Japan’s Cabinet approves record defense budget

Several EU member states are seeking a bloc-wide rapid reaction force. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg says the defense efforts should not duplicate existing structures.

A Netflix-funded anime academy in Tokyo trains the next generation of cartoon artists as global demand for the genre soars. Japan is facing a shortage of skilled animators, in part because most face years toiling in low-paying jobs to learn the ropes, meaning much of the painstaking frame-by-frame drawing work is outsourced overseas.

It is the first time a budget has been rejected in Portugal since the country's transition to democracy in 1974. The move ends six years of relative stability under Prime Minister Antonio Costa.

Japan is holding a parliamentary election, which is the first big test for the new prime minister. A poor showing for the ruling party could threaten a return to the country's history of revolving-door premiership.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's Liberal Demorats are expected to retain enough seats to keep power, but the new administration will need to get the economy back on track while navigating regional security challenges.

India's Narendra Modi has spoken in Glasgow on Monday and Japan's new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was en route. But President Xi Jinping of China, the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, skipped attendance.

The passage of the first budget in three years saves the country from facing its fifth election in two years.

The budget was key to helping Naftali's Bennett's fragile coalition remain stable until at least 2023, when he plans to pass the prime ministerial reins to his foreign minister, Yair Lapid.

Portugal is to head to the polls on January 30, after the country's president called a snap election. The announcement comes a week after parliament rejected the minority government's 2022 budget bill.

Taipei has said it is one of the largest Chinese incursions into Taiwan's air defense identification zone since early October, coming right after an EU delegation visited Taipei to work on building ties.

Dwayne Johnson, the action star whose films pull in big bucks at global box offices, is aiming to entertain viewers in their living rooms with his next movie spectacle, the globe-trotting Netflix heist caper "Red Notice." Johnson stars in the movie with Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds about a race to locate and steal three valuable artifacts. The movie will stream on Netflix starting Friday after playing for a week in a limited number of movie theaters. The film ranks among the most expensive ever made by Netflix with a pricetag of roughly $200 million.

Kyle R. broke down in tears so hard at one point that the judge declared a break. He is facing homicide charges after shooting three people at racial justice protests in Kenosha.