fell under RSF control gather for communal cooking in a makeshift encampment near the town of Tawila in war-torn Sudan's western Darfur region on April 13.
WORLD / Society
May 13, 2025

More than 83 million people internally displaced worldwide, report shows

Weather-related events, many intensified by climate change, triggered 99.5% of all of last year's disaster displacements.
The beach on Aka Island, Okinawa Prefecture, where U.S. forces first landed in the 1945 Battle of Okinawa
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Kyushu
May 26, 2025

How a remote island escaped mass suicide in Battle of Okinawa

Residents had been told that, if captured, women would be assaulted and men mutilated by U.S. soldiers.
A small boat transits through the Bay of Balaklava near the Crimean Peninsula city of Sevastopol on the Black Sea coast. Plans to dump bundled biomass into the Black Sea have raised concerns about environmental risks.
COMMENTARY / World
May 13, 2025

Dumping biomass in the ocean is not a climate solution

Plans to dump bundled biomass into the Black Sea as part of a carbon-sequestration project have raised concerns about environmental risks.
SoftBank Group reported net income of ¥517.18 billion ($3.5 billion) in its fiscal fourth quarter, helped by the Vision Fund, which swung to a profit of ¥26.1 billion.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 14, 2025

SoftBank profit doubles as AI demand boosts chip sales and startups

The results come as SoftBank plans to invest $30 billion in OpenAI while leading a $100 billion foray into building AI hardware in the U.S.
Sakana AI CEO David Ha speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 13, 2025

Japan should produce its own AI defense solutions, Sakana AI CEO says

Sakana AI CEO David Ha said that as U.S. foreign policy becomes more U.S.-centric, AI services could serve as “a bargaining chip for countries.”
Men read newspapers with front-page articles on the India-Pakistan conflict, in Amritsar, India, on May 8, a day after India launched strikes on Pakistan.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 13, 2025

No truce in India-Pakistan disinformation war

Platforms such as Facebook and X are still flooded with misrepresented footage of the attacks that killed at least 60 people and sent thousands fleeing.
India's air conditioner market is set to grow from the current 14 million units to 30 million units in terms of volume by 2030, driven by hotter summers and rising disposable incomes.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 13, 2025

Indians buy 14 million air conditioners a year, and need many more

A record 14 million AC units were sold in India last year, with a ninefold increase in residential ownership forecast by midcentury.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during the Saudi-U.S. business investment forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Tech
May 14, 2025

Trump’s Middle East visit opens floodgate of AI deals led by Nvidia

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are poised to win wider access to advanced AI chips from Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.
Trainees from Indonesia and Vietnam learn about the mechanisms of train doors using a model at East Japan Railway's training center in Shirakawa, Fukushima Prefecture, in March.
JAPAN / FOCUS
May 14, 2025

JR East to start training foreign nationals under new skills program

JR East aims to train around 100 people each year, and more than 10 railway operators have already expressed interest in joining the initiative.
Nippon Life Insurance is diversifying its investments to enhance yields, although it’s a tricky time to invest with U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war fueling global market volatility.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 14, 2025

Japan’s biggest insurer weighs riskier overseas CLO investments

Japan’s biggest life insurer is considering taking on a little more risk with its investments in collateralized loan obligations (CLOs), as it looks for ways to eke out better returns abroad.
Defense attorney Mark Geragos speaks outside the Van Nuys Courthouse West, after a judge ruled that Erik and Lyle Menendez are eligible for re-sentencing, in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
May 14, 2025

Menendez brothers resentenced after 35 years, allowing parole

The time the brothers have already spent behind bars means they are already eligible to apply for parole, with a hearing scheduled for next month.
A nuclear reactor in New Taipei City
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 14, 2025

Taiwan opens door to restart atomic power plants in reversal

Under the new law, plants that could previously only operate for 40 years will be allowed to renew or extend their licenses for up to 20 years at a time.
A copy of the international kilogram prototype made of platinum-iridium alloy (top right) is displayed in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, on Monday.
JAPAN
May 14, 2025

Japan's meter and kilogram prototypes shown ahead of 150th anniversary

The original kilogram prototype has been kept in a temperature- and humidity-controlled steel safe at AIST, in the city of Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture.
Former Uruguayan President Jose Mujica reacts after receiving a tribute in Montevideo on March 26. Mujica, a former guerrilla fighter and icon of the left in Latin America, died at the age of 89 on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
May 14, 2025

Latin America mourns world's 'poorest president' Mujica, dead at 89

The iconic 89-year-old died of cancer after announcing in January that the disease had spread and he would stop treatment.
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on March 13.
WORLD / Politics
May 14, 2025

NATO is sketching out a plan to meet Trump's call for 5% of GDP on defense

Negotiators are making progress ahead of a NATO summit in The Hague in June on a path to hitting the spending goal by 2032.
The 90-day truce in the U.S.-China trade war was a huge relief for small businesses and millions of workers on both sides of the Pacific.
COMMENTARY / World
May 13, 2025

Trump and Xi tone down a senseless trade war

It was a huge relief for small businesses and millions of workers on both sides of the Pacific.
Masataka Yuhara, secretary-general of the Friends of Lee Teng Hui Association in Japan, which has been calling for "Taiwan" to be permitted as a place of origin in family registers.
JAPAN
May 14, 2025

Japan to recognize Taiwan as place of origin in family registration system

Residents of Taiwanese descent in Japan and their support groups have welcomed the change.
Thunder forward Jalen Williams (right) and guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander celebrate after a basket during Game 5 of Oklahoma City's series with the Nuggets.
BASKETBALL / NBA
May 14, 2025

Thunder storm past Nuggets late for 3-2 series lead

Down by nine with under nine minutes to go, the Thunder wound up outscoring the Nuggets 34-19 in the fourth quarter.
Self-Defense Forces personnel collect apparent parts of an Air Self-Defense Force T-4 training jet from a reservoir in Inuyama, Aichi Prefeture, on Thursday. The jet crashed shortly after takeoff a day earlier.
JAPAN
May 15, 2025

Two crew feared dead after ASDF training jet crashes in Aichi

Pieces of the T-4 training aircraft and some of the crew's equipment have been recovered from the crash site — a large reservoir in Inuyama.
Cars on display at Nissan's headquarters in Yokohama on Tuesday. The automaker posted a massive annual net loss and confirmed that it plans to cut thousands of jobs worldwide.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 14, 2025

Japanese automakers looking at a ¥1 trillion hit from Trump tariffs 

No matter what happens, they expect the new levies to cost them a lot.
Panasonic may be poised to benefit from having factories in the U.S. as Tesla and others seek to reduce their reliance on Chinese battery-makers.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 14, 2025

Panasonic CEO says battery plans align with slower EV demand

The supplier of lithium-ion batteries to Tesla is getting ready to start production at a second U.S.-based factory in Kansas, but has frozen plans for a third plant.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past