日: 2024年3月8日

1. Japanese manga artist Toriyama Akira, known globally for such works as “Dragon Ball” and “Dr. Slump,” has died at the age of 68. The official website of the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine said Toriyama died of acute subdural hematoma on March 1.
2. US President Joe Biden delivered the last State of the Union address of his first-term on Thursday. Speaking before a joint session of Congress, Biden kicked off his speech with a declaration on democracy, noting that “not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault here at home as they are today.”
3. Japan and India have agreed to strengthen cooperation over wide areas, including national security, economic issues and cultural exchanges. Japan’s Foreign Minister Kamikawa Yoko and India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar agreed to step up cooperation to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific region, a concept advocated by Tokyo.

1. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is deepening as the Israel-Hamas conflict enters its 6th month, and pessimism is growing over the characters of an imminent pause in fighting in the enclave.
2. Policy chiefs of Japan’s ruling coalition parties are to meet on Friday to discuss the controversial issue of whether to allow exports of next-generation fighter jets.
3. Residents of the southwestern Japanese prefecture of Oita have been involved in a legal dispute to suspend a nuclear power plant’s operation. But a court has turned their demand down.

1. Nikki Haley has decided to drop out of the Republican presidential nomination race, according to multiple US media outlets. This leaves Donald Trump as the party’s presumptive nominee for US President.
2. A senior Chinese economic official says the government’s growth target of around 5 percent this year is achievable by combining fiscal and monetary policies.
3. Tokyo’s benchmark stock index edged down on Wednesday for the second-straight session, ending just shy of its all-time high.

1. Fifteen US states will soon hold primaries and caucuses on “Super Tuesday” in the Republican nomination race for the US presidential election in November. Former President Donald Trump is the frontrunner in the battle to be the Republican presidential candidate.
2. Uber Eats says it will start delivering food using self-driving robots in parts of Tokyo on Wednesday. The company expects the service will help to ease a staff shortage. A small six-wheeled robot will be introduced to two restaurants in the capital’s Nihonbashi district.
3. Ukraine’s defense ministry says it carried out a drone attack that damaged a Russian naval ship off the southern coast of Russian-occupied Crimea.