Police department says it has returned almost ¥3bn to owners, while ¥480m has gone to finders
The honest citizens of Tokyo handed in a record ¥3.99bn (£24.5m) in lost cash to police last year – an average of more than £67,000 a day.
Japan’s national police agency said the amount was up ¥600m from the previous year, and beat the previous high of ¥3.84bn declared at police stations across the capital in 2019.
Continue reading...Herzog offers alternative to far-right coalition’s changes but PM says it perpetuates current situation
What are the Israeli protests about and what happens next?
A compromise proposal presented by Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, on controversial legislative changes has been rejected by the governing coalition, putting a swift end to hopes that the country’s political crisis can be immediately resolved.
In a televised address to the nation on Wednesday night, Herzog revealed what he called “the people’s directive” aimed at ending the 10-week standoff between Israel’s new hardline government and the large protest movement opposed to the plans, which would give politicians much greater control of the judiciary.
Continue reading...Shares plummet after Ernie Bot AI chatbot software falls short of expectations at unveiling in Beijing
The Chinese search engine company Baidu’s shares have fallen by as much as 10% after it presented its ChatGPT-like artificial intelligence software, with investors unimpressed by the bot’s display of linguistic and maths skills.
The AI-powered ChatGPT, created by the San Francisco company OpenAI, has caused a sensation for its ability to write essays, poems and programming code on demand within seconds, prompting widespread fears over cheating or of professions becoming obsolete.
Continue reading...UN nuclear watchdog raised alarm hours earlier amid concerns about radiological and security risks
More than 2 tonnes of natural uranium reported missing by the UN’s nuclear watchdog in war-torn Libya have been found, a general in the country’s east has said.
Gen Khaled al-Mahjoub, the commander of eastern warlord Khalifa Haftar’s communications division, said the containers of uranium had been recovered barely 5km (3 miles) from where they had been stored in southern Libya, and after the International Atomic Energy Agency reported their disappearance earlier on Thursday.
Continue reading...Leaders expected to use first summit since 2011 to address Japan’s use of Korean forced labour, as well as threats posed by North Korea and China
Yoon Suk Yeol will be treated to his favourite dish – omelette rice – when he becomes the first South Korean president to visit Japan in more than a decade on Thursday, as hopes rise for an end to years of animosity between the north-east Asian neighbours.
Given that the menu for official dinners has been a diplomatic flashpoint between the two countries, efforts by Yoon’s hosts to accommodate his palate are evidence of the recent thaw in relations, as regional tensions rise over North Korean missiles and Chinese military activity.
Continue reading...US secretary of state Antony Blinken says collision of Russian fighter jet with US drone was ‘reckless and unsafe action’
Thanks for following along – that’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. My colleague Martin Belam will take you through the rest of the day’s news.
AFP has this flash of news, saying Russia has called on the US to halt what it calls its “hostile” flights, after the collision of a Russian fighter jet with a US MQ-9 Reaper drone that the Pentagon said was conducting a routine flight.
Continue reading...Annual rate of 102.5% is denting purchasing power, savings, economic growth and government’s chances in elections next year
Argentina’s annual inflation rate tore past 100% in February, the country’s statistics agency announced, the first time it has hit triple figures since a period of hyperinflation in 1991, over three decades ago.
Inflation over 12 months clocked in at 102.5% in the second month of the year, according to government data released on Tuesday, with a higher-than-expected 6.6% monthly rise in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), and a 13.1% year-to-date increase.
Continue reading...US attorney says Wengui, also known as Miles Guo and Ho Wan Kwok, used stolen money to buy a $3.5m Ferrari and finance a $37m yacht
Guo Wengui, a self-exiled Chinese tycoon with close links to prominent Trumpist Republicans including Steve Bannon, has been indicted on 12 counts relating to an alleged $1bn fraud.
The charges announced by the US attorney for the southern district of New York on Wednesday include wire fraud, securities fraud, bank fraud and money laundering.
Continue reading...‘I certainly hope for success,’ says senior Kremlin official of hopes of raising debris from seabed west of Crimea
Moscow has said it intends to recover the wreckage of a US drone brought down on Tuesday following an interception by Russian fighter jets, but the White House said the debris could be in such deep water that recovery is impossible.
“I don’t know if we can recover [it] or not, but we will certainly have to do that, and we will deal with it,” Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s security council, said on Wednesday. “I certainly hope for success.”
Continue reading...Swedish prime minister also said he hopes Sweden’s accession will be ratified by Ankara after May elections
Finland’s president, Sauli Niinistö, has said he expects his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to tell him whether Turkey is endorsing the Nordic country’s Nato membership application when the two meet in Ankara later this week.
“It was known that once President Erdoğan has made his decision concerning ratification of Finland’s membership of Nato, he would wish to meet and fulfil his promise directly from president to president,” Niinistö told Reuters on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Global research teams who can improve AI and accelerate decoding could win $250,000 in prizes
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79 laid waste to Pompeii and nearby Herculaneum where the intense blast of hot gas carbonised hundreds of ancient scrolls in the library of an enormous luxury villa.
Now, researchers are launching a global contest to read the charred papyri after demonstrating that an artificial intelligence programme can extract letters and symbols from high-resolution X-ray images of the fragile, unrolled documents.
Continue reading...Larry Fink tells investors more ‘shutdowns and seizures’ in US possible and predicts inflation and interest rates to rise
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank could just be the start of “a “slow rolling crisis” in the US financial system with “more seizures and shutdowns coming”, the chief executive of the world’s largest asset manager has warned.
The CEO of BlackRock, Larry Fink, also predicted in a letter to investors and company bosses that inflation would persist and rates continue to rise, trends that both contributed to SVB’s collapse.
Continue reading...High court move follows violent clashes between police and supporters outside former PM’s house in Lahore
A court in Pakistan has ordered police to suspend an operation to arrest Imran Khan, after violent clashes between the former prime minister’s supporters and law enforcement outside his house.
The vicinity of Khan’s residence became a battleground on Tuesday, when police arrived after a lower court in Islamabad issued a non-bailable arrest warrant for not appearing before it despite several summonses.
Continue reading...Mixed group to take over duties of Escolania choir at Montserrat monastery one weekend a month
Women and girls are to be admitted to a choir at the Montserrat monastery near Barcelona, home to the famous Escolania all-boys choir, for the first time in its 700-year history.
The new chamber choir, made up of a mix of about 25 boys and women and girls aged 17 to 24, will be separate from the Escolania, which comprises 45 boys aged nine to 14.
Continue reading...Protesters claim proposed increase in hours would risk health and fail to boost low birth rate
South Korea’s government has been forced to rethink a planned rise in working hours after a backlash from younger people who said the move would destroy their work-life balance and put their health at risk.
The government had intended to raise the maximum weekly working time to 69 hours after business groups complained that the current cap of 52 hours was making it difficult to meet deadlines.
Continue reading...Gujarat accused of being possessive after conservationists pleaded for more of the endangered lions to be moved to other areas
Lion conservation efforts in the Indian state of Gujarat have been so successful that a new sanctuary will be opened to house the abundant numbers of big cats.
Gir national park is home to the world’s only Asiatic lion population and the only place outside Africa where a lion can be seen in its natural habitat.
Continue reading...Incident involving Vianne Timmons is latest high-profile case of apparent cultural identity fraud
The president of a Canadian university has apologized and is taking a leave of absence after allegations that she falsely claimed to be Indigenous, in the latest high-profile case of apparent cultural identity fraud.
Vianne Timmons, who is president of Memorial University of Newfoundland, said that she would be taking a six-week leave after the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) published a report last week questioning her claims that her father’s great-great-grandmother was Mi’kmaq.
Continue reading...Xiomara Castro’s move would leave Taiwan with formal diplomatic relations with only 13 countries
The Honduras president, Xiomara Castro, has said she has instructed her foreign minister to establish official relations with China, a move that would end its ties with Taiwan and further isolate the island on the world stage.
The Central American country’s switch from Taipei to Beijing would leave Taiwan with formal diplomatic ties with only 13 countries.
Continue reading...Indian state in crisis after adenovirus hits 12,000 people this year and families with sick children camp outside Kolkata hospital
Nineteen children have died of acute respiratory infections in West Bengal this year, and thousands more are in hospital as India grapples with an adenovirus outbreak.
More than 12,000 cases of adenovirus have been recorded in the state since January. More than 3,000 children have been admitted to hospital with severe flu-like symptoms.
Continue reading...Newly-added words include koha – a gift or offering – and kōrero, meaning a conversation or chat
New Zealanders will now see the common and casual te reo Māori greeting Kia ora e hoa! – meaning “hi mate” – in their Oxford English Dictionaries, as the institution moves to recognise the “profound and lasting impact” the Indigenous tongue has had on New Zealand’s language.
E hoa, or friend, is one of 47 New Zealand English words or expressions added to the dictionary in its latest update – most of them in te reo Māori, which is an official language of New Zealand. The OED describes itself as the definitive record of the English language.
Continue reading...