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A man carrying shovels walks along an area affected by a flood near the bank of the Teesta River in Singtam, Sikkim, India, on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 7, 2023

A calamitous flood shows the dangers lurking in melting glaciers

At least 26 people were killed in the tiny state of Sikkim. But as much as the disaster was a shock, it was hardly a surprise.
Fire and smoke rises above buildings during an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, in the Gaza Strip, on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Oct 8, 2023

Israel security forces face questions over intel after Hamas attack

Israel's security apparatus appeared to break down as a force of Hamas gunmen estimated in the hundreds broke through security fences.
Houses and buildings destroyed by Israeli strikes in Gaza City, on Tuesday
WORLD / Politics
Oct 10, 2023

Israel pounds Gaza with fiercest airstrikes ever

Israel pounded the Gaza Strip with the fiercest airstrikes in the 75-year history of its conflict with the Palestinians, razing whole districts to dust.
Sections of the forests in Colville, Washington, have already been thinned, allowing trees to grow less densely and reducing the risk for wildfire.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Oct 26, 2023

How to prevent forest fires by building cities with more wood

Not everyone is convinced mass timber will help forest health.
The remains of the music festival near Israel's border with Gaza where Hamas militants opened fire on civilians.
WORLD
Oct 28, 2023

How the Hamas carnage unfolded on Israel's 'Black Shabbat'

The attack was meticulously planned for months right under the nose of Israel's vaunted military intelligence services.
Port Plus is a training and education facility in Yokohama built by and for general contractor Obayashi, a storied Japanese builder that traces its roots back to 1892.
BUSINESS
Nov 16, 2023

Wooden high-rise in Yokohama grows Japan’s timber ambitions

Port Plus, which was finished last year, is composed mainly of 540 wooden rigid cross-joints.
Japan’s public bathhouses have been in decline for decades, with the number of such facilities in Tokyo alone dropping by nearly half in the last 15 years.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 14, 2023

Japan seeks digital detox with return to ‘way of the sauna’

Public bathhouses have been in decline for decades, with the number of sentō baths in Tokyo dropping by nearly half in the last 15 years.
Injured children at Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Oct. 12 following Israeli air strikes
WORLD
Nov 19, 2023

WHO says Gaza's Shifa hospital a 'death zone,' urges evacuation

The World Health Organization said Sunday it had led an assessment mission to Shifa hospital in Gaza City and determined it was a "death zone," urging a full evacuation.
A Palestinian medic cares for premature babies evacuated from Shifa hospital to the Emirates hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 20, 2023

Premature babies moved from Shifa hospital amid Gaza carnage

The World Health Organization has described the situation at Gaza's biggest hospital as a "death zone."
Pope Francis had planned to attend the COP28 conference in Dubai this week, but canceled on Tuesday due to health concerns.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 29, 2023

U.S. bishops cling to fossil fuels, despite Pope's 2015 appeal

Not a single diocese has announced it has let go of its fossil fuel assets since the pope's landmark encyclical on environmental stewardship.
The Rev. Munther Isaac lights a candle next to an improvised crèche in Bethlehem on Dec. 13. The baby Jesus is lying not in a makeshift cradle of hay and wood, but among the rubble of broken bricks, stones and tiles that represent Gaza’s destruction.
WORLD / Society
Dec 24, 2023

‘God is under the rubble in Gaza’: Bethlehem’s subdued Christmas

The Israel-Hamas war has cast a pall over the birthplace of Jesus.
Sayyed Razi Mousavi, senior adviser for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
WORLD / Politics
Dec 26, 2023

Iran vows retribution after Israel kills senior general in Syria

Razi Mousavi is the most senior commander with Iran's Quds Force to have been killed outside Iran since the death of Gen. Qasem Soleimani in 2020.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands inside an enclosure for defendants during a court hearing on espionage charges in Moscow on Oct. 10.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 3, 2024

Remember the world’s political prisoners. One could be you.

Hostage diplomacy and arbitrary arrests by autocratic governments are a growing threat.
Masaki Sato, who owns an 85-year-old property in the Akasaki district of Shika, Ishikawa Prefecture, walks in the district on Saturday after a major earthquake struck the Noto region on New Year's Day.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 8, 2024

Still standing: Unique houses survive quake in Japanese village

Despite a magnitude 7.6 quake only kilometers away, one small fishing village stood strong thanks to decades-old smart architecture.
U.S. television host Tucker Carlson interviews Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in on Feb. 6. Carlson was criticized for failing to challenge the Russian leader on much of what he said.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 11, 2024

Putin interview showed why he really invaded Ukraine

Tucker Carlson lobbed questions to help the Russian president serve up his usual string of half-truths and outright falsehoods about the war in Ukraine.
A woman and children place flags for friends who are in the Ukrainian military at Independence Square in Kyiv on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 25, 2024

Ukraine marks second anniversary of Russian invasion, determined despite setbacks

Western leaders gathered in Kyiv to pledge support for Ukraine amid U.S. reluctance, while its troops suffer growing losses on the battlefield.
Former British Prime Minister David Cameron (right) and former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg are both experiencing a revival in U.K. political and business circles.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2024

Has the U.K. learned nothing from Brexit?

The current success of David Cameron and Nick Clegg in the U.K. suggests that the country — and the world — have learned little from populism's rise.
Awang Suang trims weeds from palm trees on his small plantation in Membakut, Malaysia on Feb. 12. He has been cultivating oil palms for more than 50 years after switching from rubber trees. Palms require less labor and produce more frequent harvests — roughly every two weeks, year round — providing a steadier income, he explained.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Mar 18, 2024

Can Europe save forests without killing jobs in Malaysia?

A new regulation aims to rid the palm oil supply chain of imports that come from former forestland.
A South Korean presidential official has resigned following criticism of his comments regarding a 1988 knife incident, where a journalist who had written columns critical of the government was attacked.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 20, 2024

South Korean official resigns amid controversy over knife attack comment

South Korea has a history of media censorship, which was particularly harsh during administrations from the 1960s to the 1990s.
Her, a self-described feminist bar in Shanghai, on March 15. Women in Shanghai gather in bars, salons and bookstores to reclaim their identities as the country’s leader calls for China to adopt a “childbearing culture.”
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
May 7, 2024

In China, ruled by men, women quietly find a powerful voice

Women in Shanghai gather to reclaim their identities as the country’s leader calls for China to adopt a “childbearing culture.”
A soldier from the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) holds an RPG launcher at a Myanmar military base at Thingyan Nyi Naung village on the outskirts of the Thailand-Myanmar border town of Myawaddy on April 15.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
May 8, 2024

In Myanmar war, crucial window looms for junta and rebels

What happens in the next few weeks in the scramble for strategic locations in Myanmar could determine the next phase of the bloody conflict.
Members of the 59th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade at a workshop where they repair tanks and other armored vehicles, in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine on May 3. When Russian soldiers suddenly showed up in the small town of Ocheretyne in the east, it was clear that something had gone wrong.
WORLD
May 14, 2024

How one crack in the line opened a path for the Russians

The sudden Russian advance through Ocheretyne in late April illustrates how even a small crack in the line can have cascading effects.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during the National Memorial Day Wreath-Laying and Observance Ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
May 29, 2024

Biden's blurred red lines under scrutiny after Rafah carnage

Despite global outrage over a recent deadly attack in Rafah, the White House has insisted that it did not believe Israel had launched the major operation.
A person walks among the giant columns supporting the Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel in Saitama Prefecture.
PODCAST / deep dive
Jun 20, 2024

Tokyo underground: The city beneath our feet

Join us this week on Deep Dive as we discuss with Alex K.T. Martin the expansive subterranean world of Tokyo’s ever-changing underground.
In order to emphasize its grandeur, architect Gonkuro Kume designed the entrance hall of Nikko Kanaya Hotel's Annex Building with "karahafu" curved gables.
CULTURE / Art
Jul 10, 2024

Nikko Kanaya Hotel: A gateway to the art of Meiji Japan in the hills of Tochigi

Over 150 years on, the structure stands as a remarkable example of Japanese art and architecture in an era known for rapid modernization.
The River Seine on Tuesday morning in Paris after organizers announced the postponement of the men's triathlon.
OLYMPICS / Triathlon
Jul 30, 2024

Men's triathlon postponed due to pollution levels in the Seine

The race was postponed to Wednesday and is scheduled to take place immediately after the women's event, which is scheduled for 8 a.m. that day.
Ukrainian service members ride an infantry fighting vehicle near the Russian border in Sumy region, Ukraine, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 10, 2024

As Ukraine pushes deeper into Russia, Moscow sends reinforcements

The flurry of movement underscored the extent to which Ukraine’s attack had introduced an unpredictable new element into the war.
A Palestinian woman reacts as she walks along a street damaged during a raid in the Nur Shams camp near the city of Tulkarem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Wednesday.
WORLD
Aug 29, 2024

Israeli conducts deadly raids in West Bank as Gaza war rages

Israel launched coordinated raids across four northern West Bank cities where the military has focused much of its recent operations.
Plamo Furniture’s Baum series of interior works, designed by Takuro Izumi, is made with vertically layered panels of engineered wood that can be custom-designed to seamlessly fit any space.
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Oct 5, 2024

Japan's flat-packed furniture doesn't skimp on aesthetics

Disappointed by flat-packed aesthetics? Not if you give these Japan-designed pieces a look.
JAPAN
Oct 4, 2024

Masamitsu Yoshioka, last Pearl Harbor bombardier, dies at 106

"I’m ashamed that I’m the only one who survived and lived such a long life,” Yoshioka said in an interview last year.

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go