Category: 2. World

Japanese technicians at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant have sent in remote-controlled robots to one of the damaged reactor buildings as part of preparations to remove radioactive debris.

Dangerously high radiation levels mean that removing melted fuel and other debris from the plant hit by a huge tsunami in 2011 is seen as the most daunting challenge in the decades-long decommissioning project.

Around 880 tonnes of hazardous material remain inside the power station, site of one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents after a tsunami triggered by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake in 2011.

A spokesman for plant operator TEPCO told AFP that the company had deployed two robots — “Spot” and “Packbot” — at one of the damaged reactor buildings on Tuesday to measure the level of radiation.

Both are equipped with dosimeters, a device used to measure radiation, and “Spot” — which resembles a dog — has a camera.

The results of the investigation would be used to help decide upon “a full-scale fuel debris retrieval method”, TEPCO said in a press release.

Public broadcaster NHK and other local media reported that the survey would continue for about a month.

Tiny samples of radioactive material have twice been collected under a trial project using special tools, but full-fledged extractions are yet to take place.

The samples have been delivered to a research lab for analysis.

TEPCO announced in July that the massive operation to remove debris had been delayed until at least 2037. The company previously said it hoped to start in the early 2030s.

The new schedule throws into doubt previously stated goals by TEPCO and the government to declare the Fukushima plant defunct by 2051.

But TEPCO said last month the deadline was achievable despite acknowledging it would be “tough”.

🔊 Listen with AI



Cancel Voice

Published On: Wed, 20 Aug 2025

15:32:30 PKT

(Reuters) – Torrential rain lashed northern Japan on Wednesday, prompting evacuation orders and advisories across multiple cities, according to local media reports.

In Akita Prefecture, cars were seen navigating streets amid heavy rain the city of Odate. An emergency evacuation advisory was issued for Semboku City, where a river had flooded. The city recorded 244.5 millimetres (9.6 inches) of rainfall in the 24 hours leading up to 2 pm (0500 GMT), public broadcaster NHK reported.

Heavy rain disrupted water supply to around 70 households in Semboku, while at least 28 people were stranded, NHK said.

Evacuation orders were also issued for parts of Kazuno and Kitaakita cities, according to Japanese broadcaster Nippon TV. Train services were suspended in Akita and neighbouring Aomori Prefecture, which saw record rainfall. 

Australia’s peak Jewish group has lambasted Benjamin Netanyahu’s attack on Anthony Albanese as “inflammatory and provocative”, adding that the “clumsy intervention” showed a “woeful lack of understanding of social and political conditions in Australia” – notwithstanding what the group describes as “unseemly” conduct from Australia’s leader.

The concerned intervention by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) came as Australia and Israel entered the third day of a diplomatic tit-for-tat prompted by Australia’s visa cancellation of far-right Israeli politician Simcha Rothman on Monday.

ECAJ’s president, Daniel Aghion, sent separate letters to both leaders on Wednesday afternoon. In the letter to Australia’s prime minister, he criticised Albanese’s previous comments accusing Netanyahu of being “in denial” as “excessive and gratuitously insulting”. He echoed this criticism in his letter to Israel’s prime minister, saying it was “unseemly for an Australian Prime Minister to depart from diplomatic norms”.

But he also dressed down Netanyahu for labelling Albanese “a weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews”. “These comments have played straight into the hands of opponents of Israel and antisemites, to the detriment of the Australian Jewish community,” Aghion wrote.

“Had we been consulted, we would have warned against such a clumsy intervention into Australia’s domestic politics. The charge of antisemitism, whether made directly or indirectly, is a serious one and never to be made lightly.

“Doing so only invites scepticism, and undermines the efforts we and the government have been making to combat this pernicious phenomenon.”

_{Sign up: AU Breaking News email}

Alex Ryvchin, ECAJ’s co-chief executive, also expressed reservations about the wording of Netanyahu’s attack.

“We’ve never used that sort of language, and if we believed it, we would have said it along the way,” he said on Wednesday.

“We’ve expressed concerns for nearly two years now about some of the government’s rhetoric and policies and handling of the antisemitism crisis. We’ve had serious misgivings and we’ve made them known, but we’ve never felt abandoned. We’ve always felt like we can speak to government and speak to the public of this country.”

He appealed for “both governments to remember what’s at stake to ensure that calm heads prevail and to conduct their matters of state privately, diplomatically”.

In the Wednesday letters, ECAJ warned both leaders that Australia’s Jewish community “will not be left to deal with the fallout of a spat between two leaders who are playing to their respective domestic audiences”.

“We are now calling on both [of] you … to address the policy differences between the two governments in the usual way through diplomacy rather than public posturing,” Aghion wrote.

“If things need to be said publicly, they should be said using measured and seemly language befitting national leaders. Australia and Israel are mature democracies, and their governments need to act accordingly.”

Earlier on Wednesday, when Albanese was asked to respond to Netanyahu’s latest criticism of him, he told reporters he did not “take these things personally”.

“I treat leaders of other countries with respect. I engage with them in a diplomatic way,” he said.

The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, had earlier accused the Israeli prime minister of “lashing out” against Australia over its decision to recognise a Palestinian state.

“Strength is not measured by how many people you can blow up or how many children you can leave hungry,” Burke told the ABC on Wednesday morning.

“Strength is much better measured by exactly what prime minister Anthony Albanese has done, which is when there’s a decision that we know Israel won’t like, he goes straight to Benjamin Netanyahu.”

The ECAJ president told both Albanese and Netanyahu he had been appalled by Burke’s “incendiary and irresponsible” comments.

Australia’s acting foreign affairs minister, Tim Ayres, told the ABC the government would not retaliate further with public statements against Netanyahu.

The former science minister, Ed Husic, one of the more outspoken pro-Palestinian supporters within the Albanese government, said Australia should ramp up sanctions against Israelis over the aid and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

“When prime minister Netanyahu talks about betrayal, the betrayal is of humanitarian law, kids and innocent Palestinians,” he said.

“And I would suggest respectfully to prime minister Netanyahu, the bigger focus should be to stop seeing kids being killed or starved.”

Husic was followed by Ophir Falk, a foreign policy adviser to Netanyahu, who claimed to the ABC that Australia’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state had been “a huge reward for Hamas”.

“The fact of the matter is that the Australian government is morally bankrupt,” Falk said.

The Jewish Council of Australia’s spokesperson, Bart Shteinman, told Guardian Australia that Netanyahu’s attack on Albanese “should be a wake-up call for Australia, that the Israeli government is not interested in a relationship with our government”.

He pushed for “concrete responses” from Australia, “including broad-based sanctions and ending the two-way arms trade”.

The Zionist Federation of Australia’s president, Jeremy Leibler, told the Sydney Morning Herald that Netanyahu’s comments had been “entirely unhelpful and unproductive”, and praised Albanese for acting as a “statesman” and taking the high road.

“The relationship is clearly under strain,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference, in Jerusalem, May 21, 2025. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday (August 20, 2025) brushed off accusations from his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu that the Australian leader is a “weak politician who had betrayed Israel” by recognising a Palestinian state.

Mr. Netanyahu’s extraordinary public rebuke came after an August 11 announcement by Mr. Albanese that his government’s recognition of a Palestinian state will be formalised at the United Nations General Assembly in September. The announcement was followed by tit-for-tat cancellations of Australian and Israeli visas.

“History will remember Mr. Albanese for what he is: A weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews,” Mr. Netanyahu posted on social media Tuesday (August 19, 2025).

Mr. Albanese responded pointedly on Wednesday: “I treat leaders of other countries with respect. I engage with them in a diplomatic way.” “I don’t take these things personally,” Mr. Albanese said. “Increasingly there is global concern and global concern because people want to see an end to the cycle of violence that we have seen for far too long. That is what Australians want to see as well.” Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke further inflamed Israel’s anger on Monday (August 18, 2025) by cancelling the visa of far-right Israeli lawmaker Simcha Rothman, a member of Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition, who planned an Australian speaking tour.

Mr. Rothman is a member of the Religious Zionism party, which supports continuation of the war, the mass relocation of Palestinians through what it describes as voluntary migration and the reestablishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza.

Mr. Burke on Wednesday accused Mr. Netanyahu of “lashing out” against Australia as he had done against Britain, Canada, France, Ireland, Norway and Spain over recognition of a Palestinian state. Mr. Burke denied Mr. Albanese was weak.

“Strength is not measured by how many people you can blow up or how many children you can leave hungry,” Mr. Burke told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar retaliated on Monday for Mr. Rothman’s treatment by revoking visas of Australian representatives to the Palestinian Authority. Mr. Saar also told the Israeli Embassy in Australia to “carefully examine” any official visa applications from Australia to Israel.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong responded by accusing the Netanyahu government of isolating Israel.

Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the nation’s peak advocacy group, said the Jewish community was “profoundly disturbed and concerned by the rapidly deteriorating state of relations” between the two countries.

Australian Jews did not feel “abandoned” by the Albanese government, rejecting Mr. Netanyahu’s accusation, Mr. Ryvchin said.

“When allies speak, they should speak frankly, robustly, but also in a dignified way, and I think firing off tweets which contain elements of abuse to them,” Mr. Ryvchin said. “I don’t think that’s the way to operate.” Australia is an increasingly multicultural country where more than half the population was born overseas or has at least one foreign parent.

There is widespread community concern over the Israel-Hamas war, indicated by tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marching over the Sydney Harbor Bridge earlier this month.

Antisemitism has reached unprecedented levels across Australia, which the government acknowledged last year by appointing the nation’s first Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Sydney lawyer Jillian Segal.

Australia’s conservative Opposition party has pledged to reverse Australia’s recognition of Palestine if it wins the next election, which is due in 2028.

The worsening bilateral relationship with Israel was spilling over into Australia’s relationship with the United States, an important ally that doesn’t recognise a Palestinian state, opposition leader Sussan Ley said.

“The Prime Minister needs to explain how he is going to get this relationship (with Israel) that he has so badly mismanaged back on track,” Ms. Ley told reporters.

READ MORE