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Busan port, southeast of Seoul. Business leaders in South Korea are taking action to offset the threat posed by U.S. President Donald Trump's aggressive trade policies.
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Feb 25, 2025

South Korea political turmoil pushes companies to take tariff matters into their own hands

Trump's sweeping and sometimes indiscriminate trade measures have sparked existential debate in many international capitals.
U.S. President Donald Trump's officials recently met with their Japanese and Dutch counterparts about restricting Tokyo Electron and ASML engineers from maintaining semiconductor gear in China, according to people familiar with the matter.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 25, 2025

Trump team seeks to toughen Biden’s chip controls over China

The move is an early indication the new U.S. president plans to expand efforts that began under Joe Biden to limit Beijing’s technological prowess.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a statement on defense spending on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 26, 2025

Trump’s threats push U.K.'s Starmer into a more global, military agenda

U.S. President Donald Trump's apparent refusal for the U.S. to be the final guarantor of security in Europe has prompted the prime minister to act.
Masanori Katayama (center), chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers' Association, speaks during a meeting with trade and industry minister Yoji Muto at the ministry on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 26, 2025

Japanese auto industry seeks government help against U.S. tariffs

U.S. President Donald Trump said last week he wants to impose 25% tariffs on imports of autos as soon as April 2.
Both Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre have called for placing levies on the U.S. that are similar to those the U.S. places on Canada.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 26, 2025

Something is rotten in Canada

So while Trump is right to say Canada’s trade surplus with the U.S. has grown, he’s wrong about why it has expanded.
U.S. President Donald Trump hosts his first cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Feb 27, 2025

Trump sows confusion on timing of tariffs for Canada and Mexico

Trump's comments on the timing of the tariffs prompted jumps in the value of the Canadian dollar and Mexican peso versus the greenback.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has urged U.S. partners and allied nations to follow his country's example and increase military expenditure and preparedness.
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2025

Poland’s top diplomat calls on U.S. allies to spend more on defense

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski touts the example of Warsaw whose defense spending is set to rise to 4.7% of gross domestic product this year.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s brinkmanship puts North America back on the precipice of a trade war, which economists say would hurt U.S. growth, worsen inflation and possibly spark recessions in Mexico and Canada.
BUSINESS
Feb 28, 2025

Trump says Canada and Mexico tariffs to take effect, and adds new China duty

Trump said 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico are on track to go into place on March 4, and said he would impose an additional 10% tax on Chinese imports.
A sign directs people to a measles testing center in Gaines County, Texas, on Tuesday. A measles outbreak in West Texas and New Mexico is sparking fears of worsening public health crisis in the United States. 
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 27, 2025

Texas measles outbreak was entirely avoidable

"It’s more contagious than COVID, more contagious than the flu, more contagious than Ebola,” says Paul Offit, of Philadelphia's Vaccine Education Center.
Wayne Gretzky arrives for the inauguration ceremony before Donald Trump is sworn in at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington, on Jan. 20.
MORE SPORTS / Ice Hockey
Mar 2, 2025

Wayne Gretzky faces backlash in Canada over support for Donald Trump

Trump's provocative comments about making Canada the 51st U.S. state have raised tensions.
Palestinians break their fast by eating the Iftar meals during the holy month of Ramadan, near the rubble of buildings, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 2, 2025

Israel agrees on U.S. plan for temporary ceasefire in Gaza, PM's office says

The U.S. proposal came after a realization that more time is needed for talks on a permanent ceasefire.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron embrace after holding a meeting during a summit at Lancaster House in central London on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 3, 2025

European leaders seek ‘coalition of willing’ to secure Ukraine

Britain and France aim to take a "Europe-plus” grouping to U.S. President Donald Trump in coming days to get his buy-in.
A Rohingya girl feeds a child from a jar carrying the USAID logo at a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on Feb. 11.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 3, 2025

USAID official put on leave after warning of deaths due to Trump's aid block

The Trump administration announced last week that it was canceling nearly 10,000 foreign aid grants and contracts worth almost $60 billion, ending about 90% of USAID's global work.
If U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt had forced British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to surrender to Adolf Hitler and hand over his country's coal with no U.S. security guarantees, it would resemble what Donald Trump did to Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2025

The Oval Office meeting that damaged America’s standing

Had Roosevelt forced Churchill to surrender to Hitler and hand over his country's coal with no U.S. security guarantees, it would resemble what Trump did to Zelenskyy.
To achieve a stable supply chain and propel semiconductor innovation, Japan's government and chipmakers are increasingly building bridges with foreign firms.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
Mar 3, 2025

Japan is no island when it comes to semiconductors. Rightly so.

To achieve a stable supply chain and propel semiconductor innovation, Japan's government and chipmakers are increasingly building bridges with foreign firms.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that if Japan and China try to weaken their currencies and put the United States "at a very unfair disadvantage," he could impose fresh tariffs on them.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 4, 2025

Trump, claiming Japan guiding yen lower, hints at fresh tariffs

Trump said that if Tokyo tries to weaken its currency and put the U.S. "at a very unfair disadvantage," he could unleash more measures.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meets with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during an emergency Arab summit in Cairo on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 5, 2025

Arab states adopt Egyptian alternative to Trump's 'Gaza Riviera'

While hurdles remain, Egypt's $53 billion reconstruction plan would avoid displacing Palestinians from the enclave.
MAGA hats adorn a row of monitors on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 5, 2025

Day one of Trump’s trade war delivers wild ride for Wall Street

The S&P 500 index tumbled 2% shortly after the open Tuesday, wiping out its $3.4 trillion advance since Election Day on Nov. 5.
An M777 howitzer crew firing at Russian targets near the front lines of the Dnipro region, Ukraine, on Feb. 12
WORLD / Politics
Mar 6, 2025

U.S. cuts intelligence for Ukraine, adding pressure for peace deal

The move underscores Trump's willingness to play hardball with an ally as he pivots to a more conciliatory approach to Moscow.
Kaoru Hasuike, who was abducted by North Korea before returning to Japan, speaks on Wednesday in Shimada, Shizuoka Prefecture.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2025

Former abductee urges Japan to work with U.S. to press North Korea

Kaoru Hasuike said that the abduction issue "has not been resolved."
A dry rice field in Subang, West Java, Indonesia, on July 29, 2023
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Mar 6, 2025

Europe’s defense budget rips through its climate-crisis buffer

Spending cuts here and now mean future climate costs may rise, said the head of a climate nonprofit.
A monarch butterfly is seen at an enclosure at Boone Hall Plantation and Gardens in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, in August 2019.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Mar 7, 2025

Butterfly populations plummet by 22% in U.S. since turn of century

Studies in some other countries have documented declines at roughly the same rate as in the U.S. data.
Shizuko Nishio — who will turn 86 on March 10, when Japan will commemorate 80 years after the bombing of Tokyo — gives an explanation in February in front of a map showing the areas that were burned in the air raids.
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2025

'Eerie' sky, charred bodies: 80 years since Tokyo's World War II firestorm

Because of the atomic bombings and Japan's surrender a month later, the firebombing of Tokyo is often overlooked in history.
Nintendo shares sank as much as 9.8% in Tokyo Friday, as U.S. President Donald Trump doubling levies on China means game consoles, mostly made in China, could have higher selling prices in the United States due to heftier import costs.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 7, 2025

Nintendo shares plunge on tariff fears as foreign investors retreat

Nintendo sank 9.2% in Tokyo, its biggest intraday drop since the stock market rout on Aug. 5.
As the U.S. under Donald Trump reassesses its commitment to Ukraine, countries worldwide, particularly in Europe and Asia, are reconsidering their defense policies and alliances with America. 
EDITORIALS
Mar 7, 2025

Europe braces for a post-American world. Is Japan ready?

A diplomatic posture that makes demands only of Ukraine and not Russia suggests, however, that Washington has taken sides.
A demonstrator holds a sign with a picture of death row inmate Brad Sigmon outside the South Carolina Department of Corrections following his execution by firing squad, at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina, on Friday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 8, 2025

South Carolina carries out first firing squad execution in U.S. in 15 years

The convicted murderer said he feared the alternatives of the electric chair or lethal injection would risk a slower and more torturous death.
Former Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda said Japan must fix "any misunderstanding" held by U.S. President Donald Trump that its central bank was intentionally weakening the yen with monetary policy.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 8, 2025

Japan must fix 'misunderstanding' it is manipulating yen, says ex-BOJ chief Kuroda

Trump said he had told Japan and China they could not continue to reduce the value of their currencies, as doing so would be unfair to the United States.
When Ukraine gets bulldozed into accepting a ceasefire on the capitulatory terms President Vladimir Putin might accept, Trump’s America will dismiss complaints from Kyiv as warmongering.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2025

Kyiv and Moscow are divided by a valley of lies

When Ukraine gets bulldozed into accepting a ceasefire on the capitulatory terms Putin might accept, Trump’s America will dismiss complaints from Kyiv as warmongering.
France's President Emmanuel Macron (second from left) shakes hands with Ukraine's Colonel General Ruslan Khomchak, First Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, at the Musee de la Marine, in Paris on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 12, 2025

In rare meeting without U.S., Western army chiefs meet to show Ukraine unity

The talks aimed, in part, to assess options and capabilities to guarantee Ukraine's security in the event of a ceasefire.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds up a piece of paper with information about tariff rates at the White House on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Mar 12, 2025

The U.S. says Japan has a 700% tariff on American rice. Is that the case?

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's accusation describes only a small portion of U.S. rice imported by Japan.

Longform

Wealthier women in the prewar era had been the targets of various media-related health campaigns that mistakenly encouraged them to avoid everything from riding bicycles to reading novels when their monthly cycles came around.
Menstruation in Japan: Breaking the silence, slowly