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July 05, 2026
 

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MISINFORMATION

A bear warning sign is displayed in Shirakawa-go, a popular tourist spot in Gifu Prefecture. A town in Miyagi Prefecture has retracted its social media post warning of a bear sighting after discovering an image submitted to it had been generated using artificial intelligence.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 27, 2025
Japan town retracts bear sighting warning sparked by AI image
The town of Onagawa in Miyagi Prefecture issued the warning after receiving the image of a bear in a residential area, but later discovered it was generated using AI.
Elon Musk's social media platform X erupted in uproar after the rollout of a feature revealing an account's location, exposing what users describe as global troll farms and influence operations on the platform.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 25, 2025
Based in the U.S. or Nigeria? Musk’s X erupts over location feature
The account location information rollout is a bid to boost transparency on a platform that tech experts say is rife with disinformation.
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. addresses the inaugural Make America Healthy Again summit in Washington on Nov. 12.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 23, 2025
Is America next after Canada to lose its measles elimination status?
In normal times, Canada’s misfortune might serve as a wake-up call for public health leaders in the U.S., which is precariously close to losing its own measles-free status.
Ruling and opposition lawmakers gather for a meeting of the House of Representatives' Commission on the Constitution on Thursday.
JAPAN
Nov 20, 2025
Lawmakers urge tighter rules on social media businesses
Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party said that the European Union’s practice of imposing fines on platform operators “can serve as a reference for Japan.”
Chinese consulates in Japan and elsewhere regularly conduct gray-zone operations in the form of “pop-up” events at nondesignated diplomatic facilities.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 19, 2025
Beware China’s ‘gray-zone’ activities on Japanese soil
China’s wolf-warrior diplomacy and belligerent social media posts are not the only unsettling activity carried out by Chinese diplomats in Japan.
Takashi Tachibana, head of the anti-NHK party
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 9, 2025
Anti-NHK group’s head arrested in libel case
Takashi Tachibana’s arrest came after the police determined that he could run or destroy evidence.
Mike Burgess, director-general of security for the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, delivers the 2025 Lowy Lecture in Sydney on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 5, 2025
Australian spy chief says ‘state sanctioned trolls’ sowing social discord
Australia faces a trend seen across Western democracies of declining trust and rising disinformation.
Scammers are using AI-generated content of baseball stars like Shohei Ohtani to pull in users.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 20, 2025
Scammers drawing in fans with fake AI content of MLB stars during playoffs
Experts warn that this strategy of pulling in users can be used to grow accounts that are later sold or rented to more nefarious disinformation campaigns.
U.S. President Donald Trump has dismissed climate change as "the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world" and his administration has reportedly moved to quash debate on the issue.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Oct 8, 2025
Trump calls climate change a con; science braces for more
The Department of Energy is reportedly telling staff to avoid using language that runs counter to the president’s views on climate science.
Association for Philippines-China Understanding (APCU) Chairman Raul Lambino shakes hands with guests during a ceremony for the Award for Promoting Philippines-China Understanding at The Manila Hotel in Manila in June.
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Oct 6, 2025
How China waged an infowar against U.S. interests in the Philippines
China paid for a cyber campaign to weaken support for Philippine government policy and to sow discord over Manila’s security alliance with the United States.
A banner of U.S. President Donald Trump on the Department of Labor in Washington, on Thursday
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Oct 6, 2025
Fake job scams cost U.S. job seekers $12 billion as labor market tightens
Employment-related scam cases rose by over 1,000% from May through July, when new graduates typically search for jobs, according to McAfee.
According to Meta's rules, advertisers who seek to run political ads in the United States have to undergo a special authorization process.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 2, 2025
Deepfake political scam ads surge on Meta platforms, watchdog says
The ads have reached tens of thousands of the platforms’ users.
The “Africa Hometown Initiative,” announced by the Japan International Cooperation Agency at an African development conference in Yokohama in August, sought to foster exchanges that would help bridge four municipalities in Japan with four countries in Africa.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 25, 2025
JICA scraps Africa ‘hometown’ agreement after migration mixup
Persistent online misinformation about the plan being a ploy to ease immigration from Africa led to the initiative being canceled.
In an hourlong speech before the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump attacked his predecessor, his European allies and renewable energy.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Sep 24, 2025
In bid to upend global energy policy, Trump denies climate change in U.N. speech
The U.S. president made a series of misleading claims in a rambling speech that went on for nearly an hour.
Anti-vaccine activists rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on March 18, 2024. "Disinformation" has become such a contentious label in the United States that some researchers who study the harmful effects of falsehoods are abandoning it altogether.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 23, 2025
What do some researchers call disinformation? Anything but disinformation.
The label has become so contentious in the United States that some researchers who study the harmful effects of falsehoods are abandoning it altogether.
False social media stories about Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba planning mass immigration obscure Japan’s real and growing reliance on foreign labor.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 12, 2025
Japan needs an immigration debate, not social media myths
There’s no mass immigration from the Global South into Japan, though you might not know that if you primarily consume your news on social media.
A woman uses her phone at Bashantapur Durbar Square, in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Thursday after the Nepali government announced it will block access to all unregistered social media platforms.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 5, 2025
Nepal to block some social media platforms, including Facebook
The move came after the companies failed to register with authorities in a crackdown on misuse.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party submitted an urgent proposal on Friday calling for the government to strengthen measures aimed at preventing foreign interference in Japan's elections.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 5, 2025
LDP calls for blocking foreign interference in elections
“If foreign interference is left unchecked, it could pose a serious and immediate threat to the foundations of democracy,” an LDP proposal said.
AI can amplify the long-known ability to implant false memories, with new MIT and University of California, Irvine, research showing that chatbots, misleading summaries and altered images or videos can distort what people recall.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 4, 2025
AI doesn’t just lie — it can make you believe it
Memory manipulation, notes Pat Pataranutaporn, a researcher with the MIT Media Lab, is a very different process from fooling people with deep-fakes.
Fumes rise from the coal-fired Hunter Power Plant in Castle Dale, Utah, in 2024. A 141-page Energy Department report challenged by more than 85 scientists in a joint analysis appeared almost in tandem with a proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency to rescind a 2009 endangerment finding — the bedrock of many U.S. greenhouse gas regulations.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Sep 3, 2025
Scientists assail ‘cherry-picking’ of Trump administration climate report
The report appeared almost in tandem with a proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency to rescind a 2009 finding that’s the bedrock of many U.S. greenhouse gas regulations.
‘My dream is broken’: Japan visa rules push out foreign residents
A man orders from a kebab shop in the Okubo district in Tokyo.
Japan plans to sharply raise fees for residence permits from October
Foreign tourists walk on the path leading to the Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in May.
Japan’s princesses face life-altering legal revisions
Princess Aiko, the daughter of Emperor Naruhito, said in a 2022 news conference upon coming of age that she hopes to “spend a long time together” with her parents.
Japanese police arrest nine over Sierra Leone-based special fraud
Japanese police have arrested nine individuals for their alleged involvement in a special fraud case using Sierra Leone as a base.
Japanese-language education is at a turning point
The country is gradually transforming Japanese-language education from a volunteer-driven system into a professional, government-supported network to better serve its growing foreign population. 
Iran war exposed, but hasn’t changed, Japan’s reliance on imported oil
Wind turbines generate energy from strong easterly winds on the Shonai Plain in Yamagata Prefecture. Despite the oil crisis caused by conflict near the Strait of Hormuz, and concerns instability in the region could continue to impact supply and the price of imports, the administration of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi does not seem to be drawing on the war as a pretext to hasten progress toward Japan's renewable goals.
Six of the best: rikishi of note in each sumo division
Kazuma (right) faces off against future <i>yokozuna</i> Onosato during the All Japan Amateur Sumo Championships at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in December 2020.
Some startups see opportunity in an aging Japan
Yasmin Baba, CTO of Amilis, wins the Grand Prize at the Pitch2Tokyo Grand Final on Feb. 19.
Japan’s fertility system offers few safe paths for same-sex couples
A Tokyo Pride parade participant holds a sign that says "we want to be a married couple, not a couple."
Life inside Japan’s largest prison for women
Western-style rooms spanning the size of four tatami mats with hardwood floors, a toilet and soft mattresses on bed frames are designated for foreign nationals and those with health conditions at Tochigi Prison.

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