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Nippon Steel Vice Chairman Takahiro Mori says the company remains committed to talks with the United Steelworkers (USW) labor union.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 24, 2024

Nippon Steel's Mori asks USW leadership to 'come to the table'

The deal has faced opposition from high-profile Democrats and Republicans ahead of the U.S. November presidential elections.
A migrant from Mali, who said he is from the Fulani community and escaped the war in his country and arrived in El Hierro Island a year ago, speaks to  journalist in Barcelona on Friday,
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 24, 2024

West Africa becomes global terrorism hotspot as Western forces leave

Western powers that previously invested in trying to beat back the jihadists have very little capacity left on the ground.
Diego Garcia — the largest island in the Chagos Archipelago and the site of a major military base used by Britain and the United States — is seen in this undated image the U.S. Navy provided.
WORLD
Oct 4, 2024

U.K. cedes Chagos Island sovereignty to Mauritius and keeps air base

Britain's deal also could pave the way for people displaced decades ago to return home.
A drone flies as Chinese drone maker DJI demonstrates their app that tracks a drone's registration and owner. DJI, the world's largest drone manufacturer that sells more than half of all U.S. commercial drones, asked a U.S. district judge to order its removal from a Pentagon list designating it as a "Chinese military company," saying it "is neither owned nor controlled by the Chinese military."
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Oct 19, 2024

Drone maker DJI sues Pentagon over Chinese military listing

The company has said the designation is wrong and has caused it significant financial harm.
People load a bus heading to the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California, in this 1943 handout photo.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 19, 2024

Trump compares jailed Capitol rioters to WWII Japanese internment

The former U.S. president's comments were met with widespread criticism from Japanese American groups and others.
The South Korean Coast Guard vessel Taepyongyang, the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Waesche and the Japan Coast Guard vessel Wakasa patrol in formation during a trilateral exercise in the Sea of Japan in June.
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 23, 2024

With ramped-up activities, U.S. Coast Guard plots greater Indo-Pacific role

The move comes at a time when a growing number of coast guards in the region are becoming deeply involved in patrolling disputed waters.
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in London on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 26, 2024

As U.S. election looms, Biden aides struggle with Middle East wars

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was dispatched to the region to find a way toward stability, but there was no sign of progress.
A public screen displays financial figures in Shanghai on Sept. 12.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 28, 2024

Stimulus matters more than U.S. election for Chinese stocks

Whether it be Donald Trump or Kamala Harris as the new U.S. leader, global money managers expect escalated hostility toward China.
The outcome of the U.S. election may mark the beginning of the end of the era of “American exceptionalism” and should concern its allies such as Japan.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 7, 2024

What does Trump's victory mean for Japan?

The outcome of the U.S. presidential race is a reflection of the democratic will of the American people and the countries allies must adapt to this new reality.
People leave the venue during the United Nations climate change conference, known as COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Monday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 12, 2024

COP29: U.S. climate envoy says work will continue despite Trump's return

"For those of us dedicated to climate action, last week's outcome in the United States is obviously bitterly disappointing," Podesta said at the summit.
Donald Trump in the past has netted important victories before the Supreme Court for his policies on trade, immigration and the environment.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 12, 2024

One of Trump’s few checks on power? The Supreme Court he shaped.

The president-elect hasn’t always gotten his way and he may need the court’s help to fulfill his campaign-trail promises.
Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with senior adviser Susie Wiles as he speaks, following early results from the 2024 U.S. presidential election in Palm Beach County Convention Center, in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Nov. 6.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Nov 12, 2024

As Donald Trump staffs up for second term, only MAGA loyalists need apply

As advisers and allies of Republican President-elect Donald Trump search for personnel to staff his coming administration, one quality is absolutely paramount: unquestioning loyalty.
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel makes a speech aboard the USS George Washington aircraft carrier during Freedom Edge trilateral exercise between the United States, Japan and South Korea in the East China Sea on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 16, 2024

U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel weighs bid for DNC chair: report

Such a move would come as the Democratic Party tries to regroup after an election that saw Republicans win control of the White House, Senate and House.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has both vowed a strong military and to end or avoid wars, has promised "peace through strength" in announcements of several key nominees to serve in his administration.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Nov 17, 2024

Trump revives 'peace through strength,' but his meaning is up for debate

Whether the U.S. president-elect is pursuing a strategy or just relying on a catchphrase is a matter of dispute.
Donald Trump, the then-Republican presidential candidate and now the president-elect, visits the U.S.-Mexico border at Eagle Pass, Texas, in February. His appointments to key positions in his new administration show he is moving aggressively on mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2024

Trump's mass deportation plan has its leaders in place

Even before Trump’s victory, Tom Homan, the former acting director for ICE, promised to "run the biggest deportation operation this country's ever seen.”
Fentanyl pills found by officers from the Drug Enforcement Administration in New York on Oct. 4, 2022
WORLD / Politics
Nov 28, 2024

Trump places high-risk, high-reward bet on tariffs to stem fentanyl

The U.S. president-elect has vowed to impose tariffs on China and Mexico unless they stem the flow of fentanyl and migrants across the U.S. border.
A supporter of Donald Trump holds a limited edition beer with an image of Trump and the words "Conservative Dad's Revenge," as he attends the New York Young Republican Club watch party on Nov. 6.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 3, 2024

After Trump's win, his election denial movement marches on

Since winning the 2024 election, President-elect Donald Trump has gone quiet on his false claims of voter fraud. But the election denial movement he spawned isn’t going away — and appears to be strengthening in some areas of the country.
A firefighter sprays water as the Franklin Fire burns in Malibu, California, on Tuesday.
WORLD
Dec 11, 2024

Malibu fire explodes in size and forces thousands to evacuate

The Franklin fire has swelled to more than 2,700 acres and remained completely out of control as of Tuesday afternoon.
Izumi Kobayashi, director of Mizuho Financial, Omron and ANA, speaks during the Reuters Next conference in New York on Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Dec 11, 2024

Mizuho director says companies should not overreact to Trump's tariff threats

It would be difficult for companies to withdraw from China given its mammoth size, said Izumi Kobayashi.
An electric vehicle charging station in Baker, California. The Inflation Reduction Act has spurred investment in EVs and other green technologies across the U.S. and President-elect Donald Trump should continue Joe Biden's climate-related industrial policy.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 16, 2024

Green tech and U.S.-China rivalry: Two sides of the same coin

The incoming president should improve, not undo, Biden's industrial policies, which have boosted investment in green technologies, a key economic battleground.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol delivers an address to the nation at the Presidential Office in Seoul on Dec. 12.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 19, 2024

Allies cheered Yoon's foreign policy despite domestic discord

Yoon's political implosion likely heralds the return of the political left, which is less inclined to be as unabashedly supportive of the U.S. and Japan.
The Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo in September 2019. An inspection of the base by Japanese government officials on Friday came amid public pressure to investigate suspected links between the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam by the U.S. base and contamination of soil and groundwater in western Tokyo.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Dec 20, 2024

Japanese officials inspect Yokota Air Base over PFAS concerns

The inspection follows a reported leak in August of water containing "forever chemicals" outside the U.S. base in western Tokyo.
A container ship transits the expanded canal through Cocoli Locks at the Panama Canal, on the outskirts of Panama City last August.
BUSINESS
Dec 22, 2024

Trump demands Panama lower transit fees or return canal

The U.S. completed the 82-kilometer canal through the Central American isthmus in 1914, but ceded it back to Panama in 1999.
Sorane Sakihama, a 22-year-old college student, speaks at a rally in the city of Okinawa on Sunday protesting against sexual assaults by U.S. soldiers.
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2024

Okinawa people stage rally against sexual assaults by U.S. servicemen

The Okinawan protesters adopted a resolution demanding apologies for sexual assault victims, compensation and a revision of the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement.
Former President Jimmy Carter waves to the crowd at the Democratic National Convention 2008
WORLD / Politics
Dec 30, 2024

World leaders pay tribute to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter

World leaders and politicians pay their respects to the U.S. president who brokered peace between Israel and Egypt and later received the Nobel Peace Prize.
U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira share a laugh ahead of talks in Tokyo in June 1979.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 30, 2024

Jimmy Carter's surprising connection to Japan: his Christian faith

The former U.S. president, who died Sunday, bonded with his counterpart, Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira, over their shared faith.
A United Steelworkers sign is seen outside the Great Lakes Works United States Steel plant in River Rouge, Michigan, in September.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 3, 2025

Biden to block U.S. Steel sale to Nippon Steel, source says

Biden's call to block the deal was taken despite contrary efforts by some senior advisers concerned that it could hurt U.S.- Japan relations.
Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel sued the U.S. government Monday for blocking the merger of the two companies.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 7, 2025

Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel sue U.S. government for blocking deal

The suit argues that the two companies were denied due process and that the $14.9 billion transaction was blocked for political reasons.
Some people are questioning the U.S. decision to block Nippon Steel’s takeover of U.S. Steel, citing the lack of clear evidence of any national security risk from Japan — a country that hosts over 50,000 U.S. troops and relies on America for defense.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 7, 2025

Biden's Nippon Steel move: A troubling snub of a key ally

Preventing the takeover of U.S. Steel is bad enough. Declaring Japan a national security risk is worse.
U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thomson Steel Works in Braddock, Pennsylvannia, in 2019. Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel face significant legal challenges in their case against the United States.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 15, 2025

Nippon Steel’s case against Biden probably unwinnable, attorneys argue

A U.S. president's rejection of a deal following review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States has only been successfully challenged once.

Longform

Wealthier women in the prewar era had been the targets of various media-related health campaigns that mistakenly encouraged them to avoid everything from riding bicycles to reading novels when their monthly cycles came around.
Menstruation in Japan: Breaking the silence, slowly