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Japan is the world's biggest market for Iqos, a heat-not-burn tobacco product marketed by its maker Philip Morris as a less harmful alternative to traditional cigarettes — a claim not backed by independent scientific research.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 6, 2025

Smoke and mirrors: How big tobacco manipulates science in Japan

In Japan, not only does the tobacco industry have close ties to government, but universities are also vulnerable to its influence. In this equation, public health loses out.
Officials and government leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin (center right) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (center left) attend a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Victory Day, marking the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Moscow on May 9.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 9, 2025

Secret Russian intelligence document shows deep suspicion of China

Some officials believe Beijing is trying to recruit Russian spies and steal sensitive military tech, at times by luring disaffected Russian scientists.
An Afghan woman carries away food aid donated by the Indian government in Kabul on May 18.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 10, 2025

Trump's cuts are 'devastating' for vulnerable women worldwide, U.N. says

Though it is too soon to estimate the impacts of the U.S. cuts, they will likely result in increased maternal mortality and more unintended pregnancies.
Gold medalist Summer McIntosh of Canada poses after winning the women's 200m individual medley at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
MORE SPORTS / Swimming
Jun 10, 2025

Canadian teenager McIntosh smashes 200m medley world record

It was triple Olympic gold medallist McIntosh's second world record of the meet following her 400m freestyle world record on Saturday.
Former yokozuna Hakuho arrives at a news conference to announce his future plans in Tokyo on Monday.
SUMO / Inside Sumo
Jun 11, 2025

Hakuho’s new venture not an automatic 'Grand Slam'

World Sumo Grand Slam is a very catchy name, but for those wanting more details, that’s all it seems to be for now.
“Junk World” is Takahide Hori’s second entry in his stop-motion “Junk” series, which is populated by cyborgs, monsters and artificial lifeforms called “Mulligans.”
CULTURE / Film
Jun 13, 2025

Stop-motion sci-fi saga ‘Junk World’ expands its bizarre universe

The monsters are cute, the war is weird and interior designer turned director Takahide Hori’s creativity stretches far beyond his budget.
Demonstrators deploy a giant banner reading "We the People," the first three words of the U.S. Constitution's preamble, during a "No Kings" rally in Los Angeles on Saturday, on the same day as President Donald Trump's military parade in Washington.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 15, 2025

As Trump celebrates army’s founding, his critics take to the streets

U.S. President Donald Trump held a military parade the same day that hundreds of protests took place, in what amounted to a split-screen show of force.
A worker prepares a sign ahead of the Group of Seven summit at a satellite location in Banff, Alberta, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 15, 2025

Guest list for G7 summit tells of global challenges

The leaders of India, Ukraine, Mexico, South Africa and South Korea are joining at a time of global turmoil and a radical new U.S. approach to world affairs.
Sweden's Armand Duplantis celebrates after setting a new world record of 6.28 meters in the men's pole vault at Stockholm Stadium in Sweden on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS / Athletics
Jun 16, 2025

'Magical' Duplantis soars to pole vault world record in Stockholm

With victory in the event already guaranteed, Duplantis broke the world record for the 12th time as he sailed over the bar at the first attempt.
Kaori Sakamoto earned the silver medal at the world championships in Boston on March 28. Sakamoto is a three-time world champion.
MORE SPORTS / Figure skating
Jun 20, 2025

Three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto to retire after 2026 Winter Olympics

Sakamoto, who won bronze at the 2022 Winter Olympics, missed out on a fourth straight world title in March when she finished runner-up to American Alysa Liu.
Protesters hold a banner with a message and images of U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a rally in New York on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jun 22, 2025

Trump’s ‘two weeks’ pause on Iran strikes comes with high stakes

Because by now the world knows that Trump’s "two weeks” could mean two days, two months or never, his delay this time only fed the uncertainty.
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers an address to the nation alongside U.S. Vice President JD Vance (left), U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (second right) and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the White House in Washington on Saturday, following U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 22, 2025

U.S. attacks three nuclear sites in Iran, widening Mideast conflict

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened more attacks if Tehran doesn’t capitulate, pulling the U.S. directly into the conflict despite promises to avoid new wars.
President of World Athletics Sebastian Coe speaks in Oslo on June 12.
MORE SPORTS / Athletics
Jun 24, 2025

It will be 'big and punchy': Athletics chief Coe looks to future

The World Championships arrive in September in Tokyo, and Coe describes them as "a massive moment."
In a world rocked by war and shifting power, Pope Leo XIV steps into the global spotlight, seeking unity and moral authority for a diverse and wounded flock — not with force, but through tradition, saints and patience.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 25, 2025

How many saints can Pope Leo add to his army?

When the world goes off kilter, words from the Vatican can seem toothless. But don’t underestimate the power of the Church’s long game.
Beachgoers wait in an underground bomb shelter after sirens sounded to warn of an incoming Iranian missile attack in Tel Aviv on June 20. Iran has found itself humbled after a ceasefire was declared but retains plenty of capacity to hit back.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 30, 2025

Israel emerges stronger from Iran war but risks blowback

Israel building military positions beyond its borders in Syria and Lebanon opened the country to risks of repercussions from regional partners wary of its assertiveness.
Critics of plans to build a condominium on a vacant lot in the Komachi area of Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, argue that valuable relics may be buried beneath the site.
JAPAN
Jul 6, 2025

Development project at historic Kamakura site raises concerns

Citizens and history researchers are urging authorities to halt construction, expressing concerns that valuable relics may be buried beneath the site.
For non-native speakers of the language, diving into Japanese books on a whim might just broaden your horizons and offer a fresh perspective on any topic imaginable.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jun 30, 2025

Japanese language is your gateway to seeing the world anew

Whether you want to learn about regional geopolitics or the history of cheese, reading Japanese books can offer a whole world of new perspectives for non-native speakers.
Andriy Ilkiv, head of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Department of the National Police in Lviv Oblast, shows his prosthetic leg against the backdrop of the GCS-200 demining complex near the village of Zaliman, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on May 2.
WORLD
Jul 3, 2025

Demining Ukraine: from drones to risking it with a rake

The drones which have revolutionized the way war is fought in Ukraine may also now become a game-changer in demining the country.
The World Health Organization has backed tobacco taxes and price rises for decades, and has called for taxes on alcohol and sugary drinks in recent years, but this is the first time it has suggested a target price rise for all three products.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 4, 2025

WHO pushes countries to raise prices on sugary drinks, alcohol and tobacco by 50%

The move by the United Nations health agency is the strongest backing yet for taxes to help tackle chronic public health problems.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during the opening segment of the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development, in Seville, Spain, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 4, 2025

Blistering heat and empty chairs mar U.N.'s flagship development event

Two key ingredients were in less abundance at the once-a-decade International Conference on Financing for Development: money and power.
BRICS leaders including South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (front row left), Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (second left), Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (center), Chinese Premier Li Qiang (second right) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov join hands during a group photo at the bloc's summit in Rio de Janeiro on Monday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 8, 2025

BRICS fills soft-power vacuum as Trump-led U.S. retreats

The 10-nation BRICS grouping of major emerging economies has stepped up its efforts on issues such as AI, health care and climate change.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (left) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi embrace at the G20 Leaders' Summit In Rio De Janeiro in 2024.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 9, 2025

Brazil’s Lula hosts Modi in bid to turn India into a major trade partner

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is desperate to finally crack the code on a relationship that has never fully taken off thanks to a litany of incompatibilities.
One of the early exemplars of Chinese innovation is a cell therapy that has shown promise to potentially cure a deadly blood cancer.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 14, 2025

China biotech’s stunning advance is changing the world’s drug pipeline

The number of novel drugs in China entering into development ballooned to over 1,250 last year, far surpassing the European Union.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a Victory Day parade in Moscow in May. Despite U.S. President Donald Trump's threat of tariffs, Putin believes Russia's economy and its military are strong enough to weather any new Western measures over the war in Ukraine.
WORLD / FOCUS
Jul 15, 2025

Putin, unfazed by Trump, will fight on and could take more of Ukraine

Three Russian sources familiar with top-level Kremlin thinking said the Russian leader will not stop the war under pressure from the West.
Fauja Singh waves after finishing a 10 kilometer run in Hong Kong in February 2023.
MORE SPORTS
Jul 16, 2025

'World's oldest marathon runner' dies at age 114 in road accident

India's Fauja Singh died after being hit by a vehicle in Punjab state's Jalandhar district on Monday.
Members of Japan's Self-Defense Forces stand in formation during a review at Camp Asaka in October 2018. The government’s latest Defense White Paper warns of growing threats from China, Russia and North Korea.
EDITORIALS
Jul 18, 2025

Japan must be ready for an increasingly dangerous world

If there is a complaint to be issued against this year’s Defense White Paper, it is its reluctance to fully address the impact of Donald Trump’s return to the U.S. presidency.
Modern global politics, marked by personal rivalries, nickname-driven rhetoric and apocalyptic religious fervor, resembles a “re-medievalization” that challenges the ideals of the Enlightenment.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2025

The Middle Ages are making a political comeback

Increasingly medieval language from the world’s leaders does not bode well for the rest of us.
Peruvian chef Mitsuharu Tsumura’s restaurant Maido in Lima was named the best restaurant on the planet on June 19 by the influential “World's 50 Best Restaurants” list.
COMMENTARY
Jul 21, 2025

Why there isn’t a best chef in the world

Awards are one thing but the culinary universe has no real center. For that you can thank two chefs.
Polymetallic nodules — bulbous lumps of rock that are rich in battery metals such as cobalt and nickel which carpet huge tracts of Pacific Ocean seabed — in Rarotonga in the Cook Islands on June 12.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 22, 2025

Trump’s critical minerals obsession reignites deep-sea mining

President Donald Trump has issued an executive order expediting U.S. licensing of seabed mining, departing from international law.
Swarm Biotactics' cyborg cockroaches are equipped with specialized backpacks that enable real-time data collection via cameras.
WORLD
Jul 24, 2025

Spy cockroaches and AI robots: Germany plots the future of warfare

A wave of German defense startups is developing cutting-edge technology, from tank-like robots and unmanned mini-submarines to battle-ready cyborg cockroaches.

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