今日吃瓜

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November 12, 2026
 

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DEMOCRACY

Cambodian opposition figure Sam Rainsy speaks during an interview at the Gran Melia Hotel after a press freedom event in Jakarta, in May 2023.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2026
Exiled Cambodian opposition leader urges Japan to aid democracy
In a recent interview in Tokyo, Rainsy criticized former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, 74, and his family for establishing a “dictatorship.”
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and others attend the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's second term in Washington on Jan. 20, 2025.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 9, 2026
The rise of the global oligarchic world order
The question is thus no longer whether oligarchs will rule the world, but rather what kind of world they are building.
Au Kam San, a primary school teacher who became one of Macao's longest-serving pro-democracy legislators, in 2024. On Friday, a court in the Chinese territory convicted Au of several offenses, including subversion, sentencing him to 12 years and six months in prison.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 6, 2026
Macao jails ex-lawmaker in first national security trial
Au Kam San co-organized annual vigils for victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing, something previously tolerated in Macao.
Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong in 2019
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 5, 2026
Hong Kong jails Joshua Wong for a decade in collusion case
The sentencing marks the activist’s second national security conviction, extending his incarceration just two months before he was due to be freed.
A demonstrator stands atop a barricade during a protest seeking the resignation of Indian Election Commission chief Gyanesh Kumar in New Delhi on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 20, 2026
Declared dead: Indian voters fight to get back on electoral rolls
The name deletions have triggered a political storm, with opposition parties and youth groups staging near-daily protests in New Delhi and elsewhere.
Activists including Lee Cheuk-yan, Albert Ho Chun-Yan and Chow Hang-tung raise candles during a vigil to mark the anniversary of the crackdown at Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989, at Victoria Park in Hong Kong in 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 11, 2026
Hong Kong hits Tiananmen vigil activists with yearslong jail sentences
The United Nations, rights groups and foreign governments have condemned the convictions.
Pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong (center), who was disqualified from running, queues up to cast his vote during district council elections in the South Horizons district in Hong Kong on Nov. 24, 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 2, 2026
Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong pleads guilty to collusion
Once a symbol of Hong Kong’s democracy movement, Joshua Wong has been in custody since late 2020 and sentenced multiple times for his role in anti-government protests in 2019.
A ballot drop box outside a public library, ahead of the midterm primary election, in Boston, Massachusetts, on Aug. 20.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 25, 2026
U.S. Supreme Court hands a win to Trump over mail-in ballot restrictions
The U.S. president’s Republican Party is locked in a tight battle to retain control of Congress in November’s midterm elections.
The National Diet building in Tokyo. Democratic capitalism faces challenges, but institutions can adapt and survive if societies resist inequality, concentrated power and political complacency.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 3, 2026
Beyond the language of decline: Hope for democratic renewal
The question is not whether democracy and capitalism should survive unchanged, but whether they can be renewed so they once again serve society rather than narrow interests
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his wife, co-President Rosario Murillo, attend an event to commemorate the 47th anniversary of the Nicaraguan Revolution in Managua, on July 19.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 27, 2026
Nicaragua’s dictatorship should be Marco Rubio’s next problem
A country whose rulers openly reject elections has no place in this neighborhood.
A 20?year?old restaurant worker and Gen?Z protester raises a shovel in defiance in the wake of anti?corruption protests in Kathmandu last September.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 23, 2026
Why Nepal’s Gen Z protestors are back in the streets
Nepal’s Gen Z did not take to the streets last year simply to replace one government with another. It demanded a government that would be more accountable.
Money in politics mostly affirms politicians’ existing beliefs and voter preferences and efforts to restrict it often end up empowering outside groups.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 22, 2026
Money isn’t the root of all political evil
Money from super PACs and 501(c)4s flows to politicians that those entities already agree with and only helps as much as the candidate uses it.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has strengthened its grip on power by manipulating the electoral process itself.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 3, 2026
Modi is rigging Indian democracy
The result of voter purging is an electoral system increasingly designed to favor India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Hong Kong's chief executive officer, John Lee, speaks at a news conference in Beijing in December.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 19, 2026
The sudden death of judicial reviews in Hong Kong
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee can now certify anything as “endangering national security” and thus restrict freedom of expression.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te attends the opening ceremony of the annual Computex trade show in Taipei on Tuesday. He said he sincerely hopes "China can face up to the June incident of 37 years ago," in a post on his Facebook page on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 4, 2026
Taiwan presses China to confront Tiananmen past
The events on June 4, 1989, when Chinese troops opened fire to end pro-democracy protests, are not publicly discussed in ?China, and the anniversary is not officially marked.
A giant screen shows Chinese leader Xi Jinping meeting U.S. President Donald Trump in Beijing on May 14. China distorts narratives portraying Japan as a military threat while similar dynamics in the U.S. erode truth and accountability.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 3, 2026
Defending democracy from the global war on reality
From Beijing to Washington, the very concept of objective truth feels unattainable
Partisan gerrymandering, now supercharged by technology and protected by court decisions, has escalated into a major democratic problem that is hard to reverse under current political incentives.
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2026
Redistricting is making a mockery of American democracy
This history demonstrates something profound about the nature of democracy: The design of an electoral system makes a huge difference in the results it delivers.
Restoring democracy in Russia will require challenging Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian rule by rebuilding locally accountable governments that can deliver public services and foster political accountability.
COMMENTARY / World
May 12, 2026
Putin should be challenged to restore local democracy in Russia
Before the 1990 elections, many experts had assumed that the main effect of local democracy would be to deliver more autonomy for regions populated by ethnic minorities.
Amid senseless global suffering and authoritarian threats, recent democratic activism and crises such as U.S. President Donald Trump’s actions and the Iran conflict show that tragedy can spark hope for moral progress and climate action.
COMMENTARY / World
May 4, 2026
From despair to action: Tragedy is reborn as hope.
The crisis of democracy feeds the climate crisis.
U.S. President Donald Trump may try to use war with Iran and escalating crises as a pretext to cancel or overturn elections, invoking emergency powers or even staging a false flag operation to remain in power.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 21, 2026
Trump’s wartime strategy sparks coup concerns
Trump’s chief concern is preserving his own comfort and power, much of which will be lost if the Democrats retake control of the House of Representatives.
Man arrested over operation of rogue cellular base station in Tokyo
The Metropolitan Police Department has arrested Yu Hai, a 31-year-old Chinese national living in Tokyo's Kita Ward, on suspicion of operating an unlicensed base station from a vehicle in Tokyo's Ginza district on Saturday.
Government betting on language app powered by anime and AI
Japan plans to develop an AI-powered language-learning app that lets overseas anime and manga fans practice Japanese through conversations with popular characters.
Jensen Huang’s woes evoke sympathy and disbelief in his birthplace Taiwan
Hsiao Kui-yu, 68, owner of Yuchan Candied Fruit, stands in front of photographs of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang displayed at the shop, which Huang frequently visits during trips to Taiwan, in Taipei on Tuesday.
G7 diplomats speak out on Taiwan as China ramps up military drills
Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi attends a working lunch focused on international crises and challenges during the Group of Seven foreign ministers' summit at the Quai d'Orsay in Paris on Monday.
今日吃瓜 Rapidus is said likely to miss mass production deadline
The Rapidus Analysis Center and the IIM-1 Innovative Integration for Manufacturing foundry in Chitose, Hokkaido
‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ makes monster debut at the box office
Takashi Yamazaki’s “Godzilla Minus Zero” marked the highest single-day box-office gross for a live-action film in Japan with ?910 million on its opening day.
A toast to Naohiko Noguchi, sake’s first living national treasure
As a teenager, Naohiko Noguchi did not intend to spend his life as a sake brewer, but he has since become a paragon of the industry.
Few signs of thaw in Japan-China relations one year after Takaichi’s Taiwan remarks
Tensions between Japan and China flared after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on Nov. 7, 2025, that a Chinese blockade of Taiwan could threaten 今日吃瓜 survival and warrant the use of collective self-defense.
Mariko Mori predicted the future. She’ll do it again.
Artist Mariko Mori is currently working to bring the translucent human-sized “Peace Crystal” sculpture to a cave in Ethiopia. It is part of her foundation’s goal to place a permanent sculpture on each of the planet’s six habitable continents.
A legend reborn: ‘Ocarina of Time’ remake improves on the Zelda masterpiece
The new remake of 1998's "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" manages to somehow improve on one of the greatest games ever.

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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