May 14, Tuesday, 2024

1. Police in Japan say three people have died in a pileup involving seven vehicles that left multiple cars ablaze on the Metropolitan Expressway just outside Tokyo. The road operator alerted police on Tuesday morning about the burning vehicles on the outbound lanes of Route 5 Ikebukuro Line in Toda city, Saitama Prefecture. Three people who were trapped in the fire have been confirmed dead. A person in a truck was sent to hospital with minor injuries. 2. The pace of gains in Japan’s producer prices was unchanged in April from the previous month, as higher crude-oil prices maintained inflationary pressure. The Bank of Japan said on Tuesday the preliminary Producer Price Index rose 0.9 percent last month from the same period a year earlier.
3. Donald Trump’s former lawyer has testified that he made hush money payments to an adult film actress at the direction of the former US President. Michael Cohen spoke as the prosecution’s star witness at the hearing in New York state criminal court on Monday. The trial has been held since last month after prosecutors charged Trump with falsifying business records. This was in relation to hush money paid to an adult film star during his 2016 presidential election campaign.