JAPAN
Nuclear restart halted
The restart of the world’s largest nuclear power plant was suspended in Japan yesterday, just hours after the process began, its operator said, adding that the reactor remained “stable.” Operations to relaunch a reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture, closed since the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi disaster, began late on Wednesday after it received the final green light from the nuclear regulator. “An alarm from the monitoring system ... sounded during the reactor startup procedures and operations are currently suspended,” said Takashi Kobayashi, a spokesman for operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO). The reactor “is stable and there is no radioactive impact outside,” Kobayashi said, adding that TEPCO was investigating the cause of the incident and was unable to say when operations would resume. The restart, initially scheduled for Tuesday, had been pushed back after a technical issue related to a reactor alarm was detected last weekend — a problem that was resolved on Sunday, TEPCO said.
Photo: Reuters
FINLAND
Russian activity feared
Russia would “likely persist in its ambitions to damage the undersea infrastructure of the Baltic Sea,” the Defence Command said in its annual military intelligence review published yesterday. The Baltic Sea region has been on high alert after a string of power cable, telecom link and gas pipeline outages since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Chief of Intelligence Major General Pekka Turunen said in an interview it was clear that Russia had the ability to destroy underwater infrastructure if it wanted, but added that no “smoking gun” had been found to prove Russia or another state actor was behind the incidents. “It is unusual that this [so many incidents] occurs,” Turunen said, adding their number had increased significantly since 2023. “The change is real,” he said. Russia has denied any involvement in the incidents. The number of suspicious security-related incidents have also increased around military personnel and exercises on land in the nation, the Defence Command said in the review. “The phenomenon is most likely related to increased vigilance and a lower threshold of reporting, but there is also genuine intelligence-gathering relating to military national defense in these numbers,” it said.
UNITED STATES
Haiti’s council warned
Washington on Wednesday warned the transitional council in charge of Haiti against making changes to the troubled country’s government, as pressure mounts for the unelected body to move toward elections for the first time in a decade. The US embassy in Haiti wrote on X that “the United States would consider that any person who supports such a destabilizing initiative, which favors the gangs, would be acting against the interests of the United States, the region, and the Haitian people, and will take appropriate measures accordingly.” The embassy added that such a maneuver would undermine efforts to establish “a minimal level of security and stability” in Haiti, where gang violence is surging and poverty deepening. The statement came as some members of the council are at odds with Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime, although it was not immediately clear why. The council met behind closed doors earlier on Wednesday. A spokesman for the prime minister’s office said that he could not comment on the situation. The council’s seven members with voting powers did not return messages for comment.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday announced a deal with the chief of Kurdish-led forces that includes a ceasefire, after government troops advanced across Kurdish-held areas of the country’s north and east. Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said he had agreed to the deal to avoid a broader war. He made the decision after deadly clashes in the Syrian city of Raqa on Sunday between Kurdish-led forces and local fighters loyal to Damascus, and fighting this month between the Kurds and government forces. The agreement would also see the Kurdish administration and forces integrate into the state after months of stalled negotiations on
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