コンテンツへスキップ
- U.S. President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on police reform on Tuesday amid nationwide protests against racism and police brutality. The protests erupted last month after George Floyd, an African American, died in police custody in Minneapolis.
- The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled for the first time that a federal law banning workplace discrimination applies to sexual minorities. The court ruled on Monday that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other sexual minority workers are protected under the 1964 Civil Rights Act that bars job discrimination on the basis of sex, among other factors.
- Japanese Defense Minister Kono Taro says the government will suspend a plan to deploy the land-based Aegis Ashore missile defense system in the country. Kono told reporters on Monday that due to technical and financial challenges the plan to deploy the system was being halted.
- Some European Union member nations are lifting cross-border travel restrictions within the bloc starting on Monday. Such travel has been banned since March, when the coronavirus pandemic hit the continent. The European Commission earlier recommended that members ease restrictions ahead of the summer holiday period to boost tourism, which has been devastated by the pandemic.
- Officials in Beijing are stepping up measures to contain the coronavirus again after dozens of new cases were confirmed over the weekend. Health authorities say 72 people who visited a food market in the capital were confirmed to be infected on Saturday and Sunday.
- Prime Minister Abe Shinzo is warning against a second wave of the coronavirus outbreak in Japan. He urged people not to expect the virus to weaken in the coming hot summer months. Abe spoke during a program streamed live on Sunday night. He said people should not be complacent this summer because the virus is spreading even in extremely hot countries in the Middle East.
- Tokyo lifted its coronavirus alert on Thursday. That means pachinko parlors and amusement parks can reopen, and bars and restaurants can stay open later.
- Japan’s Upper House budget committee approved a second supplementary budget for the current fiscal year on Friday to respond to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. The budget is expected to be enacted in the afternoon at a plenary session.
- June 12th marks two years since the U.S. president and the leader of North Korea held their first denuclearization summit in Singapore. In a sign of how relations have soured since then, Pyongyang is marking the anniversary with some tough words for Washington. It says there’s no point in Kim Jong Un maintaining personal ties with Donald Trump, unless the U.S. abandons its hostile policies.
- The Meteorological Agency says Japan has entered the rainy season, except for the northern part of the Tohoku region. Agency officials said on Thursday that a seasonal rain front and warm, damp air are creating unstable atmospheric conditions over western and eastern Japan.
- NHK has learned that the Tokyo metropolitan government is moving to lift its coronavirus alert after 22 new infections were confirmed on Thursday.
- A brother of George Floyd, a black man who died after being pinned down by a white police officer, has called for law enforcement reforms in testimony to Congress. The younger brother, Philonise Floyd, spoke before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
- People in Hong Kong have staged prodemocracy rallies one year after the start of mass anti-government protests in the territory. Tuesday marked one year since more than one million people are said to have attended a rally to oppose a bill that would allow extraditions of criminal suspects to mainland China.
- Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo says Japan will play a leading role in the Group of Seven economic powers issuing a statement on Hong Kong affairs. Abe said in the Diet on Wednesday that Japan has expressed concern over developments in Hong Kong, following China’s decision to introduce national security legislation aimed at cracking down on anti-government protesters in the territory.
- A funeral service was held on Tuesday for the African-American man whose death has reignited the movement against police racism. George Floyd died last month after a white police officer pinned him down.
- North Korea says it will cut off all lines of communication with South Korea from Tuesday noon.
- Anti-racism protests over the death of a black man in police custody in the United States are resonating across Europe.
- New Zealand has lifted all restrictions imposed to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, except border controls.
- The governor of Tokyo and Japan’s minister in charge of the nation’s coronavirus response have confirmed their cooperation on measures to curb rising trend of coronavirus infections in Tokyo’s nightlife districts.
- A Japanese government survey shows that business sentiment among workers improved in May after dropping to its lowest level in April amid the coronavirus pandemic.
- Brazil’s government has stopped reporting the total number of coronavirus infections and deaths in the country. Critics say the move is an attempt to cover up the seriousness of the pandemic.
- A memorial service has taken place in the U.S. state of Minnesota for George Floyd whose death while in police custody has sparked nationwide protests against racial injustice. Hundreds of people attended Thursday’s ceremony in Minneapolis. It was the 10th day since Floyd died after a police officer pinned him to the ground with a knee on his neck.
- Thousands of people in Hong Kong have defied a ban on large gatherings to hold a vigil marking 31 years since the deadly military crackdown on pro-democracy activists at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
- The European Central Bank has decided to sharply expand its emergency stimulus program to help eurozone countries weather the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
- Criticism is growing over U.S. President Donald Trump’s response to anti-racist protests that have spread across the country. Former defense secretary Jim Mattis’s strong rebuke of Trump in a magazine article was widely reported as unusual criticism from a former senior administration official. Mattis said, “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try.” He said Trump instead tries to divide people.
- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has met former leaders of China’s pro-democracy movement who survived the crackdown in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.
- The British prime minister says his government will change the country’s immigration rules for the people of Hong Kong if China imposes national security legislation in the territory.
- Tokyo Government officials have issued an alert after confirming the highest daily tally of coronavirus infections in weeks. The governor says it’s a way of urging residents to remain cautious—but does not alter the plan to gradually reopen the economy.
- South Korea’s government is on alert for possible spreading of the coronavirus through the greater Seoul area after a new cluster infection was reported at a church in the suburbs of the capital.
- Officials in the Chinese city of Wuhan say they have found no COVID-19 cases with symptoms after testing almost all of its population. The city is where the first coronavirus infections were reported.