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In Hiroshima Peace Park, Visitors Hope Nobel Win Will Boost Peace Efforts

People pray in front of the cenotaph at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima city on October 12, 2024. (Photo by Philip FONG / AFP)
People pray in front of the cenotaph at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima city on October 12, 2024. (Photo by Philip FONG / AFP)
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In Hiroshima Peace Park, Visitors Hope Nobel Win Will Boost Peace Efforts

People pray in front of the cenotaph at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima city on October 12, 2024. (Photo by Philip FONG / AFP)
People pray in front of the cenotaph at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima city on October 12, 2024. (Photo by Philip FONG / AFP)

Visitors to the memorial park for Hiroshima's atomic bombing said they hoped Friday's Nobel Peace Prize for Japan's atomic bomb survivors would boost efforts for world peace and spur world leaders to visit the site.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the prize to the Nihon Hidankyo group, representing survivors of the 1945 US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its decades-long efforts to abolish nuclear weapons.
"As Japanese people, I believe we need to ensure that the same thing doesn't happen again," Ui Torisawa, a 21-year-old student who was visiting the Peace Memorial Park with her friend, told Reuters.
"Since Japan is the only country to have suffered atomic bombings, and because similar things could be repeated in other countries, I think Japan is probably in the best position to stop that."
August next year will mark the 80th anniversary of the bombings. It is likely to draw focus on the legacy of its survivors, known as "hibakusha,” and could set off a renewed debate about nuclear weapons.
Yasuhiro Suzuki, who was visiting the Peace Memorial Park with his wife, son and daughter from Fukuoka prefecture in southwest Japan, called it "groundbreaking" that the group representing the atomic bomb survivors was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
"Nuclear power is incredibly beneficial to the world, but we must be careful not to misuse it," Suzuki said. "I hope this becomes an opportunity for people around the world to think about various aspects of this issue."
Hiroshima's peace park has long drawn not just Japanese visitors but also foreigners, including world leaders such as Barack Obama, who spoke at the site as US president in 2016 and hugged a tearful hibakusha.
"I believe there are still many prime ministers and leaders in the world who could come (to Japan), and I hope they will make the effort to visit," said Hiroshima resident Hirokazu Tanabe, who works as a driver and who came to the park to show around a friend.
Many Japanese feel the US should apologize for the bombings, which killed hundreds of thousands and prompted Japan's surrender days later. Japan has since relied on the US for protection, renouncing the right to wage war and defining its military as only for self-defense.
Twenty-two-year-old student Ayane Takiguchi, who visited the park with Torisawa, said it was an honor the group representing atomic bomb victims was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
"I myself am studying education, and I've recently recognized the importance of achieving peace through education," she said. "In that sense, I'm happy that this has such a big impact."

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Biden Signs Bill That Averts Govt Shutdown Ending Days of Washington Upheaval

United States President Joe Biden participates in a holiday visit to patients and families at Children's National Hospital in Washington, DC, USA, 20 December 2024. (EPA)
United States President Joe Biden participates in a holiday visit to patients and families at Children's National Hospital in Washington, DC, USA, 20 December 2024. (EPA)
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Biden Signs Bill That Averts Govt Shutdown Ending Days of Washington Upheaval

United States President Joe Biden participates in a holiday visit to patients and families at Children's National Hospital in Washington, DC, USA, 20 December 2024. (EPA)
United States President Joe Biden participates in a holiday visit to patients and families at Children's National Hospital in Washington, DC, USA, 20 December 2024. (EPA)

President Joe Biden signed a bill into law Saturday that averts a government shutdown, bringing a final close to days of upheaval after Congress approved a temporary funding plan just past the deadline and refused President-elect Donald Trump’s core debt demands in the package.

The deal funds the government at current levels through March 14 and provides $100 billion in disaster aid and $10 billion in agricultural assistance to farmers.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had insisted lawmakers would “meet our obligations” and not allow federal operations to close. But the outcome at the end of a tumultuous week was uncertain after Trump had insisted the deal include an increase in the government's borrowing limit. If not, he had said, then let the closures “start now.”

Johnson's revised plan was approved 366-34, and it was passed by the Senate by a 85-11 vote after midnight. By then, the White House said it had ceased shutdown preparations.

“There will be no government shutdown,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Johnson, who had spoken to Trump after the House vote, said the compromise was "a good outcome for the country” and that the president-elect “was certainly happy about this outcome, as well.”

The final product was the third attempt from Johnson, the beleaguered speaker, to achieve one of the basic requirements of the federal government — keeping it open. The difficulties raised questions about whether Johnson will be able to keep his job, in the face of angry Republican colleagues, and work alongside Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk, who was calling the legislative plays from afar.

The House is scheduled to elect the next speaker on Jan. 3, 2025, when the new Congress convenes. Republicans will have an exceedingly narrow majority, 220-215, leaving Johnson little margin for error as he tries to win the speaker's gavel.

One House Republican, Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, criticized Republicans for the deficit spending in the bill and said he was now “undecided” about the GOP leadership. Others are signaling unhappiness with Johnson as well.

Yet Trump's last-minute debt limit demand was almost an impossible ask, and Johnson had almost no choice but to work around that pressure. The speaker knew there wouldn’t be enough support within the slim Republican majority alone to pass any funding package because many Republican deficit hawks prefer to cut the federal government and would not allow more debt.

Instead, the Republicans, who will have full control of the White House, House and Senate in the new year, with big plans for tax cuts and other priorities, are showing they must routinely rely on Democrats for the votes needed to keep up with the routine operations of governing.

The federal debt stands at roughly $36 trillion, and the spike in inflation after the coronavirus pandemic has pushed up the government’s borrowing costs such that debt service next year will exceed spending on national security. The last time lawmakers raised the debt limit was June 2023. Rather than raise the limit by a dollar amount, lawmakers suspended the debt limit through Jan. 1, 2025.

There is no need to raise that limit right now because the Treasury Department can begin using what it calls “extraordinary measures” to ensure that America does not default on its debts. Some estimate these accounting maneuvers could push the default deadline to the summer of 2025. But that’s what Trump wanted to avoid because an increase would be needed while he was president.

GOP leaders said the debt ceiling would be debated as part of tax and border packages in the new year. Republicans made a so-called handshake agreement to raise the debt limit at that time while also cutting $2.5 trillion in spending over 10 years.

It was essentially the same deal that flopped Thursday night — minus Trump’s debt demand. But it's far smaller than the original deal Johnson struck with Democratic and Republican leaders — a 1,500-page bill that Trump and Musk rejected, forcing him to start over. It was stuffed with a long list of other bills — including much-derided pay raises for lawmakers — but also other measures with broad bipartisan support that now have a tougher path to becoming law.

Trump, who has not yet been sworn into office, is showing the power but also the limits of his sway with Congress, as he intervenes and orchestrates affairs from Mar-a-Lago alongside Musk, who is heading up the new Department of Government Efficiency.