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Japan begins release of water from Fukushima nuclear plant

Published

1 month ago

August 24, 2023

Japan began releasing wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant on Thursday in an operation it insists is safe but has generated a fierce backlash from China.

The beginning of the discharge of around 540 Olympic swimming pools’ worth of water into the Pacific over several decades is a big step in decommissioning the still highly dangerous site 12 years after one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents.

Live video provided by plant operator TEPCO showed engineers behind computer screens and an official saying — after a countdown — that the “valves near the seawater transport pumps are opening.”

Monitors from the UN atomic watchdog, which has endorsed the plan, were due to be on site for the procedure, while TEPCO workers were scheduled to take water samples later on Thursday.

Ahead of the operation, about 10 people held a protest near the site and around 100 others gathered outside TEPCO headquarters in Tokyo, AFP journalists said.

“It’s like dumping an atomic bomb in the ocean. Japan is the first country that was attacked with an atomic bomb in the world, and the prime minister of the country made this decision,” said Kenichi Sato, 68.

China’s environment ministry on Thursday blasted Japan’s plan as “extremely selfish and irresponsible”, saying it would “track and study” the impact on its waters.

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With around 1,000 steel containers holding the water, TEPCO has said it needs to clear space for the removal of highly dangerous radioactive nuclear fuel and rubble from the wrecked reactors.

Three of the reactors at the Fukushima-Daiichi facility in northeastern Japan went into meltdown following a massive earthquake and tsunami that killed around 18,000 people in 2011.

Since then, TEPCO has collected 1.34 million cubic metres of water contaminated as it cooled the wrecked reactors, along with groundwater and rain that has seeped in.

TEPCO will carry out four releases of the treated water from Thursday until March 2024. The first discharge will take about 17 days.

About 5 trillion becquerels — a measure of radioactivity — of tritium will be released this fiscal year, TEPCO added.

Japan insists that all radioactive elements have been filtered out except the tritium, levels of which are harmless and lower than what is discharged by operational nuclear power plants, including in China.

This is backed by most experts.

“When released into the Pacific, the tritium is further diluted into a vast body of water and would quickly get to a radioactivity level which is not discernibly different from normal seawater,” said Tom Scott from the University of Bristol in England.

“Hence, it poses very little risk and the risk itself decreases with time due to the relatively short radioactive half-life … meaning that the amount of tritium (and hence the risk) continually reduces.”

Not everyone is convinced, with environmental group Greenpeace saying that the filtration process is flawed, and China and Russia suggesting the water be vaporised and released into the atmosphere instead.

China has accused Japan of treating the Pacific like a “sewer”, and even before the release, Beijing banned food imports from 10 out of 47 Japanese prefectures and imposed radiation checks.

Hong Kong and Macau, both Chinese territories, followed suit this week.

Restaurants in Beijing and Hong Kong serving sushi and sashimi are already reeling from the restrictions.

“About 80 per cent of the seafood products we use come from Japan,” Hong Kong caterer Jasy Choi, who runs a small kitchen for takeaway Japanese food, told AFP.

“If more than half of my Japan-imported ingredients are affected, then it would be difficult for me to continue to operate,” he said.

Analysts said that while China may have genuine safety concerns, its strong reaction is also at least in part motivated by its economic rivalry and frosty relations with Japan.

people are worried and have staged protests.

Social media posts in China and South Korea have included false claims about the release including doctored images of deformed fish with claims they were linked to Fukushima.

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News

Trump business empire under threat as New York fraud trial opens

Published

27 mins ago

October 2, 2023

callumbryne

Former US president Donald Trump will appear in a New York court on Monday as a civil fraud trial against him and two of his sons kicks off, with the case threatening the Republican’s business empire as he campaigns to retake the White House.

In Monday’s case, Judge Arthur Engoron has already ruled that Trump and his sons Eric and Don Jr committed fraud by inflating the value of the real estate and financial assets of the Trump Organization for years.

New York Attorney General Letitia James is now seeking $250 million in penalties and the removal of Trump and his sons from management of the family empire.

Trump said late Sunday he planned to be present for the start of the trial on Monday morning.

“I’m going to Court tomorrow morning to fight for my name and reputation,” the 77-year-old wrote on his Truth Social platform. “This whole case is a sham!!!”

In addition to this civil case, Trump also faces several major criminal proceedings in the months ahead.

He is scheduled to appear before a federal judge in Washington on March 4 on charges of trying to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden.

Trump will then be back in New York state court, this time on criminal hush money charges, and later in a Florida federal court, where he is accused of mishandling classified documents after leaving office.

Finally, he will also have to answer to state charges in Georgia, where prosecutors say Trump illegally tried to get the southern state’s 2020 election results changed in his favor.

In the New York civil case, Engoron ruled that Trump, his two eldest sons, and other Trump Organisation executives lied to tax collectors, lenders, and insurers for years in a scheme that exaggerated the value of their properties by $812 million to $2.2 billion between 2014 and 2021.

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As a result, the judge revoked the business licenses that allowed the Trump Organisation to operate some of its New York properties.

Actually enforcing such penalties would be “a major blow to Donald Trump’s ability to do business in the State of New York going forward,” Will Thomas, a professor of business law at the University of Michigan, told AFP.

Under that kind of pressure, Trump — who made his reputation and fortune as a real estate mogul in the 1980s and had promised to bring his cut-throat industry tactics to the Oval Office — could eventually lose control over many of his company’s flagship properties, such as his 5th Avenue Trump Tower in Manhattan.

According to Attorney General James, a Democrat, Trump’s own apartment in that building is among the spaces that were fraudulently overvalued — it was listed as three times bigger than its true size.

Another Manhattan building, at 40 Wall Street, was overvalued between $200-$300 million in financial disclosures, James alleges.

Trump’s luxury Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida — the site of the classified documents drama — and several other Trump Organisation golf clubs also appear in James’s complaint.

Trump has repeatedly dismissed the New York civil allegations, calling James, who is Black, “racist,” and labeling Engoron “deranged.”

On his Truth Social platform, Trump claimed there was no “wrongdoing” in his actions of “fully paying back sophisticated Wall Street Banks in full, with interest, with no defaults, and with no victims.”

There are likely to be dozens of witnesses called to testify at the trial, including Trump himself, and former financial director of the Trump Organisation Allen Weisselberg, who served time in prison after pleading guilty to tax fraud in a separate case brought against the business.

Trump’s children Eric, Don Jr, and his oldest daughter Ivanka — who was initially also targeted by James’s complaint but ultimately not prosecuted — are also likely to present their own testimony.

Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen — now an outspoken critic of the former president — and officials from certain Trump-linked financial institutions are also expected to appear.

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News

At least 38 injured in police station fire in Egypt’s Ismailia

Published

39 mins ago

October 2, 2023

callumbryne

A huge fire broke out at a police headquarters in the Egyptian city of Ismailia on Monday, injuring at least 38 people, according to local media.

No fatalities were immediately reported but the building is staffed by soldiers at all hours and hospitals were placed on alert.

Footage on local media showed smoke rising from the entirely blackened multi-storey building.

The cause of the blaze, which broke out at the headquarters of the Ismailia Security Directorate before dawn, is not yet known.

Of 26 wounded who were transferred to a local hospital, 24 had suffered from “asphyxiation” and two from burns, local media reported citing the health ministry.

Twelve more were treated at the scene.

The health ministry deployed 50 ambulances to the scene, which were joined by military emergency services including two planes, according to state media.

Deadly fires are a common hazard in Egypt, where fire codes are rarely enforced and emergency services are often slow to arrive.

In August 2022, a fire caused by a short circuit killed 41 worshippers in a Cairo church, prompting calls to improve the country’s infrastructure and the response time of the fire brigade.

In March 2021, at least 20 people died in a fire at a textile factory in the capital, while in 2020, two hospital fires killed 14 people.

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Annual inflation rises to 31.4pc amid high energy prices

Published

1 hour ago

October 2, 2023

callumbryne

Pakistan’s annual inflation rate rose to 31.4 per cent in September from 27.4pc in August, statistics bureau data showed on Monday, as the country reels from high fuel and energy prices.

The country is embarking on a tricky path to economic recovery under a caretaker government after a $3 billion loan programme approved by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in July averted a sovereign debt default, but with conditions that complicated efforts to rein in inflation.

On a month-on-month basis, inflation climbed 2pc in September, compared to an increase of 1.7pc in August. Reforms required by the IMF bailout, including an easing of import restrictions and a demand that subsidies be removed, have already fuelled annual inflation, which rose to a record 38pc in May.

Food inflation remained elevated at 33.1pc with the year-on-year increase in non-perishable food items at 38.4pc and 4.37pc for perishable food items.

Annual consumer inflation in urban and rural areas increased to 29.7pc and 33.9pc year-on-year, respectively.

Meanwhile, the highest year-on-year increase was recorded in the categories of alcoholic beverages and tobacco (87.45pc), recreation and culture (58.77pc), furnishing and household equipment maintenance (39.32pc) and non-perishable food items.

Index-wise increase in inflation YoY (in descending order)

Alcoholic beverages and tobacco: 87.45pc
Recreation and culture: 58.77pc
Furnishing and household equipment maintenance: 39.32pc
Non-perishable food items: 38.41pc
Miscellaneous goods and services: 36.42pc
Restaurants and hotels: 34.3pc
Transport: 31.26pc
Housing and utilities: 29.7pc
Health: 25.28pc
Clothing and footwear: 20.55pc
Education: 11.12pc
Communication: 7.42pc
Perishable food items: 4.37pc

Interest rates have also risen to their highest at 22pc, and the rupee hit all-time lows in August before recovering in September to become the best performing currency following a clampdown by authorities on unregulated FX trade.

On Friday, the ministry of finance said in its monthly report that it anticipated inflation remaining high in the coming month, hovering around 29-31pc due to an upward adjustment in energy tariffs and a major increase in fuel prices.

The report added that inflation was, however, expected to ease, especially from the second half of the current fiscal year that starts on Jan 1.

On Saturday, the government cut petrol and diesel prices from a record high, after two consecutive hikes. The finance ministry cited international prices of petroleum products and the improvement in the exchange rate, following the clampdown on unregulated FX trade.

Inflation has been elevated, hovering in double digits, since November 2021.
The country targeted inflation at 21pc for the current fiscal year, but it averaged 29pc during the first quarter.

Worsening economic conditions, along with rising political tensions in the run-up to a national election scheduled for November, triggered sporadic protests in September, with many Pakistanis saying they are struggling to make ends meet.

Analysts said the inflation reading was in line with market expectations.

Tahir Abbas, head of research at Arif Habib Limited, a Karachi-based investment company, said inflation appeared to have peaked for the current fiscal year and would subsequently recede.

“The higher reading is mainly due to the low base effect which was also mentioned in the last monetary policy statement. Going forward, in the next few months, we expect inflation to ease to around 26-27pc,” said Fahad Rauf, head of research at Ismail Iqbal Securities, a Karachi-based brokerage firm.

Rauf said higher inflation statistics should not impact monetary policy.

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