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Abercrombie & Fitch chairman and CEO Mike Jeffries addresses stockholders during the company's annual meeting at the company's headquarters in New Albany, Ohio, on May 22, 2003.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 23, 2024

Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries charged with sex trafficking

If convicted, Jeffries faces a possible life sentence and mandatory minimum 15-year prison terms for the sex trafficking charges.
Fernando Valenzuela speaks during a pregame ceremony at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles in July 2019.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 23, 2024

Los Angeles Dodgers icon Fernando Valenzuela dead at 63

The Mexican pitcher played 17 seasons in MLB for six clubs but was best remembered for his time with the Dodgers.
A cyclist cools off at a fountain at Madrid Rio park during a heat wave in Madrid in July.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Oct 25, 2024

U.N. says world is on course to warm up to 3.1 degrees Celsius

Little progress has been made over the past few years despite repeated calls for stronger action plans.
A McDonald's Quarter Pounder hamburger. The fast-food chain has pulled the Quarter Pounder from about one-fifth of its U.S. restaurants.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 25, 2024

Fast-food chains hold the onions after McDonald's E. coli outbreak

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said late on Wednesday that fresh onions were the likely source of the E. coli outbreak.
Olympus CEO Stefan Kaufmann has resigned over an allegation he bought illegal drugs, the company announced Monday.
BUSINESS
Oct 28, 2024

Olympus CEO exits after probe into drug-buying allegation

Stefan Kaufmann has resigned all positions effective immediately, the company said in a statement.
A Nvidia chip during the Taipei Computex expo in Taipei on May 29, 2023
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 28, 2024

How a Mumbai drugmaker is helping Putin get Nvidia AI chips

An inconspicuous pharmaceutical company exported 1,111 units of Dell Technologies' most-advanced servers to Russia in April-August of this year.
Traffic in the Yeouido financial district of Seoul
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 30, 2024

Ex-Goldman banker-turned-billionaire takes on South Korea’s chaebol

While private equity’s involvement in South Korea's economy has grown over the last two decades, few have taken on the powerful, family-run conglomerates.
FamilyMart has introduced discount stickers with teary-eyed characters and the plea "Please help me" on near-expiration rice balls, sandwiches and bento boxes.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 31, 2024

FamilyMart trials sobbing discount stickers to help prevent food waste

The convenience store chain hopes the stickers will tug on customers’ heartstrings and encourage them to purchase items nearing their expiration dates.
Yuko Mohri uses “invisible forces” — gravity, weather, air, magnetic fields — to create jazzy kinetic sculptures.
CULTURE / Art
Nov 1, 2024

Yuko Mohri is a maestro of unstable elements

After a banner year at the Venice Biennale, the creator of jazzy kinetic sculptures opens her first large-scale exhibition in Japan.
In recent years, anglophone publishers have perked up to the potential of “healing fiction,” driven by a healthy appetite for East Asian literature. Japan figures prominently in this literary landscape, and a fondness for felines in the "iyashikei" (healing type) genre has proven commercially viable abroad.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 2, 2024

Cat companions and the 'healing fiction' boom

Japan's "iyashikei" (healing type) cultural products are gaining audiences, and non-Japanese readers are craving cozy feline literature in translation.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Salem, Virginia, on Saturday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 3, 2024

Climate skeptics are hatching big plans for a second Trump term

Pushed to the fringes during the Biden administration, they are now preparing to revive coal, gut the EPA and limit the tools used by climate scientists.
Nobuaki Koga, former president of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, speaks about receiving this year's Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2024

Japan recognizes 3,987 people in autumn honors

Among the recipients are Nobuaki Koga, the former president of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, and former Environment Minister Sakihito Ozawa.
Nobuaki Koga, former head of the Rengo, speaks during an interview in Tokyo last week.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 3, 2024

Former Rengo head Koga urges CDP and DPP to merge

Koga's tenure as Rengo chief between 2009 and 2015 overlapped with the 2009-2012 DPJ-led administration.
U.K. university tuition fees for domestic students are set to rise for the first time in seven years due to a financial crisis in higher education.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 4, 2024

Britons don't pay enough to go to university

U.K. university tuition fees for domestic students are set to rise for the first time in seven years due to a financial crisis in higher education.
Operators respond to telephone directory inquiries from Tokyo at a call center in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, in October 1997.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Nov 11, 2024

As NTT ends its Dial 104 service, Okinawa's call centers look elsewhere

Naha and Nago were home to Japan's biggest call center operations, receiving around 125,000 calls a day at their peak in 1999.
A parent pushes a baby stroller in Shanghai on April 2, 2023.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Nov 6, 2024

China's latest cry for more babies may fall on deaf ears

Events aimed at encouraging couples to marry and have babies were criticized for being regressive, disparaging toward women, and reinforcing gender roles.
A cruel twist of fate upends the life of Jin Ai-hsia (Sylvia Chang) in "Daughter's Daughter," director Huang Xi's meditation on maternal grief.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 6, 2024

Chinese ghosts and grief compete at Tokyo International Film Festival

A slate of evocative features at Tokyo's major film event showcased established and upcoming directors from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, China's president, shake hands during a news conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Nov. 9, 2017.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 7, 2024

Xi is better prepared for Trump even as 60% tariffs risk chaos

Xi would much prefer to avoid a tariff battle that risks proving much more devastating than the first round.
The headquarters of Bungeishunju, Shukan Bunshun's publisher, in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 8, 2024

Comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto to withdraw Bungeishunju defamation suit

The lawsuit was filed over a Shukan Bunshun article that detailed sexual assault allegations made by two women.
Chinese Finance Minister Lan Foan attends a news conference about a bill on raising ceilings on local government debt, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 9, 2024

China unveils $1.4 trillion debt swap, saving stimulus for Trump

China gave indebted local governments a 10 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) lifeline but stopped short of unleashing new stimulus.
Ryuichi Sakamoto
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Nov 9, 2024

Late Ryuichi Sakamoto's final solo piano work nominated for Grammy

"Opus" has been nominated for the award in the Best New Age, Ambient, or Chant Album category.
Former President Donald Trump with Elon Musk during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Oct. 5. The Tesla billionaire is a key figure in the president-elect's orbit. One question is whether his views on climate and clean energy will have any sway.
WORLD
Nov 9, 2024

Musk believes in global warming. Trump doesn’t. Will that change?

The Tesla billionaire is a key figure in the president-elect's orbit. One question is whether his views on climate and clean energy will have any sway.
Pedestrians walk in front of the venue for COP29 Summit in Baku on the eve of UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) on Sunday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 11, 2024

Who are the key voices at the COP29 climate summit in Baku?

The U.S., the world's second largest emitter comes to COP29 following an election that will put Donald Trump back in power in 2025.
People walk past the logotype at the venue for the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku on Monday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 11, 2024

A guide to COP29 climate vocabulary

Here's a guide to some of the terms in play at this year's COP29 discussions.
BayStars manager Daisuke Miura is tossed into the air as the team celebrates after Game 6 of the Japan Series on Nov. 3.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Nov 11, 2024

BayStars manager Daisuke Miura says team never lost faith during Japan Series run

The BayStars defeated the Hawks to win the Japan Series for the first time since 1998.
People leave the venue during the United Nations climate change conference, known as COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Monday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 12, 2024

COP29: U.S. climate envoy says work will continue despite Trump's return

"For those of us dedicated to climate action, last week's outcome in the United States is obviously bitterly disappointing," Podesta said at the summit.
This year is expected to be the hottest year on record, and the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service predicts it will also be the first year ever to breach 1.5 C of warming.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 12, 2024

Global warming is already on the cusp of 1.5 C, new research finds

While there is nothing symbolic about the number 1.5 in particular, every extra increment of heat risks worsening climate impacts like powerful storms and drought.
Shipping containers are seen at the Port of Nanjing in eastern China's Jiangsu province on Oct. 17.
BUSINESS / Markets
Nov 12, 2024

China approaches record $1 trillion trade surplus to world’s ire

The pace of widening puts China on a collision course with some of the world’s biggest economies by aggravating an imbalance in global commerce.
Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura speaks to reporters in Osaka on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 12, 2024

Osaka governor announces candidacy for Nippon Ishin leadership

Hirofumi Yoshimura said he has decided to run due to a sense that the party is now in crisis.
Japan Atomic Power Co.'s Tsuruga nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture in 2017
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2024

Tsuruga reactor formally ruled noncompliant with safety standards

The Nuclear Regulation Authority ruled the Tsuruga No. 2 reactor did not meet the safety standards after a screening process taking nearly nine years.

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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