This week's show features stories from NHK Japan, Radio Havana Cuba, Radio Deutsche-Welle, and Spanish National Radio, .

http://www.outfarpress.com/swr210416.mp3

From JAPAN- The Japanese government has decided to release over a million tons of radioactive contaminated waste water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean- officials said the dumping would begin in about 2 years, and South Korea and China were among the first to condemn the plan. Egypt is demanding that the Japanese owner of the cargo ship that blocked the Suez Canal pay compensation of almost a billion dollars. A brief update on the military war in Myanmar. The foreign ministers of Iran and Russia say they will fight together to lift US unilateral sanctions.

From CUBA- At the UN the Venezuelan foreign minister rejected the US freezing financial assets to promote regime change and inhibit sustainable development. A Viewpoint on the Biden plan to finance increased border policing in Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico to slow migration- the so-called dry corridor from Chiapas to Costa Rica where 10 million impoverished people live is described. The lack of Covid vaccines to poor countries through a global initiative is blocked until as late as June.

From GERMANY- Biden announced a new round of sanctions against Russia, and the US will not remove soldiers from Germany as decried by Trump. Then a series of brief global Covid reports- England has eased restrictions while most of the world is witnessing dramatic rises in infections and deaths and the banning of several vaccines.

From SPAIN- Alison Hughes with Amy Egan report on the attack on a uranium enrichment facility in Iran, an Israeli cyberattack which could have caused a nuclear disaster. Israeli PM Netanyahu announced he will not cooperate with the ongoing ICC investigation of war crimes against Palestinians. In Ecuador voters gave banker Guillermo Lasso an unexpected victory in the presidential election, promising free market economics and foreign investment to create jobs.