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November 21, 2024
 

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Marc Champion
This screen grab released on Oct. 26 by the Israeli military shows one of its air force planes departing to carry out strikes on Iran.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 2024
Israel’s strike on Iran was smart. Now take the win.
Both Iran and Israel need to reconsider their aggressive postures to prevent a devastating regional conflict.
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a Security Council meeting in Moscow on Sept. 25 where he called for changes to rules on the use of Russia's nuclear deterrent.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 18, 2024
Putin's nuclear doctrine isn't his worst threat
These kinds of signals should be seen as weapons in and of themselves, which makes it vital to distinguish between what’s real and feigned.
People take shelter on Tuesday during an air raid in central Israel after Iran fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at the country. Iran has targeted Israel twice in recent months with little to show for its efforts, risking further loss of credibility in the region.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 2, 2024
Iran’s missile salvo was yet another strategic blunder
The intended message was clear — we don’t want a real war, but if it comes to one, look what we can do. And yet the attack projected weakness instead.
Smoke billows over southern Lebanon following an Israeli strike amid the ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces on Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2024
In Lebanon, Israel set a trap for Iran and itself
Unable to rescue hostages or eliminate Hamas after nearly a year of war, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu expanded the fight to target Hezbollah and Iran.
Lebanese soldiers and civilians inspect the site of an Israeli strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2024
Israel’s plans for Hezbollah are becoming clearer
No ground invasion is imminent; instead, the aim appears to be to degrade Hezbollah to the point where it’s incapable of continuing the rocket and missile attacks.
U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman attends the annual Pride march in Budapest on June 22.
COMMENTARY
Sep 20, 2024
What does America stand for? The world no longer knows.
Pressman argues that Orban is miscalculating by betting on Trump’s return to power and warns of a shift in U.S.-Hungary relations if Kamala Harris becomes president.
A soldier stands guard near the American University of Beirut Medical Center after as many as 2,800 people, including Hezbollah fighters and medics, were wounded when the pagers they use to communicate exploded across Lebanon on Tuesday
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 18, 2024
Hezbollah pager attack looks like a decapitation strike
The sophisticated nature of the attack, involving the insertion of explosive material into pagers, suggests a high level of intelligence and planning.
While nuclear weapons are difficult to use without catastrophic consequences, Vladimir Putin’s rhetoric aims to frighten Ukraine's allies into halting arms support.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 9, 2024
How to read Putin’s next nuclear threat
Historical analogies show that nuclear threats rarely succeed, but Russia’s signals of desperation should not be ignored.
A poll shows that many Israelis support expanding the war to confront Hezbollah in Lebanon, though this poses risks of involving Iran and other international actors.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 29, 2024
Should Israel want a bigger conflict with Iran now?
A poll shows that many Israelis support expanding the war to confront Hezbollah, though this poses risks of involving Iran and other international actors.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius inspects Leopard II tanks that were due to be supplied to Ukraine at a military facility in Augustdorf, Germany, in February 2023.
COMMENTARY
Aug 27, 2024
Ukraine has a Germany problem again. Here’s how to fix it.
Kyiv’s Kursk operation was aimed less at the battlefield than at Berlin and other allies.
Despite the deep pessimism about the Gaza cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas, many parties involved, including the U.S., Egypt, Qatar, the Gulf States, Lebanon and Iran, stand to gain from an end to the hostilities.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 16, 2024
Only agents of chaos want more war in Gaza
It took a decade for the U.S. to catch Osama bin Laden after al-Qaida’s 9/11 attacks; Israel may need to wait on catching Hamas’ Yahya Sinwar, too.
The only surprise about Ukraine's offensive into Russian territory is that it came so late into the war, and that’s primarily because of Western restrictions on the use of donated weapons.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 14, 2024
Want peace for Ukraine? Let it strike in Russia
The only surprise is that it came so late — 2½ years into President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
New Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar's ascension to power, combined with Netanyahu’s refusal to agree to a cease-fire unless the group capitulates, makes finding a resolution in Gaza difficult.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2024
New Hamas chief is an arsonist in a desert tinderbox
Yahya Sinwar fills a post that opened with the July 31 killing of Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s politburo chairman, while on a visit to Tehran.
Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomes Russian nationals, including Artyom Dultsev, Anna Dultseva, convicted of spying in Slovenia, and their children at an airport in Moscow on Thursday following a prisoner exchange with Western countries.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2024
Russia’s prisoner trade says all you need to know about Putin
Among those released to Russia were people convicted by independent courts of cybercrimes, insider trading and breaking sanctions.
An anti-government protest in Tel Aviv in January. In a TV interview on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the terms of a U.S.-led cease-fire deal and said he was prepared to open a second front against Hezbollah, in Lebanon.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 25, 2024
Netanyahu's strategy is war, war and more war
The Israeli prime minister gave a rare and revealing interview to a domestic TV channel on the weekend that confirmed that he has a plan for Gaza. And that is war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Summit on Peace in Ukraine in Switzerland on Sunday. The gathering brought together over 50 heads of state and government, excluding Russia, to work out a way toward a peace process for Ukraine.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 17, 2024
Why Ukraine isn’t ready for peace talks
It's no exaggeration to say that what happens in Ukraine matters to the world order. A rushed peace would stop the fighting, but by compromising the country's future.
Ukrainian soldiers patrol a heavily war-damaged area of the town of Orikhiv in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine on May 20.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 4, 2024
Ukraine and its allies need a new strategy. Here’s a start.
With the war in Ukraine, stop talking about ‘liberal’ democracy and the ‘rules-based international order.’
Israeli soldiers ready a tank near the border with Gaza on Thursday. The Jewish state's victory in the Gaza conflict will depend on addressing Palestinian despair.
COMMENTARY
Jun 4, 2024
Israel will always be held to a different standard
Arrest warrants, campus protests and genocide accusations were not inevitable. These were the direct results of Netanyahu’s choices.
Mourners gather in Tehran's Valiasr Square on Monday to honor President Ebrahim Raisi and others who died in a helicopter crash a day earlier.
COMMENTARY / World
May 21, 2024
Iranian President Raisi's failed experiment in ideological purity
Yet totalitarian regimes such as Iran don’t need their populations to be content, so long as they have security forces willing to kill to suppress dissent.
As the entire world is fixated on Gaza, the Iranian government has been arresting girls who go out in the street without headscarves and executing people.
COMMENTARY / World
May 10, 2024
Don't let Gaza help Iran cloak its own repression
As the entire world is fixated on Gaza, the Iranian government has been arresting girls who go out in the street without headscarves and executing people.
Ishiba delays meeting with Trump, citing legal restrictions
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba waves upon arrival for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, in Callao, Peru, on Friday.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Rising sex tourism exposes loopholes in Japan's anti-prostitution law
While financial misfortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic may have driven some women to work the streets, others simply want more money to spend — or want to pay off their debts — at host clubs.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

Podcast

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

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world
mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world

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