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Marcus Rashford joined Manchester United at the age of 7 and emerged from the youth academy as a teenage prodigy in 2016, but recent years have been marked by controversy.
SOCCER
Feb 4, 2025

Once Manchester United's golden boy, Marcus Rashford's run ends in divorce

Rashford appeared to have the world at his feet when he signed a new five-year contract with United in July 2023, but the relationship recently soured.
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.
The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, also called the Chinese Six Companies, formed in San Francisco in 1882, was a unifying umbrella organization for immigrant associations, becoming one of the first such influential community advocacy groups in America.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2025

America versus China, the troubling prequel

A forthcoming book details the horrific experience of Chinese immigrants in the U.S. in the 19th century. Is it an omen for the future?
Communist Party supporters take part in a rally next to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in July 2022. Economic reforms pushed by the U.S. in 1990s on Russia caused hardship and extremism, fueling Vladimir Putin's rise.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2025

A secret cable and a clue to where America-Russia relations went wrong

Putin is the main culprit for Russia’s return to authoritarianism, aggression and hostility to the West. But American arrogance and presumptions cannot be dismissed.
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.
Fentanyl precursors on display in Mexico City on Oct. 4, 2023. Chemical components are said to be shipped from China to Mexico, where they are then made into fentanyl and smuggled across the border.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Feb 4, 2025

How China allegedly contributes to the deadly fentanyl crisis

Chemical components are said to be shipped from China to Mexico, where they are then made into fentanyl and smuggled across the border.
The Osaka Expo site on Yumeshima island in December. A survey of 3,000 people from across Japan conducted in October by the Mitsubishi Research Institute showed that just 24% of respondents expressed an interest in attending the Osaka Expo.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 4, 2025

Excitement for the Osaka Expo is low. Can organizers build hype?

A little over two months before it opens, the Osaka Expo is just about ready to welcome guests from Japan and the rest of the world — that is, if they are ready to come.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (left) speaks during an executive order signing ceremony with U.S. President Donald Trump and Howard Lutnick, chief executive officer of Cantor Fitzgerald and U.S. commerce secretary nominee, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Monday.
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2025

Trump orders creation of U.S. sovereign wealth fund and says it could buy TikTok

The text of the executive order was sparse on details, and simply directed the Treasury and Commerce Departments to submit a plan for such a fund within 90 days.
Nintendo announced in January that it will release the console's hotly anticipated successor — the Switch 2 — in 2025, but stopped short of revealing details such as pricing.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 4, 2025

Nintendo cuts net profit forecast as Switch sales slow

Nintendo said it will release the console's hotly anticipated successor — the Switch 2 — in 2025 but stopped short of revealing details such as pricing.
Despite numerous past meetings between U.S. and Japanese leaders, Shigeru Ishiba's relationship with Donald Trump is expected to be awkward, lacking the rapport the U.S. president had with former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 4, 2025

Ishiba will finally meet Trump, but expectations need to be kept low

His long-time rival Shinzo Abe's relationship with Trump is the ideal but an unfair comparison.
Highway One after a portion of the road collapsed into the Pacific Ocean in Monterey County, California, in March 2024
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Feb 4, 2025

These roads aren’t built for wilder weather driven by climate change

Worldwide warming temperatures are hammering roads that were built for a different climate and ballooning repair budgets.
Slovenian basketball player Luka Doncic (center) holds up a jersey as he stands alongside Lakers head coach JJ Redick (right) and general manager Rob Pelinka during a press conference introducing Doncic as the newest member of the Lakers at the UCLA Health Training Center in El Segundo, California on Tuesday.
BASKETBALL / NBA
Feb 5, 2025

Doncic hungry for titles after shock Lakers trade

Doncic said the prospect of playing alongside LeBron James for arguably the NBA's most iconic franchise represented a "dream come true."
A woman queues at Phedisong clinic on April 8, 2013, during the launch of the new single dose anti-AIDs medication in Ga-Rankuwa, 100 kilometers north of Johannesburg.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 5, 2025

'I don't want to die': Trump's aid plans incite fear in Africa

Trump's decision to pause foreign aid, and other orders and declarations relating to LGBTQ+ rights, have forced NGOs to wonder how secure future U.S. funding will be.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrive to hold a news conference at the White House in Washington on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Feb 5, 2025

Trump's Gaza stunner builds on his expansionist aims

Since Trump's return to the White House a little more than two weeks ago, his "America First" approach seems to have morphed into "America More."
If Donald Trump abandons internationalism, partnerships and alliances, the result will be tragic for both humanity and America itself.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2025

The U.S. must avoid isolationism — a path to nowhere

The scariest aspect of the Trump presidency is that he promotes unpredictability and disruption as his principal techniques of governance and especially foreign policy.
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.
Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro says Manila's moves to beef up deterrence — including continuing to have a powerful U.S. missile system deployed on its territory — “are for the protection of our territorial integrity and sovereignty."
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 6, 2025

Philippines all in to get its own midrange missile system

The plan, as disclosed by Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, comes amid Chinese pressure to remove a powerful U.S. weapons system from its territory.
Kuaishou Technology has attracted tens of millions of younger viewers who habitually scroll screens for new stories and trending videos.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 6, 2025

Mini dramas have supplanted movies in China. Is the U.S. next?

Professionally produced series for the web, mini dramas have clear storylines and big cliffhangers, with episodes running just 60 to 90 seconds each.
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.
Gaza’s reconstruction is needed, but U.S. President Donald Trump’s approach — framing it as a business deal without addressing Palestinian political aspirations — makes little sense as foreign policy.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 6, 2025

Trump’s ‘Gaza Riviera’ scheme may be more than a fantasy

It’s tempting to dismiss Donald Trump’s bid to take over Gaza as just another wild proposal, designed more to change the conversation and wrong-foot negotiating partners than as policy.
The ruling coalition has put forward a plan to make public school tuition free, with costs of up to ¥118,800 yearly subsidized for all families regardless of income.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 6, 2025

Recent talks on education funding for all might be missing the point

As the government works to pass its budget without a majority, the issue of free education for all has become key to negotiations for support in parliament.
Naomi Osaka celebrates winning her second round match at the Australian Open over the Czech Republic's Karolina Muchova on Jan. 15.
TENNIS
Feb 6, 2025

Naomi Osaka on tennis, motherhood and being Japanese

Osaka returned to the tour a year ago and has had mixed results overall. But there are early signs in 2025 that she's starting to "get her pink back."
"Uketsu" is a completely anonymous writer and YouTuber whose odd books — which blend mystery and horror — have become a smash-hit publishing phenomenon in Japan.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 7, 2025

'Uketsu': The internet phantom haunting Japan's bestseller lists

Anonymous author and YouTuber "Uketsu" deals in a quiet horror that has delighted millions of readers.
A representative from the prosecutor's office shows parts of an unidentified missile, which Ukrainian authorities believe to be made in North Korea, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Jan. 6.
WORLD
Feb 6, 2025

Ukraine sees marked improvement in accuracy of Russia's North Korean missiles

The increase in accuracy — to within 50-100m of the intended target — suggests North Korea is successfully using the battlefield to test its missile technology.
People line up outside an Apple store in Beijing.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 7, 2025

Apple’s China focus thrusts it into center of geopolitical fight

It counts China as its biggest manufacturing hub and the U.S. as its largest market, putting it at the center of an escalating geopolitical fight.
Demonstrators rally during a protest against U.S. President Donald Trump and the actions he has taken in the first weeks of his presidency, in Washington, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 7, 2025

U.S. judge blocks Trump buyout program as 60,000 sign up to quit

The Trump administration is pressuring workers to leave their jobs in an unprecedented drive to overhaul the federal government.
Ishiba eats a mikan tangerine at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Jan. 22.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Feb 7, 2025

A 'joyful' Japan? Ishiba's choice of slogan sparks the opposite feelings

Even members of Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party were not happy with the slogan.
Singapore is positioning itself as a key player in the effort to diversify supply chains away from China, leveraging its proximity to Malaysia’s Johor state.
COMMENTARY
Feb 7, 2025

Singapore finds its seat at the China+1 table

Singapore is positioning itself as a key player in the effort to diversify supply chains away from China.

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