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February 05, 2025
 

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Demonstrators in Rabat, Morocco, on Thursday show support for Palestinians following the news of a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Hamas and Israel.
COMMENTARY
Jan 17, 2025

Gaza ceasefire deal is a win for Trump

Donald Trump secured a Gaza ceasefire by pressuring Israel into an agreement, but achieving a lasting peace will depend on resolving deeper regional issues.
Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump in Tokyo march ahead of the inauguration of then President-elect Joe Biden on Jan 20, 2021.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 17, 2025

Japan has nothing to fear from Trump — except in maybe one area

Japan is far better positioned in the areas most important to Trump than many other countries. If Shinzo Abe were still alive, Japan would be in a great place.
Donald Trump could take a cue from China's approach in Africa, where, rather than attempting to buy countries outright — like Greenland — Beijing has secured access to critical minerals and influence by offering money, expertise and labor to nations pursuing economic development.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 19, 2025

Why would Trump buy Greenland when he can rent it?

U.S. strategic interest, however crudely Trump advertises it, reflects warranted concerns about encroachment by Russia and China.
Donald Trump could weaken the dollar, but whether it would boost U.S. exports or improve America's trade balance with other countries is uncertain.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 12, 2025

Can Trump dump the dollar?

Donald Trump could weaken the dollar, but whether it would boost U.S. exports or improve the trade balance remains uncertain.
As Donald Trump begins his second term, the U.S. holds a strong position in the Indo-Pacific. However, missteps, economic policies and shifting alliances could undermine the Biden administration's progress in strengthening partnerships and countering China.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 21, 2025

Will Trump sustain or squander Biden's Indo-Pacific gains?

The legacy of the Joe Biden administration could prove fleeting, however, the result of missteps by Washington or developments in allied states.
U.S. President Donald Trump and outgoing President Joe Biden, along with their respective first ladies, Melania Trump and Dr. Jill Biden, share words during the Bidens' departure ceremony on the East Front of the Capitol on Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 21, 2025

Joe Biden’s abiding legacy will be Donald Trump

The question is how Democrats got to the point where more voters trust Trump — not just any Republican but Trump — to do a better job of running the country than Harris.
During his first term, U.S. President Donald Trump took a hard line against China. As Trump takes office again, this confrontation is likely to continue and potentially escalate over issues such as Taiwan and economic security interests.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Jan 20, 2025

Politics and the economy: Bedfellows of U.S.-China relations

Since Trump's first term, China has shown its willingness to use aggressive economic measures in its confrontation with the U.S., setting the stage for a potential escalation.
International law and norms are eroding, especially due to the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, as multilateral security systems break down and powerful nations prioritize their own interests over global stability.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 20, 2025

To avoid collective ruin requires renewed global cooperation

Alarmingly, geopolitical tensions are deepening just as humanity faces existential threats demanding urgent international cooperation.
French workers load a replica of the Statue of Liberty, or Lady Liberty, onto a truck outside the Musee des Arts et Metiers in Paris in June 2021, before it departs for Ellis Island in New York to arrive on Independence Day.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 19, 2025

Liberal democracy faces doubts. But collapse? Not likely.

Democracy, it is often heard these days, is in crisis.
A giant 1000 Indonesian rupiah coin display inside the headquarters of Bank Indonesia in Jakarta
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 19, 2025

Indonesia is the latest country to risk a 'Japanification' tag

With markets sniffing out fiscal vulnerabilities in many countries, this would be an inopportune time to lose discipline.
It’s easy to forget that not too long ago, the horse was crucial to the way wars were fought and daily life was lived, echoing today’s reliance on semiconductors.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 19, 2025

A history of globalization on horseback

The animal has been part of Western imagination since Paleolithic humans painted the Lascaux caves around 20,000 years ago.
In 2024, child mortality for children before the age of 5 reached a record low of 3.6%, down from over 25% in 1950. For most of history, about half of all newborns died as children.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 22, 2025

Even this year is the best time ever to be alive

Another way of looking at it: Every day over the past couple of years, roughly 30,000 people moved out of extreme poverty worldwide.
Donald Trump pardoned Jan. 6 participants, while Joe Biden granted clemency to family members and officials to avoid potential prosecutions, highlighting the personalization and politicization of U.S. presidential pardon power.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 22, 2025

Trump seriously abused his pardon power. Biden also indulged.

A torrent of U.S. reprieves signals democratic decline and the rise of a monarchical presidency.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer addresses medical staff and media during a visit to a hospital in Epsom, England, on on Jan. 6.
COMMENTARY
Jan 22, 2025

There's a target on the back of Britain's NHS

The scale of the improvement Starmer is targeting has been achieved before, under a previous Labour government in 2007.
Instead of the Bank of Japan's actions strengthening the yen as once hoped, recent steps have only caused further weakening.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 22, 2025

Ueda’s doctrine for the BOJ is finally emerging

Instead of the Bank of Japan's actions strengthening the yen as once hoped, recent steps have only caused further weakening.
Asia is home to several sustainable investment taxonomies. Among them, the Singapore-Asia taxonomy is a regional framework for classifying sustainable investments across eight sectors that represent 90% of the continent's greenhouse gas emissions.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 22, 2025

Sustainable finance taxonomies light up Asia’s net-zero path

With its burgeoning economies and population, Asia is key to decarbonizing the planet. The continent's sustainable taxonomies are helping direct finance toward climate solutions.
The site of a Rheinmetall arms factory in the municipality of Unterluess, Germany, in February last year. The war in Ukraine has highlighted Europe's need for increased armaments production.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 23, 2025

Europe needs a defense production act

The war in Ukraine has already prompted structural reforms and an increase defense spending at the national and EU levels.
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, sentenced to 14 years for corruption, reflects the country's recurring cycle of leaders rising with military backing and then falling out of favor.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 21, 2025

Jailing Imran Khan won’t fix Pakistan’s problems

Pakistan’s economic recovery hinges on reforms, stability and military backing.
Then-U.S. President-elect Donald Trump addresses the America First Policy Institute gala at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, in November. REUTERS
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 23, 2025

'America First' didn't just return — it has always been there

The Trump administration is no different from previous administrations and remains as inherently "America First" as ever.
Supporters of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol protest in Seoul on Tuesday. The previous leaders of the U.S. and Japan, along with Yoon, focused on strengthening alliances and regional stability through cooperation whereas newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump’s approach to foreign policy may prioritize transactional relationships.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 24, 2025

Japan and South Korea were stable U.S. allies. Not anymore.

Political paralysis in the U.S., Japan and South Korea has left a leadership vacuum in the Indo-Pacific.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda attends a news conference after the central bank's policy meeting in Tokyo on Friday. The BOJ raised its rate by a quarter-point to 0.5% that day.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 26, 2025

Japan’s central bank drops the drama and wins on rates

The quarter-point increase, which took the main rate to 0.5%, was probably the most telegraphed this century.
The Middle East is at a pivotal moment and U.S. President Donald Trump has the chance to reshape the region, with potential solutions for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Lebanon's civil war, Syria's restoration and Iran's nuclear ambitions.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 23, 2025

U.S. President Trump, you can remake the Middle East if you dare

U.S. policy must be to ensure that all three stages of this ceasefire agreement are carried out and followed by a real diplomatic process for a wider settlement.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda explains the central bank's decision on its interest rate hike during a news conference after a policy meeting on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Jan 27, 2025

BOJ may revert to fuzzy communication after Fed-style rates clarity

The BOJ fumbled its communication in December, surprising investors, but then telegraphed Friday's increase so unambiguously that the rate hike was 90% priced in.
A worker assembles temporary shelters in preparation for mass deportations at the U.S.-Mexico border in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 27, 2025

Wall Street banks on Trump not following through on immigration pledges

Mass deportations would likely upend industries as varied as service-heavy hospitality and leisure, labor-intensive agriculture, food production, manufacturing and construction.
U.S. President Donald Trump signs executive orders including a flurry of actions on immigration in the hours after taking office.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2025

America’s mass deportation clash is unprecedented

So when ICE moves from selective targets aimed at serious criminals to the mass roundups Trump promised, that is when the public may recoil.
The third patient to receive a genetically engineered pig kidney is thriving post-transplant, providing valuable insights into animal-to-human organ replacement and bringing the field closer to clinical trials. 
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2025

Why a recent pig kidney transplant is a major advance

The 53-year-old woman who received the genetically modified animal organ is the ideal recipient to push science forward.
People line up to use an ATM in the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk, Ukraine, days after Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized the full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022. Western financial sanctions have weighed on the Russian ruble, which has sunk from 34 to the dollar in 2013 to around 100 today.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2025

Putin’s war is fueling Russian stagflation

For a normal country, a budget deficit of 2% of GDP would be of no concern. But Russia is not a normal country.
Hanna Shelest outside her apartment building in Odesa, Ukraine, on Jan. 20
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2025

I spent Trump’s inauguration in Ukraine. This is what I saw.

In nearly three years since Russia’s invasion, Odesa has moved from shock and fear to denial and, finally, adaptation.
U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, via videoconference on Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2025

The Davos ‘vibe shift’ is no surprise

This year, Davos was different. Significant slices of corporate America have been divesting themselves of the world-saving ideals that Davos is built on.
With Donald Trump's second term as U.S. president, Japan faces a new era in its relationship with the United States, requiring a shift from values-based diplomacy to a transactional approach.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 28, 2025

New era for U.S.-Japan depends on adapting to Trump’s America

The next four years will be more consequential and transactional for leaders in Tokyo as the Trump administration puts America first.
Crashed U.S. Army Black Hawk unit was responsible for doomsday readiness
A U.S. Coast Guard vessel attempts to retrieve the remains of a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter on Friday after it crashed into the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport earlier in the week.
Why it's taking so long to reach the driver trapped in a Saitama sinkhole
Construction workers near a sinkhole in Yashio, Saitama Prefecture, on Monday
Yamagata’s Zao Onsen Ski Resort is a classic beauty
Risshaku-ji Buddhist temple in the snow, with the valley and town in the background.
Record-breaking snowfall hits Hokkaido as cold front sweeps Japan
Snow-covered streets in Obihiro, Hokkaido, on Tuesday
Job-hopping Japanese workers push salaries higher
Japanese workers are increasingly job-hopping from one full-time position to another.
Fuji Media’s crisis entices investors betting on changes
While Fuji Media Holdings is known for its iconic sphere-and-lattice headquarters in the Odaiba district near Tokyo Bay, it also owns office buildings, condominiums, hotels, nursing homes, logistic facilities, resorts and even two aquariums.
Job-hopping Japanese workers push salaries higher
Japanese workers are increasingly job-hopping from one full-time position to another.
At the new Ginza Sony Park, listening is an art form
In addition to the commercial benefits from Ginza Sony Park's music-centered exhibition — such as promoting Sony's artists and products — there is a real effort to put music in focus.
Home away from home: My first time at a Tet festival in Japan
Billed as a “cultural bridge that connects Japan and Vietnam,” Tet Viet Saitama drew tens of thousands of attendees from across the Kanto region.
First official survey set to change backcountry Hokkaido skiing
The first official government survey of Hokkaido backcountry skiing could spell changes for trails in the northern prefecture.

Podcast

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

Longform

Eme-Ima Kitchen is one of over 10,000 kodomo shokudō in Japan. A term first used in 2012 to describe makeshift eateries offering free or cheap meals to disadvantaged kids, it now refers to a diverse range of individuals, groups and organizations working to provide not only food but a sense of belonging to both children and adults.
Japan’s ‘children’s cafeterias’ are booming — but is that a good thing?
By Alex K.T. Martin

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mission sustainability vol.14 : Unicharm Corp.Unicharm recycles diapers back into diapers

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