Prime Minister Shinzo Abe meets with Russia's President Vladimir Putin after the Group of 20 Summit in Osaka in June 2019. Putin managed to pocket every concession made by Abe over the years and demanded more.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 4, 2025
Abe’s Russia outreach flopped — Trump should take note
Supporters of Trump’s policy argue that China is the bigger threat and the U.S. should steer Moscow away from Beijing.
A new study analyzing organs from deceased individuals found plastic particles accumulating primarily in the brain, with the highest concentrations in recent autopsies, raising concerns about long-term exposure despite unclear health effects.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2025
You might have plastic in your brain. Don’t panic — yet.
It’s unsettling, but the amount of plastic in your brain is probably less than the plastic spoon’s worth grabbing the headlines.
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.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy departs following a contentious meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday. Plans to sign a critical minerals deal between the two nations were scrapped after the talks quickly devolved into a fiery exchange over U.S. support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 2, 2025
Trump’s Oval Office clash with Zelenskyy was a win for Putin
Nobody in Ukraine, or any other country formerly under Moscow’s boot, believes that Putin will honor the terms of a ceasefire without credible guarantees.
Australia’s new International Gender Equality Strategy aims to improve the situation of women and girls, but its success may depend on addressing male resentment by providing men with a sense of purpose and social achievement.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2025
What’s missing from Australia's gender equality strategy?
It’s necessary to recognize that the male backlash to female empowerment is a locally and globally destabilizing force.
Barbara Broccoli, whose family has been the longtime stewards of the James Bond franchise, worries that Amazon's control will turn it into mass-produced "content," prioritizing quantity over quality and undermining its cinematic prestige.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2025
Amazon wants to turn 'James Bond' into slop
Barbara Broccoli, a custodian of the "James Bond" franchise, told friends she doesn’t trust algorithm-centric Amazon with a character she helped to mythologize.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr. by his side, speaks with the media during his first official arrival at the Pentagon to take his new post on Jan. 27.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2025
Firing top generals makes the U.S. less secure
How should we think about this rare purge at the very top of the uniformed military? Is it unprecedented?

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