TOKYO (BBC) - A controversial plan by Japan to release treated waste water from the Fukushima nuclear plant has sparked anxiety and anger at home and abroad. Since the 2011 tsunami which severely damaged the plant, more than a million tonnes of treated waste water has accumulated there. Japan now wants to start discharging it into the Pacific Ocean. The UN nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has published a report endorsing Japan’s plan. But since it was announced two years ago, the plan has been deeply controversial in Japan with local communities expressing concerns about contamination.

 

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WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Secret Service has identified a substance found at the White House as cocaine, according to various media reports and police and fire radio communications. The White House was briefly evacuated Sunday evening while President Joe Biden was at Camp David in Maryland after the Secret Service discovered a suspicious powder in a common area of the West Wing. A preliminary test showed the substance to be cocaine, two law enforcement officials said. The power was found in a small bag, NBC News reported.

 

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CAIRO (Reuters) - In Sudan’s capital, precious books in a major library have been burned and the national museum has been cut off for weeks by fighting. In Darfur, another museum is at risk from seasonal rains after projectiles punctured the roof. The conflict that has been raging between rival military factions in Sudan since mid-April has taken a toll on the country’s rich cultural heritage, which includes the ancient Kingdom of Kush that controlled trade between southern Africa and Egypt at the time of the pharaohs. According to a report published last week by Heritage For Peace, a cultural heritage NGO in touch with local researchers and archaeologists, at least 28 cultural and archaeological sites around the country have been targeted or suffered collateral damage.

 

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SEOUL (Al-Jazeera) - South Korea has said its analysis of the wreckage from a North Korean spy satellite that crashed into the sea suggests the equipment had no meaningful military use. Pyongyang launched what it said was its first military satellite on May 31, but the rocket crashed soon after takeoff, plunging into the sea off South Korea’s west coast. South Korea’s military began a salvage operation almost immediately, retrieving debris from the rocket as well as the satellite itself in a complex operation involving aircraft, the navy and deep sea divers.

 

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LONDON (Reuters) - Monday, July 3, was the hottest day ever recorded globally, according to data from the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction. The average global temperature reached 17.01 degrees Celsius (62.62 Fahrenheit), surpassing the August 2016 record of 16.92C (62.46F) as heatwaves sizzled around the world. Even Antarctica, currently in its winter, registered anomalously high temperatures. Ukraine’s Vernadsky Research Base in the white continent’s Argentine Islands recently broke its July temperature record with 8.7C (47.6F).