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Mod's memoir “Things Become Other Things” chronicles his walking trips across the Kii Peninsula, surveying “a graceful end to a certain life cycle.”
CULTURE / Books
Jul 16, 2025

Craig Mod's life in motion in a disappearing Japan

In “Things Become Other Things,” the longtime resident of Japan captures that grace that lingers in slowly vanishing countryside towns.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron hold a news conference in London on July 10 after wrapping up a joint military visit.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 16, 2025

France and U.K. tighten nuclear ties amid questions over U.S. commitment

While France and the U.K. are taking a positive step for European security, the announcement is both more and less than it seems.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets veterans involved in the Ukraine war, at the Kremlin on June 12. Europe should tap Russia’s frozen central bank assets to fund Ukraine’s defense, given Donald Trump’s conditions on U.S. aid.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 16, 2025

Russia’s frozen $245 billion can pay for Ukraine’s arms

Replacing the U.S. military and financial aid provided by President Joe Biden’s administration would cost about $45 billion a year for the duration of the war.
Tomoko Tamura, chairperson of the Japanese Communist Party, attends a debate with other party leaders in Tokyo in October. Her party urges voters to end the LDP’s business-centered politics and U.S. dependence by supporting its social, economic and foreign-policy reforms.
COMMENTARY / Japan / From Party Leaders
Jul 16, 2025

JCP vows fairer taxes, stronger social safety net and a commitment to peaceful diplomacy

Tamura says LDP’s politics are now in a terminal and critical state with the party unable to respond to domestic and international issues or the wishes of the people.
Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan President Yoshihiko Noda speaks during a debate with leaders of other political parties at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo on July 2.
COMMENTARY / Japan / From Party Leaders
Jul 16, 2025

The Constitutional Democratic Party vows fight against inflation

The CDP will work to lower surging food costs and realize fair rice prices
Hirofumi Yoshimura, leader of Nippon Ishin no Kai, outlines his party’s policies during a news conference at the Diet building in Tokyo on June 30.
COMMENTARY / Japan / From Party Leaders
Jul 16, 2025

Nippon Ishin stakes its appeal on real results as Upper House vote nears

Neither the ruling coalition or other opposition parties have advanced political reform.
Members of the Syrian security forces assess the destruction inside the heavily damaged Syrian army and Defense Ministry headquarters complex in Damascus, following Israeli strikes Wednesday.
WORLD
Jul 16, 2025

Syria's interim leader vows to protect Druze rights as ceasefire holds

In a statement after powerful Israeli air strikes on Damascus, al-Sharaa addressed Druze citizens saying "we reject any attempt to drag you into hands of an external party."
While hacking to steal data and information about the semiconductor industry in Taiwan is not new, there has been an increase in sustained hacking campaigns from several China-aligned hacking groups.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 17, 2025

China-linked hackers seen targeting Taiwan's chip industry with increasing attacks

The attacks come amid rising restrictions by Washington on exports to China of U.S.-designed chips that are often manufactured in Taiwan.
U.S. President Donald Trump in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in 2017. Six months into his second term, Trump has softened his harsh campaign rhetoric that focused on the U.S.’ massive trade deficit with China and resulting job losses.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 17, 2025

Trump softens tone on China to secure Xi summit and a trade deal

U.S. President Donald Trump's warmer posture toward China contrasts with his threats against other trading partners to ravage their economies with crushing tariffs.
Lilimi found a new home with the Fukuharas in January and settled in immediately, claiming a spot on the couple’s futon.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
Jul 17, 2025

Lilimi settles into a new life

In January, a couple from Tokyo with experience caring for elderly and ailing cats took in Lilimi, whose eyes had already begun deteriorating.
A Loro Piana SpA luxury clothing store in Milan on Wednesday
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 17, 2025

Italy cracks down on sweatshops supplying Armani and Dior

For a decade, a Chinese tailor toiled in a three-story building on the outskirts of Milan, working 13 hours a day making high-end garments for brands including Italian cashmere label Loro Piana.
Cocoa beans are roasted at a chocolate factory in Paris.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 17, 2025

Europe’s cocoa slowdown highlights global chocolate struggle

Cocoa futures have more than doubled in the past two years and touched a record in December.
Two university students (Sara Minami, left, and Fumika Baba) with grim family lives find camaraderie and warmth in each other in “Love Doesn't Matter to Me.”
CULTURE / Film
Jul 17, 2025

‘Love Doesn't Matter to Me’: Romance takes a backseat to female friendship

In Aya Igashi’s unconventional coming-of-age drama, not all people deserve forgiveness and not all women need love to thrive.
Italy's players celebrate after their quarterfinal win over Norway  at Euro 2025 in Geneva on Wednesday.
SOCCER
Jul 17, 2025

Italy celebrates after ending 28-year wait to return to Euro semifinals

The raucous Italian crowd urged their players on, with chants of "forza Italia" and the Stade de Geneve lit up when Cristiana Girelli found the net twice in the second half.
Japanese companies are heading overseas to borrow as their local market is becoming too volatile and rates are rising.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 17, 2025

Japan Inc. takes global credit by storm with record sales

More and more Japanese companies are heading overseas to borrow as their local market is becoming too volatile and rates are rising.
Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee arrives at a court in Seoul on Feb. 3.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 17, 2025

South Korea's top court clears Samsung chairman Lee in 2015 fraud case

The Supreme Court's verdict permanently removes a long-running legal distraction for Lee as Samsung plays catch-up in a global race to develop cutting-edge AI chips.
The crash site of Air India flight AI171 in Ahmedabad, India, on June 12
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Jul 17, 2025

Air India junior pilot asked why captain turned off fuel switches, sources say

While fuel supply to the engines was restored about 10 seconds later, it was too late to avert the June 12 crash that killed 260 people.
Komeito leader Tetsuo Saito takes part in a debate with the heads of other political parties at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo on July 2.
COMMENTARY / Japan / From Party Leaders
Jul 17, 2025

Komeito hears those hit hardest by rising prices

“To stand forever with common citizens.” Our party has faithfully abided by that founding principle for over six decades
Since the Sino-U.S. trade conflict began in 2018, China has used it to strengthen self-reliance, sharpen its strategies and turn Donald Trump’s tariffs into fuel for its long-term global resilience. 
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 17, 2025

China is winning Donald Trump’s trade war

While China does not want a trade war or to decouple, it is willing to risk a trade war that the United States may lose — and it would rather decouple than kowtow to Trump.
A former company employee who posts highlight videos on YouTube prepares to livestream Shinji Ishimaru's stump speech in Tokyo in June. Jiji
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 17, 2025

Highlight videos online playing big role in Upper House election

Social media is increasingly impacting election results in Japan amid the growing popularity of YouTube and other video-sharing sites.
Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan leader Yoshihiko Noda said it is obvious that Japanese society could not function without the help of foreign workers in manufacturing, health care, construction and public transportation.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 17, 2025

CDP leader criticizes ‘Japanese First’ policy and calls for inclusive society

Foreign residents are critical to maintaining Japan’s economy, said Yoshihiko Noda, as he issued a call on the campaign trail for a multicultural society that respects minorities.
Campaign posters in Tokyo. Voters in Japan put immediate economic issues ahead of longer-term concerns about the effects of tariffs.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 17, 2025

Trump tariffs fail to register with Japanese voters ahead of key election

Only 8% of voters surveyed by NHK rated tariffs as their top priority.
Solar power more than doubled to 24% of Pakistan's energy mix in the first five months of 2025, becoming the largest source of energy production for the first time.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Jul 17, 2025

Pakistan's quiet solar rush puts pressure on national grid

Solar power more than doubled to 24% of Pakistan's energy mix in the first five months of 2025, becoming the largest source of energy production for the first time.
Newly appointed Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko attends a session of Ukrainian parliament in Kyiv on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 18, 2025

Ukraine reshuffles Cabinet with wartime economy struggling

The reshuffle reflects Ukraine’s effort to spend more on its war effort and to strengthen sometimes strained relations with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Pham Thi Bich Hau (fifth from left) began translating and interpreting for the Vietnamese community in Japan in 2013, when she was working for a trainee management organization. She went on to found the Vietnam Women's Union in Japan, organizing activities like the Tet festival pictured here.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Jul 21, 2025

The mothers holding up Japan's Vietnamese community

Online support groups and in-person events are helping Vietnamese women from all walks of life manage motherhood abroad.
Members of Syrian security forces stand on a road as vehicles transporting other Syrian security forces make their way out of the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, Syria, on Wednesday.
WORLD
Jul 18, 2025

U.S. does not support Israel's Syria strikes as al-Sharaa vows to protect Druze

Israel launched airstrikes in Damascus on Wednesday, saying it aimed to protect Syrian Druze, a part of a minority that also has followers in Lebanon and Israel.
A migrant is detained by federal officers at a U.S. immigration court in Manhattan, in New York City, on June 11.
WORLD
Jul 18, 2025

'A trap' — Asylum seekers arrested after attending U.S. court hearings

Homeland Security agents have adopted the tactic of waiting outside immigration courts nationwide and arresting migrants as they leave at the end of mandatory asylum hearings.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attend a meeting on the sidelines of NATO summit in The Hague on June 25. Zelenskyy said his latest talks with Trump focused on a deal that would help each country bolster its aerial technology.
WORLD
Jul 18, 2025

Zelenskyy says he and Trump are considering a drone 'mega-deal'

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said drones were the key tool that has allowed his country to fight off Russia's invasion for more than three years.
Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner in freefall during a practice flight across the English Channel between Dover and Calais on July 30, 2003
MORE SPORTS
Jul 18, 2025

Pioneering skydiver Felix Baumgartner dies while paragliding in Italy

The Austrian made headlines around the world in October 2012 when he jumped from a balloon 38 km above Earth, becoming the first skydiver to break the sound barrier.
Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, in Beijing on Thursday
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 18, 2025

Trump’s U-turn on Nvidia spurs talk of grand bargain with China

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the administration wanted Chinese developers "addicted” to American technology.

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