月: 2025年1月

1. South Korean investigators have halted their attempts to execute a detention warrant for President Yoon Suk-yeol. They earlier entered the grounds of the presidential residence to detain Yoon, but were blocked by his security personnel.
2. Multiple US media outlets say President Joe Biden has decided to officially block Japan’s Nippon Steel from purchasing US Steel.
3. A traditional New Year’s event to ward off evil has been held in the city of Wajima in central Japan for the first time in two years. The city was hit hard by the massive Noto Peninsula earthquake and heavy rain last year. The folk ritual called “Amamehagi” features people wearing masks of legendary creatures and monkeys.

1. The death toll from a New Year’s Day vehicle attack in the southern US city of New Orleans has risen to at least 15. The suspect was killed in a shootout with police. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the incident as an act of terrorism. The FBI identified the suspect who was driving the vehicle as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, from Texas.
2. One person died and seven others were injured when a vehicle exploded and caught fire Wednesday morning outside one of President-elect Donald Trump’s hotels in Las Vegas in the western US state of Nevada. The car was made by Tesla, where Elon Musk, a businessman who is close to Trump, serves as CEO. The explosion happened outside the Trump International Hotel at around 8:40 a.m. on Wednesday. One person died inside the vehicle. 3. People in Syria are voicing their expectations for the interim government to build a better future, as the country ushers in the New Year. On New Year’s Day, people in the capital Damascus expressed hope for stable security and the recovery of the economy battered by civil war.

1. Japan’s Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru has delivered his New Year’s message in which he vowed to help a diverse public realize happiness by revitalizing regional communities, that are facing serious population declines. In the message, Ishiba says the drop in population has resulted in diminishing vitality for both regions and the economy. He says he is determined to set his regional revitalization policy in motion and rectify the excessive concentration in Tokyo to build a Japan that fulfills his pledge.
2. In the wee hours of Wednesday, New Year’s Day worshippers packed the grounds of Meiji Jingu, a major Shinto shrine in central Tokyo, praying that good luck will come their way in 2025. They began forming queues late at night on New Year’s Eve along the approach to the shrine in Shibuya Ward. With the sound of a beating drum at midnight signaling the arrival of the New Year, visitors began throwing monetary offerings into a wide fenced-in area, and then made their wishes.
3. A record low number of New Year’s greeting cards were delivered in Japan on Wednesday as 2025 began, the fewest since data became available on them in 2008. A ceremony was held to mark the start of delivery at a post office in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district. After the ceremony, postal workers in traditional costumes left for their assigned areas to make deliveries.