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For all the scrutiny at home, many of China’s richest new grads are turning their backs on their lives abroad. Sometimes, they’re responding to the lure of China’s potential. Other times, it’s the alienation they feel overseas.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 22, 2023

China’s wealthy youth flock home as tensions with U.S. rise

For all the scrutiny at home, many of China’s richest new grads are turning their backs on their lives abroad.
Technicians open NASA's OSIRIS-REx capsule in a clean room at a U.S. military facility in Utah on Sunday.
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 25, 2023

Touchdown: Highly anticipated asteroid sample arrives on Earth

It is only the third asteroid sample, and by far the biggest, ever returned to Earth for analysis, following two missions by Japan's space agency.
In Australia, past El Nino events have led to destructive fire seasons, including the catastrophic Black Summer of 2019-2020.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2023

Australia hoped to dodge wildfires. El Nino has other plans.

The 1983, 2003, 2007, 2010 and 2015 fire seasons, some of the most damaging in the country’s history, all occurred during El Nino.
Vehicles carrying refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh, a region inhabited by ethnic Armenians, pack the road leading towards the Armenian border on Sept. 25.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 3, 2023

Armenian exodus marks a new front in East-West power tussle

Azerbaijan has so far avoided sanctions despite calls before the assault by the U.S. and the EU not to undermine years of mediation efforts.
An office lobby floor inside the new high-rise building Station Tower at Toranomon Hills
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 4, 2023

Toranomon area continues to rise as Tokyo’s business hub

The massive Toranomon Hills project has helped the area become one of Tokyo's major business centers.
South Korean tourists shield themselves from the sun in Ronda, Spain, on Aug. 9. Much of the world sweltered through unseasonably warm weather in September, in a year expected to be the hottest in human history.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Oct 5, 2023

September hottest on record by 'extraordinary' margin: EU monitor

The average surface air temperature for the month was around 1.75 C hotter than the September average in the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period.
Bianca Vara, a Democrat and grandmother of five, at the flea market where she runs a stall in Chamblee, Georgia, on Thursday. American voters’ broad discontent with the disarray in Washington transcends political parties, race, age and geography. "Disgust isn’t a strong enough word,” said Vara.
WORLD
Oct 7, 2023

Americans are too turned off by Washington to even complain

Griping about politics is a time-honored American pastime — but lately, the country’s political mood has plunged to some of the worst levels on record.
The classic Japanese ghost story often features a vengeful female ghost.
PODCAST / deep dive
Oct 12, 2023

[Rebroadcast] Japan’s got ghosts

This week we discuss a few horror movies before “Uncanny Japan” podcast host Thersa Matsuura tells a classic Japanese ghost story.
New Zealand's National Party leader Christopher Luxon addresses his supporters in Auckland after winning the general election on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 15, 2023

New Zealand elects its most conservative government in decades

Former Air New Zealand CEO Christopher Luxon's center-right National Party will lead a coalition with a smaller libertarian party.
Troy Sutton, a virologist at Pennsylvania State University, on July 25, 2023. Sutton says that health officials referred to the public controversy over the lab leak theory in advising him to pursue different experiments.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 18, 2023

Lab leak fight casts chill over virology research

While some believe practices such as gain-of-function research could fend off the next pandemic, others worry that they are more likely to start one.
U.S. Republican Rep. Jim Jordan speaks during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 21, 2023

New field of would-be U.S. House speakers takes shape

The GOP has dispensed with Jim Jordan as their nominee for the U.S. speakership and now several more representatives are preparing to enter the fray.
An assembly engineer works on a lithography system at chipmaker ASML in Veldhoven, Netherlands, on June 16.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
Nov 2, 2023

How can the EU strengthen its strategic autonomy regarding chips?

The bloc has felt a sense of crisis over the fact that its growth strategy has been largely dependent on third countries.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, exits federal court in Washington on Oct. 30.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 7, 2023

Google's app store strategy bad for everyone, Epic says in court

Moves by Alphabet to thwart competition hurt developers and raise prices for consumers, the games firm said in opening statements.
Voting signs outside a polling location in the city of Toledo in Ohio on Tuesday
WORLD / Politics
Nov 8, 2023

Abortion rights advocates and Democrats score wins in U.S. votes

A string of electoral victories including in conservative Ohio and Kentucky show reproductive rights remain a potent issue.
U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin during a committee hearing in Washington on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 10, 2023

Democratic U.S. Senator Joe Manchin will not seek re-election in 2024

The move by the 76-year-old lawmaker will make it very difficult for Democrats to defend the West Virginia seat.
Armando Aroca, environmentalist, former guerrilla and current nursery manager of the Common Community Multi Active Cooperative (COMUCCOM) farm, points to a mural with the image of murdered environmentalist Jorge Santofimio in Puerto Guzman, Colombia, on June 27.
ENVIRONMENT
Nov 16, 2023

How the murders of activists hurt Colombian ecological preservation

Conservationists are targeted as their work poses a threat to illegal activities
U.S. President Joe Biden during a meeting in the Oval Office on Thursday
WORLD / Politics
Dec 3, 2023

Muslim Americans face 'Abandon Biden' dilemma — then who?

Opposition from Muslim and Arab American communities could complicate the president's path to an Electoral College victory.
The Euro trophy in front of the drawn groups for the 2024 edition of the tournament, in Hamburg, Germany, on Saturday
SOCCER
Dec 3, 2023

Germany to take on Scotland in Euro 2024 opener as draw set

The Germans, three-time winners, will kick off the one-month tournament in Munich on June 14, with the final on July 14 at Berlin's Olympic stadium.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during an event in Pyongyang. Smuggling efforts could be directly linked to the North's military ambitions, analysts have said.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 8, 2023

North Korean smugglers disguised under Pacific island flags

With strict sanctions limiting Pyongyang's ability to import fuel, smugglers have adopted increasingly creative methods.
Ohkawara Kakohki President Masaaki Okawara speaks to reporters in front of the Tokyo District Court on Wednesday following a ruling ordering the government to pay damages.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 27, 2023

Tokyo court rules executives of spray dryer firm were wrongly indicted

The case involving Ohkawara Kakohki, a Yokohama-based manufacturer, has once again highlighted problems in the nation’s criminal justice system.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump
WORLD / Politics
Dec 29, 2023

Maine elections official disqualifies Trump from presidential primary ballot

Maine became the second state to bar the former U.S. president for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
Huawei caused a stir in the U.S. and China last August when it released a smartphone with a 7nm processor made by Shanghai-based SMIC.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 5, 2024

Huawei teardown shows 5nm laptop chip made in Taiwan, not China

The firm caused a stir last August when it released a smartphone with a processor that was only a few years behind the cutting edge.
A Taiwan Air Force Mirage 2000-5 aircraft prepares to land in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on Jan. 2. In the event of a conflict with China, Taiwan would face a military that rivals that of the U.S.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 9, 2024

Xi, Biden and the $10 trillion cost of war over Taiwan

The price tag — equivalent to about 10% of global GDP — dwarfs the blow from the war in Ukraine, COVID-19 pandemic and 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis.
The yen's exchange rate against the dollar on Wednesday. The yen declined from ¥103 against the dollar in 2020 to as little as ¥151 in late 2023.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 11, 2024

Is a weak yen good for Japan’s economy?

The yen's fast depreciation is boosting overseas investment and sectors like tourism, but could also trigger inflation. In response, the BOJ should raise interest rates.
Business people, diplomats and academics are watching developments in Hong Kong closely, saying the prospect of new laws targeting espionage, state secrets and foreign influence could have a deep impact on the global financial hub.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 30, 2024

Hong Kong leaders start push to tighten national security laws

New legislation could sharpen the 2020 regulations imposed by Beijing on the territory in response to months of pro-democracy protests.
Pita Limjaroenrat at the Thai Parliament complex in Bangkok on Wednesday
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 31, 2024

Thai court rules against opposition's view of royal insults law

The nine-member court said in a unanimous ruling that Move Forward’s push for changes amounted to an attempt to overthrow the constitutional monarchy
Shigeyuki Kin
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 1, 2024

Wanted gang member Shigeyuki Kin held by Nagano police

The suspect in a 2020 attempted murder was alone at the time of the arrest and did not resist, admitting to the police that he was indeed the fugitive.
Many young people who feel neglected at home flock to the Toyoko area to find a community where they can fit in.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Feb 5, 2024

Toyoko Kids: The lonely street children of Tokyo

Bound together by shared neglect and marginalization, the group have formed a distinct, social media-linked youth subculture on the streets of Shinjuku.
Chef Natsuki Suzuki opened Naz in the fall of 2020 on the rural fringe of the resort town of Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture.
LIFE / Food & Drink / Destination Restaurants
Feb 11, 2024

Naz: Bounty from landlocked Nagano's rivers and pastures

Dining at Naz is like sitting down at a bespoke dinner club for a meal catered exclusively for you. And what a meal it is.
Alexei Navalny speaks with journalists after he was released from a detention center in Moscow in August 2019
WORLD
Feb 16, 2024

Alexei Navalny, corruption fighter who defied Putin, dies at 47

Navalny fell sick during a walk and medical staff were unable to revive him, prison authorities said Friday.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat