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00:12Welcome to Newsroom Tokyo. I'm Kumei Ayako and I'm Yoshikara Ryui-chi. Here are the headlines.
00:19U.S. President Donald Trump says a new round of peace talks between Washington and Tehran
00:25could happen within days. We speak to leading political scientist Ian Bremmer. He shares his
00:32views on Trump, Iran and more. The International Energy Agency says oil supplies fell by about
00:4010 million barrels a day in March and it warns demand is likely to fall next.
00:48The U.S. and Iran appear to be edging closer to another round of talks before a ceasefire ends
00:55next week. Negotiators met last weekend in Pakistan and they could be set for another round within days.
01:06U.S. President Donald Trump told the New York Post Tuesday that talks were imminent. He didn't say
01:13who would represent the U.S. but sources told CNN the vice president is expected to leave the
01:20delegation again. J.D. Vance said Tuesday that the first round fell short of a deal because Trump is
01:28aiming for a broader agreement. What you're seeing is what the president wants to make, he doesn't want
01:35to make like a small deal. He wants to make the grand bargain. Vance said Trump wants to ensure
01:42Iran has no nuclear weapons and isn't sponsoring terrorism. The New York Times says they proposed a
01:5020-year suspension of nuclear activities. It says the Iranians countered with an offer of up to five
01:58years. Pakistan is still acting as mediator. Prime Minister Shabbat Sharif is visiting Saudi Arabia and
02:06Turkey this week to try to gather momentum for the peace efforts. U.S. forces are also maintaining
02:14pressure through a naval blockade on Iranian ports. The U.S. Central Command says no ships made it past in
02:22the first 24 hours. It says six merchant vessels followed orders to turn back to an Iranian port on
02:31the Gulf of Oman. The Wall Street Journal reports the blockade could cost Iran around $435 million a
02:39day. The Central Command says the mission involves more than 10,000 service members. More than a dozen
02:47warships have been deployed along with over 100 fighter jets and surveillance aircraft.
02:54Lebanon and Israel have held their first direct talks in decades. The meeting was brokered by U.S.
03:01Secretary of State Marco Rubio. And it comes amid ongoing fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed
03:09Shia Muslim group Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Yehil Leiter and his Lebanese
03:20counterpart Nada Hamadeh Muawad attended the meeting on Tuesday. A State Department official says these are
03:28the first direct high-level diplomatic talks between the two countries since 1993.
03:35All of the complexities of this matter are not going to be resolved in the next six hours,
03:40but we can begin to move forward to create the framework where something can happen,
03:44something very positive, something very permanent, so that the people of Lebanon can have the kind
03:48of future they deserve and so that the people of Israel can live without fear and be struck by rocket
03:54attacks from the terrorist proxy of Iran. After the meeting, the State Department released a statement
04:02calling the discussions productive. It also said all sides agreed to launch direct negotiations
04:09at a mutually agreed time and venue. Hezbollah had called for the meeting to be cancelled,
04:17describing it as pointless. Iran has repeatedly called for Israeli attacks on Lebanon to stop.
04:24Developments in the fighting in Lebanon could affect negotiations between the U.S. and Iran.
04:33Italy will not renew a years-long defense pact with Israel. The Moon comes with bilateral ties
04:41believed to be under strain. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni made the announcement on Tuesday.
04:49Italy ratified the agreement in 2005. It covers the exchange of military equipment and technological
04:56research and was designed to be automatically renewed every five years. The next renewal was scheduled
05:04for this month. Israeli Foreign Minister Giden Saar responded on social media. He called the agreement
05:12a memorandum of understanding that never contained any real substance. He said Israel's security would not be harmed.
05:21Iran. Meloni is widely seen as a close ally of U.S. President Trump, but she has been clear that
05:29Italy
05:29would not get involved in the military operation against Iran. And last month, U.S. military aircraft were
05:36reportedly denied permission to land at an airbase in Italy. Earlier this week, Meloni described remarks
05:43Trump made about Pope Leo XIV as unacceptable. The U.S. leader called the pontiff weak on nuclear weapons.
05:52Trump also spoke to an Italian news outlet about Meloni on Tuesday. He said she's the one who's unacceptable
06:01because she doesn't care if Iran has a nuclear weapon. He added, I thought she was brave, but I was
06:08wrong.
06:09As global tensions continue to simmer, Beijing and Moscow seem to be strengthening ties.
06:16Chinese President Xi Jinping met Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for talks Wednesday.
06:24In the face of the turbulent and changing international situation,
06:30the stability and certainty of China-Russia relations are particularly valuable.
06:36China's state media says Xi called for stronger strategic coordination to defend their shared
06:43interests. Lavrov reportedly echoed that message, saying they should maintain high-level talks.
06:50He also said they should work together to uphold what he called international fairness and justice.
06:58The meeting took place a day after Lavrov met his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.
07:04They're believed to have discussed plans for a summit in China.
07:09Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to visit China in the coming weeks.
07:15Russian media is reporting it will happen before July. One Hong Kong outlet says it could be as early as
07:23May.
07:24Well, all this global unrest may have left you wondering just how did we get here or what might happen
07:32next.
07:32And there are few better people to ask than leading American political scientist Ian Brammer.
07:39In January, his consulting firm singled out a political revolution led by Trump as this year's biggest risk.
07:48The Iran conflict began about two months later.
07:53We caught up with Brammer on Monday and we started by asking him about the recent breakdown in peace talks
08:00between Washington and Tehran.
08:03If the talks were useless, they would have been over in a couple of hours and everyone would have left.
08:08They went on for 21 hours. There were experts sent from both teams.
08:13There were substantive conversations on a broad range of issues and progress was made.
08:19And the private briefing that I've gotten from White House officials is that there was actually significant progress and the
08:30Iranians were more constructive than they had anticipated in the talks.
08:35So very different from the readout that you heard from Trump.
08:38And indeed, I fully expect that there will be more talks going forward.
08:44I don't know what level the talks will be at, exactly what the format will be, but it wouldn't surprise
08:50me even maybe later this week.
08:52And the announcement of the blockade and that these talks have fallen apart, I think, is an effort by Trump
09:02to show that he has more willingness to tolerate pain and more military leverage over the Iranians.
09:09So the longer this goes on and the more we see that Trump is not himself internally consistent and that
09:18his threats are not all that serious, the less effective they'll be.
09:23It's like the little boy that cried wolf.
09:27Even by his own standards, Trump has been especially outspoken about Iran.
09:33We're going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks.
09:38We're going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong.
09:43Earlier this month, he also said a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.
09:52An entire civilization will die tonight.
09:55When you heard this, how did you feel it?
09:58I'm embarrassed.
10:00It's obviously unacceptable behavior and commentary.
10:07from anyone in a leadership position.
10:10And you certainly don't want to see it from the commander in chief.
10:14But, I mean, the very fact that this is the way that Trump is engaging isolates him.
10:21It turns other countries away from him, allies away from him.
10:26This is a war that, you know, almost the entire world, including most allies, are not supporting the United States.
10:34They think it's a bad idea.
10:35It's causing economic pain and damage.
10:38And, you know, Trump's response has been utterly incoherent.
10:44So it's not clear if you are a foreign leader, it's not clear what Trump is trying to accomplish because
10:50he says, you know, completely different things every day.
10:56And sometimes even within the same tweet.
10:58And the one that you're mentioning is certainly the most embarrassing of them.
11:06How do you think Iran took that word?
11:10Oh, I mean, obviously, without any importance, they didn't stop them from sending their leaders into Islamabad for 21 hours
11:22of talks.
11:23So they didn't, you know, sort of decide that they were going to refuse to engage with this person who
11:32said something completely inappropriate.
11:34I mean, the Iranians are focused on survival and they're focused on leverage.
11:41And the priority survival is first, but they've done a pretty good job surviving as a regime.
11:48Many of their leaders are dead.
11:50And it wouldn't surprise me if many more are killed.
11:53But the ability of the Iranian regime, the Islamic Republic, to persist despite economic predation and great security challenges.
12:09Maybe the most important thing Trump has said is when Trump decided to give the first major speech, the only
12:17major speech he's given to the American people about this war over a week ago, prime time, when he said
12:26the war was almost over, it'd be done in two to three weeks.
12:29I think if you're the Iranian leaders and you hear Trump says the war is going to be over in
12:33two to three weeks and great, he obviously knows how unpopular it is.
12:38He sees how much economic damage is being done and he doesn't have the stomach to continue with this war.
12:45And of course, that speech was much more consequential than a random post that says, I'm going to destroy your
12:54civilization in four hours, right?
12:58Iran's uranium enrichment is said to be the main sticking point in negotiations.
13:04Bremer says Tehran should change its mindset, especially because the regime's stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz may only work
13:12for so long.
13:15Right now, the big issue is on the nuclear side and on the willingness of the Iranians to accept that
13:27they will not be able to enrich uranium beyond some kind of civilian use or they won't enrich uranium at
13:38all.
13:38And then there's the question of the Strait itself.
13:43And, you know, frankly, if I were advising the Iranians and thankfully I'm not, but if I were, I would
13:52probably tell them it's easier for you to give up on the nuclear front than on the Strait because you've
13:58now shown that you have more leverage to ensure your own security on the Strait than you do on the
14:05nuclear side.
14:06Yeah. And the nuclear side is obviously a huge threat to everyone and the Strait.
14:11Like as long as you're making money, you can let all the ships go through and how much you charge
14:18and what the mechanism is and some of that go to other countries.
14:22And is it considered reconstruction of Iran?
14:25There are lots of modalities that can be negotiated.
14:28And, of course, the longer this persists, the more you will see resilience and infrastructure carve-outs that will reduce
14:37the importance of the Strait as a choke point.
14:40And that will undermine the pricing power of the Iranians.
14:44So there will be an equilibrium that the market will find over time.
14:48We are not there right now.
14:50Bremmer's consulting firm is called Eurasia Group.
14:55January's risk report said Trump is attempting to dismantle the checks on his power and that the United States is
15:03unwinding its own global order.
15:06Bremmer firmly stands by those words today.
15:11You put the U.S. political revolution in top of the first as a top list.
15:16Considering everything that happened since then, just in four months, do you think that ranking still stands?
15:22Well, I mean, is there a number higher than one that we could have put the political revolution at for
15:302026?
15:30I mean, seriously, maybe bold it, put an exclamation point after it.
15:37I mean, the risk was that the United States has become the driver of global political risk, the driver of
15:45political uncertainty and instability.
15:48And I have a hard time seeing how that could have played out more dramatically than what we've seen in
15:54the last six weeks.
15:56I mean, Trump has been more constrained domestically.
15:59He's been less constrained internationally.
16:03And so I think that the orientation of the risk has become more global than domestic, as we've seen this
16:11play out this year.
16:14But, I mean, it's very clear this was not an Iranian risk.
16:18This was a Trump risk.
16:22Well, Trump ran on his famous America First policy.
16:26And why do you think he, you know, he felt the need to intervene in the Middle East right now
16:33in the era of, you know, midterm election coming up?
16:36Because he was overconfident.
16:37He thought he was going to get a quick win.
16:41I think there are three reasons.
16:42The first is Venezuela was incredibly successful on every front, both in terms of the military operation, but also in
16:51the type of government that actually succeeded Maduro.
16:55I mean, again, his big problem is he can't blame anybody else.
16:58He can't say, oh, actually, it was Israel and they hoodwinked me.
17:03I didn't want to do it.
17:05No.
17:05I mean, everyone is saying, Trump, you're the guy.
17:08You're the most powerful person.
17:09You decide what the war does, what the war goals are.
17:12When it's over, it's all you, sir.
17:14So he was hearing from the circle of people around him, go, go, go.
17:20It was bolstering his oversized, his overinflated sense of confidence that he was going to have success in Iran.
17:31And, of course, that's a horrible character to have in a leader.
17:36Bremer even says Trump's actions could ultimately be to Beijing's advantage.
17:44For China, it's an economic negative, but it's a long-term positive because China is seen as a more attractive,
17:53more stable government comparatively to the revisionism of the Trump administration.
17:59And long-term, it hurts the United States for the exact same reasons, because the U.S. is not seen
18:07as a reliable, predictable ally.
18:10And other countries are trying to find ways to reduce their exposure to the United States for intelligence support, for
18:17defense support, for economic trade and access.
18:21And what do you think Japan should do specifically?
18:24Japan should pay more for the U.S.
18:26The U.S. isn't going to be as involved in the World Health Organization.
18:29The Chinese are spending more.
18:31Where's Japan?
18:32The Chinese just said that they're prepared to host the World's Oceans Summit, the COP for that.
18:37Japan should say, well, we want to do that.
18:39I mean, you should not be allowing the Chinese to enter the vacuum that is left by the Americans.
18:45I mean, these are important institutions, and Japan needs to do much more.
18:49That's where I see weakness.
18:51If you can talk on a bigger picture, will you argue that the global order, as we've known, is over?
18:57And what do you think should take place in the future?
19:01How do you see the foreseeable future?
19:03I think it's pretty complicated.
19:05I think that economically, we increasingly have a multipolar order with the United States and China and the European Union.
19:12The Orban loss helps them on the economic front being more coordinated.
19:16I think that militarily, it is still very much a unipolar order.
19:21The Americans are dominant, though that is starting to change over time.
19:25China's expansion of their nuclear capabilities and much greater spend on economically with improved technology.
19:33But then the technology order, the digital environment, is increasingly technopolar,
19:38where companies are actually acting as sovereigns in the digital space, especially outside China.
19:45So, plenty to worry about and plenty of unknowns.
19:49But still, one of the world's best forecasters believes we, the people, can eventually pull through.
19:57I'm never pessimistic.
19:59It's great to be alive.
20:00You know, it's a world of opportunity.
20:03And when things are difficult, that's when we expect more from human beings.
20:09The conflict in Iran is having a massive impact on one of the world's smallest countries.
20:16Tuvalu, in the South Pacific, has declared a 14-day state of emergency due to fuel shortages.
20:24The order came down Monday.
20:26It covers the main island, Hunafudi, home to the capital and half the country's population.
20:32The government says it will allow for immediate action to safeguard public welfare,
20:39ensure access to services, and maintain national stability.
20:44Tuvalu reportedly spends about a quarter of its GDP on imported petroleum.
20:50New Zealand's public broadcaster says the measure will allow the government to control supplies and services.
20:58That includes fuel and electricity use.
21:02Tuvalu isn't the only country suffering from an energy shortage.
21:07The Philippines declared its own national emergency last month, saying it was facing a crisis.
21:15Now, let's take a look at business news, starting with the stock market.
21:20Ryuichi?
21:20That's right.
21:21Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index rose for a second straight session on Wednesday.
21:26Buying kicked in on views that the U.S. and Iran will resume peace talks soon.
21:31The benchmark ended at 58,134, up 0.4 percent.
21:37It recovered to the 58,000 mark for the first time since March 2nd.
21:43Analysts say investors picked up shares such as semiconductor-related firms, but some locked in profits.
21:50The rally followed a plunge in New York crude oil futures overnight.
21:54WTI briefly dropped to a three-week law in the $86-a-barrel range, but it's still about 30 percent
22:02higher than that before the U.S. and Israel began attacking Iran at the end of February.
22:08The International Energy Agency said attacks on infrastructure and other disruptions in the Middle East caused global oil supplies to
22:18plunge in March.
22:20The IEA report released on Tuesday says daily supply fell by 10.1 million barrels to 97 million in the
22:30month.
22:31The agency also said shipments through the Strait of Hormuz remained severely restricted in early April.
22:38Loadings, including crude oil and refined products, averaged around 3.8 million barrels a day.
22:44They were more than 20 million barrels a day in February before the crisis emerged.
22:50The IEA noted that Asian petrochemical producers have reduced operating rates as feedstocks run short.
22:59It estimates global oil demand will decline by 80,000 barrels a day on average this year.
23:07The IEA says prospects for the U.S. and Iran to reach an agreement remain unclear.
23:12It adds that if the conflict is prolonged, the world will need to brace for significant energy supply disruptions in
23:20the months to come.
23:22And now, taxi fares in central Tokyo are set to rise on Monday.
23:28Higher fuel and labor costs are factors behind the first such increase in three and a half years.
23:35The change will apply in the capital's 23 wars and two adjacent cities.
23:40It will be done by shortening fare increments rather than raising the base price.
23:46The maximum flag fare for standard-sized taxis will remain at 500 yen or about $3.10.
23:54But that will only cover the first kilometer or about 100 meters less than under the current rules.
24:02Additionally, fares will go up every 232 meters.
24:06That is about 20 meters less than the practice now.
24:11The fare increase is aimed at helping operators cope with rising fuel expenses and to pay for raises for drivers.
24:19Preparations for the hike have been underway since last July.
24:25Nissan Motors' next step in its recovery strategy leans heavily on vehicles powered by artificial intelligence.
24:33A long-term plan released by the struggling automaker says AI will be in 90 percent of its future models.
24:41The Japanese company says the AI features will include autonomous driving.
24:46It will also cut its global lineup to 45 from 56 models and reallocate investment in profitable vehicles.
24:56A year ago, we launched the re-Nissan plan to make us more agile, leaner and more relevant to our
25:03customers.
25:05As we reach its midpoint, this is the right moment to sharpen our long-term vision.
25:11Not as an ambition, but as a guide for action.
25:16Nissan says the long-term strategy redefines the roles of its lead markets in Japan, the U.S. and China.
25:23The company aims to increase sales in Japan to 550,000 vehicles a year by fiscal 2030.
25:31That is up about 20 percent from fiscal 2024.
25:35And that's the business news for this Wednesday.
26:21The companyìž‘
26:32Let's take a look at weather forecast for cities around the world.
27:23Let's take a look at weather forecast.
27:23Let's take a look at weather forecast.
27:54Let's take a look.
27:56Let's take a look.
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