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The logo of semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices is seen on a graphics processing unit chip in this illustration
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 5, 2024

AMD hits U.S. roadblock in selling AI chip tailored for China

AMD had hoped to gain a green light from the Commerce Department to sell the AI processor to Chinese customers.
A LNG tanker at the Negishi LNG Terminal, which is jointly operated by Tokyo Gas and JERA, in Yokohama
BUSINESS
Mar 11, 2024

Japan boosts reliance on allies for long-term LNG supplies

LNG accounts for about a third of Japan's power generation and it is the world's second-largest importer behind China.
There are growing calls within the LDP to query former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori (left) over his possible involvement in the scandal. While Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has said that the party would discuss hearing directly from those involved, he did not offer specific examples of who he had in mind.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 15, 2024

Shimomura to testify amid growing calls to query Mori over funds scandal

The former LDP policy chief's testimony before an ethics committee could pressure the ex-PM to disclose what he knows about the kickback scheme.
Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Hakubun Shimomura attends a Lower House ethics committee meeting in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 18, 2024

Shimomura testimony fails to shed light on LDP funds scandal

Former Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Hakubun Shimomura had hinted that he would finally provide some answers to key questions.
Protesters take part in a small rally led by Women's March Tucson after Arizona's Supreme Court revived a law dating to 1864 that bans abortion in virtually all instances, in Tucson, Arizona, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 10, 2024

Arizona's top court revives 19th century abortion ban

States were given the go-ahead to adopt such bans after the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court overturned its landmark Roe v. Wade ruling.
Defense Minister Minoru Kihara (third from left) attends a ceremony last month for the Ground Self-Defense Force's systems communications and cyber school.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Apr 26, 2024

The glitch in Japan's plans to bolster U.S. defense

Japan has suffered high-profile hacks in recent years that have elevated concerns over whether Tokyo can fully support its security partners.
An analysis of the Bank of Japan's accounts suggests an intervention of about ¥5.5 trillion took place on Monday to prop up the yen.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 1, 2024

BOJ accounts suggest Japan intervened to support yen

The Bank of Japan said its current account will probably fall ¥7.56 trillion — much bigger than the drop of about ¥2.1 trillion estimated.
Manahel al-Otaibi wears western clothes in the Saudi capital Riyadh in September 2019. Human rights groups have denounced an 11-year prison term recently handed down by a counterterrorism court to the Saudi fitness instructor and women's rights activist.
WORLD / Politics
May 2, 2024

Saudi Arabia cracks down on online speech, jailing critics for decades

Fitness influencer Manahel al-Otaibi was recently sentenced to 11 years in prison after criticizing male guardianship laws and women's dress requirements.
Over the past two years, 2.4 million people arrived in Canada, more than the population of the U.S. state of New Mexico. Yet Canada barely added enough housing that would cater to just the residents of the New Mexico capital of Albuquerque.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 6, 2024

Global housing shortages are crushing immigration-fueled growth

In developed economies such as Canada, Australia and the U.K., life is getting tougher for both locals and immigrants alike.
Spectators gather on South Padre Island to watch the planned launch of SpaceX's next-generation Starship spacecraft from the company's Boca Chica launchpad, near Brownsville, Texas, on March 14.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 14, 2024

Musk's SpaceX is quick to build in Texas, slow to pay its bills

Unpaid bills and finger-pointing among contractors have led many construction-industry businesses to file liens against SpaceX properties.
Penny Sackett, a former director of the Australian National University’s Mount Stromlo Observatory, in the remains of the observatory, which was destroyed by a wildfire in 2003, just outside Canberra on May 6.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 14, 2024

Alarmed by climate change, astronomers train their sights on Earth

Seeing how climate change has impacted the earth, many astronomers have left science to become full-time activists.
Shoma Uno thanks his fans after a news conference explaining his decision to retire, on Tuesday in Tokyo.
MORE SPORTS / Figure skating
May 14, 2024

Figure skating champion Shoma Uno says he has 'no regrets' in retirement

The 26-year-old two-time world champion thanked his fans for their support and said that he was excited to move on to the next phase of his career.
Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow on Thursday
WORLD / Politics
May 25, 2024

Putin wants Ukraine cease-fire on current front lines, sources say

The Russian president is also prepared to fight on if Kyiv and the West do not respond, according to sources.
A member of a Ukrainian artillery crew stores munitions at a firing position near the town of Vovchansk, in the northern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, on May 19. Two classified Ukrainian reports show that some U.S. precision-guided weapons are vulnerable to electronic warfare, an element in Ukraine's recent battlefield setbacks.
WORLD
May 26, 2024

Some U.S. weapons stymied by Russian jamming in Ukraine

Two classified Ukrainian reports show that some U.S. precision-guided weapons are vulnerable to electronic warfare, an element in Ukraine’s recent battlefield setbacks.
A 2-megawatt solar farm in the city of Fukushima. “Megasolar” refers to farms with a minimum output of 1 MW of electricity — enough to power around 300 homes for a year.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
May 26, 2024

‘Megasolar’ is a dirty word in Japan. Where do solar projects go from here?

Vocal campaigns are pushing back against projects as dangerous eyesores, but "dual-use" approaches and community engagement may offer a solution.
Kanoa Igarashi, who earned a silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, is excited to get another shot at gold at this year’s Summer Games.
MORE SPORTS / Surfing
May 31, 2024

Kanoa Igarashi ready to challenge Teahupo'o in search of gold at Paris Olympics

Igarashi earned the silver medal in the inaugural Olympic surfing competition at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Al Shifa Hospital after Israeli forces withdrew from the hospital and the area around it following a two-week operation, in Gaza City on April 2
WORLD
Jun 5, 2024

Gaza's doctors were building a health care system. Then came war.

Before the war, specialist doctors were part of a strategic effort by Hamas to build a self-sufficient health care system for Gaza.
London's financial district in 2022. The U.K. was expected to lose a net 3,200 high-net-worth individuals last year, the most in Europe and double 2022’s level, citizenship advisory firm Henley & Partners estimated.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 6, 2024

Britain’s rich race to protect their wealth from election hit

Britain’s legal and political stability has been shaken by Brexit and the chop and change of five different Conservative prime ministers since 2016.
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaks following the announcement of the partial results of the European Parliament elections, in Rome on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 10, 2024

Italy's PM Meloni comes out on top in EU vote, strengthening her hand

With 96% of the ballots counted, Meloni's Brothers of Italy won 28.8% of the vote, more than four times what it took in the last EU election in 2019.
The Grand Kremlin palace in Moscow
WORLD / Politics
Jun 12, 2024

How a Russian operative worked to shape Moscow’s story in Europe

The operative has contacted at least six European journalists and at times appears to have offered to pay for planted news articles.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris greets her audience before discussing reproductive rights on the second anniversary of Roe v. Wade being overturned, in Phoenix on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 25, 2024

Harris and the Democrats aim at Trump on abortion ruling anniversary

Since the 2022 ruling, more than 20 Republican-led states in the U.S. have imposed abortion restrictions.
U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich, who has been accused of espionage, looks out from inside a glass defendants' cage prior to a hearing in Yekaterinburg's Sverdlovsk Regional Court on Wednesday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 27, 2024

Russia opens secret trial of U.S. reporter accused of espionage

The Wall Street Journal's Evan Gershkovich, 32, faces up to 20 years in prison on an espionage charge that he, his employer and the U.S. State Department vehemently deny.
Supporters listen as President Joe Biden speaks at a reelection campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday, one day after his debate with former President Donald Trump.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 2, 2024

The road to a crisis: How Democrats let Biden glide to renomination

Many fear U.S. President Joe Biden will lose to former President Donald Trump and drag Democrats to devastating defeats in congressional and state elections.
Pedestrians in the Wangfujing shopping area in Beijing on July 11, 2024. China's economic growth in the second quarter was lower than forecast, adding pressure on Chinese leaders to lift confidence at the Chinese Communist Party's third plenum this week.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 15, 2024

China’s economic growth comes in worse than expected

Underwhelming data for the second quarter puts pressure on Chinese leader Xi Jinping to lift confidence at this week's twice-a-decade policy meeting.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks aboard the USS Howard destroyer at the Yokosuka Naval Base, in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, in September 2022.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 23, 2024

Continuity in Asia: Harris' policies likely to assuage concerns in Japan

Tokyo is already quite familiar with the approach of the U.S. vice president, who will likely continue her predecessor's foreign policy if she is elected president.
The entrance gate of the SEG electronics market in Shenzhen, China, on June 27.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 5, 2024

With smugglers and front companies, China is skirting U.S. AI bans

The U.S. worries advanced semiconductors could help China develop superior weaponry, launch cyberattacks and make faster decisions on the battlefield.
People rest outside Matadero cultural center during the fourth heatwave of the summer in Madrid on Sunday.
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 12, 2024

Experts are fighting over whether to give heat waves names

The arguments against naming heat waves aren’t so removed from the arguments in favor: Heat is complicated, and its threat level tricky to generalize.
Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Harrah's Cherokee Center in Asheville, North Carolina, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Aug 17, 2024

How Trump’s intimidation tactics have reshaped the Republican Party

Those seen as disloyal to Trump and his Make America Great Again agenda have been the target of threats by his most ardent supporters.
A television station broadcasts U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Chair Jerome Powell speaking in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Aug 24, 2024

Powell's Fed not shy about election-year cuts and ready to defend job market

The Fed chief sent a strong signal that the central bank will start cutting interest rates in mid-September, roughly seven weeks before the Nov. 5 election.
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.

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