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TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A planned discharge of treated water from the crippled nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture into the sea will start around this spring or summer, some two years after a decision on its release was made, the Japanese government said Friday. A revised policy on the disposal of the treated water containing low-level concentrations of tritium as well as financial support for affected fishing communities was endorsed during a meeting of relevant Cabinet ministers on Friday. "We would like to thoroughly explain these measures to fishing communities and other relevant parties while listening to their concerns," Chief...

A GRADUATED theater student's headshots were used for advertisements she never knew about. "Thinking about that one time, I didn't read the fine print on my headshots contract, and my photographer sold my pics to stock photo sites," she expressed. Christian moved her head to reveal a screenshot she took of her headshot being used for an R-rated book called "His Big, Childhood Sweetheart" by Samantha Drake. A girl Christian knew spotted her photo at a news stand first. A little while after, another photo of Christian was used on a billboard for breast reduction. And that same photo was...

(Reuters) -A Russian foreign ministry official said on Friday that Belarus may enter the conflict in Ukraine if Kyiv decides to "invade" either country. Russia used Belarus as a springboard to invade Ukraine in February 2022, and since October has deployed troops in Belarus for joint military drills. Both countries have since agreed to intensify their military co-operation, raising fears Moscow could use its close ally to launch a new offensive on Ukraine from the north. In an interview with state media, foreign ministry official Aleksey Polishchuk said that Russia's joint drills with Belarus were designed to prevent escalation, but...

Former President Donald Trump denied a writer’s rape claim and called her a “whack job” -- among other insults -- during an October deposition taken as part of a defamation lawsuit, according to a transcript made public on Friday. “The woman, there’s something wrong with her in my opinion, okay. But it’s a false accusation. Never happened, never would happen,” Trump said of an allegation made by former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll. A federal judge in New York earlier Friday ordered unsealed portions of the transcript of the deposition that took place on Oct. 19 at the former president’s...

**SNIP** Craig Gering, an agent at the Creative Artists Agency, emailed Hunter a rough plan for the Penn Biden Center in April 2016. "The Biden Institute of Foreign Relations at the University of Pennsylvania," Gering's email read. "Focus on foreign policy. In addition to the institute at U of Penn, the school has an existing office in DC that will be expanded to house a DC office for VP Biden (and Mike, Hunter and Steve?). Operates like The Clinton Global Initiative without the money raise." "Yes," Hunter replied, "in theory that's the way I would like to see it shake...

A judge on Friday rejected as “absurd” Donald Trump’s attempt to dismiss a lawsuit from the writer E Jean Carroll, who alleges he raped her in a department store changing room in New York in the mid-1990s. Carroll has sued Trump for defamation, for remarks while denying her allegation including that she was not his “type”. But the lawsuit which the New York judge, Lewis Kaplan, refused to dismiss on Friday was brought against the former president under the Adult Survivors Act, a new state law which gives adults a one-year window to sue alleged attackers even if statutes of...

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has approved the plan to support Ukraine with armoured vehicles, The Sun reported. It would mark the first time in the war that Britain has supplied Ukraine with military tanks and would significantly ramp up Western support. Providing additional tanks could assist Ukraine in taking back territory that Russia occupies and comes amid hope that Volodymyr Zelensky will be in a position to launch a decisive counter-offensive in the early spring.

WASHINGTON, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives launched an investigation on Friday into the Justice Department's handling of improperly stored classified documents possessed by President Joe Biden, and questioned whether his son, Hunter, had access to any. In a Jan. 13 letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, top Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee said the Justice Department's appointment of Robert Hur as special counsel for the case this week raised "fundamental oversight questions." They demanded all relevant documents and communications between the department, the FBI, the White House and Biden's attorneys. The letter came...

The Biden administration has told Congress it is preparing the potential $20 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, sources familiar with the matter said on Friday, sparking an immediate objection from a senior U.S. lawmaker who has long opposed the deal. The State Department sent the informal notice to Congress on Thursday, three sources said, informing committees overseeing arms sales in the Senate and House of Representatives of its intention to proceed with the proposed deal. NATO member Turkey requested in October 2021 to buy 40 Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) F-16 fighters and nearly 80 modernization kits for...

Carmakers plan to slash the number of electric vehicles they manufacture as the spiralling cost of battery-powered models makes them increasingly unaffordable for drivers, an industry body has warned. The Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), a green energy group that sits between government and manufacturers, has slashed its estimate for UK EV production in 2025 by a quarter after just three months. The APC now expects the UK to make 280,000 electric vehicles in 2025, down from a recent estimate of 360,000. The organisation blamed the downgrade on “an uncertain economy [that] is expected to drive buyers towards cheaper models.” Manufacturers...

(Reuters) -Moderna Inc is considering pricing its COVID-19 shot at $110 to $130 per dose in the United States when it shifts from government contracting to commercial distribution of the shots, the company's Chief Executive Officer Stephane Bancel told the Wall Street Journal on Monday. "I would think this type of pricing is consistent with the value," said Bancel, according to the WSJ report, adding the company was in discussions with hospital systems, pharmacies and pharmacy-benefit managers to line up distribution of its vaccine ahead of a potential fall booster shot campaign. Moderna had previously estimated the commercial price expectations...

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is making a new push to ban members of Congress from private stock trading. It's an attempt to "demonstrate that lawmakers are focused on serving the interests of the American people -- not their own stock portfolios," Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Virginia Democrat, said in reintroducing the measure along with Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy. After failing to get a floor vote when last introduced in 2021, the "TRUST (Transparent Representation Upholding Service and Trust) in Congress Act," gained increasing support across the political spectrum in 2022 with 75 cosponsors, and its backers say that...

Tech media site CNET has been publishing the articles since November, and lots of readers don't seem to have noticed. The publication mentioned on its website that it doesn’t compromise on its journalistic integrity and that a team of editors is involved in the editorial process “from ideation to publication.” Ironically, Jackson Ryan, a reporter for the tech and news site wrote an article on the website last month where he said that journalism jobs are safe from being pounced on by technology when talking about ChatGPT and artificial intelligence. “It definitely can’t do the job of a journalist,” Ryan...

Dr. Wallace Manheimer, a man with a physics PhD from MIT and 50-years of experience in nuclear research, warns that "there is certainly no scientific basis for expecting a climate crisis from too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in the next century or so. Electric cars, wind and solar power–all have massive disadvantages, and are incapable of replacing existing systems without devastating consequences." The United Kingdom's nincompoop King Charles, a man who once aspired to be a tampon, lives in several palaces and jets around the world calling for the end of consumerism and convenience as "the only rational...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear an appeal by an evangelical Christian former mail carrier in Pennsylvania who accused the U.S. Postal Service of religious bias after being reprimanded for refusing to deliver packages on Sundays. The justices took up Gerald Groff's case after lower courts dismissed his claim that the Postal Service violated federal anti-discrimination law by refusing to exempt him from working on Sundays, when he observes the Sabbath... ...Groff sued the Postal Service in 2019. The Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year threw out the case, finding that exempting Groff caused...

President Biden has returned to the scene of the crime. The 80-year-old commander-in-chief arrived Friday evening at the Delaware home where he kept classified documents from his time as vice president next to his 1967 Corvette Stingray, one day after Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to investigate the matter. Friday’s trip is Biden’s 52nd to Wilmington since taking office in January 2021. According to a tally by The Post, Biden has spent all or part of 151 days of his presidency at the 6,850-square-foot mansion. [cut] “I said when I was running, I wanted to be president...

It’s clear now that both impeachments of Donald Trump were shabby partisan affairs that will be remembered as shameful episodes in American history. But they happened, and that’s that — or is it? Now House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has suggested that the impeachments could be “expunged.” Mediaite reported Friday that McCarthy “said at his first official presser in the job that he and the House GOP majority might ‘look at’ the idea of expunging ex-president Donald Trump’s impeachments.” If this could actually be done, it would be a matter of simple justice. The first impeachment was over a phone call...

A Canadian accountant has been ordered by a court to repay her employer after time-tracking software found that she was misrepresenting the hours she worked. The Guardian reports that Karlee Besse, a Canadian woman, was found by a court to have lied about the number of hours she had worked based on spyware that tracked her activities, and was consequently ordered to pay her former employer, Reach CPA, for “time theft.” Besse, a British Columbian accountant who worked remotely, was fired from her position last year.... ...Besse’s work laptop had “TimeCamp” employee tracking software installed to track the hours...

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President Joe Biden marked Religious Freedom Day on Friday by issuing a proclamation in which, among other things, he talked about his own religious faith. “Faith has sustained me throughout my life,” Biden said. “For me and for so many others, it serves as a reminder of both our collective purpose and potential in the world,” he said. “But for far too many people within our borders and beyond, practicing their faith still means facing fear and persecution,” Biden said. “Today, let us recommit ourselves to ending this hate. And let us work together to ensure that people of all...