Turkey and Syria are marking two years since a series of massive earthquakes struck their countries. The disaster destroyed wide areas and killed more than 59,000 people.
Survivors and bereaved families gathered early Thursday in Takya's southern Turkey. They quietly walked through the city center, which is still being rebuilt. They stopped for a moment of silence at 4:17 a.m., the moment the first earthquake struck in 2023. Another massive tremor came just hours later.
People threw flowers into a river to mourn the dead and to renew their resolve to rebuild their country.
I am nowa bit sad, but I need hope. I hope we will have a city again.
Over the border in Syria, survivors say they haven't seen enough international aid. The tremors struck amid the country's years-long civil war.
Now, some hope the collapse of President Bashar al-Assad's government late last year will help spur on recovery.
It feels like the earthquakes just happened yesterday. I hope we get more help so we can rebuild our house.
About 650,000 people in Turkey alone are still living in temporary shelters. Many of the damaged buildings have been left untouched since the quakes.
For more on this, earlier I spoke with NHK World's Ohashi Takaomi. He's in Antakya, Turkey.
Now, Takaomi, can you paint a more detailed picture for us?
This is the one of the hardest. This is the area hardest hit by earthquakes. As you can see, the entire city is like a construction zone. Vehicles killing materials are constantly going back and forth.
The government says it's trying to rebuild as fast as possible.
Officials says, they provided over 200,000 houses to those affected. You get the sense that it's a matter of national dignity.
But many here said they are waiting to hear from the government about where they should go. They told me that there are still no words about when they can move into public housing. As you can imagine, it's like many feeling frustrated.
Now, what measures is Turkey taking to recover?
Well, the country is trying to learn from Japan's earthquake response, particularly the idea of building back better.
The hope is to make their communities more resilient to disasters like this.
It's something Japan did after the great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake in 1995, and then again after the great East Japan earthquake in 2011. But to do that you have to reckon with why it was so bad in the first place.
For example, some hear say buildings that didn't meet the seismic standards were overlooked. That contributed to the scale of the damage. Turkish media say about 1,500 lawsuits have been fired so far. Preparing for natural disaster is a global challenge, especially since they can strike at any time. People here say they are committed to moving forward, which means learning lessons from the past.
Massive snowfalls are likely to continue in a wide area of Japan, mainly along the Sea of Japan coast. People in affected regions are warned to be aware of possible accidents in snow removal work.
In Oyabe City in the Hokuriku region of Toyama Prefecture, an 80-year-old woman has been found dead at an irirgation canal. Police are investigating the cause of her death. They say she may have fallen into the canal when removing a pile of snow. Shirakawa Village in Gifu Prefecture had a record-high 127 centimeters of snow in 48 hours until 3 AM Thursday. Accumulated snow as of 11 AM was nearly 2.6 meters high in the village, double the normal level. Between 5 AM and 11 AM, Fukushima's Minami Aizumachi Sakai town recorded snowfall of 19 centimeters. Nanuko Onsen in Miyagi Prefecture in the Tohoku region had 13 centimeters.
The snowfall will temporarily weaken in some regions... but another strong cold snap is likely to hit wide areas as soon as Friday afternoon. Authorities are calling on people to avoid non-essential outings.
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is trying to clarify his intentions for the Gaza Strip. It follows his controversial comments about wanting to take over the enclave and resettle Palestinians elsewhere.
With no running water, no electricity, the president wants these individuals to live in peace. He is committed to doing that with this very bold new plan.
She says the relocation would be temporary, and Trump and his team are talking with allies in the region to consider the plan's next steps. Levitt stresses the president has not committed to putting boots on the ground in Gaza, and he won't pay for rebuilding the region. The enclave has been devastated, following more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hamas. A ceasefire is underway. The first phase is scheduled to last six weeks. Trump announced his plan next to Israel's prime minister and drew international condemnation. The head of the United Nations says it's important to stay true to the bedrock of international law and avoid any form of ethnic cleansing.
The US Secretary of State says Trump's announcement was not meant as a hostile move.
So what he's very generously has offered is the ability of the United States to go in and help with debris removal, help with munitions removal, help with reconstruction, the rebuilding of homes and businesses and things of this nature. so that then people can move back in, but in the meantime they'll have to live somewhere.
Rubio also says the offer shows the willingness of the U.S. to become responsible for the reconstruction of the enclave.
The European Union is cracking down on the shipment of low-value goods from China and elsewhere. It says stronger checks are needed to ensure product safety and fair competition.
The European Commission announced the measures on Wednesday. It defines low-value goods as those worth less than 150 euros, or about 156 dollars. These items are currently exempt from customs duties. The Commission says the EU received 4.6 billion shipments of these goods in 2024. It says 91 percent of them came from China, including through e-commerce platforms Temu and Shein. The planned measures include removing the duty exemption,and requiring operators to provide customs officials with information on the goods before their arrival. EU Executive Vice-President Henna Wiruknin said there has been a surge in low-value products sold online by non-EU traders. She added many of these products have been found to be unsafe, counterfeited or even dangerous.
This year marks 80 years since the end of World War II. As the world remembers, one of the last survivors of the concentration camps in Europe has traveled to Japan. NHK World's Endo Yuka tells us about his trip to Hiroshima and the message he brought with him.
It's a cold day when Andrey Ivanovich visits the first city ever destroyed by an atomic bomb. He's 98 years old, but the weather doesn't bother him.
Ivanovich has been waiting for this experience to pray for the many souls of those killed by a single weapon in the closing days of the war he lived through.
I have mixed feelings being here because I myself was able to survive. The Nazis didn't kill me.
Ivanovich was born in 1926 in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. He was 15 when the Nazis invaded, and he was captured by German troops.
They sent him to Buchenwald concentration camp. He became prisoner number 19852 and worked as a forced laborer in the camp's quarry. Over 50,000 people died at Buchenwald.
Ivanovich escaped death, but was destroyed mentally and physically.
After the war, he started a new life in Belarus. He got married and had kids.
Today, he's an active member of a historical society in Minsk, preserving the past for future generations, much like Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Museum. The museum's director gives Ivanovic a guided tour.
As someone who lived through one of World War II's darkest chapters, the survivor says it's important he learn as much as possible about what others experienced.
I found the tragedies of what happened to the children most affecting for me.
Seeing how children tried to survive, but the radiation still defeated them in the end.
No one should ever do anything to harm another person. If we follow this principle, life will be good for everyone, he says.
If they can hold on to that, then what happened to him and to the people of Hiroshima may never happen again. Endo Yuka NHK World.
It's now time to check the weather. As we've mentioned, many regions in Japan are dealing with the dangers of heavy snowfall. Our meteorologist Yumi Hirano has the latest forecast.
There is a high risk of traffic disruptions over the weekend, so please check not only weather, but also traffic information.
This cold air is also affecting much of northern China and the Korean Peninsula. That includes Seoul, which will see some snow with a high of -6.
Beijing will also be on the cold side with a high of -4. Shanghai may see 3, which is five degrees lower than usual.
Moving to Europe, a high-pressure system is bringing mild and calm conditions to the western half of the continent. However, low pressure, packing upper cold air, is making severe conditions in Turkey.
There are risks of thundershowers and gusty winds. Heavy snow is also possible in higher elevations. Sunny weather will continue in London, Paris, and Madrid. But showers will arrive on the Iberian Peninsula on Friday.
That's all for me. Have a nice day.
♫～
And that's it for now on NHK Newsline.I'm Yoko Nishimura in Tokyo. Thanks for joining us.
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