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December 26, 2024
 

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Alex Wickham
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer
WORLD / Politics
Dec 17, 2024
Starmer’s China reset plans get undercut by royal access scandal
It has emerged in court documents that a Chinese man who acted as a business adviser to the Duke of York was banned from Britain on national security grounds in 2023.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer poses for a photograph with Chinese President Xi Jinping during their bilateral meeting at the Sheraton Hotel, on the sidelines of G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 19, 2024
Starmer confronted Xi on human rights at G20. It did not go well.
The incident in the first meeting between the leaders of the U.K. and China in almost seven years underscores the challenge Keir Starmer faces in seeking to thaw ties.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has replaced his chief of staff and must now review key tax-raising plans that have been questioned over their viability.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 7, 2024
Starmer forced into messy reset less than 100 days in power
He has replaced his chief of staff, Sue Gray, and is reviewing key tax-raising plans amid questions over their viability.
The four remaining U.K. Conservative leadership contenders (from left): Robert Jenrick, James Cleverly, Kemi Badenoch and Tom Tugendhat
WORLD / Politics
Sep 30, 2024
Tories turn on each other in race to succeed low-key Sunak
The U.K. Conservatives' annual conference has kicked off with jibes between leadership contenders.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer's special adviser on business, Varun Chandra, used to run Hakluyt, a consultancy that does not disclose its clients.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 27, 2024
Starmer’s ‘business whisperer’ brings connections and complications from past
Varun Chandra‘s previous role in charge of a secretive consultancy introduces a complexity to a government that’s vowed to rebuild trust in public institutions.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer during the opening day of the U.K. Labour Party annual conference in Liverpool on Sunday
WORLD / Politics
Sep 23, 2024
Starmer struggles to reclaim ‘change’ narrative after missteps
Labour is facing backlash for cutting winter energy aid for millions of pensioners in an effort to fix national finances amid donor scandals.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni shake hands at a news conference in Rome on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 17, 2024
Starmer courts Meloni in Rome with eye on risk from U.K. right
The British prime minister said he’s looking to his Italian counterpart for lessons on tackling what is known as irregular migration.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Ali Akbar Ahmadian, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, in Saint Petersburg on Friday
WORLD / Politics
Sep 15, 2024
Russia sharing nuclear secrets with Iran fuels U.S.-U.K. worries
The nuclear information and technology may be in exchange for Tehran providing Moscow with ballistic missiles for its war in Ukraine.
Director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) William Burns arrives to testify before a closed Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing on U.S. President Joe Biden's proposed budget request for the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 12.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 8, 2024
U.S. and U.K. spy chiefs warn of deepening Iran-Russia military links
Iran has sent ballistic missiles to Russia, defying months of warnings by U.S. and European officials.
Far-right protestors shout behind a police cordon in Liverpool, U.K., on Saturday.
WORLD / Society
Aug 8, 2024
Suspected foreign accounts aid U.K. extremists to incite riots
Several users in Russian language channels have posted about how they have been deliberately stirring British far-right channels to agitate members.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks in Widnes, England, on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 28, 2024
Keir Starmer’s clash with Labour left sets up wider fight on tax rises
Making the numbers add up while keeping her tax promises is the unenviable task that’s been top of U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves’ mind.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer during a news conference near Oxford, England, on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 20, 2024
U.K.'s Starmer sees Trump comeback as a warning about his own danger
The U.K. prime minister's overarching aim is to avoid the struggles other world leaders are facing at the hands of the populist right.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland in Ottawa in April. Trudeau has faced accusations of not responding swiftly enough to foreign interference.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 14, 2024
Canada said to have mapped out secret Chinese police operations
Concern has grown over whether or not Beijing monitors and intimidates members of the Chinese diaspora living in Western democracies.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer
WORLD / Politics
Jul 7, 2024
Untested Starmer is suddenly the West’s last man standing tall
Keir Starmer — who’s spent the last six weeks campaigning under the one-word banner of ‘change’ — is about to discover how in politics, it can come at you fast.
A Ukrainian serviceman waits for Russian drones next to a military vehicle with a anti-aircraft cannon at an undisclosed location in Donetsk region, Ukraine.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 3, 2024
China is making and testing lethal attack drones for Russia
Beijing may be edging closer to providing Russia with the sort of lethal aid that western officials have warned against.
Labour Party leader Keir Starmer speaks during a debate in Nottingham, England, on Wednesday, in the build-up to the U.K. general election set for July 4.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 27, 2024
Starmer denies Sunak clear win he needed in U.K. election debate
The head-to-head contest came amid a betting scandal that’s dominated the last two weeks of the campaign.
Russian officials have increasingly been threatening not to extend the visas of African students and young workers unless they agree to join its military and fight against Ukraine, sources say.
WORLD
Jun 10, 2024
Russia is sending young Africans to die in its war against Ukraine
Moscow has also been enlisting convicts from its prisons, one source said.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks to journalists following an election campaign event at Melksham Town F.C. on Friday. Sunak apologized after skipping events to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day in France to return early to the U.K.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 8, 2024
The moment the Tories have long dreaded is finally upon them
With Labour so far ahead in the polls, few Tories expect to stay in power after the election.
Brexit architect Nigel Farage said he'll stand as a candidate for Reform U.K. in Britain’s general election on July 4, an about-turn that threatens to destabilize the campaign for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s governing Conservatives.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 4, 2024
Nigel Farage barrels into U.K. campaign in gut punch to Conservatives
With trademark chutzpah, Farage convened what he called an "emergency” press conference to tell reporters that he would, in fact, be standing as a candidate.
U.K. prime minister Rishi Sunak speaks at a Conservative Party election campaign event in London on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
May 23, 2024
Sunak blindsided his own chancellor with early U.K. election call
Some ministers backed the election decision, but disappointment was a common sentiment among Tory members of Parliament as the vote could cost scores of them seats.
Human error caused JAL jet collision at Haneda Airport: safety board
The wreckage of a Japan Airlines plane after a collision with a Japan Coast Guard aircraft, at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on Jan. 5, three days after the crash.
Step into ukiyo-e: A digital journey through Japan’s traditional art form
"Ukiyoe Immersive Art Exhibition" includes an installation of Katsushika Hokusai’s “The Great Wave off Kanagawa.”
Toyota to donate $1 million to Trump’s inauguration ceremony
This is set to be the first time Toyota will donate to a U.S. inauguration ceremony.
South Korean temple pledges to return Buddha statue next spring
The Kanzeon Bodhisattva statue, which was taken from Kannonji Temple in Nagasaki Prefecture to South Korea by a South Korean thief ring
North Korean hacker group behind DMM Bitcoin’s cryptocurrency leak
A North Korean hacker group is believed to have planted a virus on the computer of an employee at Ginco — a company that was entrusted with the deposit and withdrawal of DMM Bitcoin’s virtual currency — through a fake job recruitment message sent via LinkedIn.
Step into ukiyo-e: A digital journey through Japan’s traditional art form
"Ukiyoe Immersive Art Exhibition" includes an installation of Katsushika Hokusai’s “The Great Wave off Kanagawa.”
High levels of PFAS found in water from 44 private suppliers across Japan
The Self-Defense Forces facilities are believed to have become sources of PFAS contamination because they used firefighting foam containing the toxic chemicals in the past.
For baseball fans, 2024 brought The Summer of Shohei Ohtani
Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani reacts to a standing ovation from fans after hitting his 50th home run of the season, against the Marlins in Miami on Sept. 19.
Trump's Pentagon policy pick pushed for Japan to spend 3% of GDP on defense
Elbridge Colby (center) speaks at the Threat and the Strategy panel during the Air Force Association Air, Space and Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, in September 2019.
A brief history of ‘osechi ryōri,' Japan's edible tradition for the new year
Japan's traditional New Year cuisine has a long history, though modern developments have led to slight changes in the way things work.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Visitors to Kyoto walk along a street near Kiyomizu Temple in April. A popular tourist spot, Kyoto has seen what locals feel to be an overwhelming amount of tourists in 2024.
Is Japan ready for 60 million tourists?
By Kathryn Wortley

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