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Two Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers escort the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson during a transit mission in the Philippine Sea in April 2017.
EDITORIALS
Sep 29, 2023

The South China Sea is a test for Japan

The maritime standoff between the Philippines and China risks breaking out into open conflict, one that could ensnare other countries, including Japan.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet addresses the 78th Session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Sept. 22
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 29, 2023

Cambodia's dictatorship marches on and nary a word

Just as quickly as countries condemned Cambodia’s sham elections, its new leader, Hun Manet, was welcomed by the U.N.
The yen's slide to the cusp of ¥150 per dollar has put investors on high alert for the risk of intervention.
BUSINESS / Markets
Sep 29, 2023

Yen intervention a hard sell even as 'red line' beckons

To make even a ripple in the $5 trillion currency market, the BOJ would need to draw down massive amounts of dollar reserves.
A performer going by the name “Tanefukube” leads shishi-odori dancers during Tono Meguritoroge’s grand finale at Rokko-shi shrine.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 30, 2023

Dancing with ghosts at Tono’s rural folk festival

The Tono region is Japan’s go-to setting of scary stories to tell in the dark.
Ukrainian and Russian forces fight for control of the city of Bakhmut in May. Elon Musk asked why so many American lawmakers care more about what happens in Ukraine than the migrant crisis at the U.S. border.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2023

Message for Elon: We must keep supporting Ukraine

Elon Musk asked, "Why do so many American politicians from both parties care 100 times more about the Ukraine border than the USA border?”
Former U.S. President Donald Trump in a courtroom during proceedings for his civil fraud trial in New York on Wednesday.
WORLD
Oct 7, 2023

The key nuclear secrets Trump allegedly leaked

Trump gave key details on the U.S. Navy’s elite submarine fleet to an Australian billionaire, according to reports.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting near Moscow on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 8, 2023

On Russian nuclear threat, Putin lets others rattle the saber

While hard-liners voice provocative proposals about nukes, Putin presents himself as a moderating force — while never taking the option off the table.
Artemis II moon mission crew members Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, Jeremy Hansen and Christina Koch pose for photographs after taking part in a news conference with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington on May 18.
WORLD / Science & Health / ANALYSIS
Oct 8, 2023

Geopolitics in space: Why great powers are scrambling for the moon

A new space race — pitting the U.S. and its partners against China and Russia — is expected to have significant implications.
People hold Israeli and U.S. flags as they take part in a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Sept. 20.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 10, 2023

Conflict forces Biden and Netanyahu into uneasy partnership

After months of strain over the path forward in the Middle East, the two leaders have been thrust into a wartime partnership.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida shakes hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a high level Security Council meeting on the situation in Ukraine, on the sidelines of the 78th U.N. General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York on Sept. 20.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 11, 2023

Ukraine fatigue unlikely to reach Japan anytime soon

Japan’s support for Ukraine remains steadfast at a time when popular opinion across several Western countries shows growing signs of weariness.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping walks past then-Foreign Minister Qin Gang (front left) and defense chief Li Shangfu (front right) as he arrives for the closing session of the National People's Congress at Beijing's Great Hall of the People in March.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 13, 2023

With purges of top officials, is China’s Xi in trouble? Hardly.

The well-known opacity in Beijing may have clouded assessments of how the turbulence is affecting Xi’s grip on power
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem in July 2017.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 11, 2023

India’s realism comes of age in response to Israel-Hamas war

Unlike other Global South country leaders, Modi wasted no time expressing solidarity with Israel, an ally of India.
Smoke plumes billow over Gaza City after Israeli airstrikes Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Oct 13, 2023

Hamas mines depths of inhumanity. Israel must not do same.

There is the very real danger of a wider war. Netanyahu vowed “to change the Middle East,” a statement with ominous overtones.
Tesla, which opened a factory in Lingang, China, was expected to be one of many large, foreign companies to open facilities in the region. Few have followed.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 15, 2023

China’s slowdown casts pall over Xi’s Yangtze Delta project

The setback is particularly obvious in Lingang, a free-trade zone in the southeastern tip of Shanghai and a key part of the Yangtze Delta project.
Cooling towers and reactors at a nuclear power plant in Cattenom, France
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Oct 17, 2023

Nukefluencers are on a quest to push clean power from reactors

Influencers are tapping into a generation that’s increasingly anxious about climate change by focusing on how nuclear energy is carbon-free.
Obtaining dual nationality and having it uniformly recognized by authorities in Japan is no simple matter.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 19, 2023

When Japan's dual nationality ban meets a legal gray zone

Lawyer Yuri Kondo decided to naturalize as an American citizen. What followed was a mix of ambiguity and the feeling of a loss of identity.
Chinese President Xi Jinping during the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on Wednesday
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 20, 2023

Europe’s snub turns Xi’s Belt and Road into Global South party

The Chinese leader appears to have reformed the initiative as a club for emerging economies known as the Global South.
A deal between Mitsubishi Electric and Australia’s Department of Defence taps the company’s know-how in electronic and optical systems.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 20, 2023

In industry first, Mitsubishi Electric secures defense deal with Australia

The deal taps the company’s know-how in electronic and optical systems.
U.S. President Joe Biden addresses the nation on the conflict between Israel and Gaza and the Russian invasion of Ukraine from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 21, 2023

Biden says Hamas attack was to halt Israel-Saudi Arabia thaw

The remarks were the U.S. president's most illuminating comments yet on the impetus for the crisis in the Middle East.
Smoke billows after an Israeli strike on Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday amid ongoing fighting between Israel and Palestinian groups.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 22, 2023

Fears grow that Israel-Hamas war could spread across Middle East

Tensions surged as the U.S. said it was sending more military assets to the region and Israel appeared poised for a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.
Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu salutes before delivering a speech during the 20th Shangri-La Dialogue summit in Singapore on June 4.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 24, 2023

China ousts defense chief and removes ex-top envoy from Cabinet

Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu has been removed from his positions as defense chief and state councilor, state-run media said.
U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Oct. 18.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 25, 2023

Biden treads tightrope on Israel-Hamas cease-fire

The balancing act is becoming tougher by the day, with reports that Washington is concerned about Israel's plan of action for a Gaza invasion.
Palestinians at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday
WORLD / Politics
Oct 25, 2023

World leaders seek pause in Israeli strikes on Hamas for Gaza aid

Deadly clashes have intensified between multiple parties, with wider conflict posing a risk to security in a region key to global energy supplies.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda meets with European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at the Jackson Hole economic symposium in Moran, Wyoming, on Aug. 25.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 25, 2023

As geopolitical risks grow, businesses are slow to respond

Businesses need to integrate geopolitical risk into their decision-making in an ever-transforming world.
A health care worker administers the COVID-19 vaccine to a child in Rio de Janeiro in January 2022.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 30, 2023

How we got COVID’s risk right but the response wrong

It was not the initial consensus on the fatality rate that drove the response but rather the way the risks of COVID-19 were balanced with the costs.
Palestinians search for casualties at the site of Israeli strikes on houses in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
WORLD / Society
Nov 1, 2023

Israel kills at least 50 in military strike on Gaza refugee camp

An Israel Defense Forces statement said the strike by fighter jets on Jabalia, Gaza's largest refugee camp, had killed a Hamas commander.
Protesters wave Palestinian flags as they walk over Westminster Bridge near the Houses of Parliament in London on Saturday.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 1, 2023

Immigration, politics and the West's foreign policy

On the same day that a 100,000 strong pro-Palestinian march took place in London, the police pressured a pro-Israeli prayer walk to cancel the event.
Palestinian Hamas militants take part in a rally marking the 31st anniversary of Hamas' founding, in Gaza City, in the Gaza Strip, in December 2018.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 4, 2023

How Hamas aims to trap Israel in Gaza quagmire

The militant group has prepared for a drawn-out war and believes it can hold up Israel's advance to force its archenemy to agree to a cease-fire.
Former FTX chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried leaves Manhattan federal court in New York in January.
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Nov 4, 2023

Swift FTX case vindicates prosecution ‘need for speed’

ON Thursday, the jury took only a few hours to convict Sam Bankman-Fried of treating FTX as his personal piggy bank.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu points to a red line he drew on the graphic of a bomb used to represent Iran's nuclear program as he addresses the United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York in September 2012.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Nov 6, 2023

Israeli minister's Gaza nuclear comments spotlight opaque arsenal

The country has long had a policy of ambiguity as to whether it has nuclear weapons, though it is widely believed to possess a sizable number.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami