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October 27, 2026
 

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David Fickling
People try to extinguish a wildfire in Indonesia's South Kalimantan province on Saturday.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 14, 2026
Singapore can fix Southeast Asia’s haze, if it wants to
The way this is talked about in Singapore, the region’s wealthiest country, the whole situation is an act of God and no one knows who is responsible.
A model of LNG storage tanks at the China National Offshore Oil Corporation booth at an international trade fair in Beijing in September 2025
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2026
The LNG boom is losing its biggest Asian bet
Stung by high costs and supply uncertainty, Asian governments are busy throwing those forecasts on the bonfire.
A fuel cell module model at the Toyota Motor booth during the Hyvolution exhibition in Paris in January 2025
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 16, 2026
The hydrogen economy is down but not out
The problem has always been price. As we’ve written, optimistic assumptions about the declining cost of green H2 have been going backward for years.
Diet Coke and Coca-Cola cans are for sale in a shop in New Delhi in April.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 9, 2026
The Iran war is coming for your Diet Coke
Almost every one of those electrical devices, however, depends on the same aluminum that’s disappearing from the refrigerators of Indian supermarkets.
The war in Iran is fueling currency crises in energy-importing countries, underscoring the need to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles and renewable energy to shield economies from fossil-fuel shocks.
COMMENTARY / World
May 18, 2026
The energy crisis is becoming a currency crisis
The biggest losers include the Egyptian pound, the Philippine peso, the South Korean won and the Thai baht.
A tanker approaches a pier at a PT Pertamina facility at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta in February. Conflict in the Middle East and rising fuel prices are driving energy shocks across Asia.
COMMENTARY
May 4, 2026
Oil shock will hit Asia harder than the 1970s
We’re seeing the first tremors of a similar earthquake now in Asia. More than 80% of the oil and gas that passes through the Strait of Hormuz heads east.
Tourists pose for photos near anti-landing barricades on a beach, in Kinmen, Taiwan, in October, with China’s Xiamen City in the background. Taiwan’s defenses are strong, but energy remains its weakness.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 15, 2026
The Iran war has exposed Taiwan’s Achilles’ heel
Without setting foot on Taiwan’s shores, China could enforce a blockade similar to the one Tehran has been operating in the Strait.
The energy crisis caused by the war in Iran is strengthening the case for electric vehicles for some consumers. Chinese carmakers are expected to be the big winners.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 26, 2026
The oil shock is accelerating Asia’s EV revolution
EVs have already hit solid double-digit market shares in multiple emerging markets, as falling battery costs and tax incentives helped undercut conventional cars.
Sanae Takaichi and Donald Trump meet in Tokyo for a summit in October. 91AV原创 fossil fuel investments tied to deals with the United States show Takaichi’s government favoring legacy energy over renewables.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 8, 2026
Takaichi and Trump are natural fossil fuel buddies — or are they?
More than a third of Southeast Asia’s coal power finance between 2016 and 2024 came from Japanese banks, and more than a fifth of gas.
Despite claims that solar growth has peaked, strong demand and technology adoption suggest the boom will continue, though silver use in panels may eventually decline.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 22, 2026
Silver’s surge suggests a brighter future for solar
Much of the recent run-up can be explained by a shift toward TOPCon, a new solar technology that requires more silver.
The Bayan Obo rare-earth mine in Inner Mongolia. China cutting off rare-earth exports to Japan over the Taiwan issue will have a limited impact because Japan and other countries have diversified supplies and taken steps to weaken Beijing’s long-term leverage.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 11, 2026
China is overplaying its rare-earth hand in Japan
While China produces about 80% of the world’s neodymium magnets, Japan on its own manufactures about half of the remainder.
In 2025, overlooked climate challenges included the warming effects of reduced pollution, stalled progress in green hydrogen and rising financing costs for renewables.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2025
Here’s the bad climate news you missed this year
The current renewables boom will need to prove those fossil plants superfluous, and quickly, if we want to stop them getting built.
Workers assemble new Nissan Leaf electric vehicles at a production facility in Sunderland, England, on Dec. 16.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 29, 2025
The positive climate news you may have missed this year
Much climate news is gloomy, but there are positive developments all the time — so many, in fact, that it’s easy to miss some of the things that have been happening.
Australia's flag flies at half-mast at the Bondi Surf Bathers Life Saving Club in Sydney to honor victims of the mass shooting that took place near there on Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2025
Kneejerk responses won’t stop the next Bondi attack
Preventing another tragedy like Bondi will involve improving the painstaking work of anti-extremism and counterterrorism.
People place floral tributes outside the Bondi Pavilion in Sydney on Tuesday in honor of the victims of Sunday’s mass shooting.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 17, 2025
Bondi and Australia get swept into a violent world
Bondi has been a center of Jewish life in Australia for more than a century.
Fossil fuels like propane and isobutane, commonly used for BBQs, are helping replace potent hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants, significantly cutting greenhouse gas emissions and showing that practical solutions can slow global warming.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 5, 2025
BBQ gas is helping to cool a warming planet
A widening array of national-level regulations, prompted by the United Nations-backed Kigali Amendment on HFCs, are gradually pushing hydrofluorocarbons out of the market.
A climate-displaced woman stands along the Kholpetua River on April 26 in Bangladesh’s Satkhira district, where rising sea levels threaten coastal communities.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 25, 2025
The real failure on climate didn’t happen in Brazil
Of the 10 biggest polluters accounting for three-quarters of carbon emissions, just two — the European Union and Japan — have submitted documents with any hope of being enacted.
Kuwait, despite its vast oil wealth, is facing worsening power outages due to political gridlock, underinvestment and climate pressures — highlighting the unsustainability of fossil fuel dependence in a warming world.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2025
Why the most oil-rich country can’t keep the lights on
Electricity was cut to 30 regions in April as temperatures soared and households cranked up the air conditioning.
China is reshaping the global energy landscape by pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into clean energy investments across the Global South, creating jobs and long-term influence on a scale comparable to the Marshall Plan.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2025
China is winning its power play for the Global South
Beijing’s green energy projects are bringing jobs, growth and cheap electricity to the developing world.
Despite centuries of overfishing and ecological collapse, the recovery of tuna stocks shows that strong regulation and economic self-interest can make once-endangered species sustainably abundant again.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 16, 2025
Tuna sushi is safe from extinction, for now
With the exception of Mediterranean albacore (a favorite of Spanish canneries) and bigeye in the Indian Ocean, every population is now being fished within sustainable levels.
Two Japanese climbers die on remote Himalayan peak in Nepal
Rescuers have recovered the bodies of two Japanese climbers missing for over a week on a remote Himalayan mountain.
Aging Japanese village turns to Peru in search of new residents
Guests from Peru's Belen district interact with a baby in Nanmoku village in Gunma Prefecture.
Budget-friendly restaurant chain Saizeriya succumbs to rising costs
A Tokyo branch of Saizeriya, a chain of family-style Italian restaurants
U.S. has for years asked Musk to alter Starlink service in Ukraine and Middle East, sources say
A Ukrainian soldier sets up a Starlink satellite internet system near the frontline in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Oct. 16
U.S. military bans Chinese-made BYD cars from key air base in Okinawa
An F-22 Raptor lands at Kadena Air Base in Kadena, Okinawa Prefecture on Oct. 9. The base is a crucial hub for U.S. military operations in the region.
A dramatic bear hunt in a midsize Japanese city could be a harbinger of what is to come
Zookeeper Tetsuo Iso at the site of frantic search for a wild bear in Utsunomiya on June 9. Iso, 65, was asked by the prefectural government to help capture the bear and it was his shot with a tranquilizer gun that put an end to the saga.
How this long-term resident avoids the annoying tourist label in Japan
Tourists enjoy themselves while crossing the famous Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo on Oct. 12.
What can Asia do to avoid crossing crucial climate tipping points?
Motorists drive through a road covered with smog from wildfires nearby in Ogan Ilir in Indonesia's South Sumatra province on Sept. 25.
91AV原创 permanent residency reform has a glaring blind spot
Japan's immigration reforms risk creating uncertainty by tying permanent residency more closely to language proficiency before clear assessment standards and supporting infrastructure are in place.
Japan weighs how to evacuate thousands of tourists if Mount Fuji erupts
Climbers and visitors gather on the first day of the climbing season at the Fuji Yoshidaguchi Trail, at the fifth station on the slopes of Mount Fuji, in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture, on July 1, 2024.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Famima Park Azabudai is a concept store by FamilyMart that combines convenience store staples with branded apparel, merchandise and a landscaped outdoor space.
Convenience stores, toilets and the allure of everyday Japan
By Elizabeth Beattie

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