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jp0001934
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2019/03/09
|
Japanese police arrest two men over attempt to bring wagyu cattle sperm into China
|
OSAKA - Police arrested two men Saturday on suspicion of trying to illegally bring fertilized eggs and sperm of wagyu cattle into China last year. The arrests in Osaka Prefecture came as the farm ministry is tightening control of wagyu reproductive material amid the rising popularity of the Japanese beef overseas. As part of a wider investigation into the smuggling of wagyu reproductive material out of the country, the police said Yusuke Maeda, 51, a restaurant owner, and Toshiki Ogura, 64, who is unemployed, are suspected of violating the country’s law on infectious disease control. Maeda and Ogura have admitted to the allegation of attempting to bring the cattle eggs and sperm into China in June 2018 without prior quarantine inspection, the police said. Chinese authorities prevented Ogura, who traveled by ferry with the sperm and eggs stashed in straw-like containers, from entering the country in July last year as he did not have a quarantine certificate, according to the agriculture ministry. The case surfaced after the man returned to Japan with the sperm and eggs and made a declaration at the Animal Quarantine Service. The ministry filed a complaint with the Osaka police in January.
|
osaka;smuggling;wagyu
|
jp0001935
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/03/09
|
Japan to send MSDF destroyer to China for first time in seven years as Beijing marks naval anniversary
|
The Maritime Self-Defense Force will send a destroyer to Qingdao, China — the first visit to the country by an MSDF vessel in seven years — amid thawing Sino-Japanese ties, Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya has announced. The destroyer will visit from April 21 to 26, and will take part in an international fleet review on April 23 to mark the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the Chinese Navy, Iwaya said Friday. The Japanese Defense Ministry is also considering participation by the MSDF chief of staff in the event. It will be the first dispatch of an MSDF ship to China since the Kirisame destroyer made a port call at Qingdao in December 2011. The latest decision to send the MSDF destroyer was based on a Japan-China agreement, reached at a summit meeting last October, to promote exchanges between the two countries’ defense authorities. “Through the promotion of multilayered dialogue and exchanges, Japan wants to foster mutual understanding and confidence with China,” Iwaya said.
|
military;self defense forces;china-japan relations;takeshi iwaya
|
jp0001936
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/03/31
|
More than 1 million acres of U.S. cropland ravaged by 'bomb cyclone' floods, data show
|
CHICAGO/COLUMBUS, NEBRASKA - At least 1 million acres (405,000 hectares) of U.S. farmland were flooded after the “bomb cyclone” storm left wide swaths of nine major grain-producing states under water in March, satellite data analyzed by Gro Intelligence showed. Farms from the Dakotas to Missouri and beyond have been under water for a week or more, possibly impeding planting and damaging soil. The floods, which came just weeks before planting season starts in the Midwest, will likely reduce corn, wheat and soy production this year. “There’s thousands of acres that won’t be able to be planted,” Ryan Sonderup, 36, of Fullerton, Nebraska, who has been farming for 18 years, said in a recent interview. “If we had straight sunshine now until May and June, maybe it can be done, but I don’t see how that soil gets back with expected rainfall.” Spring floods could yet affect an even bigger area of cropland. The U.S. government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has warned of what could be an “unprecedented flood season” as it forecasts heavy spring rains. Rivers may swell further as a deep snow pack in northern growing areas melts. The bomb cyclone of mid-March was the latest blow to farmers suffering from years of falling income and lower exports because of the U.S.-China trade war. Fields are strewn with everything from silt and sand to tires and some may not even be farmed this year. The water has also destroyed billions of dollars of old crops that were in storage, as well as damaged roads and railways. Justin Mensik, a fifth-generation farmer of corn and soybeans in Morse Bluff, Nebraska, said rebuilding roads was the first priority. Then farmers would need to bring in fertilizer trucks and then test soil before seeding, Mensik said. The flood “left a lot of silt and sand and mud in our fields, now we’re not too sure if we’re going to be able to get a good crop this year with all the new mud and junk that’s just laying here,” Mensik. For farmers, “the biggest concern right now is corn planting,” said Aaron Saeugling, an agriculture expert at Iowa State University who does outreach with farmers. “There is just not going to be enough time to move a lot of that debris.” To be fully covered by crop insurance, Iowa farmers must plant corn by May 31 and soybeans by June 15, as yields decline dramatically when planted any later. Deadlines vary state by state. The insurance helps ensure a minimum price farmers will receive when they book sales for their crops. The U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast on Friday farmers would increase corn plantings by 4.1 percent from last year, but the estimate did not account for the flooding. Nearly 1.1 million acres of cropland and more than 84,000 acres of pastureland in the U.S. Midwest had flood water on it for at least seven days between March 8 and March 21, according to a preliminary analysis of government and satellite data by New-York based Gro Intelligence that was requested by Reuters. The extent of the flooding had previously not been made public. The flooded acreage represents less than 1 percent of U.S. land used to grow corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, cotton, sorghum and barley. In 2018, some 240 million total acres of these crops were planted in the United States, USDA data shows. Iowa, the top producer of U.S. corn and No. 2 producer of soy, had the most water, covering 474,271 acres, followed by Missouri with 203,188 acres, according to Gro Intelligence. That was in line with estimates given last week by government officials in Iowa and Missouri. Gro Intelligence used satellite data from NASA’s Near Real-Time Global Flood Mapping product, to calculate the approximate extent and intensity of flooding. It then identified how much of this area was either cropland or pastureland, according to data from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). Gro Intelligence analysts cautioned the satellite imagery did not show the full extent of flooding in Nebraska, where officials declined to provide acreage estimates to Reuters, or in North Dakota. Nebraska’s governor has said the floods caused agricultural damage of $1 billion in his state. Cloud cover or snow on the ground makes it difficult to identify the flood waters in NASA satellite data, said Sara Menker, chief executive of the agricultural artificial intelligence company. In Missouri, floodwaters covered roughly 200,000 acres in five northwest counties adjoining the Missouri River as of Wednesday morning, said Charlie Rahm, spokesman for USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in Columbia. In Wisconsin more than 1,000 dairy and beef animals were lost during winter storms and 480 agricultural structures collapsed or damaged, according to an email from Sandy Chalmers, executive director of the Wisconsin state office of the USDA’s Farm Service Agency. In the Dakotas and Minnesota, melting snows in the coming months will put spring wheat planting at risk. Gro Intelligence found nearly 160,000 acres have already been flooded in Minnesota. “That’s yet to come and we will deal with that at least until the middle of April,” said Dave Nicolai, an agriculture expert at the University of Minnesota.
|
food;agriculture;storms;floods
|
jp0001937
|
[
"business",
"tech"
] |
2019/03/31
|
Facebook's Zuckerberg calls for a 'more active' government role in regulating internet
|
WASHINGTON - Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg on Saturday called for governments to play a “more active role” in regulating the internet, and urged more countries to adopt versions of sweeping European rules aimed at safeguarding user privacy. Facebook and other internet giants have long resisted government intervention, but the leading social network has reversed course amid growing calls for regulation, in an apparent bid to help steer the debate. “I believe we need a more active role for governments and regulators,” Zuckerberg wrote in an opinion piece published in The Washington Post. “By updating the rules for the internet, we can preserve what’s best about it — the freedom for people to express themselves and for entrepreneurs to build new things — while also protecting society from broader harms,” he said. Zuckerberg argues that new regulations are needed in four areas: harmful content, protection of elections, privacy and data portability. Facebook has drawn fire over all four, from hate speech on the platform and the recent live streaming of attacks on mosques in New Zealand, to its use in foreign efforts to meddle in elections and concerns over its collection of personal user data. Addressing protection of user privacy, Zuckerberg said he would support more countries adopting rules in line with the European Union’s sweeping General Data Protection Regulation, which gives regulators sweeping powers to sanction organizations that fail to adhere to heightened standards of security when processing personal data. “I believe it would be good for the internet if more countries adopted regulation such as GDPR as a common framework,” Zuckerberg wrote, also calling for regulation to guarantee data portability between services. Facebook built a content-scanning system that over the years has added rules based on reactions to changes in user behavior or public uproar after an event such as the New Zealand mass shooting. A week ago, the company moved to ban content that references white nationalism or white separatism. When users or computer systems report posts as problematic, those are sent to one of the company’s 15,000 content moderators around the world, who are allowed to take content down only if it violates a rule. But that process is not always precise. “Lawmakers often tell me we have too much power over speech, and frankly I agree,” Zuckerberg wrote. ‘I’ve come to believe that we shouldn’t make so many important decisions about speech on our own.” He said “third-party bodies” could set standards on distribution of harmful material and “measure companies against those standards.” And on elections, Zuckerberg noted that existing laws are focused on candidates and elections instead of “divisive political issues where we’ve seen more attempted interference,” urging legislation to be updated to “reflect the reality of the threats.” “The rules governing the internet allowed a generation of entrepreneurs to build services that changed the world and created a lot of value in people’s lives,” Zuckerberg wrote. “It’s time to update these rules to define clear responsibilities for people, companies and governments going forward.”
|
internet;privacy;computers;social media;facebook;mark zuckerberg
|
jp0001938
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/03/31
|
Investigator says Amazon chief's phone hacked by Saudis
|
WASHINGTON - The investigator hired to look into the release of intimate images of Jeff Bezos said Saturday he has concluded that Saudi Arabian authorities hacked the Amazon chief’s phone to access his personal data. Gavin de Becker linked the hack to extensive coverage by The Washington Post newspaper, which is owned by Bezos, of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul last year. “Our investigators and several experts concluded with high confidence that the Saudis had access to Bezos’ phone, and gained private information,” de Becker wrote on The Daily Beast website. He said that while the brother of Bezos’ mistress was paid by the National Enquirer scandal sheet for the release of the information, his role may have been a red herring, and the plot went far beyond one man seeking to cash in. “It’s clear that MBS considers The Washington Post to be a major enemy,” de Becker wrote, referring to the kingdom’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom the U.S. Senate, after a closed-door briefing by the CIA, named as “responsible” for the murder. De Becker did not specify which part of the Saudi government he was blaming for the hack, and gave few details about the investigation that led him to the conclusion that the kingdom was responsible. The results, he wrote, “have been turned over to federal officials.” Bezos hired Gavin de Becker & Associates to find out how his intimate text messages and photos made their way into the hands of the Enquirer, which reported on the Amazon chief’s extramarital affair, leading to his divorce. Bezos has accused Enquirer publisher American Media, led by David Pecker, of “blackmail” for threatening to publish the intimate photos if he did not halt the investigation and say in public that the tabloid’s reporting on him was not politically motivated. The Amazon chief declined to do so, instead publishing copies of emails from AMI. Saudi Arabia has stressed that the crown prince was not involved in the killing of Khashoggi, a Post contributing columnist. Riyadh initially said it had no knowledge of his fate but later blamed the murder on rogue agents.
|
saudi arabia;hacking;scandals;amazon.com;jeff bezos;adultery;mohammed bin salman;national enquirer
|
jp0001939
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/03/31
|
Donald Trump, critical of NATO, looms over body's 70th anniversary meeting
|
WASHINGTON - Seventy years after it was formed to counter the Soviet Union, Russia has returned to the top of the agenda for NATO. But the alliance faces another, more unlikely problem: criticism from the U.S. president. The 29-nation North Atlantic Treaty Organization is celebrating its 70th anniversary with talks among foreign ministers Wednesday and Thursday in Washington, where, in a Cold War redux, the resurgent power of Russia will be the chief item. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the ministers will work “to make sure that NATO is around for the next 70 years” and take aim at Russia over its 2014 takeover of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. Pompeo told a congressional hearing he is hopeful “we will be able to announce another series of actions that we will jointly take together to push back against what Russia is doing there in Crimea.” But if countering Russia is a familiar role for NATO, its new internal dynamics are not, with U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly suggesting that the allies are freeloaders. The businessman-turned-president, who berated allies at a NATO summit last year at the group’s Brussels headquarters, is pressing member states to meet the alliance’s goal set in 2014 of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense. Trump has even derisively asked whether it is worth defending small NATO states such as Montenegro. Pompeo said he will discuss spending and again pointed to Germany, which plans for defense spending well below 2 percent and declining by 2023. “When I talk to my counterparts, they will begin by saying, ‘America needs to do X and Y because Russia poses a threat,'” Pompeo told a forum of the conservative National Review magazine. “Then you ask them: ‘Well, that’s awesome. Tell me what you’re prepared to do.’ And they say: ‘It’s tough. Our voters just really don’t like to spend money on defense,” he said to laughter. NATO leaders will hold an annual summit in December in London, but the 70th anniversary celebrations are notably low-key. It marks a stark contrast with the 50th anniversary in 1999, which rattled Russia and sealed off Washington streets in a way that locals still talk about. Heads of state visited President Bill Clinton’s White House, new members the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland were inducted, and leaders plotted the next moves in NATO’s bombing campaign in Serbia. This year foreign ministers will be speaking at The Anthem, a hip new music venue booked for the occasion. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will meet Trump on Tuesday and deliver an address to Congress the following day. NATO on Thursday extended Stoltenberg’s term by two years until late 2022. If he completes his term as the alliance’s top civilian, he will be the second-longest-serving NATO chief, after former Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Joseph Luns, who was in the job from October 1971 to May 1984. Stoltenberg is popular with allies, particularly Trump, who credits him with helping increase European defense spending, diplomats have said. Derek Chollet, who managed U.S. defense policy on NATO under former President Barack Obama, said he expects NATO members to present a “good news story” on the value of the alliance without the drama of a high-stakes summit. “But the concern is Trump. There is a sort of tangerine cloud hanging over all of this,” said Chollet, executive vice president at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. “They are concerned that the founding member of the alliance has become the most unpredictable, and perhaps most unreliable.” While the populist right has stepped up attacks on NATO, the alliance has long been a bane for the left, which plans to be out in force to protest the anniversary. “NATO should have been retired rather than reprogrammed for domination in the 21st century,” said Joseph Gerson, disarmament coordinator of the American Friends Service Committee, the Quakers’ peace advocacy organization. He said that, even if one does not empathize with President Vladimir Putin, it should have been expected that Russia would be “snapping back” in response to NATO’s expansion. “Just think how concerned the U.S. is with a couple of Russian planes going to Venezuela,” he said. “We also want people to understand that NATO has become a global alliance in ways that have very little to do with the defense of Europe,” he said. Indeed, Trump recently proposed bringing Brazil into the alliance as he welcomed the country’s new hard-right president, Jair Bolsonaro. And NATO has been engaged for 17 years in the war in Afghanistan — a mission unlikely to have been envisioned by NATO’s first secretary-general, Hastings Ismay, who famously said the alliance was designed to “keep the Russians out, the Americans in and the Germans down.” Chollet said that recent years have shown that Russia remains the core threat for NATO, although he said the alliance could also increasingly discuss the challenges from a fast-growing China. “You ask yourself — how many partners do Russia and China have that are willing to work with them and defend them in the spirit of all for one, one for all?” he said. “Despite its problems, NATO is a unique asset that has never really existed before in history and which the United States is lucky to have,” he said.
|
nato;military;anniversaries;donald trump
|
jp0001940
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/03/31
|
Four killed as thousands protest at Gaza-Israel border, but truce holds
|
GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP - Five rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel, prompting Israeli tanks to respond by firing on Hamas military posts early Sunday, hours after a massive Palestinian protest along the border between Israel and Gaza. The rocket attack and Israeli response did not cause any casualties, according to the Israeli army and witnesses in Gaza. The Israeli tanks fired at Hamas posts in the central Gaza Strip and east of Gaza City, witnesses said. Tens of thousands of Gazans earlier gathered at the Israeli border to mark a year since protests and clashes erupted there, but fears of mass bloodshed were averted after late Egyptian-led negotiations. Four Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, one during a demonstration ahead of the main rally and three 17-year-olds in clashes later Saturday, the health ministry in Gaza City said. Another 316 Gazans were wounded. But fears of a repeat of similar protests and clashes to those that saw more than 60 Palestinians killed on May 14, when the United States transferred its Israel embassy to Jerusalem, did not materialise. Israel deployed several thousand troops along the border, with the anniversary coming at a sensitive time ahead of its April 9 elections. Egypt tried to mediate between Israel and Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas to rein in violence. Hamas officials say an understanding was reached that would see Israel ease its crippling blockade of Gaza in exchange for the protests remaining calm. Tens of thousands gathered at five protest points along the frontier but the vast majority stayed away from the border fence. East of Gaza City, small groups of young men approached the fence and sought to break it multiple times but were forced back by Israeli tear gas and live fire. The protesters threw stones at the Israeli soldiers. An Egyptian security delegation visited the protest site east of Gaza City, as did Hamas leaders Ismail Haniya and Yahya Sinwar. Israel’s army said around 40,000 “rioters and demonstrators” had gathered in spots throughout the border. It said grenades and explosive devices were hurled at troops, who responded “in accordance with standard operating procedures.” Protesters were marking the first anniversary of often violent weekly demonstrations in which around 200 Palestinians and an Israeli soldier have been killed. At least 50 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza since the protests began, charity Save the Children said. In the run-up to the anniversary, long-time mediator Egypt had shuttled back and forth in a bid to avoid major bloodshed. Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim called Saturday’s protest “a very important message” that thousands had gathered “peacefully to raise their voice against aggression and the imposed siege on Gaza.” He confirmed that Egypt had made progress towards a deal that media reports said would see Israel allow more Qatari aid into the strip and ease some restrictions. In exchange Hamas would maintain calm at the border protests. Khalil al-Hayya, another senior figure in the Islamist movement, said they were expecting to receive a timetable from Israel on Sunday. There was no Israeli comment on the alleged agreement. Israel goes to the polls in a keenly contested general election on April 9 in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a stiff challenge from centrist former military chief Benny Gantz. He is widely seen as wanting to avoid a major escalation, but has faced accusations of being soft on Hamas, including from former defence minister Avigdor Lieberman, who resigned in November the day after an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire was agreed. The anniversary came only days after another severe flare-up between Israel and Hamas, sparked by a rare long-range rocket strike from Gaza that struck north of Tel Aviv. An Egyptian-brokered cease-fire restored calm. The demonstrators are calling for Palestinians to be allowed to return to land their families fled or were expelled from during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel’s creation. Israel says any such mass return would spell the end of a Jewish state and that its actions have been necessary to defend the border. It accuses Hamas of orchestrating violence, but its soldiers’ use of live fire has come under heavy criticism. In February a United Nations probe said Israeli soldiers had intentionally fired on civilians in what could constitute war crimes. Two million Palestinians live in impoverished Gaza, crammed between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean. Analysts highlight desperate living conditions and lack of freedom of movement as driving forces behind the protests. Israel, which has fought three wars with Hamas, has blockaded the enclave for more than a decade, and Egypt often closes Gaza’s only other gateway to the outside world. Hamas is considered a terrorist group by the United States, European Union and others. Many protesters over the past year have remained far back from the fence and demonstrated peacefully, but others have approached in numbers and clashed with soldiers. Small groups have attached incendiary devices to balloons to float them over the border in an attempt to set fire to nearby Israeli homes and farmland.
|
israel;palestinians
|
jp0001941
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/03/31
|
U.S. president's battle with Obamacare moves to the courts
|
WASHINGTON - After losing in Congress, President Donald Trump is counting on the courts to kill off “Obamacare.” But some cases are going against him, and time is not on his side as he tries to score a big win for his re-election campaign. Two federal judges in Washington, D.C., this past week blocked parts of Trump’s health care agenda: Work requirements for some low-income people on Medicaid, and new small business health plans that don’t have to provide full benefits required by the Affordable Care Act. But in the biggest case, a federal judge in Texas ruled last December that the ACA is unconstitutional and should be struck down in its entirety. That ruling is now on appeal. At the urging of the White House, the Justice Department said this past week it will support the Texas judge’s position and argue that all of Obamacare must go. A problem for Trump is that the litigation could take months to resolve — or longer — and there’s no guarantee he’ll get the outcomes he wants before the 2020 election. “Was this a good week for the Trump administration? No,” said economist Gail Wilensky, who headed up Medicare under former Republican President George Bush. “But this is the beginning of a series of judicial challenges.” It’s early innings in the court cases, and “the clock is going to run out,” said Timothy Jost, a retired law professor who has followed the Obama health law since its inception. “By the time these cases get through the courts there simply isn’t going to be time for the administration to straighten out any messes that get created, much less get a comprehensive plan through Congress,” added Jost, who supports the ACA. In the Texas case, Trump could lose by winning. If former President Barack Obama’s health law is struck down entirely, Congress would face an impossible task: pass a comprehensive health overhaul to replace it that both Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Trump can agree to. The failed attempt to repeal Obamacare in 2017 proved to be toxic for congressional Republicans in last year’s midterm elections and they are in no mood to repeat it. “The ACA now is nine years old and it would be incredibly disruptive to uproot the whole thing,” said Thomas Barker, an attorney with the law firm Foley Hoag, who served as a top lawyer at the federal Health and Human Services department under former Republican President George W. Bush. “It seems to me that you can resolve this issue more narrowly than by striking down the ACA.” Trump seems unfazed by the potential risks. “Right now, it’s losing in court,” he asserted Friday, referring to the Texas case against “Obamacare.” The case “probably ends up in the Supreme Court,” Trump continued. “But we’re doing something that is going to be much less expensive than Obamacare for the people . . . and we’re going to have (protections for) pre-existing conditions and will have a much lower deductible. So, and I’ve been saying that, the Republicans are going to end up being the party of health care.” There is no sign that his administration has a comprehensive health care plan, and there doesn’t seem to be a consensus among Republicans in Congress. A common thread in the various health care cases is that they involve lower-court rulings for now, and there’s no telling how they may ultimately be decided. Here’s a status check on major lawsuits: Obamacare repeal: U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas, ruled that when Congress repealed the ACA’s fines for being uninsured, it knocked the constitutional foundation out from under the entire law. His ruling is being appealed by attorneys general from Democratic-led states to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. The challenge to the ACA was filed by officials from Texas and other GOP-led states. It’s now fully supported by the Trump administration, which earlier had argued that only the law’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions and its limits on how much insurers could charge older, sicker customers were constitutionally tainted. All sides expect the case to go to the Supreme Court, which has twice before upheld the ACA. Medicaid work requirements: U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C., recently blocked Medicaid work requirements in Kentucky and Arkansas approved by the Trump administration. The judge questioned whether the requirements were compatible with Medicaid’s central purpose of providing “medical assistance” to low-income people. He found that administration officials failed to account for coverage losses and other potential harm, and sent the Health and Human Services department back to the drawing board. The Trump administration says it will continue to approve state requests for work requirements, but has not indicated if it will appeal. Small business health plans: U.S. District Court Judge John Bates this past week struck down the administration’s health plans for small business and sole proprietors, which allowed less generous benefits than required by the ACA. Bates found that administration regulations creating the plans were “clearly an end-run” around the Obama health law and also ran afoul of other federal laws governing employee benefits. The administration said it disagrees but has not formally announced an appeal. Also facing challenges in courts around the country are an administration regulation that bars federally funded family planning clinics from referring women for abortions and a rule that allows employers with religious and moral objections to opt out of offering free birth control to women workers as a preventive care service.
|
barack obama;congress;health;medical;george bush;donald trump
|
jp0001942
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/03/31
|
Ukraine comedian Volodymyr Zelensky tipped to win first round of election
|
KIEV - A comedian whose political experience is limited to playing the president on TV vowed to tackle Ukraine’s corruption, as he voted Sunday in the first stage of a presidential election he is tipped to win. Actor Volodymyr Zelensky’s bid began as a long shot but he has leapfrogged establishment politicians amid public anger over graft and stagnating living standards. “A new life is beginning, a good life, without corruption, without bribes,” the 41-year-old told journalists as he voted with his wife at a Kiev polling station. If elected, the entertainer will take the reins of a country fighting Russia-backed separatists in its east and struggling to recover from an economic crisis. Incumbent Petro Poroshenko was vying with former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to face Zelensky in a run-off in April, according to final opinion polls. A recent survey put them neck and neck at around 17 percent, though another showed Poroshenko — who amassed a vast fortune in the chocolate business before being elected leader in 2014 — pulling ahead of ally-turned-foe Tymoshenko to make the second round. Zelensky, the star of a political comedy series called “Servant of the People” that returned for its third season this past week, had more than 25 percent support in final surveys. In polling stations across Ukraine, voters expressed dissatisfaction with the candidates and many said they were opting for what they saw as the least of three evils. “I’m voting for anyone apart from Poroshenko. I don’t believe him, he cheated us,” said 40-year-old housewife Olga, who had come to a polling station in the western city of Lviv with her young daughter. “I’m just going to go into the booth and decide who to vote for. I just don’t know. Definitely not for Zelensky,” said Irina, a 35-year-old manicurist in central Kiev. In the eastern city of Mariupol, near the frontline of the separatist conflict that has cost 13,000 lives over five years, soldiers were among those casting their ballots. The war is “the main question for everyone,” said 22-year-old soldier Sergiy, without specifying who he was voting for. “The country is tired of this situation, people are tired.” Casting his vote in central Kiev, Poroshenko said he regretted mud slinging during the campaign but praised the “well prepared” and “secure” election. Security services said armed special forces officers had been deployed in towns and cities across the country on polling day. There are a record 39 candidates on the ballot paper — which is more than 80 cm long — but only the three frontrunners have a realistic chance of progressing to a run-off vote. All three have said they will keep Ukraine on the European course it has charted since a 2014 revolution forced pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych from office. The popular uprising was followed by Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Poroshenko was elected after he pledged to tackle graft, align Ukraine with the West and end the separatist fighting. But the conflict is grinding on, corruption is rife and the country is struggling to recover from an economic crisis that began in 2014. Zelensky, meanwhile, has been criticized for the vagueness of his manifesto, the key pledges of which were chosen following a public vote on social media. The entertainer has eschewed rallies and interviews in favor of playing gigs with his comedy troupe up to the final days of campaigning. But supporters say only a brand new face can clean up the murky politics of one of the poorest nations in Europe. Some accuse Zelensky of acting as a front for the interests of oligarch Igor Kolomoysky, who owns the channel that broadcasts the entertainer’s shows, but he denies any political links. Tymoshenko — who came to international prominence during the 2004 Orange Revolution and is a divisive figure in Ukraine — has focused on the cost of living. She has promised to cut consumer gas prices in half and boost pensions as she appeals to an older base during her third bid for the presidency. “Today we have a chance to change everything,” Tymoshenko said as she cast her vote in the capital Exit polls are expected when polling stations close at 8 p.m. local time. First preliminary results were expected several hours later. Barring a shock result in which one candidate crosses the 50 percent threshold in the first round, a run-off is to be held on April 21.
|
russia;ukraine;orange revolution;petro poroshenko;kievl;volodymyr zelensky
|
jp0001943
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/03/31
|
Britain's Theresa May under pressure to forge softer EU divorce deal
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LONDON - Britain’s exit from the European Union was in disarray after the implosion of Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit strategy left her under pressure from rival factions to leave without a deal, go for an election or forge a much softer divorce. After one of the most tumultuous weeks in British politics since the 2016 referendum, it is still uncertain how, when or even if the United Kingdom will ever leave the bloc it first joined 46 years ago. A third defeat of May’s divorce deal, after her pledge to quit if it was passed, left one of the weakest leaders in a generation grappling with a perilous crisis over Brexit, the United Kingdom’s most significant move since World War II. Parliament on Monday will vote on different Brexit options and then May could try one last roll of the dice by bringing her deal back to a vote in Parliament as soon as Tuesday. “There are no ideal choices available and there are very good arguments against any possible outcome at the moment but we are going to have to do something,” said Justice Secretary David Gauke, who voted in the 2016 referendum to stay in the EU. “The prime minister is reflecting on what the options are, and is considering what may happen but I don’t think any decisions have been made,” he told BBC TV. Many in May’s party, though, have lost patience. The Sun newspaper reported that 170 of her 314 Conservative lawmakers had sent her a letter demanding that Brexit take place in the next few months — deal or no deal. The United Kingdom was due to leave the EU on March 29 but the political deadlock in London forced May to ask the bloc for a delay. Currently, Brexit is due to take place at 2200 GMT on April 12 unless May comes up with another option. The labyrinthine Brexit crisis has left the United Kingdom divided: Supporters of both Brexit and EU membership marched through London last week. Many on both sides feel betrayed by a political elite that has failed to show leadership. Parliament is due to vote at around 1900 GMT on Monday on a range of alternative Brexit options selected by Speaker John Bercow from nine proposals put forward by lawmakers, including a no-deal exit, preventing a no-deal exit, a customs union, or a second referendum. “We are clearly going to have to consider very carefully the will of Parliament,” Gauke said. With no majority yet in the House of Commons for any of the Brexit options, there is speculation that an election could be called, though such a vote would be unpredictable and it is unclear who would lead the Conservatives into it. The Sunday Times said May’s media chief, Robbie Gibb, and Stephen Parkinson, her political aide, are pushing for an election against the will of her chief enforcer in Parliament, Julian Smith. The Conservative Party’s deputy chair, James Cleverly, said it is not planning for an election. But Tom Watson, the deputy leader of the opposition Labour Party, said his party is on an election footing. Labour’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, Emily Thornberry, said it could try to call a vote of no confidence in May’s government. “We don’t know if she is going to remain prime minister, if we are going to get somebody else, who that other person is going to be — it is a mess,” Thornberry said. Opponents of Brexit fear it will make Britain poorer and divide the West as it grapples with both the unconventional U.S. presidency of Donald Trump and growing assertiveness from Russia and China. Supporters of Brexit say while the divorce might bring some short-term instability, in the longer term it will allow the United Kingdom to thrive if cut free from what they cast as a doomed attempt in European unity.
|
u.k .;politics;london;brexit;theresa may
|
jp0001944
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/03/31
|
Progressive Democrat Beto O'Rourke officially joins U.S. presidential race
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EL PASO, TEXAS - Beto O’Rourke, the youthful Democrat who seized national attention last fall with an unexpectedly strong Senate campaign in conservative Texas, formally launched his presidential candidacy Saturday in his hometown of El Paso, vowing to bring a unifying dynamic, progressive values and generational change to American politics. “This is our moment of truth, and we cannot be found wanting,” he told an enthusiastic crowd of at least 1,000. Speaking from a spot only blocks from the border with Mexico, he underscored some of his most vigorous differences with the man he hopes to succeed in the White House — Donald Trump — without ever naming the U.S. president. While Trump seeks to build a border wall and threatened just days ago to close the frontier if Mexico fails to stem the influx of undocumented immigrants, O’Rourke described America as “a country of immigrants and asylum seekers and refugees (who) are the very premise of our strength, of our success and, yes, our security.” In an implicit rebuke to Trump, O’Rourke said that his hometown was safer because of its immigrants, not more dangerous. If elected he said he would pursue comprehensive immigration reform, reunite immigrant families separated at the border and “bring millions more (undocumented immigrants) out of the shadows.” Speaking energetically as he roamed about a stage with the sleeves of his Oxford shirt rolled, the 46-year-old listed his priorities: remaking an economy “that works too well for too few and not at all for too many”; moving toward “high-quality universal health care”; and seizing the nation’s “last best hope of averting a (climate) catastrophe.” He called for the U.S. to wind down its foreign wars, strengthen its alliances, and “end these love affairs with dictators and strongmen.” His message clearly was geared not just to El Pasoans but to Democrats nationwide as the party gears up for an extended campaign to see who will challenge Trump in 2020. O’Rourke pointed out that he helped boost voter turnout in Texas — particularly among the young — to some of its highest levels in years. He had made his intention to run for the presidency known in mid-March, and in a single day raked in a huge $6.1 million in donations, giving himself instant relevance in the crowded Democratic field. He since has been campaigning — usually before large crowds — in early-voting states including Iowa and New Hampshire. And on Saturday, O’Rourke — who during his Senate campaign visited every one of Texas’s 254 counties — continued his peripatetic ways, heading from his El Paso kickoff to rallies in Houston and Austin, the state capital. The 46-year-old former congressman and onetime punk rocker was born Robert O’Rourke but widely known as “Beto.” His nearly successful campaign in November against incumbent Senator Ted Cruz brought him national attention. Some Democrats hope O’Rourke might even be able to turn reliably red Texas to Democratic blue, though first he would have to wade through the huge field of 16 Democrats now in the running — including a popular fellow Texan, Julian Castro. Other Democratic rivals include senators Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar. The Democratic frontrunner, former vice president Joe Biden, is not even officially in the race, but polls show him as the leading contender for the party’s nomination, with 29.2 percent support, according to the RealClearPolitics average of the six latest surveys. Sanders is second at 21.8 percent, followed by Harris at 9.8 and O’Rourke at 9.2. The newest rising star of the pack is Pete Buttigieg, 37, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana and a military veteran, who would be the youngest and the first openly gay president should he win. O’Rourke is an unorthodox candidate, with a comparatively thin political resume and with a seeming allergy to being labeled a liberal. During his six years in Congress, O’Rourke was more politically cautious, joining the House’s centrist coalition. But as the Democratic presidential field tilts leftward, he has hit on several progressive talking points. In addition to supporting a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, he backs marijuana legalization and champions the Green New Deal, a sweeping climate change mitigation framework. He called Saturday for paid family leave, equal pay for women and an end to for-profit prisons. On his first major campaign tour, which took him to eight states including New Hampshire, South Carolina and Ohio, he met people in coffee shops, school gyms and taquerias, offering a unifying vision packed with optimism but short on policy specifics.
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2020 u.s. presidential election;beto o'rourke
|
jp0001945
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/03/31
|
Outsider and activist Zuzana Caputova wins Slovak presidency
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BRATISLAVA - Slovak government critic Zuzana Caputova will become the EU member’s first female president after winning a run-off election Saturday against the ruling party’s candidate. “Let us look for what connects us. Let us promote cooperation above personal interests,” the 45-year-old environmental lawyer told reporters after the results rolled in. The community activist was largely unknown before she launched her presidential run in the eurozone member of 5.4 million. She won the election with 58 percent of the ballot thanks in part to voter disillusionment with the governing coalition a year after the murder of a journalist investigating high-level corruption plunged the country into crisis. Caputova was among the tens of thousands of protesters who took to the streets after Jan Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova, were gunned down at home in February 2018. Kuciak was about to publish a report on alleged ties between Slovak politicians and the Italian Mafia and associated irregularities in EU farm subsidy payments. Then-Prime Minister Robert Fico was forced to resign, but he remains the leader of the ruling Smer-SD party and is a close ally of current Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini. Caputova, who gave up membership in the nonparliamentary party Progressive Slovakia before the runoff, has vowed to fight for justice for all. “In the eyes of voters, she is a response to our current problems,” analyst Grigorij Meseznikov said. Caputova has a gift for rhetoric and was endorsed by outgoing liberal President Andrej Kiska as well as Jozef Kuciak, the slain journalist’s brother. She is pro-choice and promotes greater rights for same-sex couples, arguing that a child “would be better off with two loving beings of the same sex” than having to grow up in an orphanage. Caputova concedes that her lack of knowledge in the field of defense and security is a disadvantage. “I will have to rely on my advisers when it comes to those topics,” she said on the campaign trail. “Also, punctuality is not my strong suit.” Born in the capital, Bratislava, on June 21, 1973, Caputova spent her early years in the nearby town of Pezinok. After studying law at Bratislava’s Comenius University, she joined Via Iuris, a leading Slovak legal advocacy organization. There, she spearheaded a successful campaign to block a dump site proposed for her native Pezinok that would have been the size of 12 football fields. For 14 years the town’s residents fought against the planned landfill, with Caputova organizing what was dubbed the largest mobilization of citizens since the 1989 Velvet Revolution — the peaceful uprising that toppled the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. In 2013, the Slovak Supreme Court ruled in favor of the residents and annulled the authorization to build the landfill. The case also prompted the Court of Justice of the European Union to lay down rules requiring public access to urban planning decisions concerning projects that affect the environment. “This story from small-town Slovakia has actually had an important international impact,” Caputova later said. Caputova won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, the world’s top award for grassroots environmental activism, for her efforts. A member of the nonprofit organization Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, Caputova lists drawing, basketball, hiking and swimming among her hobbies. The English-speaker says she regrets having forgotten her Russian, which she would like to brush up on. She is divorced and has two teenage daughters. Her current partner is a musician and photographer.
|
eu;women;elections;slovakia;zuzana caputova
|
jp0001946
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/03/31
|
In first reaction to raid, North Korea brands Madrid embassy break-in 'a grave terrorist attack'
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North Korea has called a February raid on its embassy in Spain by a shadowy anti-regime group “a grave terrorist attack,” state-run media said Sunday in Pyongyang’s first reaction to the break-in. A spokesperson for the North’s Foreign Ministry labeled the raid “an illegal intrusion into and occupation of a diplomatic mission and act of extortion,” the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported, with the spokesman calling it “a grave breach of state sovereignty and a flagrant violation of international law.” The raid saw a group of reportedly armed men break into the Madrid embassy compound, allegedly roughing up employees and stealing computers and key documents. Free Joseon, a mysterious dissident group, claimed responsibility for the break-in but denied that anyone was “gagged or beaten” and said that “no weapons were used.” The group said Wednesday its actions were in response “to an urgent situation in the Madrid embassy” and that it had “shared certain information of enormous potential value” it obtained from the embassy with the FBI at its request. The KCNA report quoted the Foreign Ministry spokesman said Pyongyang is “following the rumors of all hues now in the air” that the FBI “and the small fry” anti-North Korean group were involved in the “terror incident.” It said the North expects Spanish authorities to “carry out an investigation into the incident to the last in a responsible manner in order to bring the terrorists and their wire-pullers to justice in conformity with the relevant international law.” “This kind of act should never be tolerated,” it added. The United States has denied it had anything to do with the raid, which came just days ahead of a second nuclear summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi. That meeting ultimately collapsed after the two sides failed to reach an accord. An investigation into the raid is already underway in Madrid. On Wednesday, a Spanish court named Mexican national Adrian Hong Chang as leader of the group who contacted “the FBI in New York five days after the assault.” A day later, the group released a short statement saying that its activities had been suspended after “speculative” articles in the media and that the media should refrain from focusing on individual members of the group. Previously known as the Cheollima Civil Defense, the group — which offers assistance to people attempting to defect from North Korea — first emerged in 2017, claiming to be providing protection for Kim Han Sol, the son of Kim Jong Nam, the half brother of Kim Jong Un who was assassinated, allegedly by agents from his brother’s regime, at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia in February 2017. In March, the group declared itself to be North Korea’s government-in-exile, calling itself Free Joseon. Joseon is an old name used to refer to the Korean Peninsula.
|
u.s .;north korea;terrorism;kim jong un;nuclear weapons;espionage;spain;fbi
|
jp0001947
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/03/31
|
Activists say deaths of 14 farmers during shootout by Philippine police was a 'massacre'
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MANILA - Rights groups Sunday condemned what they called a “massacre” of 14 farmers by police in the central Philippines as authorities defended the incident as a legitimate operation against suspected communist rebels. Police say the 14 men Saturday shot at officers with search warrants for illegal firearms, prompting them to return fire. But rights groups insist the men were “farmers asserting their rights to land,” the latest victims caught up in a violent crackdown under President Rodrigo Duterte. Duterte’s government has canceled peace talks with communist rebels — who are waging a 50-year-old insurgency that has killed thousands — and has ordered his troops to “destroy” them. The latest violence occurred in three separate incidents in Negros Island, the center of the nation’s sugar industry and home to some of the country’s wealthiest landowners as well as some of its poorest farm workers. Authorities say the operation was a response to communist rebel attacks in Negros, adding one policeman was wounded. “They fought back against our operating units. We were forced to fire back. Some of (the 14 men) are farmers but we cannot confirm how many,” provincial police spokesman Edilberto Euraoba said. Police arrested another 12 men while they recovered various firearms from those killed, Euraoba added. However rights and peasant groups said the 14 men killed Saturday were farmers, some elderly, citing witness accounts contradicting the police’s statement. “They were defenseless. It’s clear that it was a massacre. They are tagged as members and sympathizers (of communist rebels) but they are farmers asserting their rights to land,” Maria Sol Taule, legal counsel for rights group Karapatan, said. “President Duterte is attacking his critics including people fighting for their rights. It’s an all-out attack on all they suspect to be enemies, whether farmers or lawyers.” Rows over land have become increasingly common as Manila faces criticism for its slow-moving program to redistribute farmland to millions of sharecroppers — tenant farmers who give a part of each crop as rent — who remain mired in poverty. The Federation of Agricultural Workers condemned the latest deaths, saying it highlights growing rights violations on Negros Island. The nation’s rights body said it will investigate Saturday’s incident, expressing “grave concern” over what it called a rising number of killings in the country. Taule added that the incident is the latest in a series of attacks on farmers, following the killing of nine farmers by gunmen also in Negros last October. Farm workers account for about 20 million people, a fifth of the Philippine population, who live on less than $2 a day, the government says.
|
murder;terrorism;philippines;rodrigo duterte;police
|
jp0001950
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2019/03/31
|
South Korean prime minister says he's keen to improve ties with Japan
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SEOUL - South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon expressed an eagerness to improve relations with Japan, during a ceremony in Chongqing, China. South Korea is trying to overcome its unfortunate history with Japan and develop their 1,500-year history of bilateral exchanges and cooperation in a future-oriented way, Lee emphasized. Lee made the remarks at a ceremony Friday to commemorate the restoration of the headquarters building of the Korean Liberation Army, which was set up by the Korean provisional government during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. The prime minister’s office released the remarks. Lee did not refer to specific political issues, such as recent rulings by the South Korean Supreme Court that ordered Japanese companies to pay compensation to South Koreans who claim to have been forced to work for them during World War II. During a recent legislative session, Lee also expressed his readiness to make efforts to improve relations with Japan, saying that back-door talks were underway. The Korean provisional government was established in Shanghai in April 1919 to achieve independence from Japan. The government was later transferred to Chongqing. South Korean President Moon Jae-in had asked China to restore the building that housed the army headquarters to mark the 100th anniversary of the provisional government’s establishment. The South Korean daily JoongAng Ilbo, in an editorial on Saturday, criticized the Moon administration for apparently giving up on resolving the friction with Japan even as bilateral relations continued to worsen after the court rulings against the Japanese companies. The paper cited a speech by U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris on Wednesday calling for an improvement of relations between Japan and South Korea. In the speech, Harris quoted U.S. President Donald Trump’s remarks highlighting the importance of Japan-South Korea relations in the trilateral ties including the United States. The United States started speaking out on Japan-South Korea relations after keeping silent on bilateral disputes for two years, as it sees the current situation as serious, the daily said. The editorial urged Moon and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to hold talks at an early date to find a realistic solution.
|
wwii;history;comfort women;wartime labor;south korea-japan relations;lee nak-yon
|
jp0001951
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/03/31
|
Japan to keep official records of new era name's selection process
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Following concerns over how official documents were handled in the changeover from Showa to Heisei, the government will officially record the process of selecting the new era name that will be announced Monday, government sources have said. Among a set of documents to be kept for a maximum 30 years under the law will be calligraphy of the gengō (era name) that Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga is expected to show in an announcement Monday, the sources said Saturday. The era name change will come on May 1 when Crown Prince Naruhito is due to ascend the throne, taking over from his father, Emperor Akihito, who is set to abdicate on April 30. A panel of representatives from the business world, academia and media organizations will review proposed candidate names Monday morning and an outline of their discussions will also be part of the documents. Following the announcement by the top government spokesman, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to explain its meaning and detail the literary work from which it is derived. But the government is unlikely to reveal further details that day, including other candidate names that were discussed. Still, the government plans to keep records of such proposals, including over who came up with the ideas, the sources said. The government’s move comes amid growing calls for proper management of official documents and archives to ensure the public’s right to know is protected. Under the law, the government is required to keep official documents for a maximum 30 years, after which they will be moved to the National Archives of Japan or discarded with the consent of the prime minister. Japan adopted the current era name, Heisei, meaning “achieving peace,” in 1989 following the death of Emperor Hirohito, posthumously known as Emperor Showa. The calligraphy of Heisei, shown publicly for the first time by then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Keizo Obuchi, was temporarily kept at Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita’s house, prompting calls for the government to improve how it keeps official documents. At the time, Japan did not have the current legal framework concerning official documents. Official documents related to the era name change from Showa to Heisei remain classified as the government decided to keep them confidential for five more years. They are due to be made public in April 2024.
|
yoshihide suga;emperor akihito;imperial family;abdication;reiwa;emperor naruhito
|
jp0001953
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/03/31
|
Plants and bugs: Japanese government pulls out all the stops to prevent leak ahead of era announcement
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The government is making every effort to keep information on the new Imperial era name secret until its announcement Monday and officials are even checking plants inside the Prime Minister’s Office for possible bugging devices. “It is also my duty to carry out events related to the Imperial succession smoothly,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said during a speech Saturday in Yokohama. “We’ll move forward (preparations) steadily so Japanese people will celebrate the succession.” The new era name proposals are kept in a safe at the Cabinet Secretariat. The government will present them to members of a panel of experts at a meeting from 9:30 a.m. Monday, followed by a hearing with the speaker and vice speaker of the Lower House and the president and vice president of the Upper House. After discussions by all Cabinet ministers, the government will formally adopt the new era name at a Cabinet meeting, and Suga will announce the decision at a news conference starting at around 11:30 a.m. The government will ask members of the expert panel, parliamentary leaders and Cabinet ministers not to bring any recording devices, including smartphones, into the rooms where the new era name will be presented and not to leave there before the announcement. The government plans to check the belongings of panel members before they enter the Prime Minister’s Office and have government personnel escort them to restrooms so they will not make any contact with outsiders. “There is a strained atmosphere in the Prime Minister’s Office,” one government official said. If the new era name is leaked to the media beforehand, the government plans to replace it. The government initially considered conducting a hearing with the parliamentary leaders at a room in the National Diet Building, but Lower House Vice Speaker Hirotaka Akamatsu from the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan objected because it meant they would be effectively placed in custody. It was eventually decided that the hearing will take place at the official residence of the Lower House speaker from 10:20 a.m. The parliamentary leaders will stay at the residence “voluntarily” until the era name is announced. The government is taking every possible step to keep the new era name confidential, but with the wide range of electronic devices used for communications and bugging available, top officials are likely to remain apprehensive over the possibility of a leak until the last minute before the announcement.
|
shinzo abe;cabinet;imperial family;abdication
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jp0001954
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2019/03/31
|
Colleague from baby care facility arrested after woman stabbed to death in Tokyo apartment
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A 31-year-old worker at a special care facility for babies has been arrested for allegedly stabbing a colleague to death in her apartment in Tokyo last week, police have said. Yusuke Matsuoka, 31, was identified as the man seen in security camera footage leaving the apartment in Suginami Ward where Tsugumi Terui, 32, was found on the floor with a knife in her back Tuesday, investigative sources said Saturday. Matsuoka, who was sent to prosecutors Sunday, has denied the allegations, they said. Matsuoka had several scratches on his neck and wrists when he was arrested. As possible evidence, police removed a black coat from Matsuoka’s home which resembled one worn by the man seen in the video footage, they said. Investigations so far suggest the suspect and the victim had not been in an intimate relationship, the sources said. Matsuoka is believed to have broken into Terui’s apartment on the second floor of the two-story building after apparently climbing over the roof and dropping down to the balcony, according to the sources. He is suspected of having heated and shattered a section of glass with a burner so that he could unlock the sliding windows on the balcony, a method often used by thieves, the sources said. As they worked at the same facility, Matsuoka was in a position to know Terui’s work schedule and could have broken into her apartment and waited until she came home after finishing a night shift, they said. Matsuoka had been working at the care facility for about six years. Furniture in her room had been knocked over, police said earlier, indicating a struggle. They received a call around noon last Tuesday from a neighbor who heard a woman calling for help in an apartment.
|
murder;suginami ward;police
|
jp0001955
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/03/31
|
Bumpy ride feared in Japan as new visa types issued to ease labor crunch
|
Japan, a country long regarded as immigration-averse, opened its doors wider to workers from abroad on Monday as the revised Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act took effect. As part of the change, the government has put forward an action plan and guidelines that focus on creating a better living environment for foreign residents. And while the people on the ground tasked with accommodating them say it is a slight step forward, they will have their work cut out for them dealing with the many challenges the newcomers face in adjusting to Japanese society. Two new residency statuses provided by the visas are expected to let certain industrial sectors alleviate the pinch from Japan’s national labor shortage. The Type 1 visa can be renewed for five years. Applicants must pass a Japanese test, have a certain skill level in the field they want to work in, and are barred in principle from bringing their families to Japan. Vietnamese aspiring to work in Japan practice their Japanese. | KYODO The Type 2 visa can be renewed indefinitely as long as one is employed. People employed under this category will have higher skill levels than Type 1 visa holders and are permitted to bring their spouses and children along. Holders of both can only work in 14 designated sectors facing major labor crunches. These include nursing, construction, and agriculture. They are free to change jobs as long as they stay in the same industry. The government maintains the overhaul does not represent an “immigration policy” as it doesn’t allow the workers to immediately bring their families to Japan on a permanent basis, under a national policy intended to “maintain” the population. And yet, the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe adopted an action plan last December that detailed measures on how foreign individuals — including students, workers, and family members of Japanese — could obtain support they need to better integrate in Japan. The plan lists 126 steps the government plans to take, such as improving language education, encouraging newcomers to enroll in social insurance programs, and increasing multilingual services at hospitals, schools and municipal offices. One step calls for establishing “one stop” consultation centers for non-Japanese residents in about 100 municipalities that will help those who don’t speak Japanese complete their paperwork at municipal offices. The government has allocated about ¥2 billion in funding over the past two years for such consultation services. The city of Ota, Gunma Prefecture, is one municipality that requested such funding to improve its consultation center. It hopes to add new machines that will translate some 11 spoken languages into Japanese text in April. “We requested the funding so we can provide consulting services in so-called rare languages like Vietnamese and Nepalese,” explained Fukashi Kawakami, an Ota city official. The city already provides consultation services in English, Portuguese, Spanish and Chinese, but the extent to which the machines will really help is hard to gauge, Kawakami said. “The reality is that foreign residents sometimes already speak fluent Japanese, or visit with friends who can speak Japanese,” Kawakami added. “Under the foreign trainee system, for example, workers would be accompanied with people from their workplace. We’ll just have to see how we can make use of the translation machines that we plan to put in place.” Another plan proposes call-in translation services for hospitals and doctor’s offices. However, just calling in to translate medical diagnoses does not bridge the language barrier, explained Yoko Iwamoto, a Yokohama-based medical translator. “A lot of medical translation relies on visuals,” she explained. Visual cues such as a patient’s reaction or explaining details of how illnesses could affect the body might not necessarily translate well over the phone. As a medical translator who has almost 20 years of experience in the field, she believes the new plan may help provide medical services to people who only speak rare languages. That being said, Iwamoto believes “Japan needs a stronger culture of translation” so residents who live and work in the country can obtain equal access to medical services regardless of what language they speak. The discrepancy between what the action plan posits and what people on the ground feel means that it’s important for the government to continue getting feedback on how to improve policies for non-Japanese, said Kumi Sato, a professor of intercultural studies at Kinjo Gakuin University. “There is also an imbalance between what municipalities that have a long history of having foreign residents and municipalities that are new to accommodating them need, and the new policies don’t necessarily address that,” she said, adding that a structure where municipalities can share know-how and information on accommodating people from different cultures may be more effective. “There needs to be a bigger vision” on how Japan plans to accommodate foreign residents, Sato added. “Just talking about numbers to address the labor crunch isn’t going to do anything for the future of this country,” she said. “Japan needs to envision a future that’s not about making up for a lack of people via foreign resources, but about creating stronger industries … and truly welcoming newcomers into the country,” she said.
|
restaurants;immigration;language;hotels;ethnicity;foreign workers;nursing care
|
jp0001956
|
[
"reference"
] |
2019/03/31
|
The week ahead for April 1 to April 7
|
Monday Government to announce name of next era for use from May 1, when Crown Prince Naruhito takes the throne following his father Emperor Akihito’s abdication on April 30 after 30 years of reign. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga to unveil the new gengō (name) and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to explain the meaning. Japan to launch new visa system to attract more foreign workers to address labor crunch, departing from traditionally tight controls on immigration. New immigration agency to manage and support those who come to work in Japan. Government expects to receive up to 345,000 laborers over five years. Bank of Japan to release quarterly tankan business sentiment survey. Confidence among major manufacturers expected to fall for first time in two quarters amid concern about slackening domestic production and overseas demand as Chinese growth slows. Law to promote work-style reform takes effect. Major changes include legal cap on overtime work to address karōshi (death from overwork). Idemitsu Kosan and Showa Shell Sekiyu to merge, creating new oil giant in realignment of domestic oil wholesale industry. Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. to change name to Nippon Steel Corp. Tuesday Japan, Russia to hold strategic dialogue in Tokyo. Wednesday No major events. Thursday Japan Automobile Dealers Association to release auto sales by model for March, fiscal 2018. Friday Hayabusa2 space probe to create crater by shooting projectile into asteroid Ryugu, then land and collect subsurface samples. Ryugu, 340 million km away from Earth, is believed to contain organic substances and water with remnants of the primitive solar system. Hayabusa2 is due to return with samples in December 2020. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications to release household spending data for February. Cabinet Office to release preliminary composite indexes of key economic indicators for February. Saturday No major events. Sunday Local elections held to choose 11 governors and six mayors, with outcome likely to impact House of Councilors election this summer. Osaka gubernatorial and mayoral elections also to be held after former governor and mayor resigned in bid to swap posts to continue push for their political party’s goal of merging Osaka’s wards to create a metropolis structure similar to Tokyo’s.
|
weekly events;the week ahead;schedule
|
jp0001957
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange's Mark Karpeles appeals conviction
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Mark Karpeles, who headed Mt. Gox, a Japan-based bitcoin exchange that went bankrupt after a massive hack, is appealing his conviction on charges of manipulating electronic data. Karpeles’ lawyer Nobuyasu Ogata said Friday his client was just trying to reduce risks for Mt. Gox users. The Tokyo District Court cleared Karpeles earlier this month of embezzlement and breach of trust charges, handing him a suspended sentence, meaning he wouldn’t have to serve prison time. But he was found guilty of the dubious data charges. The court said he had manipulated data to harm his clients, betraying their trust and abusing his engineering skills. Prosecutors had demanded 10 years in prison. Karpeles, a 33-year-old Frenchman and longtime resident of Japan, was arrested in August 2015. His case, coming at a time when cryptocurrencies were still relatively new, drew global attention. Karpeles said he decided to appeal because the judge had not fully looked at the defense arguments. “During the opening of my trial in 2017, I swore to God that I am innocent of all charges,” he said in an email. “I believe appealing to the judgment is appropriate so that I can be judged again in full consideration of all the facts.” Ogata said he welcomed the court’s ruling on Karpeles’ innocence of some charges as “a proper decision.” But he defended Karpeles’ actions following the massive bitcoin theft by still unidentified hackers as an effort to minimize the damage. “We cannot think of such actions as illegitimate,” he said in a statement. Karpeles earlier said that he and his lawyer were considering an appeal. The Mt. Gox case raised alarm over what had been a legal gray area. Afterward, the government set up a system requiring exchanges to be licensed as the nation set out to become a global leader in the technology. Bitcoin has been a legal form of payment in Japan since April 2017, and a handful of major retailers accept it. Ogata has argued the authorities were confused about how cryptocurrency exchanges worked and were trying to pin the blame for a cybercrime on Karpeles, who was actually a victim. Karpeles’ incarceration for nearly a year ahead of his trial drew attention to Japanese judicial practices that also came under intensified scrutiny with the arrest of Nissan Motor Co.’s former chairman, Carlos Ghosn, in November. Ghosn, who says he is innocent of all the financial misconduct allegations he faces, was released on ¥1 billion ($9 million) bail this month after more than three months of detention.
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courts;scandals;bitcoin;mt . gox;cryptocurrency
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jp0001958
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Takata air bags claim another life after Arizona crash
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DETROIT - An Arizona man killed by an exploding Takata air bag inflator brings the worldwide death toll to at least 24. Armando V. Ortega, 55, of Yuma, died June 11, 2018, three days after his 2002 Honda Civic was involved in a crash near Phoenix, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety. Honda said in a statement that the Civic driver was hit by shrapnel and injured. He later died at a hospital. The death, which wasn’t reported to a federal agency until this month, is the 16th in the U.S. caused by the air bags, which can explode with too much force and hurl shrapnel into drivers and passengers. Seven people were killed in Malaysia and one in Australia. More than 200 people also have been hurt by the inflators, which have caused the largest series of automotive recalls in U.S. history involving as many as 70 million inflators to be recalled by the end of next year. About 100 million inflators are to be recalled worldwide. “This is a critical reminder of the serious nature of the Takata airbag recall and serves as an important call to action,” NHTSA said in a statement Friday. The agency urged owners to check for open recalls by keying in their 17-digit vehicle identification number into the NHTSA website, www.nhtsa.gov/recalls . Takata used ammonium nitrate to create a small explosion to inflate the bags. But it can deteriorate due to high temperatures and humidity and explode too forcefully, spewing metal fragments. The deaths and recalls forced Takata into bankruptcy with its assets purchased by a company owned by a Chinese investment firm. The owner of the Civic, identified by Arizona officials as Ortega, purchased the car used less than three months before the crash. But there is no federal requirement that used car sellers have the cars repaired or inform buyers of any unrepaired recall problems. Honda said it did not know the car had been sold until recently. The Civic in the crash has been under recall since December 2014 due to a faulty driver’s front air bag inflator. Honda said it mailed 12 recall notices over three years to the previous owners. The company also said it made more than 20 phone calls in an effort to reach the owners, but Honda records show the repairs were never done. Honda said the death was first reported to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on March 11 of this year. The safety agency notified Honda on March 14, and it inspected the car with Honda on Friday and determined that the inflator was blown apart in the crash. “The rupture was confirmed at this inspection, and we announced the findings the same day,” Honda spokesman Chris Martin said. Honda said it has sufficient supplies of replacement inflators, and it urged people to get recalled vehicles repaired as soon as possible. Older vehicles, especially from the 2001 through 2003 model years, are most at risk, the company said. Department of Public Safety spokesman Bart Graves said Ortega’s Civic collided with another vehicle at an intersection in Maricopa County near the city of Buckeye. He did not know further details of the crash.
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honda;scandals;carmakers;cars;takata;air bags
|
jp0001959
|
[
"business",
"economy-business"
] |
2019/03/30
|
U.S. and China report progress in Beijing trade talks as Trump pushes for 'great deal'
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BEIJING/PALM BEACH, FLORIDA - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that trade talks with China were going very well, but cautioned that he would not accept anything less than a “great deal” after top U.S. and Chinese trade officials wrapped up two days of negotiations in Beijing. Both sides reported progress in the talks and China also approved majority-owned brokerage joint ventures for U.S. bank JP Morgan Chase and Japan’s Nomura, a step toward meeting U.S. demands for more access to China’s financial services market. “The trade deal is going very well,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. “It is a very comprehensive, very detailed enlisting of problems that we’ve had with China over the years,” Trump said of the talks. “And it’s going to have to be a great deal. If it’s not a great deal, we can’t do it.” In an earlier statement, the White House said the two sides “continued to make progress during candid and constructive discussions on the negotiations and important next steps,” but did not elaborate on the nature of the progress. The talks are set to resume next week in Washington with a Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier Liu He. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer were in the Chinese capital for the first face-to-face meetings between the two sides since Trump delayed a scheduled March 2 increase in tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. China’s state news agency Xinhua said the two sides discussed “relevant agreement documents” and made new progress in their talks, but did not elaborate in a brief report. U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said in Malvern, Iowa, that he has been told the Trump administration is planning to complete a deal with China by the end of April. However, Trump administration officials, including White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, have said the negotiations are “not time dependent” and could take weeks or even months to complete. “We’ve made great progress on intellectual property, on trade secrets, on their government not forcing our business to give them our technologies and on currency manipulation, among several other things,” Grassley said at a farm event. But the Iowa Republican, whose state has been hit hard by China’s retaliation against U.S. tariffs, added that without an effective enforcement mechanism to hold China to its promises, “none of this other stuff matters.” Trump imposed tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese imports beginning last July in a move to force China to change the way it does business with the rest of the world and to pry open more of its economy to U.S. companies. Though his blunt-force use of tariffs has angered many, Trump’s push to change what are widely viewed as China’s market-distorting trade and subsidy practices has drawn broad support. Lobbyists, company executives and U.S. lawmakers from both parties have urged Trump not to settle simply for Beijing’s offers to make big-ticket purchases from the United States to help reduce a record trade gap. Going into the talks at the Diaoyutai State Guest House in Beijing, people familiar with the negotiations had said there were still significant differences on enforcement and the sequence of when and how U.S. tariffs on Chinese products would be lifted. Analysts had anticipated the scope of this round of talks to be quite narrow, but that both countries hoped to signal they were working hard toward a resolution. Reuters reported previously that the two sides were negotiating written pacts in six areas: forced technology transfer and cyber theft, intellectual property rights, services, currency, agriculture and nontariff barriers to trade. One person with knowledge of the talks said “translation is definitely an issue,” referring to discrepancies between the Chinese- and English-language versions. There remains skepticism that any deal can permanently resolve U.S.-China trade tensions. “Whatever implementation mechanism China agrees to, whether it is monthly or quarterly meetings or other check-ins, there are going to be problems,” James Green, a senior adviser at McLarty Associates who until August was the top USTR official at the embassy in Beijing, said. Trump’s demands include an end to Beijing practices that Washington says result in systematic theft of U.S. intellectual property and the forced transfer of American technology to Chinese companies. U.S. companies say they are often pressured into handing over technological know-how to Chinese joint venture partners, local officials or regulators as a condition for doing business in China. The U.S. government says technology is often subsequently transferred to, and used by, Chinese competitors. China says its laws enshrine no requirements on technology transfers that are a result of legitimate transactions.
|
china;u.s .;trade;donald trump
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jp0001960
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Deepening probe reveals 6,340 improper aircraft engine checks by IHI
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Major Japanese heavy machinery-maker IHI Corp. has reported 6,340 cases of improper maintenance checks of engines for commercial aircraft, a dramatic jump from the 211 announced in its interim investigation report on March 8. The surge came as the company added engines of aircraft used by foreign airlines in its probe into the irregularities, it said Friday. The interim report covered only engines of airplanes operated by domestic carriers. The industry ministry imposed an administrative penalty on the company based on the aircraft manufacturing business act. IHI was ordered to conduct engine maintenance and repair work under approved methods. It is very rare for an administrative penalty to be doled out based on the law. The number of cases of improper aircraft engine checks at IHI may continue to grow as the transport ministry continues its investigation. IHI said it has confirmed that the irregularities do not affect the safety of aircraft concerned. Between January 2017 and this January, the company carried out maintenance checks on a total of 212 engines used in planes operated by domestic and foreign carriers. Of them, 209 engines were checked by unqualified workers, and inspection documents were falsified using seals of qualified workers, according to the firm. Such fraudulent use of qualified inspection workers’ seals were found in 5,846 of the overall cases. The remaining cases involved such misconduct as unauthorized changes in inspection procedures and manipulation of inspection dates. The irregularities at IHI were uncovered during an on-site inspection by the transport ministry.
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airlines;aviation;scandals;ihi
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jp0001961
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Japan Display nears deal to raise ¥100 billion from China-Taiwan consortium and Japanese investment fund
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Japan Display Inc. is making final arrangements to procure some ¥100 billion from a China-Taiwan consortium and Japanese public-private investment fund INCJ Ltd., informed sources said Saturday. Japan Display, a major maker of small and midsize liquid crystal displays that is now under business rehabilitation, is in negotiations with the consortium, comprising a Chinese fund and Taiwanese touch-screen manufacturer TPK Holding Co. According to the sources, Japan Display hopes to reach a basic agreement with the consortium as early as next week. Initially, the company aimed to strike a deal within fiscal 2018. The China-Taiwan consortium is expected to secure some 30 percent of the voting rights in Japan Display with investment totaling ¥60 billion, the sources said. With INCJ considering additional financial assistance, Japan Display is expected to procure a total of about ¥100 billion, the sources said. INCJ is the top shareholder of Japan Display with a stake of over 25 percent at present. The raised funds will be used mainly for debt repayment and parts procurement for the latest version of Apple Inc.’s iPhone, a major revenue source for Japan Display. If an agreement is made, Japan Display plans to build a cutting-edge organic electroluminescence panel plant in China, using assistance from the consortium. Japan Display is expected to post a net loss for the fifth straight year in fiscal 2018, reflecting a sales slump of Apple products in China. In 2012, Japan Display launched operations by integrating the small and midsize LCD businesses of Toshiba Corp., Hitachi Ltd. and Sony Corp., backed also by government assistance. But the company is facing an extremely tough business situation due to a delay in its development of technologies related to organic electroluminescence panels.
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japan display;injc;tpk holding
|
jp0001962
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Nomura receives Chinese approval to establish majority-controlled brokerage
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Nomura Holdings Inc. said Friday it has won approval from Chinese regulators to establish a majority-controlled brokerage, as the world’s second-largest economy seeks to open up its financial sector to foreign companies. The move follows UBS Group AG based in Switzerland, which became the first foreign bank to increase its stake to gain majority control of a securities joint venture in China. The bank said in November that it won approval. Nomura Holdings requested the approval to establish a securities joint venture in China last May. It expects the Shanghai-based Nomura Orient International Securities Co. to start operating possibly by the end of this year. The company said in a news release it will initially focus on the wealth management business for high-net-worth individuals, later developing its product distribution channels and expanding into wholesale and other business segments. Its ultimate goal is to grow the business into a “full-fledged brokerage that will form a core part of the firm’s strategy in Asia,” it said. Beijing said last year it will raise the limits on foreign ownership in securities joint ventures to 51 percent and allow full control within three years.
|
china;nomura holdings;nomura securities
|
jp0001963
|
[
"world",
"science-health-world"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Great Pompeii Project offers new glimpses into city's life before calamity
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POMPEII, ITALY - Nearly 2,000 years after Pompeii was destroyed by a volcanic eruption, the ancient Roman city is still giving up its long-buried secrets. Fantastic frescos, preserved mosaics and obscene graffiti are just some of the discoveries emerging from the largest archaeological dig at the site since the 1950s. As teams of construction workers shore up mounds of earth pressing down on the excavated areas to prevent them from crushing the ruins, archaeologists and conservationists are busy restoring newly discovered art and bolstering fragile walls. The burst of activity marks the final stages of the Great Pompeii Project, launched in 2012 after a spate of cave-ins, with the European Union and the Italian state handing over €105 million ($118 million) to halt the decay. “The risk of collapse, of serious damage is past. Now Pompeii is quite safe,” said Francesco Muscolino, 42, an archaeologist working on the program. The extensive conservation work has enabled scholars to uncover a few more areas of Pompeii still buried under volcanic debris, including two large houses, alleyways, highly decorated interiors and a brightly colored snack bar. Pompeii was submerged by volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius exploded in A.D. 79, killing thousands of Romans who had no idea they were living beneath one of Europe’s biggest volcanoes. Memory of the catastrophe faded over time, and it was not until 1748 that any meaningful exploration was undertaken. More systematic excavations were launched the following century, but by the end of the 20th century, neglect, lack of funds and repeated flooding were taking a heavy toll. In 2010, less than 15 percent of the excavated area was accessible to tourists, wild dogs roamed the paved streets and only 10 buildings were open, against 64 in 1956. Today, around 70 percent of the uncovered city is accessible and more than 30 fully restored buildings can be visited. The improved access has helped lift tourist numbers, with some 3.5 million people coming to Pompeii last year, an increase of 1 million in just a decade. Even more visitors are expected as the latest finds are gradually unveiled to the public. Among the highlights are a fresco of the Greek mythological figure Narcissus leaning languidly on a block of stone and staring down at his own reflection in a pool of water. In the same house, archaeologists found a small, exquisite wall painting portraying the seduction of the Spartan queen Leda by the Greek god Zeus, disguised as a swan. “It was wonderful because it is very beautiful and in very good condition,” said Stefania Giudice, one of the conservationists tasked with preserving the new discoveries. The fresco’s bright colors have already faded since the ash and pumice were painstakingly removed last year as moisture on the surface of the wall dried out, dulling the rich tones. “We will clean it and protect it and get the beautiful colors back,” Giudice said, predicting that the fresco-rich house, still partially buried, would be opened to the public within one or two years as new tourist routes were laid out. Elsewhere, some graffiti contains graphic sexual references. Perhaps one of the most significant finds was the least spectacular at first sight — a brief charcoal inscription that cites the date Oct. 17. It was written in the hallway of a grand house where at least six bodies were discovered. Archaeologists believe the faint note might have been written just before the eruption, meaning the disaster probably struck two months later than previously thought. Muscolino predicted it would take many years for scholars to assimilate and interpret all the material recovered in recent months, with trays of delicate glass, fresco fragments, plaster mouldings, coins and amphora stored away for future research. More than 270 years after the first serious excavations began, a third of the city, which covers roughly 165 acres (67 hectares), remains buried and unexplored. But there are no plans for further major digs after this latest project ends, with the emphasis now on conservation. “Excavations are like having children. You have to take care of them. You can’t just abandon what you find and move on to the next thing,” said Giudice. “It is a real responsibility.”
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history;archaeology;italy;pompeii
|
jp0001964
|
[
"world",
"science-health-world"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Russia develops first washing machine for space
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MOSCOW - The days of astronauts packing enough clean clothes to last a whole mission could soon be over as Russia said Friday it is developing a washing machine for space. The RKK Energiya corporation, which builds spacecraft, dropped a brief mention of the innovation in a video posted on YouTube. “By the way, for future lunar expeditions and other interplanetary crafts, RKK Energiya has started developing a special space washing machine,” the voice-over says, without giving further details. With water at a premium, currently astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) for stints of some six months cannot wash their clothes in any way and simply put on new outfits when their clothes get dirty. Astronauts usually wear the same outfit for three to four days and then throw them away with other rubbish. In 2017, a Russian space industry journal published a paper by RKK Energiya researchers with a description and diagrams of a washing machine that could be used on the ISS. It said that for three crew members, up to 660 kilograms (1,450 pounds) of clothes have to be ferried to the ISS over a year. For a two-year flight to Mars with six crew members this could increase to three tons, the authors warned. Having onboard “equipment for hygienic treatment could significantly lessen the stocks of personal hygiene products and items of clothing,” the report said. Researchers proposed using not water, which would be wasteful and require extra storage, but carbon dioxide that is produced by humans’ breathing and can be turned into a liquid under pressure. Last year, the Moscow Institute of Chemical Machine-Building said that it was going to develop a shower and sauna for astronauts as well as facilities for them to wash hands and clothes. NASA has also wrestled with the problem, funding research into methods of washing clothes without water and anti-microbial clothing that could be worn longer. The announcement of the washing machine project comes as NASA this week canceled the first ever two-woman spacewalk from the ISS because there was only one spacesuit on board of the right size.
|
space;international space station
|
jp0001965
|
[
"world",
"science-health-world"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Mystery of Garfield phones washing up in France highlights problem of plastic pollution
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PLOUARZEL, FRANCE - For more than 30 years bright orange “Garfield” phones have been washing up on the French coast to the bemusement of local beach cleaners, who have finally cracked the mystery behind them. Locals had long suspected a lost shipping container was to blame for the novelty land line phones, modeled on the prickly feline cartoon character, which have plagued the northern Finistere beaches for decades. “Our association has existed for 18 years and in that time we have found pieces of Garfield telephones almost each time we clean,” said Claire Simonin, head of the beach cleaning group Ar Viltansou in Brittany. But it wasn’t until a local resident revealed that he had discovered the container after a storm in the 1980s that they were finally able to locate it — wedged in a partially submerged cave only accessible at low tide. “He told us where it was … it was very, very dangerous,” Simonin said after an expedition to track it down. “We found this incredible fissure that is 30 meters (100 feet) deep and at the very bottom, there were the remains of a container.” “Under the boulders in front of the entrance, we found 23 complete handsets with electronics and wires. They were everywhere,” she added. But the mystery, first reported by the France Info public broadcaster, is not fully solved. “We have no idea what happened at the time. We do not know where it came from, what boat,” said Fabien Boileau, director of the Iroise Marine Nature Park in Finistere. “And we don’t know if several containers fell into the water, or only one.” The dry-witted Garfield, first dreamed up by illustrator Jim Davis in the late 1970s, has since spawned a television show, a film series starring Bill Murray as the voice of the titular cat, and a merchandising empire worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually. The “Garfield” phone discoveries in France however highlight the problem of plastic in the oceans, campaigners say. “Seeing these plastic phones on the beaches, especially so long after the incident, is a stark reminder of the persistence of plastic waste in the ocean,” said Jo Ruxton, co-founder of Plastic Oceans Foundation. “Plastic was designed not to break down and large items like these being hardly weathered after 30 to 40 years is a clear indication of this,” she added. The world currently produces more than 300 million tons of plastics annually, and there are at least 5 trillion plastic pieces floating in our oceans, scientists have estimated. Some forecasts predict that there will be more plastic in the seas than fish by 2050. But lost shipping containers — of which there were 1,390 in 2017, according to the World Shipping Council — account for a small proportion of the pollution compared with the packaging industry. “Phones typically don’t end up in the sea,” said Jocelyn Bleriot of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a British charity that focuses on reducing waste. “Whereas plastic packaging is pervasive. You find it pretty much everywhere. On every beach, you’ll find a bottle of shampoo, you’ll find a packet of crisps, or you’ll find a bottle of soda or whatever. That’s what you see on beaches. That’s what washes up.” Even animals living in the deepest ocean trenches have been found with fragments of plastic in their gut, according to new research published in February showing how the scourge reached into the bowels of the planet. Eventually plastics like the phones “become so weathered that they start to become brittle and break up into ever smaller fragments, attracting harmful chemicals during the process,” Ruxton explained. “Eventually they become so small that they are mistaken for plankton and are eaten by marine animals and become part of the food chain that leads to us.” The long-term impact of plastic on humans is still undetermined, but governments are beginning to take action to stem the levels of plastic that reach the ocean. The European Parliament this week approved a proposal that would ban the top 10 most common single-use plastic products in Europe by 2021.
|
pollution;france;oceans
|
jp0001966
|
[
"world",
"science-health-world"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Snapshot of extinction: Fossils show day of killer asteroid
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WASHINGTON - New research captures a fossilized snapshot of the day nearly 66 million years ago when an asteroid smacked Earth, the day when nearly all life on Earth went extinct, including the dinosaurs. The researchers found evidence in North Dakota of the asteroid hit in Mexico, including fish with hot glass in their gills from flaming debris that showered back down on Earth. They also reported the discovery of charred trees, evidence of an inland tsunami and melted amber. Separately, University of Amsterdam’s Jan Smit disclosed that he and his colleagues even found dinosaur footsteps from just before their demise. Smit said the footprints — one from a plant-eating hadrosaur and the other of a meat eater, maybe a small Tyrannosaurus rex — is “definite proof that the dinosaurs were alive and kicking at the time of impact. … They were running around, chasing each other” just before they died. “This is the death blow preserved at one particular site. This is just spectacular,” said Purdue University geophysicist and impact expert Jay Melosh, who wasn’t part of the research but edited the paper, released Friday by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Melosh called it the field’s “discovery of the century.” But other experts said that while some of the work is fascinating, they have some serious concerns about the research, including the lack of access to this specific Hell Creek Formation fossil site for outside scientists. Hell Creek — which spans Montana, both Dakotas and Wyoming — is a fossil treasure trove that includes numerous types of dinosaurs, mammals, reptiles and fish trapped in clay and stone from 65 to 70 million years ago. Kirk Johnson, director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History who also has studied the Hell Creek area for 38 years, said that the work on the fish, the glass and trees “demonstrates some of the details of what happened on THE DAY. That’s all quite interesting and very valid stuff.” But Johnson said that because there is restricted access to the site, other scientists can’t confirm the research. Smit said the restrictions were to protect the site from poachers. Johnson also raised concerns about claims made by the main author, Robert DePalma, a University of Kansas doctoral student, that appeared in a New Yorker magazine article published Friday but not in the scientific paper. For decades, the massive asteroid crash that caused the Chicxulub crater in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula has been considered the likely cause of the mass extinction often called the “KT boundary” for the division between two geologic time periods. But some scientists have insisted that massive volcanic activity played a role. Johnson and Melosh said the new research helps prove the asteroid crash case. There were only a few dinosaur fossils from that time, but the footsteps are most convincing, Smit said. The site includes ant nests, wasp nests, fragile preserved leaves and fish that were caught in the act of dying. Smit said that soon after fish die they get swollen bellies — but these fossils didn’t show swelling. The researchers said the inland tsunami points to a massive earthquake generated by the asteroid crash, somewhere between a magnitude 10 and 11 —more than 350 times stronger than the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Purdue’s Melosh said as he read the study, he kept saying, “Wow, wow, what a discovery.” The details coming out of this are “mind-blowing,” he said.
|
nature;animals;paleontology;dinosaurs
|
jp0001967
|
[
"world",
"crime-legal-world"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Mexican tries to rob bank with stolen front-end loader
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MEXICO CITY - Police in Mexico say they caught a man who stole a front-end loader, drove it to a local bank, knocked down a wall, chained a safe to the machine and tried to drag it off. Prosecutors in the central state of Morelos say the loader had a front bucket as well as a jackhammer the thieves used to destroy the wall of the bank. They then chained the bank’s safe to the vehicle, apparently to drag it away. They didn’t get far, however. Alerted by reports of the equipment theft, police in the town of Oaxtepec used surveillance cameras to locate the men and detect their noisy slow-motion robbery attempt early Friday. One suspect was detained, while the others fled.
|
mexico;banks;theft
|
jp0001968
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Europe watches Brexit with frustrated disbelief as deadline day deepens morass
|
BRUSSELS - The date for the U.K.’s departure from the European Union was seemingly chiseled in stone: March 29, 2019. When it finally arrived with no Brexit, Europeans could only shake their heads in frustrated disbelief. They saw three years of bluster on how Britain would exit the EU on its own terms dissolve Friday when the last of three votes in Parliament failed to approve Prime Minister Theresa May’s divorce deal, leaving an uncertain course. “There was no game plan — well, no strategy,” Philippe Lamberts, a key member of the European Parliament’s Brexit steering group, said of the British approach in an interview. Few in Britain would disagree. For decades, the bloc was the target of ridicule in Britain for what was perceived as European hubris and an inefficient bureaucracy. But on Friday, there was little gloating on the continent as May failed to get the deal through Parliament, sending London deeper into the Brexit morass. The EU called another emergency summit for April 10, two days ahead of a new withdrawal date. A chaotic “no deal” departure scenario is expected to be costly to U.K. businesses and inconvenient at its border. May said there would be grave implications. The EU doesn’t want to inflame passions even more because it too stands to suffer, with hundreds of billions of euros and tens of thousands of jobs at stake for a U.K. exit without transitional measures in place. “In Brexit, everybody loses,” said Ewa Osniecka-Tamecka, a vice rector of the College of Europe, speaking at a branch in Natolin, Poland. “Brexit diminishes both the EU and the U.K.” There was frustration among EU officials who felt that they did their part and Britain didn’t. Even Britain’s Nigel Farage, a driving force behind Brexit and a staunch EU opponent, has nothing but admiration for EU negotiator Michel Barnier, who kept 27 nations aligned while Britain crumbled into chaos. “I wish he was on my team and not their team,” said Farage, a member of the European Parliament. Almost three years after the Brexit referendum on June 23, 2016, the British government and Parliament still seem to be at a loss over what they really want from the EU. “Britain is at a dead end,” said Nathalie Loiseau, who was France’s Europe minister until she resigned this past week to run in the May 23-26 EU elections. “Europeans have other priorities than having to wait until the U.K. takes a decision.” Lamberts said he was stunned at how May’s Conservative Party as well as lawmakers in the Labour Party seemed to act in their own interests. “It’s the inability to build compromise,” Lamberts said. “That’s it. Party above country, in the most brutal sense of the word.” Manfred Weber, a European lawmaker from Germany and center-right candidate to head the European Commission, said the repeated rejection of the deal highlighted “a failure of the political class in Great Britain — there’s no other way to describe it.” Some saw Friday’s events as another blow to Britain’s international standing. “The British have given the world a great deal, from modern parliamentarism to the world title in the discipline of ‘muddling through,'” historian Michael Stuermer wrote in a front-page commentary in German daily Die Welt. Now, however, “the damage to the country’s reputation is unmistakable.”
|
eu;u.k .;brexit
|
jp0001969
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/03/30
|
No-deal Brexit fears rise as Parliament sinks May's deal
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LONDON - Lawmakers rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal for a third time on Friday, sounding its probable death knell and leaving Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union in turmoil on the very day it was supposed to quit the bloc. The decision to reject a stripped-down version of May’s divorce deal has left it totally unclear how, when or even whether Britain will leave the EU, and plunges the three-year Brexit crisis to a deeper level of uncertainty. “I fear we are reaching the limits of this process in this House,” May told Parliament after the defeat. “The implications of the House’s decision are grave.” Within minutes of the vote — which took place as thousands of Brexit supporters protested outside Parliament — European Council President Donald Tusk said EU leaders would meet on April 10 to discuss Britain’s departure from the bloc. A succession of European leaders said there was a very real chance Britain would now leave without a deal, a scenario that businesses fear would cause chaos for the world’s fifth-biggest economy. White House national security adviser John Bolton said that President Donald Trump sympathized with May, and restated that the United States was keen to sign a trade deal with Britain once it was no longer in the EU. May had framed the vote as the last opportunity to ensure Britain actually left the EU, making a passionate plea to lawmakers to put aside party differences and strongly-held beliefs. But in a special sitting of Parliament, they voted 344-286 against the EU Withdrawal Agreement, agreed after two years of tortuous negotiations with the bloc. “The legal default now is that the United Kingdom is due to leave the European Union on April 12,” May said. She cautioned that any further delay to Brexit would probably be a long one beyond the current deadline, and would mean Britain holding elections to the European Parliament. The British pound, which has been buoyed in recent weeks by hopes that the likelihood of an abrupt “no-deal” Brexit is receding, fell half a percent after May lost, to as low as $1.2977, but then recovered some of its losses. “If the deadline is extended longer, we will re-engage with sterling because that will be the start of the slow death of Brexit,” said Salman Ahmed, global investment strategist at Lombard Odier Investment Managers. May had offered on Wednesday to resign if the deal passed, in a bid to win over euroskeptic rebels in her Conservative Party who support a more decisive break with the EU than the divorce her deal offers. The vote leaves her Brexit strategy in tatters. With no majority in Parliament for any Brexit option so far, it is unclear what May will now do. Options include asking the EU for a long delay, Parliament forcing an election, or a “no-deal” exit. However, May’s spokesman said she would continue talks with opponents of the deal and some political correspondents said she could bring it back a fourth time, perhaps in a “run-off” against any alternative that Parliament itself came up with. Britain now has under two weeks to convince the 27 members of the EU that it has an alternative path out of the impasse, or see itself cast out of the bloc on April 12 with no deal on post-Brexit ties with its largest trading ally. French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking as Parliament voted, said the EU needed to accelerate no-deal planning and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said that unless Britain came up with a plan, there would be a “hard” Brexit. May’s deal had twice been rejected by huge margins this year and, although she was able to win over many Conservative rebels, a hard core of euroskeptics, who see “no-deal” as the best option, and the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which props up her minority government, refused to back it. The DUP’s deputy leader, Nigel Dodds, said avoiding future customs checks between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland — which might be required under May’s deal — was more important than leaving the EU. On Monday, lawmakers who have tried to grab control of the process will attempt to agree on an alternative Brexit plan that could command majority cross-party support in Parliament. The options that have so far gathered most support involve closer ties to the EU, and a second referendum. A first attempt at nonbinding “indicative votes” on Wednesday failed to produce a majority for any of the eight options on offer. Many lawmakers believe the only way to solve the crisis will be a snap election — even though it would throw up a host of unknowns for the major parties. “The last thing this country needs right now is a general election,” transport minister Chris Grayling told Sky News. “We’ve actually got to sort out the Brexit process, we can’t throw everything up in the air.” The 2016 referendum vote to leave the EU revealed a United Kingdom divided over many more issues, and has provoked impassioned debate about everything from secession and immigration to capitalism, empire and what it means to be British. Hundreds of thousands of Britons marched through London last Saturday demanding a second referendum, while on Friday thousands of angry Brexit supporters protested in the capital. “What should have been a celebration is in fact a day of betrayal,” said Nigel Farage, a leading Brexit campaigner. The uncertainty around Brexit, the United Kingdom’s most significant political and economic move since World War II, has left allies and investors aghast. Opponents fear Brexit will make Britain poorer and divide the West as it grapples with both the unconventional U.S. presidency of Donald Trump and growing assertiveness from Russia and China. Supporters say that, while the divorce might bring some short-term instability, in the longer term it will allow the United Kingdom to thrive if cut free from what they cast as a doomed project to forge European unity.
|
eu;u.k .;brexit;theresa may
|
jp0001970
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Hundreds of thousands march against Algerian leader Bouteflika
|
ALGIERS - Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Algiers on Friday to demand the resignation of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in the biggest demonstration since unrest erupted six weeks ago. In at least one location, a Reuters correspondent saw police opening fire with tear gas and rubber bullets, and chasing and beating demonstrators, after youths hurled stones at them. The turnout came days after the military called for the aging leader’s removal to end a growing political crisis. State television showed protests in several other cities. The protests have been largely peaceful but have put pressure on the army to act. Some witnesses estimated the number of people on the streets on Friday at around 1 million, but authorities said the number was lower. While many people resent the power held by Bouteflika and his shrinking inner circle, they also reject the idea of army intervention in civilian political life. “Street pressure will continue until the system goes,” said student Mohamed Djemai, 25, as hundreds of riot police kept an eye on the protests and helicopters flew overhead. “We have only one word to say today: all the gang must go immediately, game over,” said Ali, a merchant, as other protesters shouted “The people want the fall of the regime!” — the rallying cry of the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011. Families stood on balconies above the streets cheering the marchers, who ranged from journalists, doctors and teachers to homeless people. The crowds shared out dates and water and bought ice cream from street vendors. The army chief of staff, Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaed Salah, on Tuesday asked the Constitutional Council to rule whether the ailing 82-year-old president was fit for office. The move further isolated Bouteflika, who has failed to placate the protesters by reversing a decision to seek a fifth term. Bouteflika established himself in the early 2000s by ending a civil war that had claimed 200,000 lives. But he has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013, and now faces the biggest crisis of his 20 years in power. Algeria has long been dominated by veterans of the 1954-1962 independence war against France, but many now see these as too old and out of touch. The protesters want to replace the establishment with a new generation capable of modernizing the oil-dependent state and giving hope to a young population impatient for a better life. “You are the Titanic. You will sink!” protesters shouted. The military, for its part, has stayed in its barracks throughout the unrest. “There is a risk in involving soldiers in the protests because the soldiers are young. They could end up not listening to orders to confront protesters,” said a former military intelligence officer. But Salah’s call for Bouteflika to step down was a clear reminder to Algerians that the army intends to retain its vast influence in national affairs. Saadia Belaid, a woman crying as she wore the flag of Algeria, said: “I’m crying because they kidnapped Algeria, and the army’s proposal is a real travesty.” One banner read: “We want Salah to go.” However, Salah’s call received backing from the ruling FLN party and the main trade union, signaling that Bouteflika’s time was all but up. In the latest blow, one of Bouteflika’s few remaining influential supporters, leading businessman Ali Haddad, resigned as head of the influential FCE business forum, according to a letter seen by Reuters. Haddad, who was awarded large public works projects by the government and has investments in the media, has helped to fund Bouteflika’s election campaigns over the years. Under the constitution, the chairman of parliament’s upper house, Abdelkader Bensalah, would serve as caretaker president for at least 45 days if Bouteflika stepped down. There is, however, no obvious long-term successor.
|
algeria;protests;abdelaziz bouteflika
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jp0001971
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Mueller report on Trump and Russia to be made public by mid-April, U.S. attorney general says
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WASHINGTON - U.S. Attorney General William Barr plans to make public a redacted copy of special counsel Robert Mueller’s nearly 400-page investigative report into Russian interference in the 2016 election by mid-April, “if not sooner,” he said in a letter to lawmakers on Friday. “Everyone will soon be able to read it on their own,” Barr wrote in the letter to the top Democrats and Republicans on the Senate and House Judiciary committees. He said he was willing to appear before both committees to testify about Mueller’s report on May 1 and May 2. On March 22, Mueller completed his 22-month probe and Barr on Sunday sent a four-page letter to Congress that outlined the main findings. Barr told lawmakers that the investigation did not establish that members of the election campaign of President Donald Trump conspired with Russia. Speaking to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida on Friday Trump said he had “great confidence” in Barr. Asked whether he agreed with Barr’s decision to release the Mueller report to the public, Trump said, “If that’s what he’d like to do I have nothing to hide. This was a hoax. This was a witch hunt.” Leading congressional Democrats are pressing for a quick release of the entire Mueller report. “We need to see the Mueller report ASAP, with only those redactions that are absolutely necessary to protect intelligence sources and methods. Congress and the American people need the full story about what happened in 2016,” said Sen. Mark Warner, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. A Mueller spokesman would not comment on the letter to Congress that Barr issued on Friday. Mueller left unresolved the question of whether Trump obstructed justice during the investigation. Barr said that based on the evidence presented, he concluded it was not sufficient to charge the president with obstruction. Barr said his letter on Sunday “was not, and did not purport to be an exhaustive recounting” of Mueller’s investigation and said he believed the public should be allowed to read the report and judge for themselves. Lawmakers have since been clamoring for more details. In a statement on Friday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said the April 2 deadline he imposed on Barr’s Justice Department “still stands” and he urged the release of a “full and complete” report without redactions. The top Republican on the committee, Doug Collins, said on Twitter that Barr was “following his word” by pledging to release the report and chided Nadler for setting an arbitrary deadline. Barr said in his letter on Friday that certain information must be redacted before the report is released, including secret grand jury information, intelligence sources and methods and information that by law cannot be public or might infringe on privacy. Nadler rejected that notion, saying Barr must “work with us to request a court order to release any and all grand jury information to the House Judiciary Committee.” The federal rules of criminal procedure make it a crime for government officials to publicly divulge sensitive grand jury materials such as transcripts, unless a federal judge signs off first. Barr said on Friday that although Trump also has the right to assert executive privilege on some materials in the report to keep them from being made public, Trump has said publicly he intends to defer to Barr. Because of that, Barr added, there were no plans for the Justice Department to submit the report to the White House for a privilege review. During his investigation, Mueller brought charges against 34 people, including Russian agents and former Trump aides. The U.S. intelligence community has concluded that Russia used a campaign of hacking and propaganda to sow discord in the United States, harm Clinton and boost Trump’s candidacy. Russia denied election interference.
|
vladimir putin;russia;espionage;scandals;robert mueller;donald trump;2016 u.s. presidential election;russia probe;matthew whitaker
|
jp0001972
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Russian arms export company opens helicopter training center in Venezuela
|
MOSCOW - Russia’s arms export company said it has opened a training center for military helicopter pilots in Venezuela after Moscow flew in troops and equipment. A spokesman for Rosoboronexport, the export wing of Russia’s arms corporation, told Russian news agencies that the helicopter training center opened Friday “with Russian and Venezuelan specialists participating.” The center that trains pilots to fly Russian-built Mil helicopters was built on the basis of a contract between Rosoboronexport and state-run Venezuelan military industrial company Cavim, Interfax news agency quoted spokesman Vyacheslav Davydenko as saying. The announcement came after two Russian military planes landed a week ago at the main airport outside Caracas and offloaded equipment and troops, ratcheting up international tensions. The United States and more than 50 other countries recognize Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president while Russia, along with China, backs President Nicolas Maduro. U.S. President Donald Trump called on Russia to “get out” of Venezuela, while Russia said its troops will stay for as long as needed. The military specialists are apparently helping to fix a malfunctioning Russian S-300 ground-to-air missile system, U.S. envoy Elliott Abrams said Friday. The Kremlin and Foreign Ministry have insisted the troops came to Venezuela as part of a long-standing agreement on military and technical cooperation, while Venezuela’s military attache to Moscow said there was no question of them taking part in a military operation. Russia is aiming for “deepening of cooperation with the (Venezuelan) Defense Ministry,” Rosoboronexport spokesman Davydenko said. He said Venezuela, Russia’s largest client in Latin America, has already received “a significant amount of Russian arms and military technology” including Sukhoi 30-MK2 fighter planes, Mil helicopters, tanks, armed personnel vehicles, artillery, air defense systems and Kalashnikovs. “This has allowed the country in a very short time to obtain serious potential, reliably ensuring national security and defense capacity,” he said.
|
russia;venezuela;nicolas maduro;kremlin;donald trump;juan guaido
|
jp0001973
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Maltese court charges African teenagers of hijacking tanker after it rescued over 100 migrants
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VALLETTA - Three teenage migrants were charged in a Maltese court Saturday with hijacking a small commercial tanker that had rescued them and others off the coast of Libya. The three, who have pleaded not guilty, were among 108 Africans rescued by the El Hiblu 1 tanker earlier this week. They are accused of threatening the crew Wednesday to try to force the boat to go to Malta and not take them back to Libya. Maltese soldiers boarded the tanker without incident and escorted it to Valletta’s harbor on Thursday. The defendants are 15, 16 and 19. One of them from Cote d’Ivoire and the other two from Guinea. They pulled the hoods of their jackets over their faces as the were escorted out of court by police Saturday. EU states have been at loggerheads over migration since a spike in Mediterranean arrivals caught the bloc by surprise in 2015, stretching social and security services and fueling support for far-right, nationalist and populist groups. Sea arrivals have fallen from more than a million in the peak year to some 140,000 people last year, according to U.N. data. But political tensions around migration run high in the EU, especially ahead of the European Parliament election in May.
|
africa;u.n .;refugees;malta;cote d'ivoire
|
jp0001974
|
[
"world",
"offbeat-world"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Experimental 'cow toilets' aim to cut e-moo-ssions
|
THE HAGUE - A Dutch inventor is banking on a new bovine urinal to help cut emissions that cause environmental damage. Tests have started on a farm in the Netherlands on the device, which collects some of the 15 to 20 liters (4 to 5 gallons) of urine that the average cow produces a day. That produces huge amounts of ammonia in a country like the Netherlands, which is the world’s second-biggest agricultural exporter, after the United States. “We are tackling the problem at the source,” Henk Hanskamp, the Dutch inventor and businessman behind the “Cow Toilet,” said Friday. “A cow is never going to be completely clean. but you can teach them to go to the toilet.” The way the toilet works is “udderly” ingenious. The urinal is in a box placed behind the cow, while in front is a feeding trough. Once the animal finishes eating a robot arm stimulates a nerve near the udders, which then makes it want to urinate. The cow toilets are currently being tested on a farm near the eastern Dutch town of Doetinchem, and seven of its 58 cows have already learned how to use them without the need for stimulation. “The cows have got used to it,” Hanskamp said. “They recognize the box, lift their tail and pee.” “The stables have become cleaner and the ground is drier. Less damp ground is better for the health of the cows’ hooves,” Jan Velema, a vet who took part in the tests, was quoted as saying by De Volkskrant newspaper. The Netherlands is already introducing stricter rules on emissions of ammonia, which can cause atmospheric pollution and irritate the eyes in humans. The chemical can also be implicated in the creation of environmentally damaging algae blooms when it mixes with water. Hanskamp, whose company develops agricultural machinery, says it could “reduce by at least half the amount of ammonia produced” were the cow to urinate on open ground. The company aims to have them on the market by 2020, he said.
|
pollution;agriculture;animals;netherlands;inventions;cows
|
jp0001975
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Australia warns social media execs about extremist material on platforms
|
SYDNEY - Australia pledged Saturday to introduce new laws that could see social media executives jailed and tech giants fined billions for failing to remove extremist material from their platforms. The tough new legislation will be brought to Parliament in the coming week as Canberra pushes for social media companies to prevent their platforms from being “weaponized” by terrorists in the wake of the Christchurch mosque attacks. Facebook said it “quickly” removed a staggering 1.5 million videos of the white supremacist massacre livestreamed on the social media platform. A 17-minute video of the March 15 rampage that claimed the lives of 50 people was widely available online and experts said was easily retrievable several hours after the attack. “Big social media companies have a responsibility to take every possible action to ensure their technology products are not exploited by murderous terrorists,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a statement. Morrison, who met with a number of representatives from tech firms Tuesday — including Facebook, Twitter and Google — said Australia will encourage other G20 nations to hold social media firms to account. Attorney-General Christian Porter said the new laws will make it a criminal offense for platforms not to quickly take down “abhorrent violent material” like terrorist attacks, murder or rape. Executives could face up to three years in prison for failing to do so, he added, while social media platforms — whose annual revenues can stretch into the tens of billions of dollars — would face fines of up to 10 percent of their annual turnover. “Mainstream media that broadcast such material would be putting their license at risk and there is no reason why social media platforms should be treated any differently,” Porter said. The government was so far “underwhelmed” by the response from tech giants at their Tuesday meeting with Morrison, Communications Minister Mitch Fifield told reporters Saturday. But cyber-security expert Nigel Phair, from the University of New South Wales, cast doubt over the ability of proposed Australian laws to impose jail time. “The penalty is only for Australian domiciled executives, and on the whole they’re marketing executives, not those responsible for running and maintaining the platform,” he told broadcaster SBS earlier in the week.
|
media;internet;censorship;australia;terrorism;social media
|
jp0001976
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific"
] |
2019/03/30
|
With a piece of paper, Trump called on Kim to hand over all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons
|
WASHINGTON - On the day that their talks in Hanoi collapsed last month, U.S. President Donald Trump handed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a piece of paper that included a blunt call for the transfer of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and bomb fuel to the United States. Trump gave Kim both Korean and English-language versions of the U.S. position at Hanoi’s Metropole hotel on Feb. 28, according to a source familiar with the discussions. It was the first time that Trump himself had explicitly defined what he meant by denuclearization directly to Kim, the source said. A lunch between the two leaders was canceled the same day. While neither side has presented a complete account of why the summit collapsed, the document may help explain it. Now seen by Reuters, the document’s existence was first mentioned by White House national security adviser John Bolton in television interviews he gave after the two-day summit. Bolton did not disclose in those interviews the pivotal U.S. expectation contained in the document that North Korea should transfer its nuclear weapons and fissile material to the United States. The document appeared to represent Bolton’s long-held and hard-line “Libya model” of denuclearization that North Korea has rejected repeatedly. It probably would have been seen by Kim as insulting and provocative, analysts said. Trump had previously distanced himself in public comments from Bolton’s approach and said a “Libya model” would be employed only if a deal could not be reached. The idea of North Korea handing over its weapons was first proposed by Bolton in 2004. He revived the proposal last year when Trump named him as national security adviser. The document was meant to provide the North Koreans with a clear and concise definition of what the United States meant by “final, fully verifiable, denuclearization,” the source said. After the summit, a North Korean official accused Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of “gangster-like” demands, saying Pyongyang was considering suspending talks and may rethink its self-imposed ban on missile and nuclear tests. The English version of the document called for “fully dismantling North Korea’s nuclear infrastructure, chemical and biological warfare program and related dual-use capabilities; and ballistic missiles, launchers, and associated facilities.” Aside from the call for the transfer of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and bomb fuel, the document had four other key points. It called on North Korea to provide a comprehensive declaration of its nuclear program and full access to U.S. and international inspectors, to halt all related activities and construction of any new facilities, to eliminate all nuclear infrastructure, and to transition all nuclear program scientists and technicians to commercial activities. The summit was cut short after Trump and Kim failed to reach a deal on the extent of economic sanctions relief for North Korea in exchange for its steps to give up its nuclear program. The first summit between Trump and Kim, which took place in Singapore in last June, was almost called off after the North Koreans rejected Bolton’s repeated demands for it to follow a denuclearization model under which components of Libya’s nuclear program were shipped to the United States in 2004. Seven years after a denuclearization agreement was reached between the United States and Libya’s leader, Moammar Gadhafi, the United States took part in a NATO-led military operation against his government and he was overthrown by rebels and killed. Last year, North Korea officials called Bolton’s plan “absurd” and noted the “miserable fate” that befell Gadhafi. After North Korea threatened to cancel the Singapore summit, Trump said last May that he was not pursuing a “Libya model” and that he was looking for an agreement that would protect Kim. “He would be there, he would be running his country, his country would be very rich,” Trump said at the time. “The Libya model was a much different model. We decimated that country,” Trump added. The Hanoi document was presented in what U.S. officials have said was an attempt by Trump to secure a “big deal” under which all sanctions would be lifted if North Korea gave up all of its weapons. U.S.-North Korean engagement has appeared to be in limbo since the Hanoi meeting. Pompeo said on March 4 he was hopeful he could send a team to North Korea “in the next couple of weeks,” but there has been no sign of that. Jenny Town, a North Korea expert at the Washington-based Stimson Center think tank, said the content of the U.S. document was not surprising. “This is what Bolton wanted from the beginning and it clearly wasn’t going to work,” Town said. “If the U.S. was really serious about negotiations they would have learned already that this wasn’t an approach they could take.” Town added, “It’s already been rejected more than once, and to keep bringing it up … would be rather insulting. It’s a nonstarter and reflects absolutely no learning curve in the process.”
|
u.s .;north korea;kim jong un;nuclear weapons;north korea nuclear crisis;donald trump;john bolton;kim-trump summit
|
jp0001977
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Trump tells why new sanctions on Pyongyang are not necessary: North Koreans already 'suffering greatly'
|
PALM BEACH, FLORIDA - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he decided not to put additional sanctions on North Korea a week earlier because he wanted to maintain a good relationship with leader Kim Jong Un and because the North Korean people are already “suffering greatly.” “I didn’t think that additional sanctions at this time were necessary. It doesn’t mean I don’t put them on later,” Trump told reporters at his Florida resort. A week ago Trump said he had decided against imposing new large-scale sanctions on North Korea. Trump and Kim met in Hanoi last month for a second summit, which collapsed over conflicting demands by Pyongyang for sanctions relief and by Washington for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. North Korea argues that its weapons program is needed for defense. Washington has said it aims to re-engage with Kim, but North Korea has warned it is considering suspending talks and may rethink a freeze on missile and nuclear tests, in place since 2017, unless Washington makes concessions. “They are suffering greatly in North Korea. They’re having a hard time,” Trump said on Friday. The president said he had a very good relationship with Kim. “I think it’s very important that you maintain that relationship at least as long as you can,” Trump said.
|
north korea;kim jong un;nuclear weapons;north korea nuclear crisis;donald trump;kim-trump summit
|
jp0001978
|
[
"national",
"social-issues"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Foreign Minister Taro Kono suggests need to end reversal of Japanese names in English
|
Foreign Minister Taro Kono has indicated that his ministry would consider breaking with its tradition of reversing Japanese names in English and some other foreign languages. Kono, who is fluent in English, cited the example Friday of Chinese and Korean names that are used in the same order regardless of language, citing Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. “The prime minister is Shinzo Abe (not Abe Shinzo as in Japanese) and I’m Taro Kono (not Kono Taro). We need to think about whether Japan should follow the Japanese” name order, Kono told reporters. Kono, who often prefers communicating in English with his counterparts during official talks, did not give further details. It is customary for Japanese people to put their given names before surnames when they use foreign languages. “It’s natural to discuss whether (such a change) should be made, including whether it should be in time for the Emperor’s accession ceremony (in October) or the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics” in 2020, Kono said. Emperor Akihito is set to abdicate on April 30 — the first living Japanese monarch to do so in about two centuries — and Crown Prince Naruhito will succeed him the following day.
|
japanese;english;languages;taro kono
|
jp0001979
|
[
"national",
"social-issues"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Education on AI proposed for all university and technical college students in Japan
|
A panel of experts has called for all university and technical college students in Japan to be given beginner-level education on artificial intelligence. The proposal is part of a package of AI-related ideas presented by the panel at the day’s meeting of the government’s innovation promotion council, headed by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga. The proposals, released Friday, are expected to be reflected in a comprehensive innovation policy package, which will be drawn up around June, and an AI strategy, to be formulated by summer. In Japan, some 500,000 people graduate from universities and technical colleges every year. The panel called for having all university and technical college students take beginner-level programs on math, data science and AI, and letting half acquire the skills to apply AI to their own fields of study. It also asked the government to provide working adults with opportunities to learn such AI skills. Aiming to beef up research and development on AI, the panel proposed the establishment of a related cooperation network with universities and other research organizations. The government was urged to strengthen its support for AI and other researchers. With regards to areas where AI should be actively used, the panel cited the health, medical and nursing care sectors; agriculture; disaster resilience and preparedness; transport infrastructure and logistics; and regional revitalization. The panel specifically hopes AI will be used to reduce the burden on workers in the medical and nursing care sectors, beef up safety of infrastructure at a low cost and promote so-called smart cities. At Friday’s meeting, the government council decided seven principles that researchers and others should take into account in establishing an AI society with humans at its center, including respect for fundamental human rights, privacy protection and the creation of an environment to ensure fair competition.
|
computers;universities;schools;ai
|
jp0001980
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Osaka panel urges prosecutors to reopen probe into government's murky Moritomo Gakuen land deal
|
OSAKA - A judicial panel is urging prosecutors to reinvestigate a case against a former senior Finance Ministry official who was involved in the state land sale that sparked allegations of cronyism against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The Osaka No. 1 Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution said Friday in its March 15 decision that it was “unjust” that prosecutors decided not to indict Nobuhisa Sagawa for charges including alleged document-tampering in connection with the heavily discounted sale of land in 2016 to school operator Moritomo Gakuen, which had ties to Abe’s wife, Akie. But the independent judicial panel of citizens stopped short of demanding the indictment of Sagawa, who led the ministry bureau that handled the land sale. As a result, Sagawa is unlikely to face mandatory indictment. Based on the panel’s recommendation, prosecutors are obliged to review the case, although further action on their part is unlikely. An 8,770-sq.-meter plot of land in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, was sold in June 2016 to the nationalist school operator for ¥134 million ($1.2 million) despite being valued at ¥956 million, with the price discounted ostensibly to cover the cost of removing buried waste. The suspicious deal came to light in February 2017 and sparked accusations of cronyism in the Abe administration, prompting Abe to say in the Diet that he would resign if evidence showing any involvement in the deal by himself or his wife was found. The Finance Ministry was later found to have rewritten documents on the land sale from February to April the same year to remove references to Akie Abe and any words describing the sale as having been conducted under “special circumstances.” Following the prime minister’s Diet remarks, opposition lawmakers argued that bureaucrats discounted the land in consideration of Akie Abe’s role in the project and tampered with the documents. Abe’s wife temporarily served as honorary principal of the elementary school that Moritomo planned to open on the land. The independent panel noted in its decision that Sagawa was “effectively in command” of the issue and his explanation that he did not instruct his subordinates to falsify the documents “lacked credibility.”
|
shinzo abe;corruption;finance ministry;scandals;real estate;moritomo gakuen
|
jp0001981
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Will Japan finally promote its female politicians?
|
Next month’s local assembly elections will be the first opportunity to test a law passed last year to boost the number of female lawmakers. Japan has one of the lowest participation rates of women in national parliaments in the world , and the law is meant to remedy this deficit, even if it includes no enforceable quotas or penalties. Consequently, the media has been examining local assemblies and prospects for female candidates. Tokyo Shimbun ran an article about the Chiba prefectural assembly in its Chiba edition. Of 95 seats, only eight are held by women, and they belong to parties with fewer seats. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its factions enjoy the greatest representation with 51 seats, all men. The Chiba Minshu no Kai has 11 seats, all men. And Komeito has eight seats, all men. This time, the LDP is endorsing female candidates for the assembly, the first time the party’s Chiba chapter has done so. However, neither of the two potential candidates mentioned are LDP members, and both already serve on municipal assemblies, so even if they are elected it doesn’t mean there will be a net increase in the number of women politicians. The LDP is simply shuffling women from one legislative body to another. Female candidates for the assembly will mainly be incumbents, with at most one new person endorsed by each party. The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan said it would field three women, two sitting members and one newcomer. The Japan Communist Party (JCP) is the exception, with two new female candidates. Shin Miyakawa, a Diet lawmaker, told Tokyo Shimbun that it’s difficult to find women willing to run. He talked to six prominent women in his Chiba constituency and found no takers. But if you look more locally, the portion of female participants grows. Tokyo Shimbun reports that of the 21 seats in the city assembly of Urayasu in northwest Chiba, eight are occupied by women, and that seems to be the case in many local assemblies in the prefecture. One reason for this discrepancy is the scale of Chiba. Campaigning prefecture-wide is more expensive and time consuming than campaigning for municipal office, and many women still have more obligations than their male counterparts in terms of work-life balance. As Tomoko Yamamoto, a member of the Chiba prefectural assembly and a politician for 20 years, told Tokyo Shimbun, there is still “an aversion” toward women who run for local office. According to the new law, the parties themselves should actively promote more women candidates. The JCP, which is more powerful locally than it is nationally, has proven it can be done. As of Feb. 4, the party had 2,763 members in local assemblies , 1,000 of which are women, or 36.2 percent. Of the 148 JCP members in prefectural assemblies, 80 are women, or 54.1 percent. Of the 18 JCP members of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, 13 are women. Only 5.4 percent of the LDP’s local assembly members are women. Another municipality that has come under media scrutiny is Tarumizu in Kagoshima Prefecture . Kyushu has always been known for its male-dominant social customs, so the fact that Tarumizu’s municipal assembly has never had a single female member is seen as being unremarkable, but also emblematic of women’s participation nationwide. In a March 8 Asahi Shimbun article , the chairman of Tarumizu’s assembly, Setsuo Ikeyama, took offense at the suggestion that the city somehow prevents women from being elected. Few women seek office, he says, and those who do fail to get enough votes. One problem is that due to demographics, the number of seats over the past 20 years has decreased from 22 to 14, so it has become a game of musical chairs: incumbents scrambling for fewer positions, and since the incumbents have always been men, it’s more difficult for women to get involved. In addition, while Tarumizu employs female civil servants, none are in key supervisory positions, another stepping stone to political office. The assembly chairman says he heard that these women refuse promotions when they are offered them, because division chiefs often have to answer assembly members’ questions. Even male civil servants refuse promotions for this reason. In a different Asahi Shimbun article, a female civil servant claims that women are not placed in positions where they can gain leadership experience. Female civil servants tend to be relegated to welfare divisions, which are considered less prominent than general affairs, finance and planning — all male domains. Another point is community activity, a common springboard to local politics. In a Kobe Shimbun article on Sept. 14 last year , Hideko Takeyasu, a professor at Kyoto Women’s University, while explaining the total absence of women in the Hyogo prefectural assembly, pointed out that neighborhood association chiefs are most often men, so women aren’t cultivated as community leaders. Prefectural elections are heavily influenced by established organizations that tend to choose male candidates, but since the election rate for female candidates in municipal races is high, as much as 98.7 percent, the problem would seem to be a lack of female candidates. That’s why quotas are necessary. Women politicians face other obstacles that are more clearly sexist in nature. A recent Mainichi Shimbun article described in shocking detail the amount of harassment elected women receive. And, as described in another Asahi Shimbun article , when they run for office, women already working risk a great deal in terms of benefits like health insurance and pensions. Addressing these specific issues is important but, as Chiba prefectural assembly member Yamamoto told Tokyo Shimbun , nothing will solve these problems as effectively as simply having more women in office, because then “society would change,” presumably since those women would pass legislation that benefits women. However, given that the new law has no teeth, it’s unclear if actual social change is the government’s goal.
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rights;women;diet;discrimination;local government;sexism
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jp0001982
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2019/03/30
|
With resellers, fans must take matters into their own hands
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Few groups in Japan respond to a slight quite like Disney devotees. This year marks the 35th anniversary of the conglomerate’s Tokyo Disneyland park, and to celebrate and rack up some more revenue, earlier this year it unveiled a line of limited-edition goods tied to the occasion. After the release, however, it soon became clear that resellers were snatching up all those special mouse-centric goods to put up on third-party sites such as Mercari. Disney obsessives were none too thrilled about these people polluting the “Happiest Place on Earth” with their money-making schemes. They took to social media to vent, finding sympathy among other fans deprived of small-batch towels covered in their favorite characters. Resellers have long been a scourge of Japanese netizens, up there with the copyright collection agency JASRAC and TV stations asking to use videos of disasters. The topic has become especially prevalent online this year, thanks to a bunch of special events, concerts and goods being disrupted by folks scooping up the items before fans can get a fair chance at buying them. It’s also earned a bigger spotlight because big changes are emerging to curb the practice. Scalpers have long been a staple outside of music festivals and marquee sporting events, semi-discreetly hollering to anyone needing last-minute, price-inflated tickets. The internet made reselling more convenient for all involved and, as a result, much more prevalent. Resellers can now buy items online and use programs to help them game the system. This approach — not limited just to Japan — results in third parties getting the desired goods rather than actual fans. Resellers then turn to those very fans in order to make a nice profit. The live music industry has been particularly active in combating this trend, instituting digital entry for high-demand shows requiring smartphone tickets and personal identification. But Cyzo recently published an article about how this shift doesn’t eliminate the problem entirely, as plenty just let others borrow phones with tickets on them, while the trust placed in this system has made staff less strict when checking digital tickets, according to sources quoted in the piece. One solution might come from vigilant fans themselves. This year’s most sought-after concert ticket will be to the final gigs Arashi plays before its break. But as Yahoo! Japan reported earlier this month, fans are on edge over resellers gobbling those tickets up. One way of stopping them? Arashi supporters, who could report any suspicious activity and resales by using a dedicated form set up by the original ticket vendor to report resales on secondary markets. Sports clubs have also tried to block out scalpers, though the end result has on at least one occasion become newsworthy for all the wrong reasons. In February, the Hiroshima Toyo Carp required fans to physically go to the team’s home stadium to take part in a ticket lottery, but it descended into chaos due to high demand, with supporters screaming at staff. Meanwhile, recent resale examples persist — a special line of collaborative clothes between GU and a member of Exile became too hard to get because of resellers. Same goes for a line of glasses sold at J!ns designed in tandem with the smartphone game “Touken Ranbu.” And, go on YouTube and you’ll stumble across channels devoted to offering tips on how to get the most from reselling goods from various stores, including Costco and Don Quijote, with all comments disabled because it would get messier than a Jordan Peterson video. Yet, like so many aspects of Japan of late, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics has prompted the government to get involved. Last December, the Diet passed a law that will make ticket scalping illegal ahead of the games, coming into effect in mid-June of this year. Netizens busted out clapping-hand emojis in response. But that joy might not last. Harbor Business Online talked to a reseller about the law and, besides offering a peek into how reselling works (join as many fanclubs as you can), the interview subject doesn’t seem too worried. They say the law is already on most resellers’ minds, and they believe as long as demand for limited goods exists, scalpers will find a way.
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arashi;disney;online shopping;tickets
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jp0001983
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[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2019/03/30
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When apo-den telephone scams take deadly turns
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On Feb. 28, the body of Kuniko Kato, 80, was found in her ransacked apartment in Tokyo’s Koto Ward. Her wrists had been bound with clear plastic wrap and her mouth and ankles bound with duct tape. While the specific cause of death has not been made public, she appeared to have suffocated. A police search of the crime scene turned up some ¥1.3 million in a bookshelf and about ¥200,000 in a billfold. A metal strongbox tucked into a closet did not appear to have been disturbed. A short time earlier, Kato had confided to a male acquaintance that an unknown caller had asked her over the telephone, “Have you got money?” The perpetrators involved in the death of Kato apparently learned that her son was a dentist, and impersonated him to request funds to “transfer a patient to another hospital.” “A team of crooks can pull off a caper by forcing their way in and leaving within about half an hour,” Masaru Hagiuda, a former police investigator in Tokyo, is quoted as saying in Friday (March 29). “It’s extremely common among seniors to stash money at home,” adds Itsuo Tobimatsu, a former detective from Hyogo Prefecture. Veteran crime reporter Atsushi Mizoguchi concurs. Writing in Nikkan Gendai (March 26), he notes one of the main reasons the thieves target the elderly is because many keep large sums of cash in their homes (“A problem exacerbated by the low interest rates paid by banks,” he pointed out.) Known colloquially as tansu yokin (chest of drawers savings) the hoarded funds are seen by crooks as “buried treasure” and an easy target. Mizoguchi predicts that as long as people persist in holding on to large amounts of cash, such crimes are likely to increase. A review of security camera footage in the vicinity of Kato’s apartment eventually enabled police to track down three suspects. They included Tatsumi Komatsuzono, a 27-year-old construction worker and former mixed martial artist from Kanagawa Prefecture who had belonged to a gang of hot-rodders, and two others: Hiroki Sue and Yuta Sakai, both 22 and from the eastern part of Nagano Prefecture. The trio is suspected of involvement in at least two similar robberies in Tokyo. Shukan Bunshun (March 28) noted that Sue had a felony record, having been charged with violation of the anti-stalking law. Last year he had ignored a restraining order to keep him from approaching his former girlfriend, whom he had severely beaten in a dispute over money. Shukan Jitsuwa (March 28) called Sue and his cohorts han-gure , a term for loosely organized groups of low-level hoods sometimes described in English reportage as “former members of hot-rod gangs” or “nondesignated crime groups.” The three had added a new twist to the type of crime called apo-den sagi (fraud via telephone appointment). Apo-den is short for apointomento denwa , (telephone appointment). Rather than make efforts to bilk the intended victim through some sort of subterfuge, the criminals in this case adopted a new modus operandi of apo-den gōtō (robbery), simply forcing their way into the victims’ homes and then grabbing whatever cash or valuables they found on the premises. Shukan Gendai (April 6) credits a heretofore unknown section in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police with the apprehension of the three suspects. It goes by the acronym SSBC, which stands for Sosa Shien Bunseki Center (Investigation Support Analysis Center). Launched in April 2009, it is staffed by a team of experienced mid-career detectives and skilled civilian technicians, employed at a ratio of 6 to 4. The article went into step-by-step details of police efforts to track the suspects, from checking license numbers shot by security cameras in the vicinity of the crime to tracking their suspects’ movements on the expressway through the vehicle’s electronic toll-collection device. The cyber cops electronically trailed the suspects’ car, a silver Suzuki Wagon R, to a convenience store in Kawasaki where the felons felt, because they were beyond the boundary of Tokyo, it would be safe to let down their guards. One suspect was determined to regularly patronize the store, indicating he lived close by. By March 13, all three were in police custody — albeit maintaining their innocence. “Crooks keep coming up with new variations on their scams, so keeping up with them has been like a game of cat and mouse,” Tokyo-based attorney Ryo Wakai tells Weekly Playboy (April 8). Despite success in preventing transfers to swindlers’ accounts, such predatory crimes are still appallingly common. In the Tokyo metropolitan area, 34,658 were reported last year, a year-on-year increase of 8,747 cases. And with 6,368 incidents already reported by the end of February, this year appears likely to eclipse 2018. Last year some 2,700 individuals were prosecuted on charges of fraud. Although calls to make the penalties more severe have increased, currently offenders of the “It’s me, send money” scams face up to 10 years imprisonment. On the other hand, homicide in the process of a robbery provides for capital punishment or life imprisonment. If a victim dies during commission of a robbery, a sentence of up to 30 years imprisonment applies. Weekly Playboy advises its readers on methods to protect their elderly parents from such depredations. A former police detective, Yuji Yoshikawa, tells the magazine that the criminals typically plan their schemes carefully, first obtaining name lists of retirees and focusing on neighborhoods with numerous elderly residents. “Ninety percent of calls by fraudsters are made to conventional land-line telephones in the victims’ homes,” notes the aforementioned attorney Wakai, who advises halting use of land lines in favor of mobile phones. If land lines are retained, the subscriber should add caller ID to screen out unfamiliar callers. “Using an answering machine is also effective,” he added. With Mother’s Day approaching, it’s a good time to look into devices that afford protection, Weekly Playboy concludes.
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crime;scam;telephone
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jp0001984
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Crowds descend upon Imperial Palace's Inui Street to see cherry blossoms
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Crowds of spectators enjoyed cherry blossom viewing along Inui Street at the Imperial Palace in central Tokyo on Saturday after the area was opened to the public. Inui Street, which stretches about 750 meters from Sakashita to Inui gates, is lined with 103 cherry trees of 31 varieties. The street has been opened to the public during the annual cherry blossom and autumn foliage seasons since 2014. It was originally opened to commemorate Emperor Akihito’s 80th birthday. The latest public viewing, which will continue until April 7, is the last of the Heisei Era, which will come to a close on April 30 with the Emperor’s abdication. In light of positive reviews from visitors, the Imperial Household Agency is discussing plans to continue the event after the new era begins on May 1. Many visitors to Inui Street expressed gratitude to Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. “I’d like to thank Their Majesties for their substantial services for the sake of the people,” said Kyoko Matsumoto, from Chikushino, Fukuoka Prefecture, who visited the street with her daughter.
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sakura;cherry blossoms;imperial palace
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jp0001985
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[
"national"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Japanese municipalities and companies urged to craft evacuation plans in event mega-quake rocks Pacific coastal areas
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The government Friday urged municipalities and companies to flesh out preparations for a massive earthquake that could occur off the Pacific coast, including evacuation plans for areas that may not be affected by the initial temblor. Based on guidelines released the same day, local governments and companies will consider their responses according to the scale of a potential disaster, with the most serious case assuming a quake exceeding magnitude 8 along the Nankai Trough, which extends from off the coast of central Honshu to the country’s southwest. The government estimates there is a 70 to 80 percent chance of a magnitude 8 to 9 quake occurring along the trough within the next 30 years. In the worst case scenario, the quake could produce massive tsunami waves over 30 meters high, possibly killing up to 323,000 people, according to the estimate. As previous quakes have first occurred in the eastern part of the trough, residents living in coastal areas that may not be devastated by the initial temblor will also be urged to evacuate. Local governments will designate areas in which residents will be asked to leave their homes in advance because it could be too late for them to evacuate once an aftershock occurs. The evacuation period for such people is expected to last for about a week. Companies in unaffected areas will be urged to continue operating as usual while looking out for the safety of their employees. “We will explain the guidelines (to parties concerned) and make utmost efforts to ensure, together with local governments, the safety of citizens,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a news conference.
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earthquakes;disasters;nankai trough
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jp0001986
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[
"national"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Two Japanese teens drown in lake on Australia's Fraser Island
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SYDNEY - Queensland police announced on Saturday two Japanese teenagers died after drowning in a lake on a popular tourist island north of Brisbane. Police said the bodies of the two 16-year-old boys were found in the waters of Lake McKenzie, a picturesque freshwater lake on Fraser Island, on Saturday morning after they were reported missing from a tour group just after 5 p.m. local time on Friday. In Yokohama the same day, Kanagawa University High School announced that two students who were participating in an international exchange program in Australia disappeared on Friday and were found dead Saturday. The two are believed to be the same students found dead on Fraser Island. Local police will prepare a report for the coroner. Fraser Coast Mayor George Seymour told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation the drowning deaths were “highly unusual.” “It’s really unimaginable how somebody, let alone two people, could drown there,” he said. “It’s a calm lake in the middle of an island … whatever has happened is highly unusual.” Fraser Island is located roughly 350 km north of Brisbane. The World Heritage-listed location is the largest sand island in the world.
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kanagawa university high school;fraser island
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jp0001987
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[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Filipino woman killed, another injured after being hit by car in Yamagata city
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YAMAGATA - One Filipino woman was killed and another was in a critical condition Saturday after both were hit by a car while walking home from work in the city of Yamagata, police said. Inoue Colline Grace Coner, 33, was confirmed dead and Konno Queenie Dumas, 30, was rushed to hospital and remains in a critical condition, local police said. The accident occurred around 2:45 a.m. when the women, who both live in the city, were returning home from work. They may have been crossing the road when the accident occurred, according to police. The driver, Kenya Oba, 35, was arrested at the scene.
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accidents;inoue colline grace coner;konno queenie dumas
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jp0001988
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[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Thai police arrest 15 Japanese in Pattaya call center scam targeting Japan
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BANGKOK - Thai police have said 15 Japanese have been arrested for alleged involvement in a call center scam that defrauded people in their homeland. The police said Friday that the 15 were arrested following a raid on an upscale house in the beach resort town of Pattaya. According to police sources, it is the first time a scam targeting people in Japan has been uncovered in Thailand. The sources said the police launched an investigation after rumors began circulating of a Japanese gang running a phone scam in town.
|
thailand;fraud;theft;scams;police
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jp0001989
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/03/30
|
Based on answers from 25 respondents, survey finds 70% of adults convicted of abusing own kids were mistreated as children
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Based on a small sample size, more than 70 percent of adults convicted of abusing their own kids — or children they lived with — experienced being abused or neglected when they were children themselves, a survey showed Saturday. Even though the survey by Japanese research institute Riken is based on a small sample of 25 people, Kumi Kuroda, a psychiatrist who led the survey, said its results show that effects of abuse and neglect could extend into adulthood and that people with adverse childhood experiences need outside support in their parenting. Kuroda’s survey team contacted 124 people who were serving time in prison for child abuse and sent a set of over 400 questions to those who offered to cooperate. Of 25 people who responded, 18, or 72 percent, said they had adverse childhood experiences such as physical abuse, neglect or emotional maltreatment, the survey found. Eleven of them, or 44 percent, had mental health problems such as depression and alcoholism, and 17, or 68 percent, were in challenging parenting situations such as having three or more infants to raise or having children with health problems. The team also surveyed 74 adults who have no record of abusing children, and 13 of them, or 18 percent, said they experienced abuse or neglect as children.
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children;child abuse
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jp0001991
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[
"business"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Trump's Venezuela envoy pledges sanctions on banks backing Maduro
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WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump’s special representative for Venezuela pledged on Thursday that Washington would “expand the net” of sanctions on the South American nation, including more on banks supporting President Nicolas Maduro’s government. “There will be more sanctions on financial institutions that are carrying out the orders of the Maduro regime,” Elliott Abrams told a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing. The United States and dozens of other countries have recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as oil-rich Venezuela’s interim president and increased pressure on Maduro, a socialist, to step down. Washington this week revoked the U.S. visas of senior Venezuelan officials and said on Wednesday it had identified efforts by Maduro to work with foreign banks to move and hide money. Abrams, a neoconservative who has long advocated an activist U.S. role in the world, said he had been asking European banks to take steps to shield individual Venezuelans’ assets from Maduro’s government. He did not name the banks. Some lawmakers pressed Abrams, who was appointed to his current position in January, about granting temporary protected status (TPS) for more than 70,000 Venezuelans in the United States. More than 3 million people are believed to have fled Venezuela in recent years amid a deep economic crisis marked by widespread shortages of food and medicine as well as hyperinflation. Sen. Marco Rubio, Republican chairman of the Senate’s Western Hemisphere subcommittee, which held the hearing, warned that the flight of millions of Venezuelans could threaten regional stability. “This has the potential to be a regional catastrophe of epic proportions,” Rubio, who has worked closely with Trump on the administration’s Venezuela policy, told the hearing. Maduro, who took over as president in 2013 and was re-elected last year in a vote widely viewed as fraudulent, blames the crisis on a U.S.-backed sabotage campaign. His opponents say his socialist policies have caused the meltdown. Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, who wrote legislation calling for TPS, said: “The Venezuelan diaspora is fantastic, they’re incredible. All the more reason to give them TPS.” Abrams said TPS was under consideration and he would discuss it with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. There are 74,000 Venezuelans who have applied for asylum in the United States, Abrams added. He accused Russia and Cuba of shielding Maduro, who Abrams said was protected by “thousands and thousands” of Cuban military and intelligence officials while Moscow has supplied tens of millions of dollars to the government. Abrams confirmed media reports he had had at least two rounds of secret talks with Maduro’s foreign minister, Jorge Arreaza. Mark Green, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said the Venezuelan economy had contracted by 50 percent and estimates were it could contract by another one-third this year, leading to a “profound collapse.” “When you have inflation by some estimates 2 million percent, nobody has the ability to buy anything anyway, so there will be profound despair and hopelessness,” Green testified in the hearing. Abrams said the World Bank and International Monetary Fund had plans involving “billions of dollars” of funding to rebuild the economy after Maduro was no longer in charge of Venezuela. He added that Venezuela was “not fundamentally a bankrupt country” and that there would be “lots of people who are ready to invest” if there was a change in its leadership and economic policy.
|
u.s .;venezuela;sanctions;nicolas maduro;donald trump;tps;juan guaido;ellion abrams
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jp0001992
|
[
"business",
"economy-business"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Japan's fourth-quarter GDP upgraded, but business conditions index continues downtrend
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Japan’s economy grew an annualized real 1.9 percent in the October-December period, upgraded from preliminary data thanks to an upswing in capital expenditure, the government said Friday. The reading showed the world’s third-largest economy had rebounded after a string of natural disasters caused a contraction the previous quarter, although economists remained cautious following a downgrade by the Cabinet Office the previous day of another key economic indicator. Friday’s upgrade was largely in line with the average forecast, for 1.8 percent growth, that had been made by private-sector economists polled by Kyodo News. Compared with the previous quarter, real gross domestic product — the total value of goods and services produced in the country adjusted for inflation — grew 0.5 percent, according to the data from the Cabinet Office. Capital expenditure increased 2.7 percent from the previous quarter as manufacturers of telecommunications equipment and production machinery ramped up spending. Private consumption, which accounts for more than half of the national economy, rose just 0.4 percent, downgraded from the preliminary 0.6 percent growth, as tepid wage gains kept households from spending more freely. Net exports, falling amid slowing demand from China, pushed down real GDP by 0.3 percentage point. Public investment fell 1.7 percent, downgraded from the 1.2 percent fall initially reported. In nominal terms, or unadjusted for inflation, GDP rose an annualized 1.6 percent or 0.4 percent on a quarterly basis. The upward revision for the October-December period led to an upgrade to real GDP growth in 2018 from 0.7 percent to 0.8 percent. Japan’s economy needed all the momentum it could get heading into 2019, with early data for the current quarter suggesting growth will be hit hard by the slowdown in China, the U.S.-China trade war and a softening tech cycle. The recent pattern of expansion and contraction in the economy is not the stable growth path Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would like to see in the run-up to a demand-sapping sales-tax hike later this year. The upward revision in GDP growth had been expected by economists given stronger-than-expected capital expenditure figures for the quarter released last week. But those figures also showed very little quarterly growth in business spending outside the manufacturing sector. The figures didn’t prompt a rethink among economists, who are increasingly concerned about the current quarter and the possibility of the economy contracting or, even worse, slipping into a recession ahead. Worries about a possible recession were prompted by government data released Thursday, which downgraded its assessment of a key indicator of economic trends. The Cabinet Office’s coincident index of business conditions for January was down 2.7 points from the previous month at 97.9 against the 2015 base of 100. It was the index’s third consecutive decline, prompting the office to say that it was “signaling a possible turning point.” Prior to that, the office had said conditions were “weakening.”
|
shinzo abe;economy;gdp;recession;economic indicators
|
jp0001993
|
[
"business",
"economy-business"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Japan's household spending rises 2.0% in January, up for second month
|
Spending by households rose 2.0 percent from a year earlier in January, up for the second straight month on more expenditure on home renovations, government data showed Friday. Households with two or more people spent ¥296,345 ($2,660) in the reporting month after adjusting for inflation, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. The ministry raised its assessment of household spending, saying it showed “signs of recovery,” the first upgrade since last August. Previously, the ministry said household expenditure was “pausing in its recovery.” In January, spending on housing soared 18.0 percent from a year earlier, the highest growth among sectors, due to an increase in home renovations. Outlays on education also expanded 17.7 percent. A ministry official said it is not certain whether the rise in household spending was caused by last-minute demand before a planned consumption tax hike from the current 8 percent to 10 percent in October. Household spending is a key indicator of private consumption, which accounts for nearly 60 percent of Japan’s gross domestic product. The average income of salaried households with at least two people stood at ¥471,124, a 3.6 percent increase and the third straight monthly rise from a year earlier after adjusting for inflation.
|
economy;economic indicators;internal affairs ministry;household spending
|
jp0001994
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Lawyer Takashi Takano is all apologies for Ghosn's dramatic bail release and the disguise that wasn't
|
Former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn’s incognito emergence Wednesday from a Tokyo jail launched a barrage of speculation and amusement from the media and the public over his motive for donning a cap, surgical mask and construction worker outfit upon his release. On Friday, the confused Japanese public got an answer. Takashi Takano, one of Ghosn’s attorneys, confessed in a blog post that it was his idea to protect Ghosn’s well-being, but it failed. Ghosn, who turns 65 on Saturday, was released on bail after 108 days of detention. Observers were shocked when he came out of the Tokyo Detention House alongside a phalanx of guards as well as other men wearing similar caps, surgical masks and construction worker outfits. Takano said the legal team’s first task after securing Ghosn’s bail was to bring him to his residence without delay so that he could be reunited with his family and regain some sense of normalcy, albeit under strict conditions. “If Mr. Ghosn had headed to his residence without disguise, he would have been chased by innumerable camera crew via motorcycles, cars and helicopters,” Takano explained. “The whole world would know where his small residence is located. He may lose his health instead of recovering. It’s not just him. His family members and neighbors’ lives may be disrupted.” Takano apologized to his friends who undertook the initiative for causing trouble and regretted that his “premature plan has tarnished (Ghosn’s) reputation that he has built through his life.” Keiko Ishikawa, a crisis communications consultant, echoed the lawyer, saying that the legal team’s effort backfired. “I think the tragedy was that the lawyer’s desire to protect him came across as if he might be hiding something,” she said. Ghosn wouldn’t have accepted the disguise under ordinary circumstance, but his judgement may have been clouded and he may have thought that it would be in his best interest to obey the lawyer’s instruction since he was not familiar with Japanese customs, Ishikawa added. Some critics on social media have said that, if he’s really innocent, he should not have had to disguise himself and should have emerged from the center proudly. Ghosn is accused of falsifying his remuneration for years. He was later slapped with more charges including aggravated breach of trust for the alleged transfer of private investment losses to Nissan during the global financial crisis of 2008. He denies wrongdoing and argues the charges stem from a conspiracy within Nissan to block his plan to merge with the carmaker Renault, its largest shareholder. The detention has been met with international criticism. Critics have dubbed the Japanese legal system as one of “hostage justice,” in which suspects are detained for long periods in an effort to coerce a confession and interrogations are often conducted without an attorney present. Since Ghosn’s release on bail, the Japanese media has been fixated on his failed disguise. He slipped into a silver van with the guards and drove away, with watchers assuming it was one of the staff going home. A few lucky — or possibly tipped off — media outlets caught his exit and followed the vehicle. Ghosn is now with his family at the residence where he’ll stay, effectively under house arrest with limited access to information and people, Takano wrote in his post. The strict bail conditions that Ghosn agreed to — such as camera monitoring and restricted mobile phone and internet access — may have been the deciding factor in his release, legal experts said. The terms are similar to another case Takano worked on, said Tokyo-based defense lawyer Seihou Chou, who used to work for Takano’s office and outlined his thoughts in a blog post. Fuji TV reenacted Ghosn’s release by bringing in the same type of minivan to the studio and dressing a man in an outfit resembling Ghosn’s. NHK tracked down a store that sells a similar type of construction work outfit and showed Ghosn taking a walk at a park in Tokyo on Friday, but he did not speak to the media. Ghosn’s legal team has said it would be willing to hold a news conference, but one hasn’t been scheduled yet. Ishikawa speculated that Ghosn may not be in the best condition to withstand stress at this point. On his blog post, Takano called on the media to respect his privacy. “Every public figure needs a place for rest where the person can relieve their exhaustion and spend time with their relatives at ease,” Takano said. “Every private figure has a right to work safely to make a living. Please understand these matters of course.”
|
courts;corruption;scandals;nissan;renault;carlos ghosn;junichiro hironaka;takashi takano
|
jp0001995
|
[
"business",
"tech"
] |
2019/03/08
|
The mind distracted: Technology's battle for our attention
|
PARIS - Between distractions, diversions and the flickering allure of a random suggestion, the major computer platforms aim to keep us glued to our screens. Now some people think it is time to escape the tyranny of the digital age. Everyone who has stared for hours at a screen has had some exposure to the phenomenon of “captology” — a word coined by behavioral scientist B.J. Fogg to describe the invisible and manipulative way in which technology can persuade and influence those using it. “There is nothing we can do, like it or not, where we can escape persuasive technology,” the Stanford University researcher wrote in 2010. All of us experience this “persuasive technology” on a daily basis, whether through the endlessly scrollable Facebook pages or the autoplay function on Netflix or YouTube, where one video starts as soon as another ends. “This wasn’t a design accident — it was created and introduced with the aim of keeping us on a certain platform,” said user experience (UX) designer Lenaic Faure. Working with Designers Ethiques, a French collective seeking to push a socially responsible approach to digital design, Faure has developed a method for assessing whether the attention-grabbing element of an application “is ethically defensible.” In the case of YouTube, for example, if you follow the automatic suggestions, “there is a sort of dissonance created between the user’s initial aim” of watching a certain video and “what is introduced to try and keep him or her on the platform,” he said. Ultimately the aim is to expose the user to partner advertisements and better understand his or her tastes and habits. UX designer Harry Brignull describes such interactions as “dark patterns,” defining them as interfaces that have been carefully crafted to trick users into doing things they may not have wanted to do. “It describes this kind of design pattern — kind of evil, manipulative and deceptive,” he explained, saying the aim is to “make you do what the developers want you to do.” One example is that of the newly introduced EU data protection rules that require websites to demand users’ consent before being able to collect their valuable personal data. “You can make it very, very easy to make people click ‘OK,’ but how can you opt out, how can you say ‘no’?” Brignull asked. Even for him, as a professional, it can take at least a minute to find out how to refuse. In today’s digital world, attention time is a most valuable resource. “The digital economy is based upon competition to consume humans’ attention. This competition has existed for a long time, but the current generation of tools for consuming attention is far more effective than previous generations,” said David S.H. Rosenthal in a Pew Research Center study in April 2018. “Economies of scale and network effects have placed control of these tools in a very small number of exceptionally powerful companies. These companies are driven by the need to consume more and more of the available attention to maximize profit.” Faure suggests that for a design to be considered responsible, the objective of the developer and that of the user must largely line up and equate to the straightforward delivery of information. But if the design modifies or manipulates the user, directing him or her toward something they did not ask for, that should then be classed as irresponsible, he says. French engineering student Tim Krief has come up with a browser extension called Minimal, which offers users a “less attention-grabbing internet experience,” on the grounds that the internet “should be a tool, not a trap.” The extension aims to mask the more “harmful” suggestions channeled through the major platforms. An open-source project, the extension should “make users more aware about such issues,” Krief said. “We don’t attribute enough importance to this attention economy because it seems invisible.” But is this enough to fight the attention-grabbing tactics of powerful internet giants? Brignull believes some designers can bring about change but are likely to be restricted by the wider strategy of the company they work for. “I think they will have some impact — a little impact — but if they work in companies, those companies have a strategy … so it can be very difficult to have an impact on the companies themselves.” Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, former head of the French Data Protection Authority (CNIL), also believes that design can be used to effect positive change. “Design could be another defense whose firepower could be used against making individuals the playthings” of developers, she said in January in a presentation on the attention economy. Faure says he has seen a growing demand for an ethical approach to digital design and thinks his method could help “bring better understanding between users of services and the people who design them.” This type of initiative “could be a way to tell the big platforms that such persuasive designs really bother us,” Krief said.
|
internet;smartphones;computers;psychology
|
jp0001996
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Mark Zuckerberg's vow to really make a privacy-friendly Facebook seen as tall order
|
SAN FRANCISCO - After building a social network that turned into a surveillance system, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he’s shifting his company’s focus to messaging services designed to serve as fortresses of privacy. Instead of just being the network that connects everyone, Facebook wants to encourage small groups of people to carry on encrypted conversations that neither Facebook nor any other outsider can read. It also plans to let messages automatically disappear, a feature pioneered by its rival Snapchat that could limit the risks posed by a trail of social media posts that follow people throughout their lives. It’s a major bet by Zuckerberg, who sees it as a way to push Facebook more firmly into a messaging market that’s growing faster than its main social networking business. It might also help Facebook ward off government regulators, although the Facebook CEO made clear that he expects the company’s messaging business to complement, not replace, its core businesses. But there are plenty of obstacles. Facebook has weathered more than two years of turbulence for repeated privacy lapses, spreading disinformation, allowing Russian agents to conduct targeted propaganda campaigns and a rising tide of hate speech and abuse. Zuckerberg submitted to two days of grilling on Capitol Hill last April. All that increases the challenge of convincing users that Facebook really means it about privacy this time. Encrypted conversations could alleviate some of those problems, but it could make others worse. Security is an “admirable goal,” said Forrester Research analyst Fatemeh Khatibloo. “I’m just not sure it addresses the bigger issues Facebook is facing right now.” Facebook grew into a colossus by vacuuming up people’s information in every possible way and dissecting it to shoot targeted ads back at them. Anything that jeopardizes that machine could pose a major threat to the company’s share price, which would also affect its ability to attract and retain talented engineers and other employees. In an interview Wednesday, Zuckerberg predicted Facebook’s emphasis on privacy will do more to help the company’s business than hurt it. While most of the stock market slipped in Wednesday trading, Facebook’s shares gained $1.25 to close at $172.51. The Facebook CEO has been telegraphing some of these changes to investors for the past six months, but his Wednesday blog post is the first time he has explained the idea to the more than 2 billion people that use Facebook’s services and look at its ads. Those ads are expected to generate $67 billion in revenue this year, according to the research firm eMarketer. If everything falls into place, Facebook will also display similar advertising on the privacy-protected messaging services. Those services are also likely to offer other moneymaking features, such as a digital wallet, as Facebook attempts to build something similar to Tencent’s popular WeChat service in China. “If you think about your life, you probably spend more time communicating privately than publicly,” Zuckerberg said during the interview. “The overall opportunity here is a lot larger than what we have built in terms of Facebook and Instagram.” That’s far from proven. While Facebook has already tried to show ads in the Messenger app, it’s seen only limited success. It hasn’t even tested the concept in WhatsApp since it acquired that service for $22 billion in 2014. “There are some huge unknowns about how successful Facebook is going to be rolling advertising into a more private messaging environment,” said eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson. Some critics are convinced that Facebook has become so powerful — even a threat to democracy as well as to people’s privacy — that it needs to be reined in by tougher regulations or even a corporate breakup. But unraveling Facebook could become more difficult if Zuckerberg can successfully stitch together the messaging services behind an encrypted wall. “I see that as the goal of this entire thing,” said Blake Reid, a University of Colorado law professor who specializes in technology and policy. He said Facebook could tell antitrust authorities that WhatsApp, Instagram Direct and Facebook Messenger are tied so tightly together that it couldn’t unwind them. Combining the three services also lets Facebook build more complete data profiles on all of its users. Already, businesses can already target Facebook and Instagram users with the same ads, and marketing campaigns are likely coming to WhatsApp eventually. Facebook’s focus on messaging privacy raises other concerns. Messaging apps have in the past helped fake news and rumors spread fast, sometimes with deadly consequences. A report from University of Oxford researchers last year found evidence of widespread disinformation campaigns on chat applications like WhatsApp. In one particularly brutal example, the Indian government last year accused WhatsApp of fueling rumors that led to lynchings and mob violence that wounded dozens. Facebook responded by restricting the number of groups to which a message could be forwarded and labeling forwarded messages as such. On Wednesday, Zuckerberg said that Facebook needs to protect both privacy and safety as it encrypted messaging services, although he noted to an “inherent trade-off” between security and safety, simply because Facebook won’t be able to read encrypted conversations. And in some cases, Facebook could allow some content to automatically disappear in a day or two, as if it were a fleeting mirage. “Some people want to store their messages forever and some people think having large collections of photos or messages is a liability as much as it is an asset,” Zuckerberg said. “Figuring out the balance is a really important one.”
|
u.s .;privacy;facebook;mark zuckerberg;surveillance;instagram;whatsapp;messenger
|
jp0001997
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Japan to pull a U-turn on ride-sharing ban in bid to fill transport gaps in rural areas, Abe says
|
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says the government plans to promote ride-sharing services that are currently banned in most areas to help improve the availability of transportation in rural areas. “It is necessary to review the current system from the standpoint of (transportation service) users,” Abe said Thursday at a meeting to discuss growth strategies and structural reform measures. The legal revisions required for deregulation would also allow taxi operators, which have opposed ride-sharing, to engage in the management of such operations, government officials said. Ride-sharing services that match drivers of private vehicles with people seeking transportation are prohibited in Japan except in areas where no public transportation is available. Where such services are available they can only be used by local residents and are typically managed by local governments and nonprofit organizations. “The involvement of taxi operators will benefit both municipalities and service users,” as it will lessen local governments’ burden in running ride-sharing operations while enhancing users’ convenience in areas where there are not enough drivers, Abe said. Details will be finalized by summer, and a bill to revise the relevant transport-related law will be submitted to the Diet next year, the officials said. Once the ban is lifted, tourists would also be able to use such services, they added.
|
shinzo abe;transportation;tourism;rural life;ride-sharing
|
jp0001998
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Greenback falls below ¥111 in Tokyo on global growth jitters
|
The dollar dropped below ¥111 in Tokyo trading Friday amid growing concerns about the course of the global economy. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥110.98-98, down from ¥111.78-78 at the same time Thursday. The euro was at $1.1209-1210, down from $1.1307-1307, and at ¥124.41-42, down from ¥126.39-40. After trading around ¥111.50-60 in the early morning, the dollar fell below ¥111.50 as the benchmark Nikkei stock average sank deep into negative territory. In the afternoon, the greenback passed ¥111 as players stepped up selling in light of fresh Chinese trade figures that were far weaker than expected for February. After a series of announcements including bleak growth forecasts by China and the European Union, the poor Chinese export performance fueled investor fears about a global economic slowdown, analysts said. Selling pressure increased as the dollar failed to stably stay at levels above ¥112, an official at a foreign-exchange margin trading service firm said. Meanwhile, a domestic bank official said if the U.S. government’s jobs report for February shows strong numbers, the greenback would top ¥111.30.
|
forex;currencies
|
jp0001999
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Tokyo stocks tumble on global economic slowdown concerns
|
Stocks nose-dived on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Friday over rekindled fears about a global economic slowdown, forcing the benchmark Nikkei average to give up more than 400 points. The 225-issue average tumbled 430.45 points, or 2.01 percent, to end at 21,025.56, after breaching the 21,000 line for the first time since Feb. 15 on an intraday basis. On Thursday, the Nikkei fell 140.80 points. The Topix index of all first-section issues finished down 29.22 points, or 1.82 percent, at 1,572.44, after losing 13.59 points the previous day. Stocks fell sharply right after the opening bell, hit by heavy risk-averse selling spurred by overnight sell-offs in the European and U.S. markets. Investors shied away from stocks and other risk assets in the wake of the European Central Bank sharply cutting its growth forecasts for the eurozone on Thursday. The ECB also decided at its policy-setting meeting to start a new program to supply liquidity to the banking system and refrain from raising interest rates this year. The ECB moves hurt market sentiment, which had already been soured since China lowered its 2019 growth target, brokers said. Stocks accelerated their downswings after the release of export data by China that were far weaker than expected, they also said. Many participants cited the yen’s strengthening against the dollar as another damper to the market. Ryuta Otsuka, strategist at the investment information department of Toyo Securities Co., said stocks were “sold excessively,” observing that investors overreacted to the projected slowdown in the EU economy, which was something that had already been expected. Investor attention has shifted from rosy events to dismal ones, including not only macroeconomic developments but domestic corporate activities, such as a big chip production cut by Renesas Electronics Corp. and Mizuho Financial Group Inc.’s profit warning, said Masayuki Otani, chief market analyst at Securities Japan Inc. Falling issues overwhelmed rising ones 2,003 to 107 in the TSE’s first section, while 23 issues were unchanged. Volume swelled to 1.67 billion shares from Thursday’s 1.25 billion shares, thanks partly to active transactions linked to the fixing of special quotations to settle March index futures and option contracts. Financials were battered by drops in U.S. long-term interest rates. Megabank group Mitsubishi UFJ lost 2.25 percent, and insurer Dai-ichi Life plunged 4.78 percent. Kawasaki Kisen dived 12.63 percent after the shipping firm sharply lowered its net profit estimate for the year ending this month. Other major losers included clothing store chain Fast Retailing and chipmaking gear manufacturer Tokyo Electron. Among the handful winners was Sekisui House, which gained 1.42 percent on strong earnings. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key June contract on the Nikkei average tumbled 460 points to end at 20,770.
|
stocks;nikkei;tokyo stock exchange;topix
|
jp0002000
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Growth fears and Chinese equity plunge haunt global stocks
|
LONDON - Deepening fears for the health of the global economy pushed world stocks to three-week lows on Friday after China exports contracted by a fifth, sending shares in some of the country’s key indexes more than 4 percent lower. The February data out of Beijing came in well below expectations of a 4.8 percent drop and worsened the already brittle mood on world markets, after European Central Bank slashed growth forecasts and unveiled a new round of policy stimulus on Thursday. While the timing of the Lunar New Year made it difficult to draw a true signal from the China data noise, the scale of the drop was alarming, especially when coupled with somber new data from Germany and Norway. The data knocked Chinese stocks off the 20-month highs hit earlier in the week, with mainland equity indexes plunging more than 4 percent in their worst day in five months. Japan’s Nikkei. closed 2 percent lower. The dark mood spilled into European stock markets where the STOXX 600 index slipped 0.7 percent, poised for the first weekly drop in a month. “The trade data from China is a big part of it,” said Fiera Capital’s co-chief Investment Officer Julian Mayo. “Our own view is that the Chinese economy is slower than people generally think, but I think the world economy is probably slower than people think. So you put those two together and it is not surprising that the trade data was weaker than expected.” European auto and financial stocks were at the forefront, both sectors slipping nearly 2 percent. A surprise decline in German industrial orders added concerns over the health of China’s economy, while financials nursed losses for a second day after the European Central Bank cut its growth forecasts and pushed out an interest rate hike. ECB President Mario Draghi said the economy was in “a period of continued weakness and pervasive uncertainty” as he pushed out a planned rate hike and instead offered banks a new round of cheap loans. MSCI’s 47-country benchmark world index dropped for a fifth straight session- its longest losing streak since December’s rout. The pressure looked to continue on Wall Street, with S&P 500 E-Mini futures easing 0.4 percent. Yet the cocktail of growth woes and dovish central banks proved a boon for bonds. Germany’s benchmark 10-year bond yield took a step closer to zero percent and both German and French benchmark yields were at their lowest level since 2016- the year that saw the ECB ramp up stimulus and cut rates to fight deflation and weak economic growth. “The ECB has had a bullish impact on bond markets and that is set to continue,” said Ciaran O’Hagan, rates strategist at Societe Generale in Paris. “We were not expecting something so clear, so soon, and markets were not either, so bond yields are likely to stay low for longer.” U.S. 10-year Treasury yields touched a fresh two week low 2.627 percent. On currency markets, the euro inched up to $1.1216 after tumbling 1 percent on Thursday to touch $1.1176- its lowest since June 2017. The dollar weakened 0.2 percent after reaching a new 2019 high against a basket of currencies that includes the euro as traders bet the United States would fare better than Europe in the coming months, despite some soft patches in the U.S. economy. Investors will be scouring U.S. payrolls data for February due out later in the day, with analysts uncertain how much payback there might be for January’s outsized jump. There was also a chance the jobless rate could fall by more than forecast, given the recent strength in employment. In commodity markets, oil prices eased as U.S. crude output and exports climbed to record highs, undermining efforts by producer club OPEC to tighten global markets. Oil futures fell around $1 with U.S. crude at $55.75 a barrel, while Brent crude fell to $65.14.
|
stocks;foreign exchange;bonds;equities;fx
|
jp0002002
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Suntory says it may hike price of its U.S. subsidiary's whiskey in EU due to tariff dispute
|
NEW YORK - Suntory Holdings Ltd. is considering raising the prices of whiskey products a U.S. subsidiary sells in Europe due to the negative earnings impact from punitive European Union tariffs against the United States, Suntory President Takeshi Niinami has said. The EU introduced 25 percent tariffs on U.S. goods, including whiskey, in June last year in retaliation against restrictions on steel and aluminum imports put in force by Washington. Beam Suntory Inc., a major American distilled spirit maker acquired by the Japanese beverage producer in 2014, sells bourbon whiskey products such as Jim Beam globally. “We hope to manage price hikes well in April or later,” Niinami said in a recent interview. Niinami, however, suggested that the company will not increase its prices by more than 10 percent, considering the sluggish European economy and the rising popularity of Scotch whisky thanks to a drop in the British pound. According to Niinami, Suntory may skip the price hike or change the size of the markup depending on the region. He also said Beam Suntory aims to grab the largest market share for U.S.-made whiskey by 2025. By expanding sales of products jointly developed with the help of Japanese technologies, Beam Suntory hopes to overtake Brown-Forman Corp., the maker of Jack Daniel’s and the top whiskey supplier in the United States, according to Niinami. On Thursday, Suntory Holdings said that later this month it will release in the United States a new bourbon whiskey called Legent, which was developed jointly with Beam Suntory and will be blended like a Japanese whisky. “With the completion of this product, we also finished the integration with Beam,” Niinami said.
|
u.s .;trade;eu;tariffs;suntory;whisky;takeshi niinami;drinking;trade war;beam suntory
|
jp0002003
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/03/08
|
IHI finds at least 200 cases of improper airplane engine inspections at Tokyo plant
|
Heavy machinery maker IHI Corp. said Friday it has found 211 cases in which airplane engines were improperly inspected over the past two years, including by uncertified workers. It has also found cases where qualified workers did not follow the prescribed order in conducting maintenance work and where inspectors falsified the inspection dates, according to an interim report released Friday. The supplier of Boeing Co. and Airbus S.A.S. said a shortage of inspectors and other factors led to misconduct that began in January 2017, at the latest, in a Tokyo factory where IHI provides maintenance for around 100 to 150 engines a year. IHI first admitted to the misconduct on Tuesday. There are no problems in the capability and performance of the affected engines, the company said. IHI is the latest major manufacturer to become embroiled in a scandal over quality control. Subaru Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. revealed some of their vehicles had been inspected by unqualified workers, while Kobe Steel Ltd. and Mitsubishi Materials Corp. admitted to fabricating product data. The machinery giant examined around 40,000 inspection records from the past two years after an on-site inspection by the transport ministry early this year identified malpractice. IHI received a whistleblower report in April last year pointing to possible misconduct in inspecting airplane engines after routine repair and maintenance operations. But the company later concluded, in its own probe, that no misdeeds had been committed. The transport ministry has ordered eight other companies in the industry to report by early April on whether they have found similar misconduct.
|
aviation;scandals;ihi;ihi corp .
|
jp0002004
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Companies led by ex-Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn donated to his children's school and Paris ball
|
Companies headed by Carlos Ghosn, the embattled former head of Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA, made donations to his children’s school and the posh debutantes’ ball in Paris where his daughters were presented. The contributions, first reported by L’Express Magazine, were confirmed by the organizations involved. The gifts are the latest revelations about Ghosn’s use of company funds, including an extended weekend for eight couples at Rio de Janeiro’s Carnival and lavish events at the Versailles Palace. The disclosures come as the carmakers audit the Dutch company that oversees their partnership, with the conclusions expected by the end of March. The alliance had a budget of €900,000 in 2018 for “donations and sponsors,” L’Express said. Ghosn, 64, was released on bail Wednesday after being held for 108 days in a Tokyo prison on charges of underreporting his income and breach of trust at Nissan. Gaining his liberty will allow him more time to prepare his legal defense for a trial that may be months away, and to defend himself in the court of public opinion. He has denied wrongdoing. The Renault-Nissan alliance and Ghosn’s family are listed as donors by the American School of Paris for the construction of its new campus, which includes a “Ghosn room.” His son Anthony attended the school, as did his daughter Maya, according to her LinkedIn profile. In a statement, the school said the auto alliance “has been a valued partner.” Renault began supporting the debutantes’ ball in Paris, an event typically held each year for 25 young high-society women, a decade ago. Ghosn’s daughter Nadine attended in 2005, and Caroline in 2006, while Anthony put in an appearance in 2013, said Ophelie Renouard, the ball’s organizer. Renouard invited the Ghosn daughters after she saw their father on the cover of the French magazine Le Nouvel Economiste in 2005 and was struck by his international profile and links to Asia, she said. Ghosn was named CEO of Renault that year. He served as Nissan CEO from 2001 to 2017. The sponsorship relationship was “legitimate,” Renouard said, and involved the use of Twingo cars, with Renault getting a table at the event. “Renault was seeking positive coverage in Asia, where we are quite strong, with a presence in China, Japan and the Philippines,” she said. The sponsorship for the 2019 edition of the ball was signed in October, according to Renouard, who personally invited Anthony Ghosn to attend the glitzy event in 2013, when his father and sister Nadine also joined. A spokeswoman for the Ghosn family said Renault had a sponsorship relationship with the debutantes’ ball that helped the carmakers’ image, as well as a policy to support the schools attended by the children of its expatriate staff. It’s not unusual for international companies to make such contributions, she said. Spokesmen for Renault and the Renault-Nissan alliance declined to comment. Ghosn was ousted as chairman of Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. shortly after his November arrest and resigned in January as chairman and chief executive officer of Renault, thus losing his position atop the alliance. His downfall has triggered tension within the carmaking pact, which is intertwined by cross-shareholdings.
|
france;scandals;nissan;renault;carlos ghosn
|
jp0002005
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Japan's Toyota Tsusho to run Myanmar's first car auction
|
YANGON - Toyota Tsusho Corp., the Toyota Motor Corp. group’s trading arm, will hold Myanmar’s first car auction later this month with local startup Rebbiz Co., with the aim of building a marketplace for used car transactions. T.T.A.S. Co., the official local dealership of Toyota Motor, has said they will host the first such auction in Yangon on March 16 and 17, and that they plan to sell more than 200 cars. The firm is also the operator of CarsDB, Myanmar’s largest online automobile market. Cars expected to be sold at the auction include Toyota, Ford, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Chevrolet and Land Rover models, of which 80 to 90 percent are used vehicles, the partners said at a recent news conference in Yangon. Automobile imports to the Southeast Asian nation have grown since 2011, when decadeslong military-junta control was replaced by civilian rule. There are an estimated 800,000 registered vehicles in the country. New vehicle sales stood at about 17,500 in 2018, according to the Automotive Association of Myanmar. But Daiki Kato, managing director of Toyota Tsusho’s wholly owned dealership, said that the vast majority of vehicles there do not go through proper inspection for resale, with details of past accidents or theft concealed in order to sell them. CarsDB posts trade information on 15,000 vehicles on its website, which has over 200,000 subscribers. The company has about 1.2 million Facebook followers. For the upcoming auction, the firm will screen all vehicles for quality. Toyota Tsusho has conducted car auctions in China, India and Indonesia. It has also established a local unit in Indonesia, where it sold about 61,000 vehicles in 2018.
|
myanmar;toyota tsusho;carsdb
|
jp0002006
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Airbus enters March with four orders, for Bombardier jet, and 103 cancellations
|
LONDON - Two months into 2019, Airbus SE has logged cancellations for 103 jetliners and garnered a grand total of four new sales — and the sales were for the A220 plane manufactured in Canada by Bombardier Inc. The deal for the A220s — formerly the Bombardier C Series — with Pacific Ocean carrier Air Vanuatu represented Airbus’s only new business in February and broke an order drought in January. Cancellations last month included 42 A350 wide-bodies jettisoned by unprofitable Persian Gulf carrier Etihad Airways and 25 single-aisle A320neos that had been ordered by Germania, which has filed for bankruptcy. February also featured 23 cancellations for the A380 superjumbo after Airbus said the flagship program would be wound up early: 20 at leasing firm Amedeo and three originally ordered by Russia’s now defunct Transaero and later assigned to Air Accord. Those losses follow the scrapping in January of eight A380 orders at Australia’s Qantas Airways and five A220s contracted to a private buyer. Airbus said it won’t record the cancellation of 39 A380s at Dubai-based Emirates until details are finalized. That should also allow it to book its first major orders this year, for 30 A350s and 40 smaller A330neos that the Persian Gulf carrier has said it will buy.
|
airbus;a350;a380;emirates;bombardier;a220;jetliners
|
jp0002007
|
[
"world",
"social-issues-world"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Trump asks military to house 5,000 child migrants amid mounting 'crisis' at Mexican border: Pentagon
|
WASHINGTON - The Trump administration has asked the U.S. Department of Defense to prepare to house up to 5,000 unaccompanied illegal immigrant children amid what it calls a mounting “crisis” at the border, the Pentagon said Thursday. The Department of Health and Human Services, “requested DoD support to identify space to house up to 5,000 unaccompanied alien children on DoD installations, if needed, through September 30, 2019,” said Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Col. Jamie Davis. “DoD will work with the military services to identify potential locations for such support, and will work with HHS to assess any DoD facilities or suitable DoD land for potential use to provide temporary shelter for unaccompanied alien children,” he said.
|
u.s .;immigration;mexico;pentagon;donald trump;border wall
|
jp0002008
|
[
"world",
"social-issues-world"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Mexican journalist seeking U.S. asylum again ordered deported as judge calls fears of death 'merely speculative'
|
HOUSTON - A Mexican journalist has again been ordered deported from the United States despite his fear that his past stories about corruption make him a target in one of the world’s most dangerous countries for reporters. The attorney for Emilio Gutierrez Soto and his son, Oscar, said Thursday that he would appeal an immigration judge’s decision denying them asylum. Judge Robert Hough’s Feb. 28 order says Emilio Gutierrez Soto’s testimony was not credible and that he had not shown that he would be singled out for his reporting on the Mexican military were he to return now. Press freedom advocates have highlighted Gutierrez’s articles that alleged military forces were robbing and extorting local people in Chihuahua, which borders New Mexico and part of West Texas. He and Oscar Gutierrez Soto entered the U.S. in 2008. Gutierrez says he was threatened for writing those articles and fears he will be targeted if forced to return to Mexico. Hough said that those fears were “merely speculative” given the decade that’s passed since the articles were published. The judge also said Mexico “has laws which protect free speech and the government generally respects these rights.” Eight journalists were killed in Mexico last year in connection with their reporting work, according to Reporters Without Borders, more than any other country besides Afghanistan. Two journalists in Mexico have already been killed this year. In many parts of the country, drug cartels and organized crime gangs are largely free to harass and murder reporters with impunity. The asylum request made by Gutierrez and his son was first denied in July 2017, and they were taken into detention that December during a check-in with immigration authorities. The two were released in July, two months after an immigration appeals court ordered a new asylum hearing. Their attorney, Eduardo Beckett, said Thursday that the two were not under immediate threat of deportation after the order, but are under a “dark cloud … which causes much anxiety and stress not knowing the final result.” “It is well documented that persons who have filed complaints or have gone public against government authorities have paid with their lives,” Beckett said in an email. The National Press Club said it would mobilize in support of the Gutierrez family. Emilio Gutierrez is currently serving a journalism fellowship at the University of Michigan.
|
u.s .;murder;mexico;refugees;reporters without borders;emilio gutierrez soto
|
jp0002009
|
[
"world",
"science-health-world"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Chimps have diverse 'cultures' in need of conservation as habitats decline, study says
|
WASHINGTON - Some chimpanzee groups are stone-throwers. Some use rocks to crack open nuts to eat. Others use sticks to fish for algae. As researchers learn more about Homo sapiens’ closest living genetic relatives, they are also discovering more about the diversity of behaviors within chimpanzee groups — activities learned, at least in part socially, and passed from generation to generation. These patterns are referred to as “traditions” — or even animal “culture.” In a new study, scientists argue that this diversity of behaviors should be protected as species are safeguarded, and that they are now under threat from human disturbance. “What we mean by ‘culture’ is something you learn socially from your group members that you may not learn if you were born into a different chimpanzee group,” said Ammie Kalan, a primatologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. “As chimpanzee populations decline and their habitats become fragmented, we can see a stark decline in chimpanzee behavioral diversity,” said Kalan, co-author of the sweeping new study, published Thursday in the journal Science. The 10-year study, led by researchers at the Max Planck Institute and the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research, examines data on 144 chimpanzee communities in Africa and the occurrence of 31 specific behaviors, such as tool usage or rock throwing. The regions with the least human impact showed the greatest variety in chimp behaviors. But areas greatly altered by logging, road-building, climate change and other human activities showed markedly less behavioral diversity — an 88 percent lower probability of exhibiting all behaviors. Multiple factors drive the loss. “With the increase of human disturbance, chimps may not be able to live in such large groups anymore — and it has been shown that group size is connected with social learning,” said co-author Hjalmar Kuehl, also a primatologist at the Max Planck Institute. For example, researchers studying chimpanzee groups in parts of West Africa encountered mysterious piles of stones alongside battered tree trunks. The rocks had been thrown against the trees by chimpanzees for reasons still unclear to the scientists who first documented the behavior in 2016. Perhaps the purpose was to mark territory, or proclaim dominance within a group, or start a game, or something else, the biologists surmised. But not all chimpanzees are stone-throwers. Some groups use stones to crack open tree nuts. Researchers recently discovered an archaeological site in West Africa that showed chimpanzees had used stones there for nut-cracking for more than 4,000 years. Elsewhere in West Africa, sticks were the tools of choice, with young chimps in Guinea learning from their elders to use them to “fish” in lakes for long strands of algae to eat. Or, in Nigeria, to poke termite mounds to gather the insects for food. Sixty years ago, scientists had limited knowledge of chimpanzees in the wild, until researcher Jane Goodall first recorded behaviors like tool usage, which previously were associated only with humans. In 1999, Goodall and other scientists popularized the phrase “chimpanzee cultures” in an article in the journal Science. The use of the term has ignited debate ever since — including resistance from some anthropologists— but also launched further research. Most likely genetics and socially learned behavior interact to form animal “culture” in chimpanzees and other species, said Carl Safina, an ecologist and author of several books on animal behavior who was not involved in the study. This has implications for conservation. “We have come to understand that behavioral diversity matters for protecting species,” said Andrew Whiten, an evolutionary psychologist and zoologist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland who was not involved in the study. “The greater the diversity of behavior, the more likely a species will be able to deal with future changes and challenges in their environment,” he said. “It’s not good news when their options are limited.” Last month, Whiten co-authored a “Policy Forum” article in Science, titled “Animal cultures matter for conservation,” arguing that policy-makers should include behavioral diversity alongside other measures of biodiversity. “Culture is not the tip of the iceberg for these great apes — some kind of nice luxury — but an intrinsic and essential part of their local adaptation,” Carel van Schaik, an anthropologist at the University of Zurich who was not involved in the new study, wrote in an email. Lydia Luncz, a primatologist at the University of Oxford, agrees. “We are far from understanding yet what is the cultural repertoire of chimps,” said Luncz, who also was not involved in the study. “It would be a tragedy to lose more of the cultural heritage of our closest living relatives.”
|
africa;chimpanzees;humans;habitat;max planck institute for evolutionary anthropology;cultures
|
jp0002010
|
[
"world",
"science-health-world"
] |
2019/03/08
|
NASA captures unprecedented images of supersonic shock waves with help of 'rock star' pilots
|
WASHINGTON - NASA has captured unprecedented photos of the interaction of shock waves from two supersonic aircraft, part of its research into developing planes that can fly faster than sound without thunderous “sonic booms.” When an aircraft crosses that threshold — around 1,225 kph (760 mph) at sea level — it produces waves from the pressure it puts on the air around it, which merge to cause the ear-splitting sound. In an intricate maneuver by “rock star” pilots at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, two supersonic T-38 jets flew just 30 feet (nine meters) apart below another plane waiting to photograph them with an advanced, high-speed camera, the agency said. The rendezvous — at an altitude of around 30,000 feet — yielded mesmerizing images of the shock waves emanating from both planes. With one jet flying just behind the other, “the shocks are going to be shaped differently,” said Neal Smith of AerospaceComputing Inc., an engineering firm that works with NASA, in a post on the agency’s website. “This data is really going to help us advance our understanding of how these shocks interact.” Sonic booms can be a major nuisance, capable of not just startling people on the ground but also causing damage — like shattered windows — and this has led to strong restrictions on supersonic flight over land in jurisdictions like the United States. The ability to capture such detailed images of shock waves will be “crucial” to NASA’s development of the X-59, the agency said, an experimental supersonic plane it hopes will be able to break the sound barrier with just a rumble instead of a sonic boom. A breakthrough like that could lead to the loosening of flight restrictions and the return of commercial supersonic planes for the first time since Concorde was retired in 2003. Some countries and cities banned the Franco-British airliner from their airspace because of its sonic booms.
|
nasa;aviation;physics
|
jp0002011
|
[
"world",
"science-health-world"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Scientists begin exploring depths off Seychelles to gauge warming effects on last unexplored frontier
|
ALPHONSE ATOLL, SEYCHELLES - An unprecedented mission to explore the Indian Ocean and document changes taking place beneath the waves began its research on Thursday, in Seychelles waters. The British-led Nekton Mission arrived off the tiny atoll of Alphonse in the early morning hours, after looming bad weather forced a change of plan and of route. The ambitious expedition will delve into one of the last major unexplored frontiers on the planet, a vast body of water that’s already feeling the effects of global warming. Understanding the Indian Ocean’s ecosystem is important not just for the species that live in it, but also for an estimated 2.5 billion people at home in the region — from East Africa to the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian sub-continent and Southeast Asia. Though the mission will use hi-tech submersibles in its work, research began on Thursday with more modest equipment: a device to measure the water’s chemistry and a Neuston net used to retrieve zooplankton. “When you actually finally begin doing the science, it’s a bit of a relief and a lot of fun,” said Louise Allcock, a professor of zoology at the University of Ireland, in Galway. Alphonse is a tiny atoll, the tip of a submerged mountain, 232 nautical miles southwest of Seychelles’ capital Victoria. Within two miles of its shores, the ocean is as deep as 5,000 meters (3 miles). Little is known about the biodiversity of Alphonse Atoll, as it remains unexplored beyond scuba depth. Mission member Stephanie Marie is a marine researcher from the Seychelles. She recently spent a week on Alphonse working on a study of a fish species called the Giant Trevally, or GT. She says she is excited to find out what’s down there. “When you have amazing weather, you have a lot of things to see, like the sharks, the GT, the corals also, so it’s like a different place, a different scenery every time,” she said. Marie’s role is to collect zooplankton to conduct taxonomy identification. “I’m really excited. It’s going to be eye opening, because I’ve never seen so deep,” she said. “It’s really important. Fish feed on zooplankton, so we need to see its quality, because if the ecosystems changes it may have an impact on the fish we feed on.” The mission expects to discover new species, as well as document evidence of climate change and of human-driven pollution. The data will be used to help the Seychelles consolidate and expand its policy of protecting almost a third of its national waters by 2020. The sea area to be protected is larger than Germany. The initiative is a key component of Seychelles “blue economy,” which attempts to balance development needs with those of the ocean environment. The Associated Press is the only news agency working with British scientists from the Nekton research team on its deep-sea mission that aims to unlock the secrets of the Indian Ocean. AP video coverage will include exploring the depths of up to 300 meters (1,000 feet) off the coast of the Seychelles in two-person submarines which will search for underwater mountain ranges and previously undiscovered marine life, a behind-the-scenes look at life on board, interviews with researchers and aerial footage of the mission. The seven-week Seychelles expedition is expected to run until April 19.
|
oceans;global warming;environment;indian ocean;seychelles;nekton mission
|
jp0002013
|
[
"world",
"crime-legal-world"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Megaphones, hacking, propaganda: Robert Mueller details Russian U.S. election meddling
|
WASHINGTON - From breaking into computers to paying for a megaphone, Russian efforts to undermine the U.S. political system have been spelled out in detail by special counsel Robert Mueller, who has described an elaborate campaign of hacking and propaganda during the 2016 presidential race. While Mueller has yet to submit to U.S. Attorney General William Barr a final report on his investigation into Russia’s role in the election, the former FBI director already has provided a sweeping account in a pair of indictments that charged 25 Russian individuals and three Russian companies. Key questions still to be answered are whether Mueller will conclude that Trump’s campaign conspired with Moscow and whether Trump unlawfully sought to obstruct the probe. Trump has denied collusion and obstruction. Russia has denied election interference. Here is an explanation of Mueller’s findings about Russian activities and U.S. intelligence assessments of the ongoing threat: WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT RUSSIAN “TROLL FARMS”? On Feb. 16, 2018, Mueller charged 13 Russian individuals and three Russian entities with conspiracy to defraud the United States, wire and bank fraud and identity theft. It said the Internet Research Agency, a Russian-backed propaganda arm known for trolling on social media, flooded American social media sites Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram to promote Trump and spread disparaging information about his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. The indictment said the Russian efforts dated to 2014, before Trump’s candidacy, and were intended to sow discord in the United States. The St. Petersburg-based so-called troll farm employed hundreds of people for its online operations and had a multimillion-dollar budget, according to the indictment. It had a management group and departments including graphics, data analysis and search-engine optimization. Employees worked day and night shifts corresponding to U.S. time zones. Its funding was provided by Evgeny Prigozhin, a businessman who U.S. officials have said has extensive ties to Russia’s military and political establishment, and companies he controlled, including Concord Management and Consulting and Concord Catering. Prigozhin has been described by Russian media as being close to President Vladimir Putin. He has been dubbed “Putin’s cook” because his catering business has organized banquets for Russia’s president. The Russians targeted Americans with information warfare, adopting false online personas and creating hundreds of social media accounts to push divisive messages and spread distrust of candidates and America’s political system in general, the indictment said. They aimed to denigrate Clinton and support the candidacies of Trump, who won the Republican presidential nomination, and Bernie Sanders, her rival for the Democratic nomination. HOW WERE AMERICANS UNWITTINGLY RECRUITED? In Florida, a pivotal state in U.S. presidential elections, the Russians steered unwitting Americans to pro-Trump rallies they conceived and organized. The indictment said the Russians paid “a real U.S. person to wear a costume portraying Clinton in a prison uniform at a rally” and another “to build a cage large enough to hold an actress depicting Clinton in a prison uniform.” The accused Russians used false Facebook persona “Matt Skier” to contact a real American to recruit for a “March for Trump” rally, offering “money to print posters and get a megaphone,” the indictment said. They created an Instagram account “Woke Blacks” to encourage African-Americans not to vote for “Killary,” saying, “We’d surely be better off without voting AT ALL.” Fake social media accounts were used to post messages saying American Muslims should refuse to vote for Clinton “because she wants to continue the war on Muslims in the Middle East.” Alternatively, they took out Facebook ads promoting a June 2016 rally in Washington, “Support Hillary. Save American Muslims” rally. They recruited an American to hold up a sign with a quote falsely attributed to Clinton that embraced Islamic sharia law, the indictment said. Some of the accused Russians traveled around the United States to gather intelligence, the indictment said, visiting at least 10 states: California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Texas. WHAT ROLE DID RUSSIAN MILITARY OFFICERS PLAY? On July 13, 2018, Mueller charged 12 Russian military intelligence officers with hacking Democratic Party computer networks in 2016 to steal large amounts of data and then time their release to damage Clinton. The Russian hackers broke into the computer networks of the Clinton campaign and Democratic Party organizations, covertly monitoring employee computers and planting malicious code, as well as stealing emails and other documents, according to the indictment. Using fictitious online personas such as DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, the hackers released tens of thousands of stolen emails and documents. The Guccifer 2.0 persona communicated with Americans, including an unidentified person who was in regular contact with senior members of the Trump campaign, the indictment said. Guccifer 2.0 cooperated extensively with “Organization 1” — the WikiLeaks website — to discuss the timing of the release of stolen documents to “heighten their impact” on the election. On or about July 27, 2016, the Russians tried to break into email accounts used by Clinton’s personal office and her campaign, the indictment said. The same day, candidate Trump told reporters: “Russia, if you are listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” referring to emails from a private server Clinton had used when she was secretary of state. To hide their identity, the Russians laundered money and financed their operation through cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, Mueller’s team said. IS THE THREAT OVER? The U.S. intelligence community’s 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment report cited Russia’s continuing efforts to interfere in the American political system. It stated, “Russia’s social media efforts will continue to focus on aggravating social and racial tensions, undermining trust in authorities, and criticizing perceived anti-Russia politicians. Moscow may employ additional influence toolkits — such as spreading disinformation, conducting hack-and-leak operations or manipulating data — in a more targeted fashion to influence U.S. policy, actions and elections.” The report said Russia and “unidentified actors” as recently as 2018 conducted cyber activity targeting U.S. election infrastructure, though there is no evidence showing “any compromise of our nation’s election infrastructure that would have prevented voting, changed vote counts or disrupted the ability to tally votes.”
|
hillary clinton;wikileaks;facebook;instagram;robert mueller;propaganda;donald trump;russia probe;evgeny prigozhin;gucifer
|
jp0002014
|
[
"world",
"crime-legal-world"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Trudeau maintains he didn't apply inappropriate pressure in corruption case
|
TORONTO - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that an “erosion of trust” and “lack of communication” with his former justice minister led her to resign and accuse him of applying inappropriate pressure in a corruption prosecution — a dispute that has shaken his government. But the prime minister made no apologies as he discussed the issue at a nationally televised news conference. Former Justice Minister and Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould told a parliamentary committee last week that Trudeau and senior officials tried to pressure her into instructing prosecutors to avoid criminal prosecution of Montreal-based engineering giant SNC-Lavalin and instead require it to pay fines for alleged bribery in Libya. The case has led to the resignations of two high-profile Cabinet ministers and his top aide, as well as opposition calls for him to step down Trudeau and his aides deny doing anything wrong, saying they were only pointing out that prosecution could endanger thousands of people’s jobs because a conviction would make the company ineligible for government contracts. “In regards to standing up for jobs and defending the integrity of our rule of law, I continue to say there was no inappropriate pressure,” Trudeau said. The prime minister said Wilson-Raybould told him on Sept. 17 that she was declining to seek a remediation agreement, which would allow the company to pay a fine instead of facing criminal prosecution. But Trudeau said he and other officials felt she was still open to arguments on the issue because such an agreement would be possible until the last moments of a trial. “We considered that she was still open to hearing different arguments and different approaches on what her decision could be,” Trudeau said. “What we see now is that she wasn’t prepared to change her mind.” Trudeau said Wilson-Raybould did not come to him to express her concerns about inappropriate pressure and said he wishes she had. He said situations were “experienced differently and I regret that.” “I am obviously reflecting on lessons learned,” he said. “There are things we have to reflect on and understand and do better next time.” Wilson-Raybould was demoted from her role as attorney general and named veterans affairs minister in January as part of a Cabinet shuffle. She resigned weeks later. Wilson-Raybould has said she believes she was demoted for failure to give in to the pressure. Trudeau’s former chief aide, Gerald Butts, denied that in testimony to a parliamentary committee on Wednesday. He said the shakeup, which involved several other Cabinet posts, was due to other factors. Trudeau said he tries to foster an environment where his lawmakers can come to him with concerns, but one of his Liberal party colleagues, Celina Caesar-Chavannes, took issue with that, tweeting, “I did come to you recently. Twice. Remember your reactions?” Caesar-Chavannes, who is not running for re-election, did not elaborate and did not immediately return messages seeking comment. She has issued messages of support for Wilson-Raybould on Twitter. Other Liberal lawmakers have rallied around Trudeau in an election year.
|
corruption;libya;canada;justin trudeau;snc-lavalin;jody wilson-raybould
|
jp0002015
|
[
"world",
"crime-legal-world"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Frenchman, a Syria jihad veteran, convicted of Brussels Jewish museum terror murders
|
BRUSSELS - Frenchman Mehdi Nemmouche was found guilty Thursday of the “terrorist murders” of four people at Brussels’ Jewish museum, the first case of a Syria jihad veteran to stage an attack in Europe. Nemmouche, 33, sporting a trimmed beard and wearing a navy blue sweater, showed no emotion and stared into space as the verdict was delivered. He now faces a life sentence for the anti-Semitic attack in the Belgian capital on May 24, 2014, following his return from Syria’s battlefields. Sentencing could be as early as Friday. The 12 jurors, accompanied by the presiding judge and two other magistrates, had deliberated for more than two days in secret at a Brussels hotel before returning their verdict. Nemmouche was found to have killed the four victims in cold blood in less than 90 seconds, but he denied the accusation, telling the court he had been “tricked. This referred to arguments made by defense lawyers that Nemmouche was not to blame for the cold-blooded slaughter, but that he was caught up in some kind of plot targeting the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. The legal argument had centered around Israeli couple Miriam and Emmanuel Riva, the first two of the four people killed in the attack. A young Belgian employee, Alexandre Strens, and French volunteer Dominique Sabrier were also murdered. According to the defense, the museum shooting was not the work of the Islamic State group but a “targeted execution” aimed at Mossad agents. The defense said the Israeli couple who were killed were in fact Mossad agents murdered by another man who had hunted them down. The Riva family’s lawyers have furiously rejected the theory and said attempts to pass off the tourists as secret agents was “an absolute scandal. “Let’s stop the joking,” prosecutor Yves Moreau told the court earlier this week, describing the arguments presented by the defense as “complete nonsense” against compelling evidence. Miriam Riva worked for Mossad but, as an accountant, she was not operational, said the investigating judges who traveled to Israel during their investigation. Yohan Benizri, the head of Belgium’s Coordinating Committee of Jewish Organizations, denounced what he called a “nauseating conspiracy theory. The 12 jurors also found fellow Frenchman Nacer Bendrer, 30, who was accused of supplying the weapons, to be the co-author of the attack. The investigation showed that the two men had dozens of telephone conversations in April 2014, when Nemmouche was preparing for the killings. Six days after the massacre, Nemmouche was arrested in the French city of Marseille in possession of a revolver and a Kalashnikov-type assault rifle. At the trial, Bendrer admitted that Nemmouche had asked him for a Kalashnikov when he came to Brussels in early April, but claimed he never delivered it. Among other personal effects, Nemmouche upon arrest carried a nylon jacket with gunshot residue, as well as a computer in which investigators found six videos claiming the attack with an off-camera voice-over thought to be Nemmouche. In total, the prosecution said it had identified 23 pieces of evidence pointing to Nemmouche, who also physically resembles the shooter seen on the museum’s surveillance video. “We are both deeply convinced that the two accused did indeed commit these acts,” one of the two prosecutors said in their indictment. The prosecutors say the attack was the first carried out in Europe by a jihadist returning from fighting in Syria. The Brussels killings came 18 months before the Nov. 13, 2015, Paris attacks, which left 130 dead.
|
france;terrorism;syria;mossad;islamic state;brussels;mehdi nemmouche
|
jp0002016
|
[
"world",
"crime-legal-world"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Spain police find elderly pair held in 'house of horrors' who were apparently drugged and fed via tube
|
MADRID - Spanish police said Thursday they rescued an elderly man and woman locked up in a house, allegedly drugged and fed via a tube by a couple whose other “wards” died mysteriously. The Civil Guard police force in the southwestern city of Cadiz said a German-Cuban couple are suspected of having befriended elderly people to rob them of their assets, accumulating more than €1.8 million ($2 million) over four years. In what police described as a “house of horrors” in the seaside resort town of Chiclana de la Frontera, they found an elderly German man and a Dutch woman in a “terrible state,” locked up in separate rooms, drugged and fed via a nasogastric tube, without needing it. It is unclear exactly how old they are. The two were taken to a care home where their health “improved significantly.” The discovery of the couple came during an investigation launched when police were notified by their German counterparts that a wealthy centenarian woman called Maria Babes was missing. Police found her in a care home in Chiclana, where she had arrived in a bad state. Questioned, Babes told police the couple had approached her in Tenerife, where she lived “without family or friends nearby,” befriended her, offered to look after her and transferred her to Chiclana. Babes told police she was kept locked up for several months in a house, with her hands tied up. “In October, she had more than €162,000 in the bank and after this couple appeared in her life, by mid-December she had under €300, her house in Tenerife had been sold and she didn’t receive one euro of the sale,” the Civil Guard said in a statement. The couple have been arrested and partially identified as Estrella, a Cuban national, and Markus, who has both Cuban and German citizenship, according to a source close to the investigation. They have been charged with fraud, document falsification, domestic abuse, money laundering, asset stripping and misappropriation of funds. But before managing to detain them, police said the couple went to the care home and took Babes away. Five hours later, she was dead. “Maria left the center at 11:00 a.m., in good health, and her death was reported at 4:00 p.m. while she was in a car with her carers,” police said. The couple also allegedly insisted on cremating her body rapidly, so no autopsy was done. Babes’s death was registered as having been from natural causes. After their detention, police searched the couple’s home in Chiclana and found they had another house rented out nearby. That is where they found the Dutch woman and German man. They also discovered that the Dutch woman had pretended to be Babes to sign for the sale of her home. Police identified four other people who had been “looked after” by the couple and alleged that the four “had died unexpectedly once they (the couple) had taken all their capital.” Police did not provide further details on these four people who died while under the couple’s care. The arrested couple allegedly laundered the money, which they robbed by building a tourist complex on protected land in El Palmar, a coastal town in Cadiz province that is popular with surfers, using fake documents. Police arrested four other people suspected of helping the couple launder their money. The Guardia Civil said they had asked officials in Britain, Italy, Germany and Cuba to check if the arrested couple had bank accounts or financial products in those countries.
|
germany;cuba;spain;cadiz
|
jp0002017
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/03/08
|
U.S. general warns of Islamic State resurgence as 'caliphate' collapse nears and survivors flee
|
NEAR BAGHOUZ, SYRIA - A top U.S. commander warned Thursday that the battle against the Islamic State group was “far from over” despite the jihadists’ loss of territory, as survivors abandoned the last shred of the group’s collapsing “caliphate” in eastern Syria. A fierce assault by U.S.-backed forces has sparked an exodus of dust-covered children, veiled women dragging suitcases and disheveled men, many of them wounded, from the village of Baghouz where besieged IS fighters are making a last stand. But Gen. Joseph Votel, head of the U.S. Central Command, warned that many of those being evacuated are “unrepentant, unbroken and radicalized,” calling for a “vigilant offensive” against the group. The Syrian Democratic Forces are waiting for more survivors to leave before dealing what they hope will be a final blow to jihadis holed up in a makeshift camp along the banks of the Euphrates. The SDF was not advancing Thursday out of concern for remaining civilians, but its fighters entered the settlement two days earlier and now control a chunk of it, an SDF source told AFP. Remaining families have been pushed toward the far end of the camp near the river, he said. Inside Baghouz on Thursday afternoon, an eerie quiet was interrupted by a brief burst of automatic gunfire. AFP journalists taken into the battered hamlet watched the SDF stage a controlled explosion of a mine found on the side of a road during a sweep of the area. Shortly after, a convoy of trucks carrying civilians and a handful of white vans carrying the wounded came trundling down the same street and out toward a screening point on the edge of village. Hundreds of women disembarked at the outpost, where they waited to be processed and searched by the SDF and members of the U.S.-led coalition. More than 7,000 people have exited the enclave over the past three days, mostly women and children. The deluge of fire unleashed by SDF artillery and coalition air strikes at the weekend appears to have taken a toll on the die-hard jihadist still inside. Votel, however, told Congress on Thursday that IS remains prepared for a resurgence, even though its territory is disappearing. “Reduction of the physical caliphate is a monumental military accomplishment — but the fight against ISIS and violent extremism is far from over and our mission remains the same,” he told Congress. “The ISIS population being evacuated from the remaining vestiges of the caliphate largely remains unrepentant, unbroken and radicalized,” he said. “We will need to maintain a vigilant offensive against this now widely dispersed and disaggregated organization.” U.S. President Trump stunned allies in December when he announced all 2,000 U.S. troops would withdraw from Syria as IS had been defeated. The White House later said that around 200 American “peacekeeping” soldiers would remain in northern Syria indefinitely. Members of Trump’s administration, including the U.S. Defense Department, have repeatedly warned that without a sustained presence, jihadis could resurge in Syria within months. Around a tenth of the nearly 58,000 people who have fled the last IS bastion since December were jihadis trying to slip back into civilian life, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor. IS fighters had previously managed to secure passage out of their former strongholds before U.S.-backed forces recaptured the territory. Remaining jihadis, however, are now surrounded on all sides, with Syrian government forces and their allies on the west bank of the Euphrates blocking any escape across the river and Iraqi government forces preventing them from moving downstream. A senior SDF officer said 400 jihadis were captured on Tuesday night as they attempted to slip out of Baghouz and reach remote hideouts. The battle against IS is now the main front in the Syrian war, which has claimed more than 360,000 lives since 2011. The capture of Baghouz would mark the end of IS territorial control in the region, where its caliphate proclaimed in 2014 once covered huge swaths of Syria and Iraq. At its peak, the proto-state was the size of the United Kingdom and administered millions of people. It effectively collapsed in 2017 when IS lost most of its major cities in both countries in the face of multiple offensives. But despite the impending loss of Baghouz, which the SDF says is only days away, the group continues to carry out deadly attacks in Syria and Iraq.
|
conflict;u.s .;terrorism;syria;islamic state;donald trump;joseph votel;syrian democratic forces;baghouz
|
jp0002018
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Putin rides horse with female cops ahead of International Women's Day
|
MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin mounted a horse on Thursday and cantered with female police officers in footage broadcast across Russia ahead of International Women’s Day. Putin has carefully cultivated a macho image during his 19 years in power with photo-ops depicting him riding a horse bare-chested in Siberia, taking a dip in icy water and piloting a firefighting plane. The 66-year-old, whose ratings have slipped in recent months, was shown on state television in jeans and a jacket with a raised collar, riding a brown horse flanked by female police officers on white horses. They cantered gently around a training facility for mounted police in Moscow followed by other uniformed officers riding in rows. Putin afterward gave the police officers a horse named Golden Ray, Russian news agencies reported. Ahead of International Women’s Day on Friday, Putin said women were increasingly taking an interest in working in law enforcement agencies and that just over a quarter of employees at the Interior Ministry were now women. Pollsters say Putin’s ratings have dipped recently due to years of falling real incomes and an unpopular move by the government last year to raise the retirement age. However, he remains broadly popular and a state pollster this month put his approval rating at almost 65 percent.
|
vladimir putin;russia;women;international women 's day
|
jp0002019
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/03/08
|
After bloc's offer to break impasse falls short, May to warn EU that fate of Brexit vote is in their hands
|
BRUSSELS/LONDON - U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday will tell the European Union that the outcome of a historic vote on her Brexit deal next week is in its hands, as signs emerged that the two sides are at least trying to make progress toward a deal. The European Union made a new offer in a bid to break the Brexit impasse, though it falls short of what the U.K. has demanded, people familiar with the EU side of the negotiations said. May will on Friday seek to shift the blame onto the EU and say she still hopes to get legally binding changes ahead of the vote next week in the U.K. Parliament on whether to approve her Brexit deal. “We are working with them, but the decisions that the European Union makes over the next few days will have a big impact on the outcome of the vote” she will say in a speech in Grimsby, an English fishing port that voted strongly for Brexit in 2016. Negotiators are racing against the clock to make additions and assurances that everyone can agree on. Talks have been acrimonious as the EU and U.K. try to find a way to make the so-called Irish backstop more palatable. With the March 29 deadline looming, European and British officials were becoming increasingly gloomy about the prospect of a breakthrough, with the U.K. accusing the bloc of intransigence and European negotiators irritated by the latest negotiator May has sent in to seek concessions, Attorney General Geoffrey Cox. Talks are expected to continue into the weekend, and if they fail, Parliament will likely vote against May’s deal for the second time, plunging the country into political chaos. It is unclear if the EU’s new proposal will be enough. But it aims to bolster the review system that is already set out in the deal, according to the people who spoke on condition of anonymity. These check-ins are scheduled every six months to help track and speed up the process of replacing the backstop with a better solution. Many U.K. lawmakers say the backstop risks binding the U.K. to EU rules forever, especially since the U.K. cannot exit it unilaterally. Now officials are trying to deliver legally binding assurances to them that it won’t happen. The EU’s new plan goes further than concessions outlined in a letter to May from European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Council President Donald Tusk in January, according to the officials. But they fall far short of the demands made by Cox this week, which the EU flatly rejected. He wanted a change to the arbitration system set out in the deal to make it easier for the U.K. to leave the backstop without the EU’s approval. The EU is waiting for the U.K. to respond. That would be tantamount to reopening the Brexit deal — agreed by the two sides in November — which European leaders have said must not happen. Even if May accepts the latest proposal, EU officials are still pessimistic about whether it will work in convincing British lawmakers to back the deal in a vote Tuesday. Just two months ago, Parliament rejected the deal in the largest defeat for a U.K. government in over a century. Some European governments have given up hope of much progress before the U.K. is scheduled to leave the bloc on March 29 and believe a Brexit delay is inevitable. If May’s deal fails to pass next week, she has promised MPs they will be able to vote on whether to leave the EU without a deal at the end of the month or delay Brexit. Officials say the next 72 hours are crucial as negotiators continue to thrash out ideas for the backstop. May could go to Brussels to finalize the deal before the vote, but this is by no means certain, EU officials said. There is no agreement yet over how the concessions will be formalized, the people said. Possibilities include a further exchange of letters between the two sides, a joint declaration that interprets the original deal or legal statements from each side.
|
northern ireland;trade;eu;u.k .;brexit;theresa may
|
jp0002020
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation toll: Six top Trump aides (so far)
|
WASHINGTON - Former Trump campaign Paul Manafort was hit Thursday with the longest sentence yet arising from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, 47 months in prison. Since taking over the probe in May 2017, Mueller has filed charges against six former senior aides and associates of Trump. Of them, five — including Manafort — have pleaded guilty or been convicted. The sixth, longtime Trump political consultant Roger Stone, was arrested and charged only in January. Here are the top Trump associates who have been charged: Paul Manafort Manafort, 69, a veteran Republican political consultant, was Trump’s campaign chairman for several months in 2016. He was charged in two separate cases, one in Alexandria, Virginia, and the second in Washington, with a range of crimes arising from his decade working for wealthy Moscow-allied politicians in Ukraine. Those crimes include money laundering, tax evasion and bank fraud. He was convicted by a jury in the Alexandria case and then entered a plea deal in the Washington probe. But he was then charged with lying to investigators, invalidating his plea deal. While his cases are not directly related to Russian election meddling, Manafort’s cases revealed he had multiple Russian contacts during the election campaign and shared campaign data with one, raising suggestions of collusion. His case could also figure in allegations of obstruction against Trump, who some suspect dangled a pardon for Manafort in exchange for not revealing information that would damage the president. Michael Flynn Trump’s former national security adviser Flynn, 60, was investigated over his contacts with Russia’s ambassador and actions working for Turkey during and after the campaign. Eventually he was charged in a plea deal with prosecutors for lying to the FBI, and has reportedly cooperated in the investigations as he awaits sentencing. Michael Cohen Cohen, 52, Trump’s longtime personal attorney and fixer, was sentenced to three years in prison in December after pleading guilty to tax evasion, violating campaign finance laws and making false statements to Congress, implicating Trump and the White House in some of those crimes. He is to report to prison on May 6, following his testimony to several committees in Congress investigating Russia and Trump. Rick Gates Gates, 46, was Manafort’s business partner in Ukraine and deputy chairman on the Trump campaign. Threatened with many of the same crimes Manafort was charged with, he reached a plea deal to lesser charges of lying to the FBI and financial fraud, and testified against Manafort at his trial. He continues to cooperate while awaiting sentencing. George Papadopoulos Papadopoulos, 31, served on Trump’s foreign policy advisory team and tried to set up meetings with Russian officials including Vladimir Putin. He was sentenced to two weeks in prison after admitting he lied to the FBI. Roger Stone Stone, a longtime Republican campaign consultant and Trump friend, was arrested on Jan. 25 and charged with seven counts including obstruction, lying to Congress and witness tampering. The investigation has focused on Stone’s alleged contacts with WikiLeaks, which published materials stolen from the Democrats by the Russians during the campaign. Stone pleaded not guilty. Other indictments Several other minor figures in Mueller’s investigation have been charged and convicted in plea deals. Mueller has also charged 25 Russians with conspiracy related to meddling in the 2016 election, including a group of hackers from the GRU, Moscow’s military intelligence bureau, and a group of social media experts from Russia’s Internet Research Agency troll farm. All are believed to be safely in Russia and not expected to go on trial. In June 2018, Konstantin Kilimnik, who worked with Manafort in Ukraine and allegedly has ties to Russian intelligence, was charged with obstruction of justice.
|
corruption;donald trump;2016 u.s. presidential election;michael flynn;paul manafort;rick gates;roger stone;russia probe;michael cohen;george papadopoulos
|
jp0002021
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/03/08
|
'Blood up to your knees': Defeated IS jihadis remain defiant in final stronghold
|
NEAR, BAGHOUZ SYRIA - Defeated but unrepentant, some jihadis limping out of their besieged final bastion in eastern Syria still praise the Islamic State and promise bloody vengeance against its enemies. The skeletal and disheveled figures shuffling out of the smoldering ashes of the “caliphate” may look like a procession of zombies, but their devotion seems intact. At an outpost for U.S.-backed forces outside the besieged village of Baghouz, 10 women stand in front of journalists, pointing their index fingers to the sky in a gesture used by IS supporters to proclaim the oneness of God. They shout in unison: “The Islamic State is here to stay!” Most refuse to disclose their names or nationalities. Indistinguishable under their identical black robes, a group of women arriving at the screening point manned by the Syrian Democratic Forces swarm around reporters like hornets. Some throw rocks at the cameras of those trying to film them, while one screams at a photographer and calls him a pig. Another grabs the uncovered hair of a female reporter, saying: “Have you not read the Koran, are you not ashamed?” A third woman snarks at the way the reporter is dressed: “God curses women who resemble men.” The SDF are closing in on diehard jihadis and their relatives holed up in a makeshift encampment inside the village of Baghouz. More than 7,000 people have fled the bombed-out bastion over the past three days, escaping shelling by the SDF and airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition against IS. But for Umm Mohammed, a 47-year-old woman from Iraq’s Anbar province, the men who have fled are “the cowards and the meek.” As for the women, “we left because we are a heavy burden on the men,” she says. “We are waiting for the (next) conquest, God willing.” Nearby, a little boy hums a jihadi anthem as he walks beside his mother, his jacket covered with dust. The so-called “cubs of the caliphate” — boys raised under IS rule and trained to fight from a young age — are the reason the group will survive, another Iraqi woman says. “The caliphate will not end, because it has been ingrained in the hearts and brains of the newborns and the little ones,” says the 60-year-old, refusing to give her name. Many women say they want to raise their children on the ideology of the caliphate, even as its territorial presence fizzles out. Abdul Monhem Najiyya is more ambivalent about the group. “There was an implementation of God’s law, but there was injustice,” he says, claiming he worked as an accountant for IS. “The leaders stole money … and fled,” he says. “We stayed until the bullets flew over our heads.” The 30-year-old with white hair prays for the “caliphate” and wishes IS “many conquests” to come. But he says many senior IS figures have fled to the northwestern province of Idlib or crossed into Turkey and Iraq. Najiyya’s harshest words are for the group’s elusive leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whom he says he never saw once. “He left us in the hands of people who let us down and left,” he says. “He bears responsibility, because, in our view, he is our guide.” When asked why it took him so long to quit the redoubt, Najiyya said he was afraid of being detained by the SDF because his cousins are IS fighters. He also says that rumors the jihadis would be granted safe passage to Idlib, largely controlled by a rival jihadi group, encouraged some to stay. Nearby, a bearded man with a leg wound cursed the coalition, whose warplanes have pummeled the last jihadi redoubt. “I only surrendered because of my injury,” he says. “I have been with IS since the beginning.” One woman, who says she is from Damascus, said: “We have left, but there will be new conquests in the future.” Speaking from behind a veil that covers her face, she says: “We will seek vengeance, there will be blood up your knees.”
|
religion;violence;terrorism;syria;syria civil war;islamic state
|
jp0002022
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Trump still hopes for North Korea deal after ominous report of missile site prep
|
WASHINGTON - Satellite photos showing new activity at a North Korean rocket launch site raised fresh doubts that Kim Jong Un will ever give up his drive for nuclear weapons, yet talks continue and President Donald Trump said he was still hoping for the agreement that eluded the leaders at last week’s summit. The president said his relationship with the North Korean leader remains “good” even though Trump walked away from negotiations at their high-profile meeting in Vietnam. He said then that the North’s concessions on its nuclear program weren’t enough to warrant sanctions relief, and he said Wednesday he’d be unhappy if reports prove true that Kim is rebuilding a launch site after promising in Vietnam to extend his ban on nuclear and rocket tests. “I would be very, very disappointed in Chairman Kim,” Trump said when reporters asked him about reports of new work at the Sohae Satellite Launch Station, which is tucked into the hills northwest of Pyongyang. “I don’t think I will be” disappointed, Trump said, “but we’ll see what happens.” Past administrations discovered the perils of trying to do business with North Korea, which has a history of backing out of agreements. Trump believes his discussions will be different because Kim has publicly announced his desire to focus on economic development in his reclusive nation, which is suffering under harsh U.S. and international sanctions. Trump has favored direct talks with Kim, but with no third summit under discussion right now, the next stage of negotiations is likely to be conducted at lower levels. Trump’s envoy to North Korea, Steve Biegun, had lunch Wednesday at the State Department with his counterparts from Japan and South Korea. The South Koreans have proposed semiofficial three-way talks with the United States and North Korea as it works to put nuclear diplomacy back on track. Suh Hoon, the director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, told his nation’s lawmakers in Seoul that North Korea was restoring facilities at a rocket launch site it had dismantled last year in a goodwill measure. Meanwhile, 38 North, a website specializing in North Korea studies, said commercial satellite imagery indicates the rebuilding started between Feb. 16 and March 2. And the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington, issued another report saying satellite imagery taken Saturday — just two days after the summit ended — showed North Korea “pursuing a rapid rebuilding” of the rocket site. Some analysts think the work is a signal that Kim is getting ready to conduct more tests, but others suggest he’s just registering his disappointment that no agreement was reached at the summit. Trump himself added to the confusion, saying his administration had a hand in the report on Sohae being made public. “It’s a very early report. We’re the ones that put it out,” Trump said without elaborating. Joel Wit, a North Korea proliferation expert who helped negotiate with North Korea in the mid-1990s, said the new work at Sohae is Kim’s way of showing that he’s “getting impatient with lack of progress in negotiations.” “We have to watch to see what else happens,” Wit said. “It’s a space launch facility and has been used to send satellites into space. … Problem is, some of the technologies are the same.” He said there is no evidence that North Korea’s work at the site signals Kim is preparing to test another intercontinental missile. He said North Korea has never tested an ICBM at Sohae. “Preparations for any launch would require a wide range of activities not observed at the site,” Wit said. Trump and Kim, who also met in Singapore last year, have not said if there will be a third summit. For now, discussions with North Korea will be conducted by their subordinates. Biegun, the U.S. envoy to North Korea, gave members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee a classified update Tuesday afternoon on Capitol Hill. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said that before any further summits between the leaders, there must be lower-level discussions to determine how far Kim is willing to go to denuclearize. That’s all the more important “to continue to test the North Koreans’ willingness now that they know they’re not going to get an easy deal,” Menendez said. Committee Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said Biegun has a vision of where the U.S. wants to take the talks. “He has clear knowledge of the steps that it takes to get there, and he’s laid that out for the North Koreans,” Risch said. There’s no framework agreement “to put the details on it yet,” he said. But he added: “The differences have been narrowed.” Less upbeat, Committee member Edward Markey, D-Mass., said the work at Sohae could be a sign that Kim is more interested in getting concessions from the U.S. than conducting good faith efforts to denuclearize. He said he’s also worried that future satellite launches at Sohae could help Kim further his work on ballistic missiles to threaten the U.S. and its allies with a nuclear attack. “President Trump never codified in writing North Korea’s missile and nuclear testing freeze,” Markey said. “Without that formal commitment, North Korea might claim it is doing nothing wrong and derail the fragile diplomatic process underway.”
|
china;u.s .;north korea;kim jong un;nuclear weapons;missiles;south korea;north korea nuclear crisis;donald trump
|
jp0002023
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific"
] |
2019/03/08
|
South Korea puts pro-engagement academic in charge of relations with Pyongyang
|
SEOUL - An academic and former head of a research institute was Friday appointed as Seoul’s new unification minister, the South’s key point of contact on inter-Korean affairs. The appointment of Kim Yeon-chul comes days after the U.S. and North Korea held a second much-anticipated summit in Vietnam, but failed to reach any agreement on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Kim, a pro-engagement academic who has headed the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification since last year, is replacing Cho Myoung-gyon in the role, which is seen as key in inter-Korean relations. Cho, who took the post in 2017, is a longtime civil servant who first joined the unification ministry in 1980. He has participated in several meetings with his North Korean counterpart as part of a growing rapprochement between Seoul and Pyongyang. U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made headlines at their groundbreaking first summit in Singapore last year, but their commitment to the “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” was criticized as vague. The no-deal outcome from their second meeting in Hanoi has been a disappointment for the South Korean president. He had brokered the talks process between Washington and Pyongyang and touted the summit as a “remarkable breakthrough” for peace negotiations on the Korean Peninsula. In spite of the collapse of the Hanoi summit, Moon said earlier this month Seoul would consult with the U.S. on ways to resume South Korean tourism to the North’s Mount Kumgang. He said he would also discuss restarting operations at the Kaesong Industrial Complex, where Southern firms used to be staffed by Northern workers. Moon has been pushing for the resumption of both projects as he seeks to engage Pyongyang, but doing so would fall foul of sanctions imposed on the North. The newly appointed Kim was a vocal critic of President Park Geun-hye’s decision to shutter the Kaesong firms in 2016, in response to Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile tests. He also supported Moon when he used South Korea’s position as host of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics to reopen communications with Pyongyang. The appointment of Kim, a longtime confidant of Moon, comes as part of a cabinet reshuffle. Kim has “expert knowledge on economic cooperation with North Korea and its nuclear issues,” the Blue House said.
|
north korea;nuclear weapons;south korea;north korea nuclear crisis;moon jae-in;kim yeon-chul
|
jp0002026
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Pakistan escalates crackdown on militants after attack in Indian Kashmir that triggered airstrikes
|
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has detained more than 100 suspected militants, the country’s interior ministry said Thursday, amid an ongoing crackdown on extremist groups prompted by weeks of high tension with neighboring India. Members of two Pakistani militant groups accused of attacks on Indian soil were targeted in the operation, which was announced Monday following an insurgent attack in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir that killed 40 Indian paramilitary fighters last month. “Law enforcement agencies have taken 121 people under preventive detention as of today,” the interior ministry said in a statement. A government official told AFP that security forces detained members of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), which claimed responsibility for the February suicide attack, and U.N.-listed terrorist organization Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD). India says JuD is a front for the militant Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group, which it accuses of carrying out the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks which killed more than 160 people. JuD leader Hafiz Saeed is wanted by the U.S. but has largely operated freely in Pakistan in the past, despite a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head. A source close to the groups confirmed to AFP that authorities were detaining suspected militants on a daily basis. Nearly 200 religious schools, along with several hospitals and other charitable organizations run by the militant groups, have been seized and their operations turned over to provincial governments, the interior ministry said. The crackdown was part of an ongoing drive against proscribed organizations and not conducted under pressure from India, Interior Minister Shehryar Afridi claimed on Tuesday. Last month’s suicide bomb attack in Indian Kashmir spurred tit-for-tat air raids between India and Pakistan, igniting fears of an all-out conflict as world powers pleaded for restraint. Pakistan captured one Indian pilot, releasing him on Friday in a bid to pull both countries back from the brink, though tensions remain high.
|
india;kashmir;pakistan;terrorism
|
jp0002027
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Government to request Japan's gambling venues use facial recognition to restrict admission of addicts
|
The government said Thursday it plans to ask horse race and pachinko parlor operators to consider using facial recognition systems to restrict admission of gambling addicts. The adoption of facial recognition systems is part of a basic plan to combat gambling addiction that the government drafted to pave the way for opening casinos in the nation. Facial recognition systems can help efficiently identify gambling addicts after restrictions on their entry into racetracks and pachinko parlors are requested by themselves or family members, officials said. The government’s plan also includes the removal of automated teller machines from such gambling sites. After seeking views from the public, the government aims to adopt the plan next month. The plan will be reviewed every three years, and will also cover bicycle and speedboat racing. The government said that admission restrictions on gambling addicts based on requests by family members will be introduced for pachinko parlors during fiscal 2019, which ends in March next year. The draft plan calls for the introduction of a system in fiscal 2020 that enables gambling addicts to set a maximum limit on how much they will buy when purchasing horse and boat race betting tickets online. The plan also presses for the gambling industry and its operators to develop advertisement guidelines so as not to fuel people’s desire to gamble. Under the plan, the welfare ministry will set up consultation offices on gambling addiction in all prefectures and ordinance-designated major cities by around fiscal 2020. In fiscal 2020, the ministry will conduct a survey on issues involving gambling addiction, including multiple debts, poverty, abuse, suicide and crime. Before that, in fiscal 2019, the ministry will start looking into the effects of gambling addiction on child abuse. The draft calls on the education ministry to strengthen school education on gambling addiction. The National Police Agency will also instruct prefectural police departments to clamp down on illegal gambling.
|
gambling;pachinko;addiction
|
jp0002028
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Eight years after Great East Japan Earthquake, many disaster victims are struggling to repay relief loans
|
Many residents in the hardest-hit prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima are struggling to repay emergency relief loans that they received in the wake of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, a Jiji Press survey of related municipalities showed. In the three prefectures, a total of ¥49.6 billion in public funds was disbursed, based on damage that resulted from the disaster and covering about 28,000 cases, under a program to allow low-income families to borrow up to ¥3.5 million each. In some 4,000 cases the first repayment deadlines had passed by March 2018, but in 1,703 cases, the deadlines were missed. Miyagi accounted for as many as 1,598 of the 1,703 cases, with overdue balances totaling about ¥140 million as of March 2018. As of December, loan delinquencies had soared to ¥650 million in 4,784 cases in Sendai alone, according to the city government. Many families struggling to repay relief loans include elderly people and college students, while authorities are unable to reach some borrowers, according to the department in charge of the relief loan program. “A borrower of loans from taxpayers shouldn’t say this, but my family is on a very tight budget,” said a 76-year-old woman in Sendai. She said her family borrowed ¥1.7 million under the public loan program because related subsidies and charity grants were not enough to repair their house, which was officially recognized as being severely damaged. Her husband then became unable to work due to illness, and the family failed to meet its first repayment deadline last October, she said. Yoshihiro Sato, a lawyer who belongs to a bar association in Sendai, called on borrowers who are having difficulties repaying relief loans to first seek advice from local authorities and others about possible debt moratoriums and cuts in repayments. “No action could lead borrowers to incur delinquency charges, while also increasing debt collection burdens on authorities,” Sato said. A Sendai official said that the central government should take measures, including extending repayment deadlines, to support disaster victims struggling to rebuild their incomes. An official of a different municipal government suggested there is a need to provide low-income earners with grant-type assistance, instead of loans. Following the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, 13 municipalities in Hyogo Prefecture provided a total of ¥130.9 billion in relief loans to people under a similar program. A total of ¥5.3 billion remained outstanding as of September 2018. In 2015, the central government adopted a policy to allow municipalities to decide whether to exempt borrowers from repaying remaining loans if their repayment capacities are projected to remain low. Kobe opted to stop collecting loans and had forgiven ¥6.5 billion in outstanding loans by June 2017. Total debt collection costs at the Kobe Municipal Government had reached ¥4.3 billion by fiscal 2014.
|
fukushima;debt;tohoku;disasters;iwate;miyagi;3.11
|
jp0002029
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Tokyo hospital probed over alleged suggestions, one fatal, that kidney patients halt dialysis
|
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has begun investigating a hospital suspected of suggesting to 149 kidney disease patients since 2013 that they not receive dialysis treatment, resulting in the death of at least one female renal patient and decisions by some 20 others to quit, it was learned Thursday. The patient in her 40s died about a week after signing a letter of consent to end dialytic treatment, after a doctor at Fussa Hospital in western Tokyo explained to her and her family that the decision may result in death, the sources said. According to guidelines set in 2014 by the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy, the termination of hemodialysis should only be considered in specific cases, including when it is difficult to continue the treatment safely and when the treatment itself could elevate the risk of death. The doctor told her in August last year she could either continue receiving dialysis or stop it, the sources said. The woman, who had undergone the treatment at a different clinic, went to the public hospital to seek advice on the best course of treatment. “There is a possibility that the patient was not in a terminal phase, in which case the medics should not have proposed stopping her dialysis treatment,” said Kazuyoshi Okada, a doctor and member of the investigation committee set up by the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy to probe the woman’s case. A further investigation into the matter has been launched by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. According to a media report, two other patients at the hospital — men in their 30s and 50s — also chose to have their dialysis treatment stopped, and the older man later died. “We are checking whether the hospital is managed and operated appropriately,” an official at the metropolitan government said. A hospital spokesman declined to comment on the matter. Yoshiaki Takemoto, another member of the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy, said that a doctor would probably only face a situation where a patient has to withdraw from hemodialysis about once a year. “I have never been in such a situation,” said Takemoto, a professor of urology at Osaka City University. Hemodialysis is used to treat patients with declining kidney function. In general, patients use dialysis machines about three times a week to remove waste from blood. Each treatment takes three to five hours. The number of people who receive hemodialysis has been increasing in Japan and topped 300,000 for the first time in late 2011, according to the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy.
|
tokyo;hospitals;dialysis;fussa;kidney disease;fussa hospital
|
jp0002030
|
[
"national",
"social-issues"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Six years into Abe's womenomics push, women in Japan still struggling to shine
|
Six years have passed since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced plans to create a “Japan in which women can shine,” urging more working mothers to take on leadership positions with pride. But as the world marked International Women’s Day on Friday, few women have taken on the challenges that remain firmly in place in Japan despite the womenomics policy adopted by Abe. Many continue to face hurdles that include entrenched social perceptions and a disproportionate burden in maintaining family homes. According to a report released Thursday by the International Labour Organization to mark International Women’s Day, the ratio of Japanese women in management and other leadership positions stayed stuck at 12 percent in 2018, while the ratio of women in those positions globally was 27.1 percent. Japan’s figure remains the lowest among the Group of Seven nations, up just 3.6 points from 1991. In the World Economic Forum’s annual World Gender Gap Index in 2018, Japan was ranked 110 out of 149 countries, although it had moved up four spots from the previous year mainly due to narrower wage gaps and an increase in women’s employment. The main culprit behind Japan’s low ranking, which has remained below 100 for several years, is scant female participation in the political arena. Figures released by the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union earlier this week revealed that Japan was ranked lowest among Group of 20 nations in terms of the percentage of female politicians, with women occupying just 10.2 percent of 463 seats in the Lower House. Negative perceptions regarding women in top leadership roles, both in politics and the private sector, remain persistent not only among Japanese men but also among women. In a study released in November by Women Political Leaders and Kantar Public, which surveyed some 1,000 adults from each of the Group of Seven countries, only 28 percent of Japanese women said they would feel comfortable with having a woman as the CEO of a major company. The highest rating in the G7 — 70 percent — was recorded among women in the United States. While the figures align with perceptions — both inside and outside of Japan — that women living and working in the nation face difficulties, grassroots efforts to highlight accomplished women have emerged. Last year the Act on Promotion of Gender Equality in the Political Field was enacted, and on Thursday a civic group that aims to increase the number of female lawmakers met to discuss the issue. Participants, including lawmakers from several parties, reported on the measures they currently saw in place as well as their goals for bringing more women into the political arena. The group, named “the team that promotes a quota system,” pledged together with the lawmakers to remind voters and politicians that increasing the number of female lawmakers will deliver a brighter future for Japan. Last year Melanie Brock , a longtime Australian resident of Japan, launched Celebrating Women in Japan , an initiative designed to highlight the work of talented women in the nation. Using social media, the project publishes profiles of women in Japan who play active roles in business and public life. “Once people know more about what Japanese women are already doing, in spite of all of the obstacles that exist, maybe that’s when Japan sees the value of that, too,” Brock told The Japan Times last year.
|
world economic forum;women;womenomics
|
jp0002031
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Through gene editing, Japan team develops iPS cells with lower rejection risk
|
KYOTO - A research team in Japan has tapped genome editing to successfully produce induced pluripotent stem cells, known as iPS cells, that have a reduced risk of rejection. The outcome of the research by the team led by Akitsu Hotta, a lecturer at Kyoto University’s Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, was expected to be published on the electronic version of the U.S. journal Cell Stem Cell on Friday. Rejection occurs when the type of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) in the transplanted cell is different from that of the transplant recipient. The risk of rejection is low when iPS cells created from people whose inherited HLA type was the same as that of their parents are transplanted into others with the same HLA type. Because the inheritance of identical HLA types is rare, however, HLA type surveys of over 150,000 people are said to be necessary to create a bank of low-rejection-risk iPS cells, which could then be used to reduce rejection risk for more than 90 percent of the Japanese public. The research team created iPS cells from cells of people who had inherited various HLA types, and turned them into blood cells after removing certain HLA genes through genome editing. These blood cells were subject to reduced attacks by the recipients’ immune systems. The team believes that the HLA types of more than 95 percent of Japanese people can be covered by sourcing iPS cells created from people of 12 different HLA types. “We’d like to carefully check the effectiveness and the safety of the (lower rejection risk) cells so as to actually deliver them to patients,” Hotta said.
|
ips;kyoto university;genetics;transplants
|
jp0002032
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Osaka's governor-mayor duo quit in audacious bid to swap posts in name of merger referendum quest
|
OSAKA - In a highly unusual, controversial and politically risky move with local and national implications, Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui and Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura resigned their posts in protest Friday, in order to run for each other’s positions in snap elections next month. Frustrated with what they say are continued moves by Komeito to block their efforts to merge the city of Osaka’s 24 wards, both leaders resigned in the hope of gaining popular support for their proposal in next month’s polls. Their ultimate goal is to have Osaka’s assemblies approve a merger plan, which would then trigger a referendum on the issue later this year. A similar merger referendum, held in May 2015, was narrowly voted down. “In November 2015, Yoshimura and I won office by telling Osakans our party, Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka) wanted to put the merger plan to them one more time. We cooperated with Komeito in a committee to make this happen, but it became impossible to realize. We want to keep our campaign promise. So, we decided to resign and hold our elections on April 7, the same day as the Osaka prefectural and municipal assembly elections,” Matsui told reporters at a Friday evening news conference. The decision to attempt a title swap was made for several reasons, including the way Japan’s election laws work. Simply resigning and running again for the same position would mean another election for governor and mayor would have to be held in November, when the current terms for the positions were due to expire. This way, Matsui said, there won’t be a need to hold two elections in the same year because the snap poll would ensure their new terms start from April. Yoshimura admitted it could be a tough election, noting the Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito, and the Japan Communist Party, remain opposed to Osaka Ishin’s plan. “We’ve accomplished about 90 percent of what we promised voters in November 2015. But the merger plan, the top priority, has yet to be realized,” he said. At a separate news conference in Osaka Friday, Mitsuyoshi Hanaya, secretary-general of the LDP’s Osaka chapter, said his party wanted a governor and mayor it could support, one who is opposed to Osaka Ishin’s long-held quest for a merger. “We’ll put an end to the merger plan,” Hanaya said. Friday’s move ends a yearslong and often tense political marriage between the Matsui-led Osaka Ishin and Komeito, which was needed to form a majority in the municipal and prefectural assemblies. Attention now turns to who might run against Matsui and Yoshimura — and who will support them. On Friday, the Osaka chapters of the LDP and Komeito were meeting to discuss election strategies, whether an LDP-backed candidate might be officially endorsed by Komeito, and whether other opposition parties might also rally around a single “anti-Osaka Ishin” candidate. There is concern among Osaka Ishin members about the Osaka Municipal Assembly election in particular. Losing just four seats to the LDP would give Komeito the choice of tying up with either Osaka Ishin or the LDP to form a majority, assuming Komeito keeps its seats. The double election is also expected to impact July’s Upper House election. Nippon Ishin no Kai, the national party also headed by Matsui, holds a total of 11 seats, including five up for re-election. At Friday’s news conference, Matsui also said Nippon Ishin would field candidates against Komeito in the next Lower House election. Nippon Ishin is a staunch supporter of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to revise the Constitution, and Abe and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga are close to Matsui in particular. A loss by Matsui or Yoshimura, or losses by Osaka Ishin in the municipal or prefectural assembly, could spell trouble for the five Upper House Nippon Ishin candidates — and for Abe’s relationship with the party.
|
osaka;elections;ichiro matsui;osaka ishin no kai;hirofumi yoshimura
|
jp0002033
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Ex-adviser Steve Bannon says Abe was 'Trump before Trump,' urges him to play hardball with China
|
Steve Bannon, the controversial former chief strategist for U.S. President Donald Trump, on Friday credited Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for pioneering a global “nationalist” movement while urging him to form a united front with Washington against an “expansionist” and “predatory” China. Bannon was in Tokyo to address dozens of lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in a gathering held at its headquarters in Nagatacho — the political center of Japan. In the speech, Bannon — often hailed as the key architect of the 2016 presidential campaign that catapulted Trump into America’s highest office — reflected on how his team was “inundated” with calls from governments all over the world the moment the real estate mogul accomplished the “most unexpected victory in the history of the United States.” And before his inauguration, there was one foreign leader Trump agreed to meet: Japan’s prime minister. “Prime Minister Abe is a great hero to the grassroots, the populist, and the nationalist movement throughout the world,” Bannon told the LDP gathering. And before there was Trump and other right-wing populists, Prime Minister Abe was the first nationalist leader to win an election in an industrialized democracy and successfully govern as a nationalist, Bannon said. “Prime Minister Abe was Trump before Trump,” he declared, eliciting laughter from some LDP lawmakers. The bulk of Bannon’s 40-minute speech was spent unleashing a bitter diatribe against China, which he argued is posing a threat to “Japan, the United States and the Pacific.” He branded it a “hegemonic” and “totalitarian” power that thrives on technologies it “stole” from Japan and the U.S., while alleging that Chinese people are “oppressed,” “tortured” and “abused” by high-echelon officials within the Chinese Communist Party. “The defenders of the CCP say, ‘China is not expansionist … It’s always their neighbors that are expansionist,’ ” Bannon said. “That is quite simply a lie.” “The radical cadre in the CCP is the most geopolitically ambitious, aggressive, expansionist power in world history,” he said, explaining how China’s trademark “One Belt, One Road” initiative preys on infrastructure-hungry developing countries by lending them money that “in no way can be paid back,” to put them under Beijing’s control. Bannon sought to rally support from LDP lawmakers by emphasizing that against such a backdrop, Japan must stand firm and fight China’s assertive rise in solidarity with a Trump-led America. If the “strong, robust” combination of Japan and the U.S. is realized, he said, “there is nobody in the Pacific that can stand up to that. China is a paper tiger.” Citing recent signs of Beijing’s economic slowdown, he added: “We have the opportunity to bring them to their knees now. The way to do that is a united Japan and United States.” At the onset of the LDP’s meeting with Bannon, LDP lawmaker Katsuyuki Kawai, who serves as a special foreign policy adviser to Abe, credited Bannon with his “deep insight” into the inner workings of the Trump administration even though he’s no longer part of it. Kawai claimed he was able to prepare for the sudden resignations in the past of some key figures within the administration thanks to Bannon, who, according to the lawmaker, had predicted for him these exact personnel changes in advance. So what predictions did Bannon have to offer LDP lawmakers? Trump, he said, is going through “hell” at the moment as Democrats ratchet up efforts to investigate him over his campaign and business dealings. But still, with his “successful” negotiations against China and the “continuation of the peace process and the denuclearization process” in North Korea, Trump “will not only win in 2020 but he will win by more electoral votes than he won in 2016,” Bannon said.
|
shinzo abe;donald trump;steve bannon
|
jp0002034
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Japanese government adopts revised policy for disaster reconstruction
|
The government adopted Friday a revised basic policy for the reconstruction of areas affected by the March 2011 disasters, which features the establishment of a successor body to the Reconstruction Agency. The existing agency is to be dissolved by the end of March 2021, 10 years after the Tohoku region and other areas were hit by the earthquake, tsunami and subsequent triple core meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 plant. In the revised policy, adopted at a Cabinet meeting, the government made clear that it will establish the successor institution to complete reconstruction. It also plans to create a ministerial post at the new body. Based on a set of proposals for accelerating reconstruction, to be compiled by the ruling camp this summer at the earliest, the government plans to submit related bills to the Diet next year. “We’re now at a crucial point where we need to set sure courses for final-stage reconstruction and Fukushima’s full-scale reconstruction,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at a meeting for discussion on how to promote reconstruction, which was held before the Cabinet meeting. The prime minister instructed relevant officials to work on bringing about the organization that will take over the current functions of the Reconstruction Agency, which is now set up directly under the Cabinet. In the latest review of the basic policy, the government said the successor body needs to play the role of a commander, just like the Reconstruction Agency, to eliminate vertically divided administrative functions. But the government stopped short of working out the details of the new organization, only saying it will consider setting up the successor body based on requests from affected municipalities and how reconstruction measures are making progress. Because the government-declared reconstruction period ends in fiscal 2020, issues expected to remain in fiscal 2021 and onward, as well as ways to tackle them, were indicated in the revised basic policy. Noting that mid- to long-term responses are necessary for the reconstruction of Fukushima, the government stressed that it will continue to spearhead efforts to rebuild affected areas in the prefecture. The government will also continue to support psychological care for affected residents and offer assistance for children’s school attendance in areas outside Fukushima that suffered severe damage in the earthquake and tsunami.
|
fukushima;reconstruction;tsunami;tohoku;earthquakes;disasters
|
jp0002036
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/03/08
|
For award-winning author, 3/11 drama is one that Fukushima students need to tell and Tokyo needs to see
|
MINAMISOMA, FUKUSHIMA PREF. - Writer Miri Yu is one of many people whose lives have been deeply affected by the March 2011 disaster that hit the Tohoku region. Four years ago, the winner of the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 1997, moved to Fukushima Prefecture, home to Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s crippled nuclear plant. Last year, Yu revived a theater group she headed before receiving the prize in order to produce plays that illustrate the experiences of disaster victims, and a play she wrote on the topic will be performed in Tokyo on March 15 to 17 featuring drama club students from Fukushima’s Futaba Future High School. The play, “Seibutsuga” (“Still-life Painting”), is the first such work. Yu has opened a bookshop and a theater in Minamisoma’s Odaka district, where she lives, which is located around 20 kilometers from the disaster-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The government lifted its evacuation advisory for the district three years ago. The bookshop and theater are designed to be a gathering space for people who have returned home following the lifting of the evacuation order, Yu said. The first performance of “Seibutsuga,” directed by Yu, was held at the theater last September. Initially, Yu had not planned to bring the play to audiences outside Fukushima. But she changed her mind after realizing that “few people living in the Tokyo metropolitan area see the disaster as their own problem, and that tendency has become stronger each year.” She felt there was a special significance to performing the play in Tokyo, she said. “Seibutsuga” was originally a play that Yu wrote when she was 21 about high school students’ adolescence. In the remade version, Yu gathered accounts of the disaster from Futaba Future High School students and incorporated them into the characters. There were students who recalled their houses being swept away by the tsunami and being bullied at their new schools after the disaster. “At the time, the students were in the second to fourth grades at elementary school, and some of them still find it difficult to come to terms with the emotions they experienced,” Yu said. “They need an outlet that can bring out their sadness and suffering, and they can do so through acting, by saying the words out loud,” she said. Early last month, the actors were rehearsing a scene in which students in the play shout the names of the towns they were born and raised in. Given their experiences, their emotional words carried a great deal of weight. One of the actors, Mio Tsurugai, 18, is a third-year student at the school. Her house in the town of Tomioka was demolished after being badly damaged by the disaster, and part of the town remains off-limits due to its proximity to the Fukushima No. 1 plant. When her character discusses her feelings in the play, “it doesn’t feel like they’re lines,” Tsurugai said. She used to think of the disaster as something that is “covered with sadness only,” but said her perspective has shifted since she started to perform in the play. “The disaster was an experience. I’m now able to feel that the experience is something that has made me what I am now,” Tsurugai said. The play has a girls’ version and a boys’ version that will be performed alternately. “Each person’s voice and personal history can’t be lumped together because each is different and special,” Yu said. “That’s what I want to stress in the play.”
|
fukushima;fukushima no . 1;children;teens;theater;disasters;3.11;miri yu
|
jp0002037
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Japan's Cabinet adopts bills to ban harassment and promote women's advancement
|
The Cabinet approved Friday a series of legal revisions banning any form of workplace harassment and obligating companies to prevent abuses of power or bullying. The package of bills, also aimed at promoting the advancement of working women at smaller firms, will take effect in stages from fiscal 2020 at the earliest if passed by the Diet during the current session. Under the bills, harassment by those taking advantage of their more senior positions at the workplace is specified as a prohibited act. But the legislation does not set punitive measures to be taken against violators. The government will also set guidelines that give specific examples of abuse of power after many companies said it is difficult to distinguish between harassment and coaching by bosses. The new regulation will prohibit disadvantageous treatment of workers who report they are the target of sexual harassment. In addition, firms whose employees sexually harass someone at another company are required to make sufficient efforts to cooperate with that company when it investigates the matter. To promote women’s social advancement, the government will oblige small and midsize companies, which employ 101 to 300 workers, to set numerical goals for promoting women to senior posts. It has already imposed such rules for bigger companies. Large firms will be required to disclose information such as the percentage of female executives on their staff as well as how many female or male workers have taken child care leave. The government will make public the names of companies defying the rule. A survey conducted in 2016 by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry on 10,000 workers and 4,587 companies with at least 30 employees showed that about 1 in 3 workers has experienced harassment by bosses over the three years, up from 1 in 4 in the previous poll in 2012. However, about 41 percent of those harassed did not take action, with the majority saying that even if they did, they thought nothing would be done about the problem. Some also refrained from taking action due to fears that it would damage their next job performance evaluation. Although there has been an increasing awareness of power harassment over the past few years, nearly half of the companies, or 47.4 percent, had not taken preventive measures.
|
harassment;women;bullying
|
jp0002038
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Three teachers in Tochigi referred to prosecutors over 8 students killed in avalanche in 2017
|
UTSUNOMIYA - Three high school teachers were referred to prosecutors Friday over an ill-fated mountaineering lesson at a ski resort in Tochigi Prefecture that resulted in eight deaths in an avalanche in March 2017. The three, including Hisao Sugamata, 50, who led a group of students from Otawara High School in Tochigi Prefecture, are suspected of professional negligence after deciding to conduct snow-wading lessons despite the risk of an avalanche following an evening of heavy snowfall. In the avalanche, which occurred near the ski resort in the town of Nasu the following morning, on March 27, 2017, seven students and a teacher died and five other students were injured. The incident was one of Japan’s deadliest avalanche disasters in decades. The prefectural education board suspended the three teachers in March last year for three to five months.
|
tochigi;avalanches;otawara high school
|
jp0002039
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/03/08
|
Japan targets more coordination with firms and NGOs to get most out of development aid
|
Japan will join with private companies and nongovernmental organizations to make more efficient and effective use of official development assistance, one of Tokyo’s key diplomatic pillars, according to a white paper released by the Foreign Ministry on Friday. The annual report on development cooperation reflects Tokyo’s review of the ODA it provides to promote economic and social advancements in developing nations. “It will become even more necessary to strengthen coordination among various aid providers,” the ministry said in the white paper. “The ministry will deepen discussion with various parties involved and carry out ODA provision in a more efficient and effective way.” Japan was the world’s largest provider of ODA in 2000, but fell to third place — after the United States and Germany — in 2017, spending around $18.46 billion. The nation’s increasingly poor fiscal situation prompted calls for the review. Japan has already declared an end to its ODA support for China, provided since 1979, which helped that country’s ascent to its status as the world’s second-largest economic power, saying the neighbors are now “equal partners.” The total amount of ODA extended to China over the four-decade period exceeded ¥3.6 trillion ($32 billion), enabling it to improve infrastructure and tackle environmental problems such as air pollution. The latest report, however, stressed the importance of ODA in achieving a “free and open” Indo-Pacific, the initiative advocated by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to ensure the smooth movement of people and goods, and the rules-based order. Humanitarian assistance is also a priority area. Tokyo will continue to provide support to the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority group who have fled to Bangladesh to escape a military crackdown in Myanmar, and to pave the way for their repatriation, the ministry said. Focused on nonmilitary contributions, Japan’s assistance aims to improve human security globally. Its ODA includes grant aid, loans and technical cooperation. As host of the Group of 20 summit in June and an international conference on African development in August, 2019 is a “critical year” to meet U.N. Sustainable Development Goals — a set of targets to be attained by 2030 in areas such as poverty, inequality, climate and peace, the ministry said. “Japan will show the world that it is a strong promoter of SDGs and exercise leadership,” it said. The white paper is compiled every year to outline, with statistics, Japan’s contributions in development assistance.
|
china;aid;development;rohingya;indo-pacific;charlity
|
jp0002040
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/03/01
|
Japanese business spending rose 5.7% in October-December quarter from 2017
|
Capital spending by Japanese companies rose 5.7 percent in the October-December quarter from a year earlier, government data showed Friday. Investment by all nonfinancial sectors for purposes such as building factories and adding equipment increased for the ninth straight quarter, totaling ¥12.05 trillion. Pretax profits at companies covered in the Finance Ministry’s survey fell 7.0 percent to ¥19.48 trillion. Sales climbed 3.7 percent to ¥371.62 trillion. The Cabinet Office is scheduled to release revised gross domestic product data for the fourth quarter of 2018 on March 8, taking into account the latest capital spending figures. Preliminary GDP data showed the world’s third-largest economy grew an annualized real 1.4 percent in the quarter, recovering modestly from a string of natural disasters in the summer.
|
finance ministry;economic indicators;capital spending;financial results
|
jp0002041
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/03/01
|
Huawei units plead not guilty in Seattle court to T-Mobile trade secret theft
|
NEW YORK - Huawei Device Co. Ltd. and Huawei Device USA Inc. pleaded not guilty on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Seattle on fraud, trade secrets conspiracy and other charges, the Justice Department said. The units of China’s Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. were arraigned and Chief U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez set trial for March 2, 2020. The two companies were charged in an indictment unsealed in January that they conspired to steal T-Mobile US Inc trade secrets. T-Mobile had accused Huawei of stealing the technology, called “Tappy,” which mimicked human fingers and was used to test smartphones. Huawei has said the two companies settled their disputes in 2017. The charges added to pressure from the U.S. government on Huawei, the world’s biggest telecommunications equipment maker. Washington is trying to prevent American companies from buying Huawei routers and switches and is pressing allies to do the same. A senior U.S. cyber official said on Tuesday that European governments were listening to the U.S. message that Huawei exposes telecommunications networks to security risks. No evidence of spying has been presented publicly even as scrutiny on Huawei has intensified.
|
smartphones;tech;industrial espionage;seattle;huawei;t-mobile;tappy
|
jp0002042
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/03/01
|
Boeing lands huge British Airways order in wake of Airbus ditching A380 line
|
LONDON - British Airways announced a multibillion dollar order for up to 42 Boeing 777 fuel-efficient passenger jets on Thursday, just two weeks after Airbus said it would no longer make its A380 superjumbo. BA-parent IAG said its British carrier would purchase 18 777-9 planes made by the U.S. giant, while an option for a further 24 of the aircraft could bring the total cost to $18.6 billion (€16.3 billion) at list prices, before the usual heavy discounts are factored in. It comes as IAG, which owns several airlines, including Iberia and Aer Lingus, said group net profits last year soared 45 percent to €2.9 billion on higher passenger numbers and lower costs. Separately, U.K. engineering group Rolls-Royce said it dived into a net loss last year as its Trent jet engines were hit by costly repairs — as well as the decision by Boeing’s European rival Airbus to pull the plug on the A380. IAG on Thursday said the 777s would replace BA’s Boeing 747s, which were seen as a competitor to the A380. Rolls posted an annual loss after tax of £2.4 billion ($3.2 billion, €2.8 billion) in 2018 that followed a net profit of nearly £3.4 billion a year earlier, as the group also decided to ax thousands of jobs as part of vast restructuring. The British company also said it no longer wished to be a candidate to make the engine for a new midsize passenger jet proposed by Boeing. “Rolls-Royce has decided to withdraw from the current competition to power Boeing’s proposed middle of the market — or New Midsize Airplane (NMA) — platform,” Rolls said in a statement. “While we believe the platform complements Boeing’s existing product range, we are unable to commit to the proposed timetable to ensure we have a sufficiently mature product which supports Boeing’s ambition for the aircraft and satisfies our own internal requirements for technical maturity at entry into service.” Chicago-based Boeing is looking at building an NMA, or single-aisle commercial jet for long-haul journeys, to fill a gap in the market — but concrete plans have yet to be announced. On Thursday, Rolls said that costs linked to problems with its Trent 1000 engine that powers the Boeing Dreamliner stood at a higher-than-expected £790 million in 2018. The Trent 1000 has seen some parts wear quicker than expected, forcing Rolls to carry out expensive repairs. It added that last year’s earnings were hit by an additional £186 million “following Airbus’ decision to close the A380 production line. On British Airways’ big Boeing order, IAG chief executive Willie Walsh said in a joint statement: “The new 777-9 is the world’s most fuel-efficient long-haul aircraft and will bring many benefits to British Airways fleet. “It’s the ideal replacement for the 747 and its size and range will be an excellent fit for the airline’s existing network,” Walsh added. Earlier in February, Airbus said it would stop building the A380 superjumbo. The European titan axed production of the double-decker jet on Feb. 14 after failing to win over enough airlines to justify its massive costs. Prior to Airbus’ announcement, Walsh had said that IAG was “very pleased” with the 12 A380s operated by BA and called it an “excellent” aircraft. However, Walsh had criticized the high cost of the A380, pointing to the “great competition” currently existing between aircraft manufacturers. Speaking Thursday of the BA order, Kevin McAllister, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said: “The 777-9, in particular, simply has no competitor in its class when it comes to efficiency and performance. “It is the right-sized airplane for British Airways to efficiently serve long-range routes with heavy passenger demand.” Despite news of IAG’s bumper profits, the airline’s stock slid 0.2 percent lower to finish at 599 pence on London’s FTSE 100 shares index, which closed down 0.46 percent. Boeing’s share price advanced 0.54 percent to $437.81 in early trades in New York. The news comes amid troubled times for smaller airlines, who are more exposed to volatile jet fuel prices, Brexit uncertainty and a global economic slowdown than their larger rivals. “The British Airways parent has produced an outstanding performance, which is particularly impressive given the difficulties being faced elsewhere in the airline industry,” noted Interactive Investor analyst Richard Hunter.
|
boeing;airbus;brexit;rolls royce;ba;iag
|
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