Japan is to open its first centralised intelligence agency since the Second World War, in the face of the increased security threats posed by China and Russia. 

Pacifism is enshrined in the country’s post-war constitution and culture, so Japan has, for decades, relied on co-operation with US military intelligence. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has described the new legislation that has just passed the upper house of the Japanese National Diet (pictured above) as a “first step” towards strengthening the country’s independent espionage capabilities.

How will it work?
The agency will be formed of two bodies: a National Intelligence Council, acting as the government’s command centre for intelligence gathering and analysis; and a National Intelligence Bureau, responsible for operations.

The aim is to improve Japan’s intelligence abilities “by strengthening co-ordination, reducing inter-agency barriers and ensuring that intelligence products better meet policymakers’ requirements”, Sanshiro Hosaka, of the International Centre for Defence and Security, told Al Jazeera.

Why now?
The Trump administration’s repudiation of long-standing allies has revealed the dangers of over-reliance on US intelligence sharing. With the reform of its intelligence system, Japan’s approach to security is “becoming more self-reliant and autonomous”.

Japan’s intelligence system has “long been fragmented”, said The New York Times. “That has left the country especially vulnerable to espionage and foreign interference.” To make matters worse, Japan also lacks an anti-espionage law, which has made it relatively easy for foreign intelligence activities to go unpunished. “Japan has had enough of being a ‘spy paradise’,” said Philip Shetler-Jones and Masashi Umehara of the Royal United Services Institute think tank.

How are Russia and China operating now?
Both Russian and Chinese activity within Japan have increased in recent years. In 2024, cybersecurity research group Citizen Lab exposed a so-called “paperwall” of Beijing-run websites disguised as Japanese-language news sources to spread pro-China disinformation. The Russian military, meanwhile, has taken advantage of lax espionage laws to establish a secretive intelligence unit in Tokyo, known as the 20th Directorate. “Posing as diplomats or businesspeople, its officers work to buy or steal battlefield technology and smuggle it into Russia,” said The New York Times. Estimates cited by the US paper suggest 90% of Russian missiles and drones used in Ukraine contain Japanese components.

Florida has executed the oldest prisoner in its state history, the latest in a spate of capital punishments carried out on elderly death-row inmates. 

Dennis Sochor, 74, was convicted of killing Patricia Gifford in 1982, hours after meeting the 18-year-old at a party. On Tuesday, he was put to death after the US Supreme Court rejected his final appeal. He was one of three Florida inmates over the age of 70 to be executed in the past month.

‘No compunction’ for the old
The Sunshine State is considered “a mecca for senior citizens”, said The Hill. But Florida has shown “no compunction about carrying out executions of elderly death-row inmates”. Indeed, later this month, the state is set to execute its first octogenarian, 80-year-old Dominick Anthony Occhicone, convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents in 1986. If his execution goes ahead, he’ll be the second-oldest known inmate put to death in modern US history, after 83-year-old Walter Leroy Moody Jr. in 2018.

Florida has carried out 10 executions this year, more than all other US states combined. About half of its remaining 242 death-row inmates have “exhausted their appeals” and could see their death warrant issued at any time, said The Associated Press. Three of them, not including Occhicone, are over 80.

Multiple medical conditions
Florida isn’t the only state “killing the old and infirm”, said The Hill. Death rows across the US are “filled with old people”: the average age of executed inmates has increased from 36 in 1977 to 52.3 in 2024, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

The penal system must increasingly grapple with an ageing population whose health problems “can complicate efforts to execute them”, said the AP. Occhicone, the 80-year-old facing execution this month, has multiple medical conditions and “needs help getting in and out of the shower”.

Some question “the humanity of administering capital punishment” to prisoners who might soon die naturally. For others, it only shows how “lengthy appeals”, and reviews designed to prevent an innocent person being executed, can “delay justice”.

A French firefighter points to the smouldering undergrowth in Fontainebleau forest, in the Ile-de-France region. A four-day fire is thought to have destroyed around 2,000 hectares.

Lou Benoist / AFP / Getty Images

This August, the world’s largest performing arts festival – the Edinburgh Festival Fringe – will stage 3,649 shows from 71 countries across 258 venues, with a total of 53,884 performances on the schedule.

“Truly, all human life is here,” said Tristram Fane Saunders in The Telegraph. Nowhere else in the world would you find performances of “Endometriosis: The Musical!”, “Robot Wars with Roombas” or “Chekhov in Flemish Sign Language”.

You can also catch some of the biggest names in comedy, with Frank Skinner, Nish Kumar, James Acaster and Sara Pascoe all making appearances. Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Ahir Shah, “one of the most intelligent voices in stand-up”, is back with “Golden”, and tickets are almost sold out for “Peach Fuzz”, the stand-up comedy show from “Saturday Night Live UK” star Ania Magliano. But perhaps the most “controversial” stand-up show this year will be “Cartwheel”, Amanda Knox’s exploration of her wrongful conviction in 2007 of the murder of Meredith Kercher.

Drama-wise, there’s a “great mix” of “returning shows, debuts and even some world premiere runs”, said Kevin Quinn in Edinburgh Evening News. Emma Howlett’s “ambitious”, female-led “The Plot” is a tragi-comic, “fast-paced, imaginative exploration of power” set in the aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot. And Australian writer and actress Hannah Reilly’s will be staging her acclaimed “Roleplay”, a “bold” and “darkly funny” depiction of a “broke feminist podcaster who rebrands as a provocative ‘slutfluencer’ in pursuit of fame”.

In Wales, I’ve seen what happens when devolution isn’t done right. Here’s what Andy Burnham must know
Will Hayward in The Guardian
One of the “big lessons” of Welsh devolution, writes Will Hayward, is that “you can’t just devolve responsibilities; you have to devolve tools”. When “key levers” remain in Westminster, it’s like “giving someone a brand-new electric car without any capacity to charge it”. More devolution “is an incredible opportunity for the UK” but we mustn’t take a “cookie-cutter approach”: “different places have different challenges and could require different solutions”. Doing devolution well “is just as important as doing it at all”.

The perks of parenting by spreadsheet
Soumaya Keynes in the Financial Times
My husband and I aim to divide childcare “as evenly as we can”, writes Soumaya Keynes. So, because “perceptions of what has happened doesn’t always match reality”, we keep a “parenting spreadsheet”, with “over 1,000 rows” to “mark every morning, afternoon and evening of parenting” each of us has done. I’m currently the one “in credit” – by “7.5 days and 24 bedtimes”. I know “it’s not for everyone” but “it works” and stops “guilt or resentment building”.

My son’s acne proves two-tier healthcare is already upon us
Jemima Lewis in The Telegraph
“I took my son to a private dermatologist” for a “powerful drug” that the “NHS remains reluctant to prescribe”, writes Jemima Lewis. A “certain breeziness” is “part of what you’re paying for”. NHS doctors are “constrained” by various prescribing rules but private doctors can dish out “any drug with a UK licence”. No doubt “this lack of oversight” encourages “some dubious practices” but it’s also “a blessing”. My son’s drug worked; “my only regret” is not “throwing money at the problem” sooner.