日: 2022年7月15日

1.Gotabaya Rajapaksa has officially stepped down as president of Sri Lanka. This comes after months of anti-government protests over a worsening economic crisis. Sri Lanka’s parliamentary speaker officially accepted Rajapaksa’s resignation on Friday. Earlier this week, the now-former leader fled the country with his wife. He is now reportedly in Singapore.
2.China’s economy grew at its second-slowest pace in 30 years in the last quarter compared to a year ago. The blame mainly goes to the stifling effects of the country’s strict coronavirus measures.
3.Consumer prices in financially-strapped Argentina have made their biggest leap in 30 years, sparking protests by the public. The national statistics bureau announced on Thursday that the consumer price index rose in June from a year earlier by a whopping 64 percent. That’s the biggest margin of increase since January 1992. There are growing concerns about the future of the national economy.

1.President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he is thankful to the UN and Turkey for their efforts to help grain exports resume from Ukraine. Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude on Wednesday for their negotiations to help end Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian agricultural shipments passing through the Black Sea. The blockade has raised concerns over food insecurity worldwide.
2.Energy ministers from the so-called Quad nations have agreed to promote the use of ammonia and other clean fuels. The ministers from Japan, the US, Australia and India met in Sydney. They discussed how they can cooperate in the energy sector at a time when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has created instability in international energy markets.
3.Researchers in Japan say the BA.5 subvariant of the coronavirus Omicron variant may be more pathogenic, or more likely to cause disease.

1.Investigators in the killing of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe say the suspect had wanted to attack a religious group leader. The suspect told police that his mother became an avid follower of the religious group and made huge donations to it, which ruined the family’s life. The suspect also said he believed Abe was close to the group.
2.The Tokyo District Court has ordered four former directors of Tokyo Electric Power Company to pay about 97 billion dollars in damages to the utility. The shareholders claimed the company incurred massive losses from the 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
3.A district court in Nagano Prefecture, central Japan, has dismissed a damages lawsuit filed by relatives of victims of the eruption of Mount Ontake eight years ago. The volcanic mountain straddling Nagano and Gifu prefectures erupted in September 2014, leaving 63 people dead or missing.