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At least three people were killed Sunday in a shooting at an Austin, Texas, apartment complex, authorities said.Austin police, calling the situation “an active shooting incident,” said they were searching for a suspect.”While a suspect is still at large, it appears this is a domestic situation that is isolated and there is no risk to the general public,” Austin police said on Twitter.The shooting occurred near a popular shopping area in the northwest part of the city, which is the capital of Texas.Police know the identity of the gunman, according to a report by KVUE-TV in Austin.Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services Department said three adults were dead at the scene of the shooting, which was reported shortly before noon, local time.”No additional patients have been reported or located at this time,” the department said on Twitter about an hour after the incident was first reported.Police urged residents to avoid the area.
 
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No one can say with any certainty what will happen in Afghanistan once U.S. President Joe Biden withdraws the remaining 2,500 to 3,500 U.S. troops by September 11 to end the country’s longest war, a top White House official said Sunday.”I can’t make any guarantees about what will happen inside the country. No one can,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told the “Fox News Sunday” show.”All the United States could do is provide the Afghan security forces, the Afghan government and the Afghan people resources and capabilities, training and equipping their forces, providing assistance to their government,” he said. “We have done that and now it is time for American troops to come home and the Afghan people to step up to defend their own country.”Biden’s decision to withdraw the remaining troops has drawn a mixed reaction in Washington. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called it a grave mistake and “a retreat in the face of an enemy.” Senator Lindsey Graham said it was “dumber than dirt and devilishly dangerous.” Even some Democrats were concerned by the decision, including Senator Robert Menendez, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, who worried the U.S. may “lost what we were seeking to achieve.”
But other lawmakers say it was long past time for the U.S. to withdraw the troops it sent to Afghanistan to defeat the al-Qaida terrorists who masterminded and carried out the September 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S. that killed nearly 3,000 people. But critics of Biden’s decision to withdraw troops 20 years later say it could lead to creation of a new terrorist haven in Afghanistan.Uncertainty Surrounds US Pullout From AfghanistanPentagon says that planners are still working out the details and a brief surge is possible to ensure a safe, orderly withdrawalAsked in a separate interview on CNN whether the U.S. “won the war” in Afghanistan, Sullivan replied that the U.S. had “achieved its objective” by degrading the presence of al-Qaida and killing al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in a 2011 mission in Pakistan.He said the U.S. troop withdrawal now was a recognition that the U.S. needs to “focus on the battle of the next 20 years, not the last 20 years.”Sullivan, in the Fox News interview, was asked whether the U.S. was risking a repeat of what happened in Iraq in 2011, where Islamic State militants seized territory after U.S. troops withdrew. Then-President Barack Obama sent troops back into Iraq, but Sullivan said Biden had no intention of sending American forces back to Afghanistan once they are withdrawn.As he announced his decision to withdraw U.S. troops, Biden said the United States would monitor any terrorist threats in Afghanistan and keep substantial assets in the region. “He has no intention of taking our eye off the ball,” Sullivan said. “We have the capacity, from repositioning our capabilities over the horizon, to continue to suppress the terrorist threat in Afghanistan.”But CIA Director William Burns told the Senate Intelligence Committee last week that with the departure of U.S. troops, America’s ability to collect intelligence and act against extremist threats in Afghanistan will be diminished.A United Nations report in January said there were as many as 500 al-Qaida fighters in Afghanistan.
 
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The manmade lakes that store water supplying millions of people in the U.S. West and Mexico are projected to shrink to historic lows in the coming months, dropping to levels that could trigger the federal government’s first official shortage declaration and prompt cuts in Arizona and Nevada.The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released 24-month projections this week forecasting that less Colorado River water will cascade down from the Rocky Mountains through Lake Powell and Lake Mead and into the arid deserts of the U.S. Southwest and the Gulf of California. Water levels in the two lakes are expected to plummet low enough for the agency to declare an official shortage for the first time, threatening the supply of Colorado River water that growing cities and farms rely on.It comes as climate change means less snowpack flows into the river and its tributaries, and hotter temperatures parch soil and cause more river water to evaporate as it streams through the drought-plagued American West.The agency’s models project Lake Mead will fall below 1,075 feet (328 meters) for the first time in June 2021. That’s the level that prompts a shortage declaration under agreements negotiated by seven states that rely on Colorado River water: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.August projectionsThe April projections, however, will not have binding impact. Federal officials regularly issue long-term projections but use those released each August to make decisions about how to allocate river water. If projections don’t improve by then, the Bureau of Reclamation will declare a Level 1 shortage condition. The cuts would be implemented in January.Arizona, Nevada and Mexico have voluntarily given up water under a drought contingency plan for the river signed in 2019. A shortage declaration would subject the two U.S. states to their first mandatory reductions. Both rely on the Colorado River more than any other water source, and Arizona stands to lose roughly one-third of its supply.Water agency officials say they’re confident their preparation measures, including conservation and seeking out alternative sources, would allow them to withstand cuts if the drought lingers as expected.”The study, while significant, is not a surprise. It reflects the impacts of the dry and warm conditions across the Colorado River Basin this year, as well as the effects of a prolonged drought that has impacted the Colorado River water supply,” officials from the Arizona Department of Water Resources and Central Arizona Project said in a joint statement.’Straws’ for drawing waterIn Nevada, the agency that supplies water to most of the state has constructed “straws” to draw water from farther down in Lake Mead as its levels fall. It also has created a credit system where it can bank recycled water back into the reservoir without having it count toward its allocation.Colby Pellegrino, director of water resources for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, reassured customers that those preparation measures would insulate them from the effects of cuts. But she warned that more action was needed.”It is incumbent upon all users of the Colorado River to find ways to conserve,” Pellegrino said in a statement.The Bureau of Reclamation also projected that Lake Mead will drop to the point they worried in the past could threaten electricity generation at Hoover Dam. The hydropower serves millions of customers in Arizona, California and Nevada.To prepare for a future with less water, the bureau has spent 10 years replacing parts of five of the dam’s 17 turbines that rotate to generate power. Len Schilling, a dam manager with the bureau, said the addition of wide-head turbines allow the dam to operate more efficiently at lower water levels. He said the turbines will be able to generate power almost to a point called “deadpool,” when there won’t be enough water for the dam to function.Less water means less powerBut Schilling noted that less water moving through Hoover Dam means less hydropower to go around.”As the elevation declines at the lake, then our ability to produce power declines as well because we have less water pushing on the turbines,” he said.The hydropower costs substantially less than the energy sold on the wholesale electricity market because the government charges customers only for the cost of producing it and maintaining the dam.Lincoln County Power District General Manager Dave Luttrell said infrastructure updates, less hydropower from Hoover Dam and supplemental power from other sources like natural gas raised costs and alarmed customers in his rural Nevada district.”Rural economies in Arizona and Nevada live and die by the hydropower that is produced at Hoover Dam. It might not be a big deal to NV Energy,” he said of Nevada’s largest utility. “It might be a decimal point to Los Angeles’ Department of Water and Power. But for Lincoln County, it adds huge impact.”
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Several longtime pro-democracy advocates on Friday learned their fate for organizing one of Hong Kong’s largest-ever street protests during the height of anti-government demonstrations.Nine pro-democracy activists, including media mogul Jimmy Lai, 73, and former lawmakers Lee Cheuk-yan, 64, Leung Kwok-hung, 65, Cyd Ho, 66, and Au Nok-hin, 33, were jailed after being found guilty this month of involvement in an August 2019 march that attracted hundreds of thousands of protesters.District Judge Amanda Woodcock of Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Magistrates Court also suspended sentencing for four other activists because of their age and accomplishments, according to The Associated Press.Lai, who was Pro-democracy activist Martin Lee, center, walks out from a court after receiving a suspended sentence in Hong Kong, April 16, 2021.The four remaining activists — “father of democracy” Martin Lee, 82, Margaret Ng, 73, Albert Ho, 69, and Leung Yiu-chung, 67 — received suspended sentences.Former Democratic Party lawmaker Emily Lau, who was at the court for the sentencing, told VOA that it was a “very, very bad day for Hong Kong.””So many people who have fought for democracy and human rights and rule of law for so many years have been given such heavy jail sentences for engaging in peaceful and nonviolent protests,” she said. “It’s very, very sad. But we know everybody, including judges and the government, are under a lot of pressure from Beijing, and they really want to teach Hong Kong people a lesson.”Lau said the length of sentences didn’t come as a surprise, as they were notably longer than they had been for activists charged with illegal assembly.”We know times have changed,” said Lau. “Beijing is breathing down on us very heavily, and everybody feels the pressure.”Hong Kong Activists Feel Pressure as Chinese Authorities Approach Relatives in Mainland China Organizer of student political group is latest activist under threat of violating the National Security Law  
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Nigerian authorities are stepping up efforts to vaccinate more people against COVID-19 after a slow rollout blamed on misinformation. Authorities aim to vaccinate over 80 million Nigerians by year’s end but are running far behind schedule. 
An Abuja vaccination center, which opened March 16, one week after Nigeria’s official vaccine rollout, vaccinates between 50 and 100 people daily. It is one of many vaccination locations in the Nigerian capital. Abuja resident Olu Agunbiade visited the center to get his first shot and says receiving the vaccine makes him feel safer.  “I can venture out into the world with a form of protection,” he told VOA. “I know that doesn’t mean I can’t still contract COVID, but at least I have antibodies, I can fight it.”  Nigeria received about 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine early last month.  Authorities say they will vaccine around 80 million people by the end of the year, but so far, only about 1 million have received shots. Although authorities say more Nigerians are now getting vaccinated, Abuja Primary Healthcare Board Executive Secretary Ndeyo Iwot says vaccine hesitancy and misinformation about the coronavirus are to blame for the low numbers.  “There’s a very big problem. Now start from the beginning, how many people even believed that we have the pandemic here? And now you want to bring vaccine for what they did not believe in the first instance? We have a lot of work to do,” Iwot says.    As workaround, authorities are trying to increase vaccine awareness in communities, villages, and marketplaces.   Despite this, though, citizens like Richard Uka insist they will not get the vaccine. “To be sincere, I don’t think this is necessary, to me it’s not necessary,” Uka told VOA. “And I believe that in Nigeria nothing works. How do you think that that vaccine works or how do we know that it works?” Nigeria needs to vaccinate about 150 million citizens by next year to attain herd immunity.  Iwot, though, says getting adequate doses of vaccines may prove difficult.  “Looking at the pandemic situation in Europe, India and the U.S.A. and the U.K., some of them are experiencing the third and fourth spikes now and India that was giving us is also having spikes now. So many of the dosages they have will be consumed there,” Iwot told VOA.Very few African countries are able to manufacture the coronavirus vaccines, creating heavy dependence on foreign manufacturers.  The World Health Organization says the continent has so far received less than 2% of the global 690 million doses of the coronavirus vaccines. 
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Cities in two Midwestern U.S. states — Minnesota and Illinois — had braced Thursday for a night of unrest that did not materialize.  Peaceful protesters did, however, take to the streets in an on-edge Minneapolis suburb and in Chicago to demonstrate against police shootings of young males of color.  
 
Demonstrators in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, gathered in front of the police station Thursday to protest the shooting Sunday of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, who was bi-racial and the father of a 1-year old son.  Wright was pulled over on a traffic stop by Officer Kim Potter.  
 
Potter said she thought she had pulled her Taser to use on Wright, but instead pulled her gun. She has been charged with second-degree manslaughter, but protesters want Potter, who is white, to face more serious charges.    
 
Earlier Thursday, Chicago police released the body camera footage of the officer who shot Adam Toledo, a 13-year-old Hispanic boy, in March. Several protests sprang up in Chicago after the footage was released. In one of the protests, demonstrators marched to the headquarters of the Fraternal Order of Police, but none of the demonstrations erupted into violence.
 
In a portion of the Chicago video, a police officer can be heard saying, “Hey show me your ******* hands, drop it, drop it.”   The boy appears to drop something and then as he turns and puts his hand up, he is shot and then falls to the ground. Police say the officer was in a life-threatening situation.  
 
Chicago’s police accountability office had said it could not release the video because the victim was a minor but released it after numerous requests.  Chicago has a history of suppressing police videos.  
 
In Brooklyn Center protesters have demonstrated in front of the police station every night since Wright’s shooting, with police sometimes using rubber bullets and gas grenades in skirmishes with protesters.  
 
Brooklyn Center is a suburb of Minneapolis where George Floyd, a Black man, died last year after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer placed his knee on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes.  Chauvin’s trial is currently underway in Minneapolis. 
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Multiple people were shot at a Fedex facility in Indianapolis in the midwestern U.S. state of Indiana late Thursday, and the suspected gunman killed himself, police said.When police arrived, officers observed an active shooting scene at the facility, Indianapolis police spokesperson Genae Cook told reporters early Friday.Cook confirmed multiple people were shot but did not give a specific number. She added that the gunman has died and the public is not believed to be in immediate danger.Fedex released a statement early Friday saying it is cooperating with authorities and working to get more information.“We are aware of the tragic shooting at our FedEx Ground facility near the Indianapolis airport. Safety is our top priority, and our thoughts are with all those who are affected,” the statement said.Live video from news outlets at the scene showed crime scene tape in the parking lot outside the facility.A witness who said he works at the facility told WISH-TV that he saw a man with a gun after hearing several gunshots.“I saw a man with a submachine gun of some sort, an automatic rifle, and he was firing in the open,” Jeremiah Miller said.Another man told WTTV that his niece was sitting in her car in the driver’s seat when the gunfire erupted, and she was wounded.“She got shot on her left arm,” said Parminder Singh. “She’s fine, she’s in the hospital now.”He said his niece did not know the shooter.
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The United States is taking action to punish Russia for various “harmful foreign activities,” including cyberattacks, election meddling and aggression in the Crimea region.
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It has been 30 years or so since residents in New Mexico’s largest city last saw their stretch of the Rio Grande go dry. There’s a possibility it could happen again this summer. Federal water managers released their annual operating plan for the Rio Grande on Thursday, and it doesn’t look good. Flows have been meager so far this year because of below-average snowpack in the mountains along the Colorado-New Mexico border that feed the river. Spring precipitation has done little to fill the void. Reservoirs are at a fraction of their capacity and continue to shrink. There is no opportunity to replenish them because the provisions of a water-sharing agreement with Texas prevent New Mexico from storing water upstream. That means the drought-stricken state has no extra water in the bank to fall back on, as it has had in previous years. Matters are further complicated because of extremely low soil moisture levels. That, along with warm temperatures, means much of the melting snow will be absorbed or evaporate before it reaches the river. The Rio Grande flows just south of Bernalillo, N.M., April 13, 2021.”Just low dismal numbers all around,” Ed Kandl, a hydrologist with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, said during a virtual meeting that included representatives from municipalities, tribal governments, irrigation districts, state agencies and a rafting company.  The Rio Grande is one of North America’s longest rivers and a major water source for millions of people and thousands of square miles of farmland in New Mexico, Texas and Mexico. The Bureau of Reclamation warned Thursday that a stellar monsoon season would be the only saving grace, but the odds of that happening are slim.  The Pecos River, which delivers water to parts of eastern New Mexico and West Texas, is in a similar situation, and federal officials recently issued a report indicating that releases on the Colorado River — which feeds several Western states — will continue to be limited because of the lack of water flowing into Lake Powell. So aside from residents in Albuquerque seeing sandbars take over the Rio Grande, farmers in central and southern New Mexico will have a shorter growing season with less water for crops.  It also means less water for the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow. Plans already are being made for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to rescue fish from drying portions of the river. The rescue missions have become a regular practice in recent years. Near the small agricultural community of San Acacia, officials predicted that river drying would start in June and likely last through November, barring any relief from summer rains.  Last year was also tough, but officials said 2021 will likely mark one of the worst since the 1950s. They said the state’s largest reservoir — Elephant Butte in southern New Mexico — could drop to just 3% of capacity. Carolyn Donnelly, the bureau’s water operations supervisor for the area, said contractors will be monitoring the river for drying as far north as Albuquerque, and managers will try to stretch what little water they have as far as it can go. 
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The United Nations on Thursday released $1 million from its emergency fund to provide aid to the Caribbean nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines following a series of devastating volcanic eruptions, the body’s spokesman said.The funds will provide for “urgent humanitarian assistance to impacted people, especially those who have been evacuated,” Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.U.N. agencies will be able to distribute drinking water and hygiene kits, as well as money for the most vulnerable to buy food, he said.About 20,000 people were evacuated from the vicinity of the La Soufriere volcano on St. Vincent, which began erupting last Friday for the first time since 1979.About 4,500 people are in shelters, and the country’s airspace is closed.”Most homes in St. Vincent are without water, and most of the country’s 110,000 people have been impacted by ash fall,” Dujarric said.Eruptions have continued to occur daily, with ash clouds covering the country and reaching surrounding islands.The U.N. said Wednesday that depending on winds, the volcanic eruptions could have an environmental and economic impact on Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, Martinique, and Guadeloupe.St. Vincent and the Grenadines is the smallest state to ever sit on the U.N. Security Council, where its two-year term as a nonpermanent member ends in December.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Thursday to sell Afghan leaders and a wary public on President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw all American troops from the country and end America’s longest-running war.
Blinken was meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, chief executive Abdullah Abdullah, and civic figures, a day after Biden announced that the remaining 2,500 U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan would be coming home by the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that led to the U.S. invasion.
His trip also came after NATO immediately followed suit, saying its roughly 7,000 non-American forces in Afghanistan would be departing within a few months, ending the foreign military presence that had been a fact of life for a generation of Afghans already reeling from more than 40 years of conflict.
Blinken sought to reassure the Afghan leadership that the withdrawal did not mean an end to the U.S.-Afghan relationship.
“I wanted to demonstrate with my visit the ongoing to commitment of the United States to the Islamic Republic and the people of Afghanistan,” Blinken told Ghani as they met at the presidential palace in Kabul. “The partnership is changing, but the partnership itself is enduring.”
“We respect the decision and are adjusting our priorities,” Ghani told Blinken, expressing gratitude for the sacrifices of US troops.
Blinken arrived in the Afghan capital from Brussels where he and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin briefed NATO officials on the move and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg announced the alliance would also be leaving.
Biden, Blinken, Austin and Stoltenberg have all sought to put a brave face on the pullout, maintaining that the U.S.- and NATO-led missions to Afghanistan had achieved their goal of decimating Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network that launched the 9/11 attacks and clearing the country of terrorist elements that could use Afghan soil to plot similar strikes.
However, that argument has faced pushback from some U.S, lawmakers and human rights advocates who say the withdrawal will result in the loss of freedoms that Afghans enjoyed after the Taliban was ousted from power in late 2001.
Later, in a meeting with Abdullah, Blinken repeated his message, saying that “we have a new chapter, but it is a new chapter that we’re writing together.”
“We are grateful to your people, your country, your administration,” Abdullah said.
Despite billions of U.S. dollars in aid, Afghanistan 20 years on has a poverty rate of 52 percent according to World Bank figures. That means more than half of Afghanistan’s 36 million people live on less than $1.90 a day. Afghanistan is also considered one of the worst countries in the world to be a woman according to the Georgetown Institute for Women Peace and Security.
For many Afghans the past two decades have been disappointing, as corruption has overtaken successive governments and powerful warlords have amassed wealth and loyal militias who are well armed. Many Afghans fear worsening chaos even more once America leaves.
Peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government are at a stalemate but are supposed to resume later this month in Istanbul.
Under an agreement signed between the Trump administration and the Taliban last year, the U.S. was to have completed its military withdrawal by May 1. Although Biden is blowing through that deadline, angering the Taliban leadership, his plan calls for the pull-out to begin on May 1. The NATO withdrawal will commence the same day.
“It is time to end America’s longest war,” Biden said in his announcement in Washington on Tuesday, but he added that the U.S. will “not conduct a hasty rush to the exit.”
“We cannot continue the cycle of extending or expanding our military presence in Afghanistan hoping to create the ideal conditions for our withdrawal, expecting a different result,” said Biden, who delivered his address from the White House Treaty Room, the same location where President George W. Bush announced the start of the war. “I am now the fourth United States president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan. Two Republicans. Two Democrats. I will not pass this responsibility to a fifth.”
Biden, along with Blinken and Austin in Brussels, vowed that the U.S. would remain committed to Afghanistan’s people and development.
“Bringing our troops home does not mean ending our relationship with Afghanistan or our support for the country,” Blinken said. “Our support, our engagement and our determination remain.”
Austin also said that the U.S. military, after withdrawing from Afghanistan, will keep counterterrorism “capabilities” in the region to keep pressure on extremist groups operating within Afghanistan. Asked for details, he declined to elaborate on where those U.S. forces would be positioned or in what numbers.
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The Biden administration says it will withdraw its remaining troops in Afghanistan by September 11, 2021 – 20 years after al Qaeda’s attack on American soil. Plus, the latest on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s decision to pause distribution of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.
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Several U.S. states have temporarily stopped providing Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccines in line with federal guidance after six people who received the shots developed rare blood clots. Meanwhile, several countries have suspended the AstraZeneca vaccines after reports it, too, may be linked to blood clots. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara reports. 
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With tensions escalating between Russia and Ukraine, Turkey is finding itself caught in the middle. Ankara — anxious to get Russian COVID vaccines and tourist revenue — faces a difficult choice as Kyiv seeks to purchase Turkish-made military drones. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.Produced by: Henry Hernandez 
 
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Taiwan formally introduced a new naval warship Tuesday as China’s military increases its presence near the self-ruled island.
 
President Tsai Ing-wen was on hand in the southern port city of Kaohsiung for the launching of the new 10,000-ton amphibious transport ship, the first from Taiwan’s new domestic naval shipbuilding program.
 
President Tsai said the new vessel represented a “milestone” for the program, and that it will bolster Taiwan’s national defense.   
 
Earlier Monday, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said 25 Chinese warplanes entered the island’s air defense zone along its southern border, including 15 fighter jets, four bombers, two anti-submarine warfare planes and an airborne early warning plane.   
Beijing considers the island as part of its territory even though it has been self-governing since the end of China’s civil war in 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces were driven off the mainland by Mao Zedong’s Communists. China has vowed to bring the island under its control by any means necessary, including a  military takeover.
Washington officially switched formal diplomatic relations from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, but the Trump administration angered China as it increasingly embraced Taiwan both diplomatically and militarily after taking office in 2017 and throughout its four-year tenure.  
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The Japanese government has approved a plan to release millions of tons of radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean.   
 
The plan was approved Tuesday during a meeting of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s Cabinet. Tokyo Electric Power Company, the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, will begin emptying 1.3 million tons of contaminated water into the ocean in 2022, when the plant’s storage tanks will be full.
 
Prime Minister Suga said the plan to release the water in the sea is an “unavoidable” part of decommissioning the Fukushima facility. TEPCO will filter the water to remove  harmful nuclear isotopes and further dilute it before disposing of the water.   
 
The plant became inoperable on March 11, 2011, when a 9.0-magnitude quake triggered a tsunami that swept across northeastern Japan before reaching Fukushima prefecture.
 
The high waves knocked out the plant’s power supply and cooling systems and led to a  meltdown of its three reactors, sending massive amounts of radiation into the air and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of residents, making it the world’s worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl accident.  
 
The disposal plan has come under intense criticism from local fishing communities near Fukushima, who fear the impact on marine life from the contaminated water. Regional neighbors China and South Korea have also criticized Tokyo’s plan, with Beijing calling it “irresponsible,” while Seoul says it could “bring a direct and indirect impact on the safety of our people and surrounding environment.” The foreign ministry summoned Japan’s ambassador hours after the announcement to lodge a formal protest.
 
But the U.S. State Department issued a statement on its website supporting Japan’s decision, saying it appears to be “in accordance with globally accepted nuclear safety standards.
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US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is in Israel Monday, meeting with Israeli officials about Iran. The meeting comes as a power failure at the Iranian nuclear site of Natanz reportedly caused massive damage to Iranian centrifuges. Iranian officials blamed Israel and threatened to avenge the attack.
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