Search - global-media-post

 
 
A Tiffany store in Shanghai. Luxury companies are targeting VIC's, or very important clients, as China's post-pandemic economic slowdown dries up the spending power of the middle class.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 20, 2023

Exclusivity the name of the game as firms target China's wealthiest

Brands are focusing on selling fewer, more valuable items, relying on luxury consumers.
Competitors play "Warships" at Squid Game: The Trials, Netflixユs new attraction in Los Angeles on Nov. 28, 2023. For $30, fans can compete in some 70 minutes of play, with moral twists and six group activities, including nonlethal versions of the showユs challenges.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Dec 13, 2023

Netflix builds a ‘Squid Game’ universe as it awaits a second season

A reality show and a live experience are two ways of keeping the dystopian series in the public eye. Is the original’s bleak message being diluted?
Republicans have been extraordinarily successful in shaping the electoral battlefield to their advantage and depicting U.S. President Joe Biden as too old.
COMMENTARY / The Year Ahead
Dec 30, 2023

American anxiety builds ahead of 2024 vote

The outcome of next year's election may hinge on the economic outlook, which in turn will partly depend on how the Middle East conflict evolves.
Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi takes part in a training session in Chiba on Tuesday.
SOCCER
Feb 7, 2024

Anger over Messi’s behavior grows in China before Japan game

Many commentators in China have drawn comparisons between Messi’s behavior in Hong Kong and his demeanor in Japan.
The OpenAI offices in San Francisco. The high-profile tech startup is allowing a small group of businesses to test a new system, Voice Engine, that is said to be able to recreate a person’s voice from a 15-second recording, OpenAI announced Friday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 30, 2024

OpenAI previews new audio tool that can read text and mimic voices

All the software needs is 15 seconds of recorded audio of a person speaking to re-create their voice.
Optica headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday
BUSINESS / Companies
May 3, 2024

Huawei secretly backs U.S. research, awarding millions in prizes

Huawei Technologies is the sole funder of a research competition that has awarded millions of dollars since its inception in 2022.
In 2023, Bryan Eastlake (left) began a three-year contract with the local Takahama tourism association to write, post photos and otherwise promote the small town in northern Kyoto Prefecture to a wider audience.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
May 20, 2024

The new vanguard of rural revitalization efforts in Japan

Currently, the Regional Revitalization Corps has around 200 foreign residents working in different industries around the country.
A large screen in the Dubai Metro is out of service on Friday amid a massive global IT outage.
WORLD
Jul 20, 2024

From ATMs to flights, epic IT crash leaves trail of destruction

In what will go down as the most spectacular IT failure the world has ever seen, a botched software update from a cybersecurity firm caused a global systems outage.
The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. campus in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on July 16. The incessant demand for electricity that the artificial boom is placing on chipmakers such as TSMC has made opposition to nuclear power harder to maintain.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 21, 2024

Taiwan signals openness to new nuclear tech amid surging AI power demand

Premier Cho Jung-tai's comments underscore what appears to be a shift by a government that has opposed using nuclear power for safety reasons.
A visitor looks at portraits of former United Nations Secretaries-General at U.N. headquarters ahead of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 17, 2023

World disappointed by the U.N. now looks elsewhere for answers

If the body's strongest members keep resisting reform, the Global South may have no choice but to seek new options, including those offered by China.
Members meet for a United Nations Security Council meeting on Ukraine on July 17. Between the carnage in the Middle East and a permanent member of the Security Council waging a war of aggression against its neighbor, there is ample reason to doubt that a consensus on U.N. reform is reachable.
COMMENTARY / The Year Ahead
Dec 31, 2023

The outlook for multilateralism in 2024

What matters most in the coming year is whether global issues can still be addressed simultaneously and in unison.
Bulk carriers float offshore from Singapore, on Feb. 19.
WORLD
Sep 19, 2024

The shadow fleet transporting sanctioned gas for Russia

In the short term it could provide some wartime profit, but Moscow's ultimate goal is to triple LNG exports by 2030.
Workers at a garment factory in Gazipur, Bangladesh, on April 16, 2023
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 5, 2024

AI supports fashion's climate goals, but workers may be left behind

In Bangladesh, about 60% of apparel workers, or 2.7 million people, risk losing their jobs due to automation.
Paris Saint-Germain players line up before the team's club friendly against Inter Milan at Tokyo's National Stadium on Tuesday.
SOCCER
Aug 2, 2023

Second straight tour shows PSG's commitment to Japanese market

The French superclub has experienced explosive growth in its global base, especially in Asia, since its 2011 takeover by Qatari ownership.
China's push to obtain hard power and "meta-power" has seen it lean heavily on its science and technology sectors.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Sep 28, 2023

China looks to science and technology in its push for more power

Further power could give Beijing the ability to restrict other nations by structuring or restructuring systems, rules or frameworks.
Tesla Model 3 assembly line at Tesla's factory in Fremont, California, in 2018. Before the Shanghai plant opened, Fremont was Tesla’s principal factory.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 27, 2024

A pivot to China saved Elon Musk. It also binds him to Beijing.

Musk is now treading a fine line, sounding the alarm about Chinese rivals, even as he remains reliant on the Chinese market.
Sanrio is marking Hello Kitty's 50th anniversary this year. The character's rise mirrors that of kawaii culture globally, and her longevity offers important clues as to the future of cute culture.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 22, 2024

Hello Kitty turns 50. What will the next cat's meow be?

The global rise of Hello Kitty, who turns 50 this year, tracks that of Japanese culture. What, then, does the next half-century of kawaii have in store?
Penny Sackett, a former director of the Australian National University’s Mount Stromlo Observatory, in the remains of the observatory, which was destroyed by a wildfire in 2003, just outside Canberra on May 6.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 14, 2024

Alarmed by climate change, astronomers train their sights on Earth

Seeing how climate change has impacted the earth, many astronomers have left science to become full-time activists.
Pope Francis and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida talk ahead of a Group of Seven session on artificial Intelligence, energy, Africa and the Mediterranean on the second day of the G7 summit in Borgo Egnazia, Italy, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 15, 2024

G7 agree on AI code of conduct and joint initiatives for Africa

The bloc also agreed to build a common framework to combat illegal migration, with the aim of cracking down on human trafficking.
A Chinese worker organizes plastic doll heads after painting them at a toy factory in Xietang, Zhejiang Province, China, in 2015.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 2, 2024

China’s plastics boom is set to create another trade headache

Parts of the country’s sprawling petrochemicals sector are running at as little as half capacity as producers cut back.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping arrive for a signing ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 21.
WORLD
Aug 8, 2023

China’s rebuke of Russia over border tussle doesn't signal shift

The rare admonition took place Friday over an incident involving Chinese citizens denied entry from Kazakhstan into Russia at a border checkpoint.
Chinese national flags fly over Tiananmen Square along with other red flags ahead of the fifth plenary session of the First Session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 12.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 16, 2023

China is hiding more and more data from the rest of the world

China’s abrupt decision to pause releasing data on its soaring youth jobless rate this week was the latest sign the Asian giant is increasingly restricting sensitive information - especially when it’s unflattering to the nation’s faltering economy.
Pedestrians walk past a McDonald's restaurant in Hong Kong.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 13, 2023

Hong Kong takes economic hit as Chinese tourists fail to splurge

Changes in travel habits come as the Chinese economy weakens and youth unemployment remains high.
Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament, attends a plenary session in Moscow on Oct. 10.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 17, 2023

Russia set to revoke ratification of nuke test ban treaty, official says

Moscow would remain a signatory and would continue to cooperate with the test ban treaty organization and the global monitoring system.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping meets with U.S. President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Nusa Dua, on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, on Nov. 14, 2022.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Oct 29, 2023

U.S. and China agree to work toward Biden-Xi meeting next month

U.S. President Joe Biden emphasized the need to manage the U.S.-China rivalry "responsibly” during a rare meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Petr Aven in Moscow to attend Russia Business week in in 2018
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Nov 1, 2023

Squeezed by sanctions, some oligarchs head home to Putin's Russia

The penalties have destroyed the standing of many wealthy Russians abroad who remained silent or avoided direct criticism of Putin over the war.
U.S. President Joe Biden greets Chinese President Xi Jinping before a meeting during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders week in Woodside, California, on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 16, 2023

Biden and Xi agree to pick up the phone to avert crisis. But now what?

Agreed measures are unlikely to be enough to improve bilateral ties, as neither side appeared willing to tackle fundamental differences head on.
A worker uses a vacuum cleaner inside a bullet train at Suseo Station in Seoul on Nov. 13. South Korea is launching a four-week campaign against bedbugs after multiple reports of infestations sparked widespread public anxiety.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Nov 19, 2023

Bedbug anxiety comes for Asia, and the pest killers are here for it

Outbreaks in France and South Korea have people across Asia on high alert for bedbugs. Exterminators in the region say business is booming.
A still from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
PODCAST / deep dive
Dec 14, 2023

Big in Japan 2023: Anime, Murakami and The Legend of Zelda

Our guests tell us why anime dominated in 2023, which books stood out among a lackluster crowd and why the Zelda franchise is experiencing a renaissance.
When Chinese President Xi Jinping came to power, he inherited a China that was enjoying prosperity, but also succumbing to gilded-age excesses.
COMMENTARY / The Year Ahead
Dec 29, 2023

The moral of the China story

Even if China is no longer “winning,” it would be short-sighted to dismiss its recent experience as irrelevant.

Longform

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