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August 23, 2025
 

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MIDDLE EAST

An Iraqi woman walks past a portrait of Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani (left), and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during protest march in the Kadhimiya district of Baghdad on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jun 23, 2025
Iran stands alone against Trump and Israel, stripped of allies
Following the U.S. bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities, its partners in Russia and China are sitting on the sidelines, while its proxies are unable or unwilling to join the fray.
People and rescuers inspect the damage at the site of a reported suicide attack at the Saint Elias church in Damascus on Sunday.
WORLD
Jun 23, 2025
Twenty killed in suicide bombing at Damascus church
It was the first suicide bombing in Damascus since Bashar Assad was toppled by an Islamist-led rebel insurgency in December.
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers an address to the nation alongside U.S. Vice President JD Vance (left), U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (second right) and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the White House in Washington on Saturday, following U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 22, 2025
U.S. attacks three nuclear sites in Iran, widening Mideast conflict
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened more attacks if Tehran doesn’t capitulate, pulling the U.S. directly into the conflict despite promises to avoid new wars.
Israeli and U.S. air strikes on Iranian targets have heightened regional tensions, leading airlines to avoid Middle Eastern airspace and suspend flights across multiple countries.
WORLD
Jun 22, 2025
Airlines avoid Middle East airspace after U.S. attack on Iran
Japan's foreign ministry said on Sunday it had evacuated 21 people, including 16 Japanese nationals, from Iran overland to Azerbaijan
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a meeting in the Situation Room at the White House in Washington on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jun 22, 2025
Strikes on Iran mark Trump's biggest, and riskiest, foreign policy gamble
U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to deliver military strikes on key Iranian nuclear sites is fraught with risks and unknowns.
Smoke rises from an Israeli attack on an oil refinery in Tehran on June 15.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jun 22, 2025
Trump’s airstrikes on Iran leave oil market poised for surge
A recent rise in the price of oil is expected to restart on Monday after the U.S. assault dramatically raised the stakes in a region that accounts for a third of global oil output.
People sit outside pitched tents as they take shelter at a bus station in Tel Aviv on Saturday amid fears of an Iranian missile attack.
WORLD
Jun 22, 2025
Iran threatens 'more devastating' response to Israel's attacks
Israel said on Saturday it had killed three more Iranian commanders in its unprecedented offensive.
Protesters hold a banner with a message and images of U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a rally in New York on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jun 22, 2025
Trump’s ‘two weeks’ pause on Iran strikes comes with high stakes
Because by now the world knows that Trump’s "two weeks” could mean two days, two months or never, his delay this time only fed the uncertainty.
U.S. President Donald Trump pumps his fist as boards Air Force One at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, New Jersey, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 22, 2025
Israel tells U.S. it could attack key Iran nuke site before Trump deadline
Israel communicated their concerns to Trump administration officials on Thursday in what sources described as a tense phone call.
A missile launched from Iran is intercepted by Israeli defenses on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 21, 2025
Israel says it killed veteran Iran commander as both sides attack
Saeed Izadi, who led the Palestine Corps of the Quds Force, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' overseas arm, was killed in a strike.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the press as workers install a large flag pole on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jun 21, 2025
Deal, not bombs, seen as only way to end Iranian nuclear threat
For U.S. President Donald Trump, a deal would avoid dragging the U.S. into another regional war or driving up inflation-generating oil prices.
About three-quarters of Japanese imported crude oil travels through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has threatened to close.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Jun 20, 2025
Japan’s economy is particularly vulnerable amid Middle East conflict
The yen is not trading like a safe-haven asset following Israel's efforts to knock out Iran's nuclear program.
An Iranian daily newspaper displays an image of a damaged building in Israel on Sunday. Israel’s attack on Iran’s nuclear program has raised tensions, exposed divisions and put pressure on the U.S. to decide on its next move.
EDITORIALS
Jun 20, 2025
Chasing peace with Iran as the Middle East smolders
Iran’s nuclear program is a danger, but so too is a wider war in the Middle East.
Norway's central bank in Oslo. The krone slid roughly 1% against the dollar and the euro after a rate cut.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Jun 20, 2025
Oil, war and tariffs tear up global markets' central bank roadmap
Monetary policy uncertainty is one more headwind for markets to navigate against a backdrop of geopolitical and trade risks.
Ukrainian service members visit the Donetsk region entrance sign site, protected by an anti-drone net and surrounded by Ukrainian brigade flags, on Thursday. The possibility of weaker support and attention from Washington concerns Kyiv.
WORLD
Jun 20, 2025
Ukraine fears being sidelined by Iran-Israel war
However, Kyiv has welcomed Israeli attacks on a country that has directly aided and provided weapons to Moscow for its own strikes on Ukraine.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in February. U.S. intelligence consistently showed Israel might go ahead with an attack on Iran with or without U.S. support.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jun 20, 2025
How Trump, a self-proclaimed 'peacemaker,' embraced Israel's campaign against Iran
No epiphany is seen to have tipped the scales for U.S. President Donald Trump so much as a lack of diplomatic progress, a push from Israelis and hawkish ally appeals wore him down.
A satellite image shows the damaged Arak heavy water reactor facilities, following Israeli airstrikes, in Iran, on Thursday.
WORLD / EXPLAINER
Jun 20, 2025
What are the nuclear contamination risks from Israel's attacks on Iran?
The major concern would be a strike on Iran's nuclear reactor at Bushehr.
Mourners attend a funeral for those killed in Israeli strikes, in Qazvin, Iran, on Thursday.
WORLD
Jun 20, 2025
Israel-Iran air war enters second week as Europe pushes diplomacy
The role of the United States remains uncertain. The White House said on Thursday President Trump would decide in the next two weeks whether to get involved in the war.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un attend a state reception in Pyongyang on June 19, 2024.
WORLD
Jun 19, 2025
Russian ties do little for Iran while boosting North Korea
Iran has little to show for its relationship with Moscow as it continues to be pummeled by waves of Israeli attacks.
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2025
SDF planes fly to Djibouti to aid return of Japan nationals from Israel and Iran
There are currently around 1,000 Japanese people in Israel and 280 in Iran, according to the Foreign Ministry.
Japan to revise romanization rules for first time in 70 years
The Agency for Cultural Affairs is recommending replacing the government’s long-standing Kunrei system with more widely used Hepburn-style spellings.
JR East cancels luxury train run over crew's boozing
East Japan Railway said Thursday that it will cancel one trip of a luxury overnight sleeper service, which was originally scheduled to depart from Ueno Station in Tokyo on Aug. 30, after crew members were found to have been drinking alcohol on duty.
Women-only communities flourish in China
Chen Yani (right), nicknamed "Keke," eats lunch with friends and guests in a female co-living space she founded called "Keke's Imaginative Space" in Hangzhou, in eastern China's Zhejiang province, on July 14.
Demystifying the manufacturing success of China
China’s massive scale, strong education system and competitive local governance have enabled it to reach the technological frontier and dominate high-tech manufacturing despite its low per capita gross domestic product.
Infectious diseases to watch for in Japan this summer amid surge of cases
An illustration of a colony of the Bordetella pertussis bacterium that causes pertussis, or whooping cough. As of Aug. 10, there were 64,467 cases reported this year, according to the latest data from the Japan Institute for Health Security.
Is the LDP’s catch-all approach to politics still effective?
Former economic security minister Sanae Takaichi visits Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Aug. 15. Political commentator Toru Hashimoto has suggested that Takaichi ought to lead a group of like-minded hawkish politicians out of the Liberal Democratic Party and form their own party.
Fingers sore from too much phone time? You might have ‘sumaho yubi.’
A catch-all term for tendonitis and arthritis caused by excessive smartphone use, 'sumaho yubi' may be difficult to treat for gadget-crazy Japan.
As farm minister, Koizumi is held ‘hostage’ by Ishiba
Farm minister Shinjiro Koizumi (center) attends a Lower House session on Aug. 1. Locking Koizumi into the Cabinet is Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s way of turning a potential rival into a team player, according to one expert.
Big burgers and bigger ambitions for Japan's Burger King
Kazuhiro Nomura, president of BK Japan Holdings, which operates Burger King in Japan
Tokyo crowned No.1 'workation' spot
Workations were a burgeoning trend in the corporate world for years before the COVID-19 pandemic turbocharged it.

Podcast

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

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
By Alex K.T. Martin

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