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Clergymen conduct a memorial service for victims at a makeshift memorial near the Crocus City Hall following a deadly attack on the concert venue outside Moscow on Friday.
WORLD
Apr 1, 2024

Russia seeks extradition of Ukraine security service head; Ukraine rejects demand

Russia is demanding that Ukraine hand over all people connected with terrorist acts committed in Russia.
A boy watches Self-Defense Forces live-fire drills in Gotemba, Shizuoka Prefecture, in 2017. Japan’s defense posture is shifting, as the government’s recent approval of new arms export regulations signals.  
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 1, 2024

Is Japan leaving pacifism behind?

How a previous generation of Japanese leaders, those who made defense budget and arms export limits a national credo, would view the current shift.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told dismayed supporters overnight that they "must not waste" the four years remaining before the next presidential vote.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 2, 2024

Opposition defeat of Erdogan redraws Turkey's political map

Opposition candidates and voters celebrated inflicting a stinging defeat on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party in municipal elections.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Indonesian President-elect Prabowo Subianto shake hands at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 2, 2024

New Indonesia leader visits China, promising close ties

Indonesian President-elect Prabowo Subianto was also due to visit Japan for two days from Tuesday.
People wait to collect drinking water on March 14 amid an ongoing water crisis in Bengaluru, which has been hit by drought.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2024

India’s most innovative cities are running out of water

Drought is crippling India's tech hubs of Bengaluru and Hyderabad, casting a dark shadow on these cities' attractiveness in the era of climate change.
Chinese Coast Guard ships fire water cannons at a Philippine boat during a supply mission near Second Thomas Shoal in the disputed South China Sea on March 5. This incident highlights the danger that such confrontations could have for sparking a wider conflict.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2024

Beware the steady creep toward crisis in the South China Sea

The Philippines is pushing back. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has adopted a policy of “assertive transparency” to show the world what China is doing.
Virginia-class attack submarine USS Hawaii passes by Diamond Head crater on Oahu in Hawaii in July 2009.
WORLD
Apr 3, 2024

U.S. attack submarines to counter China are up to two years late

Delivery dates for Virginia-class subs are an estimated 24 to 36 months past the contracted dates
Both Godzilla and Kong have a rich screen history to draw on, but “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” feels like a desperate attempt for the crossover franchise to justify both its existence and its continuation.
CULTURE / Film
Apr 4, 2024

‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’: Running out of steam

The latest in the Warner Bros. Monsterverse franchise shows signs of an anemic imagination.
Recent research suggests that within developed countries, the old positive relationship between status and fertility is re-emerging.
COMMENTARY
Apr 3, 2024

The wealthy are starting to have more babies than the poor again

After a century during which higher income and status meant fewer children, the current trend is potentially a momentous change.
Supporters of India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi wear masks of his face at an election campaign rally in the city of Meerut, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, on March 31.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 4, 2024

Modi could sweep away biggest opposition party in India election: survey

The opposition is struggling to stay united and its leaders are facing multiple corruption charges that they say are politically motivated.
Drivers in California’s Marin County rely on a single hydrogen fueling station.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Apr 6, 2024

Few stations and $200 to fill up: Life on California’s ‘hydrogen highway’

Fuel shortages and soaring prices have stalled the adoption of hydrogen cars — but proponents aren’t throwing in the towel.
Taiwan Air Force members at the Pingtung air base in Pingtung, Taiwan, on Jan. 30. Taiwan's president has promised to stick to the status quo concerning the island’s relations with China.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Apr 9, 2024

How to stop the dominoes of war from falling in East Asia

Conflicts elsewhere have implications for East Asia's powder kegs — the Taiwan Strait and the Korean Peninsula.
Of 26 fires attributed to pets activating gas or induction heating stove controls, 19 were caused by cats, the National Institute of Technology and Evaluation (NITE) said.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 8, 2024

The cat did it: Warnings issued for pet-related household fires

Most of these incidents were caused by cats and dogs — and even a baby goat — triggering gas and induction heating stoves while their owners were away.
Serbia's Novak Djokovic plays a backhand return during his win over Russian Roman Safiullin on Tuesday at the Monte Carlo Masters in Monaco.
TENNIS
Apr 10, 2024

Djokovic 'feeling great' in Monte Carlo as Alcaraz withdraws injured

The Serb needed just one hour and 10 minutes to make a return to winning ways in his first match since a shock exit at Indian Wells.
Shizuoka Gov. Heita Kawakatsu speaks to reporters in the city of Shizuoka on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 10, 2024

Shizuoka governor submits letter of resignation over controversial remarks

He initially planned to quit during an assembly session in June, but he has been under pressure to step down earlier.
Yayoi Kusama during a media preview of her exhibition at the David Zwirner gallery in New York in November 2013.
CULTURE / Art
Apr 11, 2024

Yayoi Kusama was the world’s top-selling artist last year

Sales from Kusama’s auctioned works totaled $80.9 million in 2023, moving her up from the second-highest selling artist in 2022.
U.S. President Joe Biden welcomes Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during an arrival ceremony at the White House on Wednesday. The two leaders are also meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, where defense ties between the three nations were set to be high on the agenda. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 11, 2024

Hail to the minilateral chiefs: Biden, Kishida and Marcos

This week the U.S. keeps building NATO 2.0 in the Indo-Pacific, even as it prepares to improve NATO 1.0 in July.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attend an an arrival ceremony as part of a state visit by Kishida, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Apr 11, 2024

Global ambitions? U.S. and Japan eye a boosted partnership, but the hurdles are high.

Can Japan truly be America's "global partner"? Experts are divided over the issue.
Yagana Yamani, 25, one of the 276 schoolgirls kidnapped from their dormitory by Boko Haram Islamist militants in 2014, in her home in Chibok, Nigeria
WORLD / Society
Apr 12, 2024

A decade on, tragedy of Nigeria’s Chibok Girls endures outside the spotlight

Roughly 90 Chibok girls are still missing, and a third are believed to have died in captivity.
A protester demands the United Kingdom make reparations for slavery, outside the British High Commission, in Kingston, Jamaica, in March 2022.
WORLD / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Apr 13, 2024

Slavery tribunal? Africa and Caribbean unite on reparations

A tribunal was proposed last year, and it has now gained traction within a broader slavery reparations movement.
LDP Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi and election strategy committee chair Yuko Obuchi speak to reporters in Tokyo on April 2.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 15, 2024

By-elections to determine Kishida’s fate within LDP

Losing in the Shimane No. 1 district, long an LDP stronghold, would mark a major blow to the prime minister.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses supporters during an election campaign rally in Pushkar, India, on April 6, ahead of the country's upcoming general election starting Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 15, 2024

For Modi, the Indian election is less about winning and more about by how much

For Indian leader Narendra Modi, an upcoming parliamentary election is less about winning and more about by how much.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (left) with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing in November 2022. Scholz is travelling to China again this week with the goal of shoring up economic ties with Germany's biggest trading partner.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 15, 2024

An EV trade war with China would be an own goal for carmakers

As German Chancellor Scholz visits China this week, he should push for stronger ties between Chinese and European automakers, especially in the EV market.
Coral reefs bleach in the Great Barrier Reef as scientists conduct in-water monitoring during marine heat in Moore Reef, Australia, on Feb. 27.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Apr 16, 2024

Coral reefs suffer fourth global bleaching event, NOAA says

At least 54 countries and territories have experienced mass bleaching among their reefs since February 2023.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos answers questions from the media in Manila on Monday. Marcos has said that the Philippines will invoke its defense treaty with the U.S. if a Filipino soldier dies from a foreign attack.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 16, 2024

Philippines may invoke U.S. pact if foreign attack proves deadly, says Marcos

Making the comments Monday, the Philippine president referred to his conversation with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last week at the Pentagon.
Black bears have been added to the list of "designated wildlife species for control" by the Environment Ministry.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2024

Japan adds black and brown bears to subsidized hunting list

The government is stepping up the control measures as bear attacks on humans hit a record high in fiscal 2023 that ended in March.
Workers clean argeli bark in the Ilam district of eastern Nepal. Thousands of miles away, in Japan, the bark will be used to make yen notes.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Apr 16, 2024

On Himalayan hillsides grows Japan’s cold, hard cash

One of the poorest pockets of Asia supplies a primary ingredient for the economy in one of the richest.
The salvaged Sewol ferry (back) on display at a port in Mokpo, South Jeolla Province on Tuesday, as South Korea marks the 10th anniversary of the country's worst-ever maritime disaster.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Apr 16, 2024

South Korea marks 10th anniversary of Sewol ferry disaster

Families called out the names of the deceased and threw flowers into the water, followed by a moment of silence.
Former United States Secretary of State John Kerry speaks during the ninth Our Ocean Conference at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, in Athens, Greece, on Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Apr 17, 2024

World leaders call on nations to swiftly ratify U.N. ocean treaty

Four countries have formally ratified the treaty, while 89 countries have signed it, expressing their intent to ratify it.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event at the Scranton Cultural Center in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Apr 17, 2024

Biden seeks higher tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum

The president was set to reiterate that United States Steel should remain American-owned.

Longform

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