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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after speaking to the United Nations in New York on Sept. 22
WORLD / Politics
Nov 29, 2023

Israel authorizes religious funding amid concern over cost of war

The government’s budget stance has drawn ire, with 300 prominent economists penning a joint letter urging cutbacks.
A visitor to an American college fair at a Marriott Hotel in Beijing poses for a souvenir photo next to an eagle mascot on Sept. 23. Students have been traveling between China and the U.S. for generations, propelled by ambition, curiosity and a belief that their time abroad could help them better their and their countries’ futures.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 29, 2023

Can U.S.-China student exchanges survive geopolitics?

Official rhetoric belies obstacles both governments have continued to erect, driven by the same nationalism and concerns about national security.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 29, 2023

Despite low approval ratings, Kishida likely to keep top job

While the situation around the government warrants no optimism, experts agree the prime minister has no reason to fret.
Ukrainian servicemen of the 22nd Mechanized Brigade take part in a military training exercise in Ukraine's Donetsk region on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 29, 2023

'Point of no return': Why Kyiv won't sit down with the Kremlin

Pleas for a return to talks are building as concerns grow over the West's commitment to supporting Ukraine, and disruptions to ammunition deliveries.
Rapidus Chairman Tetsuro Higashi says engineers who had left Japan to work abroad are now joining Rapidus to help it revive the domestic chip industry.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 30, 2023

Rapidus hunts for engineers to help Japan regain faded chip glory

Securing engineers in a country with a declining population is among the most pressing issues for the company.
Elon Musk waits backstage before being interviewed at the 2023 New York Times DealBook Summit in New York on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 30, 2023

Elon Musk says advertiser boycott may kill X

Earlier this month, Musk agreed with a post that said Jewish people hold a "dialectical hatred” of white people.
Israeli supporters hold flags hostages arrive at Ofakim army base in southern Israel on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 30, 2023

Israel and Hamas extend their war truce for another day

The agreement was confirmed minutes before the ceasefire was set to expire at 7 a.m. local time.
A newly released prisoner (right) hugs a relative during a welcome ceremony following the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in exchange for Israeli hostages held in Gaza by Hamas since the Oct. 7 attacks, in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 30, 2023

Mediators race to extend Israel-Hamas truce ahead of expiry

The six-day halt to fighting ends on Thursday morning local time, with a last hostages freed from Gaza overnight in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine's president, speaks during a news conference in Kyiv in Nov. 21.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 30, 2023

Zelenskyy faces manpower dilemma in Ukraine’s stalled offensive

Both sides have recruitment issues almost two years into the war
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets leaders of the Group of 20 countries in New Delhi on Sept. 9.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 30, 2023

India’s G20 presidency is marked by a dawn of new multilateralism

From empowerment to climate change action, India ends an impactful year as the G20 president.
COP28 has kicked off in Dubai amid division, as there is no firm commitment from developed nations to help out less financially secure countries. 
COMMENTARY
Nov 29, 2023

The Global South has lost faith in COP28

The Global South, which bears the brunt of climate change despite contributing minimally to emissions, is frustrated.
Baimagambet Kabenov, 82, one of the oldest residents in Kaynar, poses for a picture with his wife Rymbibi Zhumagazina in the village in the Abai Region of Kazakhstan. The village neighbors the former Semipalatinsk Test Site, one of the main locations for nuclear testing in the former Soviet Union.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 30, 2023

'Let us be a lesson': Kazakhs warn against return to nuclear tests

The effect of radiation from hundreds of tests has had a devastating impact on the environment and health, and continues to affect lives today.
Commuters in Kabul make their way through traffic as construction laborers work on a road on Nov. 21.
WORLD / Society
Nov 30, 2023

The changing face of Kabul: Safer, but more somber

Security threats have eased since the Taliban returned to power, but the harsh restrictions they introduced have made the city less lively.
Rabbits are supposedly easier to get through quarantine, but Japan’s outgoing quarantine rules for our fluffy friends actually take a fair bit of time.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 1, 2023

Hare today, gone tomorrow: Another cautionary tale for expats headed home

In another piece about leaving Japan, our departee learns some hard truths about the country’s quarantine guidelines for animals.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 30, 2023

World leaders react to the death of Henry Kissinger

Here are reactions to the death of Henry Kissinger, a controversial Nobel Peace Prize winner who left an indelible mark on foreign policy:
Real-time strategy game Last Train Home tells an overlooked story of the Czechoslovak Legion’s evacuation across Russia in the embers of the Great War.
LIFE / Digital
Dec 2, 2023

Last Train Home traverses murky morality of a WWI escape

Czech studio Ashborne's first full release follows a legion of soldiers fleeing across revolutionary Russia — and all the dilemmas of war that entails.
Vintage bicycle enthusiast and property manager Eric Knight shipped his high-wheeler from his home in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, to Japan for the cross-country trip.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Dec 4, 2023

32 days, one big wheel: Duo re-creates historic trans-Japan trip

The pair were inspired by pioneering cyclist Thomas Stevens (1854-1935), who traveled the same route through Japan in 1886 on a high-wheeler.
People run for cover following the resumption of Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday.
WORLD
Dec 1, 2023

Israel resumes fighting against Hamas in Gaza as truce ends

Palestinian media and Gaza's interior ministry reported Israeli air and artillery strikes across the enclave after the cease-fire expired.
The launch of a rocket carrying a spy satellite, as claimed by the North Korean government, in a location given as North Gyeongsang Province, North Korea, in this handout picture obtained on Nov. 21.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 1, 2023

U.S., Japan and South Korea hit North with sanctions over satellite

The move comes after North Korea successfully launched its first reconnaissance satellite, designed to monitor U.S. and South Korean military movements.
One of Qatar’s lead negotiators Abdullah Al Sulaiti (right) works inside an operation room set up to coordinate the truce and release of hostages between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Doha on Sunday.
WORLD
Dec 1, 2023

How Qatar swayed Israel and Hamas to make a temporary truce work

After seven days of truce, Israel confirmed Friday it was resuming hostilities.
JAPAN
Dec 1, 2023

Japan to tighten regulations on over-the-counter drug sales

The plan comes in response to the spread of overdoses mainly among young people.
Chinstrap penguins in Orne Harbour in the western Antarctic peninsula in March 2016
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Dec 1, 2023

Antarctic chinstrap penguins get by on just secondslong micronaps

Falling asleep while guarding a nest can spell doom for the eggs and later the chicks, but the species has an ingenious way of getting enough sleep.
Ethnic Ta'ang National Liberation Army fighters stand guard at a check point in the town of Namhkam in Myanmar's northern Shan state on Nov. 10.
EDITORIALS
Dec 1, 2023

We must stop Myanmar’s descent into a failed state

Myanmar is at a crossroads and needs international support to prevent a collapse amid increased fighting.
Activists dressed up like CEOs take part in a fake banquet near the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Monday where they feign the celebration of company profits over climate responsibility.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2023

We already know what will happen at COP28

It’s beyond time to ask whether the COP gatherings work as they should. After all, we’ve had nearly three decades of summits
Israeli troops gather on the border with the Gaza Strip on Thursday, the 7th day of a truce with Hamas.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2023

The Gaza cease-fire is a major military victory for Hamas

Military cease-fires and delays such as between Israel and Hamas always favor weaker defenders in a conflict.
World leaders prior to the opening ceremony of the COP28 summit in Dubai on Friday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Dec 2, 2023

A tense climate summit begins amid wars and record heat

At the U.N. climate conference in Dubai, a parade of dignitaries invoked faith, science and economics in their calls for a rapid energy transition.
Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip on Friday, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel.
WORLD
Dec 2, 2023

Israel tells Arab states it wants buffer zone in postwar Gaza, sources say

Israel detailed its plans to its neighbors Egypt and Jordan, along with the United Arab Emirates, which normalized ties with Israel in 2020.
Damaged houses following the deadly Oct. 7 attack by Hamas gunmen in southern Israel.
WORLD
Dec 2, 2023

Israel's most wanted: The three Hamas leaders it aims to kill

Sources familiar with Israel's thinking have said that the offensive in Gaza was unlikely to stop until three top Hamas commanders are dead or captured.
Residents of the Qatari-funded Hamad Town residential complex in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, sit with some of their belongings as they flee their homes after an Israeli strike, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 3, 2023

Israel faces growing U.S. calls for restraint amid Gaza fighting

Remarks by the U.S. vice president and defense chief were some of the strongest to date on Israel's need to protect civilians in Gaza.
Henry Kissinger, alongside U.S. President Richard Nixon, is sworn in as secretary of state on Sept. 22, 1973.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 3, 2023

'My blood boils': Kissinger's bitter legacy in Southeast Asia

In Southeast Asia, millions remember when the U.s. bombed swaths of Laos and Cambodia during the Vietnam War, an onslaught ordered by Kissinger and Nixon.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years