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Hong Kong's top court sided against the government on Tuesday by affirming housing and inheritance entitlements for same-sex couples.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Nov 26, 2024

Hong Kong court affirms housing and inheritance rights for same-sex couples

Judges of the Court of Final Appeal ruled that existing policies "cannot be justified" and are "discriminatory and unconstitutional."
The labor ministry will urge companies to take action against the practice of forcing employees to buy their own products to meet sales quotas.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 26, 2024

Japan steps up measures against firms forcing workers to buy own products

The labor ministry will define such practices as a form of power harassment and require companies to take action when they occur.
Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko, followed by Princess Aiko and Princess Kako, prepare to attend a funeral service for Princess Yuriko at Toshimagaoka Cemetery in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 26, 2024

Funeral held for Princess Yuriko at Tokyo cemetery

The princess had been hospitalized since early March due to a stroke and pneumonia. She died of natural causes on Nov. 15 at age 101.
Plastic waste that manicurist Naomi Arimoto collected from the sand at a beach, is pictured at her nail salon in Chigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Oct. 21.
JAPAN
Nov 26, 2024

Japanese manicurist takes on plastic pollution, one nail at a time

Naomi Arimoto carefully sifts beach sand for tiny bits of plastic that she can mold into decorative tips to put on the false nails at her salon.
At the United Nations climate conference in Baku, rich nations found that efforts to reduce their own emissions and fund climate programs elsewhere in the world bought them little favor with developing countries most at risk of global warming.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 26, 2024

Clean power must offer more hope to beat fossil fuels

Wealthy nations must treat climate change as a genuine crisis, advocating for bold financing programs to enable poor nations to industrialize with clean energy.
Although a quick resolution to the war may seem appealing, forcing Ukraine to capitulate would merely embolden Russia and its Chinese, Iranian and North Korean allies.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 26, 2024

Trump’s best hope for peace is to support Ukraine

Nearly two months before his return to the White House, Donald Trump appears intent on pressuring Ukraine to accept territorial losses in exchange for ending the war.
Global beef consumption has slowed and the carbon footprint of the global cattle herd may already be declining.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 26, 2024

Peak beef could already be here

Global beef consumption has slowed and the carbon footprint of the global cattle herd may already be declining.
Oil drilling equipment on federal land near Fellows, California. Drilling activity on federal lands and waters accounts for about a quarter of U.S. oil production and 12% of gas output.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 26, 2024

Trump prepares wide-ranging energy plan centered on gas and oil, sources say

The plan to roll out the list as early as day one ensures that oil and gas production will rank alongside immigration as a pillar of Trump's early agenda.
Ten percent of municipalities said they did not know details of the megaquake warning system or how to respond to the alert, and 2.8% said they did not even know its name.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 27, 2024

Many municipalities in Japan lack understanding of megaquake advisory system

A Cabinet Office survey found that 12.8% of municipalities were not aware of what steps they should take when a megaquake advisory is issued.
People near Martyrs Square in Beirut watch as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces a cease-fire on television on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 27, 2024

Israel-Hezbollah cease-fire, brokered by U.S. and France, takes effect

The cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah promises to end a devastating conflict that has claimed thousands of lives over the past year.
Trucks wait near the Zaragoza-Ysleta border crossing bridge to cross into the U.S., in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 27, 2024

Trump tariffs would harm all involved, U.S. trade partners say

Officials warn a trade war could erupt and damage economies, and seek talks with Trump after his surprise announcement of hefty tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China.
Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro arrives at the President Juscelino Kubitschek International Airport in Brasilia on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 27, 2024

Bolsonaro was directly involved in 2022 coup plot, Brazil's police say

The final police report, the result of a nearly two-year investigation, lays out evidence pointing to a criminal conspiracy with Jair Bolsonaro at the helm.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk watch the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket in Brownsville, Texas, on Nov. 19.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 27, 2024

Musk pushes his preferred political picks via X. Trump isn't always swayed.

Several high-profile cases show some early limits to the billionaire's influence even as he has emerged as one of the president-elect's most powerful allies.
Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun attends the opening ceremony of the Xiangshan Forum at the Beijing International Convention Center on Sept. 13. Dong is the third consecutive incumbent or former defense chief to be probed over alleged corruption.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 27, 2024

China defense minister being investigated for corruption, report says

The probe could undermine efforts to maintain military-to-military communications just months before Donald Trump returns to the White House.
Hideo Yamada (left), head of the Shizuoka District Public Prosecutor's Office, apologizes to former death row inmate Iwao Hakamata (second from right) at his home in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 27, 2024

Shizuoka prosecutor apologizes to Hakamata following his acquittal

The Shizuoka District Court acquitted Iwao Hakamata last September, ruling that investigating authorities had fabricated evidence in the 1966 murder case.
Chen Chieh-hsien, the captain of Taiwan's baseball team, waves to the crowd during a parade to celebrate the team winning the Premier12 title over Japan, on Tuesday in Taipei.
BASEBALL
Nov 27, 2024

President welcomes home victorious team amid surge of Taiwan pride

On Tuesday, the team took part in a thronged ticker tape parade through central Taipei to the presidential office on the back of military jeeps and trucks.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te waves to the crowd on the island's national day in Taipei on Oct. 10.
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 27, 2024

China could launch military drills near Taiwan over president's Pacific visit

President Lai Ching-te will start a visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific on Saturday, and was also planning stops in Hawaii and possibly the U.S. territory of Guam.
Hyogo Prefectural Police headquarters. A wild boar attacked children and staff at a child care facility in the prefecture on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 27, 2024

Wild boar injures six at Himeji child care facility

A 3-year-old boy was hospitalized after sustaining serious injuries from the attack.
Fukuoka Prefectural Police Headquarters in Fukuoka. Police took a 37-year-old man into custody on Monday on suspicion of trespassing on a property in Dazaifu City.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 27, 2024

Japanese man broke into 1,000 homes to 'relieve stress'

'Breaking into other people's homes is a hobby of mine, and I have done it more than 1,000 times,' the man was quoted as saying.
Two glasses of alcohol-free wine are pictured in a bar in Frankfurt on Nov. 20.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 27, 2024

German family winery taps into zero-alcohol trend

The company produces about 17 million bottles of alcohol-free wine a year, with sales up by around 35% annually.
An Iranian woman, in her house in Tehran while the electricity is cut off due to energy savings in 2021
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 27, 2024

Iran's businesses bear brunt of daily power blackouts

Iran, despite holding some of the world's largest natural gas and oil reserves, has grappled with massive energy shortages in recent months.
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah at Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 27, 2024

Biden hopes to parlay Lebanon cease-fire into a broader regional peace

With a deal to end more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, the U.S. leader turns his attention back to halting the war in Gaza before leaving office.
Beijing’s long-standing line has been a commitment to keep the yuan "basically stable.” But U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s return — and his threat of tariffs — may test that.
COMMENTARY
Nov 27, 2024

China will send a weaker yuan to the Trump front

Beijing’s long-standing line has been a commitment to keep the yuan "basically stable.” But Trump’s return with his tariff threats may test that.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un welcomes Russian President Vladimir Putin at a ceremony in Pyongyang in June. If North Korean troops sent to the war in Ukraine under an agreement between the two nations are used for anything other than cannon fodder, they may gain experience that could improve the communist nation's military.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 27, 2024

Autocrats challenge traditional geopolitics and strategic boundaries

Emerging "common market of autocracies" are enabling regimes like Russia and North Korea to evade Western sanctions through unconventional networks and barter systems.
DPP leader Yuichiro Tamaki in Tokyo on Tuesday
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 27, 2024

DPP’s Tamaki leverages new position with energy proposal

Yuichiro Tamaki has been a long-time advocate of nuclear power and the reactivation of Japan’s halted nuclear power plants.
Myanmar's junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing presides over an army parade in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, in March 2021.
WORLD
Nov 27, 2024

ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrant for Myanmar military leader

Soldiers, police and Buddhist villagers are alleged by U.N. investigators to have razed hundreds of villages in the remote western Rakhine state.
A man stands near a damaged house in Avivim, a community in northern Israel, on Wednesday, after a ceasefire was agreed to by Israel and Hezbollah.
WORLD
Nov 28, 2024

Northern Israel residents fume at ceasefire, still feel vulnerable to attack

Many residents of northern Israel fear Hezbollah may try to launch a ground assault, similar to the Hamas attack on Israel's south on Oct. 7, 2023.
Keiichi Kaburagi (Ryusei Yokohama) goes on the run after being sentenced to death for a triple murder he insists he didn’t commit in Michihito Fujii’s “Faceless.”
CULTURE / Film
Nov 28, 2024

‘Faceless’: Fugitive thriller turns a blind eye to hard truths

Michihiro Fujii’s latest offers stylistic flourishes while treading the familiar terrain of the fugitive film.
Nobuo Hara, the head of a group seeking to halt the No. 2 reactor at Tohoku Electric Power's Onagawa nuclear power plant, speaks at a news conference on Wednesday in Sendai after the Sendai High Court ruled against them.
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2024

Court rejects request to halt restarted Onagawa nuclear reactor

A judge said there was "no concrete proof" that an incident that could not be handled under an established evacuation plan would occur.
A statue of Konosuke Matsushita in the grounds of the Konosuke Matsushita Museum in Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 28, 2024

‘God of management’ comes back to life as an AI model

Panasonic icon Konosuke Matsushita is one of the most respected by the Japanese business community.

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Yasuyuki Yoshida stirs a brew in a fermentation tank at his brewery in Hakusan.
The quake that shook Noto's sake brewing tradition