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Music designer Linda Feki in Naples, Italy, on July 12
WORLD / Society
Aug 7, 2024

Italy's abortion divisions sharpen under Meloni's leadership

A musician from Naples, Italy, recalls her experience seeking an abortion after her online post about it drew support and criticism.
U.S. Vice President and 2024 Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, and her just-announced running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, greet supporters on Tuesday at Temple University in Philadelphia, the first day of their "Battleground State Tour."
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 7, 2024

Harris VP pick is a regular guy — exactly what she needs

Walz is the perfect counterbalance to Harris. He brings deep experience as a governor, House contacts as a former congressman and an everyman back story.
In recent years, the number of ambulance dispatches has been on the rise, amid concerns that those who need urgent care may not be receiving it.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 7, 2024

Japan municipalities take tougher stance on nonurgent ambulance calls

The proliferation of nonurgent calls and related requests for ambulances have been giving local municipalities a headache.
Australia today is running aggressive recruitment campaigns to attract Kiwis to work in sectors like health care, early childhood education, police and prisons, tempting them with higher wages and relocation packages.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 8, 2024

Fed-up New Zealanders are flocking to Australia for better pay

Some 44,534 New Zealanders, almost 1% of the nation’s population of 5 million, left to live in Australia in 2023.
A bulletin board shows the day's highest temperature in Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture, on July 29.
JAPAN / Boiling Point
Aug 8, 2024

From Naha to Nemuro, how Japan’s cities are responding to more heat

Municipalities are reaching for everything from automated misting systems to anime to help cool residents and educate them about the risks of heat.
Blistering heat is becoming a fixture of summer in Japan, but a few tweaks to your routine can make your outdoor runs bearable — if not enjoyable — until cooler temperatures return.
LIFE / Lifestyle / Boiling Point
Aug 10, 2024

Ice bandanas, convenience store breaks: Running under Japan’s summer sun

There are easily affordable ways to work some more cooling elements into your runs.
Palestinians survey the damage after an Israeli strike on a school where people were sheltering on Saturday in Gaza City.
WORLD
Aug 11, 2024

Israeli strikes on schools pose a life-or-death choice for civilians

Missile attacks on school grounds appear to reflect a shift in the Israeli military's strategy for driving Hamas out of Gaza.
Stuart McDonald, a fifth-generation farmer, searches for freshly planted seeds coated with Loam Bio’s fungal treatment, near Canowindra, Australia, on April 24.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 12, 2024

Australian farmers are betting on fungi to battle climate change

Fungi act as nature’s carbon traders, pulling it from the roots of plants and giving the plant nutrients in return.
People rest outside Matadero cultural center during the fourth heatwave of the summer in Madrid on Sunday.
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 12, 2024

Experts are fighting over whether to give heat waves names

The arguments against naming heat waves aren’t so removed from the arguments in favor: Heat is complicated, and its threat level tricky to generalize.
Former Kobayashi Pharmaceutical President Akihiro Kobayashi, currently director in charge of compensation, speaks during a news conference in Osaka earlier this month.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 14, 2024

Chinese shoppers’ infatuation with Japanese brands wears thin

The backlash is reminiscent of last year’s outcry over the Fukushima wastewater release
The parliament building in Tokyo. With concerns about summer heat rising and many elections taking place in summertime, it may not be tenable to conduct campaigns as in the past given health risks to candidates, their staff and voters.
JAPAN / Politics / Boiling Point
Aug 17, 2024

Hotter summers pose a threat to Japan's tradition of stump speeches

Balancing health concerns with legal restrictions as well as candidates' desire to be as publicly visible as possible, even in super hot weather, might be tricky.
U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks at the Hendrick Center for Automotive Excellence on the Scott Northern Wake Campus of Wake Tech Community College in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 17, 2024

Harris touts plan for 'opportunity economy’ in voter pitch

The plan represented the first major policy rollout of Harris’ nascent campaign, and looked to attack one of her greatest liabilities.
Medical professionals and students participate in a silent march as they condemn the rape and murder of a doctor, in Kolkata on Aug. 15.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Aug 21, 2024

'Abuse every day': Female medics in India speak out after brutal murder

The rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata cast a spotlight on the chronic issue of violence against women and the failure to provide safe working conditions for them.
Foreigners account for more than 10% of the population in countries such as the United States, Canada and Australia. Despite an expected decline in births, their populations may continue to grow for some time due to their ability to attract immigrants.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 23, 2024

The rich world’s immigration conundrum

Fourteen high-income countries have shown how immigration can help offset declining fertility rates and maintain population levels.
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 banner is displayed by Northern Ireland fans in protest against the redevelopment of Casement Park for use in Euro 2028, at Windsor Park in Belfast last October.
SOCCER
Aug 24, 2024

Derelict stadium for Euro 2028 highlights Belfast’s bitter divide

The issue is stirring up old divisions and proving to be an early headache for the Labour government.
Mosquitoes under a microscope in a lab at Sahmyook University in Seoul on July 24
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Aug 27, 2024

As the world warms, South Korea's latest border threat is mosquitoes

Climate change, especially warmer springs and heavier rainfall, could bring more mosquito-borne diseases to North and South Korea.
A mother applies medication on the skin of her child who is under treatment for mpox, an infectious disease that causes a painful rash, enlarged lymph nodes and a fever, at a health center in the Congo on Aug. 19.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 29, 2024

Africa's mpox response is less than 10% funded, says Africa CDC

All of Africa is under pressure to curb an outbreak of mpox, a potentially deadly infection.
Pope Francis arrives at the weekly general audience at the Vatican on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 29, 2024

Pope Francis takes climate message to Southeast Asia on 12-day trip

It will be the longest trip yet by Pope Francis, who now regularly uses a wheelchair due to knee and back pain.
A Palestinian boy who contracted polio a month ago sleeps surrounded by family members in their displacement tent in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
WORLD
Aug 30, 2024

Israel and Hamas pause Gaza fighting for polio vaccinations, WHO says

The vaccination campaign is due to start on Sunday, with the pauses scheduled to take place between 6 a.m. and 3 p.m.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's public search facility in Alexandria, Virginia
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 30, 2024

U.S. funded over 1,000 patents for China-based researchers, data shows

The U.S. patent data could amplify calls to cancel or renegotiate the landmark U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement.
Patients wait for medical treatment in Incheon, South Korea, on April 23.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Sep 3, 2024

South Korea denies hospital emergency rooms collapsing as army doctors deployed

The government will send 15 military doctors to hard-hit emergency rooms and rotate 235 military and community doctors into troubled hospitals starting Sept. 9.
A welcome message for Pope Francis is displayed on an electric billboard at a roundabout in Jakarta on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 3, 2024

Pope heads to Indonesia as the first stop of his four-nation tour

The tour — the longest and farthest of his 11 years leading the worldwide Catholic Church — will test Pope Francis' increasingly fragile health.
A voter casts a mail-in ballot at a drop box outside the Maricopa County Recorder and Elections Department's southeast Mesa office during the Arizona state primary election in Mesa, Arizona, on July 30.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 6, 2024

U.S. election prompts cities to get a grip on fake news

Local officials are increasingly forced to address false information about public health, migration, and urban planning strategies, which intensify during polls.
People take part in a demonstration against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government in Tel Aviv on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 8, 2024

Gaza war in its 12th month with truce hopes slim

According to the United Nations human rights office, most of the dead are women and children.
Plaintiffs in a lawsuit seeking recognition as atomic bomb victims hold up a sign saying "Partial victory" in Nagasaki on Monday, after the Nagasaki District Court recognized some of them as hibakusha.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 10, 2024

Nagasaki court recognizes some plaintiffs as A-bomb victims

The court ordered the issuing of atomic bomb survivor's certificates to 15 of the 44 plaintiffs in the lawsuit, four of whom have already died.
The U.S. Capitol in Washington on Sunday
WORLD / Politics
Sep 10, 2024

U.S. House passes bill to blacklist some China biotech firms

China hawks in the U.S. House passed legislation that would blacklist Chinese biotech companies and their U.S. subsidiaries.
A displaced women stands in front of her tent, which was damaged by an Israeli strike, in the central Gaza Strip on Thursday.
WORLD
Sep 10, 2024

Dozens killed and wounded as Israeli conducts strike on Gaza tent camp

At least 65 people had been killed or wounded, the enclave's civil emergency service said, as Israel's military said it had targeted a Hamas command center.
Palestinians look at the destruction following Israeli airstrikes in the humanitarian zone known as Mawasi, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 11, 2024

Israel offers Hamas leader safe exit from Gaza in a bid to end the war

A senior Israeli official said he put the offer of safe passage on the table for Hamas a day and a half ago but declined to characterize the response so far.
Elderly pachinko players at Day Service Las Vegas, a casino-themed day care service in Yokohama, in August
JAPAN / Society
Sep 11, 2024

Pachinko-style gambling is helping seniors’ brains in Japan

Bolstered by evidence that playing the pinball machines can help prevent dementia, some businesses are now tailoring services in a bid to revive growth.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past