Search - world

 
 
Former Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel (left) helps Lewis Hamilton prepare the Mercedes team's "bee hotel" at Suzuka Circuit in Mie Prefecture on Thursday.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Sep 22, 2023

Sebastian Vettel creates a buzz in Japan amid biodiversity crisis

The retired former champion invited current F1 drivers to make a small contribution to nature by building "bee hotels" next to the Suzuka Circuit track.
The Chinese Navy's nuclear-powered Long March 11 submarine takes part in a naval parade off the eastern port city of Qingdao, to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy, in April 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 23, 2023

U.S. revives Cold War submarine spy program to counter China

The multibillion-dollar effort, known as the Integrated Undersea Surveillance System, comes as China ramps up activities near Taiwan.
The World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai in 2020
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 21, 2023

Human success means evolving with AI, not shunning it

Most future jobs will be hybrid, powered by human and artificial intelligence. The challenge lies in striking the right balance.
Players compete against one another during the Just Dance event at the Olympic Esports Week in Singapore in June.
MORE SPORTS / FOCUS
Sep 24, 2023

China hosts esports’ biggest moment with Tencent at the wheel

The once-in-four-years Asian Games, effectively a regional Olympics, is the first time that competitive video games will be eligible for medals.
Katsuura in Chiba Prefecture — around 90 minutes by express train from Tokyo — has never seen the mercury climb above 35 degrees Celsius, a benchmark the meteorological agency uses to describe “extremely hot” weather, since records began in the city in 1906.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Sep 24, 2023

Japan’s endless summer pushes some toward cooler places

Amid a summerlong heat wave, more people are showing interest in moving to places like Katsuura that are known for their milder temperatures.
Apart from the direct economic costs, governments that conspire to thwart the dollar system risk losing America’s security guarantees as well.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 20, 2023

The greenback’s full-spectrum dominance is here to stay

Debates about the future of the international monetary system often fail to appreciate the greenback’s full-spectrum dominance.
A boat piloted by a Philippine fisherman is intercepted by Chinese coast guard boats as they tried to enter the Scarborough Shoal in disputed waters of the South China Sea.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 25, 2023

With bullhorns and water cannons, Chinese ships wall off the sea

The world’s most brazen maritime militarization is gaining muscle in the South China Sea, waters through which one-third of global ocean trade passes.
China's push to obtain hard power and "meta-power" has seen it lean heavily on its science and technology sectors.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Sep 28, 2023

China looks to science and technology in its push for more power

Further power could give Beijing the ability to restrict other nations by structuring or restructuring systems, rules or frameworks.
A Filipino woman looks at pictures of fellow wartime survivors of sexual servitude at a resource center, in Quezon city, Manila, in August 2015.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 25, 2023

For Filipino wartime rape survivors, a last hope for reparations

For the few remaining elderly survivors, the reparations demand issued by a U.N. committee earlier this year is realistically their last hope.
A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) banner outside the party's state office in Kolkata, India.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 26, 2023

Modi's ruling BJP plots election drive of epic scale

Growing anti-incumbency sentiment is conspiring with a newly formed national alliance to pose what BJP officials say will be Modi's toughest test by far.
A moment of silence is held for Robinson before the Orioles' game against the Nationals in Baltimore, Maryland, on Tuesday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Sep 27, 2023

Orioles' star third baseman Brooks Robinson dies at 86

Robinson won 16 Gold Gloves as the best at his position and was named an All-Star 18 times.
The Palais de Rumine, one of the former buildings of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland where famed-Italian sociologist, economist, political scientist and philosopher Vilfredo Pareto taught and penned many of his major works.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 13, 2023

Italian intellectual Vilfredo Pareto and the roots of politics

The great Italian public intellectual Vilfredo Pareto saw free trade as beneficial to all and military spending as detrimental to many.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has overseen foreign policy successes during his two years in power, including on the nation's approach to development aid and climate change.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 28, 2023

Kishida's mixed bag of successes and shortcomings

Kishida has also been adept in terms of diplomacy in at least four areas: the war in Ukraine, the Taiwan issue, development aid and South Korea relations.
The Nvidia headquarters in Santa Clara, California
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 28, 2023

AI chip crunch: Startups vie for Nvidia's vital component

Generative AI's lifeblood is a book-sized semiconductor known as the graphics processing unit (GPU) — built by one company, Nvidia.
Zheng Qinwen poses on the podium after winning the women's final at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, on Friday.
TENNIS
Sep 29, 2023

Zheng Qinwen captures title at Asian Games

China's brightest young tennis star, battled through the Hangzhou heat to outlast teammate Zhu Lin and seal the title 6-2, 6-4.
Two Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers escort the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson during a transit mission in the Philippine Sea in April 2017.
EDITORIALS
Sep 29, 2023

The South China Sea is a test for Japan

The maritime standoff between the Philippines and China risks breaking out into open conflict, one that could ensnare other countries, including Japan.
Singer and dancer Shizuko Kasagi's life is the basis for the new morning drama series on NHK.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / Longform
Oct 1, 2023

When the 'Queen of Boogie' reigned in Japan

Shizuko Kasagi gave Japan a reason to rejoice again and inspired a generation of young women in the process.
Supporters of Niger's National Council of Safeguard of the Homeland wave a flag of the private Wagner military company during a protest near the capital Niamey on Sept. 16.
COMMENTARY
Sep 30, 2023

If the U.S. exits Niger, the terrorists and Russians win

What transpired in Niamey was obviously a coup. Nonetheless, the U.S. has global responsibilities that require it to stay in Niger.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi address a joint meeting of Congress at the Capitol in Washington in June.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 1, 2023

Modi’s Hindu nationalism stokes tension in Indian diaspora

Canadian and U.S. universities have become battlegrounds for critics and defenders of Hindu nationalism, punctuated by threats of violence and even death.
Katalin Kariko (right) and Drew Weissman, the winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their discoveries enabling the development of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2023

Nobel for mRNA vaccines shows the power of perseverance

Decades of work by Nobel Prize winners Kariko and Weissman made the rapid development of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines possible.
Central to China’s global media campaign is the aggressive use of new technologies to target and spread messages, silence critics and create a digital infrastructure that is more easily controlled.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2023

Pushing back against China’s media offensive

China is using propaganda, disinformation, censorship and covert tactics to promote its preferred narrative and suppress critical reporting.
KitKat-maker Nestle has pledged to increase sales of products that have a Health Star Rating of 3.5 or above by around 50% in the eight years through 2030, but investors say that isn't enough.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 4, 2023

Nestle isn’t doing enough to sell more nutritious food, investors say

Obesity is a growing health crisis in much of the world and food companies have been under pressure to make their portfolios healthier.
South Korean tourists shield themselves from the sun in Ronda, Spain, on Aug. 9. Much of the world sweltered through unseasonably warm weather in September, in a year expected to be the hottest in human history.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Oct 5, 2023

September hottest on record by 'extraordinary' margin: EU monitor

The average surface air temperature for the month was around 1.75 C hotter than the September average in the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period.
Soy farming has seldom been synonymous with sustainability, but more farmers in Brazil are working to regenerate depleted land instead of expanding the agricultural frontier.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Oct 5, 2023

Can Brazil's farmers grow more soy without deforestation?

Deforestation is fueling climate change impacts including harsher heat, drought and floods.
U.S. President Joe Biden (left), Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia (center left), Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan (center right) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India (right) participate in a Quad Leaders' meeting on May 20 in Hiroshima.
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 5, 2023

U.S. deepening intelligence links across Asia to counter China

Washington has developed a set of separate but overlapping partnerships including with the "Quad” grouping of the U.S., India, Japan and Australia.
Taiwan has become a hot spot that is capable of precipitating a military conflict between China and the United States, and possibly even a nuclear war.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2023

Applying Chinese wisdom to resolve the Taiwan issue

Some 70 years after the Chinese Civil war ended, do the winners of that war still think that violence is the way to achieve unification with Taiwan?
The ouster of the U.S. speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, sets a dangerous precedent and has implications for the country's national security and America's global leadership.
EDITORIALS
Oct 6, 2023

U.S. political follies worry friends and delight foes

The removal of Kevin McCarthy as the Speaker of the House of Representatives is an unprecedented event in U.S. history.
A woman takes her meal alone in Tokyo's Yanaka neighborhood. As the country ages, Japan's average caloric intake has been shrinking.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Oct 9, 2023

Downsizing dinner: Aging Japan is eating less

As older citizens' shrinking appetites lead to less on the plate, businesses are having to adjust to a new market.
Dendrobium orchids — highly sought after due to their use in traditional Chinese medicine — growing in the wild in Nepal.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Oct 8, 2023

The orchid obsession: How science and smuggling meet in a global trade

Love of the flowers has a dark side, with the desire for rare varieties underpinning a robust illegal trade believed to have wiped out entire species.
North Korea's flag has been raised at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, which concluded on Sunday, in contravention to sanctions imposed by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 8, 2023

North Korea to let doping officials back in for testing

WADA declared North Korea's national anti-doping body "non-compliant" in 2021 because it was unable to get its testers into the country.

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