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The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. campus in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on July 16. The incessant demand for electricity that the artificial boom is placing on chipmakers such as TSMC has made opposition to nuclear power harder to maintain.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 21, 2024

Taiwan signals openness to new nuclear tech amid surging AI power demand

Premier Cho Jung-tai's comments underscore what appears to be a shift by a government that has opposed using nuclear power for safety reasons.
ASEAN leaders pose for a group photo during the 21st ASEAN-India Summit in Vientiane on Oct. 10. U.S. President Joe Biden was notably absent once again from this years ASEAN gathering.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 21, 2024

The U.S. risks irrelevance in Asia

While the Biden administration has boosted U.S. influence in the short term, the long-term outlook for Washington is one of increasing irrelevance in Asia.
Many truant children and their guardians apparently do not consult their schools or other organizations, making it difficult for appropriate support to reach them.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 21, 2024

Japan to test community-based support systems to aid truant children

Coordinators will provide counseling to children and guardians, refer them to related organizations and help children form social connections
Displaced Palestinians ordered by the Israeli military to evacuate their neighborhoods in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
WORLD / Society
Oct 22, 2024

War has knocked Gaza back to the 1950s, UNDP says

The war has devastated the Palestinian economy and left nearly all of Gaza's population in poverty, with health and education knocked back 70 years.
Kamala Harris speaks during a CNN Town Hall in Pennsylvania on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 24, 2024

Harris calls Trump a fascist in bid to sharpen 2024 contrast

The town hall comes amid a frenzied media and campaign blitz less than two weeks before Election Day.
Located in the Otemachi neighborhood, the 'skull mound' of Taira no Masakado is said to be the source of ills and misfortunes of any who would disturb the site.
LIFE / Travel
Oct 26, 2024

Take a Halloween stroll through Tokyo’s dark history

Tokyo has no shortage of creepy places to check out this Halloween, and the good news is that many are conveniently accessible.
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket is launched for a mission to study one of Jupiter's 95 moons from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Oct. 14.
COMMENTARY
Oct 25, 2024

In space, no one can hear Musk's rivals scream

The billionaire's gravity-defying lead is a painful one for competitors. Is it too late to catch up?
A medium-range ballistic missile target is launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility, before being successfully intercepted by Standard Missile-6 missiles fired from the guided-missile destroyer USS John Paul Jones, in Kauai, Hawaii, in August 2017.
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 26, 2024

U.S. missile agency scales back Guam defense plans

A proposed multibillion-dollar missile defense system for Guam has been reduced to 16 sites on the island from the original 22.
Family members carry the body of Widman Alexander Tax Chinic on June 19 in Yepocapa, Guatemala. He drowned months earlier while trying to cross into the U.S.
WORLD / Society
Oct 26, 2024

In Guatemala, families mourn the migrants who never reached the U.S.

For the families in mourning, the U.S. election campaigning about immigration and the salvos about who is doing what to secure the border are far away.
Andrea Galeano, head of amphibian and reptile collections at the Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute, holds an Atelopus marinkellei frog captured during the Humboldt Institute's expeditions, in Villa de Leyva, Colombia, on Oct. 11.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Oct 28, 2024

Colombia's peace opened wildlife to discovery, but new violence frustrates progress

Colombia is now the world's most dangerous place for environmentalists, with 79 killed last year — the most ever in one country in a single year.
Tohoku Electric Power workers restart the Unit 2 reactor of the Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Oct 30, 2024

A lack of workers threatens Japan's nuclear power revival

The slow revival of nuclear power has dramatically worsened a skills crunch visible across the nation’s nuclear industry.
While Donald Trump is typically seen as the instigator of the slide in America’s standing and credibility as a global leader, in truth, questions about U.S. commitment and resolve have persisted long before his administration. 
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 29, 2024

This election won’t — can’t — solve U.S. foreign policy woes

While Trump is typically seen as the instigator of this slide, in truth, questions about U.S. commitment and resolve predate his administration.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shakes hands with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G7 summit in Biarritz, France, on Aug. 25, 2019
WORLD / Politics
Oct 31, 2024

Canada-India tensions could escalate cyber threats and hinder immigration

Canada's deepening dispute with India over its alleged campaign of violence against Sikhs in Canada has so far had no immediate impact on trade.
A North Korean prison policewoman stands guard at a jail on the banks of Yalu River near the Chongsong county of North Korea, opposite the Chinese border city of Dandong, in May 2011.
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 31, 2024

Dozens of North Koreans held for defecting 'vanish', says rights group

Of 113 people whose cases were examined in a study, more than 81% disappeared after being detained by the North's secret police.
Suzumi Suzuki’s “Gifted,” translated by Allison Markin Powell, centers on a hostess working in Kabukicho. Rather than focusing on the protagonist’s occupation, the story plunges the reader into her strained relationship with her dying mother.  
CULTURE / Books
Nov 3, 2024

A nuanced glimpse into the cloistered world of Kabukicho

Drawing on her own experience working in adult entertainment, Suzumi Suzuki crafts a fresh, visceral work for her debut novel, "Gifted"
The Tokyo Hydrogen Museum in the capital's Koto Ward on Thursday. The capital is targeting the “full use” of hydrogen produced using renewable energy “in all fields” by 2050 as part of its decarbonization drive.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Nov 3, 2024

Tokyo's climate goals rely on a fuel that is falling out of favor

The metropolitan government is targeting the widespread use of hydrogen, but strong competition and its physical properties are limiting its applications.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un attend a state reception in Pyongyang on June 19.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 6, 2024

Xi’s balancing act on Ukraine disrupted by Putin-Kim alliance

Beijing has portrayed itself as neutral regarding the war in Ukraine while looking to improve ties with the U.S. and its allies.
Gary Perlman has developed a kabuki adaptation of “Madame Butterfly” that he hopes will be performed 100 years from now.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Nov 7, 2024

Gary Perlman: ‘Kabuki is pure entertainment … the characters and themes are universal’

In adapting "Madame Butterfly" for kabuki, the man behind the production hopes to reframe the tale with stronger female characters.
A Ukrainian Army vehicle passes through the destroyed Russian border post at the Sudzha crossing with Ukraine in the Kursk region of Russia on Aug. 12.
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 11, 2024

50,000 Russian and North Korean troops mass ahead of attack, U.S. says

Ukrainian officials expect a counteroffensive in western Russia to begin in the coming days as North Korea’s troops train with Russian forces.
A woman clear debris from the kitchen of her house after a Russian strike in Odesa, Ukraine, on Friday.
WORLD
Nov 11, 2024

Russia and Ukraine launch biggest drone attacks of conflict

The attacks came as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump spoke with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, urging him not to escalate the conflict.
While equity investors are optimistic about tax cuts and deregulation, concerns are emerging in the bond and currency markets, which are signaling fears of higher inflation due to Donald Trump’s economic proposals.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 12, 2024

Trump’s market honeymoon won't last much longer

Stocks grab all the headlines, but bond and currency markets show where trouble might be brewing.
An expert committee convened by the health ministry has proposed introducing a limit on consecutive workdays.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 13, 2024

Japan to ban employees from working for 14 consecutive days

Employers are currently required to provide one day off a week, but loopholes mean some employees can work up to 48 days in a row.
The Democrats focused on issues like racial and gender inequality and overlooked the economic and social struggles of the working class, allowing Donald Trump to tap into this resentment.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 12, 2024

Voters to elites: Ignore the working class at your own peril

The redistribution of respect saw those who climbed the academic ladder celebrated with accolades, while those who didn’t were rendered invisible.
A University of Lisbon banner reads "From Lisbon to the World." Talent flight to wealthier countries of the north is a problem Portugal shares with several others in southern and central Europe.
WORLD / Society
Nov 15, 2024

Borderless Europe fights brain drain as talent heads north

Workers moving to other nations within the bloc exacerbates regional labor shortages and deprives poorer countries of tax revenues.
Rice fields in the town of Ozu, Kumamoto Prefecture. The water-filled paddies glistening under the sun is a symbol of a long-running effort to preserve the prefecture’s groundwater.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Nov 17, 2024

Japan's chipmaking rush pressures Kumamoto's special water supply

TSMC and others hope that support for existing projects and proper wastewater management can avoid undermining water development efforts lauded by the U.N.
The number of visitors to Mount Fuji has exploded in recent years and authorities have struggled to reduce the environmental impact.
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2024

Yamanashi officially scraps Fuji railway plan as it looks to Chinese tram

Authorities are eyeing a transport system developed by China's state-owned railway company CRRC, as well as alternatives from Japanese firms.
A member of the U.S. National Guard patrols on top of shipping containers along the Rio Grande, in Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas, on March 19.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 19, 2024

Surveillance technology could supercharge Trump's plans, rights groups say

Trump could use surveillance systems and artificial intelligence as part of his plans to carry out mass deportations and more.
A rubber-tired tram system, tentatively called the “Fuji Tram,” would run along magnetic markers, reducing environmental damage, according to the Yamanashi Prefectural Government.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 19, 2024

Why Yamanashi gave up building a light-rail system on Mount Fuji

As an alternative, the governor proposed a new plan to use a rubber-tired tram system.
Members of nonprofit organization Moyai Support Center for Independent Living give out food packs to people in need in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo in October.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 22, 2024

Nearly 30% of children from struggling families do not enjoy school

The figures came from a survey by Usnova, whose chief Koji Ogawa said, "Measures against child poverty are of utmost priority."

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