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For the first time in 16 years, Taiwan will have a minority government when Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party is sworn in on May 20.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 9, 2024

To Taiwan’s president-elect, here is a proposal for your consideration

For the first time in 16 years, Taiwan will have a minority government when Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party is sworn in on May 20.
Smoke rises from the Gaza Strip during an explosion following an airstrike on Saturday. The war in Gaza has not stopped and Hamas has not freed anyone despite the adoption of a U.N. resolution on Monday demanding a cease-fire and the release of hostages.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 27, 2024

The U.N. Security Council demanded a Gaza cease-fire. What happens now?

While the U.S. did not veto the cease-fire resolution, its description of the text as "non-binding" sparked an uproar in the world body.
While Beijing promotes a vision of a peaceful and cooperative world, its foreign policy increasingly involves coercion, military buildup and assertive actions that challenge the existing international order.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 27, 2024

What is Beijing’s ultimate endgame? The answer is clear.

China's purported vision of equality and security for the world is belied by increasingly forceful foreign policy.
The assembly line at the Volkswagen factory in Zwickau, Germany, on March 14. The factory stopped producing gasoline-powered Golfs and switched to electric vehicles, illuminating the risks and opportunities for factory towns and cities.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 11, 2024

What happened when a German car factory went all electric?

The city of Zwickau, where more than 10,000 people work for Volkswagen and tens of thousands more for suppliers, seems to have avoided dire consequences.
Delegates meet for the Development Committee Plenary during the World Bank and IMF 2024 Spring Meetings in Washington on Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2024

Negotiating a bigger, better World Bank

Recent changes at the global lender are important steps toward making the World Bank’s financial model fit for “ending poverty on a livable planet.”
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Apr 28, 2024

Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers

As Japan’s rice farmers prepare for a new planting season, many will be hoping that this summer brings a reprieve from 2023’s brutal weather conditions.
The H5N1 bird flu virus, which has been found in cattle, is a pathogen that has loomed large in the minds of infectious disease experts for its potential to cause a deadly human pandemic.
COMMENTARY / World
May 9, 2024

The bird flu outbreak brings more questions than answers

This is a pathogen that has loomed large in the minds of infectious disease experts for its potential to cause a deadly human pandemic.
An Israeli officer directing traffic at the Qalandia checkpoint between Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and Jerusalem on Dec. 3, 2023. Spain, Norway and Ireland said on Wednesday that they would recognize an independent Palestinian state, a rebuke to Israel over its war in Gaza and its decades of occupation of Palestinian territories.
WORLD / Politics
May 23, 2024

Can European recognition bring Palestinian statehood any closer?

The recognition comes as the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor requests arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his defense minister for alleged war crimes in Gaza.
Presidential candidate of the ruling Morena party Claudia Sheinbaum delivers remarks during her closing campaign rally at Zocalo Square in Mexico City on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 3, 2024

Sheinbaum is set to become Mexico’s first woman president

The task before Claudia Sheinbaum is daunting as her predecessor allowed drug cartels to expand their influence across the nation, resulting in record murder rates.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 7, 2024

At Computex, Nvidia billionaire Jensen Huang showcases Taiwan's tech dominance

With this year’s raucous Computex — the world’s biggest computing conference — Taiwan sent a message: If you want AI, you need Taiwan.
A person uses a tong with a camera and GPS system attached to pick up litter, part of an initiative to boost participation in collecting trash.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Jun 16, 2024

Japan’s gamified environment apps target a greener mindset

Government funding has helped drive a boom in environmental and social app development.
U.S. President Joe Biden greets agency employees after a press conference on extreme weather at the D.C. Emergency Operations Center in Washington on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 3, 2024

Biden to meet with governors and sit for an interview to calm backlash

The hope is to counter brewing discontent among leading Democratic donors, aides and elected officials over U.S. President Joe Biden's debate performance.
The Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale returns this weekend and features works by artists such as Yayoi Kusama.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 13, 2024

Got somewhere to be and need a friend? Better learn how to ask.

If you live in Japan long enough, you're bound to receive an invitation sooner or later. Make sure you know how to respond or how to ask in return.
A return to the world with interest will almost certainly mean an increase in the bifurcation of Japan's haves and have-nots.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 5, 2024

Is Japan ready for a ‘world with interest?’

Ever since Ueda arrived at the central bank 15 months ago, economists have been debating what the "world with interest” will look like.
There is a significant divide between security experts, who emphasize the unquantifiable risks of geopolitical instability, and economists, who focus on the measurable costs of restructuring supply chains.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 28, 2024

Traditional economics fail the geopolitical test

The seemingly yawning gap between the views of the security specialists and the business and economics types is striking.
A polygraph machine sits on a table in an office of AO Eurasian Bank in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in 2013.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 6, 2024

AI-powered lie detectors can help tell if you’re lying on a Zoom call

CyberQ is just one of a crop of new companies looking to build AI-powered lie detectors that could be used during work-related online meetings.
A smartphone running ChatGPT4o as it tries to solve a geometry problem in San Francisco on May 28.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 20, 2024

OpenAI unveils new ChatGPT that can reason through math and science

The new technology is part of a wider effort to build AI that can reason through complex tasks.
Kamala Harris speaks during a CNN Town Hall in Pennsylvania on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 24, 2024

Harris calls Trump a fascist in bid to sharpen 2024 contrast

The town hall comes amid a frenzied media and campaign blitz less than two weeks before Election Day.
Randy's Donuts in Inglewood, California. Replicas of the giant doughnut sculpture will be installed, where possible, at shops in Japan.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 24, 2024

An iconic 32-foot doughnut might give Randy’s an edge in Japan

The doughnut had a cameo in “2012,” where it is seen rolling down the street as an enduring symbol of end-time. Now the brand looks to tackle the tough Japanese market.
An SM-3 interceptor is launched by the Aegis Guam System during a test at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 12, 2024

Can a U.S. missile defense system shield Guam from Chinese threat?

Building the island's missile defenses as envisioned will cost about $10 billion over the next decade.
A thermal power plant at an undisclosed location in Ukraine that was damaged during a missile attack amid Russia's invasion
COMMENTARY / World / The Year Ahead
Dec 27, 2024

When Russia fights the wrong enemy

The longer the war in Ukraine continues, the weaker Russia will become, leading many to wonder when it will decide to staunch its losses.
U.S. Steel's Edgar Thomson Steel Works in Braddock, Pennsylvania, in December 2019. The Biden administration blocked the $14 billion takeover of U.S. Steel by Nippon Steel on Friday, citing grounds that the sale posed a threat to national security.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Jan 5, 2025

Biden’s decision on Nippon Steel deal followed divide in his orbit

The split was emblematic of so many shifts in U.S. policy — including of Biden’s pledge to build trust with allies and the race against China.
Most of the grant funding for U.S. President Joe Biden's ambitious Chips and Science Act has been awarded, and the initiative has spurred more than $400 billion in planned company investments. But much of the job remains unfinished — and broader upheaval in the chip industry will only add to the challenges.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jan 18, 2025

Biden’s chips team hands off $52 billion program to a skeptical Trump

Before the election, Donald Trump described the Chips Act as "so bad” and suggested tariffs would be a better solution.
China's DeepSeek carries far-reaching implications for the global tech industry and supply chain.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 27, 2025

Why is the AI world freaking out over China's DeepSeek?

DeepSeek has far-reaching implications for the global tech industry, upending the widespread belief that the future of AI will require ever-increasing amounts of power.
Members of the media crowd the venue before the start of a news conference at Fuji TV's headquarters in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Society / First person
Jan 28, 2025

Yelling and random tangents: What it was like covering Fuji TV's 10-hour presser

The once-in-a-lifetime news conference showed what would happen when the Japanese press was given total freedom with no time limits.
U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to the White House in Washington on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Feb 10, 2025

Ishiba builds inroads with Trump, but challenges still loom

Ishiba won praise for his deft handling of Trump, squelching critics’ predictions that the president would walk all over the bookish Japanese leader.
All Nippon Airways aircraft at Haneda Airport in Tokyo in August 2024. ANA has staked a lot on greener kinds of jet fuel, with 70% of the emissions reductions under its net-zero emissions plan coming from them.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Feb 16, 2025

Sky not the only limit for JAL and ANA’s climate goals

The airlines' similar but different carbon neutrality plans highlight the difficulty of decarbonization, especially as the sector is now growing again.
The panic over Nvidia’s stock drop following China's DeepSeek AI breakthrough has subsided. Nvidia’s stock has rebounded, fueled by Elon Musk’s xAI and its latest chatbot, Grok-3, which benefits from an enormous Nvidia GPU stockpile.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 19, 2025

Nvidia revival marks the end of the great DeepSeek AI panic

Despite competition from other chipmakers and concerns over U.S. export restrictions, Nvidia remains central to AI development due to its CUDA software platform.
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Vice President JD Vance looks on in the Oval Office of the White House on Friday in Washington.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Mar 1, 2025

How Trump and Zelenskyy’s Oval Office skirmish broke a deal

An account of a remarkable and heated Oval Office exchange that seems certain to color the course of world history for decades to come.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks to reporters at the prime minister's official residence on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 14, 2025

Opposition blasts Ishiba over gift certificates given to LDP lawmakers

Ishiba gave gift certificates worth ¥100,000 each to over 10 new lawmakers, sources have said. The prime minister apologized but said the move was not illegal.

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell