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Andrew Higgins
For Andrew Higgins's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Well-wishers light candles as people mourn the lives lost in Thursday's mass shooting, outside Charles University in Prague on Friday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 23, 2023
After Czech mass shooting, shock, grief and a focus on guns
As police Friday scrutinized online threats of copycat attacks, students at Charles University proposed a simple way to prevent any recurrence: ban guns.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 7, 2022
Russia looks to private militia to secure a victory in eastern Ukraine
Wagner Group forces launched attacks from several directions on the city of Bakhmut, though analysts said seizing it would yield little strategic value.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 22, 2022
Russian troops in Belarus spur debate over the threat to Ukraine
The U.S. and its allies are playing down the dangers posed by the deployment of thousands of Russian soldiers to Belarus, but the assessments come with a dose of uncertainty.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 9, 2022
A distracted Russia is losing its grip on its old Soviet sphere
Russia's domination of Central Asia and the Caucasus region is unraveling as the Kremlin focuses on the war in Ukraine — and border violence is flaring.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 28, 2022
With disaster looming, inspectors set to visit Ukraine nuclear plant
In a country still haunted by the memory of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, officials urged the public not to panic.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 3, 2022
In city where ‘Europe starts,’ ethnic Russians begin questioning Putin’s war
Narva, Estonia, is the EU's most ethnically Russian city, with a population supportive of Vladimir Putin. But the conflict in Ukraine has set off a “mental war” between old and young.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 2, 2022
As food shortages loom, a race to free Ukraine’s stranded grain
The Lithuania route appears to be the most promising for getting food quickly to areas like the Middle East and Africa that need Ukrainian grain the most, even if it is also a long shot.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 15, 2022
Hiding in plain sight, a Soviet-era air defense system arrives in Ukraine
Slovakia is transporting not only weapons from its own stocks into Ukraine. It is also sending military aid from many other countries.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Feb 20, 2022
Once, he kept Russia at a distance. Now, he is a docile Putin satrap.
Alexander Lukashenko played East and West against each other for 28 years, all while keeping Belarus firmly in his grip, but those days are over.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Feb 1, 2022
For some of Ukraine’s neighbors, ‘Defend Europe’ has another meaning
For the populist leaders of Poland and Hungary, Russia's saber-rattling on the border with Ukraine takes a back seat to domestic politics and issues like immigration.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 8, 2022
In Kazakhstan’s street battles, signs of elites fighting each other
The reasons for the bloody crisis in Central Asia remain murky, but experts say popular discontent could mask an old-fashioned power struggle within the ruling faction.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Nov 26, 2021
How fake news on Facebook helped fuel a border crisis in Europe
Social media worsened a migrant crisis and helped smugglers profit off desperate people trying to reach Europe.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 12, 2021
After going ‘free of LGBT,’ a Polish town pays a price
The May 2019 decision has become a costly embarrassment for the town of Krasnik.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 24, 2021
Mass rallies sweep Russia in protests over Alexei Navalny’s arrest
The remarkable defiance displayed by many of the protesters signaled widespread fatigue with the stagnant, corruption-plagued political order under Vladimir Putin.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Nov 12, 2020
Trump’s election tactics put him in unsavory company
Trump has joined a club of truculent leaders who, regardless of what voters decide, declare themselves the winners of elections.

Longform

Historically, kabuki was considered the entertainment of the merchant and peasant classes, a far cry from how it is regarded today.
For Japan's oldest kabuki theater, the show must go on