Streets of northeastern Japan flooded after torrential rains

Hot on the heels of the success of "Drive My Car" at the Academy Awards, Ryusuke Hamaguchi returns with a three-part feature that puts his talent for dialogue and visual storytelling in the spotlight. Lisa Nesselson extolls the charms of "Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy" and tells us why the prolific Japanese filmmaker should be receiving armfuls of awards in the years to come.

South African police Sergeant Busisiwe Mjwara was searching the Msunduzi River for three people who were swept away in heavy flooding when she and her dog drowned. Their deaths highlight the risks to emergency services personnel when they are called upon to save victims of extreme weather events, which are becoming more frequent as the climate warms.

A Japanese woman born at the dawn of the 20th century and believed to have been the world's oldest person died at age of 119, public broadcaster NHK said on Monday. Kane Tanaka, born in 1903, the year of the Wright Brothers' first controlled flight of their motor-driven airplane, was confirmed by Guinness World Records in 2019 as the oldest living person.

Wishma Sandamali, a 33-year-old Sri Lankan woman, died in a Japanese detention centre in March of last year. Her death sparked debate on the treatment of the 1,500 asylum seekers currently in detention in Japan. Many of them claim they are being treated inhumanely. Despite its economic might, Japan takes in few refugees. In 2020, it accepted less than 100 asylum seekers, while France, whose population is half the size of Japan's, took in 24,000. Our correspondents report from the city of Nagoya, where Wishma died.

On a visit to Japan, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has lauded Tokyo's support for Ukraine in the face of Russia's attack. He also stressed close German-Japanese ties.

Twenty years after “The Wire” saw David Simon’s gritty writing transposed to the screen, Yena Lee tells us why “We Own The City” provides a complex and compelling sequel to the crime drama. We discuss “Gaslit”, a new adaptation of the Watergate scandal, which sees Julia Roberts and Sean Penn playing the power couple at the centre of this political firestorm. Elisabeth Moss sparkles as the protagonist of a new fantasy time-travel series “Shining Girls”, and we wave an affectionate goodbye to “Grace and Frankie” as the 7th season marks the end of the onscreen partnership.

Japan's GDP fell at an annualised rate of 1 percent in the first three months of this year as the Omicron variant of the coronavirus hampered consumer spending. Rising commodity prices also weighed on businesses in the world's third-largest economy. Plus, as unemployment remains stable in France at 7.3 percent, a steelworks factory in the northern city of Dunkirk is offering a cash bonus to employees to encourage them to recruit family members.

Japan was one of the last countries in the world to keep its borders shut to foreign tourists because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but that is slowly changing. The government is cautiously taking steps to revive tourism. But in a crucial election year and with the border restrictions popular among voters, it's a tricky balancing act for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. We speak to Professor Seijiro Takeshita from the University of Shizuoka.

Residents of a town in northeastern Bangladesh navigated through flooded streets on Monday as the country experiences what officials have called some of its worst monsoon floods in recent history. Monsoon rains in low-lying Bangladesh have triggered catastrophic flooding in Sylhet, leaving a quarter of its 15 million population stranded amid fast-rising waters and swollen rivers.

Since 2018, a strange creature has been stalking the streets of the south-western French city of Toulouse. Standing 13 metres tall and weighing in at 46 tonnes, Asterion the Minotaur is a giant wood and steel puppet who has become one of the city's emblems. This unusual artistic language is made possible thanks to extraordinary mechanics: a French-made exoskeleton controlled by five operators who move the minotaur's arms, torso and head. The hard work put in behind the scenes by the designers, technicians and operators turns this giant puppet into a genuine work of art.

A decade of currency stability has come to an end with the rising cost of necessities and dear luxuries. But the central bank seems to be determined to keep its weak yen policy.

Japanese former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot on Friday while campaigning for a parliamentary election, with public broadcaster NHK saying a man armed with an apparently homemade gun opened fired at him from behind.