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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.
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 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.
The challenge for African governments and communities is how to harness this wave of youthful talent — with all their innovation, resilience and determination — rather than lose them to developed economies.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 29, 2024

Africa must act to stem its youth brain drain

African governments must harness youthful talent or risk losing it to developed economies.
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.
Kim Seongmin, president of Free North Korea Radio, edits content for the station at his home on Ganghwa Island, west of Seoul, on Nov. 21. Kim has cancer and was recently told that he has months to live.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 3, 2024

A North Korean voice that Kim Jong Un would like to silence

North Korean defectors have been infiltrating the North with outside media for two decades, through balloons floated across the border or radio broadcasts.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has, in rapid-fire fashion, named a spate of ideological warriors, conspiracy theorists and now even family members to senior government positions.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Dec 3, 2024

Trump doubles down on defiance after collapse of Matt Gaetz selection

Trump, in rapid-fire fashion, has kept naming more ideological warriors, conspiracy theorists and now even family members to senior government positions.
Workers walk through a thermal power plant damaged by Russian missile strikes in an undisclosed location in Ukraine on Nov. 28.
WORLD
Dec 3, 2024

Energy workers battle to keep the lights on in Ukraine

The workers see themselves as on the front line of a crucial battle in the war with Russia — to supply millions of people with power despite Moscow's attacks.
War Tours co-founder Dmytro Nykyforov stands next to a destroyed Russian tank at a tank graveyard during a tour near Dmytrivka village, outside Kyiv, on Nov. 7.
WORLD
Dec 3, 2024

Ukraine sees influx of Western war tourists

Ukraine's destroyed Irpin brige, blown up to stop Russian troops in 2022, is now one of many hotspots for thrill-seeking tourists visiting the country.
Soldiers try to enter the National Assembly building in Seoul, after South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law late Tuesday evening.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 4, 2024

South Korea's Yoon backs down after parliament rejects martial law

The main opposition Democratic Party called for Yoon to resign or face impeachment, while the president's own party also criticized the move.
Anti-government fighters move past abandoned Syrian army military equipment and vehicles southeast of Aleppo on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 4, 2024

Syria rebels 'at gates' of central city Hama

The advance on Syria's fourth-largest city is buoyed by the group's lightning capture of swaths of the north in an offensive that ended four years of relative calm.
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during the Saudi-French Business Forum during an official visit in Riyadh on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 4, 2024

French government can survive a no-confidence vote, Macron says

A government collapse in France would underscore the power acquired by Marine Le Pen since Emmanuel Macron called a surprise election in June.
Elementary school children offer prayers in front of the photograph of Tetsu Nakamura in Omuta, Fukuoka Prefecture, on Nov. 24, five years after his death.
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2024

Nakamura's wishes for Afghanistan live on five years after his death

The Japanese doctor worked in the country for many years providing medical assistance and building irrigation canals.
The departure of Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger opens the possibility of fresh deal talks.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 4, 2024

Intel’s CEO departure opens door to new deal discussions

The CEO's departure is also an opportunity for suitors to take another look at acquiring some or all of Intel.
A line of police officers stand guard as protesters gather at the edge of Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul on Wednesday after President Yoon Suk Yeol formally lifted martial law earlier, six hours after having declared it.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Dec 4, 2024

Yoon fights for political life as martial law repercussions reverberate

A coalition of lawmakers from six opposition parties on Wednesday submitted a motion to impeach the South Korean president, with a vote set for Friday or Saturday.
Mitsubishi has dismissed Gong Huayong, a Shanghai-based copper trader at one of its China units, after finding that he had made unauthorized trades with local companies, including some that were related to him.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 4, 2024

Mitsubishi loses $90 million in suspected China metal fraud

The company has dismissed a Shanghai-based copper trader after finding that he had made unauthorized trades with local companies.
Saudi Arabia has executed 303 people this year according to a tally based on official figures.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 4, 2024

Saudi Arabia surpasses 300 executions in 2024

Saudi Arabia executed the third highest number of prisoners in the world in 2023 after China and Iran, according to Amnesty International.
A grapnel, used to retrieve cables, on the deck of the Leon Thevenin in Cape Town on April 30. In a wireless world, it is easy to forget the all-too-real cables that snake across the turbulent ocean floor — until they snap.
WORLD
Dec 4, 2024

When undersea cables break, a wireless world’s vulnerability is exposed

Landslides, a ship dragging its anchor, military skirmishes and sabotage can all damage cables.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. greet each other at a campaign event in Duluth, Georgia, in October. Kennedy, Trump’s choice for health and human services secretary, wants to purge the agency of corporate influence.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Dec 4, 2024

Trump taps team geared toward retribution and remaking of U.S. government

Trump's pick of Kash Patel to lead the FBI brought into sharper focus the president-elect's seriousness about striking back at those he believes have wronged him.
“A Big Home” offers a sincere portrait of the vulnerable youth who live in more than 600 group homes across Japan.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 5, 2024

Vulnerable youth look for sense of belonging in ‘A Big Home’

Ryo Takebayashi’s documentary profiles the residents of a group home, but shies away from making emphatic statements about the circumstances that brought them there.
Protesters call for the resignation of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol during a demonstration in Seoul on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 5, 2024

South Korean ruling party opposes Yoon impeachment as defense minister quits

The opposition Democratic Party planned to put up a vote in parliament to impeach Yoon at around 7 p.m. on Saturday, a party spokesperson said.
Then-U.S. Presidential nominee Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet at Trump Tower in New York City in September.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 5, 2024

Trump's plan for Ukraine comes into focus, with ceding land possible

Other options allegedly being explored for ending the war include taking NATO membership for Ukraine off the table.
Members of the media work near the scene where the CEO of UnitedHealthcare Brian Thompson was reportedly shot and killed in Midtown Manhattan in New York City on Wednesday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 5, 2024

Questions of motive emerge in UnitedHealthcare CEO’s killing

Police in New York said it appears that UnitedHealthcare's CEO was targeted.
Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in the central Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 5, 2024

Amnesty says Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza

The human rights group said the legal threshold for the crime had been met, in its first such determination during an active armed conflict.
ChatGPT’s advanced voice mode is able to seamlessly go back-and-forth between languages with live, human-sounding responses and minimal errors.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 4, 2024

ChatGPT is now a creepy cultural chameleon

This uncanny tool that can speak 50 languages with human-like candor has the potential to forever change how people around the world interact with AI.
This threat of H5N1 avian flu has been exacerbated by inadequate testing, delayed genetic data and insufficient containment measures, with powerful agricultural interests influencing the response.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 4, 2024

A bird flu pandemic would be one of the most foreseeable catastrophes in history

The threat of H5N1 avian flu has been exacerbated by inadequate testing, delayed genetic data, and insufficient containment measures.
Royal Albert Hall in London will host a sumo tournament next year.
SUMO
Dec 5, 2024

Japan Sumo Association to hold tourney in London next year in rare overseas event

The announcement means the world's top professional sumo wrestlers will be competing in London for the first time since 1991.
National Police Agency Commissioner General Yasuhiro Tsuyuki
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 6, 2024

Police protected yami baito applicants in 125 cases

Since mid-October, the National Police Agency has been calling on applicants for such jobs to seek police advice and protection.
Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan leader Yoshihiko Noda speaks during a news conference last month.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 5, 2024

CDP and DPP to coordinate basic policies

The CDP aims to reach an agreement on basic policies with the DPP as early as possible within this fiscal year.

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A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake