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U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington on March 3.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 15, 2025

Trump administration weighs travel ban on dozens of countries, memo says

The move harkens back to Trump's first term ban on travelers from seven majority-Muslim nations.
U.S. President Donald Trump has invoked powers under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — a law once used to justify the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II — in a proclamation targeting Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang also designated as a foreign terrorist organization.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 16, 2025

Judge halts Trump’s wartime powers plan to speed deportations

Trump invoked powers under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — a law once used to justify the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
The Tourville, a new French navy nuclear attack submarine, stops in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Friday.
WORLD
Mar 16, 2025

As Trump stirs doubt, Europeans debate their own nuclear deterrent

Talk of replacing the American nuclear umbrella over Europe with the small British and French nuclear armories is in the air, however vague and fanciful.
The Lakhta Center business tower, which serves as the headquarters of Russia's largest gas producer Gazprom, in St. Petersburg on March 7
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 17, 2025

Gazprom's grandeur fades as Europe abandons Russian gas

Gazprom is arguably the Russian business hardest hit by the international sanctions imposed after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
Alimentation Couche-Tard founder Alain Bouchard (center), CEO Alex Miller (left) and CFO Filipe Da Silva attend a photo session after a news conference on their bid for Seven & I Holdings in Tokyo on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Companies / EXPLAINER
Mar 17, 2025

Why Couche-Tard's deal with Seven & I isn't going anywhere

The buyout bid has seen a mixed response in Japan, with some expressing concerns over the convenience store chain being taken over by a foreign company.
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump's attack on DEI is making waves at international companies in Europe, Asia and beyond — but quietly, many businesses are standing firm on diversity initiatives.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Mar 18, 2025

Trump has companies in Europe and Asia walking a DEI tightrope

Outside of the United States, many businesses are quietly standing firm on diversity initiatives.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meet in Pyongyang in June 2024. Moscow has ditched its historic hostility to North Korea's nuclear program, a clear sign of Russia's scramble for allies amid its international isolation.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 18, 2025

It’s time to flip Russia’s script on North Korean nukes

Countries who want deterrence and stability must stop Russia from influencing perceptions of North Korea's nuclear program — one that, in an about-face, Moscow now supports.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent walks to a television interview outside the White House in Washington on Friday. Bessent had indicated a possible delay in the activation of new reciprocal tariff rates on the United States' trading partners.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 19, 2025

Trump still intends for reciprocal tariffs to kick in on April 2

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had indicated a possible delay but the White House says trading partners would need to negotiate deals in advance to avoid new tariffs.
A signed picture by photographer Joe Rosenthal of U.S. Marines raising the American flag on Iwo Jima is shown as part of a display at the new National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia, in November 2006.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 19, 2025

‘DEI’ purge prompts Pentagon to remove webpage on Iwo Jima flag-raiser

The Pentagon said that the page and others, which were removed under the Trump administration’s wide-ranging crackdown on diversity measures, were being restored.
Elon Musk and President Donald Trump's assertion that U.S. aid cuts to programs including PEPFAR and USAID in Africa aren't causing harm is not true. Children and others are already dying as a result.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2025

Musk says aid cuts haven’t killed anyone. That's not true.

In South Sudan, one of the world’s poorest countries, the efforts by Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump are already leading children to die.
The evolving national security landscape demands a shift in focus from traditional military power to economic resilience, technological leadership and the growing risks posed by both adversaries and allies.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2025

Trump's actions and the ‘new national security economy’

Soft power is poorly understood and it is no substitute for situations when brute force is required, but it has genuine influence in subtle ways.
AMKK’s latest exhibition, “X-Ray Flowers,” is the culmination of seven years of work aided by CT technologists, who help with the highly specialized imaging techniques.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 21, 2025

Avant-garde botanists AMKK illuminate the inner worlds of flowers

The punk florists' latest exhibition immerses visitors in darkness, bathed only in the glow of X-rays and CT scans of plants and flowers.
Despite the high cost of defending Ukraine, voters on both sides of the Atlantic — including Republicans in the United States — remain surprisingly united in their support for the country.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2025

The American and European publics still stand with Ukraine

Public attitudes in the U.S. are even more striking. When it comes to Ukraine, Americans broadly agree with Europeans.
Pieces of gum arabic, a natural emulsifier, displayed in a warehouse of an exporting company, in Port Sudan, Sudan.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 22, 2025

A genocidal militia in Sudan controls a key ingredient in Coke and Pepsi

Gum arabic acts as an organic emulsifier in consumer goods around the world — in candy, medicine, soda and cosmetics.
U.S. President Donald Trump takes questions from reporters in the White House on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 23, 2025

How Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts leave a vacuum that China can fill

When President Donald Trump announced Friday that the United States would move ahead with a long-debated project to build a stealthy next-generation fighter jet, the message to China was clear: The United States plans to spend tens of billions of dollars over the next decade, probably far longer, to...
Salvadoran police officers escort alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua recently deported by the U.S. government to be imprisoned in the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) prison, as part of an agreement with the Salvadoran government, in Tecoluca, El Salvador, in this handout image obtained March 16.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 25, 2025

Nazis were treated better than Venezuelans deported by Trump, judge says

The case regarding the deportation of Venezuelans has emerged as a major test of Trump's sweeping assertion of executive power.
Supporters of the impeached South Korean president, Yoon Suk Yeol, protesting in Seoul on Saturday.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 25, 2025

South Korea’s political drama is far from over

The potential for violence in the days ahead is still great. Still, that shouldn’t take away from the urgent and necessary reform of the political system.
A Maritime Self-Defense Force SH-60K "Super Auk" from JS Shiranui prepares to land on HMAS Brisbane during Exercise Malabar 2023 while off the coast of New South Wales, Australia.
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2025

New SDF command will be key for contingency planning, Australian commander says

The framework will enable direct communication with counterparts in partner nations and speed up coordination, the Australian Defence Force's chief of joint operations says.
Alysa Liu competes in the women’s short program during the World Figure Skating Championships at TD Garden in Boston on Wednesday.
MORE SPORTS / Figure skating
Mar 27, 2025

Women's skating favorites falter as Liu leads at worlds

Three-time defending champion Kaori Sakamoto, trying to become the first woman in 65 years to capture four consecutive world crowns, was a disappointing fifth.
A guard tower at Manzanar Internment Camp in Independence, California, in July 2013. Nearly 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were removed from their homes on the West Coast by the U.S. Army and sent to Manzanar and nine other internment camps between March 1942 and November 1945.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 26, 2025

Use of wartime powers revives internment camp memories

It took more than 40 years for the U.S. government to officially set the record straight that abusing the Alien Enemies Act during World War II was both illegal and immoral.
How Fuji TV responds to the results of a third-party probe will be crucial to restoring public trust — and could determine whether sponsors, whose TV ads are the company's main source of revenue, choose to return.
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2025

Fuji TV returns to spotlight as deadline for scandal probe looms

How Fuji TV responds to the report will be crucial to restoring public trust — and could determine whether sponsors choose to return.
Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre speaks at a rally in Surrey, British Columbia, on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 30, 2025

Trump drama drowns out Canadian Conservatives’ election message

Trump has drowned out the debate on domestic issues with his barrage of tariffs and proclamations that the country should be the 51st U.S. state.
Anxieties about inflation, debt and the U.S. dollar’s stability — combined with high gold prices — are fueling renewed skepticism, raising the possibility of a Fort Knox audit to confirm if America's gold is still there.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2025

What’s fueling America's gold bar conspiracy

The U.S. is right where it needs to be for Trump and Musk to tap into a decades-old fear about the country’s precious bullion stored in Fort Knox.
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, in June 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 1, 2025

Trump says his administration is in 'communication' with North Korea's Kim

“There is communication,” the U.S. president told reporters at the White House when asked if he would once again engage with the North Korean strongman.
Some market participants predict that benchmark 10-year borrowing costs won’t climb as sharply as the fiscal year that ended Monday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 1, 2025

Japan confronts biggest bond loss globally as BOJ rate hikes upend market

The past year marked a sixth straight year of losses for Japan’s sovereign debt as the central bank raises rates while its other counterparts elsewhere are cutting them.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a press briefing, as headlines from articles on U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs are displayed, at the White House in Washington on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 2, 2025

White House says Trump to go ahead with tariffs as nervous world awaits trade war

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said reciprocal tariffs on countries that impose duties on U.S. goods would take effect immediately after Trump announces them.
U.S. President Donald Trump walks in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington on Wednesday, the day of his remarks on tariffs.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 4, 2025

For Trump, tariff gamble brings political risk

If his promises to recast the economy don't work out, it could cause political headwinds for his party and economic pain for his constituents.
U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order after delivering remarks on reciprocal tariffs during an event titled "Make America Wealthy Again" at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Apr 4, 2025

‘Liberation Day’ will weigh heavily on the world

While some nations will fight U.S. tariffs, Japan is among those more likely to make a deal.
A child welfare center in Naha in May 1966
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Apr 14, 2025

In Okinawa, war trauma carried by orphans still lingers

“War orphans were pushed to the margins of society after the war," says one academic.
Unexploded U.S. military ordnance found in the city of Nanjo, Okinawa Prefecture, on March 24
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2025

Unexploded ordnance still haunts Okinawa 80 years after WWII battle

Despite decades of clearance efforts, roughly 1,900 metric tons of deadly remnants are estimated to remain buried beneath the land.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.