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The remains of a shopping district that caught fire in the city of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, due to the New Year's Day earthquake
EDITORIALS
Jan 5, 2024

Japan ushers in a bruising beginning for 2024

Japan has learned from past disasters and mistakes and must continue to do so.
Tokyo is considered a 15-minute city, where many residents live within a short walking or cycling distance from the shops and facilities they need.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 5, 2024

Don't let the culture wars sabotage 15-minute cities

In 15-minute cities, amenities can easily be reached on foot. Why are conspiracy theorists attacking the idea and what nuance is missing from the debate?
Supporters of India's regional Samajwadi Party take part in a campaign rally in Varanasi, India, in March 2022.
COMMENTARY
Jan 5, 2024

Democracy in Asia will get a reckoning this year

Asia’s liberal credentials are under significant pressure, with only a tiny minority of people living in high-performing democracies.
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers a speech to mark the third anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol at a campaign event at Montgomery County Community College, in Blue Bell, near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 6, 2024

Biden says democracy on ballot as he makes case against Trump

Biden’s remarks Friday offered some of his sharpest warnings yet about the threat he says Trump poses to the country’s institutions.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends an event with students to celebrate the new year in Pyongyang in this undated picture released Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 6, 2024

North Korea's Kim sends rare sympathy message to Japan over Ishikawa quake

The rare communication between the two countries’ leaders delivered Friday is believed to be Kim's first direct message to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
The potential for China to use balloons for spying became a global issue in February when the United States shot down what it said was a Chinese surveillance balloon.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 6, 2024

Taiwan slams Chinese balloons as safety threat

Taiwan is on high alert for Chinese military and political activity ahead of the Jan. 13 presidential and parliamentary elections.
A Ukrainian tank crew member looks out from a tank as he holds his position near the town of Bakhmut, in the country's Donetsk region, on Dec. 13.
WORLD / FOCUS
Jan 6, 2024

As losses mount, Ukrainians fiercely debate future of draft

The debate comes following heavy casualties and almost two years of grinding trench warfare and as the army struggles to fill its ranks.
Spurs center Victor Wembanyama dunks during a game against the Grizzlies on Tuesday.
BASKETBALL / NBA
Jan 6, 2024

Victor Wembanyama sets course to become a basketball billionaire unlike any other

Known to fans as "Wemby,” Victor Wembanyama entered the NBA with a level of buzz unlike any player since LeBron James.
The owner of a seafood shop in Nanao, Ishikawa Prefecture, provides meals on Wednesday for residents affected by the massive earthquake that hit the region on New Year's Day.
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2024

Nationwide donation effort for earthquake-hit Ishikawa gains steam

From charities and companies to individuals, efforts to help people in areas devastated by the magnitude 7.6 earthquake are proliferating across the country.
Boeing's 737 Max 9 under construction at the company's production facility in Renton, Washington, in 2017.
WORLD
Jan 6, 2024

Alaska Air grounds Boeing 737 Max 9 fleet after fuselage blowout

The airline is taking the "precautionary step” to temporarily ground the fleet of 65 planes until completion of full maintenance and inspection.
A screen next to a police station in the city of Okayama featuring a road safety campaign video in November.
JAPAN
Jan 5, 2024

Japan sees rise in traffic deaths for first time in eight years

Japan still saw the third-lowest death toll on record, with data dating back to 1948.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (center) sits next to Bhutan's King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck (second from left) and others, while watching a cultural performance at the Tashichhodzong monastery in Thimpu, Bhutan, in August 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 7, 2024

India and China eye strategic areas bordering 'last barrier' Bhutan

New Delhi is determined not to let Beijing extend its influence further across what India sees as its natural sphere of influence
A victim of an explosion at a nickel smelter furnace owned by Indonesia Tsingshan Stainless Steel lies inside an ambulance at a hospital in Morowali, Indonesia, on Dec. 26.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 7, 2024

Indonesia blast puts battery ambitions in spotlight ahead of vote

Just weeks ahead of a presidential election, the deadly explosion triggered angry protests and demands for action in Jakarta and Beijing.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during a press briefing by President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington in January last year.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 7, 2024

Biden left in dark on defense secretary’s hospital stay for days

Several U.S. senators privately expressed concern that they weren’t informed sooner about defense chief Lloyd Austin's hospitalization.
Humanitarian and medical aid boxes are loaded into a plane to be airdropped by the French and Jordanian air forces for a field hospital set up in Gaza's second city, Khan Younis, at Zarqa airport in Jordan on Friday.
WORLD
Jan 7, 2024

For civilians or Hamas? 'Dual use' issue complicates aid efforts

The issue of which items do or don't get through has become more urgent and contested as the war has unfolded.
Voters cast ballots for the U.S. presidential election at a polling station in Portland, Maine, on Nov. 3, 2020.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 7, 2024

Trump ballot removals reflect efforts of liberal-funded groups

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and Free Speech for People have been catalysts for the yearslong campaign.
People visit the Ice and Snow Festival in Harbin, China, on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 7, 2024

Fairy-tale ice sculptures lure droves of tourists into China's Harbin

This year the ice park spans 810,000 square meters with 250,000 cubic meters of sculptured ice, harvested from the nearby frozen Songhua River.
Harvesting wheat in Punjab, Pakistan
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jan 7, 2024

Military men want to kickstart Pakistan’s green revolution

Islamabad argues that corporate farming is essential to ensuring food security for its 240 million people.
Kotaro Seki, CEO of Ellange, in front of the truck that he uses to collect nets from fisheries
JAPAN / Society / OUR PLANET
Jan 7, 2024

Trash into treasure: Can fishing net waste be the future of fashion?

A pair of Japanese startups are looking to solve a problem for the nation's fisheries: What to do with old fishing nets.
An Israeli soldier walks on the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 7, 2024

Israel says part of Hamas 'dismantled' as war enters fourth month

The Israeli military's claims come amid mounting fears that the conflict could spread into neighboring Lebanon.
An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 is grounded at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Saturday.
WORLD
Jan 7, 2024

U.S. regulator orders temporary grounding of some 737 Max jets after mishap

The move affects about 171 planes worldwide, according to a statement by the U.S. regulator.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump appears during a campaign event in Durham, New Hampshire on Dec. 16.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 7, 2024

How Trump has used fear and favor to win Republican endorsements

The former president keeps careful watch over his endorsements from elected Republicans, aided by a disciplined and methodical behind-the-scenes operation.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi visits the bedside of a person injured in Jan. 3 twin blasts in Kerman, at a hospital in the southern city.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jan 7, 2024

Middle East player Iran weakened by internal woes

Tehran is accused by the West of playing a key role in unrest plaguing the Middle East, but recent twin bombings are a keen reminder of its own weaknesses.
The Gunung Padang pyramid site in Cianjur, West Java, Indonesia, on Dec. 22. A study that concluded it may be "the oldest pyramid in the world” is under investigation by its publisher after fueling debate over the age of the partially excavated site and the ethics of archaeology.
WORLD / Society
Jan 7, 2024

‘World’s oldest pyramid’ in Indonesia? A study draws skepticism

Some have suggested that the site may have been built far earlier by an as-yet-undiscovered ancient civilization.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivers his Quad Fellowship Announcement as the leaders of the United States, India and Australia look on after meeting in Tokyo in May 2022.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 8, 2024

Dialogue can boost security where military deterrence can’t

Military buildup without dialogue is too risky — civil society actors in East Asia understand this better than their governments.
JAPAN
Jan 8, 2024

Japan warns of strong quakes over next month as number of missing triples

While the likelihood of another quake occurring with the same magnitude as the one on New Year's Day has decreased, seismic activity continues.
Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is set for a fifth term in office following polls that her opponents and voters have boycotted.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 8, 2024

Bangladesh prime minister extends rule in poll shunned by rivals

Voters heeded a campaign by the opposition to shun the election and draw attention to the sweeping crackdown Sheikh Hasina's government carried out in its run-up.
The Yangshan Deepwater Port in Shanghai. China’s manufactured goods surplus relative to global gross domestic product is now around 2%, and an estimated 45% of China’s manufacturing output is being exported as the nation’s 1.4 billion people can’t buy enough goods such as electric vehicles, ships and household appliances to meet the increased supply.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 8, 2024

Xi Jinping’s solution for China’s economy risks triggering new trade war

Manufacturing focus sets up Beijing for renewed tensions with both developed countries and emerging economies pushing to reach the lower rungs of the industrialization.
Taiwan flags adorn the streets of Taipei on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Jan 8, 2024

China's balloons inflate Taiwan poll fears

Since December, Taipei has said that mysterious balloons were crossing the Taiwan Strait, with their purpose being "gray-zone" harassment that stops short of open warfare.
Taiwanese flags at the Ministry of National Defense in Taipei in December 2022
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 8, 2024

U.S. policy unlikely to shift after Taiwan poll, ex-de facto envoy says

Any differences in Washington's reaction would be "nuanced," and rather involve "adjustments in degree than in type,” said former AIT chief Douglas H. Paal.

Longform

It's back to the classroom for some residents as municipal governments across the country conduct lessons to learn how to use new technologies.
Can aging Japan go digital without leaving anyone behind?