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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.
Mori Building's Azabudai Hills complex in Tokyo's Minato Ward, which will house offices, shops, apartments, hotels and a school, is set to open in November
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 2, 2023

While Manhattan’s offices stay empty, Tokyo keeps building

Remote working has decimated offices in cities like New York and London. But Tokyo's workspaces have bounced back, also thanks to new builds.
A TotalEnergies tanker truck with sustainable aviation fuel at the 54th International Paris Airshow near Paris on June 19
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Oct 3, 2023

Too expensive, too scarce: Doubts grow over green aviation fuel

Generating the required quantities of alternative fuel would require huge areas of land and natural resources.
Former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou speaks to members of the media at Taoyuan International Airport on April 7 after a 12-day trip to China.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 3, 2023

Taiwan's national day becomes polarizing celebration

Taiwan's identity, including how it relates to China, is a major issue for Taiwanese voters.
Katalin Kariko (right) and Drew Weissman, the winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their discoveries enabling the development of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2023

Nobel for mRNA vaccines shows the power of perseverance

Decades of work by Nobel Prize winners Kariko and Weissman made the rapid development of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines possible.
A prescription injector for Ozempic, a weight loss drug
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2023

Ozempic cuts alcohol cravings. Liquor companies aren’t ready.

A survey conducted by Morgan Stanley’s AlphaWise research unit found that people consumed 62% less alcohol while taking weight loss drugs.
A new study defines some critical differences in certain biomarkers of people with long COVID.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2023

Long COVID is real. Now the evidence is piling up.

In what the researchers believe is a first, they did a detailed study of the differences between people with long COVID and those who are healthy.
Robert Fico, whose Smer-Social Democracy Party won Slovakia’s early parliamentary elections, exits a meeting with the country’s president on Monday. 
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2023

Can national reconciliation defeat European populism?

For the U.S., Slovakia's general election may produce another unreliable allied government.
Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy speaks to reporters after he was ousted as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2023

McCarthy’s ouster highlights the depths of GOP dysfunction

The recent removal of Kevin McCarthy as U.S. House speaker is symptom of the wider malaise in a fractious Republican Party.
Volunteers work at a Salvation Army mobile health clinic in Montreal on Sept. 22. Canada, despite being a wealthy nation, is gripped by a surge in homelessness that has seen thousands of people living in the streets after being priced out of real estate and rental markets.
WORLD / Society
Oct 5, 2023

Homelessness explodes in Canada as rents and housing prices soar

Researchers warn government data is vastly underestimating the number of homeless across the country.
Generative AI will change work for young professionals, but their reasoning skills will still be needed.
COMMENTARY
Oct 5, 2023

Is ChatGPT coming for entry-level jobs?

If entry-level workers get that much faster and better, won’t companies be able to get by with fewer of them? Maybe.
Max Verstappen (right) celebrates with Red Bull's team principal, Christian Horner, after the Dutch star won the Japanese Grand Prix on Sept. 24 to clinch the constructors' title for the team.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Oct 6, 2023

Lewis Hamilton says 'phenomenal' Max Verstappen raised bar in F1

Verstappen needs just three points to secure another F1 title.
From happōshu to real beer, Japan’s tax changes aim to improve brewing quality and prices.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 6, 2023

Amid rising costs, why is Japan making beer cheaper?

A 350-milliliter can of brew costs drinkers about ¥7 (5 cents) less from October, thanks to changes in the country’s tax system.
A lithium mine near Itinga, Minas Gerais state, Brazil
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2023

We’re not even close to running out of green minerals

Rising reserves challenge fears of mineral shortages in green transition.
Israeli soldiers examine the remains of a police station where a battle took place following a mass infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip in Sderot, Israel, on Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 8, 2023

Hamas torches Biden’s deal to remake the Middle East

In a surprise attack, Hamas fired thousands of rockets from Gaza into Israel, killing dozens and and leaving some areas looking like war-torn Ukraine.
Peak of fossil fuel consumption may be approaching, but the post-peak period may not lead to a rapid decline, which could impact global efforts to combat climate change.
COMMENTARY
Oct 8, 2023

With fossil fuels, ‘peak demand’ isn’t what it sounds like

Peak fossil-fuel consumption will be a cause for celebration. But we should remain skeptical it’s as near as the IEA has said, especially for gas.
Iranians gather in Tehran on Saturday to show support for Palestinians after Hamas' attack on Israel.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 10, 2023

Gauging Iran’s culpability in the Israel conflict

Tehran has a lot of layers to sift through as it determines the extent of its support and the possible repercussions.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's administration faces discontent within the ruling coalition, mounting frustration from conservative elements in the LDP and persistently low public approval ratings.
COMMENTARY
Oct 10, 2023

As cracks form, Kishida’s political ship takes on water

The Kishida administration faces discontent within the ruling coalition, frustration from LDP conservatives and and low public approval ratings.
Israeli flags flutter at Ofer Park in Petah Tikva, Israel.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Oct 11, 2023

War threatens funding recovery in Israel's vital tech industry

A global slowdown and the Israeli government's divisive judicial reforms had prompted a sharp drop in funding earlier this year.
A group of Chinese tourists arrive at Haneda Airport in Tokyo in August.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 11, 2023

Japan public opinion turns most negative on China in nine years

More than 92% of respondents to the Japanese section of the poll said their impression of China was "not good,” up from 87% last year.
Alma Zadic, Austria's justice minister, during an interview in Vienna on Sept. 26
WORLD / Politics
Oct 11, 2023

In Europe's politics, disinformation and hate pose growing threat

Austrian Justice Minister Alma Zadic believes public institutions simply don’t have the resources to match the output of bad actors.
The U.K.'s decision to cut back on its HS2 high-speed rail network runs contrary to the path taken by Japan, which stuck to a long-term infrastructure plan.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 11, 2023

U.K. effort to imitate Japan's shinkansen falls short

There is value of sticking to a long-term infrastructure plan, as Japan has done for almost 50 years with its high-speed rail system.
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.
South Korean soldiers stand guard at the Joint Security Area (JSA) in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in the border village of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 12, 2023

Halting inter-Korean military deal may increase security risks for Seoul

South Korea's new defense minister is calling to suspend parts of a 2018 agreement in order to increase Seoul's surveillance capabilities.
South Africa captain Siya Kolisi has worked to make sure all the Springboks have a voice on the pitch.
MORE SPORTS / Rugby
Oct 13, 2023

South Africa benefiting from Siya Kolisi's leadership at World Cup

"I think what sets Siya aside from other leaders is how he includes everyone's opinions in the team," center Jesse Kriel explained.
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.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem in July 2017.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 11, 2023

India’s realism comes of age in response to Israel-Hamas war

Unlike other Global South country leaders, Modi wasted no time expressing solidarity with Israel, an ally of India.
Voters fill out ballot papers at a polling station on Sydney's Bondi Beach on Saturday as polls open in Australia's historic Indigenous rights referendum.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 14, 2023

Australian voters reject greater Indigenous rights

The result will be a setback to reconciliation efforts with Indigenous Australians and a political blow to the center-left Labor government.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks at Parliament House in Canberra on Saturday following the defeat of the Voice referendum.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 15, 2023

Australia referendum failure may mean more divisive politics

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese misread the public mood, analysts said, as he took responsibility for the referendum result.
Residents of Shaar HaGolan, Israel, attend a ceremony Thursday to pay tribute to the Israelis killed during the Hamas militant attack on Oct. 7.
WORLD
Oct 15, 2023

Hamas attacks shatter Israel's kibbutz ideal

When the sirens wail at the Sha'ar HaGolan kibbutz, there is total panic — and not just from those who live there permanently.

Longform

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