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Simon Marks
For Simon Marks's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
A big selling point for Starlink is its ease of setting up and use.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 26, 2024
Elon Musk’s Starlink terminals are falling into the wrong hands
A thriving black market results in kits being smuggled into territories where the service has no agreement to operate and their use by repressive regimes.
Elon Musk and Benjamin Netanyahu visit Kibbutz Kfar Aza in Israel on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 28, 2023
Amid antisemitism uproar, Elon Musk pitches Starlink in Israel
Musk's satellite internet provider is at the heart of the billionnaire's political clout.
Israeli soldiers walk during a raid at the Balata camp for Palestinian refugees, east of Nablus in the occupied West Bank on Nov. 19.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Nov 27, 2023
The West Bank is being reshaped along with Gaza post-Oct. 7
Hamas' attack has aggravated the long-standing conflict over the land between Israel and the Jordan River that forms the other Palestinian territory.
Palestinians amongst the rubble of destroyed residential buildings following Israeli airstrikes in the Shejaiya district east of Gaza City, Gaza, on Nov. 9.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 17, 2023
U.S. and EU back U.N. force in postwar Gaza
U.S. and European officials concede big questions remain about such an operation and recognize that Israel remains highly skeptical of such a plan.
Wagner mercenaries guard the president and other high-ranking attendees at an event in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, in May 2019.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 25, 2023
Wagner’s empire in Africa will live on after Prigozhin
Prigozhin built a business empire on the continent over the past five years, becoming an iconoclastic celebrity in places like Mali.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 15, 2023
Women and girls share stories of abuse in Sudan as conflict rages
Both the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Army have been accused of abuses, including sexual violence against women and girls.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 12, 2023
Race is on to protect Sudan’s pyramids and tombs as war rages
Airstrikes have been recorded around Khartoum, Omdurman and Bahri — areas home to many temples and monuments, and the cradle of the Kerma civilization, which flourished around 2500 B.C.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 10, 2022
Horror of a hotter world on stark display in parched eastern Africa
The grim reality confronting east Africa is a frightening portent of what could come elsewhere due to climate change.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 1, 2022
How a sanctioned Russian company gained access to Sudan’s gold
The Wagner Group's secretive and expanding business dealings in Africa show the limitations of Western nations' attempts to censure it and other Russian firms.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 6, 2022
Rights groups accuse Ethiopian forces of war crimes in Tigray
Abuses inflicted on the Tigrayans included murder, torture, rape and sexual slavery, said two rights groups in a 240-page report released Wednesday.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 25, 2022
Ethiopia declares unilateral truce in war-ravaged Tigray
The rebels ignored a previous government offer of a cease-fire, but this time the group said it is committed to implementing the truce 'effective immediately.”
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 31, 2021
Dubai can’t shake off the stain of smuggled African gold
The U.N. has found a discrepancy of at least $4 billion between the United Arab Emirates' declared gold imports from Africa and what African countries say they exported to the UAE.

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