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jp0003864
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/05/02
|
Venezuelan clashes leave one dead and 46 hurt in struggle between Maduro and Guaido
|
CARACAS - May Day clashes between opposition supporters and Venezuela’s armed forces in Caracas left a woman dead and 46 people injured on Wednesday, with opposition leader Juan Guaido attempting to rally demonstrators against President Nicolas Maduro. Jurubith Rausseo, 27, died at a clinic after being hit by a “bullet in the head during (a) demonstration,” the non-governmental Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict said on Twitter, condemning her “murder.” Human rights organizations and health services reported 46 people injured in Wednesday’s clashes, including one person with a gunshot wound. Tensions in Venezuela have soared since Guaido, who heads the National Assembly legislature, invoked the constitution to declare himself acting president on January 23, claiming Maduro’s re-election last year was illegitimate. National Guard troops fired tear gas at stone-throwing protesters attempting to block a highway close to the air base in eastern Caracas where Guaido had tried on Tuesday to spark a military uprising. A second day of confrontations between opposition supporters and Maduro’s security services came as the United States said it was prepared to take military action, if necessary, to stem the crisis in the South American nation. At least one journalist was injured when National Guard soldiers fired rubber bullets at a group of reporters covering the clashes. Miguel Ramirez, 17, told AFP at one medical center that he had been shot in the foot while protesting on the highway near the La Carlota air base. “I didn’t manage to run and hide,” he said. Guaido rallied his supporters in Caracas in the Labor Day demonstrations, urging them to stay in the streets. His appeal came despite the apparent failure the day before of a revolt by some soldiers and members of the Bolivarian National Guard who joined his side. In Tuesday’s clashes, one person was killed and dozens injured, according to human rights monitors. More than 150 people were arrested, the government and human rights organizations said. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned Venezuela’s authorities not to use deadly force against demonstrators, while the U.S. and Russia accused each other of making the crisis worse, evoking Cold War confrontations of the past. In a phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Moscow of “destabilizing” Venezuela. Lavrov, in turn, charged that U.S. interference was “destructive” and “in flagrant violation of international law.” “There is nothing for workers to celebrate,” Guaido told supporters in the oil-rich country suffering from hyperinflation and food and medicine shortages that have driven millions to flee. “We’re going to remain in the streets until we achieve freedom for the Venezuelan people. “The regime will try to increase the repression. It will try to persecute me, to stage a coup d’etat,” said Guaido, recognized by more than 50 countries as the country’s interim president. He said staggered industrial action would begin on Thursday, leading to a general strike. Before thousands of his own supporters in front of Miraflores palace on May Day, Maduro declared he will have “no hesitation” to lock up those responsible for this “criminal coup d’etat,” threats recalling those he made the previous day. In his Wednesday address, Maduro alleged that the “so-called coup d’etat” had been organized “from the White House” by U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton. • ‘Serious crimes’- Hours after the revolt by military members appeared to have fizzled out, Pompeo told CNN he believed Maduro was ready to flee to ally Cuba before he was dissuaded by Russia — a claim Maduro later refuted as “a joke.” A senior Brazilian official said at least 25 Venezuelan troops had sought asylum at its Caracas embassy. Venezuela’s security forces number around 365,000 including military and police, as well as 1.6 million civilian reservists. Pompeo said on Wednesday that Washington wants a peaceful transfer of power but warned that U.S. President Donald Trump is prepared to take military action if necessary. “The president has been crystal clear and incredibly consistent. Military action is possible. If that’s what’s required, that’s what the United States will do,” Pompeo told Fox Business Network. Venezuela has suffered five years of recession marked by shortages of basic necessities as well as failing public services, including water, electricity and transport. “We’re living through hell,” a resident of western Caracas, Evelinda Villalobos, 58, told AFP. “I believe the people in the streets will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.” Another demonstrator, Patricia Requena, 40, said that “yesterday we saw soldiers recognizing our interim president. We have to stay in the streets.” She vowed: “I’ll keep demonstrating as long as God allows me to.” Michael Shifter, an analyst with the Inter-American Dialogue, told AFP the U.S. approach to Venezuela was “unhelpful and often counterproductive.” “The U.S. is right to back Guaido in his battle against Maduro,” said Shifter. “But beyond being on the right side, the administration is making it harder, not easier, to achieve a democratic transition in Venezuela.”
|
venezuela;protests;nicolas maduro;juan guaido
|
jp0003865
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/05/02
|
Putin fast-tracks Russian citizenship for more Ukrainians in move seen as further destabilization
|
MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree fast-tracking Russian citizenship for more Ukrainians, a controversial new move expected to deepen the crisis between the two countries. The latest move comes during a hugely sensitive transitional period in Ukraine where a comedian with no political experience, Volodymyr Zelensky, won a landslide victory in a presidential election last month. Some analysts see it as a Kremlin test for the new administration in Kiev. Putin had already signed a decree on April 24 allowing people living in breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine to receive a Russian passport. The Russian president said last weekend he was “thinking” about providing citizenship to “all citizens of Ukraine,” sparking fury in Kiev. The new Kremlin decree published Wednesday said several categories of Ukrainian nationals will have the right to receive a Russian passport within three months of applying for one. Those categories include Ukrainians who already have Russian residence permits and Ukrainian citizens who were born in Crimea but left the peninsula before Russia annexed it in March, 2014. Around 3 million Ukrainians reside in Russia. The fast-track procedure is implemented to protect “rights and human and civil freedoms,” said the decree which Putin signed on Monday. There were hopes bilateral ties might improve under a Zelensky presidency but that is now looking unlikely, analysts say. The Kremlin has not congratulated Zelensky and said it was too early to say if it can work with the 41-year-old political novice. Zelensky is due to take office by early June. Some in Kiev and the West worry that Moscow’s offer of citizenship to Ukrainians would give the Kremlin a justification to freely move troops across the border under the pretext of protecting the interests of Russian nationals. The West has condemned the Kremlin, accusing Putin of seeking to further destabilize Ukraine, while critics at home say the move would be a major burden for the already-struggling Russian economy. The EU has called the passport scheme a fresh assault on Ukraine’s sovereignty, while Kiev appealed to the UN Security Council to take action. President-elect Zelensky has called for more sanctions against Russia but also pledged to grant Ukrainian citizenship to Russians who “suffer” under Kremlin rule. After a pro-Western uprising in Kiev ousted a Kremlin- backed regime in 2014 Moscow annexed Crimea and extended support to Russian-speaking separatists in eastern Ukraine. On Wednesday, Ganna Gopko, head of the international affairs committee in Ukrainian parliament, said the latest Kremlin decree showed Putin pressed ahead with his efforts to divide the ex-Soviet country. “It is a flagrant interference in Ukraine’s internal affairs, especially during a transitional period,” Gopko told AFP. “Such Russians actions are an attempt at escalation.” Zelensky has said he doubted many Ukrainians would take Moscow up on its offer because a Russian passport means “the right to be arrested” and “the right not to have free and competitive elections.” Timothy Ash, a strategist at BlueBay Asset Management, suggested that Putin might be testing the new administration in Kiev as well as U.S. President Donald Trump’s support for him. On election night Zelensky appeared to taunt Putin when he told people in fellow post-Soviet countries that “everything is possible.” Ash said Putin “probably did not appreciate Zelensky’s comments.” “His nightmare is a truly democratic, open (and) free election, where the people actually get to chose between a range of candidates,” he told AFP. Critics led by departing President Petro Poroshenko doubt Zelensky will be able to stand up to Putin. Nationals of Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and Syria who were born in the Soviet Union can also apply for Russian citizenship, the Kremlin decree said.
|
conflict;vladimir putin;russia;ukraine;volodymyr zelenskiy
|
jp0003866
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/05/02
|
After protests, U.K. Parliament becomes first legislature to declare 'climate change emergency'
|
LONDON - The U.K. Parliament declared a symbolic climate change emergency on Wednesday, backing a call by opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for “rapid and dramatic action” to protect the environment for generations to come. The measure was passed as an opposition motion, using a procedure typically ignored by the ruling party, and has no direct consequences for policy. But it is a nod to an increasing vocal activist movement particularly among young people in Europe, who have staged school strikes and civil disobedience campaigns to demand action. Eleven days of protests by the Extinction Rebellion activist group caused major disruptions in central London in recent weeks, and Swedish schoolgirl campaigner Greta Thunberg addressed lawmakers on a high-profile visit. The group set up camps that blocked off major roads in the capital, disrupted transport and targeted major institutions such as Goldman Sachs and Shell. Corbyn told lawmakers Wednesday that they should listen to those “who have the most to lose” from climate change, noting that the younger generation is “ahead of the politicians on this, the most important issue of our time.” “We have no time to waste. We are living in a climate crisis that will spiral dangerously out of control unless we take rapid and dramatic action now,” Corbyn told Parliament. “Today, we have the opportunity to say, ‘We hear you.’ … By becoming the first parliament in the world to declare a climate emergency, we could, and I hope we do, set off a wave of action from parliaments and governments all around the world.” Environment Secretary Michael Gove, who met activists this week, disappointed the campaigners by avoiding the word “emergency” and referring instead to the situation as “grave.” Extinction Rebellion welcomed Wednesday’s motion in a tweet: “This has seen (lawmakers) start to #TellTheTruth about the climate & ecological crisis. They must now halt biodiversity loss, go net #ZeroCarbon2025 & create a #CitizensAssembly.” Separately, Thunberg tweeted: “Historic and very hopeful news. Now other nations must follow. And words must turn into immediate action.” Rebecca Newsom, the head of politics for Greenpeace U.K., said in a statement that tackling climate change has long been delayed. “The best time to declare a climate emergency was 30 years ago; the second-best time is now,” she said According to a poll taken after the week-and-a-half long high-profile protests by activists, a majority of Britons now believe that climate change could end the human race. Following the protests 54 percent of adults agreed that climate change threatens our extinction as a species, the poll released Wednesday by market research company ComRes found, compared to just a quarter who disagreed. However, only 22 percent of the 2,037 people surveyed said they supported the aims and tactics of Extinction Rebellion, with 32 percent in disagreement. “While most of the public are agreed on the problem and its cause, the poll finds the public less enthusiastic about how Extinction Rebellion is bringing its message to the country,” ComRes Chairman Andrew Hawkins said. “Its aims and tactics are far more likely to appeal to people under 25, so it is little surprise that the Group’s warning message of human extinction has less resonance with older age groups.” Extinction Rebellion wants non-violent civil disobedience to force governments to cut carbon emissions and avert a climate crisis it says will bring starvation and social collapse. The group has demanded the government declare a climate emergency and allocate resources to tackling the issue. A majority of those surveyed said that they would forego at least one overseas trip a year for the sake of the climate, while fewer people agreed that they would be more willing to protest about higher fuel prices than climate change. ComRes conducted the survey between April 26 and 28.
|
u.k .;emergency;climate change;environment;labour party;jeremy corbyn;parliament
|
jp0003869
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific"
] |
2019/05/02
|
Modi's bulging war chest leaves India election rivals in the dust
|
MUMBAI/DELHI - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party is flush with cash, giving his Hindu nationalist bloc a massive advantage over the main opposition Congress party as he seeks to win a second term in India’s general election. Opaque campaign financing in the world’s largest democracy makes it tricky to get a full picture of money in politics here. But current and former BJP supporters, opposition politicians, businessmen and activists interviewed say Modi has an unprecedented advantage, thanks to support from businesses and expectations he will be the winner. Staggered voting in the general election is currently in progress across India, with results to be declared on May 23. The BJP war chest has allowed it to unleash a massive amount of advertising on social media and send Modi and party officials crisscrossing India to campaign. The ruling party has showered money on Facebook and Google advertisements, spending six times more than Congress since February, according to data from the two firms. Modi merchandise abounds, as do Modi marketing sites. The money puts the BJP in an extraordinarily powerful position, even over logistical issues like how to get its leaders to election rallies. A Congress official said the BJP had the funds to reserve most of India’s fleet of helicopters for hire for 90 days, making it difficult for opponents to get hold of them. “We have never ever seen an election with such disparity. Financially, we cannot compete with them,” said another veteran Congress politician, who asked to remain anonymous. He and another high-ranking Congress official said they expected the BJP to outspend them by a factor of ten. A third Congress source estimated the disparity at twice that. Two BJP officials declined to provide an estimate of spending, but one said the “BJP definitely has a big war chest and has more funds at its disposal than the Congress.” Congress has received far fewer funds because of a perception it is unlikely to win the election, political strategists said. The opposition party has been hampered by its inability to forge a national alliance to take on Modi and has struggled to capitalize on discontent against the BJP over a lack of jobs and distressed farm incomes. Modi has been topping polls as India’s most popular politician, well ahead of Congress President Rahul Gandhi. Money has become critical in elections given the country’s 1.3 billion population, its voting over 39 days and the sheer complexity of the electorate, in terms of region, religion, language and caste. A tradition of doling out freebies to sway voters only adds to costs. Authorities say they have seized goods and cash worth about $456 million since March 26. “This war chest gives the BJP significant advantages,” said Milan Vaishnav, director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s South Asia program. “Money is useful for wooing voters but also for keeping networks of party workers and influencers well lubricated.” Parliamentary candidates’ expenditure is capped at up to 7 million Indian rupees (about $100,000), but the limit is widely flouted and political parties are allowed to spend freely. The New Delhi-based Center for Media Studies estimates almost $8.6 billion will be spent on this year’s vote, roughly twice the 2014 election. The figure would surpass OpenSecrets.org ‘s estimate that $6.5 billion was spent in the 2016 U.S. presidential and congressional elections. Recent reforms under Modi may have fueled the spending spree: Companies can fund parties anonymously through new ‘electoral bonds’ and they no longer face a donations cap. Activists say that gives corporations too much sway and obscures ties between politicians and businessmen. About 95 percent of electoral bonds snapped up in a first tranche offering last year went to the BJP, according to data reviewed through a freedom of information request and BJP filings. When asked whether the BJP had a financial advantage, party spokesman Anil Baluni said “it is not an unfair advantage.” “I guess maybe the BJP does believe in taking maximum donations by cheque or through bonds. … We are the largest political party in the country,” Baluni added. He said he did not have information on the provenance of funds or the uses. Pawan Khera, a Congress spokesman, said this was “turning out to be the most unequal election,” but did not provide specifics. Modi was elected in 2014 as a darling of the business community. His star has dimmed somewhat, in part due to fallout from a shock 2016 decision to scrap then-circulating high-value bank notes, but with some businesses wary of a fragile opposition coalition coming to power, Modi retains backers. “Modi has made business easier,” said businessman Sunil Alagh, who heads consulting firm SKA Advisors and sits on several boards. Still, business titans tend to give to several parties to hedge their bets, politicians and executives say. Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest man and the boss of the Reliance Industries conglomerate, hails from Modi’s home state of Gujarat and his family has praised the prime minister publicly. Ambani even splashed Modi’s face on advertisements for the Reliance Jio telecoms launch in 2016. But last month, Mumbai-based Ambani endorsed Congress candidate Milind Deora, appearing in a video saying “Milind is the man for South Bombay.” Deora’s politician father was a close friend of the Ambanis. Under the electoral bond scheme announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley last year, individuals and companies can anonymously buy as many bonds as they wish in denominations ranging from 1,000 rupees to 10 million rupees and deposit them in a party account at the State Bank of India. “The electoral bond scheme … envisages total clean money and substantial transparency,” Jaitley said in a Facebook post. Activists say the opposite is true. “If you do not know the donor and you do not know who the money is given to, where is the transparency? Dubious donations are now legitimized,” said Jagdeep Chhokar, a founder of the Delhi-based Association for Democratic Reforms. When Reuters reporters visited SBI branches during bond sales in Delhi and Mumbai this year, a handful of men who described themselves as politicians or company representatives were waiting to open bank accounts or buy bonds. SBI officials declined to provide details on the sales.
|
india;corruption;elections;narendra modi;political funds;bjp
|
jp0003870
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/05/02
|
Thailand's king appoints consort as queen ahead of his official coronation
|
BANGKOK - Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn has appointed his consort as the country’s queen ahead of his official coronation on Saturday. An announcement Wednesday in the Royal Gazette said Suthida Vajiralongkorn Na Ayudhya is now legally married to the 66-year-old king and is now Queen Suthida. Although she has been in the public eye for about three years, there has been little official information released about her and the news was a surprise to many Thais. She is reported to be 40 years old and to have previously worked as a flight attendant for Thai Airways International. The two reportedly met on a flight. Suthida joined the palace guard in 2013 and became commander of the king’s security unit. She currently holds the rank of general. The new queen also has several top royal decorations. Some royal observers and foreign media had linked Suthida romantically with the king, but the palace had never previously acknowledged a relationship between them. Among the dignitaries at the marriage ceremony were Prayuth Chan-ocha, the leader of the military junta that has run Thailand since a 2014 army coup, as well as other members of the royal family and palace advisers, according to footage that has been released. Vajiralongkorn has had three previous marriages and divorced his previous wife, with whom he has a son, in 2014. He became king after the death in October 2016 of his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Thai television, which broadcast the royal order Wednesday evening, showed a video of Suthida prostrating herself before the king. According to the announcer, she presented the king with a tray of flowers and joss sticks, and in return was bestowed traditional gifts associated with royal power. TV reports also showed the king in a white uniform and his bride in a pink silk traditional dress formally registering their marriage on Wednesday at his palace residence in Bangkok. The couple was seen signing a marriage certificate book, which was also signed by the king’s sister, Princess Sirindhorn, and Privy Council head Prem Tinsulanonda as witnesses.
|
thailand;royalty;weddings;king maha vajiralongkorn;queen suthida
|
jp0003871
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/05/02
|
In coup for India, U.N. adds leader of Pakistan group Jaish-e-Mohammad to sanctions list
|
ISLAMABAD - In a major diplomatic win for India, the United Nations added the leader of an outlawed Pakistani militant group to its sanctions blacklist Wednesday after the group claimed responsibility for a February suicide attack in disputed Kashmir that killed 40 Indian soldiers. Sanctions against Masood Azhar were confirmed by Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Faisal at an urgently held news conference in Islamabad. Azhar’s addition to the Security Council’s Islamic State and al-Qaida blacklist includes a travel ban and freeze on his assets as well as an arms embargo. The development came less than three months after Azhar’s Jaish-e-Mohammad group claimed responsibility for the Feb. 14 attack in Kashmir, which is split between the two countries and is claimed by both in its entirety. The clashes brought the two nuclear rivals to the brink of war. India had intensified its lobbying to have Azhar blacklisted after the killing of its soldiers and New Delhi quickly welcomed the Security Council decision. Sanctions against Azhar had been delayed because Security Council member China had blocked them on three previous occasions. But the council went ahead after China no longer objected. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has since made national security the main plank in the country’s 39-day general election, which began on April 11. Results will be out on May 23, and political analysts said the news on Azhar will further energize the massive cadre of Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “The world can’t anymore ignore the voice of 1.3 billion Indians,” Modi said at an election rally, calling the U.N. decision a great diplomatic victory for the country. “This is only a beginning.” Azhar was blacklisted for his leadership of the al-Qaida-linked Jaish-e-Mohammad. The official listing by the U.N. sanctions committee said the 50-year-old Azhar was associated with al-Qaida by supporting its activities including by supplying arms and recruiting members, and for financially supporting Jaish-e-Mohammad after he was released from prison in India in 1999 in exchange for 155 passengers on an Indian Airlines flight hijacked to Kandahar, Afghanistan. As a group, Jaish-e-Mohammad had been put on the sanctions blacklist in 2001 for its ties to “al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden, and the Taliban.” The U.N. listing noted that 2008 recruitment posters for Jaish-e-Mohammad “contained a call from Azhar for volunteers to join the fight in Afghanistan against Western forces.” Modi said on Twitter that “today is a day that would make every Indian proud! I thank the global community and all those who believe in humanitarian values for their support.” Days after the Feb. 14 Kashmir attack, India responded by launching an airstrike in northwest Pakistan that caused no casualties. Pakistan then responded on Feb. 27 by shooting down two Indian warplanes and capturing a pilot, who was later returned. Intervention by the international community defused tensions between the two nuclear powers, which have fought three wars since gaining independence in 1947. Garrett Marquis, a spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, said the Trump administration commends the decision to sanction Azhar. Azhar’s sanctioning comes weeks after Washington said it was seeking to have him put on the U.N. blacklist. Pakistan is a key ally of the U.S. in its fight against extremism. A senior U.S. administration official told reporters that “after 10 years China has done the right thing by lifting its hold on this designation.” The official, who insisted on speaking anonymously, said the U.K. and France joined the U.S. in putting pressure on China after the Feb. 14 attack, and Beijing seems to have understood “that it is increasingly important that its actions on the international stage on terrorism matched its rhetoric.” The official said the Trump administration is watching to see if Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s commitment to crack down on militants in the country “will translate into irreversible steps to end terrorist and militant safe havens inside Pakistan.” Khan has ordered the takeover of assets and property of Jaish-e-Mohammad and dozens of banned militant organizations that operate in Pakistan. Pakistan has said authorities have detained dozens of people suspected of involvement in the Kashmir attack after receiving a file with intelligence on the attack from New Delhi. Pakistan said its probe did not establish any direct link between Azhar or his group and the attack that killed the Indian soldiers.
|
india;kashmir;pakistan;religion;terrorism;jaish-e-mohammad;masood azhar
|
jp0003872
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"crime-legal-asia-pacific"
] |
2019/05/02
|
Elderly Aussie couple mistakenly sign for delivery of millions of dollars' worth of meth
|
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - An elderly couple in Australia signed for a parcel and found they were the surprise recipients of an illegal shipment containing millions of dollars’ worth of methamphetamine, police said Thursday. The Melbourne couple immediately called police when they discovered bags containing the white powder in the parcel on Wednesday, a police spokesman said. The package contained what police said were 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of methamphetamine with an estimated street value of 10 million Australian dollars ($7 million). Police subsequently searched a house in another part of Melbourne, where they found 20 more kilograms of the drug and arrested a 21-year-old man. He was charged Thursday with importing a marketable quantity of a controlled drug and was due to appear in court later in the day, police said. Police asked that the unwitting couple who helped catch the man not be identified by the media out of concern for their safety.
|
drugs;australia;melbourne;meth
|
jp0003873
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/05/02
|
Nearly 80% in Japan support having women on throne and 82% feel affection for new emperor
|
Over 82 percent of respondents feel affection for newly enthroned Emperor Naruhito, while nearly 80 percent said they would support allowing females to ascend to the imperial throne, a Kyodo News survey showed Thursday. In the two-day nationwide opinion poll conducted after Emperor Naruhito’s accession on Wednesday following the 30-year reign of his father, 82.5 percent said they feel affection for the 59-year-old emperor, while 11.3 percent did not. The support rate for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet remained nearly flat at 51.9 percent, compared with 52.8 percent in the previous survey in April. The disapproval rate stood at 31.3 percent, slightly down from 32.4 percent. The survey covered 743 randomly selected households with eligible voters as well as 1,238 mobile phone users, obtaining responses from 516 and 518 people, respectively. Amid lingering concern over the stability of Japan’s imperial succession that only allows male heirs on the father’s side to reign as emperors, 79.6 percent said they would support a woman ascending to the throne in the future, while 13.3 percent would not. The conservative governments led by Abe, including his first time in office between 2006 and 2007, have expressed caution about changing the male line of succession, while apparently recognizing the need to address the dwindling number of imperial family members. There are currently three heirs among the 18 members of the imperial family — the emperor’s younger brother Crown Prince Akishino, 53, his son Prince Hisahito, 12, and the emperor’s uncle Prince Hitachi, 83. The only child born to Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako is their daughter Aiko, 17. Emperor Naruhito ascended to the throne after his father, Emperor Emeritus Akihito, 85, abdicated Tuesday due to concern over his advanced age, the first Japanese monarch to do so in 202 years. In his first speech after the enthronement on Wednesday, Emperor Naruhito pledged to stand with his people following the example set by his father and to fulfill his symbolic, nonpolitical role in accordance with the post-World War II Constitution. “In acceding to the throne, I swear that I will reflect deeply on the course followed by his majesty the emperor emeritus and bear in mind the path trodden by past emperors, and will devote myself to self-improvement,” he said.
|
women;royalty;imperial family;succession;surveys;polls;emperor naruhito
|
jp0003874
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/05/02
|
Two teens arrested in Osaka for allegedly stretching rope across a road, injuring a motorcyclist
|
OSAKA - Two teenagers were arrested Thursday for allegedly stretching a rope across a road in Osaka Prefecture earlier in the week, leading a 77-year-old woman to fall off her moped. The 16-year-old high school students, who are living in Neyagawa, have denied intending to kill anyone, police said. One was quoted as saying, “I wanted to have fun watching a person fall.” According to the police, the two stretched a nylon rope between an iron pole in a supermarket parking lot and a barbershop pole across a 7 meter-wide road in Neyagawa at around 2:20 a.m. on Monday. Around 10 minutes later, the woman, who delivers newspapers, was knocked off her moped on her way to work, breaking her leg. The two students are believed to have been watching from a distance. The police said they suspected the involvement of the two teenagers after studying security camera footage and arrested them on suspicion of attempted murder and traffic obstruction.
|
teens;crime;police
|
jp0003875
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/05/02
|
Abe administration in no rush to address the issue of Japan's shrinking imperial family
|
Despite the urgent need to address the shrinking imperial family to maintain a stable line of succession, the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been slow to tackle the issue, wary of a resurgence of arguments in favor of allowing those in the maternal bloodline to ascend to the throne. The Imperial House Law stipulates that the throne be assumed only by male imperial family members in the paternal bloodline. After the ascension of Emperor Naruhito, 59, on Wednesday, there are only three heirs to the throne. Next in line is now Crown Prince Akishino, the emperor’s 53-year-old brother. He is followed by Prince Hisahito, the crown prince’s 12-year-old son. Prince Hitachi, Emperor Emeritus Akihito’s 83-year-old brother, is third in line. No female members of the family were present at Wednesday’s Kenji to Shokei no Gi ceremony, in which the new emperor assumed the imperial regalia and seals. This was partly because the Abe administration gave consideration to concerns among conservatives that allowing female members to attend the key ceremony might be taken as a sign of support for those in the maternal bloodline ascending to the throne, sources said. Measures aimed at securing stable imperial succession were hotly debated in the early 2000s, as no boys had been born into the imperial family since the birth of Crown Prince Akishino in 1965. In 2005, an advisory panel to the administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called for allowing female imperial family members or those in the maternal bloodline to assume the throne. In its report, the panel warned that the number of male imperial family members in the paternal bloodline would continue to decline. Also considering women’s increasing participation in society, the panel concluded that it would be extremely difficult to maintain imperial succession under the current rules and that it was indispensable to pave a way for reigning empresses or emperors from the maternal bloodline. The panel’s recommendations, however, were met with objections from conservatives including Abe, who was then chief Cabinet secretary. Conservatives highly valued the fact that there had not been an emperor from the maternal bloodline in history, although there have been some women on the throne. Instead of adopting the panel’s recommendations, conservatives called for reinstating imperial family status to those who left the family in 1947 under the direction of the Allied Occupation. With discussions on ways to secure stable imperial succession at a stalemate, Prince Hisahito was born in 2006. The issue appeared to be temporarily forgotten during Abe’s first tenure as prime minister from September 2006 to September 2007. Under Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, between September 2011 and December 2012, however, the government moved to promote discussions on allowing female imperial family members to maintain their imperial status even after marrying commoners. But this initiative was also shelved after Abe returned to power in December 2012. In a supplementary resolution attached to the special law allowing for the abdication of Emperor Akihito, the Diet urged the government to promptly tackle the issue of securing stable succession, claiming that it must not waste any time in addressing the issue. Still, the Abe administration maintains the position that the issue must be considered carefully. At a news conference on Wednesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga suggested that the government is unlikely to begin to work on the issue before autumn, when many rituals related to the new emperor’s enthronement will take place. “If the administration begins to work on the issue, it will only pretend to do so,” a government source said. “It would take decades to reach any conclusion.”
|
shinzo abe;royalty;prince hisahito;imperial family;succession;imperial change;emperor naruhito;crown prince akishino;prince hitachi
|
jp0003876
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2019/05/02
|
Eating more rice could help fight obesity, study led by Japan researcher suggests
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Eating rice may help prevent obesity, research suggests. Experts found that people following a Japanese or Asian-style diet based on rice were less likely to be obese than those living in countries where rice consumption was low. Researchers said low-carbohydrate diets — which limit rice — are a popular weight-loss strategy in developed countries but the effect of rice on obesity has been unclear. They looked at rice consumption in terms of grams per day per person and calorie intake in 136 countries. They also looked at data on body mass index. In the U.K., people were found to consume just 19 grams of rice a day, below dozens of other countries including Canada, Spain and the U.S. The researchers calculated that even a modest increase in rice consumption of 50 grams per day per person could reduce the worldwide prevalence of obesity by 1 percent (from 650 million adults to 643.5 million). Professor Tomoko Imai of Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts in Kyoto, who led the research, said: “The observed associations suggest that the obesity rate is low in countries that eat rice as a staple food. Therefore, a Japanese food or an Asian-food-style diet based on rice may help prevent obesity. Given the rising levels of obesity worldwide, eating more rice should be recommended to protect against obesity even in Western countries.” Imai said rice was low fat, adding: “It’s possible that the fiber, nutrients and plant compounds found in whole grains may increase feelings of fullness and prevent overeating.” The authors concluded: “The prevalence of obesity was significantly lower in the countries with higher rice supply even after controlling for lifestyle and socioeconomic indicators.” Tam Fry, chairman of the U.K.’s National Obesity Forum, said: “We have known for centuries that Far Eastern populations tend to be slimmer than in the West because rice is a staple food, but few obesity specialists may have appreciated why. “This novel research is the first to hypothesize that we could nail obesity by eating a modest amount more.” The study was presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Glasgow.
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food;obesity;rice;diets
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jp0003877
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2019/05/02
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Launch of private Momo-3 rocket delayed again, this time due to strong wind at Hokkaido site
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KUSHIRO, HOKKAIDO - Aerospace startup Interstellar Technology Inc. said it postponed the planned launch of a small rocket on Thursday due to strong wind. The unmanned Momo-3 was originally scheduled to blast off on Tuesday, but that was thwarted by a fuel-system glitch. Interstellar Technology said the launch from its test site in Hokkaido would be rescheduled for Friday or later. If successful, the Momo-3 would be Japan’s first privately developed rocket to reach outer space.
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space;rockets;hokkaido;momo-3;interstellar technology
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jp0003878
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2019/05/02
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South Korea's Moon Jae-in says ties with Japan must be improved
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SEOUL - South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Thursday said ties with Japan should be improved for national security as well as economic development for the future. “We do need to have a good relationship with Japan, but due to unfortunate history of the past, problems have constantly occurred, making the ties between the two countries uncomfortable,” said Moon at a luncheon with experts. Moon, however, added that he feels sorry at the same time to see Japan’s use of history in its politics, which he said seems to be “exacerbating” the ongoing controversies. Ties between Seoul and Tokyo have been bedeviled by issues arising from Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula between 1910 and 1945. The two countries reached an agreement in 2015 aimed at settling the issue of “comfort women.” The term is a euphemism used to refer to women who provided sex, including those who did so against their will, for Japanese troops before and during World War II. But a new government in Seoul has since revisited the deal, concluding it could not settle the long-standing issue as it failed to reflect the opinions of surviving victims. Bilateral ties have been under added pressure since a string of court rulings in South Korea in favor of wartime forced laborers seeking compensation. Japan claims that the compensation issue was completely settled by 1965 bilateral treaty signed by the two countries.
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shinzo abe;moon jae-in
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jp0003879
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2019/05/02
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South Korean foreign minister says Seoul should not meddle in wartime labor cases
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SEOUL - South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said Thursday she thinks Seoul should not meddle in wartime labor lawsuits in which South Korean plaintiffs have launched procedures to convert assets seized from Japanese companies into cash. Speaking to reporters, she explained that the perspective of allowing South Korean nationals to exercise their rights is behind the government’s inaction over the cases. Noting that it would be important to find solutions that can be accepted by the victims, Kang said the South Korean government is analyzing and examining the situation continuously. She also stressed that Japanese and South Korean diplomatic authorities are making efforts to manage the problem properly so as to prevent the situation from getting worse due to overreaction. With Japan, which entered a new era with the enthronement of Emperor Naruhito on Wednesday, South Korea will continue to promote the development of future-oriented relations while facing history squarely, the foreign minister added. On Wednesday, Japan protested that the South Korean government has yet to take any concrete steps to correct the state of violating the 1965 bilateral accord to settle wartime compensation issues.
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courts;south korea;wartime labor;kang kyung-wha
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jp0003880
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/05/02
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ANA plane bound for Kumamoto from Tokyo lands at airport near Nagoya due to engine trouble
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An All Nippon Airways plane headed for Kumamoto landed at Chubu airport near Nagoya on Wednesday evening due to engine trouble, the carrier said. The plane carrying 252 passengers and eight crew members left Haneda airport in Tokyo and detected the trouble at around 7:50 p.m., landing at Chubu airport about 40 minutes later. The cause of the problem is being investigated. The plane sustained no damage and no one was hurt in the incident. Many of the passengers stayed the night inside Chubu airport before flying to Kumamoto on another aircraft on Thursday, ANA said.
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ana;air accidents
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jp0003881
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/05/02
|
Abe ready to meet North Korea's Kim Jong Un 'unconditionally' to 'break the shell of mutual distrust'
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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has offered to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “unconditionally” in a bid to restore diplomatic ties between the two foes, a daily newspaper reported Thursday. In an interview with the Sankei Shimbun on Wednesday, Abe said: “I want to meet Chairman Kim Jong Un unconditionally and talk with him frankly with an open mind.” Abe, seen as a foreign policy hawk, has recently softened his rhetoric toward Pyongyang, calling for a summit with Kim to resolve an emotional row over past kidnappings of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents. “It is more than important for our country to be proactive in tackling the issue,” Abe also said in the interview. “We can’t break the shell of mutual distrust between Japan and North Korea unless I directly face Mr. Kim,” he said. “I hope that he is a leader who can make a decision strategically and flexibly on what is best for his nation.” Tokyo has been one of the most hawkish of the major powers on reclusive North Korea, and has been on the receiving end of some of Pyongyang’s harshest rhetoric — as well as missiles launched over its territory. Until late 2017, North Korea repeatedly tested missiles that flew toward or over Japan, sparking warnings blared from loudspeakers and stoking calls for a tough stance against Pyongyang. However, Japan now finds itself battling to keep itself relevant on the fast-moving North Korea issue as Kim expands his diplomatic circle. Kim met Russian President Vladimir Putin last week after multiple meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Abe also told the Sankei that he had asked Trump to help resolve the abduction issue when they held talks at the White House on Friday. Trump will hold another meeting with Abe in late May when he visits Japan as the first foreign head of state to meet Emperor Naruhito, who acceded the throne Wednesday. Tokyo believes North Korean agents kidnapped Japanese nationals to train its spies in language and customs in the 1970s and 1980s. After years of denial, North Korea admitted in 2002 that it had taken 13 Japanese civilians and released what it said were the five survivors, saying eight others had died. Campaigners, however, believe the disappearance of up to 470 Japanese may be linked to North Korea. North Korean authorities have given no public indication of any willingness to meet Abe. The comments by Abe came after his government removed a reference to applying “maximum pressure” on North Korea in an annual foreign policy report released late last month. The report also stopped short of explicitly claiming ownership of the disputed Russian-held islands off Hokkaido. The concessions are apparently aimed at easing diplomatic tensions as Abe works to resolve long-standing issues with both countries while in office. In its Diplomatic Bluebook 2019, the Foreign Ministry said North Korea had not taken any substantive steps to give up its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles despite repeated calls to do so from the international community. But the ministry used less condemnatory language than it did in last year’s report, which had said Japan was working closely with countries including the United States to “maximize pressure on North Korea by all available means” as its growing arsenal posed an “unprecedented, grave and imminent threat.” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the language used in this year’s annual report was chosen after taking into consideration “significant developments” on North Korean nuclear issues, such as the two summits between Kim and Trump. Japan has maintained its sanctions against North Korea. But the Abe government has also been making conciliatory gestures, such as not sponsoring a resolution condemning North Korea’s human rights abuses at a U.N. panel, apparently in hopes of engaging with Pyongyang and resolving the abduction issue.
|
shinzo abe;north korea;kim jong un;north korea nuclear crisis;sankei shimbun;abductions;north korea-japan relations
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jp0003882
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/05/02
|
Friend of Japanese imperial family recalls hosting party in England for 'quite shy' new emperor in '80s
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LONDON - A British woman whose family has had close connections to the imperial family described her “great honor” recently at having hosted a party for Emperor Naruhito, then a prince, while he was studying at Oxford University in 1984. Lady Nadine Bonsor, 70, was asked by the Japanese Embassy to hold a traditional weekend house party for Prince Hiro — as the emperor was known at that time — at Liscombe House, the country estate of her husband’s family, in Bedfordshire, just north of London. Bonsor, whose husband Nicholas was a member of Parliament at the time, invited family and friends for the weekend at the Elizabethan manor house. The guests also paid a visit to nearby Althorp House to meet Lord Spencer, the father of Princess Diana, and his wife Raine. In an interview, Bonsor said, “I remember the prince being immensely courteous. He was quite shy and not very fluent in English at this stage.” Over the weekend the guests played tennis, took walks around the estate and also played traditional English games including billiard fives. “It’s a mad English game of elimination involving up to 20 people,” Bonsor said. “You hurl yourself at the table to get the ball. The prince thought it was very funny to see his rather stiff and formal entourage of Japanese officials running around the table hitting the ball. It broke the ice.” She recalled that the visit entailed additional security and preparation, including the installation of a monitor outside the prince’s bedroom and a security officer sitting in the hall through the night to keep watch. The family tried to keep things as normal as possible but Bonsor remembered her youngest daughters dressing up in kimono and being “terribly excited” at meeting a real prince for the first time. Bonsor, who was a close friend at Oxford of Prince Tomohito of Mikasa, Emperor Emeritus Akihito’s cousin who died in 2012, also said she noted a close friendship between Prince Hiro and his police protection officer Roger Bacon, who was like a “father figure” to the 24-year-old. She believes she was chosen to host the party because of her family’s imperial connections and “maybe because we then had a cold, crumbling English house!” Asked to convey a message to the new emperor, Bonsor said, “We remember your visit with great pleasure and we wish you well. I’m sure you will be a wonderful emperor.” Bonsor’s grandfather, Miles Lampson, was a U.K. diplomat in Japan and assisted then-Crown Prince Hirohito, posthumously known as Emperor Showa, during his trip to Britain in 1921. Miles and his son Graham, Bonsor’s father, were also friends with Princess Chichibu, Emperor Showa’s sister-in-law, who had a great love for Britain. This family link led to Bonsor becoming “buddies” with Princess Chichibu’s nephew, Prince Tomohito, at Oxford in the late 1960s. Bonsor’s mother, also named Nadine, was a friend of Kazuko Aso, a daughter of former Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida, who served as the country’s ambassador to the U.K. in the late 1930s. Through her mother, Bonsor was also close to the family of Kazuko and her husband, the late Takakichi Aso, a business tycoon and politician. Their daughter Nobuko, 64, a sister of Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, 78, later went on to marry Prince Tomohito. Bonsor and her family maintain good relations with Princess Tomohito of Mikasa and her two daughters.
|
u.k .;royalty;imperial family;emperor naruhito;nadine bonsor
|
jp0003883
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/05/02
|
Japan's new emperor to make visits to Aichi, Akita, Niigata and Ibaraki from June
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Emperor Naruhito will start official visits across the country in June after acceding to the throne Wednesday and taking over duties from his father. Following the National Arbor Festival in Owariasahi, Aichi Prefecture, on June 2, the emperor will attend three other annual events — the Festival for the Cherished Sea on Sept. 7 and 8 in Akita Prefecture, the National Culture Festival that runs between Sept. 15 and Nov. 30 in Niigata Prefecture, and the National Sports Festival that runs from Sept. 28 to Oct. 8 in Ibaraki Prefecture. He has taken part in the culture festival since its inception in 1986, while attendance at the other events passed to him from Emperor Emeritus Akihito, who will no longer perform official duties following his abdication Tuesday. Empress Masako suffers from stress-induced adjustment disorder, and her health will determine whether she accompanies the new emperor, according to the Imperial Household Agency. “His Majesty cares very much about his duties in regional areas, and must be looking forward to meeting different people around the country,” said a senior agency official. It was customary for Emperor Emeritus Akihito to see local cultural, welfare and care facilities when traveling to the annual events. Together with Empress Emerita Michiko, he visited each of the 47 prefectures at least twice during his 30-year reign. Official duties for the 85-year-old had been slashed to help reduce the burden on him, but his succession by 59-year-old Emperor Naruhito is expected to see some of the scrapped duties return, including speeches. The emperor’s younger brother, Crown Prince Akishino, and his wife, Crown Princess Kiko, will attend four regional events that the new emperor visited when he was the crown prince. Official duties at a fifth event will be taken on by Princess Nobuko, widow of Prince Tomohito of Mikasa. The imperial family has been shrinking due to its female line losing their status by marrying commoners. This has led to much debate as to how official duties can be divided.
|
royalty;imperial family;emperor naruhito;empress masako
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jp0003884
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/05/02
|
Taiwan seeks assistance from Japan and Interpol in locating double-murder suspect
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TAIPEI - Taiwanese authorities said Thursday they are seeking the assistance of Interpol in locating an Iraqi man who this week fled with his 1-year-old son to Japan, where he works, after allegedly killing his Taiwanese parents-in-law. Prosecutors issued a statement saying they sought an arrest warrant for Ali Hammad Jomaah and notified immigration authorities to arrest him should he re-enter Taiwan. The state’s Criminal Investigation Bureau earlier confirmed that it has requested the assistance of Interpol through their Japanese counterparts to locate Jomaah, who left Taiwan on Tuesday morning on a flight to Japan. Taiwan media reports said Jomaah, 31, initially flew to Taiwan on March 26 from Japan, where he works as an English teacher. The purpose of the trip was to meet with his Taiwanese wife, surnamed Hsiao, to discuss their pending divorce and custody problems. Hsiao and her son came to Taiwan earlier this year with her parents, who had traveled to Japan to bring them back after learning of allegations of domestic violence. Hsiao and her son had since then been staying with her parents, who were both in their 70s, in Taipei’s Shihlin District, the media reports said. On Monday night, after a quarrel with his parents-in-law at their apartment, Jomaah allegedly strangled them and then left, taking his infant son with him, according to the reports. The parents had reportedly asked their daughter not to be present for her own safety. Jomaah reportedly told his wife on Wednesday over social media that he had returned to the Iraqi capital Baghdad. However, police said they suspect Jomaah is still in Japan as he did not return to his residence in Ishikawa Prefecture, nor did the Japanese government have a record of his departure, the reports said. Jomaah and Hsiao met in the United States, where they were both studying. After Jomaah obtained his master’s degree in teaching English as a second language, Hsiao followed him to Japan, where they got married about two years ago. He found work as a teacher in Kanazawa. Taiwan is not a member of Interpol and has no official relations or extradition agreement with Japan.
|
violence;murder;taiwan;iraq;domestic violence;divorce;interpol
|
jp0003885
|
[
"business",
"economy-business"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Japan's unexpected GDP growth in January-March leaves plenty of reasons for caution
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The economy unexpectedly grew at an annualized 2.1 percent in the January-March quarter, government data showed Monday, but it is likely to give little comfort to policymakers worried about economic momentum ahead of the looming consumption tax increase. The biggest driver of the expansion was imports falling even faster than exports, meaning that net exports technically drove growth in the economy. Yet falling imports is actually a sign of underlying weakness in demand, so the result is somewhat misleading. Another reason for caution is that the figures released Monday offer a preliminary reading of the economy and they are often significantly different when revised results are released weeks later. Gross domestic product expanded at an annualized 2.1 percent in the three months through March, according to the Cabinet Office. That compares with economists’ median estimate for a contraction of 0.2 percent. “All of the most important components of GDP are negative,” said Hiroaki Muto, chief economist at Tokai Tokyo Research Center. “The economy has already peaked out, so we are likely to have a mild recession. No one would object to delaying the consumption tax hike.” The headline GDP expansion was caused largely by a 4.6 percent slump in imports, the biggest drop in a decade and more than a 2.4 percent fall in exports. As imports fell more than exports, net exports — or shipments minus imports — added 0.4 percentage point to GDP growth, the data showed. Private consumption slid 0.1 percent and capital expenditure dropped 0.3 percent, casting doubt on policymakers’ view that solid domestic demand will offset the pain from slowing exports. There have been growing calls from some former policymakers to delay the consumption tax hike in the face of worsening domestic and external conditions. However, economy minister Toshimitsu Motegi put on a brave face Monday, saying there was no change to the government’s plan to raise the consumption tax to 10 percent from 8 percent in October. “There’s no change to our view that the fundamentals supporting domestic demand remain solid,” Motegi told reporters after the data were released. But some analysts warn the economy will continue to face headwinds that could dent growth in coming quarters. “Consumer spending is likely to remain weak, because wages are not rising that much,” said Kentaro Arita, senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute. “In the second quarter, GDP could be zero or slightly negative because exports will remain weak. This, combined with weakening capital expenditure, means there is a risk of a recession.” The GDP data comes as the government’s coincident economic indicator recently pointed to the possibility that Japan may be in a recession as exports and factory output were hit by China’s slowdown and the Sino-U.S. trade war. The latest data were being closely watched amid speculation that weak growth could prompt Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government to postpone the consumption tax hike for the third time. Speculation is also mounting that Abe could use this decision to call a snap election over the summer, combining it with Upper House elections. However, the strong headline GDP figure may dampen speculation for now. “For those who want to implement the tax hike as scheduled, today’s data is a tailwind,” said Yoshiki Shinke, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute. Major business organizations support going ahead with the tax hike, and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga recently said the government will carry out the plan unless a crisis on the level of the 2008 financial meltdown happens. The previous consumption tax hike to 8 percent, from 5 percent, in 2014 was blamed for a slump in the economy.
|
economy;consumption;capital spending;gross domestic product
|
jp0003886
|
[
"business",
"economy-business"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Soldiers oversee fuel rationing in Venezuelan towns amid shortages as economy implodes
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MARACAIBO/PUNTO FIJO, VENEZUELA - Soldiers oversaw rationing of gasoline at service stations in several parts of Venezuela on Sunday as worsening fuel shortages forced angry drivers to wait for hours to fill their tanks, prompting protests in some areas. Venezuela, whose economy is reeling from a painful five-year recession amid a prolonged political crisis, saw long lines of vehicles appear at services stations in several regions this week after a shutdown at the OPEC nation’s second-largest refinery. Shortages have been exacerbated by tough U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan state oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) in January, which have slashed crude oil exports and imports of refined fuels. Washington recognized opposition head Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s rightful leader after he invoked the constitution in January to declare an interim presidency, saying President Nicolas Maduro rigged last year’s election. Maduro calls Guaido a U.S. puppet and says Washington wants to control Venezuela’s oil reserves, the largest in the world. Dozens of people have been killed in political protests this year. In the western city of San Cristobal, close to the Colombian border, National Guard soldiers in anti-riot gear limited gasoline sales to 40 liters (10.6 gallons) per vehicle, witnesses said — roughly equivalent to a full tank on a compact vehicle. Angry residents blocked streets with metal barriers, rubbish and branches in some parts of the city. At some gasoline stations, people said they had been waiting days for fuel. “How can a country function like this?” asked Antonio Tamariz, 58, who said he had waited for days for fuel to drive his truck back to his farm. “No one has explained why there are so many lines for gasoline. I think the government is losing control of this.” Venezuela’s Information Ministry — which handles media inquiries for the government — did not respond to requests for comment. Oil Minister Manuel Quevedo said on Sunday his country’s oil industry was under siege from the U.S. government, causing supply problems. In the southeastern industrial hub of Puerto Ordaz and the northwestern city of Punto Fijo, close to Venezuela’s largest refining complex, soldiers were ordered to deliver 40 and 30 liters respectively, according to a dozen witnesses. In the western oil hub of Maracaibo, where power cuts and fuel shortages have been severe in recent months, National Guard soldiers allowed drivers only 20 liters (5.3 gallons) of fuel, witnesses said. “They have taken control of the pumps,” said Rocio Huerta, a manager of a service station in Maracaibo. “Every five hours there are inspections by the Military Intelligence Division to measure how much gasoline is left.” Victor Chourio, a 58-year-old taxi driver, said he had arrived at the gasoline station early on Saturday and waited for 12 hours without getting fuel. “At two o’clock in the afternoon a soldier guard said that only 20 liters per vehicle … but at seven o’clock the gasoline ran out,” Chourio told Reuters. Venezuela’s 310,000 bpd Cardon oil refinery — which had been operating well below capacity — halted operations on Wednesday because of damage at some of its units, two workers at the PDVSA-operated complex said. That left only two refineries in operation in Venezuela. Internal PDVSA documents and Refinitiv Eikon data indicate that Venezuela had not imported a gasoline cargo since March 31. The fuel shortages come on top of rolling power cuts in many parts of Venezuela as the government attempts to rotate electricity supplies to avoid a repeat of March’s week-long national blackout. In Caracas, home to roughly a fifth of Venezuela’s more than 30 million people, there were few signs of widespread gasoline shortages as Maduro has prioritized services to the capital. PDVSA said on its Twitter account on Friday that the government and the company would “ensure the supply and distribution of fuel throughout the national territory.” PDVSA did not respond to a request for more information. In some cities, security forces set up special gasoline pumps to deliver fuel for ambulances, medical personnel and official vehicles, a measure that aroused criticism among people who remained in rows often stretching for several kilometers. Some drivers complained that rationing of fuel meant they would be forced to wait in line for hours once again within just a few days. “This is not enough at all, between going to work and taking my children to school. It will run out in two days,” said Eduardo Pereira, a 47-year-old teacher in Puerto Ordaz, who was only allowed to buy 40 liters of fuel.
|
u.s .;venezuela;economy;oil;sanctions;nicolas maduro;juan guaido;pdvsa
|
jp0003887
|
[
"business",
"economy-business"
] |
2019/05/20
|
In Iran, a plunging economy trumps fears of U.S. confrontation
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TEHRAN - Across Iran’s capital, the talk always seems to come back to how things may get worse. Battered by U.S. sanctions and its depreciating rial currency, Iran’s 80 million people struggle to buy meat, medicine and other staples of daily life. Now they wonder aloud about America’s intentions as it rushes an aircraft carrier and other forces to the region over a still-unexplained threat it perceives from Iran. The Associated Press spoke to a variety of people on Tehran’s streets recently, ranging from young and old, women wearing the all-encompassing black chador to those loosely covering their hair. Most say they believe a war will not come to the region, though they remain willing to defend their country. They think Iran should try to talk to the U.S. to help its anemic economy, even as they see President Donald Trump as an erratic and untrustworthy adversary. “Trump is not predictable at all and one doesn’t know how to react to him and what is the right thing to do against him,” said Afra Hamedzadeh, a 20-year-old civil servant and university student. “Since he controls the global economy we are somehow left with few options.” But opinions vary across Iran’s capital, Tehran, depending on whether you speak to someone coming out of Friday prayers, in the back of a shared taxi cab, or exiting the coffee shops popular with young people. “If America could do anything, it would have done many things by now,” said the chador-wearing Zoherh Sadeghi, a 51-year-old housewife coming out of prayers. “It can’t do anything. It can’t do a damn thing.” That’s an opinion shared by 35-year-old office worker Massumeh Izadpanah. “When someone keeps trying to scare you it means that they think they are not yet ready for war. When someone really wants war it starts the war right away. Like when Iraq attacked us, all of a sudden bombs were dropped,” she said. “But right now America just says, ‘I’m coming,’ to scare Iran.” A young nation, many across Iran were alive for its bloody 1980s war with Iraq, a conflict that began when dictator Saddam Hussein invaded and dragged on for eight years. That war, in which Saddam used chemical weapons and Iran launched human wave attacks, killed 1 million people. Since Trump withdrew the U.S. from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers last year, state television increasingly has focused attention on that war’s wounded. In Tehran’s southern Javadieh neighborhood, veteran Mohammad Ali Moghaddam said he was ready to fight again. “I would encourage my three sons and grandsons to go to defend Iran too,” said Moghaddam, a 58-year-old welder. Arezou Mirzaei, a 37-year-old mother of two in central Tehran, is more worried. “I think the government should do something to avoid war,” Mirzaei said. “If war was good, then Afghanistan and Iraq would not be the mess that we see on TV.” Taxi driver Jafar Hadavand, 34, agrees. “I think both sides will be losers if they fight each other,” Hadavand said. “I think there are wise people on both sides to advocate peace, not war.” Still, many pointed to the economy, not the possible outbreak of war, as Iran’s major concern. Iran’s rial currency traded at 32,000 to $1 at the time of the 2015 nuclear deal. Now it is at 148,000, and many have seen their life’s savings wiped out. Nationwide, the unemployment rate is 12 percent. For youth it’s even worse, with a quarter of all young people unemployed, according to Iran’s statistic center. “The economic situation is very bad, very bad. Unemployment is very high, and those who had jobs have lost theirs,” said Sadeghi, the housewife. “Young people can’t find good jobs, or get married, or become independent.” Sores Maleki, a 62-year-old retired accountant, said talks with the U.S. to loosen sanctions would help jumpstart Iran’s economy. “We should go and talk to America with courage and strength. We are able to do that, others have done it,” Maleki said. “We can make concessions and win concessions. We have no other choice.” But such negotiations will be difficult, said Reza Forghani, a 51-year-old civil servant. He said Iran needed to get the U.S. to “sign a very firm contract that they can’t escape and have to honor.” Otherwise, Iran should drop out of the nuclear deal. “When someone refuses to keep promises and commitments, you can tolerate it a couple of times, but then certainly you can’t remain committed forever. You will react,” Forghani said. “So I don’t think we should remain committed to the deal until the end.” Yet for Iran’s youth, many of whom celebrated the signing of the 2015 nuclear deal in the streets, the situation now feels more akin to a funeral. Many openly discuss their options to obtain a visa — any visa — to get abroad. “Young people have a lot of stress and the future is unknown,” said Hamedzadeh, the 20-year-old civil servant. “The future is so unknown that you can’t plan. The only thing they can do is to somehow leave Iran and build a life abroad.”
|
conflict;u.s .;economy;iran;sanctions;donald trump
|
jp0003888
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Iraq slams Exxon 'political' decision to evacuate staff amid Persian Gulf tensions
|
BAGHDAD - Iraq on Sunday slammed as “political” a decision by U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil to evacuate staff from a southern oil field after Washington ordered personnel to quit its Baghdad embassy. “The temporary withdrawal of employees has nothing to do with security in southern Iraqi oil fields or any threats,” Oil Minister Thamer al-Ghadban said. “The reasons are political and probably linked to tensions in the region,” he added in a statement released by the oil ministry. Ghadban called the move to pull out staff from the West Qorna oil field west of the southern port city of Basra “unacceptable and unjustified. Exxon did not confirm the withdrawal. “We are closely monitoring. As a matter of practice, we don’t share specifics related to operational staffing at our facilities,” a spokeswoman said. “ExxonMobil has programs and measures in place to provide security to protect its people, operations and facilities. We are committed to ensuring the safety of our employees and contractors at all of our facilities around the world,” she added. On Wednesday the United States ordered the evacuation of non-emergency staff from its Baghdad embassy and Arbil consulate, citing an “imminent” threat from Iranian-linked armed groups in Iraq. It came 10 days after the Pentagon deployed an aircraft carrier task force and B-52 bombers to the Gulf to fend off an unspecified alleged plot by Tehran to attack U.S. forces or allies. Both the US and Iran are key allies of Shiite-majority Iraq, and Baghdad has been under pressure from Washington to limit ties with its Shiite-ruled neighbor.
|
conflict;u.s .;oil;iran;iraq;exxon
|
jp0003889
|
[
"business",
"tech"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Top U.S. tech companies begin to cut off vital Huawei supplies
|
SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON - The impact of the Trump administration’s threats to choke Huawei Technologies Co. reverberated across the global supply chain on Monday, hitting some of the biggest component-makers. Germany’s Infineon Technologies AG fell in early trading Monday after the Nikkei daily reported it halted shipments to the Chinese company in the wake of the U.S. ban. Shares of STMicroelectronics NV were also hit. The share-price falls follow U.S. corporations freezing the supply of critical software and components to China’s largest technology company, in order to comply with White House orders. Chipmakers including Intel Corp., Qualcomm Inc., Xilinx Inc. and Broadcom Inc. have told their employees they will not supply Huawei till further notice, according to people familiar with their actions. Alphabet Inc.’s Google cut off the supply of hardware and some software services to the Chinese giant, another person familiar said, asking not to be identified discussing private matters. The moves, which had been anticipated, hamstring the world’s largest provider of networking gear and No. 2 smartphone vendor. The Trump administration on Friday blacklisted Huawei — which it accuses of aiding Beijing in espionage — and threatened to cut it off from the U.S. software and semiconductors it needs to make its products. Blocking the sale to Huawei of critical components could also disrupt the businesses of American chip giants like Micron Technology Inc. and retard the rollout of critical 5G wireless networks worldwide — including in China. That in turn could hurt U.S. companies that are increasingly reliant on the world’s second largest economy for growth. If fully implemented, the Trump administration action could have ripple effects across the global semiconductor industry. Intel is the main supplier of server chips to the Chinese company, Qualcomm provides it with processors and modems for many of its smartphones, Xilinx sells programmable chips used in networking and Broadcom is a supplier of switching chips, another key component in some types of networking machinery. Representatives for the chipmakers declined to comment. Huawei “is heavily dependent on U.S. semiconductor products and would be seriously crippled without supply of key U.S. components,” said Ryan Koontz, an analyst with Rosenblatt Securities Inc. The U.S. ban “may cause China to delay its 5G network build until the ban is lifted, having an impact on many global component suppliers.” To be sure, Huawei is said to have stockpiled enough chips and other vital components to keep its business running for at least three months. It’s been preparing for such an eventuality since at least the middle of 2018, hoarding components while designing its own chips, people familiar with the matter said. But its executives believe their company has become a bargaining chip in ongoing U.S.-Chinese trade negotiations, and that they will be able to resume buying from American suppliers if a trade deal is reached, they said. The American companies’ moves are likely to escalate tensions between Washington and Beijing, elevating fears that U.S. President Donald Trump’s goal is to contain China, triggering a protracted cold war between the world’s biggest economies. In addition to a trade fight that has rattled global markets for months, the U.S. has pressured both allies and foes to avoid using Huawei for 5G networks that will form the backbone of the modern economy. “The extreme scenario of Huawei’s telecom network unit failing would set China back many years and might even be viewed as an act of war by China,” Koontz wrote. “Such a failure would have massive global telecom market implications.” U.S. spy chiefs have in past days briefed American companies, investors and other important groups on the dangers of doing business with China, the Financial Times reported Monday. The American clampdown also deals a direct blow to Huawei’s fast-growing mobile devices division. Huawei will only be able to access the public version of Google’s Android mobile operating system, the world’s most popular smartphone software. It won’t be able to offer proprietary apps and services from Maps and search to Gmail, said the person, who requested anonymity speaking about a private matter. That will severely curtail the sale of Huawei smartphones abroad, though it’s unclear when those apps — which are popular mainly outside of China — will become unavailable. Huawei, the world’s largest smartphone brand after Samsung Electronics Co., was one of a select few global hardware partners to receive early access to the latest Android software and features from Google. Outside of China, those ties are critical for the search giant to spread its consumer apps and bolster its mobile ads business. The Chinese company will still have access to app and security updates that come with the open-source version of Android. Reuters reported the move earlier. “We are complying with the order and reviewing the implications,” a Google representative said, without elaborating.
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china;smartphones;google;espionage;telecoms;huawei;donald trump;trade war
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jp0003890
|
[
"business",
"tech"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Google suspends some business with Huawei after Trump's blacklisting, source says
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SAN, FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON - In a blow to the Chinese technology company that the U.S. government has sought to blacklist around the world, Alphabet Inc.’s Google has suspended business with Huawei that requires the transfer of hardware, software and technical services except those publicly available via open source licensing, a source familiar with the matter said Sunday. Holders of current Huawei smartphones with Google apps, however, will continue to be able to use and download app updates provided by Google, a Google spokesperson said, confirming earlier reports. “We are complying with the order and reviewing the implications,” the Google spokesperson said. “For users of our services, Google Play and the security protections from Google Play Protect will continue to function on existing Huawei devices,” the spokesperson said, without giving further details. The suspension could hobble Huawei’s smartphone business outside China as the tech giant will immediately lose access to updates to Google’s Android operating system. Future versions of Huawei smartphones that run on Android will also lose access to popular services including the Google Play Store and Gmail and YouTube apps. “Huawei will only be able to use the public version of Android and will not be able to get access to proprietary apps and services from Google,” the source said. The Trump administration Thursday added Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd to a trade blacklist, immediately enacting restrictions that will make it extremely difficult for the company to do business with U.S. counterparts. On Friday the Commerce Department said it was considering scaling back restrictions on Huawei to “prevent the interruption of existing network operations and equipment.” It was not immediately clear Sunday whether Huawei’s access to mobile software will be affected. The extent to which Huawei will be hurt by the U.S. government’s blacklisting is not yet known as its global supply chain assesses the impact. Chip experts have questioned Huawei’s ability to continue to operate without U.S. help. Details of the specific services affected by the suspension were still being discussed internally at Google, according to the source. Huawei attorneys are also studying the impact of the blacklist, a Huawei spokesman said Friday. Huawei was not immediately reachable for further comment. Representatives of the U.S. Commerce Department did not immediately comment. Huawei will continue to have access to the version of the Android operating system available through the open source license, known as Android Open Source Project, that is available for free to anyone who wishes to use it. There are about 2.5 billion active Android devices worldwide, according to Google. But Google will stop providing Huawei with access, technical support and collaboration involving its proprietary apps and services going forward, the source said. Huawei has said it has spent the last few years preparing a contingency plan by developing its own technology in case it is blocked from using Android. Some of this technology is already being used in products sold in China, the company has said. In an interview in March, Eric Xu, rotating chairman of Huawei, struck a defiant note in anticipation of retaliatory actions by U.S. companies. “No matter what happens, the Android community does not have any legal right to block any company from accessing its open-source license,” he said. Popular Google apps such as Gmail, YouTube and the Chrome browser that are available through Google’s Play Store will disappear from future Huawei handsets as those services are not covered by the open source license and require a commercial agreement with Google. But users of existing Huawei devices who have access to the Google Play Store will still be able to download app updates provided by Google. Apps such as Gmail are updated through the store, unlike operating system updates which are typically handled by phone manufacturers and telecoms carriers, which the blacklist could affect, the source said. The impact is expected to be minimal in the Chinese market. Most Google mobile apps are banned in China, where alternatives are offered by domestic competitors such as Tencent and Baidu. Huawei’s European business, its second-biggest market, could be hit as Huawei licenses these services from Google in Europe. “Having those apps is critical for smartphone makers to stay competitive in regions like Europe,” said Geoff Blaber, vice president of research at CCS Insight.
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china;smartphones;google;tech;huawei;donald trump
|
jp0003891
|
[
"business",
"tech"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Sen. Chuck Schumer calls for probe of Chinese rail tech, sees national security threat
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WASHINGTON - The Senate’s top Democrat is calling on the federal government to step in and investigate whether a plan for new subway cars in New York City designed by a Chinese state-owned company could pose a threat to national security. Sen. Charles Schumer of New York said in a statement to The Associated Press on Sunday that he’s asked the Commerce Department to conduct a “top-to-bottom review” after CRRC, one of the world’s largest train makers, won a design contest for new subway cars that would include “modern train control technology.” The company hasn’t won a contract in New York City, which has America’s biggest transit system, but it has been awarded contracts in recent years for new subway cars in Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia. In announcing the contest winners last year, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the subway system, said CRRC had proposed investing $50 million of its own money to develop the new subway cars. The contest was designed to bring out new ideas for future projects but did not lead to any contracts for new subway cars and the MTA is not currently purchasing any new cars. But in the last few years, China has pushed to dominate the U.S. rail car market, a multibillion-dollar industry. CRRC is also believed to be pursuing a $500 million contract with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority in Washington, D.C. Security experts and members of Congress have raised the alarm about CRRC because it is owned by the Chinese government, warning of prior cyberthreats and hacking attacks linked to Chinese intelligence officials. They fear allowing the company to install technology in America’s rail system could potentially expose it to cyberespionage and sabotage. Schumer’s call for an investigation comes amid rising tensions between the U.S. and China after trade talks between the two nations broke up earlier this month without an agreement. Days ago, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to declare a national economic emergency that empowered the government to ban American telecommunication companies from installing foreign-made equipment and technology that could pose a threat to national security. “The MTA has robust, multilayered and vigorously enforced safety and security standards, but we support efforts of government agencies to bolster that work,” spokesman Max Young said. A spokesman for CRRC Sifang America — the company’s arm in Chicago — said a majority of the components used in its new rail cars come from U.S. companies and said concerns about spying or malware are misplaced. The rail cars meet specific requirements set by the transit agencies, the manufacturer doesn’t control the cyber components it installs and it is “not possible” for the company to implant malware in the system, he said. “There is no evidence of a passenger railcar manufacturer, including CRRC, installing any type of new technology that could intentionally open passenger railcars to cyberthreats or pose a threat to commuters and national security,” spokesman Dave Smolensky said. “CRRC is eager to address any concerns Senator Schumer has and we welcome an inquiry regarding our U.S. operations.” Legislation has been introduced in both the House and Senate that, if passed, would prevent federal funds from being used for rail projects involving Chinese companies. “Given what we know about how cyberwarfare works, and recent attacks that have hit transportation and infrastructure hubs across the country, the Department of Commerce must give the green light and thoroughly check any proposals or work China’s CRRC does on behalf of the New York subway system, including our signals, Wi-Fi and more,” Schumer said in the statement to AP. In 2017, hackers attacked the Sacramento transit system and demanded a ransom in cryptocurrency. The transit agency said at the time that the hackers erased parts of programs on its servers that affect operations like the ability to use computers to dispatch employees and assign buses. In 2016, a ransomware attack on San Francisco’s transit system resulted in officials shutting down ticketing machines, allowing free rides for much of a weekend. And last year, the Colorado Department of Transportation fell victim to a similar attack that essentially froze hundreds of computers. In the last few years, the U.S. Justice Department has brought several cases alleging hacking by Chinese intelligence officials and targeting Chinese cyberespionage. “This kind of national security responsibility is just so big, and so complex, that the MTA and other big-city transit systems should not have to foot the burden of going it alone to assess whether or not CRRC’s low bids for work, and current contracts across the country, are part of some larger strategy. We just cannot be too careful here, especially now, amidst these tensions and general cyber threats,” Schumer said. The Commerce Department did not immediately comment on Sunday.
|
china;u.s .;congress;new york;espionage;cyberattacks;mta;chuck schumer;crrc sifang america
|
jp0003892
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Dollar rises above ¥110 in Tokyo trading
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The dollar rose above ¥110 in Tokyo on Monday, backed by better than expected Japanese economic growth data, but its upward momentum lacked vigor. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥110.10-11, up from ¥109.72-72 at the same time Friday. The euro was at $1.1163-1163, down from $1.1177-1177, and at ¥122.91-91, up from ¥122.64-64. In morning trading, the dollar climbed above ¥110.30 thanks to a Japanese government report that the gross domestic product for January-March posted growth in contrast to market expectations for a negative reading. But the greenback lost steam later and traded around ¥110.10 in late trading. A think tank official pointed out that the market saw a “crosscurrent of buying and selling to adjust positions after overseas players started the day’s trading.” Currency market players were waiting for U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s lecture in Florida on Monday, traders said. “It would not be surprising if hawkish remarks come from Powell as stock prices are moving on a firm note,” an official of a Japanese bank said. Players are waiting for news related to trade friction between the United States and China, the think tank official said.
|
forex;currencies
|
jp0003893
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Japan stocks rise moderately, but topside capped
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Stocks rose moderately Monday on the back of unexpectedly robust economic growth data. But the market’s topside was capped partly because players became increasingly doubtful about the strength of the economy. The Nikkei 225 average rose 51.64 points, or 0.24 percent, to end at 21,301.73. It gained 187.11 points Friday. The Topix, which covers all first-section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, closed 0.67 point, or 0.04 percent, higher at 1,554.92 after gaining 16.70 points Friday. The Nikkei got off to a strong start and soon gained nearly 180 points, aided by a weak yen and better than expected preliminary gross domestic product data for January-March, brokers said. Just before the opening bell, the Cabinet Office said Japan’s seasonally adjusted GDP grew a real 2.1 percent from the previous quarter at an annual rate, against the consensus estimate among market players of a 0.2 percent fall. The Nikkei failed to expand its gains, due partly to a drop in Shanghai equities, though it remained in positive territory throughout the day. Masahiro Ichikawa, senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Co., noted that the market’s rise was limited as weak private consumption in the GDP data triggered a bout of selling. According to the data, private consumption declined a real 0.1 percent quarter on quarter, while the GDP growth was backed mainly by a positive contribution from net exports reflecting a 4.6 percent fall in imports that was bigger than a drop of 2.4 percent in exports. In the afternoon, the market saw mixed trading amid a lack of fresh incentives, brokers said. “Investors are waiting for fresh news, especially on developments in U.S.-China trade talks,” Ichikawa said. Falling issues outnumbered rising ones 1,203 to 855 on the first section, while 82 issues were unchanged. Volumes fell to 1.178 billion shares from 1.349 billion Friday. Hokuetsu rocketed 9.03 percent after the paper manufacturer said Friday it expects to enjoy a 62.9 percent rise in group operating profit in the business year to next March. The news came as a positive surprise to investors, brokers said. Maruha Nichiro was up 3.57 percent thanks to a media report that the seafood producer will start full-scale exports of fully farmed tuna to Europe thanks to the Japan-European Union economic partnership agreement taking effect this year. Other winners included drugmaker Takeda and mobile game app developer DeNA. Meanwhile, Japan Display tumbled 8.77 percent on a media report that a China-Taiwan consortium is demanding a review in conditions for its envisaged investment in the struggling liquid crystal display panel maker. Among other losers were Mizuho Financial and technology giant Sony.
|
stocks;nikkei;tse;topix
|
jp0003895
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Japan startup making paper from stone seeks more pre-IPO funding
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Making paper out of rock isn’t just a novel idea — it saves water, is both recyclable and biodegradable and uses a mineral resource available anywhere on Earth. TBM Co., a startup known for its technology that turns limestone into business cards, plastic folders and food containers, is seeking to raise another round of funding to expand overseas before it prepares for an initial public offering in a couple years. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., trading house Itochu Corp. and Toppan Printing Co., Japan’s largest printer by sales, have already invested in the manufacturer. TBM, which raised ¥1.6 billion and ¥3.1 billion in its latest two rounds, is looking to secure several billion yen, according to Chief Executive Officer Nobuyoshi Yamasaki. The goal is to establish overseas partnerships before seeking an initial public offering, he added. “Our next round is for overseas expansion, both for production and sales,” the CEO said at the company’s Tokyo headquarters. “We want to expand aggressively overseas, and to do that we need the funding to hire more people.” As result, TBM is pushing back its planned timing for an IPO by about a year, to 2021, according to Yamasaki. The company was valued at ¥56.3 billion in its latest financing, he said. Although TBM hasn’t disclosed its latest annual sales, Yamasaki says revenue will grow at least fivefold in the coming year. The company recently won a contract to supply beef-bowl restaurant chain Yoshinoya Co. with menus made with Limex, its limestone-based paper product. A new mass-production factory near Sendai will come online in 2020 to produce 30,000 tons of Limex products per year. TBM started by selling material for business cards. The material is smooth, like laminated paper, and is much harder to tear or bend. That makes it ideal for restaurants: More than 400 sushi restaurants run by Sushiro Global Holdings Ltd. across Japan also use Limex paper for their menus. The material can be recycled and turned into paper products or more durable items such as folders, bowls and plates. One key feature of Limex material is that it can be made without using water. By comparison, it takes 100 tons of water to make a ton of regular paper. That also requires 20 trees, while TBM’s process uses less than a ton of limestone, in addition to 200 kilograms of polyolefin. The company also says greenhouse gas emissions are about 20 percent less than traditional paper printing. Yamasaki, a former used car salesman who left school at 15 and began his career as a carpenter, established TBM in 2011. The process of turning stone into paper originated in Taiwan, according to the company’s website. The CEO began importing the material to Japan and later developed the Limex technology. Yamasaki’s goal is to generate ¥1 trillion in revenue, cumulatively, through the mid-2030s. He plans to license Limex to manufacturers outside Japan, especially in limestone-rich, water-poor areas such as Saudi Arabia and California.
|
startups;entrepreneurs;paper;nobuyoshi yamasaki;tbm;limex;limestone
|
jp0003896
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Japanese manufacturers brace for fallout — and losses — from U.S.-China trade war
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Japanese manufacturers are watching developments closely in the U.S.-China trade war, with the looming possibility of additional mutual import tariffs expected to further dampen their businesses. The U.S. government has announced a list of some 3,800 items of Chinese products that would be slapped with a tariff increase, including products assembled in China with parts exported from Japan, such as smartphones. At a news conference last Wednesday, Japan Display Inc. President Yoshiyuki Tsukizaki apologized for the company’s consolidated net loss of ¥109.4 billion for the business year to March of this year. The sea of red ink reflected sluggish sales of iPhones of Apple Inc., a major customer of the small and midsize liquid crystal display panel maker under business rehabilitation, due to a slowdown in the Chinese economy. The company saw changes in the market that “exceeded” its expectations, Tsukizaki said. In the event of fresh U.S. punitive tariffs on imports from China, which include iPhones, JDI will likely suffer a major blow. A China-Taiwan consortium has postponed its decision to invest up to ¥80 billion in JDI in order to re-examine the prospects for JDI’s business performance. “There were no concerns over asset assessments so far, but changes occurred over our future operations,” JDI Chief Strategy Officer Takanobu Oshima said, admitting that the possible U.S. tariffs are having an impact on the negotiations for the capital injection. Sharp Corp., which also supplies smartphone panels to Chinese companies, saw a downswing especially in its original design manufacturer, or ODM, operations, Sharp Executive Vice President Katsuaki Nomura said. Sharp is also likely to take a big hit if the new punitive tariffs are implemented, analysts said. “The tariffs could push down net profits at Japanese listed companies by a total of 2.3 percent in fiscal 2019 and 2020,” said Junichi Makino, chief economist at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. Another source of concern is a U.S. order that basically prohibits U.S. companies from trading with major Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co. “There are Japanese companies supplying parts to Huawei,” Finance Minister Taro Aso said, expressing concerns over a possible setback at Japanese manufacturers.
|
china;u.s .;trade;tariffs;japan display inc .;trade war;sharp corp .
|
jp0003897
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Already downgraded, Nissan's credit rating takes another hit
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Nissan Motor Co.’s credit standing took another hit Monday as S&P Global Ratings placed the automaker’s rating on negative watch after it issued a weaker profit outlook last week. There is a more than 1-in-3 chance of a further delay in Nissan’s profit recovery, according to the rating agency, which in February lowered the carmaker’s long-term issuer credit rating for the first time in a decade to A- from A. Nissan reduced its full-year earnings forecast after third-quarter profit missed analysts’ estimates, adding to the headwinds for a carmaker struggling with the fallout from the arrest of former boss Carlos Ghosn. Sales in the U.S. plunged 19 percent in January amid an industrywide slump, intensifying the pressure on Chief Executive Officer Hiroto Saikawa as he tries to ease tensions with partner and shareholder Renault SA. “The outlook revision is based on our view that the company’s profitability is likely to decline over the next two years to a greater degree than we previously assumed,” S&P said in its statement Monday. “Amid a difficult business environment, the company’s weak product competitiveness is likely to lead to stronger earnings pressure in North America and Europe than those of its peers.” Hurt by slumping U.S. sales, aging vehicle models and an out-of-sync product cycle, Nissan issued an outlook for profit of ¥230 billion for the fiscal year ending March 2020, roughly half of the average projection for ¥453 billion. Nissan also reported its lowest annual profit in a decade at ¥318 billion. S&P, which cited weaker profits as the reason for its negative outlook, affirmed Nissan’s long-term A- and short-term A-2 ratings based on the view “that the company’s solid global business franchise and sound financial position with sizable net cash will likely continue.”
|
toyota;earnings;carmakers;carlos ghosn;s & p
|
jp0003898
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/05/20
|
U.S.-China trade spat will affect Marubeni, new boss says
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Higher U.S. tariffs on Chinese products are expected to affect Marubeni Corp., Masumi Kakinoki, president and chief executive officer of the major trading house, said in a recent interview. “Japan will be affected for sure and so will Marubeni to some extent,” said Kakinoki, who took the helm April 1. The tariffs are expected to drive down the company’s consolidated profits by ¥1 billion to ¥2 billion for the year ending in March 2020, he said. The U.S. actions are likely to prompt manufacturers to process Chinese-made parts in Southeast Asia for export to the United States, Kakinoki said. But he said such a shift will take time and that there will be “disturbance for a certain period of time.” Referring to Marubeni’s plans, unveiled earlier this month, to invest ¥200 billion in new business fields over three years through March 2022, he said a task force newly established with a staff of about 100 has already been discussing some concrete plans. The Marubeni CEO pinned high hopes on the growth of Interstellar Technologies Inc., a Japanese aerospace startup financially supported by the company. Interstellar Technologies this month became the first private sector company in Japan to successfully launch a rocket without government involvement.
|
marubeni;masumi kakinoki;u.s.-china
|
jp0003899
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/05/20
|
New Mitsubishi Motors CEO vows to achieve growth through alliance with Nissan and Renault
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The newly named CEO of Mitsubishi Motors Corp. has vowed to achieve growth by strengthening the company’s competitiveness through its alliance with Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA in the fast-evolving auto industry. “I hope to brush up our competitiveness through the use of the alliance and a focused strategy. I will step up efforts to achieve stable growth,” the 57-year-old Takao Kato, president of Mitsubishi Motors’ operations in Indonesia, said at a news conference Monday after being chosen last week to replace Osamu Masuko as CEO next month. The 70-year-old Masuko will remain chairman with representative rights and continue to handle negotiations with Nissan and Renault over management of the three-way alliance, recently rocked by the arrest of its leader, Carlos Ghosn, for alleged financial misconduct. “As the alliance wields great influence on Mitsubishi Motors, I will remain in charge,” Masuko, who has been CEO since 2014, said at the same news conference. Masuko will represent Mitsubishi Motors on the alliance board comprised of Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa, Renault CEO Thierry Bollore and Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard to steer one of the world’s biggest auto groups. The management change at Japan’s sixth-largest automaker by sales will be finalized pending shareholder approval at their annual meeting June 21. The event is also set to approve the dismissal of Ghosn as director. Ghosn was removed as chairman of Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors shortly after his arrest last November. He has also resigned as chairman and CEO of Renault. Kato, president of PT Mitsubishi Motors Krama Yudha Indonesia since April 2015, joined Mitsubishi Motors in 1984 and was instrumental in setting up a joint venture in Russia with France’s PSA Peugeot Citroen in 2010. Kato said a major challenge facing Mitsubishi Motors is how to cope with the auto industry’s transition to developing vehicles with technologies of connectivity, autonomous driving, sharing and electrified powertrains. Mitsubishi Motors said this month it expects its net profit to fall 51.1 percent to ¥65 billion in the business year through next March partly due to the yen’s strength, after posting ¥132.87 billion last year, helped by robust sales in Southeast Asia. In the three-way alliance, Nissan holds a controlling stake of 34 percent in Mitsubishi Motors and a 15 percent stake in Renault without voting rights. The French automaker, meanwhile, has a stake of 43.4 percent with voting rights in Nissan.
|
nissan;carmakers;mitsubishi motors;renault;carlos ghosn;takao kato
|
jp0003900
|
[
"world",
"social-issues-world"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Sudanese military and protesters resume talks after street violence
|
KHARTOUM - Sudan’s ruling military council said it had restarted talks late on Sunday with an alliance of protest and opposition groups that is pushing for a civilian-led transition to democracy. The Transitional Military Council (TMC) had suspended the talks late on Wednesday after two outbreaks of violence around protest sites in the capital Khartoum. Street protests and a sit-in outside the Defense Ministry have continued since the army ousted and arrested former President Omar al-Bashir on April 11. Demonstrators are calling for a rapid transition to civilian rule, and demanding justice over the deaths of dozens of people killed since protests triggered by an economic crisis and decades of repressive rule spread across Sudan from Dec. 19. The TMC and the Declaration of Freedom and Change Forces (DFCF) have agreed on a three-year transition before elections, but have been deadlocked over whether civilians or the military would control a sovereign council that would hold ultimate power. The Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), which spearheaded protests against al-Bashir and heads the DFCF, has accused the TMC of dragging its feet in the talks and has sought to increase pressure on the council by expanding protests. It also held the TMC responsible for street violence over the past week in which several protesters were killed and dozens wounded. The council accused protesters of not respecting an understanding on de-escalation while talks were under way.
|
protests;sudan;omar al-bashir;khartoum;tmx
|
jp0003901
|
[
"world",
"social-issues-world"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Trump denies plans to fly thousands of migrants from Mexico border to Florida
|
MIAMI - President Donald Trump on Sunday denied reports that hundreds of migrants would be flown from the Mexican border to Florida and other areas in the U.S. interior to lessen the workload at crowded Border Patrol facilities. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan, also on Sunday, acknowledged that federal officials did initially alert local leaders of the possibility that migrants would be flown to two South Florida counties. But Trump appeared to blame the media for “false reporting.” “There are no plans to send migrants to northern or Coastal Border facilities, including Florida,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “…Our country is FULL, will not, and cannot, take you in!” The office of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also said Sunday that Trump told him he didn’t approve and wouldn’t authorize to fly the immigrants. The governor’s spokeswoman, Helen Ferre, said DeSantis spoke with Trump on Saturday, two days after local officials reacted with alarm to a U.S. Border Patrol notification that 1,000 migrants could be sent on a weekly basis to Palm Beach and Broward counties, starting in about two weeks. After the plan was attacked by local leaders last week, federal officials initially said the flights were only being considered and nothing was happening immediately. On Sunday, McAleenan said that Florida and other cities in the interior were no longer in consideration. He appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation” and said the plan “wasn’t going to be an effective use of government resources.” “We looked at it from a planning perspective. We do have stations in Florida … they are very small stations, they have a few agents that are busy patrolling their areas,” he said. He added that the decision to take the sectors of Miami, Detroit and Buffalo off the table was made Saturday by John Sanders, acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The agency’s Miami sector includes all South Florida. “We had to look at all options,” he said. The government has run out of space to process migrants who have been arriving at the Texas border. McAleenan said there are currently 16,000 people in custody at Border Patrol stations and ports of entry. The government began flying hundreds of migrants from Texas to San Diego, to distribute the workload at Border Patrol facilities more evenly. Once migrants are processed, they are released and given a court date in a city where they plan to reside, often with family members, which could be anywhere in the U.S. DeSantis apparently had been caught off guard and said such flights would amount to “dumping” migrants on Florida. He appeared upset that Florida was even a consideration, especially after he recently signed a bill banning sanctuary cities and pledging to help federal immigration authorities. Trump and DeSantis are close. The president endorsed DeSantis, which propelled him from underdog to winner in last year’s governor’s race. Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, one of the first officials to publicly denounce the plan, suggested in an audio message shared via Twitter on Saturday that that the quick reactions with alarm from local officials and federal lawmakers who represent Florida made federal officials change their mind. “Because of everybody’s efforts, we were able to stop what it appeared to be a crisis for our communities.”
|
u.s .;immigration;mexico;refugees;florida;donald trump;ron desantis
|
jp0003902
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Boko Haram gunmen kill two in Nigerian refugee camp attack, then flee
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KANO, NIGERIA - Boko Haram jihadis on Saturday killed two people and injured a dozen others in an predawn attack on a refugee camp in northeastern Borno State, aid agency and militia sources told AFP Sunday. The militants sneaked into Madu Musaha camp, in Dikwa Town at around 3:30 a.m. (0230GMT) and opened fire on residents who were eating before sunrise ahead of their Muslim Ramadan fast. Dikwa, which lies 90 km (56 miles) from the state capital Maiduguri, is home to more than 70,000 displaced people who live in several camps where they rely on food and humanitarian assistance from aid agencies. An aid agency member of staff in the town, who spoke on condition of annonimity, said militants “burst into the camp from the rear and opened fire on the IDPs (internally displaced persons). “The gunmen escaped before troops responded,” they added, with the swift attack sending refugees and aid staff scurrying away. Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), an anti-Boko Haram militia group in the town, said the attack was “brief and unexpected,” ending before they or the military arrived at the scene. It was not clear whether the militants stole any food or supplies from the camp during the attack. In August 2014 Boko Haram seized Dikwa but it was retaken seven months later with the help of Chadian forces, allowing residents to return. Yet attacks persist from jihadis hiding in remote areas, targeting civilians, displacement camps and troops protecting the town and nearby villages. Later on Saturday, Boko Haram fighters in three trucks and several motorcycles stormed into Lassa village in Askira Town, Borno State, stealing food and burning shops, local residents said. “Boko Haram attacked around 8:00 p.m. (1900GMT) and headed to the market,” Lassa resident Musa Yohanna said. “They broke into shops and carted away food supplies before setting fire to the shops,” he added. Residents fled the scene with the jihadis making no attempt to pursue them, another resident, Barnabas Adams said, adding there were no known casualties. The militants had left to their Sambisa Forest hideouts before troops arrived in the village, he said. Lassa lies near Boko Haram’s Sambisa forest enclave and has been repeatedly attacked. Boko Haram’s 10-year insurgency has killed over 27,000 people, fuelling a humanitarian crisis where 1.8 million people remain displaced.
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conflict;terrorism;refugees;boko haram;nigeria;madu musaha;dikwa
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jp0003903
|
[
"world",
"science-health-world"
] |
2019/05/20
|
After the moon, people on Mars by 2033 … or maybe not even until the 2060s?
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WASHINGTON - On Dec. 11, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a directive ordering NASA to prepare to return astronauts to the moon “followed by human missions to Mars and other destinations.” The dates fixed by the space agency are 2024 for the moon and Mars in 2033, but according to experts and industry insiders, reaching the red planet by then is highly improbable barring a Herculean effort on the scale of the Apollo program in the 1960s. “The moon is the proving ground for our eventual mission to Mars,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said at a conference last week. “The moon is our path to get to Mars in the fastest, safest way possible. That’s why we go to the moon.” According to Robert Howard, who heads up the lab developing future space habitats at the legendary Johnson Space Center in Houston, the hurdles aren’t so much technical or scientific as much as a question of budget and political will. “A lot of people want us to have an Apollo moment, and have a president stand up like Kennedy and say, ‘We’ve got to do it,’ and the entire country comes together,” he said. “If that happened, I would actually say 2027. But I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think in our current approach, we are going to be lucky to do it by the 2037 date.” But Howard said if he were to be pessimistic, and assume political dithering lies ahead, “it could be the 2060s.” From the design, manufacture and testing of the rockets and spaceships required to learning the best way to grow lettuce: All the groundwork remains to be done. Just getting there will take six months at least, as opposed to three days to the Moon. The whole mission could take two years, since Mars and the Earth are closet to each other every 26 months, a window that must be taken. Key tasks include finding a way to shield astronauts from prolonged exposure to solar and cosmic radiation, said Julie Robinson, NASA’s chief scientist for the International Space Station. “A second is our food system,” she added. The current plant system ideas “are not packageable, portable or small enough to take to Mars.” And then there is the question of dealing with medical emergencies: Astronauts will need to be able to treat themselves in case of any accidents. “I actually think a big deal is the suits,” added Jennifer Heldman, a NASA planetary scientist. One of the major gripes of the Apollo astronauts was their gloves, which were too inflated and prevented them from doing dexterous work. NASA is developing a new suit, the first in 40 years, called xEMU, but it won’t be ready for its first outing in the International Space Station for a few more years. On Mars, dust will be even more of a problem than on the moon. The Apollo astronauts returned with huge amounts of lunar dust in their modules. Keeping it out of habitats will be critical for a mission that involves spending months on the planet. Techniques to exploit Martian resources to extract water, oxygen and fuel necessary for humans to live there don’t yet exist — and must be tested on the moon by the end of this decade. Finally, there is the most fundamental question: How will a group of people cope with the psychological stress of being totally isolated for two years? It won’t be possible to communicate in real time with mission control in Houston: radio communications will take between four and 24 minutes between the planets, one-way. NASA plans to test out delayed-communication exercises on board the ISS in the coming years. Artificial intelligence must also be developed to assist and guide the astronauts. A researcher commissioned by NASA to study the likelihood of getting to Mars by 2033 concluded the objective was “infeasible.” “It isn’t just budget,” said Bhavya Lal of the Science and Technology Policy Institute. “It’s also organization bandwidth, how many things can NASA do at the same time?” For Lal, the more realistic time frame was 2039.
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nasa;space;mars;moon
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jp0003904
|
[
"world",
"crime-legal-world"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Trump calls pro-impeachment Republican 'total lightweight'
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WASHINGTON - Donald Trump on Sunday dismissed as “a total lightweight” the Republican lawmaker who a day earlier became the first member of the party to call publicly for the U.S. president’s impeachment. Michigan Rep. Justin Amash — a staunch libertarian on the right of the party — declared that any other person would have been prosecuted over Trump’s multiple attempts to thwart special counsel Robert Mueller’s report into Russian election interference. “Never a fan of @justinamash, a total lightweight who opposes me and some of our great Republican ideas and policies just for the sake of getting his name out there,” Trump tweeted. He said that if the Michigan lawmaker had “actually read the biased Mueller Report… he would see that it was nevertheless strong on NO COLLUSION and, ultimately, NO OBSTRUCTION…” Trump called Amash “a loser who sadly plays right into our opponents hands!” Amash, who has broken with his party before, had laid out his case in a series of tweets. He said Mueller had identified “multiple examples of conduct satisfying all the elements of obstruction of justice.” “Undoubtedly,” Amash added, “any person who is not the president of the United States would be indicted based on such evidence.” Since Mueller issued his voluminous report, Trump has repeatedly attacked its authors as partisans even while insisting it exonerates him of allegations of collusion with Russia or obstruction of justice. But Democrats note that the report lists around 140 contacts between Trump’s inner circle and various Russians and that it exhaustively details evidence of at least 10 cases where Trump appeared to be interfering with the probe. Amash has often been a lone voice in his party, and so his stance carried less impact than if it had come from a party mainstay. A much higher-profile Republican, Sen. Mitt Romney, spoke out on Sunday against impeachment even while praising Amash. “I respect him,” the Republicans’ 2012 presidential nominee and occasional fierce Trump critic, told “Fox News Sunday” of Amash. “I think it’s a courageous statement. But I believe to make a case for obstruction of justice, you just don’t have the elements.” Democrats have been divided on impeachment but support appears to be growing with the Trump administration resisting numerous congressional requests for witnesses or information. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has cautioned against moving too quickly, noting that the Republican-controlled Senate would likely acquit the president should the House of Representatives impeach him.
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u.s .;republicans;mitt romney;robert mueller;impeachment;donald trump;russia probe;justin amash
|
jp0003905
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/05/20
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Trump says he's 'Pro-Life' but favors abortion exceptions for rape and incest
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WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump has declared himself “strongly Pro-Life,” days after two U.S. states passed tough new restrictions on abortions, but said exceptions should be made for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. The U.S. president spelled out his position on abortion — set to feature prominently at next year’s election — in his first comments on the hot-button issue since Alabama’s governor signed a near-total ban on the termination of pregnancy. “As most people know, and for those who would like to know, I am strongly Pro-Life, with the three exceptions — Rape, Incest and protecting the Life of the mother — the same position taken by Ronald Reagan,” Trump tweeted late Saturday. Trump, who is seeking to expand on his conservative support ahead of his re-election bid, added: “The Radical Left, with late term abortion (and worse), is imploding on this issue. “We must stick together and Win for Life in 2020.” Alabama’s governor on Wednesday signed a near-total prohibition on abortions widely seen as the country’s most restrictive ban, and the Missouri legislature on Friday made the procedure illegal from eight weeks of pregnancy. Neither make exceptions for rape or incest — only for cases where the mother’s life is in danger. Republican-led legislatures in Georgia, Ohio, Mississippi, Kentucky, Iowa and North Dakota have also enacted laws banning abortion from the moment a fetal heartbeat is detected. Supporters hope that legal battles over the laws will reach the Supreme Court, as they pursue the long-sought conservative goal of overturning its landmark 1973 abortion ruling, known as Roe v Wade. Roe v Wade guarantees women’s rights to abortion as long as the fetus is not viable — around 24 weeks of pregnancy. Trump, a bombastic, twice-divorced billionaire, won over the evangelical vote during his 2016 campaign by promising to appoint anti-abortion justices at the Supreme Court. He has since brought two conservative appointees to the highest court in the land — Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh — shifting the balance of the nine-person bench. In a series of tweets on the deeply polarizing issue, Trump said the U.S. had “come very far in the last two years” on abortion, and praised “two great new Supreme Court Justices. On Sunday, defenders of women’s reproductive rights are set to march in protest against Alabama’s new abortion law in four of the Southern state’s cities, including the capital Montgomery. “People should have the right to make the decisions that are best for their bodies without state interference,” organizers said on Facebook.
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u.s .;abortion;supreme court;alabama;donald trump;2020 u.s. presidential election
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jp0003906
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/05/20
|
In Fox town hall, U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg likens Trump's tweets to 'grotesque things'
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CLAREMONT, NEW HAMPSHIRE - Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg jabbed at U.S. President Donald Trump during a Fox News town hall Sunday, saying he understands why people and the media are “mesmerized” by his tweets because “it is the nature of grotesque things that you can’t look away.” Asked how he responds to Trump’s tweets and name-calling — including referring to Buttigieg as Alfred E. Neumann, the “Mad” magazine character — the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, responded, “I don’t care.” He said Democrats need to talk less about Trump and more about what they’ll do for the American people. Trump criticized Fox News earlier Sunday for “wasting airtime” on Buttigieg, saying Fox “is moving more and more to the losing (wrong) side in covering the Dems.” He added, “Alfred E. Newman will never be President.” Buttigieg said many Democrats were critical of his decision to participate in a town hall on Fox News, but added that he believes the party needs to meet voters where they are, whether it’s Fox News or visiting places where Democrats aren’t seen much. Buttigieg was asked about laws passed recently to ban or restrict abortion in states such as Alabama. He said he believes the right to have an abortion is “an American freedom” and that the government shouldn’t have a role in limiting it. “I think the dialogue has gotten so caught up on where you draw the line that we’ve gotten away from the fundamental question of who gets to draw the line,” he said. “And I trust women to draw the line.” Asked whether his position extends to the third trimester of pregnancy, Buttigieg said those late-term abortions make up a small percentage of abortions performed and asked the audience to put themselves in that woman’s shoes. Any woman making that decision has likely been expecting to carry the baby to term, he said, and received “the most devastating medical news in their lifetime,” forcing them to make “an impossible, unthinkable choice.” “And the bottom line is as horrible as that choice is, that woman, that family may seek spiritual guidance, they may seek medical guidance,” he said. “But that decision’s not going to be made any better medically or morally, because the government is dictating how that decision should be made.”
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twitter;donald trump;2020 u.s. presidential election;pete buttigieg
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jp0003907
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/05/20
|
U.K. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn moves closer to backing second Brexit referendum
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LONDON - Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn moved closer to fully backing a second Brexit referendum, saying the public should be given a choice on any deal to leave the European Union. Corbyn has previously said the country should be offered a vote on Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal. On Sunday, he seemed to echo his deputy, Tom Watson, who has been calling for a vote on any Brexit package, including one proposed by the Labour Party. “It would be reasonable to have a public vote to decide on that,” Corbyn said on the BBC’s “The Andrew Marr Show.” May blamed divisions within Labour on a second referendum for the collapse in Friday’s talks between the party and the government, though Corbyn said the prime minister’s refusal to soften her red lines were at fault. While the two sides failed to find an agreement on a customs union, they did find common ground on workers’ rights, which May said she would include in a “new and improved” deal this week. She will ask lawmakers to back her fourth attempt at passing a Brexit deal early in June. Writing in the Sunday Times, May said she will make “a bold new offer” to members of Parliament. She also said her Cabinet on Tuesday will consider a new series of indicative votes that could deliver a consensus in Parliament. Corbyn told Marr he would not give a blank check to May’s new plans, but will consider them very carefully. He was also doubtful whether another round of indicative votes could break the impasse. Corbyn also appeared to back away from his previous pledge to end freedom of movement after Brexit, saying a Labour government would instead be prepared to negotiate the issue of British and European workers having the ability to work in each others’ economies with the European Union. His comments come ahead of Thursday’s European Parliamentary elections, in which both the Conservative and Labour parties are trailing in the polls. The Tory party is currently polling at just 12 percent, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer newspaper, with voters protesting May’s failure to deliver Brexit three years after the referendum. The Brexit party, led by Nigel Farage, topped the poll with 34 percent, followed by Labour at 20 percent. Last week May agreed to chart a path for resigning if she can’t get her deal through Parliament on its fourth attempt. That has spurred Tory hopefuls who want to replace her, including former foreign secretary and bookies’ favorite Boris Johnson, who backs a no-deal Brexit. But on Monday, a group of 60 Tory MPs are set to launch a campaign seeking to stop May’s replacement from pursuing no deal, according to a person familiar with the plans. The so-called One Nation Caucus, led by Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd, will launch a declaration of 10 values on Monday, rejecting “narrow nationalism” and calling for the U.K. to be a leader on the global stage. The group also includes Nicky Morgan and Defense Minister Tobias Ellwood, who Sunday ruled out running for leader. He criticized colleagues who appear to be using Brexit to boost their own popularity, instead of working in the national interest. “Our focus must be to get Brexit across the line. Get that out the way, so we can then have a bigger, wider debate as to how we can earn the respect of the nation; to be a one nation, progressive party, center-right, fiscally responsible, able to take the nation forward,” Ellwood told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday. Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister) Philip Hammond will also warn leadership candidates against pursuing no deal this week. In a speech to the CBI, the U.K.’s premier business organization, on Wednesday, he will likely say that populism “is the ideology of easy answers” and that no Brexit solution is sustainable unless it commands a parliamentary majority, according to a person familiar with the speech. MPs have repeatedly voted against pursuing a no-deal Brexit.
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eu;u.k .;brexit;theresa may;jeremy corbyn
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jp0003908
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/05/20
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Steve Bannon's presence raises hackles in France ahead of Europe polls
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PARIS - Political tensions soared in France Sunday a week ahead of tightly contested European elections, with the ruling party of President Emmanuel Macron expressing unease over over the presence of Donald Trump’s controversial ex-strategist Steve Bannon. The elections on May 26 in France will see Macron’s ruling centrist party face a tough challenge from the far-right National Rally (RN) of Marine Le Pen, formerly known as the National Front. Should Macron’s La Republique En Marche (LREM) party fall behind the RN in the polls, it would be a major blow for the president who supporters see as Europe’s centrist savior against the surge of the far right across the continent. Bannon had told the newspaper Le Parisien on Saturday he had chosen to come to France as its election was “by far” the most important of all the European parliament polls in EU member states. He described the poll as a referendum on Macron and his vision for Europe, predicting an “earthquake” next Sunday. The head of the LREM campaign, Stephane Sejourne, on Twitter accused Bannon of coming to Paris and staying at a luxury hotel with the aim of helping Le Pen’s party win. “It is an attack on the sovereignty of the election … it makes you want to throw up,” he fumed. Nathalie Loiseau, who heads the LREM list for the polls, commented: “He (Bannon) does not even hide his desire to interfere in our polls.” The number two on the list for the polls for Macron’s LREM party, Pascal Canfin, told Cnews that the RN was the “Trojan horse” for Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in a bid to destroy the EU. Canfin said the LREM will also, in an unusual move, ask the French TV channels organizing the final election debates this week to have an “anti-fake news” unit in place to prevent falsehoods being spread. Since his departure from the White House, Bannon has championed the cause of the European far right, having close contacts with Le Pen and Italian populist leader Matteo Salvini. Salvini on Saturday gathered Europe’s disparate nationalists for a unifying rally in Milan ahead of the polls but the gathering was shadowed by the corruption scandal which brought down Austria’s far-right coalition. But senior RN figure Nicolas Bay denied any interference by Steve Bannon in the French campaign. “We have led this campaign in a perfectly independent way without any foreign or outside influence,” he said. The election in France promises to be tight, with the latest polls either showing the RN slightly ahead or neck-and-neck with the LREM. “We should not minimize the consequences” of a victory of the RN in the elections, the head of Macron’s party Stanislas Guerini told Challenges magazine, saying it would weaken France in Europe.
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france;eu;elections;donald trump;steve bannon;emmanuel macron;matteo salvini
|
jp0003909
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Deutsche Bank anti-money laundering staff flagged Trump and Kushner transactions for watchdog: report
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WASHINGTON - Anti-money laundering specialists at Deutsche Bank AG recommended in 2016 and 2017 that multiple transactions involving entities controlled by U.S. President Donald Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, be reported to a federal financial-crimes watchdog, The New York Times reported Sunday. The newspaper, citing five current and former Deutsche Bank employees, said executives at the German-based bank, which has lent billions of dollars to the Trump and Kushner companies, rejected their employees’ advice and the reports were never filed with the government. The Times said the transactions, some of which involved Trump’s now-defunct foundation, set off alerts in a computer system designed to detect illicit activity, according to the former bank employees. Compliance staff members who then reviewed the transactions prepared so-called suspicious activity reports that they believed should be sent to a unit of the Treasury Department that polices financial crimes, according to the newspaper. The Times reported the bank employees viewed the decision not to report the transactions as a result of a lax approach to money laundering laws. They said there was a pattern of bank executives rejecting reports to protect relationships with lucrative clients, according to the newspaper. One employee who reviewed some of the transactions said she was terminated last year after raising concerns about the bank’s practices, The Times reported. The Times quoted a Deutsche Bank spokeswoman as saying investigators were not prevented from escalating activity identified as potentially suspicious. The spokeswoman described as “categorically false” any suggestion that bank staff were reassigned or fired in an effort to quash concerns related to any client. She also said Deutsche Bank has intensified efforts to combat financial crime. A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization said “the story is absolute nonsense.” “We have no knowledge of any ‘flagged’ transactions with Deutsche Bank. In fact, we have no operating accounts with Deutsche Bank,” she said. The newspaper said a Kushner Companies spokeswoman called any allegations of relationships involving money laundering “made up and totally false.” Officials at Deutsche Bank and Kushner Companies were not immediately available for independent comment. The Times said the nature of the transactions was not clear. At least some of them involved money flowing back and forth with overseas entities or individuals, which bank employees considered suspicious. The report surfaces at a time when congressional and New York state authorities are investigating the relationship between Trump, his family and Deutsche Bank, and demanding documents related to any suspicious activity. Trump has sued in court in an attempt to block U.S. House of Representatives subpoenas for his financial records that were sent to Deutsche Bank, Capital One Financial Corp. and the accounting firm Mazars LLP.
|
corruption;banks;money-laundering;donald trump;jared kushner
|
jp0003910
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Tech billionaire stuns Morehouse grads with pledge to pay off their $40 million student-loan debt
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ATLANTA - A billionaire technology investor stunned the entire graduating class at Morehouse College when he announced at their commencement Sunday that he would pay off their student loans — estimated at $40 million. Robert F. Smith, this year’s commencement speaker, made the announcement while addressing nearly 400 graduating seniors of the all-male historically black college in Atlanta. Smith, who is black, is the founder and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm that invests in software, data and technology-driven companies. “On behalf of the eight generations of my family that have been in this country, we’re gonna put a little fuel in your bus,” the investor and philanthropist told graduates in his morning address. “This is my class, 2019. And my family is making a grant to eliminate their student loans.” The announcement immediately drew stunned looks from faculty and students alike. Then the graduates broke into the biggest cheers of the morning. Morehouse said it is the single largest gift to the college. Smith, who received an honorary doctorate from Morehouse during the ceremony, had already announced a $1.5 million gift to the school. The pledge to eliminate student debt for the class of 2019 is estimated to be $40 million. Smith said he expected the recipients to “pay it forward” and said he hoped that “every class has the same opportunity going forward.” “Because we are enough to take care of our own community,” Smith said. “We are enough to ensure that we have all the opportunities of the American dream. And we will show it to each other through our actions and through our words and through our deeds.” In the weeks before graduating from Morehouse on Sunday, 22-year-old finance major Aaron Mitchom drew up a spreadsheet to calculate how long it would take him to pay back his $200,000 in student loans — 25 years at half his monthly salary, per his calculations. In an instant, that number vanished. Mitchom, sitting in the crowd, wept. “I can delete that spreadsheet,” he said in an interview after the commencement. “I don’t have to live off of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I was shocked. My heart dropped. We all cried. In the moment it was like a burden had been taken off.” His mother, Tina Mitchom, was also shocked. Eight family members, including Mitchom’s 76-year-old grandmother, took turns over four years co-signing on the loans that got him across the finish line. “It takes a village,” she said. “It now means he can start paying it forward and start closing this gap a lot sooner, giving back to the college and thinking about a succession plan” for his younger siblings. Morehouse College president David A. Thomas said the gift would have a profound effect on the students’ futures. “Many of my students are interested in going into teaching, for example, but leave with an amount of student debt that makes that untenable,” Thomas said in an interview. “In some ways, it was a liberation gift for these young men that just opened up their choices.”
|
u.s .;education;universities;student loans;atlanta;roger f. smith;morehouse college
|
jp0003911
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Regime poison gas use alleged as Syrian army fails to retake Latakia mountain
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AMMAN - Syrian rebels held onto a commanding position in a mountain range in the coastal province of Latakia, the ancestral home of Syrian President Bashar Assad, after government forces were forced to withdraw. They said the army’s attempt was the latest of several costly campaigns to seize Kubayna, after it mounted an offensive last month with Russian air power to retake main highways and trade arteries around Idlib and northern Hama now in rebel hands that have fragmented the country’s war-torn economy. The northwest represents the last big piece of territory held by rebels opposed to Assad. The coastal province of Latakia is home to the Assad family’s Alawite minority. “Whoever controls Kubayna ensures a large stretch of territory is effectively under their firing range. The regime wants it to protect its coastal villages from rebel fire,” said Major Youssef Hamoud, spokesman for the Turkey-backed group of mainstream rebels called the National Army. An official from Tahrir al-Sham, the latest incarnation of the former Nusra Front, which was part of al-Qaida, said poison gas was used in the army’s attack on their position on the mountain slopes in an attempt to regain control. Abu Baraa al-Shami, a fighter based there, told Reuters that several fighters suffered choking symptoms. The army denied the claim and said it was continuing to fight terrorism, with state media earlier saying the military had struck at al Qaeda terrorists in the last jihadi foothold in Latakia province that has long been a launching pad for drone attacks on the main Russian base of Hmeimim nearby. The eviction of jihadis from commanding positions in the mountains would bring the army closer to securing parts of Idlib and a main highway that connects the cities of Latakia and Aleppo. The fighting has continued even after Russia agreed with Turkey to a 72 hour halt following an upsurge in violence in northwest Syria that has sparked an exodus of tens of thousands to the safety of border areas with Turkey, residents and opposition sources have said. Russia’s defense ministry confirmed on Sunday a “unilateral ceasefire” in the Idlib buffer zone in a move the opposition said showed the failure by Moscow and the army after almost three weeks of intensive strikes to bring a rapid collapse in rebel lines. “They are facing stiff resistance in areas that had fallen to the army,” said Hamoud, adding many of their fighters from a nearby stretch of territory to the north protected by the Turkish army had joined their compatriots in fronts. The army has so far gained three significant areas, the last being the town of Hawayz on Friday after taking Qalaat al Madiq and the town of Kfar Naboudah. Two senior Western diplomats following Syria say the aim appears to be to take control of the main cities of Maarat al-Numan and Khan Sheikhoun on the main highways in Idlib. The campaign that began in earnest late last month has also killed dozens, destroyed hundreds of civilian homes, more than a dozen hospitals and food stores, according to opposition-based rescuers and Western aid agencies. Both Moscow and Damascus deny indiscriminate bombing of civilians and say they seek to crush radical Islamist groups.
|
conflict;russia;syria;al-qaida;bashar assad;latakia;idlib;hama;kubayna
|
jp0003912
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Trump tweets that if Tehran attacks, it will be the 'official end of Iran'
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WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump issued an ominous warning to Iran on Sunday, suggesting that if the Islamic republic attacks American interests, it will be destroyed. “If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again,” Trump said in a tweet. Tensions between Washington and Tehran have been on the rise as the United States has deployed a carrier group and B-52 bombers to the Gulf over what it termed Iranian “threats.” This account has been met with widespread skepticism outside the United States. The White House has sent mixed signals in recent days, amid multiple U.S. media reports of infighting in Trump’s Cabinet over how hard to push Washington’s arch foe Iran. The Trump administration has ordered nonessential diplomatic staff out of Iraq, citing threats from Iranian-backed Iraqi armed groups, and sent an aircraft carrier and heavy B-52 bombers to the region. On Sunday, a Katyusha rocket was fired into Baghdad’s Green Zone housing government offices and embassies including the U.S. mission. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack. According to U.S. media reports, Trump’s long-hawkish national security adviser, John Bolton, is pushing a hard line on Iran, but others in the administration are resisting. Trump himself said recently that he has to “temper” Bolton. Iran’s foreign minister downplayed the prospect of a new war in the region on Saturday, saying Tehran opposed it and no party was under the “illusion” the Islamic republic could be confronted. “We are certain … there will not be a war since neither we want a war nor does anyone have the illusion they can confront Iran in the region,” Mohammad Javad Zarif told state-run news agency IRNA at the end of a visit to China. Iranian-U.S. relations hit a new low last year as Trump pulled the U.S. out of a 2015 nuclear deal and reimposed unilateral sanctions that had been lifted in exchange for Tehran scaling back its nuclear program. Saudi Arabia called Sunday for emergency regional talks to discuss the mounting Gulf tensions, saying that it does not want war with Iran but is ready to defend itself. It comes days after mysterious sabotage attacks on several tankers in highly sensitive Gulf waters and drone strikes on a Saudi crude pipeline by Yemen rebels who Riyadh claimed were acting on Iranian orders. King Salman invited Gulf leaders and Arab League member states to two emergency summits in Mecca on May 30 to discuss recent “aggressions and their consequences,” the kingdom’s official SPA news agency reported late Saturday. Saudi Arabia’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Adel al-Jubeir, said Sunday his country does not want to go to war with Iran but would defend itself. Saudi Arabia “does not want a war, is not looking for it and will do everything to prevent it,” he said. “But at the same time, if the other side chooses war, the kingdom will respond with strength and determination to defend itself and its interests.” Oil producing countries met Sunday in Saudi Arabia to discuss how to stabilize a volatile oil market amid the rising U.S.-Iran tensions, which threaten to disrupt global supply. Oil supplies are sufficient and stockpiles still rising despite massive output drops from Iran and Venezuela, said Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates said at the meeting in Jeddah. Qatar Sunday weighed in on the escalating tensions, saying it did not believe the U.S. or Iran wanted a war in the region. “U.S. President Donald Trump has said he does not want war, and I do not think Iran wants war or instability in the region,” minister of state for foreign affairs Sultan al-Muraikhi told AFP on the sidelines of a Qatar Fund for Development briefing. “I think if we move away from the childish regimes in the region, all troubles will be settled.” Muraikhi said Doha — which remains isolated by neighboring former allies in a long-running diplomatic dispute — has not yet received a formal invitation to either meeting. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt are among the countries that cut ties with Qatar in June 2017 over accusations it supports terrorism and seeks closer ties with Tehran. Four ships including two Saudi oil tankers were damaged in mysterious sabotage attacks last Sunday off the UAE’s Fujairah, near the Strait of Hormuz — a vital maritime route for oil exports which Iran has threatened to close in the event of a war. That incident was followed by drone strikes Tuesday claimed by Yemen’s Iran-aligned rebels on a major Saudi oil pipeline built as an alternative export route if the Strait of Hormuz were to be closed. Saudi Arabia accused Tehran of ordering the pipeline attacks, targeting “the security of oil supplies … and the global economy.”
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conflict;u.s .;middle east;saudi arabia;iran;iraq;uae;donald trump;john bolton
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jp0003913
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Australia's prime minister set to form majority government
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SYDNEY - Prime Minister Scott Morrison looked set on Monday to form a majority government as vote counting from Australia’s weekend election allayed fears that his conservative coalition may have to rule in the minority following its shock victory. The coalition was returned to power in a stunning result on Saturday night, after opinion polls and odds-makers had tipped the opposition Labor Party to win. The outcome ranks as Australia’s biggest election upset since 1993, when Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating was returned to power. With 76 seats in the House of Representatives needed for majority rule, figures from the Australian Electoral Commission on Monday showed 84% of the votes had been counted, with the coalition on target to win 77 seats — an increase of four after going into the election as a minority government. The Labor Party was set to claim 68 seats, with independents and minor parties taking six. Winning at least 77 seats would also allow Morrison’s coalition to appoint the house speaker from its own ranks, rather from among independent or minor party lawmakers. As Morrison began finalizing his new Cabinet on Monday, the stock market welcomed the election result. Australia’s benchmark S&P ASX 200 index climbed 1.7 percent on the day — reaching its highest level since 2007, just before the global financial crisis. After being elected in 2016 with 76 seats, the power base of Morrison’s coalition was diminished through a series of by-elections late in its three-year term. One such defeat was triggered by the ousting last August of then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in an internal party vote. That move, which ended in Morrison becoming prime minister, caused widespread disgust among an Australian electorate sorely disillusioned by seeing another one of its leaders replaced without them having a say. Morrison had become Australia’s sixth prime minister in only eight years. Four such changes had been brought about by lawmakers voting to dump their party’s leader, two each from the coalition and the center-left Labor Party. Morrison’s predecessor, Turnbull, had himself become prime minister in 2015 through an internal party coup that dumped Tony Abbott as leader of the Liberal Party. Analysts had predicted that the coalition would pay dearly for that latest leadership switch, with Morrison expected to exit after one of the shortest terms as prime minister in Australian history. Most late surveys showed Labor leader Bill Shorten as having a small but clear lead over Morrison as preferred prime minister, 51% to 49%. Bookmakers had Labor at odds as short as $1.16 to $1 to win government, with the coalition as long as $5.50. As analysts tried to make sense of the outcome, several factors were highlighted. One of them was the strong and effusive campaigning of Morrison himself, praised by his treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, for having “crisscrossed the country with great energy, belief and conviction” while selling “our economic plan to the Australian people, a plan that resonated with them.” By contrast, Labor was said to have suffered by campaigning on a long and complex list of initiatives, including an ambitious plan for reducing greenhouse emissions and proposed changes to taxes on income from the stock market, which the coalition attacked as a “retirees’ tax.” While Shorten insisted after the defeat that it had been right to argue for “what was right, not what was easy,” his deputy leader, Tanya Plibersek, conceded that the party suffered from a campaign platform that was too cluttered. “Our policy agenda was big. It was bold. And I think perhaps we didn’t have enough time to explain all of the benefits of it to the people who would benefit,” Plibersek said. Labor’s campaign swung more toward policies than personalities, with Shorten, a 52-year-old former union boss, felt to lack sufficient charisma to win a popularity contest with the effervescent Morrison, a 51-year-old known for his love of family, church and football. One telling result came on Monday, when high-profile independent lawmaker Dr. Kerryn Phelps conceded defeat to the Liberal Party in the Sydney electorate of Wentworth — the seat vacated by Turnbull on his resignation from Parliament last year. While Phelps had wrested the seat from its traditional conservative base last August, she lost it back to the Liberals’ Dave Sharma only nine months later, suggesting a gulf in public sentiment between a by-election and a general election. “Clearly, the country decided it wanted to return a Liberal government,” Phelps told reporters. With Shorten announcing his resignation as Labor leader on Saturday night, the party began the task of finding a new leader on Monday.
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australia;elections;scott morrison
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jp0003914
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific"
] |
2019/05/20
|
China's Xi agreed to meet Dalai Lama in 2014, book claims
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NEW DELHI - Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to meet the Dalai Lama during a 2014 visit to India but a “cautious” New Delhi did not allow it to happen, a new book has claimed. The 83-year-old Buddhist monk has made India his home since fleeing the Tibetan capital Lhasa in 1959 — and has been a thorn in Beijing’s side ever since. “In 2014, when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Delhi for talks with Prime Minister Modi, I requested a meeting with him,” author Sonia Singh quotes the Dalai Lama as saying. “President Xi Jinping agreed, but the Indian government was cautious about the meeting, so it didn’t happen,” according to excerpts from the book published last Wednesday. In the book “Defining India — Through Their Eyes,” Singh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government was concerned about maintaining good relations with China. The Dalai Lama’s personal spokesman Tenzin Taklha said he didn’t have any comments to make, without either confirming or denying the contents in the book. The Dalai Lama set up a government-in-exile in Dharamsala in northern India and launched a campaign to reclaim Tibet that gradually evolved into an appeal for greater autonomy — the so-called middle way approach. India, which gave him asylum in 1959, has supported the Tibetan leader but of late the government has maintained a distance, citing diplomatic sensitivities. Singh, the editorial director of NDTV news channel, says the meeting had the “promise to change the course of China-Tibet relations” if it had been allowed to happen. The Dalai Lama is also quoted as saying he had “very good relations” with Modi, who is seeking a second term in the ongoing general election. “He is quite an active Indian prime minister, continuously visiting many countries. That, I admire at his age.” A global symbol of peace, the Dalai Lama was briefly hospitalized for a chest infection in New Delhi last month. The book was released Monday.
|
china;religion;rights;xi jinping;tibet;dalai lama
|
jp0003915
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific"
] |
2019/05/20
|
India's Modi set to sweep election, exit polls show
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NEW DELHI - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling alliance is likely to win a big majority in parliament after a mammoth general election that ended on Sunday, most exit polls showed, a far better showing than expected in recent weeks. Modi faced criticism early on in the campaign for failing to create jobs and for weak farm prices, and analysts as well as politicians said the election race was tightening with the main opposition Congress party gaining ground. But he rallied his Hindu nationalist base and turned the campaign into a fight for national security after tensions rose with Pakistan and attacked his main rival for being soft on the country’s arch foe. Modi’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is projected to win anything between 339-365 seats in the 545-member lower house of parliament followed by 77 to 108 for the Congress party-led opposition alliance, India Today Axis exit poll showed. To rule, a party needs to win 272 seats. Counting of votes recorded in hundreds of thousands of computerized machines will begin early on Thursday and results are expected by noon. According to another poll released by Times Now television, Modi’s alliance is likely to get 306 seats. A poll by Neta Newsx, though, forecast Modi’s group falling 30 seats short. Exit polls, though, have a mixed record in a country with an electorate of 900 million people — around two-thirds of whom voted in the seven-phase election. They have often gotten the number of seats wrong, but the broad direction has generally been correct, analysts say. With 3 out of 4 of the polls indicating a clear majority for Modi’s alliance, Indian equity markets are expected to rally sharply on Monday, while the Indian rupee is also likely to strengthen versus the U.S. dollar, according to market participants. A clear win would mean Modi can carry out reforms investors expect to make India an easier place for doing business, they said. “I expect a positive reaction from markets on both the rupee and equities,” said Sajal Gupta, head of forex and rates at Indian brokerage firm Edelweiss Securities. “Equity indices should have a rally of maybe 250-300 points,” said Gupta, adding the Indian rupee may test the 69 level against the U.S. dollar before retreating. Critics say Modi sought to win votes by stoking fear among the Hindu majority of the potential dangers posed by the country’s Muslims and Pakistan, and promoted a Hindu-first India. But his supporters say Modi and his allies are simply restoring Hinduism to its rightful place at the core of Indian society. Muslims make up about 14 percent of India’s 1.3 billion population. “The massive crowds and response at every rally of Prime Minister Modi were a clear indicator of their approval for his leadership, the performance of the past five years and the vision for the future,” Nalin Kohli, a spokesman of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party said. The Congress party led by Rahul Gandhi, the fourth generation scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that ruled India for decades following independence, focused on Modi’s failure to deliver on the promises he made to transform the economy and turn India into a manufacturing hub. Congress spokesman Sanjay Jha dismissed the poll projections, saying that an alliance led by his party would defeat the BJP when votes are counted on May 23. “Many of the pollsters, if not all of the pollsters, have got it wrong,” he said, adding that a polarized atmosphere and fear had kept voters from telling pollsters about their actual allegiance. Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal state and a bitter opponent of Modi, said the fight was not over. “I don’t trust exit poll gossip,” she said on Twitter. “I appeal to all opposition parties to be united, strong and bold. We will fight this battle together.” Voting began on April 11 and ended on Sunday in the world’s biggest democratic exercise. Although Modi’s party is poised to lose seats in northern Uttar Pradesh, which elects the most lawmakers out of all Indian states, the party’s return to power will be on the back of a strong showing in other northern heartland regions and two eastern provinces, CVoter’s polling showed.
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india;religion;rahul gandhi;elections;narendra modi;bjp;hinduism
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jp0003916
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/05/20
|
U.S. sends warship near South China Sea flash point as Beijing and Washington spar over trade
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The U.S. Navy has sailed a warship near the disputed Scarborough Shoal, a strategic flash point in the South China Sea claimed by China, in a move expected to stoke anger in Beijing as the world’s two biggest economies remain embroiled in a trade war. The USS Preble guided-missile destroyer carried out the operation Sunday, a U.S. military spokesman told The Japan Times on Monday. The Preble conducted a so-called freedom of navigation operation (FONOP), sailing “within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of Scarborough Reef in order to challenge excessive maritime claims and preserve access to the waterways as governed by international law,” said Cmdr. Clay Doss, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture-based 7th Fleet. China’s Foreign Ministry said Monday that it “strongly urges U.S. to stop such provocative actions.” Beijing has in the past blasted the U.S. FONOPs, saying that it will “take all necessary measures” to protect what it claims is its “national sovereignty.” The operation was the second FONOP this month in the waterway, after the U.S. sent the Preble and the USS Chung Hoon within 12 nautical miles of the Gaven and Johnson reefs in the Spratly chain. It also comes as Beijing and Washington face off in a protracted trade war in which both sides appear to be unwilling to bend — stances that could have a dramatic effect on the global economy. Scarborough Shoal, which is also claimed by the Philippines and Taiwan, is regarded as a potential powder keg in the strategic waterway. It was seized by Beijing in 2012 after an extended standoff with Manila. China later effectively blockaded the lagoon, which is rich in fish stocks, and routinely dispatches scores of fishing vessels and government-backed “maritime militia” ships to the area to continue its de facto blockade. Both China and the U.S. have in recent months ramped up their presence near the collection of outcroppings that barely rise above the water at high tide and lie just 230 km (140 miles) from the Philippine coast. Last month, the U.S. apparently sailed the USS Wasp amphibious assault ship in the area of the strategic reef. Filipino fishermen working nearby had initially spotted the massive U.S. vessel, media reports said. Washington has lambasted Beijing for its moves in the South China Sea, including the construction of man-made islands, some of which are home to military-grade airfields and advanced weaponry. The U.S. fears the outposts could be used to restrict free movement in the waterway — which includes vital sea lanes through which about $3 trillion in global trade passes each year — and regularly conducts FONOPs in the area. The U.S. says that its military operates in the region on a daily basis in accordance with international law. “The United States will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows,” Doss said. “That is true in the South China Sea as in other places around the globe. We conduct routine and regular Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPS) as we have done in the past and will continue to in the future,” he said, adding that the operations “are not about any one country, nor are they about making political statements.” China covets Scarborough Shoal for its strategic significance, experts say, as it would be the crowning jewel in a bid to solidify Beijing’s iron grip over the South China Sea. They say building at Scarborough would create a large “strategic triangle” comprising Woody Island in the Paracel Islands to the northwest and its Spratly islet outposts to the south, giving Beijing the ability to police an air defense identification zone over a vast swath of the South China Sea. The impact of such a strategic triangle — which would bring the entire region under Chinese radar, missile and air coverage — would be tremendous for both the United States’ and Japan’s strategic planning, some experts say, and could be a game-changer in regional power relations. But any decision by China to forcefully take over the collection of outcroppings for land-reclamation purposes would likely be met with resistance by the U.S., the Philippines and others. In an effort to push back against China’s behavior near Scarborough, the U.S. Navy sent a guided-missile destroyer within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of the site in January last year.
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china;u.s .;vietnam;philippines;military;disputed islands;south china sea;scarborough shoal;south china sea ruling
|
jp0003917
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/05/20
|
'Slow-motion disaster' as Philippine coastal cities get that sinking feeling
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MANILA - When Mary Ann San Jose moved to Sitio Pariahan more than two decades ago, she could walk to the local chapel. Today, reaching it requires a swim. The main culprit is catastrophic subsidence caused by groundwater being pumped out from below, often via unregulated wells for homes, factories and farms catering to a booming population and growing economy. The steady sinking of coastal towns and islets like Pariahan in the northern Philippines has caused Manila Bay’s brackish water to pour inland and displace thousands, posing a greater threat than rising sea levels due to climate change. “It was so beautiful here before. … Children were playing in the streets,” San Jose said, adding: “Now we always need to use a boat.” Most of the former residents have scattered to other parts of the region. Just a handful of families remain in Pariahan, which had its own elementary school, a basketball court and a chapel before the water flowed in. These days just the flooded chapel, a cluster of shacks on bamboo stilts where San Jose lives with her family and a few homes on a bump of land remain. The children that live there commute 20 minutes by boat to a school inland and most of the residents eke out a living by fishing. The provinces of Pampanga and Bulacan — where Pariahan is located — have sunk between 4 and 6 centimeters (1.5-2.4 inches) annually since 2003, according to satellite monitoring. “It’s really a disaster that is already happening. … It’s a slow-onset disaster,” explained Narod Eco, who is part of a group of scientists tracking the problem. A chapel sits amid encroaching bay waters in Sitio Pariahan, Bulacan, in January. | AFP-JIJI Threat to lives By comparison, the U.N. estimates average sea level rise globally is about 3 millimeters per year. The creeping bay waters put people and property at risk, while the threat is amplified by high tides and flooding brought by the roughly 20 storms that pound the archipelago every year. Some areas have raised roads in an effort to keep up with the sinking, creating odd scenes where the street surface is at the height of door knobs on roadside buildings. At least 5,000 people have been forced out of the mostly rural coastal areas north of Manila in recent decades as the bay water has moved further inland, regional disaster officials said. The sinking is very likely permanent because the ground in the hardest hit areas is mostly clay, which sticks together after the water is pulled out. The fate of towns such as Pariahan provides a preview of the problems that may await some of the capital’s 13 million people. Sections of Manila along the shore of the bay are sinking too, with excess groundwater pumping being the most likely cause, said Eco, the researcher. The subsidence there though is at a slower rate than the northern coastal communities, potentially due to less pumping or differences in the soil, he added. A moratorium on new wells in the greater Manila area has been in place since 2004. But enforcing that ban as well as shuttering existing illegal wells, falls to the National Water Resource Board and its roughly 100 staffers who are responsible for policing the whole country. “We have insufficient manpower resources,” the board’s director Sevillo David said. “It’s a very big challenge for us, but I think we are doing the best we can.” Residents make their way across a flooded house in Mabalacat, Pampanga, in 2018. | AFP-JIJI Things will get worse The demand for water has soared as Manila’s population has nearly doubled since 1985, and the size of the nation’s economy has expanded roughly tenfold over the same period. This explosive growth has created a ravenous demand for water, especially in the agriculture and manufacturing industries to the north of the capital. “The sinking is a very serious threat to people, their livelihoods and cultures,” said Joseph Estadilla, a spokesman for alliance seeking to protect Manila Bay coastal communities. “This is only going to get worse in the near future,” he insisted. Manila and its surroundings are among several major cities, especially in Asia, under threat as the land collapses beneath them, though the causes for this vary. Cities such as Jakarta — which is sinking 25 centimeters (0.8 feet) each year — Bangkok and Shanghai risk being inundated within decades as a mixture of poor planning, more violent storms and higher tides wreak havoc. In Jakarta, a city of 10 million people that sits on a confluence of 13 rivers, half the population lacks access to piped water, so many dig illegal wells to extract groundwater. Yet in Pariahan the residents who remain are doing what they can to stay in a place they call home. San Jose explained: “Every year we raise (the floor) of our house. Now my head almost reaches the ceiling.”
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climate;philippines;water;floods
|
jp0003918
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Weather forces seven French fighter jets to make precautionary landing in Indonesia's Aceh
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BANDA ACEH, INDONESIA - Seven French navy fighter jets were forced to make an emergency landing in Indonesia’s northernmost province due to bad weather, an air force official said Sunday. The Dassault Rafale planes managed to land safely in Aceh province on the tip of the island of Sumatra Saturday after taking part in an exercise. They took off from their aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle in the Indian Ocean, 100 nautical miles west of Sumatra’s exclusive economic zone, Aceh air force base chief Hendro Arief said. The planes were diverted to the nearest air base, the Sultan Iskandar Muda air base in Aceh Besar. “We did a security and clearance inspection and coordinated with relevant parties. Everything was clear,” Arief said. The crews were all cooperative and none of them carried individual weapons, he added. Five of the jets returned to their carrier Sunday, while two others are still at the Indonesian air base.
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indonesia;aceh;charles de gaulle;air accidents;dassault rafale
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jp0003919
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Japan adds 16 properties, including a gold mine and Kansai-area temples, to its national heritage list
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The Cultural Affairs Agency on Monday announced 16 additions to its Japan Heritage list of tangible and intangible cultural properties that have been preserved based on unique regional histories and traditions, including narratives. The list now contains 83 sets of properties in 46 of the country’s 47 prefectures, with only Tokyo lacking any listings. The latest additions, from 21 prefectures, include the first entries from Okinawa, Kagoshima and Iwate. The agency established the list in 2015 in an effort to promote tourism in the country by spotlighting the histories and traditions of its cultural properties. It plans to have the list include about 100 sets of properties by 2020. Among the new additions are gold-related properties in the prefectures of Miyagi and Iwate, including the Chusonji temple’s gold-covered Konjikido hall in Iwate’s Hiraizumi, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the Shishiori gold mine in Miyagi. The gold mine’s history was highly rated in particular. The new additions also include 33 Buddhist temples scattered around the Kansai region — such as Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto — for traditional self-purifying pilgrimages, as well as salt production-themed properties in Ako in Hyogo Prefecture, whose history and culture were recognized as attractive to visitors from abroad.
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tourism;cultural properties;japan heritage;cultural affairs agency
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jp0003920
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2019/05/20
|
99% of Pacific mega-quake predictions likely to prove wrong, survey of seismologists finds
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Japanese seismologists believe that nearly 99 percent of their predictions related to massive earthquakes in the Pacific off central and western Japan are likely to prove wrong, a survey conducted by Kansai University showed Sunday. While the government estimates there is a 70 to 80 percent chance of a magnitude 8 to 9 quake occurring along the Nankai Trough within the next 30 years, the survey underscores the difficulty of precisely predicting the timing, location and strength of imminent quakes, based on observational data. The survey covering 138 people, including members of the Seismological Society of Japan, received responses from 90 individuals. Respondents were asked whether a prediction could meet the required criteria necessary for it to be released: That there is abnormal activity in advance; that the abnormality is observable; that heightening risks could be quickly assessed; and that such an assessment could be announced immediately. The questionnaire found that, based on the respondents’ experiences, an average of 5.8 percent of predictions could meet the criteria, while only 19.7 percent of those were likely to contain accurate information. The massive earthquake off the coast of the Tohoku region in 2011 and other quakes have convinced many experts in Japan that it is impossible to predict earthquakes immediately before they occur. The government has also revised its quake countermeasures policy to reflect findings based on actual quake data rather than predictions. But Yoshinari Hayashi, a Kansai University professor who conducted the survey, said the difficulty of predicting quakes has not been fully recognized by government officials and the public. “We should first focus on preparing disaster mitigation measures for sudden earthquakes,” Hayashi said, noting it is a “mistake” to prepare for disasters based on the premise they can be predicted. Naoshi Hirata, who chairs the government’s Earthquake Research Committee, said, “I understand that expectations for earthquake predictions are high but they are currently difficult.” “Even if we don’t know when an earthquake will occur, we can alleviate the damage by utilizing measures based on scientific knowledge,” the University of Tokyo professor said. The Nankai Trough extends from off the coast of central Japan to the southwest. The quake could produce massive tsunami waves, resulting in over 300,000 deaths and economic damage totaling ¥220 trillion ($2 trillion), according to a government estimate.
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earthquakes;disasters;nankai trough;surveys
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jp0003922
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2019/05/20
|
South Korea to 'carefully review' Japan's call for arbitration on wartime labor
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SEOUL - The South Korean government will “carefully review” Japan’s request for arbitration in the dispute over compensation for laborers made to work during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. The South Korean Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that “our government today received an official letter from the Japanese side through a diplomatic channel asking for the convening of a mediation panel” based on a 1965 bilateral agreement that addressed problems of property and claims between the two nations. “The government will carefully review the Japanese side’s action in every aspect.” Earlier Monday, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said it has requested the establishment of an arbitration panel involving members of a third country as provided for under the accord, after months went by without Seoul responding to Tokyo’s move to seek a diplomatic solution. Relations between the two countries have become particularly tense since October, when South Korea’s top court ordered a Japanese steel-maker to compensate former Korean laborers for forced work. Since then, a number of similar rulings have been handed down on other Japanese companies. Despite the rulings, the companies have refused to comply in line with Tokyo’s position that the issue of compensation was resolved “finally and completely” under the accord. That has prompted some of the former laborers who have won cases against Japanese firms to begin proceedings to sell off assets held by the firms in South Korea, increasing a sense of urgency in Tokyo to act through the dispute settlement mechanism under the 1965 accord.
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wwii;history;south korea;wartime labor;south korea-japan relations
|
jp0003923
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Citing free speech, Japanese lawmaker who alluded to war with Russia refuses to resign
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A lawmaker said Monday he will not resign as a Diet member after opposition parties submitted a joint motion urging him to quit for alluding to Japan waging war with Russia to regain control of a group of disputed islands. “I definitely cannot resign even if the motion is passed,” Hodaka Maruyama said, calling the submission of a motion directed against a person’s remarks a “serious situation.” Talking to the media for the first time since Nippon Ishin no Kai expelled him last Tuesday, he said that the Diet, as a place for free speech, is “signing its own death warrant” with the motion. Maruyama drew flak for a comment made while accompanying former Japanese residents of the disputed islands off Hokkaido on a visa-free visit to one of them. While drunk, he asked one of the former residents, “Do you think there is any alternative to war (to recover the islands)?” “I entirely believe my remarks do not deviate from the principles of the Constitution,” Maruyama said Monday. Article 9 of the Constitution prohibits Japan from possessing military forces and other “war potential.” Maruyama also demanded an apology from Osaka Mayor Ichiro Matsui, the head of Nippon Ishin, who wrote on Twitter he “heard alcohol addiction causes mental damage,” apparently referring to reports of Maruyama causing problems after drinking in the past. “It is regrettable. I want him to correct his statement and apologize,” Maruyama said. “How was it ever determined that I have an alcohol addiction?” Maruyama’s latest remarks quickly met with fresh criticism. “How could he say something like that? The real issue here is that he does not feel shame even after making remarks that go against the principles of the Constitution,” said Keiji Kokuta, a senior lawmaker of the Japanese Communist Party. The controversy surrounding Maruyama’s initial remarks came as Japan is negotiating with Russia to resolve the long-standing territorial issue over the islands, which has prevented the two countries from signing a peace treaty since World War II ended. The islands, called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia, were seized by the Soviet Union following Japan’s surrender, which brought the war to an end in August 1945. Former Japanese residents of the islands have been visiting there under a visa-free exchange program between Japan and Russia. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made the return of the islands one of his top priorities and is seeking a breakthrough. He has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin several times to discuss the issue.
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conflict;nippon ishin no kai;russia;disputed islands;northern territories;southern kurils;hodaka maruyama
|
jp0003924
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2019/05/20
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In latest gaffe, LDP lawmaker compares 'frustrating' work with Saga Prefecture to 'dealing with the Koreas'
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Yaichi Tanigawa, 77, a Lower House member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party representing Nagasaki Prefecture’s No. 3 constituency, apologized Sunday for saying that working with Saga Prefecture over the delayed construction of a part of the Kyushu Shinkansen line “is like dealing with South or North Korea.” Tanigawa, a member of the ruling bloc’s committee dealing with the plan to create the Nagasaki spur, which will connect Fukuoka and Nagasaki prefectures by branching out from Shintosu Station in Saga Prefecture, made the remark Saturday while inspecting a tunnel construction site in Nagasaki Prefecture. The route in Nagasaki is already under construction and is expected to open temporarily in fiscal 2022, but Saga Prefecture has been opposed to the plan to build a bullet train line in the prefecture because of high construction and maintenance costs. While he was inspecting the tunnel, Tanigawa also said that in April, at the committee’s meeting in Tokyo, he told Saga Gov. Yoshinori Yamaguchi that he hopes the two can build a relationship “much like the one between Japan and Taiwan.” Saga Prefectural Government officials criticized the remarks, saying that “decisions on the construction plan can’t be made quickly” and the comments from Tanigawa were “extremely inappropriate.” Tanigawa’s remarks came after the LDP handed out a code of conduct to its lawmakers earlier this month, warning them to watch their mouths to prevent blunders from affecting their political careers. “What is this person saying … I can’t believe this,” Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan deputy head Renho tweeted Sunday. Tanigawa told reporters Sunday that his comments were inappropriate and that he wishes to revise them. Tanigawa said the lack of progress in construction is “frustrating” and that what he meant to say was that he wanted “both sides to work together by thinking about each other’s positions.” Yamaguchi told the Yomiuri Shimbun he hopes Tanigawa will “work together with Saga Prefecture sincerely. A calm discussion is necessary.”
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north korea;ldp;south korea;gaffe;saga;yaichi tanigawa;kyushu shinkansen
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jp0003925
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2019/05/20
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Japan seeks arbitration with South Korea over wartime labor compensation
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Japan on Monday called for the setting up of an arbitration board over compensation issues involving wartime Korean laborers, claiming South Korea has violated a 1965 bilateral pact that was designed to settle all such issues involving Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula. Japan made the request based on Article 3 of the pact, which stipulates a three-member arbitration board can be formed to solve disputes over interpretation and implementation of the pact. The two countries will be obliged to observe any judgment the board reaches. The members would consist of one from each of the two countries and another from a third country. However, consent of the two countries is needed to convene such a powerful entity and Seoul can turn down Japan’s request. If Seoul disagrees, Japan can take the case to the International Court of Justice in the Hague, Japanese Foreign Ministry officials have indicated. Last year, South Korea’s top court upheld lower court rulings that ordered Japanese firms to pay compensation money to individual wartime laborers, which has allowed the complainants to seize assets belonging to those firms. Japan has blamed South Korea for violating the 1965 pact, which explicitly declared that all compensation issues involving Japan’s colonial rule had been “settled completely and finally.” South Korea — including its Supreme Court and government — is obliged to observe the 1965 pact, according to Japanese officials, who have also been urging Seoul to take “appropriate measures” to correct the situation for more than four months. The South Korean government, however, has yet to take any measures, citing the independence of the judiciary. “Currently there are no prospects that such actions will be taken,” Tokyo said in Monday’s statement. Based on the 1965 pact and related treaty, Japan normalized postwar ties with South Korea and provided what the treaty called huge “economic cooperation” consisting of grants worth $300 million and loans of $200 million over 10 years. The pact, in turn, obligates the South Korean government to pay any compensation money to individuals by using some of those funds. South Korea’s Supreme Court has, meanwhile, ruled the 1965 pact does not apply to “claims for consolation money” for “inhuman, illegal acts by Japanese firms that were directly linked to the illegal colonial rule.”
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wwii;history;wartime labor;south korea-japan relations
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jp0003926
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/05/20
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Japan's MSDF kicks off second quadrilateral naval exercise in less than two weeks
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The Maritime Self-Defense Force has kicked off its second quadrilateral naval exercise in less than two weeks, with warships — including Japan’s largest flat-topped helicopter carrier Izumo — joining vessels from the Australian, French and U.S. navies in waters west of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The joint drills, which began Sunday and are scheduled to run through Wednesday, saw the Izumo and the MSDF destroyer Murasame link up with the French Navy’s Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier strike group, an Australian Navy frigate and submarine, and a U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer, the MSDF said in a statement. It comes on the heels of a multilateral exercise that saw the MSDF sail with ships from the U.S., India and the Philippines navies in the disputed South China Sea. The multilateral exercises are likely to be interpreted in Beijing as pushback over its moves in the South China Sea, where China has constructed a series of military outposts, some observers say. The waterway includes vital sea lanes through which about $3 trillion in global trade passes each year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims in the waters, where the U.S., Chinese, Japanese and some Southeast Asian navies also routinely operate. Japan has worked to bolster its presence in the South China Sea, deploying the Izumo and Murasame as part of the MSDF’s Indo-Pacific deployment this year, which began April 30 and runs through July 10. This is the first time the exercises, known as La Perouse, have been held, according to the U.S. Navy, though there are other naval exercises conducted in the region involving the U.S. and multiple militaries. “La Perouse shows that our maritime forces can work together well anywhere in the Indo-Pacific,” Vice Adm. Phil Sawyer, commander of the U.S. 7th Fleet, said in a statement. “It reflects our shared values, traditions and bonds as like-minded sea services.” MSDF Rear Adm. Hiroshi Egawa, commander of the Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture-based Escort Flotilla 1, praised the joint drills, saying they would aid Japan’s “Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy.” “The Japan-France-Australia-U.S. multilateral exercise is a great experience. I am looking forward to working with high-end navies together” to improve tactical skills and partnerships, Egawa said in the statement ahead of the exercises. “I believe this exercise will contribute to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.” Asked if the La Perouse exercises were intended as a message for China, a U.S. Navy spokesman told The Japan Times in an email that was not the case. “La Perouse is new, but we do multilateral and bilateral exercises like this throughout the year — Malabar, SEACAT, Talisman Saber are a few examples,” said Cmdr. Clay Doss, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s Yokosuka-based 7th Fleet. “None of them is a message to a specific country. All of them are about working with our allies and partners. The same is true for exercises in the South China Sea, which the U.S. Navy has operated in, and trained in, for decades.”
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china;france;australia;military;south china sea;self defense forces
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jp0003927
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Torrential downpours continue to lash Kyushu
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Heavy rain continued to lash Kyushu on Monday after stranding more than 300 people on a mountain on Yakushima island over the weekend. The Meteorological Agency warned torrential rain may cause landslides and floods, and issued a caution on the threat of tornadoes and lightning strikes across Japan through Tuesday. Rainfall in Miyazaki Prefecture from Friday to Monday morning exceeded 400 millimeters, with the city of Nichinan logging 81.5 mm per hour by 5 a.m. — a record for May. On Sunday, 314 people descended the mountain on Yakushima island in Kagoshima Prefecture with the help of rescuers after rainfall of about 120 mm per hour caused a landslide, obstructing a hiking trail. The hikers spent Saturday night stranded there as a rescue operation involving police, firefighters and Ground Self-Defense Force members only started Sunday due to the weather conditions. No one was in a serious condition, according to local officials. Kagoshima Gov. Satoshi Mitazono on Monday visited the scene of the landslide on the island — a natural World Heritage site — and vowed to work for a swift recovery in a meeting with Yakushima Mayor Koji Araki, so that the town can soon start to welcome tourists again. “We will swiftly handle the situation and dedicate all of our strength to the recovery of the area by working together” with Yakushima town, the governor said. The island is known for its Jomon cedar tree and the 1,936-meter Mount Miyanoura, the highest peak of the Kyushu region. According to the weather agency, some areas of western and eastern Japan are expected to see more than 50 mm of rain per hour through Tuesday. In a 24-hour period through 6 a.m. Tuesday, rainfall of 200 mm is forecast in the Kinki and Shikoku regions.
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weather;kyushu;storms;rain
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jp0003928
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Kin of Japanese abductees being held in North Korea seek early return of their loved ones
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Family members of Japanese nationals who were abducted by North Korea decades ago on Sunday called for progress in bilateral negotiations to bring home their loved ones at an early date. At a convention in Tokyo, the family members said they are running out of time due to the aging of abduction victims’ parents and urged the government to make good use of any opportunity to win the return of abductees. A cumulative total of about 13.4 million signatures collected across Japan in support of the families were shown at the gathering. More than 1,000 people attended the convention, but Shigeo Iizuka, the 80-year-old leader of a group of abductee families, was absent due to poor health. On his behalf, Takuya Yokota, 50, the secretary-general of the group and brother of abduction victim Megumi, said, “My father is in hospital and I feel keenly we’re running out of time.” “We want (the government) to negotiate strongly, demanding the return home of all victims all at once,” Yokota said. The signatures have been collected since the group of abductee families, the Association of Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea, was created in 1997. All of the more than 400 cardboard boxes containing lists of signatures kept by the government were made public for the first time in order to strengthen the momentum of the movement for the return of the abductees. Sakie Yokota, the 83-year-old mother of Megumi, expressed gratitude for the signatures. “In the hot weather and in the cold, many people made efforts and gave us a great deal of power,” she said. “The number (of signatures) accounts for about 10 percent of the population, and this is truly the will of the people,” Koichiro Iizuka, 42-year-old son of abductee Yaeko Yaguchi. “We want (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un to feel (the meaning of) this number and make a decision.” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who also attended the convention, reiterated his determination to hold a summit with Kim with no preconditions. “I’m determined to engage directly with Kim in order to break the shell of mutual distrust between Japan and North Korea,” he said. But Abe added, “Regrettably, it’s true that we don’t have a clear idea when a meeting between Japan and North Korea can be held.” Acknowledging that “it is not so easy” to resolve the abduction issue, Abe said: “The important thing is that all Japanese people are united and show their strong determination to achieve the early return home of all abduction victims.” “I myself will take every opportunity to act decisively,” he added. Akihiro Arimoto, the 90-year-old father of abductee Keiko, expressed his hope, saying, “I believe (Abe’s) remarks reflect his confidence of success.”
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shinzo abe;north korea;kim jong un;politics;abduction
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jp0003929
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/05/20
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JR West conducts anti-terror drill ahead of G20 summit
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HIMEJI, HYOGO PREF. - West Japan Railway Co. conducted anti-terrorist drills on a bullet train and at a station ahead of next month’s Group of 20 summit in Osaka next month. JR West carried out the drills Monday in cooperation with the Hyogo Prefectural Police and the fire department in Himeji, based on a scenario that a weapon-wielding person had assaulted passengers aboard a Nozomi train on the Sanyo Shinkansen between Aioi and Himeji stations. Members of the train crew in protective gear tried to bring the attacker under control while other crew members helped injured passengers evacuate. Police officers stormed the train at Himeji Station and apprehended the suspect. Firefighters performed triage duties on a platform at the station, and an anti-riot police squad collected a bag left in the train by the attacker. “We could carry out the drills with a sense of tension in cooperation with police and fire authorities,” JR West Executive Officer Kuniaki Morikawa said after the exercise. “We’ll strengthen security further toward the G20 summit.” Also on Monday, Finance Minister Taro Aso at a meeting in Tokyo urged top customs officials from around the country to take thorough steps to prevent terror attacks in the run-up to the G20 summit, which will bring leaders of the world’s top 20 advanced and emerging economies to the city of Osaka on June 28 and 29. “A crucial time for customs authorities has come,” he said.
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osaka;terrorism;g20;drills
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jp0003930
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Court upholds 30-year prison term for Osaka murder
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OSAKA - The Osaka High Court has upheld a lower court ruling sentencing a man to 30 years in prison for murdering a man and injuring his three children at their home in Osaka Prefecture in 2016. The high court on Monday rejected appeals by prosecutors who had sought the death penalty and by the defense of 26-year-old Yuma Kobayashi, who argued he was mentally incompetent at the time of the slaying. The court found that Kobayashi broke into the home of 43-year-old carpenter Yukinobu Kawakami, who he did not know, in Kadoma early on Oct. 19, 2016, before fatally stabbing the man, who was sleeping on the second floor, in the chest and back about 30 times, and injuring his daughters, aged 22 and 20, and his 18-year-old son. In handing down the ruling, presiding Judge Hiroaki Murayama said Kobayashi did not entirely know what he was doing at the time of the murder, dismissing prosecutors’ argument that he was capable of taking full criminal responsibility. But Murayama also rejected the defense’s claim, saying, “It’s hard to recognize he was totally dominated by delusions” as he had cased the Kawakami house beforehand. In April last year, the Osaka District Court handed down a 30-year prison term for Kobayashi, while acknowledging he lost self-control due to paranoid schizophrenia.
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murder;osaka;yuma kobayashi
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jp0003931
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Man gets reduced sentence for 2016 murders after mental examination
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A high court has scrapped a life prison term for a man and instead sentenced him to 25 years in prison for killing three of his relatives and attempting to murder a fourth in 2016. Following a psychiatric examination, the Tokyo High Court ruled Monday that Yoshitaka Ikeya, 34, was not fully competent and could not be held responsible for stabbing and killing his grandmother, Mari, 83, mother, Misako, 62, and older sister, Eri, 32, and injuring his father, Hisakatsu, 63, in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture. “The defendant was in a state of diminished capacity under the heavy influence of a delusional disorder,” presiding Judge Yoshifumi Asayama said, adding that Ikeya tried to kill his relatives and himself amid delusions he was being bullied at his workplace. Ikeya was sentenced to live in prison in July 2017 by the Hamamatsu branch of the Shizuoka District Court after concluding he was able to take full criminal responsibility for the attacks. His lawyers asked the high court to conduct a psychiatric examination on him. During the trial, they claimed Ikeya was mentally incompetent, but the high court rejected this argument and said the attack was premediated. Ikeya stabbed the three to death and injured his father with a knife at their home early on April 22, 2016, according to the ruling.
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murder;courts;mental health;yoshitaka ikeya
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jp0003932
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Iraqi man fearing persecution for ties to Saddam party sues Japan for refusing refugee status
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OSAKA - A 29-year-old Iraqi man sued the government Monday, demanding the retraction of a decision in 2017 to reject his application for refugee status. The man filed the suit with the Osaka District Court, claiming he faces persecution in his home country as a son of a member of the Ba’ath Party, formerly led by toppled Iraq President Saddam Hussein, and that it is unjust not to grant his application. According to the lawsuit, an anti-Saddam faction persecuted his father after the former president fell from power in 2003, and the man’s uncle was killed on the street. Additionally, the complainant claimed he was kidnapped and held for half a year by an armed organization in 2012, during which he was tortured with iron bars and knives. The man, who declined to be named, came to Japan in January 2016 to escape the danger but returned to Iraq three months later because his visa expired. He returned to Japan on a visa in 2017 and applied for refugee status, as persecution of Ba’ath Party members continued after the Islamic State militant group gained power. The Immigration Bureau of Japan turned down his application, saying there is no persecution threat. “I can’t go back to Iraq. I want to stay safe in Japan,” said the man at a news conference in Osaka. He lives in Kyoto and works part time. According to the Justice Ministry, the number of applicants seeking refugee status fell about 47 percent to 10,493 in 2018 amid stricter rules, with 42 successful, up from 20 the previous year.
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refugees;iraq;saddam hussein;ba'ath party
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jp0003933
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/05/20
|
Japanese sculptor Tomonori Toyofuku dies at 94
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FUKUOKA - Tomonori Toyofuku, a sculptor known for his abstract works featuring many oval holes, died Saturday at a hospital in the city of Fukuoka, according to his assistant. He was 94. Born in Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, Toyofuku learned woodcarving under the late sculptor Chodo Tominaga after World War II, during which he served as a volunteer soldier in the Imperial Japanese Army. He moved to Milan in 1960 to continue his artistic career and lived there for more than 40 years. After moving back to Japan in 2003, he continued to travel back and forth between Italy and his home country. Toyofuku held many solo exhibitions in Japan and Europe, with some of his works now owned by the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome and Carnegie Hall in New York. He was honored by the Japanese government with the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1993.
|
sculpture;obituary;fukuoka;milan;tomonori toyofuku
|
jp0003934
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/05/18
|
Trump lifts steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada and Mexico
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WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Friday announced a deal to lift U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada and Mexico that had created friction between the neighbors and blocked a new North American free trade agreement. “I’m pleased to announce that we’ve just reached an agreement with Canada and Mexico and will be selling our product into those countries, without the imposition of tariffs,” Trump said at an event in the U.S. capital. His statement came moments after Canada released the text of the agreement between Ottawa and Washington in which they agreed to eliminate U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum, and Canada’s retaliatory measures, within no more than two days. Mexico confirmed it had reached a similar agreement with the United States. “Trump’s strategy has worked,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement, crediting the tariffs with reviving U.S. steel and aluminum manufacturers. The steep U.S. tariffs imposed last year — 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum — became a major stumbling block to ratifying a new North American trade pact negotiated last year by the three countries. Canada and Mexico initially were exempted from the tariffs Trump enforced using a national security argument, as part of his hard-line trade tactics. Once America’s neighbors were included, the levies drew retaliation with tariffs on a host of U.S. products. Even after the governments agreed to a revised free trade deal — the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) — the tariffs remained in place, but officials in Ottawa and Mexico City said they would not sign unless Washington removed the metals duties. Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there was a shared recognition that “these tariffs were harming workers and consumers on both sides of the border” and “didn’t make a lot of sense” in the context of a new free trade deal. “Obviously these continued tariffs on steel and aluminum and our countermeasures represented significant barriers to moving forward with the new NAFTA agreement,” he said, referring to the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement. “Now that we’ve had a full lift on these tariffs we are going to work with the United States on timing for ratification but we’re very optimistic we are going to be able to move forward well in the coming weeks,” Trudeau said. Mexican chief trade negotiator Jesus Seade likewise tweeted that the lifting of tariffs “clears the way towards ratification of USMCA.” Some key members of the U.S. Congress had said they would not agree to vote for the three-country free trade pact unless the Trump’s metals tariffs ended. “Hopefully Congress will approve it quickly,” said Trump. Democratic U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer applauded the decision to remove the metals tariffs, but said there are other concerns about the USMCA. “It is a good thing these tariffs will be lifted, and we should urge our allies to join us in preventing China’s predatory practices,” Schumer said in a statement. However, “There are still many other issues that are outstanding before Democrats would support the USMCA.” According to the agreement, Canada and Mexico will withdraw all complaints lodged against the United States at the World Trade Organization. The two countries also agreed to monitor imports of steel and aluminum to ensure metals that are sold at “dumped prices” — below the cost of production — are not purchased in or shipped through Canada and Mexico. In addition, they agreed to a provision to reimpose steep duties if imports of the metals “surge meaningfully beyond historic volumes of trade over a period of time.” The U.S. Trade Representative’s office said the agreement “provides for aggressive monitoring and a mechanism to prevent surges in imports of steel and aluminum.” “This agreement is great news for American farmers that have been subject to retaliatory tariffs from Canada and Mexico,” USTR said. U.Sl. tariffs on steel and aluminum from Europe remain in place, as does the EU retaliation. Some countries, including South Korea, accepted export quotas to avoid the tariffs.
|
trade;mexico;canada;tariffs;u.s.-japan relations
|
jp0003935
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/05/18
|
This Japanese toaster costs ¥30,000. It only makes one slice at a time
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Perfectly made toast isn’t just an obsession in Japan. It’s a business opportunity. Over the past few years, there’s been a quiet boom in the pursuit of expertly reheated bread, from high-end toasters and premium loaves, to cafes catering to connoisseurs seeking that satisfying crunch. Joining the fray is the next best thing for sliced bread, a toaster designed for just one task: making a single piece of toast, flawlessly. Made by Mitsubishi Electric Corp., better known for its workaday refrigerators and rice cookers, the Bread Oven hit store shelves last month, retailing for about ¥29,000 to ¥30,000 ($270). While that might seem expensive, the country’s consumers are already used to paying top price for toasters; the popular Balmuda, which debuted a few years ago, sells for about ¥23,000. “We wanted to focus on the single slice, and treat it with respect,” said Akihiro Iwahara, who is in charge of technical development at Mitsubishi Electric’s home-appliances division. “Our technology and know-how from rice cookers helped us come up with a way to trap and seal moisture.” That’s crucial. Balmuda’s toaster uses a small amount of water to keep bread from drying out. Mitsubishi Electric’s Bread Oven uses a different method, sealing a single slice inside a metal box and transferring heat through two plates at temperatures as high as 260 C (500 F). There’s nothing more enchanting than the perfect slice of toast, says Kaori Kajita, founder of the Japan Butter Toast Association, which sounds half-baked but actually exists. “You can’t help but be elated.” It helps that bread in Japan is tailored for toast. Called shoku pan , Japanese-style square bread has been around for years (think of a high-quality version of Wonder Bread). The toaster boom has its origins in the desire to have soft, chewy bread that tastes and feels like it came out of a baker’s oven, Kajita says. To satisfy the demand for dough, businesses are coming up with new products and services. Sakimoto, a small Osaka-based chain that specializes in shoku pan, takes reservations for their carefully baked loaves that cost around ¥900 apiece. Centre the Bakery, a cafe in Tokyo’s Ginza district, lets diners choose a personal toaster to take and use at their tables. Behind the toast boom is a broader shift in eating habits. Although a traditional Japanese breakfast might consist of rice, grilled fish and miso soup, it’s becoming less common these days. A slight majority of people —51 percent— actually prefer bread in the morning, according to data compiled by NRI Group. That includes people like Masahiko Shoji, 42, a university lecturer, who said he eats more bread since buying a Balmuda. He’s eager to try out Mitsubishi Electric’s new high-end gadget. “You can’t go back to a regular toaster,” he said. The Bread Oven is shaped more like a waffle maker. As a result, the clamshell design isn’t exactly forgiving when it comes to rolls or baguettes. It can handle cheese or even an egg on top, though, and the french toast is sublime. Clad in faux-wood veneer, the gadget is meant to be used at the dining table, not the kitchen counter. “Given Japanese tastes, there are a lot of people looking for a refined and delicate experience,” said Hiroaki Higuchi, general manager for marketing at Mitsubishi Electric’s home-appliance unit. “We’re not asking customers to get rid of their toasters, but to enjoy this as an entirely different category.”
|
food;electronics;toast
|
jp0003936
|
[
"business",
"economy-business"
] |
2019/05/18
|
Trump delays U.S. auto tariffs for six months, calls imports security threat
|
WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday delayed tariffs on cars and auto parts imports for up to six months and directed U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to negotiate deals with Japan and the European Union to address what his administration perceives as a national security threat. If agreements are not reached within 180 days, Trump “will determine whether and what further action needs to be taken,” the White House said. The administration appears poised to use the threat of auto tariffs to pressure Japan and European countries into making concessions — possibly by seeking export restraints or quotas, a move that would be in violation of World Trade Organization rules — in respective trade negotiations. Trump made the announcement ahead of a planned meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on May 27 in Tokyo at which bilateral trade is likely to be a major focus. In a proclamation setting a six-month window for talks, Trump said he directed Lighthizer to negotiate deals “to address the threatened impairment of the national security with respect to imported automobiles and certain automobile parts from the European Union, Japan and any other country the Trade Representative deems appropriate.” Lighthizer will “update me on the progress of such negotiations within 180 days,” the president said. It is not clear, however, what the “further action” mentioned by the White House would entail. Trump and Abe have come to an understanding that the United States will refrain from imposing tariffs on automobile imports from Japan while negotiations are underway. The two governments launched negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement last month. Earlier Friday, economic revitalization minister Toshimitsu Motegi said in Tokyo that Lighthizer had confirmed the United States will not push Japan to restrain its automobile exports as part of a bilateral trade deal. Citing a draft executive order, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday that Trump will give Japan and the European Union 180 days to “limit or restrict” exports of automobiles and auto parts to the United States in return for delaying auto tariffs. Trump has threatened to impose additional tariffs of up to 25 percent on imported cars and parts. If he follows through, the new duties would significantly impact major car exporters such as Japan and Germany. Automobiles and auto parts accounted for about 75 percent of the U.S. trade deficit as of 2017. On Friday, Trump said a Commerce Department investigation has concluded that “automobiles and certain automobile parts are being imported into the United States in such quantities and under such circumstances as to threaten to impair the national security of the United States.” The department also found these imports are “weakening our internal economy,” and decried “protected foreign markets, like those in the European Union and Japan.” The department said “automotive research and development is “critical to national security,” and that “the U.S. defense industrial base depends on the American-owned automotive sector for the development of technologies that are essential to maintaining our military superiority.” American automakers and dealers, as well as U.S. business organizations, disputed Trump’s claim that imports of car and auto parts pose a threat to U.S. national security. “Cars are not a national security threat,” said the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade association representing 12 U.S. and foreign automakers, including General Motors Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. “We are deeply concerned that the administration continues to consider imposing auto tariffs,” the group said in a statement. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said Trump’s claim “is a misuse of the administration’s trade authorities,” and that “the continued threat of tariffs on cars and auto parts only creates more uncertainty weakening our economy.” The American International Automobile Dealers Association said that if Trump slaps 25 percent tariffs on imported cars and auto parts, he will be responsible for “a drastic tax increase on American consumers.” Such action could result in a loss of 2 million vehicle sales and jeopardize up to 700,000 American jobs, it said.
|
shinzo abe;trade;carmakers;tariffs;u.s.-japan relations;donald trump
|
jp0003937
|
[
"business",
"economy-business"
] |
2019/05/18
|
On Huawei and autos, Trump aligns trade with U.S. security
|
WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump is taking his trade wars into a new realm likely to both extend them and make them harder to resolve. With his crackdown on Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co. and a new directive targeting European and Japanese carmakers, his administration is displaying its penchant to invoke U.S. national security in the broadest way possible. In doing so Trump is exploiting a loophole in global trading rules and doing what his predecessors spent years urging China and others not to at the risk of opening a protectionist Pandora’s box. The administration’s willingness to bend the rules on national security grounds is evident in a proclamation Trump issued on Friday that labeled imported cars a threat to U.S. national security and called for reducing imports. It also delays the imposition of auto tariffs for 180 days while U.S. officials negotiate with the EU and Japan to reduce their exports of automobiles and parts to the U.S. The proclamation invokes a broad justification of national security that trade experts say could be applied to almost any product imported into the U.S., arguing that the growing foreign competition from foreign automakers has hurt America’s ability to innovate. The hit to sales of American-owned carmakers caused by competition from imported cars, it says, undermines domestic producers’ ability to invest in research and development “necessary for long-term automotive technological superiority.” “The lag in R&D expenditures by American-owned producers is weakening innovation and, accordingly, threatening to impair our national security,” the document says. “That’s huge,” said Douglas Irwin, a trade historian at Dartmouth College. “That’s a very interesting train of logic that hasn’t been heard before and can justify stopping imports of anything.” The autos move is aimed largely at long-time allies in the EU and Japan. Toyota Motor Corp. rebuked Trump over the declaration in an unusually strong-worded statement, saying Trump’s proclamation Friday that the U.S. needs to defend itself against foreign cars and components “sends a message to Toyota that our investments are not welcomed.” The company said it has spent more than $60 billion building operations in the country, including 10 manufacturing plants. But with its emphasis on technological superiority the U.S. auto move is not that different from the justifications the Trump administration is using in its trade war against China and the battle over key technologies embodied in its attack on Huawei. In a diplomatic campaign that has stretched from Australia to Europe, U.S. officials have for months urged allies not to buy Huawei’s 5G equipment for new networks because of spying fears. This week Trump issued an executive order that could effectively ban Huawei and Chinese sister firm ZTE Corp. from the U.S. market. The Commerce Department also placed Huawei on a blacklist that means U.S. suppliers will need licenses to sell the company’s components. Bill Reinsch, who as undersecretary of commerce in the administration of former U.S. President Bill Clinton headed the bureau responsible for both the Huawei and auto investigations, said the cases marked very different extremes of the Trump administration’s national security-driven trade policy. While U.S. intelligence officials have pushed for a crackdown on Huawei for years based partly on what they claim are its links to the People’s Liberation Army, it is hard to find anyone outside the administration who believes imported cars pose a threat. The sort of argument the administration is making about cars and research spending is one experts have made for decades about more sensitive industries such as semiconductors, Reinsch said. No one has ever seriously argued it should apply to cars, he said. Behind both the Huawei and auto cases lies the argument that U.S. national security depends on the nation’s economic security that Trump has advanced since becoming president and employed to impose steel and aluminum tariffs last year. Trump invoked the same statute used to justify the metals tariffs — Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 — to order an investigation into imported cars last year. The auto tariffs are opposed by both domestic and international car companies. If imposed, they would likely blow up trade negotiations launched with the EU and Japan. Trump is due to visit Tokyo later this month. Members of Congress from both parties also argue the president is abusing powers delegated to him by Congress to pursue a protectionist agenda. A group of steel importers are lobbying the Supreme Court to hear their constitutional challenge to Trump’s use of Section 232 with other business groups starting to join the fight. The invocation of national security is designed to exploit a loophole in global trading rules that allows countries to restrict trade in times of war. It also has caused a brewing fight between the U.S. and other members at the World Trade Organization that is expected to escalate in the coming months. Until the Trump administration the U.S. regularly lobbied other governments to adopt a narrow view of national security with regards to trade for fear that if everyone invoked the exemption it would render global rules useless. U.S. officials used that message with counterparts in Beijing for years, said Jude Blanchette, a China expert at the Crumpton Group, a Washington consultancy. China has long invoked national security to justify censorship of the internet and limit access by foreign firms to industries it deems strategic. “The U.S. now thinks in a maximalist way about national security,” Blanchette said. The Huawei escalation in recent days is just one reason why a recent breakdown in talks between the U.S. and China seemed unlikely to be resolved any time soon, he added. The Trump administration has from its early days rejected trade orthodoxy, insisting it is finally addressing global economic injustices that have hurt the U.S. for too long. In a speech to students at Harvard University last month, White House adviser Peter Navarro said Trump was rejecting “conventional fossilized wisdom” to take on China’s “deviant economic model” and other trade cheats such as Germany, which Trump has nominated as a target for auto restrictions. “America should be comforted by having a president who wakes up every day thinking about how to grow the economy faster and create jobs for Americans while protecting national security,” Navarro said.
|
china;trade;espionage;carmakers;tariffs;huawei;u.s.-japan relations
|
jp0003938
|
[
"business",
"economy-business"
] |
2019/05/18
|
China newspaper says U.S.'s forced tech-transfer claims 'fabricated'
|
SHANGHAI - The United States has “fabricated” accusations that China forces firms to hand over technology in exchange for market access, China’s top Communist Party newspaper said on Saturday, the latest salvo in a bitter trade war. China announced this week it would retaliate against a move by Washington to raise tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports amid complaints Beijing had done little to resolve U.S. concerns about the theft of intellectual property and the forced transfer of technology to Chinese firms. The People’s Daily said in an editorial China had never forced U.S. firms to hand over technology and the claim was “an old-fashioned argument used by some people in the United States to suppress China’s development.” “The U.S. argument about the ‘forced transfer of technology’ can be described as being fabricated from thin air,” it said. The United States had not yet been able to provide any evidence to back up the claims, the editorial said. It said the United States benefited substantially from voluntary technological cooperation, earning $7.96 billion in intellectual property use fees in 2016 alone. Washington’s “fragile nerves” were caused by China’s own rapidly growing research and development capabilities, the paper said. The increasingly acrimonious dispute between the world’s top two economies has rattled investors and roiled global markets. The United States said negotiations were likely to resume soon but China said no fixed date had been set yet and Washington needed to show sincerity in any new round of talks.
|
china;u.s .;trade;tariffs
|
jp0003939
|
[
"business",
"economy-business"
] |
2019/05/18
|
Toyota rebukes Trump for sending message that carmaker 'not welcomed' in U.S.
|
SOUTHFIELD, MICHIGAN - Toyota Motor Corp. rebuked U.S. President Donald Trump’s declaration that imported cars threaten national security, signaling contentious talks are ahead for the White House and America’s key trading partners. In an unusually strong-worded statement, Japan’s largest automaker said Trump’s proclamation Friday that the U.S. needs to defend itself against foreign cars and components “sends a message to Toyota that our investments are not welcomed.” The company said it has spent more than $60 billion building operations in the country, including 10 manufacturing plants. Trump earlier Friday agreed with the conclusions of his Commerce Department, which investigated imports of vehicles and auto parts and found they harm national security by having led to a declining market share for “American-owned” carmakers since the 1980s. The White House set a 180-day deadline for negotiating deals with Japan, the European Union and other major auto exporters. Toyota said it remains hopeful that those talks can be resolved quickly, but warned that curbing imports would force U.S. consumers to pay more and be counterproductive for jobs and the economy. The company’s critique comes two months after its pledge to add $3 billion to a years-long U.S. investment plan. Representatives for other automakers were more diplomatic but also registered concern about the Trump administration’s saber-rattling. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group representing a dozen of the largest domestic and foreign carmakers with operations in the U.S., warned Friday that higher prices from tariffs could put 700,000 American jobs at risk. “We are deeply concerned that the administration continues to consider imposing auto tariffs,” the car lobby said in a statement. “By boosting car prices across the board and driving up car repair and maintenance costs, tariffs are essentially a massive tax on consumers.” The pushback by Toyota marks a break from years of attempting to work its way into Trump’s good graces. Days after drawing criticism from the then-president elect in January 2017 for planning to build Corolla cars in Mexico, Toyota announced a $10 billion, five-year investment plan. In August of that year, the company said it would join with Mazda Motor Corp. in building a $1.6 billion factory in Alabama. But all those efforts have done little to curb repeated threats by the White House to impose tariffs of as much as 25 percent on imported vehicles and auto parts. “Our operations and employees contribute significantly to the American way of life, the U.S. economy and are not a national security threat,” the company said.
|
trade;toyota;carmakers;tariffs;donald trump
|
jp0003940
|
[
"world",
"social-issues-world"
] |
2019/05/18
|
U.S. men avoid spending time with female colleagues in the wake of #MeToo movement
|
LONDON - Women’s careers are being held back as men in the United States avoid spending time with female colleagues in the wake of the #MeToo movement, women’s rights group LeanIn.org said on Friday. Nearly two thirds of male managers reported they would be uncomfortable taking part in a common one-on-one work activity with a woman, found a survey by the group and SurveyMonkey, a rise of a third on the number raising such concerns last year. The findings show women miss out on chances for mentorship and professional links that could lead to promotion, they said. “A lot of men don’t realize sitting on the sidelines is actually continuing to limit the opportunities of women,” Rachel Thomas, president of LeanIn.Org, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “This data really shows that we are moving in the wrong direction at a time when it’s so critical that women are getting mentorship and sponsorship and equal access.” The #MeToo movement that swept through social media saw women share stories of sexual abuse and harassment, leading to the firing of some high-profile figures and a wider debate over pay, representation and sexism. But some suggest it has left men wary of perceived inappropriate conduct or harassment allegations. Thirty-six percent of men in the survey of more than 5,000 U.S. adults said they had avoided mentoring or socializing with a woman because they were nervous about how it would look. Senior level men in particular appeared less willing to spend time with junior female colleagues than their male co-workers at a similar level. They were 12 times more likely to hesitate to have one-on-one meetings with a junior woman than a man, nine times more likely to have concerns over traveling together and six times more likely to hesitate to have a work dinner with them. The survey indicated that workplaces are stepping up their misconduct responses, with 70 percent of employees saying their company has taken action to address sexual harassment — a significant increase from 46 percent in 2018. However, half of men believed sexual harassment claims were more damaging to careers of the alleged perpetrators than their victims, while nearly two thirds of women said the person making the complaint paid a higher price. Women’s groups said the findings showed the need for more action to ensure equality at work. “#MeToo helped shine a light on just how prevalent sexual harassment is in the workplace, and laws and policies have not yet caught up with the social awareness around it,” said Shelby Quast, a spokeswomen for women’s rights group Equality Now. “We have to encourage a healthy work environment among all employees and perpetrators need to be held accountable.”
|
rights;women;sexual harassment;# metoo
|
jp0003941
|
[
"world",
"science-health-world"
] |
2019/05/18
|
Surging suicide rate among American girls raises questions about social media
|
NEW YORK - A spike in the suicide rate among young American girls is prompting leading researchers to ask questions about the role of social media in adolescent mental health. A study published Friday in the JAMA Open Network led by Donna Ruch, a research scientist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, analyzed suicide trends in 10- to 19-year-olds between 1975 and 2016. The rate of suicide decreased from the early 1990s until 2007, but has increased in years since for both genders. While boys die by suicide at a higher overall rate than girls, female youth suicides have surged most in recent years. In the 10- to 14-year-old age group, the rate of suicide increased 12.7 percent for girls and 7.1 percent for boys since 2007. The data show the gap known as the “gender paradox” in suicide — wherein males typically die by suicide at a rate higher than females, while females report suicidal thoughts or attempt suicide at higher rates than males — appears to be closing. “We really wanted to look at this and say ‘Hey wait a minute, is this just a phenomenon, is it an occurrence, is it a blip or are we seeing a trend?'” Ruch said. Her paper concludes the gap is narrowing most among those 10- to 14-year-olds. “We want to look at treatments, look at interventions and really take into account the unique needs of girls versus boys.” The study wasn’t designed to investigate why the rate of suicide is increasing among young people, but other researchers who looked at the data suggest the prevalence of social media could be an avenue to explore. “The fact that social media has become a primary forum for interpersonal engagement in adolescence, a developmental period when social contact is rapidly rising and becoming increasingly important to well-being, makes this an area of great potential influence and importance,” wrote Joan Luby, of Washington University School of Medicine, and Sarah Kertz, of Southern Illinois University, in an opinion piece in JAMA Open Network. More than 95 percent of youth are now connected to the internet in some form, they point out. Girls’ use of social media could be “more likely to result in interpersonal stress,” a factor implicated in youth suicide, according to Luby and Kertz. The pair noted that girls use social media more frequently than boys and are more likely to face cyberbullying. “Increasing rates of suicidality may be the ‘canary in the coal mine’ signaling important health concerns arising from the increased and pervasive use of social media affecting child and adolescent development,” Luby and Kertz wrote.
|
suicide;women;social media
|
jp0003942
|
[
"world",
"crime-legal-world"
] |
2019/05/18
|
Ex-CIA agent Kevin Mallory gets 20-year sentence for spying for China
|
WASHINGTON - An ex-CIA officer was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday for spying for China in a case called part of an “alarming trend” in the U.S. intelligence community. Kevin Mallory, 62, was convicted under the Espionage Act for selling classified U.S. “defense information” to a Chinese intelligence agent for $25,000 during trips to Shanghai in March and April 2017. “Your object is to gain information, and my object is to be paid,” he told the Chinese agent in a May 5, 2017, message. The fluent Mandarin speaker had served in the U.S. Army, then as a special agent for the security service of the State Department, before becoming a covert case officer for the Central Intelligence Agency. Mallory is one of several U.S. officials with high-level security clearances arrested and charged over unsanctioned dealings with Chinese intelligence. Former Defense Intelligence Agency official Ron Hansen faces 15 years in prison after pleading guilty in March to charges of attempting to sell classified information to the Chinese. In April, a former diplomat, Candace Marie Claiborne, pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about money she received from Chinese intelligence agents in exchange for U.S. documents. And in the most significant case, on May 1, former CIA officer Jerry Chun Shing Lee pleaded guilty to spying for China. Lee, 54, faces a possible life sentence. Arrested in January 2018, he was suspected of having provided Beijing the information it needed to bring down a CIA network of informants in China between 2010 and 2012. “This case is one in an alarming trend of former U.S. intelligence officers being targeted by China and betraying their country and colleagues,” Assistant Attorney General John Demers said of the Mallory case. “This sentence, together with the recent guilty pleas of Ron Hansen in Utah and Jerry Lee in Virginia, deliver the stern message that our former intelligence officers have no business partnering with the Chinese, or any other adversarial foreign intelligence service.”
|
china;courts;cia;espionage
|
jp0003943
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/05/18
|
Norwegian insurer says Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard likely behind attacks on oil tankers off UAE
|
LONDON/OSLO - Reuters — Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) are “highly likely” to have facilitated attacks last Sunday on four tankers, including two Saudi ships, off Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, according to a Norwegian insurers’ report. The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Norway are investigating the attacks, which also hit a UAE- and a Norwegian-flagged vessel. A confidential assessment issued this past week by the Norwegian Shipowners’ Mutual War Risks Insurance Association (DNK) concluded that the attack was likely to have been carried out by a surface vessel operating close by that dispatched underwater drones carrying 30 to 50 kg (65 to 110 pounds) of high-grade explosives to detonate on impact. The attacks took place against a backdrop of U.S.-Iranian tension following Washington’s decision this month to try to cut Tehran’s oil exports to zero and beef up its military presence in the Persian Gulf in response to what it called Iranian threats. The DNK based its assessment that the IRGC was likely to have orchestrated the attacks on a number of factors, including: • A high likelihood that the IRGC had previously supplied its allies, the Houthi militia fighting a Saudi-backed government in Yemen, with explosive-laden surface drone boats capable of homing in on GPS navigational positions for accuracy. • The similarity of shrapnel found on the Norwegian tanker to shrapnel from drone boats used off Yemen by Houthis, even though the craft previously used by the Houthis were surface boats rather than the underwater drones likely to have been deployed in Fujairah. • The fact that Iran and particularly the IRGC had recently threatened to use military force and that, against a militarily stronger foe, they were highly likely to choose “asymmetric measures with plausible deniability.” DNK noted that the Fujairah attack had caused “relatively limited damage” and had been carried out at a time when U.S. Navy ships were still en route to the Persian Gulf. Both the Saudi-flagged crude oil tanker Amjad and the UAE-flagged bunker vessel A.Michel sustained damage in the area of their engine rooms. The Saudi tanker Al Marzoqah was damaged in the aft section and the Norwegian tanker Andrea Victory suffered extensive damage to the stern, DNK said. The DNK report said the attacks had been carried out between 6 and 10 nautical miles (11 to 18 kilometers) off Fujairah, which lies close to the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has in the past threatened to block all exports through the Strait of Hormuz, through which an estimated one-fifth of the world’s oil passes. According to DNK, it was highly likely that the attacks had been intended to send a message to the United States and its allies that Iran does not need to block the strait to disrupt freedom of navigation in the region. DNK said Iran is also likely to continue similar low-scale attacks on merchant vessels in the future. Iranian officials and the Revolutionary Guard’s spokesman were not available for comment. Tehran has already rejected allegations of involvement and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said that “extremist individuals” in the U.S. government are pursuing dangerous policies. No one claimed responsibility for the attacks. Svein Ringbakken, DNK’s managing director, declined to comment, except to say that “this is an internal and confidential report produced to inform shipowner members of the DNK about the incidents in Fujairah and the most likely explanation.” The UAE has not so far blamed anyone for the attack. Two U.S. government sources said earlier in the week that U.S. officials believe Iran had encouraged Houthi militants or Iraq-based Shiite militias to carry out the attack. In a joint letter sent to the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Norway said the attacks had been deliberate and could have resulted in casualties and spillages of oil or harmful chemicals. “The attacks damaged the hulls of at least three of the vessels, threatened the safety and lives of those on board, and could have led to an environmental disaster,” the letter said. Last month, the United States designated the entire IRGC as a terrorist organization. Washington had previously designated entities and individuals connected with the IRGC, which controls vast segments of Iran’s economy. Tehran responded by designating the regional United States Central Command as a terrorist organization.
|
conflict;military;iran;elections;donald trump
|
jp0003944
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/05/18
|
Venezuela's Maduro says Norway talks sought 'peaceful agenda' with opposition
|
CARACAS - Talks in Norway this week with representatives of Venezuela’s government and the opposition sought to “build a peaceful agenda” for the crisis-stricken South American country, President Nicolas Maduro said on Friday. Norway’s foreign ministry, which has a tradition of conflict mediation, said earlier on Friday that the talks were in an “exploratory phase.” The representatives of each side arrived in the Nordic country this week, signaling a fresh approach to ending months of tensions that escalated after a failed uprising last month led by opposition leader Juan Guaido, who called on the military to oust Maduro. So far this year, dozens of people have been killed in opposition protests against Maduro’s government. An economic downturn has driven more than 3 million Venezuelans to emigrate, fleeing hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicine. The ruling socialist party, which has long said it is open to dialogue, has endorsed the talks. But many sectors of the opposition remain skeptical, arguing that Maduro has in the past used dialogue as a stalling tactic to maintain his grip on power as living standards steadily declined in the oil-rich nation. “Norway announces that it has had preliminary contacts with representatives of the main political actors of Venezuela, as part of an exploratory phase,” the ministry said in a statement. Venezuela was thrust into a deep power struggle in January when Guaido, the leader of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, invoked the constitution to assume an interim presidency, arguing Maduro’s 2018 re-election was illegitimate. The United States and many European countries have recognized Guaido as Venezuela’s rightful leader, but Maduro retains control of state functions and the support of the top brass, as well as allies like Russia, Cuba and China. Opposition lawmaker Stalin Gonzalez and two advisors represented Guaido’s side, while Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez and Miranda state governor Hector Rodriguez went to Oslo on behalf of the government. Each side met separately with Norwegian mediators but there was no meeting between government and opposition representatives, Gonzalez told local media. It was not immediately clear if the mediation would continue. Speaking to members of the armed forces, Maduro said his representatives “went to Norway to lead Venezuela’s delegation at the start of an exploration into a conversation and dialogue with the Venezuelan opposition to build a peaceful agenda for the country.” Guaido was more tepid, tweeting on Thursday that any “mediation initiative” should begin with the “end of the usurpation,” a reference to Maduro resigning. Guaido has expressed a growing openness to potential U.S. military intervention to resolve Venezuela’s crisis, and said his envoy to Washington would meet with the U.S. military’s Southern Command next Monday. Guaido said he would meet diplomats from European and Latin American countries who arrived in Caracas this week as part of the so-called International Contact Group on Venezuela.
|
conflict;rights;venezuela;protests;elections;nicolas maduro
|
jp0003945
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/05/18
|
Austrian Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache resigns in wake of 'Ibiza affair'
|
VIENNA - Just days before key European Union elections, Austria’s coalition government was plunged into crisis Saturday when far-right Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache resigned following explosive revelations from a hidden-camera sting. “I tendered my resignation as vice chancellor of Austria to Chancellor (Sebastian) Kurz, and he accepted this decision,” a visibly emotional Strache said in a televised statement. Media reports emerged Friday alleging that Strache promised public contracts in return for campaign help from a fake Russian backer. Germany’s Der Spiegel and Sueddeutsche Zeitung published hidden-camera recordings of a sting operation they say took place in a luxury villa on the island of Ibiza a few months before 2017’s parliamentary elections in Austria. In the recordings Strache and his party’s group leader in parliament, Johann Gudenus, are seen discussing with a woman purporting to be the niece of a Russian oligarch how she can invest in Austria. She says she specifically wants to gain control of the country’s largest-circulation tabloid, the Krone Zeitung. Strache could be seen suggesting that new owners could make staff changes at the Krone and use the paper to help his Freedom Party (FPOe) in its election campaign. He went on to suggest the woman would then be able to gain access to public contracts. According the newspapers, Strache said that there would be no resistance among the Krone’s editorial staff as “journalists are the biggest whores on the planet.” Both the newspapers that published the footage say they don’t have any firm information over who set up the elaborate sting. Kurz was due to give a press conference Saturday morning and give his reaction to the scandal. Strache had admitted the meeting took place, but denied any wrongdoing. He told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung that “a lot of alcohol was consumed as the evening progressed” and that there was a “high language barrier” during the conversation. Despite Strache’s denials, Austrian commentators are almost unanimous in declaring that Strache’s and Gudenus’s careers are as good as over. The Krone Zeitung has taken a particularly outraged tone, with its Saturday edition sporting a banner headline reading “The FPOe is done for!” The Die Presse newspaper also talked of a “coalition on the brink.” Austria’s APA agency reported FPOe party sources as saying they want to try to save the coalition with Kurz’s center-right People’s Party (OeVP) by replacing Strache as vice chancellor with Transport Minister Norbert Hofer, also from the FPOe. The main opposition Socialist Party (SPOe) demanded both Strache and Gudenus resign, calling the allegations “the biggest scandal” of Austria’s postwar republic. The liberal NEOS party echoed the call and also said that fresh parliamentary elections are now “unavoidable.” Elsewhere in the video Strache evoked the possibility of privatizing part of Austria’s public broadcaster ORF and says he would like Austria’s media landscape to resemble that in neighboring Hungary. Hungary’s right-wing nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban has overhauled the country’s public media into a government propaganda organ while allies have steadily bought up swaths of the private media sector. The FPOe has mounted repeated attacks on ORF’s coverage, accusing it of being biased against the party. Strache also appeared to hint at possible ways political donations could be made to a foundation linked to the FPOe and not to the party directly, apparently in order to escape legal scrutiny. In recent weeks Kurz has already had to defend his decision to enter government with the far-right after a string of revelations about extremist sympathies in the FPOe’s ranks. The putative link to Russia in the scandal is particularly embarrassing as the FPOe has a cooperation agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, leading many to accuse the FPOe of an overly close relationship with Moscow. The FPOe’s lead candidate in next week’s elections, MEP Harald Vilimsky, canceled a planned trip to Milan on Saturday where he was due to take part in a campaign event with far-right Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini. Strache, 49, succeeded the mercurial Joerg Haider as leader of the party in 2005. He himself flirted with neo-Nazism in his youth, but as leader sought to clean up the party’s image and make it more electable.
|
russia;politics;austria;heinz-christian strache;sebastian kurz
|
jp0003946
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/05/18
|
In votes to grant citizenship, Switzerland's direct democracy shows its cracks
|
GIPF-OBERFRICK, SWITZERLAND - Nancy Holten is annoying — so annoying that residents of the small village in Switzerland she calls home voted, twice, to bar her from becoming Swiss. The 45-year-old was born in the Netherlands but moved to Switzerland when she was just 8 years old. She speaks fluent Swiss German, her children are Swiss and she says she feels Swiss. “Switzerland is my home,” she said in a recent interview in the small apartment she shares with her three teenage daughters in the northern village of Gipf-Oberfrick. So when she finally got around to applying for citizenship back in 2015, she expected the process to be easy. She was wrong. As part of Switzerland’s famous direct democratic system, some smaller municipalities leave naturalization decisions up to a vote by the town assembly. Critics say the system allows for more emotionally charged and potentially more discriminatory decisions. When Holten showed up for the vote in the village of around 3,500 inhabitants, her neighbors had turned out in unusually high numbers to reject her. The outspoken vegan and animal rights activist had rubbed many in the small, conservative community the wrong way with her alternative lifestyle and vocal criticism of the ultimate Swiss symbol: the cowbell. “These bells hurt their ears,” she said, picking up a heavy brass cowbell she had purchased. She passed the colorfully embroidered strap over her head and covered her ears as the bell clanged loudly around her neck. “I don’t mind traditions as long as they don’t hurt anyone,” said Holten, who also angered many with calls for silencing the village church bells at night. “I guess I made too much noise for people,” she said. In the village assembly, many railed against her, booed those who came to her defense and overwhelmingly rejected her citizenship application. “Emotions ran a bit high,” said Urs Treier, a spokesman for the village administration, which in vain had urged the inhabitants to allow Holten to become Swiss. Holten appealed the vote to the regional authorities in Aargau Canton, who asked the village assembly to vote again. The result? Even more people turned out to reject Holten, with the media dubbing her “too annoying” to receive citizenship. “It was painful,” she acknowledged. “I cried. It was very hard.” But her persistence paid off. Holten appealed again, and this time the canton overturned the decision, and last year she became Swiss. The case is among several that have raised questions about the pertinence of applying the direct democratic principal in naturalization cases. Across Switzerland, citizenship decisions are first taken locally, then approved at the cantonal level and finally at the federal level. “The most decisive stage is the municipal level,” said Anita Manatschal, a political scientist at Neuchatel University. The vast majority of municipalities leave the decision up to the town administration or a committee, but some, like Gipf-Oberfrick, continue to give all townspeople a say. A few years ago, a family from Kosovo saw their citizenship request rejected by an assembly in the village of Bubendorf in Basel Canton, with some reportedly arguing they did not “act” Swiss because they often wore tracksuits, not jeans. While such decisions raise questions about the legitimacy of the system, experts argue they are increasingly rare. Andreas Bamert-Rizzo, of the Aargau cantonal authority, said the canton is asked by municipalities to grant around 2,000 naturalizations annually, but receives only a handful of appeals for local-level decisions. Accusations of discrimination were far more common around the turn of the century, when some Swiss towns permitted referendums using anonymous ballots to determine citizenship requests. That practice was upended in 2003, when the Supreme Court overturned a controversial referendum in the small town of Emmen in Lucerne Canton, which rejected 48 nationality bids — nearly all submitted by people from the former Yugoslavia — finding it discriminatory. Manatschal pointed to research showing that in the cases prior to the court decision where referendums were used for nationality decisions, the rejection rate on average was 18.4 percent. That compares to 4.9 percent when the decision was taken by a town assembly and a mere 2.1 percent when a town’s executive branch made the call, she said. “The leeway for discrimination was very problematic until 2003,” she said, stressing, though, that “it seems to be fairer since then.” “Laws, not random subjective preferences, should decide whether a person should be naturalized or not,” she said. Holten agrees. In the year since she became Swiss, she has joined the regional chapter of the Pirate Party and is vying for a parliamentary seat in cantonal elections in October. “If I am elected, I will raise this question of access to citizenship,” she said. “I think communal authorities should decide, and not the inhabitants, who are more likely to let their emotions rule.”
|
immigration;switzerland;referendums
|
jp0003947
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/05/18
|
Grumpy Cat, the face that launched a thousand memes, dead at 7
|
WASHINGTON - She died just as she had lived, in a blizzard of memes, tweets and news reports celebrating her distinctly unamused expression. On Friday, the world learned that Grumpy Cat, the internet sensation whose scowl launched a thousand memes, earning her 1.5 million Twitter followers, 2.5 million Instagram followers and 8.3 million Facebook fans, had died at the age of 7. Grumpy Cat, whose pre-celebrity name was Tardar Sauce, burst to fame in 2012 when her owner’s brother posted a picture of her mirthless mug on Reddit. It was suggested the photo was a fake, so her owners posted a few videos to prove otherwise. Within 48 hours, her image had been viewed more than a million times. She was a real-life Garfield on social media already obsessed with cats. A star had been born. Six months later, as her fame spread around the world, Grumpy Cat appeared at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, where thousands lined up to have their photo taken with the celebrated sourpuss. She was invited to star-studded movie premieres, had a cameo role in “Sesame Street,” took part in the Hollywood Christmas parade and had her own animatronic wax likeness at Madame Tussaud’s, which she was photographed with as it was unveiled. The Lifetime Channel made a movie featuring the miserable-looking moggie, called “Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever,” and a New York Times bestselling book was written about her. She made appearances on “Good Morning America,” “CBS Evening News” and even “American Idol” and “The Bachelorette.” She did television commercials for Honey Nut Cheerios. Friskies cat food became an official sponsor, and she had her own “meme manager.” Fans could buy Grumpy Cat socks or an endless choice of T-shirts emblazoned with ennui-filled slogans such as “Your face. … I hate it” or “I don’t care what you think, I’m napping.” The branded merchandising, which included pillows, pens, mugs and bags, plus sponsorship and media deals were estimated to have made her owner, Tabatha Bundesen of Arizona, a wealthy woman. It allowed her to quit her job as a waitress at Red Lobster within days of her cat’s internet debut. Bundesen has denied reports that she had made as much as $100 million from the cat’s fame but has declined to say how much her pet earned. The cat’s image was hot property. Last year, a California jury awarded Bundesen’s company, Grumpy Cat Ltd., damages of $710,001 in a lawsuit against a beverage company that had created an unauthorized line of Grumpy Cat Roasted Coffee and was selling Grumppuccino T-shirts without sharing profits. Financially, Grumpy was a fat cat. But she was not bad-tempered in real life, according to her owner, who attributed her scowly expression to the fact that she had feline dwarfism and a marked underbite. Her owners were never sure what her breed was. Her death was due to a urinary tract infection, her Twitter account said along with the announcement, “Some days are grumpier than others.” “We are unimaginably heartbroken to announce the loss of our beloved Grumpy Cat,” Bundesen wrote. “Besides being our baby and a cherished member of the family, Grumpy Cat has helped millions of people smile all around the world — even when times were tough,” she said. “Her spirit will continue to live on through her fans everywhere,” she said. Described by CNN as a “furry titan of the internet,” Grumpy’s obituary appeared in The Washington Post, Der Spiegel in Germany, Le Monde and even the Russian business magazine Kommersant. And, of course, her demise was the top trending story Friday on Twitter, where fans posted thousands of messages of condolence and mourning.
|
animals;social media
|
jp0003948
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific"
] |
2019/05/18
|
Scott Morrison's ruling conservative coalition looks set to retain power in Australia election surprise
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SYDNEY - Australia’s ruling conservative coalition appeared to secure a shock election win Saturday, with the party predicted to have defied expectations and retained power. National broadcaster ABC called the election for Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s coalition, although it was not clear if he will lead a minority or majority government. The result is a monumental upset and a failure of pollsters, who put the opposition Labor Party under Bill Shorten in pole position. Opposition leader Bill Shorten said late Saturday evening that Labor will not be able to form government and he has called Morrison to congratulate him on the election result. “And without wanting to hold out any false hope, while there are still millions of votes to count and important seats yet to be finalized, it is obvious that Labor will not be able to form the next government,” Shorten told disappointed Labor supporters at a function in Melbourne. He said he will resign as party leader. Some bookies had paid out early, expecting a coalition defeat, and all but the most ardent partisans had thrown in the towel. Early results appeared to show a fractured electorate with minor populist and right-wing parties playing an outsize role, but it will be a while before the dust settles. They include Pauline Hanson, whose party shrugged off revelations her party solicited money from the U.S. gun lobby, and Clive Palmer — dubbed Australia’s Donald Trump — who splashed out tens of millions of dollars on a populist campaign. Australia has compulsory voting and a complex system of ballots ranked by voter preference, with big political, economic and cultural differences from state to state on the vast island-continent. Liberal supporter Anthony Ching said the projected result was “unbelievable.” “Everybody was expecting that we were not going to win,” he said. Many of the laurels for victory will go to Morrison, who came to power last August after a party-room coup by hard-liners in his Liberal Party ousted the more moderate Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Weeks ago, Morrison looked set for an electoral drubbing, fated to enter the history books as one of the most short-lived prime ministers in Australian history. But he closed the gap with a negative campaign and backing from the country’s biggest media organization — owned by Rupert Murdoch — mainly targeting older, wealthier voters concerned over Labor plans to cut various tax loopholes in order to fund spending on education, health care and climate initiatives. He campaigned almost single-handedly, with many of his Cabinet resigning or being too unpopular to be trotted out on the national stage. As results from northeastern Queensland state began to trickle in, it became clear the Liberals had done better than expected and disbelief set in among Labor’s ranks. “It’s heartbreaking,” said Jango Rust, a 19-year-old at the Labor Party campaign HQ in Melbourne. Sixty-seven-year-old Labor support Julie Nelson said, “I think Morrison campaigned on fear, and people have fallen for it.” Former union leader Shorten, voting in Melbourne, was bullish about forming a majority government after a final poll before the election showed the lead for his party increasing. “In the event that the people of Australia voted to stop the chaos and voted for action on climate change, we will be ready to hit the ground from tomorrow.” And after casting his vote in the Sydney suburbs, Morrison acknowledged the challenge his coalition faced, saying, “I don’t take anyone’s support in this country for granted.” Climate change had featured prominently throughout the campaign. Australia is one of the most vulnerable of all developed nations to climate change and a season of record floods, wildfires and droughts has brought the issue from the political fringes to front and center of the campaign. In traditionally more conservative rural areas, climate-hit farmers are increasingly demanding action, while in several rich suburbs, a generational shift has seen eco-minded candidates running Liberal Party luminaries close. In northern Sydney, former Prime Minister Tony Abbott — who once described climate change as “crap” — lost a seat he has held for a quarter century to independent challenger Zali Steggall, a lawyer and Olympic medalist in Alpine skiing. While admitting his own defeat, mainly over the climate issue, Abbott claimed there had been a “realignment” in Australian politics with Liberals winning more of the working class vote, adding, “I’m not going to let one bad day spoil 25 years.” The national campaign has been an often ill-tempered pitched-battle. Candidates have been egged and abused, and a slew have resigned for racist, sexist and otherwise jaw-dropping social media posts. In Abbott’s battleground seat, a 62-year-old man was arrested and charged with thrusting a corkscrew into the stomach of someone putting up campaign banners on the eve of the election.
|
australia;elections
|
jp0003949
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/05/18
|
Sri Lankans mark 10th anniversary of end of war; thousands are still missing
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MULLAITTIVU, SRI LANKA - Still reeling from the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks, this weekend Sri Lanka commemorates 10 years since the end of a bloody civil war that killed at least 100,000 people, from which the scars are still not healed. Security was tight in the north of the island, home to Sri Lanka’s minority Tamils, ahead of solemn ceremonies Saturday. Sri Lanka’s government and top military brass are due to hold their own commemoration in the capital, Colombo, on Sunday. On May 18, 2009, government forces brought their no-holds-barred military offensive to an end at a lagoon in the northern coastal district of Mullaittivu with the killing of Velupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the rebel Tamil Tigers. Sri Lanka’s then-president, Mahinda Rajapakse, declared an end to the 37-year-long separatist conflict — marked by massacres, suicide bombings and assassinations — between Tamil militants and the central government, which is dominated by the majority Sinhalese. But for thousands of war widows and other victims on both sides, this marked the start of a new struggle: to find out the fate of their loved ones. About 20,000 people are still missing, including 5,000 government troops. Anandarasan Nagakanni, 61, is still searching for her son, Arindavadas. “He was last seen with the Sri Lankan Army, and after that we haven’t seen him,” she said at a tiny makeshift office in Mullaittivu, where a notice board was covered with dozens of photos of missing people. Nagaraja Sureshamma, 65, who lost one son and is still looking for the other, recalled the horrors of the final months and how civilians scrambled to escape indiscriminate attacks and shelling. “We were all going together, but my son happened to go on a different route. . . . Ever since, we have not been able to find him,” Sureshamma said. “If they are not alive, then they need to tell us that at least,” said Mariasuresh Easwari, an activist trying to help find the missing. “Did you murder them? Did you bury them? Tell us.” Sri Lankan forces have been accused of killing about 40,000 Tamil civilians in the final months of the war, a charge successive governments have denied. Several mass graves containing skeletal remains have been found in the past two decades, but only a handful of those buried have ever been formally identified. Until recently, even remembering the war dead was considered subversive and annual memorial services by Tamils were trashed by government forces. Government forces have set up memorials in the north for fallen security forces and bulldozed Tiger cemeteries, obliterating any sign of the rebels who at their zenith controlled a third of Sri Lanka. The International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a recent report that the new government’s promised political reforms and accountability for wartime atrocities have failed to materialize. “For many Sri Lankans living in the bitterly contested north and east, the war has never quite ended,” it said. Although the pain for many families remains, and many in the 2.5-million-strong Tamil community still feel disadvantaged, the end of the war did open a peaceful new chapter in which Sri Lanka’s economy and tourism boomed. But this peace was shattered on April 21 when Islamist suicide bombers targeted three churches and three luxury hotels, killing 258 people — including 45 foreigners. The attackers were homegrown extremists — the Islamic State group also claimed credit — and riots since saw dozens of homes, businesses and mosques of Sri Lanka’s Muslim minority vandalized. One man was killed by a mob wielding swords. According to the ICG, the Easter attacks “compounded the general anxiety, tearing again at the social fabric, unleashing further violence and complicating the road to sustainable peace.” Evoking memories of past dark times, a state of emergency has been in place since April 21 with the return of some wartime restrictions on free movement. Sri Lanka’s army chief, Lt. Gen. Mahesh Senanayake, has said his troops will ensure that this year’s commemoration goes ahead peacefully. “As much as we mourn the soldiers who were killed in the war, (minority Tamil) civilians also have a right to commemorate their war dead,” he said Thursday.
|
sri lanka;tamil tigers;anniversaries;mahinda rajapakse;colombo
|
jp0003950
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"crime-legal-asia-pacific"
] |
2019/05/18
|
U.S. says it may scale back some Huawei trade restrictions
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WASHINGTON - The U.S. Commerce Department said on Friday it may soon scale back restrictions on Huawei Technologies after this week’s blacklisting would have made it nearly impossible for the Chinese company to service its existing customers. The Commerce Department, which had effectively halted Huawei’s ability to buy American-made parts and components, is considering issuing a temporary general license to “prevent the interruption of existing network operations and equipment,” a spokeswoman said. Potential beneficiaries of the license could, for example, include internet access and mobile phone service providers in thinly populated places such as Wyoming and Eastern Oregon that purchased network equipment from Huawei in recent years. In effect, the Commerce Department would allow Huawei to purchase U.S. goods so it can help existing customers maintain the reliability of networks and equipment, but the Chinese firm still would not be allowed to buy American parts and components to manufacture new products. The potential rule roll back suggests changes to Huawei’s supply chain may have immediate, far-reaching and unintended consequences. The blacklisting, officially known as placing Huawei on the Commerce Department’s entity list, was one or two efforts by the Trump administration this week allegedly made in an attempt to thwart national security risks. In an executive order, U.S. President Donald Trump also effectively barred the use of its equipment in U.S. telecom networks. The United States believes Huawei’s smartphones and network equipment could be used by China to spy on Americans, allegations the company has repeatedly denied. The latest Commerce move comes as China has struck a more aggressive tone in its trade war with the United States, suggesting a resumption of talks between the world’s two largest economies would be meaningless unless Washington changed course. A spokesman for Huawei, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Out of $70 billion Huawei spent for buying components in 2018, some $11 billion went to U.S. firms including Qualcomm, Intel Corp. and Micron Technology Inc. If the Commerce Department issues the license, U.S. suppliers would still need separate licenses to conduct new business with Huawei, which would be extremely difficult to obtain, the spokeswoman said. The temporary general license would last for 90 days, she said, and would be posted in the Federal Register, just as the rule adding Huawei to the entity list will be published in the government publication on Tuesday. “The goal is to prevent collateral harm on non-Huawei entities that use their equipment,” said Washington lawyer Kevin Wolf, a former Commerce Department official. The entity listing bans Huawei and 68 affiliates in 26 countries from buying American-made goods and technology without licenses that would likely be denied. The entities list identifies companies believed to be involved in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States. In a final rule posted on Thursday, the government tied Huawei’s entity listing to a criminal case pending against the company in Brooklyn, New York. U.S. prosecutors unsealed the indictment in January accusing the company of engaging in bank fraud to obtain embargoed U.S. goods and services in Iran and to move money out of the country via the international banking system. Huawei Chief Executive Officer Meng Wanzhou, daughter of the company’s founder, was arrested in Canada in December in connection with the indictment, a move that has led to a three-way diplomatic crisis involving the U.S., China and Canada. Meng, who was released on bail, remains in Vancouver, and is fighting extradition. She has maintained her innocence, and Huawei has entered a plea of not guilty in New York. Trump injected other considerations into the criminal case after Meng’s arrest when he told Reuters he would intervene if it helped close a trade deal.
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china;espionage;telecoms;huawei
|
jp0003951
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/05/18
|
Japanese convenience stores tackle food waste issue; households and restaurants slow to get on board
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Major convenience store operators are the latest firms to introduce measures to curb food waste as companies step up efforts to address the issue in the country, where 6 million tons of edible products are discarded annually. However, restaurants and households, which are responsible for some 66 percent of discarded food, are moving more slowly to slash the amount of leftover items. Eateries are concerned they will lose customers if they serve smaller portions, while Japanese consumers tend to prioritize product freshness. Seven-Eleven Japan Co. and Lawson Inc. said Friday they will start discounting rice balls and bento lunchboxes as they near the end of their shelf life. Under the plan, they will offer customers enrolled in the chains’ point programs shopping credits worth 5 percent of the purchase price of such items. “Food loss is a big problem domestically and globally as well, so convenience stores also need to confront this issue,” Lawson President Sadanobu Takemasu said Friday. “We will continue to make efforts to sell out our food products.” Takemasu said that around 10 percent of the chain’s rice balls and lunchboxes are discarded as waste. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, roughly 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted globally every year, while 1 in 9 people in the world — or 815 million — are undernourished. Overproduction of food and incineration of food waste consumes energy and contributes to carbon dioxide emissions. In its sustainable development goals, the U.N. calls for halving per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reducing food losses along production and supply chains by 2030. Against this backdrop, agriculture ministers from the Group of 20 major economies at a meeting earlier this month in the city of Niigata agreed to take a leading role in reducing food waste. “Productivity needs to increase and distribution needs to be more efficient, including by reducing food loss and waste, in order to achieve food security and improve nutrition for the growing world population,” said the ministers’ declaration issued May 12. The government has also been pushing to reduce food waste amid rising global awareness of the issue, which is linked to greenhouse warming and poverty. In January, the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry urged industry groups of convenience stores and supermarkets not to overproduce seasonal sushi rolls. The request by the ministry, the first of its kind, came after images of large amounts of discarded sushi rolls went viral on social media, sparking controversy. “Reducing food loss means less waste of natural resources and it is also important from the standpoint of easing burdens on companies and households,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Friday. “Related ministries and agencies will continue to work as one” to deal with the challenge, he said. While convenience stores and supermarkets tend to be blamed as massive waste producers, the retail sector discarded only around 10 percent or 660,000 tons of the total 6.43 million tons in fiscal 2016 through March 2017, according to government data. Food-related manufacturing and restaurants sectors, meanwhile, threw away 1.37 million tons and 1.33 million tons, respectively. Households alone made up over 40 percent of the total at 2.91 million tons. Among companies that have been taking steps to address the issue of food waste are major restaurant chain operator Skylark Holdings Co., which offers customers a container in which to take home leftover food, although the concept of a doggy bag has yet to take root in Japan. Other initiatives include one launched by Prince Hotels Inc., which has introduced plates with nine partitions at a buffet-style restaurant it operates in the resort town of Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, as a way to discourage diners from helping themselves to more than they can eat. But restaurant operators remain wary that serving smaller portions could upset their customers. “It’s up to the customer whether or not he finishes his meal,” a restaurant official said. As for household food waste, which the government wants to reduce by 50 percent by fiscal 2030 from fiscal 2000 levels, amounts have been edging up of late. This could be a reflection of Japanese food culture’s emphasis on product freshness and safety, and shows that where tackling food waste is concerned, the country still has plenty of work to do.
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restaurants;convenience stores;food loss;food waste
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jp0003952
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/05/18
|
Liberal Demoratic Party and Komeito flip-flop on Osaka merger
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OSAKA - Just over a month after local elections in which Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka) surprised even itself with resounding victories, the established parties’ local chapters appear to be on the ropes. Earlier this month, Komeito, which had long partnered with Osaka Ishin to form a majority in the municipal and prefectural assemblies but was staunchly opposed to Osaka Ishin’s efforts to merge the city’s wards, abruptly flip-flopped. Komeito agreed to a referendum on the issue, and said it would work in a “positive manner” to help Osaka Ishin create a merger plan. Immediately afterward, the Liberal Democratic Party’s Osaka chapter, which also opposed the merger plan, declared that, following the drubbing by Osaka Ishin at the polls in April, it had seen the light and would agree to a referendum on the issue. With these announcements, a referendum before the next round of local elections in 2023 appears certain and Osaka voters seem to want it. Unlike the previous referendum in 2015, where the merger was defeated by a narrow margin, in a possible second referendum to merge Osaka’s 24 wards into four semiautonomous entities, the “yes” side now appears favored to win. Why the about-face by Komeito and the LDP? There are two main reasons: First, Osaka Ishin captured the majority of seats in the prefectural assembly and came up just a couple shy of a majority in the city assembly. They won partially at the expense of local LDP candidates. Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura and Osaka Mayor Ichiro Matsui also successfully swapped seats, defeating LDP and Komeito-backed candidates. Voter anger at the LDP and Komeito for being obstinate over the merger issues, or worries that the parties were too entrenched, were also reasons Osaka Ishin did well. Another one lies with the national LDP and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Abe has a final domestic goal to accomplish before his term as LDP president ends in September 2021: constitutional revision. The July Upper House poll will determine if the LDP, Komeito, and Nippon Ishin no Kai, Osaka Ishin’s national party, can secure the two-thirds majority needed in both chambers to hold a national referendum on constitutional revision. The parties are the best of friends in the Diet but throw mud at each other in Osaka over the merger plan. Years of squabbling between the three parties over what the rest of the country sees as a minor local issue appear to have finally snapped the patience of not only voters who cast their ballots for Osaka Ishin but also senior LDP and Komeito officials. Yet Komeito’s promise to support a referendum within four years is already causing problems, as Matsui wants it in the autumn of next year, just after the Tokyo Olympics and while Matsui’s good friend Abe is still in power (assuming this summer’s Upper House election is not a disaster for the LDP). The LDP’s change of position has not been without controversy in the Osaka chapter. Many feel the decision was forced on them by senior LDP officials in Tokyo in the hope that cooperation between the LDP, Komeito, and Osaka Ishin in Osaka translates into smoother cooperation between the LDP, Komeito and Nippon Ishin in the Diet. They worry, rightly, about accusations of betraying their campaign promises to oppose a merger referendum. And what of the voters? An eventual referendum will decide the future of Osaka’s local democracy. April’s elections showed voters are still willing to trust Osaka Ishin to that future. But a large number also voted for Osaka Ishin on the condition that the party first explains, in a way it hasn’t so far, what a merger will mean. For anti-merger LDP and Komeito politicians, convincing voters there is no meaning to a merger and hoping that message has gotten through when the referendum is held, all the while remaining on good terms with their Nippon Ishin-friendly Tokyo bosses, is now the key to their political survival. View from Osaka is a monthly column that examines the latest news from a Kansai perspective.
|
ldp;referendum;komeito;ichiro matsui;osaka ishin no kai
|
jp0003953
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2019/05/18
|
Abe, Trump unlikely to issue joint statement following their meeting in Tokyo in late May
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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump are unlikely to issue a joint statement when they meet in Tokyo later this month, apparently to avoid exposing differing views on bilateral trade and North Korea issues, Japanese government sources said Saturday. Joint statements are not legally binding but are treated as an important diplomatic document. The talks between Abe and Trump are being arranged for May 27 upon Trump’s visit to Japan as the first state guest to meet with Emperor Naruhito. According to the sources, Abe and Trump are facing difficulties in striking a deal on the bilateral trade agreement launched in April, with Washington seeking to reduce the hefty U.S. trade deficit with Japan. The longtime security allies have also found themselves on different pages when it comes to dealing with Pyongyang following its recent launch of short-range ballistic missiles. Japan protested the move as a violation of U.N. resolutions while Trump reportedly said he did not regard it as a “breach of trust” by North Korea. Given the divide, the Japanese and U.S. governments believe the differences are great enough that a joint statement is not feasible at this time, the sources said. When Trump’s predecessor, U.S. President Barack Obama, visited Japan in 2014 as a state guest, the two governments crafted a joint statement that touched on, among other issues, the U.S. defense commitment extending to the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, which China claims as its territory. Instead of issuing such a document this time, the Japanese government plans to showcase the “strong relationship of trust” between Abe and Trump through the holding of a joint news conference after their talks, the sources said. The two will also watch live sumo bouts together at Tokyo’s Ryogoku Kokugikan, A Foreign Ministry source said the government plans to explain to the public that there is no need to prepare a new statement, as the two countries issued one following the leaders’ summit in February 2017 in Washington. Trump will visit Japan with first lady Melania Trump for four days from May 25. The Trumps are expected to meet the new emperor, who ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne on May 1, and attend a state banquet to be held at the Imperial Palace. Abe and Trump also plan to play golf and inspect the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s helicopter carrier Kaga.
|
shinzo abe;joint statement;donald trump;japan-u.s .
|
jp0003954
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2019/05/18
|
Possible no-confidence motion against Abe Cabinet could trigger snap election, Japan's top government spokesman says
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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe might call a snap election for the House of Representatives, the powerful lower chamber of the Diet, if opposition parties submit a no-confidence motion against his Cabinet, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga has suggested. Asked whether the submission of a no-confidence motion would be a fair reason for dissolving the Lower House, Suga told a news conference on Friday that it was definitely in the realm of possibility. “That would certainly be the case,” he said. It is unusual for the government’s top spokesman to mention the possibility of a Lower House breakup for a snap election, as dissolving the chamber is considered to be an exclusive matter for the prime minister. The suggestion by Suga came as opposition parties are carefully considering the timing for the possible submission of a no-confidence motion against the Abe Cabinet ahead of the triennial election for the House of Councilors in the summer. There is lingering speculation that Abe could go for a double election covering both chambers to seek public support for a possible decision to postpone — for a third time — a consumption tax hike to 10 percent from 8 percent, currently planned for October.
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shinzo abe;yoshihide suga;elections;diet;cabinet
|
jp0003955
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2019/05/18
|
Kono to discuss economic cooperation between Japan and Central Asian with nations' foreign ministers
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DUSHANBE - Foreign Minister Taro Kono held talks with his counterparts from Central Asia on Saturday to discuss economic cooperation and regional security. In the meeting with the foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, Kono is expected to promote Japan’s high-quality infrastructure exports, according to Japanese officials. The ministers are also likely to discuss ways to promote Central Asia as a tourist destination, the officials said. Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani also participated in the talks. The meeting in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, comes as China increases its influence in the region through its “Belt and Road” development initiative. Kono is scheduled to hold separate talks with the ministers through Sunday before returning home.
|
central asia;tajikistan;taro kono
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jp0003956
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2019/05/18
|
TBS drama misses an opportunity to shine a light on genuine workplace issues
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The most common gripe I hear from white-collar employees at Japanese companies is about the fluid meaning of “quitting time.” The feeling is that even if a worker has finished their tasks for the day, it is considered bad form to leave the office before their colleagues or supervisors do. There are, of course, no established rules that dictate such conduct, and I hesitate to call it a custom but even after three decades of debate over the question of unnecessary overtime and lost productivity in the Japanese workplace, there is still great hesitancy on the part of employees to go home “on time.” This issue is the premise of the TBS drama series “ Watashi, Teiji de Kaerimasu. ” (“I Will Not Work Overtime, Period!”; Tuesdays, 10 p.m.), which is based on a popular novel. The bluntness of the title suggests it’s a comedy. After all, leaving work at 6 p.m. should hardly be considered a rebellious act. So far, the show has used its pseudo-provocative high concept as a means of addressing other workplace issues, such as gender distinctions in job advancement, paid parental leave and problematic hierarchical structures, and, in doing so, passes over the comic potential of its titular idea, that someone who makes a point of leaving the office when they’re supposed to is an iconoclast. The “ watashi ” of the title is Yui Higashiyama (Yuriko Yoshitaka), an employee of a web design firm who hardly knew her father because of his punishing work schedule, and so has made it clear that she will go home every day at 6 p.m., using her favorite Chinese restaurant’s happy hour, which ends at 6:10 p.m., as frivolous justification. Her company, Net Heroes, seems OK with her somewhat defiant stance against convention, and over the course of the first five episodes a philosophy emerges. Higashiyama wants to get married and have kids, and intends to build a career without compromising those goals. When the firm lands a contract with a beverage maker, the project is handed over to Yae Shizugatake (Yuki Uchida), Higashiyama’s mentor at the company who has just returned from maternity leave. Higashiyama is encouraged by the choice, but another colleague, the no-nonsense Mitani (Shishido Kavka), seems slightly miffed since it was her proposal that won the contract. The idea of sticking Shizugatake with this responsibility is that of the new division manager, Fukunaga (Yusuke Santamaria), who, rumor has it, is rebounding from bankruptcy. He gives Shizugatake a chance to jump back on the career track as a working mother, but even with her husband acting as a mostly stay-at-home dad, Shizugatake finds it difficult to juggle her domestic responsibilities and her workload, and immediately makes a huge miscalculation that angers the client. Higashiyama sticks to her designated work hour policy but starts to feel guilty watching Shizugatake put in overtime in her new capacity and then show up in the morning groggy from lack of sleep. Complicating matters is the fact that Fukunaga has brought with him an assistant, Taneda (Osamu Mukai), who was once engaged to Higashiyama. She broke off the relationship because he proved to be too much of a workaholic. Higashiyama’s present fiancee, the mellow, kitchen-savvy Takumi Sawa (Yuichi Nakamaru), works for a rival web design company. She tries to keep this intelligence from her colleagues and when they’re together, she insists Sawa not talk about work. But work is what the series is about, and gradually it reveals its true intentions, which are only marginally concerned with Higashiyama’s contrarian attitude. The fact is, she’s good at her job. As a challenge to her carefree facade Taneda puts her in charge of another new account with a sporting goods manufacturer knowing that she hates sports, which she admits to at the start of her presentation. At first, the company seems offended by her candor, but one executive appreciates it, as well as her idea, which is to broaden the company’s customer base from diehard athletes to the general public. In other words, the show isn’t really about working hours, and although there are similarities in the way advertising campaigns are incorporated into storylines, no viewer is going to expect “Mad Men” (no sex, no existential angst). At the same time, no one should expect the late Hitoshi Ueki , either. In the 1960s, Ueki starred in a series of feature films as “Japan’s most irresponsible man,” an office factotum who took advantage of his company position to have fun and basically shirk work. He was a corrective to the stereotype of the selfless “corporate warrior” even before the stereotype was firmly established, a pop-culture figure of resistance during Japan’s headlong charge into the global industrial breach. More significantly, he was genuinely funny. “I Will Not Work Overtime, Period!” is too respectful of viewers’ feelings about work to make fun of its situations, preferring instead to be critical of office norms that confound productivity or interfere with workers’ nonwork existence. It’s obvious that Shizugatake’s work-life imbalance cannot be solely blamed on her job. Although her husband is a thoroughly hands-on father, he still expects Shizugatake to fold laundry and pack lunch boxes. In what passes for a running joke, she inadvertently keeps important baby-related documents in her handbag and has to dispatch Higashiyama to messenger them to her husband when emergencies arise. Then there’s Higashiyama’s subordinate, Kurusu (Yuki Izumisawa), a freshman employee who keeps threatening to quit. It’s a common enough real-life circumstance that the producers could have exploited it for a laugh, but they address it earnestly, as if it were an issue on par with Fukunaga’s cluelessly oppressive management style. This semi-serious approach might have made sense 20 years ago when gratuitous overtime was still a rarely discussed problem, but it’s been in the news for at least a decade now and has even been debated in the Diet . At this point, the most effective route to change is probably not through legislation but via the funny bone.
|
yuki uchida;tbs;yuriko yoshitaka;kafka shishido;yusuke santamaria
|
jp0003957
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2019/05/18
|
Elementary school kids can say the darndest things online
|
People usually don’t take the thoughts of a 10-year-old child too seriously. Elementary school kids can say the darndest things, and only the nastiest of bullies take any notice of them saying something stupid. Unless, that is, the child in question happens to be an online influencer with tens of thousands of followers — then it’s open season. Ten-year-old YouTuber Yutabon operates a channel boasting just over 30,000 followers. Such numbers aren’t particularly impressive in the grand scheme of things, but they’re much better than what most children his age can manage. A clip uploaded during Golden Week includes a segment in which Yutabon tells other children that they shouldn’t attend school classes if they didn’t want to. He has regularly skipped school, according to his videos, and he believes it’s better for kids to do whatever they want instead of subjecting themselves to the misery of compulsory education. Netizens and online media responded with outrage. The video currently boasts 660,000 dislikes compared to just over 4000 likes, a staggering ratio. Scroll further down and brace yourselves as anonymous YouTube commenters rip into Yutabon and his philosophy on life. The conversation suddenly took on a life of its own online, with users on 2chan expressing concern about the future of humanity before digging deeper into the Yutabon’s history, figuring out who his father was in the process. This whole saga spread online, before being picked up by mainstream newspapers and network TV . This in turn spawned more YouTube content, with other popular creators riffing on news segments focused on Yutabon and his parents, while others commented on the entire situation. The father responded to the outcry , while others astutely pointed out that generating controversy only helped influencers’ careers. Yutabon carried on as usual in the midst of all this hate. He has shared videos of him hanging out with a famous scientist , flaunting newspaper articles about himself and giving free hugs to strangers (which, hey, he probably could use after all of this). He didn’t seem to mind that people were downvoting all videos he has ever made and adding a slew of negative comments to his channel. After all, it’s important to keep the content fresh. The Japanese internet ecosystem is fractured, with people divided by political and demographic differences. In spite of this, everyone can unite around a common cause. Take, for example, recent gaffes from Nippon Ishin no Kai’s Hodaka Maruyama or TV presenters trying to wrestle with issues of gender . The issue gets more complicated when kids are involved. Children have become fixtures on social media as platforms such as YouTube and Instagram become part of their lives. Some of the most popular channels on the former prominently feature young children, including Kan & Aki’s Channel (more than 2.6 million subscribers) and Sen, Momo, Ai & Shii’s Channel (which officially has zero subscribers, but tracking site socialbreakers ranks as the fifth most subscribed channel in the country, with videos attracting hundreds of thousands of views). Most of these kid-centric creators make videos for other children — popular clips often feature nothing more than tots opening up toys or visiting kid-friendly places . This is the type of stuff busy parents play (or let their kids stumble upon) when they need a break and, while it may not be particularly nourishing, these uploads tend to be pretty harmless. The presence of kids online, however, seems to unsettle some netizens. Videos featuring children typically receive many dislikes and if comments are enabled, it’s easy to find at least a few negative ones. (YouTube recently disabled comments for videos featuring young children but, as is the case with most policies rolled out by the platform, this has seemingly been applied haphazardly). While some offerings probably do deserve the criticism — a playlist titled “ Videos of children crying ” is an obvious example — the reaction can often feel a little over the top. Compare the videos that are made in Japan to, say, an American child creating videos that feature far-right talking points and you should feel a little better. Yutabon’s controversial remarks bring this online tension to the forefront. If your own 10-year-old child or a student said something like what Yutabon said, you’d probably just roll with it because they are 10 years old . When a kid tries to become the center of attention online, however, people come out swinging, partially out of concern over how it might influence younger viewers and also because it has become almost second nature to lambaste ridiculous statements. It’s a weird sensation, but seems to be the new norm in the social-media age.
|
youtube;japan pulse;yutabon
|
jp0003959
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/05/18
|
Road damage after torrential rain on Yakushima Island leaves about 200 people stranded
|
KAGOSHIMA - A total of at least 10 buses being used to transport mountain hikers and several cars became stranded on Yakushima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture on Saturday following torrential rain, leaving about 200 people trapped there, local officials said. The heavy downpour caused a road near one of the starting points for climbing to cave in, officials at the Yakushima town office said. Rescue workers headed to the area but decided to postpone rescue operations until early Sunday due to continuing bad weather. All the people trapped were safe in the buses and cars as of Saturday night, town officials said. The Yakushima town office issued an evacuation advisory for 6,667 households on the island. Later Saturday night, Kagoshima Prefecture officials requested Ground Self-Defense Force personnel be dispatched to help rescue the stranded people. According to the local meteorological observatory, torrential rain amounting to around 120 millimeters per hour was recorded in the southern area of the town during the late afternoon. Other areas in southern Kyushu also received heavy rain. The Meteorological Agency warned up to 200 millimeters of rain could fall in Kagoshima Prefecture and 180 millimeters could fall in Miyazaki Prefecture in the 24-hour period through 6 p.m. Sunday.
|
kagoshima;yakushima;heavy rain;miyazaki
|
jp0003960
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/05/18
|
U.S. approves missile sales to Japan and South Korea as tensions with Pyongyang return
|
WASHINGTON - The United States said Friday it had approved more than $600 million in sales of air defense missiles to Japan and South Korea as tensions return with North Korea. The State Department said it had approved 94 SM-2 missiles used by ships against air threats, along with 12 guidance systems for a total cost of $313.9 million. It separately gave the green light to sell 160 anti-air AMRAAM missiles and related guidance equipment to Japan for $317 million. The sales “will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States” by assisting key allies and “will not alter the basic military balance in the region,” a State Department statement said. North Korea last week tested what the South Korean military said appeared to be two short-range missiles in its second launch in less than a week. The tests come amid a standstill in negotiations between North Korea and the United States, where U.S. President Donald Trump had boasted of ending Pyongyang’s missile tests. A second summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ended in deadlock in February, with the U.S. side refusing demands to ease sanctions until Pyongyang takes major steps to end its nuclear program.
|
military;weapons;south korea;self defense forces
|
jp0003962
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2019/05/18
|
Chinese court sentences Japanese man accused of stealing state secrets to 5½ years in prison
|
BEIJING - A Chinese court has sentenced a Japanese man who was detained some two years ago on charges of spying to 5½ years in prison, sources have said. The court in the city of Yantai, in the eastern province of Shandong, also ordered the seizure of 30,000 yuan (about ¥480,000) of the man’s personal assets after he was convicted of stealing Chinese state secrets and providing them to an overseas organization, according to the sources. The man in his 70s, who is an official of Chiba Prefecture-based NC Geophysical Survey Co., was detained in March 2017 while he was conducting a geological survey for hot-spring development in Shandong along with his colleagues. A Chinese newspaper had reported that the man was in possession of a massive amount of confidential material, including maps. Six Japanese men involved in hot-spring development were detained in March 2017 in Shandong and the southern Chinese province of Hainan. Four of the six were released later that year. At least nine Japanese nationals are currently detained in China for suspected involvement in espionage or other charges. The man in his 70s is the sixth to face a verdict.
|
courts;prisons;espionage;china-japan relations
|
jp0003963
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2019/05/18
|
Police grill 87-year-old driver over Tokyo crash that left mother and daughter dead
|
An 87-year-old former government official whose car was involved in a fatal crash last month in Tokyo was released from hospital on Saturday before being questioned by police on a voluntary basis, investigators said. “I’m sorry,” Kozo Iizuka, who sustained broken bones after the crash around noon on April 19 in the capital’s Ikebukuro district, said in a weak voice upon entering Mejiro Police Station. When he exited the police station, Iizuka was wearing a face mask and sunglasses and using canes to aid walking. He again said “I’m sorry” to reporters gathered at the entrance, but did not answer questions about possible causes of the accident. While hospitalized, Iizuka also underwent voluntarily questioning by police officers, who seek to charge him with causing death and injury through negligence. The crash killed a 3-year-old girl and her mother, and injured nine others including Iizuka’s wife, who was in the car with him. Iizuka has so far claimed that the brake did not work when his car started to accelerate before striking a guardrail, plowing through crossings and hitting a garbage truck. But police believe he most likely stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake as they have found no technical problems with his car. The accident has added to concerns about the increasing number of elderly drivers on Japan’s roads as the nation’s population rapidly grays.
|
aging society;ikebukuro;car accidents;elderly drivers;kozo iizuka
|
jp0003965
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/05/27
|
Failing to hire women, ECB extends supervision board job deadline: sources
|
FRANKFURT - The European Central Bank has extended a deadline for filling three top jobs at its bank supervision arm after it failed to hire any women for the roles, two sources said, illustrating the bank’s long struggle to attract female talent for senior positions. With only one woman on its 25-member Governing Council and just a handful of women on the Supervisory Board, the ECB has long been criticized by European lawmakers for fostering a culture that favors men, with males holding over three quarters of senior managerial positions. Pressure on the bank only increased in recent months when the top two bank supervisors, Daniele Nouy and Sabine Lautenschlaeger, were replaced by men, seemingly countering the ECB’s stated goal of improving its gender balance. The ECB, which oversees 117 of the eurozone’s biggest banks with €21 trillion ($23.5 trillion) in assets, will now seek applications for the three internal Supervisory Board vacancies until June 12 instead of the original May 15 deadline. An ECB spokesman declined to comment. While the ECB is under no legal obligation to find women for the jobs, picking only men would put it in a politically untenable position and would likely hold up the approval of board member Yves Mersch to become the vice chair of the Supervisory Board, the sources said. Mersch was picked by the ECB’s Governing Council in April to replace Lautenschlaeger as the second-in-command of bank supervision but he still requires the approval of EU lawmakers before he can take up the job. The sources said that ideally there should be at least two women filling the six internal Supervisory Board seats to diffuse political tension over gender inequality. A conflict over gender also risks slowing the Parliamentary approval of ECB board members, a potential headache as ECB President Mario Draghi and board member Benoit Coeure are both due to leave the bank in the coming months. The appointment of Mersch to the ECB board in 2012 was held up for several months due to complaints by lawmakers about gender imbalance.
|
women;european central bank
|
jp0003966
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/05/27
|
Dutch judge rules Schiphol trains must run during strike
|
THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS - A Dutch judge Sunday ruled against plans by the country’s largest trade union to allow train drivers serving Amsterdam’s busy Schiphol airport to join a country-wide strike. Thousands of bus, train and tram drivers are expected strike on Tuesday in protest at government plans to raise the retirement age from 66 and to demand higher pension payments. “Our right to call a 24-hour strike remains, with the exception of a limited number of trains running to and from Schiphol,” the FNV union said in a statement. “There will be four trains an hour between Schiphol and Amsterdam Central station … in order to guarantee public order at the airport,” the FNV said. Last year, Schiphol was Europe’s third-busiest airport, with 71.5 million passengers, behind London Heathrow and Paris-Charles de Gaulle, according to figures by the Airports Council International Europe (ACI). Apart from being the gateway to Amsterdam, Schiphol is also a major transit hub for flights from all around the globe. The decision by the judge comes after negotiations between Schiphol Airport’s management and the FNV broke down earlier on Sunday “despite intensive talks,” the FNV said. Schiphol, in a statement, warned of “traffic congestion, limited train access and no buses” during Tuesday’s strike. “If you’re traveling to or from Schiphol Airport on 28 May, please note that traveling by train is limited and trains and stations will be crowded,” the airport said. Although no figures are available, FNV spokeswoman Mariette van Dijk told AFP that “thousands of bus, train and tram drivers, as well as ferry boat captains” were expected to join the strike. Tuesday’s day-long strike follows similar industrial action in March, when public transport was shut down for 66 minutes — symbolic of the current retirement age. But the government led by business-friendly Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s Liberal VVD party accelerated plans to increase the etirement age to 67 years in 2021 and 67 years and three months in 2022. “People are healthier and they live longer,” the Dutch government said on its pensions website. “The higher life expectancy makes working for longer and a gradual increase in the state pension age possible,” the Dutch government said.
|
netherlands;unions;strikes;fnv;schiphol airport
|
jp0003967
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/05/27
|
Teva to pay $85 million settlement in Oklahoma opioid case; J&J trial looms
|
WILMINGTON, DELAWARE/NEW YORK - Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. agreed to pay $85 million to settle an Oklahoma lawsuit claiming that illegal marketing of its opioid painkillers contributed to a public health crisis in the state. The deal, announced Sunday, was reached just as the case was about to go to trial next week. The state had alleged Teva and co-defendant Johnson & Johnson persuaded doctors to boost prescriptions of the powerful medications to treat ailments for which they weren’t approved, causing overdose deaths and drug addiction. The trial against remaining defendant J&J, which the state has called the “kingpin” of the U.S. opioid crisis, is expected to start on Tuesday. The terms of the settlement may take up to two weeks to finalize, and the money will be used to “abate the opioid crisis in Oklahoma,” Attorney General Mike Hunter said in a statement. Oklahoma had been seeking at least $10 billion in damages and penalties. The trial will be the first test of public-nuisance laws against opioid manufacturers and distributors. At least 42 states and more than 1,600 municipalities have sued companies in the industry, demanding billions of dollars in damages. The last-minute deal in Oklahoma means some of the focus on opioid litigation shifts to Cleveland, where a federal judge has set two test trials for October to allow juries to consider public-nuisance claims over drug-marketing campaigns. The accord comes about two months after Purdue Pharma LP agreed to pay $270 million to resolve Oklahoma’s claims over sales pitches for its opioid-based painkiller, OxyContin. Purdue sought a deal to ease mounting liabilities that have threatened to push the company into bankruptcy. The money was earmarked for research and treatment. Oklahoma said J&J and Teva helped create a public-health crisis from opioid abuse that killed thousands of its residents. The state, in its lawsuit, accused the companies of overstating the painkillers’ benefits and understating their risks, which created a “devastating cycle of over-prescription” that was “built on addiction, dependence and a market saturated with misinformation regarding the benefits and safety of those drugs.” Teva’s settlement doesn’t establish any wrongdoing on the part of the company. The case is State of Oklahoma v. Purdue Pharma LP, CJ-2017-816, Cleveland County, Oklahoma, District Court (Norman).
|
u.s .;medicine;drugs;oklahoma;opioids;j & j;teva
|
jp0003968
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/05/27
|
Carlos Ghosn's family seeks U.N. help against 'judicial persecution' in Japan
|
PARIS - The family of former Renault and Nissan head Carlos Ghosn has submitted another request for U.N. intervention against what it says is his “judicial persecution” in Japan, according to one of their lawyers. Jessica Finelle said the family had approached the working group on arbitrary detention at the Office of the U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights to see if they could provide some redress. In the request, the lawyers say bail conditions imposed on Ghosn amounted to “house arrest” and were intended to weaken him psychologically ahead of his trial. Ghosn was dramatically arrested in November as he stepped off his private jet in Tokyo. He was held for 108 days as prosecutors investigated financial misconduct allegations and charged him with three counts. He finally won bail in March, agreeing to conditions including living in a court-appointed residence monitored by cameras. But prosecutors then leveled a fresh allegation against him in April and he was rearrested, spending another 21 days in detention before winning bail a second time. The former Nissan chief is now preparing for trial on four charges of financial misconduct, ranging from concealing part of his salary to using Nissan funds for personal expenses. Lawyers for the family claimed in the latest request to the U.N.’s working committee on arbitrary detention that the number and scale of the conditions imposed on Ghosn amounted “in effect to house arrest, meaning that his provisional detention continues and he is still deprived of his liberty.” The restrictions, “especially the prohibition of any direct contact with his wife, appear to be abuse aimed at tiring him out psychologically and to put him in a position of weakness … in violation of the right to a fair trial,” according to the documents. “This really amounts to a form of judicial persecution of Carlos Ghosn, who is prohibited from meeting his wife, even for an hour in the presence of lawyers,” they said. Describing Ghosn as being held “hostage,” the lawyers go on to demand that the U.N. working group declare the Japanese measures to be “arbitrary” and to urge authorities to “release (him) without delay. Lawyer Finelle said that even if the U.N. working group has no power to compel Japan to act differently, “it is still a matter of image for the Japanese.” She said she hopes for a decision before Ghosn’s court case begins, which might not be until next year.
|
tokyo;france;u.n .;nissan;renault;carlos ghosn;jessica finelle
|
jp0003969
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/05/27
|
Company clears early hurdle for Alaska North Slope oil project
|
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA - A company seeking to develop a large oil project on Alaska’s North Slope has won a key federal permit. Alaska’s Energy Desk reported that Papua New Guinea-based Oil Search announced that it had received a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for its Pikka development, which is planned west of Prudhoe Bay. The permit was issued Tuesday, Corps spokesman John Budnik told The Associated Press by email. The permit is one of many the project will need to advance. The company also needs dozens of state and local permits. State analysts say the project has potential to contribute significantly to future Alaska production. Oil Search estimates the project could produce about 120,000 barrels of oil per day. So far this year, the trans-Alaska pipeline system, which was designed to move oil from the North Slope to a port in Valdez, has been averaging around 515,000 barrels of oil a day. Oil Search has proposed building up to three drill sites, about 25 miles of roads and about 35 miles of pipelines, a central processing facility, two bridges and an operations center with beds for 200 workers. Its project is in an area seen as a new hot spot for oil activity on the western North Slope, with ConocoPhillips also pursuing projects in the region. The Pikka development would be on state and Alaska Native-owned land, as close as seven miles to the village of Nuiqsut. There have been talks to reach a land-use agreement with Kuukpik Corp., the Alaska Native village corporation for Nuiqsut. Questions have been raised about how the project will affect subsistence hunting and fishing for Nuiqsut residents. Oil Search has made several changes to address the village’s concerns. Oil Search Alaska President Keiran Wulff in a statement said the company is committed to “close collaboration with the people and organizations of Nuiqsut.”
|
u.s .;environment;alaska;papua new guinea;oil search;prudhoe bay
|
jp0003970
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/05/27
|
New consortium to accelerate climate-related corporate disclosures in Japan
|
A consortium designed to facilitate corporate information disclosures on climate change was launched Monday — a move aimed at encouraging financial institutions to make investments based on climate risks. The body is expected to provide financial institutions with better access to information on how the businesses they plan to invest in will affect climate change. “Growth of ESG (environmental, social and governance) investment has been remarkable in recent years … the global capital flow is about to change drastically,” Kunio Ito, a professor at Hitotsubashi University and one of the founders of the consortium, said during the launch event in Tokyo. The 2015 Paris agreement has encouraged financial institutions to evaluate how climate change would affect the businesses they are investing in, Ito said. Following a request from the Group of 20 financial leaders, the Financial Stability Board, an international organization that monitors global financial systems, established in 2015 the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) to look into climate risks. As of Monday, the new Japanese organization had 164 company members, making it the world’s biggest TCFD-supporting consortium. Still, critics claim that companies are not providing enough information, with many complaining of the cost. Discussions on the matter between companies and financial institutions, expected to take place monthly or bimonthly, will be based on recommendations from the TCFD. The consortium will draft a guideline for financial institutions by October. The TCFD recommendations compiled in 2017 are mainly built around four themes — governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets. Last December, an industry ministry panel drafted a guideline on how companies should disclose climate-related information. The consortium has four other founders — Keidanren Chairman Hiroaki Nakanishi, Mitsubishi Corp. President Takehiko Kakiuchi, Japanese Bankers Association Chairman Makoto Takashima and Tokio Marine Holdings Inc. Chairman Shuzo Sumi.
|
g20;meti;investment
|
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