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Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent candidate for president, at Nassau County State Supreme Court in Mineola, New York, on Wednesday
WORLD / Politics
Aug 22, 2024

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to end his presidential campaign

Kennedy’s departure from the race would be the end of one of the more bizarre and surprisingly durable third-party presidential bids in modern American history.
Even when ships are docked, members of the Japan Coast Guard work on shifts on board. As such, the JCG is considering rehiring retired servicemen to allow crews to take sufficient holidays on land.
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2024

Japan Coast Guard promoting work style reform

The move comes as the agency grapples with a declining number of applicants as well as its rising turnover rate.
Keiichi Tanaami died on Aug. 9 after a 60-year career as a Pop Art pioneer. He was 88.
CULTURE / Art
Aug 24, 2024

Remembering Keiichi Tanaami's surreal grotesqueries

The Pop Art pioneer passed away at age 88 on Aug. 9. His posthumous retrospective, “Adventures in Memory,” turns nightmare into fantasy.
A passenger ferry sails toward Sydney Harbor on Aug. 9. Employees in Australia, in most cases, cannot be punished for refusing to read or respond to contacts from their employers outside work hours, thanks to a new law.
BUSINESS
Aug 26, 2024

Australian workers gain right to ignore work emails and calls after hours

A new "right to disconnect" law is designed to curb the creep of work communications into personal lives.
Sarvam AI, often described as India’s OpenAI, introduced software for businesses that can interact with customers using spoken voice rather than just text.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 26, 2024

Cheap AI voice bots are suddenly everywhere in India

Startups may turn India into a proving ground for what could be the next frontier of generative artificial intelligence products.
An artificial intelligence process sign in the Samsung Electronics hall at the IFA Consumer Electronics and Home Appliances trade fair in Berlin in 2022
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 27, 2024

Is that voice real or AI? One startup says it can tell the difference

The latest wave of artificial intelligence technology can mimic the voice of almost anyone.
OpenAI, whose ChatGPT is credited with accelerating the frenzy over artificial intelligence since its broad release in late 2022, has said AI should be regulated by the federal government but that the California bill creates an uncertain legal environment, and could cause entrepreneurs and engineers to leave the state.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 28, 2024

Big Tech wants AI to be regulated. Why do they oppose a California AI bill?

Many tech giants say the bill threatens to make the state unfavorable to AI development and deployment and puts open-source models at risk.
If you're still trying to be active during Japan's record-setting heat, you should also know how best to care for yourself when you inevitably get a sunburn.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 31, 2024

Japan’s nasty summer has left you with a nastier sunburn. Now what?

Aloe facial masks, non-alcohol-based lotions and souped-up sunscreen can take the edge off the pain of getting a sunburn.
Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown (left), Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele (second left), Tongan Prime Minister Hu'akavameiliku (second right) and Pacific Islands Forum Secretary-General Baron Waqa, announce the Pacific Resilience Facility decision at a meeting in Nuku'alofa, Tonga, on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 31, 2024

Pacific bloc scrubs Taiwan from document after China complaint

A new joint declaration by Pacific leaders was reissued Saturday morning after China slammed an earlier version as a "mistake" that "must be corrected."
Elon Musk, the owner of X, during an event in November last year. Brazil blocked the social network after Musk refused to comply with a Brazilian judge's orders to suspend certain accounts.
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2024

Musk’s X goes dark in Brazil after supreme court’s ruling

While the U.S. tends toward strong free-speech protections, many countries are taking aggressive steps to make companies more accountable for their online content.
An elevator at the Stade de France commuter train station in Saint-Denis, near Paris, France. Paris built highly accessible accommodation for competitors in the 2024 Paralympic Games, but overall, the city remains difficult to navigate for people with disabilities.
PARALYMPICS
Sep 2, 2024

Paris is utopia for Paralympians until they leave the athletes village

It will be decades before the city's streets, sidewalks and parks achieve even a semblance of the Paralympic Village’s accessibility.
By using an app, call center workers can practice calming down angry callers.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 3, 2024

Japanese companies develop AI tools against 'customer harassment'

Japanese companies are developing artificial intelligence tools to protect call center workers from "customer harassment."
Kyoto International High Shool's baseball team receives a champion flag after winning the Japanese High School Baseball Championship final at Koshien Stadium in Hyogo Prefecture on Aug. 23.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 31, 2024

A high school baseball championship and Japan-South Korea relations

The reactions to Kyoto International High School winning the National High School Baseball Championship, both in Japan and South Korea, were intriguing.
Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, speaks on stage in front of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the Desert Diamond Arena, in Glendale, Arizona, on Aug. 23.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 4, 2024

How Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s pact took shape

A near assassination, a couple of phone calls, and six weeks of secret talks, embarrassing missteps and private misgivings, led to the unlikely alliance.
A polygraph machine sits on a table in an office of AO Eurasian Bank in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in 2013.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 6, 2024

AI-powered lie detectors can help tell if you’re lying on a Zoom call

CyberQ is just one of a crop of new companies looking to build AI-powered lie detectors that could be used during work-related online meetings.
Gabon President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema waves as he arrives at Beijing Capital International Airport ahead of the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing on Sep. 1.
WORLD
Sep 7, 2024

U.S. pitches deal to thwart Chinese military base in Africa

The U.S. is assembling an economic and security assistance package for Gabon in a bid to prevent China from establishing a military footprint there.
A Palestinian student walks between piles of rubble after attending a class in a tent in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Sept. 4.
WORLD / Society
Sep 10, 2024

Fear of 'lost generation' as Gaza school year begins with classes shut

The Palestinian Education Ministry said all Gaza schools were shut, and 90% of them had been destroyed or damaged in Israel's assault on the territory.
A screen displays a message urging supporters of Republican candidate Donald Trump to make a plan to vote early or in-person during a campaign rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on Aug. 30.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 10, 2024

Trump hunts for elusive 2024 election prize — infrequent voters

Trump, more than in previous cycles, sees infrequent voters as critical.
Job-seekers take a Japanese class at an employment placement company in Hanoi in October 2022.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 11, 2024

Is Japan an attractive option for foreign talent from Asia?

The uptick in young foreign workers is driven by growing interest in Japanese society and culture and difficulty in finding jobs at home.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield attends a U.N. Security Council meeting on Sept. 4 in New York City.
WORLD
Sep 12, 2024

U.S. supports two permanent U.N. Security Council seats for Africa

The move comes as the U.S. seeks to repair ties with Africa, where many are unhappy about Washington's support for Israel's war in Gaza.
U.S. Secret Service and Homeland Security agents check a former home of a Ryan Routh, a suspect in an alleged assassination attempt on former U.S. President Donald Trump, in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 16, 2024

Second assassination attempt on Trump is latest jolt in chaotic campaign

U.S. Secret Service agents spotted and fired on a gunman in some bushes who dropped an assault rifle and was arrested after fleeing the scene.
Ambulances and a crowd of people gather at the entrance of the American University of Beirut Medical Center on Tuesday after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon.
WORLD
Sep 18, 2024

Israel planted explosives in 5,000 Hezbollah's pagers, sources say

The operation was an unprecedented Hezbollah security breach that saw thousands of pagers detonate across Lebanon, killing nine people and wounding nearly 3,000 others.
Gwangju Biennale’s artistic director Nicolas Bourriaud developed the theme “Pansori: A Soundscape of the 21st Century” to make the event “an opera you can walk into.”
CULTURE / Art
Sep 21, 2024

Japan’s art world seeks connection at Gwangju Biennale

At the longest-running contemporary art festival in East Asia, the Japan Pavilion's display nods to historical tensions between Japan and Korea.
According to China's national security ministry, a hacker group called Anonymous 64 has sought to upload and broadcast "content that denigrates the mainland's political system and major policies," since the beginning of this year.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 23, 2024

China urges netizens to be vigilant against Taiwanese cyberattacks

The hacking group's X account shared videos comparing Xi Jinping to an emperor and others commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations.
Poll workers set up early voting equipment in Seffner, Florida, on Aug. 2.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 24, 2024

Russia produced most AI content to sway election: U.S. intelligence

Russia is seen as being a more sophisticated actor than other nations and having a better understanding of how U.S. elections work.
Brett Favre before a game between the Southern Miss Golden Eagles and the Louisiana Monroe Warhawks in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in 2018.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Sep 25, 2024

Brett Favre reveals he has Parkinson’s disease

The revelation was a startling admission from a high-profile football player whose more than two-decade career included induction into the Hall of Fame.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg tries on Orion AR glasses at the Meta Connect annual event at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 26, 2024

Meta pitches augmented reality glasses as eventual smartphone rival

The firm's Orion prototype glasses, introduced Wednesday, have lenses that can display text messages, video calls and even YouTube videos in the user’s field of vision.
Shigeru Ishiba, newly elected leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, speaks at a news conference after winning the party's leadership election in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 29, 2024

Ishiba's foreign policy vision to face immediate tests as he takes helm

The new Japanese leader will be greeted immediately with the challenge of reining in escalating regional tensions and building up the U.S. alliance.
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California speaks to reporters in South Haven, Michigan, on July 4, 2024. Newsom vetoed a California artificial intelligence safety bill on Sunday, blocking the most ambitious proposal in the nation aimed at curtailing the growth of the new technology.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 30, 2024

California governor vetoes contentious AI safety bill

The bill’s author, Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener, said legislation was necessary to protect the public before advances in AI become either unwieldy or uncontrollable.
The ByteDance logo at the company's office in Shanghai in 2023
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 1, 2024

ByteDance rumored to be planning new AI model trained with Huawei chips

ByteDance has diversified to domestic suppliers of chips for artificial intelligence and has been accelerated development of its own since the U.S. restricted exports.

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Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?