Yakuza battle Chinese gangs for control of Japan's criminal underworld

Jan 31, 2023 07:25 am UTC| Insights & Views Life

On the afternoon of October 16 last year a brawl erupted between two groups of gangsters in a restaurant on the 58th floor of the Sunshine 60 high-rise building in Ikebukuro, a central neighbourhood of Tokyo. A group of...

Calls for Pope Benedict's sainthood make canonizing popes seem like the norm – but it's a long and politically fraught process

Jan 26, 2023 12:06 pm UTC| Insights & Views

Like many others around the world, I watched the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI live on the internet. Before the service began, an unexpected announcement came over the loudspeakers requesting that members of the...

Ukraine war: why Zelensky's corruption purge could be key to the outcome of the conflict

Jan 26, 2023 12:06 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has announced a sweeping clear-out of senior national and regional government officials and the appointment of a new supervisory board for the state-owned natural gas giant,...

The Doomsday Clock is now at 90 seconds to midnight — the closest we have ever been to global catastrophe

Jan 26, 2023 12:00 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature

On Jan. 24, history was again made when the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists organization moved the seconds hand of the Doomsday Clock closer to midnight. It is now at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been...

Free online courses could be a path to higher education in African countries but awareness is low

Jan 26, 2023 12:00 pm UTC| Insights & Views

Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the largest regions in the world and has the lowest rates of participation in higher education anywhere in the world. The World Bank reported in 2020 that only 9.4% of the regions tertiary...

The SAT and ACT are less important than you might think

Jan 26, 2023 11:59 am UTC| Insights & Views Life

College admission tests are becoming a thing of the past. More than 80% of U.S. colleges and universities do not require applicants to take standardized tests like the SAT or the ACT. That proportion of institutions...

Should Australia let Kanye West in?

Jan 26, 2023 11:54 am UTC| Insights & Views Entertainment

Just one year after then-Immigration Minister Alex Hawke moved to expel tennis star Novak Djokovic from Australia on character grounds, his Labor successor, Andrew Giles, is faced with another controversial visitor in the...