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September 15, 2025
 

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POLLUTION

A huge piece of plastic waste is pulled up from the waters near Tatara Island, Nagasaki Prefecture, on July 10.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 15, 2025
Japan backs development of new materials to cut marine plastic waste
A five-year plan starting this fiscal year calls for the development of a new material that can be used for several years in water before it slowly decomposes over time.
Smoke streams from a smokestack at a refinery in Anacortes, Washington, last October. The Environmental Protection Agency moved on Friday to stop requiring thousands of polluting facilities to report the amount of heat-trapping greenhouse gases that they release into the air.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Sep 13, 2025
U.S. moves to scrap emissions reporting by polluters
U.S. President Donald Trump has heavily promoted new oil, gas, and coal extraction while moving to suppress competition from solar and wind.
China, led by firms like BYD and CATL, dominates green tech, which is forcing the EU to choose between defensive policies or collaboration on clean trade and investment to advance climate goals.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2025
Can Europe and China forge a climate connection?
Europe should forge a shared competitiveness agenda with China, which would allow it to use its strengths.
NASA says its satellite imagery shows the Earth is becoming drier — at least the parts where most people live.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2025
The Earth is drying out and we need to act urgently
Measurements from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites suggest the continents have been losing fresh water at an alarming rate since 2002.
A pedestrian bridge that crosses the Mississippi River in Minneapolis
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Sep 7, 2025
Polluted and poor: Blighted U.S. cities tackle 'toxic soup'
The worst effect could be seen in poor, minority areas, where heavy industry, manufacturing and transport tend to concentrate.
Plastic fish-shaped soy sauce containers, which have been banned in South Australia, on Tuesday in suburban Sydney.
JAPAN
Sep 3, 2025
Australian state bans fish-shaped soy sauce bottles to curb plastic pollution
The soy sauce containers were added on Monday by the government of South Australia to a list of prohibited single-use plastic products, which also include disposable straws.
Magret John (left) delivers a sack of plastic waste collected in her neighborhood to a Human Needs Project official at a collection point in the Kibera informal settlement of Nairobi on Aug. 11.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 26, 2025
'Restoring dignity': Kenya slum exchange offers water for plastic
The Human Needs Project provides water and sanitation services in a part of Kenya where they are scarce and costly.
A tourist enjoys the Ras Hankorab beach in the Red Sea Wadi Al-Gemal protectorate in southern Egypt. The local environment is under threat amid development projects.
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 21, 2025
Tourism deal puts one of Egypt's last wild shores at risk
The shadowy contract, which allows for the construction of a resort on one of the country's last undisturbed Red Sea beaches, was halted but not permanently canceled.
Workers carry solar panels to install them at a solar farm in the desert in Lingwu, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China, in April.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2025
The world’s biggest polluter is cleaning up its act
Coal output is still climbing, but China’s clean power surge means much of it now sits in stockpiles rather than fueling growth.
Muddied prospectors pan for gold in Manica province, Mozambique, near the Zimbabwe border, in 2010.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 20, 2025
Mozambique's illegal miners reap risky rewards but land suffers
Rivers around mining sites are polluted, and mercury has seeped into the soil, creating a nightmare for farmers.
Villagers pan for gold in Bombana district of Indonesia's Southeast Sulawesi province in 2009.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 19, 2025
Indonesia grapples with small-scale illegal gold mining
Local authorities face the challenge of encouraging villagers to keep to less-destructive ways of making money, such as sustainable agriculture.
Plastic bottles and other refuse collected from Border Field State Park Beach in San Diego in May
ENVIRONMENT / ANALYSIS
Aug 16, 2025
Tough U.S. stance casts gloom over plastics pollution deal after Geneva flop
Many states and campaigners blamed the failure on oil-producers including the U.S, which they said urged others to reject caps on new plastic production.
Delegates rest outside of the assembly hall in Geneva on Friday after talks aimed at striking a landmark treaty on tackling the scourge of plastic pollution ended without a deal.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 15, 2025
'Bad actors' blamed as plastic pollution treaty talks end again without deal
Countries said they wanted further negotiations despite six rounds of talks over three years having failed to find agreement.
An Afghan woman walks next to a pile of trash full of plastic bags in Kabul.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 10, 2025
Momentum sagging at U.N. plastic pollution treaty talks
The negotiations have four working days left to strike a legally-binding instrument that would tackle the growing problem choking the environment.
A cyclist looks at the Montreal skyline on Aug. 3 as a smoky haze from wildfires blankets the city.
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 10, 2025
How Canadian wildfire smoke is jeopardizing health across North America
Canadian provinces have evacuated towns and struggled to contain the second-worst wildfire season in 30 years.
Ecuadorian Ambassador Luis Vayas Valdivieso at the start of plastic waste treaty negotiations in Geneva on Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 9, 2025
U.N. plastic pollution treaty talks progress not 'sufficient': chair
The negotiations, which opened on Tuesday, have four days left to find consensus on a legally binding instrument that would tackle the growing problem choking the environment.
A chicken stands in a garbage dump filled with plastic in Rodriguez, Rizal province, the Philippines, on Nov. 28, 2024.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 7, 2025
Trump administration memo urges countries to reject plastic production caps
The U.S. stance broadly aligns with the positions laid out by the global petrochemicals industry.
A fish washes up on Glenelg Beach on July 13 in Adelaide, Australia. A toxic algal bloom has washed up dead and dying sea creatures along the South Australian coastline since mid March and was first detected on the state’s Fleurieu Peninsula and Kangaroo Island.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Aug 6, 2025
Toxic algae bloom off South Australia devastates marine life and tourism
The algal bloom, first detected in March, spans an area 4,500 square kilometers and has been aggravated by rising ocean temperatures.
Activists stage a demonstration in front of the United Nations Offices in Geneva on Monday.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 5, 2025
Pressure from oil producers and U.S. threaten global pact on plastics pollution
Plastic production is set to triple by 2060 without intervention, choking oceans, harming human health and accelerating climate change, according to the OECD.
Workers remove copper from industrial wiring inside a recycling shop in Manila on June 26.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jul 29, 2025
In the Philippines, informal e-waste dismantling poses health risks
Scavenging electronic waste for the nickel, aluminum and copper inside releases a toxic brew of chemicals, including lead, mercury and cadmium, into the air.
Is America ready for Japanese-style 7-Elevens?
Convenience stores are a fixture of Japanese life and 7-Eleven, a chain that began in the U.S. in 1927, opened its first store in Japan in 1974 — and then became wholly Japanese-owned in 2005 through parent company Seven & I Holdings.
Japan's cutting-edge railgun successfully strikes target vessel
The Defense Ministry’s Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency (ATLA) conducted a ship-board railgun shooting test from June to early July this year with the support of the Maritime Self-Defense Force.
‘Fairytale’ Shirakawago ranked one of the world’s most beautiful villages
Forbes and Unforgettable Travel Company have ranked Shirakawago in Gifu Prefecture as Asia's most beautiful village.
People rush to make furusato nozei donations ahead of tighter rules
A booth from the town of Betsukai in Hokkaido at an Amazon Japan furusato nо̄zei promotion event, on Sept. 5 in Tokyo's Minato Ward.
Why more hotels in Japan are offering room-only service
Nipponia Hotel Ise Kawasaki Merchant Town in Ise, Mie Prefecture
Strikes on Qatar and Poland shake U.S. sway among friend and foe
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the Museum of the Bible in Washington on Sept. 8. Israeli strikes in Qatar and Russian drone incursions into Poland have challenged the U.S. leaders claims of global respect.
Japan's major art events converge this fall
Shinji Ohmaki’s “Tokinokage” exhibited at Fuji Textile Week 2021 shows the use of fabric as art.
An aesthetic escape to Hakone’s art-drenched hills
Between traditional examples of fine art and sleek, modern exhibitions that blend with nature, Hakone offers a unique escape from Tokyo's urban sprawl.
Niinami’s ouster quick but not unusual as corporations protect reputation
Takeshi Niinami resigns as chairman and CEO of Suntory Holdings.
As Manila modernizes its military, new opportunities emerge for Tokyo
A Brahmos missile system is displayed during a rehearsal for a military parade in New Delhi in January. The Philippines will soon receive its second batch of the supersonic cruise missiles from India.

Podcast

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

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’
By Alex K.T. Martin

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