at 18:00 (JST), January 22

20250122180000_english_1.mp3

Great to have you with us. From our studio in Tokyo, this is NHK Newsline.

President Donald Trump's executive order aimed at reviewing so-called birthright citizenship is already facing a challenge. 22 Democrat-led states and others in the United States have filed lawsuits against it.
Currently, anyone born in the U.S. has automatically been granted citizenship regardless of their parents' immigration status. But Trump's order, signed Monday, excludes children born in the U.S. from automatic citizenship if their mothers stayed in the country illegally or temporarily, and their fathers were not U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
Among the plaintiffs,New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin criticized Trump's decision at a news conference.

The 14th Amendment and the subsequent Supreme Court precedents that followed are crystal clear that, quote, all persons born in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States.

Reuters News Agency says 22 states The District of Columbia and the city of San Francisco have filed a pair of lawsuits in federal courts. They assert that Trump violated the U.S. Constitution and are seeking a court injunction.
Platkin said that presidents are not kings and have no power to unilaterally rewrite the Constitution.

Trump says he has asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to play a role in resolving Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Xi has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

If you asked President Xi in your conversation about Ukraine, you asked him to get involved in helping settle that. Can you tell us about that?

I did, yeah. I said, you ought to get it settled because he's not done very much on that. He's got a lot of, a lot of power.

When asked whether he would impose additional sanctions on Russia if Putin does not sit for negotiations, Trump replied, Sounds likely.
The U.S. president apparently aims to put pressure on the involved and related parties to bring about ceasefire negotiations and end the war at an early date. Trump also said the Ukrainian crisis affects Europeans more than it affects the United States. He reiterated his view that U.S. partners in NATO should raise their defense spending target from the current two percent of GDP to five percent.

Now, the top diplomats of Japan and the U.S. have agreed to elevate the bilateral alliance to new heights following Trump's inauguration.
Japanese Foreign Minister Iwaya Takeshi and new U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met in Washington on Tuesday.
They agreed to move forward with cooperation so that their countries can further reinforce the deterrence and response capabilities of the bilateral alliance to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific region. They discussed issues surrounding China as well as North Korea's nuclear and missile development. The officials agreed on the importance of boosting collaboration within groupings of like-minded countries, such as among Japan, the U.S., Australia and India. Iwaya asked the U.S. to dispel concerns and anxiety that have been growing since former President Joe Biden issued an order earlier this month to block a planned buyout of U.S. steel by Nippon Steel. The two confirmed the importance of Japanese business investment in the U.S. and of economic ties between the two nations in economic security and other areas.

We were able to build a relationship of trust with officials of the new U.S.
administration immediately after the launch of the Trump administration and to closely communicate with each other on various levels. I think this is very significant.

They also agreed to expedite arrangements for a summit between Japanese Prime Minister Ishibashigeru and Trump at the earliest possible date.

Another one of Trump's first actions could threaten efforts to prevent the next pandemic. He's pulling out of the World Health Organization. The U.S.
accounted for about one-fifth of its budget. And, as NHK World's Ishizaka Sae Christen Hall reports,It's not just money that's on the line.

Amid the flurry of executive orders, a major blow to an organization linking the global medical community, the WHO now bracing for the loss of its biggest donor. 

We hope the United States will reconsider and we look forward to engaging in constructive dialogue to maintain the partnership between the United States of America and WHO for the benefit of the health and well-being of millions of people around the globe.

We spoke with Suzuki Yasuhiro, president of Japan's International University of Health and Welfare and former vice chair of the WHO Executive Board. He says the potential effects on global health are devastating.

Very worrying to me is the short-term impact upon the very important programmes in developing countries, such as malaria, tuberculosis and polio. That will be having a devastating impact upon the health of the people in the developing countries.

Trump's decision to withdraw from the WHO dates back to his first term and the Covid-19 pandemic. He claimed the organisation was biased toward Beijing.

China has total control over the World Health Organization.

Well, I was leading the COVID-19 responses by the Japanese government in 2020, and never felt that any action by the WHO was politically motivated.

There are concerns the loss of US participation will now allow countries like China to increase their influence. And that could allow politics to disrupt cooperation,For instance, Taiwan's involvement.

The US has been the driving force in the tricky debate surrounding whether or not admitting the Taiwan observership. My strong belief is that in a pandemic surveillance system, you should not make any geographical vacuum. So including Taiwan is very important.

It's not just a loss of money and influence. But also data that could help boost future resilience. Suzuki points out the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has major branches in Africa and Asia.

If we are going to lack such information from the United States. That would mean vacuum of inflation of pandemic in the world.

That could mean delays and knowledge gaps, including in the creation of future vaccines. Other countries will have to step up, at least for the next four years. Ishizaka Sae Christine Hall, NHK World.

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For more news and details, please access NHK World Japan's website.

Media reports are quoting Turkish officials as saying that a fire at a ski resort hotel has killed at least 76 people and injured more than 50. Interior Minister Ali Yalicaya disclosed the number of casualties in the blaze in the northwestern province of Bolu.
Firefighters managed to contain the fire by the afternoon on Tuesday, about 12 hours after it started.
Local media say the fire apparently began at a restaurant in the 12-story hotel and spread quickly. More than 230 guests were staying there at the time. Reuters News Agency reports that schools in Turkey were closed, and many families were visiting from the capital Ankara and Istanbul to ski.
CNN also says some people jumped from windows to escape the flames... and that it was difficult to fight the fire as the hotel is on a cliff. Local media report nine people, including the hotel owner, have been detained as part of the investigation into the cause of the fire.

Baseball legend, Suzuki Ichiro, has been elected to the U.S. National Baseball Hall of Fame. He's the first Japanese player to receive this honor.

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Ichiro spoke to media after this year's Hall of Fame class was announced on Tuesday. He received 99.7% of the ballots cast in his first year of eligibility. That was the highest among this year's candidates, but fell one ballot shy of a unanimous vote.
Ichiro joined the Seattle Mariners of the major leagues in 2001. He also played for the New York Yankees and the Miami Marlins. Ichiro delivered more than 200 hits in each of his first 10 seasons in the MLB. He racked up 262 hits in 2004, breaking a major league record for most hits in a regular season, which had stood for 84 years.
Ichiro finished with 3,089 hits during his 19-year MLB career.
That's the 24th most in history.
The MLB Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place in Cooperstown, New York, on July 27.

And now turning to world weather. Rare snow hit the far southern parts of the United States Tuesday, and bitter cold persists.
For more, let's turn to our meteorologist Jonathan Oh. Jonathan, what's ahead?

Hello, we have been talking about the concerns of the frigid cold that's been gripping Canada and a good chunk of the United States way down toward the South and some snow because of a low pressures and that scooter along the Gulf Coast brought even Blizzard warnings to portions of the area. I want to share some video coming from the southeastern United States, beginning in Georgia, where a rare frigid storm hit the southeast Tuesday, prompting governors to declare states of emergency. And in Georgia, officials say at least one person has died of hypothermia. That's supposed to be a beach, but the storm brought historic snowfall that also blanketed these white sand beaches in those resort areas. Local media reporting where the 2,000 flights were grounded across the country, especially for those in the southern area schools. Closed because, well, with the danger of the snow in place for those who are not used to seeing it very often. So that had to be adjusted along with the highways also having problems as well. And I want to remind you that as we go through Wednesday, it's going to take some time for the sun to do its work to melt the snow. And so you want to be more aware of the dangers on the roadways as we go through the daytime hours. So if you don't have to get out, especially during the early morning hours, try to stay indoors for a bit longer. Another low toward the north sweeping on through, bringing some snow into the Great Lakes region. The cold air still gripping as far South as the southeast United States. Two for the high in Atlanta, 7 in Houston, Oklahoma City. Yeah, -12 and Winnipeg for the daytime high coming up on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a bit on the warmer side across East Asia, Japan and especially like Tokyo, seeing above average temperatures feels more like spring. We do have a low that's going to be moving on through that's going to bring the chance for some precipitation, including some snow into the north and northeastern areas of Japan as we go forward in time. Back to the West, a little system trying to move on through bringing a little bit of shower activity from Chongqing into cloudy skies into Shanghai as we go through Thursday.
Hope you have a good day wherever you are.

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That's all for this edition of NHK Newsline. Thank you very much for staying with us.