It’s time for the back briefing. I’m your news storyteller, Jin Kyu Park. Let’s get started.
< Warning from ‘Mawar’ >
[Reporter]
Today (3rd), let’s start our story with a warning from Typhoon Mawar.
[Anchor]
It’s a beautiful sunny weekend, but warnings about climate change continue to be heard around the world.
[Reporter]
That’s right. Typhoon Mawar, as you know, wreaked havoc on Guam last week, and as it’s been coming up, it’s been dumping record amounts of water on Japan as well. This is footage from an area south of Kyoto, and the river has swollen so much that a building that appears to be a barn has been submerged, and in another area, the whole city is under water, with cars all over the place and houses seemingly floating in the water. Over the course of the day yesterday, it rained close to 500 millimetres in many places and more than 200 millimetres in central Tokyo. High-speed trains have been suspended.
[anchor]
I’m also worried about landslides after the heavy rains, but it’s like this is going to go on for a long time, isn’t it?
[Reporter]
That’s right. Mawar has stopped just short of breaking the record for the longest typhoon in May. It was downgraded to an extratropical cyclone around 9:00 a.m. this morning, so it’s been churning for two weeks now, since the typhoon hit on the 20th of last month. So, again, the warmer waters are feeding the typhoon.
[anchor]
Meanwhile, China has been hit by tornadoes.
[reporter]
This is in the Liaoning province in northeastern China, and there were these terrifying whirlwinds that just seemed to swallow everything up. The tornado even came right into a residential neighbourhood, destroying more than 70 homes and displacing more than 200 people.
When we think of tornadoes, we often think of the United States, but in China, tornadoes are also common during the summer months in the southern part of the country as a result of tropical air currents, but this is an unusual situation where tornadoes occurred in the northeastern part of the country where temperatures are relatively low.
[anchor]
Again, I can’t help but wonder if it’s because of climate change, and I’m very worried about our summer if this happens.
[Reporter]
This is an online July weather report that’s been making the rounds lately, like, is this real? It says it’s going to rain all but three days. It’s bullshit, there’s no point in having a weather forecast beyond about ten days, but what’s been worrying a lot of people is that the Met Office is predicting more rain than normal for July, and with the combination of El Niño and global warming, we should be prepared for the possibility of a hotter, wetter, more intense heat wave, more intense rainfall this summer.
[anchor]
I think it’s a warning from the earth, okay, so let’s see the next keyword.
< Because I’m precious? >
[reporter]
Because I’m precious? Because I’m precious? I brought it up because there are reports that Russian President Putin has already spent 240 billion won on security this year.
[Anchor]
That’s a lot of money, and it could be interpreted as a sign that he feels threatened.
[Reporter]
Now, as the war in Ukraine has dragged on, and mainland Russia has come under attack, and there was a situation earlier this month where a drone, an unmanned aerial vehicle exploded above the Kremlin in Moscow, there’s been some speculation that the security measures have been stepped up because even Moscow has come under drone attack.
The U.S. current affairs magazine Newsweek, citing Russian Finance Ministry data and local media reports, says that from January to May of this year, Putin and his aides spent 15 billion rubles, about $240 billion, on safety and security.
[Anchor]
Security for the president is supposed to be… but it’s안전놀이터 unfortunate that you’re spending so much money on your own security when so many people are being killed and injured in the war in Ukraine, Russia, and elsewhere…
[Reporter]
Let’s take a look at some footage from the city of Kiev, Ukraine, during the Russian airstrikes a few days ago, this is dashcam footage, cars are driving down the road and one of the missiles hits the road. Luckily, it grazes a car and gets stuck in the road. It’s the kind of scene that shows the devastation of war, even if it’s not necessarily a war zone.