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Current AI systems, designed to be honest, have developed a troubling skill for deception, from tricking human players in online games of world conquest to hiring humans to solve "prove-you're-not-a-robot" tests, a team of scientists argue in the journal Patterns on Friday.
WORLD / Science & Health
May 11, 2024

AI systems are already deceiving us — and that's a problem, experts warn

Current AI systems have tricked human players in online games and even hired humans to solve "prove-you're-not-a-robot" tests.
Soldiers load boxes of relief goods into a U.S. CH53 Sea Stallion aircraft at Lal-lo Airport in Cagayan province, northern Philippines, last August. The Lal-lo Airport is one of the additional sites for the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) between the Philippines and the United States.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 11, 2024

China woos Philippine elites near base U.S. needs to defend Taiwan

The moves come as Washington and Beijing remain locked in a struggle for influence that is still playing out.
Ryoken Hirayama, 25, is escorted by police as he leacves the Osaki police station in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward on April 22. Hirayama is the first of six people arrested in connection with the murder of a Tokyo couple in Tochigi Prefecture to be charged with murder.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 11, 2024

Suspect, 25, first to be hit with murder charge over bodies found in Tochigi

A total of six people have been arrested over the incident, but the man, Ryoken Hirayama, is the first to be charged with murder.
Military paramedics treat a wounded Ukrainian service member, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the town of Vovchansk in Kharkiv region of Ukraine on Sunday.
WORLD
May 12, 2024

Ukraine's military chief warns of difficult situation in Kharkiv region

Ukraine is currently on the defensive against Russia, which has a significant advantage in manpower and munitions.
George Guttridge-Smith brews tea at Kyoto Obubu Tea Farm in Wazuka, Kyoto Prefecture, where he serves as head of international development.
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 13, 2024

Is black the new green for Japan’s flagging tea farmers?

With coffee and bottled tea cutting into their potential profits, harvesters in Japan are dabbling in the less-regulated production of black tea.
Palestinians who fled Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip transport their belongings in the back of a truck as they arrive to take shelter in Khan Yunis on Sunday.
WORLD
May 13, 2024

Israel pushes back into northern Gaza and ups military pressure on Rafah

Jabalia, Gaza's largest refugee camp, hosts over 100,000 people, mainly descendants of Palestinians displaced during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
PRESS
May 17, 2024

New Japan Times Archive release: Early Showa Era publication “The Japan Times Weekly” now available

The Japan Times (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Chairperson, Publisher and President: Minako Suematsu) has now digitized the archival publication "The Japan Times Weekly" and made it available via "Japan Times Book Viewer," a platform that allows users to search and browse the newspaper’s archives...
A Palestinian student, who plans to return to his homeland after graduation and who wishes to remain anonymous, poses for a portrait while wearing a kaffiyeh along with his commencement cap at the Auraria Campus in Denver on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
May 13, 2024

Campus Gaza rallies may subside, but experts see possible 'hot summer of protest'

Academics say it's difficult to maintain the people-power energy on campus if most of the people are gone.
A sofa floats down a flooded street in Porto Alegre, in Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul state, on Sunday. New rains in waterlogged southern Brazil are expected to be at their heaviest between Sunday and Monday, authorities have warned.
WORLD
May 13, 2024

Death toll from Brazil floods reaches 143 as rain continue to pour

Another 125 people remain unaccounted for in Rio Grande do Sul state, where rising river levels are being reported.
Breads developed to be eaten cold are displayed during an event in Tokyo in April.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 13, 2024

Shops promoting 'cold bread' hope to boost sales in summer

One company is promoting cat-shaped bread that can be eaten frozen.
Japan coach Hajime Moriyasu's squad will face the United States in Kansas City ahead of the Paris Olympics.
SOCCER
May 13, 2024

U.S. to face Japan in final tuneup for Paris Olympics

The United States men's Olympic soccer team will play its final warmup against Japan in Kansas City ahead of the tournament in France in July.
SoftBank is regaining its footing just as founder Masayoshi Son readies sizable investments in artificial intelligence and semiconductors.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 13, 2024

SoftBank to get more aggressive on AI after profit and asset sales

The company earned a better-than-expected net income in the March quarter, helped by investment gains.
Urawa's Kiko Seike (right) celebrates with Yu Endo during the AFC Women’s Championship Cup at Urawa Komaba Stadium in Saitama on Friday.
SOCCER
May 13, 2024

Kiko Seike shines as Urawa Reds Ladies add two titles to collection over weekend

Urawa won the AFC Women’s Championship Cup on Friday and clinched the WE League title on Sunday.
Justin Reid has helped the Chiefs win the last two Super Bowl titles.
MORE SPORTS / Football
May 13, 2024

Chiefs safety Justin Reid committed to lifting up Kansas City on and off field

The confetti had hardly finished falling on the Kansas City Chiefs' second consecutive Super Bowl title when safety Justin Reid started looking ahead.
Visitors climb the slopes of Mount Fuji, Japan's highest peak at 3,776 meters. From May 20, climbers will have access to a new online booking system for Mount Fuji's most popular Yoshida trail in Yamanashi Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society
May 13, 2024

Online booking for Mount Fuji climb to open on May 20

Climbers will be able to reserve their places and pay the mandatory ¥2,000 ($13) climbing fee up to a day before their climb on the official website.
The widespread adoption of renewable energy sources and implementation of energy efficiency are key to reducing emissions and, in turn, fueling economic growth.
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2024

We need economic growth to avert a climate catastrophe

The degrowth movement doesn't offer solutions to tackle global warming. Not only are its proposals unrealistic, but they may not even be effective.
Pending the offer’s success, I’rom Group will be delisted and Blackstone will own 55% of the company.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 13, 2024

Blackstone to take Japan drug trial firm private in management buyout

A tender offer will be made to acquire I’rom Group shares at ¥2,800 per share — a roughly 50% premium to Monday’s closing price of ¥1,873.
The eighth edition of the Yokohama Triennale, held at the Yokohama Museum of Art, opened in March this year with the theme “Wild Grass: Our Lives."
CULTURE / Art
May 14, 2024

Yokohama Triennale's eighth edition makes room for context

Curators Liu Ding and Carol Yinghua Lu's dynamic and vital show positions art at the vanguard of social change.
A man carries a woman out of a police car after she was evacuated from the front line village of Lyptsi, at a checkpoint outside Kharkiv, on Monday.
WORLD
May 14, 2024

Russia rains attacks down on Ukraine's Kharkiv region

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed Ukraine had sent in reinforcements, and that a "counterattack" was ongoing.
Andrei Belousov has been described as a tough-talking and professional government insider who once led a campaign to wring more money out of big business for the state, proving he had sharp enough elbows to navigate the system.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
May 14, 2024

Surprise pick as Russia’s defense minister is tough-talking economist and Putin ally

Andrei Belousov's appointment as defense chief suggests to many that President Vladimir Putin is reshaping Russia for a long war in Ukraine.
Defendant Chung Biu Yuen leaves Westminster Magistrates' Court in London on Monday after being charged with assisting Hong Kong's foreign intelligence service.
WORLD / Politics
May 14, 2024

China slams U.K. arrests over Hong Kong spy case

China's foreign affairs commissioner in its territory of Hong Kong warned that Britain would receive "China's firm and strong retaliation."
Spectators gather on South Padre Island to watch the planned launch of SpaceX's next-generation Starship spacecraft from the company's Boca Chica launchpad, near Brownsville, Texas, on March 14.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 14, 2024

Musk's SpaceX is quick to build in Texas, slow to pay its bills

Unpaid bills and finger-pointing among contractors have led many construction-industry businesses to file liens against SpaceX properties.
Boxer Mike Tyson calls out his opponent Jake Paul ahead of a bout, set to take place in Texas in July, at a news conference in New York City on Monday.
MORE SPORTS
May 14, 2024

Mike Tyson gives warning to Jake Paul ahead of July fight

The 57-year-old Tyson says he wants to show the world he is still a great fighter.
Nomura Holdings aims to almost its double pretax profit by the end of the decade.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 14, 2024

Nomura seeks to double profit by 2030 in latest growth plan

Japan’s biggest brokerage plans to generate pretax income of more than ¥500 billion ($3.2 billion) with a focus on its key wholesale division.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is greeted by U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget A. Brink after arriving by train at Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi station on Tuesday in Kyiv.
WORLD / Politics
May 14, 2024

As war rages on, Blinken visits Ukraine with reassurances on support

Delays in billions of dollars of military aid forced Ukraine to ration munitions and prompted fears the U.S. would abandon its partner.
Boys watch smoke billowing during Israeli strikes east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
May 14, 2024

Celebrities face digital backlash over Gaza silence

For months, activists have flooded the comments sections of social media sites, urging stars to join calls for a cease-fire in the war.
As Japan grapples with its population's rapid aging, supporting people who live and age alone is looming larger on the policy agenda.
JAPAN / Society
May 14, 2024

In Japan, 68,000 people over 65 projected to die alone at home this year

In the first official tally of solitary deaths, the National Police Agency said a total of 21,716 people had died alone at home from January through March.
Members of the 59th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade at a workshop where they repair tanks and other armored vehicles, in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine on May 3. When Russian soldiers suddenly showed up in the small town of Ocheretyne in the east, it was clear that something had gone wrong.
WORLD
May 14, 2024

How one crack in the line opened a path for the Russians

The sudden Russian advance through Ocheretyne in late April illustrates how even a small crack in the line can have cascading effects.
An image provided by I.J. Glasspool shows a microscopic view of 200-million-year-old charcoal from Greenland. By digging into the geologic record, scientists are learning how wildfires shaped — and were shaped by — climate change long ago.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 14, 2024

From ancient charcoal, hints of wildfires to come

For more than 90% of the Earth's history, the planet’s atmosphere and continents lacked the oxygen and kindling required to sustain a flame.
A screen shows Chinese leader Xi Jinping shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin before a meeting with the leaders of Shanghai Cooperation Organization members at the SCO Summit in Qingdao, China, in June 2018.
WORLD / Politics
May 14, 2024

Putin to travel to China this week for state visit and talks with Xi

The Russian leader will visit China on Thursday and Friday, the Kremlin said Tuesday, in his first trip abroad since his re-election in mid-March.

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