People protest against Myanmar's military government in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, western Japan, on June 20, 2022. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.

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Japan PM Kishida to attend nuclear nonproliferation confab in N.Y. in Aug.

TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will attend a U.N. conference on nuclear nonproliferation to be held in New York in August, the government said Tuesday.

Kishida would be the first Japanese prime minister to attend a review conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. He is expected to deliver a speech as early as Aug. 1, when the conference begins, according to a government source.

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Signatories to U.N. nuke ban treaty hold 1st meeting, Japan stays out

VIENNA - The first meeting of parties to a U.N. treaty banning nuclear weapons started Tuesday in Vienna, with participating countries aiming to build momentum for abolishing the ultimate weapons of war.

Though non-signatory countries such as Germany, Norway and the Netherlands are joining the three-day meeting as observers, Japan is not, despite high expectations among survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that it would.

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Japan PM Kishida vows to focus on responding to rising food, energy prices

TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida vowed Tuesday to prioritize policy aimed at surging energy and food prices exacerbated by Russia's war in Ukraine as the nation gears up for next month's upper house election.

In a policy debate involving party leaders ahead of the July 10 House of Councillors election, Kishida said his government is not considering lowering the consumption tax rate from the current 10 percent or seeking a change to the ultraeasy monetary policy employed by the Bank of Japan.

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Kishida eyes reward points system to ease electricity bills

TOKYO - Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Tuesday the government plans to ease the impact of rising electricity prices on the public by awarding power-saving households points that can be used to help lower their utility bills.

At the first meeting of a government task force on rising prices ahead of a House of Councillors election next month, the prime minister pledged to protect people's lives and businesses by tackling soaring food and energy prices propelled by the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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S. Korea succeeds in putting satellites into orbit, 7th in world

SEOUL - South Korea on Tuesday successfully launched a domestically developed rocket and put satellites into orbit, becoming the seventh country in the world to do so and opening the door for future development of its space program under the new president.

The launch came after the country's previous attempt failed in October when it launched its first homegrown rocket, but a dummy satellite did not go into orbit as planned after separating from the rocket.

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Foreign IT giants not registered in Japan will be punished: minister

TOKYO - Foreign technology giants that do not comply with requests to register their local units in Japan as required by law will be subject to penalties, Justice Minister Yoshihisa Furukawa said Tuesday.

Most of the 48 foreign IT companies, including Google LLC, Meta Platforms Inc. and Twitter Inc., that have received registration requests from the Justice Ministry and the communications ministry have so far failed to comply, according to Furukawa.

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U.S. import ban over China's forced labor in Xinjiang takes effect

WASHINGTON - A U.S. law broadly banning imports from China's Xinjiang region took effect Tuesday, a move aimed at adding pressure over Beijing's alleged use of forced labor among the Uyghur minority that could pose supply chain challenges.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which was signed into law in December, is certain to further strain relations between the world's two largest economies as their rivalry intensifies in the military, trade and technology fields.

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More in G-7 now view China as "threat" than ally: survey

TOKYO - China's perception in Group of Seven developed nations has worsened due to Beijing's failure to explicitly condemn Russia's aggression against Ukraine, with more people considering it a "threat" compared with before Moscow's invasion, according to survey results released Tuesday.

Respondents were asked how they perceived other countries, with those seen as "allies" counted positively, and those seen as "threats" deducted points. China's perception, already having slipped into "threat" status among G-7 nations, worsened the most in Italy, dropping 21 points to -30 to from a previous score of -9.