日: 2022年12月7日

1. In the United States, the Democratic incumbent has won Tuesday’s Senate runoff in the state of Georgia. The result is a setback for former President Donald Trump, who had backed the Republican candidate. The race in Georgia came to a runoff after none of the candidates won the required majority of votes in last month’s midterm elections. 2. Japan faces a rising tide of aging infrastructure that cannot be repaired due to tight budgets and worker shortages. Local authorities are required to inspect bridges and tunnels every five years, following a fatal tunnel collapse a decade ago. The accident in the Chuo Expressway’s Sasago Tunnel in Yamanashi Prefecture killed nine people. 3. Business leaders across the US saw a shortage of semiconductors put a wrench in global supply chains already disrupted by the pandemic. They and President Joe Biden are hoping the world’s largest contract chipmaker can help. On Tuesday, Biden visited a plant in Arizona being built by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. Executives have spent 12 billion dollars on the facility and hope to have it running in 2024. They have also announced they will build another factor nearby. Their investment of 40 billion dollars is one of the largest outlays by a foreign company in US history.

1. Chinese President Xi Jinping and other members of the country’s leadership have paid tribute to former President Jiang Zemin, who died last Wednesday. He was 96. Jiang was appointed General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party by then-supreme leader Deng Xiaoping after the Tiananmen Square incident in June of 1989. Pro-democracy demonstrators were militarily cracked down in the incident. He promoted economic reforms that involved the introduction of a market economy under socialism.
2. Japan has missed its chance to advance to the quarterfinals at the men’s soccer World Cup in Qatar. The Samurai Blue lost to Croatia on penalties. This was the third World Cup to pit Japan against Croatia which was the runner-ip in 2018. Japan’s Maeda Daizen opened scoring just before half time. Croatia equalized the score in the 55th minute. 3. Hundreds of soccer fans witnessed Japan’s heartbreaking World Cup defeat to Croatia at a public viewing spot in Tokyo. Their reaction to the loss, however, was largely positive. The crowd roared when Maeda Daizen netted the opener in the first half. But the fans turned jittery again after Croatia got the equalizer to take the game into extra time. There was a sigh of disappointment after Japan lost in the penalty shootout. But it was soon followed by a round of applause.