at 18:00 (JST), December 22 (Ai-CC by Clipchamp)

20241222180000_english_1.mp3

 Welcome to NHK Newsline. I'm Gene Otani in Tokyo.

A nuclear power company in France says it has connected an advanced pressurized water reactor to the national grid. The country relies on nuclear power for about 65% of its energy mix. The firm says its Flamanville No. 3 reactor in the northwest of the country began operating in September and is now on the grid for the first time. The AFP news agency says this is 12 years behind schedule due to design flaws and defects during construction. The news agency also says the total construction costs came to an estimated $13.76 billion, or about four times the original budget. French President Emmanuel Macron is promoting construction of nuclear reactors in pursuit of decarbonization. He has ordered six advanced pressurized reactors and is considering adding eight more.

Iceland has both a female president and a female prime minister for the first time.
Kristram Frostadotur was appointed prime minister on Saturday. She is the head of the center-left Social Democratic Alliance. At the age of 36, she is the youngest prime minister in the country's history. In a general election last month, her party edged out the ruling coalition and agreed to form a new government with two other parties. The current heads of all three parties are women. Also, of the 11 new cabinet ministers, seven are women, as is the current president. Iceland has topped the World Economic Forum's Global Report on Gender Equality for 15 years in a row.
Foster daughter attended an assembly session in April with her child. She told NHK at that time that the assembly should be family friendly.

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Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles attacked the central Russian city of Kazan, about 800 kilometers east of Moscow, on Saturday.
Russian state-run media quoted the city mayor's office as saying several districts of Kazan were attacked by drones. They also reported a suspension of flights at the Kazan airport and a fire in a residential complex. No casualties were reported. Kazan hosted the BRICS summit of Russia, China and other emerging economies in October.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova released a statement on the attacks on Saturday. The statement says the strike on Kazan is a kind of revenge for the successful BRICS summit, as well as an attempt to intimidate the population of one of the dynamically developing regions of the country. The incident occurred as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been promoting the development and manufacture of long-range unmanned drones. Western media have reported the strike happened deep inside Russian territory, over 1,000 kilometers from the front line.
Ukrainian President Zelensky says he has chosen a new ambassador to Japan.
The successor has yet to be announced.
On Friday, Zelensky approved the appointments of more than 30 new ambassadors, including the envoys to China and Lithuania. The current ambassador to Japan, Sergey Korsunsky, took his post in 2020. Since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, he has been actively campaigning across Japan to garner support for his country. In March 2022, immediately after the invasion, Korsanski spoke of his deep gratitude for monetary donations and flowers delivered to the embassy in Tokyo by Japanese people.
Korsanski told NHK that he will stay in Japan at least until around February.
Speaking partially in Japanese, he thanked the Japanese public for their support.

Police in Brazil say at least 37 people are feared dead after a crash involving a bus and a truck in the southeastern part of the country. The crash occurred on a highway in the state of Minas Gis on Saturday morning. A passenger vehicle was also involved. The bus reportedly burst into flames. Photos taken by the local fire department. Show what appears to be the charred bus with seats and baggage scattered nearby. Police said the fire may have started after a large rock the truck was carrying fell onto the road, hitting the bus, which was traveling in the opposite direction. Local media reports said the bus was heading to. to the northeastern state of Bahia from Sao Paulo.

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Japanese high school students working for the abolition of nuclear weapons have collected signatures in Hiroshima, the city that suffered an atomic bombing in 1945 The 12 peace ambassadors were campaigning for the first time since the Hidankyo group of atomic bomb survivors received. The Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month, the students told people the power of individuals adds up and can change the world.

Memories of the bombings are easily forgotten. It's good to hand them down to the next generation.

It's meaningful to collect signatures in Hiroshima after Hidanki was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. I believe people's thinking has changed as we are getting more visitors now. I hope our activities will boost this momentum.

Three of the 23 peace ambassadors are working in Hiroshima, and their representative attended the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.

The Japanese government is stepping up efforts to recruit caregivers from abroad as the country faces increasingly severe labor shortages. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry estimates that the number of caregivers in Japan stood at about 2.15 million people in fiscal 2022. It says 2.72 million workers will be needed by fiscal 2040. which means a shortfall of around 570,000 people is likely under the current conditions. The ministry had expected to secure more than 50,000 caregivers from abroad through the specified skilled worker program by last fiscal year, but the Immigration Services Agency said that over 39,000 people were permitted into Japan with that status as of August 2024. To address the shortages, the ministry has begun A subsidy program to help private firms recruit caregivers overseas. The ministry earmarked 270 million yen, or about $1.7 million for these efforts in the current year's supplementary budget. They include providing up to 500,000 yen, or about. $3,200 to each firm to assist in building relations with foreign schools and organizing recruitment campaigns such as job fairs.

Those were the main stories for this hour.

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And that's the news this hour. I'm Gene Otani. From all of us here at NHK Newsline to all around the world, thanks very much for joining us.