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October 13, 2025
 

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DEFENSE

The Liberal Democratic Party presidential election candidates in Nagoya on Friday
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 28, 2025
On defense and foreign policy, LDP candidates largely align — except where they don’t
From nuanced differences in how to bolster Japan’s defenses to the importance of relations with the U.S., each candidate’s views could result in significantly different policies.
U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the 80th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York on Tuesday. His claim that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for ending multiple wars is contradicted by the fact that many of these conflicts persist.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 2025
Donald Trump’s self-aggrandizing peacemaker hype
Trump’s claim to have ended seven “unendable” wars is best understood as a case study in self-delusion.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian (center) walks on his way to a meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York City on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 27, 2025
Iran says it won’t exit nuclear pact despite sanctions snapback
The Iranian president’s words marked a shift in tone from July, when a lead Iranian negotiator said they had not ruled out leaving the agreement.
A Russian MIG-31 fighter jet flies above the Baltic sea after violating Estonian air space last week.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 26, 2025
Europeans privately tell Russia they’re ready to shoot down jets
NATO’s eastern members have faced a series of airspace violations this month that have posed an unprecedented test of the alliance’s resolve.
Three Russian MiG-31s, like the one seen here, violated Estonian airspace this month over the Gulf of Finland, escalating regional tensions further.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2025
Russia’s probes of NATO airspace demand a unified response
The Nordic-Baltic skies should be defended, not merely patrolled. That requires a greater NATO commitment with more aircraft.
A Russian drone in Kyiv in October 2022
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 26, 2025
Chinese drone experts worked with sanctioned Russian arms maker, sources say
Two European security officials said the collaboration suggested a deepening relationship between arms maker IEMZ Kupol and Chinese companies in developing drones.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a ceremony at the Pentagon in Washington on Sept. 19.
WORLD
Sep 26, 2025
Hegseth orders U.S. military officials from around world to Virginia next week
It was unclear how many officials will actually attend the event, but it is rare to have so many senior officials in the same room at the same time.
Poland's Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz speaks after signing a contract for the delivery of mobile communication centers in Zegrze, Poland, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 25, 2025
Poland becomes top importer of Taiwanese drones, skirting China
From almost nothing in the previous years, Poland is now absorbing almost 60% of Taiwan’s drone exports, which expanded this year to about $32 million through August.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping, along with his Russian and North Korean counterparts, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, attends a military parade in Beijing on Sept. 3 to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2025
An Orwellian lesson from Xi and Putin
The World War II anniversary parade in Beijing was not about history — it was about what comes next.
India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk II lifts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, India, on July 30.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 23, 2025
India plans ‘bodyguard’ satellites after orbital near miss
India is developing a plan to improve its ability to protect satellites from attacks after a near miss in orbit by other spacecraft.
Soldiers participate in a military exercise in Miaoli County, Taiwan, in July 2022. While China may desire to unify the island, military, geographic, political and economic factors make a successful invasion unlikely.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 23, 2025
Taiwan isn’t as susceptible to invasion as one would think
The island’s coastline is remarkably unsuited for amphibious operations and an invasion would demand a fleet comparable in size to that used by the Allies on D-Day.
Demonstrators protest at the port of Mutsu-Ogawara in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, in March 1997, as a British freighter arrives with processed nuclear waste, whose fissile elements can be fabricated into new nuclear mixed-oxide fuel.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 23, 2025
Could pacifist Japan ever arm itself with nuclear weapons?
It has always been a question of having the will to act and the belief that the U.S. nuclear deterrence commitment to Japan was beyond question.
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting of the country's Security Council at the Kremlin in Moscow on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 23, 2025
Putin offers Trump one-year extension of nuclear weapons treaty
Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Monday offered to voluntarily maintain the treaty limits if U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to do the same.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (right) and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif meet in Riyadh on Wednesday.
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Sep 20, 2025
Saudi pact puts Pakistan's nuclear umbrella into Middle East security picture
The pact signed between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia effectively marries Riyadh's money with Pakistan's giant nuclear-armed military, analysts said.
A Russian MiG-31 fighter jet flies above the Baltic Sea after violating Estonian airspace.
WORLD
Sep 20, 2025
Estonia and allies denounce 'reckless' Russian air incursion
Estonia immediately called for urgent talks with NATO allies, less than two weeks after Poland did the same after claiming an incursion by a wave of Russian drones.
The Izumo destroyer docks at a port in Singapore after completing a mission to escort a U.S. vessel under Japan's security laws, in May 2017.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 19, 2025
10 years on, security laws continue to boost Japan-U.S. defense ties
The laws, enacted in 2015, allow Japan to exercise its right to collective self-defense and have helped the SDF expand its activities with like-minded countries.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (front right) and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (front left) meet in Riyadh on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 18, 2025
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan sign mutual defense pact amid regional tensions
The enhanced defense ties come amid growing uncertainty about the reliability of the United States as a long-standing security guarantor, and after an attack on Qatar by Israel.
A U.S. flag flies at half mast in front of the White House on Sept. 11 in honor of Charlie Kirk, a right-wing activist who was fatally shot the previous day at an event at a university in Orem, Utah. The tragedy comes as the Trump administration shutters terrorism-prevention programs despite rising extremist violence.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 18, 2025
Why is Trump killing programs designed to prevent terrorism?
Political violence is rising worldwide while the Trump administration dismantles prevention programs, weakening U.S. security and global counterterrorism efforts.
A resident navigates a flooded road in Masiphumelele, Cape Town, South Africa, on May 20. Climate change impacts Africa the most of any continent despite it contributing less than 10% to global carbon emissions, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
WORLD
Sep 18, 2025
Military spending eats into Africa's climate finance
Climate change impacts Africa the most of any continent despite it contributing less than 10% to global carbon emissions, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
U.S. military personnel board the USS Wasp aircraft carrier at the U.S. naval base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, in 2019.
JAPAN
Sep 18, 2025
U.S. State Department sees Japanese role in AUKUS defense pact
Japan "expressed interest in a range" of projects underway as part of the second leg of the pact, an assessment said.
University of Tokyo lands its highest spot ever in global higher education ranking
The University of Tokyo in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward
Ghost of Yotei’s bloodstained fun sidesteps Ainu identity
Ghost of Yotei, the follow-up to 2020's smash hit Ghost of Tsushima, is a violent, vengeful and engaging romp through 17th-century Hokkaido that fails to stick the landing on its most sensitive cultural material.
After ruling bloc breakup, CDP and Komeito eye unified PM candidate
Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan leader Yoshihiko Noda speaks to reporters at the Diet in Tokyo on Friday.
As the Osaka Expo comes to a close, what will its legacy be?
After a run-up marked by apathy, organizers soon found they had the opposite problem as crowd control became a concern.
Why Japan's coalition collapsed — and what's next
Liberal Democratic Party President Sanae Takaichi enters party headquarters in Tokyo on Thursday.
Ghost of Yotei’s bloodstained fun sidesteps Ainu identity
Ghost of Yotei, the follow-up to 2020's smash hit Ghost of Tsushima, is a violent, vengeful and engaging romp through 17th-century Hokkaido that fails to stick the landing on its most sensitive cultural material.
‘Takaichi trade’ starts unwinding as political calculus upended by Komeito exit
Less than a week ago, Sanae Takaichi seemed set to become Japan's first female prime minister.
‘Save the Ring’ calls intensify as Osaka Expo’s end nears
Visitors lounge on the grassy hill on the top of the Grand Ring during the 2025 Osaka Expo in the city of Osaka in May.
A Japanese comedian walks into an Aussie bar … and stays there
Takashi “Waka” Wakasugi stopped by the Tokyo Comedy Bar in Shibuya Ward last month following his stint at Edinburgh Festival Fringe performing his show “Comedy Samurai.”
Chemistry Nobel winner Kitagawa says downtime helped him think up new material
Susumu Kitagawa speaks to reporters at Kyoto University on Wednesday after receiving the news that he had been awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry the same day.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building
By Patrick St. Michel

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th annual Sustainable Japan Award.
We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th annual Sustainable Japan Award.

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