Latest news with #Kishida
ABC News
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Weekly news quiz: A federal break-up, Sydney's train pain and the Eurovision grand final
Another week, another quiz. Are you ready to test yourself? Want to test yourself further? Take a squiz at the ABC's New Quiz topic page and see if you're a whiz at our previous quizzes.
The Guardian
18-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
A 14-step guide to taking a (fleeting) break from social media
Step one: Write a post to inform everyone that you're taking a break from social media. Phrase it so they know you're doing something extremely worthy. Also say something scathing about Meta, so they feel guilty on multiple levels for remaining. Step two: Stay on social media a little longer to respond to the people who respond to your post about quitting social media. Step three: OK, now you're really quitting social media. What counts as social media, though? Surely LinkedIn isn't social media, it's too boring. Spend a few hours scrolling LinkedIn. Decide you don't need a business optimisation course or a tutorial on how to set up a job alert. Also, why do people send messages on LinkedIn to thank you for connecting with them on LinkedIn? They literally invited you to connect in the first place. Decide that not only is LinkedIn dead, your LinkedIn inbox is a coffin. Step four: Spend a moment feeling nostalgic for the days when the spam messages in your social media inboxes were from square-jawed men in military or medical uniforms who were obviously bots. Step five: Look at your to-do list. Sigh. Do your taxes. Text six people to tell them you just did your taxes. No replies. Consider rebooting social media for satisfactory responses. Remember that you told everyone you were taking a break. Step six: Clean the refrigerator. Step seven: Respond to emails that have been lingering for months in your inbox. Step eight: Go for a walk. Take a photograph of the beautiful sunset. Resist urge to post it. Instead send the sunset photo to seven different WhatsApp groups. Have a momentary existential crisis while considering whether WhatsApp is social media. Decide that you would never know what was going on at your children's school or sporting groups without it. Keep WhatsApp. Step nine: Sleep the superior sleep of someone who is not on social media. Have dreams unvisited by random high school acquaintances and great-aunts with a penchant for doll collecting. Wake in a cold sweat with the realisation that you have no idea what is going on in anyone's life. Step 10: Meditate instead of scrolling. Ha, just kidding. Doomscroll on news sites and gnash your teeth at the actual state of the world instead of the state of the teeth of your friend's 15-year-old son who just got his braces off. Read a news article about tariffs. Put your phone down. Step 11: Pick it up again. Is Goodreads social media? Rate the last 12 books you've read on Goodreads and go down a rabbit hole of analysing the reading habits of all your friends on Goodreads. Wonder how much of these lists are performative. Is it even possible to read Ulysses and Finnegans Wake in the same week? Decide that Goodreads is also social media and delete. Step 12: Go for a run. Download the stats from your smartwatch for your run. Send to your running WhatsApp group and your mother instead of posting on social media. Your mother: 'Are you OK? Why are you sending me your heart rate?' 'I just wanted to share my run this morning.' 'OK. Why are you suddenly texting me so much? Did you see the photos from your cousin's wedding on Facebook?' Step 13: Reinstall social media just long enough to look at wedding photos. You can't like them because then people would know you've broken your break. Delete again. Step 14: So many hours in a day! Write an article about quitting social media. Go back on social media to share the article you wrote in those 24 hours when you were actually productive because you took a break from social media. Eleanor Limprecht is the author of What Was Left, Long Bay, The Passengers and The Coast. Her next novel, Cul de Sac, will be published in 2026 by Ultimo Press
NHK
14-05-2025
- Health
- NHK
Japan ranks 14th in UNICEF report on child well-being
Japan has been ranked 14th out of 36 countries in a UNICEF report on the well-being of children. The UN children's agency released the report on Wednesday for the first time in five years. UNICEF evaluated child well-being in wealthy countries that are members of the OECD and the EU. Among the 36 nations whose data were available, the Netherlands came out on top, followed by Denmark. The two countries had the same ranks in the previous report. France came third. The ranking was based on three dimensions: physical health, mental health, and "skills" such as academic skills. Japan was 14th which is up from 20th out of 38 countries in the previous report. By category, Japan's children came first in physical health, as it did in the previous survey. It was measured by the rate of overweight children and child mortality. They finished 12th in the "skills," a huge improvement from 27th in the previous report. But Japan ranked 32nd in the category of mental well-being, although it was up five from the previous rank of 37th. The country improved in children's life satisfaction, with the percentage of children reported to be rather satisfied with their lives increasing to around the average of other surveyed countries. But the suicide rate among adolescents was the fourth highest. The report pointed out that relationships at home and school are among the factors that influence children's mental well-being. It said support is needed to build good parent-child relationships and called for measures to address risks such as violence and bullying in schools and communities.
New Straits Times
10-05-2025
- Business
- New Straits Times
Japan sees Malaysia as key Asean partner in advancing clean energy
KUALA LUMPUR: Japan regards Malaysia as playing a crucial role in advancing clean energy cooperation in Southeast Asia, particularly in its role as this year's Asean Chair and co-host of the Asia Zero Emissions Community (AZEC) ministerial meeting. Former Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Malaysia's leadership comes at a pivotal time for regional decarbonisation efforts, with numerous AZEC-related projects already in progress. "As this year's Asean Chair and co-host country of the AZEC ministerial meeting, Malaysia plays a crucial role in advancing various decarbonisation projects across the region," he said. Kishida, who was on a two-day working visit to Malaysia, is also the Supreme Adviser to the Parliamentary Association of AZEC. He said that current AZEC initiatives span areas such as power transmission, distribution, and renewable energy, which are expected to align closely with Asean's clean energy efforts. "We expect these efforts to create strong synergies with Asean initiatives, including the Asean Power Grid concept," he added. AZEC is a Japan-led initiative launched in 2022 to promote decarbonisation across Asia through regional collaboration, technology transfer and public-private partnerships. The initiative aims to balance climate action with sustainable economic growth, particularly in emerging economies. Kishida, who is also the Special Envoy of the Japanese Prime Minister, said Tokyo sees Malaysia as a "very reliable partner" that has taken active steps towards its energy transition, inspired partly by AZEC. "I see great potential for collaboration between our two countries in advancing decarbonisation," he said, noting that ongoing cooperation covers projects in carbon capture and storage (CCS), ammonia, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and power grid development. "During this visit, I strongly felt both the diversity of needs related to decarbonisation in the Southeast Asian region and the high expectations placed on Japan, as many projects are already underway," he said. Kishida noted that site visits and engagement with businesses had reinforced the importance of the government taking the lead in building effective partnerships with regional counterparts. He also emphasised the growing role of Japan's AZEC Parliamentary League in promoting the initiative from a legislative perspective. "As a parliamentary group, we hope to contribute to the promotion of AZEC from a uniquely parliamentary perspective by leveraging each member's broad network and facilitating dialogue with partner countries, businesses and other stakeholders," he said. Looking ahead to upcoming ministerial and summit-level meetings, Kishida added that the group intends to submit formal recommendations to the Japanese government based on the outcomes of this visit to support AZEC's progress further.
Japan Times
07-05-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
Ex-PM Kishida, Malaysian leader affirm cooperation
Former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim have reaffirmed their countries' cooperation in areas such as decarbonization and energy transition. Kishida handed the Malaysian prime minister a letter from his successor, Shigeru Ishiba, at a meeting in the Malaysian administrative capital of Putrajaya on Tuesday. They also exchanged views on U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff measures. "We were able to deepen our friendship after a long time," Kishida said at a news conference, referring to a series of meetings he held with Anwar during his tenure as prime minister. "We had a frank exchange of views based on a relationship of trust," he said. Kishida visited Malaysia as Ishiba's special envoy and was accompanied by Koichi Hagiuda, the former policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and others.
