Search - author

 
 
Straight-to-video films, locally called “V-Cinema,” were popular in the 1990s and into the 2000s, becoming a training ground and launchpad for Japanese directors and actors.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 8, 2024

Threatened with extinction, V-Cinema hopes for new saviors

Physical deterioration and copyright issues mar the influential film genre that once served as a launchpad for directors and actors in Japan.
Today’s Russia is nothing like the citadel of stability and satisfaction nor the bastion of prosperity that the Kremlin tries to claim it is.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2024

Preparing Russia for permanent war

Today’s Russia is nothing like the citadel of stability and satisfaction nor the bastion of prosperity that the Kremlin claims it to be.
In the quest for immortality, some researchers believe mind uploading will be our ticket to an eternal existence.
PODCAST / deep dive
Feb 8, 2024

Japan’s take on immortality; problems in Palworld

As scientists and technologists attempt to tackle the problem of aging and death, we discuss Japanese ideas about immortality.
U.S. and U.K. military aircraft have carried out over a hundred bombing missions on Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen, as well as against Tehran's proxies in Iraq and Syria, since last month.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 6, 2024

2024 looks to be a very bloody year

Preventing a conflagration and wider wars depends first on preventing regional crises from escalating, which demands a strong deterrent posture.
Sikhs in Peshawar, Pakistan, hold a protest on Sept. 20 against the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh leader who was murdered months earlier in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 4, 2024

Does India have a secret hit list?

The pressure is on for India to salvage its global reputation and preserve its relationship with the United States amid assassination plots against Sikhs.
Supporters of Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Party block the Peshawar to Islambad highway on Sunday in protest against the alleged skewing of election results in Pakistan's national election.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 11, 2024

Pakistan police threaten crackdown after Khan party calls protests

PTI leaders claim they would have won even more seats if not for vote rigging.
Paolo Benanti, a Franciscan friar and a professor at the Gregorian, the Harvard of Rome's pontifical universities, in his office at the university in Rome on Jan. 29. Benanti advises the Vatican and the Italian government on navigating the tricky questions — moral and otherwise — raised by artificial intelligence.
WORLD / Society
Feb 14, 2024

The friar who became the Vatican’s go-to guy on AI

Father Paolo Benanti, an ethics professor and self-proclaimed geek, spends his days thinking about the Holy Ghost and the ghosts in the machines.
A sea turtle swims off the coast of Brazil. Sea turtles can migrate hundreds or thousands of miles.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Feb 14, 2024

Overhunting and habitat loss endanger migratory animals, U.N. says

One in five migratory species is at risk of extinction, according to a new report by the United Nations.
Children play at a park during the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong, in 2022.
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 14, 2024

New research raises concerns about long COVID in children

The new review suggested that 10% to 20% of children in the United States who had COVID-19 developed long COVID.
U.S. allies reevaluate priorities in relations with Washington out of concern Donald Trump may win the U.S. presidency again.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 13, 2024

U.S. allies fear the fallout of a new Trump era

The world appears to have priced in former U.S. President Trump’s disdain not only for allies but the entire global order his predecessors created.
A rally in Moscow marks the centenary of the Russian Revolution on Nov. 7, 2017. Vladimir Lenin's belief in principled pragmatism offers important lessons for today's political leaders.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 14, 2024

Lenin’s lesson for Israel and Ukraine

The Bolshevik leader brought strong principles together with concrete analysis, an approach that could guide political leaders in Israel and Ukraine alike.
A demonstration against racism and far-right groups, including the Alternative for Germany party, is held in Berlin on Jan. 21.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 15, 2024

The case for banning anti-democratic candidates

Barring anti-democratic candidates from elections may be like fighting fire with fire, but it could work in extreme cases, such as in the U.S. and Germany.
OpenAI has announced that it will add a memory feature to its AI-powered chatbot, ChatGPT.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 15, 2024

The perils of giving ChatGPT more memory

ChatGPT developer OpenAI is rolling out a memory feature that, it says, will improve the bot. But not if it ends up replicating the biases of social media.
Even if you’re unfamiliar with 'kōji' by name, chances are you’ve been consuming it for a while.
LIFE / Food & Drink / The Recipe Box
Feb 18, 2024

Recipe: Dry rub to jump down the ‘kōji’ rabbit hole

On the eve of a major gathering of Aspergillus oryzae aficionados, here’s a ‘kōji’ recipe to get you started on your own adventure with the magical mold.
A new report by the McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility estimates that it could take up to 320 years for Black Americans to catch up to their white counterparts in quality of life.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 8, 2024

Black Americans gain no ground on income and wealth

One study estimates that it could take up to 320 years for Black Americans to catch up to their white counterparts' in quality of life.
Donald Trump's recent remarks on defense spending by allies, which were highly criticized, highlight the complexities of U.S. foreign policy.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 16, 2024

Trump's defense spending critiques: Valid concerns or political rhetoric?

Do U.S. allies need to step up defense spending? What do the numbers really say?
The PTI party of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan triumphed in Pakistan's Feb. 8 elections despite not having the backing of the country's powerful military.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 14, 2024

Has Pakistan’s military finally lost its mystique?

Many Pakistani voters supported PTI, Imran Khan's party, in recent elections, showing the military that it has a rival powerhouse to contend with.
Demonstrators hold a rally to honor the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in front of the Russian Embassy in Warsaw on Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2024

The lonesome death of a Russian opposition leader

The prison where Navalny died, Nicknamed “Polar Wolf,” is a freezing cold gulag for violent criminals. But Navalny — an anti-corruption lawyer and blogger.
Donald Trump, who made a fortune in construction over the years, has assets he can sell to pay the $355 million financial penalty recently imposed on him in civil fraud case filed in New York, but it will strain his available cash reserves.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 20, 2024

Trump loved New York. Now it's giving him the boot.

The place that made Trump who he is has turned on him. The former president is being fined millions and banned from doing business in New York.
Ahead of the Paris Games, authorities are conducting three preliminary investigations into possible favoritism in the awarding of around 20 contracts worth tens of millions of euros, while a fourth is scrutinizing the pay of chief organizer Tony Estanguet.
OLYMPICS
Feb 21, 2024

Paris 2024: A 'new era' of corruption-free Olympics?

Ahead of the Paris Olympics in July and August, French prosecutors are working on four probes into possible wrongdoing.
When SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son bought Arm in 2016 for $32 billion, he had grand plans for the company to dominate the nascent market for connected devices, also known as the Internet of Things.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 21, 2024

Softbank’s Arm is not the AI play most people think it is

Today, GPUs are the gold standard for AI development and thus the equivalent of toilet paper during the pandemic.
Moody’s predicts China's potential economic growth will decline to 3.5% by 2030, with weaker demographics and a graying population being a major driver of the slowdown.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2024

China’s economic engine is running out of fuel

Moody’s now predicts that China's annual economic growth will fall to 4% in 2024 and 2025, before slowing further, to 3.8%, on average, for the rest of the decade.
The LDP's Takuo Komori stepped down from his post as parliamentary vice minister for internal affairs after it was revealed he had underreported political funds.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 21, 2024

Will the LDP funding scandal change Japanese politics?

What can we learn from the LDP funding scandal? One thing is certain: The saga fits a pattern that is anything but unseen in Japanese politics.
With the wars in Ukraine and Gaza claiming America’s attention and the world undergoing a broader geopolitical reconfiguration, China might see a window of opportunity in forcing its claim on Taiwan.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2024

A Taiwan crisis is coming

Already, Xi Jinping has been stepping up intrusions into Taiwan's air defense zone and encircling the island with warships.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 24, 2024

Chip giant TSMC shifts away from hot spot Taiwan with Japan plant

The chipmaker's new plant in Kumamoto will boost the resilience of global supplies of the crucial hardware, founder Morris Chang told an opening ceremony.
There is a global trend toward economic bifurcation with the U.S. and China leading the charge — and multinational solutions are needed to address the new challenges.
COMMENTARY
Feb 28, 2024

The inexorable movement toward a divided global economy

Efforts to protect national economies from threats require multinational solutions. Chains are only as strong as their weakest link.
The world needs to avoid the mistakes and pitfalls that go with providing debt relief and should craft sustainable solutions for financially distressed nations. 
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 1, 2024

Developing countries’ never-ending debt crisis

Creditors have a role in resolving debt crises. This means all eyes are on China, which is the single most important creditor for debt distress.
Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in Ottawa in May 2009.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 1, 2024

Brian Mulroney, former Canadian prime minister, is dead at 84

Mulroney was known as the Canadian leader who led the country into the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States and Mexico.
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump attends the NATO summit in Watford, England, in December 2019.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2024

The Trump effect takes Europe

There is a chance that the Trump effect could leave the trans-Atlantic order stronger than it has been for a long time.
Scientists on Wednesday identified what might be the genetic mechanism behind humankind's tailless condition — a mutation in a gene instrumental in embryonic development.
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 3, 2024

People with tails? No, because of this ancient genetic mutation

The absence of a tail may have better balanced the body for orthograde — upright — locomotion and eventually bipedalism, said one scientist.

Longform

A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake