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U.S. President Jimmy Carter and then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan greet each other before their U.S. presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio, in October 1980.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2025

What if Reagan's vision had been more like Carter's?

Yes, Carter had his share of missteps, but he was way, way, way ahead of his time on clean energy.
In November, BlackRock and rivals were sued by Texas and 10 other Republican-led states that claimed their activism cut coal production and boosted energy prices.
BUSINESS
Jan 10, 2025

BlackRock quits climate group as Wall Street lowers environmental profile

The world's biggest asset manager is the latest Wall Street firm to depart an environmentally focused investor group under pressure from Republican politicians.
Otono Kuboki, a Japanese Canadian hair stylist for salon chain Sozo, is a key figure in the company's mission to elevate the viability of Japan's hairdressing industry to foreign residents.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jan 11, 2025

Can an international makeover help Tokyo salons meet foreign demand?

Sozo Education aims to train Tokyo’s next crop of stylists not just in English vocabulary related to hairdressing but in the diverse needs of foreign hair types.
Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya visits the Saint Michael's Cathedral, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv in November.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 11, 2025

Top Japanese diplomat to visit Seoul to shore up ties amid political chaos

Iwaya, who will be the first Japanese foreign minister to visit Seoul in seven years, will meet with his South Korean counterpart Cho Tae-yul and Acting President Choi Sang-mok.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump appears remotely for a sentencing hearing in front of New York State Judge Juan Merchan in the criminal case in which he was convicted in 2024 on charges involving hush money paid to a porn star, at New York Criminal Court in Manhattan on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 11, 2025

A sentence with no penalty assures Trump will take office as a felon

Justice Juan Merchan gave Donald Trump a symbolic punishment. The judge said that leniency was due the office of the president, not the man who will soon hold the title.
U.S. Army soldiers with the NATO multinational battle group on the territory of Bulgaria stand in formation with a U.S. flag and an armored vehicle during a visit by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the Novo Selo military ground near Mokren, Bulgaria, on Dec. 19.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jan 11, 2025

NATO won't back Trump's new defense spending target but will raise its sights

A new target is likely to be agreed at a NATO summit in June, but the key questions are what that new target will be and whether it will be enough to satisfy Trump.
Palm trees burned by the Palisades Fire along the shore in Malibu, California, at sunrise on Friday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 11, 2025

‘We’re in a new era’: How climate change is supercharging disasters

Extreme weather events — deadly heat waves, floods, fires and hurricanes — are the consequences of a warming planet, scientists say.
Smoke from the Pacific Palisades fire blankets the area in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Researchers see a growing health danger from the vast plumes of pollution spawned by wildfires like the ones devastating Los Angeles.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 12, 2025

Far from the Los Angeles fires, the deadly risks of smoke are intensifying

By some estimates, wildfire smoke causes as many as 675,000 premature deaths a year worldwide, as well as a range of serious health problems.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (left) shakes hands with Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto after giving a press statement following their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Bogor, Indonesia on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 12, 2025

Ishiba hopes diplomacy will give boost to parliamentary management

As the Ishiba administration will have to go into the parliamentary session leading a minority government, he is hoping diplomacy will give his administration a boost.
Rescue workers search a flooded area during the aftermath of Typhoon Hagibis, which caused severe floods at the Chikuma River, in the city of Nagano in October 2019.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 12, 2025

Disaster-hardened Japan faces enormous costs from climate change

The total cost in climate damages for the country through 2050 could amount to ¥952 trillion if more ambitious action isn't taken.
African tiger fish swim in the Okavango river in Botswana.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Jan 13, 2025

Study documents extinction threats to world's freshwater species

Threats to such species include pollution, dams and water extraction, agriculture and invasive species.
A former cattle ranch is being reforested in Brazil's Amazon region on Dec. 11. Mombak, a young carbon credit company — with valuable contracts with the giants Google and Microsoft, and supported by the U.S. government — aims to repeat this move millions of times over.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 13, 2025

In Brazil, an Amazon reforestation project seeks to redeem carbon markets

By planting native species, Brazilian company Mombak hopes to restore credibility to a scandal-ridden carbon market at a crucial time for the warming planet.
An ice core sample from a glacier in the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center in Columbus, Ohio, on Jan. 15, 2021
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 13, 2025

The 'climate archive': How scientists study the ancient past

The U.N. says the world is on track for nearly 3 degrees Celsius of warming compared to the 19th century.
To counter the impact of aging rural demographics, the agriculture ministry is introducing a new initiative to dispatch corporate personnel to rural areas to increase the number of people engaged with farming communities.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 13, 2025

Japan farm ministry aims to dispatch corporate workers to rural areas

The initiative aims to promote rural revitalization through corporate-sponsored training programs and employee side jobs connecting businesses with farming villages.
A worker inspects the outdoor gas pipes at the underground gas storage facility operated by Gas Storage in Haje, Czech Republic, on Jan. 3.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Jan 13, 2025

Europe threatens to trigger a global scramble for natural gas

For the first time since the energy crisis was turbocharged by Russia’s war in Ukraine, Europe risks failing to meet its storage targets for next winter.
Toyota is one of many large employers in the U.S. ordering workers to their desks in recent months, ending policies implemented during the COVID pandemic.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 14, 2025

Toyota wants salaried staff back in office four days a week

Toyota denied the move is designed to reduce headcount but warned failure to comply could lead to "termination of employment.”
Mitsubishi Corp. will stop buying and selling refined metals and mineral resources in the Chinese spot market after a suspected fraud by one of its copper traders caused a huge loss.
BUSINESS
Jan 14, 2025

Mitsubishi Corp. quits China metal trading after copper fraud

Mitsubishi announced a ¥13.8 billion loss "in its Chinese trading business” in its quarterly earnings in November.

Longform

It's back to the classroom for some residents as municipal governments across the country conduct lessons to learn how to use new technologies.
Can aging Japan go digital without leaving anyone behind?