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A DITA howitzer-gun vehicle at an arms factory in Sternberk, Czech Republic
WORLD / Politics
Mar 7, 2024

As Russia advances, Europe extends reach to source ammunition for Ukraine

Supplies of ammunition to Ukraine have been interrupted by politics, with U.S. Congress holding up a $60 billion military aid package.
U.S. President Joe Biden makes a campaign stop at Strath Haven Middle School in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Mar 9, 2024

Providing both bombs and food, Biden puts himself in the middle of Gaza’s war

Biden's decision to send aid by air and sea represents a shift prompted by the growing humanitarian crisis. But it also raised uncomfortable questions.
Rescuers clear debris from a multistory building heavily damaged following a drone strike, in Odessa, Ukraine, on March 3.
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Mar 10, 2024

The $1 trillion race to rebuild Ukraine is slowly getting going

Firms are boosting their presence in Ukraine, in anticipation of the conflict's end — and the biggest investment opportunity since at least World War II.
Charred vehicles amid escalating gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Saturday
WORLD
Mar 10, 2024

Haiti capital a 'city under siege' amid spasm of gang violence

Criminal groups already control much of Port-au-Prince as well as roads leading to the rest of the Western hemisphere's poorest country.
A hiker walks toward Asahidake in Hokkaido. The health and environmental issues around PFAS could be a particular problem for Japan, which boasts a number of globally renowned outdoor brands and related suppliers.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Mar 10, 2024

Japan’s revered outdoor brands face down PFAS challenge

Outdoor apparel consumers are generally more environmentally conscious, but are likely to be using products that have a big environmental footprint.
Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, attends a conference in Paris in June of last year.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 10, 2024

Led by Musk, Silicon Valley inches to the right

Musk and other tech mavens are pushing themes cherished by Fox News and far-right movements from a place that electorally remains a liberal stronghold.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi attends a press conference on the sidelines of the National People's Congress in Beijing on Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 8, 2024

China needs a foreign policy reset but Xi’s got bigger problems

At China’s National People’s Congress in Beijing, no change of the guard was announced. Wang Yi will continue as foreign minister, a sign of stability.
Climate protesters interrupt a campaign event for former U.S. President Donald Trump in Indianola, Iowa, on Jan. 14.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2024

What would a Trump win mean for the climate?

Even if Trump wins and tries to take a wrecking ball to climate policies, he ultimately can't derail the renewables revolution gaining momentum in the U.S.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves to supporters from a car after offering prayers at the Kashi Vishwanath Hindu temple in Varanasi on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 13, 2024

Modi ramps up campaign to position India as alternative to China

Efforts to integrate the country into global supply chains come ahead of elections in which the Indian premier is seeking to extend his decade in power.
Veteran peace activist Setsuko Yamazato warns of the gathering “clouds of war” in Chie Mikami’s eight-year chronicle of the militarization of Okinawa.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 14, 2024

‘Clouds of War’: The real story of Okinawa is its people

“Clouds of War” is an unwieldy but heartfelt portrait of citizens fighting back against militarization in Okinawa.
An intercontinental ballistic nuclear missile is fired during a training exercise, in Northern Arkhangelsk region, Russia.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 18, 2024

Putin warns the West a Russia-NATO conflict is just one step from WWIII

Putin has often warned of the risks of nuclear war but says he has never felt the need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his wife, Yuko, welcome Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. and his wife, Louise Araneta, at the Akasaka Palace state guest house in Tokyo last December.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 19, 2024

Biden, Kishida and Marcos to hold first trilateral summit in April

The summit comes as economic and security ties continue to grow and the partners cast wary eyes on China.
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting at the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing in October last year.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 19, 2024

Putin to travel to China in May for talks with Xi, sources say

The visit could be the Kremlin chief's first overseas trip of his new presidential term.
A soup kitchen distributes food in Havana on Jan. 15. The communist government of Cuba is grappling with its worst economic situation since the collapse of the Soviet Union more than three decades ago.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2024

Communist Cuba is on the brink of collapse

The communist government of Cuba is grappling with worst economic situation since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
A police officer walks outside the entrance of the family house of detained Myanmar civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon, Myanmar, on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 20, 2024

No bids as Aung San Suu Kyi's lakeside mansion auctioned

A decadeslong dispute over the property between the Nobel laureate and her brother prompted the attempted sale.
General Cargo Pegasus 01 vessel offloads cargo at the Port of Bosaso, in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, Somalia, on Jan. 28.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 22, 2024

Somali pirates' return adds to crisis for global shipping companies

The raids reemerge as shipping companies contend with attacks by Yemen's Houthi militia in the Red Sea and other nearby waters.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda speaks during a news conference on Tuesday after the central bank ended its ultra-aggressive monetary stimulus program and scrapped the world's last negative interest rate.
EDITORIALS
Mar 22, 2024

The BOJ's rate hike is both more and less than it seems

There are some fears that the BOJ's return to a positive interest rate environment threatens weak companies.
A view of the Legislative Council chamber with Chinese and Hong Kong flags reflected on the window is seen as the second reading of the Article 23 security law is read, in Hong Kong on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 23, 2024

Hong Kong's new national security law comes into force

The United States, the European Union, Japan and Britain have been among the law's strongest critics.
Sunao Takao (center) interprets as then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump talk prior to a working lunch at the Group of 20 summit in Osaka on June 28, 2019.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 26, 2024

Japan tees up Abe's ex-interpreter to help chart course with Trump

Japanese officials are preparing to deploy the Harvard-educated bureaucrat to bolster engagement with the Republican candidate's campaign.
Japan’s Cabinet agreed to ease defense export rules for the nation’s next-generation fighter jet, a concept model of which is seen on display here at a defense show in Chiba in March 2023.
EDITORIALS
Mar 29, 2024

Japan greenlights its defense industry

The government's steps on easing defense export rules will allow Japanese companies to participate more fully in the global market for defense equipment.
A woman pays her respects at a makeshift memorial in front of the Crocus City Hall in Moscow on Friday, a week after a deadly attack by gunmen there killed at least 143 people.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2024

Putin's conspiracy theories make Russians less safe

The Kremlin hopes that blaming Kyiv and the West for the attack will turn a difficult domestic political situation to its advantage.
Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen visits army bases ahead of the Lunar New Year in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on Feb. 6. Over 400 stories portraying Taiwan's military exercises as rehearsals for its leadership to desert in the event of war have been uncovered by an NGO based on the island.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 1, 2024

Chinese state media stoked allegation Taiwan's president would flee war

They are among the many unsupported tales that have been fed into the island by Chinese state media outlets, according to an analysis by Taiwan-based NGO.
Tugboats guide the Maersk Atlanta container ship at the Port of Newark in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday. The bridge collapse Tuesday that shut the Port of Baltimore and closed a major highway will cause weeks or months of transportation disruptions in the Mid-Atlantic region.
BUSINESS
Apr 1, 2024

Baltimore ship accident has east coast ports scrambling to absorb cargo

The bridge collapse will accelerate a shift of cargo to the U.S. West Coast in order to avoid potential bottlenecks at trade gateways from Boston to Miami.
Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad (left) walks near a damaged site after what the Iranian media said was an Israeli strike on a building close to the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 2, 2024

Israel bombs Iran embassy in Syria, killing military commanders

Monday's attack marks a major escalation in Israel's war with its regional adversaries.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects the first test-fire of the Hwasong-16B, a new-type intermediate-range, solid-fueled ballistic missile outside Pyongyang in this image released Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 3, 2024

North Korea aims to adopt solid-fuel missiles for faster launches

Analysts say solid-fuel missiles can be faster to deploy than liquid-fuel variants, but it's unclear if the North can or will adopt these exclusively.
A Ukrainian soldier loads ammunition into an M2 Browning machine gun.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 3, 2024

Moscow is outpacing Ukraine’s allies in the race for ammunition

The flow of military aid has dropped dramatically, and some Ukrainian guns are firing just a single round a day in order to save their dwindling stocks.
The Bank of Japan's steady policy normalization process will probably start next year, with potentially a 25-basis-point rate increase every six months, a former policy board member says.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 4, 2024

BOJ will wait until October before hiking rates again, says ex-board member

Makoto Sakurai believes a steady policy normalization process may start next year, with potentially a 25-basis-point rate increase every six months.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Oval Office in Washington on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Apr 5, 2024

Biden ultimatum to Netanyahu: protect Gaza civilians, or else

Analysts said the implicit threat was to slow U.S. arms transfers to Israel or to temper U.S. support at the U.N.
U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel amid the Israel-Hamas war, on Oct. 18. Despite growing pressure from Biden, the Israeli prime minister appears in no rush to end the war in Gaza. Some think he is dragging out the war to prevent the collapse of his fragile right-wing coalition and extend his time in office.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 6, 2024

After six months of war, some Israelis ask: Is Netanyahu dragging it out?

Despite growing pressure from U.S. President Joe Biden, Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu appears in no rush to end the war in Gaza.
A Tesla Model 3 vehicle drives using FSD (Full Self-Driving) in Encinitas, California, in October.
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Apr 6, 2024

Tesla's bet on robotaxis is a long way from paying off

A greater emphasis on robotaxis comes with more risk for Tesla due to the complexity of the technology involved, analysts said.

Longform

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