First Thing: hundreds escape plane in Tokyo that collided with earthquake relief flight

Footage shows Japan Airlines flight in flames, as five coastguard members missing. Plus, Israel’s supreme court rejects Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul law

Good morning and happy new year.

A Japan Airlines passenger plane caught fire on the runway at Haneda airport after colliding with a coastguard aircraft with six people on board. All 379 people on the Japan Airlines plane have been evacuated, but five out of the six coastguard members, who were due to deliver earthquake aid to residents in the west of the country, are unaccounted for.

The collision came the day after a series of major earthquakes in Japan, which reportedly killed at least 48 people, injured dozens and sparked fires that destroyed homes. The prime minister has said the country is facing a “battle against time” to rescue those trapped.

Police and local authorities early on Tuesday reported cases of bodies being pulled from the rubble of collapsed buildings, while others remained trapped. “We must rescue them as quickly as possible, especially those who are trapped under collapsed structures,” Fumio Kishida said.

One thousand army personnel have been dispatched to the worst-hit area in the country’s relatively remote Noto peninsula, but rescue operations have been hindered by badly damaged and blocked roads and one of the area’s airports has been forced to close due to runway cracks.

Where did the quakes hit? The quakes, the largest of which had a magnitude of 7.6 at a shallow depth of 10km, struck on the west coast of Japan’s main island, Honshu, and shook buildings in Tokyo, about 300km away.

What’s the fallout? Bullet trains and flights in and out of the region were all suspended on Tuesday morning. Sections of major highways remained closed and water supplies were cut due to burst pipes in some areas, according to NHK.

Israel to withdraw some troops from Gaza. Meanwhile, Israel’s supreme court strikes down law to curb its powers

Israel is withdrawing some troops from Gaza but preparing for an intense campaign to continue there for “six months at least” as well as expanding preparations for a Lebanon war, a senior official has said. Israel still expects heavy fighting in Gaza for much of 2024.

There is growing international pressure to curb an offensive that has so far killed nearly 22,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children. Even Israel’s staunchest ally, the US, which rejects calls for a ceasefire, has started pushing the government to scale back the ferocity of its attacks.

Meanwhile, Israel’s supreme court has overturned a law at the heart of Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial judicial overhaul project, potentially plunging the country into political crisis.

What is the impact on Hamas of Israel’s war so far? Israeli troops have not captured or killed any of the top Hamas leaders they are seeking, and while the military says it has killed 8,000 fighters, that represents fewer than a third of the 30,000 men it estimated Hamas could deploy at the start of the conflict.

What are the details of the supreme court ruling? Israel’s supreme court judges ruled on Monday by a slim majority of eight to seven to throw out a law that curtailed the court’s own powers, saying it would severely damage Israel’s democracy.

Trump gaining ground among Latino voters, poll shows

A new poll indicates former US president Donald Trump is gaining ground among Latino voters, wiping out incumbent Joe Biden’s lead among the crucial, but diverse, voting bloc.

A USA Today and Suffolk University survey showed Trump was ahead with 39% support among Latino voters surveyed, compared with Biden’s 34%, signaling a slump since 2020, when Biden garnered 65% of the approval from Latino voters.

The candidates issued two starkly different new year messages to voters, with Joe Biden striking a note of cheerful optimism and Trump lashing out in a social media post laden with lies and conspiracy theories.

How are do Biden and Trump poll with younger voters? Trump leads among voters under 35, with 37% support over Biden’s 33%, a stark drop from Biden’s 24-point lead among the voting group in 2020.

In other news …

Russia marked the new year with the launch of a record 90 Shahed-type drones over Ukraine, as Vladimir Putin vowed to further intensify attacks.

Nearly 200 names connected to the Jeffrey Epstein-Ghislaine Maxwell sex trafficking conspiracy could be released by a New York judge as soon as today, exposing or confirming the identities of dozens of associates of the disgraced financier.

Iran has rejected US and British calls to end its support for attacks by Houthi rebels on Israeli-linked vessels in the Red Sea. Iran claimed the accusations were baseless interference.

South Korea’s opposition party leader, Lee Jae-myung, has been hospitalised after being stabbed. Officials said his injuries were not life threatening.

The queen of Denmark has announced that she is to abdicate after 52 years on the throne. Queen Margrethe II will leave the throne to her son, Crown Prince Frederik.

Stat of the day: Big five oil companies to reward shareholders with $100bn in payouts

The world’s five largest listed oil companies are expected to reward their investors with record payouts of more than $100bn for 2023 against a backdrop of growing public outrage at fossil fuel profits. The five “super-majors” – BP, Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies – showered shareholders with dividend payments and share buybacks worth $104bn in the 2022 calendar year, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). The bumper payouts followed a year of record profits for big oil and gas companies after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Don’t miss this: New year celebrations around the world – in pictures

2024 arrived to cheers as the march of midnight across time zones kicked off pyrotechnic displays around the world. From a light show projected on to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, to fireworks and light effects illuminating the night sky from the Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taiwan, check out these pictures of how places around the world marked the dawn of a new year.

… or this: misinformation researcher Kate Starbird changes tack for 2024 election

A key researcher in the fight against election misinformation – who herself became the subject of an intensive misinformation campaign – has said her field gets accused of “bias” precisely because it’s now mainly rightwingers who spread the worst lies. Kate Starbird, co-founder of the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, added that she feared that the entirely false story of rigged elections had now “sunk in” for many Americans on the right. “The influencers, political elites on the right, have embraced those lies,” she told Rachel Leingang.

Last Thing: Bioluminescence lights up ocean in Tasmania at new year

Revellers along the Hobart waterfront in Tasmania welcomed in the new year with the glow of fireworks in the sky – and bright, blue bioluminescence lighting up the ocean, writes Emily Wind. With an easterly wind bringing the “sea sparkle” to the east coast, onlookers were treated to a truly glowing end to 2023. “People were enjoying the fireworks and then looking for sea sparkle in between them,” said Jenny Kathy, a photographer and administrator of the Bioluminescence Tasmania Facebook page. “It’s beautiful.”

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