October 4, Wednesday, 2023

1. US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted from the post on Tuesday with a vote of 216 in favor, 210 against and seven not present. All attending House Democrats and eight Republicans supported the move. One factor behind the motion is believed to be McCarthy’s failure to keep a promise he made when elected as speaker to work toward drastically cutting federal expenditures. Another is that McCarthy conceded to Democrats in order to pass temporary funding to avoid a partial government shutdown.
2. Japan’s education ministry says about 299,000 elementary and junior high school students missed school in the year that ended in March 2023. The figure, which has risen 10 years in a row, was the highest pm record.
3. Popular Japanese TV personality and actor Kuroyanagi Tetsuko has released a sequel to her 1981 autobiographical memoir “Totto-chan; The Little Girl at the Window.” The 90-year-old – whose childhood nickname was memorialized in her book’s title – says what prompted he to pick up her pen again was the ongoing war in Ukraine.