月: 2023年6月

1. The Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima and the Pearl Harbor National Memorial in the US state of Hawaii have established sister ties despite dissent by people including atomic survivors. A signing ceremony was held at the US Embassy in Tokyo on Thursday. 2. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency will visit Japan next week to discuss the country’s plan to release treated and diluted water from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the ocean. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi will meet with Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa and other officials. He also plans to inspect the Fukushima Daiichi plant. 3. China’s national security law for Hong Kong that has been in effect for three years is impacting people’s daily lives in the region. The owner of a small store there says she recently came under police surveillance. Debby Chan was elected to a district council for the first time in 2019 as a pro-democracy lawmaker. But she chose to resign when the security law took effect on June 30, 2020. She then opened a store selling food and other items. Police began to monitor her closely after she started handing out candles to her customers last month, ahead of the anniversary of the Chinese military’s crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. June 4 marked 34 years since the incident.

1. A Russian newspaper says a senior general with the country’s military has been arrested in connection to the rebellion carried out by the Wagner Group. The Moscow Times said Surovikin, the deputy commander of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, reportedly chose to side with Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin during the uprising. The two are said to have been close. 2. Western leaders say the recent armed rebellion led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group, has undermined the leadership of Russian President Vladimir Putin. US President Joe Biden was asked by reporters at the White House on Wednesday if Putin had been weakened by the uprising. He said, “Absolutely.”
3. Japan and South Korea have agreed to resume a currency swap deal between the two countries, in another sign that bilateral relations are warming.

1. Japan’s COVID-19 cases are rising again, especially in the southern prefecture of Okinawa, as people enjoy normal summer activities for the first time in three years. Some doctors fear another wave is imminent, after the government downgraded the coronavirus to the same category as seasonal flue in May. Okinawa had 157 coronavirus patients admitted to hospitals in the week through Sunday, about 1.3 times more than in the previous week.
2. The North Korean Institute has criticized the Japanese government for hosting a UN symposium on Norea’s abduction of Japanese and other foreign nationals. According to the institute, the abduction issue has been completely, finally and irreversibly settled thanks to North Korea’s sincere efforts. 3. The founder of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has kept people guessing as to his whereabouts since he led a march on Moscow on Saturday. He called off the uprising and agreed to go into exile. Now, he has ended days of speculation by showing up in Belarus.

1.An independent Belarusian group says a private jet apparently owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russian private military firm Wagner Group, has landed at a military airfield near the Belarusian capital Minsk. The independent monitoring project Hajun reported the arrival of the business jet on Tuesday. It is not known whether Prigozhin was onboard the plane. 2. Tokyo police say Kabuki actor Ichikawa Ennosuke is admitting to allegations that he helped his mother kill herself. Ennosuke, whose real name is Kinoshi Takahiko, was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of helping his mother kill herself by giving her sleeping drugs. 3. A Russian independent media outlet says new camps for members of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group are being constructed in Belarus, where the group’s founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is reportedly going into exile.

1. A US media outlet says Janet Yellen, the country’s treasury secretary, may visit Beijing early next month for high-level economic talks with her Chinese counterpart. Attention is focused on whether the visit, if it happens, will help improve the strained relations between the world’s No.1 and No. 2 economic powers.
2. Mercenaries have challenged Russian authorities by marching toward Moscow. But the leader of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, says he had not intention of seizing power. Officials in the Kremlin said Prigozhin called off his forces on Saturday in exchange for an offer to go into exile in Belarus. 3. Western leaders are denying accusations they knew Russian mercenaries were preparing to march on Moscow. US President Joe Biden said on Monday that his administration has made clear to Russian leaders that they had “nothing to do with it.”

1. All five people on board the missing Titan submersible are believed to be dead after searchers discovered debris thought to belong to the craft on the ocean floor.
2. People in Japan’s southern prefecture of Okinawa are observing the 78th anniversary of one of the deadliest battles of World War Two. The battle, which was between the now-defunct imperial Japanese military and US forces, claimed more than 200,000 lives. 3. US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have agreed to strengthen bilateral ties, including in co-production of fighter jet engines.

1. Rescuers are racing against time to find a submersible carrying five people that went missing on a visit to the wreck of the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic. A search and rescue operation is underway for the submersible, which lost contact with the surface less than 2 hours after starting its dive on Sunday.
2. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has acknowledged that his nation’s counteroffensive against Russian forces is not proceeding as rapidly as he wants. Admitting that “not everything is easy,” Zelenskyy pointed out the presence of land mines poses difficulties. He said his country would “definitely like to make bigger steps – they are a bit smaller than we want.” 3. Ukraine faces a long and difficult road to recovery from all the damage caused by Russia’s invasion. That’s the focus of a London gathering of officials from more than 60 countries, organizations and companies. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the meeting online. He said, “At this conference, we must move from vision to agreements, and from agreements to real projects.”

1. Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden, has struck a deal with federal prosecutors that will likely keep him out of jail. He agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges while avoiding prosecution for possessing a firearm as a drug user. 2. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has revealed that one of the three Ukrainian ports covered by a UN-backed grain deal has been excluded. Under the Black Sea grain deal, Russia and Ukraine have agreed to allow grain shipments from the ports to secure global food supply after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
3. US media outlets say possible safety problems with a submersible that has gone missing on a tour of the Titanic shipwreck in the Atlantic had been pointed out five years ago. The Titan submersible was on an underwater tour to see the wreckage of the Titanic ocean liner resting on the seabed about 4,000 meters deep off the Canadian coasts. It lost contact with a parent ship on Sunday.

1. The meteorological agencies of the United Nations and the European Union say 2022 was the warmest year on record for many countries in Europe. On Monday, the World Meteorological Organization and the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service released a report on the state of the climate in Europe last year. The report says in 2022 Europe’s average temperature was about 2.3 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average.
2. US and Canadian rescuers are searching for a missing submersible carrying five people on a tour of the Titanic shipwreck. In 1912, about 1,500 passengers and crew members perished when the British ocean liner hit an iceberg in the Atlantic and sank on its way to the United States. The tour to view the wreckage, located at a depth of about 4,000 meters off the Canadian coast, is operated by US company OceanGate and costs 250,000 dollars per person. The US Coast Guard said the craft lost contact with its support ship about an hour and 45 minutes after it began its dive on Sunday morning. 3. Japanese restaurant chains are accelerating moves to expand abroad. They are setting up branches and acquiring foreign businesses to tap rising post-COVID demand. The company that runs conveyor-belt sushi chain Kura Sushi earlier ditched plans to enter the Chinese market due to the pandemic. But it has revived its ambitions, opening an outlet in Shanghai this month. Kura Sushi is also quickening its pace of openings in the United States and elsewhere.

1. The leaders of Japan, the US and South Korea are expected to meet in the United States shortly to discuss their response to North Korea’s repeated missile launches.
2. Ukraine’s deputy defense minister says the country’s forces have liberated eight communities in the past two weeks of their counteroffensive operations. Hanna Maliar wrote on social media on Monday that the village of Piatykhatky in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia is among those recaptured. 3. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other senior officials in Beijing. The two-day visit, which began on Sunday, is the first to the country by one of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet. It comes after a planned meeting in February was canceled amid allegations of China’s deploying spy balloons in the United States.