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Seoul, South Korea CNN  —  Japan is facing its most severe security environment since World War II as three potential adversaries in East Asia – China, Russia and North Korea – ramp up military activities in the region, the country’s defense minister said Tuesday. “The existing order of world peace is being seriously challenged, and Japan finds itself in the most severe and complex security environment of the post-war era,” Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said in an introduction to the ministry’s annual defense white paper. China’s military activities present “an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge” to Japan, the report…

The 2025 Kia Sorento Hybrid and 2025 Toyota Highlander Hybrid are two three-row SUVs with compelling attributes if you’re shopping for a family-oriented vehicle. First, they’re both hybrids and get excellent fuel economy. They’re also smaller and less expensive than many other three-row SUVs, such as the Kia Telluride and Toyota Grand Highlander. Not everyone needs a giant vehicle with a third-row seat that can fit full-size adults — something for occasional use by bigger kids or teens can easily suffice. If any or all of that sounds like what you’re looking for, the Sorento and Highlander hybrids should fit…

Apple is investing $500 million in MP Materials, the only fully integrated rare-earth mining company currently operating in the United States, as part of a broader effort to strengthen the domestic rare-earth supply chain. The tech giant announced on Tuesday that with this deal, it’s committed to buying American-made rare-earth magnets developed at MP Materials’ flagship facility in Fort Worth, Texas. The factory will develop a series of neodymium magnet manufacturing lines specifically designed for Apple products. Apple says that once the American-made magnets are built, they will be shipped across the country and all over the world to help…

Reuters  —  Teatime revels in China now include hugs with lion cubs in a four-course afternoon set offered by a restaurant in the northern province of Shanxi, drawing widespread attention online and fueling concern for the animals’ welfare. Customers cradled the lion cubs as if they were babies in pictures and video clips posted online on China’s Wechat and Weibo platforms. The Wanhui restaurant in Taiyuan city features llamas, turtles and deer in addition to the cubs on its page on Douyin, China’s counterpart to social media app TikTok. Wanhui, which opened in June, sells about 20 tickets a day…

Joseph Rutakangwa spent eight years looking for tools to help companies gather consumer insight data. Eventually, he decided to just build them.  Now his startup, called Rwazi, has raised a $12 million Series A led by Bonfire Ventures to help companies with market intelligence and consumer insights. He founded the company in 2021 with co-founder Eric Sewankambo.  “There was an abundance of consumer and market-level data for places like the U.S., U.K., and a few parts of Western Europe, maybe some traces in Canada and Australia. But when it came to international markets, including economic giants like India, Brazil, Mexico,…

Editor’s Note: Jill Dougherty is a former CNN Moscow bureau chief, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and a CNN contributor on Russia. CNN  —  A decade ago, Georgia was the poster child of post-Soviet countries on their way to democracy and freedom. The government was taking steps to fight corruption. Civil society was blossoming. The economy was growing. American businesses were investing. In 2004, even though it was not a member of NATO, Georgia sent its soldiers to Afghanistan to join the United States and other members of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), becoming the largest non-NATO contributor to…

For 18 months, Rivian and Google engineers worked together. Today, they’re showing off their work. Rivian is pushing out a software update that will bring a unique version of Google Maps into its EVs. It’s the latest step in Rivian’s continued effort to distinguish its vehicles with software — an effort that has helped it strike up a joint venture with one of the world’s biggest automakers, Volkswagen. This isn’t a typical Google Maps integration and it’s unlike the tech company’s other collaborations in the automotive sector. For years, Google has pushed into automotive through its smartphone projection app called…

Reddit users in the United Kingdom are now required to verify their age as a way to prevent children from accessing inappropriate content.  The new requirement comes after the U.K.’s Online Safety Act (OSA) introduced new steps for platforms to take to block children from encountering harmful content, like pornography and material promoting self-harm. Reddit will use the third-party service Persona to confirm a user’s age, necessitating users to submit a picture of their government-issued identity documents or take a selfie. Reddit said it will not have access to these images, and will only save the person’s verification status and…

AP  —  Police in Thailand arrested a woman Tuesday who allegedly enticed a string of Buddhist monks into sexual relationships and then pressured them into making large payments to cover up their intimacy. The possible violation of the celibacy rule for monks has rocked Buddhist institutions and gripped public attention in Thailand in recent weeks. At least nine abbots and senior monks involved in the scandal have been disrobed and cast out of the monkhood, the Royal Thai Police Central Investigation Bureau said. Wilawan Emsawat, in her mid-30s, was arrested at her home in Nonthaburi province north of the capital…

Uber has struck another deal with a robotaxi provider, and this time it’s with Chinese tech giant Baidu. The two companies announced Tuesday that they have agreed to a “multi-year strategic partnership to deploy thousands of Baidu’s Apollo Go autonomous vehicles (AVs) on the Uber platform” in multiple markets outside the U.S. and mainland China. Those deployments will start in Asia and the Middle East later this year, the companies said. Uber has been on a tear of AV partnerships lately as it looks to protect its ride-hailing business by embracing the rise of robotaxis. In the last few months…