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Indian National Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi addresses the media in front of a screen showing India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi (center) and Home Minister Amit Shah at the party headquarters in New Delhi on Aug. 7, ahead of the upcoming assembly elections in the Indian state of Bihar.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 26, 2025

India's election commission faces claim of vote-rigging ahead of state poll

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said his party lost dozens of seats in the 2024 parliamentary elections as voter rolls were manipulated to favor the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
A worker operates machinery at a sawmill in Sundsvall, Sweden
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 26, 2025

Tariff uncertainty leaves European companies with tough decisions

There are difficult conversations with American customers about pricing and hard choices to be made about where to invest in.
A liquefied natural gas plant in Sakhalin, Russia. U.S. and Russian officials discussed energy deals on the sidelines of the Ukraine peace talks, sources said.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 26, 2025

U.S. and Russian officials discussed energy deals alongside latest Ukraine peace talks

Russia has been cut off from most international investment in its energy sector and from striking major deals due to sanctions following the Ukraine invasion.
Nigel Farage in Oxford, U.K., on Tuesday. His Reform party would carry out the mass deportations of asylum-seekers and remove Britain from the European Convention on Human Rights while also scrapping the country’s Human Rights Act, he said.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 27, 2025

Farage floats Trump-style deportation push in bid to lead U.K.

The Reform party leader's approach is the most draconian policy yet advanced by any of the U.K.’s major parties to crack down on a record level of irregular migration.
A factory worker makes soybean-based food products in Hefei, Anhui province, China, in 2020. If China doesn’t take U.S. beans, it can just buy from Brazil or Argentina, said a manager at a major Chinese crusher.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 27, 2025

China’s soy crushers may be facing a winter without U.S. beans

American farmers say the tariff stalemate between Washington and Beijing leaves them headed toward a financial precipice, but data suggests Chinese buyers are standing pat.
Shinji Ishimaru, leader of The Path to Rebirth, announces resignation during a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 27, 2025

Shinji Ishimaru, ex-mayor of Akitakata, steps down as leader of political group

The Path to Rebirth, led by Ishimaru, fielded candidates for elections for the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly and the House of Councilors earlier this year, but none were successful.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang addresses the opening ceremony of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on July 26, where he emphasized “the deep integration of AI with the real economy” and its relevance to daily applications.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2025

Al and our brave new world of ‘weaponized interdependence’

In the U.S.-China race for AI dominance, failure is not an option.
Nippon Ishin no Kai leader Hirofumi Yoshimura (center), Secretary-General Hiroshi Nakatsuka (center right) and other executives meet in Osaka on Aug. 12.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Aug 28, 2025

Amid LDP turmoil, speculation grows over possible tie-up with Nippon Ishin

Recent moves that put LDP-friendly executives into leadership positions seem to signal that Nippon Ishin wants to draw closer to the LDP.
Japan faces a strategic dilemma between an unreliable U.S. security alliance and an assertive China, requiring it to pursue flexible, resilient and multilayered partnerships while avoiding dependence on either power.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 28, 2025

Japan must prepare for a post-American Indo-Pacific

Tokyo must confront an uncomfortable truth: The U.S.-led order that enabled Japan’s postwar success is dead and no one knows what comes next.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba meet in Tokyo on Aug. 23, before Lee traveled to Washington for a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.
EDITORIALS
Aug 29, 2025

Lee Jae Myung had a very good week

Lee said that he had read the “Art of the Deal” — Trump’s ghost-written magnum opus — before their meeting and reportedly got advice on handling the U.S. leader from Ishiba.
U.S. President Donald Trump wears a "Trump Was Right About Everything!" hat, as he visits The People’s House: A White House Experience museum in Washington on Aug. 22.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Aug 30, 2025

Seeking more power, Trump uses firings to test presidential limits

The actions underscored Trump's desire for influence in sectors normally seen as independent from overt political control.
Anutin Charnvirakul speaks during an interview in Bangkok in 2023. Anutin, whose father briefly served as Thailand’s caretaker leader in 2008, said late Friday that he had the support of enough lawmakers to become prime minister.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 30, 2025

Anutin leads race to become Thai PM with pledge to hold poll

Anutin, whose father briefly served as Thailand’s caretaker leader in 2008, said late Friday he had support of enough lawmakers to become prime minister.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi greet one another at the start of a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington in February.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 31, 2025

The Nobel Prize and a testy phone call: How the Trump-Modi relationship unraveled

The fallout of a disputed between the two leaders risks pushing India closer to American adversaries in Beijing and Moscow.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shakes hands with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Tianjin, China, on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 31, 2025

Putin and Modi in China for summit hosted by Xi

The summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization — sometimes touted as an alternative to NATO — is being held in the port city until Monday.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is pushing back against U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago, calling them unconstitutional and illegal, and emphasizing that policing should remain under local control.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 28, 2025

Can Illinois’ governor keep the National Guard out of Chicago?

"Don’t come to Chicago,” JB Pritzker warned. "You are neither wanted here nor needed here.” Should Trump take action, he said, "we’ll see you in court.”
People use their phones in a garden in Moscow on June 22. Many Russians have turned to the private messaging service Telegram as the government bans Western social media platforms.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 1, 2025

Russian influencers are thriving on Telegram

Since 2021, Telegram’s monthly active users in Russia have risen to 120 million, more than 90% of the country’s internet users.
Iraqi refugee Humam al-Gburi, 34, and retired nurse Ursula Panke, 85, in Altena, Germany, on July 15. Since Humam's arrival in 2015, he has been supported by Ursula, who volunteers as his mentor.
WORLD / Society
Sep 2, 2025

German town that welcomed migrants finds adding people won't fix fundamentals

Political failure to tackle rising inflation, job losses in the auto industry and a sense of economic decline now makes migrants a target for the anti-immigrant AfD.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping attend the BRICS Summit plenary session in Kazan, Russia, on Oct. 23.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 2, 2025

Realism and realpolitik rule Indian foreign policy

A decade from now, there is likely to be heated debate in the United States over “who lost India,” an accounting that may rival the “who lost China?”
Protesters wave a pirate flag from the Japanese anime "One Piece," an internet trend used to criticize government policies, during a demonstration in front of the Bali police station in Denpasar, Indonesia, on Saturday.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 2, 2025

Indonesia’s protests may fade. The fury won’t.

Politicians and business tycoons from the previous era still have clout, through dynastic parties, family owned businesses and patronage networks.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping walks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un before a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of World War II, in Beijing on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 3, 2025

Xi — joined by Kim and Putin — delivers stark warning at military parade

Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned in a speech that the world is facing a choice of war or peace, as his country marked 80 years since Japan’s defeat in World War II.
Structural issues — including population decline, job shortages and an insufficient social-safety net — are hampering China's consumption and demand.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Sep 3, 2025

The fissures beneath China’s positive GDP numbers

Despite positive Chinese growth, the world’s second largest economy is plagued by a prolonged real-estate crisis and persistently high unemployment rates.
Tokyo's Shin-Okubo district filled with Korean restaurants and shops. South Korean culture has increasingly been embraced as cutting-edge, especially among younger Japanese people.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 3, 2025

Mutual cultural acceptance underpins Japan-South Korea ties

Among those between the ages of 18 and 29, 66% in South Korea and 72.5% in Japan expressed favorable views of one another.
People's Party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut (center) attends a news conference at the parliament in Bangkok on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 3, 2025

Thailand's ruling party seeks house dissolution as opposition backs rival's PM bid

Thai politics were in chaos as the ruling Pheu Thai party said it had sought royal approval to dissolve the parliament for a new election.
China’s parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, attended by dictatorial leaders like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, highlights Beijing’s attempts to rewrite history and promote an alternative authoritarian order.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 3, 2025

The disturbing message behind China’s ‘grand parade’

This international gathering in the Chinese capital's Tiananmen Square illuminated what might be termed the “Beijing Consensus” in its starkest form.
Suzu Hirose stars in the film adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s first novel, “A Pale View of Hills.”
CULTURE / Film
Sep 4, 2025

‘A Pale View of Hills’: A chilling, borderless adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s first novel

Kei Ishikawa turns the Nobel Prize-winning author’s novel into a haunting meditation on memory, loss and elusive truths.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping attends a military parade in Beijing on Wednesday to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 4, 2025

China’s military parade shows who’s calling the shots

Beijing is sending a signal on defense modernization and international clout.
Anutin Charnvirakul, the leader of the Bhumjaithai party, ahead of his election as prime minister of Thailand, in parliament in Bangkok on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 5, 2025

Thailand's Anutin Charnvirakul elected PM by parliament

Anutin trounced the candidate of the Shinawatra family's once-dominant ruling party to end a week of chaos and political deadlock.
Scorched land following a wildfire in the village of San Vicente de Leira, in Galicia, Spain, on Aug. 21
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Sep 5, 2025

How Europe lost an area the size of Cyprus to wildfires this year

Climate change is playing a major role in Europe, the world's fastest-warming continent, as searing heat and drought fueled this summer’s blazes.
Elon Musk attends the opening ceremony of the new Tesla Gigafactory in Gruenheide, Germany, in March 2022.
BUSINESS
Sep 5, 2025

Tesla offers unprecedented $1 trillion pay package to Musk

The long-awaited proposal, designed to incentivize Musk to lead Tesla for years to come, sets a series of ambitious benchmarks he must meet to earn the full payout.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping attends a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, in Beijing on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 6, 2025

With diplomatic tour de force, China's Xi shows he's 'totally in charge'

The recent display of geopolitical ambition has helped quell concerns about the 72-year-old president's vitality and so-far-unknown succession plans.

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