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July 12, 2025
 

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Jennifer Rigby
The World Health Organization has backed tobacco taxes and price rises for decades, and has called for taxes on alcohol and sugary drinks in recent years, but this is the first time it has suggested a target price rise for all three products.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 4, 2025
WHO pushes countries to raise prices on sugary drinks, alcohol and tobacco by 50%
The move by the United Nations health agency is the strongest backing yet for taxes to help tackle chronic public health problems.
Bill Gates, who pledged on Thursday to give away almost his entire personal wealth in the next two decades and said the world's poorest would receive some $200 billion via his foundation, during an interview in New York City, on Thursday
BUSINESS
May 9, 2025
Bill Gates says Musk is 'killing' world's poorest children by cutting aid
Bill Gates has pledged to give away $200 billion via his charitable foundation by 2045.
A scientific officer works in the research lab at the University of Cape Town's Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, in Cape Town, South Africa on Feb. 17.
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 28, 2025
Services to millions of people collapse as USAID cuts contracts worldwide
Among those to get termination notices were major U.N. health programs, which might have different sources of funding, and smaller groups that relied mostly on U.S. grants.
Orphans and children separated from their parents in Kadugli gather to eat boiled leaves at a camp within the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North controlled area in Boram County, Sudan, on June 22, 2024.
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 4, 2025
Millions of malnourished children face lifelong health woes
Famines and other food crises can leave an entire generation with physical and cognitive deficits, experts warn.
Shannon Turner, who is often in and out of the hospital due to waterfall effects related to the interplay between long COVID, psoriatic arthritis, antiphospholipid antibody syndrome and autoimmune diseases, sits up on a hospital bed in Philadelphia, in May 2023.
WORLD / Science & Health
Nov 15, 2024
Many long COVID patients adjust to slim recovery odds as world moves on
Recent scientific studies suggest the longer someone is sick, the lower their chances of making a full recovery.
A woman shows a health worker the mpox lesions on her child at the Munigi mpox treatment center in Nyiragongo territory, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 27, 2024
African scientists ‘working blindly’ to respond to fast-changing mpox strain
The numerous unknowns about the virus itself, its severity and how it is transmitting, is complicating the response.
Health workers and patients in a ward for women infected with mpox at a hospital in Bujumbura, Burundi, on Thursday.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 23, 2024
WHO says partners can start talks to buy mpox vaccines before its approval
Traditionally, organizations like Gavi, which helps lower-income countries buy vaccines, can only start purchasing shots once they have approval from the WHO.
A child receives an oral Malaria vaccine in Lilongwe, Malawi.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 15, 2024
Rising conflicts globally slowed childhood vaccination rate in 2023, U.N. says
About 14.5 million children failed to get vaccinated in 2023, compared with 13.9 million a year earlier, according to U.N. estimates.
A man is inoculated with a COVID-19 vaccine in New Hyde Park, New York, in September 2023.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 26, 2024
COVID and beyond: Labs unite to boost genomic surveillance globally
Teams at two facilities said they were worried governments and funders may pull back from such surveillance.
Desi Permatasari, 32, comforts her daughter, Sheena Almaera Maryam, 5, who was prescribed contaminated cough syrup last year in their home in Bogor, Indonesia.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Dec 24, 2023
When children take toxic cough syrup — and live
In Indonesia, one of the places most impacted by the contamination, families struggle to care for survivors while taking action against those responsible.
People wait in line to take a COVID-19 oral swab test on a sidewalk in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City on June 20.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 25, 2023
Highly mutated COVID variant BA.2.86 found in two more countries
Omicron offshoot BA.2.86 carries more than 35 mutations in key portions of the virus compared with XBB.1.5, the dominant variant through most of 2023.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 27, 2023
COVAX vaccine initiative has $2.6 billion left to spend as pandemic recedes
The initiative is set to wind up at the end of this year, although some of its work will continue.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 30, 2023
Mystery middleman may offer clues to Indian-made cough syrup deaths
The deaths of more than 70 Gambian children from acute kidney Injury were linked by global health officials to cough syrups made in India.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health / FOCUS
Mar 20, 2023
Vaccine-makers prep bird flu shot for humans 'just in case'
One current outbreak of avian flu has killed a record number of birds and infected mammals, but human cases remain rare.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 28, 2022
COVID disrupted measles vaccinations in Africa and now cases are surging
After what health experts call the biggest backslide in a generation, 26 large or disruptive measles outbreaks have sprung up worldwide.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 9, 2022
Long COVID's link to suicide: Scientists warn of hidden crisis
Long COVID is a complex medical condition that can be hard to diagnose as it has a range of more than 200 symptoms — some of which can resemble other illnesses.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 17, 2022
WHO vows nothing 'ridiculous' as public submits ideas to rename monkeypox
Often disease names are chosen behind closed doors by a technical committee, but this time the WHO has decided to open up the process to the public.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 31, 2022
Inside the super-secure Swiss lab trying to stop the next pandemic
Spiez Laboratory was tasked last year by the WHO to be the first in a global network of high-security laboratories that will grow, store and share newly discovered microbes.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health / FOCUS
Jul 27, 2022
Monkeypox emergency could last months, with window closing to stop spread, experts say
Making predictions are complex, scientists around the world said, but with cases doubling every two weeks, sustained transmission is likely to last several months and possibly longer.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 18, 2022
Years of neglect leaves sexual health clinics ill-prepared for monkeypox
The clinics on the front line of fighting the disease are financially stretched, leaving the U.S. and U.K. ill-equipped to tackle the first major global health test since the pandemic.
Tokyo hit by torrential rainfall at rush hour
People line up at Shibuya Station in Tokyo as they try to avoid the heavy rain on Thursday.
Foreign drivers in Japan to face tougher license conversion rules from October
According to the National Police Agency, there were 75,905 people who converted their foreign driver’s license to a Japanese one in 2024, up from 48,885 in 2019.
Chinese fighters came within 30 meters of Japanese spy aircraft, Tokyo says
A Chinese JH-7 fighter jet makes an near an Air Self-Defense Force YS-11EB surveillance aircraft over the East China Sea this week in this image released Thursday.
Air India crash report to offer peek into last seconds
Members of the Indian Army's engineering arm prepare to remove the wreckage of an Air India aircraft in Ahmedabad on June 14.
What Japanese politics could look like after Upper House election
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who heads the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (center) waves to attendees as he departs after delivering a campaign speech in Yokohama on Sunday.
New IG Arena set to dial down temperature at Nagoya Basho, in a good way
With IG Arena getting glowing early reviews as the Nagoya Basho’s replacement venue, it may be a while before fans wax nostalgic about the Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium.
Once a niche, anime is now mainstream content for Netflix and other streaming services
Though Netflix remains the dominant choice globally for anime viewers, Amazon Prime Video has also invested heavily in anime, steadily adding titles to their catalogue.
NGOs condemn rise in anti-immigrant rhetoric ahead of Upper House vote
Sanseito head Sohei Kamiya holds a board that reads "Japanese First" in Tokyo on July 2. In a joint statement on Tuesday, eight human rights nongovernmental organizations described the far-right party's stance as "hate speech."
Japanese dancers find a home abroad at Houston Ballet
“Giselle” lead Yuriko Kajiya (center), performing with Connor Walsh as Albrecht, is one of six Japanese dancers at Houston Ballet.
From the Abes to the Ohtanis: How siblings shape athletic development
Olympic judoka Uta Abe (second from left) and Hifumi Abe (second from right) with their brother Yuichiro (center) and their parents. “I’m always consciously trying to be a good older brother,” Yuichiro said.

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