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July 04, 2026
 

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AI

A SpaceX Starship lifts off during its fifth flight test, in Boca Chica, Texas, on Oct. 13, 2024. Billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX has acquired his artificial intelligence startup, xAI.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 3, 2026
SpaceX acquires xAI in record deal as Musk looks to unify AI and space ambitions
The transaction values SpaceX at $1 trillion, and xAI at $250 billion.
A man walks past an advertisement in Hong Kong in 2023.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 2, 2026
China AI deals push Hong Kong listings to busiest start of the year
Initial public offerings fetched about $5 billion last month, the highest total for any January on record.
Backdropped by posters with images of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the two U.S. citizens recently shot and killed by federal immigration officers, a resident of Minneapolis mans a corner to keep an eye out for ICE agents near a school where some students were recently arrested in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 1, 2026
‘Misrepresent reality’: AI-altered shooting image surfaces in U.S. Senate
The gaffe underscores how AI visuals are seeping into everyday discourse, sowing confusion and influencing political debate at the highest levels.
The DEEPX booth at the 2025 Korea Tech Festival in Seoul in December. South Korea has enacted a comprehensive national law called the AI Basic Act to build public trust in AI technology.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 1, 2026
A breakthrough law won’t kill Korea’s AI revolution
The rest of the world will be watching closely. The nation has also become a live demo of how quickly the technology can spread throughout the real economy.
Hiroo Oota, incoming chief executive officer of Kioxia Holdings, speaks during a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 30, 2026
Memory maker Kioxia names new CEO to navigate AI chip boom
Shares of Kioxia, which are up more than twelvefold since their initial public offering at the end of 2024, reversed losses and rose 1.6% after the announcement.
Christophe Fouquet, CEO of computer chip equipment maker ASML, speaks at a news conference in Eindhoven, Netherlands, on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 29, 2026
ASML lifts outlook on record AI chip orders, but analysts query capacity
The giant chip equipment maker’s orders exceeded expectations as the global chip market ramps up production capacity for the rollout of artificial intelligence and data centers.
Website publishers argue that Google's artificial intelligence-generated summaries discourage clicks to their original pages, reducing traffic to their sites and, in turn, cutting their advertising revenue.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 29, 2026
U.K. proposes letting websites refuse being included in Google’s AI search
Website publishers, particularly media outlets, say artificial intelligence pilfers their content without compensation to feed its models.
China’s DeepSeek received extensive technical assistance from Nvidia as a legitimate commercial partner hone artificial intelligence models that were later used by the Chinese military, it has been revealed.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 29, 2026
Nvidia helped DeepSeek hone AI models later used by China’s military
When Nvidia provided DeepSeek help, there was no public indication that its technology was ​being used ‌by the Chinese military, U.S. lawmaker John Moolenaar says.
Stock shortages at Starbucks are a more deeply rooted problem than has been publicly reported.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 28, 2026
Are AI glitches and scattered suppliers just a storm in Starbucks’ coffee cup?
The coffee company’s supply chain problems are putting off customers and generating a lot of waste.
Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group, at a conference in Tokyo in December
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 28, 2026
SoftBank in talks to invest $30 billion more in OpenAI, report says
The increase in commitment that reflects Masayoshi Son’s ambitions to play a central role in developing artificial intelligence.
The "Doomsday Clock" is set to 89 seconds to midnight during the 2025 Doomsday Clock announcement in Washington on Tuesday.
WORLD
Jan 28, 2026
Atomic scientists set ‘Doomsday Clock’ closer to midnight than ever
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set the clock to 85 seconds before midnight, the theoretical point of annihilation.
An Alibaba logo is displayed at the company's booth at the China International Fair for Trade in Services in Beijing on Sept. 10, 2025. Price wars are holding back earnings estimates for Chinese internet platform companies while artificial intelligence hardware makers are pulling ahead.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 27, 2026
China AI hardware firms trump internet giants in growth outlook
The AI boom is propelling upward revisions for hardware names in contrast with internet platforms held back by price wars.
A billboard organized by the corporate accountability group Eko passes through Westminster urging Britain's prime minister to stand up to Elon Musk and ban X and Grok in London on Jan. 14.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2026
Too many kids already know someone who’s been deepfaked
The increasing availability of AI nudification tools has fueled skyrocketing reports of AI-generated child sexual abuse material.
Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive officer of SoftBank Group, speaks during the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute Priority Asia conference in Tokyo in December.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 26, 2026
SoftBank hits the brakes on talks to buy data center firm Switch
The two sides remain in active discussions about a partial investment or a partnership.
Fiction writing, commercial photography, radio, music and — most ominously — journalism face a reckoning with artificial intelligence. 
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 26, 2026
The takeover of all media by artificial intelligence is coming
Not only is AI already upending the filmmaking industry, but Hollywood is just one example of how the technology will cause enormous social and economic pain.
A screen displays share prices inside the Kabuto One building in Tokyo, Japan.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 26, 2026
Fidelity fund beating 96% of peers likes Japan’s AI-linked firms
Surging share prices of memory chipmakers have opened the way for less pricey stocks of smaller firms like Fujibo who have businesses that are essential for AI.
A viral check-in app that alerts contacts if users fail to confirm they are alive has exposed rising loneliness, demographic anxiety and unmet eldercare needs, showing the next breakout tech hit may come from confronting social isolation.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 25, 2026
Forget DeepSeek, dying alone is China’s latest tech obsession
The interface is almost aggressively plain. Users, largely people living alone, tap to confirm they are still alive.
Shanghai-based AI startup MiniMax's CEO Yan Junjie (right) and Co-founder and COO Yun Yeyi attend the firm's listing ceremony at the Hong Kong stock exchange on Jan. 9.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 23, 2026
Dazzling Chinese AI debuts mask growing pains
Investor confidence in Chinese AI startups is high, but obstacles to success range from U.S. export controls to the puzzle of how to become profitable.
The recent rollout of an editing feature on Grok, developed by Elon Musk's startup xAI and integrated into X, allowed users to alter online images of real people with simple text prompts such as "put her in a bikini" or "remove her clothes."
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 23, 2026
Musk’s Grok created 3 million sexualized images within days, research says
They include 23,000 that appear to depict children, the Center for Countering Digital Hate says.
Toto shares surged as much as 11% Thursday, its steepest rise since February 2021.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 22, 2026
Toilet maker Toto’s shares get unlikely boost from AI rush
Known for its heated toilet seats, Toto has for decades been part of the semiconductor and display supply chain via its advanced ceramic parts and films.
‘My dream is broken’: Japan visa rules push out foreign residents
A man orders from a kebab shop in the Okubo district in Tokyo.
Japan triples departure tax in push to combat overtourism
Tourists in Yanaka Ginza, Tokyo, on Wednesday. Japan tripled its International Tourist Tax (departure tax) to ¥3,000 from ¥1,000 on Wednesday for all travelers leaving Japan, regardless of nationality.
Japanese-language education is at a turning point
The country is gradually transforming Japanese-language education from a volunteer-driven system into a professional, government-supported network to better serve its growing foreign population. 
More facilities in Japan placing sanitary bins in men’s restrooms
A sanitary bin with an awareness sticker placed in a men's restroom in the Nagasaki Municipal Government building
Japan plans to sharply raise fees for residence permits from October
Foreign tourists walk on the path leading to the Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in May.
Iran war exposed, but hasn’t changed, Japan’s reliance on imported oil
Wind turbines generate energy from strong easterly winds on the Shonai Plain in Yamagata Prefecture. Despite the oil crisis caused by conflict near the Strait of Hormuz, and concerns instability in the region could continue to impact supply and the price of imports, the administration of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi does not seem to be drawing on the war as a pretext to hasten progress toward Japan's renewable goals.
Six of the best: rikishi of note in each sumo division
Kazuma (right) faces off against future <i>yokozuna</i> Onosato during the All Japan Amateur Sumo Championships at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in December 2020.
Some startups see opportunity in an aging Japan
Yasmin Baba, CTO of Amilis, wins the Grand Prize at the Pitch2Tokyo Grand Final on Feb. 19.
Japan’s fertility system offers few safe paths for same-sex couples
A Tokyo Pride parade participant holds a sign that says "we want to be a married couple, not a couple."
Life inside Japan’s largest prison for women
Western-style rooms spanning the size of four tatami mats with hardwood floors, a toilet and soft mattresses on bed frames are designated for foreign nationals and those with health conditions at Tochigi Prison.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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