Briefly

FIJI

Leaders to discuss Fukushima discharge

Pacific Island leaders arrived in Fiji on Thursday for a two-day meeting. One important issue on the agenda is discussing Japan's plan to release contaminated water from the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean, which some fear could endanger fish stocks. Multiple countries have argued that the controversial plan, defying concerns of neighbors, will seriously endanger the global marine environment, ecosystems, and the health and safety of people along the Pacific coast. The Japanese government has said the plan would start in the spring or summer.

UNITED STATES

Journalist shot dead while covering murder

A gunman opened fire on two television journalists reporting on a murder in Orlando, Florida, on Wednesday, killing one and wounding the other before fatally shooting a 9-year-old girl and wounding her mother in a nearby home, authorities said. The suspect, was arrested shortly after the assaults, said Orange County Sheriff John Mina. Moses was detained and formally charged in the killing hours earlier of a woman in her 20s, a shooting that the two journalists were covering when they came under fire, Mina said.

Trump blasts federal response to derailment

Donald Trump has criticized the federal response to the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, as a "betrayal" during a visit to the village, where residents and local leaders are increasingly frustrated more than two weeks after the disaster. The former president, who is mounting a third bid for the White House, said on Wednesday that the community needs "answers and results", not excuses. The disaster has become the latest front in the US' political divide, with Trump criticizing the federal response and the White House in turn saying Trump could have done more as president to toughen rail and environmental regulations.

China Daily - Agencies