By Helen Regan, Junko Ogura, CNN

(CNN) — Japanese authorities have approved a decision to restart the world’s biggest nuclear power plant, which has sat dormant for more than a decade following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, in a pivotal moment as the country looks to looks to shift its energy supply away from fossil fuels.

Despite nerves from many local residents, the Niigata prefectural assembly, home to the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, approved a bill on Monday that clears the way for utility company Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to restart one of the plant’s seven reactors.

The company plans to bring the No. 6 reactor back online around January 20, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK reported.

Japan has taken a cautious approach to nuclear energy since a massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami in 2011 triggered a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. It was the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.

Following the disaster, Japan shut down all 54 of its nuclear power stations including Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, which sits in the coastal and port region of Niigata about 320 kilometers (200 miles) north of Tokyo on Japan’s main island of Honshu.

Japan has since restarted 14 of the 33 nuclear reactors that remain operable, according to the World Nuclear Association.

The Niigata plant will be the first to reopen under the operation of TEPCO, the company that ran the Fukushima Daiichi power station. It has been trying to reassure residents of the restart plan is safe.

“We remain firmly committed to never repeating such an accident and ensuring Niigata residents never experience anything similar,” said TEPCO spokesperson Masakatsu Takata, Reuters news agency reported.

Before the Fukushima disaster, Japan’s nuclear reactors had provided around 30% of the country’s electricity. Since then, Japan has increased its reliance on costly imported fossil fuels, including coal and gas, to power the country and keep the lights on.

About 60–70% of Japan’s power generation comes from imported fossil fuels, which cost the country about 10.7 trillion yen ($68 billion) last year alone.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who took office two months ago, is a strong proponent of nuclear power and has pushed to revive the crippled industry to drive down costs, and tackle inflation and a stagnant economy.

Japan is the world’s fifth-largest emitter of carbon dioxide, after China, the United States, India and Russia, according to the International Energy Agency. But it has committed to reaching net zero emissions by 2050, and renewable energy was at the center of its latest energy plan published earlier this year, with a push for greater investments in solar and wind.

The country’s energy demands are also expected to increase in the coming years due to a boom in energy-hungry data centers that power AI infrastructure.

To achieve its energy and climate goals, Japan aims to double the share of nuclear power in its electricity mix to 20% by 2040.

But the memory of the Fukushima disaster endures, and some local residents are wary of reviving nuclear power due to safety concerns.

“We know firsthand the risk of a nuclear accident and cannot dismiss it,” Ayako Oga, 52, told Reuters. Oga had settled in Niigata after fleeing the Fukushima disaster. She told the news agency that her old home was inside the exclusion zone and she still struggles with post-traumatic stress-like symptoms.

A survey published by the Niigata

Por Brian Stelter, CNN

La credibilidad de “60 Minutes” acaba de sufrir un duro golpe. Ahora, uno de sus corresponsales teme que el programa esté siendo “desmantelado” y algunos empleados amenazan con renunciar.

El detonante: CBS News archivó repentinamente un segmento que presentaba los relatos de hombres venezolanos deportados por la administración Trump a una notoria prisión de máxima seguridad en El Salvador.

La corresponsal que informó sobre la historia, Sharyn Alfonsi, dijo en un memorando interno que “el público identificará correctamente esto como censura corporativa”.

Según Alfonsi y dos fuentes de CBS que hablaron con CNN bajo condición de anonimato, la historia había sido completamente verificada y examinada legalmente cuando la cadena la publicó el viernes por la tarde.

Pero la editora jefa de CBS News, Bari Weiss, intervino con preguntas el sábado por la mañana, según informaron las dos fuentes. Alfonsi afirmó que Weiss “desmintió la noticia”.

Uno de los principales problemas que planteó Weiss fue la falta de respuesta de la administración Trump a los informes.

Según Alfonsi, “solicitamos respuestas a preguntas y/o entrevistas con el DHS, la Casa Blanca y el Departamento de Estado”.

Alfonsi argumentó en su memorándum que no se puede permitir que el silencio estratégico de la administración se convierta en un “veto” a una historia crítica.

“Su negativa a ser entrevistada es una maniobra táctica diseñada para silenciar la noticia”, escribió. “Si la negativa de la administración a participar se convierte en una razón válida para silenciar una noticia, les hemos dado un ‘interruptor de emergencia’ para cualquier reportaje que consideren inconveniente”.

Weiss respondió en una declaración a The New York Times el domingo por la noche: “Mi trabajo es asegurarme de que todas las historias que publicamos sean lo mejor posible. Retener historias que no están listas por cualquier motivo —por ejemplo, porque carecen de contexto suficiente o porque les faltan voces críticas— sucede a diario en todas las redacciones. Espero con interés emitir este importante artículo cuando esté listo”.

En otro giro reciente de los acontecimientos, el presidente Trump ha estado criticando a la revista de noticias Truth Social, y parece estar decepcionado con los nuevos propietarios de CBS.

A fines de 2024, Trump demandó a CBS y a su empresa matriz, Paramount, entonces de diferente propietario, alegando que “60 Minutes” editó engañosamente una entrevista de Kamala Harris para beneficiar su campaña.

Esa demanda, que los expertos legales consideraron ampliamente dudosa desde el punto de vista legal, se cernía sobre el intento de Paramount de fusionarse con Skydance Media, una compañía de producción dirigida por David Ellison y apoyada por el padre de Ellison, Larry, el multimillonario de Oracle.

La demanda se convirtió en un punto de conflicto dentro de CBS News, donde los periodistas temían que tanto los antiguos como los nuevos líderes corporativos buscaran apaciguar a Trump a costa de la credibilidad de la sala de redacción.

Finalmente, el equipo de liderazgo saliente de Paramount acordó resolver la demanda de Trump, y el equipo de liderazgo entrante aceptó varias concesiones que satisficieron a la FCC alineada con Trump.

David Ellison tomó el control de Paramount, elogió efusivamente “60 Minutes” y afirmó que quería fortalecer CBS News. Luego adquirió la startup de Weiss, The Free Press, por US$ 150 millones y la nombró editora jefe.

Ahora a cargo de ambas operaciones, Weiss ha enfrentado el escepticismo de la industria de los medios por su falta de experiencia en la gestión de televisión y en la cobertura periodística tradicional.

A fines de octubre, Weiss viajó a Mar-a-Lago cuando la periodista de CBS Norah O’Donnell grabó una entrevista de “60 Minutes” con el presidente Trump.

Por Hilary Whiteman, CNN

El padre y el hijo acusados ​​de llevar a cabo el peor ataque terrorista de Australia realizaron un entrenamiento con armas de fuego en un lugar no revelado en el campo, según una supuesta declaración de hechos publicada por un magistrado el lunes.

El documento judicial, que contiene redacciones, incluye imágenes de un video de Sajid Akram, de 50 años, y su hijo Naveed Akram, de 24 , que muestra a la pareja sosteniendo rifles y moviéndose de una manera que sugiere un elemento de entrenamiento táctico.

“En todo el video se ve al acusado y a su padre disparando escopetas y moviéndose de manera táctica”, afirma el documento.

Quince personas murieron en el tiroteo ocurrido en Bondi Beach el 14 de diciembre, cuyo objetivo, según las autoridades, era una multitud de familias judías que celebraban Janucá. Sajid Akram fue asesinado a tiros por la policía. Su hijo enfrenta cargos de terrorismo y 15 cargos de asesinato, además de 40 de intento de asesinato.

Los presuntos hechos indican que la pareja lanzó cuatro artefactos improvisados ​​contra la multitud momentos antes de comenzar a disparar, aunque ninguno detonó. El documento indica que las tres bombas caseras y una bomba con forma de pelota de tenis eran viables.

El documento incluye imágenes de los artefactos explosivos improvisados, incluida una quinta bomba presunta colocada en el maletero del vehículo que utilizaron para conducir hasta Bondi para llevar a cabo el ataque.

También se alega que la pareja grabó videos en los que compartieron puntos de vista que sugerían que se adherían a una “ideología de extremismo violento con motivaciones religiosas”.

En un video grabado frente a una imagen de la bandera del Estado Islámico, la pareja hizo declaraciones “condenando los actos de los sionistas” y parecieron “resumir su justificación del ataque terrorista de Bondi”, agregó el documento.

“Hay evidencia de que el acusado y su padre… planearon meticulosamente este ataque terrorista durante muchos meses”, dice el documento.

Esta es una noticia de última hora y se actualizará.

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The post Sospechosos de terrorismo en Bondi lanzaron bombas sin explotar a la multitud y practicaron tiro antes del ataque appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

By Paula Hancocks, Abeer Salman, CNN

(CNN) — Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice this winter. With more than 400,000 homes destroyed in the war, Gazans are being forced to choose between living in tents exposed to the elements or run the risk of living inside the ruins of buildings that could collapse any minute.

Hiyam Abu Nabah has no access to a tent; so that terrible choice has been made for her. She lives with her family in the shell of a building in the Hamad area of Khan Younis, southern Gaza, with no walls to protect them from the elements and the upper floors of the building pancaked above them.

Last week, torrential rains and floods killed at least 17 people in Gaza, including children, Palestinian Civil Defense Spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said. Others, he said, died due to building collapses. More than 90 residential buildings were affected and approximately 90% of shelters for people displaced due to Israel’s war in Gaza were completely flooded.

“On the first day of the storm, we could hear the stones cracking above our heads,” Abu Nabah says. “Sand was falling into our eyes… this is not a life.”

She watches her five-year-old weave in-between electrical wires hanging down from the crumbling ceiling. The wires are now used to hang clothes to keep them off the wet floor; electricity is but a distant memory here.

Her dream of moving back to what is left of her home in Shujaiya, Gaza City, seems remote. It is behind the so-called “yellow line” in an area occupied by the Israeli military as part of the ceasefire agreement to end the two-year war, inaccessible to residents.

In a building nearby, Awn Al Haj pokes at the roof of his shelter with a stick to show stone and sand crumble and fall at his feet. But this roof is the collapsed foundation of the apartment above, twisted steel girders distorted by the pressure of so many stories pancaked above.

Remembering a recent storm that passed through, Al Haj says “three days of it were like the early days of the war… you did not know what (would) happen to you while you are sitting here. Concrete blocks fall, water leaks in, wind and bitter cold.”

Every building still partially standing in this neighborhood carries the same dangers. Shoring up crumbling walls with mud, covering gaping holes with tarpaulin, Al Haj knows this is a band aid solution to a life-threatening problem.

The only alternative, he says, is to sit by the sea, in a tent, inundated by water.

Further north, in the al-Shati camp, a building collapsed Tuesday, killing a man sitting inside and injuring two others. One of the neighbors said it was badly damaged when the building next door was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike; the winter weather and wind was the final straw. “Houses keep collapsing. Someone do something about how we are living,” the neighbor said. “Day after day a house falls, day after day people die.”

Mohammad Fathi of the Gaza Civil Defense, which acts as the emergency service, was on the scene to recover survivors. Fathi says they do not have heavy machinery, such as excavators, to help them rescue survivors trapped under collapsed buildings. “With every winter storm, many families and many children will die,” he warned.

The Civil Defense calls for people to move out of damaged buildings during heavy rain, but the advice falls on deaf ears. For those living amongst the rubble, there is no other choice. The Civil Defense also states tents are simply not

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT)  An interfaith vigil marked the longest night of the year.

Santa Barbara County workers invited people to come together to remember lives lost while experiencing homelessness.

They gathered for the annual Longest Night Memorial at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse arch.

The event offered space for reflection, remembrance, and community.

The post Interfaith Vigil makes Longest Night appeared first on News Channel 3-12.