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An employee handles 155 mm-caliber shells after the manufacturing process at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on April 16.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 22, 2024

Conflicts push military spending to all-time high, report says

Nations around the world are spending more than ever on their militaries as conflicts continue across various regions.
Chinese swimmer Zhang Yufei poses with her gold medal after winning the women's 200-meter butterfly during the Tokyo Games.
OLYMPICS
Apr 22, 2024

Chinese doping case sends swimming world into uproar and exposes bitter rifts

The disclosure of an incident that had been a secret for more than three years has drawn strong reactions from athletes, coaches and others.
Sudanese refugees fleeing the conflict in the country's Darfur region cross the border into Chad in August.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 23, 2024

Humanitarian catastrophes and the world's forgotten conflicts

Tragically, there are global catastrophes that, by virtue of their longevity and their distance from us, have fallen out of sight.
Race walker Nanako Fujii wears thick-soled shoes during a national race walking event in Kobe on Feb. 18.
MORE SPORTS
Apr 25, 2024

Japanese race walkers slow to embrace thick-soled shoes

The key benefit of athletes wearing thick-soled shoes is that they are propelled forward by the bounce generated by the soles of the shoes.
A screen shows Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron, at the GAC Motor booth at the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition in Beijing on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 30, 2024

Xi seems on a mission to drive a wedge between Europe and the U.S.

During his five-day trip to France, Serbia and Hungary on Sunday, Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to show the EU how much China can offer them.
One problem with globalization is American leaders have the power to disrupt numerous economies by severing supply chains or manipulating financial flows, but citizens of those countries have no influence over U.S. elections.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 29, 2024

Democracy and authoritarianism in a modern, globalized world

The bedrock principle of democracy is that people affected by the decisions of political leaders should have a say in selecting those leaders.
A salmon farm in Giske, Norway. The country produces more than half of the world’s farmed salmon.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
May 4, 2024

The world’s hunger for salmon is linked to an ecological disaster

High demand for salmon is driving another species to the verge of extinction.
Economic security has evolved to include offensive measures, such as industrial policy. Countries like Japan are increasingly on-shoring strategic industries such as semiconductors, regardless of the cost.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
May 7, 2024

The shift from economic security to geoeconomics

Economic security started out as a defensive concept, but it has now been weaponized to include an offensive element, morphing into a geoeconomic tool.
Group of Seven leaders, including Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. President Joe Biden, after visiting the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on May 19, 2023
JAPAN / FOCUS
May 19, 2024

G7 goal of nuclear-free world increasingly challenged

Momentum for nuclear disarmament has not increased, partly because Russia has threatened to use nuclear weapons in its military aggression against Ukraine.
Electronic boards display the exchange rate for the yen against the U.S. dollar and the closing numbers of Tokyo Stock Exchange share price in Tokyo on May 1.
BUSINESS / Markets / FOCUS
May 19, 2024

From Tokyo to New York, stock markets are on a record-hitting spree around the world

Of the world’s 20 largest stock markets, 14 have hit all-time highs recently.
A man is detained after Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot at close range in an assassination attempt, after a government meeting in Handlova, Slovakia, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
May 19, 2024

A would-be assassin stirs Europe’s violent ghosts

Political violence and polarization stalk Europe today, with ominous echoes of the past.
A couple looks out onto the Fukuoka nightscape. Due to its distance from Tokyo and its close proximity to South Korea and China, professor Tomoya Mori believes that Fukuoka is one of the few metropolitan regions of Japan that will see some form of growth in the decades to come.
JAPAN / Society / Perspectives
May 20, 2024

Why half of Japan's cities are at risk of disappearing in 100 years

Professor Tomoya Mori believes depopulation will alter the urban landscape of Japan in an unexpected way.
The captain of a port pilot boat approaches a container ship outside the Port of Los Angeles in Los Angeles.
WORLD / Politics
May 24, 2024

A new trade war offers no easy way back for old global order

Then-U.S. President Donald Trump fired the first shots with tariffs on China seven years ago, then President Joe Biden ushered the U.S. into the new industrial policy age.
Sokyo Ono’s “Shinto: The Kami Spirit World of Japan” reveals how a mystic sense of nature lies at the heart of Shinto.
CULTURE / Books
May 31, 2024

'Shinto: The Kami Spirit World of Japan': A helpful guide to uncovering an integral part of Japanese life

Sokyo Ono’s book provides a concise introduction to all the fundamental elements of Shinto, including its symbols, beliefs and deities.
Employees assemble an electric transformer on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, on March 28.
WORLD
Jun 3, 2024

Modi plans post-election reforms to rival Chinese manufacturing

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi plans a raft of business-friendly measures if he wins a third term this week, including pushing through regulations making it easier to hire and fire workers, according to two government officials familiar with the matter.
Today's leaders need to balance national security measures with global cooperation to prevent the unraveling of the world's economy.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 4, 2024

The global economy is more fragile than it seems

Today's leaders need to balance national security measures with global cooperation to prevent the unraveling of the world's economy.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin leaves a bilateral meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Dong Jun, on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Friday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 4, 2024

China is winning the communications competition

It's a mistake for the U.S. to take for granted that the world sees it as “the good guy” in its competition with China.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting with senior editors from international news agencies at Lakhta Centre business tower in St. Petersburg on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 6, 2024

Putin says West wrong to think Russia would never use nuclear weapons

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow's nuclear doctrine allows the use of such weapons if the country's territorial integrity or sovereignty was threatened.
Ambassador of Australia to the U.S. Kevin Rudd attends the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 17.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 7, 2024

War over Taiwan would change world, says Australia ambassador to U.S.

If Chinese President Xi Jinping, who turns 71 this month, wanted to achieve "final national unification" with Taiwan, he would likely act before he reaches his 80s.
The policies of just-reelected Prime Minister Narendra Modi will reflect India's desire for independence in international affairs, emphasizing friendship without dependence.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 7, 2024

A resurgent India to play a bigger role on the world stage

With a busy foreign-policy agenda awaiting him, Modi is expected to hit the ground running right after he is sworn in.
Hirotsugu Kimura, a 24-year-old company employee, returns to Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, becoming the youngest Japanese to complete a solo, nonstop sailing voyage around the world.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2024

24-year-old sets new Japan record for sailing solo nonstop around world

Kimura set sail in October 2023, traveled eastward across the Pacific and passed the southern tips of South America and Africa.
A Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. facility under construction in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2022. Washington aims to strengthen domestic chip manufacturing as it engages in a trade war with China.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Jun 9, 2024

Does economic security undermine the benefits of interdependence?

While economic security concerns are not new in the U.S., coercive methods are. These risk undermining the rules-based international order and its global appeal.
Bill May (rear, second from left) poses with the rest of the U.S. team after earning silver at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka on July 17, 2023.
OLYMPICS
Jun 10, 2024

No men chosen to compete in artistic swimming at Olympics in Paris

World Aquatics said it was very disappointed that there would be no men in the Olympic competition.
Australian-born Connor O'Leary will represent Japan in the surfing competition at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
OLYMPICS / Surfing
Jun 11, 2024

At Paris Games, Connor O’Leary aims to win and inspire

The waves in Teahupo'o, Tahiti, may bode well for the goofy-footed surfer.
Pilgrims circle Kaaba as they perform Tawaf at the Grand Mosque, ahead of the annual Hajj pilgrimage, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on June 11.
WORLD / Society
Jun 12, 2024

Gaza war hangs over Hajj as pilgrims flock to Mecca

Saudi Arabia's minister in charge of religious pilgrimages warned last week that "no political activity" will be tolerated.
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrive with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a State Dinner at the White House in Washington on June 22, 2023. As the United States prioritizes teamwork with its partners in the Asia-Pacific region, many believe they are witnessing a lasting change in American power.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 13, 2024

In China’s backyard, the U.S. has become a humbler superpower

The United States no longer presents itself as the confident guarantor of security but as an eager teammate for military modernization and tech development.
A health worker puts on an adhesive bandage after inoculating a man with a booster shot of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine in Manila in January 2022.
WORLD
Jun 14, 2024

U.S. ran secret anti-vaccine campaign to undermine China during pandemic

The clandestine operation aimed to sow doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines and other life-saving aid that was being supplied by China.
By April 2024, dengue fever cases in the Americas passed the total for the previous year.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 15, 2024

What's behind the post-COVID surge in communicable diseases?

Many regions have reported at least one infectious disease resurgence that’s at least ten times worse than the prepandemic baseline.
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings' Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, in November 2022. The plant was shuttered in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster, and has sat idle since.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2024

World’s largest nuclear plant sits idle while energy needs soar

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant has the potential capacity to power more than 13 million households.
A vehicle transports a RS-24 Yars strategic nuclear missile during the main rehearsals of a military parade in Moscow on May 5.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 17, 2024

Nuclear arms more prominent amid geopolitical tensions: researchers

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned in his address to the nation in February there was a "real" risk of nuclear war.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past