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Kaja Kallas, who was set to take up her post as the European Union's top diplomat, looks on during a plenary session of the European Parliament, before a vote to approve the new European Commission, in Strasbourg, France, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 1, 2024

New EU chiefs visit Kyiv on first day of mandate

The visit by the EU's new top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, and head of the European Council, Antonio Costa, was a symbolic show of support for Kyiv.
Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte holds a news conference in Quezon City, in Metro Manila, on Tuesday. She denied she was plotting to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., saying recent comments that sparked a government probe only reflected "consternation" with her one-time ally.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2024

Philippines politics is often mad. It just got crazier.

Manila cannot afford to be distracted by the latest round of clan rivalry and violent threats.
Timeleft uses an algorithm to match its users with five or six strangers in an effort to prompt “human connection” over dinner at a restaurant. It determines the attendees with the help of a simple personality quiz available when you sign up for the service.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Dec 2, 2024

Seven strangers and an algorithm: Can this new dinner app help you make friends?

An app called Timeleft hopes to combat big-city alienation through a simple meal with a diverse group of people.
Member of French far-right party Rassemblement National (RN) Marine Le Pen (center) talks to the media next to party member Louis Aliot after a hearing in her trial on suspicion of embezzlement of European public funds, in Paris on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 2, 2024

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen has never been so powerful in France

Marine Le Pen is now the ultimate power broker in Paris.
INC-5 Chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso (on screen) speaks during an open plenary session during the fifth session of the U.N. Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution (INC-5) in Busan, South Korea, on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 2, 2024

Countries fail to reach agreement in U.N. plastic talks

Countries remained far apart on the basic scope of a treaty and could agree only to postpone key decisions and resume talks at a later date.
Thousands of people gather for a third night of protests against the government's decision to shelve European Union membership talks until 2028, near the parliament building in Tbilisi on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 2, 2024

Tens of thousands rally in Georgia as new election calls are rebuffed

Georgia has been rocked by turmoil since the governing Georgian Dream party claimed victory in Oct. 26 parliamentary polls.
U.S. President Joe Biden, accompanied by Hunter Biden and Beau Jr., walks out of a bookstore in downtown Nantucket, Massachusetts, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 2, 2024

Biden backtracks, pardoning son Hunter in final weeks of presidency

The White House had said repeatedly that Biden would not pardon or commute the sentences of his son, a recovering drug addict who became a target of Republicans.
A tank, left behind by Syrian regime forces, is seen on the road leading to the town of Khan Sheikhun, in Idlib province, on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 2, 2024

Syria's embattled Assad seeks to shore up support after Aleppo loss

For the first time since the civil war started more than a decade ago, the country's second city is out of control of Syrian regime forces, observers said.
European Council President Antonio Costa looks on as he attends a handover ceremony at the European Council in Brussels on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 2, 2024

Before tackling Trump, new EU leader aims to end infighting

For years, attempts to shore up the EU have been hampered by internal dysfunction.
The PlayStation 5 on display during the annual Tokyo Game Show in September. PlayStation was Sony's first foray into the world of video games when it hit the shelves in Japan on Dec. 3, 1994.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 2, 2024

PlayStation at 30: How Sony's gray box conquered gaming

The PlayStation became a legend, selling more than 102 million units and positioning Sony as a heavyweight in a hugely lucrative sector.
A Finnish soldier operates a towed 155 mm field gun during the Northern Forest land force exercise in Rovajarvi, Finland, in May 2023.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 2, 2024

Ukraine war reinvigorating Finland’s fighting spirit

Instead of intimidating the Finns, Ukraine's conflict with Russia has had the opposite effect of reigniting their focus on national resilience.
A serviceman with the Ukrainian Army's 24th mechanized brigade fires a machine gun during an exercise, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the country's Donetsk region on Friday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Dec 2, 2024

Europe eyes 'boots on the ground' in Ukraine as possible peace deal option

The troop presence is among security guarantees being considered as the possibility grows of a deal requiring Kyiv to cede territory to Moscow.
Under new U.S. rules, chipmaking equipment made in Malaysia, Singapore, Israel, Taiwan and South Korea will be subject to curbs on exports to China, while the Netherlands and Japan will be exempt.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 2, 2024

Latest U.S. strike on China's chips hits semiconductor toolmakers

Equipment made in Malaysia, Singapore, Israel, Taiwan and South Korea will be subject to curbs on exports to China, while the Netherlands and Japan will be exempt.
Peter Westbrook became the first African American and Asian American to win an Olympic medal in fencing at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.
OLYMPICS / Fencing
Dec 2, 2024

Trailblazing Olympic fencer Peter Westbrook dies at 72

Westbrook was the first first African American and Asian American to win a medal in fencing at the Summer Games
Nihon Hidankyo co-Chairperson Terumi Tanaka (center), a Nagasaki atomic bombing survivor, attends a news conference after the group won the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, in Tokyo on Oct. 12. Tanaka is part of a 30-strong delegation will collect the prize in Oslo.
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2024

30-strong Nihon Hidankyo delegation to collect Nobel Peace Prize

The group has raised over ¥36 million in a crowd-funding campaign to cover the travel expenses of such a large delegation.
Resona's loan balance for SMEs was up 4.9% by the end of September from a year earlier, compared with just 1.1% growth in the 12 months through September 2023.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 2, 2024

Resona says inflation is boosting SME loan demand and pay hikes

SMEs make up the bulk of Resona's client base, giving the bank insight into the state of firms that account for most of the employment in Japan.
New Leicester City manager Ruud van Nistelrooy (center) and Chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha (left) outside the GTech Community Stadium in London before a game against Brentford on Saturday
SOCCER
Dec 3, 2024

Van Nistelrooy looks to lift Leicester's spirits

The 16th-placed club is hovering just one point above the relegation zone after three straight league defeats.
Hunter Biden and his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, depart the First Street U.S. Courthouse in Los Angeles on Sept. 5.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 3, 2024

Biden's surprise pardon of son sparked by fears of new persecution

The president's move was panned by his Republican political opposition, but also by Democrats who say it threatens to undermine public trust in the rule of law.
A supporter of Donald Trump holds a limited edition beer with an image of Trump and the words "Conservative Dad's Revenge," as he attends the New York Young Republican Club watch party on Nov. 6.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 3, 2024

After Trump's win, his election denial movement marches on

Since winning the 2024 election, President-elect Donald Trump has gone quiet on his false claims of voter fraud. But the election denial movement he spawned isn’t going away — and appears to be strengthening in some areas of the country.
The front page of the final Japan Times of the 1900s carried news on the crown princess as well as the Y2K computer glitch panic.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Dec 3, 2024

Japan Times 1999: Stores hit by Y2K stockpile feeding frenzy

From year-end predictions by mystics to panic from technologists, Decembers past have brought more than just year-end tidings to those reading the news.
Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton after the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Dec 3, 2024

No concerns about Hamilton's speed, says Ferrari's Vasseur

The seven-time Formula One world champion finished only 12th in Qatar on Sunday.
Members of the Amel Association, a Lebanese non-governmental organization, look out from their damaged branch at buildings destroyed or damaged in an Israeli strike, in Beirut's southern suburbs Hay el-Sellom neighborhood on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 3, 2024

Israel and Hezbollah exchange strikes as ceasefire violations mount

The exchanges of fire put a U.S.-brokered ceasefire between the two in an increasingly fragile position less than a week after it took effect.
Customers walk past an Apple logo inside of an Apple store in New in 2018.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 3, 2024

Apple accused of silencing workers, spying on personal devices

Apple is also facing at least three complaints from a U.S. labor board
A Ukrainian serviceman holds a Stinger anti-aircraft missile as he takes part in joint military drills near the border with Belarus, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the country's Rivne region in February 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 3, 2024

U.S. to send Ukraine with $725 million weapons package ahead of Trump return

President Joe Biden's outgoing administration is seeking to bolster Kyiv in its war with Russian invaders before leaving office in January.
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger delivers a speech at the COMPUTEX forum in Taipei on June 4. When Gelsinger met with the Intel board last week, he was given the option to retire or be removed.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 3, 2024

Intel CEO forced out by board frustrated with slow progress

Whoever replaces Pat Gelsinger will face the same set of problems he was brought in to fix, including the fallout from decisions made by his predecessors.
An anti-regime fighter operates a truck-mounted gun as displaced Syrian Kurds drive vehicles loaded with their belongings along the Aleppo-Raqqa highway.
WORLD / FOCUS
Dec 3, 2024

Who are the former jihadis now holding Syria's Aleppo?

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) says it no longer has any links to al-Qaida, but it remains blacklisted by the United States and the European Union.
An anti-regime fighter tears off a poster depicting Syrian President Bashar Assad (left) and his brother Maher at the airport in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 3, 2024

Syria flare-up jolts U.S. and offers chance for Trump

The Biden administration has committed more than $1 billion over the past year in humanitarian aid for Syria's displaced.
The advent of “relationship bots” will change the world’s oldest profession, but the need for human connection will persist.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2024

AI will transform sex work but not intimacy

There is already at least one relationship bot called Replika and more will surely follow. And they will only get better.
Iraqi military equipment is transported towards the border with Syria on Monday.
WORLD
Dec 3, 2024

Iraqi fighters head to Syria to battle rebels but Lebanon's Hezbollah stays out, sources say

Syria's civil war had been frozen since 2020, with Assad in control of most territory and all major cities.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says he will "block" a planned takeover of U.S. Steel by Nippon Steel.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 3, 2024

Trump says will 'block' Nippon Steel from taking over U.S. Steel

Days after the U.S. election last month, Nippon Steel said it expected to close its takeover of the company before the end of the year.

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go