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Hertz's partnership with Amazon is another step in the e-commerce giant's slow march into auto sales. The deal could be a boon for the rental car giant, which is trying to sell more of its cars directly to consumers. Some experts say the shift toward direct online sales, especially involving e-commerce giants like Amazon, could spell trouble for dealerships, possibly even large publicly traded companies such as AutoNation, Group1, Sonic Automotive, Penske, and Asbury. Wholesale auction companies such as Manheim and AVC are also liable to be watching the shift, as direct to consumer sales could threaten their inventories. Why...

Suicide has overtaken cancer as the main cause of death among South Koreans in their forties for the first time since records began in 1983, amid growing concerns that the country is facing a mental health crisis. The country recorded 14,872 suicides last year – a 6.3 per cent rise from the previous year and the highest figure since 2011 – according to the latest “2024 Cause of Death Statistics” published by Statistics Korea on Thursday. While suicide has long been the leading cause of death among teenagers and people under 30, it became the top cause of death among...

The vast majority of Japan’s centenarians are women. Japan has hit a record high in the number of people aged 100 or older, according to new data. It’s the 55th year in a row that Japan, renowned for its longevity, has reached this milestone. As of 1 September, the country had 99,763 centenarians, up 4,644 from the previous year, Japanese media reported. The vast majority – about 88 per cent – of them are women. Japan’s oldest woman is 114-year-old Kagawa Shigeko, and its oldest man is 111-year-old Mizuno Kiyotaka, national media said. The government began recording the number of...

Thousands of people were evacuated from their homes in Hong Kong overnight so experts could defuse a large US-made bomb left over from World War II that was discovered at a construction site. Police said the bomb was nearly 5 feet in length and weighed about 1,000 pounds. It was discovered by construction workers in Quarry Bay, a bustling residential and business district on the west side of Hong Kong island. “We have confirmed this object to be a bomb dating back to World War II,” said Andy Chan Tin-Chu, a police official, speaking to reporters ahead of the operation....

China’s scripted coast-guard incursions around the Senkaku Islands aim to normalize control through mass and proximity. But Japan has reorganized for rapid joint action, dispersing long-range anti-ship missiles across the Ryukyus, expanding fifth-gen air and AEW, and adding Tomahawks to create a lethal denial web. The U.S.–Japan alliance now signals unambiguous coverage, with carrier, Marine Littoral Regiment, and ISR/long-range fires ready to stiffen defense. Who would win a fight?

(15:20) Terror suspect tells German court: 'You're all Jews.' By Melissa Eddy, The Associated Press April, 16 2002 FRANKFURT, Germany - The trial of five Algerian men charged with plotting to blow up a French holiday market opened with a flourish today when a defendant disrupted the proceedings and was removed from court. While the other defendants shielded their faces from a TV camera allowed to tape the opening five minutes, 31-year-old defendant Lamine Maroni, speaking in Arabic, recited Koranic verses, swore and urged the others not to testify. He was warned not to continue, but went on in English...

In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing U.S. political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a "globalist menace" in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. In Seoul on Friday, he spoke about how he "brought Trump to victory", while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference that has previously featured speakers including Donald Trump Jr. "The phenomenon of young people, especially men, turning conservative is occurring simultaneously across multiple continents," Kirk told the audience, who waved their phones and chanted 'USA' as he entered the stage...

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Japan is preparing for a special election in October to replace outgoing Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru, who announced his resignation after less than a year in office on Sunday. Among the top contenders to replace him are Ishibia’s stalwart ally, farm minister Koizumi Shinjiro, and one of his toughest critics, former economic minister Takaichi Sanae. -- snip -- Takaichi Sanae, 64, would become the first female prime minister of Japan if she gets the nod. She narrowly lost the leadership election to Ishiba last year in a runoff vote. Takaichi, formerly minister for economic...

Who Was Colonel Harland Sanders? At the age of 40, Harland Sanders was running a popular Kentucky service station that also served food—so popular, in fact, that the governor of Kentucky designated him a Kentucky colonel. Eventually, Sanders focused on franchising his fried chicken business around the country, collecting a payment for each chicken sold. The company went on to become the world's largest fast-food chicken chain, Kentucky Fried Chicken. Sanders died in Louisville, Kentucky, on December 16, 1980.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Prince Hisahito is the first male royal to reach adulthood in 40 years. Many people in Japan worry he could be the last.The elaborate palace rituals to formally recognize Hisahito as an adult on Saturday are a reminder of the bleak outlook for the world’s oldest monarchy. Much of this comes down to its male-only succession policy and dwindling numbers.Hisahito is second in line to the Chrysanthemum Throne and is likely to become emperor one day. After him, however, there is nobody left, leaving the Imperial family with a dilemma over whether they should reverse a...

Mount Fuji is the tallest peak in Japan, with a height of 3,776 meters (12,388 feet). Image credit: Tomáš Malík/Shutterstock.com The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has released a video containing AI-generated imagery to warn what would happen if Mount Fuji erupted in the 21st century. While there’s no suggestion the volcano is set to blow any time soon, an eruption within the next century would not be totally unexpected – and the impact on Tokyo would be significant. The video (below) was released by Japanese local authorities on August 22, 2025, as part of the newly designated Volcano Disaster Preparedness Day,...

On that Monday, 6 August, Americans who had survived the Battle of Okinawa were not celebrating the final rout of the Japanese defenders seven weeks earlier. They were still stunned at the carnage they had both unleashed and endured. For 82 days without letup, Okinawa—one-third the size of Rhode Island—had been shredded by a maelstrom of bombs, artillery shells, and small-arms fire. The casualties on both sides were horrific. In all, nearly 250,000 people died in the battle, including 12,520 American servicemen, 110,000 Japanese and conscripted Okinawan defenders, and more than 100,000 Okinawan civilians caught in the crossfire. The American...

The United States has always been particularly formal about how it accepts the surrender of defeated enemies. Each time it happens, the event is charged with deliberate—and sometimes inadvertent—symbolism. Such was the case on October 19, 1781, when General George Washington and his colleague, French General Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, accepted the surrender of British General Charles Cornwallis’s British forces at Yorktown. The whole event was highly ritualized—although Cornwallis refused to appear, sending his subordinate Charles O’Hara out instead—with Rochambeau and Washington sternly directing O’Hara to tender his sword to American General Benjamin Lincoln, who had the...

I had no idea things were this bad in Japan, it looks like Dublin on a Friday afternoon.

If larger-scale trials in the US prove successful, the drug could go on the market in about two years, the Kyoto University team saysA team of Japanese scientists has developed a new painkiller they say is as effective as fentanyl but without its addictive properties, a breakthrough that could reshape the fight against the global opioid crisis if clinical trials succeed. The team from Kyoto University has been working on the project for 13 years, with phase one clinical trials already proving successful and phase two trials due to start soon. Masatoshi Hagiwara, a professor of pharmaceutical medicine at...

NAGOYA The statue of 16th-century warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi located at the entrance of a shopping arcade in Nagoya has been beheaded, a local association said Tuesday. A local resident notified the shopping center association on Saturday that the statue was missing its head. The neck has since been covered with duct tape to prevent further damage, according to an official of the group. The association, which regards the statue as a symbolic figure of the arcade, is considering filing a damage report with police, the official said. The defacement of the statue, made of reinforced plastic, comes after previous instances...

TOKYO - The Japanese government asked European and Asian countries to refrain from attending a military parade and other events that China will hold next month to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, diplomatic sources said Sunday. Japan seeks to prevent China's interpretation of history from spreading, with the parade slated to be held in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on Sept. 3 to commemorate what Beijing calls its victory in the 1937-1945 "War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression" and the "World Anti-Fascist War." According to the sources, Japan conveyed to other nations through its embassies abroad...

Under the initiative, the Japan International Cooperation Agency has assigned Kisarazu in Chiba Prefecture as the hometown for Nigerians, Nagai in Yamagata for Tanzanians, Sanjo in Niigata for Ghanaians, and Imabari in Ehime for Mozambicans. Announced on the sidelines of the 9th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 9), held in Yokohama from August 20–23, 2025, the initiative forms part of Japan’s strategic effort to strengthen bilateral ties with African nations, promote cultural exchange, and address labour market challenges arising from its rapidly declining population. Special Visa Program for African Talent Director of Information at the State House, Abiodun...

n his book Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Doolittle Raid pilot Ted Lawson recalls the moment his B-25 bomber reached the coast of Japan – the first land he had seen, he tells us, after being at sea on the USS Hornet for nearly three weeks. "It looked very pretty," he writes:"Everything seemed as well kept as a big rock garden. The little farms were fitted in with almost mathematical precision. The fresh spring grass was brilliantly green. There were fruit trees in bloom, and farmers working in their fields waved to us as we pounded just over their heads. A...

The submarine that sank a train: the U.S.S. Barb | 8:28 The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered | 1.57M subscribers | 663,144 views | May 18, 2017