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U.S. President Donald Trump celebrates after signing executive orders on artificial intelligence at the “Winning the AI Race” Summit in Washington on July 23.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Aug 1, 2025

Will Trump’s tech policies propel U.S. success against China?

As China mobilizes all its resources for an all-out contest for technological supremacy, the U.S. cannot afford economic inefficiencies and to push its closest partners away.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba addresses the media at the vote-counting center in the Liberal Democratic Party’s headquarters in Tokyo on July 20.  
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 1, 2025

Is this the end of Japan's 'big tent' parties?

The big winners of the day in the Upper House election were newer conservative parties.
The team of researchers from the Institute of Science Tokyo has found that cells often labeled "villains" for their roles in atopic dermatitis and asthma can alleviate lung inflammation.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 1, 2025

Immune cells that worsen asthma can ease lung inflammation, Japan study shows

The surprise findings, published in the European Respiratory Journal, may pave the way for new treatments.
U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One at RAF Lossiemouth in northeast Scotland on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 2, 2025

Trump says he moved U.S. nuclear subs after barbs with Russia

President Donald Trump said the U.S. is moving two nuclear submarines to respond to what he called "highly provocative statements” from former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 2, 2025

World economies reel from Trump's tariffs punch

Stock markets in Hong Kong, London and New York slumped as they digested the turmoil, while weak U.S. employment data added to worries.
A tourist walks with a paper fan in the Dotonbori area in the city of Osaka on Thursday amid high temperatures.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 2, 2025

Japan logs hottest July for third year in a row

As the average temperature in June also hit a new record this year, the average summer temperature from June to August is likely to rewrite the record, too, experts said.
Merchandise are pictured for sale at a Nintendo store in central Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 2, 2025

Nintendo to raise U.S. pricing of original Switch hardware

Nintendo attributed the changes to "market conditions," a hint at the impact of the Trump administration’s tariffs.
Tottenham's Son Heung-min during a news conference in Seoul on Saturday
SOCCER
Aug 2, 2025

Son Heung-min to leave Tottenham this summer after decade with Spurs

The 33-year-old attacker joined the Premier League side from Bayer Leverkusen in 2015 and went on to play more than 450 times for Spurs.
Miyu Yamashita plays a shot during the second round of the Women's British Open on Friday in Porthcawl, Wales.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Aug 2, 2025

Miyu Yamashita rides stellar 65 into Women's British Open lead

Yamashita held third place after the first round at Royal Porthcawl and took control Friday with a bogey-free, seven-birdie round.
Workers stitch shirts at a textile factory in Noida, India, on Thursday. The U.S. is India’s largest trading partner, with the two-way trade between them at an estimated $129.2 billion in 2024.
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2025

India aghast at Donald Trump’s ‘dead' economy dig and 25% tariffs

While Indian government officials weighed a response and business groups tallied the cost of the trade barrier, social media flared up with users protesting Trump.
A man walks on a beach in Nice, France, amid a heavy rain storm. European governments are ramping up their own data collection systems to monitor climate change and weather extremes.
WORLD
Aug 2, 2025

Europe is breaking its reliance on American science

Amid Trump's cuts, European governments are ramping up their own data collection systems to monitor climate change and weather extremes.
Israeli soldiers drive a tank in southern Israel, on the border with the Gaza Strip, earlier this year.
WORLD
Aug 2, 2025

Israeli military intelligence goes back to basics with focus on spies, not tech

The agency is reviving an Arabic-language recruitment program for high school students and training all troops in Arabic and Islam.
Some 460 million tons of plastic are produced globally each year, half of which is single-use.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 2, 2025

Efforts set to resume to reach plastic pollution pact

The coming talks follow a failure to reach a deal last December on how to stop millions of tons of plastic waste from entering the environment each year.
Miyu Yamashita walks off the 18th green after completing her third round at the Women's British Open at Royal Porthcawl in Wales on Saturday.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Aug 3, 2025

Miyu Yamashita takes slim lead into final round at Women's British Open

After holding a three-shot lead through the midway point of the tournament, Yamashita was at 9-under par through three rounds as her advantage was narrowed.
Katie Ledecky celebrates after winning gold in the women's 800-meter freestyle event at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore on Saturday.
MORE SPORTS / Swimming
Aug 3, 2025

Imperious Ledecky beats McIntosh to win 800-meter free thriller

Ledecky won her seventh career gold in the event but she was challenged all the way, touching the wall in a championship-record 8 minutes, 5.62 seconds.
Special counsel Jack Smith attends a news conference to announce an indictment of former U.S. President Donald Trump, in Washington in August 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 3, 2025

Federal agency opens probe into former Trump prosecutor Jack Smith

Smith brought two criminal cases against Trump: one accusing him of illegally retaining classified material and another related to attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
Astronaut Kimiya Yui (front, second from right) and Takuya Onishi (front, left) at the International Space Station on Saturday.
JAPAN
Aug 3, 2025

Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui arrives at International Space Station

Yui, who is expected to stay on board for six months, will conduct various experiments in the Japanese module Kibo.
U.S. President Donald Trump raises his fist as he boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Aug 3, 2025

Trump’s economic agenda is losing support, but Democrats see few gains

Democrats looking to retake the House of Representatives need to convince voters they can be trusted on issues like fighting inflation and lowering the cost of housing.
Isao Taniguchi (center), chief of the National Institute of Technology, and Yuto Kashihara (left), who founded D-yorozu, promote a tie-up with BizReach in Tokyo last week.
BUSINESS
Aug 3, 2025

'Kōsen' tech colleges and HR firm tie up for student entrepreneurs

The National Institute of Technology, which oversees the 51 national kōsen across Japan, signed a partnership agreement with BizReach last month.
Fujifilm raised U.S. prices for the majority of its digital cameras and lenses last week, as the U.S. tariffs continue to reverberate across the consumer tech industry.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 3, 2025

Fujifilm raises camera and lens prices in the U.S. due to tariffs

Many of the company’s camera bodies are now $200 more expensive than they were on Thursday evening.
This year, Fuji Rock Festival's ticket sales were the strongest they have been since the COVID-19 pandemic, with overseas ticket buyers accounting for roughly 10% of all sales.
CULTURE / Music
Aug 4, 2025

From far and wide, overseas visitors flock to Fuji Rock

From Singapore to Greece to Michigan, fans came to Japan not just for the music, but for the nature, the relaxed atmosphere and the freedom to dance into the early hours.
Vladimir Putin has been rehabilitating Josef Stalin for more than two decades — and reviving some of the worst elements of the Soviet era in the process.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 3, 2025

Glory to Stalin and the whitewashing of history

Russia’s Communist Party recently asserted that, in Stalin’s “deeds and works,” Russians can seek “answers to the fateful challenges of our time.”
The Bishu Maru LNG tanker, owned by Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, next to the Freeport LNG terminal in Texas
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Aug 3, 2025

How Trump is gaslighting on climate change — with Japan’s help

As the U.S. president ramps up high-polluting LNG projects, Japan is among the nations he's pressuring for investments. The economic case for the push, however, is far from clear.
Hala Al-Masri, 17, reacts at the site of an overnight Israeli strike on an UNRWA school that was sheltering displaced people, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday.
WORLD
Aug 4, 2025

Hamas says it will allow aid to hostages if Israel meets their conditions

A video released on Saturday of emaciated hostage Evyatar David drew criticism from Western powers and horrified Israelis.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi gestures as he addresses a public gathering during the inauguration of various projects on the outskirts of the city of Varanasi, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 4, 2025

India to keep buying Russian oil despite Trump's 25% tariff blow

India has become one of U.S. President Donald Trump’s top targets as he looks to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his war in Ukraine.
Agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi (center) talks with rice farmers in Suzuka, Mie Prefecture, on July 11.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Aug 4, 2025

Japan seeks to ditch rice output curbs after price surges

Currently, the government provides subsidies to farmers to encourage them to restrict rice production and switch to other crops to prevent an oversupply.
Palestinians leave a food distribution point run by the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) group with bags and wooden pallets, near the Netsarim corridor in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday. Aid agencies have warned that Gaza's population is facing a catastrophic famine, triggered by Israeli restrictions on aid.
WORLD / FOCUS
Aug 4, 2025

Chaos, gangs, gunfire: Gaza aid fails to reach most in need

After images of malnourished children drew international outcry, aid has started to be delivered to the territory again, but international organizations say it's not enough.
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks via a video message during the opening of the Helsinki  50 Conference, marking the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act in Helsinki on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 4, 2025

U.N. lays out survival plan as Trump threatens to slash funding

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is slashing more than $700 million in spending and laying plans to overhaul the United Nations as the U.S. pulls back support.
A drone view shows the Zubair Oil Field in Basra, Iraq, on January 16.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 4, 2025

China's independent oil firms elbow into Iraq's majors-dominated market

Smaller Chinese producers are on track to double their output in Iraq to 500,000 barrels per day by around 2030.
Medium-sized securities firms are raising their starting salaries in line with their bigger domestic competitors Nomura and Daiwa Securities.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 4, 2025

Nomura’s starting pay matched by Japanese rivals to retain staff

Medium-sized securities firms are raising their starting salaries in line with their bigger domestic competitors Nomura and Daiwa Securities.

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Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’