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Anti-abortion demonstrators take part in the annual March for Life rally in Washington on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 25, 2025

Trump targets abortion access at home and abroad

Trump revoked two executive orders signed by Joe Biden protecting abortion access.
Smoke rises as the Border 2 Fire burns in Chula Vista, California, on Friday in this screen grab obtained from a social media video.
WORLD
Jan 27, 2025

Fire-ravaged Los Angeles braces for toxic rain runoff

The rain will also bring cleaner air and improve fire-fighting conditions, but overall, it will make things worse.
Chinese startup DeepSeek launched a free AI assistant last week that it says uses less data at a fraction of the cost of incumbent services.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 28, 2025

DeepSeek sparks global AI selloff, with Nvidia losing around $593 billion

Chinese startup DeepSeek launched a free AI assistant that it says uses less data at a fraction of the cost of incumbent services.
China-backed hackers are increasingly targeting critical U.S. infrastructure, including energy grids, telecom networks and government agencies.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 30, 2025

Trump’s bigger China cyber threat isn’t TikTok

China-backed hackers are infiltrating U.S. critical infrastructure, telecom networks and government systems, exposing vulnerabilities that demand stronger cybersecurity measures.
Rakuten Group said it no longer plans to list its securities arm on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and will instead focus on deepening its partnership with Mizuho Securities.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 30, 2025

Rakuten scraps plan to list securities unit on Tokyo bourse

The Japanese e-commerce pioneer had planned an initial public offering for Rakuten Securities Holdings as part of a push to shore up finances.
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.
DeepSeek’s AI breakthrough has shaken assumptions about China’s innovation, highlighted weaknesses in U.S. tech restrictions, and reinforced China’s push for self-sufficiency despite export controls.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 4, 2025

DeepSeek forces a rethink of China’s ability to innovate

The Trump administration hasn’t outlined a policy toward technology flows yet, but it ordered a review of export controls on day one.
Founded in Hangzhou only 20 months ago, DeepSeek’s technology made waves in January with a new mobile app featuring its reasoning AI chatbot.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 5, 2025

Australia bans DeepSeek from government tech, citing security

A threat assessment by the country’s intelligence agencies found the technology posed an unacceptable risk.
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 Auckland city skyline in 2021
BUSINESS
Feb 10, 2025

New Zealand changes ‘golden visa’ to lure wealthy migrants

As well as dropping the English language test, other potential barriers to investment such as the amount of time investors must stay in the country will be adjusted.
A toilet container transported to the roadside station Anamizu for disaster relief in the aftermath of the Noto Peninsula earthquake, on Jan. 12, 2024, in Anamizu Town, Ishikawa Prefecture
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2025

Japan to help roadside stations install portable containers for disaster use

Portable containers installed at evacuation centers after the earthquake on the Noto Peninsula in January 2024 were used for multiple purposes, including as medical offices.
People block the Ayalon highway during a protest in support of the hostages kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, in Tel Aviv on Monday.
WORLD
Feb 11, 2025

Ceasefire in doubt after Hamas says it will stop releasing Israeli hostages

U.S. President Donald Trump said that if all the hostages are not returned by noon Saturday, he would propose canceling the ceasefire, letting "all hell break loose."
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.
Xuan, a Vietnamese migrant, speaks during an interview in London.
WORLD
Feb 13, 2025

'Trapped': Vietnamese slavery victim's ordeal on U.K. dope farm

Vietnamese migrants are among the most exposed to modern slavery, with more than 1,000 presumed victims reported to British authorities in 2023.
TikTok had more than 52 million downloads in 2024, according to Sensor Tower.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 14, 2025

TikTok returns on Apple and Google U.S. app stores as Trump delays ban

TikTok is back in U.S. app stores after Trump delayed a ban and assured Apple and Google they wouldn’t be penalized.
In the most recent expansion to the long-running Warframe, Alpha Takahashi voices cyborg mechanic Aoi Morohoshi.
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Feb 15, 2025

Alpha Takahashi: ‘The world of video games was tied to my upbringing’

The Tokyo-born actor has voiced Psylocke in Marvel Rivals, Hanako Arasaka in Cyberpunk 2077 and many more since breaking into the industry in 2013.
Volunteer Nhoun Niyok shows villagers how to use a mosquito net to prevent malaria in Cambodia's northeastern Mondulkiri province on Jan. 16.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Feb 14, 2025

Cambodia nears Khmer Rouge survivor's dream of eradicating malaria

The hope is for zero cases this year — a remarkable turnaround for a country that was formerly an epicenter of multi-drug resistant strains.
The construction site for an underground station at the Stuttgart 21 railway and urban development project in Stuttgart, Germany, in November 2022.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 17, 2025

Late trains, old bridges, no signal: Germany's infrastructure woes

Germany's reputation for efficiency no longer holds true, critics contend.
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.
A Ukrainian serviceman in Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Nov. 29
WORLD / Politics
Feb 19, 2025

European forces would struggle to guarantee Ukraine peace without U.S.

Deterrence in the form of U.S. medium-range missiles and ultimately nuclear weapons will remain crucial, experts say.
Tents belonging to Palestinians are seen amid the rubble of destroyed buildings in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 19, 2025

Talks on next phase of Gaza ceasefire to begin this week: Israeli minister

Negotiations over the second stage are expected to be tough because they include issues such as the administration of post-war Gaza.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin hold a bilateral meeting at the Group of 20 leaders summit in Osaka in June 2019. A Putin-Trump summit is on the horizon.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Feb 20, 2025

Russian forces advance on Ukraine's critical minerals as Trump talks of a deal

The seizure of Kyiv's mineral wealth, while not the main war aim, is among Moscow's strategic goals, experts say.
The building of new high-rise residential buildings has some alarmed that they could empty and fall into disrepair as Japan's population shrinks.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Feb 24, 2025

The high cost of letting Japan's condos crumble

With rising repair costs, dwindling reserve funds and an aging population of owners, thousands of buildings are at risk of falling into disrepair.
Amid rising global defense spending, U.S. President Donald Trump's push for 5% of GDP on military budgets poses a challenge for American allies, including Japan, which is already struggling to meet its 2% target.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 25, 2025

U.S. defense spending demands could transform global security

The level of spending the U.S. is demanding could spark an arms race as adversaries try to match NATO and America's Asian allies.
A Chinese H-6 bomber flies between Okinawa’s main island and Miyako Island in October 2013. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe warned that Japan must strengthen its defenses in case of a Taiwan contingency.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 26, 2025

As Ukraine endgame intensifies, don’t forget Taiwan

The scale of China’s air and naval exercises around Taiwan has grown from fewer than a dozen planes and ships a few years ago to over 250 in the December exercise alone.
A woman checks her phone at Incheon International Airport in Incheon, South Korea, in 2020. Passengers on South Korean airlines must now keep power banks and e-cigarettes on their person and not in overhead cabin bins.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 3, 2025

Seoul's lithium battery rules on planes highlight growing risk for aviation

Passengers on South Korean airlines must now keep power banks and e-cigarettes on their person and not in overhead cabin compartments.
Ukrainian servicewomen Natalia (right), 53, and her daughter Veronika, 26, from the 100th mechanized brigade, pose for a photo at an undisclosed location in the Donetsk region in Ukraine on Feb. 15.
WORLD / Society
Mar 3, 2025

'Under my wing': Mothers and daughters serving together in Ukraine

Ukrainian servicewomen Natalia, 53, and her daughter Veronika, 26, serve in the 100th mechanized brigade.
JR East started the services in Minamiboso and Tateyama, cities in Chiba Prefecture, on Monday and will begin them in Senboku, Akita Prefecture, in the second half of this year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 3, 2025

JR East to offer ride-hailing services at limited locations

The firm started the services in the cities of Minamiboso and Tateyama in Chiba Prefecture on Monday, and will begin them in Senboku, Akita Prefecture, later this year.
Toyota’s announcement to hand out perks to its shareholders comes as some Japanese firms begin reintroducing perks to attract retail investors.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 4, 2025

Toyota to hand out shareholder perks to entice retail investors

Some Japanese firms have begun reintroducing perks to attract retail investors, a practice that has drawn criticism from some global funds.
A man looks at an electric car inside an SAIC-GM Wuling dealership in Jakarta. Electric vehicle sales in Indonesia totaled just 43,188 last year.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 4, 2025

China’s EV makers are facing a reality check in Southeast Asia

Despite local aspirations to own EVs, they are still beyond the reach of many, and access to a reliable source of electricity is also not always a given.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.