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Hamas named Yahya Sinwar as new political leader earlier this month.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 10, 2024

Israel's hunt for Hamas' elusive new chief Sinwar

Israeli commanders believe Sinwar, 61, is hiding in a labyrinthine maze of tunnels that Hamas has built under the Gaza Strip over the years.
Hindus block the streets as they protest against violence in their community in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 12, 2024

Bangladesh government is working to 'resolve' attacks on minorities

After Sheikh Hasina's abrupt resignation and flight abroad, there were numerous reports of attacks against Hindu households, temples and businesses.
Bereaved families of victims of the 1985 crash of a Japan Airlines jumbo jet make a video call at the accident site on the Osutaka Ridge in Gunma Prefecture on Monday.
JAPAN
Aug 12, 2024

Victims mourned 39 years after JAL jet crash in Gunma

Mourners prayed for the deceased in front of memorial markers as they hiked their way to the crash site.
California Assemblymember Dr. Jasmeet Bains, the first Sikh-American politician to be elected in the California State Legislature, poses for a picture with fellow assembly member Sharon Quirk-Silva while attending a luncheon gathering in Artesia, California, on June 8.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 13, 2024

Some U.S. Sikhs fear Modi government is threatening them

Some Sikhs in the U.S. described experiencing online harassment and surveillance at their homes.
Designed by Bob Foundation in collaboration with Sugita Ace, the Sonaete series of disaster preparedness kits are packaged in bags, boxes and pouches that look attractive in homes.
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Aug 13, 2024

Stylish emergency goods can save precious seconds when disaster strikes

Eye-catching go bags, canary-inspired whistles and more aesthetically pleasing emergency preparedness items you'll want to keep within arm's reach.
Visitors take selfies at Kinkaku-ji Golden Temple in Kyoto.
BUSINESS
Aug 13, 2024

Overtourism isn’t the conundrum it’s made out to be

142 countries are projected to exceed their pre-pandemic tourism performance this year, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council.
The destruction left behind by the Borel Fire near Lake Isabella, California, on July 29
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 13, 2024

Wildfires are getting weirder. Case in point: 'firenados.'

Sometimes fire thunderstorms even create their own lightning, which spawns new blazes miles away.
Health minister Keizo Takemi fields questions from reporters in March after a Cabinet meeting to deal with health problems caused by Kobayashi Pharmaceutical's beni kōji red yeast rice supplements.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 14, 2024

Health Minister Keizo Takemi on how to improve Japan's health care system

Digitalization, hiring high-skilled foreign workers and increasing wages are among the steps that Japan could take.
The city of Kurayoshi in Tottori Prefecture relocated privately-managed war memorials erected in various places in the city to a plot of land owned by the city.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 14, 2024

Maintaining privately built war memorials an urgent task in Japan

Of 16,235 memorials for the war dead built by members of the public, 780 were damaged, according to a welfare ministry survey.
Yuzuki Komiya (left) competes in the first national high school sumo tournament for girls in Tachikawa, western Tokyo, on Saturday.
SUMO
Aug 14, 2024

Women's sumo takes big step forward with first high school championships

Athletes from all over the country took part in the historic meet, with many expressing hope that the tournament would lead to greater exposure for women’s sumo.
Popular commentator and journalist Akira Ikegami speaks about investment fraud on social media at the Aichi Prefectural Police in Nagoya in July.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 14, 2024

Japanese celebrities raising alarm over social media fraud

The amount of money stolen in social media investment fraud schemes between January-June rocketed about seven times from a year earlier, according to police.
Akari Fujinami leapt into the arms of her father and coach after she became an Olympic champion in the women's 53-kg freestyle wrestling class on Aug. 8.
OLYMPICS
Aug 15, 2024

The emotional highs — and lows — of competing for Japan at the Olympics

From golden celebrations like that of wrestler Akari Fujinami to crushing defeats of stars like Uta Abe, Japanese athletes let it all out during the Paris Games.
The parliament building in Tokyo. With concerns about summer heat rising and many elections taking place in summertime, it may not be tenable to conduct campaigns as in the past given health risks to candidates, their staff and voters.
JAPAN / Politics / Boiling Point
Aug 17, 2024

Hotter summers pose a threat to Japan's tradition of stump speeches

Balancing health concerns with legal restrictions as well as candidates' desire to be as publicly visible as possible, even in super hot weather, might be tricky.
Children practice tennis at a club in Beijing on Wednesday. Zheng Qinwen's historic tennis gold at the Paris Olympics this month followed a decadeslong surge in the sport's popularity among China's burgeoning middle class.
OLYMPICS
Aug 16, 2024

China's Olympic tennis glory tracks booming middle classes

Zheng Qinwen's tennis gold at the Paris Olympics followed a decadeslong surge in the sport's popularity among China's burgeoning middle class.
The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier (left) and its strike group sails in formation with Italy's Cavour carrier (right) strike group in the Pacific Ocean on Aug. 9.
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Aug 17, 2024

NATO steps up naval presence in Western Pacific to counter China

The latest entrant is the Italian aircraft carrier Cavour, the first time Rome has deployed its lone carrier to the Pacific.
Digital minister Taro Kono at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo in September 2023
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 19, 2024

LDP presidential hopefuls' first hurdle — securing 20 signatures

Each needs to garner support from 20 LDP lawmakers before the registration deadline for them to stand in next month's election.
Schoolchildren eat free dinner at a cafeteria for economically challenged families in Osaka.
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2024

Japan to boost efforts against child poverty

Once established, the working group will promote efforts toward eliminating child poverty by gathering opinions from local governments.
A wall mural depicting Nintendo's Super Mario characters in an underground walkway in Kyoto. The company will open the Nintendo Museum in October.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 20, 2024

Nintendo to open museum showcasing video game history this fall

The museum in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, will feature vintage video games and an interactive shoot-em-up with Super Mario characters.
New gene-edited crops could address climate change and agricultural challenges; however, high regulatory barriers and safety concerns limit innovation.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 18, 2024

It’s time to embrace a new era of gene-edited food

New crops may improve our health or help us mitigate and adapt to climate change.
In September, world leaders will meet in New York for the United Nation's Summit of the Future to strengthen international cooperation on digital technology and innovation, as well as development financing, security, employment and gender equality.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2024

The U.N. is charting a new course for our technology future

By closing digital and data divides through international cooperation, we can foster a technology culture that addresses global challenges.
Thailand Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra pays her respect to a picture of Thailand King Maha Vajiralongkorn as she receives a royal endorsement to become the 31st prime minister in Bangkok on Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 2024

Thailand’s democracy is on shaky ground

Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy is in the middle of yet another political crisis. Citizens deserve better.
An influencer uses a phone at the United Center, ahead of the Democratic National Convention (DNC), in Chicago on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 22, 2024

At DNC, influencers battle journalists for space and access

The Democratic National Convention has credentialed more than 200 "content creators" to cover the four-day event.
A drone view shows Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida, on Aug. 11.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 22, 2024

Trump earns big from Florida golf resorts as his other businesses flag

The health of Donald Trump’s golf business is a bright spot at a precarious moment for the Trump Organization.
The introduction of a two-tier pricing system which charges foreign tourists more than local residents is being considered at Himeji Castle in Hyogo Prefecture.
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2024

More Japan tourist hot spots consider two-tier pricing system

However, experts have warned that the system may lead to discrimination if it is not carefully thought out.
Rescue personnel with the body of British entrepreneur Mike Lynch, who died when a yacht owned by his family sank off the coast of Porticello, near the Sicilian city of Palermo, Italy, on Thursday
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 23, 2024

Body of British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch retrieved from yacht

Lynch's 18-year-old daughter Hannah is still unaccounted for, an interior ministry official said.
Rajkumari Ratnavati Girls' School in Kanoi village near Jaisalmer, India, earlier this month. In the sweltering heat of India's Thar desert, an architecturally striking school is an oasis of cool.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Aug 24, 2024

Indian desert school's unique design offers respite from heat

Temperatures inside the school, designed by U.S. architect Diana Kellogg and built by local artisans, can be as much as 20% lower than those outside.
Demonstrators with a stylized painting depicting Telegram's founder, Pavel Durov, protest against the blocking of the popular messaging app in Russia, during a May Day rally in Saint Petersburg on in May 2018.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 25, 2024

Telegram messaging app CEO Durov arrested in France, reports say

Pavel Durov, the Russian-French billionaire founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested at Bourget Airport outside Paris on Saturday evening, TF1 TV and BFM TV said, citing unidentified sources.
U.S. Air Force General C.Q. Brown (left), the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is greeted upon arrival in Cairo on Sunday. Brown made a three-day trip to the Middle East last weekend that saw him fly into Israel just hours after Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel, and Israel's military struck Lebanon to thwart a larger attack.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 27, 2024

Risk of broader war eased 'somewhat' after Israel-Hezbollah exchange

Gen. C.Q. Brown, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, cautions that Iran's militant allies in other locations continue to pose a risk.
Cars are flooded in a local street during the pass of a winter storm in Lodi, New Jersey, on Jan. 10.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 28, 2024

Extreme rain is a growing climate threat to the northeastern U.S.

A warming world will bring more rain-induced flooding to the United States' Northeast, a region of millions who aren't prepared for it.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris meets with Chinese leader Xi Jinping before the APEC Leaders' Retreat in Bangkok in November 2022.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 28, 2024

How a Harris-Walz administration might handle Asia policy

While a Harris-Walz administration would likely avoid unilateral economic measures against China, it would prioritize human rights more in the relationship.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?