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June 30, 2026
 

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SMOG

Rohit Kushwaha waits for a customer as he delivers his last parcel of the day, in New Delhi in January. His work as a delivery driver has helped pay the family’s bills, but has had a significant impact on his health.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET
Jun 28, 2026
India’s gig workers pay the price for exposure to New Delhi’s hazardous air
The country’s e-commerce industry runs on the efforts of millions of gig workers, but their health is at stake as Indian cities struggle to improve air quality.
Beth Gutzler views air quality data on the AirWatchSTL website on a laptop in Florissant, Missouri, in February. Last year, metro St. Louis residents had "good" air to breathe during only one-third of the days of the year.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Apr 10, 2026
How the AI boom derailed clean‑air efforts in one of America’s most polluted cities
Trump’s environmental rollbacks in support of AI mark ​a reversal in U.S. policy and have proven painful for America’s clean air activists.
Pedestrians walk along an overpass as traffic snarls in Beijing on Feb. 11.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Feb 17, 2026
China has slashed air pollution, but the ‘war’ isn’t over
In much of the country, the air remains dangerous to breathe by World Health Organization standards.
An aerial view of a cleared patch of the Shakarparian forest in Islamabad. Trees across Islamabad are being felled for infrastructure and even military monuments, prompting local anger and lawsuits.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Feb 8, 2026
Pakistan’s capital picks concrete over trees, angering residents
Trees are being felled across Islamabad for infrastructure and military monuments.
A family walks past the Akshardham temple, shrouded in heavy smog and air pollution, in New Delhi on Dec. 19.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Jan 2, 2026
Delhi’s worst air in years fuels anger in test for Modi’s party
In November and December, when pollution in New Delhi typically peaks, the air quality index was above 300 on 88% of days, the highest percentage since at least 2017.
A cyclist looks at the Montreal skyline on Aug. 3 as a smoky haze from wildfires blankets the city.
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 10, 2025
How Canadian wildfire smoke is jeopardizing health across North America
Canadian provinces have evacuated towns and struggled to contain the second-worst wildfire season in 30 years.
Air pollution is one of the most pressing health issues in India, where the country's 1.4 billion people breathe air exceeding the World Health Organization's guidelines for particulate matter.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health / ANALYSIS
May 8, 2025
Indian industries swap polluted air with each other in health fix
India’s 1.4 billion people breathe air exceeding the World Health Organization’s guidelines for particulate matter, which can cause severe health issues.
A layer of smog hangs over Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Mar 13, 2025
Mongolia’s children choke in toxic pollution
The toxic smog that settles over the Mongolian capital every winter has been a suffocating problem for more than a decade.
A worker adjusts an anti-smog dust suppression sprayer installed at a construction site in Lahore on Feb. 17. Tens of millions of Pakistanis spent at least four months breathing toxic air pollution 20 times above safe levels, in the worst winter smog season for several years.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Mar 12, 2025
‘Really suffocating’: Pakistan emerges from record smog season
Pakistan regularly ranks among the world’s most polluted countries, with Lahore often the most polluted megacity between November and February.
An Iranian couple sits in a park facing the Milad Tower in Tehran on Dec. 27.
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 3, 2025
Vanishing mountains: Winter air pollution smothers Iran
Iran’s capital Tehran frequently ranks among the world’s most polluted cities, says Swiss-based air quality monitoring company IQAir.
Thailand's Royal Rainmaking department takes part in an atmospheric modification mission to displace pollution by spraying icy water in the air over the outskirts of Bangkok.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Jan 27, 2025
Ice in the sky: Thailand’s fight against air pollution
The new technique of spraying dry ice or cold water into the air was first used last year and is still in its testing stages.
Smoke from the Pacific Palisades fire blankets the area in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Researchers see a growing health danger from the vast plumes of pollution spawned by wildfires like the ones devastating Los Angeles.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 12, 2025
Far from the Los Angeles fires, the deadly risks of smoke are intensifying
By some estimates, wildfire smoke causes as many as 675,000 premature deaths a year worldwide, as well as a range of serious health problems.
A farmer burns straw stubble after harvesting a paddy field on the outskirts of Jind in India's Haryana state on Nov. 26.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Dec 3, 2024
The farm fires helping to fuel India’s deadly air
Burning is a cheap way to clear fields for new crops, making it hard for farmers to shift to other methods despite the consequences.
The New Delhi skyline engulfed in heavy smog on Nov. 17
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Nov 24, 2024
Mounting economic costs of India’s killer smog
Smog in New Delhi this month contains more than 50 times the World Health Organization’s recommended limit of fine particulate matter.
Visitors walk along the ground-level pathway at the newly expanded Benjakitti Park in central Bangkok, where trees and wetlands now thrive on the site of a former cigarette factory.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
May 17, 2024
Big, smoggy Bangkok gets a badly needed breath of fresh air
In the heart of a megacity, an industrial site has been turned into an oasis for residents, as well as birds, bats and mosquito-eating dragonflies.
A commuter walks along an overpass in Jakarta.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Mar 20, 2024
Only 10 countries had healthy air quality in 2023, report finds
Sources of PM2.5 pollution vary widely, but the overwhelming cause is the burning of fossil fuels.
A housing development next to the Sasol’s petrochemicals plant in Sasolburg, South Africa.
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 2, 2024
What it’s like to live in the most polluted place on Earth
Coal and steel plants offer steady work for residents in South Africa’s Vaal Triangle, yet they’re also pumping out harmful emissions.
Traffic along a highway amid heavy smog and pollution in New Delhi in November
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Dec 7, 2023
As China enjoys cleaner air, India’s pollution struggle continues
Huge swaths of northern India choke on clouds of polluted air during winter as temperatures drop, winds disappear and farmers set fields ablaze.
A mother assists her child to breathe with the help of a nebuliser at the emergency ward of the government-run Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya children hospital in New Delhi on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Nov 10, 2023
‘Like breathing poison’: Delhi children hardest hit by smog
“Imagine telling a parent not to let their child go out and play in this toxic environment.”
Asep Muizudin Muhamad Darmini was recently discharged from a hospital in Jakarta after being treated for a respiratory illness caused by the city's air pollution.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Sep 13, 2023
Breathless Indonesians irate over pollution crisis in Jakarta
Air pollution is hardly a new phenomenon in the city, but monitors and activists say the effects have been even worse than usual this year.
Uruguay federation reportedly cancels charter flight after World Cup exit
Uruguay's Jose Maria Gimenez reacts after the team's loss against Spain at the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Friday.
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.
India’s gig workers pay the price for exposure to New Delhi’s hazardous air
Rohit Kushwaha waits for a customer as he delivers his last parcel of the day, in New Delhi in January. His work as a delivery driver has helped pay the family’s bills, but has had a significant impact on his health.
Chinese and Russian bombers and fighter jets stage joint patrol near Japan
A Chinese Air Force H-6 bomber is seen during a joint patrol with Russian military aircraft on Saturday.
U.S. missile moves in Japan send China clear message: A new era has arrived
Soldiers conduct the first Typhon midrange capability live-fire exercise outside of the continental United States, firing an SM-6 missile in July last year in Australia's Northern Territory during Exercise Talisman Sabre.
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."
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.
A French ship with close ties to Japan combines arts and sciences on the high seas
Romain Troublé, the executive director of Tara Ocean Foundation, speaks to visitors aboard the Tara during a rare port call in Tokyo in April.
In Kyushu’s far south, Senti.U sparks a culinary destination
Chef Yasuhiko Uchida was born in Saga Prefecture but has made his home in Kanoya, Kagoshima Prefecture, since 2012.
‘The colors speak for themselves’: How Japan’s chroma bible went global
“A Dictionary of Color Combinations” is meant to function as a quick-reference guide for artists, designers and anyone with a passing interest in aesthetics as a quantifiable pursuit.

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

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