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The P4 laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, in April 2020
WORLD
Jan 26, 2025

CIA now favors China lab leak theory to explain COVID’s origins

A new analysis that began under the Biden administration is released by the C.I.A.’s new director, John Ratcliffe, who wants the agency to get “off the sidelines” in the debate.
Tomin First no Kai adviser Hirotada Ototake speaks during an interview in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 26, 2025

Tomin First adviser Hirotada Ototake keen to use social media

"Through social media outreach, we want to become an option for unaffiliated voters who have not decided for whom to vote" in the June 22 race, said Ototake.
An oil drilling rig in Midland, Texas, on March 2, 2023
WORLD / Politics
Jan 27, 2025

Trump seizes wartime powers in battle for more fossil fuels

By invoking the country’s national and economic security, the plan lays the foundation for energy projects to move forward with unprecedented speed.
U.S. President Donald Trump signs executive orders including a flurry of actions on immigration in the hours after taking office.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2025

America’s mass deportation clash is unprecedented

So when ICE moves from selective targets aimed at serious criminals to the mass roundups Trump promised, that is when the public may recoil.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto salutes during a welcoming ceremony at the government palace, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, in Lima, Peru, on Nov. 14, 2024.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 28, 2025

New Indonesian president's reliance on military tests fragile democracy

Replacement of civilian functions with the military is raising comparisons to an authoritarian-era doctrine that let the armed forces crush dissent and dominate public life.
U.S. tech billionaire and businessman Elon Musk is seen on a large screen as Alice Weidel, co-leader of Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, addresses an election campaign rally in Halle, eastern Germany, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 28, 2025

German Holocaust remembrance under fire from far right and Elon Musk

Remembrance of the Nazis' genocide of Jews and other atrocities has for decades been a central feature of German politics and society as the country seeks to atone for its past.
With Donald Trump's second term as U.S. president, Japan faces a new era in its relationship with the United States, requiring a shift from values-based diplomacy to a transactional approach.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 28, 2025

New era for U.S.-Japan depends on adapting to Trump’s America

The next four years will be more consequential and transactional for leaders in Tokyo as the Trump administration puts America first.
With China's growing military threat against Taiwan, experts argue that real deterrence — such as increased training ties with Japan, the U.S. and other nations — may be necessary to prevent an invasion and protect regional stability.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 29, 2025

How to secure Taiwan as drumbeats of a looming invasion grow louder

It is high time to get creative for real deterrence to protect the democratic island.
Kirsty Coventry, who is bidding to become the next president of the International Olympic Committee, in Paris on Aug. 10, 2024.
OLYMPICS
Jan 29, 2025

Kirsty Coventry hopes to make waves in IOC presidential race

The former swimming star is one of seven candidates bidding to succeed Thomas Bach as president of the International Olympic Committee.
Relatives of people who died in Spain's disastrous floods, as well as protesters, demonstrate against Valencia's regional leader, demanding his resignation for his handling of the emergency, in Valencia, Spain, on Dec. 29.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 30, 2025

Chinese online operation called for toppling Spain's government: report

The online operation from China, called Spamouflage, has been operating in several countries since 2017, online analysis outfit Graphika said.
Debris at the site of a deadly plane crash in the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Thursday.
WORLD
Jan 31, 2025

Investigators seek to salvage aircraft after deadly Washington crash

Authorities have recovered black boxes but have not yet pinpointed a reason for the collision between the regional jet and a U.S. Army helicopter.
China-backed hackers are increasingly targeting critical U.S. infrastructure, including energy grids, telecom networks and government agencies.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 30, 2025

Trump’s bigger China cyber threat isn’t TikTok

China-backed hackers are infiltrating U.S. critical infrastructure, telecom networks and government systems, exposing vulnerabilities that demand stronger cybersecurity measures.
“The Rose of Versailles” centers on the real-life Marie Antoinette (voiced by Aya Hirano) and the fictional Oscar Francois de Jarjayes (Miyuki Sawashiro) a few years before the French Revolution.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 30, 2025

‘The Rose of Versailles’ opts for empty opulence

Riyoko Ikeda’s seminal manga that tackled themes of political and sexual revolution gets a film adaptation that lacks the depth of its source material.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the White House in Washington on Thursday about the midair crash between an American Airlines plane and a military helicopter.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 31, 2025

Trump blames diversity programs over midair collision

The crash was nation's most deadly commercial airline accident in over a decade.
Defending the rights of transgender and nonbinary people isn’t only about waging legal battles. It’s about more persuasive arguments.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 29, 2025

Trump can’t erase trans people with the stroke of his marker

There hasn’t been as much outrage as I had anticipated, but it makes sense. Most Americans, polls show, don’t personally know anyone who identifies as transgender.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s reluctance to engage with newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump while strengthening ties with China raises concerns about Japan’s strategic priorities.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 31, 2025

Ishiba nudges his ‘little Japan’ closer to China

Prime Minister Ishiba’s reluctance to engage with Trump while strengthening ties with China raises concerns about Japan’s strategic priorities and its alliance with the U.S.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents walk down a street during a multi-agency targeted enforcement operation in Chicago, Illinois on Jan. 26.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 1, 2025

TikTok influencers leverage power of gossip to thwart ICE raids

They say that as authorities ramp up raids in the early days of the Trump administration, they’re trying to inform migrants of their rights.
Many attribute the far right’s recent global rise to “anti-incumbency” bias, but this overlooks how the COVID-19 crisis fostered division and distrust, turning voters against their governments. 
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2025

Confronting the pandemic’s toxic political legacy

Libertarian resentment over past restrictions and mandates is one thing; an abiding distrust of scientists is quite another.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba attends a Lower House plenary session last week.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 2, 2025

LDP conservatives frustrated by Ishiba's diplomacy with China

As Ishiba's foothold within the LDP remains precarious, one misstep could spark moves to undermine his administration.
Protesters take part in a demonstration under the motto 'Loud against Nazis' in Berlin on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 3, 2025

At least 160,000 rally in Berlin against far right

Organizers said 200,000 people had turned out to denounce the breach by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of Germany's unwritten agreement not to work with the far right.
Vehicles parked at a General Motors complex in Silao, Guanajuato state, Mexico
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 3, 2025

Car prices face $3,000 increase in U.S. as tariffs hit auto sector

The tariffs are set to take effect at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday, giving manufacturers less than 48 hours to figure out what to do.
A farm laborer stands next to sacks filled with harvested potatoes at a field in Subhri village, in the northern state of Haryana, India, on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 3, 2025

In first budget of third term, Modi puts short-term tax cuts above deep reforms

But the year's top economic policy event passed up a chance to go big on reforms needed to reignite rapid growth — once the envy of the world at more than 8%.
A U.S. Marine provides water to Afghan families during the evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul in August 2021.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 30, 2025

Abandoning Afghans who worked with us troops is shameful

The urgency is driven by a simple fact: The Afghans who helped us, along with their family members, are considered traitors by the ruling Taliban.
Despite numerous past meetings between U.S. and Japanese leaders, Shigeru Ishiba's relationship with Donald Trump is expected to be awkward, lacking the rapport the U.S. president had with former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 4, 2025

Ishiba will finally meet Trump, but expectations need to be kept low

His long-time rival Shinzo Abe's relationship with Trump is the ideal but an unfair comparison.
The proportion of respondents who said that the surname debate was something they felt they had a personal stake in increased by 2.7 percentage points from the previous survey by the Cabinet Office in 2022.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2025

44% in Japan feel they might be affected by dual-surname debate

The possible introduction of a selective dual-surname system was one of the key issues in last year's election for the leadership of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Greenland Prime Minister Mute B. Egede answers questions after a parliament session in Nuuk on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 5, 2025

Greenland PM calls election with Trump pressure mounting

Most Greenlandic politicians have rejected the U.S. president’s idea to take over the island, but the demand has caused internal disruptions.
Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi (left) describes a detail of a mawashi presented as a gift to French President Jacques Chirac at the Elysee Palace in 1999.
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Feb 5, 2025

No Paris Syndrome for Japan’s national sport

Despite an up and down history, sumo and France remain amorous.
Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally surged in French legislative elections last year. Despite social media being a key megaphone for political campaigning, issues like voter dissatisfaction still play a determinant role in electoral outcomes.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Feb 5, 2025

Social media alone didn’t decide last year’s elections

Last year's record number of elections around the world hold some important lessons. One is that social media wasn't the key determinant of outcomes that many made it out to be.
Gaza’s reconstruction is needed, but U.S. President Donald Trump’s approach — framing it as a business deal without addressing Palestinian political aspirations — makes little sense as foreign policy.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 6, 2025

Trump’s ‘Gaza Riviera’ scheme may be more than a fantasy

It’s tempting to dismiss Donald Trump’s bid to take over Gaza as just another wild proposal, designed more to change the conversation and wrong-foot negotiating partners than as policy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting in Moscow on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 7, 2025

Ukraine keeps its Kursk bargaining chip for any Russia talks

Russian forces have, so far, reclaimed only about half of the area that Ukraine took last year.

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo