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October 09, 2025
 

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Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te has been weakened by domestic setbacks and uncertain U.S. support as he tries to balance pressure from Beijing and political opposition at home.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 31, 2025

Taiwan’s president is running out of options

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te is battling internal strife while navigating an unpredictable trade war with Washington.
Despite topping physical health rankings, Japan’s children face a worsening mental health crisis due to limited early education, inconsistent counseling support and poor awareness of their rights.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 3, 2025

It’s time to take children’s mental health seriously

Given these disparities, it is clear the government needs to build a consistent school system with appropriate emotional support mechanisms
U.S. President Donald Trump celebrates after signing executive orders on artificial intelligence at the “Winning the AI Race” Summit in Washington on July 23.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Aug 1, 2025

Will Trump’s tech policies propel U.S. success against China?

As China mobilizes all its resources for an all-out contest for technological supremacy, the U.S. cannot afford economic inefficiencies and to push its closest partners away.
Vladimir Putin has been rehabilitating Josef Stalin for more than two decades — and reviving some of the worst elements of the Soviet era in the process.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 3, 2025

Glory to Stalin and the whitewashing of history

Russia’s Communist Party recently asserted that, in Stalin’s “deeds and works,” Russians can seek “answers to the fateful challenges of our time.”
Actor Nicholas Hoult, Rachel Brosnahan and David Corenswet attend the Los Angeles premiere of “Superman” at the TCL Chinese Theater on July 7.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 1, 2025

Hollywood has lost the plot on telling stories

Western culture seems to have reached an impasse — wistful for our youth and unable to come up with any new ideas.
U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen shake hands following the announcement of a new U.S.-EU trade deal on July 27 in Turnberry, Scotland.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2025

The EU’s economic surrender only deepens its dependence on the U.S.

The European Union’s tariff deal with U.S. President Donald Trump highlights the bloc’s inability to present a united front.
Britain’s latest defense review highlights a growing gap between its military ambitions and economic constraints, as limited spending, troop shortages and political hesitation hinder readiness amid rising global threats.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2025

U.K. military rhetoric is not matching fiscal reality

U.K. prime ministers have a habit of over-promising and underdelivering on military commitments.
Experts warn the world is drifting dangerously close to disaster as North Korea, Russia and China expand their nuclear arsenals and old arms-control frameworks crumble.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2025

Even nuclear experts are at a loss right now

Who would have thought strategists would be almost nostalgic for the Cold War?
China is not merely moving more goods; it is exporting a new, ruthlessly efficient production model powered by automation, AI and state-guided industrial optimization.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2025

China’s unbeatable new production model export

The more pressing concern, however, is not what China exports, but how. Global cost structures are indeed being reshaped.
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial stands as a powerful reminder of the human cost of war and the importance of deep compassion and empathy that can inspire efforts to build a more peaceful world.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 5, 2025

Nuclear destruction through the eyes of a 10-year-old

Still, I wasn’t sure how Max would react to the enormity of the human suffering that took place in Hiroshima.
Demonstrators protest U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on Brazilian products at a rally outside the U.S. Consulate in Sao Paulo on Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 5, 2025

Trump’s tariffs defy the doomsayers — so far

Despite nearly uniform predictions of doom and disaster, the global economy has largely ignored the Trump trade revolution.
This undated handout photo released by the Australian Defence Force on Tuesday shows the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force JS Mogami frigate sailing at an undisclosed location.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 6, 2025

The Japan-Australia frigate sale is a big deal. Here’s why.

For the Japanese government, this will make for the largest defense export to date.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s aggressive economic policies during his second term — including sweeping tariffs — risk triggering long-term damage to U.S. competitiveness and trust in the dollar.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 6, 2025

The true costs of Trump’s economic agenda

President Donald Trump’s efforts to bring back manufacturing jobs have yielded little progress so far and are jeopardizing U.S. competitiveness.
The Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, is on display at the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum in Virginia after restoration in August 2003.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 6, 2025

Were the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings necessary?

Was it necessary to drop the bombs on civilian population centers to demonstrate the power of the weapons?
People pay their respects for the victims of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Wednesday, the 80th anniversary of the attack.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 7, 2025

Why Hiroshima must keep being commemorated

The anniversary is generating a wave of commemorations and renewing the arguments for and against the mission.
Japan faces a demographic crisis that threatens its research talent and must build a more inclusive and welcoming society to attract and keep world-class scientists amid rising nationalism and economic challenges.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 7, 2025

Japan gets serious about attracting world-class researchers

The stakes are high: Without a cultural shift, even the best-funded policies may fail to secure Japan’s future.
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to cancel funding for mRNA vaccine development dismantles an important public health tool and could weaken America’s ability to respond to future pandemics.
COMMENTARY
Aug 8, 2025

RFK Jr.’s mRNA decision may be his worst yet

U.S. Health Secretary RFK Jr.’s decision to cancel funding for mRNA vaccine development dismantles a public health tool and could weaken the ability to respond to future pandemics.
Russian President Vladimir Putin views Tu-160M strategic bombers at the Kazan Aviation Factory in Kazan, Russia, in February 2024.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2025

Stagflation is hitting Russia’s war economy

Putin apparently does not think his popularity could withstand devoting much more of the budget to the war effort.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump meet at the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires in December 2018. Xi is blending Maoist resolve with pragmatic diplomacy in his foreign policy.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Aug 8, 2025

Xi steals a page from Mao’s foreign-policy playbook

Xi foreign policy blends Maoist ideology, pragmatic statecraft and strategic patience as he advances anti-corruption efforts and selectively cooperates with the U.S.
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks on tariffs at the White House on April 2. Power over principle is shifting global trade dynamics under the Trump administration.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 5, 2025

No, Trump is not the ‘transactional’ president he feigns

Reliable dealmaking depends on two essential conditions: good faith and a stable set of rules, backed by reliable enforcement mechanisms.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing faces serious threats from attempted trade secret theft and U.S. tariff uncertainty, but its technological dominance and strategic importance keep Taiwan’s “silicon shield” intact — for now.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2025

Espionage and tariffs can’t tarnish TSMC’s crown

It’s been a long week for the world’s largest chipmaker. But it’s still selling the shovels during an AI gold rush.
Oil prices are currently low, but a potential recovery around 2027-2029 is expected as demand growth slows and reduced investment in non-OPEC production tightens supply.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 10, 2025

The bullish case for oil is real — but far, far away

With oil benchmarks down almost 20% over the last two years, upbeat investors are, out of necessity, waiting.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade delegation, comprising Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, meets with Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Li Chenggang and Vice Premier He Lifeng in Geneva on May 10 to discuss tariffs and trade issues.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 12, 2025

Trump’s transactional approach shapes U.S.-China rivalry

There are intense debates about how the U.S. can prevail in that struggle but there are no signs that a single strategy guides the administration.
Shinto priests holding traditional umbrellas walk to the main shrine for a ritual to cleanse themselves during the annual Spring Festival at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo in April 2016.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 13, 2025

Dispelling the myth of Yasukuni Shrine

The shrine has been a lightning rod — especially as it has been used by some of Japan's neighbors as a convenient means to shift attention away from their domestic issues.
Russian traditional nesting dolls with images of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as U.S. President Donald Trump. Ukrainian and European leaders worry that the hastily arranged Alaska meeting between the two leaders risks playing into Russia’s hands.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 13, 2025

Putin is about to outplay Trump again in Alaska

Trump isn’t wrong to try sitting down with U.S. foes and rivals, even where more conventional leaders would avoid the risk. But hastily arranged encounters rarely result as hoped.
The Trump administration’s push for a lunar nuclear reactor by 2030 highlights both the technological ambition and the steep challenges facing small modular reactors, which remain slow to deploy even on Earth.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 13, 2025

The real nuclear moonshot is here on Earth

Developing extraterrestrial nuclear power is a worthy research project. If we are to someday establish permanent settlements on the moon, they will require a lot of energy.
A U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey aircraft flies over the island of Okinawa in March 2018.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 14, 2025

Precautionary Osprey landings signal safety, not alarm

Two precautionary V-22 Osprey landings in northern Honshu demonstrated the aircraft’s safety and its role in enhancing Japan’s rapid-deployment and island-defense capabilities.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is considering issuing a formal statement on the 80th anniversary of WWII’s end. There is no shortage of opposition to the idea in his own party.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 14, 2025

Why Ishiba shouldn’t issue a WWII 80th anniversary statement

I’m not saying Japan shouldn’t have apologized, but rather that Japan has sincerely worked to resolve international issues, especially in the past 30 years.
Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs speaks in 2007 at an iPod event in San Francisco. Top tech executives are engaged in a fierce battle for the best people, with employees holding all the cards and the days of collusion long gone. 
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 17, 2025

The AI talent war is the stuff of Steve Jobs’ nightmares

Today, as some of the same players become locked in AI talent wars, we’re starting to get a sense of what Jobs was so afraid of.
South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana (right) and the country’s reserve bank governor, Lesetja Kganyago, attend the Group of 20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting in Cape Town on Feb. 27. 
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2025

A new trade agenda for climate-resilient development

Policymakers must be prepared to introduce new trade rules that support low-carbon transitions in Africa and across the Global South.
How China waged an infowar against U.S. interests in the Philippines
Association for Philippines-China Understanding (APCU) Chairman Raul Lambino shakes hands with guests during a ceremony for the Award for Promoting Philippines-China Understanding at The Manila Hotel in Manila in June.
‘We have drawn lessons,’ Indian Army chief says of brief clash with Pakistan
Indian Army chief Upendra Dwivedi waves as he arrives to attend the ceremonial reception of Defense Minister Gen Nakatani in New Delhi in May.
Typhoon Halong to cause windstorms, heavy rain and high waves on the Izu islands
Typhoon Halong is moving north near the Izu Islands, with strong winds, high waves and heavy rain expected as it passes early on Thursday, prompting warnings from the weather agency.
Takaichi's leadership lineup favors Aso and his allies while shutting out rivals
The LDP's newly-appointed election chief Keiji Furuya (far left), general affairs council chair Haruko Arimura (second from left), vice president Taro Aso (center left), president Sanae Takaichi (center right), secretary-general Shunichi Suzuki (second from right) and policy chief Takayuki Kobayashi in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Qilin cybercrime gang claims hack on Japan's Asahi
The Asahi Group headquarters complex in Tokyo
OpenAI’s Sora 2 is drowning in Japanese 'AI slop'
OpenAI has rolled out a social app powered by Sora 2, its artificial intelligence video generator, which was quickly flooded with videos featuring iconic Japanese intellectual property.
Trump has his eyes on the prize — but a Nobel win looks unlikely
A protester holds a sign with an image depicting U.S. President Donald Trump and the words "Nobel" written on it, as supporters and family members of hostages who were kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas, demonstrate to demand the immediate end of the war and the release of all hostages, outside the U.S. Consulate in Tel Aviv, on Sept. 2.
‘Takaichi trade’ stalls as political reality calls for wait-and-see approach
Tokyo stocks staged a powerful rally on Monday. On Tuesday, they rallied again, then retreated.
‘We have drawn lessons,’ Indian Army chief says of brief clash with Pakistan
Indian Army chief Upendra Dwivedi waves as he arrives to attend the ceremonial reception of Defense Minister Gen Nakatani in New Delhi in May.
How a family-run landscaper turned the Osaka Expo green
The team at Ryokukou Garden consists primarily of a single family, including Toshiki Tanisaki (second from right), who led the company's efforts at the Osaka Expo, Chikako Tanisaki (fifth from right), who performs daily maintanence at the expo, and Takeshi Tanisaki (fourth from right), who added a nursery to the family farm more than 50 years ago.

Podcast

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

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?
By Alex K.T. Martin

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