Search - 2023

 
 
A turbine spins at the South Fork Wind site, approximately 56 kilometers off the coast of Montauk, New York, in December 2023.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 27, 2025

Trump casts chill over U.S. wind energy sector

The president has signed a series of executive orders that has brought the sector into crisis.
Yoichi Takemura will oversee yen rates and foreign exchange trading for Barclays in Tokyo, bringing nearly two decades of experience in those operations.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 27, 2025

Barclays hires ex-Garda manager Yoichi Takemura as Japan bond market revives

The bank's Japanese investment banking arm posted a record ¥16.5 billion in net profit in 2023, driven by increased client orders to trade yen rate products.
Thailand's Royal Rainmaking department takes part in an atmospheric modification mission to displace pollution by spraying icy water in the air over the outskirts of Bangkok.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Jan 27, 2025

Ice in the sky: Thailand's fight against air pollution

The new technique of spraying dry ice or cold water into the air was first used last year and is still in its testing stages.
"We want to welcome many people from all over the world, so we want to make Osaka a city where people feel safe with smoke-free streets," said Hideyuki Yokoyama, mayor of the city of Osaka, in early January.
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2025

Osaka bans street smoking ahead of Expo 2025

Expo 2025 has struggled with slow ticket sales and public concern over the construction budget.
US Steel’s Mon Valley facility in Pennsylvania. Activist investor Ancora Holdings Group has nominated nine candidates for U.S. Steel’s board and is pushing for the company to abandon a takeover by Nippon Steel.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 27, 2025

Ancora seeks U.S. Steel board revamp and end to Nippon Steel deal

The Cleveland-based activist investor intends to push U.S. Steel to end litigation aimed at rescuing the Nippon Steel deal and instead collect a $565 million breakup fee.
U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, via videoconference on Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2025

The Davos ‘vibe shift’ is no surprise

This year, Davos was different. Significant slices of corporate America have been divesting themselves of the world-saving ideals that Davos is built on.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shakes hands with U.S. President Donald Trump before a meeting at Hyderabad House in New Delhi in February 2020.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 28, 2025

Trump emphasizes 'fair' trade and defense buys in call with India's Modi

In a phone call, U.S. President Donald Trump has stressed the importance of New Delhi buying more American-made security equipment.
Displaced Gazans walk toward Gaza City on Saturday after crossing the Netzarim corridor from the southern Gaza Strip.
WORLD
Jan 28, 2025

Gaza residents stream home to the north after hostage breakthrough

Gaza's Hamas authorities said Monday that more than 300,000 people had crossed into Gaza City and the north edge of the enclave.
Celtic's Kyogo Furuhashi in action with RB Leipzig's Benjamin Henrichs during a Champions League match in Glasgow, Scotland, on Nov. 5
SOCCER
Jan 28, 2025

Rennes signs Furuhashi from Celtic

The 30-year-old Japanese striker joined Celtic in 2021, netting 85 goals in 165 matches across all competitions.
Chinese startup DeepSeek launched a free AI assistant last week that it says uses less data at a fraction of the cost of incumbent services.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 28, 2025

DeepSeek sparks global AI selloff, with Nvidia losing around $593 billion

Chinese startup DeepSeek launched a free AI assistant that it says uses less data at a fraction of the cost of incumbent services.
H.I.S. CEO Motoshi Yada holds a news conference on Monday in Tokyo's Minato Ward.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 28, 2025

H.I.S. says it received COVID aid inappropriately

H.I.S. will return about ¥6.4 billion in subsidies, which were provided by the government to pandemic-hit companies to help them pay leave allowances to their workers.
"The public and private sectors need to work as one to realize (Keidanren's) targets," Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said at a joint meeting of the public and private sectors to expand domestic investment, held on Monday at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 28, 2025

Keidanren sets ¥200 trillion capital spending target for fiscal 2040

The target was unveiled at a joint meeting of the public and private sectors to expand domestic investment.
Police officers from the Metropolitan Police Department conduct a search at the premises of Natural, one of Japan's biggest sex worker scout groups, on Monday in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 28, 2025

Tokyo police arrest members of major sex worker scout group

The group had up to about 1,500 scouts nationwide, and its annual revenue is believed to have reached about ¥5 billion.
Yuji "Gump" Suzuki, the Japanese runner and social media sensation, runs with supporters while pushing his rickshaw as he nears his goal in Cape Town, South Africa, on Sunday.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2025

Japanese man ends his 6,000 kilometer Africa rickshaw trek in Cape Town

His latest quest started in the Kenyan capital in July and took him through Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana and Namibia.
Berlin's landmark Brandenburg Gate is illuminated with the inscription "WeRemember" on Saturday as part of the remembrance ceremonies for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.
WORLD / Society
Jan 28, 2025

Auschwitz survivors warn of rising antisemitism at 80th anniversary of camp's liberation

More than 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, perished in gas chambers or from starvation, cold and disease at Auschwitz.
A worker drives past residential buildings under construction by Chinese real estate developer Vanke in Hangzhou, in eastern China's Zhejiang province. The indebted Chinese property developer warned on Monday that it incurred major losses in 2024, a filing at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange showed.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 28, 2025

Rare China support shows Vanke may be too big to fail

The unusual support shows that Vanke holds a special place within China’s moribund property sector.
A woman walks past a mural adorning a family clinic in Nairobi in 2017.
WORLD / Society
Jan 28, 2025

Trump 2.0 instills fear in African abortion activists

Trump has reinstated an anti-abortion pact that cuts off U.S. funds to foreign charities that provide or promote abortions.
Members of the media raise their hands for questions as outgoing Fuji TV President Koichi Minato attends a news conference in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Explainer
Jan 28, 2025

What we learned at Fuji TV's marathon Nakai scandal news conference

Longtime executive of Fuji TV Hisashi Hieda, who has been dubbed the “emperor” of the broadcaster, was not present at the news conference and did not resign.
Members of the media crowd the venue before the start of a news conference at Fuji TV's headquarters in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Society / First person
Jan 28, 2025

Yelling and random tangents: What it was like covering Fuji TV's 10-hour presser

The once-in-a-lifetime news conference showed what would happen when the Japanese press was given total freedom with no time limits.
The preserved Atomic Bomb Dome is seen behind the Cenotaph for the victims of the atomic bombing at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park last October.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 28, 2025

Hiroshima and Nagasaki mayors invite Trump to visit on 80th anniversary of atomic bombing

The mayors emphasized Washington’s key role in reining in the proliferation of nuclear weapons as “tensions continue to worsen” across the globe.
Mayor Masanori Yamamoto of Kibichuo, Okayama Prefecture, announces the results of PFAS blood concentration tests on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2025

PFAS blood test results in Okayama Prefecture town exceed U.S. standards

The Kibichuo town government announced the results of its first blood tests after PFAS were detected at a water purification plant in the town.
SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son has said the firm plans to invest $100 billion in the U.S. over the next four years.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 29, 2025

SoftBank in talks to lead $500 million AI robotics funding

The startup Skild is developing software that will allow robots to perform increasingly complicated tasks.
Protestors rally to oppose U.S. President Donald Trump's order to pause all federal grants and loans, in Washington on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 29, 2025

Trump’s spending halt spawns day of chaos before getting blocked

Trump's order seemed to touch on a wide swath of programs running the gamut from anti-poverty initiatives to medical research.
Smoke from the Hughes fire billows outside of Castaic, California, on Jan. 22
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 29, 2025

Climate change made Los Angeles 35% more primed to burn, scientists say

Greenhouse gas pollution raised temperatures, made drought more likely and extended the duration of fire season.
Underneath the praise, Washington, Wall Street and Silicon Valley are aligned in their view of DeepSeek as a key competitor to Meta’s Llama.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 29, 2025

DeepSeek tests Meta’s ambition for U.S. open-source AI dominance

Mark Zuckerberg has long championed Meta’s open-source approach to artificial intelligence software as key to ensuring U.S. dominance over China in AI.
Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy in action as he tees off on the eighth during the final round of the Dubai Desert Classic on Jan. 19.
MORE SPORTS
Jan 29, 2025

Rory McIlroy continues 'pivotal' year at Pebble Beach

Not only does McIlroy have his first TGL experience under his belt, he also began his season with a T4 finish at the Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour.
China's DeepSeek artificial intelligence app. The app’s success has shown China’s potential to surprise with even bigger breakthroughs.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 29, 2025

DeepSeek shows China playbook for even bigger U.S. shock on chips

The question now is how exactly the Hangzhou-founded company pulled it off — and what it means for American efforts to stay ahead of China in the tech race.
Shiori Ito (right) speaks outside the Tokyo District Court in December 2019 after hearing the ruling on a damages lawsuit by her, accusing a former TV reporter of rape.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 29, 2025

Japan #MeToo survivor says media are failing in wake of Fuji TV scandal

Despite several high-profile cases, Japan has never seen an outpouring of #MeToo allegations.
Fuji TV adviser Hisashi Hieda in 2005
JAPAN / Media
Jan 29, 2025

Who are the key figures involved in the growing Fuji TV scandal?

Koichi Minato, who resigned as president of Fuji TV on Monday, will be one focus of a third-party probe, given his executive role when the incident occurred.
The Deepseek and Alibaba app icons. Alibaba released a new version of its Qwen 2.5 artificial intelligence model on Wednesday, stating it surpasses the highly acclaimed DeepSeek-V3.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 30, 2025

Alibaba releases AI model it says surpasses DeepSeek-V3

The unusual timing of the release points to the pressure Chinese AI startup DeepSeek's meteoric rise in the past three weeks has placed on domestic competition.

Longform

Eme-Ima Kitchen is one of over 10,000 kodomo shokudō in Japan. A term first used in 2012 to describe makeshift eateries offering free or cheap meals to disadvantaged kids, it now refers to a diverse range of individuals, groups and organizations working to provide not only food but a sense of belonging to both children and adults.
Japan’s ‘children’s cafeterias’ are booming — but is that a good thing?