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Properties destroyed by the Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa, California, in 2017
WORLD
Jan 28, 2025

Earlier California fire shows how Los Angeles could rebuild

The experiences of those who rebuilt in Coffey Park and Santa Rosa show the power of collective action, and local government success in streamlining construction.
Underneath the praise, Washington, Wall Street and Silicon Valley are aligned in their view of DeepSeek as a key competitor to Meta’s Llama.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 29, 2025

DeepSeek tests Meta’s ambition for U.S. open-source AI dominance

Mark Zuckerberg has long championed Meta’s open-source approach to artificial intelligence software as key to ensuring U.S. dominance over China in AI.
Taxis in central Sendai. More people are becoming attracted to the job of a taxi driver as it can allow them to work flexibly.
BUSINESS / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Feb 10, 2025

Cab driving becoming an increasingly popular job in Sendai

Flexible hours and the work-at-your-own-pace environment has led to a renewed interest in taxi driving among younger people.
Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Jan. 16
WORLD / Politics
Jan 30, 2025

Syria's al-Sharaa declared president for transition, consolidating his power

Al-Sharaa said the first priority in Syria was to fill a vacuum in government "in a legitimate and legal way."
Former U.S. figure skaters Dick Button and Tenley Albright are introduced during an exhibition event after the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Boston in January 2014.
MORE SPORTS / Figure skating
Jan 31, 2025

U.S. figure skating great Dick Button dies at 95

Long before he became known for his on-air observations, Button dominated the figure skating world with his athleticism.
Donald Trump’s rapid use of tariffs, disregard for conventional diplomacy and fixation on strength risk undermining the global economic order, isolating the U.S. and triggering widespread economic harm.
EDITORIALS
Jan 31, 2025

The Trump test begins: Tariffs, power plays and economic risk

The speed with which the U.S. president reached for this tariff tool — against an ally no less — is proof that his threats are not empty words.
Nintendo Switch controllers for sale at a game shop in Tokyo on Jan. 16.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 1, 2025

Mario Kart may help Nintendo rally outlast flight from AI tech

The Mario Kart creator’s focus on success in games, while leveraging its intellectual property into movies and theme parks, makes it look like a safe bet for tech investors.
U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a briefing on Thursday about the midair crash in Washington.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 31, 2025

From anguish to aggression: Trump goes on offense after midair collision

In the wake of this week’s midair collision near Washington, Trump was more than happy to jump to conclusions and pull the United States apart rather than together.
Max Verstappen at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in December. Ever since Red Bull gambled on a 17-year-old Verstappen in 2015, both sides have reaped the rewards: 63 wins, 40 pole positions, 112 podiums and four world championships.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Feb 1, 2025

Formula One champion is confronting changes off the track and on

The reigning four-time Formula One champion, who is set to become a father, has his sights set on a fifth straight title, a feat only Michael Schumacher has accomplished.
More than two dozen news organizations operate out of the Pentagon reporting on the daily activities of the U.S. military.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 2, 2025

Trump's Pentagon says it will 'rotate' out some media from offices

The memo said that the New York Times, National Public Radio, NBC News and Politico must vacate their spaces by Feb. 14
A U.S. Marine provides water to Afghan families during the evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul in August 2021.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 30, 2025

Abandoning Afghans who worked with us troops is shameful

The urgency is driven by a simple fact: The Afghans who helped us, along with their family members, are considered traitors by the ruling Taliban.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2020
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2025

Modi’s Trump strategy sees quick concessions to avoid trade war

Trump has repeatedly singled out India and its high trade barriers, and has pledged reciprocal duties on the South Asian country.
A Palestinian sits among the rubble of buildings destroyed during an Israeli offensive in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 6, 2025

Trump aides defend Gaza takeover proposal but walk back some elements

Trump shattered decades of U.S. policy with a vaguely worded announcement saying he envisioned transforming Gaza into the "Riviera of the Middle East."
All Blacks flyhalf Beauden Barrett takes a selfie with children at an event in Yokohama on Nov. 28, 2017.
MORE SPORTS / Rugby
Feb 6, 2025

Beauden Barrett wants Japan back in expanded Super Rugby

"I'd love to see the Japanese become part of the competition," Barrett said. "I feel like we need to grow the competition and in that respect, that would be great."
The new generative AI-powered Alexa represents at once a huge opportunity for Amazon, which counts more than half a billion Alexa-enabled devices in the market, and a tremendous risk.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 6, 2025

Amazon set to release long-delayed Alexa generative AI revamp

The new generative AI-powered Alexa represents at once a huge opportunity for Amazon.
The bestselling Switch has a confirmed successor, but what little we know about the Switch 2 console so far raises some concerns about its longterm viability in a crowded gaming market.
LIFE / Digital
Feb 6, 2025

Making sense of Nintendo’s tight-lipped Switch 2 reveal

Nintendo will remain mum on details until April, but questions on how its new console fits into the modern gaming landscape abound.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, following his announcement of the formation of the new government at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon, on Saturday.
WORLD
Feb 9, 2025

Newly appointed Lebanon PM names ministers and vows to regain trust

Lebanon's new government, led by Nawaf Salam, faces the challenge of enacting reforms and managing a fragile ceasefire with Israel.
Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, speaks at a White House event with President Donald Trump, left; Softbank chief executive Masayoshi Son, third from left; and Larry Ellison, chairman of Oracle, at the White House on Jan. 21.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 9, 2025

How Sam Altman sidestepped Elon Musk to win over Donald Trump

After helping President Trump get elected, Elon Musk was poised to dominate the nation’s AI policies. But someone got there before him.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin attend a meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Osaka in June 2019.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 9, 2025

Trump says he has spoken to Putin about ending the Ukraine war

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the TASS state news agency that "many different communications are emerging."
A worker welds at a steel manufacturing facility in Mexico City on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 10, 2025

Trump to announce 25% steel and aluminum tariffs in latest escalation

Trump, speaking to reporters on Air Force One on his way to the Super Bowl in New Orleans, said he will announce the new metals tariffs on Monday.
Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Kazuya Endo (third from left) joins a tour of the BRP Melchora Aquino, the BRP Melchora Aquino, last May. The Philippine Coast Guard ship was provided to Manila under Japan's official development aid program.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 11, 2025

Japan exploring more defense transfers to Philippines, envoy says

As Tokyo revises its export guidelines to ease defense equipment transfers, the partners expect more security cooperation on the horizon.
Oil tanker trucks outside an oil refinery in Mumbai
WORLD / Politics
Feb 13, 2025

India scrambles for Russian oil supplies as sellers play sanctions whack-a-mole

Energy executives say existing networks are being reconfigured with selling entities, tankers and insurance providers that are not on Washington’s blacklist.
Vissel's Daiju Sasaki (right) and Sanfrecce's Sho Sasaki jump for a ball during their Super Cup match on Feb. 8.
SOCCER / J. League
Feb 13, 2025

Vissel hoping for J. League three-peat as rivals aim to spoil party

Sanfrecce Hiroshima has come back stronger and is one of the clubs that can spoil Vissel's bid for a three-peat.
Researchers work around Chang'e-5 lunar return capsule carrying moon samples next to a Chinese national flag, after it landed in northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, on Dec. 17, 2020.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 14, 2025

China builds space alliances in Africa as Trump cuts foreign aid

Beijing has access to data and images collected from the space technology, and Chinese personnel maintain a long-term presence in the facilities it builds in Africa.
China frequently shifts between warming and freezing relations with Japan, driven by its domestic issues, often using softer rhetoric while masking aggressive actions.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 14, 2025

Are China-Japan relations truly 'warming,' or is this just fool’s gold again?

As the trade war between the U.S. and China heats up, Beijing is turning to its familiar playbook, using softer language to court American allies and partners while offering things like greater cooperation and more dialogue — part of its ongoing divide-and-conquer strategy.
U.S. Steel workers rally outside the company's headquarters in Pittsburgh in support of the takeover by Japan's Nippon Steel back in September.
EDITORIALS
Feb 14, 2025

The Nippon Steel deal’s lessons for the world

Former U.S. President Joe Biden’s stiff opposition to the deal may have created space, if not impetus, for President Donald Trump to resurrect the acquisition.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi embrace as they attend a joint press conference at the White House on Thursday. While the leaders emphasized close ties, mounting trade tensions overshadowed the meeting.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 15, 2025

Despite the hugs, Trump-Modi meeting was mostly transactional

The Modi-Trump bromance was on full display at the White House summit, but substantive issues where India and the U.S. diverge, including trade, lurked nearby.
The Grok-3 artificial intelligence chatbot has "more than 10 times” the computing power of its predecessor, billionaire Elon Musk said in a presentation alongside three engineers from xAI, his AI startup, on Monday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 18, 2025

Musk debuts Grok-3 AI chatbot to rival OpenAI and DeepSeek

Grok-3 beats its rivals across math, science and coding benchmarks, the chatbot's developer says.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba receives fruit from tangerine farmers of Shizuoka Prefecture in Tokyo on Jan. 22. The government's new regional revitalization plan focuses on convincing younger workers to choose a career and life somewhere other than a major urban center such as Tokyo.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 18, 2025

Can Ishiba's 'joyful Japan' policy revitalize the nation's rural regions?

The prime minister may be taking cues from the mistakes of past efforts, but ultimately, even the best rural revitalization plan is tough to realize in practice.
U.S. Marines during training in Okinawa last month.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 22, 2025

U.S. Marines start to leave Japan, decades behind schedule

The U.S. base on Okinawa has relocated 105 Marines. But an agreement to move 9,000 in total is colliding with the perceived threat from a rising China.

Longform

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’