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An Apple store in Beijing. The iPhone has increased its percentage of total smartphones sold around the world while expanding its share of sales in four of the world’s largest regions: China, Japan, Europe and India.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 12, 2023

As smartphone industry sputters, the iPhone expands its dominance

The iPhone has about one-fifth of the world’s smartphone sales, up from a low of 13% in 2019.
A health ministry worker fumigates a house to kill mosquitoes and curb the spread of dengue, chikungunya and Zika in Managua, Nicaragua.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Sep 13, 2023

What's in a mosquito bite? How warmer climates spread disease

Abundant water helps mosquitoes to breed, while more drought constrict the migratory birds' ecosystems, enabling some diseases to spread.
An injured earthquake survivor is carried into a military helicopter to be transported to a hospital after a deadly earthquake in Talat N'Yaaqoub, Morocco, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Society
Sep 13, 2023

Frustration mounts over Morocco earthquake aid as death toll rises

Villagers in devastated mountain areas voiced frustration at having received no help from the authorities.
A man stands next to a damaged car in Derna, after a powerful storm and heavy rainfall hit Libya on Tuesday.
WORLD / Society
Sep 13, 2023

Over 5,000 dead in Libya as dam collapses worsen flood disaster

Libya, a North African nation splintered by a war, was ill-prepared for the storm, which swept across the Mediterranean Sea to batter its coastline.
According to Justice Ministry statistics, about 20% of the inmates who ended up in prisons and other correctional facilities nationwide in 2021 were suspected of having intellectual disabilities.
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2023

'Osaka Model' for aiding disabled lawbreakers reaches crossroads

The "Osaka Model" for aiding lawbreakers with disabilities has reached a crossroads due to challenges with securing welfare and personnel.
A man rides his donkey to receive donations near the village of Ighil Ntalghoumt, Morocco on Monday.
WORLD / Society
Sep 14, 2023

Morocco quake survivors journey on donkeys to reach cut-off villages

Ordinary Moroccans have delivered many of the supplies reaching mountain villages. The rugged terrain and roads have made the official response patchy.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks to the media Wednesday after a closed-door Senate meeting on how artificial intelligence should be regulated.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 14, 2023

Tech leaders discuss AI policy in closed-door senate meeting

The meeting included a prestigious, and possibly combustible, mix of personalities with diverging views on how to write the rules for AI.
Members of rescue teams from the Egyptian army carry a body as they walk through mud between buildings destroyed by flooding in Derna, Libya, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Society
Sep 14, 2023

Libyan flood survivor recounts horror in Derna after dams burst

'We walked out barefoot and saw our friends and neighbors dying around us,' said Ruba Hatem Yassine. 'And we couldn’t do anything.'
The incoming and outgoing presidents of Johnny & Associates, Noriyuki Higashiyama and Julie Keiko Fujishima, bow at a press conference on Sept. 7.
PODCAST / deep dive
Sep 14, 2023

Johnny’s talent agency has admitted to a past of abuse. What next?

Karin Kaneko joins the show to update us on how the story is unfolding.
Tesla has combined a series of innovations to make a technological breakthrough that could transform the way it makes electric vehicles and help Elon Musk achieve his aim of halving production costs.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 15, 2023

Tesla reinvents carmaking with quiet breakthrough

The company pioneered the use of huge presses to mold the front and rear structures of its Model Y in a "gigacasting" process.
History recorded the thoughts and actions of rulers and warlords, but what did the average folk think in that time? Were their days filled with angst, passion or poignancy?
JAPAN / History
Sep 17, 2023

Writers find a new muse in the 20th century: the ordinary person

The past at its very best spread its benefits thinly, leaving the masses to make the best of things beyond the reach of civilization’s light.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Sep 17, 2023

Climate litigation remains a tough sell in Japan despite wins overseas

So far, Japan has seen just four climate lawsuits, all concerning the construction and operation of coal-fired power plants.
The far-right Confederation Liberty and Independence party rally against measures imposed by the Polish government to stem the spread of COVID-19, in Warsaw in October 2020.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 18, 2023

The far right is advancing in a vulnerable Europe again

Disruptors in far-right political parties are taking advantage of resentment born out of COVID-19, a cost-of-living crisis and the war in Ukraine.
A car sits precariously above debris in Libya's eastern city of Derna on Monday following deadly flash floods.
WORLD / Society
Sep 19, 2023

A week after floods, Libyans haunted by fate of the missing

Thousands are dead and thousands more missing. Officials using different methodologies have given widely varying figures of the tolls.
U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Vietnam's President Vo Van Thuong at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 19, 2023

Vietnamese activists seek refuge in U.S. after Biden deal

In the United States, the families are expected to seek resettlement under the 'Priority 1' refugee program.
A woman with HTLV-1 from Okinawa Prefecture talks about her experience of being turned away at a clinic outside the prefecture.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Sep 25, 2023

Website aims to shed light on little-known blood cancer virus

Awareness of HTLV-1, a virus that causes adult T-cell leukemia and other diseases, is low in Japan. A website called Hot Lives aims to change that.
A surgical center designed by Shigeru Ban Architects for a hospital in Lviv, Ukraine
JAPAN / Society
Sep 24, 2023

Shigeru Ban’s humanitarian architecture reaches Ukraine

Architect Shigeru Ban is working with the mayor of Lviv, in Ukraine, to expand a hospital and serve the growing number of people displaced by the war.
The XL bully dog is different than a normal pet. It is a symbol of fear, aggression and its muscular body and fierce countenance reflects this.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 20, 2023

Some kinds of dogs shouldn’t be allowed as pets

The case is weaker for a ban on bully dogs in the U.S. because population density is much lower and Americans seem to have a higher risk tolerance.
Preliminary data suggests that updated COVID-19 boosters, which are matched to a previous variant known as XBB, could still offer protection against the new edition.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2023

New Pirola COVID-19 variant shows value of booster shots

Data suggests the updated COVID-19 boosters, which are matched to the XBB variant, could still offer decent protection against the new edition.
Leaves of marijuana plants from which hemp fibers are extracted at Japan's largest legal marijuana farm in Kanuma, Tochigi Prefecture, on July 5, 2016
PODCAST / deep dive
Sep 21, 2023

Does a university cannabis scandal point to a larger trend?

A drugs scandal at Japan’s biggest university draws attention to a troubling statistic: Cannabis use among young people is on the rise.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 22, 2023

Zelenskyy under pressure as Ukraine's allies shift priorities

Allies are pushing the Ukrainian leader to turn his attention to what kind of country will emerge from the war, even as Kyiv struggles for a breakthrough.
A nurse pushes a bed at the COVID-19 ward at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem.
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 23, 2023

Long COVID linked to multiple organ changes, research suggests

A third of people hospitalized with COVID-19 have "abnormalities" in multiple organs months after getting infected, the study said.
Jeon Jong-duek, a former mathematics professor, on the Seoul Subway Line 1 during a trip home, in Dongdaemun-gu, a suburb of Seoul, on Aug. 3. With the fare free for those older than 65, some retired people spend their days riding the trains to the end of the line.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 23, 2023

For South Korea’s senior subway riders, the joy is in the journey

The fare is free for those older than 65, and so some retired people spend their days riding the trains to the end of the line.
The Chinese Navy's nuclear-powered Long March 11 submarine takes part in a naval parade off the eastern port city of Qingdao, to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy, in April 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 23, 2023

U.S. revives Cold War submarine spy program to counter China

The multibillion-dollar effort, known as the Integrated Undersea Surveillance System, comes as China ramps up activities near Taiwan.
Katsuura in Chiba Prefecture — around 90 minutes by express train from Tokyo — has never seen the mercury climb above 35 degrees Celsius, a benchmark the meteorological agency uses to describe “extremely hot” weather, since records began in the city in 1906.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Sep 24, 2023

Japan’s endless summer pushes some toward cooler places

Amid a summerlong heat wave, more people are showing interest in moving to places like Katsuura that are known for their milder temperatures.
Women with portable electric fans in the Yurakucho district of Tokyo on Sept. 12. In Japan, Cool Biz became especially popular with women, who tended to wear lighter clothes and often complained about the cold temperatures needed to make business suits comfortable for their male colleagues.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 24, 2023

Where did all the dark-suited Japanese businessmen go?

Under Cool Biz, salarymen and government workers don short-sleeved shirts in the summer as offices are kept above 28 degrees Celsius to save energy.
Since the arrival of ChatGPT and other bots, fears over the potential for abuses and unintended consequences have gripped the public conscious.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2023

Worried about rogue chatbots? Hire a hacker.

It’s the good hackers being dangerous that allows us to find out what are the risks to artificial intelligence.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 25, 2023

As Japan OKs Alzheimer's drug, issue of side effects comes into focus

There are big challenges ahead for the use of lecanemab, particularly on how to control side effects such as brain swelling and bleeding.
Self-proclaimed president of the "Free Republic of Liberland" Vit Jedlicka (center) poses with the Liberland flag and future citizens in the village of Backi Monostor, Serbia, in May 2015
WORLD / Society
Sep 25, 2023

Breakaway Balkans micronation dreams of a crypto future

"Liberland" has attracted libertarian supporters across the globe who see a natural harmony between libertarianism and crypto.
A car leaves Nagorno-Karabakh, a region that has been inhabited by ethnic Armenians, on Monday after fighters were defeated by Azerbaijan in a lightning military operation.
WORLD
Sep 26, 2023

Ethnic Armenians flee Nagorno-Karabakh after defeat by Azerbaijan

The leadership of the 120,000 Armenians who call Karabakh home said they feared persecution and ethnic cleansing.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years