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Kirsty Coventry, who will formally take over as the president of the International Olympic Committe on Monday, speaks during a news conference in Costa Navarino, Greece, in March.
OLYMPICS
Jun 21, 2025

As sports embrace gender tests, Coventry and IOC may follow

Such testing has its share of critics and the Olympics have already tried it once only to abandon it in 1996.
A replica of a great white shark is driven around the island of Martha's Vineyard during the "Jaws" 50th Anniversary celebration on Saturday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 22, 2025

Fifty years after 'Jaws,' the water’s not safe ... for sharks

The apex predator has had half a century of bad press.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects nuclear warheads at an undisclosed location. Events in Iran are likely to reinforce Pyongyang's belief that nuclear weapons ensure regime survival, with Pakistan and Libya providing lessons on how to get them and why giving them up can be fatal.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2025

Kim Jong Un’s nuclear lessons should trouble the rest of us

Operation Rising Lion has reaffirmed the belief that nuclear weapons are essential to protect a nation from attack.
Many recent video games, including Breath of the Wild and Planet of Lana, have borrowed from the pastoral aesthetic of Studio Ghibli films like “Princess Mononoke.”
CULTURE / Film
Jun 25, 2025

Studio Ghibli’s majestic sensibility is drawing imitators

Forty years after the Japanese animation studio was founded, game creators are embracing its legacy of moral integrity.
A customer buys a Nintendo Switch 2 in Tokyo on June 5. Online outrage over the gaming console’s price, terms and features was loud but meaningless, as record-breaking sales showed once again that internet backlash rarely reflects real consumer behavior.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 25, 2025

The 'internet' hated Switch 2 — consumers bought it anyway

The internet gives consumers a voice they once didn’t have. But separating signal from noise is a challenge — just look at the Switch 2.
Al Hilal's Salem Al-Dawsari pours water on his face during a break in play at the Club World Cup in Miami Gardens, Florida, on June 18.
SOCCER
Jun 27, 2025

Soaring temperatures during Club World Cup raise concerns for 2026 World Cup

Match times for the 2026 World Cup, cohosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada, have yet to be announced, but organizers may face challenges if sweltering conditions return.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that terror victims can sue the Palestinian Authority and PLO in American courts, a decision likely to impact future cases and the law.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 27, 2025

Foreign terror has a price in U.S. courts

The lower courts dismissed the cases on the ground that they lacked jurisdiction over the defendants. The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed.
This satellite image taken on June 19 shows damage at the Iranian nuclear facility at Arak in central Iran after an Israeli strike.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 27, 2025

An Iranian nuclear weapon just became more likely

The U.S. and Israel are likely to learn this the hard way when Iran abandons all doubts about pursuing nuclear breakout.
Racks of servers being tested at the new Amazon Web Services facility in New Carlisle, Indiana, on June 3
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 30, 2025

AI data-center boom could destroy Big Tech's net-zero plans

The tech sector faces a "climate strategy crisis" as its data centers demand ever more electricity and water to power growing fields, such as artificial intelligence.
This digital visualization shows the small modular nuclear reactor being developed by Rolls-Royce SMR, which is set to be the first in the U.K. A widely cited IEA report says global data center electricity demand will more than double by 2030 to 945 TWh — more than Japan’s current total usage.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 2025

Data centers and small reactors could change Asia’s nuclear dynamic

An estimated 402.74 million terabytes of data are created each day and storing and processing all that information creates virtual volcanoes.
A tourist holding an umbrella to protect himself from the sun walks at Trocadero square next to the Eiffel Tower as an early summer heat wave hits Paris on Tuesday.
WORLD
Jul 1, 2025

France shuts schools as heat wave grips Europe

The Mediterranean Sea was up to 6 degrees Celsius warmer than usual for the time of year.
For non-native speakers of the language, diving into Japanese books on a whim might just broaden your horizons and offer a fresh perspective on any topic imaginable.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jun 30, 2025

Japanese language is your gateway to seeing the world anew

Whether you want to learn about regional geopolitics or the history of cheese, reading Japanese books can offer a whole world of new perspectives for non-native speakers.
A viral manga prediction of a July 5 disaster has gripped Japan with anxiety and triggered an economic impact, but experts warn that while such dates are unreliable, the threat of a massive earthquake remains real. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 2, 2025

A prophesied disaster (likely) won’t strike Japan this weekend

The Japan Meteorological Agency has taken to social media to caution that "any such predictions should be considered unreliable.”
Recent preprint research suggests students who use ChatGPT to write essays engage in less critical thinking, with different areas of their brains connecting less often.
WORLD / Society
Jul 3, 2025

'Writing is thinking': Brain study prompts debate on ChatGPT use in education

The recent preprint research suggests students who use ChatGPT to write essays engage in less critical thinking, with different areas of their brains connecting less often.
Residential buildings under construction in Shanghai in July 2022. The Chinese government risks long-term decline by repeating Japan’s policy mistakes in handling its real estate and demographic crises.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 6, 2025

China’s housing crisis is worse than it seems

Chinese policymakers — who are facing an even more severe housing and demographic crisis than Japan —are at risk of making the same mistakes.
The Culver City Express Car Wash remains closed after a raid by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency detained many of its workers in Culver City, California, on June 11.
BUSINESS
Jul 7, 2025

Immigration raids derail Los Angeles economy as workers go into hiding

Few places in the U.S. are feeling the shock as acutely as Los Angeles, a longtime sanctuary city and home to one of the nation’s largest migrant labor forces.
The Arch of Independence in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. Central Asia is shaking off its Soviet past, driven by economic momentum, demographic strength and strategic diplomacy, even as hurdles remain.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2025

Central Asia changes its playbook

In recent years, the five Central Asian countries have managed to rebuild their economies, stabilize their politics and deepen their engagement with the rest of the world.
The U.S. and the world will become unhealthier and vast numbers of children may die now that Donald Trump’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has pulled funding from the global vaccine program GAVI. 
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2025

RFK Jr. is playing with babies’ lives

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s cut to U.S. funding for GAVI risks lives globally and damages America’s international standing.
Yoshiomi Tamai
JAPAN / Society
Jul 7, 2025

Philanthropist Yoshiomi Tamai dies at 90

Tamai was the founder and longtime president of the Ashinaga Foundation, which has supported over 110,000 orphaned students.
Former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attends the EU-Japan summit in Brussels in July 2023. Economic cooperation between the EU, Japan and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership is showing promise but faces political and structural hurdles that could limit progress.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 8, 2025

EU-CPTPP talks highlight shared goals and stubborn obstacles

EU economic cooperation with Japan and the CPTPP shows promise but could face political and structural hurdles that limit progress.
The European Parliament's censure vote against Commission President Ursula von der Leyen highlights backlash over her rightward shift and, if passed, could force a choice between centrists and nationalists.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 9, 2025

Ursula Von der Leyen faces a moment of truth

Von der Leyen’s ongoing political ambiguity has become a strategic liability at a time when Europe’s allies need clarity.
China’s economy shows signs of a possible recovery despite structural challenges and imperfect GDP data, but its future growth and global impact hinge on trade relations with the U.S. and how economic progress is measured.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 10, 2025

Taking GDP out of the China equation

There are problems with looking at China’s vitality through the GDP lens — the data is widely perceived to be finessed by officials
As the United States nears its 250th birthday, the Trump administration’s turn toward protectionism, anti-immigration policies and isolationism starkly contrasts with the founding principles of free trade, open borders and international engagement laid out in the Declaration of Independence.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 11, 2025

Trump’s rejection of America’s founding principles

Without free trade, free immigration and internationalism, America resembles what its founders rebelled against.
Moomin characters take part in a ceremony for Finland’s National Day event at the World Expo in Osaka last month.
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2025

Moomins enjoy enduring popularity in Japan on their 80th anniversary

The charming characters along with their diverse cast of companions from the series have captivated Japanese audiences for generations.
After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
COMMUNITY / Issues / Longform
Jul 14, 2025

How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan

Remote work is reshaping how Indian professionals navigate life, family and identity in a post-pandemic Japan.
Mahatma Gandhi led the Indian independence movement with an unshakable faith in nonviolence that arguably dovetailed with Zen philosophy in some respects.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Jul 19, 2025

Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence — and Zen?

The Indian nationalist’s beliefs hewed close to certain aspects of Zen thought, particularly his fearlessness in the face of death.
A drone view shows turf from Derryrush bog left out to dry after being harvested from the blanket bog in Derryrush, Ireland, in April 2024. Ireland's bogs were formed over thousands of years as decaying plants formed a thick layer of peat in wetland areas.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jul 16, 2025

World risks up to $39 trillion in losses from vanishing wetlands: report

Some 22% of wetlands, both freshwater systems and coastal marine systems, have disappeared since 1970, the report says.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron hold a news conference in London on July 10 after wrapping up a joint military visit.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 16, 2025

France and U.K. tighten nuclear ties amid questions over U.S. commitment

While France and the U.K. are taking a positive step for European security, the announcement is both more and less than it seems.
Since the Sino-U.S. trade conflict began in 2018, China has used it to strengthen self-reliance, sharpen its strategies and turn Donald Trump’s tariffs into fuel for its long-term global resilience. 
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 17, 2025

China is winning Donald Trump’s trade war

While China does not want a trade war or to decouple, it is willing to risk a trade war that the United States may lose — and it would rather decouple than kowtow to Trump.
A board announces that no works were awarded the Akutagawa and Naoki literary prizes on Wednesday evening in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 17, 2025

Akutagawa and Naoki award decision marks rare absence of literary prizewinners

Selection committee members were disappointed by the lack of a majority vote in the second round, insisting that the nominated works moved many readers and were worth reading.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’