A District Court in Seoul has approved a warrant to detain impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol on insurrection allegations. Yoon supporters have been protesting near his residence to block investigators from entering.
More than 1,000 people have gathered and were shouting let's prevent President Yoon from being detained or lying on the road to protest. Some clashed with the police. Local media say the warrant defines the president as a boss of a group that committed insurrection.
The court issued the document after Yoon failed three times to comply with a summons issued by the joint investigation team. It's the first measure of its kind against an incumbent South Korean president. The joint investigation team, comprising police, defense ministry officials and a special anti-corruption body, says the warrant is valid until January 6. Yoon's legal team has said that the warrant is unlawful, and it is planning to file a suit to seek its cancellation.
Earlier, one of the impeached president's lawyers insisted that the authority issuing the warrant lacked the right to investigate Yoon. Yoon's authorities are prioritizing the impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court, which will decide whether he should be reinstated or permanently removed from office.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has repeated his support for Russia's war against Ukraine in his New Year greeting to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The newspaper of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, Rodon Shimbun, reported on Tuesday that Kim sent a congratulatory letter to Putin the previous day. The newspaper said that Kim called Putin his dearest friend. It reported that he expressed his willingness to further strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.
Their bilateral partnership treaty, signed earlier this year, stipulates mutual military and other assistance if either country is attacked or in a state of war. Kim reportedly said that he hopes that 2025 will be recorded as the year in which the Russian army and people achieve a great victory in war.
Based on the reported content of the letter, there was no mention of North Korea's dispatch of troops to Russia or provision of weapons.
More than 300 prisoners of war have been freed in the latest such exchange between Russia and Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media on Monday that his team managed to bring 189 former detainees back home. He said they included troops who had defended the Mariupol steelworks in eastern Ukraine.
That was the scene of a fierce battle in the first phase of Russia's invasion.
Also freed were soldiers who defended the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and two civilians. Zelenskyy said his administration is working to free everyone held in Russian captivity. He thanked the United Arab Emirates and others involved in mediating the swap.
Russia's defense ministry also announced on social media on Monday that Ukraine had handed over 150 Russian servicemen.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiha has expressed his wish to end Russia's influence in Syria during a visit to the country. Sibiha led a delegation from Ukraine that met top Syrian officials in the capital Damascus on Monday. They included Abu Mohammed al-Ghulani, the head of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, leading the interim government. The Ukrainian official said 500 tons of wheat flour are scheduled to arrive in Syria on Tuesday as relief supplies. They also said they're ready to cooperate with Syria in investigating war crimes. Sibiha said at a news conference that the removal of Russia's presence in Syria would contribute to the stabilityof the entire Middle East and Africa, as well as Syria itself. Syria's interim Foreign Minister Assad Hassan al-Shibani said that his country would have what he called strategic partnerships with Ukraine.
But the interim government has also signaled its willingness to maintain relations with Russia, saying the two countries share deep strategic interests.
The U.S. Treasury Department says hackers backed by the Chinese government likely breached some of its systems. Officials call it a major incident. The department says no confidential documents were compromised by the unauthorized access, and it's working to determine the impact with the FBI and other agencies.
U.S. media say Congress was informed of the cyberattack in a letter on Monday.
This comes after a Chinese hacking group reportedly targeted the mobile phone of President-elect Donald Trump while he was on the campaign trail. Trump's pick for national security adviser Mike Waltz is known as a hardliner against China.
Waltz has said it is necessary to impose higher costs on private and nation-state actors that continue to steal data and spy on the US.
Well, there won't be a New Year's countdown again at Shibuya Station in Tokyo. Shibuya Ward officials have called it off for the fifth straight year over public safety concerns. The ward stopped the countdown at the station after 2019. Officials say they want to prevent alcohol fueled rowdiness and crowd related injuries. Despite the cancellation, revelers are expected to gather anyway at the scramble crossing for the countdown. So officials plan to deploy security in the area. In another move to keep the crowd at bay, the iconic statue of Hachiko, the dog, will be covered up until 1:00 AM Wednesday. Shibuya's mayor has also called on the public to cooperate in creating a safe environment around the station.
♪
Those were the main stories for this hour. This is NHK Newsline.
♬
A makeshift morning market is buzzing with life in Wajima a year after the massive Noto Peninsula quake devastated the town on New Year's Day. In the aftermath, vendors from the Wajima morning market were forced to set up shop all around town. This temporary market opened for business in July. About 40 vendors are selling a range of merchandise in preparation for the New Year's celebrations. Among them are rice cakes or mochi, dried seafood, and plants used for seasonal decorations.
It's a completely different New Year and I have mixed emotions, but I hope we can all make it through the New Year safely.
It's been a tough year, but we're glad to see another day like this. We wanted to work together to rebuild.
A memorial service is planned for Wednesday for victims of the quake and the heavy rains that fell in September.
That's it for this hour on NHK Newsline. I'm Yuko Fukushima. Thanks for joining us.
Japan has various kinds of landmarks that fascinate visitors. They range from cultural and historic locations to modern buildings created with cutting-edge technologies. What led to their creation and what were the challenges involved?The Backstory of Japanese Landmarks brings you the stories behind these amazing places. In this episode of The Backstory of Japanese Landmarks,We feature the world's tallest broadcast tower, Tokyo Skytree.
Tokyo Skytree is 634 meters tall. Other landmarks, such as the Tokyo Tower and Paris's Eiffel Tower, have wide bases. But Tokyo Skytree is slim and more like a spire.
Its color, named Skytree White, is based on the lightest shade of Japanese indigo blue. The tower can be seen from a great distance, but when people first see it, some think its form is rather simple.
Tokyo Skytree was built using state-of-the-art Japanese technology.
But that's not all. Traditional skills, respected and handed down over generations of craftspeople, also played a vital role in its construction.
The base of Tokyo Skytree is triangular in shape when seen from above. This was designed to let people enter from the three sides of the surrounding areas.
Meanwhile, the two observation decks at the heights of 350 meters and 450 meters are round and offer a 360 degree panoramic view.
This means the cross-section of the tower's base is a triangle, but becomes round toward the top.
Looking more carefully, Tokyo Skytree's outline is not made of straight lines.
The lines are actually slightly curved.
Depending where the tower's viewed from, some parts of the tower warp inwards, while other parts bulge outwards.
This comes from traditional Japanese architecture. The inward warp is called sori, or the outward curve is called mukuri. Tokyo Skytree's towering outline is a combination of sori and mukuri. A particularly important feature of Tokyo Skytree is its earthquake resistance.
The tower's construction began in 2008. Three years later, in 2011, a massive earthquake struck eastern Japan. After overcoming a number of challenges posed by the disaster, the tower was completed in 2012 Tokyo Skytree has an outer frame and an inner column. The two are structurally detached. During an earthquake, the column acts as a weight and moves in the opposite direction as the outer frame.
This reduces the impact of tremors.
This anti-seismic structure was inspired by a traditional Japanese structure, the five-story pagoda.
Five-story pagodas of Buddhist temples have a column at the center, similar to Tokyo Skytree. Due to their excellent quake resistance, there are no records of any wooden pagodas collapsing in an earthquake in Japan's history.
Japan's oldest five-story pagoda is in Horyuji Temple in Nara,built more than 1,400 years ago. The wisdom of ancient people lives on in today's advanced technologies.
Thank you for tuning in to the backstory of Japanese landmarks. We hope you have a chance to visit these landmarks and see for yourself what makes them so special.
0 件のコメント:
コメントを投稿