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An undated photo of a poster in a window promoting shows at Lincoln Center by Shen Yun, which in its 2023-2024 season performed more than 800 times on five continents, in New York. Over the past decade, the dance group Shen Yun Performing Arts has made money at a staggering rate in large part by getting followers of the Falun Gong religious movement to work for free and pay its bills.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 31, 2024
How Shen Yun tapped religious fervor to make $266 million
Shen Yun’s success flows in part from its ability to pack venues worldwide — while exploiting young, low-paid performers with little regard for their health or well-being.
A voter casts a ballot at a polling station in Tokyo on Oct. 27. Last year, incumbents in every major country that held a national election lost that vote, the first time that has happened in almost 120 years.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2024
The world is ever more angry. That is not good.
Hostility toward existing leadership stems from the belief that lives aren't improving and future generations will have fewer opportunities than previous ones.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks to Brendan Carr, his intended pick for Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as he attends a viewing of the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket, in Brownsville, Texas, on Nov. 19.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 31, 2024
Social media companies face global tug-of-war over free speech
Trump’s return to the White House is expected to widen the free speech divide that has long existed between the United States and Europe.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with House Republicans at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Washington on Nov. 13.
COMMENTARY / World / The Year Ahead
Dec 31, 2024
Will the second Trump boom go bust?
Trump is inheriting a strong economy, but he faces a more challenging economic landscape than he did in his first term.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a news conference in Tokyo on Dec. 24. Ishiba has, unsuccessfully, sought to meet with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump since November, with Trump’s team saying at the time that no meetings with foreign leaders would take place before his January inauguration.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 31, 2024
Ishiba rules out pre-inauguration meeting with Trump
Ishiba had sought a mid-January meeting with Trump but said over the weekend that sooner didn't necessarily mean better when it came to talks with the incoming U.S. president.
The U.S. Treasury Department said Monday that a Chinese state-sponsored actor was behind a hack resulting in access to some of its workstations earlier this month, according to a letter to Congress.
BUSINESS
Dec 31, 2024
U.S. Treasury says it was breached by Chinese hackers in 'major' incident
The hackers were able to remotely access certain Treasury workstations and "certain unclassified documents maintained by those users.”
U.S. President Joe Biden (right) meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House in Washington on Sept. 26.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 31, 2024
Biden announces $5.9 billion for Ukraine amid final aid push
The military aid includes $1.25 billion in so-called Presidential Drawdown Authority, which pulls weapons and ammunition from U.S. stockpiles.
Thaleon Tremain, chief executive of Pachamama Coffee, holds a cup of coffee beans in Sacramento, California, on Feb. 27. Wholesale coffee prices are trading near a 50-year high because of shortages related to extreme weather and increased global demand.
BUSINESS / Markets
Dec 30, 2024
Why coffee prices are soaring (again)
The wholesale price of beans has jumped more than 30% just since the start of November.
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.
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.
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.
Atsushi Mimura, vice minister of finance for international affairs, speaks during an interview at the ministry on Dec. 20.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 30, 2024
Japan sees G7 role increasing in divided world
"There are not many countries like Japan that can speak with the U.S. on equal terms," said top financial diplomat Atsushi Mimura.
Former U.S. President Jimmy in 1996. Carter, who rose from Georgia farmland to become the 39th president of the United States on a promise of national healing after the wounds of Watergate and Vietnam, then lost the White House in a cauldron of economic turmoil at home and crisis in Iran, died on Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia. He was 100.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 30, 2024
Jimmy Carter, president known as a peacemaker, is dead at 100
While Carter's presidency was remembered more for its failures than for its successes, his post-presidency was seen by many as a model for future chief executives.
A Self-Defense Forces soldier from a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile unit takes part in a drill at Yokota Air Base in Fussa, western Tokyo, in August 2017.
JAPAN
Dec 29, 2024
U.S. military coordination unit eyed in central Tokyo
Such a location near the Defense Ministry is expected to allow both sides to smoothly draw up joint operational plans.
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.
In Joe Biden’s four years as president, the U.S. outperformed virtually every other advanced economy in terms of output, employment and productivity growth.
COMMENTARY / World / The Year Ahead
Dec 29, 2024
An economic requiem for the Biden administration
Now that the outgoing U.S. president’s term is about to expire, an elegy is in order for his administration's economic achievements, failures and missed opportunities.
Supporters of then-President Donald Trump clash with police while storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
COMMENTARY / World / The Year Ahead
Dec 29, 2024
Will the guardrails of U.S. democracy hold?
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump continues to express admiration for authoritarian leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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.
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.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.