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When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. What you need to know before buying and using an eSIM on your next trip. Landing in Japan without mobile data can make a long travel day much harder than it needs to be. The minute you arrive you'll likely rely on your phone for train routes, maps, translation, reservations, and messages, so it's best to sort out getting connected before your flight. I've lived in Japan for nearly a decade, both in cities and the countryside, and I've used several different ways to stay connected. These days, I've found an eSIM to be the easiest option. But there are a few things worth checking before you buy one.

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Is the war entering a new phase? United States envoys are expected to arrive in Kyiv and Moscow over the weekend, in an apparent bid to revive negotiations aimed at ending Russia's war on Ukraine . Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late on Thursday that US negotiators were set for meetings in both capitals "in the coming days" and that Ukraine is ready for substantive, high-level negotiations. President Donald Trump's envoys, who have not previously visited Kyiv, were most recently in the Russian capital in January. However, Washington's mediation efforts have all but halted since the US and Israel launched war on Iran in March.

Chinese President Xi Jinping's three-day visit to Egypt, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two nations, marked his first trip to the Middle East in four years and the first to Egypt in a decade. The trip caused debate among geopolitical observers over Egypt's diplomatic balancing act between China, one of its largest economic partners, and the United States, a major defence and strategic partner. Xi's visit came at a time when Chinese tech giant Huawei has submitted a tender to build Egypt's AI data centres. The US, meanwhile, is reportedly pulling together an offer to counter Huawei's bid. Whoever wins the contract to build the data centres will also gain an opportunity to strengthen their political and economic ties with Egypt.

Mashable Selects Look Up Trending Now Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age Creator Playbook Say More Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Switch Off Mashable Voices Safety Net Versus Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List All Series Who is The Rat? It's complicated. Shannon Connellan is Mashable's Senior Editor, General Assignments, based in London. She has been Mashable's UK Editor (and still manages the illustrious UK team) and Australia Editor, but emotionally, she lives searching for . A Tomatometer-approved critic, Shannon writes about entertainment, tech, social good, science, culture, and Australian horror, and loves to nerd out with movie stars, filmmakers, and TV creators . All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers.

The mission to Phobos, Japan's first Mars probe launch in 28 years, may reveal new information about our closest planetary neighbor. The Japanese space probe will land on the moon Phobos. A Mars probe from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) may answer some longstanding questions about the Red Planet and its moons. The mission--dubbed MMX for "Martian Moons eXploration"--aims to collect at least 10 grams of samples from Phobos, one of two moons orbiting the planet, and if successful, these will be the first rocks from a Martian moon ever brought to Earth. They won't arrive quickly, however.

The robots -- one modeled after a rockhopper penguin and the other after a gentoo penguin -- are exhibited among real penguins at the theme park, the world's only facility to house 10 species of penguins. Visitors looked amazed to see one of the robots deftly move its flippers to change direction and dive deeper into the water as it swam next to real Humboldt penguins. "I thought it was real," one visitor said. The robots were created by Ikuma Okada, the 34-year-old leader of a group within the Adventure World operator. The robot penguins were created by Ikuma Okada, the 34-year-old leader of a group within the Adventure World operator.

China is racing to build data centers and energy infrastructure to close the AI gap with the US. Donald Trump warns that data center protests could benefit Beijing.

As summer temperatures in Europe smashed records this summer and many politicians shifted to holiday mode, Russia remained focused on its war. Not only did its military attacks across Ukraine intensify last month, becoming ever more deadly for civilians, Russia also appears to have escalated its sabotage campaign across Europe. This time, military and defence sector sites were the prime target. A full month after drones packed with explosives were found at Leipzig's airport, used by Ukraine to transport military goods, Germany's interior minister has declared that Russia is responsible. Russia's President Vladimir Putin is demanding proof, as always, and his officials call the accusation absurd.