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Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a Security Council meeting via videoconference in Moscow on Saturday.
WORLD
Dec 29, 2024

Russia's Putin apologizes to Azerbaijan over 'tragic' airliner crash

Four sources with knowledge of the preliminary findings of Azerbaijan's investigation said that Russian air defenses had mistakenly shot the airliner down.
Rohingya refugees Shamshida (left), who had to flee one of the last refuges in Myanmar for the Rohingya Muslim minority, and her sister Manwara in their tent in Teknaf, Bangladesh, on Nov. 5
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 29, 2024

For the Rohingya, tormentors change but not the torment

This violence was not at the hands of the military, though. Instead, it was from a pro-democracy rebel group that was raised to fight the army.
Ground Self-Defense Force members conduct a military drill next to an anti-ship missile unit on Miyako Island in Okinawa Prefecture in April 2022.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Dec 29, 2024

Japan defense spending goals hit by inflation, weak yen and political uncertainty

A slew of obstacles are jeopardizing Tokyo's pursuit of raising defense spending to 2% of gross domestic product by fiscal 2027.
Elon Musk walks through Capitol Hill on the day of a meeting with Senate Republican Leader-elect John Thune in Washington on Dec. 5.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 29, 2024

Trump sides with Musk in rightwing row over worker visas

Trump's calls to slash immigration were central to his election victory but Big Tech says the U.S. produces too few highly skilled graduates.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends a meeting of the country's ruling party in Pyongyang in this photo released Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 29, 2024

North Korea launches 'toughest' U.S. strategy at key party meeting

In a signal to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, North Korea has used a key party meeting overseen by leader Kim Jong Un to announce its “toughest” ever strategy to counter the United States, Pyongyang's state-run media said Sunday.
Stuttgart's Anrie Chase applauds the fans after a match against Bayer Leverkusen on Nov. 1.
SOCCER
Dec 29, 2024

How Anrie Chase went from a Fukushima high school to playing against Real Madrid

Just three years ago, the Stuttgart defender was still playing for Shoshi High School in Koriyama. Now he's competing against the likes of Kylian Mbappe.
A woman receives a COVID-19 vaccine in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in October.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Dec 29, 2024

Meiji Seika Pharma files suit against lawmaker over 'unfounded' vaccine claims

CDP Lower House lawmaker Kazuhiro Haraguchi has said that the drugmaker's replicon vaccine is "akin to a biological weapon."
People cover themselves with umbrellas during a hot summer day in Tokyo's Ginza district in August. Temperatures shot up in early July, even before the official end of the rainy season, and the high temperatures persisted well into the fall.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Dec 29, 2024

Japan’s weather in 2024: Record temperatures hurt people’s health and wallets

Average temperatures across the nation and surrounding seas exceeded last year’s record-breaking levels "by a significant margin," affecting everything from well-being to farming.
Shohei Ohtani waves toward the fans after a game on Sept. 19 against the Marlins in Miami in which the Dodgers' superstar had a performance for the ages, compiling six hits, including three home runs, and two stolen bases to become the first member of MLB's 50-50 club.
SPORTS
Dec 29, 2024

Sports images of 2024: Olympic drama and Shohei Ohtani's season for the ages

On the global stage of sports, Japan's Olympians and baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani showed the world what they were made of.
Bashar Assad's fall offers a chance to rebuild Syria, but the history of Middle East stabilization is littered with failure, making the coming months crucial.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 26, 2024

Rebuilding Syria after the ouster of the dictator Assad

Hope must be tempered by caution. Across the Middle East, the removal of strongmen has generally produced violent chaos.
According to the National Police Agency, a total of 3,326 romance scam were reported in the first 11 months of this year, more than double that in the same period of last year.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 30, 2024

'For our future together': The rising threat of romance scams in Japan

The prevalence of such scams, which prey on the lonely, has led authorities to step up measures to crack down on scammers who are often not even in the country.
A drone view shows smoke above Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip, as seen from near Kibbutz Nir Am in southern Israel on Dec. 12.
WORLD
Dec 30, 2024

Israeli forces order evacuation of northern Gaza town, residents say

Palestinian and United Nations officials say no place is safe in Gaza and that evacuations worsen the humanitarian conditions of the population.
Roki Sasaki in action for Japan in a World Baseball Classic game against Czech Republic in Tokyo in March 2023
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 30, 2024

MLB teams making pitches to Roki Sasaki

The pitcher is expected to sign with a club soon after the opening of the 2025 international signing period on Jan. 15.
Members of the Wajima City Morning Market Association pose for a group photograph on the site where the market once stood.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Dec 30, 2024

In the wake of disaster, the revival of Wajima's market brings hope

Wajima's morning market on the Noto Peninsula was devastated a year ago. Now, led by women vendors and bold ideas, it is rising as a symbol of resilience.
Former President Jimmy Carter, furthest right, in a group photo with his successors at the White House in 2009. From his re-election defeat in 1980 until his death on Sunday, he was the odd man out, distant from the Republicans and Democrats who followed him.
WORLD
Dec 30, 2024

In the presidents’ club, Carter was the odd man out

Jimmy Carter’s relationship with his successors in the Oval Office, both Republicans and fellow Democrats, was generally tense because of his outspokenness.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola celebrates after his team defeated Leicester City 2-0 in Leicester, England, on Sunday.
SOCCER
Dec 30, 2024

Guardiola relieved at much-needed win in 500th game

Manchester City won for the first time in five league games to climb to a provisional fifth in the Premier League.
Oleksandr, a 45-year-old Ukrainian soldier of the 1st Separate Assault Battalion Da Vinci, who left his unit without permission and later returned to the army, poses for a portrait in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, on Dec. 12.
WORLD / Society
Dec 30, 2024

Desertions spark panic, and pardons, in Ukraine's army

More than 90,000 cases have been opened into instances of soldiers in Ukraine going absent without leave or deserting since Russia invaded in 2022.
Private detective Marcus Lentz holds his camera as he poses for photos in his office in Hanau, western Germany, on Dec. 20.
BUSINESS
Dec 30, 2024

For German 'sick leave detective,' business is booming

Workers in Germany, on average, took 15.1 days of sick leave last year, up from 11.1 days in 2021.
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter (center) waves after meeting with authorities in Port-au-Prince about the upcoming elections in Haiti in 1990.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 30, 2024

'Democracy and freedom': Jimmy Carter's human rights work in Latin America

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter defied the furor of U.S. conservatives to negotiate the handover of the Panama Canal to Panamanian control.
Midori Kato has been voice acting the character Sazae Fuguta in the TV animation series "Sazae-san" since it started in 1969.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Dec 30, 2024

Still sounding young at 85, Midori Kato is the voice of old Japan

The voice actor is the last original member of the cast of “Sazae-san,” a cartoon series that premiered in 1969 and never quite joined the modern world.
At 60, the shinkansen has been mostly stuck in Japan, with only one system ever sold overseas.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 1, 2025

Japan’s go-slow approach to selling high-speed rail globally

The shinkansen has been mostly stuck in Japan as competitors from Europe and China sell their own high-speed trains in an increasing number of countries.
Although meat consumption has been dropping, it's not happening quickly enough to meet climate targets, something to keep in mind over the holidays.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2024

Why are my vegan friends going back to meat?

Helping people eat healthier diets with more fruit, vegetables and fiber would have enormous benefits for human well-being and the planet.
Indonesia's plan to increase biodiesel mandates to 50% by 2028 could require clearing 5.3 million hectares of forest for palm oil plantations by 2042, an area larger than Denmark.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2024

The year’s worst climate news you haven’t heard about

Not enough floodwaters for dams, more coal burning and demand for Indonesian palm oil show efforts to slow global warming are flagging.
OnlyFans CEO Keily Blair gestures during the Axios BFD event in New York on Oct. 12, 2023.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 30, 2024

How OnlyFans turned into a global empire bent on redefining porn

For all its ambition and influence, the inner workings of OnlyFans remain opaque.
Demonstrators from a labor group take part in a protest calling for the ouster of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol outside City Hall in Seoul on Dec. 12.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 30, 2024

South Korea investigators seek arrest warrant for Yoon over martial law

The application by investigators marks the first attempt in the country's history to forcibly detain a president before the impeachment procedure is complete.
Sales of Ibiden's AI-use substrates are robust, with customers buying up all the company can sell.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 30, 2024

Nvidia supplier Ibiden weighs faster expansion for AI demand

Sales of the 112-year-old company’s AI-use substrates are robust, with customers buying up all that Ibiden can sell, CEO Koji Kawashima said in an interview.
Players test "2045," a new board game by Mizo Games set against the backdrop of armed conflicts around Taiwan, in Taipei on Sept. 22.
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 30, 2024

Taiwanese board game invites players to imagine Chinese invasion

The new game, titled 2045, tasks gamers with navigating the troubles of war by using colorful action cards.
Ian Lynam's "Fracture" is the result of 15 years of research and production and excavates 100 years of Japanese graphic design history from the Meiji (1868-1912) to Showa eras (1926-89).
CULTURE / Books
Jan 4, 2025

‘Fracture’ dissects 100 years of Japanese graphic design

Ian Lynam puts his kaleidoscopic expertise to work examining Japanese graphic design from an internationalist and feminist perspective.
A customer uses a bank card at a contactless payment terminal on a stall at the Bauveau Market in Paris on Feb. 15, 2023.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 30, 2024

Drama-prone fintechs face mixed regulatory environment in 2025

The incoming U.S. administration has made financial deregulation a policy priority for the next four years while European policymakers continue to take a cautious approach.
A monitor in Tokyo shows the Nikkei stock average closing at its best year-end level ever, topping the previous high marked in 1989.
BUSINESS / Markets
Dec 30, 2024

Japan's Nikkei ends 2024 with nearly 20% rise

At 39,894.54, the benchmark index finished at its best year-end level ever, topping the previous high from the end of 1989 at the height of the country's bubble economy.

Longform

Passengers that were on a morning train attacked by members of the Aum Shinrikyo group wait for medical assistance outside Kasumigaseki Station on March 20,1995.
The day a religious cult brought terror to Tokyo