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November 23, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY

World

World
Japan
A man holds a poster outside the court in Dhaka on Nov. 17 calling for the death penalty ahead of the verdict against ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on charges of crimes against humanity for a deadly crackdown on student-led protests in 2024.
COMMENTARY / World
Bangladesh’s Hasina sentence: Justice or vengeance?
Human Rights Watch, among other observers, determined the tribunal “failed to meet international fair trial standards.”
COMMENTARY / World
The United Nations legitimizes Trump’s Gaza peace plan
For the longer-term prospects for peace in the decades-old conflict, nevertheless, this signals deep troubles ahead.
COMMENTARY / World
Pakistan will regret letting the army back in
At no point did Pakistan’s democrats completely escape the shadow of the army — but institutionally and symbolically, the uniforms had begun to give way to the suits.
U.S. representatives, including Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene and Democrat Ro Khanna, take part in a news conference to discuss the Epstein Files Transparency Bill on Sept. 3 on Capitol Hill.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2025
The U.S. Congress draws the line at Jeffrey Epstein
By Nia-Malika Henderson
Tuesday’s votes and Trump's signing of the bill mark a new chapter in this MAGA-manufactured conspiracy theory.
Three U.S. companies — Amazon, Google and Microsoft — now control over 60% of the global cloud market, posing major economic and security risks for Europe.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2025
Europe seeks to end U.S. tech giants' hold on digital infrastructure
By Robin Berjon
Three U.S. companies — Amazon, Google, and Microsoft — now control over 60% of the global cloud market, posing major economic and security risks for Europe.
A growing bipartisan movement — backed by educators, researchers and parents — is pushing to ban smartphones in U.S. classrooms, citing evidence that doing so boosts learning, cuts bullying and helps students reconnect in real life.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2025
Want students to thrive? Lock up their phones.
By Mary Ellen Klas
A growing bipartisan push to ban smartphones in U.S. classrooms is showing early signs of boosting learning, cutting bullying and helping students reconnect in real life.
The BBC faces a potential $5 billion lawsuit from Donald Trump over a misleading Jan. 6 documentary clip, but legal action is risky, costly, and could threaten the broadcaster’s survival despite its apology.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 18, 2025
The BBC is gambling with its own destruction over Trump scandal
By Rosa Prince
The Beeb is too important and Trump’s rancor too extreme and unpredictable to pursue chancy legal warfare.
The world is experiencing something similar to the prosperity before World War I, but growing authoritarianism, environmental decline and political paralysis are threatening to turn a promising future into a catastrophe.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 18, 2025
Lessons from the past: The geopolitical significance of historical precedent
By Jacques Attali
Every generation believes that it is living in an unprecedented era with unique challenges. But time and again, the same patterns have weakened and even destroyed civilizations.
A nuclear bomb test at Bikini Atoll and Enewetak in June 1956. Such tests are best conceptualized as environmental disasters with consequences that are still felt today, particularly in Oceania and Central Asia.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 17, 2025
Nuclear tests and a legacy of harm in the Asia-Pacific
By Maxime Polleri
Understanding former nuclear experiments as “tests” is highly misleading, as each atomic explosion has released a tremendous quantity of long-lasting radioactive pollutants.
Vietnam's prime minister, Pham Minh Chinh (center left), speaks with Malaysian leader Anwar Ibrahim on the sidelines of the 47th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Kuala Lumpur on Oct. 28.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 17, 2025
ASEAN’s moment of truth
By Mari Elka Pangestu and Tan Sri Rebecca Fatimah Sta Maria
The block confronts its biggest test yet: building balanced partnerships with powerhouses like China, India, Japan and the U.S.

Japanese court orders Cloudflare to pay ¥500 million over manga piracy
Cloudflare has been ordered to pay ¥500 million after four major publishing firms accused the firm of copyright infringement for its role in hosting sites that distribute pirated copies of manga titles.
Japan plans higher visa fees for foreign residents
Along with planned higher fees for foreign residents to stay, Japan is looking to raise the ¥3,000 single-entry visa fee for inbound tourists to Western standards in the next fiscal year.
Two men suspected of smuggling 1 ton of gold into Japan from South Korea
U.K. gold bullion bars and coins are displayed at Baird & Co. in Hatton Garden in London.
Takaichi rejects China's demand to retract Taiwan remarks
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has rejected China's demands for her to retract her comments on Taiwan, saying Tokyo's stance on a major regional security crisis remains unchanged.
¥21.3 trillion stimulus package approved by Cabinet
The Cabinet is expected to submit an extra budget bill to finance the package to parliament, which is in session until Dec. 17.
First foreign president of Hosei University looks abroad for change
Hosei University President Diana Khor, who herself was an international student, aims to encourage students to look outward and cultivate a global mindset.
Japanese companies advised to change mindset about investment in Africa
Bernard Laurendeau, chief of Enkopa Lab Japan, in Tokyo last month
Munetaka Murakami headlines quartet looking to move to MLB via posting system
The Swallows' Munetaka Murakami has 246 career home runs in eight NPB seasons.
The reality of human trafficking in Japan
A view of Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward at night. Last year in Japan, 66 people were put in protective custody as victims of human trafficking. Among them, 58 — including all 41 minors — were Japanese nationals. International pressure to act on human trafficking led Japan to make efforts to crack down on the crime, such as a tightening of conditions in 2005 for entertainer visas.
Why we can’t get enough of the sham of the rental family
“Rental Family,” directed and co-written by the single-named Hikari, follows out-of-work actor Phillip (Brendan Fraser), who is hired as the “token white guy” at a Tokyo agency called Rental Family.

Podcast

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

Longform

Juzo Itami’s “Tampopo” was released Nov. 23, 1985, and though it wasn’t a hit at the time, it has gained a cult following in the years since.
Eat, slurp, love: 'Tampopo' turns 40
By Weiwen Lin

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