Welcome back to NHK Newsline. I'm Kanako Sachno.
US President Donald Trump has weighed in on the threat posed by nuclear weapons. He says countries, including Iran, should not be allowed to get them.
The power is so enormous. You look at Hiroshima, you look at Nagasaki, The world would be destroyed. So you want somebody as your president, or you want somebody as your leader that understands that, we just can't let that happen.
Trump also said Russia has by far the biggest nuclear arsenal, and that China's will be close to it in three to five years. He said he'd had positive talks on nuclear arms reduction with both countries during his first term. He's shown willingness to pursue those efforts since his second inauguration.
Tensions between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are ramping up. Trump has called Zelenskyy a dictator for not holding elections during the war.
He refuses to have elections. He's low in the real Ukrainian polls. I mean, how can you be high with every city is being demolished.
A dictator without elections. Zelensky better move fast or he's not going to have a country left. Got to move, got to move fast because that war is going in the wrong direction.
Ukraine has been under martial law since the start of Russia's invasion in February 2022, with elections suspended. Leaders across Europe were quick to condemn Trump's remarks. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on social media that it's dangerous to deny President Zelenskyy his democratic legitimacy. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed Zelenskyy, with his office saying it was reasonable to suspend elections during wartime, as the UK did during World War II.
The Trump administration has upended US-Ukraine relations in recent days.
Earlier this week, Trump blamed Ukraine for starting the war. He also questioned the legitimacy of Zelensky's rule, claiming his approval rating was at 4%.
The Ukrainian leader pushed back.
Unfortunately, President Trump. I have great respect for him as a leader of a nation that we have great respect for.
The American people who always support us. Unfortunately, he lives in a disinformation space.
Recent polling in Ukraine suggests 57% of people trust the president. In the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, citizens expressed skepticism about Trump's claims.
I don't believe it. I personally support him 100%. He was able to unite our country in such a difficult time.
Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be welcoming closer ties with Trump.
Earlier this week, Moscow and Washington officials held talks aimed at ending the war and laying the groundwork for a possible summit between the two leaders.
French President Emmanuel Macron hosted a second round of talks with other European leaders to discuss Ukraine. Macron says the leaders are convinced that their countries must increase their defence and security capabilities. He says they'll make a decision on that in the coming days and weeks.
Macron invited European leaders, including from the Baltic states, along with Norway and Finland, and NATO member Canada, which did not take part in the first meeting on Monday. Many participants attended the second meeting online. After the talks, Macron posted in his social media that Europe and US President Donald Trump have the same objective to end the fighting in Ukraine. He said the participants agreed to continue supporting Ukraine and take responsibility to ensure peace and security in Europe. He stressed that Ukraine must be included in the efforts to achieve peace.
The Trump administration has halted the approval of a congestion toll in New York City. US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy made the announcement on Wednesday, citing concerns about the burdens on residents, businesses and commuters.
On social media, the White House posted an image of Trump wearing a crown with the caption, Congestion pricing is dead and New York is saved. New York Governor Kathy Hochul opposed the move, taking aim at the Post.
We are not subservient to a king or anyone else out of Washington. So this is the fight we're in. It's all about our sovereignty.
The program, introduced last month, was designed to reduce traffic in Manhattan's central business district. Hochul had reportedly sought to gain federal approval before the start of Trump's term.
Members of a Chinese crime syndicate based in Myanmar have been tried at a court in eastern China. Prosecutors say the group had engaged in gambling and scams worth more than $1 billion.
China's Xinhua news agency reported that the public trial for 23 members of the large-scale crime syndicate concluded at a court in Zhejiang province on Wednesday. Prosecutors said the syndicate and related groups have several thousand members and its illegal transactions have raked in more than $1.37 billion since 2015. The group is also linked to the deaths of 14 Chinese nationals. Chinese authorities have stepped up cooperation with their Myanmar counterparts. Since 2023, they've cracked down on phone scams and other crime in northern Myanmar, bordering China, and more than 53,000 Chinese suspects have reportedly been detained. Scam compounds operated by Chinese and other nationals have also flourished along Myanmar's border with Thailand, with foreign nationals trafficked and forced into crime. Beijing has said it's ready to cooperate with Myanmar and Thailand to address the situation.
As more people are being freed from these scam centers, stories of coercion and abuse are emerging. Foreigners, including Japanese teenagers, say they were tricked into becoming part of a multinational criminal operation, as we see in this report.
260 people crowd a location on the Thai Myanmar border waiting to be taken to safety in Thailand, just a portion of the estimated thousands of foreigners who have been allegedly made to work as fraudsters.
Held in captivity by criminal gangs in a part of Myanmar that's plunged into anarchy in recent years. Areas where the country's military junta has lost control, where armed ethnic minority groups have gained ground, and illegal operations are thriving.
In places like this,A Thai citizen group provided us this photo, showing the inside of a scam center where foreigners say they were forced to defraud people by phone and over the internet.
People like this man from Taiwan, who says he was tricked by an overseas job posting, but what he thought was a career opportunity turned into a nightmare.
I was in handcuffs and beaten. All my things, including my smartphone, were seized. I was warned not to even think about running away because landmines were scattered all around.
In these conditions, he says he was forced to commit fraud from early morning till late at night every day.
A similar story is being told after two Japanese teens were recently rescued from what are believed to have been separate scam centers. One of them told investigators he was given a job offer by a person he met through a chat group.
He flew to Thailand in December before ending up in Myanmar, where he reportedly made fraudulent calls to Japan, sometimes posing as a police officer.
If he failed to make quotas, he says he was punished with a stun gun.
This month, the boy managed to get in touch with his family and ask for help.
sending them his location. Thailand took him into protective custody last week. This was one of the soldiers who was there to meet him when he made his way across the border.
Japanese police say the teenager has returned to his home country, but he also told investigators he witnessed other Japanese nationals who had been forced into fraud.
Thailand says it's doing all it can to safeguard the release of foreign nationals held by the scam gangs.
But with chaos reigning across the border in Myanmar, just how long it will take to get everyone out is anyone's guess.
A Tokyo exhibition is featuring previously undisclosed photos capturing the aftermath of a 1945 air raid on the Japanese capital during World War II.
The display opened on Saturday at a museum in eastern Tokyo before the 80th anniversary of the March 10th, 1945 US bombing. There are 53 exhibits with maps and drawings by survivors also on display. Among them are photos provided by a local studio which have been made public for the first time.
The bombing scorched a massive swathe of Tokyo and is believed to have killed some 100,000 people. The photos taken on the ground capture the aftermath of the air raid. One appears to have been taken near burning houses in what is now the southern part of Sumida Ward, which was devastated.
In this exhibition, we worked on providing materials that would help people gain deeper insight into survivor testimonies. These photos are evidence of what people saw, what people faced, and lead us finally to imagine the details.
The event runs through May 25.
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Please do access the NHK World Japan website for more details.Now it's time to check out the weather. A cold wave has been continuing since the beginning of this week, and its impact is not limited to heavy snow. Our meteorologist Yumi Hirano has the details.
Parts of Tottori Prefecture had more than 50 centimeters of snow in 24 hours.
The prefecture reported a truck became stuck on a snowy highway, temporarily stranding 25 vehicles.
Meanwhile, in Iwate Prefecture, hundreds of firefighters and self-defense forces are battling a forest fire that broke out on Wednesday. Officials warn that dry conditions may lead to fires. A dry air advisory is still in effect for eastern Iwate, and dry conditions continue in many other areas along the Pacific side, so people should watch out for fires. On the other hand, heavy snowfall due to a winter pressure pattern is expected to continue along the Sea of Japan side, so up to 60 centimeters of snowfall is possible in Tohoku by Friday evening.
The same weather pattern will persist into the holiday Monday. Tokyo and Osaka may see sunny and cold weather with highs of 10 or below. Snow along the Sea of Japan side is expected to be heavier, especially on Saturday and Monday.
Moving to Europe, a low-pressure system is now approaching the British Isles. It's expected to bring heavy rain and windy conditions, with gusts of over 100 kilometers per hour. In the front of the system, strong southerly winds are flowing, leading to spring-like weather. So the temperatures in London and Paris will be 12. People in Lisbon may see 19, which is as warm as in April.
That's all for the weather. Stay safe.
♫～
That wraps up this edition of NHK Newsline. I'm Kanako Sachno in Tokyo.
Thanks very much for joining us.
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