author

 
Menu
Search
 
July 04, 2026
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

Meta

Byron Kaye
Elon Musk at a federal courthouse for his lawsuit with OpenAI, in Oakland, California, on April 30. In a separate case in Australia, a court upheld a regulator's fine against Musk's social media company X after it failed to supply information to regulators in line with online child protection measures.
BUSINESS
May 21, 2026
Elon Musk’s X loses Australia child protection compliance lawsuit
The ‌eSafety regulator, a frequent target of online attacks by ​Musk, fined the company in October 2023, beginning the nearly three-year dispute.
Campaign signs depicting One Nation candidate David Farley and controversial former Australian Army officer Ben Roberts-Smith are displayed outside a pre-polling center ahead of a by-election in Albury, Australia, on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 7, 2026
As Trump-adjacent populism surges in Australia, wealthy donors join in
Encouraged by Australia’s richest person, some of the country’s wealthiest donors are shifting support from the conservative establishment to an anti-immigration outsider party.
A month after Australia's social media ban took effect, the government reported in mid-January that 4.7 million suspected underage ⁠accounts had been deactivated.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Apr 3, 2026
Under global spotlight, Australia plays hardball on social media ban
The Australian government is pleased with the overseas interest in the ban, but is also keen ‌to counter the news that many teens are still scrolling on their phones, experts say.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese delivers an address to the nation over the Iran crisis on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Apr 2, 2026
Australia hits gambling advertising, but advocates say not hard enough
The government’s attempt to appease public health concerns are falling short of measures recommended ​by its own inquiry.
Australian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant speaks during an interview in Sydney on Dec. 10.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 9, 2026
Australians reach for VPNs and find porn sites blocked as age restrictions take effect
Last December, Australia became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media.
An Emirates plane with German tourists evacuated from the Middle East arrives from Dubai, in Frankfurt, Germany, on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 4, 2026
Airline and travel industries scramble with fallout from Middle Eastern conflict
Gulf hubs such as Dubai, the world’s busiest international airport, remained closed or severely restricted for a fourth day, leaving tens of thousands stranded.
A woman grieves at a floral memorial in honor of the victims of Sunday's mass shooting targeting a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach, in Sydney, Australia, on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal / ANALYSIS
Dec 17, 2025
Australia’s gun laws riddled with loopholes and workarounds, experts say
Tweaks by some states since laws were introduced in the wake of a mass shooting in 1996 have relaxed the oversight of the patchwork system.
Workers at a site of a new Amazon data center that is under construction in western Sydney, Australia, on Sept. 5
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 16, 2025
In Australia, a data center boom is built on vague water plans
Concerns have emerged that the sector’s rapid growth will leave residents competing for the resource.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Jul 30, 2025
Australia adds YouTube to teen social media ban, tearing up exemption
The country’s internet regulator cited a survey that found 37% of minors reported seeing harmful content on the site.
Qantas Airlines Boeing 737 planes sit at the Sydney airport domestic terminal on Tuesday. Qantas said on Wednesday that 6 million customer accounts were accessed in a cyber hack.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 2, 2025
Australia’s Qantas says 6 million customer accounts accessed in cyber hack
The breach, Australia’s biggest in years, is a setback for an airline looking to rebuild trust after a reputational crisis.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, his partner Jodie Haydon and chairman and Board President of Tennis Australia, Jayne Hrdlicka, in the stands before the Australian Open final on Jan, 28, 2024
WORLD / Politics
Apr 16, 2025
Australian politicians gifted sports tickets while weighing betting ban
Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had promised a crackdown on gambling advertising following a 2023 report by his government.
A woman walks past campaign posters depicting Watson candidates Dr. Ziad Basyouny, an independent, and Tony Bourke, of Labor, in Lakemba, Australia, on March 12.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 8, 2025
Bringing the war home: Gaza threatens to reshape an Australian election
The ruling Labor party, which has a razor-thin majority, is vulnerable in several seats where pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel voters make up a large proportion of the electorate.
Rolled steel is stored at a Hyundai Steel plant in Dangjin, South Korea, in 2011.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 13, 2025
South Korean steelmakers eye U.S. investments as Trump tariffs kick in
Posco and Hyundai Steel say investments in operations in the U.S. are among their options. Meanwhile, European steel mills warn of a flood of surplus metal.
From late 2025, platforms including Meta's Instagram, Elon Musk's X, TikTok and Snapchat must show Australians they are taking reasonable steps to keep out users under 16 or face fines up to 49.5 million Australian dollars ($32 million).
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal / ANALYSIS
Nov 29, 2024
Australia looks for ways to enforce its teen social media ban
From late 2025, social media platforms including Instagram, X, TikTok and Snapchat must show Australians they are taking reasonable steps to keep out users under 16.
The Social Media Minimum Age bill sets Australia up as a test case for a growing number of governments which have legislated or said they plan to legislate an age restriction on social media amid concern about its mental health impact on young people.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Nov 29, 2024
Australia passes social media ban for children under 16
The law forces tech giants to prevent minors from logging in or face fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars.
Nearly two-thirds of parents of Australian teenagers reported concerns about their children's social media use, according to a 2024 survey by youth service ReachOut.
WORLD / Society
Oct 16, 2024
Australia’s planned social media ban raises teen isolation fears
For teenagers from migrant, LGBTQIA+ and other minority backgrounds, an age block could cut off access to essential social support.
Liquor store P&V Wine + Liquor Merchants owner Louise Dowling
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 6, 2024
Cash-strapped consumers are giving Australia’s liquor makers a headache
Australia’s alcohol industry is in its sharpest downturn in memory as more people cut back on discretionary spending and turn to healthier ways to relax.
Quantas will pay out AU$20 million between more than 86,000 customers who booked tickets on the so-called "ghost flights" and pay an AU$100 million fine instead of defending the lawsuit that it had previously vowed to fight.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 6, 2024
Australia’s Qantas to pay $79 million to settle flight cancellation case
The fine is the biggest ever for an Australian airline and among the largest globally in the sector.
Canada has become ground zero for Facebook's battle with governments regarding laws that force internet giants to pay media companies for links to news published on their platforms.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 15, 2024
When Facebook blocks news, studies show the political risks that follow
The blocking of news links has led to changes in the way Canadian Facebook users engage with information about politics, two unpublished studies found.
The central business district in Melbourne in 2016
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 2, 2023
Australians fight for the right to work from home permanently
While remote work spells pain for investors in bricks and mortar, employees can only see benefits: “It just helps get through life a little bit easier.”
‘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

Digital marketer Netyear zeros in on generative AI
Digital marketer Netyear zeros in on generative AI

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER