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Hong Kong's real estate sector is slumping, putting the government's development plans at risk and signaling a wider economic malaise that may become a spanner in the works of Beijing's plans to transform the territory's economy.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Apr 7, 2025

Will China succeed in remaking Hong Kong in its own image?

Beijing can control Hong Kong politically, but to impose its economic vision on the territory it needs businesses to get on board as these face an economic and real estate plunge.
A woman walks past campaign posters depicting Watson candidates Dr. Ziad Basyouny, an independent, and Tony Bourke, of Labor, in Lakemba, Australia, on March 12.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 8, 2025

Bringing the war home: Gaza threatens to reshape an Australian election

The ruling Labor party, which has a razor-thin majority, is vulnerable in several seats where pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel voters make up a large proportion of the electorate.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during a campaign rally in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 10, 2025

Canada’s Mark Carney treads a fine line on climate in a tight election

In a nation whose energy sector is still dominated by oil and gas, the question is how much the new prime minister may need to play down his green resume in order to win.
Thailand's national flag is waved by royalists during an event to support the monarchy in Bangkok in 2020.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 10, 2025

Thailand revokes visa of U.S. academic charged with royal insult

The charge is a rare instance of a foreigner falling foul of strict laws that shield King Maha Vajiralongkorn and his close family from any criticism.
The trade war is ratcheting up tensions between Beijing and Washington. Taipei needs to be more prepared. 
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 15, 2025

Taiwan is under siege with or without tariffs

Taiwan must urgently strengthen defenses and unite politically to counter rising threats from China, despite Trump’s trade war.
Canadiens right wing Ivan Demidov (left) celebrates with teammate Cole Caufield after scoring against the Blackhawks at Bell Centre in Montreal on Monday.
MORE SPORTS / Ice Hockey
Apr 17, 2025

Canada reschedules political debate to avoid clash with Canadiens game

The debate, initially set for Wednesday evening, was moved two hours earlier after federal party leaders raised concerns about viewership.
Pro-Yoon Suk Yeol supporters gather on the side of a road as they wait for the arrival of the former South Korean president outside the Central District Court in Seoul on Monday.
EDITORIALS
Apr 18, 2025

New leadership in South Korea should stay the course on Japan ties

Democracy should be frustrating. It is intended to force compromise, a process that will inevitably be slow and exasperating.
Canada is standing up to American tariffs and territorial threats. The “Buy Canadian” movement has erupted and the country is brimming with expressions of patriotic zeal that are reshuffling the deck in an upcoming election for the next prime minister.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 2025

Is this Canada’s moment?

Washington's tariffs and territorial threats have ignited Canadian unity and resolve, reshaping the upcoming vote to choose who will lead Ottawa through the geopolitical storm.
Kerwin Espinosa, son of the late mayor Rolando Espinosa, taking an oath during the Senate drug hearing in Manila. The country's elections commission, Comelec, recorded 46 acts of political violence between Jan. 12 and April 11, including the shooting of Espinosa.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 20, 2025

Money, power, violence in high-stakes Philippine elections

Analysts warned that violence will likely remain a fixture of the Philippines' political landscape.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto (third from left) flanked by several members of his Cabinet in Magelang, Central Java, on Oct. 25, 2024. Prabowo's first six months in power have triggered alarm bells for activists worried about a return to the country's authoritarian roots.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 21, 2025

'Pandora's box': Alarm bells ring in Indonesia over rising military role

The developments have critics anxious that the country could hark back to the days of dictator Suharto, who ruled Indonesia with an iron fist for decades.
China had accounted for the biggest international student body in the U.S. for 15 years until it was overtaken by India last year.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 22, 2025

Trump visa cuts and tariff hikes turn Chinese students away from American Dream

A growing number of Chinese students are exploring other destinations.
A protest against Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Hong Kong in 2019. Beijing's United Front Work Department is charged with managing relations with overseas Chinese, including in Hong Kong, with the aim of mobilizing society to achieve the government's goals.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Apr 23, 2025

China’s catch-22: Rapid growth with tight social control

The Chinese government is locked in the contradictory goals of pursuing economic growth while maintaining strong social control through its United Front Work Department.
Lee Jae-myung delivers a speech during the national convention of South Korea's Democratic Party to choose their candidate for upcoming presidential election, in Goyang, South Korea, on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 28, 2025

South Korea martial law put Lee Jae-myung back on track for presidency

If elected, he would face polarized politics and rising economic concerns while negotiating with Donald Trump.
Despite China’s 30-year propaganda campaign that peace would be ensured if cross-strait disputes were settled internally, Beijing’s actual behaviors suggest otherwise.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2025

Placating China won't prevent it from invading Taiwan

Many Taiwanese misperceive China’s rational logic behind potential invasion risks, influenced by Beijing’s propaganda and exacerbated by Taiwan's current political landscape.
Sunset at Dudley Page Reserve, in Dover Heights, Sydney, on April 21
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 29, 2025

Australia’s economic ‘miracle’ is ending no matter who wins vote

Polls suggest the May 3 election will be tight, with many pundits predicting the winner will lead a minority government.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick (far left), U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (left) and Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's chief tariff negotiator. The second round of tariff negotiations between Japan and the United States were held on Thursday in Washington.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 2, 2025

Second round of U.S.-Japan tariff talks ends inconclusively in Washington

Neither foreign exchange rates nor defense spending were discussed, said Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's chief tariff negotiator.
The Diet building in Tokyo
JAPAN / Politics
May 3, 2025

Parties remain apart on social media rules for elections

Senior officials of ruling and opposition parties broadly agreed Saturday on the need to regulate election misinformation on social media, but were apart over specific measures.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (left), U.S. President Joe Biden (second from left), German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (second from right) and French President Emmanuel Macron prepare to take a family photo during their "Quad" meeting in Berlin on Oct. 18. Leaders in the West have tried to revive the old order, but Donald Trump’s return to power shows they need a new way of looking at the world.
COMMENTARY / World
May 12, 2025

Europe after the end of the liberal international order

We were wrong to think that we had secured a golden age of peace at the end of the Cold War. In reality, there was violence everywhere.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney finishes a news conference in Ottawa on May 2. U.S. President Donald Trump's persistent desire to annex its northern neighbor continues despite Canada's rejection the notion.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 12, 2025

Sorry, America. Canada’s just not that into you.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has been tactful but firm. Yet President Donald Trump can’t seem to take no for an answer.
Presidential candidate Nicusor Dan speaks as he reacts to exit polls of Romania's second round of the presidential election, in Bucharest on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
May 19, 2025

Centrist Nicusor Dan wins Romanian presidency over hard-right, pro-Trump rival

The election drew the highest percentage of voter turnout in a Romanian election in 25 years.
Agriculture minister Taku Eto answers reporters questions at the at the Prime Minister's Office on Monday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 21, 2025

Why Ishiba pulled a 180 on the gaffe-stricken farm minister

Taku Eto is the first minister to fall since the Japanese leader formed his Cabinet last October
A Boeing 747 from Qatar at Palm Beach International Airport, following President Donald Trump’s tour of the plane, in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Feb. 15. The president and his family have profited from the White House more than any other occupant, normalizing activities that once would have provoked heavy blowback and official investigations.
WORLD / Politics
May 26, 2025

As Trump family monetizes presidency, profits outstrip protests

The scale and the scope of the presidential mercantilism has been breathtaking.
Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate for South Korea's Democratic Party, speaks during a news conference after casting his early vote for the upcoming presidential election in Seoul on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 29, 2025

Martial law put Lee Jae-myung back on track for South Korean presidency

The liberal politician favored to become the country's next leader has overcome a knife attack and criminal charges on his unexpected path back toward the top post.
Women aspiring to enter politics attend a class at a school for future female politicians in Gifu Prefecture.
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2025

Over half of local assemblywomen suffer harassment, survey shows

Specifically, "verbal abuse" was cited by both male and female members as the leading form of harassment.
The messy, transactional fallout between Donald Trump and Elon Musk has exposed a toxic alliance built on money, power and chaos — one that now threatens both men’s influence and the stability of U.S. governance.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 9, 2025

The MAGA odd couple turns combustible

The world’s most powerful man and the world’s richest man have fallen out. No matter who wins, America loses.
Canadians Michael Kovrig (right) and Michael Spavor (center), former detainees held by China in a case widely seen as hostage diplomacy, attend an address by U.S. President Joe Biden in the Canadian House of Commons in Ottawa in March 2023.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 11, 2025

In its relationship with China, Canada is behaving like an abuse victim

The attempt to normalize trade relations with China on the heels of Beijing’s pattern of economic coercion bears an uncomfortable resemblance to a domestic abuse scenario.
Former Lower House lawmaker Shiori Yamao at a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 11, 2025

DPP withdraws election candidacy of scandal-hit Shiori Yamao

The move came in the wake of backlash aimed at the party for fielding Yamao, who has been mired in a series of scandals.
In an annual gender gap report, Japan recorded its strongest gains in economic participation, where its score climbed to 61.3% from 56.8% in 2024.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 12, 2025

Japan ranks 118th out of 148 countries in gender gap report

Japan's gender parity ranking was unchanged from a year ago and is still the lowest among Group of Seven countries.
Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Thailand's prime minister, during a news conference in Bangkok, on Thursday. Thailand's government faces collapse after a leaked phone call unleashed fresh political turmoil.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 20, 2025

Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Thailand's prime minister, under siege

After less than a year in office, Thailand's Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has her back to the wall — and little room left to maneuver.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's grandson Hassan Khomeini stands next to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the 36th anniversary of the death of the leader of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, at Khomeini's shrine in southern Tehran on June 4.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 24, 2025

Search for successor to Iran's Khamenei hastens as tensions erupt into conflict

Israel attacked Iran and threatened to assassinate its veteran leader.

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