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Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 26, 2024

Hong Kong scraps early release for national security convicts

The new law came into force Saturday, putting into immediate effect tough penalties of up to life imprisonment for certain national security crimes.
Cute characters like Pikachu are deeply ingrained in Japanese culture. The global reach of kawaii has contributed to Japan's soft power and international appeal.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 26, 2024

What does the global power of kawaii say about us?

Kawaii is one of Japan's greatest cultural exports. But cuteness is more than just a fad or a commercial success story: It's part of our evolution.
An analysis of all the publicly available viral genome sequences yielded a surprising result: humans give more viruses — about twice as many — to animals than they give to us.
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 27, 2024

Humans give more viruses to animals than they give us, study finds

Researchers looked at nearly 12 million virus genomes and detected almost 3,000 instances of viruses jumping from one species to another.
Jacky Im, Elizabeth Chan and Kate Maco are the founders of Neptune Robotics, a firm building robots that remove debris from the hulls of ships to improve fuel efficiency and reduce emissions.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 27, 2024

Underwater robots offering practical route to greener shipping

Technology that removes the algae, barnacles and debris that accumulate on ships' hulls can reduce drag and improve fuel efficiency.
Those who are planning to move to new homes are finding themselves either struggling to make a reservation or facing increasingly higher costs.
BUSINESS
Mar 27, 2024

Japan's moving companies struggle to meet demand amid driver shortage

Charges have increased, even doubled, during the March-April peak moving season as a regulation capping overtime hours for drivers kicks in.
Activists opposed to lethal autonomous weapons, or so-called killer robots, protest in Berlin in March 2019.
COMMENTARY
Mar 27, 2024

Don’t fear AI in war, fear autonomous weapons

It’s not the algorithmic intelligence in our weapons and nukes but automaticity that poses an existential risk.
 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem on Feb. 18.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 28, 2024

Israel asks U.S. to reschedule scrapped meeting on Rafah military plans

Rafah is the last relatively safe haven for Palestinian civilians amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
An Israeli military helicopter flying away from the helipad of a hospitalin Tel Aviv, Israel, after transporting a patient on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 28, 2024

Israel deploys expansive facial recognition program in Gaza

Members of Israeli intelligence and its military are concerned about the experimental surveillance effort's false positives and cases of mistaken identity.
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman rings a ceremonial bell at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to celebrate the company's initial public offering on March 21.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 28, 2024

Reddit’s IPO is a content moderation success story

Deciding what users are and aren’t allowed to post is something every social media company has to embrace eventually, if it wants to succeed.
Kelly Zong Fuli
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 28, 2024

China's ‘Princess of Wahaha’ to lead beverage empire fighting for relevance

Sales at Hangzhou Wahaha Group have fallen in an increasingly competitive market as the firm has proven slow to adapt to consumers’ changing tastes.
Preliminary results from new research offer hope in the fight against glioblastoma, the terrible form of cancer that took the lives of Arizona Sen. John McCain and U.S. President Joe Biden’s son, Beau.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 28, 2024

This brain cancer breakthrough should excite you

Recent research shows progress in using the immune system to combat glioblastoma, a deadly form of brain cancer.
Described as “the world’s first cosmic opera,” Jeff Mills’ “The Trip: Enter the Black Hole” is a multimedia spectacle tied together by a concept that teeters on the brink between quantum physics and science fiction.
CULTURE / Music
Mar 29, 2024

Jeff Mills’ trippy techno odyssey comes to Tokyo

The influential techno artist's multimedia 'cosmic opera' features vocals by '80s avant-pop diva Jun Togawa.
A real estate sign advertises powered data center land for sale in Johnstown, Ohio, on March 23.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 29, 2024

Amazon bets $150 billion on data centers required for AI boom

In addition to meeting demand for corporate services, they will provide the massive computing power needed for an expected boom in generative AI.
Dried cocoa beans at the Somos Cacao farm and production in Ragonvalia, department of Norte de Santader, Colombia, on March 22, 2024. Cocoa is the best-selling commodity in the world so far in 2024, and futures have doubled in less than three months as poor harvests in West Africa, where most of the world's cocoa is grown, have led buyers to look elsewhere for supplies.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 29, 2024

Cocoa market 'broken' as crop failure drives third year of shortages

here’s a risk poor harvests in West Africa could be long-lasting, with climate change and crop disease ravaging trees.
An electronic board shows Shanghai and Shenzhen stock indexes at the Lujiazui financial district in Shanghai on March 24.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 29, 2024

Chinese firms face funding drought for IPOs amid heavy scrutiny

China's securities watchdog has sharply tightened scrutiny of IPOs this year, leading to companies scrapping domestic listing plans in droves.
Pedestrians in the Mahalaxmi area of Mumbai on 2021. Mumbai is among the most densely populated cities in the world.
WORLD / Society
Mar 29, 2024

Young Indians more likely to be jobless if they’re educated

The percentage young unemployed Indians dropped to 82.9% in 2022 from 88.6% in 2000, while the share of educated youths climbed to 65.7% from 54.2%.
Beijing's repression of its Muslim citizens, including Uyghurs in Xinjiang Province, could make it the target of Islamic State attacks.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 28, 2024

After Russia, is China the Islamic State's next target?

As Russia mourns the victims of the Moscow attack, China should be on guard. Its repression of Uyghurs has provoked the Islamic State group before.
California’s share of U.S. wine production, around 90% in the 1990s and 2000s, dropped below 80% for the first time on record in 2022.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 27, 2024

Who will save the U.S. wine industry? Not California boomers.

California’s share of U.S. wine production, around 90% in the 1990s and 2000s, dropped below 80% for the first time on record in 2022.
“Time” is a mixed-genre performance, conceived by musician Ryuichi Sakamoto and artist Shiro Takatani, that depicts a struggle between man and nature.
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 30, 2024

Ryuichi Sakamoto and Shiro Takatani’s ‘Time’ is a dreamy blur

It’s been one year since the composer’s death, but his creative output carries on in Japan.
A mural showing Los Angeles Dodgers player Shohei Ohtani is seen on the Miyako Hotel in Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday. The mural, by artist Robert Vargas, is 150 feet (46 meters) tall and is titled "LA Rising."
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 30, 2024

Shohei Ohtani is home and focused on baseball. Dodgers fans are relieved.

Los Angeles finally got a close look at baseball’s megastar, as a gambling situation involving his former interpreter took a back seat to opening day.
People place their bets at the Fanduel sportsbook in East Rutherford, New Jersey, during the Super Bowl in February 2019.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 31, 2024

U.S. sports leagues bet on gambling. Now they’re facing its risks.

Leagues have signed lucrative marketing deals with betting apps like FanDuel and DraftKings and recent incidents have highlighted issues.
Children wash their hands with a new public pump installed as part of a climate resilient water system in Inn Chey in Kratie Province.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Mar 31, 2024

Japan sits at the forefront of climate resilient infrastructure in Southeast Asia

Japanese businesses and government agencies are pouring billions of yen into various programs across Cambodia and Southeast Asia to reduce climate risks.
A site in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, that formerly belonged to the British Embassy, was discovered to have artifacts and dwellings from the city's past.
JAPAN / History / Longform
Apr 1, 2024

The complications in digging up Tokyo's ancient past

When traces of history are found at construction sites, businesses need to sport the cost of removing them. But then, the build goes on.
The Bank of Japan's tankan survey showed that large nonmanufacturers saw improvement in their sentiment with the index reaching the highest level since 1991, helped by a surge in inbound tourists.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 1, 2024

Japan service firms’ optimism tempered by softer factory sector

The deterioration in manufacturing sentiment partly reflects the impact from scandals among some vehicle producers.
Tadashi Imai, who became Nippon Steel's new president on Monday
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 1, 2024

Nippon Steel emphasizes its roots in the U.S. as it pursues deal

The Japanese firm has agreed to buy U.S. Steel for roughly $15 billion but the deal faces an uphill battle to approval in a U.S. election year.
CrowdTangle, bought by the firm now known as Meta in 2016, offers crucial real-time transparency into the spread of conspiracy theories and hate speech on influential Meta-owned platforms including Facebook and Instagram.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 1, 2024

Meta to switch off tool that tracks misinformation months before U.S. vote

CrowdTangle offers crucial real-time transparency into the spread of conspiracy theories and hate speech.
Tugboats guide the Maersk Atlanta container ship at the Port of Newark in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday. The bridge collapse Tuesday that shut the Port of Baltimore and closed a major highway will cause weeks or months of transportation disruptions in the Mid-Atlantic region.
BUSINESS
Apr 1, 2024

Baltimore ship accident has east coast ports scrambling to absorb cargo

The bridge collapse will accelerate a shift of cargo to the U.S. West Coast in order to avoid potential bottlenecks at trade gateways from Boston to Miami.
Cans of Asahi Super Dry beer move on the production line inside an Asahi Breweries plant in Moriya, Ibaraki Prefecture, in April 2023.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 1, 2024

With U.S. push, Asahi aims to sate evolving tastes

The drink-maker is placing its “premium” offerings and low-alcohol and nonalcoholic beverages front and center in a bid to differentiate itself.
Akihiro Fukutome, head of the Japanese Bankers Association, said new takeover guidelines from the industry ministry last year have helped lower psychological hurdles associated with unsolicited bids.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 1, 2024

Japan's banks less hesitant with hostile takeovers, lobby chief says

His comments offer evidence of a sea change in Japan — which once shunned hostile bids — that has helped bring it closer to Western-style dealmaking.
Around 90% of China’s increased oil demand between 2021 and 2024 comes from chemical feedstocks, driven by the manufacturing of products such as those sold by fast-fashion retailers Shein and Tamu.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2024

China's Shein and Temu are driving oil, not Toyota and GM

The cause behind recent a surge in China's oil demand is not to be found in people's transport habits, including car use, but in fast-fashion clothing.

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