Welcome back to NHK Newsline. Here's the latest we have for you at this hour.
The fallout continues after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's tense meeting with US President Donald Trump last week. Washington's top diplomat says the US is ready to work with Ukraine's leader to seek peace with Russia, but only if he changes his tone.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the comments on ABC News Sunday, two days after the troubled talks. He says the White House is trying to get Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table. Rubio says Zelenskyy disrupted those efforts, but adds the US is willing to try again.
We'll be ready to reengage when they're ready to make peace, which is clearly what the president's goal is here.
At the same time, Zelenskyy appears to be distancing himself from what happened with Trump last week. He refused to comment when pressed by reporters while visiting Britain. But Zelenskyy says Ukraine, without a doubt, counts on US assistance to counter Putin. He also says if the US invites him back for a constructive dialogue, he'll accept, out of respect for America, its people,and its president. Meanwhile, European leaders say they're drafting a peace plan they hope that Washington will get behind. They want to pitch a one-month ceasefire as a first step toward ending the fighting between Ukraine and Russia.
French President Emmanuel Macron gave details during an interview with French daily Luffy Gaholl. He says he and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are considering proposing a truce in the air, on the seas and on Energy infrastructure. The next step would be halting ground fighting and then peace talks. Macron says peacekeepers would be deployed in Ukraine once the ceasefire is implemented, but he says Ukraine needs Washington to guarantee peace. Lufigaho also reports Macron spoke with his US counterpart several times by phone in recent days. It comes after Zelenskyy received a much warmer welcome from key players in Europe after his rocky reception at the White House.
Starmer says they agreed to strengthen military support for Ukraine and tighten economic pressure on Russia.
Israel says it's blocking the delivery of aid into the Gaza Strip until Hamas accepts a new US proposal to extend the ceasefire and release more hostages. It warns of more consequences if Hamas continues to refuse. Long lines of eight trucks formed at a border crossing on Sunday, the day Israel announced a blockade. The UN's humanitarian affairs chief calls the decision alarming. The first phase ended on Saturday. The US proposes extending the ceasefire through mid-April, with Hamas freeing half of the hostages right away. The others would be released following an agreement on a permanent ceasefire. Hamas says the original deal must be respected. The terms include negotiations for a second phase of the ceasefire, and the remaining hostages would be released only after the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. For more on this, I spoke with Keio University professor Tanaka Koichiro. He's an expert on the Middle East and has been following the talks.
Israel accepted the US proposal to extend this first phase, but Why do you think they're doing so?
Well, to begin with, I think the Israelis had an idea to expel maybe possibly as much as possible the Gazans or the civilians in Gaza to somewhere else. Of course, this coincides with the idea presented by the American president, Donald Trump, to have the Palestinians or the Gazans to leave the territory and to be, say, received by other Arab states.
But part part of the deal here is that the the special envoy, Mr. Witkoff, is carrying is sort of a message to tell the Palestinians and also especially the Gazans, not only Hamas, but the entire Gazan civilians, that there is no room for them to be there in the future. But, of course, for the Israelis, there's nothing to lose for them. So it's quite easy, quite, say, acceptable for Prime Minister Netanyahu and his cabinet, along with the Israelis, to accept what the Americans are trying to do there.
Well, we're waiting to see, of course, if Hamas will do the same, accept this. But what do they have to gain from this?
Well, that's the problem, because all the cards or the only card that they have in their hands are the hostages. Of course, taking hostages is not a commendable action, but at least at the moment, the only card that they hold is the hostages.
But if they free the hostages without any, say, a guarantee for their future existence, that's going to be a problem not only for the Palestinians, but especially for the Hamas. And here Hamas is not going to relinquish that demand or anything less than the idea of having the Israeli forces totally leave from Gaza, and also to while, say, to gain that sort of a condition that they will use the hostages as their bargaining chip. So if they are to lose that bargaining chip, they are not going to accept any sort of a change to the original deal.
Well, you know, we do know that the two sides are at odds over the second phase of the ceasefire agreement. And You know, it is supposed to include that complete withdrawal of Israeli forces, and, of course, the release of all remaining hostages. But then, with negotiations at a standstill, do you see any way of this moving forward?
Well, we can still expect that there may be an extension of this first phase for another weeks, or maybe a month to come. But beyond that, I'm quite dubious of what's going to happen next. Will there be a possibility that we could see the second phase emerging out of this? I'm quite doubtful of that. Unfortunate, I'm I'm very sorry to say, but I feel that way and see the situation very complicated, but also very difficult to achieve for the second phase. And most of all, what I'm really alarmed about is that the way that the United States is acting, of course. When the President Trump came into office, I mean it was his deal that made possible his pressure that he exerted not only to the Palestinians but also to the Israelis that eventually made this first phase achievable. That's quite commendable that at least. But at the moment we see that during the month of February. President Trump has shifted even beyond his original plans, and now he's talking about the United States administrating Gaza in the future. And that makes the condition of the or the status of the Americans very difficult. Why? Because Americans were supposed to be a mediator here. They may not have been a neutral mediator, but at least they acted as a mediator. But if they are going to have a stake. In the future of Gaza, that means that there are going to be the parties involved or concerned or even stakeholder, and If you are a stakeholder, it looks as though that any deal or any conditions that they are going to, say, put forward in the face of the Israelis and also to the Palestinians and the Hamas, is that whatever is going to be the outcome of the deal is going to be a benefit for the Americans, the United States. Not only Israel, not only Palestinians, but more for the Americans.
So I think the the game is gradually shifting from the original stage.
So with the US playing more as an actor to these negotiations, do you see, well, you say that you're a little pessimistic about what may happen with the second phase, but is there any way of getting out of this standstill?
Well, I think that is quite a problem here, because as long as there is no actual mediator who is neutral, or at least try to be neutral. There is no way out of this stalemate.
Snow is falling in the mountainous areas of the greater Tokyo region. Weather officials say the snow may also accumulate in low lying areas, including the central part of the capital. The officials note a front and a cold air mass are causing rain and snow to fall in wide areas of eastern and western Japan.
Some regions could get as much as 5 centimeters during the 24 hours leading up to Tuesday afternoon. These include northern Kanto, Koshin, as well as areas from Hakone to Tama and Chichibu.
The flatlands in southern Kanto, including central Tokyo, are expected to get up to 3 centimeters.
Snow is expected again in the regions from Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday.
This is due to a low pressure system that's passing over the front.
Officials are urging people to be on the alert for traffic disruptions and to keep up with the latest weather updates. They say that drivers should use winter tires if they are planning on traveling on snowy roads.
More than 1,600 firefighters from around Japan are working together with local crews in the Northeast. They are dealing with the country's largest forest fires in more than three decades.
Flames have reportedly reached residential areas in Ofunato City.
Crews are on the ground, as well as above. They're using 19 helicopters, including several from Japan's Self-Defense Forces. Officials say about 2,100 hectares, including dozens of buildings in Iwate Prefecture, have been damaged since the situation erupted last week. About 1,200 people are sheltering in schools and other facilities.
One last story before we go. Hundreds of people gathered near Lake Biwa in Japan's western prefecture of Shiga to haul shrines weighing nearly one ton up a mountain.
Ohh ...
The Sanno Spring Festival is a Shinto tradition that dates back to the Heian era more than 1,000 years ago. The first in a series of rituals was held on Sunday at the Hiyoshi Taisha Shrine in Otsu City. About 400 people worked together to carry the shrines from the foot of a mountain to near its peak, at an altitude of about 380 meters.
It's so powerful.
The portable shrines will be featured in the main rituals of the festival in April.
♪
And it is time for a check on the weather with our meteorologist, Jonathan Oh. So Jonathan, it is the beginning of March, but as we've been reporting, we are getting a taste of snow even here in the Tokyo area. What is the latest?
Oops, we're seeing temperatures dropping off to 1.8 degrees at 4:00 o'clock in the afternoon. So it's been getting colder and colder. We've been seeing strong winds that made it really chilly outside.
We've got the snow that actually has been flying around outside the studios of NHK.
So we are definitely seeing that interesting pattern, right, where we go into March and. We tend to see this pattern of having lows moving down to the south and really gripping that cold air and blowing it right on top of the eastern portion of Japan. So we get that taste of winter. And that is the story as we go throughout the rest of Monday and into Tuesday. We have high up to the north, really dragging down that cold air and then that rain front that's located down to the south and the low back toward the west. It's going to kind of tiptoe across this thing and bring even some more winter weather, including places like Tokyo, again, late Tuesday. So I mean this is the forecast for the next 24 hours. Moisture picking up, hitting that cold air, and we're seeing some snow once again, at least the possibility of it coming up late Tuesday into Wednesday. So that's the forecast in Tokyo with high of 8. Sendai looking at snow with a high of 5 and it looks like that we're going to be covering the chilly weather way back to the West as well again for Tuesday. High of 11 in Fukuoka for Tuesday.
That low that's going to be moving in from the West already impacting the eastern areas of China, but once it departs things dry just a bit. Cloudy skies in Shanghai with a high of 9, but as whole we're looking at some rain with high of 6 for Tuesday.
Looking what's happening across North America low back toward the West into the Rockies now. Now we're going to expect another low to dive down into the southern plains. The issue with this is that it's going to really pick up on the instability going Monday into Tuesday. So the southern plains into the Deep South. Severe thunderstorm possibilities are going to be increasing over the next couple of days, so make sure you pay attention to the weather as we go forward in time. Rain in Houston with high 24 coming up on Monday.
Hope you have a good day wherever you are.
♫～
And that brings us to the end of this edition of NHK Newsline. We'll have more for you at the top of the hour. Thanks for watching.
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