Hello and welcome to NHK Newsline. I'm Keiko Kitagawa in Tokyo. US President Donald Trump has imposed a flat 25% tariff on foreign steel and aluminum. It's a return to a policy he introduced in his first term, but this time without the exemptions. Trump signed documents on Monday to impose the levies. The tariff rate for aluminum imports will be raised from current 10 percent to 25 percent.
Our nation requires steel and aluminum to be made in America, not in foreign lands. We need to create, in order to protect our country's future, resurgence of US manufacturing and production. the likes of which has not been seen for many decades. It's time for our great industries to come back to America. Trump says he saved the American steel industry by imposing tariffs on the two key metals in his first term.
Back then, the tariffs didn't apply to steal imports from Mexico, Canada and Australia, and duty-free quotas were later granted to some countries, including Japan. But Trump said there will be no exceptions this time. He also suggested his administration will consider introducing tariffs on automobiles as well as chips and pharmaceuticals.
Turning to the Middle East, President Trump has floated the idea of cancelling the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas if Hamas doesn't release hostages as promised by this weekend. If all of the hostages aren't returned by Saturday at 12 o'clock, I think it's an appropriate time. I would say cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out.
Trump's comments on Monday came after the Islamic group Hamas announced it would delay a hostage release scheduled for Saturday. Three hostages were reportedly sent to be freed. Hamas says Israel violated the six-week ceasefire agreement attacking residents in the Gaza Strip. It also says Israel failed to fully allow aid supplies to enter the enclave.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz says it's Hamas that violated the ceasefire deal with its latest announcement. He says he's instructed the military to be at the highest level of readiness in Gaza and for domestic defense. Under the agreement that took effect January 19, Hamas has released 16 Israeli hostages and Israel has set free more than 760 Palestinians. Iran's president has lashed out to Trump, saying he is dialing up the pressure on Tehran while also seeking negotiations.
Masood Pazashkian delivered a speech to mark the 46th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. The 1979 movement overthrew a pro-U.S. dynasty and established the current regime led by Islamic clerics. Pazashkian criticized Trump, saying he claims to want to negotiate while also forwarding conspiracy theories. He also denounced the U.S. president for saying that Iran disrupts the region.
Pazashkian said it is Israel with U.S. support that has continued to bomb people in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Syria. An Iranian citizen said he couldn't trust negotiations with Trump after the U.S. withdrew unilaterally from an international nuclear agreement during his first term. Trump broke promises with us I don't think we can negotiate at all The agreement required Iran to restrict its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.
Nippon Steel has faced an uphill battle in the bid to buy U.S. steel, and it may need to reconsider plans to make the American firm its fully-owned subsidiary. Trump said Sunday that nobody could hold a majority stake in U.S. steel. This followed earlier comments when he said Nippon Steel needed to make big investments in order to get the deal done. The Japanese government weighed in on the issue.
We are aware that Nippon Steel is not looking at the case as a mere acquisition, but is considering a bold proposal that is completely different from anything it has done in the past. a win-win situation for both countries through significant investments and high-quality products. Trump has suggested that he will meet Nippon Steel executives this week. The company said chairman and CEO Hashimoto Eiji, if invited, is ready to fly to Washington to meet with the president.
Nippon Steel announced a plan in 2023 to acquire all shares of US Steel and make it a wholly owned subsidiary. It said it would be difficult to provide highly confidential state-of-the-art technology to the firm otherwise. A group of investors led by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has reportedly made a bid worth over $97.4 billion to buy OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk's lawyer made the proposal to a non-profit that controls OpenAI on Monday. Musk reportedly said in a statement, force for good it once was. OpenAI has a unique structure where the non-profit controls a full-profit entity. Last December, it announced that it will transition to a full-profit entity. Musk's proposal may affect OpenAI's plans.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman addressed Musk's bid with a post on the ex-social media platform. He said, no thank you, but we will buy Twitter for 9.74 billion if you want. Musk bought Twitter now called X in 2022. Musk shot back an X post saying Swindler demonstrating the ongoing discord between himself and Altman.
It's been two weeks since a truck driver was trapped in a sinkhole north of Tokyo. So far, no signs have been found of the missing man. On Monday, heavy machines were at the site in Saitama Prefecture. but rescue workers were forced to suspend the search for the driver.
There were fears that the ground could further collapse. A day earlier on Sunday, firefighters started a search but called it off after about half an hour. Authorities have decided not to conduct further searches inside the sinkhole safety concerns. They're weighing other options to look for the driver. Those include sending rescue personnel into a sewage pipe. Prefectural officials say they can monitor the inside of the pipe around the clock now that...
Two 10-centimeter halls have been opened from ground level. By taking advantage of the holes, we want rescuers to accurately grasp the situation inside the pipe, including how much water is inside and the location of the truck cabin. The Infrastructure Ministry has ordered seven prefectures with similar sewage pipes to carry out emergency inspections. The results of those inspections will be announced soon. And those were the stories for this hour. Thank you.
That wraps up this edition of NHK Newsline. I'm Keiko Kitagawa in Tokyo. Thank you for joining us. Japan has various kinds of landmarks that fascinate visitors. They range from cultural and historic locations to modern buildings created with cutting-edge technologies. What led to their creation and what were the challenges involved?
The Backstory of Japanese Landmarks brings you the stories behind these amazing places. In this episode of The Backstory of Japanese Landmarks, we feature the world's tallest broadcast tower, Tokyo Skytree is 634 meters tall. Other landmarks, such as the Tokyo Tower and Paris' Eiffel Tower, have wide bases. But Tokyo Skytree is slim and more like a spire.
Its color, named Sky Tree White, is based on the lightest shade of Japanese indigo blue. The tower can be seen from a great distance, but when people first see it, some think its form is rather simple. Tokyo Skytree was built using state-of-the-art Japanese technology. But that's not all. Traditional skills, respected and handed down over generations of craftspeople, also played a vital role in its construction.
The base of Tokyo Skytree is triangular in shape when seen from above. This was designed to let people enter from the three sides of the surrounding areas. Meanwhile, the two observation decks at the heights of 350 meters and 450 meters are round and offer a 360-degree panoramic view. This means the cross-section of the tower's base is a triangle,
but becomes round toward the top. Looking more carefully, Tokyo Skytree's outline is not made of straight lines. The lines are actually slightly curved. Depending where the tower is viewed from, some parts of the tower warp inwards, while other parts bulge outwards. This comes from traditional Japanese architecture. The inward warp is called Sori, while the outward curve is called Mukuri. Tokyo Skytree's towering outline is a combination of Sori and Mukuri.
A particularly important feature of Tokyo Skytree is its earthquake resistance. The tower's construction began in 2008. Three years later, in 2011, a massive earthquake struck eastern Japan. After overcoming a number of challenges posed by the disaster, the tower was completed in 2012. Tokyo Skytree has an outer frame and an inner column.
The two are structurally detached. During an earthquake, the column acts as a weight and moves in the opposite direction as the outer frame. This reduces the impact of tremors. This anti-seismic structure was inspired by a traditional Japanese structure, the five-story pagoda. Five-story pagodas of Buddhist temples have a column at the center, similar to Tokyo Skytree.
Due to their excellent quake resistance, there are no records of any wooden pagodas collapsing in an earthquake in Japan's history. Japan's oldest five-story pagoda is in Horyuji Temple in Nara, built more than 1,400 years ago. The wisdom of ancient people lives on in today's advanced technologies. Thank you for tuning in to the backstory of Japanese landmarks. We hope you have a chance to visit these landmarks and see for yourself what makes them so special.