June 30, Friday, 2023

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.