Reuters World News - Fukushima's release, Prigozhin's video, Panama Canal gridlock and HRW's Saudi report

Episode Date: August 22, 2023

Japan said it would begin the release of treated radioactive water from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant this week. Human Rights Watch accuses Saudi border guards of killing hundreds of Ethiopian migrants at the Yemen border. Donald Trump plans to turn himself in to Georgia prosecutors on Thursday. Plus, Thailand's fugitive ex-PM returns and the Panama Canal experiences gridlock. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt-out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, Japan gets ready to release Fukushima's water despite objections. Thailand's fugitive former prime minister returns hours before a critical vote. A human rights watch report alleges Saudi Arabian border guards have killed hundreds of Ethiopian migrants. Biden takes stock in Hawaii and a traffic jam in the Panama Canal reverberates around the globe. It's Tuesday, August 22nd. This is Reuters' world news, with everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes. Every weekday. I'm Kim Vinal in London.

First, the headlines making news around the world. The head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Yevgeny Progogsian, has posted his first video address since that short-lived mutiny in late June. He's seen standing in a desert area in camouflage, saying the group is recruiting more people. Reuters was not able to geolocate or verify the date of the video, but Progoshan's comments and some posts in the Pro-Vagner channels suggest it was filmed in Africa. Former Premier Thaksin Chanoatra set foot on Thai soil for the first time in 15 years, returning from self-exile to chairs.

The billionaire figurehead of the populist Putai party went straight to a Bangkok jail. His arrival came just hours before a parliamentary vote in which his political allies formed a government after weeks of deadlock. Former President Trump says he plans to turn himself in to face charges in Georgia on Thursday. Trump's surrender will come a day after the first Republican primary presidential debate that the former president does not plan to attend. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has accused Facebook's parent company meta of prioritising profit over fire safety. He says people are being denied access to updates about the devastating wildfires there. Meta has vowed to keep its promise to block Canadian news on Facebook and Instagram

in response to a law requiring internet giants to pay for news articles. A visibly moved, President Joe Biden toured the blackened city of Lahaina, where devastating wildfires have killed more than 114 people. want all of you to know the country should grieves with you, stands with you, and will do everything possible to help you recover, rebuild and respect culture and traditions when the rebuilding takes place. Biden's visit came as Tropical Storm Hillary dumped rain on Southern California and the southwest. Hillary flooded streets, downed power lines and triggered mudslides across Southern California after unleashing record-breaking downpaws overnight. But no U.S. deaths

were attributed to the storm and fears of disaster dissipated. It's time for markets and the Fed's Jackson Hole Symposium is looming on investors' minds as the debate intensifies around the long-term equilibrium for interest rates. The merits of raising or not raising the Fed's target 2% inflation goal are coming into focus as markets contemplate the possibility of zero interest rates gone forever. Tech giant Nvidia surged on Monday ahead of its earnings this week that single-handedly gave the NASDAQ its best day in almost four weeks, but optimism across Asian markets remains in short supply.

Japan has said it will start releasing over 1 million metric tons of treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant from this Thursday. Japan and the International Atomic Energy Agency have said that the water release is safe, but the plans drawn strong criticism from China and local fishing groups. Sakura Murakami in Tokyo has been reporting on the plans. The first batch of water that will be released from the nuclear power plant starting this Thursday will contain about 190 becquerels of tritium per litre,

which is well below the kind of drinking water limit set by the World Health Organization, which is 10,000 becquels per litre. Local fishing industry has sort of come around with the IAEA report, with talks with the government that the release itself is probably scientifically safe, but their bigger concern is the impact it would have on their livelihoods and the reputational damage that comes from the water release. People have a very strong and, I guess, visceral reaction to the idea of radioactivity. So that's what the fishermen and the local fishing industry is really concerned

about. So a lot of people in Japan or the majority in Japan, according to some recent polls, do support the water release, but there's still a lot to be done in terms of making sure that these local fishing communities don't kind of bear the brunt of that reputational damage of it. A new Human Rights Watch report has found that Saudi Arabian border guards have killed hundreds of Ethiopian migrants. The 73-page report says the guards shot at migrants, including women and children, as they tried to enter the kingdom along its mountainous border with Yemen. Andrew Mills is in the Gulf Bureau.

Andrew, what do we know so far? Yeah, we know that Human Rights Watch has found that Saudi border guards used explosive weapons and gunfire to kill migrants. at this border crossing from very close range. It's interviewed 38 of these migrants and four of their relatives who crossed the border between March 22 and June of this year. But it also says that they're widespread systematic attacks, and it says that they're ongoing. And they've found that hundreds, if not thousands, have been killed. Saudi authorities have denied allegations made by UN officials in the past. What was their response after this report?

The Saudi government reached out to Reuters to deny these allegations, to say they were unfounded and not based on reliable sources. Reuters spoke to a survivor of this alleged attack as well. Is that right? We have spoken to a survivor, a gentleman called Mustafa, who was trying to cross this border in July of last year. He walked for three days from a village in Yemen to the actual border zone, when gunfire and grenade fire erupted from the Saudi side of the border. Struck him quite badly, partially severed his leg,

and he was sort of left for dead. He said in his group of 45 people who were also trying to cross that border, that only three that he knows of have survived. Who are the Ethiopians fleeing into Saudi Arabia? It's known as the eastern migration route from Ethiopia. And so many of these migrants have crossed from Ethiopia to Djibouti and then boarded boats across the Gulf of Aden and arrived in war-torn Yemen and then crossed war-torn Yemen,

all with the goal of getting into Saudi Arabia to try to find an employment. Read more about the report on Reuters.com. It's been called the biggest traffic jam on earth. Ships are being delayed for weeks in the Panama Canal due to low water levels. This is the canal's top administrator, Rakarte Vakez, calling it the most critical situation in its history. Lisa Bartline in L.A. covers the movement of goods around the world. So what's happening at the Panama Canal right now is they started this, season kind of with more water than they needed, but then they ended up with a wet season that

hasn't been as rainy as they had hoped. And now they're in an El Nino period, which is associated with pretty heavy droughts there. So they're running low on water and they've cut back on both the weights of the ships that they're allowing through the canal and also the number of ships that they're allowing through in order to conserve water for later in the season because the dry season may come a little early. Most of the ships that are going through right now are container ships, and some of them have some Christmas and Halloween goods on them and Thanksgiving goods, but most of them will probably get in on time since we've still got a bit of a delay. What does this mean for Panama? So Panama is in competition with the Suez Canal, which is larger,

obviously, and does a lot more business. So the real impact here would be on the biggest ships, and the shipping industry is really trying to move to the biggest ships as global trade gets bigger and bigger and bigger and we get more people. So that could have an impact on Panama's future. The country really depends on the money that comes from the canal and they've just invest a lot to make it larger. So this is really going to be something to watch locally for Panama. That's it for today's episode of Reuters World News.

We'll be back with our daily headline show on Wednesday. To make sure you know what's going on in the world, listen in for 10 minutes every weekday. And don't forget to subscribe on your favourite podcast player or download the Reuters app.