TOKYO (AP) — A man was arrested after stabbing eight people and injuring seven others with what was believed to be bleach at a tire factory in central Japan on Friday, officials said. There was no immediate explanation of his motive.
Eight people were taken to hospitals after being stabbed by the man with a knife at a factory of the tiremaker Yokohama Rubber Co. in the city of Mishima, in the Shizuoka prefecture, west of Tokyo, according to the Fujisan Nanto Fire Department.
The fire department told The Associated Press that five of the people who were stabbed were in serious condition but other details were not available.
Shizuoka prefectural police said the attacker, a 38-year-old man, was arrested for alleged attempted murder at the factory, but did not give further details.
The suspect was carrying a survival knife and wearing what appeared to be a gas mask, the major Japanese newspaper Asahi reported, citing investigators.
Seven others were also injured by the bleach thrown at them during the attack, and taken to hospitals for treatment, the fire department said.
No other details were immediately known.
Japan has strict gun control laws and is known for rare violent crimes, but there have been a number of high-profile knife attacks in recent years.
Police officers stand guard at the scene of a stabbing at the Yokohama Rubber Company in Mishima, west of Tokyo, Friday, Dec. 26, 2025. (Yusuke Hashizume/Kyodo News via AP)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump will happen “in the near future,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday, signaling progress in talks to end the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine.
“We are not losing a single day. We have agreed on a meeting at the highest level – with President Trump in the near future,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.
“A lot can be decided before the New Year,” he added.
Zelenskyy's announcement came after he said Thursday he had a “good conversation” with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Trump has unleashed a diplomatic push to end the war, but his efforts have run into sharply conflicting demands by Moscow and Kyiv.
Zelenskyy said Tuesday he would be willing to withdraw troops from the country’s eastern industrial heartland as part of a plan to end the war, if Moscow also pulls back and the area becomes a demilitarized zone monitored by international forces.
Though Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday that there had been “slow but steady progress” in the peace talks, Russia has given no indication that it will agree to any kind of withdrawal from land it has seized.
In fact, Moscow has insisted that Ukraine relinquish the remaining territory it still holds in the Donbas — an ultimatum that Ukraine has rejected. Russia has captured most of Luhansk and about 70% of Donetsk — the two areas that make up the Donbas.
On the ground, one person was killed and three others wounded when a guided aerial bomb hit a house in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, while six people were wounded in a missile strike on the city of Uman, local officials said Friday.
Russian drone attacks on the city of Mykolaiv and its suburbs overnight into Friday left part of the city without power. Energy and port infrastructure were damaged by drones in the city of Odesa on the Black Sea.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said it struck a major Russian oil refinery Thursday using British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles.
Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces hit the Novoshakhtinsk refinery in Russia’s Rostov region. “Multiple explosions were recorded. The target was hit,” it wrote on Telegram.
Rostov regional Gov. Yuri Slyusar said a firefighter was wounded when extinguishing the fire.
Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries aim to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue its full-scale invasion. Russia wants to cripple the Ukrainian power grid, seeking to deny civilians access to heat, light and running water in what Kyiv officials say is an attempt to “weaponize winter.”
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a media conference at the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
