Almost every region in the world is experiencing an increase in measles cases, which is putting people’s lives at risk. This is in part down to misinformation about vaccines on social media. But as Sarah Pitt sets out, there’s also the fact that stories of these terrible diseases have long been forgotten. To tackle the latest epidemics, people need to start understanding how badly viral infections affected people in the past.

A century-old trade dispute between Japan and South Korea has flared up again and could threaten the world’s supply of smartphones. As Pushan Dutt explains, Japan has officially removed South Korea from its list of trusted trade partners that receive preferential treatment for importing sensitive Japanese-made goods. The list of goods includes chemicals that are crucial to producing the semiconductor memory chips found in most modern electronic devices.