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Solar panels and wind turbines at a power plant in Hami in China's Xinjiang region. The U.S. and other countries have described China’s actions against Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region, a key cog in the cleantech supply chain, as a genocidal campaign aimed at erasing an entire culture.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Sep 16, 2024

How China’s dominance of solar and batteries is impacting Japan’s energy transition

China has thrown its industrial might behind cleantech, putting Japan in a tough spot as it weighs human rights concerns against its climate targets.
Shop manager Komura poses with a signed Metal Gear Solid box at Super Potato, a shop selling vintage video games and memorabilia in the Akihabara district of Tokyo, on June 18.
LIFE / Digital
Sep 22, 2024

Japan is next level for retro game collectors

Game Boy cartridges, Sega Dreamcast consoles and antiquated arcade machines await tourists in some of Tokyo's stores.
Students sit under a misting system during recess at Hikarigaoka Haru no Kaze Elementary School in Nerima Ward, Tokyo, on Sept. 6.
JAPAN / Society / Boiling Point
Sep 16, 2024

Japan’s schools battle to keep kids cool, with or without AC

With extreme heat affecting both health and study, schools are racing to plug AC gaps while experimenting with creative, cheaper solutions.
A display details the history of the gulag in Moscow in 2022. The gulag was the government agency in charge of the Soviet network of forced labor camps, a major instrument of political repression in the Soviet Union, reaching its peak during Josef Stalin's rule from the 1930s to the early 1950s.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 16, 2024

'Slave to fear': Ghosts of the gulag haunt modern Russia

When Russians started being arrested for opposing the Ukraine offensive, many felt the same kind of fear that victims of the Soviet gulags lived through.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo in January as former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga (left) looks on.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 16, 2024

In LDP presidential poll, three kingmakers hold all the cards

The decisions of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, his predecessor Yoshihide Suga and LDP Vice President Taro Aso will heavily influence the result.
Men use a stole to cover themselves from the sun as they wait in a line outside a polling station to cast their votes during the sixth phase of India's general election in Bhubaneswar, India, on May 25.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 16, 2024

Surviving a climate disaster isn’t likely to change how you vote

If people are in fact casting ballots based on their experiences of disasters, it appears to be a small number of them.
The lapse of the historic U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement, coupled with escalating tariffs and trade restrictions, has exacerbated economic tensions between the two countries and impacted global stability.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 2024

Resetting U.S.-China economic relations

To address global challenges, active cooperation between the two economic powers is indispensable.
Morinari Watanabe, International Gymnastic Federation president, attends a news conference in Aigle, Switzerland, in June 2022. Watanabe is set to stand in the election for the next International Olympic Committee president.
OLYMPICS
Sep 17, 2024

IOC member Morinari Watanabe enters presidential race

Watanabe, 65, is one of the seven candidates announced by the IOC to succeed Thomas Bach as president.
Intel in 2022 lost out on a contract to design and fabricate the chip for Sony’s next-generation PlayStation 6.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 17, 2024

How Intel lost the Sony PlayStation business

A dispute over how much profit Intel stood to take from each chip sold to the electronics giant for the PlayStation 6 gave a leg-up to AMD, which clinched the deal.
Ryan Routh speaks during an interview at a rally to urge foreign leaders and international organizations to help provide humanitarian aid in central Kyiv in April 2022, amid Russia's invasion of its neighbor. Routh, 58, was charged with two gun-related crimes in a federal court in Florida on Monday, a day after he was spotted with a rifle hiding in shrubbery on the property line of Trump's golf course.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Sep 17, 2024

Suspect in second Trump assassination attempt had criminal history

Ryan Routh was charged with two gun-related crimes in a federal court in Florida a day after he was found with a rifle hiding near Donald Trump's golf course.
A technician holds an agar plate containing bacteria cell culture in Bengaluru, India, in 2018.
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 17, 2024

Superbugs death toll could swell by millions over coming years

Over 1 million people have died each year between 1990 and 2021 as a direct result of antimicrobial resistance, which occurs when germs become resistant to drugs.
Brighton & Hove Albion's Kaoru Mitoma (left) in action with Arsenal's Ben White at Emirates Stadium in London on Aug. 31
SOCCER
Sep 17, 2024

Japanese players in vogue as British clubs widen horizons

"It feels like there is more interest in Japanese players from around the world," says Liverpool midfielder Wataru Endo.
Sanae Tamura (right), whose guesthouse in Noto, Ishikawa Prefecture, was damaged by the Jan. 1 earthquake, reopened its doors in April.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 17, 2024

Music continues to play for Noto guesthouse after Jan. 1 earthquake

Tsuchi to Disco, which is run by a 35-year-old dance aficionado, began welcoming visitors again in April after three months of repairs.
Researchers from Waseda University have revealed the possibility of using urine for the early detection of cervical cancer.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 17, 2024

HPV proteins detected in potential cervical cancer patients' urine

Researchers highlighted the possibility of using urine for early detection of the type of cancer.
Sean "Diddy" Combs in 2017. Prosecutors have accused Combs of running a criminal enterprise to facilitate his exploitation of women, dating back at least 16 years.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Sep 18, 2024

Sean 'Diddy' Combs pleads not guilty to sex trafficking; judge denies bail

Prosecutors said the rapper and producer used his fame to coerce women into demeaning sexual acts as part of a long-running scheme.
A group of older women performs during a midautumn festival at a mall in Jinan, in eastern China, on Sept. 6. China’s shrinking population poses threats to growth but has opened opportunities for businesses that serve older adults.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 18, 2024

China’s ‘silver economy’ is thriving as birthrate plunges

Births in China fell to 9 million in 2023, down about 6% from the previous year, with the number of preschool children plummeting nearly 12%.
Attendees to the 57th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting at National Convention Center in Vientiane take a group photo on July 26. Southeast Asian nations are concerned about nuclear weapons but are more focused on regional security and stability.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 18, 2024

Southeast Asia untroubled by China’s nuclear modernization efforts

Southeast Asian nations are concerned about nuclear weapons but are more focused on regional security and stability.
Liberal Democratic Party presidential election candidates after a campaign event in Nagoya on Saturday
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 18, 2024

LDP leader candidates split on separate surnames for married couples

While party conservatives worry about damaging family unity, others say it’s time to push through a legislative change.
Komeito Secretary-General Keiichi Ishii
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 18, 2024

Ishii to head Komeito in first leadership change in 15 years

Keiichi Ishii will be appointed the new Komeito leader at a party convention on Sept. 28.
Ryo Yoshizawa plays a young man with deaf parents in Mipo O’s decade-spanning drama, “Living in Two Worlds.”
CULTURE / Film
Sep 19, 2024

‘Living in Two Worlds’ raises the bar for depictions of deafness

Mipo O’s film about a child of deaf adults is best when it doesn’t try to educate viewers.
The street where a 10-year-old boy is said to have been stabbed with a knife, on Thursday in Shenzhen in southern China.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 19, 2024

Japanese school student stabbed in Shenzhen dies

The assault echoes an earlier incident of violence in June, when a man attacked a bus used by a Japanese school in Suzhou, China.
A drone view of damages caused by flooding in Stronie Slaskie, Poland, on Tuesday
WORLD
Sep 19, 2024

European cities brace for peak of floods as cleanup starts

Europe is the fastest warming continent, with temperatures rising at around twice the global rate, making it particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events.
Typhoon Yagi approaches Huizhou, China, on Sept. 5.
ENVIRONMENT
Sep 19, 2024

Historic rainfall inflicts chaotic floods across four continents

Though different meteorological phenomena are behind the series of storms, climate scientists agree an underlying factor is global warming writ large.
Visitors take pictures of Tokyo's National Stadium before the closing ceremony of the Tokyo Olympic Games on Aug. 8, 2021.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 19, 2024

¥300 million fine sought for Dentsu over Olympics bid rigging

The Tokyo District Court is slated to issue a ruling on Jan. 30 next year.
Shiretoko Yuransen President Seiichi Katsurada (center) in Shari, Hokkaido, in May 2022. Katsurada admitted to having little knowledge of ships in an interview before his arrest on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 19, 2024

Hokkaido boat operator in 2022 fatal sinking had little knowledge of ships

He made himself the company's safety and operational manager despite lacking the necessary qualifications after dismissing key employees during the pandemic.
Comedian Yuriyan Retriever takes on the role of Japan’s most hated heel, Kaoru “Dump” Matsumoto, in “The Queen of Villains.”
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Sep 20, 2024

Yuriyan Retriever is Japan's biggest heel — and proud of it

The comedian takes on the role of Kaoru “Dump” Matsumoto, a real-life rule-breaking brawler in women’s professional wrestling, in Netflix's “The Queen of Villains.”
Marina Tsukada got the idea for her anthology “Mitsuki, Sekai” from her acquaintance with the two young lead actors, whom she first met at a video workshop she conducted in Nagano Prefecture.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 20, 2024

Marina Tsukada lets local lives shape her work

The director’s latest, “Mitsuki, Sekai,” is part of an ongoing project that traces the lives of Nagano Prefecture-based children for a decade until they reach adulthood.
Anthony Joshua (left) and Daniel Dubois during a pre-bout news conference in London on Thursday.
MORE SPORTS / Boxing
Sep 20, 2024

Dubois and Joshua primed for Wembley heavyweight showdown

The British boxers left the hype to their promoters as they met in a low-key news conference ahead of Saturday's IBF world heavyweight title fight at Wembley Stadium.
The Eiffel Tower in Paris
OLYMPICS
Sep 20, 2024

Five athletes failed doping tests at Paris Olympics: agency

Around a third of Olympic athletes were drug-tested during the Paris Games this year, with only five positive results, the International Testing Agency said.
Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani hits his 50th home run of the season on Thursday in Miami.
BASEBALL / MLB
Sep 20, 2024

Ohtani’s former manager elated — but not surprised — after historic mark

Even as Ohtani rewrites the record books, Hideki Kuriyama believes he can do more.

Longform

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