World Tour: Japan to dump nuclear wastewater

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: News from around the world on WORLD Tour with Onize Ohikere.

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: Ethiopia hunger—— We begin today in Ethiopia’s conflict-hit Tigray region.

SOUND: [Hospital]

Parents inside a hospital in the region’s city of Mekelle watch over malnourished children struggling from the impact of drought and a two-year war.

Hospital staff say eight children died in May.

FATHER: [Speaking Tigrigna]

This father sitting beside his severely malnourished 10-year-old says the family doesn’t have any food. Now, their daughter can’t keep any solids down.

Fighting between government troops and the regional Tigray rebels has left much of the region reliant on food aid.

PEDIATRICIAN: [Speaking Tigrigna]

This pediatrician at the hospital in Mekelle says families are battling a vicious cycle of receiving treatment and returning home to no food, before falling sick again.

The World Food Program and the United States suspended food aid to the region in March after reports that local officials and rebels played a role in diverting the aid from those in need.

Brenda Kariuki is a senior regional spokesperson with the World Food Program. She says the food distributions could resume this month.

BRENDA KARIUKI: We are also implementing a new targeting methodology to identify the most vulnerable in the communities and rolling out a new digital registration system so that WFP can better identify and verify beneficiaries to ensure that the right people are receiving critical food at the right time.

Local officials say at least 700 people have died from hunger in the region since the aid stopped.

Germany deal — We head over to Germany which is sending troops to attend joint drills in Australia for the first time.

Army Chief Alfons Mais said some 240 soldiers, including paratroopers and marines, will train in jungle warfare and landing operations.

They will join service members from 12 other nations, including Japan, France, Britain, and South Korea.

MAIS: [Speaking German]

Mais says that Germany is not interested in sending a signal to any nation but in strengthening partnerships.

Germany has shown increased military presence in the Indo-Pacific region in recent years even as tensions rise with China. Its biggest trading partner.

Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Monday … the country will station a military surveillance aircraft in Germany.

ALBANESE: This aircraft will help to protect the multinational logistics hubs that are essential to the flow of military and humanitarian assistance to the people of Ukraine.

Albanese says the deployment will last six months and include up to 100 support crew members.

SOUND: [Japan Fukushima protests]

In Japan, local activists and South Korean lawmakers chanted and waved flags outside the prime minister’s office on Monday.

They oppose the Japanese government’s plan to release treated radioactive water from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Japan plans to start releasing water from the plant as early as this summer to prevent accidental leaks as storage runs out. Japan’s fishing community and other groups across South Korea and China have raised concerns.

PROTESTER: [Speaking Japanese]

This protester says she eats fish and seaweed and called the idea of polluting the sea unthinkable.

Last week, the United Nations nuclear agency concluded Japan’s plan complies with international standards.

Syria bomb attack — Ambulance siren

Car bomb explosions in northern Syria on Sunday killed at least eight people.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said one bomb exploded in a car repair shop in the town of Shawa. Five people died … including three children.

Another explosive planted in a car went off in the city of Manbij. At least three fighters of a Syrian Kurdish-led group died.

No group has claimed responsibility. Syria’s civil war began in 2011  and has dissolved into a conflict involving insurgent groups and foreign players.

SOUND: [South Africa snowfall]

We end today in South Africa where residents dashed outdoors to enjoy a rare snowfall on Monday.

Other parts of South Africa experience some snow during the winter, but it’s the first in the city of Johannesburg since 2012.

The rare occurrence brought people outdoors including this student:

STUDENT: I would maybe do things we used to see in cartoons, making snow angels and whatnot.

The South African Weather Service warned the icy temperatures and strong winds could pose a risk, particularly to the city’s homeless.

That’s it for this week’s World Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere in Abuja, Nigeria.

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