A daily 5 minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability.
This is SBS News in Easy English.
I'm Phillippa Carisbrooke.
There has been a 7-point-3 magnitude earthquake off Japan's northeast coast.
Four people have been killed.
Over 90 others are injured.
The quake struck just before midnight off the coast of Fukushima prefecture.
It triggered a tsunami warning, which has now been cancelled.
A train derailed with around 100 people on board.
There were no reports of injuries.
In the capital, Tokyo, hundreds of thousands of homes temporarily lost power.
Japan's government says there have been no reports of problems at the country's nuclear power plants.
The government has warned of the potential for dangerous aftershocks.
The President of the United States, Joe Biden, has called Russian President Vladimir Putin a 'war criminal' for invading Ukraine.
He's announced an additional $800 million in military aid to Ukraine.
And stated the U-S is commitment to holding the Russian leader to account.
“What's at stake here are the principles that the United States and the United Nations and across the world stand for. It's about freedom. It's about the right of people to determine their own future.”
The United States Federal Reserve has increased interest rates for the first time since 2018.
And it has signalled up to six additional rate rises this year.
The Federal Reserve says the increases are needed to prevent soaring inflation.
The federal government has committed almost half a billion dollars in the upcoming budget to build a news dam in central Queensland.
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce made the announcement.
He says the Urannah dam project will deliver more infrastructure to regional centres, including Mackay and Gladstone.
Over one third of the water from the proposed dam has been allocated to the coal mining industry in the Bowen region.
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young says supporting the coal industry in this way makes a mockery of the government's own climate commitments.
“It does beg the question is this something that the national parties’ donors have asked for. Why is Barnaby Joyce being Allowed to deliver this type of money?”
The New South Wales Opposition is calling for an investigation of what happened in the Northern Rivers flood disaster.
Labor leader Chris Minns wants an upper house parliamentary inquiry into the flood response.
He says the state government needs to learn from the mistakes it made.
The Refugee Council of Australia is calling for the nation to increase the number of humanitarian visas it offers.
It wants 20,000 places offered a year.
A level like that was last seen in 2013.
The Council is also requesting a special additional intake of 20,000 places for Afghan refugees.
President Jasmina Bajraktarevic-Hayward says Australia's Refugee and Humanitarian intake is at its lowest level in 45-years.
In sport, Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic will be able to play at the French Open even if he's not vaccinated against COVID-19.
Tournament officials say vaccination would not be required so long as the COVID-19 situation in France remains stable.
I'm Phillippa Carisbrooke.
This is SBS News in Easy English.
