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Masanobu Ogura (center left), then-minister in charge of policies related to children, receives a petition from Hiroki Komazaki (center right), founder of nonprofit organization Florence, in Tokyo on Sept. 1.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Sep 18, 2023

Debate grows in Japan over proposed background checks for teachers

The Children and Families Agency is proposing to make screening for criminal convictions mandatory for people looking to work in schools or nurseries.
The far-right Confederation Liberty and Independence party rally against measures imposed by the Polish government to stem the spread of COVID-19, in Warsaw in October 2020.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 18, 2023

The far right is advancing in a vulnerable Europe again

Disruptors in far-right political parties are taking advantage of resentment born out of COVID-19, a cost-of-living crisis and the war in Ukraine.
China with its government subsidies has become a dominant player in the EV market, causing concern in Europe and the United States.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 19, 2023

EV leadership means more than just sales figures

EV dominance matters because electric vehicles are the future.
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang holds a copy of China's constitution during a news conference at the Media Center of the National People's Congress in Beijing on March 7.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 19, 2023

China ousted foreign minister over affair in U.S., report says

Top officials in China were told in August that a Communist Party inquiry into Qin uncovered "lifestyle issues.”
Israeli soldiers clash with Palestinians during a raid into Jericho in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in March.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 20, 2023

Israel’s moment of reckoning is long overdue. The occupation must end.

For Israel's far right, judicial reform is one step toward annexing the West Bank. Ending the occupation is the only way to stop anti-democratic forces.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi converses with Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar during the Group of 20 Leaders' Summit in Bali, Indonesia, in November.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 20, 2023

The Modi-Jaishankar partnership serves India’s global interests well

Important contributors to India’s rising global profile are the communication skills, professionalism and competence of Foreign Minister Jaishankar.
Atamifuji is declared the winner following his bout against Mitakeumi at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo on Day 6 of the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament.
SUMO / Inside Sumo
Sep 21, 2023

Eyes on Atamifuji for possible record at autumn sumo tournament

The 21-year-old wrestler enters Day 12 of the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament having won 10 of his first 11 bouts.
China's Xi Jinping (left) will attend the Asian Games opening ceremony in host city Hangzhou and meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad along with other visiting leaders there, state media said Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 21, 2023

Syria's Bashar Assad to visit China seeking financial support

With his trip to the Asian Games in Hangzhou, Assad also becomes the latest in a string of leaders ostracized by the West to be feted by Beijing.
Disney said its parks, experiences and products segment has expanded at a combined annual growth rate of 6% since fiscal 2017, and generated $32.3 billion in operating income over the last 12 months.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 21, 2023

Disney to nearly double parks spending to $60 billion

Disney CEO Bob Iger and Josh D'Amaro, the company's parks chief, announced the accelerated pace of investment at a gathering of Wall Street analysts.
U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez
WORLD / Politics
Sep 23, 2023

Charged with bribery, U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez vows not to resign

U.S. prosecutors on Friday charged powerful Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife with taking bribes from three New Jersey businessmen, which could complicate Democrats' efforts to keep their slim majority in the U.S. Senate in next year's elections.
Katsuura in Chiba Prefecture — around 90 minutes by express train from Tokyo — has never seen the mercury climb above 35 degrees Celsius, a benchmark the meteorological agency uses to describe “extremely hot” weather, since records began in the city in 1906.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Sep 24, 2023

Japan’s endless summer pushes some toward cooler places

Amid a summerlong heat wave, more people are showing interest in moving to places like Katsuura that are known for their milder temperatures.
Women with portable electric fans in the Yurakucho district of Tokyo on Sept. 12. In Japan, Cool Biz became especially popular with women, who tended to wear lighter clothes and often complained about the cold temperatures needed to make business suits comfortable for their male colleagues.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 24, 2023

Where did all the dark-suited Japanese businessmen go?

Under Cool Biz, salarymen and government workers don short-sleeved shirts in the summer as offices are kept above 28 degrees Celsius to save energy.
China's push to obtain hard power and "meta-power" has seen it lean heavily on its science and technology sectors.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Sep 28, 2023

China looks to science and technology in its push for more power

Further power could give Beijing the ability to restrict other nations by structuring or restructuring systems, rules or frameworks.
Charles Wang Zhonghe, a senior banker at Nomura Holdings, has reportedly been barred from leaving China in a move connected to a long-running investigation of a top dealmaker in the country.
BUSINESS
Sep 25, 2023

Senior Nomura banker barred from leaving China, report says

The exit ban on the chair of investment banking for China at the bank's Hong Kong arm is linked to an investigation of a top dealmaker in the country.
French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris on June 12. Macron said on Sunday that France would withdraw its ambassador from Niger, followed by the French military contingent in the coming months.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 26, 2023

West losing sight of Sahel after France announces exit from Niger

France's decision to exit from Niger leaves a large hole in efforts to counter Islamist insurgents and could bolster Russian influence across West Africa.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses media on the first day of the five-day long special parliamentary session, in New Delhi on Sept.18.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 26, 2023

India's ruling party linked with anti-Muslim hate speech: report

The report found that more than half of the documented incidents this year were orchestrated by the ruling BJP and affiliates.
(From left) Takehiro Funakoshi, Chung Byung-won and Nong Rong, senior diplomats from Japan, South Korea and China, respectively, before their meeting in Seoul on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 26, 2023

Japan, China and South Korea hold talks to realize trilateral summit

The meeting aims in part to set the stage for the resumption of three-way summits among the countries' leaders, which were last held in 2019.
United Hindu Front activists protest in New Delhi on Sunday over Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegations of Indian involvement in the assassination of a Sikh independence proponent back in Canada.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2023

The politics behind Canada and India’s diplomatic tiff

Ottawa's soft-power righteousness over assassination of Sikh leader in British Columbia ruffles feathers in New Delhi
Packages to be delivered on Amazon Prime Day in New York in 2022
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 27, 2023

Why Amazon’s online marketplace drew FTC scrutiny

The FTC’s case against Amazon is an important test of whether Lina Khan’s interpretation of the law will hold up in court.
People walk on the bank of the frozen Spree river in Berlin in 2021.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 27, 2023

EU forecasts a more comfortable winter ahead without Russian gas

Before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Nord Stream 1 pipeline had accounted for 15% of Europe's gas imports in 2021.
Sofia, 18, and Andre Oliveira, 15, are part of a group of six that took action in the European court against 32 countries for allegedly failing to do their part to avert climate catastrophe.
WORLD
Sep 27, 2023

Youth vs. Europe: 'Unprecedented' climate trial to kick off at rights court

If the complaint is upheld, it could result in orders from national courts for governments to cut carbon dioxide emissions faster than currently planned.
A man walks past a television showing a news broadcast featuring a photo of U.S. soldier Travis King, who ran across the border into North Korea while part of a tour group visiting the Demilitarized Zone on South Korea's border, in Seoul, on Aug. 16.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 28, 2023

U.S. soldier in American custody after release from North Korea

U.S. Army soldier Travis King was released by Pyongyang more than two months after he sprinted across the border from the South in July.
Tupac Shakur
CULTURE / Music
Sep 30, 2023

Suspect in rapper Tupac Shakur's 1996 slaying charged with murder

The charges marked a breakthrough for a long-unsolved case that was a defining moment in the history of rap music.
The Mikomotojima Lighthouse in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture, was designed by Richard Henry Brunton, a Scotsman who was employed by the Meiji government to build lighthouses across Japan in the 19th century. In "The Japan Lights," author Iain Maloney connects his personal travels and experiences in Japan to Brunton's pursuits.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 1, 2023

'The Japan Lights' traces a journey of self-discovery in the wake of 3/11

Iain Maloney's wise book connects his travels in Japan to the pursuits of Richard Henry Brunton, a Scotsman who built lighthouses across the country.
Two Japan Sumo Association officials have been sanctioned.
SUMO
Oct 1, 2023

Sumo association officials punished over harassment claims

The association will suspend Tetsuji Miyata, its administrative affairs chief, for one month, and demote the head of the office in charge of accounting.
Yukio Edano, former leader of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, speaks in Miyazaki Prefecture last month.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 1, 2023

Yukio Edano moves to return as CDP leader

Yukio Edano, former leader of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, is believed to have begun his bid to return as party leader.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi address a joint meeting of Congress at the Capitol in Washington in June.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 1, 2023

Modi’s Hindu nationalism stokes tension in Indian diaspora

Canadian and U.S. universities have become battlegrounds for critics and defenders of Hindu nationalism, punctuated by threats of violence and even death.
A Ukrainian drone pilot, call sign Darwin, operating a first-person-view, or FPV, drone on a test flight near Kupiansk, Ukraine, on Aug. 5.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 1, 2023

Ukraine’s war of drones runs into an obstacle: China

Ukraine's latest fight is one over global electronics supply chains that run through China.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East on Sept. 13.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 1, 2023

Russia and North Korea's cartoon summit

Whether Russia is actually offering a deep and multifaceted relationship with North Korea implied by the summit remains far from clear.
Protesters calling for the protection of human rights in Hong Kong gather in Tokyo on Sunday
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 1, 2023

Protesters in Tokyo target China on founding anniversary

Groups supporting Tibet, Uyghurs, Inner Mongolia, Hong Kong and Taiwan came together to condemn China over alleged repression and genocide.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?