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Missile strikes kill civilians in Kyiv and other cities, with Russian-held areas hit

The Japan Times

The Ukrainian capital Kyiv came under ballistic missile attack from Russian forces early on Sunday, local authorities said, while other regions suffered bombardments later during the day that killed at least six people. Russia said areas of Ukraine under Moscow's control had also come under attack, with four people killed in a Ukrainian drone strike in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Horlivka. In its morning note, Ukraine's air force said Russia had launched seven ballistic missiles and 136 drones at Ukraine overnight. In the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, a Russian drone hit a supermarket, killing two people -- including a 9-year-old child -- and wounding 25, Ukraine's emergency services said. "This is deliberate Russian terror that has no military justification," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. In the eastern city of Kharkiv, one person was killed and 16 others required medical attention after a daytime drone attack, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram.


White House official says Moonshot accessed banned Nvidia chips

The Japan Times

The release of Moonshot's Kimi K3 model upended assumptions that Chinese AI capabilities were meaningfully behind U.S. leaders such as OpenAI and Anthropic. A White House official accused China's Moonshot of improperly using U.S. AI models and Nvidia chips to create the Kimi K3 system that stunned the tech industry last week with its advanced capabilities. The company "acquired GB300-equipped servers and has accessed GB300s in Thailand, likely to train its AI models," White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios said in a social media post Wednesday, making the case that Moonshot violated U.S. export control rules and companies' terms of service to build its product. The semiconductor servers Kratsios referenced are part of the Blackwell generation of Nvidia products, which the U.S. forbids from sale to Chinese companies. Though the Trump administration has allowed some sales of Nvidia's H200 chips, it continues to prevent sales of the more advanced Blackwells. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.


Iran strikes on CIA facilities prompt questions about possible Russian role

The Japan Times

Iranian drones are displayed in an undisclosed location in Iran, in this handout image obtained on Jan. 13, 2025.U.S. officials have acknowledged that Russia has provided targeting and other support for Iran in its drone strikes on U.S. targets in the Persian Gulf region. WASHINGTON/RIYADH - Iranian drone attacks on CIA facilities in the Persian Gulf have prompted U.S. intelligence analysts to investigate whether Russia assisted by providing targeting information or advanced drone technology, said four people familiar with U.S. intelligence. These people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss national security matters, said U.S. intelligence officials have not yet reached firm conclusions about the possible Russian involvement in the attacks on CIA facilities. But they cited the strikes' effectiveness and apparent precision, as well as Russia's broader technical support for Iran, as possible evidence. It has been previously reported -- and U.S. officials have acknowledged -- that Russia has provided targeting and other support for Iran in its strikes on U.S. targets in the Gulf region generally, but the intelligence community's investigation of possible Russian involvement in supporting the CIA facility attacks has not been previously disclosed. At least two CIA sites were struck in March, it has been reported.


In Japan, Prime Minister's Sleep Schedule Prompts Work-Life Balance Debate

TIME - Tech

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U.S. and China to hold AI talks in September, sources say

The Japan Times

U.S. and China to hold AI talks in September, sources say Talks between the United States and China on artificial intelligence are set to take place in September and be led on the U.S. side by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, sources have said. BEIJING - The United States and China will hold talks over artificial intelligence in September, five people familiar with the matter said, as the rival superpowers grapple with how to mitigate the risks posed by each other's increasingly powerful frontier models. The AI talks, a significant outcome of the summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in May, will likely take place before Xi's planned Sept. 24 visit to the U.S., said the sources, who asked not to be named as the information is not public. The dates, however, have not been finalized, they said. As economic, political and military rivals, China and the U.S. have grown increasingly anxious over each other's AI capabilities amid an accelerating global AI race. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.


Japan's AI gamble: Can technology offset the cost of an ageing society?

Al Jazeera

Japan's AI gamble: Can technology offset the cost of an ageing society? Beneath the business towers of Tokyo's Otemachi district, a test is taking place to see whether artificial intelligence can help solve one of Japan's biggest economic challenges: a shrinking workforce. Deep underground, Marunouchi Heat Supply Company operates a 30km (18.6-mile) network of heating and cooling pipelines serving offices, commercial buildings and transport facilities in one of Japan's most important business areas. The company is now using AI to manage this complex infrastructure with the goal of moving towards more automated operations by 2027. Developed with the Tokyo-based AI company Preferred Networks, the project uses PlantPilot, an AI system trained on historical operating data and the expertise of experienced engineers.


Chinese AI sensation Moonshot's gamble on big models pays off

The Japan Times

Chinese AI sensation Moonshot's gamble on big models pays off People visit the Moonshot AI stand, featuring the Kimi K3 model, during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on Saturday. Crowds rushed to an obscure corner of China's premier tech summit, moving past monumental booths from Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings to catch a glimpse of the hottest name in domestic artificial intelligence. Developers and users at the World AI Conference jostled for a closer look at Moonshot and its Kimi K3 -- the giant 2.8 trillion-parameter model whose release on Friday showed China was closing the gap on OpenAI and Anthropic PBC far quicker than anticipated. The startup became an instant global sensation, drawing comparisons to DeepSeek's 2025 breakout and plaudits from the likes of Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Such was the crush over the weekend that Moonshot blew through its entire stock of branded swag in just a few hours. Moonshot's emergence is a vindication not just for the country's AI industry, but also for founder Yang Zhilin.


Trump is silent so far on Iran strategy as U.S. death toll hits 17

The Japan Times

Trump is silent so far on Iran strategy as U.S. death toll hits 17 U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the Oval Office on July 14. | Doug Mills / The New York Times If U.S. President Donald Trump knows where he wants to take the war in Iran, he's giving little sign of it publicly. The conflict continued to spiral over the weekend, with both sides trading attacks in the aftermath of an Iranian strike that killed two U.S. service-members in Jordan and injured others. Both Iran and the U.S. have largely abandoned the tentative peace deal the president had touted. The week of escalating missile and drone strikes underscored the risk that the conflict will reignite in full again even as the man who started it stayed silent, only acknowledging the U.S. troop fatalities in a brief conversation with a media outlet. U.S. Central Command announced Sunday that a third service member died the day before during an controlled detonation of an unexploded Iranian drone in northern Iraq. And the U.S. said unidentified remains of another victim in Friday's Jordan strike were being examined.


China's Moonshot plans IPO in six months after AI breakthrough

The Japan Times

China's Moonshot plans IPO in six months after AI breakthrough A Kimi logo is pictured at the Moonshot AI stand, featuring the Kimi K3 model, during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on Saturday. Moonshot AI has told investors it's preparing to list in as early as six months, seizing the opportunity to tap capital markets after its latest model upended industry perceptions of China's burgeoning capabilities and sent global tech stocks reeling. The Chinese AI pioneer has officially distributed the shareholder resolution to its investors, seeking the blessing of its backers on a Hong Kong listing, people familiar with the matter said. The initiation of the notification process indicates an IPO could happen as soon as within the next six months. Moonshot is now in the process of wrapping a fundraising round that may value the three-year-old startup at more than $30 billion, the people said.


Moonshot AI's Kimi upends conventional wisdom on U.S. lead over China

The Japan Times

Moonshot AI's Kimi upends conventional wisdom on U.S. lead over China People walk past the Moonshot booth promoting its Kimi K3 AI model, during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on Friday. At an event in Beijing earlier this year, some of China's top artificial intelligence leaders warned that the country remained meaningfully behind the U.S. in developing cutting-edge AI models, with one executive arguing that "the gap may actually be widening." Leading U.S. firms also appeared confident they were significantly ahead. As recently as last week, one executive at Anthropic, who spoke on condition of anonymity, mused that the Claude maker's technology was roughly six to 12 months ahead of Chinese rivals. The Chinese AI lab released Kimi K3, a more advanced open-weight model that it said outperforms all rivals except for Anthropic's Claude Fable 5 and OpenAI's GPT-5.6 on overall capability.