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Georgian oligarch and founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili gives a speech Tbilisi on Saturday as Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze looks on.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 27, 2024

Ruling party set to win Georgia election amid opposition protests

If the partial results confirm the victory of the Georgian Dream party, the country could be heading for closer ties with neighboring Russia.
Kenichi and Kyoko Ino at their home in Ageo, Saitama Prefecture, earlier this month. Their daughter, Shiori Ino, was killed in October 1999 after being stalked.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 27, 2024

Parents of murdered stalking victim remain resolute 25 years later

Six months after his daughter's murder, he began speaking to audiences about the damage caused by stalking.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who is also LDP president, dissolved the Lower House only eight days after assuming office on Oct. 1
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 27, 2024

Why Ishiba’s strategy of a surprise battle backfired

His dissolution of the Lower House only eight days after assuming office and backtracking on previously touted policies left voters with little to base votes on.
Eiji Kidoguchi, fielded by the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, won a by-election for the House of Councilors on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 28, 2024

CDP candidate wins Upper House by-election

Eiji Kidoguchi, elected to the chamber for the second time, focused his campaign on political reform.
Koichi Hagiuda thanks his supporters early Monday in Tokyo after his victory in Sunday's general election became certain.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 28, 2024

60% of 'slush fund' candidates lose in Japan Lower House poll

The severe outcome reflected renewed criticism against the LDP that arose in the final stage of the election campaign.
Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during a campaign rally at the Madison Square Garden in New York on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 28, 2024

Trump headlines New York rally after vulgar, racist remarks from allies

The Republican presidential candidate hoped to use the event at the iconic Madison Square Garden to deliver his closing argument against Democratic rival Kamala Harris.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a news conference a day after the Lower House election, at the Liberal Democratic Party's headquarters in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 28, 2024

Questions swirl over Ishiba’s future after torrid first month as PM

Ishiba’s gamble on calling an early snap election has exacerbated his already precarious standing within the LDP.
Georgian opposition supporters rally to protest the results of the parliamentary elections that showed a win for the ruling Georgian Dream party, outside the parliament building in central Tbilisi on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 29, 2024

Thousands protest Georgia voting results as EU and U.S. signal worry

The U.S. has called for an investigation into the election results while the European Union was critical of it.
A woman takes photos of a gate in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Monday. Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, at a Donald Trump event on Sunday, called Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage."
WORLD / Politics
Oct 29, 2024

Trump-allied comedian blasted for calling Puerto Rico 'garbage'

Tony Hinchcliffe, who also employed racist tropes about Black Americans and Jews at a Trump event on Sunday, played down the offensive nature of his comments.
Mitsumu Ejiri, selected as the first female leader of the wintering team of a Japanese Antarctic research expedition, speaks to the media at the education ministry on Monday.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2024

Japan selects first woman to lead Antarctic research wintering team

Mitsumu Ejiri is slated to leave for Antarctica in autumn next year and return to Japan in spring 2027.
Haruna Kojima in Tokyo in April 2017 following her last show as a member of the AKB48 pop group
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 29, 2024

Man held for allegedly assaulting Japanese celebrity Haruna Kojima

The man is suspected of hugging and pushing the former member of pop group AKB48.
Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley leaves after attending a press conference hosted by the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors to release its first annual report, at the Vatican on Tuesday.
WORLD / Society
Oct 30, 2024

Church must act faster against abusive priests, papal commission says

The detailed global report from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors was the first since the body was set up by Pope Francis in 2014.
U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington on Sept. 26. There is increasing pressure in the U.S. for a negotiated settlement, but finding a viable peace solution amid Ukraine's deteriorating conditions is complex.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 30, 2024

Trump, Harris, Zelenskyy — no one’s plan will end the war

There is increasing pressure in the U.S. for a negotiated settlement, but finding a viable peace solution amid Ukraine's deteriorating conditions is complex.
An idealistic samurai (Taiga Nakano) leads a motley gang of felons on a suicide mission to defend a fortress during the 1868-69 Boshin War.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 31, 2024

‘11 Rebels’: Underdog antiheroes deliver a crowd pleaser

A knotty period in Japanese history gets a modern treatment in Kazuya Shiraishi’s spectacle-driven samurai period drama.
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.
Komeito leader Keiichi Ishii announces his resignation at a party executive meeting in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 31, 2024

Komeito leader Keiichi Ishii announces resignation after party lost seats

Komeito will unofficially appoint Ishii's successor at an executive meeting set for Nov. 7 and elect the successor at an extraordinary party convention on Nov. 9.
One of the cutest Shiba dogs at ARK, Pomelo is very true to her name.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
Nov 4, 2024

Bright and zesty Pomelo knows what she wants

Pomelo was named rather randomly when she arrived at ARK. Little did we know that the name was spot on. The description of the citrus fruit that comes up online — “bright, tangy and refreshing, with an acidity and zestiness that adds an invigorating quality” — fits this girl to a T.
A subcommittee of Japan's Fiscal System Council proposed Friday that the government provide efficient support over multiple years to the sector, which is growing in importance from the perspective of economic security.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 2, 2024

Japan panel calls for medium-term chip sector aid strategy

The subcommittee said the government provide efficient support over multiple years to the sector, which is growing in importance.
The seaside town of Shika on the Noto Peninsula, where the local power provider, Hokuriku Electric, has been fighting for a decade to restart a nuclear power plant in the town’s center.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 2, 2024

Can quake-prone Japan ever embrace nuclear energy again?

The government, its makeup in flux after the LDP lost seats this week, will soon need to make decisions that will shape Japan's future nuclear policy.
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.
Ondrej Huserka, a member of the Slovak national mountaineering team who had climbed in the Alps, Patagonia, Pamir Mountains and Himalayas, fell into a crevasse on Langtang Lirung peak in Nepal on Thursday.
WORLD
Nov 3, 2024

Top Slovak mountaineer dies in Nepal after historic ascent

Ondrej Huserka, a member of the Slovak national mountaineering team, fell into a crevasse on Thursday.
The Indonesian Navy's KRI Karel Satsuitubun-356 frigate. Jakarta and Moscow have different maritime goals, with Indonesia facing threats of smuggling and piracy while Russia is looking for willing allies.
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 3, 2024

Joint Russia sea drills signal start of Indonesian foreign policy shift

Indonesia has long maintained a neutral foreign policy and refuses to take sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict or U.S.-China rivalry
Former U.S. President Donald Trump with Elon Musk during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 5
WORLD / Politics
Nov 4, 2024

Musk’s close ties with Trump give Xi a friend with influence

Elon Musk, who has donated more than $100 million to support Donald Trump, has extensive business interests in China.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
WORLD / Politics
Nov 4, 2024

Netanyahu’s office accused of leaks to foil Gaza cease-fire

Opposition leaders and liberal commentators say it’s the latest example of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's manipulation of the public discourse around the war.
Royal Canadian Navy Commander Vice Adm. Angus Topshee inspects an honor guard with Maritime Self-Defense Force Chief of Staff Adm. Akira Saito during a meeting at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN
Nov 4, 2024

Canada Navy chief sees more chances for multiservice exercises with Japan

Ottawa has been gradually boosting its military engagement with Asian partners since unveiling its Indo-Pacific Strategy in late 2022.
Players gather for a baseball game at an unearthed and restored baseball field that had not seen a competition in 75 years, at the site of a Japanese internment camp in Manzanar, California, on Oct. 28.
JAPAN / History
Nov 4, 2024

In an internment camp, all they had was baseball. They’re back to play.

Before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, baseball was a source of connection between Japan and the United States.
The BayStars toss manager Daisuke Miura into the air after defeating the Hawks in Game 6 to win the Japan Series in Yokohama on Sunday.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / Sac Bunts
Nov 4, 2024

BayStars turn tables on Hawks after 2017 loss to capture Japan Series title

For the first time in 26 years, the BayStars are Japan Series champions.
A Palestinian child sits on top of sacks of flour at a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) aid distribution center in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday.
WORLD
Nov 5, 2024

Israel ends cooperation deal with U.N. Palestinian relief agency

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has for years called for UNRWA to be dismantled, accusing it of anti-Israeli incitement.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a news conference at the EU headquarters in Brussels on Oct. 30.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 5, 2024

First candidates grilled in parliament test for EU top team

The showdown is a rare opportunity for the European Union parliament to flex its muscles against the bloc's powerful executive.
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.

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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