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Taiwan's Vice President Lai Ching-te speaks during a luncheon in New York City in this handout picture released Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 14, 2023

Taiwan VP vows to ‘never back down’ amid totalitarian threats

Lai Ching-te is not known to have met any top U.S. officials during his stopover in New York City.
Jimmy Lai arrives for a court appearance in Hong Kong in February 2021.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 14, 2023

H.K. democracy activists win narrow legal victory in protest case

The Court of Appeal said there was no evidence the defendants played any role in planning or organizing the unauthorized march in 2019.
If you have a specific birth plan in mind, like giving birth at home, it's important to make sure the clinic you use offers that option.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Aug 14, 2023

Giving birth in Japan? Here’s what you need to know.

Giving birth can be overwhelming — even more so if you don’t understand the local language or know the steps you need to take.
M-Sys President Masao Takikawa stands in front of a Yakiton Daikoku izakaya pub that opened in Sendai's Kokubuncho entertainment district.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Aug 15, 2023

Sendai pub chain boosts performance with better work conditions

Sendai-based M-Sys has implemented a policy of offering monthly pay of ¥300,000 to new hires.
Junior high school students participate in a community-based club activity without any instructors in Kakegawa, Shizuoka Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society / Regional voices: Chubu
Aug 15, 2023

Facing long hours, teacher pushes for data-driven reforms

Given the long working hours for Japan's schoolteachers, one educator from Gifu Prefecture is leading initiatives for teachers’ work-style reforms.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis speaks to the media after a Grand Jury brought back indictments against former president Donald Trump and his allies in their attempt to overturn the state's 2020 election results, in Atlanta on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 15, 2023

Trump and advisers charged in Georgia for 2020 election scheme

The indictment cites a number of crimes that Trump or his associates allegedly committed from before the Nov. 3, 2020, election until September 2022.
Nadeshiko Japan reached the knockout stage at a fourth consecutive FIFA Women's World Cup before being eliminated in the quarterfinals on Friday by Sweden.
SOCCER / Women's World cup / From the Spot
Aug 15, 2023

Bold steps needed from JFA, WE League to maintain momentum after WWC

After Nadeshiko Japan's inspiring quarterfinal run in New Zealand, the country's soccer bodies must avoid the missteps of the post-2011 boom and bust.
Spain's players celebrate defender Olga Carmona's game-winning goal against Sweden during their 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup semifinal in Auckland on Tuesday.
SOCCER / Women's World cup
Aug 16, 2023

'Work of art' sends Spain into first Women's World Cup final

Spain's place in Sunday's final in Sydney is a remarkable journey for a nation that had never previously gone beyond the last 16 at a Women's World Cup.
Charles McGonigal, formerly the FBI's top counterintelligence official in New York, arrives with his attorney, Seth DuCharme (left), at the Federal District Court in New York on Tuesday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 16, 2023

Ex-FBI official pleads guilty to violations for Russian oligarch

Charles McGonigal had overseen the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division in New York, where he led efforts to root out foreign spies.
Workers at a garment factory in the Hlaing Tar Yar industry zone in Yangon, Myanmar, in 2010. Fast fashion retailer H&M says it is following up on 20 alleged instances of labor abuse at Myanmar garment factories.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 16, 2023

H&M probes Myanmar factory abuses as pressure intensifies

The move comes after top rival Zara owner Inditex said it is phasing out purchases from the Southeast Asian country.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with the Chinese Communist Party's foreign policy chief, Wang Yi, on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Jakarta on July 13.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 16, 2023

Southeast Asia uses great power competition to dodge failures

The U.S. needs to rethink its approach toward Southeast Asia, counter China's narrative, and engage in effective public diplomacy.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump has been charged with conspiring to obstruct the results of the 2020 election.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 17, 2023

Musk accused of favoring Trump in battle with DOJ over tweets

The special counsel’s office argued that Twitter was asking for "special" treatment for Trump that wouldn’t be available to other users.
Containers in a shipping terminal at the Honmoku pier in Yokohama in June
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 17, 2023

Japan logs first export decline in over two years

The value of exports fell in July from a year earlier, retreating for the first time since February 2021.
MORE SPORTS
Aug 17, 2023

Superbike rider Haruki Noguchi dies after crash in Indonesia

Noguchi broke into the motorcycling scene with his 2021 win in the Superstock 600 category at the All Japan Road Racing Championships.
Fake oranges filled with captagon pills, intercepted by the customs and the anti-drug brigade at Beirut port, Lebanon, in 2021.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 18, 2023

‘Poor man’s cocaine’ costing $3 a pill threatens to proliferate

Selling for around $3 to $25 per tablet, experts say captagon is primarily produced and trafficked by groups tied to Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi announces support measures to increase the number of female lawmakers at the party's headquarters in Tokyo on Aug. 1.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 18, 2023

Japanese political parties boosting support for female candidates

The parties hope to win the support of independent voters by demonstrating their commitment to increasing the number of female lawmakers.
Members of the Ecuadorean Armed Forces stand guard outside a penitentiary in Guayaquil, Ecuador, during a joint operation between the police and the military last Saturday. A state of emergency was declared in the country on Aug. 10, following the assassination of popular presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 18, 2023

Ecuador to vote in election dominated by 'horror' of violence

The country's murder rate has soared above that of Mexico or Colombia, and several politicians have been assassinated in the run-up to the vote
Vehicles leave Yellowknife on the only highway in or out of the city after a state of emergency was declared due to the proximity of a wildfire, in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, on Wednesday.
WORLD
Aug 18, 2023

Canada crews battle wildfires as all Yellowknife residents evacuate

Officials say the fire is now 15 kilometers northwest of the city and could reach the outskirts over the weekend if there is no rain.
Booking a flight with a layover in the city that’s the real destination for the traveler can net big bargains, but airlines prohibit the practice.
LIFE
Aug 19, 2023

'Skiplagging' flights could land you big deals or a lifetime ban

Known as "skiplagging," this travel hack sees consumers buy a ticket for a connecting flight with a layover in the city that’s the real destination.
Protesters shout slogans and raise banners reading "Don't throw polluted water into the sea! Keep your promises" during a rally against Japan's plan to discharge treated radioactive water from the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima plant into the ocean, in front of the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Aug 18, 2023

Fukushima water release poses test for Japan-South Korea unity

The dumping of radioactive water may happen days after a summit in which the U.S. wants Japan and South Korea to lock in friendly ties.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off with a payload of 21 Starlink satellites from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Feb. 27.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 18, 2023

Starlink lifts off in Asia as satellite internet race heats up

Elon Musk's company has carved out a niche and an opportunity through the region's natural disasters and the vast sweep of its archipelagoes and islands.
In 1990, there were five times as many men who had alcohol use disorder than women — now it’s two times, according to the director of a research institute on alcoholism and alcohol abuse.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2023

Women are drinking more alcohol and it’s killing them

Analysis of data from the CDC found that alcohol-related deaths among women increased by nearly 15% per year between 2018 and 2020.
Relatives and friends touch the coffin of a man who was killed fighting Russian troops in Ukraine's Donetsk region, during a funeral ceremony in Kyiv on Thursday.
WORLD
Aug 19, 2023

Troop deaths and injuries in Ukraine war near 500,000

Ukraine and Russia have lost a staggering number of troops as Kyiv’s counteroffensive drags on. A lack of rapid medical care has added to the toll.
A jade pig from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) at the shop of jade trader Lee in Taipei. Taiwan's jade trading sector is flagging post-COVID.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 19, 2023

Taiwan's antique jade dealers see trade losing luster

With the global economy in tatters, buyers are more cautious about taking a chance on expensive items, especially with the market awash with counterfeits.
It is still unclear whether BA.2.86 will be able to out-compete other strains of the virus that causes COVID-19, or have any advantage in escaping immune responses from prior infection or vaccination.
WORLD / Science & Health / EXPLAINER
Aug 21, 2023

What you need to know about BA.2.86, the new COVID variant

Scientists are keeping an eye on the new lineage because it has 36 mutations that distinguish it from the currently dominant XBB.1.5 variant.
While most players in the field of neurotechnology are exclusively concerned with medical uses, Elon Musk is touting the possibility of telepathy, using the technology to store memories or to enable humans to continue their existence without their bodies.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 21, 2023

The race to link our brains to computers is heating up

Brain implants have long been trapped in the realm of science fiction, but medical trials suggest the devices could play a big part in humanity's future.
The U.S. has 8,000 km of carbon dioxide pipelines, but will need at least 50,000 to hit climate goals, according to a carbon transport engineer at the U.S. Department of Energy.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 21, 2023

U.S. Midwest is ground zero in the fight over carbon capture

The U.S. wants to greatly expand carbon capture and storage infrastructure, including pipelines, but many projects face opposition in the Midwest.
A couple enjoy the sunset in Seoul. The proportion of people getting married has declined worldwide, but it has plummeted especially far in South Korea.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Aug 21, 2023

Seeking love, with help from the city government

Singles are signing up for city-hosted blind-dating events in South Korea, but some point to their inability to address real issues with family planning.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a ministerial meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 22, 2023

Japan to begin releasing treated Fukushima water Thursday

Despite fishing cooperatives' lingering worries of reputational damage, the government will go ahead with its plan.
The initial public offering for Arm Holdings is set to be the biggest in the United States this year.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 22, 2023

SoftBank’s planned IPO for Arm set to be biggest of 2023

Arm didn’t disclose proposed terms for the share sale in the document, but it’s expected to seek a valuation of $60 billion to $70 billion.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?