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Mac McClung dunks over a car during the slam dunk contest during the NBA All-Star Saturday night festivities in San Francisco.
BASKETBALL
Feb 16, 2025

Mac McClung leaps over car to three-peat as NBA Slam Dunk champ

The Miami Heat's Tyler Herro won the 3-Point Contest
The National Police Agency has been warning people that gambling on online casinos is illegal in Japan even if they are operating legally overseas.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 16, 2025

Police investigate comedians over alleged online casino gambling

Officials warn that online casinos are illegal in Japan even if they are operating legally overseas, but the number accused of using them continues to rise.
Himeji Castle in Hyogo Prefecture
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2025

Himeji Castle entrance fee to go up 2.5-fold for nonresidents

The city plans to use the resulting windfall for maintenance, online ticket sales, bag check services and guided tours for foreign visitors.
The U.S. State Department has dropped the phrase "we do not support Taiwan independence" from a fact sheet on the democratic island on its website.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 16, 2025

U.S. drops website wording on not supporting Taiwan independence

The page has also added a reference to Taiwan's cooperation with a Pentagon technology and semiconductor development project.
Tokyo Koon stands at the forefront of tackling the so-called 2025 issue, also known as the “Magnetic Tape Alert.”
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Feb 17, 2025

The race to save 20th-century history

Analog recordings are at risk of disappearing as old tech breaks down and spare parts run out.
U.S. President Donald Trump greets drivers prior to the start of the Daytona 500 in Daytona Beach, Florida, on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Feb 17, 2025

U.S. President Donald Trump attends Daytona 500

"This is your favorite president," Trump told the drivers in a radio message before the race. "I'm a big fan.
People pay tribute to late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny at his grave at the Borisovo cemetery, marking the first anniversary of his death while incarcerated in a remote Arctic penal colony, in Moscow on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 17, 2025

Russians risk reprisals to visit Navalny grave on death anniversary

Russia has still not fully explained the circumstances of his death.
Pierre Poilievre, leader of Canada's Conservative Party, speaks during a "Canada First" rally in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 17, 2025

Canada’s conservative leader pitches economy overhaul to counter Trump

Opposition leader Poilievre aimed to persuade Canadians Sunday that he’s the best candidate to lead the country in a looming tariff war with the U.S.
As an alternative way of wagering on yen strength, some firms are using strategies involving European currencies, rather than the U.S. dollar, to profit from a widening rate differential with Japan.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 17, 2025

Dollar swings drive creative yen bulls to European-currency trades

Some firms are using strategies involving European currencies, rather than the dollar, to profit from a widening rate differential with Japan.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (left) is pictured during his meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 17, 2025

Israel and U.S. vow to counter Iran's nuclear ambitions in Jerusalem talks

Speaking after meeting U.S. Secretary of State Rubio in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Netanyahu said they discussed a number of issues, "none more important than Iran."
Co-leader and main candidate of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party Alice Weidel is seen on a screen as she takes part in a TV debate in Berlin on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 17, 2025

Anger, fear, nostalgia: Why German voters back far-right AfD

All other parties have pledged to isolate it behind a "firewall" of noncooperation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin of Russia after a military parade on Victory Day in Red Square in Moscow on May 9, 2024.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 17, 2025

EU seeks a military revival under pressure from Putin and Trump

European leaders have been charged with reviving the continent’s military power after almost 80 years in which they essentially outsourced much of their security to the U.S.
Elon Musk speaks next to U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Feb. 11.
WORLD
Feb 17, 2025

Musk’s DOGE team seeks access to taxpayer information

The U.S. has strict laws that prohibit the disclosure of taxpayer data, though there are exceptions for law enforcement.
Excess sugar intake — especially of sucrose, or table sugar — can lead to ailments such as obesity and diabetes.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Feb 17, 2025

Researchers discover bacteria that can limit body’s sugar absorption

Researchers hope the findings will contribute to developing a new treatment method for obesity and diabetes.
Former digital minister Taro Kono has long counted reform of social security and pensions among his pet policies.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Feb 17, 2025

It’s time to get serious on the pension system, ex-digital minister says

The pension study group offers Taro Kono an opportunity to tentatively step back into the limelight after an unusually quiet period.
Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou celebrates after his team win over Manchester United on Sunday.
SOCCER
Feb 17, 2025

Pressure on Postecoglou eases as Tottenham avoids 'car crash' against United

The Australian has been under intense pressure with his injury-hit team languishing in the lower reaches of the league table and bowing out of both domestic cups last week.
A government-hired hunter holds up a captured iguana in Pingtung County, Taiwan, on Feb. 10. Taiwan's iguana population has exploded since the spikey-backed giant lizards were introduced more than 20 years ago as exotic pets. Many escaped or were dumped by their owners and have bred rapidly in the warm climate of southern Taiwan, invading neighborhoods and ravaging farmers' crops.
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 17, 2025

Taiwan bounty hunters kill invading iguanas as numbers soar

Taiwan began culling iguanas nearly 10 years ago and this year's target has been set at more than 100,000.
UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima in Addis Ababa on Sunday
WORLD / Politics
Feb 17, 2025

Trump's aid freeze could cause millions more AIDS deaths: U.N. agency

Deaths could increase tenfold to 6.3 million in five years, according to UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima.
Naturalized Japanese citizens from Taiwan will be able to list Taiwan as their place of origin in their family register instead of China from May.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 17, 2025

Naturalized Japanese can soon list Taiwan as original nationality

Since Japan does not officially recognize Taiwan as a country, those from the self-ruled island had been required to list China as their original nationality.
One-third of elementary school students in Japan do not like learning English, according to a 2021 poll, an 8% rise since 2013. The pressure of taking proficiency tests is eroding children's  engagement with studying English and its benefits.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 17, 2025

Japan’s English-language education doesn’t pass the test

An excessive focus on testing students' English ability is turning language learning into a chore, depriving children of the joy and opportunities of intercultural communication.
Cadets of the Russian patriotic movement Youth Army hold trench candles at a school museum in the town of Istra in the Moscow region on Jan. 24.
WORLD / Society
Feb 17, 2025

Berets, boots and flags: Russia teaches young children to revere army

One pro-military youth group's agenda covers everything from sports competitions to how to handle a Kalashnikov rifle.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (C) arrives in Saudi Arabia on Monday prior to a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco. Top U.S. and Russian diplomats will meet in Riyadh on Tuesday for talks on resetting the countries' fractured relations and making a tentative start on trying to end the conflict in Ukraine.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 18, 2025

Top Russia and U.S. officials to meet in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday

Meanwhile, European leaders were gathering for emergency talks on how to respond to the radical pivot by the new U.S. administration.
Japan’s robo-adviser market, estimated to be worth around ¥3 trillion, has massive room for growth, says the CEO of robo-adviser Folio Holdings.
BUSINESS
Feb 18, 2025

SBI-backed Japan robo-adviser Folio targets swing to profit and IPO

Japan’s robo-adviser market is estimated to be worth around $19.8 billion.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Chernyshov (center left), German Head of the Federal Chancellery and Minister for Special Tasks Wolfgang Schmidt and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attend the Munich Security Conference in Munich on Saturday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 18, 2025

Security demands cast new shadow on Europe's finances

Some fear a political backlash if governments simply slash social spending to buy more soldiers and guns.
Members of Taiwan's armed forces, riding on a M60A3 tank, participate in a drill as part of a demonstration for the media to show combat readiness, at a military base in Taitung, Taiwan, on Jan. 31, 2024.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 18, 2025

Taiwan considering multibillion dollar arms purchase from U.S., sources say

Taipei is hoping to win support from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump as China continues to apply military pressure on the island.
Atsuko Sato holds her shiba inu, Neiro, alongside the bronze statue of her shiba inu Kabosu, in Sakura, Chiba Prefecture, in December.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2025

Shiba inu Kabosu continues to be loved after death

Atsuko Sato received many letters from Kabosu fans across Japan on the dog's birthday last November, six months after her death.
Discussion that took place at the the reconstruction and future creation conference
ESG CONSORTIUM
Feb 18, 2025

NRI helps Noto town of Anamizu grow back better following quake

The major earthquake that jolted Ishikawa Prefecture’s Noto Peninsula on Jan. 1, 2024, drew attention to the area’s severe issue of an aging and shrinking population, but efforts to revive the Anamizu Town, which is in the center of the Noto Peninsula, will aid the overall recovery, according to...
Karlheinz Rabas, an 87-year-old historian, in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, on Jan. 16
WORLD / Politics
Feb 18, 2025

German voters demand change as Europe's biggest economy stalls

A constitutional debt brake has prevented successive governments from making vital investments needed to overhaul Germany's ailing economic model.
Work to dismantle wastewater storage tanks are under way at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant as part of steps to decommission the entire facility.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2025

U.N. nuclear chief to view soil removed from Fukushima

Workers at the wrecked plant on Japan's northeast coast last week began dismantling wastewater storage tanks to free up space for tons of nuclear debris.
An Israeli military excavator drives past destroyed houses in the Lebanese village of Dhayra near the border with northern Israel, on Monday.
WORLD
Feb 18, 2025

Deadline for Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon expires

Israeli troops had started withdrawing from some border villages, but they seemed poised to stay in key areas.

Longform

Tokyo Koon stands at the forefront of tackling the so-called 2025 issue, also known as the “Magnetic Tape Alert.”
The race to save 20th-century history