TOKYO (Reuters) - The Tokyo district court on Wednesday ordered four former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) to pay 13 trillion yen ($95 billion) in damages to the operator of the wrecked Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, the plaintiff’s lawyers said. The ruling, in a civil case brought by Tepco shareholders, marks the first time a court has found former executives responsible for the nuclear disaster, local media reports said. The court judged that the executives could have prevented the disaster if they had exercised due care. “One accident with a nuclear power plant leads to irreversible damage to both human lives and the environment. The executives of companies that operate such plants also have a huge responsibility on them that is incomparable with other companies,” said Yui Kimura, a member of the plaintiff.

 

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WASHINGTON (AFP) - A video of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, published showed police waiting for more than an hour before breaching a classroom where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers. Steve McCraw, Texas’s public safety chief, has described the police response to the May 24 attack as an “abject failure” and said officers wasted vital time looking for a classroom key that was “never needed.” Surveillance camera video obtained by the Austin American-Statesman newspaper shows the 18-year-old gunman crashing his truck outside Robb Elementary School and then entering the building at 11:33 am armed with a semi-automatic rifle.

 

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WASHINGTON (The Hill) - A majority of voters say President Biden and former president Trump should not make White House bids in 2024, according to a new Politico-Morning Consult poll. For Trump, 48 percent of voters say he should “definitely not” run again while 13 percent say he “probably” should not, according to the poll. Slightly more voters overall are against Biden running for office again, with 46 percent saying he should “definitely not” run again while 18 percent say he “probably” shouldn’t.  The high opposition against either man running for president again comes amid questions about their age and fitness for the White House.

 

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 ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s broad coalition government faced the risk of collapse on Wednesday if the 5-Star Movement carried out its threat to pull out, raising the prospect of an early election. Senior figures in 5-Star, led by former prime minister Giuseppe Conte, met on Wednesday to decide whether to remain in the coalition, having issued a series of policy demands ahead of a vote of confidence on Thursday. After the 5-Star meeting broke up a senior party source told Reuters Conte wanted to speak with Draghi to seek a compromise. Italy is due to hold a national election in the first half of 2023 and tensions are rising among members of the coalition that Draghi has led for the past 18 months.

 

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PANAMA CITY (AP) — Frustrated Panamanians have taken to the streets in protest for more than a week, building upon anger over fuel prices that have nearly doubled to show their general dissatisfaction with the government. The protests grew despite Presient Laurentino Cortizo’s promise a day earlier to extend a freeze on gasoline prices to all Panamanians rather than just the public transport system. Thousands marched in the capital and cities across Panama, while roadblocks brought traffic to a standstill on the Pan-American Highway.