Tag - development

 
 

DEVELOPMENT

The House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday to promote the development of artificial intelligence technology and take steps to mitigate its risks.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 25, 2025
Japan's Lower House passes AI promotion bill
AI "will be the foundation of economic and social development and is an important technology from the viewpoint of security," the bill said.
Rohingya children eat from jars with the USAID logo on them at a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, in February.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 23, 2025
China unlikely to fill void left by U.S. aid pullback, data shows
Observers say Beijing often ties access to assistance to backing China’s preferred policy positions.
Men painted like skeletons pose in Lagos to warn on the deadly disease prior to the World Malaria Day on April 25, 2015. The sudden dismantling of USAID, the country's main foreign development arm, is unraveling health care systems across Africa.
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 16, 2025
USAID cuts rip through African health care systems
The sudden dismantling of USAID is unraveling health care systems across Africa that were built from a complicated web of national health ministries, companies and nonprofits.
Members of the pharmacology department take inventory of the last boxes of drugs delivered by the now-dismantled United States Agency for International Development (USAID) amid medical supply shortages in a pharmacy storeroom at Lodwar County Referral Hospital in Lodwar on April 1.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 9, 2025
'Everything was stopped': USAID cuts hit hard in northern Kenya
Protests broke out last month after news that rations, already lowered last year, would be further reduced because of the cuts to U.S. foreign aid spending.
Demonstrators gather outside offices of the U.S. Agency for International Development for a nationwide "Hands Off!" protest against U.S. President Donald Trump and his adviser, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, in Washington on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 9, 2025
U.S. moves to restore some terminated foreign aid programs, sources say
The World Food Programme awards in Lebanon, Syria, Somalia, Jordan, Iraq and Ecuador have been ordered to be restored.
Rohingya refugees wait at the World Food Program (WFP) distribution center to purchase grocery items at the refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on March 15.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 8, 2025
Trump administration food aid cuts put millions at risk, aid sources say
The U.N. World Food Programme warned that the termination of U.S. funding for emergency food assistance "could amount to a death sentence" for millions.
To sustain growth, emerging and developing economies must boost productivity, increase labor-force participation (especially among women) and build stronger social support systems.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2025
Emerging economies must get rich before they get old
To sustain growth, emerging economies must boost productivity, increase labor-force participation — especially among women — and build stronger social support systems.
The World Health Organization's headquarters in Geneva. The WHO is facing an income gap of nearly $600 million in 2025 and has "no choice" but to start making cutbacks, the organization's chief wrote in an internal email.
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 30, 2025
WHO must cut budget by a fifth after U.S. pullout
The WHO is facing an income gap of nearly $600 million in 2025 and has "no choice" but to start making cutbacks.
Toyota's new research and development center in India will begin operations with a team of about 200 people in Bengaluru.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 21, 2025
Toyota’s new R&D unit signals its sharper India focus
The research facility comes after Toyota last year reorganized India to be the hub of its operations across the Middle East, East Asia and Oceania region.
Elon Musk and President Donald Trump's assertion that U.S. aid cuts to programs including PEPFAR and USAID in Africa aren't causing harm is not true. Children and others are already dying as a result.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2025
Musk says aid cuts haven’t killed anyone. That's not true.
In South Sudan, one of the world’s poorest countries, the efforts by Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump are already leading children to die.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and others attend a Cabinet meeting on Friday at the Prime Minister's Office
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 14, 2025
Japan touts benefits of foreign development aid
Japanese aid has helped the country win trust globally, the government said in an annual white paper.
The minaret of a mosque is pictured next to destroyed buildings in the Khalidiya district in Homs on Feb. 10, 2025.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 2, 2025
'Total panic' as USAID cuts jobs from Syria to Haiti
In 2023, USAID spent $42 billion to support programs across 157 countries — ranging from malaria and HIV prevention to fighting starvation and helping those displaced by war.
A scientific officer works in the research lab at the University of Cape Town's Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, in Cape Town, South Africa on Feb. 17.
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 28, 2025
Services to millions of people collapse as USAID cuts contracts worldwide
Among those to get termination notices were major U.N. health programs, which might have different sources of funding, and smaller groups that relied mostly on U.S. grants.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at a news conference following the Group of 20 foreign ministers' meeting in Johannesburg on Feb. 20
JAPAN / FOCUS
Feb 26, 2025
Japan's soft power may hold key to African development as U.S. cuts aid
Businesses linked to Japanese food and anime, for example, may play an important role in investments to Africa from Japan.
Ichiro Fujisaki
JAPAN
Feb 25, 2025
Ex-Japan envoy concerned over Trump's foreign aid cuts
Former Japanese Ambassador to the United States Ichiro Fujisaki has shown concern that China may expand its influence over developing countries.
As more countries gain global influence, disagreements over the future world order are making cooperation harder, especially between democracies and autocracies.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2025
The age of multipolarization
The shift to a multipolar world has been accompanied by deepening polarization within and between countries.
Demonstrators rally in support of USAID in Boston on Feb 17. Women and children are the main beneficiaries of humanitarian assistance, so they are the biggest victims of what is unfolding with the agency’s closure.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 20, 2025
Mr. President, foreign aid does put America first
Women and children are the main beneficiaries of humanitarian assistance, so they are the biggest victims of what is unfolding with USAID's closure .
People protest against the decision to virtually shut down the United States Agency for International Development, in Washington on Feb. 5. U.S. President Donald Trump's foreign aid freeze has halted vital projects in the South Pacific, aid workers and analysts say, risking lives and hurting U.S. efforts to woo the region.
BUSINESS
Feb 19, 2025
U.S. aid freeze stops crucial South Pacific projects
For years the U.S. has helped to buy life-saving medicine, combat illegal fishing and better prepare coastal hamlets for earthquakes and typhoons.
Donald Trump has halted most U.S. government-funded aid globally for 90 days, while moving to dismantle USAID, which he accused of being run "by a bunch of radical lunatics."
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Feb 11, 2025
U.S aid freeze risks handing influence to China in Beijing's backyard
Trump has halted most U.S. government-funded aid globally for 90 days, while moving to dismantle USAID, which he accused of being run "by a bunch of radical lunatics."
People protest at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Wednesday against President Donald Trump’s decision to effectively shut down the United States Agency for International Development.
EDITORIALS
Feb 7, 2025
Shutting USAID deprives the U.S. of a vital foreign policy tool
Trump's decision to suspend USAID is a blow to Japan, which has long valued aid as a stabilizing force.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.