US President Barack Obama arrived in Japan yesterday evening for a G7 summit, kicking off a historic visit that will also take him to Hiroshima.
Obama planned to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last night. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Abe would raise the recent arrest of a former US Marine in connection with the murder of a Japanese woman on Okinawa.
Obama is to join his G7 counterparts in Ise and Shima, Mie Prefecture, for a summit before traveling to Hiroshima tomorrow, where he will become the first sitting US president to visit the city, which was destroyed in a 1945 atomic bomb attack in World War II.
Photo: Reuters
Heads of state and government from Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Canada yesterday were also making their way to Ise and Shima, which are in a mountainous area 300km southwest of Tokyo.
Earlier yesterday as he wrapped up a historic visit to Vietnam, Obama praised the nation’s next generation of leaders for being more conscious of the environment than previous ones and urged them to “do something about” climate change.
During his final public event in Ho Chi Minh City, Obama basked in the admiration of hundreds of young leaders who participated in a town hall-style event and prefaced some of their questions to him with praise about his leadership and his “inspiring speeches.”
He used a question about preserving a Vietnamese cave from development to pivot to climate change, saying that Vietnam would be one of the countries most affected by the trend of warming temperatures and rising seas.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
At least 35 people were killed and dozens more injured when a man plowed his car into pedestrians exercising around a sports center in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai on Monday night. Footage showing bodies lying on the pavement appeared on social media in the hours after the crash, but had vanished by early Tuesday morning, and local police reported only “injuries.” It took officials nearly 24 hours to reveal that dozens had died — in one of the country’s deadliest incidents in years. China heavily monitors social media platforms, where it is common for words and topics deemed
Typhoon Usagi yesterday had weakened into a tropical storm, but a land warning issued by the Central Weather Administration (CWA) was still in effect in four areas in southern Taiwan. As of 5pm yesterday, Tropical Storm Usagi was over waters 120km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the southernmost tip of Taiwan proper, and was moving north at 9kph, CWA data showed. The storm was expected to veer northeast later yesterday. It had maximum sustained winds of 101kph, with gusts of up to 126kph, the data showed. The CWA urged residents of Kaohsiung, Pingtung County, Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春) to remain alert to