Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and her ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) got a historic landslide victory in last week’s parliamentary elections. This marks the first time since its founding in 1955 that the conservative LDP controls a two-thirds supermajority in the lower house. If necessary, Takaichi’s cabinet could also overrule any opposition in the upper house of the Diet (Japan’s parliament), where her coalition still lacks a majority. Given this, Takaichi now has a massive mandate to push her agenda. This includes boosting defence spending, strengthening the military and…
Posts published by “hostingkoba”
Japan is preparing to lift long-standing restrictions on lethal weapons exports, marking another step in the erosion of its post-war arms export taboo. While the reform creates new diplomatic and commercial opportunities and allows deeper security cooperation with regional partners, Japan’s defence industrial base remains small, costly and capacity-constrained. Domestic procurement demands and labour shortages mean exports will likely remain modest, limiting the policy’s practical and strategic impact on regional military balances. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government is looking to loosen Japan’s long-standing restrictions on weapons exports, marking another step…
The search for rare earths for energy transition is often regarded as a form of neo-colonialism, and today it is the area in which this phenomenon manifests itself most clearly, especially due to its geopolitical and economic effects. However, there are other neo-colonial practices that are less visible but with equally negative consequences at the local level. One of these is the export of waste to Africa and Asia by Western countries, particularly the export of plastic, clothing, and electronic waste. The export of waste to the Global South is…
In the first week of Black History Month, President Donald Trump posted a racist depiction of former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama on social media — a video clip showing the Obamas’ faces on apes. The post was later deleted, and the White House blamed a staffer for “erroneously” posting it. On Friday evening, Trump refused to apologize for the post: “I didn’t make a mistake,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One. The post was one of dozens Trump shared in the middle of the night…
President Donald Trump’s comments on former Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino’s podcast this week that he would like to see Republicans “nationalize” elections has some on Capitol Hill playing a guessing game. What exactly did Trump mean when he suggested that Republicans should “take over the voting … in at least many, 15 places”? “If he was on Dan’s show, and he’s catering to Dan’s audience, I’m sure there’s not going to be many Democrats listening to the show,” Rep. Jimmy Patronis, a Republican from Florida, mused about Trump’s comments…
The Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management director updated lawmakers, and outlined a “significant cleanup mission” planned for this summer. Rep. Nellie Jimmie, a Democrat from Toksook Bay, broke down in tears recounting her experience there the night ex-Typhoon Halong made landfall on the west coast of Alaska in October. “We didn’t sleep the whole night, and this was the first time I’ve ever felt so helpless, where I knew I couldn’t protect my own daughter,” she told fellow lawmakers at a joint hearing with the House Tribal…
The cocaine market exploded between 2014 and 2023. Production in Colombia increased more than sevenfold to nearly 2,700 tonnes, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Behind the scenes, drug traffickers find equally illicit ways to pay their suppliers and foot soldiers, or to spend the proceeds of their criminal trade. Their solution? Money laundering. It is estimated that 25% of the funds collected is laundered. Criminals generally launder money in three stages: firstly, they inject it into the financial system; secondly, they layer it with…
In January 2026, the death of Renée Good, a mother of three in Minneapolis, by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, and the subsequent fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, by federal agents, sparked outrage and protests within the US. Nobel laureate Daron Acemoglu of Massachusetts Institute of Technology swiftly diagnosed the malady in a Project Syndicate piece. This could be “a turning point,” he declared. The killings represented “a key distinguishing feature of authoritarian governments” – the ability to deploy excessive force against opponents. The Trump…
Few ideas in global finance generate as much anxiety as de-dollarization. To some Western observers, any attempt to reduce reliance on the US dollar is automatically framed as a political challenge to American power. Yet for much of the developing world, the conversation is far less ideological and far more practical. The push to diversify global payment systems and promote the use of local currencies is not about confrontation; it is a response to economic realities that many countries have lived with for decades. The dominance of the dollar has…
On Thursday, US President Donald Trump once again turned on the klieg lights by launching a new major international initiative – the “Board of Peace.” Though this multilateral body is supposed to start with managing the post-conflict restoration and future development of the Gaza Strip, many argue that its real goal has a larger scale and might reflect the US president’s ambition to find an efficient alternative to the UN, which he shows no respect for. If the pilot Gaza project turns out to be a success story, this model…