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Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a press conference at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 25, 2024

Spurred by shared grievances, BRICS group gathers pace

BRICS' first summit, with its new batch of members, showed clear signs of the group's growing weight.
Neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump has outlined a comprehensive platform on climate, an issue that remains far from the center of the U.S. campaign despite the country being the world's second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, after China.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 25, 2024

Trump vs. Harris: Competing visions for a warming world

The U.S. is the world's second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, after China.
U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to sign the first national security memorandum detailing how intelligence agencies should use and protect artificial intelligence technology.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 25, 2024

White House urges agencies to adopt AI for military and spy use

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the nation must extend its lead on AI while also managing the risks.
A man looks at a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Segment Enhancement model by Lockheed Martin at an international military fair in Kielce, Poland, in September 2017.
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 26, 2024

Fearing China's hypersonic weapons, U.S. Navy seeks to arm ships with Patriot missiles

Integrating the weapons with ships' air defenses comes in the wake of successful missile defense efforts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who serves concurrently as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, makes a speech at a campaign event for the Lower House election, in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 26, 2024

In tight Japan election, candidates make last-ditch appeals

Opinion polls have suggested the ruling bloc might fall short of a majority, delivering a potentially devastating blow to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
A Nvidia chip during the Taipei Computex expo in Taipei on May 29, 2023
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 28, 2024

How a Mumbai drugmaker is helping Putin get Nvidia AI chips

An inconspicuous pharmaceutical company exported 1,111 units of Dell Technologies' most-advanced servers to Russia in April-August of this year.
On Sunday, voters delivered the LDP its biggest electoral setback since 2009, showing their dissatisfaction with recent scandals that have ravaged the party and fundamental issues in its makeup.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 28, 2024

Japan's October surprise

The debacle facing the LDP may be the immediate result of recent scandals, but there are deeper, structural reasons why voters have lost confidence in the party.
Then-manager Erik ten Hag celebrates with the trophy after Manchester United won the FA Cup on May 25.
SOCCER
Oct 29, 2024

Manchester United sack Erik ten Hag after woeful start to the season

United assistant coach and ex-striker Ruud van Nistelrooy will take over on an interim basis.
Parents walk their children to school in Guanghzou, China, on Sept. 4, 2019
BUSINESS
Oct 29, 2024

China's private tutoring firms emerge from the shadows after crackdown

There is now tacit consent from policymakers in China to allow the tutoring industry to grow.
Hugh Jeffrey, the Australian Department of Defence’s deputy secretary for strategy, policy and industry, says the next 18 to 24 months will see Tokyo and Canberra not only test and share new technologies and capabilities, it will also see increased military deployments to each other’s territories.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 29, 2024

Japan and Australia gear up for boosted defense tie-ups over next two years

In an interview, a senior Australian defense official spoke about cooperation in the industrial and technical fields in addition to military-to-military ties.
Today's religious thinkers face the challenge of demonstrating that faith offers deeper meaning and understanding in an increasingly secular world.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 30, 2024

Is the world ready for a religious comeback?

Individuals are seeking meaning through alternative avenues, suggesting a readiness for religious discourse.
Nguyen Thanh Bien gets a massage with medicated oil from his father to help with injuries from being beaten by the Chinese authorities while fishing in the South China Sea, in Quang Ngai, Vietnam, on Oct. 18.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 30, 2024

Bullied by China at sea, with the broken bones to prove it

China’s aggressive policing of disputed territory has produced the latest clash in a long, complex relationship.
Shopify, whose key selling point is lower prices for its suite of e-commerce services, has been cheekily calling out Salesforce’s penchant for wining and dining potential clients.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 30, 2024

Shopify is winning Salesforce clients, stoking e-commerce rivalry

The Canadian company — for years the go-to for mom-and-pop businesses looking to set up shop online — is setting its sights on larger companies in a dramatic shift.
The Xiaomi SU7 Ultra on stage during its launch in Beijing on Tuesday. The Chinese tech company made its foray into the EV industry earlier this year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 30, 2024

Xiaomi launches faster version of flagship EV in a challenge to Tesla

Xiaomi entered China's crowded EV market in March with the launch of its hit SU7.
Onosato pushes out Hoshoryu during the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament in Tokyo last month.
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Oct 30, 2024

Onosato hogs spotlight, but there are big changes in latest sumo ranks

With his name writ large as ozeki on the latest banzuke, sumo’s hottest ticket took another step toward what looks like a procession to yokozuna.
Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris along with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff attend a rally on the National Mall in Washington one week before the Nov. 5 national election.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 30, 2024

The U.S. election is happening too soon

The upcoming U.S. election is unlikely to lead to national renewal or a decisive defeat of MAGA populism.
Appi Geothermal Energy's power plant in Hachimantai, Iwate Prefecture, began commercial operations in March.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Oct 31, 2024

Geothermal power slowly gains steam in Japan

Development of the energy source has long stalled, partly because they tend to lie beneath national parks, which are protected for wildlife conservation.
Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 31, 2024

Trump factor bringing uncertainty to Asian firms' U.S. investment outlook

The former president has criticized the Inflation Reduction Act as a "scam” and the CHIPS and Science Act as a bad deal.
Images of semiconductor wafers at the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) Museum of Innovation in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on April 18, 2023. Taiwan's stock market emerged as the hottest major bourse in Asia over the past year, led by TSMC and Hon Hai Precision Industry.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 31, 2024

AI’s $1.3 trillion future increasingly hinges on Taiwan

Thousands of businesses, executives and entrepreneurs rely on the island's unparalleled combination of talent, cost and speed.
A local resident watches Ukrainian rescuers clear debris on the site of a Russian missile strike in Dnipro, Ukraine, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 31, 2024

U.S. sanctions entities in India, China and Turkey over Russia war supplies

The U.S. and its allies have piled thousands of sanctions on Russia since its invasion of Ukraine, yet Russia’s GDP is projected to grow 3.5% to 4% in 2024.
The government will introduce a new business trip allowance system for civil servants in April, under which up to ¥19,000 will be paid for a stay in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 31, 2024

Up to ¥19,000 eyed to cover Tokyo hotel costs for government workers

The payment cap will be set at ¥19,000 for hotels in Tokyo and at ¥13,000 for those in Osaka Prefecture.
A woman mounts a flag to a stack of cinderblocks in the aftermath of flooding from Hurricane Helene in Swannanoa, North Carolina, on Oct. 6.
WORLD / Society
Oct 31, 2024

Misinformation is turning American disasters into toxic battlegrounds

Deep political polarization, weakened trust in institutions and a lack of content moderation on social media allow false claims to flourish.
Democratic Party for the People Secretary-General Kazuya Shimba (left) and Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Hiroshi Moriyama meet in the Diet building in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 31, 2024

LDP and DPP inch closer together on economic policy cooperation

If their arrangement is successful, it would mean a majority of parliamentary votes for issues especially important to the DPP.
Yuko Mohri uses “invisible forces” — gravity, weather, air, magnetic fields — to create jazzy kinetic sculptures.
CULTURE / Art
Nov 1, 2024

Yuko Mohri is a maestro of unstable elements

After a banner year at the Venice Biennale, the creator of jazzy kinetic sculptures opens her first large-scale exhibition in Japan.
Vietnamese technical interns work at a food processing factory in Saitama Prefecture.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2024

Criteria revealed for technical interns in Japan looking to change jobs

Applicants can select from a wide range of specific "unavoidable" situations, such as being the victim of harassment, set out in a list attached to the application form.
Korey Kito, left, stands with his father Brian Kito in front of their confectionery, Fugetsu-Do, in Los Angeles.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Nov 4, 2024

How Fugetsu-Do survived the evolution of Little Tokyo in LA

In addition to selling mochi and other treats out of the storefront, Fugetsu-do also stocks other Japanese specialty food stores across California.
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani (right) shakes hands with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell before their meeting at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on Friday morning, ahead of the announcement of Japan and the EU's new defense and security partnership.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 1, 2024

Japan and EU launch defense and security tie-up amid mutual China concerns

The move is aimed at developing, deepening and strengthening cooperation and dialogue across all areas of security and defense, Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya says.
In recent years, anglophone publishers have perked up to the potential of “healing fiction,” driven by a healthy appetite for East Asian literature. Japan figures prominently in this literary landscape, and a fondness for felines in the "iyashikei" (healing type) genre has proven commercially viable abroad.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 2, 2024

Cat companions and the 'healing fiction' boom

Japan's "iyashikei" (healing type) cultural products are gaining audiences, and non-Japanese readers are craving cozy feline literature in translation.
The seaside town of Shika on the Noto Peninsula, where the local power provider, Hokuriku Electric, has been fighting for a decade to restart a nuclear power plant in the town’s center.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 2, 2024

Can quake-prone Japan ever embrace nuclear energy again?

The government, its makeup in flux after the LDP lost seats this week, will soon need to make decisions that will shape Japan's future nuclear policy.
The closing session of the United Nations' COP16 summit in Cali, Colombia, on Friday
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Nov 2, 2024

Talks on halting nature loss run into extra time in Colombia

A closing plenary session started more than four hours late as groups of negotiators huddled behind closed doors seeking to iron out their differences.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes