December 4, Monday, 2023

1. Japan’s Prime Minister Kishida Fumio said he has no knowledge of having met with the Japanese branch head of a group associated with a religious organization widely known as the Unification Church four years ago. The Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported on Monday that the branch head of the group was present at a meeting between Kishida and former US House Speaker Newt Gingrich in Japan in October 2019. 2.Divers searching for the US Osprey aircraft that crashed into the sea in southwestern Japan last week have reportedly located what appear to be part of the plane and multiple people. Sources say the number of people the divers found on Monday morning appears to be five. The tilt-rotor transport aircraft of the US Air Force crashed off Yakushima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture last Wednesday. 3. An international environmental NGO has given Japan a satirical “Fossil of the Day” award at the venue of the COP28 climate change conference in Dubai. The Climate Action Network presents the awards every day during the UN conference to countries it says are “doing the most to achieve the least” to curb global warming.