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Authorities in Saitama Prefecture announced Wednesday that they have discovered what appears to be the cabin of a truck inside a sewer pipe downstream from the site of a road collapse that swallowed the vehicle last week. However, the truck’s 74-year-old driver remained missing as of Thursday morning. The search has continued to be challenging due to the presence of hydrogen sulfide and fast-flowing sewage water inside the pipe, according to prefectural officials quoted by NHK. A drone probe was deployed after officials suspected an obstruction in the sewer system. It located a deformed white metal mass about 100 meters downstream from the collapse site. The accident occurred on the morning of Jan. 28, when a section of the road at an intersection in the city of Yashio caved in, causing a passing truck to plunge into the hole. While the truck’s cargo bed has been recovered, the cabin has remained missing until now. “This is a step forward,” Saitama Gov. Motohiro Ono told reporters after a crisis management meeting Wednesday. “The situation remains extremely difficult, but we are hoping for a miracle.” Authorities have been building ramps to deploy heavy machinery for clearing debris and sediment, but rescue efforts have been complicated by water leaking into the hole, which is now 15 meters deep and 40 meters wide. A 50-meter radius around the collapse remains under a safety advisory. Disruptions to daily life for those living nearby — and to 1.2 million people who are being asked to conserve water — is expected to persist. NHK reported Thursday that Saitama prefectural authorities have requested assistance from specialized personnel from fire departments and the Self-Defense Forces, and have said that they are working urgently with relevant agencies to determine the best approach going forward. Source link

On Jan. 16, Nintendo officially announced the long-awaited Switch 2 console. Since then, the Kyoto-based gaming giant has said little else. In many ways, it’s par for the course for the tight-lipped company. Following the announcement of its first console since 2017, Nintendo pegged 10 p.m. on April 2 as the date and time for its next Nintendo Direct, a type of video communique the conglomerate has employed since 2011 to deliver news and updates straight to its audience. Forget trade events like Tokyo Game Show where brands and fans meet face to face; forget backchannel conversations with trusted members of the press — Nintendo has long-since shunned such methods in favor of a vicegrip-like hold over the mode and manner any news reaches the general public. At times, this can come back to bite Nintendo, and a buildup of leaks prior to the Jan. 16 announcement may have forced the company’s hand into revealing the new console before all its ducks were in a row (almost three months between a first look and an official rundown of technical specifications is an eternity in any industry). Source link

Manila – China’s repeated calls to remove a powerful U.S. missile system from Philippine territory are unlikely to be heeded anytime soon, as Manila not only trains its soldiers on the Typhon launcher but also plans to acquire its own midrange system, according to Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro. “We definitely have plans to acquire those types of capabilities, including our own MRC (midrange capability). That is in the pipeline,” Teodoro told The Japan Times in a recent interview. He did not specify whether Manila is aiming to acquire the Typhon or a similar system to boost deterrence. His remarks come as Manila continues to hike military spending while also eyeing off-budget measures such as long-term private loans to fund military modernization programs. Source link

Amazon is set to release its long-awaited — and delayed — Alexa generative artificial intelligence voice service, said three people familiar with the matter, and has scheduled a media event for later this month to preview it. Once released, it would mark the most significant upgrade to the product since its initial introduction accelerated a wave of digital assistants more than a decade ago. Amazon on Wednesday sent media invites to an event to be held on Feb. 26 in New York featuring the head of its devices and services team, Panos Panay. A spokesperson said the event is Alexa-focused, while declining to elaborate. Source link

SYDNEY – All Blacks flyhalf Beauden Barrett is keen to see a return to Japanese involvement in Super Rugby Pacific, believing it would strengthen the competition and make it more attractive to players. From a peak of 18 teams across four continents in 2017, including the Japan-based Sunwolves, Super Rugby has contracted this year to 11 teams in New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific islands. Barrett has played in several manifestations of the competition, including a New Zealand-only competition enforced by the COVID pandemic in 2021, and wants a return to a greater geographic spread. “It got tiresome when we were playing head to heads with just the New Zealand teams, that was not a great competition, to be fair,” the Auckland Blues back told reporters at the launch of the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific on Wednesday. “It is exciting playing Australian teams, traveling, having the (Fijian) Drua and Moana (Pasifika) involvement. “I’d love to see the Japanese become part of the competition. I feel like we need to grow the competition and in that respect, that would be great.” Super Rugby featured 15 teams when Barrett made his debut for the Wellington Hurricanes in 2011 and it expanded to 18 with the additional involvement of Japan and Argentina in 2016. A contraction back to 15 teams in 2018 was followed by the COVID pandemic, which effectively brought an end to South African involvement. Barrett said it was important to make the competition more attractive to older players who might otherwise be tempted to take up lucrative contracts in the northern hemisphere. “From a player point of view, we’ve lost South Africa. We need to grab another country and fill those spots so it creates a better competition,” the twice-World Rugby Player of the Year added. “It’s the traveling, the experiences you have off the field, but also the stadiums, the different environments you play in, that’s what makes you a good player. “And it’s those sorts of things that keep players who have been around a bit more interested and excited to get back up for another season,” he added. “Otherwise it’s the decision, ‘okay, I’m getting a little bit stale. Let’s go offshore.’” Unlike South Africa and to some extent Australia, New Zealand still only allows players based in the country to represent the All Blacks at Test level. Barrett, who has had two lengthy sabbaticals in Japanese club rugby, thinks the policy should change for players who have already offered long service to New Zealand Rugby and believes an expanded Super Rugby might provide a framework to allow it. “If you have Japanese-based Super Rugby teams, Australian-based Super Rugby teams, I think if there’s Kiwis that want to go and play there, they can still be eligible,” he said. Source link

washington – Elon Musk’s rapid takeover of two U.S. government agencies has enabled the South African-born billionaire to exert unprecedented control over the United States’ 2.2-million-member federal workforce and begin a dramatic reshaping of government. The world’s richest man and an ally of President Donald Trump, Musk, 53, has in two weeks created a new center of power in Washington as he executes Trump’s cost-cutting initiative to reduce the size of the U.S. government. The CEO of Tesla and founder of SpaceX, Musk has acted swiftly since Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, deploying teams of current and former employees of his companies as his agents. Source link

The right wing of a Japan Airlines jet struck the tail of a Delta Air Lines plane while the aircraft were taxiing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The FAA paused some flights to the airport as a result of the incident, which occurred around 10:40 a.m. local time. The agency said it will investigate the incident. The Delta 737-800 with 142 passengers was bound for Puerto Vallarta and was waiting for deicing when it was struck by the Japan Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner after it had landed from Tokyo. Delta said there were no reports of injuries and it will transfer passengers to another plane. Delta said it will work with the FAA and others to investigate. Japan Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Source link

WASHINGTON/CAIRO – U.S. President Donald Trump’s top aides staunchly defended his push to transfer Palestinians out of Gaza and have the U.S. take over the war-ruined enclave, but they also backed away from elements of his proposal in the face of international condemnation. A longtime New York property developer, Trump drew rebukes on Wednesday from world powers Russia, China and Germany, which said it would foster “new suffering and new hatred.” Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia rejected the proposal outright. Barely two weeks in the job, Trump shattered decades of U.S. policy on Tuesday with a vaguely worded announcement saying he envisioned transforming Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East” where international communities could coexist after nearly 16 months of Israeli bombardment devastated the coastal strip and killed more than 47,000 people, according to Palestinian tallies. Source link

WASHINGTON – U.S. President Donald Trump’s jaw-dropping statement that he would like the U.S. to take control of and redevelop the Gaza Strip might have sounded like it came from nowhere, but it was in keeping with his new administration’s expansionist ambitions. Since Trump’s return to the White House a little more than two weeks ago, his “America First” approach seems to have morphed into “America More,” with the president fixated on acquiring new territory even after campaigning on pledges to keep the nation out of foreign entanglements and “forever wars.” Trump raised the possibility of the U.S. owning Gaza during a Tuesday news conference at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said he envisioned building a resort where international communities could live in harmony. Source link

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is the face of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and gets the credit — or blame — from the public for its actions. But behind Ishiba is a veteran politician with no prime ministerial ambitions who political experts say derives his influence from an ability to quietly listen to a range of different, competing voices within the LDP and then forge deals acceptable to the party as a whole. That man is LDP Secretary-General Hiroshi Moriyama. Source link