World
Powerful Quake off Japan Rekindles Fears of Another Fukushima
TOKYO — A robust undersea earthquake off the Fukushima area of Japan, the place a tsunami a decade in the past set off one of many worst nuclear plant disasters in historical past, shook buildings for greater than two minutes late Wednesday night time.
Then the ready started.
Shortly after the quake hit at 11:36 p.m., the Japan Meteorological Company issued tsunami warnings for the prefectures of Fukushima and Miyagi, and 1000’s of residents, a lot of whom keep in mind solely too nicely the destruction of 2011, evacuated.
“Please put out any fires,” officers within the metropolis of Minamisoma, in Fukushima, instructed residents as they urged them to get to safer ground. “Please take heed to the TV and radio and act calmly and accordingly.”
Hours later, the warnings had been lifted.
A number of small tsunami waves measuring maybe 20 centimeters in top (eight inches) had been reported in two communities, however they had been one-fifth the dimensions that was forecast — and tiny in comparison with the 45-foot wave that devastated the area in 2011. Greater than 19,000 folks died in that disaster.
“In quite a lot of areas, there was quite a lot of stuff thrown in every single place, like recordsdata and every little thing,” mentioned Shelly Reid, a workers member at Minamisoma Metropolis Corridor. “Some roads had been broken, particularly alongside the coast. There have been some landslides.”
One particular person in Minamisoma was confirmed lifeless after Wednesday’s quake.
The earthquake measured magnitude 7.3 — sturdy sufficient to do critical structural harm — however the magnitude 9 Tohoku quake that induced the catastrophic 2011 tsunami was tons of of instances as highly effective. The epicenter of the earthquake on Wednesday was 20 miles off the east coast of Japan, and about 37 miles under the ocean.
“We often don’t see a harmful tsunami till you get to round 7.5,” mentioned Don Blakeman, a geophysicist with the Nationwide Earthquake Data Middle in Golden, Colo.
However the harm stories had been nonetheless coming in early Thursday morning, and the quake, which might be felt in Tokyo, nearly 200 miles away, did extra than simply rattle nerves in a rustic the place many watch for the earth beneath their ft to maneuver once more at any second.
Two million folks had been left with out energy, if solely briefly, and hearth departments had been known as to rescue passengers trapped in elevators. A bullet prepare carrying about 100 folks between the Fukushima and Shiroshizaou stations derailed, though there have been no stories of accidents. And passengers on subway trains posted movies of automobiles swaying precariously as they made their means by way of tunnels.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida mentioned the nation’s Self-Protection Forces had been mobilized to evaluate the harm.
“We’re nonetheless attempting to grasp the scenario and gather data,” he mentioned at a information briefing. “The federal government will come collectively to save lots of folks’s lives and to make all-out efforts to offer security and supply correct data.”
The depth of the earthquake equaled that of the Kobe earthquake of 1995, which killed greater than 6,000 folks. The distinction was its depth under the ocean.
Many Japanese famous that the quake occurred simply 5 days after the nation noticed the eleventh anniversary of the Fukushima catastrophe.
“One other huge earthquake in Tohoku,” Aiko Sawada, a retired medical researcher, wrote on Twitter. “And so quickly after the anniversary of three.11. I pray that the harm stays minimal.”
After the earthquake in 2011, one of the highly effective ever measured, tsunami waves breached the protecting sea partitions of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and inundated the ability, resulting in the meltdown of three reactors.
On Thursday, Japanese officers got down to examine nuclear vegetation within the area quickly after the quake hit. They mentioned they’d detected no abnormalities at vegetation in Fukushima; in Onagawa in Miyagi Prefecture; or in Tokai in Ibaraki Prefecture.
The Tokyo Electrical Energy Firm did say {that a} hearth alarm had gone off at one of many reactors on the defunct Fukushima Daiichi plant. The plant has been present process an unlimited cleanup because the catastrophe 11 years in the past.
And water pumps for spent gasoline cooling swimming pools at a separate energy plant in Fukushima had been down early Thursday, however Tokyo Electrical mentioned there was nonetheless water within the swimming pools for now, and that each pumps had returned to operation earlier than 2 a.m., in line with NHK, the general public broadcaster.
The tsunami that crippled that plant left Japan with a formidable problem: How does a quake- and tsunami-prone island nation dotted with nuclear reactors shield towards one other calamity?
To quell lingering fears, Japanese nuclear regulators lately have ordered a flurry of recent security measures on the nation’s reactors, together with new sea partitions, flood gates and safety for the very important backup turbines that energy the pumps that cool the recent reactor cores.
However the job is appreciable, and deep mistrust of nuclear energy persists amongst many Japanese.
On the Hamaoka nuclear energy plant, for instance, which is perched on the Pacific coast west of Tokyo, staff constructed a 72-foot sea wall, among the many tallest within the nation, to guard its three reactors. Then got here the unhealthy information: Scientists engaged on new projections of potential tsunamis within the area warned final yr that waves might attain nearly 74 ft.
Hamaoka stays shuttered, as do a lot of Japan’s different reactors.
A decade later, nuclear energy, which as soon as supplied a few third of Japan’s electrical energy, now accounts for only some %. Thirty-three reactors are able to producing energy — however simply 5 are doing so. The remaining are both present process inspections or awaiting approval to restart.
Motoko Wealthy reported from Tokyo, and Eric Nagourney from New York. Reporting was contributed by Hiroko Tabuchi and Nadav Gavrielov in New York and Thomas Fuller in Washington.
As the war enters its 862nd day, these are the main developments.
Here is the situation on Saturday, July 6, 2024.
Fighting
- Multiple Russian attacks killed at least seven people and wounded more than two dozen others in the eastern Donetsk oblast of Ukraine, according to officials. Russia has centred its firepower on the industrial region that has been partially controlled by Kremlin-backed forces since 2014.
- Two of the Russian strikes on the town of Selydove, which lies close to the front where Moscow’s forces are advancing, killed at least five people and injured eight, regional governor Vadym Filashkin said.
- A 32-year-old woman was also killed and 20 others were wounded by Russian shelling in the town of Komar, damaging homes, shops and an administrative building, Filashkin said.
- One person was killed in a Russian Smerch rocket attack on the town of Ukrainsk, rounding up the seven casualties in Russian strikes. One person was reported wounded in the same town.
- Denis Pushilin, the Russia-installed official in the Donetsk region, said five people were killed in various Ukrainian attacks on territory that Russia controls.
- Further north in the Donetsk region, Russian forces are pushing towards the hilltop settlement of Chasiv Yar. Images distributed by Ukrainian forces show rows of destroyed and smouldering Soviet-era housing blocks in the town.
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Ukraine’s air defence says it shot down 24 of 27 Russian drones fired in an overnight attack on Saturday. It said the drones were downed over 12 regions across the country.
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Russian drone attacks on the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy early on Saturday cut power to the local water system and knocked out the water supply. Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne reported a series of explosions in the city northeast of the capital, Kyiv.
Politics and diplomacy
- In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin told visiting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban that Ukraine must abandon four regions in the east and south – including Donetsk – if it wants peace.
- Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who was shot in May, said he would have joined Orban on his controversial visit to Moscow if his health had permitted.
- The United States has joined the European Union in criticising Orban’s trip to Russia. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the trip “will not advance the cause of peace and is counterproductive to promoting Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence”.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Keir Starmer for pledging his government would continue to support Ukraine, in a phone call hours after the United Kingdom’s new prime minister took office. Britain has been one of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
- Starmer told US President Joe Biden that British support for Ukraine’s war with Russia was “unwavering”, in a first call hours after he took charge.
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NATO allies at their summit in Washington, DC, next week will unveil a “bridge to membership” plan for Ukraine and announce steps to bolster Kyiv’s air defences, a senior US official said.
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Mihail Popsoi, the foreign minister of Moldova, a former Soviet Republic, said his government reserved the right to order further expulsions of Russian diplomats if Moscow engaged in new activities harmful to the country’s interests. Moldova’s relations with Russia have deteriorated as President Maia Sandu has denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and led a drive to join the European Union.
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President Biden is now facing calls from members of the international community who want him to quit the 2024 presidential race, with even leftist Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva warning that “Biden has a problem.”
“He’s moving more slowly, he is taking longer to answer questions,” Lula explained to a local radio station, according to Bloomberg. “The U.S. elections are very important for all the world.”
Biden’s first presidential debate against former President Trump last month proved to be a debacle, leading Biden to admit just days later that he “screwed up.”
“I had a bad night,” Biden, 81, said Thursday in an interview with radio host Earl Ingram. “And the fact of the matter is that, you know, I screwed up.”
DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMAN CALLS OUT ‘ARROGANT’ BIDEN CAMPAIGN RESPONSE TO DEBATE FALLOUT
While Republicans predictably criticized the performance, even Democrats have fallen into a panic, and the president has had to hold crisis talks with close allies to reassure them he’s still up to the job — and will be for another four years.
Former President Trump and President Biden debate in Atlanta on June 27. (Getty Images)
The debate, however, sent shock waves through the international community, with some allies refusing to stay quiet about an issue that they see as being too important to treat delicately.
Matteo Renzi, who served as Italian prime minister from 2014 to 2016 and who proved to be a close friend to Democrats during his tenure, wrote on social media platform X that “Joe Biden can’t do it.”
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“As Senator, Vice President, President he served the United States of America with honor,” Renzi wrote. “He doesn’t deserve an inglorious ending, he doesn’t deserve one. Changing horses is a duty for everyone.”
From left: Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy; Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada; Fumio Kishida, Prime Minister of Japan; Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister of Great Britain; EU Council President Charles Michel; German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD); Emmanuel Macron, President of France; EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and President Biden watch parachutists at the G-7 summit in Fasano, Italy, on June 13. (Michael Kappeler/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski struck a similar tone in a cryptic message on X that some have taken to be an unfavorable comparison between Biden and the great Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius.
“Marcus Aurelius was a great emperor, but he screwed up his succession by passing the baton to his feckless son Commodus (He, from the Gladiator) whose disastrous rule started Rome’s decline),” Sikorski wrote. “It’s important to manage one’s ride into the sunset.”
President Biden, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, French President Emmanuel Macron, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attend a session on Africa, climate change and development on the first day of the G-7 summit in Savelletri, Italy, on June 13. (Reuters/Yara Nardi)
Marie-Agness Strack-Zimmermann, a German politician and current Chair of the Defense Committee of the Bundestag, told one outlet, “The fact that a man like Trump could become president again because the Democrats are unable to put up a strong candidate against him would be a historic tragedy that the whole world would feel,” The Guardian reported.
WHITE HOUSE STAFF ‘MISERABLE’ AMID PRESSURE ON BIDEN: REPORT
Other European officials have reportedly started to privately argue that Biden should step aside in favor of someone with a stronger chance of beating Trump, with Vice President Kamala Harris one of the leading candidates to assume the task.
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris appear on the Truman Balcony of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Bloomberg reported that sources familiar with high-level discussions between European officials worry about the U.S. election due to its potential impact on Ukraine and NATO at a time when Russia remains aggressive.
Biden will have a chance to reassure America’s allies during a NATO summit that he will host in the U.S. next week, with his every action under intense scrutiny. One official at the G-7 meeting in Italy last month told Bloomberg that an air of worry hung around the meetings due to Biden’s apparent cognitive issues.
One person familiar with those conversations told The Washington Post that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had seen Biden as “mentally on top of his game” but physically weak — concerns that grew more pronounced following the debate.
In Asia, Japan and South Korea, uneasiness has increased about a return to the strained relations of the Trump era, when his administration urged greater financial contributions for military assistance and tensions rose due to aggressive trade practices, Reuters reported.
Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser and Remy Numa contributed to this report.
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