‘It will take years to rebuild’: Villagers pick up the pieces after devastating Japan earthquake
The roads that snake up the Noto peninsular get worse the further we drive.
What starts as a few small, irregular cracks turn into sizeable craters and fissures. In some places the concrete has totally buckled, making the route impassable.
It is no wonder rescue efforts have been rendered so complicated, and the full scale of the damage and casualties is still extremely unclear.
Indeed, some of the worst-hit areas remain almost inaccessible unless you have an army truck, or better a helicopter.
But you don’t need to be at the epicentre of this disaster to clearly see the destruction it has wrought.
That is plainly evident in village after village we pass.
Entire streets of old traditional houses are damaged or destroyed in the village of Kuroshima
Some of the worst-hit areas remain almost inaccessible
In one, entire streets of old traditional houses are, at best, damaged beyond what’s habitable, surrounded by shattered glass and fallen beams and, at worst, have completely collapsed.
There are clues in the rubble as to the traditional lives uprooted here.
In one destroyed home, wicker baskets lie scattered atop the fallen wooden walls, reinforced with just clay.
A lot might have been said about how good Japanese infrastructure is in the face of such quakes, but these homes didn’t stand a chance.
It’s here we meet Mamiko Nakatani. She is taking shelter in the village hall.
She takes us to her home – it’s been in her family for 45 years. It’s still standing, but only just and the damage is shocking.
Ceilings collapsed, windows smashed, and her broken possessions cover the floor.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Japan earthquake shakes drinks
She described how, when the quake hit, her huge bookshelves collapsed right on top of her elderly husband.
It’s a miracle he was unhurt, she says.
And when I ask her how it feels to look at the devastation – “I’m at a loss,” she says, with tears in her eyes.
“It will take years to rebuild.”
It’s clear the danger isn’t over. Every so often we hear a deep rumble and the ground moves a little beneath us – tremors continuing.
Read more from Sky News:
‘Race against time’ to save dozens still trapped under rubble
Japan plane fire: Family ‘in shock’ after evacuating burning aircraft
Back in the car, our phones sound with alarm warnings of further quakes expected.
Eventually, we reach a point where we can go no further. Landslides and trees block the roads and fissures in the concrete are too large for us to cross.
At one such blocking, we meet Takuya Yamagishi who is being picked up by car. He is shivering, his clothes and hair are soaked through and his feet are cracked with mud.
He has walked for over five hours in the cold and rain from his grandparent’s village near Wajima to meet others and fetch help.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Scale of Japan quake damage becomes clearer
He couldn’t get here any other way, the roads are impassable by car.
He tells us the village has limited supplies, water and power are cut, and many people have been left homeless. He looks like he’s in shock.
Indeed, 33,000 people have had to evacuate their homes, and lots of people remain without water or electricity.
“Even those who narrowly escaped death cannot survive without food and water,” says Masuhiro Izumiya, the mayor of Suku – one of the worst affected towns.
Other local leaders have implied help has been too slow and have urged the government to hurry to clear the roads.
At a roadside hub for rescue and relief workers, there are dozens of people and trucks. They are preparing to work through the night.
Kenji Kamei is one of many who has been sent here from a neighbouring province.
A roadside hub has been set up for rescue and relief workers
He shows us the saws used to cut people out of rubble, but adds sadly the only people still being retrieved now are the dead.
It is still very unclear how many more bodies he will have to pull from their homes, but the plight of survivors continues.
It is bitterly cold and heavy rain today has increased the risk of landslides. There is a lot more suffering ahead for the people of this region.
World
Qatari PM says Israel ‘killed any hope’ of releasing hostages as criticism over Doha attack intensifies
Qatar’s prime minister said Israel has “killed any hope” of seeing more hostages returned from Gaza after carrying out an attack targeting Hamas leadership in his country.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani intensified his criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Tuesday’s unprecedented strike on Qatar, which killed at least six people.
“I was meeting one of the hostage’s families the morning of the attack,” Sheikh Mohammed told CNN in an interview aired late Wednesday.
“They are counting on this [ceasefire] mediation, they have no other hope for that.”
Sheikh Mohammed added that he thought Netanyahu had “just killed any hope for those hostages”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Ceasefire talks left in ‘tatters’
A total of 48 Israeli hostages captured during Hamas’ 7 October attacks on southern Israel have not been returned home.
With its attack in Qatar, Israel had sought to kill the political leaders of the Islamist group Hamas.
Hamas has said its top leaders survived the airstrike, but five members were killed, including the son of its exiled Gaza chief and top negotiator Khalil al Hayya.
The Israeli military operation in Doha has been widely condemned internationally and was particularly sensitive as Qatar has been mediating negotiations to bring about a ceasefire in the war in Gaza.
US President Donald Trump reportedly held a heated phone call with Mr Netanyahu after the attack, telling him his decision to target Hamas leadership in Qatar was not wise, according to The Wall Street Journal.
There has been no immediate acknowledgement of the remarks from Mr Netanyahu, however, he’s continued to defend the strikes and threatened further action against Qatar.
“I say to Qatar and all nations who harbour terrorists, you either expel them or you bring them to justice,” Mr Netanyahu said. “Because if you don’t, we will.”
Read more:
Israel has crossed a huge diplomatic red line with Qatar strike
Trump has ‘heated call’ with Netanyahu over Qatar strike
A senior figure in the Qatari government, Dr Majed Al-Ansari, was the one to announce to the world on X that America’s call to alert them to the attack came 10 minutes after the first explosion sounded in Doha.
Dr Al-Ansari, who serves as Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson, recounted the moment of the attack to Sky News’ correspondent Sally Lockwood.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
“I was coming home to my family and the moment I stepped out of the car I started hearing the loud noises that can only be compared to bombs,” he said.
“Being a diplomat and working for the foreign ministry throughout the mediation that we have conducted, I immediately knew that that meant that something terrible has happened.
“I can’t tell you enough how as a father living here in Qatar, that moment was a moment of reckoning for me and for all my countrymen and people who reside here in Qatar, where our lives were at risk because of the narcissistic and personal ambitions of a political operator who wants to throw the whole region into chaos.”
Donald Trump had a heated phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after his military targeted Hamas inside Qatar, according to a report.
The American president told Mr Netanyahu on Tuesday that the decision to strike inside the US ally’s territory was not wise, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing senior administration officials.
The Israeli prime minister responded by saying he had a brief window to launch the airstrike and took the opportunity, according to the newspaper.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Anger over Israeli strikes on Qatar
A second call between the two leaders later that day was cordial, with Mr Trump asking Mr Netanyahu if the attack had been successful, the publication added.
Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of the Islamist group Hamas with the attack in the Qatari capital Doha on Tuesday.
Hamas has said its top leaders survived the airstrike, but five members were killed, including the son of its exiled Gaza chief and top negotiator Khalil al Hayya.
The Israeli military operation in Doha has been widely condemned internationally and was particularly sensitive as Qatar has been hosting and mediating in negotiations which are trying to bring about a ceasefire in the war in Gaza.
On Wednesday, Mr Netanyahu warned Qatar to either expel Hamas officials or “bring them to justice. Because if you don’t, we will”.
Qatar has hit back at him, saying his comments about the Gulf nation hosting a Hamas office were “reckless”.
Donald Trump with Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House earlier this year. Pic: Reuters
Meanwhile, the Israeli ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, has said that if Israel failed to kill Hamas leaders on Tuesday, it would succeed next time.
“We have put terrorists on notice, wherever they may be… we’re going to pursue them, and we’re going to destroy those who will destroy us,” he said.
The airstrike took place shortly after Hamas claimed responsibility for Monday’s shooting at a bus stop on the outskirts of Jerusalem that killed six people.
Read more:
Analysis: Israel has crossed a huge diplomatic red line
In another development, Sir Keir Starmer has had talks with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Downing Street, with Mr Herzog saying they argued during a “tough meeting”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
PM meets Israeli president
PM condemns Israeli action
The prime minister has condemned the Israeli attack in Qatar, and raised the matter with the president, saying it was “completely unacceptable”.
“He said the strikes were a flagrant violation of a key partner’s sovereignty and do nothing to secure the peace we all desperately want to see,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Israel has been angered by Britain’s plans to join several other Western countries, including France and Canada, in recognising a Palestinian state later this month – unless Israel meets conditions including a ceasefire in Gaza.
“Things were said that were tough and strong, and clearly we can argue, because when allies meet, they can argue. We are both democracies,” Mr Herzog said at an event at Chatham House.
He also proposed offering a “fact-finding mission” to Israel, “sitting with us and studying the situation in Gaza on the humanitarian level”.
“Because we have full answers, and we are fully transparent,” he said.
The unprecedented Russian drone attacks on Poland are both a test and a warning. How Europe and NATO respond could be crucial to security on this continent.
The Russians are past masters at what’s called “salami slicing”. Tactics that use a series of smaller actions to produce a much bigger outcome that otherwise would have been far more provocative.
The Kremlin is probing the West with gradual but steady escalation. A British Council building and an EU installation are bombed in Kyiv; a senior EU official’s plane’s GPS is jammed.
On their own each provocation produces nothing more than rhetoric from the West – but new lines are crossed and Russia is emboldened.
Ukraine war latest: NATO chief sends message to Putin
Vladimir Putin has a history of testing the West. Pic: Sputnik/Alexei Druzhinin/Kremlin via Reuters
Putin is good at this.
He used salami slicing tactics masterfully in 2014 with his “little green men” invasion of Crimea, a range of ambiguous military and diplomatic tactics to take control. The West’s confused delay in responding sealed Crimea’s fate.
He has just taken a larger slice of salami with his drone attacks on Poland.
A drone found in a field in Mniszkow, eastern Poland
They are of course a test of NATO’s readiness to deploy its Article 5 obligations. Russia has attacked a member state, allies believe deliberately.
Will NATO trigger the all for one, one for all mechanism in Poland’s defence and attack Russia? Not very likely.
But failing to respond projects weakness. Putin will see the results of his test and plot the next one.
Expect lots of talk of sanctions but remember they failed to avert this invasion and have failed to persuade Russia to reverse it. The only sanctions likely to bite are the ones the US president refuses to approve, on Russia’s oil trade.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Russia’s Poland incursion represents ‘new chapter’ in Ukraine war, expert says
So how are the drones also a warning? Well, they pose a question.
Vladimir Putin is asking the West if it really wants to become more involved in this conflict with its own forces. Europeans are considering putting boots on the ground inside Ukraine after any potential ceasefire.
If this latest attack is awkward and complicated and hard to respond to now, what happens if Russia uses hybrid tactics then?
Deniable, ambiguous methods that the Russians excel in could make life very difficult for the alliance if it is embroiled in Ukraine.
Think twice before committing your troops there, Russia is warning the West.
Read more:
The pivotal question for NATO
Trump ready to move to second stage of Russia sanctions
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
There is more Europe could do.
It could stop buying Russian energy, which it is still astonishingly importing – more than 20 billion euros a year at the last count.
It could use its massive economic advantage (20 times that of Russia’s, and that was before the war) to do more to fund Ukraine’s defence.
While it continues to do neither, expect more excruciating slices of the salami to come.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment11 months agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024