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Boys bathe at a public water facility along a street amid a heat wave in Jalandhar, India, on Thursday.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 14, 2024

What is heat stress and how is it measured?

The World Meteorological Organization estimates heat kills around half a million people a year but says the true toll is unknown.
The Niigata Prefectural Government holds a seminar in January 2021 for parents of students seeking jobs.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 14, 2024

Japan in urgent need of personnel for local public service

A shortage of civil servants to support the lives of local residents is raising serious concerns.
Opal Lee, the "Grandmother of Juneteenth," visited Japan last month shortly after receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Joe Biden.
COMMUNITY / Voices / Black Eye
Jun 14, 2024

U.S. civil rights icon Opal Lee brings her Juneteenth walk to Tokyo

Juneteenth, held on the 19th of the month, celebrates the end of slavery in the United States. Opal Lee sees it as more than an American holiday.
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett attends the opening ceremony of Tungaloy's new plant in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, in  November 2011. Buffett says Tokyo executives are good value for money amid a widening pay gap between local and foreign business leaders.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 14, 2024

The pay gap in Japan’s boardrooms is unacceptable

The job market in Japan is, at all levels, much less liquid and executives are less likely to need incentives to avoid jumping ship to rivals.
A bump stock can be attached to a semiautomatic rifle to increase the firing rate.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 15, 2024

U.S. Supreme Court rejects federal ban on gun 'bump stocks'

Bump stocks use a semiautomatic's recoil to allow it to slide back and forth while "bumping" the shooter's trigger finger, resulting in rapid fire.
Akira Endo was born on Nov. 14, 1933, in Yurihonjo, a city in a mountainous area near the Sea of Japan.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jun 15, 2024

Akira Endo, scholar of statins that reduce heart disease, dies at 90

His research on fungi helped lay the groundwork for widely prescribed drugs that lower a type of cholesterol that contributes to heart disease.
By April 2024, dengue fever cases in the Americas passed the total for the previous year.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 15, 2024

What's behind the post-COVID surge in communicable diseases?

Many regions have reported at least one infectious disease resurgence that’s at least ten times worse than the prepandemic baseline.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is welcomed by Italian leader Giorgia Meloni on the first day of the Group of Seven summit in the Italian resort of Borgo Egnazia on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 15, 2024

Japan and Italy agree to beef up defense and diplomatic cooperation

Japan and Italy have agreed on a plan to deepen cooperation over the next three years in key areas such as diplomacy, defense and trade.
A Malawian subsistence farmer surveys her maize fields in Dowa near the capital Lilongwe.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 15, 2024

The AI revolution comes for farmers growing a third of our food

In Malawi, subsistence farmers are using an AI app to get tips on how to diagnose crop and farm animal diseases.
Group A Streptococcus typically causes swelling and a sore throat in children, but some types of the bacteria can lead to symptoms developing rapidly.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jun 15, 2024

Rare tissue-damaging bacteria spreads in Japan

At the current rate of infections, the number of cases in Japan could reach 2,500 this year, with a mortality rate of 30%.
Sunflowers are a popular gift for Father's Day in Japan.
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2024

Father's Day custom in Japan developed in own way

In Japan, the Father's Day Council was established in 1981, branching off from the Men's Fashion Unity, for the purpose of disseminating the custom of Father's Day.
People attend a demonstration against the French far-right National Rally ahead of legislative elections, in Paris on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 16, 2024

Thousands protest in France to oppose Le Pen’s far right

The demonstrators are seeking to call attention to the nationalist party’s policies on human rights, the environment, equal rights and economic matters.
Ukrainian soldiers walk among the remnants of a destroyed Russian military convoy in Bucha, Ukraine, on April 2, 2022. Representatives of both countries held peace talks in the early weeks of the Russian invasion but they fizzled.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 16, 2024

The sticking points that kept Russia and Ukraine apart

Putin repeatedly referred to the 2022 talks as the foundation for future deals, but many doubt he'd settle for anything less than full subjugation.
A person uses a tong with a camera and GPS system attached to pick up litter, part of an initiative to boost participation in collecting trash.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Jun 16, 2024

Japan’s gamified environment apps target a greener mindset

Government funding has helped drive a boom in environmental and social app development.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrives at a Ukraine peace summit near Lucerne, Switzerland, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 16, 2024

Latest polls say U.K. Conservatives headed for election wipeout

The figures indicate Sunak’s weak position going into the campaign has deteriorated since he called the surprise vote three weeks ago.
Police officer Suzunosuke Kose (right) helps an elderly resident buy a phone equipped with fraud prevention features at an electronic store in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, in May.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 16, 2024

Attacked police officer uses experience to help victims

Kose was stabbed multiple times by a knife-wielding man in the left chest and both thighs in front of a police box.
A growing number of local governments in Japan are selling reusable oversize waste collected from households on marketplace app Mercari.
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2024

Japan local governments using Mercari app to recycle oversize waste

From clothing boxes to furniture, the initiative aims to raise awareness of reusing goods while reducing carbon emissions from incineration.
Trucks carrying aid to Gaza on May 14 that were stopped after they were damaged by Israeli settlers near a checkpoint near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
WORLD
Jun 16, 2024

Israel announces localized, daily Gaza 'pause' for aid deliveries

The announcement came a day after one of the heaviest losses for the Israeli army in its war against Hamas.
After just 1.3 degrees Celsius of warming above preindustrial levels, the countries with the most refugees, asylum-seekers, and displaced people are already among those hardest hit by climate change.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 16, 2024

It’s far cheaper to help migrants before they leave home

As global temperatures rise, so will the frequency of heat waves, droughts, floods, pandemics, natural disasters, food and water shortages and conflicts over resources.
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings' Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, in November 2022. The plant was shuttered in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster, and has sat idle since.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2024

World’s largest nuclear plant sits idle while energy needs soar

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant has the potential capacity to power more than 13 million households.
Durians at a roadside stand in Chantaburi, Thailand, which is by far the fruit’s biggest exporting country, on April 24. China’s demand for the large and spiky fruit is creating fortunes and reshaping parts of Southeast Asia.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 17, 2024

China’s lust for durian is creating fortunes in Southeast Asia

Last year, the value of durian exports from Southeast Asia to China was $6.7 billion, a twelvefold increase from $550 million in 2017.
Professor Hong Jin-kee poses with a bowl containing pink "meaty rice" at the Yonsei University in Seoul, where a team of South Korean scientists are injecting cultured beef cells into individual grains of rice in a process they hope could revolutionize how the world eats.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Jun 17, 2024

'Meaty rice'? South Korean professor aims to change global protein

No animals were harmed in the creation of the dish, which looks like regular rice aside from its color.
American Institute in Taiwan Director Sandra Oudkirk speaks during a news conference in Taipei on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 17, 2024

As China’s pressure on Taiwan rises, departing U.S. envoy urges steady hand

Worries about Chinese belligerence rose during Sandra Oudkirk’s three years in Taipei. As she leaves, she is seeking to assure Taiwan of continued U.S. support.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Summit on Peace in Ukraine in Switzerland on Sunday. The gathering brought together over 50 heads of state and government, excluding Russia, to work out a way toward a peace process for Ukraine.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 17, 2024

Why Ukraine isn’t ready for peace talks

It's no exaggeration to say that what happens in Ukraine matters to the world order. A rushed peace would stop the fighting, but by compromising the country's future.
Expecting that the Palestinian Authority implement reforms, build institutions, reconstruct Gaza and police its people while Israel withholds its main source of finance is unfair and unrealistic.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 17, 2024

Palestine's fiscal demise

The G7 and other powerful countries should help the Palestinian economy tap into international financial assistance like any other developing country.
Snow and ice on the Himalayas are a crucial water source for around 240 million people in the mountainous regions, as well as for another 1.65 billion people in the river valleys below.
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 17, 2024

Low snow on the Himalayas threatens water security

Millions of people dependent on snowmelt for water face a "very serious" risk of shortages this year after one of the lowest rates of snowfall.
Students receive school lunch at Senju Aoba Junior High School in Tokyo in June 2022.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jun 17, 2024

Obesity increased among children in Japan during pandemic

The study analyzed the health checkup data of about 186,000 people who graduated from junior high school between fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2022.
Buildings in the Shibuya district of Tokyo on May 2
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2024

Ban on nighttime drinking around Shibuya Station passed by ward

The ordinance, an extension of measures at Halloween and New Year, comes into effect Oct. 1 and carries no penalties.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv, Israel, on June 8.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 18, 2024

Israel's Netanyahu disbands war cabinet as tensions rise over Lebanon

There have been weeks of increasing exchanges of fire across the border between Israel and Lebanon.
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun makes a rare public appearance at the Berlin Aviation Summit on June 4. His presentation — swinging between defiance and contrition — might offer clues on how he aims to handle himself during the Washington hearing on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 18, 2024

Boeing faces senate grilling as CEO search gains momentum

How outgoing CEO Dave Calhoun handles the spotlight is important not just for his legacy, but also for the company’s work to shore up confidence.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?