Glad to have you with us on NHK Newsline. I'm Yuko Fukushima.
Saudi Arabia Airport Attacked Again
Authorities in Saudi Arabia say one person has been killed and 11 injured after a second strike in two days on an airport in Riyadh.
Hufi rebels in Yemen say they were behind the strike.
The strike on Sunday came after an attack at the same international airport on the previous day. Authorities say 12 people were killed and more than 300 injured.
Security camera footage believed to have been filmed during the first attack shows the ceiling collapsing and people running in panic.
The Houthis issued a statement on Sunday that said they attacked in retaliation for airstrikes by Saudi Arabia.
The statement said the Houthis also carried out attacks on another international airport and facilities of a state-run oil company.
They are warning that flights to Saudi Arabia are not safe apart from those to the airports and airspace of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
Iran's state-run media reported that Foreign Minister Abbas Araci spoke with his Saudi Arabian counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud on Sunday.
Araci reportedly said Iran is ready to provide necessary support to promote dialogue between Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
War in Ukraine Trump: Russia, Ukraine Agree to 'Energy Ceasefire'
US President Donald Trump has claimed Russia and Ukraine have agreed to halt attacks on each other's energy facilities.
Trump wrote on social media Sunday that both parties agreed to an energy ceasefire that takes effect immediately.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told US media that announcement came as a surprise to him In a video message, he expressed support.
00:02:01 話者 12/Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Ukraine is ready to refrain from striking energy facilities.
We expect Russia to show the same readiness.
00:02:09 話者 1
Zelenskyy added there had been a drone strike on energy infrastructure in Kharkiv.
Trump has been asking Ukraine to suspend strikes on oil refineries in Russia.
He said that the attacks would cause a serious diesel shortage.
Last month, he said on social media that Russia and Ukraine agreed to refrain from targeting energy infrastructure, but the two sides have continued to strike those facilities.
Ukraine Drone Hits Russian Data Center
Russian IT giant Yandex says its data center near Moscow was attacked by a Ukrainian drone.
Yandex announced Sunday that damage from the strike required it to halt operations at its facility in the Volodymyr area near the capital. Vladimir area near the capital.
Major Russian newspaper Kommersan reported on Sunday that some Yandex services including taxi hailing and food delivery were unavailable.
Yandex services in the Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan were also reportedly partly unavailable.
This marks the third Ukrainian attack on sites belonging to a tech firm that some compare to Google.
Ukrainian media reported on Thursday that President Volodymyr Zelensky referred to a plan to retaliate against Russia over attacks on data centers in Ukraine.
Israel-Hamas Conflict: Deadly Attacks on Gaza Ceasefire Anniversary
Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip have continued one year after Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement.
Palestinian media reports say one person was killed in an Israeli drone strike on Saturday evening.
Eight individuals, including a pregnant woman, were wounded in an Israeli shooting on Sunday.
Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry announced on Sunday that seven people have died over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number since the ceasefire began to 1,488.
Local media have reported that over 450 of the victims are women and children.
A peace plan led by US President Donald Trump resulted in a ceasefire deal that took effect on October 10 last year.
The Israeli military has continued to attack, claiming that Hamas is trying to rebuild its organization in violation of the agreement.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a statement that the ceasefire has brought some relief. He added it has not yet brought security or adequate humanitarian aid.
He called on all parties to make progress.
The second stage of the plan calls for disarming Hamas and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. The two sides remain at odds over these steps.
N.Korea Likely Launched Ballistic Missiles
Japan's defense ministry says North Korea has launched at least two ballistic missiles.
State Minister of Defense Koyari Takashi told reporters that the missiles were fired at around 9:19 and 9:36 a.m. on Monday.
He said the first one flew about 220 kilometers while the second one went 910 kilometers.
They flew northeast and eastward.
Koyari said both of them are believed to have fallen outside Japan's exclusive economic zone.
00:05:31 話者 22/Koyari Takashi
This series of North Korean activity, including repeated launches of ballistic missiles, threatens the peace and security of our country's region and the international community.
Such ballistic missile launches violate the relevant Security Council resolutions and are a serious issue related to the safety of the people.
00:05:49 話者 1
He explained that Japan lost a strong protest with North Korea and harshly condemned the North through diplomatic channels in Beijing.
Japan Develops AI Safety Assessment System
A Japanese research institute has developed a system to assess the safety of artificial intelligences.
The system is designed to identify potential risks, including misuse and leaks of information harmful to people and society.
Generative AIs are normally restricted from putting out such information, but the risk of misuse has been identified, such as jailbreaking, a method to have AIs evade restrictions with clever wording.
The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, or NICT, developed a system to assess to what extent AIs can cope with methods like jailbreaking.
WISDOM-AR automatically creates instructions to deceive AIs and elicit answers from them in more than 30 themes, including weapons and fraud, then evaluates their responses.
In a demonstration conducted by NICT, the system posed questions to a generative AI on how to make a bomb.
The AI listed materials and production methods for bomb making and was determined harmful by the system.
00:07:12 話者 33/Torisawa Kentaro/NICT Fellow
I hope organizations will have the AI systems they use assessed and decide not to use those that pose high risks. I hope this will lead to greater safety across society as a whole.
00:07:25 話者 1
NICT plans to introduce WISDOM-AR on a trial basis to companies that use AI as early as this fiscal year to verify issues for a practical application.
Harvest Ritual Features Homemade Rockets
People in Saitama prefecture northwest of Tokyo have launched homemade rockets in a traditional event to pray for a good harvest.
The Chichibu Yoshida no Ryusei ritual took place in the Yoshida district of Chichibu city on Sunday under clear skies.
The event is designated as an important intangible folk cultural property of Japan.
The gunpowder rockets called dusei are made from hollowed out sections of pine trees and bamboo. Dusei means the force of a dragon.
Twenty-four groups brought rockets produced with their own traditional methods.
They launched them one after another from an elevated platform about 20 meters high.
Rising with a roar and white smoke, the rockets soared about 300 meters into the sky.
The onlookers applied it when small parachutes opened up and fell to the ground.
(Japanese)
And now to the three-day weather forecast around the world.
♫～ 3-Day Forecast ～♫
And that's it for this hour NHK Newsline.
I'm Yuko Fukushima in Tokyo. Thanks for joining us.
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Easy Japanese
00:10:09 話者 2
Hi there.
It's time for NHK World Japan's Easy Japanese.
I'm Erico Kojima.
00:10:15 話者 3
And I'm Michael Reese.
Let's have fun learning Japanese together.
Today we bring you lesson 33 on asking how long it takes to do something.
Kaito and his friend Mike have arrived safely at the Ninja Museum in Miya Prefecture.
They decide to give Shuriken a try and get in line.
A shuriken is a small weapon used by ninja.
A typical one looks like a star with steel blades.
00:10:45 話者 2
Listen to this kit for lesson 33.
00:11:05 話者 3
Hey.
00:11:17 話者 2
Let's go through the skip line by line.
00:11:20 話者 3
Mike asks the clerk how long it will take to enter the shuriken section.
00:11:27 話者 2
How long does it take to get in?
The clerk replies, About fifteen minutes.
00:11:36 話者 3
Mike says.
00:11:38 話者 2
Okay.
00:11:40 話者 3
Once their turn comes, Kaito is thrilled to see a shuriken.
00:11:47 話者 2
Awesome! A real shuriken ninja star.
00:11:51 話者 3
The clerk explains to the two of them.
00:11:56 話者 2
Please throw it at that target.
00:11:58 話者 3
Mike throws the shuriken.
00:12:02 話者 2
Go!
It dropped.
00:12:08 話者 3
Hitting the target several meters away was harder than Mike expected.
His shuriken didn't stick into the target and fell to the ground.
Today's key phrase is How long does it take to get in?
If you remember this pattern, you'll be able to find out how long it will take to do something.
00:12:36 話者 2
Let's look at the meaning of the phrase.
Dono kurai is an interrogative meaning how long.
Machimasuka is the verb to wait in its masu form, machimasu, followed by the particle ka, which indicates a question.
It means, How long is the wait?
or in this skit, How long does it take to get in?
Today's point is asking how long it will take to do something.
Use the interrogative dono kurai for the length of time, distance, or amount.
00:13:12 話者 3
So to ask how long the wait is, you'd use the verb to wait, matsu, and ask dono kurai machimasuka.
00:13:19 話者 2
Now listen and repeat.
Machimasuka?
Dono kurai machimasuka.
00:13:36 話者 3
'How did you do?' Now listen to another conversation about waiting.
A man is in a taxi headed to the airport.
Heavy traffic has slowed things down.
He asks the driver...
00:14:04 話者 2
Now let's look at the meaning.
00:14:11 話者 3
Excuse me, how much longer will it take?
00:14:14 話者 2
Sumimasen, as we've already learned, is used to get someone's attention.
Ato means longer.
That means how much longer in addition to the time that's already passed.
Kakarimasu is the verb kakaru, to take, in its
form it means the time or money that's needed about 20 minutes is 20 minutes and kurai means about listen and repeat dono kurai kakari maska ato dono kurai kakari maska.
00:15:03 話者 3
Got it.
00:15:08 話者 2
Then let's move to another situation.
Imagine you asked someone how to get to the museum by bus and we're told that it's within walking distance.
Ask how long you'll have to walk.
00:15:20 話者 3
To walk is aruku and its masu form is arukimasu.
00:15:28 話者 2
Go ahead.
00:15:46 話者 3
How did you do?
00:15:51 話者 2
It's time for Step Up.
Today we'll talk about various ways to express the length of time.
00:15:59 話者 3
In the skit, the waiting time was 'ju gofun gurai' or about 15 minutes, right?
00:16:04 話者 2
'Minute' is 'fun'.
Attach this after a number.
For example, five minutes is 'gofun' and ten minutes is 'jupun'.
Did you notice that when 'ten ju' is followed by 'fun', it's pronounced 'pun'?
00:16:20 話者 3
Listen and repeat after each one.
five minutes 10 minutes 15 minutes 20 minutes.
00:16:45 話者 2
Next hour the length of time is
After a number, add jikan and say, for example, one hour ichijikan or two hours nijikan.
Be careful though, some of the numbers are pronounced differently in this content.
Four hours is yojikan.
Seven hours is shichijikan and nine hours is kujikan.
00:17:11 話者 3
Okay, listen and repeat.
One hour ichijikan.
00:17:20 話者 2
Two hours nijikan three hours sanjikan four hours yojikan seven hours shichijikan nine hours kujikan all right then
Can you say one hour and 30 minutes?
00:17:50 話者 3
Ichijikang sanjukpun.
00:17:51 話者 2
That's right.
But instead of saying sanjukpun, 30 minutes, you can also use han or half.
So, another way to say it would be Ichijikang han.
00:18:03 話者 3
Okay, listen to the skit once again.
00:18:10 話者 2
Donokurai matsumasu ka?
Jugohun kurai desu.
Wakarimasu.
00:18:39 話者 3
...........
Next up, Pop Culture with Mike.
Today we'll tell you about hands-on tourism in Japan.
00:18:46 話者 2
Programs for visitors offer all sorts of activities.
00:18:50 話者 3
In today's skit Mike and Kaito threw shuriken ninja stars.
00:18:55 話者 2
You may want to live like a ninja or a samurai too or you may prefer wearing a kimono taking part in a tea ceremony arranging flowers or making Japanese sweets or you may opt for something really different.
00:19:08 話者 3
Oh yeah like what?
00:19:10 話者 2
For example do you know about food samples replicas of dishes displayed?
00:19:15 話者 3
Restaurant windows oh yes they're very common here they're made of plastic and look exactly like real food.
00:19:21 話者 2
They sure do you can create some fake food for yourself other facilities allow you to experience simulated earthquakes heavy rain fires and tsunami you'll learn about disaster preparedness.
00:19:34 話者 3
Sounds interesting and a little scary and actually quite useful.
00:19:49 話者 2
Well, we hope you enjoyed today's Easy Japanese.
00:19:52 話者 3
Tune in again next time.
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Mount Takao
00:20:19 話者 4
has various kinds of landmarks that fascinate visitors they range from cultural and historic locations to modern buildings created with cutting-edge technologies the backstory of Japanese landmarks brings you the stories behind these amazing places in this episode of the backstory of Japanese landmarks we feature Mount Takao
Mount Takao has long been a popular hiking destination as it's perfect for day trips in recent years many tourists from overseas have climbed its slopes as well one reason for its popularity is its easy access from central Tokyo less than an hour's train ride away but Mount Takao has much more to offer at the foot of Mount Takao people are dressed in various styles
Some are wearing trekking shoes and backpacks ready to go hiking.
Others are dressed in a more casual style better suited for cities.
The reason?
Mount Takao has seven hiking trails.
One is a full ascent to the summit.
Another course includes a cable car and a Lyft ride and winds around the halfway point up the mountain.
Visitors can choose from several options depending on the season, the size of the group, who's climbing, and what they're in the mood for.
The cable car lift route is not only fast, it's also exciting.
At one point, the cable car's ascent is at an angle of just over 31 degrees, the steepest in Japan.
Riders ooh and ah as the cable car climbs the steepest part.
Meanwhile, the two-seater chairlift leaves riders' legs dangling in the air, which means it can be a bit of a thrill for some.
But with the feel of the breeze, it makes for a great ride and many kids ride with their parents.
Just be aware that the cable car and the chairlift may not be running when there's bad weather and visitors should check ahead.
The hiking courses offer various sites each season.
Come spring, there are canopies of cherry blossoms in full bloom while violets cover the ground.
In the summer, visitors can splash around in rivers or explore what's upstream.
Gorgeous foliage of reds, yellows, and oranges welcome visitors in the fall.
On New Year's Day, many people flock to Mount Takao to enjoy the first sunrise of the year.
Mount Takao has long been associated with the strict practice of mountain aestheticism called shugendo.
A traditional form of aesthetic training called suigyo involves standing under a waterfall to cleanse oneself.
Mount Takao has two waterfalls, jataki and biwataki, where this is practiced.
During the winter months, visitors can watch people training in the ice cold water.
For those willing to give it a shot, Yakuoin Temple offers a suigyo tryout experience at its dojo.
For hikers, Mount Takao offers gorgeous views.
From an observation deck midway up the mountain, they can see Tokyo and its vicinity, including the iconic Tokyo Tower and Yokohama Landmark Tower.
It's a spectacular view of the metropolis while being surrounded by the great outdoors.
When weather conditions are good, the summit of Mount Takao offers a view of Mount Fuji.
in fact the top of Mount Takao has been selected as one of the 100 best places in the Kanto region to view Japan's most famous peak 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.
NHK World
00:25:01 話者 99
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