Tag - defense

 
 

DEFENSE

Schoolchildren cross a wooden bridge in Zabul province, Afghanistan on Tuesday.
WORLD
May 29, 2024
Mines and unexploded ordnance a daily menace for Afghanistan's children
Nearly 900 people were killed or wounded by leftover munitions from January 2023 to April this year alone, most of them children, according to UN figures.
Yasukazu Hamada, parliamentary affairs leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, who is also former Defense Minister, will chair a nonpartisan lawmaker group that will request the government to form an organization to investigate UFOs.
JAPAN / Politics
May 28, 2024
Japan lawmakers to create group for government probes into UFOs
The group will hold its founding general meeting on June 6 after Tuesday's preparatory meeting, which was held in parliament.
A woman walks past a television at a railway station in Seoul on Tuesday showing a news broadcast with NHK footage of a projectile that exploded into a fireball a day earlier, following Pyongyang's failed attempt to put a second spy satellite in orbit.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
May 28, 2024
Pyongyang’s fiery space-race failure cold comfort as more launches expected
The launch failure was also viewed as a possible symbolic success in being disruptive just as a rare summit involving Japan, South Korea and China was concluding.
U.S. President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak deliver remarks after a trilateral AUKUS meeting, in San Diego in March 2023.
COMMENTARY / World
May 28, 2024
Who will 'plug and play' with AUKUS?
Tokyo, Ottawa, and Seoul must demonstrate their value in AUKUS by contributing sustainably and enhancing its effectiveness in promoting a rules-based Indo-Pacific order.
Some experts are concerned about the potential for worldwide conflict within the next few years as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are likely preparing for major confrontation.
COMMENTARY / World
May 28, 2024
Echoes of 1962, the Berlin crisis and a world teetering on war
There is the potential for worldwide conflict within the next three years as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are likely preparing for major confrontation.
Firefighters work at the site of an agriculture equipment factory in Kharkiv, Ukraine, hit by a Russian air strike on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
May 28, 2024
EU nations fume over Hungary’s vetoes of Ukraine weapons aid
As long as Hungary continues to block the disbursement of funding for military weapons donated to Ukraine, the bloc can’t use the money to help Kyiv.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends a meeting of the country's Politburo at an undisclosed location on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC
May 28, 2024
North Korea says its latest satellite launch exploded in flight
North Korea said its attempt to launch a new military reconnaissance satellite ended in failure on Monday when a newly developed rocket engine exploded in flight.
A peace rally on Constitution Memorial Day in Tokyo on May 3. Japan’s identity as a pacifist nation is shifting as the government strengthens its military, but many don’t agree with the policy.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 27, 2024
Government and society are at odds on national security
Tokyo posits itself as a mutual defense ally of the U.S., but polls show that while the public wants a stronger military, changes should align with the peace Constitution.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak inspects troops at a military base in North Yorkshire, Britain, on May 3. Sunak is making the question of protecting Britain and navigating dangerous geopolitical conditions central themes of his election campaign.
COMMENTARY / World
May 27, 2024
War is at the heart of the U.K.’s summer election
British Prime Minister Sunak is nevertheless right to inject defense into the heart of the election campaign.
A North Korean rocket carrying a spy satellite is prepared for launch in a location given as North Gyeongsang province in this image released on Nov. 21.
JAPAN
May 27, 2024
North Korea announces plans to launch satellite by June 4
The announcement came hours before top leaders from Japan, South Korea and China gathered for a rare trilateral summit in Seoul.
Self-Defense Forces soldiers walk past a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile unit at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo in October 2017.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
May 26, 2024
Evolving drone and missile threats prompting Tokyo to rethink air defense
The low cost of mass-producing tools for modern warfare is pushing the Defense Ministry to find ways to upgrade detection, tracking and interception capabilities.
A member of a Ukrainian artillery crew stores munitions at a firing position near the town of Vovchansk, in the northern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, on May 19. Two classified Ukrainian reports show that some U.S. precision-guided weapons are vulnerable to electronic warfare, an element in Ukraine's recent battlefield setbacks.
WORLD
May 26, 2024
Some U.S. weapons stymied by Russian jamming in Ukraine
Two classified Ukrainian reports show that some U.S. precision-guided weapons are vulnerable to electronic warfare, an element in Ukraine’s recent battlefield setbacks.
Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te is sworn into office during the inauguration ceremony in Taipei on Monday. The global community should stand firm in their support for Taiwan and not be intimidated by China's aggressive tactics.
EDITORIALS
May 24, 2024
Taiwan and its new president deserve our support
Taiwan is not an independent country, but neither is it a “renegade province” as the Chinese leadership insists.
Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa delivers a video message during a meeting of the International Group of Eminent Persons for a World without Nuclear Weapons in Yokohama on Tuesday.
JAPAN
May 23, 2024
Yokohama meeting on nuclear disarmament ends with call for focus on AI
The 15 participating experts came from states both with and without nuclear weapons, including superpowers such as the United States, Russia and China.
A missile is launched as North Korea conducts a test firing of a tactical ballistic missile on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
May 23, 2024
Japan underlines qualitative improvement of North Korean nukes
An early draft of Japan's annual defense white paper also expressed a strong sense of crisis over China's military over its activities around Taiwan.
A Soyuz-2.1b rocket booster with a Fregat upper stage, carrying Russian the Meteor-M spacecraft and 18 Russian and foreign additional small satellites, blasts off from a launchpad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the far eastern Amur region of Russia on Feb. 29.
WORLD
May 23, 2024
Russia launched space weapon in path of U.S. satellite, Pentagon says
Russia and the United States have traded accusations over weaponizing space in recent months, and they have proposed rival nonproliferation resolutions at the U.N.
View of the apparent remains of a ballistic missile, as it lies in the desert near the Dead Sea, following a massive missile and drone attack by Iran on Israel, in southern Israel on April 21.
WORLD / Politics
May 22, 2024
After Israel defense, U.S. seeks to entice Gulf allies on missile shield
It's unclear whether Gulf allies have the same confidence the U.S. would rush to their defense, say experts.
Though the West has supplied desperately needed weapons and ammunition, it has done little else to address Ukraine’s needs or establish shared goals.
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2024
The war in Ukraine needs a stronger unified Western strategy
Though the West has supplied desperately needed weapons and ammunition, it has done little else to address Ukraine’s needs.
A railgun prototype developed by the Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency. A railgun uses electromagnetic force to fire bullets at high speeds, making them harder to intercept, but challenges remain over improving fire accuracy and making the weapon smaller.
JAPAN
May 21, 2024
Japan sends defense official to U.S. Navy for railgun development
The move is aimed at absorbing the know-how of the United States, which long researched railguns, to put the weapon into practical use as soon as possible.
Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa delivers a video message at an international meeting on nuclear arms reduction held in Yokohama on Tuesday.
JAPAN
May 21, 2024
Global experts' nuke disarmament discussions cover AI's impact
Fifteen experts from nuclear and non-nuclear countries, including the U.S., China, and Russia, participated in the discussions, some joining online.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past