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Solar cell panels over the water surface of Sirindhorn Dam in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand. Four countries in Southeast Asia including Thailand account for more than 40% of solar module production capacity outside of China.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 21, 2024

Southeast Asia’s solar boom threatened by U.S.-China trade tension

Chinese firms that set up shop in the region over the last decade are being accused of skirting U.S. import levies on their home market.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent candidate for president, at Nassau County State Supreme Court in Mineola, New York, on Wednesday
WORLD / Politics
Aug 22, 2024

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to end his presidential campaign

Kennedy’s departure from the race would be the end of one of the more bizarre and surprisingly durable third-party presidential bids in modern American history.
British hard rock outfit Bring Me the Horizon delivered a dramatic set that featured a surprise appearance from local metal-meets-idol group Babymetal.
CULTURE / Music
Aug 23, 2024

Summer Sonic: The heat doesn’t matter when the lineup works

Where would you see a bill with Maneskin, Gen Hoshino, Christina Aguilera and Bring Me the Horizon in the prime slots? At a sold-out music festival, that’s where.
Hisako Tokuda left her office job to follow a passion for working with “bekko” (tortoiseshell) and says that even though it has been hard, she doesn’t regret it. 
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Aug 23, 2024

Hisako Tokuda: ‘I believe making things is what makes us human’

After taking an interest in tortoiseshell works, Hisako Tokuda left her office job and pursued her passion as an artisan.
A passenger ferry sails toward Sydney Harbor on Aug. 9. Employees in Australia, in most cases, cannot be punished for refusing to read or respond to contacts from their employers outside work hours, thanks to a new law.
BUSINESS
Aug 26, 2024

Australian workers gain right to ignore work emails and calls after hours

A new "right to disconnect" law is designed to curb the creep of work communications into personal lives.
Sarvam AI, often described as India’s OpenAI, introduced software for businesses that can interact with customers using spoken voice rather than just text.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 26, 2024

Cheap AI voice bots are suddenly everywhere in India

Startups may turn India into a proving ground for what could be the next frontier of generative artificial intelligence products.
Demolition works were still being carried out on July 1 in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, six months after the New Year's Day earthquake in the Noto Peninsula.
JAPAN
Aug 27, 2024

Land ministry highlights disaster reduction measures in budget request

The budget request is up 18.1% from the previous year at ¥7.03 trillion.
People stand in front of flowers and candles, laid at a makeshift memorial on a day of protests following a stabbing rampage in which several individuals were killed and injured, in Solingen, Germany, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 27, 2024

Knife attack fuels bitter German immigration debate ahead of polls

The far-right AfD party, which backs anti-immigrant policies, could make gains at key regional elections on Sunday after the attack that killed three and wounded eight.
An artificial intelligence process sign in the Samsung Electronics hall at the IFA Consumer Electronics and Home Appliances trade fair in Berlin in 2022
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 27, 2024

Is that voice real or AI? One startup says it can tell the difference

The latest wave of artificial intelligence technology can mimic the voice of almost anyone.
Mosquitoes under a microscope in a lab at Sahmyook University in Seoul on July 24
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Aug 27, 2024

As the world warms, South Korea's latest border threat is mosquitoes

Climate change, especially warmer springs and heavier rainfall, could bring more mosquito-borne diseases to North and South Korea.
Yoko Tawada's novella “Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel” is something of an intellectual love letter to a poet who greatly influenced the author.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 28, 2024

'Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel': Yoko Tawada's work defies comparison

The author's latest book to be translated into English is simply Tawadaesque: peerless, unique and incomparable.
He Xiaopeng, co-founder and chief executive officer of XPeng, speaks at a launch event for the company's Mona M03 electric vehicle in Beijing on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 28, 2024

China’s Xpeng aims to expand with mass-market cars and Europe production

The company also plans to set up a large-scale data center in Europe as efficient software collection becomes paramount for cars’ intelligent driving features.
Gabriel, a victim of a robbery after arranging a date using a gay dating app, speaks during an interview in Sao Paulo on June 28.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 28, 2024

Gay Brazilians targeted in deadly stickups, lured by dating apps

Police have also warned of "love cons" involving straight men lured into kidnappings.
Yasuyuki Kurosawa at his paddy fields in Meiwa, Gunma Prefecture. Tending the crops "is something that we cannot avoid, so we must do what we must do even if it's hot," the 77-year-old farmer said.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2024

Heatstroke risk won't stop Japan's aging farmers as temperatures soar

Agriculture accounts for about 1% of Japan's economy and almost 70% of its 1.4 million farmers are age 65 and above.
A poll shows that many Israelis support expanding the war to confront Hezbollah in Lebanon, though this poses risks of involving Iran and other international actors.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 29, 2024

Should Israel want a bigger conflict with Iran now?

A poll shows that many Israelis support expanding the war to confront Hezbollah, though this poses risks of involving Iran and other international actors.
A submerged area of Yufu, Oita Prefecture, on Thursday after Typhoon Shanshan dumped torrential rain throughout the Kyushu region.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2024

Alerts issued for Tokyo area cities as Shanshan crawls across Japan

Multiple rivers in and around Tokyo threatened to spill their banks as the storm brought torrential rain.
Since arriving in Japan, Adrian Bianco has dedicated himself to exploring the country’s many subcultures at the website sabukaru.online.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Aug 30, 2024

Adrian Bianco: ‘Leaving your comfort zone keeps you alive’

Upon relocating in Tokyo after a stint with the Vice empire in Germany, Adrian Bianco has explored Asia's underground via his website Sabukaru Online.
Yoko Ogawa’s latest novel to be translated into English, “Mina’s Matchbox,” is like a playground for the author’s interest in particular details: the subtleties of striking matches, playing volleyball and searching for typos, to name a few.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 1, 2024

Yoko Ogawa's 'Mina’s Matchbox' sparkles with quiet intimacy

The latest novel in translation from one of Japan's most eclectic writers leans toward magical realism while reveling in the minutiae of an affluent family's life.
People at bubble tea chain Mixue Bingcheng in Beijing on Thursday. Bubble tea is wildly popular in China, where people sipping through straws from large plastic cups is a common sight across the country.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 1, 2024

Penny-pinching youth transforming China's bubble tea craze

Bubble tea is wildly popular in China and a common sight on high streets and in shopping malls across the country.
Job seekers crowd a job fair at Liberation Square in Shijiazhuang, China, in 2018.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Sep 2, 2024

New unproductive forces: the Chinese youth owning their unemployment

Urban youth unemployment for the roughly 100 million Chinese aged 16-24 spiked to 17.1% in July, a figure analysts say masks millions of rural unemployed.
Maestro Seiji Ozawa (center) lays flowers at the cenotaph for atomic bomb victims at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in October 2005.
JAPAN / History / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Sep 9, 2024

Maestro Seiji Ozawa’s prayer for peace lives on in Hiroshima

His musical roots — and passion — can be traced back to the city where the first atomic bomb was detonated.
Hiromi Kawakami’s “Under the Eye of the Big Bird” takes place in a future where humans have developed genetic mutations that allow them to read minds and have powers of prescience.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 3, 2024

'Under the Eye of the Big Bird': Hiromi Kawakami's speculative future sets civilization adrift

The author reimagines sexual reproduction, family ties and societal roles in a passionless world that is neither a dystopia nor an improvement on reality.
Volkswagen Chief Executive Officer Oliver Blume speaks at a Volkswagen media event in Beijing on April 24.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 4, 2024

From peace-maker to taboo-breaker, VW boss Blume takes on the unions

Volkswagen disclosed it was not only planning to scrap a 30-year old job security plan, but weighing the closure of plants in Germany.
Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, speaks on stage in front of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the Desert Diamond Arena, in Glendale, Arizona, on Aug. 23.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 4, 2024

How Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s pact took shape

A near assassination, a couple of phone calls, and six weeks of secret talks, embarrassing missteps and private misgivings, led to the unlikely alliance.
The future of 133-year-old remains, which lay buried beneath Kitakyushu for a century, is unclear amid the city's redevelopment plans.
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2024

Global conservation body calls on Kitakyushu to halt redevelopment plans

The city said the project will proceed as planned as there are no alternative sites and further delays could threaten the provision of public services.
Michie Hino, 77, works at an elderly care home in Chiba Prefecture. She is one of a growing number of senior Japanese citizens working into their 70s.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Sep 5, 2024

Working till your 70s — Japan's prospective gift to the world

A struggling pension system and the highest inflation in decades have led more Japanese people to delay retirement until their 70s or later to make ends meet.
One problem with Japan’s investments in African infrastructure compared to other countries is that its projects often lack long-term sustainability and alignment with local development plans, limiting their impact. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 5, 2024

Is Japan’s involvement in Africa’s development outdated?

Japan's traditional aid approach is seen as too transactional and insufficiently addressing Africa's broader development challenges.
Seven & I Holdings, operator of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain, said on Friday it has rejected Alimentation Couche-Tard's takeover bid as not being in the interest of shareholders.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 6, 2024

Seven & I pans value of offer as it rejects Canadian takeover bid

Seven & I said that Alimentation Couche-Tard had “grossly” undervalued the target company and that the takeover attempt was timed “opportunistically.”
A voter casts a mail-in ballot at a drop box outside the Maricopa County Recorder and Elections Department's southeast Mesa office during the Arizona state primary election in Mesa, Arizona, on July 30.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 6, 2024

U.S. election prompts cities to get a grip on fake news

Local officials are increasingly forced to address false information about public health, migration, and urban planning strategies, which intensify during polls.
Gabon President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema waves as he arrives at Beijing Capital International Airport ahead of the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing on Sep. 1.
WORLD
Sep 7, 2024

U.S. pitches deal to thwart Chinese military base in Africa

The U.S. is assembling an economic and security assistance package for Gabon in a bid to prevent China from establishing a military footprint there.

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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