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August 23, 2025
 

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Valerie Volcovici
A chicken stands in a garbage dump filled with plastic in Rodriguez, Rizal province, the Philippines, on Nov. 28, 2024.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 7, 2025
Trump administration memo urges countries to reject plastic production caps
The U.S. stance broadly aligns with the positions laid out by the global petrochemicals industry.
Activists stage a demonstration in front of the United Nations Offices in Geneva on Monday.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 5, 2025
Pressure from oil producers and U.S. threaten global pact on plastics pollution
Plastic production is set to triple by 2060 without intervention, choking oceans, harming human health and accelerating climate change, according to the OECD.
A man walks on a beach in Nice, France, amid a heavy rain storm. European governments are ramping up their own data collection systems to monitor climate change and weather extremes.
WORLD
Aug 2, 2025
Europe is breaking its reliance on American science
Amid Trump's cuts, European governments are ramping up their own data collection systems to monitor climate change and weather extremes.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Apr 29, 2025
Trump administration targets scientists behind key climate assessment
Dismissal of nearly 400 contributors leaves the future of the U.S. National Climate Assessment in doubt under Trump's administration.
An LNG tanker is guided by tug boats in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, on April 14, 2022. The European Union is looking at ways to make it easier for U.S. gas exports to comply with its methane emissions rules.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 21, 2025
EU explores tweaking methane rules for U.S. gas to help trade talks
The European Commission is looking at using flexibilities in how it applies the bloc's methane rules, which could benefit U.S. liquefied natural gas exporters, sources say.
A commercial fishing boat leaves the port in Point Judith, Rhode Island, on March 13, as cuts by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration imperil key fishing data and research.
BUSINESS
Mar 24, 2025
Trump’s regulatory freeze throws U.S. fishing industry into chaos
The freeze allowed overfishing of Atlantic bluefin tuna in waters off North Carolina.
Elon Musk holds up a chainsaw onstage during the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, on Feb. 20.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 26, 2025
Musk's new ultimatum spurs fresh confusion among U.S. government workers
President Donald Trump said workers who did not respond would be "sort of semi-fired," adding to the uncertainty.
An oil pump jack. Big U.S. oil companies believe withdrawing from the Paris Agreement only limits Washington's ability to influence an ongoing global energy transition and exposes them to an uneven regulatory environment.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 23, 2025
Trump's climate withdrawal creates rare discord with Big Oil
A shift in the U.S. power industry away from coal has contributed to a roughly 17% decline in U.S. carbon dioxide emissions since 2007.
The Stratos direct air capture facility, a joint venture between Occidental Petroleum and asset manager BlackRock, in Ector County, Texas
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / ANALYSIS
Dec 14, 2024
Earthquakes and blowouts undermine case for carbon storage in Texas
Texas has seen surging interest from companies hoping to bury carbon dioxide in its oilfields.
INC-5 Chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso (on screen) speaks during an open plenary session during the fifth session of the U.N. Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution (INC-5) in Busan, South Korea, on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 2, 2024
Countries fail to reach agreement in U.N. plastic talks
Countries remained far apart on the basic scope of a treaty and could agree only to postpone key decisions and resume talks at a later date.
Emissions rise from the Royal Dutch Shell Plc Norco Refinery in Norco, Louisiana, on June 12, 2020.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Nov 27, 2024
How AI and cloud computing may delay the transition to clean energy
The pace of clean-energy deployments is moving too slowly to keep up with the new technology's demands.
Titan Cement's factory in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, Egypt
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 23, 2024
How big fossil-fuel-producing countries export emissions abroad
A loophole in the 2015 Paris accord has allowed countries to say they are making climate progress while also exporting fossil fuels at breakneck pace.
People leave the venue during the United Nations climate change conference, known as COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Monday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 12, 2024
COP29: U.S. climate envoy says work will continue despite Trump's return
"For those of us dedicated to climate action, last week's outcome in the United States is obviously bitterly disappointing," Podesta said at the summit.
A destroyed car in the Biala Ladecka river following flooding in Zelazno, Poland, on Friday
ENVIRONMENT
Sep 22, 2024
U.S. election uncertainty clouds U.N. climate finance progress
Governments are analyzing a possible win by Kamala Harris, who promotes climate spending, or by Donald Trump, a climate denier who wants to boost fossil fuels.
Bales of hard-to-recycle plastic waste piled up at Renewlogy Technologies in Salt Lake City, Utah, on May 17, 2021.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 15, 2024
In shift, U.S. backs global target to reduce plastic production, source says
The change away from earlier calls to leave such decisions up to each country puts the U.S. in direct opposition to countries like Saudi Arabia and China.
A prop depicting a water tap with cascading plastic bottles is displayed by activists near the Shaw Center venue of penultimate negotiations for the first-ever global plastics treaty, in Ottawa, Canada, on April 23.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
May 1, 2024
Plastic pollution talks make modest progress but sidestep production curbs
Some warned that too many political compromises would dilute the effectiveness of an eventual treaty while others welcomed a close focus on certain issues.
John Kerry, the U.S. special envoy on climate issues, gestures as he attends a news conference in Beijing in July 2023.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Mar 4, 2024
John Kerry bolstered U.S. climate reputation, but trust still elusive
Kerry is credited with restoring U.S. climate ties with China and courting private capital for climate action.
A man walks past a pollution pod designed to mimic the air quality in New Delhi, during the COP28 summit in Dubai, on Dec 4.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Dec 15, 2023
How the world agreed to move away from fossil fuels at COP28
This year's climate conference marked the first time in history countries expressed a unified desire to end the oil age.
People walk through Dubai's Expo City during COP28 on Monday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Dec 5, 2023
COP28 crowds: A dangerous distraction or sign of success?
With a record 84,000 registered attendees, this year's COP28 is a far cry from the first in 1995, a low-key affair with fewer than 4,000 delegates.
Demonstrators hold banners in front of the TotalEnergies headquarter building at La Defense in Courbevoie, France, on Nov. 3, ahead of the international climate conference COP28 in Dubai later this month.
WORLD
Nov 7, 2023
Impasse broken on climate fund before COP28 but tough road ahead
Both developing and developed countries said they had made major concessions to avoid a failure that would have soured U.N. climate talks.
Toyoko Kids: The lonely street children of Tokyo
Many young people who feel neglected at home flock to the Toyoko area to find a community where they can fit in.
Japan unveils new overtourism countermeasures
The majority of tourists in Japan tend to stay in Tokyo, Osaka or Kyoto, resulting in overcrowding in popular tourist spots and a strain on transportation systems.
South Korea couple beat same-sex barriers to parenthood
South Korean lesbian couple Kim Kyu-jin (left) and her wife, Kim Sae-yeon, pose with a "pregnant woman" badge during an interview in Seoul last month.
Rising sex tourism exposes loopholes in Japan's anti-prostitution law
While financial misfortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic may have driven some women to work the streets, others simply want more money to spend — or want to pay off their debts — at host clubs.
Opportunities await the bold in the Year of the Wood Dragon
2024 marks the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese zodiac, with the year predicted to be a good time for fresh starts.
Alicia Keys closed Summer Sonic, but J-pop owned it
Summer Sonic’s 2025 lineup demonstrated its strength, showcasing the latest in J-pop, including “new kawaii” act Fruits Zipper.
Big burgers and bigger ambitions for Japan's Burger King
Kazuhiro Nomura, president of BK Japan Holdings, which operates Burger King in Japan
Tokyo crowned No.1 'workation' spot
Workations were a burgeoning trend in the corporate world for years before the COVID-19 pandemic turbocharged it.
Atsushi Kitagawara’s exhibition finds poetry in architecture
The inverted cone, one of Atsushi Kitagawara’s six signature elements in architecture, is a key feature of the Nakamura Keith Haring Collection museum building.
Candidates preparing to make final pitches for Sawamura Award
Hawks pitcher Livan Moinelo has a 1.13 ERA in 19 starts this season.

Podcast

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

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after
Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

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