• Video: Ups and downs of Shinzo Abe

When Akie Matsuzaki married Shinzo Abe, then a rising political aide, in 1987, she followed a path well trodden by Japanese wives and gave up her job at the country's largest advertising agency.

Japan's ruling coalition swept to victory on Sunday in an upper house election that took on heightened significance following the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

An aquarium employee waves a mackerel near a penguin -- but there's no reaction. When she moves the fish closer to its beak, the penguin turns away haughtily. An otter sniffs the fish, then runs away.

Choi Jung-hun smiled as I read out the latest official Covid-19 figures from North Korean state media: fewer than 5 million cases of "fever" and just 73 fatalities -- a fraction of the death toll of every other country in the world.