2024年11月15日金曜日

at 18:00 (JST), November 15

 


Welcome back to NHK Newsline. I'm Yamaguchi Hiroaki in Tokyo.

Japan's Princess Mikasa, whose given name is Yuriko, has passed away at the age of 101. The princess was the widow of Prince Mikasa, a younger brother of the late Emperor Showa.
She was hospitalized at St. Luke's International Hospital in Tokyo on March 3 after suffering a stroke and aspiration pneumonia. Officials with the Imperial Household Agency said that the princess passed away of old age at around 6:30 on Friday morning.
Japan's Emperor Narushito and Empress Masako visited Princess Mikasa's residence in Tokyo on Friday afternoon to express their condolences.
Princess Mikasa's life of more than a century was marked by times of turbulence. She was born in 1923 as the second daughter of a noble family. She married Prince Mikasa at the age of 18 in 1941.
But the Pacific War began soon after their marriage. Their house burned down in the air raids, and she lived in a shelter for some time. After the war, she spent decades serving as the president of a foundation dedicated to maternal and child welfare.
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She was committed to improving welfare throughout her life. She served as an honorary vice president of the Japanese Red Cross Society. The princess turned 101 on June 4th. That was the oldest for a member of the imperial family since the Meiji era that began in the late 19th century.

Donald Trump's re-election as U.S. president continues to reverberate globally. He campaigned on a promise to put America first.
People around the world are waiting to see what that will mean when he returns with full control of Congress and a roster of loyalists picked for his administration. Trump has officially nominated Florida Senator Marco Rubio to be Secretary of State. Rubio is a hardliner on China and a prominent supporter of Taiwan. Regarding Iran, he said the Trump administration would be very clear and very firm in dealing with the country.
For Defense Secretary, Trump has picked Pete Hegsteth, a Fox News host and military veteran who was deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The president-elect wants Florida Congressman Mike Waltz to be his national security adviser. Waltz served in the Middle East and Afghanistan as a member of the U.S. Army's elite Green Berets.He has expressed skepticism about the current U.S. administration's approach to continuing military support for Ukraine.
Trump has raised eyebrows with his choice of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Kennedy has claimed that some vaccines can trigger autism.
Trump went a more traditional route for his CIA director, choosing John Ratcliffe, who served as Director of National Intelligence during his first term.
We spoke to an expert in American politics, Waseda University professor Nakabayashi Miyako, about how she views the president-elect's picks so far.

Well, they're pretty surprising. At the first administration, he was surrounded by professionals, Washington insiders and so on. However, this time, he's picking someone who are very loyal to him. instead of their professionality or careers with particular knowledge and experiences.

Professor Nakabayashi flagged Elon Musk as someone who could have a significant sway as head of the new Budget Streaming Department of Government Efficiency.
But she noted that he will be in a position to influence policies that have a massive effect on his own businesses. Professor Nakabayashi pointed out that Trump's picks still have to pass the nomination process, though with both chambers of Congress controlled by the Republican Party, it isn't clear who will provide real opposition to the incoming president. When Trump won the election, China said it respected the choice of the American people. That's a position that could be tested by if so-called China hawk Marco Rubio becomes Secretary of State. But Professor Nakabayashi says he may show more nuance than we expect.

His stance is very interesting, and he understands the moderate position. Therefore, although he is very hawkish against China, he may be able to see the balance in Asian region. I am hoping that he would listen to others pretty well. One problem is whoever the appointees are going to be, they are all have to be very loyal to Mr. Trump. So eventually, as long as Mr. Trump sees things, he is the one to decide the direction of American diplomacy as well as national security.

There's concern in Japan, too, about what the changes in Washington will bring. The professor says the key will be how well Japan's new prime minister can read Trump and work with him.

This Indo-Pacific area depends on American security coverage and deterrence. Japan must explain the importance of it to Mr. Trump. In order to do that, Japanese Prime Minister must be able to have a close communication with Mr. Trump, because Mr. Trump's decision-making pattern is top-down, not bottom to the top. Therefore, Mr. Ishiba needs to learn how to deal with him.

Meanwhile, Trump is lashing out at a plan to reduce street congestion in the heart of the Big Apple. That's after New York State announced it will bring it will begin charging motorists entering central Manhattan next year.
Governor Kathy Hochul says passenger vehicles will face a daytime charge of $9 starting January 5th. That's down from the initial proposal, a $15 toll.
Hochul says they hope to see 10% reduction. and traffic under the plan. Toll revenue will be used to expand public transit and other services.
But the president-elect, a New York native, says the plan will put the city at a disadvantage and drive out business. U.S. media say the state may be trying to get federal approval before the Trump administration takes office in January.

North Korea says its leader has called for accelerating the mass production of exploding attack drones after seeing them perform in a test.
State media says Kim Jong-un visited the test site on Thursday. The report included blurred photos of drones. Other images show what's said to be an armored vehicle on fire following the drone attack.
Kim reportedly expressed his satisfaction with the tactical and technical characteristics of the devices. He underscored the need to build a serial production system as early as possible and go into full-scale mass production. Kim added that military authorities around the world probably recognize that drones are achieving clear successes in big and small conflicts. The leader reportedly touched on the necessity of updating the country's military education in response to drone warfare. A five-year national defense plan made public by North Korea in 2021 called for the development of unmanned combat equipment.

U.S. President Joe Biden is in Lima for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum.
He is scheduled for a three-way summit with the leaders of Japan and South Korea to discuss how they can make their countries' relationships even closer.
Biden will sit down with Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba shigeru and South Korean President Yoon Son-yo Friday. His national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, says they're expected to agree to create a trilateral coordination secretariat.
Sullivan says it will be aimed at furthering their country's collaboration and as it's expected to continue during the incoming Trump administration.
Sullivan also says Pyongyang has previously taken provocative actions when the U.S. has transitioned from one president to another. He also says the possibility of another North Korean nuclear test is ever-present.
Meanwhile, the White House says Biden will have a bilateral meeting with Ishiba also on Friday.

The Pentagon has published its annual update on unidentified flying objects, widely known as UFOs. The report found many cases could be traced not to aliens, but to origins closer to home.
The U.S. Department of Defense released a document on Thursday. It says it received 757 reports of what it calls unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP, in the 13 months through June 1st. They came mainly from the US, the Middle East, and East Asia. About 300 were found to be objects such as balloons, bers, or unmanned aerial systems.
The department notes a rise in cases in which SpaceX's Starlink satellites were mistakenly reported as UAP. But the document reveals nothing new about possible alien life.

The department has discovered no verifiable evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology.

The Pentagon spokesperson said none of the resolved cases point to any advanced capabilities or breakthrough technologies. The department says it will continue analyzing the unresolved cases.

The northern Philippines has been affected by its fifth storm in the past three weeks. Our meteorologist Yumi Hirano has the details.

Usagi might landfall in northern Philippines on Thursday as a strong typhoon, bringing gusty winds and heavy downpours. We have some video.Usagi forced the evacuation of more than 20,000 people in northern Luzon.It brought heavy rain and stronger winds, causing flooding, power outages and damaging homes. Flat water swamped breaches, making them impossible.The northern part of the country has been hit by 5 tropical storms in less than a month, and it's now racing for another. So after Usagi, Mangy will be the next typhoon hitting the area. It's expected to intensify into very strong status, which is more dangerous than the previous typhoon Usagi, and it will arrive in loose zone by Sunday with its peak intensity. So the main concern is strong winds, which are damaging structures and causing widespread power outages. In addition, more than 200 millimeters of rainfall is possible, increasing the risk of severe flooding. Elsewhere in Asia, Taipei will see intense rain due to Usagi, but mild weather is expected in Seoul and Tokyo, with highs around 20.Moving to Europe, a circulating low-pressure system is bringing intense rain, even in a citythat experienced severe flooding two weeks ago. Over 130 millimeters of rain was reported in just six hours, which is more than the total monthly average. It has caused additional flooding. The system is expected to gradually offshore, but risks of isolated heavy rainfall and gusty winds will continue Friday.

That's all for me. Stay safe.


And that's all for this edition of NHK Newsline, but do stay with us for more.

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