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If you’re confused about the aims, conduct and outcome of the summit meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin held in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 15, 2025, you’re probably not alone.
As summits go, the meeting broke with many conventions of diplomacy: It was last-minute, it appeared to ignore longstanding protocol and accounts of what happened were conflicting in the days after the early termination of the event.
The Conversation U.S.’s politics editor Naomi Schalit interviewed Donald Heflin, a veteran diplomat now teaching at Tufts University’s Fletcher School, to help untangle what happened and what could happen next.
It was a hastily planned summit. Trump said they’d accomplish things that they didn’t seem to accomplish. Where do things stand now?
It didn’t surprise me or any experienced diplomat that there wasn’t a concrete result from the summit.
First, the two parties, Russia and Ukraine, weren’t asking to come to the peace table. Neither one of them is ready yet, apparently. Second, the process was flawed. It wasn’t prepared well enough in advance, at the secretary of state and foreign minister level. It wasn’t prepared at the staff level.
What was a bit of a surprise was the last couple days before the summit, the White House started sending out what I thought were kind of realistic signals. They said, “Hopefully we’ll get a ceasefire and then a second set of talks a few weeks in the future, and that’ll be the real set of talks.”
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, here embracing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in London on Aug. 14, 2025, is one of many European leaders voicing strong support for Ukraine and Zelenskyy. Jordan Pettitt/PA Images via Getty Images
Now, that’s kind of reasonable. That could have happened. That was not a terrible plan. The problem was it didn’t happen. And we don’t know exactly why it didn’t happen.
Reading between the lines, there were a couple problems. The first is the Russians, again, just weren’t ready to do this, and they said, “No ceasefire. We want to go straight to permanent peace talks.”
Ukraine doesn’t want that, and neither do its European allies. Why?
When you do a ceasefire, what normally happens is you leave the warring parties in possession of whatever land their military holds right now. That’s just part of the deal. You don’t go into a 60- or 90-day ceasefire and say everybody’s got to pull back to where they were four years ago.
But if you go to a permanent peace plan, which Putin wants, you’ve got to decide that people are going to pull back, right? So that’s problem number one.
Problem number two is it’s clear that Putin is insisting on keeping some of the territory that his troops seized in 2014 and 2022. That’s just a non-starter for the Ukrainians.
Is Putin doing that because that really is his bottom line demand, or did he want to blow up these peace talks, and that was a good way to blow them up? It could be either or both.
Russia has made it clear that it wants to keep parts of Ukraine, based on history and ethnic makeup.
The problem is, the world community has made it clear for decades and decades and decades, you don’t get what you want by invading the country next door.
Remember in Gulf War I, when Saddam Hussein invaded and swallowed Kuwait and made it the 19th province of Iraq? The U.S. and Europe went in there and kicked him out. Then there are also examples where the U.S. and Europe have told countries, “Don’t do this. You do this, it’s going to be bad for you.”
So if Russia learns that it can invade Ukraine and seize territory and be allowed to keep it, what’s to keep them from doing it to some other country? What’s to keep some other country from doing it?
You mean the whole world is watching.
Yes. And the other thing the world is watching is the U.S. gave security guarantees to Ukraine in 1994 when they gave up the nuclear weapons they held, as did Europe. The U.S. has, both diplomatically and in terms of arms, supported Ukraine during this war. If the U.S. lets them down, what kind of message does that send about how reliable a partner the U.S. is?
The U.S. has this whole other thing going on the other side of the world where the country is confronting China on various levels. What if the U.S. sends a signal to the Taiwanese, “Hey, you better make the best deal you can with China, because we’re not going to back your play.”
Ukrainian police officers evacuate a resident from a residential building in Bilozerske following an airstrike by Russian invading forces on Aug. 17, 2025. Pierre Crom/Getty Images
At least six European leaders are coming to Washington along with Zelenskyy. What does that tell you?
They’re presenting a united front to Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to say, “Look, we can’t have this. Europe’s composed of a bunch of countries. If we get in the situation where one country invades the other and gets to keep the land they took, we can’t have it.”
President Trump had talked to all of them before the summit, and they probably came away with a strong impression that the U.S. was going for a ceasefire. And then, that didn’t happen.
Instead, Trump took Putin’s position of going straight to peace talks, no ceasefire.
I don’t think they liked it. I think they’re coming in to say to him, “No, we have to go to ceasefire first. Then talks and, PS, taking territory and keeping it is terrible precedent. What’s to keep Russia from just storming into the three Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – next? The maps of Europe that were drawn 100 years ago have held. If we’re going to let Russia erase a bunch of the borders on the map and incorporate parts, it could really be chaotic.”
Where do you see things going?
Until and unless you hear there’s a ceasefire, nothing’s really happened and the parties are continuing to fight and kill.
What I would look for after the Monday meetings is, does Trump stick to his guns post-Alaska and say, “No, we’re gonna have a big, comprehensive peace agreement, and land for peace is on the table.”
Or does he kind of swing back towards the European point of view and say, “I really think the first thing we got to have is a ceasefire”?
Even critics of Trump need to acknowledge that he’s never been a warmonger. He doesn’t like war. He thinks it’s too chaotic. He can’t control it. No telling what will happen at the other end of war. I think he sincerely wants for the shooting and the killing to stop above all else.
The way you do that is a ceasefire. You have two parties say, “Look, we still hate each other. We still have this really important issue of who controls these territories, but we both agree it’s in our best interest to stop the fighting for 60, 90 days while we work on this.”
If you don’t hear that coming out of the White House into the Monday meetings, this isn’t going anywhere.
There are thousands of Ukrainian children who have been taken by Russia – essentially kidnapped. Does that enter into any of these negotiations?
It should. It was a terror tactic.
This could be a place where you can make progress. If Putin said, well, “We still don’t want to give you any land, but, yeah, these kids here, you can have them back,” it’s the kind of thing you throw on the table to show that you’re not a bad guy and you are kind of serious about these talks.
Whether they’ll do that or not, I don’t know. It’s really a tragic story.
If you’re confused about the aims, conduct and outcome of the summit meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin held in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 15, 2025, you’re probably not alone.
As summits go, the meeting broke with many conventions of diplomacy: It was last-minute, it appeared to ignore longstanding protocol and accounts of what happened were conflicting in the days after the early termination of the event.
The Conversation U.S.’s politics editor Naomi Schalit interviewed Donald Heflin, a veteran diplomat now teaching at Tufts University’s Fletcher School, to help untangle what happened and what could happen next.
It was a hastily planned summit. Trump said they’d accomplish things that they didn’t seem to accomplish. Where do things stand now?
It didn’t surprise me or any experienced diplomat that there wasn’t a concrete result from the summit.
First, the two parties, Russia and Ukraine, weren’t asking to come to the peace table. Neither one of them is ready yet, apparently. Second, the process was flawed. It wasn’t prepared well enough in advance, at the secretary of state and foreign minister level. It wasn’t prepared at the staff level.
What was a bit of a surprise was the last couple days before the summit, the White House started sending out what I thought were kind of realistic signals. They said, “Hopefully we’ll get a ceasefire and then a second set of talks a few weeks in the future, and that’ll be the real set of talks.”
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, here embracing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in London on Aug. 14, 2025, is one of many European leaders voicing strong support for Ukraine and Zelenskyy. Jordan Pettitt/PA Images via Getty Images
Now, that’s kind of reasonable. That could have happened. That was not a terrible plan. The problem was it didn’t happen. And we don’t know exactly why it didn’t happen.
Reading between the lines, there were a couple problems. The first is the Russians, again, just weren’t ready to do this, and they said, “No ceasefire. We want to go straight to permanent peace talks.”
Ukraine doesn’t want that, and neither do its European allies. Why?
When you do a ceasefire, what normally happens is you leave the warring parties in possession of whatever land their military holds right now. That’s just part of the deal. You don’t go into a 60- or 90-day ceasefire and say everybody’s got to pull back to where they were four years ago.
But if you go to a permanent peace plan, which Putin wants, you’ve got to decide that people are going to pull back, right? So that’s problem number one.
Problem number two is it’s clear that Putin is insisting on keeping some of the territory that his troops seized in 2014 and 2022. That’s just a non-starter for the Ukrainians.
Is Putin doing that because that really is his bottom line demand, or did he want to blow up these peace talks, and that was a good way to blow them up? It could be either or both.
Russia has made it clear that it wants to keep parts of Ukraine, based on history and ethnic makeup.
The problem is, the world community has made it clear for decades and decades and decades, you don’t get what you want by invading the country next door.
Remember in Gulf War I, when Saddam Hussein invaded and swallowed Kuwait and made it the 19th province of Iraq? The U.S. and Europe went in there and kicked him out. Then there are also examples where the U.S. and Europe have told countries, “Don’t do this. You do this, it’s going to be bad for you.”
So if Russia learns that it can invade Ukraine and seize territory and be allowed to keep it, what’s to keep them from doing it to some other country? What’s to keep some other country from doing it?
You mean the whole world is watching.
Yes. And the other thing the world is watching is the U.S. gave security guarantees to Ukraine in 1994 when they gave up the nuclear weapons they held, as did Europe. The U.S. has, both diplomatically and in terms of arms, supported Ukraine during this war. If the U.S. lets them down, what kind of message does that send about how reliable a partner the U.S. is?
The U.S. has this whole other thing going on the other side of the world where the country is confronting China on various levels. What if the U.S. sends a signal to the Taiwanese, “Hey, you better make the best deal you can with China, because we’re not going to back your play.”
Ukrainian police officers evacuate a resident from a residential building in Bilozerske following an airstrike by Russian invading forces on Aug. 17, 2025. Pierre Crom/Getty Images
At least six European leaders are coming to Washington along with Zelenskyy. What does that tell you?
They’re presenting a united front to Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to say, “Look, we can’t have this. Europe’s composed of a bunch of countries. If we get in the situation where one country invades the other and gets to keep the land they took, we can’t have it.”
President Trump had talked to all of them before the summit, and they probably came away with a strong impression that the U.S. was going for a ceasefire. And then, that didn’t happen.
Instead, Trump took Putin’s position of going straight to peace talks, no ceasefire.
I don’t think they liked it. I think they’re coming in to say to him, “No, we have to go to ceasefire first. Then talks and, PS, taking territory and keeping it is terrible precedent. What’s to keep Russia from just storming into the three Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – next? The maps of Europe that were drawn 100 years ago have held. If we’re going to let Russia erase a bunch of the borders on the map and incorporate parts, it could really be chaotic.”
Where do you see things going?
Until and unless you hear there’s a ceasefire, nothing’s really happened and the parties are continuing to fight and kill.
What I would look for after the Monday meetings is, does Trump stick to his guns post-Alaska and say, “No, we’re gonna have a big, comprehensive peace agreement, and land for peace is on the table.”
Or does he kind of swing back towards the European point of view and say, “I really think the first thing we got to have is a ceasefire”?
Even critics of Trump need to acknowledge that he’s never been a warmonger. He doesn’t like war. He thinks it’s too chaotic. He can’t control it. No telling what will happen at the other end of war. I think he sincerely wants for the shooting and the killing to stop above all else.
The way you do that is a ceasefire. You have two parties say, “Look, we still hate each other. We still have this really important issue of who controls these territories, but we both agree it’s in our best interest to stop the fighting for 60, 90 days while we work on this.”
If you don’t hear that coming out of the White House into the Monday meetings, this isn’t going anywhere.
There are thousands of Ukrainian children who have been taken by Russia – essentially kidnapped. Does that enter into any of these negotiations?
It should. It was a terror tactic.
This could be a place where you can make progress. If Putin said, well, “We still don’t want to give you any land, but, yeah, these kids here, you can have them back,” it’s the kind of thing you throw on the table to show that you’re not a bad guy and you are kind of serious about these talks.
Whether they’ll do that or not, I don’t know. It’s really a tragic story.
The cutthroat race for AI talent has seen tech giants like Meta dangling exorbitant bonuses in the hundreds of millions to lure talent.
But Jad Tarifi, who founded Google’s first generative AI team, told Business Insider that he would not encourage people to get a Ph.D. just to cash in on the AI hype.
“AI itself is going to be gone by the time you finish a Ph.D. Even things like applying AI to robotics will be solved by then. So either get into something niche like AI for biology, which is still in its very early stages, or just don’t get into anything at all,” Tarifi said.
Tarifi, 42, got his Ph.D. in AI from the University of Florida in 2012. He joined Google in 2012 and spent nearly a decade with the search giant. In 2021, Tarifi started his own AI startup, Integral AI.
Tarifi said doctoral studies are an ordeal that only “weird people” — much like he was — should undertake, because it involves sacrificing “five years of your life and a lot of pain.”
“I don’t think anyone should ever do a Ph.D. unless they are obsessed with the field,” Tarifi said.
And now, with the world advancing as fast as it is, you can achieve a lot more outside school, he added.
“If you are unsure, you should definitely default to ‘no,’ and focus on just living in the world,” Tarifi said. “You will move much faster. You’ll learn a lot more. You’ll be more adaptive to how things are changed.”
Degrees that take a long time to complete, like law and medicine, are in trouble, too, Tarifi said.
“In the current medical system, what you learn in medical school is so outdated and based on memorization,” he said, adding that people might end up “throwing away eight years” of their lives for their advanced degrees.
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Tarifi said people who want to thrive in the age of AI should develop social skills and empathy. This is because while the hard sciences can be learned, expertise at prompting and using AI involves “emotional attunement” and “good taste.”
“The best thing to work on is more internal. Meditate. Socialize with your friends. Get to know yourself emotionally,” Tarifi said.
Tarifi said that when it comes to AI, one does not need to master every single detail to work in the industry.
“I have a Ph.D. in AI, but I don’t know how the latest microprocessor works,” Tarifi added. “For example, you can drive a car, but you might not know every single thing about the car. But if you know what to do if something goes wrong, that’s good enough.”
Tarifi isn’t the only one who says that leaning into one’s passions will become critical when navigating a world disrupted by AI.
Paul Graham, the founder of startup incubator Y Combinator, said in an X post on August 5 that low-level programming jobs are “already disappearing” because AI is “good at scutwork.”
“So I think the best general advice for protecting oneself from AI is to do something so well that you’re operating way above the level of scutwork,” Graham wrote.
“It’s hard to do something really well if you’re not deeply interested in it,” he added.
Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah has confirmed his availability for the upcoming Asia Cup 2025, scheduled to begin in September in the UAE.
According to the Indian media reports, Bumrah informed the selectors of his readiness a few days ago. This comes shortly after Suryakumar Yadav cleared his fitness test in Bengaluru.
The Indian selection committee is set to meet on August 19 in Mumbai to finalise the 15-member squad for the T20 tournament.
“In a significant boost for Team India, star fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah has made himself available for the 2025 Asia Cup,” a BCCI source confirmed.
To manage his workload, the right-arm pacer was rested from the fifth and final Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy at The Oval.
He played in the first, third, and fourth Tests, while being rested for the second Test at Edgbaston, which India won. Across the series, Bumrah bowled 119.4 overs and claimed two five-wicket hauls.
With the Asia Cup in the T20 format, Bumrah won’t need to bowl long spells, allowing the management to handle his playing time carefully.
He will also have a break of nearly 40 days between his last Test in England and the start of the tournament. His last T20I appearance was in the 2024 T20 World Cup final against South Africa in Bridgetown, where he took 2 for 18 in India’s seven-run win.
The report also mentioned that the Suryakumar Yadav-led side will travel to the UAE early for the Asia Cup.
While the BCCI proposed a short camp in Bengaluru, the team opted for early travel to help players acclimate to local conditions.
It is pertinent to mention that India, placed in Group A, will begin their campaign against hosts UAE on September 10, face arch-rivals Pakistan on September 14, and conclude the group stage against Oman on September 19.
– Combination of a low dose of ASC47 with ASC31, a novel peptide agonist targeting both GLP-1 receptor (GLP-1R) and GIP receptor (GIPR), resulted in a 44.8% reduction in body weight after 14 days of treatment in a diet-induced obese (DIO) mouse model.
– Combination of a low dose of ASC47 with ASC31 demonstrated statistically significantly greater efficacy than a combination of a low dose of ASC47 with tirzepatide, 44.8% compared to 38.1%, respectively, in the DIO mouse model.
HONG KONG, Aug. 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Ascletis Pharma Inc. (HKEX:1672, “Ascletis”) announces encouraging preclinical efficacy results for ASC47, a first-in-class muscle-preserving weight loss drug candidate for the treatment of obesity, in combination with ASC31, its in-house developed GLP-1 receptor (GLP-1R)/GIP receptor (GIPR) dual targeting peptide agonist drug candidate.
ASC31 is an in-house discovered and developed novel peptide agonist targeting both GLP-1R and GIPR, which demonstrated a favorable pharmacokinetic profile in non-human primates as well as promising in vitro activities and in vivo efficacy in the diet-induced obese (DIO) mice. ASC31 is part of Ascletis’ discovery efforts to apply its Ultra-Long-Acting Platform (ULAP) to in-house discovered novel subcutaneously (SQ) injectable peptides and oral peptides.
ASC47 is an adipose-targeted, once-monthly SQ injected thyroid hormone receptor beta (THRβ) selective small molecule agonist, discovered and developed in-house at Ascletis. ASC47 possesses unique and differentiated properties to enable adipose targeting, resulting in dose-dependent high drug concentrations in the adipose tissue.
The objective of the DIO mouse study was to compare efficacy in weight loss of a low dose of ASC47 (9 mg/kg, SQ) combined with ASC31 (3 nmol/kg, SQ) to a low dose of ASC47 (9 mg/kg, SQ) combined with tirzepatide (3 nmol/kg, SQ). The treatment duration was 14 days. Results showed that the combination of ASC47 with ASC31 was 17.6% more effective (p=0.02) compared to the combination of ASC47 with tirzepatide, with an average total body weight reduction of 44.8% versus 38.1%, respectively.
“The significant weight reduction demonstrated with the combination of our novel GLP-1R/GIPR peptide agonist, ASC31, and our THRβ agonist, ASC47, in this animal model suggests the potential for meaningful differentiation compared to currently marketed obesity treatments as well as product candidates in development,” said Jinzi Jason Wu, Ph.D., Founder, Chairman and CEO of Ascletis, “Ascletis is developing a strong pipeline of small molecules and peptides for the potential treatment of obesity, and we look forward to providing additional development updates moving forward.”
About Ascletis Pharma Inc.
Ascletis Pharma Inc. is a fully integrated biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialization of potential best-in-class and first-in-class therapeutics to treat metabolic diseases. Utilizing its proprietary Artificial Intelligence-Assisted Structure-Based Drug Discovery (AISBDD) Platform and Ultra-Long-Acting Platform (ULAP), Ascletis has developed multiple drug candidates in-house, including its lead program, ASC30, a small molecule GLP-1R agonist in development as a once-daily oral tablet and once-monthly subcutaneous injection for weight management. Ascletis is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (1672.HK).
For more information, please visit www.ascletis.com.
Contact：
Peter Vozzo ICR Healthcare 443-231-0505 (U.S.) [email protected]
Ascletis Pharma Inc. PR and IR teams +86-181-0650-9129 (China) [email protected] [email protected]
Coline Aguirre first began to imagine her future during a high school exchange program in Japan a decade ago.
Aguirre, who was born in Paris but moved around a lot as a child, spent a year studying in Kanagawa, a prefecture about 40 miles outside Tokyo.
During a visit to her host family’s grandparents in the countryside, she discovered that they lived in a traditional Japanese house built in the ’70s, with elegant wooden beams and beautiful tatami rooms.
“That was the first time I slept in a tatami room. Before that, I had only been in really modern city houses in Japan,” Aguirre told Business Insider. “I fell in love, and in that moment, I knew I wanted to own a traditional house in Japan.”
Aguirre says she’s been drawn to traditional Japanese houses ever since staying in one during her high school exchange.
Coline Aguirre.
Fast-forward to 2021: Aguirre was back in France and working as a freelance photographer. Over the years, she and her mother had nurtured a shared hobby of scrolling through real-estate websites and window-shopping for homes.
“At the time, I was discovering the real estate market in Japan and noticing the really low prices,” Aguirre said.
In France, a countryside home could easily set her back by 200,000 euros. In contrast, some houses in rural Japan can go for as low as $500.
The contrast was striking, and it got her thinking about the possibilities.
“In France, if I wanted to buy something new with the money I had then, it would be a car or a garage. I don’t want to live in a car or in a garage,” she said.
‘A hundred years old, minimum’
Thus started her hunt for a “kominka,” or a farmhouse, in the Japanese countryside.
Aguirre was looking for a large property, with enough room for a photo studio. She also wanted an old house because she felt that they were built with materials meant to last.
“My criteria was like, a hundred years old, minimum,” Aguirre added.
When she chanced upon the listing for a 3,200-square-foot property in Uda, a small town about 50 miles south of Kyoto, she knew she had found the one.
Aguirre says she was always drawn to traditional Japanese houses after staying in one during high school.
Coline Aguirre.
“It matched all my expectations. It was huge, maybe a bit too huge, but it had an inner garden, two bathrooms, two kitchens, and a lot of bedrooms,” Aguirre said.
It was also a 15-minute drive to the train station, and about an hour and a half from the ocean.
With the help of a consultant on a real-estate portal — who sent her a 20-minute video tour of the listing — Aguirre bought the two-story house remotely,without seeing it in person.
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Aguirre says she paid about 4.9 million Japanese yen for the property in 2022, and at the age of 24, achieved her dream of buying a traditional house in the Japanese countryside.
She bought the house without seeing it in person.
Coline Aguirre.
Her husband, who is in the French Army, knew this was her plan soon after they first got together.
“From the moment we started dating eight years ago, I already told him I’m going to be a house owner in Japan one day. And it eventually happened,” Aguirre said.
She officially moved to Japan alone later that year. “I had no plan. I was just trusting the universe,” Aguirre, now 27, said.
Her parents were also supportive of her move. It helped that they were already familiar with Japan: Her father had spent a year working in Tokyo, and her mother had been to the country multiple times on vacation.
Growing up, she was used to her parents buying and fixing up old houses in France.
“I had no perception of what was scary or not,” Aguirre said. “We’ve been doing that so many times, it just felt normal for me to buy a house.”
Restoring the house
Aguirre’s house sits on a street where the old market used to be.
The street reminds her of Kyoto, with its shops and old houses. “The post office is in front of me, while there’s a bank at the end of the road,” she said.
Aguirre says she taught herself how to DIY, in addition to hiring contractors.
Coline Aguirre.
When her house was first built in the 1920s, the front section facing the street served as a soy sauce shop. Before she bought it, the previous owners had used it as a summer home whenever they visited from the city during the holidays.
In terms of restoring the property, Aguirre, who now runs a real-estate consultancy, says she has tried to keep as much of the original structure as possible.
The main thing she’s changed so far is getting rid of the septic tank and connecting the property to the public sewage system.
“I haven’t really destroyed so many things besides everything that was added during the ’70s,” she said.
The previous owners had used the property as a summer home whenever they visited from the city during the holidays.
Coline Aguirre.
There’s plenty left to do, including remodeling the kitchen and removing the fake ceilings on the second floor. Considering the size of the property, it’s been a slow process.
“I try to do all the DIY I possibly can,” Aguiree said.
Local contractors were often more accustomed to working on newer homes with modern materials like plastic insulation, which wasn’t what she envisioned for her own space.
“I started to learn a lot of DIY stuff, like making tiles and waterproofing the shower. But it’s fun. I really enjoy it and I like power tools a lot,” Aguirre said, adding that she dived into online tutorials, read books, and got advice from her father.
These days, between managing her business and working on the house, Aguirre also runs an online boutique selling vintage kimonos and accessories. On the side, she offers kimono photography sessions, too.
She also runs a little boutique online selling vintage kimonos and offers kimono photography sessions.
Coline Aguirre.
Living the dream
Aguirre is part of a growing wave of foreigners who are relocating to Japan.
The number of foreign residents in Japan reached a record high of 3,768,977 at the end of 2024 — an increase of 10.5% from the previous year, per data from the country’s Immigration Services Agency.
Four Americans who spoke to BI in 2023 listed Japan’s safety standards and relative affordability as reasons for their move. Others told BI they were drawn to the idea of renovating one of the country’s 8 million abandoned homes.
Though much of the experience has been rewarding, Aguirre says the hardest part of her move was staying focused on her goals.
Even though she is in the countryside, Aguirre says meeting new people hasn’t been difficult.
Coline Aguirre.
“It is super challenging to own that kind of big house that needs constant attention, while also starting a business from zero in a new country with a new language,” she said.
She hopes to improve her Japanese language skills, but hasn’t found the time to take lessons.
“For now, my language classes are me talking to my neighbors,” Aguirre said.
Most of her neighbours are between 50 and 90 years old and have been living in the area for decades. Many of them once attended the local elementary school, which has since been transformed into a maple park.
That said, meeting new people hasn’t been difficult. A fairly large group of foreigners — mostly from the US and the UK — are living in Uda, she said.
“When you go grocery shopping and you see someone else who is a foreigner, you basically go and talk to them because it’s so rare,” Aguirre said.
Over the years, she’s been introduced to new people, sometimes even on the street.
Aguirre lives in her house in Japan full-time, and her husband comes to visit her whenever he can. Regarding what is often a long-distance relationship, Aguirre said,“It’s challenging, but I mean, he said yes eight years ago.”
Looking back on her journey, Aguirre says it feels like she’s only begun to scratch the surface.
“Three years is just a trial,” she said. Sometimes, she added, you’ll need to wait for the thrill of the move to die down before you know if it’s really for you.
That said, Aguire knows she made the right choice. She hopes to continue growing her real estate business, now a team of three, and eventually connect traditional Japanese homes with buyers seeking homes and spaces for their creative projects.
“It still feels like a dream,” Aguirre said. “I just added more layers to my dream.”
Do you have a story to share about building your dream home in Asia? Contact this reporter at agoh@businessinsider.com.
WESTFIELD, Ind. – Sebastian Munoz and Torque GC swept the individual and team titles at LIV Golf Indianapolis, but there were plenty of other news, notes and stats from the final round at Chatham Hills.
RELATED: Leaderboard | Rd. 3 recap | Video highlights
LIV GOLF INDIANAPOLIS ROUND 3 NOTES
TOP 3
Legion XIII Captain Jon Rahm, Torque GC Captain Joaquin Niemann and Crushers GC Captain Bryson DeChambeau finished 1-2-3, respectively, in the final season-long standings. Each will earn a bonus for finishing in the top three. It’s the second consecutive year for Rahm and Niemann to finish 1-2, while DeChambeau finishes in the top 3 for the first time in his LIV Golf career.
LOCK ZONE
HyFlyers GC Captain Phil Mickelson, an original LIV Golf member, finished in the Lock Zone (top 24 in points) for the first time in his LIV Golf career. Mickelson finished 24th in points; the top 24 are guaranteed spots for next season.
Another LIV Golf captain, RangeGoats GC’s Bubba Watson, also finished in the Lock Zone for the first time at 11th. Watson tied for 8th in Indianapolis, his fourth top-10 finish in his last eight starts.
Other first-time Lock Zone finishers include: young Fireballs GC star David Puig (10th), 4Aces GC’s Thomas Pieters (19th) and first-year-LIV Golf player Tom McKibbin (20th) of Legion XIII.
RELEGATED PLAYERS
Majesticks Co-Captain Henrik Stenson (49th in points) was one of five team players relegated after finishing in the Drop Zone (49th and below) in the season-long points standings. The other relegated players are HyFlyers GC’s Andy Ogletree (50), Torque GC’s Mito Pereira (51), Iron Heads GC’s Yubin Jang (53) and Cleeks Golf Club’s Frederik Kjettrup (T55). Jang and Kjettrup were in their first year in the league.
In addition, wild-card player Anthony Kim (T55) also was relegated.
Stenson and his fellow co-captain Ian Poulter battled for most of the day to avoid relegation, with each player moving in and out of the projected Drop Zone. Poulter closed with a flourish, with four consecutive birdies late in his round to shoot 67 and finish T17, his second top-20 this season. Stenson bogeyed three of his first six holes en route to a 1-over 72 to tie for 22nd.
In the end, the difference between Poulter and Stenson in points was 0.38 – essentially a one-shot difference.
PEREIRA AFTER RELEGATION
Despite the disappointment of relegation, Torque GC’s Mito Pereira was happy to end the regular season with a team title, and he’ll get another chance to win the LIV Golf Team Championship next week in Michigan.
“I’m really happy to get this win,” he said after shooting 8 under to finish T36. “Everybody was working for it, and to do it in the last tournament is just a really good feeling.”
SEEDS SET FOR TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII enter next week’s Michigan Team Championship as the top seed on the strength of their four tournament wins and four other podium finishes. Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC are the No. 2 seed and Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs GC are No. 3. The top seeds entering Friday’s Quarterfinals will get to select their opponent.
The remainder of the seeds are as follows: 4) Torque GC; 5) 4Aces GC; 6) Ripper GC; 7) Stinger GC; 8) Smash GC; 9) RangeGoats GC; 10) HyFlyers GC; 11) Cleeks GC; 12) Majesticks GC; and 13) Iron Heads GC.
PLAY-IN OPPONENTS SET
The last two seeds in the standings – Majesticks and Iron Heads – will participate in a play-in match on Wednesday, with all players on both teams participating. Two singles and one foursomes (alternate-shot) match will take place, with the team winning at least two of those matches advancing to Friday’s Quarterfinals. The losing team will see its season end.
17TH TROPHY SWEEP
The sweep of both the tournament individual and team trophies by Torque GC on Sunday is the 17th time in LIV Golf history that a team has swept both trophies at a single tournament. It’s the fifth time this season, and the second consecutive week, with Stinger GC and Dean Burmester sweeping the trophies in Chicago.
RECORD LOW
Torque GC’s winning score of 64 under shatters the previous low score for a winning LIV Golf team, which was 53 under initially set by Ripper GC at 2024 Adelaide (Stinger GC also shot that score but lost in a playoff) and Smash GC later in the season at Greenbrier.
REGULAR-SEASON STAT LEADERS
With the regular season now complete, here are the leaders in key statistical categories for the entire season:
Driving accuracy – Henrik Stenson 72.34%
Driving distance – Joaquin Niemann, 330.7 yards average
Greens in regulation – Jon Rahm, 74.50%
Scrambling – Bryson DeChambeau, 66.97%
Putting average – Caleb Surratt, Charl Schwartzel, Cameron Smith, 1.54
Most birdies – Jon Rahm, 194
Most eagles – Bubba Watson, 12
RECORD-SCORING ROUND
Sunday’s field average of 66.537 was 4.463 strokes under par, making it the lowest-scoring round in LIV Golf history. Each of the previous two rounds had set the same record – 68.519 in Friday’s first round, then 68.204 in Saturday’s second round.
Posted in: Games, Indie Games, Video Games | Tagged: Game Source Entertainment, Ratatan, Tokyo Virtual Theory
Ratatan has been given a new Early Access Date for September, as the game still has a totally free demo for you to play on Steam
Article Summary
Ratatan’s Early Access release date for Steam is officially set for September after a short delay.
The game blends rhythmic combat and roguelike elements from the minds behind Patapon and Tokyo Virtual Theory.
Players command Ratatan and their Cobun army using magical instruments to attack, defend, and explore.
New power-ups, multiplayer mini-games, and richer graphics deliver fresh experiences with each session.
Indie game developer Tokyo Virtual Theory and publisher Game Source Entertainment confirmed the official Early Access release date for Ratatan. Originally, this was supposed to take place back in July, but it looks like the team decided to push that back and give themselves a couple of extra months to work on the title. Now we know the EA date for Steam will take place on September 19, 2025. Those of you who want to try the game out ahead of time can still play a free demo of the title on Steam right now, which will probably stay up until the new version arrives.
Credit: Game Source Entertainment
Ratatan
Ratatan is a rhythmic roguelike action game developed in collaboration between Hiroyuki Kotani, the producer of the renowned series Patapon, released on PSP in 2007, and Tokyo Virtual Theory (TVT). Players act as the Ratatan, using magical instruments to deliver different commands to the armies of Cobun to attack the enemies. In addition to attack and defense rhythmic sequences, there are also actions that allow the Ratatan to move freely, with unique skills for each character, further deepening the musicality of the game. Players will enter “fever mode” when they accurately follow the rhythm sequences. In fever mode, the background music changes interactively, and characters perform various actions.
Ratatan also incorporates the popular Roguelike system. In each adventure, Ratatan and its Cobun randomly receive different power-ups and rewards in every battle. Players will experience different adventures each time, with various power-ups bringing various diverse effects and increasing gameplay possibilities. With Nelnal as the game illustrator and character designer, Ratatan features richer game graphics and more characters than before. It has also added a lot of new content, including a brand-new system and mini-games for multiplayer. It will utilize TVT’s own “Theory Engine” to provide a fast and stable environment for online multiplayer.
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