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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.
Economic coercion has become a prominent tool in global geopolitics, with both China and the U.S. relying on it to pursue their policy goals, and more so with Donald Trump now in office.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 28, 2025

When big countries wave their big economic sticks

There is no agreed definition of economic coercion under international law; like pornography, we know it when we see it.
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.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 30, 2025

Trump’s nine-hour economic war on Colombia rattles markets

Trump’s more strategic than his first term, and governments across the globe are in a weaker position after their budgets were upended by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Scottie Scheffler competes during the The Presidents Cup in Ile Bizard, Quebec, on Sept. 29, 2024.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Jan 30, 2025

No. 1 Scheffler ready to go in season debut at Pebble Beach

A freak Christmas dinner accident, while using a wine glass to shape ravioli, resulted in a wound to his hand that required surgery and delayed Scheffler's start to the campaign.
Former U.S. figure skaters Dick Button and Tenley Albright are introduced during an exhibition event after the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Boston in January 2014.
MORE SPORTS / Figure skating
Jan 31, 2025

U.S. figure skating great Dick Button dies at 95

Long before he became known for his on-air observations, Button dominated the figure skating world with his athleticism.
Donald Trump’s rapid use of tariffs, disregard for conventional diplomacy and fixation on strength risk undermining the global economic order, isolating the U.S. and triggering widespread economic harm.
EDITORIALS
Jan 31, 2025

The Trump test begins: Tariffs, power plays and economic risk

The speed with which the U.S. president reached for this tariff tool — against an ally no less — is proof that his threats are not empty words.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow visit St. Sergius monastery, which is considered the spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church, in the town of Sergiyev Posad, near Moscow, in June.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 29, 2025

Putin's distortion of Russian spirituality and authority

Vladimir Putin is merely the latest in a series of murderous modernizers stretching from Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great to Catherine the Great and Stalin.
Dress-up games and dating sims were once forgotten genres, but now expanded player bases are helping to generate major profits.
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Feb 1, 2025

Gaming’s feminine side is starting to make big bucks

Two recent releases — a sci-fi dating sim and a souped-up dress-up simulator — are starting to change the conversation around previously dismissed genres.
France's President Emmanuel Macron gives a speech at the Louvre Museum, which he referred to as a "source of French pride."
CULTURE / Art
Feb 1, 2025

Louvre opens first fashion exhibition after shock memo about decay

In leaked correspondence with Culture Minister Rachida Dati, director Laurence des Cars said the museum was falling below international standards.
Tourists at a viewpoint near the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 1, 2025

Here’s the few foreign markets set to win on Trump’s return

As some countries are rattled by tariff fears, assets of nations seen as benefiting from close ties with the U.S. leader are getting an extra lift
Government officials and energy executives from countries such as India, Kuwait and Japan have been holding talks about procuring more U.S. gas, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 1, 2025

From India to Japan, specter of Trump tariffs spurs interest in U.S. gas

Trump’s tactics, however, are pushing away some other buyers, like those in China, the world’s top importer.
Supply ships that service the offshore oil rigs on Canada's east coast load cargo in in St. John's, Newfoundland, on Saturday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 2, 2025

To Trump, tariffs are not a means but an end

What makes U.S. President Donald Trump’s move against Mexico, Canada and China different compared with past uses of tariffs is that he seems uninterested in pursuing deals.
Visitors attend the Myanmar Power and Solar Energy Storage Expo 2025 in Yangon on Jan. 10. Power outages are common across Yangon, a result of rolling blackouts scheduled by the country's junta government.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 2, 2025

Seeking light in dark times four years after Myanmar coup

The country has fossil fuel reserves and strong potential for renewables but is crippled by instability, investor flight, a lack of infrastructure and other problems.
Bollywood faced a challenging year in 2024, with box-office collections dropping significantly, leading to concerns about a return to lawlessness in Mumbai.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2025

Bollywood’s dark past is threatening to return

When everything starts bombing for Bollywood, things take a sinister turn in Mumbai.
Cows graze in a deforested pasture in Brazil's Amazon located in the municipality of Itapua do Oeste, Rondonia state, Brazil, in 2020.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Feb 3, 2025

Brazil's carbon trade takes off, but agribusiness escapes scrutiny

The regulation is still expected to bring legal security and foster carbon projects that protect the Amazon against pressure from the agribusiness sector.
Marcus Rashford joined Manchester United at the age of 7 and emerged from the youth academy as a teenage prodigy in 2016, but recent years have been marked by controversy.
SOCCER
Feb 4, 2025

Once Manchester United's golden boy, Marcus Rashford's run ends in divorce

Rashford appeared to have the world at his feet when he signed a new five-year contract with United in July 2023, but the relationship recently soured.
The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, also called the Chinese Six Companies, formed in San Francisco in 1882, was a unifying umbrella organization for immigrant associations, becoming one of the first such influential community advocacy groups in America.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2025

America versus China, the troubling prequel

A forthcoming book details the horrific experience of Chinese immigrants in the U.S. in the 19th century. Is it an omen for the future?
Mizuho’s sustainability report for 2024
ESG CONSORTIUM
Feb 4, 2025

Mizuho report aims to spur action to move into alternative energy

To achieve carbon neutrality in an increasingly uncertain world, Japanese companies should focus on innovations for alternative energy and shift their business models toward building a carbon-neutral economy, Mizuho Financial Group says in a recent report.
The Yangshan Deepwater Port in Shanghai on Jan. 20. China's Finance Ministry said it would impose levies of 15% for U.S. coal and LNG and 10% for crude oil, farm equipment and some autos.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 4, 2025

China hits back with tariffs on U.S. goods after Trump imposes new levies

Trump on Monday suspended his threat of 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada at the last minute, but there was no such reprieve for China.
DeepSeek’s AI breakthrough has shaken assumptions about China’s innovation, highlighted weaknesses in U.S. tech restrictions, and reinforced China’s push for self-sufficiency despite export controls.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 4, 2025

DeepSeek forces a rethink of China’s ability to innovate

The Trump administration hasn’t outlined a policy toward technology flows yet, but it ordered a review of export controls on day one.
Brazil forward Neymar (left) fights for the ball during a training session at Rei Pele training centre, in Santos, Brazil on Tuesday.
SOCCER
Feb 4, 2025

Neymar homecoming is reminder of promise unfulfilled

Last week, 12 years on, he returned to first club Santos — Neymar the celebrity with unimaginable wealth, but a player whose fragile body has been badly diminished by injuries.
Japan's Kaori Sakamoto celebrates after finishing in third place at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating in Grenoble, France on Dec. 7, 2024.
OLYMPICS / Winter Sports
Feb 6, 2025

Olympics on horizon as China hosts Asian Winter Games

The Games crucially come just a year ahead of the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina.
The bestselling Switch has a confirmed successor, but what little we know about the Switch 2 console so far raises some concerns about its longterm viability in a crowded gaming market.
LIFE / Digital
Feb 6, 2025

Making sense of Nintendo’s tight-lipped Switch 2 reveal

Nintendo will remain mum on details until April, but questions on how its new console fits into the modern gaming landscape abound.
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.
Nissan needed this deal a lot more than Honda as billions of dollars of debt due in the next year closes in.
COMMENTARY
Feb 6, 2025

Scrapping Honda deal would leave Nissan stranded

Nissan needed this deal a lot more than Honda. As billions of dollars of debt due in the next year close in, the former may get pushed into an even less favorable deal.
Naomi Osaka celebrates winning her second round match at the Australian Open over the Czech Republic's Karolina Muchova on Jan. 15.
TENNIS
Feb 6, 2025

Naomi Osaka on tennis, motherhood and being Japanese

Osaka returned to the tour a year ago and has had mixed results overall. But there are early signs in 2025 that she's starting to "get her pink back."
Far from making America great again, Donald Trump’s actions since assuming the presidency are giving a giant boost to China’s attempts at world leadership.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2025

‘America First’ in action

Far from making America great again, Trump is giving a giant boost to China’s claims to world leadership.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and U.S. President Donald Trump. Microsoft and Nvidia are quietly engaging with the Trump administration on policies affecting AI, chip exports and data centers
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 9, 2025

Tech giants Microsoft and Nvidia taking a quieter approach to Trump

Under Biden, the United States curbed the sale of Nvidia chips to China and capped the sales of its AI chips to more than 100 other countries
A set of miniature "hina" dolls from the late Edo Period (1603-1868), collected by hina furnishings researcher Yumiko Kawauchi
CULTURE
Feb 10, 2025

Miniatures bring hidden worlds to life at Tokyo cultural site

A set of dolls from the late Edo Period is among the items on display on the premises of Hotel Gajoen Tokyo.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami