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The Biden administration has issued final rules that would prohibit chip companies vying for a new infusion of federal cash from carrying out certain business expansions, partnerships and research in China, in what it described as an effort to protect United States national security.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 23, 2023

U.S. finalizes rules to keep chip funds out of China

The rules, which aim to prevent chip makers from using new U.S. subsidies to benefit China, take into account the industry’s perspective.
The World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai in 2020
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 21, 2023

Human success means evolving with AI, not shunning it

Most future jobs will be hybrid, powered by human and artificial intelligence. The challenge lies in striking the right balance.
A Caribbean box jellyfish
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 24, 2023

No brain, no problem: Tiny jellyfish can learn from experience

Such a feat is comparable to far more advanced animals such as fruit flies or mice, and may reveal insight into the fundamental property of nerve systems.
Women with portable electric fans in the Yurakucho district of Tokyo on Sept. 12. In Japan, Cool Biz became especially popular with women, who tended to wear lighter clothes and often complained about the cold temperatures needed to make business suits comfortable for their male colleagues.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 24, 2023

Where did all the dark-suited Japanese businessmen go?

Under Cool Biz, salarymen and government workers don short-sleeved shirts in the summer as offices are kept above 28 degrees Celsius to save energy.
Migrants from Venezuela, seeking asylum in the United States, sit before crossing the Rio Bravo river with the intention of turning themselves in to the U.S. Border Patrol agents, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Thursday.
WORLD / Society
Sep 24, 2023

AI's 'insane' translation mistakes endanger U.S. asylum cases

Machine translation has made huge leaps but is still nowhere near good enough for complex, high-stakes situations like the asylum process.
A boat piloted by a Philippine fisherman is intercepted by Chinese coast guard boats as they tried to enter the Scarborough Shoal in disputed waters of the South China Sea.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 25, 2023

With bullhorns and water cannons, Chinese ships wall off the sea

The world’s most brazen maritime militarization is gaining muscle in the South China Sea, waters through which one-third of global ocean trade passes.
People take part in a protest against the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's redevelopment project for the Meiji Jingu Gaien district in Tokyo in February.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 25, 2023

Petitioners try to halt razing of thousands of trees in historic Tokyo park

Tokyo's percentage of public green space is far lower than other major cities such as New York, Seoul and London.
Rupert Murdoch in his office in New York in 2007. Murdoch's decision to step down from the boards of News Corp. and Fox Corp. marks the end of a decadeslong media career.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 25, 2023

Rupert Murdoch, the last of the press barons

No living person has influenced the media landscape like Rupert Murdoch. Should we view his career in a favorable light, or is his legacy one of darkness?
A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) banner outside the party's state office in Kolkata, India.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 26, 2023

Modi's ruling BJP plots election drive of epic scale

Growing anti-incumbency sentiment is conspiring with a newly formed national alliance to pose what BJP officials say will be Modi's toughest test by far.
Prominent Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar was killed on the grounds of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple in British Columbia, Canada, in June.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2023

India-Canada clash should be a wake-up call on diaspora extremism

Western countries are failing to keep the radicalization of certain migrant communities in check. They have much to lose.
China's COSCO Shipping Ports is the world’s largest shipping company and port terminal operator.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2023

China’s port investments and risks to national security

The gray area between domestic and foreign jurisdictions and private and state-owned enterprises should be cause for concern.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. leaves a meeting in Jakarta on Sept. 7.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 28, 2023

Marcos' challenge of China pressures U.S.

There are questions about how far Manila is willing to go and whether the U.S. would really have its back if the situation escalates.
The higher interest rates that many countries are now experiencing are raising the costs of renewable electricity, the prices of which are dependent on the upfront expenditures needed to build new facilities.
COMMENTARY
Sep 28, 2023

What happens when renewable energy isn’t so cheap?

Renewable prices are determined by the upfront cost of building facilities whereas fossil-fuel energy prices are a mix, including fuel costs.
One of the works that will be performed at Kyoto Experiment is “The Window of Spaceship ‘In-Between’” by the Chelfitsch theater company. The play questions what the Japanese language is today from a plurality of perspectives.
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 29, 2023

Kyoto Experiment explores fluidity of culture with performance works

The lineup for the international performing arts festival features 11 works from countries such as Brazil, Australia, Thailand and Hong Kong.
Many art critics rank Pablo Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d’Avignon," which hangs in New York’s Museum of Modern Art, as one of his greatest. But other critics describe the masterpiece as racist or exploitative.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 29, 2023

What should be done with art that is seen as racist?

So what exactly should we do when people consider extant art racist?
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington in December 2014.
WORLD
Sep 29, 2023

Long-serving U.S. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein dies at 90

Feinstein was a Washington trail-blazer who among other accomplishments became the first woman to head the influential Senate Intelligence Committee.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the crowd as he arrives at a Bhartiya Janta Party gathering in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.
WORLD
Sep 30, 2023

Murder claim in Canada is only helping India's Modi at home

India has gone on the offensive since Canadian leader Justin Trudeau accused Modi’s government of orchestrating the murder of a Sikh priest.
The Mikomotojima Lighthouse in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture, was designed by Richard Henry Brunton, a Scotsman who was employed by the Meiji government to build lighthouses across Japan in the 19th century. In "The Japan Lights," author Iain Maloney connects his personal travels and experiences in Japan to Brunton's pursuits.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 1, 2023

'The Japan Lights' traces a journey of self-discovery in the wake of 3/11

Iain Maloney's wise book connects his travels in Japan to the pursuits of Richard Henry Brunton, a Scotsman who built lighthouses across the country.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi address a joint meeting of Congress at the Capitol in Washington in June.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 1, 2023

Modi’s Hindu nationalism stokes tension in Indian diaspora

Canadian and U.S. universities have become battlegrounds for critics and defenders of Hindu nationalism, punctuated by threats of violence and even death.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East on Sept. 13.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 1, 2023

Russia and North Korea's cartoon summit

Whether Russia is actually offering a deep and multifaceted relationship with North Korea implied by the summit remains far from clear.
Striking writers and actors stage a solidarity march through Hollywood on Sept. 13.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 1, 2023

The Writers Guild had a PR strategy like no other

So how did the Writers Guild union do it? First and foremost, it’s impossible to overstate the importance of social media in the equation.
Fort Myers Beach during a high tide in Florida
ENVIRONMENT
Oct 2, 2023

A hidden climate danger threatens coastal communities

Rising sea levels could push contaminated groundwater to the surface, releasing toxic chemicals from contaminated areas nearby.
Gamers play during the first day of Europe's leading digital games fair, Gamescom, in Cologne, Germany, in August 2019
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 2, 2023

Video game competitions should be in the Olympics

Esports is already among the world’s most popular competitive activities. Last year, the global audience totaled more than 500 million people.
Central to China’s global media campaign is the aggressive use of new technologies to target and spread messages, silence critics and create a digital infrastructure that is more easily controlled.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2023

Pushing back against China’s media offensive

China is using propaganda, disinformation, censorship and covert tactics to promote its preferred narrative and suppress critical reporting.
The Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple where Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar was killed in June in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Oct 4, 2023

India's spies infiltrated West long before Canada's murder claim

Canada's recent allegations have thrust India's secretive Research and Analysis Wing into the global spotlight.
A mother carries her child inside her burnt house, following a wildfire in Bejaia, Algeria, on July 25
WORLD / Society
Oct 6, 2023

Tens of millions of children uprooted by climate disasters

Weather disasters fueled by climate change sparked 43.1 million child displacements from 2016 to 2021, the U.N. Children's Fund has warned.
Most projections show the world will hit peak humanity in the 21st century as people choose to have smaller families and women gain power over their own reproduction.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 11, 2023

Don’t worry about global population collapse

While environmentalists have long warned of a planet with too many people, now some economists are warning of a future with too few.
A 19-year-old girl plagued with strange visions sets out with her younger brother to uncover the truth about her perfect family in Banana Yoshimoto’s “The Premonition.”
CULTURE / Books
Oct 14, 2023

Banana Yoshimoto’s new book is a sickly sweet fantasy

In “The Premonition,” the characters exist in a dream-like state of sweetness and steer clear of examining complex questions.
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban meet in Budapest in October 2021. Modern autocrats focus on manipulating public opinion while gradually weakening the democratic institutions from which they claim legitimacy.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2023

No, the world's democracies are not 'backsliding'

Fears that we're turning the clock back on democracy are inaccurate — and unhelpful for dealing with new shades of authoritarianism.
A gender-equality supporter protests against discrimination at an event held in Tokyo for International Women's Day in March 2021
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 13, 2023

Japan’s gender gap has never been wider. Can Kishida close it?

The government emphasizes the need to improve gender equality, but correcting Japan's dismal record requires a nuanced approach.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.