Search - 2022

 
 
Members of the Polish military train with the Patriot air defense system at an airport in Warsaw in February 2023.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
May 4, 2024

Missile defense successes fuel global urgency to acquire systems

Experts say the practical and political incentives of investing in the systems will be too hard to ignore — and intensify arms races.
A businessman reads a newspaper outside a train station in Tokyo.
JAPAN
May 4, 2024

Japan drops to 70th in press freedom rankings

Japan fell by two places from last year, and was ranked lowest among the Group of Seven major countries.
Lakers head coach Darvin Ham during a game against the Pelicans in New Orleans on April 14.
BASKETBALL / NBA
May 4, 2024

Lakers fire head coach Darvin Ham after two seasons

The Lakers finished the regular season with a 47-35 mark, good enough for only an eighth-place finish in the Western Conference.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
WORLD / Politics
May 5, 2024

Russia puts Ukraine's Zelenskyy on wanted list

Russia's Tass news agency reported that the Russian Interior Ministry database showed the Ukrainian leader was on a wanted list but gave no other details.
Much like other hot spots across Okinawa, Onna has diligently strived to captivate both domestic and international tourists, while at the same time grappling with the environmental strain induced by the influx of visitors.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
May 5, 2024

As visitors surge, Japan seeks ways to make tourism eco-friendly

A record tourism boom has raised concerns over the enormous stress visitors put on the environment.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's campaign tactics have escalated, including anti-Muslim rhetoric and fearmongering, reflecting his ruling party's desperation.
COMMENTARY / World
May 5, 2024

Is Modi’s party heading for a stunning election loss?

Modi's campaign tactics have escalated, including anti-Muslim rhetoric and fearmongering, reflecting the ruling party's desperation.
U.K. Prime Minister Sunak is hearing calls to consider policies including an immigration cap and a withdrawal from the European Court of Human Rights.
WORLD / Politics
May 6, 2024

Tories press Sunak to move to right after local election rout

Sunak's team said they will respond with upcoming media appearances and policy announcements on the economy, migration and healthcare.
A chaplain blesses traditional cakes and eggs for servicemen of the 24th brigade of Ukrainian Army during the Easter service in an undisclosed location in the Donetsk region on Sunday.
WORLD
May 6, 2024

Ukraine's soldiers mark Easter on the front line

The soldiers were celebrating Easter at a time when Russian forces have been making frontline gains because of the lack of arms on the Ukrainian side.
A Rapidus factory under construction in Chitose, Hokkaido on April 26. The Tokyo-based chipmaker was set up with the aim to realize domestic production of state-of-the-art semiconductors.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
May 6, 2024

Rapidus gearing up for mass production of next-generation chips

About three years before the planned start of mass production, Rapidus faces a host of difficult challenges, especially over technology and profitability.
Shohei Ohtani goes deep twice in the last game of a three-game series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves at Dodger Stadium on Sunday.
BASEBALL / MLB
May 6, 2024

Shohei Ohtani goes deep twice as Dodgers sweep Braves

Ohtani finished off his first multihomer game in a Dodgers uniform with a 464-foot rocket to center in the eighth inning.
Morgue staff work with members of On The Shield, an organization tasked with collecting bodies of killed soldiers, at a morgue in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, on March 29. Ukraine struggles to name its dead; families of some soldiers say they have spent months trying to get official confirmation of their loved one’s death, adding to their anguish.
WORLD
May 6, 2024

DNA tests and stranded bodies: Ukraine’s struggle to name its dead

Families of some soldiers say they have spent months trying to get official confirmation of their loved ones’ deaths, adding to their anguish.
Exiled Russian historian Tamara Eidelman delivers a lecture titled “The Judgment of History” at the Bender JCC of Greater Washington community center in Rockville, Maryland, on April 25.
WORLD / Politics
May 6, 2024

Exiled Russian historian rallies fellow emigrants in dark times

Tamara Eidelman, who was declared a "foreign agent" by the government in Moscow, is one of many who are rebuilding their careers abroad.
Quantas will pay out AU$20 million between more than 86,000 customers who booked tickets on the so-called "ghost flights" and pay an AU$100 million fine instead of defending the lawsuit that it had previously vowed to fight.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 6, 2024

Australia's Qantas to pay $79 million to settle flight cancellation case

The fine is the biggest ever for an Australian airline and among the largest globally in the sector.
Recent losses faced by the Conservative Party in local British elections indicate there are greater challenges ahead for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's government in the upcoming national poll.
COMMENTARY
May 6, 2024

Can the Tories rebuild their train wreck of a party?

If you’re a centrist British voter, today’s Conservatives aren’t for you.
A screencap of a performance of Hiroto Nagai's “String Quartet No. 1 ‘Polar Energy Budget’” by the PRT Quartet
CULTURE / Music / OUR PLANET
May 7, 2024

How a Japanese scientist is turning the climate crisis into music

Hiroto Nagai has sonified polar climate data, resulting in a string quartet piece that he thinks can get people to care more about what the data expresses.
Enamored with Japanese cuisine, Xander Soren sought to create the perfect Pinot Noir to suit the country's most common flavors.
LIFE / Food & Drink / Kanpai Culture
May 7, 2024

A Californian Pinot Noir bred for the Japanese table

In November, a former Apple employee launched Xander Soren Wines and its Pinot vintages exclusively in Japan.
Law enforcement officers walk along the Kremlin wall near Red Square in Moscow on Dec. 31.
WORLD / Politics
May 7, 2024

U.S. says soldier who went to Russia detained for ‘misconduct’

A U.S. soldier was detained in eastern Russia on "charges of criminal misconduct,” the U.S. Army said Monday, a potential new flashpoint in relations between the nations already at a low since Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.
A social welfare office in Tokyo sets up a counter for special COVID loans in June 2020.
JAPAN
May 7, 2024

Only 37% of COVID-19 special loans were repaid in Japan

Some special loan recipients had been facing financial difficulties even before the pandemic
Masato Kanda, vice minister of finance for international affairs, reiterated the currency authorities' readiness to step into the market for speculative-driven foreign exchange moves.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 7, 2024

Japan warns of action over rapid currency moves

Comments by the government's top currency diplomat, Masato Kanda, reinforced Tokyo's readiness to intervene again to support a fragile yen.
Her, a self-described feminist bar in Shanghai, on March 15. Women in Shanghai gather in bars, salons and bookstores to reclaim their identities as the country’s leader calls for China to adopt a “childbearing culture.”
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
May 7, 2024

In China, ruled by men, women quietly find a powerful voice

Women in Shanghai gather to reclaim their identities as the country’s leader calls for China to adopt a “childbearing culture.”
Workers head to Daihatsu Motor's plant at its headquarters in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, on Tuesday.
BUSINESS
May 7, 2024

Daihatsu resumes production at all plants

All of Daihatsu's four finished vehicle assembly plants in Japan are back online for the first time in about four months.
Stellantis premium brand Alfa Romeo reveals the Milano, its first fully electric car, during an event in Milan on April 10.
BUSINESS / Tech
May 7, 2024

EU election could force sharp turn in electric car policy

Europe's right-wing parties have made cancelling the 2035 deadline to phase out sales of internal combustion engine cars a rallying cry.
The Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Kaga destroyer has undergone the first stage of modifications to turn it into a de facto aircraft carrier for F-35B stealth fighter jets.
JAPAN / Politics / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
May 13, 2024

MSDF’s Kure base expanding mission as it marks 70th anniversary

The unit has increased its activities not only in national defense, but also in disaster relief operations and overseas missions.
Beijing is quietly supporting the Kremlin’s war machine. For China, the longer the West stays distracted with the Ukraine war, the better.
COMMENTARY / World
May 7, 2024

The West is hastening its own decline

Unless it changes course, the West is likely to lose its global supremacy, including its hold on the international financial architecture.
Interpreters of the European Parliament in Brussels on April 11
WORLD / Politics
May 8, 2024

Babel in Brussels: The shadow army of EU interpreters

Humming with different languages like a modern-day Tower of Babel, the European Union's institutions are the world's largest employer of interpreters.
A suburb in Melbourne. Surging rents across many developed economies are proving to be a stubborn hurdle for central banks as they struggle to nail down inflation once and for all.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 8, 2024

Rents set to be last domino to fall in global inflation battle

Surging rents across many developed economies are proving to be a stubborn hurdle for central banks as they struggle to nail down inflation.
Workers on the production line at a cotton textile factory in Korla, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China, on April 1, 2021
BUSINESS
May 8, 2024

Banned Chinese cotton found in 19% of U.S. and global retailers' merchandise, study shows

The U.S. enacted a law in 2021 to safeguard its market from products potentially tainted by human rights abuses in Xinjiang, a major cotton producer.
Cleaning worker Hu Dexi, 67, at a shopping mall in Beijing on April 10
BUSINESS / Economy
May 8, 2024

In rapidly aging China, millions can't afford to retire

With a low retirement age, meager pension benefits and no family to support them, many in China feel they simply can't ever stop working.
Medical workers take care of a COVID-19 patient on a mechanical ventilator, in a negative pressure room in an intensive care unit at St. Marianna University School of Medicine Yokohama City Seibu Hospital in Yokohama in August 2021.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 8, 2024

Many still face COVID aftereffects a year after assessment downgrade

As there is no cure yet for long-lasting symptoms, doctors are calling on people to continue taking infection preventative measures.
Seigo Saito with his father, Kabutoyama Oyakata, at Isenoumi stable in Tokyo in December 2022
SUMO / Inside Sumo
May 8, 2024

Wakaikari out to etch his family's place into sumo's history books

The 19-year-old from Tokyo is ranked near the top of the third tier for the upcoming summer tournament.

Longform

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