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Desi Permatasari, 32, comforts her daughter, Sheena Almaera Maryam, 5, who was prescribed contaminated cough syrup last year in their home in Bogor, Indonesia.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Dec 24, 2023

When children take toxic cough syrup — and live

In Indonesia, one of the places most impacted by the contamination, families struggle to care for survivors while taking action against those responsible.
Demonstrators rally against COVID-19 vaccine mandates in Buffalo, New York, in February 2022.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2023

It’s past time scientists admitted their COVID-19 mistakes

In 2019, 13% of Americans were distrustful enough to say they weren’t confident in scientists to act in the public’s best interest. Now it is 27%.
A group of 19 host club owners in Kabukicho who own most of the host clubs in the area have pledged to ban the pay-later system by April and prohibit entry to those under 20 years old from January.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 26, 2023

How Japan's host clubs trap young women under mountains of debt

False promises of love — and even marriage — lead to huge bills for some as young as 18, who are often then coaxed into sex work to make repayments.
Construction work goes on in the Henoko coastal district of Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, on Monday, with Oura Bay in the foreground.
JAPAN
Dec 27, 2023

Japan to OK base relocation project design change by proxy

The approval of the change application will mark the central government's first-ever proxy execution of a local government administrative task.
An ambulance (left) carrying the body of South Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun leaves a park in central Seoul on Wednesday. Lee, best known for his role in the Oscar-winning film "Parasite," was found dead in an apparent suicide, Yonhap news agency reported.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Dec 27, 2023

'Parasite' actor Lee Sun-kyun found dead amid drug allegations

Lee had been under investigation amid an ongoing government crackdown on illegal drug use.
The Colorado Supreme Court in Denver, Colorado, on Dec. 20. The court ruled on Dec. 19 that Trump is ineligible for the White House under a provision of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment prohibiting officials who engage in "insurrection or rebellion" against the U.S. government from holding elected office.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 27, 2023

Police probe threats against Colorado justices after Trump ruling

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled last week that Trump is ineligible for the White House under the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment .
BYD exhibits its cars ahead of the Munich Motor Show in September.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 27, 2023

China's BYD set to overtake Tesla as world’s most popular EV maker

Its ascent will be both a symbolic turning point for the market and further confirmation of the growing Chinese clout in the global automotive sector.
Kazuhisa Yokoyama, the head of sales at Takashimaya, apologizes during a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 27, 2023

Takashimaya apologizes over damaged Christmas cakes

The pricey ¥5,400 cakes were meant to be delivered frozen, but many arrived melted, lopsided or crumbled.
Toyota's global production jumped 11% in November to a record level, bouncing back from last year's supply chain disruptions and benefiting from robust demand both in Japan and overseas.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 27, 2023

Toyota saw record November sales on demand from U.S. and Europe

Global sales — including that of subsidiaries Hino and Daihatsu — rose 12% from a year earlier to 986,262 units.
Economists often struggle to predict business downturns and different economic theories may apply in different situations.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 27, 2023

What economists got wrong about the Great Recession

Macroeconomics faces challenges and limitations in predicting and understanding economic events.
Ohkawara Kakohki President Masaaki Okawara speaks to reporters in front of the Tokyo District Court on Wednesday following a ruling ordering the government to pay damages.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 27, 2023

Tokyo court rules executives of spray dryer firm were wrongly indicted

The case involving Ohkawara Kakohki, a Yokohama-based manufacturer, has once again highlighted problems in the nation’s criminal justice system.
Supporters hoist a giant Taiwan national flag during a campaign rally for Kuomintang ahead of Taiwan's presidential election, in Taipei on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 27, 2023

Whisky and a coal 'shack': Taiwan election is not only about China

The candidates are exchanging blows over everything from property disputes to whether drinking whiskey is out of touch.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends the December 2023 plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, in Pyongyang.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 28, 2023

North Korea's Kim orders acceleration of war preparations

Kim also said Pyongyang would expand strategic cooperation with "anti-imperialist independent" countries, news agency KCNA reported.
Veteran politician Alan Leong in the now-empty headquarters of the Civic Party, once the city's second largest opposition party, in Hong Kong. Six lapel pins bearing the Civic Party's founding date are all Hong Kong veteran politician Alan Leong kept when the once-prominent opposition group cleared its headquarters and shuttered its doors days before the new year.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 28, 2023

Hong Kong's former second-largest opposition party shuts down

Since China imposed its security law, the Civic Party has seen members jailed, elected politicians unseated and a former lawmaker listed as a fugitive.
Reporters gather in front of the Upper House parliamentary building on Thursday in Tokyo. Prosecutors raided LDP lawmaker Yasutada Ono's office, which is located in the building, the same day.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 28, 2023

Second LDP member’s office raided over political funds scandal

Upper House member Yasutada Ono became the second lawmaker to have his offices searched by prosecutors in connection with the scandal.
As Japan’s borders opened back up and tourists eager to document their long-awaited trips to the country streamed back in, 2023 saw a handful of prominent content creators stir up trouble with local residents to grab attention online.
LIFE / Digital / 2023 in Review
Dec 29, 2023

Social media binged on bad behavior in 2023

Mischief makers like Johnny Somali and "sushi terrorism" instigators gained attention online amid a deluge of Japan-related content this year.
Police officers examine a scene where South Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun was found dead at a park in Seoul on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Dec 29, 2023

In South Korea, an unrelenting stance on drugs batters suspected users

Treatment experts say that authorities focus too much on punishment rather than rehabilitation.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda gives a news conference after a policy meeting at BOJ headquarters in Tokyo on Dec. 19.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 31, 2023

BOJ likely to finally seek normalization 2024

A turn in Japan's economic tide is in view as the Bank of Japan signals readiness to wind down its aggressive monetary stimulus.
New recruits for the People's Liberation Army attend a ceremony at a railway station in Ganzhou, in China's Jiangxi province, in March.
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 30, 2023

China’s legislature ousts nine military cadres as turmoil widens

The removals are a sign Chinese President Xi Jinping’s nearly decadelong drive to clean up the People’s Liberation Army is still incomplete.
Junya Hiramoto and Shimon Ishimaru, members of Johnny's Sexual Assault Victims Association who claim to have been sexually abused by the late founder of Johnny & Associates, hold a news conference at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo in September
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 30, 2023

More men seek sex abuse consultations after Johnny's scandal

According to Tokyo police, consultation requests from male victims surged in September after the agency admitted its founder had abused entertainers.
Al-Ittihad's Karim Benzema during a match against Al-Nassr in Jeddah on Tuesday.
SOCCER
Dec 31, 2023

Tiger or pussycat? Knives out as Benzema slumps with Al-Ittihad

A series of missed chances, including a botched penalty at the Club World Cup, has the 35-year-old Frenchman facing the wrath of the Jeddah club's fans.
A colorful coral reef made out of wool to raise awareness about climate change, at a museum in Baden-Baden, Germany, in January 2022
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Dec 31, 2023

The art world's big planetary problem

Over the last five years, it’s become increasingly clear to major art institutions in Japan and around the world that the sector has a sustainability issue.
Workers walk past an underconstruction area with completed office towers in the background in Shenzhen's Qianhai new district on Aug. 25, 2023.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 1, 2024

China's strained economy casts shadow over 2024

Last year, the economy was roiled by a real estate crisis, falling consumer confidence, deflation and the disappearance of foreign investment.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un looks on as a rocket carrying a spy satellite is launched in November.
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 31, 2023

North Korea plans new spy satellites in 2024 after earlier success

South Korea’s spy agency said it sees North Korea launching military and cyber provocations next year as Kim’s regime seeks to raise its profile.
People have their dinner at a restaurant as a screen broadcasts Chinese leader Xi Jinping's New Year's speech in Beijing on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 1, 2024

China's Xi says 'reunification' with Taiwan is inevitable

Chinese leader Xi Jinping's comments come less than two weeks to go before Taiwan elects a new president.
Chinese officials, led by leader Xi Jinping, attend a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Beijing on Dec. 20.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 1, 2024

Xi says willing to work with U.S. for stable relationship

Xi said he was willing to work with the United States to promote stable bilateral ties following his meeting with Biden in San Francisco in November.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets with commanders of the Korean People's Army in Pyongyang in this undated picture released Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 1, 2024

Kim tells army to 'annihilate' South Korea and U.S. if they initiate conflict

The North Korean leader told his top military officers to use maximum force against South Korea and the United States in event of war.
A warship at a joint naval exercise between the Iranian, Chinese and Russian navies in the northern Indian Ocean in January 2022. Iran's Alborz destroyer has entered the Red Sea, a region where Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi rebels have been conducting attacks on merchant vessels.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 2, 2024

Iranian warship enters Red Sea

News agency in Tehran did not specify reason for vessel's deployment but maintained that Iran's military had operated in the region since 2009.
Aleksandra Popova, an activist whose husband was a co-defendant in Yegor Shtovba's trial, outside Butyrka prison in Moscow on Dec. 21. Shtovba, who has spent the past 15 months in pretrial detention, married Nadezhda Shtovba last month in a short ceremony in a prison in downtown Moscow.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 2, 2024

Young love meets Russian repression. They said ‘I do’ in a Moscow prison.

Nadezhda Shtovba did not wear a white dress to her wedding. She and her husband did not exchange wedding bands either — rings are banned in Butyrka prison.
South Korea's opposition party leader Lee Jae-myung, in Busan, South Korea, on Tuesday before he was attacked
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 2, 2024

South Korea opposition chief attacked during visit to Busan

Lee was stabbed in the neck as he spoke with reporters, and his attacker was captured at the scene.

Longform

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