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Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and U.S. President Donald Trump
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Feb 6, 2025

With Ishiba-Trump meet, Tokyo hopes to keep ties on even keel

Tokyo has been scrambling for ways to placate the U.S. leader, and head off any dust-up between the allies during Friday’s meeting.
Nippon Steel's pursuit of U.S. Steel has stretched on for more than a year, with U.S. President Donald Trump vociferously condemning the proposal on numerous occasions, before Friday's more tempered remarks at the Oval Office with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at his side.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 8, 2025

Trump says Nippon Steel will invest in U.S. Steel, not buy it

It was unclear if the investment referred to a new deal structure and what the details of the transaction would be.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and U.S. President Donald Trump. Microsoft and Nvidia are quietly engaging with the Trump administration on policies affecting AI, chip exports and data centers
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 9, 2025

Tech giants Microsoft and Nvidia taking a quieter approach to Trump

Under Biden, the United States curbed the sale of Nvidia chips to China and capped the sales of its AI chips to more than 100 other countries
A worker welds at a steel manufacturing facility in Mexico City on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 10, 2025

Trump to announce 25% steel and aluminum tariffs in latest escalation

Trump, speaking to reporters on Air Force One on his way to the Super Bowl in New Orleans, said he will announce the new metals tariffs on Monday.
Investors believe the amicable atmosphere of the first summit between Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday has the potential to help support Japanese stocks in the medium term.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 10, 2025

Japan markets wobble as Trump talks of new steel tariffs for 'everyone'

The U.S. president's talk of reciprocal tariffs for "everyone” has provided a reminder of the risks that face America’s trading partners.
On Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters that U.S. Steel would remain American.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 10, 2025

Nippon Steel goes quiet after U.S. Steel deal seemingly nixed for good

Comments over the weekend by U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba point to the U.S. steelmaker remaining American.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba shows a picture of him with U.S. President Donald Trump during a joint news conference at the White House on Friday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 12, 2025

Ishiba navigates the low expectations for Japan’s foreign policy

The summit proceeded well enough, but some will argue that this is only because Ishiba had a low bar for his engagement.
The U.S. Steel Mon Valley Works Edgar Thomson Plant in Braddock, Pennsylvania.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 14, 2025

Nippon Steel wants 100% of U.S. Steel, not a minority stake, report says

Last week, the deal appeared effectively dead after a meeting between Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and U.S. President Donald Trump.
Talks on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. taking a controlling stake in Intel's factories at the request of Trump administration officials are in very early stages, and the exact structure of a potential partnership hasn’t been established. But the intended result would have the world’s largest made-to-order chipmaker fully operating Intel’s U.S. semiconductor factories.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 15, 2025

TSMC considers running Intel’s U.S. factories after Trump team request

Trump officials raised the idea of a deal between the two companies in recent meetings with the Taiwanese chipmaker, and TSMC was receptive.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance speaks at the Munich Security Conference in the German city on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 15, 2025

Vance attack on Europe overshadows Ukraine talks at security conference

The U.S. vice president said what worried him most about Europe was an alleged censoring of free speech and "out-of-control" immigration.
Group of Seven top diplomats, including Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya (second from left) and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (right), meet on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in the German city on Saturday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 16, 2025

Japanese FM asks U.S. counterpart to exempt Tokyo from Trump tariffs

The foreign minister also said that he had broached the issue of Trump’s planned tariffs on automobiles imported to the U.S.
People shop in a supermarket as inflation affected consumer prices in Manhattan, New York City, in June 2022.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Feb 21, 2025

'Stagflation' fears haunt U.S. markets despite Trump's pro-growth agenda

The dreaded scenario has crept back as a key risk for investors in recent weeks.
Connor McDavid, seen during an NHL game with the Oilers, scored the winning goal for Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off final against the United States on Thursday.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 21, 2025

Canada beats U.S. to win 4 Nations tournament filled with political tension

The taut action on the ice mirrored the geopolitical tensions bubbling in North America since U.S. President Donald Trump took office last month.
Goods are transported through a business district in Dongguan, in China’s southern Guangdong province.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Feb 24, 2025

Trump tariffs shake up China's factory heartland

The U.S. president has targeted friend and foe alike since taking office a month ago, notably slapping additional 10% duties on products imported from China.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy departs following a contentious meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday. Plans to sign a critical minerals deal between the two nations were scrapped after the talks quickly devolved into a fiery exchange over U.S. support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 2, 2025

Trump’s Oval Office clash with Zelenskyy was a win for Putin

Nobody in Ukraine, or any other country formerly under Moscow’s boot, believes that Putin will honor the terms of a ceasefire without credible guarantees.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 4, 2025

Trump says Ukraine deal still possible despite Zelenskyy feud

Trump’s relatively optimistic assessment could revive prospects for a deal that appeared to be scrapped last week to give the U.S. revenue from Ukraine’s minerals.
A herd of sheep move across a solar farm in Haskell, Texas, on Dec. 2, 2024.
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 4, 2025

Sheep grazing under solar panels help U.S. farmers to survive crop-price slump

Instead of plowing fields, Raines spent the year ferrying his flock of sheep to solar farms, to munch on the grass that grows around the gleaming panels.
Many Japanese companies are exporting more to the United States to get ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 5, 2025

Japanese firms boost exports to U.S. to get ahead of tariffs

Overall, Japanese exports to the U.S. jumped 8.1% in January to ¥1.5 trillion ($10 billion), the highest for the month in at least 19 years.
Elbridge Colby appears at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee to be undersecretary of defense for policy at the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 5, 2025

Trump Pentagon policy pick pushes Japan and Taiwan to boost defense spending

Tokyo should boost its defense budget to 3% of GDP "as soon as possible,” said Elbridge Colby, Trump's pick for the top policy job at the Pentagon.
Nippon Steel is trying to build its business globally with U.S. Steel as a key component.
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Mar 5, 2025

U.S. Steel seen as key to Nippon Steel's global strategy

To meet its target of raising its annual crude steel production capacity to over 100 million metric tons, the firm needs to forge ahead into promising foreign markets.
Balboa Port, operated by Panama Ports Company, at the Panama Canal. Conglomerate CK Hutchison, controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, has agreed to sell its ports network, including assets along the Panama Canal, to a U.S. consortium led by BlackRock.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Mar 7, 2025

As Trump hails taking back of Panama Canal, Hong Kong Inc. walks tightrope

Firms in the former British colony are increasingly under pressure to shake off any connection with China amid tensions between Beijing and Washington.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Friday. Trump said tariffs could be imposed on Canadian dairy and lumber products within days, in a growing trade war with the United States' northern neighbor.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Mar 8, 2025

Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff strategy sows confusion

Hasty announcements have injected chaos into the economy and financial markets, casting doubts about the White House’s trade strategy.
A man is silhouetted beneath a screen displaying Japan's Nikkei share average in Tokyo on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 8, 2025

Japanese stocks expected to remain on downward trend amid tariff turmoil

Uncertainties over U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs this week pushed the Nikkei 225 index below 37,000 for the first time in six months.
A man watches a television screen showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at the main rail station in Seoul on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 10, 2025

North Korea fires multiple missiles after slamming U.S.-South Korea drills

The launches came hours after Pyongyang condemned the South Korean and U.S. militaries for launching drills that it said were a "dangerous provocative act."
Men carry a large poster of the Democrats Party (Demokraatit) past a polling station in Nuuk, Greenland, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 13, 2025

Greenland to get new government to lead independence process

Trump's threats to take over the resource-rich Arctic island have shined an unprecedented global spotlight on Greenlandic politics.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Henry Kissinger, former U.S. secretary of state, attend a meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 21, 2023

White House looks forward to hearing about Kissinger's China trip

Kissinger — an architect of normalizing ties between Washington and Beijing in the 1970s — was welcomed warmly as an "old friend" by Xi Jinping.
While the U.S. referenced China 20 times in its October announcement of semiconductor export controls targeting Chinese companies, Japan has chosen broad equipment controls not specifically aimed at its bigger neighbor.
BUSINESS
Jul 24, 2023

As Japan aligns with U.S. chip curbs on China, some in Tokyo feel uneasy

Tokyo remains worried that targeting China will provoke damaging retaliation, such as a ban on Japanese electric cars.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken shakes hands with Tonga's Prime Minister Hu'akavameiliku Siaosi in Nuku'alofa, Tonga, on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 26, 2023

Antony Blinken in Tonga warns of 'predatory' Chinese aid

As part of a drive to build Washington's influence across the region and to counter Beijing's growing clout, Blinken touched down in Tonga on a diplomatic charm offensive.
Donald Trump tours construction of the southern border wall near Alamo, Texas, in January 2021.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jul 28, 2023

U.S. says Trump ordered video deleted as second employee charged

A maintenance worker at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort was charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, with accusations of helping to hide documents.
From left: Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin hold a news conference in Brisbane on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 29, 2023

U.S. to expand military footprint in Australia

Changes include frequent visits of U.S. submarines to Australia, rotation of U.S. Army watercraft and collaborating on guided missile production.

Longform

Wealthier women in the prewar era had been the targets of various media-related health campaigns that mistakenly encouraged them to avoid everything from riding bicycles to reading novels when their monthly cycles came around.
Menstruation in Japan: Breaking the silence, slowly