Tag - iran

 
Menu
Search
 
July 04, 2026
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

IRAN

A High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) conducts live-fire missions during "Operation Epic Fury" at an undisclosed location earlier this month in this U.S. Army image released on Friday.
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Mar 14, 2026
Iran unleashes oil shock to blunt U.S. firepower
With the Gulf’s main export artery in the crosshairs, Tehran has turned the region’s greatest economic asset into its most powerful deterrent.
About a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas normally passes through the Strait of Hormuz, where traffic has dropped by 97% since the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran began on Feb. 28, according to United Nations data.
BUSINESS / Economy / EXPLAINER
Mar 14, 2026
Why is it so easy for Iran to shut the Strait of Hormuz?
About a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas normally passes through the strait, where traffic has dropped by 97% since the Iran conflict began.
Former U.S. Federal Reserve Gov. Kevin Warsh speaks during a monetary policy conference at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution in Palo Alto, California, in May last year.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 14, 2026
Warsh’s room to move at the Fed may narrow in a war-clouded outlook
Despite moves by major nations to release stockpiled oil reserves, the price of benchmark Brent Crude meanwhile remained near $100 a barrel on Friday.
An Iranian woman reacts as she takes part in the Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day rally, a commemoration in support of the Palestinian people on the last Friday of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, in Tehran.
WORLD
Mar 14, 2026
With Iran war exit elusive, Trump aides vie to affect outcome
U.S. officials and advisors are debating when and how to declare victory even as the conflict spreads across the Middle East.
A satellite image shows an oil terminal at Kharg Island, Iran, in February
WORLD
Mar 14, 2026
U.S. hits military targets on Iran’s Kharg Island as war escalates
President Donald Trump said the U.S. had bombed military targets on a critical Iranian outpost and threatened more strikes if Tehran continued to block energy flows.
A U.S. Air Force KC-135 at a base in Spain in August 2021
WORLD
Mar 13, 2026
Four confirmed killed in crash of refueling aircraft in Iraq, U.S. military says
The tanker crashed in an incident on Thursday involving another aircraft, which managed to land safely.
A beach off Gujarat, India, on Wednesday with a tanker carrying Russian oil in the background
WORLD
Mar 13, 2026
U.S. eases Russia oil sanctions to tame price surge, riling European allies
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the waiver was a bid to stabilize global energy markets roiled by the Iran war.
Trade minister Ryosei Akazawa said at a news conference in Tokyo on Friday that there is no restriction on oil from Japan's national reserves being sold overseas if the drawdown exceeds domestic demand.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 13, 2026
Japan to sell oil from national reserves at pre-Iran war prices
The government “expects refiners that purchase crude at low prices won’t then sell their products at higher prices and pocket the profit.”
Plumes of smoke rise from an oil storage facility after overnight strikes by U.S. and Israeli forces in Tehran on Sunday.
EDITORIALS
Mar 13, 2026
Japan and the world scramble amid the Iran conflict
Iran is undeterred and is widening the war, attacking regional targets to disrupt energy markets generally.
A tanker sails in the Gulf near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday. Oil prices have jumped more than 9% to $100 a barrel as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran widens.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 13, 2026
U.S. will ‘make a lot of money’ from high oil price, Trump says
Oil prices have jumped more than 9% to $100 a barrel as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran widens, with two crude tankers blazing in an Iraqi port Thursday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a news conference at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Dec. 5, 2025.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 13, 2026
Putin’s ‘hidden hand’ guides Iran’s strikes in widening war
Moscow is currently providing Tehran with various forms of intelligence in an effort to help Iran hit back at U.S. forces in the region.
The aftermath of an Israeli military strike on Tehran's Evin Prison is seen here on June 29, nearly a week after the hostilities ceased.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 13, 2026
Japan should urge Iran to release people in detention
A Japanese government spokesperson has confirmed that Iranian authorities detained a Japanese national on Jan. 20 and Tokyo has been urging Tehran to release them.
U.N. Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism Ben Saul speaks during a news conference at the European headquarters of the U.N. in Geneva on Dec. 11, 2024.
WORLD
Mar 13, 2026
World in ‘new dark age’ of abuse, U.N. rights expert says
Ben Saul said the war in the Middle East would not improve global security.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz listens to Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia as he addresses the United Nations Security Council during a meeting on a sanctions resolution regarding the situation in Iran and the Middle East at U.N. headquarters in New York on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 13, 2026
U.S. and allies clash with Russia and China over Iran nuclear program
At a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, Russia and China moved unsuccessfully to block a discussion about a committee on U.N. sanctions on Iran.
A schoolgirl holds up a poster of Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, during an anti-U.S. and Israel demonstration in Baghdad on Thursday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 13, 2026
Both sides trade strikes and threats as the Iran war approaches the two-week mark
U.S. President Donald Trump derided Iran's leaders as “deranged scumbags” and said it was his great honor to kill them as the war in the Middle East approached the two-week mark on Friday with heavy exchanges of drone and missile strikes across the region.
A tanker passes through the Strait of Hormuz. U.K. officials stated Thursday that they believe Iran is laying mines in the Strait.
WORLD
Mar 13, 2026
Iran has likely begun laying mines in Strait of Hormuz, U.K. says
The narrowness of the Strait of Hormuz makes the danger of sea mines more acute, as ships have less room to maneuver and greater odds of striking one of the weapons.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that regime change in Iran cannot be guaranteed without an internal uprising.
WORLD
Mar 13, 2026
Netanyahu says no guarantee of Iran regime change after war
Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader, has said in a statement that Tehran will look to open other fronts in the war if the U.S. and Israel persist with their attacks.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi answers questions during a Lower House Budget Committee meeting on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 12, 2026
Japan not planning to send minesweepers to Middle East, Takaichi says
The prime minister said that while details about the use of sea mines are unclear, Japan wouldn’t be able to get involved in mine clearance as long as the conflict continues.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance salutes as members of a U.S. Army team carry a flag-draped transfer case containing the remains of Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington, 26, of Glendale, Kentucky, during a dignified transfer solemn event at Dover Air Force Base, in Dover, Delaware, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 12, 2026
Vance treads Iran tightrope with an eye on 2028
A former U.S. Marine, Vice President JD Vance has built a political brand as a noninterventionist who wanted to keep the United States out of anymore long, foreign wars.
Tankers in the Persian Gulf near the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 12, 2026
Japan promises 80 million barrels of oil to support 400 million-barrel global intervention
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi announced the commitment hours before the IEA announced the unprecedented coordinated effort by 32 nations.
‘My dream is broken’: Japan visa rules push out foreign residents
A man orders from a kebab shop in the Okubo district in Tokyo.
Japan triples departure tax in push to combat overtourism
Tourists in Yanaka Ginza, Tokyo, on Wednesday. Japan tripled its International Tourist Tax (departure tax) to ¥3,000 from ¥1,000 on Wednesday for all travelers leaving Japan, regardless of nationality.
Japanese-language education is at a turning point
The country is gradually transforming Japanese-language education from a volunteer-driven system into a professional, government-supported network to better serve its growing foreign population. 
Japan’s princesses face life-altering legal revisions
Princess Aiko, the daughter of Emperor Naruhito, said in a 2022 news conference upon coming of age that she hopes to “spend a long time together” with her parents.
Japan plans to sharply raise fees for residence permits from October
Foreign tourists walk on the path leading to the Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in May.
Iran war exposed, but hasn’t changed, Japan’s reliance on imported oil
Wind turbines generate energy from strong easterly winds on the Shonai Plain in Yamagata Prefecture. Despite the oil crisis caused by conflict near the Strait of Hormuz, and concerns instability in the region could continue to impact supply and the price of imports, the administration of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi does not seem to be drawing on the war as a pretext to hasten progress toward Japan's renewable goals.
Six of the best: rikishi of note in each sumo division
Kazuma (right) faces off against future <i>yokozuna</i> Onosato during the All Japan Amateur Sumo Championships at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in December 2020.
Some startups see opportunity in an aging Japan
Yasmin Baba, CTO of Amilis, wins the Grand Prize at the Pitch2Tokyo Grand Final on Feb. 19.
Japan’s fertility system offers few safe paths for same-sex couples
A Tokyo Pride parade participant holds a sign that says "we want to be a married couple, not a couple."
Life inside Japan’s largest prison for women
Western-style rooms spanning the size of four tatami mats with hardwood floors, a toilet and soft mattresses on bed frames are designated for foreign nationals and those with health conditions at Tochigi Prison.

Podcast

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

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

New Logistics Consortium baton to accelerate trucking efficiency
New Logistics Consortium baton to accelerate trucking efficiency

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER