December 5, Wednesday, 2018 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Raja Pradhan and Ms. Mariko Kojima

  1. An earthquake has occurred in the southern Pacific off the coast of New Caledonia at 4:20 UTC on Wednesday. The quake measured at magnitude 7.5 with a depth of 10 kilometers.
  2. NHK has learned that a draft of the government’s new defense guidelines says Japan will introduce state-of-the-art F-35B stealth fighter jets.
  3. The French government has announced it will suspend fuel tax hike planned for January.