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Japan's MeToo icon is up for an Oscar - but the film can't air in the country When Japanese journalist Shiori Ito decided to speak up about her rape allegations, she knew she was standing in the face of a society that preferred silence. "I'm scared…but all I want to do is to talk about the truth", Shiori says in the opening scene of her Oscar-nominated documentary Black Box Diaries. Shiori became the face of Japan's MeToo movement after she accused a prominent journalist Noriyuki Yamaguchi of rape. Her acclaimed directorial debut, based on her memoir of the same name, is a retelling of her quest for justice after authorities found the evidence insufficient to pursue criminal charges. But there is one country where it is yet to play: Japan, where it has run into huge controversy. Her former lawyers have accused her of including audio and video footage she did not have permission to use, which, they say, has violated trust and put her sources at risk. Shiori def...

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes loses fraud appeal Theranos founder and former chief executive Elizabeth Holmes has lost an appeal against her conviction for defrauding investors in her blood-testing company. Holmes was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison. In her appeal, she challenged trial evidence and testimony and argued that statements by her ex-business and romantic partner Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani about his level of responsibility for Theranos' financial model should have been included. He was jailed for more than 12 years. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the arguments. Judge Jacqueline H Nguyen wrote that Theranos's claim of being able to run blood tests with a drop from a finger prick instead of a needle in a vein was "nothing more than a mirage". "The grandiose achievements touted by Holmes and Balwani were half-truths and outright lies," Nguyen wrote in the opinion on behalf of a three-judge panel published on Monday. H...

How Trump's sweeping new policies could change travel As the new US president makes massive governmental cuts, issues tariffs and leads an immigration crackdown, domestic and international tourism faces unprecedented changes. In the United States, a new presidential administration always comes with policy shifts. But the dizzying speed with which President Donald Trump has issued executive orders and made sweeping federal changes during the first month of his second term has much of the world wondering what the long-term impacts of these changes might be, and what else is yet to come. By threatening and instituting tariffs on longtime allies, moving to overhaul the US immigration system, promising "mass deportations" and empowering unelected billionaire Elon Musk to fire thousands of federal employees and potentially shutter entire agencies established by Congress, Trump has come out swinging in his second act. And while these policy shifts are likely to have fa...

Billion Indians have no spending money - report The country's consuming class, effectively the potential market for start-ups or business owners, is only about as big as Mexico, 130-140 million people, according to the report from Blume Ventures, a venture capital firm. Another 300 million are "emerging" or "aspirant" consumers but they are reluctant spenders who have only just begun to open their purse strings, as click-of-a-button digital payments make it easy to transact. What is more, the consuming class in Asia's third largest economy is not "widening" as much as it is "deepening", according to the report. That basically means India's wealthy population is not really growing in numbers, even though those who are already rich are getting even wealthier. All of this is shaping the country's consumer market in distinct ways, particularly accelerating the trend of "premiumization" where brands drive growth by doubling d...

  List accomplishments or resign, Musk tells US federal workers US government workers received an email on Saturday afternoon asking them to list their accomplishments from the past week or resign - the latest development in the Trump administration's efforts to scale back the federal workforce. The email came after Trump's billionaire confidante Elon Musk posted on X that employees would "shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week". "Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation," he wrote. Musk, as the head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), has been leading an outside effort to aggressively curtail government spending through funding cuts and firings. The email arrived in inboxes shortly after Trump spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (Cpac). The messages came with the subject line "What did you do last week?" from a sender listed as HR. The Office of Personnel M...

  He turned down 22 schools, so he built a special school for his child. A woman has been going from school to school to get her autistic child admitted. But no one has offered her any hope. One by one, 22 schools have turned her away. Today, that woman has set up a school for children with special needs so that others like her child do not have to go through the same experience. The name of this Syrian woman is Rana Akkad. She lives in Dubai. In an interview with Gulf News, she said, "Yes, my son Jad Atassi was turned away from 22 schools. I tried all kinds of cheap, prestigious, low-quality schools. I even tried to put him in a center for children with special needs. But there he was very backward physically. He had some speech and behavioral problems, but no physical disabilities." Rana, who came to Dubai 22 years ago, said that she noticed that when Jad was one and a half years old, he did not mix with anyone, did not look at anyone in the eye. He could say hello to h...

Deaf choir felt 'proud and brave' to sing at MOBOs A deaf choir who signed a music video which was played at the MOBO Awards have said they felt "proud and brave". Thirteen students from Jesmond's Northern Counties school performed at the ceremony in Newcastle on Tuesday. The MOBO Awards was founded in 1996 and celebrates black culture and music in the UK and beyond. Student Liam said he would "remember it for the rest of my life", while pupil Kameron said "to feel included was great". Arya Starr became the first African woman to win best international act as well as the first woman to be recognised as best African music act in 16 years, while Central Cee made history by becoming the first artist to win the best male act award three times. Northern Counties School, part of the Percy Hedley Foundation, is a specialist school for children with disabilities aged three to 19 years old. The students recorded a video to God Gave Me Feet For Dancing b...

  South Korean actress Kim Sae-ron, 24, found dead South Korean actress Kim Sae-ron has been found dead in Seoul, police have said. The 24-year-old was found in her home in the city's Seongsu-dong district by a friend at around 16:55 (07:55 GMT) on Sunday. Officers said no signs of foul play had been found and they were investigating the cause of death. Kim began her career as a child actor and was seen as one of South Korea's most promising young actresses. Born in Seoul in 2000, she rose to prominence with her role in 2009 film A Brand New Life - which saw her appear at the Cannes Film Festival. She went on to star in South Korea's highest grossing film of 2010 The Man from Nowhere and 2012 thriller The Neighbour, for which she received award recognition. Other notable roles include the 2014 film A Girl at My Door and television roles such as Mirror of the Witch in 2016. The actress largely withdrew from the public eye in 2022 due to a drink driving incident, for which sh...

  Is Trump backing away from his plan to occupy Gaza? Egypt and Jordan believe they have succeeded in dissuading US President Donald Trump from his plan to occupy Gaza. He wants not only to occupy Gaza but also to evict the Palestinian residents from it and send them elsewhere. A senior Egyptian official told Middle East Eye that Trump has been briefed on their proposed post-war alternative plan for Gaza. He seems to have agreed to it. The official said that Egypt, with the support of the Arab world, is working on an alternative plan for Gaza. President Trump has agreed to the plan. The Egyptian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said on Tuesday that Jordan’s King Abdullah II discussed the issue of evicting Palestinians from Gaza with Trump during his visit to Washington. He played a key role in convincing Trump to go along with the plan. Cairo and the Arab world are viewing the Jordanian king’s meeting with Trump as an initial victory. The Egyptian official tol...

Thousands of immigrant parents concerned about Trump's decision on birthright citizenship If Trump's executive order is implemented, it will also affect undocumented immigrants in the United States. The children of these undocumented immigrants automatically acquired citizenship by birth after being born in the United States. When they turned 21, they could also sponsor their parents to apply for a green card. Incidentally, a Pew Research analysis says that as of 2022, there were 725,000 undocumented Indian immigrants in the United States, making them the third largest group of undocumented immigrants in the United States. On the other hand, the Migration Policy Institute's analysis says that this number is 375,000 and India is fifth in the list of undocumented immigrants. Three percent of the US population is undocumented immigrants. They make up 22 percent of the population born in another country who came to the United States. The main concern of Indians on H-1B or '...

The rewilded golf courses teeming with life From Scotland to California, golf courses are being rewilded – with lofty aims to benefit both people and nature. Sinking into nature comes easy at the Plock of Kyle. I visit this tiny wedge of parkland on the west coast of Scotland, just across the bridge from the Isle of Skye, on a rainy day in late September, and park ranger Heather Beaton and I spend the afternoon wandering around its various ecosystems-in-miniature. We clamber over rocks at one of its little hidden natural harbours. We freeze as black darter dragonflies land on her pink shoe by a pond. And we bend to peer at circles of huge mushrooms which have sprung up overnight in its tiny woodland. A wildflower meadow, ponds, scrub habitat, coastline and even an area of  peat bog  can be found on this little 60-acre (24-hectare) plot, which boasts roe deer, otters, lizards, eels and a huge array of insects and birds. "We do describe it as a microcosm of Scotland," says ...