Nishimura Mako: A unique journey of identity for the only woman invited to join the notorious yakuza
By Martina Baradel, Marie Curie postdoctoral researcher, University of Oxford Nishimura Mako is a petite woman in her late fifties, with flowing hair and a delicate face. But you soon notice that she is no traditional Japanese lady, she is tattooed up to her neck and...
Machizukuri: How decorating Japanese manhole covers created a marketplace for nostalgia
By Martyn Smith, Lecturer in Japanese Studies, University of Sheffield Visitors to Japan are usually primed to look up at the vast skyscrapers, the ornate temple gates, the traditional timber-framed guesthouses. Those who look down at their feet, though, might have...
Airstrike on aid workers: World Central Kitchen provides food to save lives but pays a price in blood
“This was not just a bad luck situation where ‘oops’ we dropped the bomb in the wrong place. This was over an area of 1.5, 1.8 kilometers, involving a very defined humanitarian convoy that had signs in the top, on the roof, a very colorful logo that we are...
Long-private video of Hank Aaron’s 715th home run shared by Atlanta Braves fan after 50 years
Charlie Russo had an unbelievable view of Hank Aaron’s record-breaking 715th home run. Fifty years later, he is ready to share it with the world. The 81-year-old Russo released his long-private video of the moment Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s record on April 8,...
Great Replacement Theory: How a conspiracy evolved from a series of false ideas to spread hate
By Rodney Coates, Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Miami University The “great replacement theory,” whose origins date back to the late 19th century, argues that Jews and some Western elites are conspiring to replace white Americans and Europeans with...
Luke Waldo: A Journey through India and its lessons of social connectedness for Milwaukee
“Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being.” – Mahatma Gandhi “India is the world’s oldest continuous civilization.” I heard this thought-provoking statement a number of times when I traveled to India...
Semiconductor supply chain rattled by disruption after strongest earthquake in 25 years hits Taiwan
The strongest earthquake in a quarter-century rocked Taiwan during the morning rush hour on April 3, killing nine people, stranding dozens of workers at quarries and sending some residents scrambling out the windows of damaged buildings. The quake, which also injured...
The Chinese Century: How the United States has overestimated the rise of China and its power
By Dan Murphy, Executive Director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Harvard Kennedy School Which country is the greatest threat to the United States? The answer, according to a large proportion of Americans, is clear: China. Half of all...
Financial exploitation: Federal plan to drop overdraft fees to as low as $3 faces rebuff from banks
The cost to overdraw a bank account could drop to as little as $3 under a proposal announced by the White House, the latest move by the Biden administration to combat fees it says pose an unnecessary burden on American consumers, particularly those living paycheck to...
Defenders of Irpin honored at Bucha memorial on second anniversary of the liberation of Kyiv region
On the second anniversary of the liberation of Kyiv region from Russian invaders, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took part in the raising of the State Flag of Ukraine on the flagpole of the Memorial to the Defenders of the Bucha Community. By the end of March 2022,...
Wisconsin voters set to decide on Republican-backed ballot measures aimed to restrict voting rights
Wisconsin voters are set to decide whether to make it unconstitutional to accept private grant money to help administer state elections, one of two Republican-backed ballot measures that Democrats say are meant to make it harder to conduct elections in the...
Punishing the poor: Study examines the relationships between jail conditions and jail deaths
By Jessica L. Adler, Associate Professor of History, Florida International University The family of Samuel Lawrence, one of 10 people to die in Georgia’s Fulton County Jail in 2023, is fighting for answers and accountability. “I got to think about him every day of my...
