NASA on track to broadcast spaceship's flyby of farthest world ever pictured despite U.S. government shutdown

Abstract: MIAMI - A NASA spaceship is zooming toward the farthest, and quite possibly the oldest, cosmic body ever photographed by humankind, a tiny, distant world called Ultima Thule about 4 billion miles (6.4 billion km) away. The U.S. space agency will ring in the New Year with a live online broadcast to mark the historic flyby of the mysterious object in a dark and frigid region of space known as the Kuiper Belt at 12:33 a.m. Jan. 1 (0533 GMT Tuesday). A guitar anthem recorded by legendary Queen guitarist Brian May — who also holds an advanced degree in astrophysics — will be released just after midnight to accompany a video simulation of the flyby, as NASA commentators describe the close pass on www.nasa.gov/nasalive . Real-time video of the actual flyby is impossible, since it takes more than six hours for a signal sent from Earth to reach the spaceship, named New Horizons, and another six hours for the response to arrive. But if all goes well, the first images should be in hand by the end of New Year’s Day. “It sounds like science fiction, but it’s not,” Alan Stern, the lead planetary scientist on the New Horizons mission, wrote in The New York Times on Monday. He described the New Horizons spaceship as an “amazing piece of American workmanship, operating essentially flawlessly in space for well over a decade.” Its destination, Ultima Thule, “is 17,000 times as far away as the ‘giant leap’ of Apollo’s lunar missions,” he added, recalling that December 1968 marks the 50th anniversary of the first time humans ever explored another world, when U.S. astronauts orbited the Moon aboard Apollo 8. “This week, New Horizons will continue in that legacy,” Stern wrote. “As you celebrate New Year’s Day, cast an eye upward and think for a moment about the amazing things our country and our species can do when we set our minds to it.” Scientists are not sure what Ultima Thule (pronounced TOO-lee) looks like — whether it is round or oblong or even if it is a single object or a cluster. It was discovered in 2014 with the help of the Hubble Space Telescope, and is believed to be 12-20 miles in size. Scientists decided to study it with New Horizons after the spaceship, which launched in 2006, completed its main mission of flying by Pluto in 2015, returning the most detailed images ever taken of the dwarf planet. “At closest approach we are going to try to image Ultima at three times the resolution we had for Pluto,” said Stern during an interview on NASA TV last week. “If we can accomplish that it will be spectacular.” Hurtling through space at a speed of 32,000 mph (51,500 kph), the spacecraft aims to make its closest approach within 2,200 miles of the surface of Ultima Thule. The flyby will be fast, at a speed of 9 miles (14 km) per second. Seven instruments on board will record high-resolution images and gather data about its size and composition. Ultima Thule is named for a mythical, far-northern island in medieval literature and cartography, according to NASA. “Ultima Thule means ‘beyond Thule’ — beyond the borders of the known world — symbolizing the exploration of the distant Kuiper Belt and Kuiper Belt objects that New Horizons is performing, something never before done,” the US space agency said in a statement. According to project scientist Hal Weaver of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, humans didn’t even know the Kuiper Belt — a vast ring of relics from the formation days of the solar system — existed until the 1990s. “This is the frontier of planetary science,” said Weaver. “We finally have reached the outskirts of the solar system, these things that have been there since the beginning and have hardly changed — we think. We will find out.” Despite the partial U.S. government shutdown, sparked by a feud over funding for a border wall with Mexico between President Donald Trump and opposition Democrats, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine vowed that the U.S. space agency would broadcast the flyby. Normally, NASA TV and NASA’s website would go dark during a government shutdown. NASA will also provide updates about another spacecraft, called OSIRIS-REx, that will enter orbit around the asteroid Bennu on New Year’s Eve, Bridenstine said.


Turkish broadcaster says CCTV footage shows men transporting Jamal 'Khashoggi body parts'

Abstract: ANKARA - A Turkish television station has broadcast CCTV footage showing men carrying cases and bags that it says contained slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s body parts. The images shown on A-Haber television late Sunday feature three men carrying five suitcases and two large black bags into the home of the Saudi consul general in Istanbul. The residence lies a short distance from the Saudi Consulate where Khashoggi was murdered in October in a killing that has tested Riyadh’s relations with the West. Citing unnamed Turkish sources, A-Haber said Khashoggi’s dismembered body was inside the cases and bags. Khashoggi, a contributor to the Washington Post, was killed on Oct. 2 shortly after entering the kingdom’s consulate in what Riyadh called a “rogue” operation. The 59-year-old former Saudi insider turned critic was strangled before he was cut up into pieces by a team of 15 Saudis sent to Istanbul for the killing, according to Turkish officials, with media reports suggesting the parts were dissolved in acid. The consulate and the residence were searched by the Turkish authorities in October along with several other locations but Khashoggi’s body has still not been found. There has been speculation that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman ordered the hit but Riyadh has absolved the de facto leader of any blame. Saudi Arabia has also repeatedly rejected Turkish demands to extradite suspects connected to the murder of the journalist, a critic of the crown prince. A-Haber said the bags and suitcases were put into a minibus that traveled the short distance from the consulate to a garage at the residence. The men are then seen taking them inside.

murder
saudi arabia
turkey
mohammed bin salman
jamal khashoggi
a-hader


12,000 police on duty in Paris as 'yellow vests' call protests, embattled Macron seeks togetherness

Abstract: PARIS - Nearly 150,000 police are set to be on duty around France on New Year’s Eve when “yellow vest” protesters have called for another round of anti-government demonstrations. The French capital will be on high alert after repeated clashes over the last month between security forces and the protesters. President Emmanuel Macron is set to make a televised address to the country at 8:00 p.m. (1900 GMT) — at the same time as protesters have been called to gather on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris. The “yellow vest” movement has waned dramatically in the last fortnight, but the prospect of demonstrators mixing with revelers and tourists in Paris will present a new headache for the stretched Paris police force. “What can we expect? Disorder,” Interior Minister Christophe Castaner told reporters as he visited a fire station in Paris. “What I see with the ‘yellow vests’ is a desire to be harmful, not to demonstrate.” The “non-violent and festive” demonstration has been organized on Facebook where nearly 9,000 people have indicated they plan to attend — less than the 12,000 police who will be on duty in Paris. France remains on high alert due to the threat of terrorism, with the latest attack dating to Dec. 11 when five people were killed by a gunman at a Christmas market in Strasbourg. New Year’s Eve also sees many French youths from poverty-wracked areas of the country set fire to hundreds of cars in what has become a grim annual tradition that ties up police officers. Macron’s New Year’s address is hotly awaited by political commentators who expect the 41-year-old to address the “yellow vest” protests, which began in rural France in late November. The often violent demonstrations about low living standards in provincial France capped a difficult year for the centrist leader, whose approval rating has fallen sharply. A new poll out on Monday showed that 31 percent of respondents had a positive opinion of Macron, down one point in a month. The figure was sharply higher than other polls, however, some of which show him with an approval rating in the low 20s. Macron will deliver a speech written to show “authority and togetherness,” his office said, as he looks to start 2019 on a more positive footing. But the president faced fresh embarrassment on Monday from his disgraced ex-bodyguard who revealed that he continued to exchange messages regularly with the president even after he was forced out of his job in July over a scandal. Alexandre Benalla caused the most damaging controversy of Macron’s presidency after he was caught on video roughing up protesters at a demonstration in May while wearing a police helmet. Last week it was revealed that, since being sacked from his job, Benalla had traveled widely on a diplomatic passport to meet foreign officials.

paris
emmanuel macron
new years eve
yellow vests


Firebrand Elizabeth Warren takes step to challenge Trump in 2020 in potential crowded Democratic field

Abstract: WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a liberal firebrand who has taken on Wall Street and traded barbs with Donald Trump, on Monday became the most prominent Democrat to announce a challenge to the Republican president in 2020. Warren said she had formed an exploratory committee, which will allow her to begin raising money to compete in what is expected to be a crowded Democratic primary field before the November 2020 presidential election. She said on Twitter she would announce her decision on whether to run early in 2019. Warren, 69, a senator from Massachusetts since 2013, became one of Trump’s fiercest critics during the 2016 presidential race and they have continued to exchange biting insults during his presidency. Trump mockingly refers to her as “Pocahontas” because of her claim to Native American ancestry. Warren has denounced Trump as an “insecure money grubber” with a platform of “racism, sexism and xenophobia,” while Trump has described the former Harvard Law School professor as “goofy” and a “lowlife” with “a nasty mouth.” Several hours after the announcement, Trump had not responded but Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said on Twitter that Warren was “another extreme far-left obstructionist and a total fraud.” On Monday, Warren released a video in which she outlines her vision of a path to opportunity for all Americans, not just the wealthy. “America’s middle class is under attack,” she says on the video. “How did we get here? Billionaires and big corporations decided they wanted more of the pie and they enlisted politicians to cut them a fatter slice.” Warren is likely to face a crowded field of Democrats, including Sens.Kamala Harris, Corey Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as former Vice President Joe Biden. Former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, President Barack Obama’s housing secretary, formed an exploratory committee this month. In searching for a candidate to run against Trump, Democrats will grapple with the tension between the party’s establishment and progressive wings that flared during the 2016 primary with Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who ran under the Democratic banner. A Warren candidacy can expect opposition from Wall Street. In the U.S. Senate, she has been a strong voice on financial issues and a self-described defender of the ordinary American against powerful interests. Following the 2007-2009 global financial crisis, Warren emerged as a leading critic of Wall Street and continues to advocate for stiffer regulation and oversight, including reinstating a rule that would separate banks’ retail business from their riskier investment banking activities. Warren, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, has fought the Trump administration’s efforts to weaken post-crisis financial rules, going as far as to attack moderate Democrats who backed a May rewrite of the 2010 Dodd-Frank reform law. In a September interview marking 10 years since the financial crisis, Warren was asked about breaking up big banks. “Oh yeah,” she told the New York Times. “Give me a chance.” She also has opposed the administration’s efforts to undermine the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency she helped create, and has pressurized the Federal Reserve to take a tough line on scandal-hit lender Wells Fargo. Many of Warren’s policy positions have focused on economic inequality. She recently offered legislation calling on the U.S. government to manufacture generic drugs to reduce their cost. In 2017 she joined other senators in a proposal to extend the federal Medicare health insurance program for seniors to include everyone. Warren will have plenty of competition from women driving the Democratic Party’s resurgence as well as liberals and progressives, University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato said. Her 80 percent name recognition does not translate into actual support. “Some Democrats swear by her and love her blunt style, while others are put off by her and fear she’d lose to Trump. Warren has a lot of convincing to do,” Sabato said, adding the same is true of many other Democratic contenders. Warren said in September she would take a “hard look” at running for the Democratic nomination in 2020. In October, she released a DNA analysis she said supported her assertion that she had Native American lineage that goes back six to 10 generations. Trump’s use of the name Pocahontas, a 17th century Native American woman associated with the British colony in Jamestown, Virginia, was aimed at drawing attention to a controversy over her heritage raised during Warren’s 2012 Senate race. Trump’s reference has drawn criticism from some Native American groups while others criticized Warren for trying to lay claim to a tribal nation.

banks
gop
native americans
democrats
elizabeth warren
donald trump
medicare
pocahontas
2020 u.s. presidential election


Trump softens Syria pullout schedule but claims 'hero' status for extracting U.S. from wars

Abstract: WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump appeared to backtrack Monday on shock plans for an immediate pullout of US troops from Syria, but said his drive to end American involvement in wars made him a “hero.” The shift came a day after a senior Republican senator said Trump had promised to stay in Syria to finish the job of defeating the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS. Trump had earlier stunned allies — and prompted the resignation of his respected defense secretary, Jim Mattis — by abruptly announcing that the jihadis were defeated and that U.S. troops in Syria were ready to leave. However, in a tweet early Monday, Trump seemed to signal a more cautious schedule for pulling out the troops which support local forces. “We’re slowly sending our troops back home to be with their families, while at the same time fighting ISIS remnants,” Trump wrote. In contrast to previously emphatic victory declarations, Trump said that “ISIS is mostly gone.” But reflecting his frustration at the outpouring of criticism over his Syria strategy, Trump lashed out at opponents and the media, saying he should be given more credit. “If anybody but Donald Trump did what I did in Syria, which was an ISIS loaded mess when I became President, they would be a national hero,” Trump tweeted. “The results are FAR BETTER than I ever said they were going to be! I campaigned against the NEVER ENDING WARS, remember!” the president tweeted. Trump also wants to bring home about half of the 14,000 soldiers locked in a 17-year war against Afghanistan’s Taliban guerrillas, although no formal announcement has been made. In Syria, about 2,000 U.S. soldiers operate alongside other foreign troops to assist local fighters battling Islamic State, a jihadi group that once held territory across much of Iraq and Syria and set up its own ultra-Islamist government. Though much reduced, and forced into hiding, it is still believed to comprise thousands of guerrillas. The U.S.-led coalition launched its first raids against Islamic State in September 2014, more than two years before Trump won the U.S. election. U.S.-backed forces seized the jihadis’ self-declared capital Raqqa on Oct. 17, 2017. Part of Trump’s appeal in his surprise 2016 election victory was his promise to get the United States out of post-9/11 wars in the Middle East. During a lightning visit to U.S. troops based in Iraq last week, Trump said the United States would no longer be the world’s “policeman. “We’re in countries that most people have never even heard about,” he said, referring to U.S. combat deployments, including in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. “We don’t want to be taken advantage of any more by countries that use us and use our incredible military to protect them,” he said. The view is popular with many Americans, but critics, including some of Washington’s closest allies, say the United States cannot abandon its traditional leadership role. On Sunday, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is one of Trump’s principal allies in an increasingly unfriendly Congress, lunched at the White House to urge a rethink on Syria. Graham emerged after two hours, saying Trump “understands the need to finish the job.” “I think the president is committed to making sure when we leave Syria that ISIS is completely defeated,” Graham said. Another prominent critic of the pullout was retired U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan. On Sunday he warned on ABC’s “This Week” that a U.S. pullout would likely cause “greater instability” in the region. In response to the uproar, Trump national security adviser John Bolton will soon visit allies Turkey and Israel, which each have their own complex goals in Syria’s multidimensional civil war.

conflict
u.s .
syria
afghanistan
lindsey graham
donald trump
jim mattis


Trump taunts Democrats over Mexico 'wall' negotiations

Abstract: WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump taunted the Democrats on Monday over their refusal to meet his demand for funding of a U.S.-Mexican border wall — a dispute that has sparked a partial government shutdown. “I’m in the Oval Office. Democrats, come back from vacation now and give us the votes necessary for Border Security, including the Wall,” Trump tweeted. Congress is in recess for the New Year’s holiday but will reopen on Thursday, while Trump has stayed in the White House through the year-end festivities, shelving his annual vacation to his private Florida golf resort amid the impasse. To retaliate over the Democrats’ refusal to fund the wall, Trump is refusing to sign a wider spending package. That has resulted in swaths of the federal government being shut down over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays — and for the foreseeable future until a deal is reached. The standoff has turned into a test of strength between Trump and the Democrats, who will enter the new Congress in 2019 as the majority in the House of Representatives, after a decisive victory in the November midterm elections. Trump says a wall is needed along the whole border to keep out migrants trying to enter the country illegally, casting them as an “invasion” force of dangerous criminals. On Monday, he called the border “an ‘Open Wound,’ where drugs, criminals (including human traffickers) and illegals would pour into our Country.” Democrats say the wall idea — one of the president’s key election campaign platforms — is a distraction from more complicated immigration problems and a tool for Trump to whip up support among his conservative base. Democrats plan to put the ball back in Trump’s court immediately on Thursday by passing a general spending bill that would allow the government to reopen fully, but would not include extra wall construction money, U.S. media reports said. The bill will go from the Democratic-controlled House to the Republican-held Senate and from there, it would need Trump’s signature. If he refused, still insisting on the wall funding, Democrats would then get ammunition to accuse him of being responsible for the government shutdown. Attempts to craft a compromise have so far gained lukewarm support from the two sides. One proposal would see extra funding for border barriers and other security, while also meeting the Democrats’ demand for work permits for young immigrants referred to as “Dreamers.”

immigration
democrats
donald trump
dreamers


Top world news of 2018

Abstract: The Japan Times newsroom selected the following world news stories as the most important of 2018. 1. Korean detente : North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s meetings with presidents Moon Jae-in and Donald Trump led to a detente and a vaguely worded statement that the North would “work toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” while committing to a “lasting stable peace.” What stance will Kim take in 2019? British Prime Minister Theresa May stands outside No. 10 Downing Street following a special session of Brexit discussions in November. | BLOOMBERG 2. Brexit limbo : The U.K.’s planned divorce from the European Union experienced a rocky year, with Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan facing staunch opposition from within her own party. Calls for a second referendum have risen, and fears of a no-deal Brexit have prompted preparations for possible contingencies. Chinese President Xi Jinping (center) arrives for the opening session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People in March. | AP 3. In it for the long run : In March, China removed presidential term limits from its constitution, allowing Xi Jingping to stay in power indefinitely. Xi has consolidated his power, had his name and ideology enshrined in Communist Party doctrine and has become the most powerful leader in China since Mao Zedong. A mother and son walk along a California highway as the Woosley fire threatens their Malibu home. Many were quick to draw a connection between the fires in the area, which have been steadily increasing, and global climate change. | REUTERS 4. Hot in here : In October, climate scientists warned the world has just 12 years to limit climate change in order to stave off floods, drought, extreme heat and mass poverty. In December, international negotiators at the COP24 conference in Poland agreed to set stricter targets for emissions cuts under the Paris agreement. Rushan Abbas of Herndon, Virginia, holds a photo of her sister, Dr. Gulshan Abbas, who is one of the many Uighurs reportedly being detained in China. | AP 5. Mass detention : A U.N. panel said in August it had received credible reports that 1 million ethnic Uighurs were being held in China in what was referred to as a “massive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy.” Western nations called for action, but China defended the detentions as “vocational training.” A demonstrator outside the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul holds a poster of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi who was allegedly killed and dismembered inside the consulate. | REUTERS 6. Media under fire : The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that 53 journalists were killed for their work in 2018, doubling the figure from 2017. The killing of one of those journalists, Jamal Khashoggi, in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul in October sparked a diplomatic crisis between Saudi Arabia and its allies. U.S. President Donald Trump exchanges words with the media over Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election on the South Lawn of the White House in November. | BLOOMBERG 7. Closing in : Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian influence on the 2016 U.S. presidential election produced a wealth of indictments, guilty pleas and convictions. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted of fraud, and the president’s one-time fixer Michael Cohen was handed a three-year prison term. Rohingya refugees crew a fishing boat in the Bay of Bengal near Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh. United Nations investigators accused Myanmar’s military of having ‘genocidal intent’ in dealing with the Rohingya. | REUTERS 8. ‘Genocidal intent’ : In August, U.N. human rights investigators released a report accusing Myanmar’s military of engaging in mass killings and rapes of the country’s Rohingya population with “genocidal intent.” Stalled repatriation plans in November left the future in doubt for 700,000 Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh camps. He Jiankui of the Southern University of Science and Technology in China attends a panel discussion on genome editing in Hong Kong in November. His peers were unhappy with his claim he had created the world’s first gene-edited babies. | BLOOMBERG 9. Mad scientists : In November, a Chinese scientist claimed to have helped create the world’s first gene-edited babies, leading to shock and ethics concerns across the scientific community. In a letter, 120 Chinese scientists joined the outcry, calling the experiment “crazy.” A Honduran woman and her 5-year-old twin daughters run from tear gas in front of the border wall between the United States and Mexico in Tijuana in November. | REUTERS 10. Zero tolerance : In April, the Trump administration began a policy of separating children from migrant families, drawing outcry that led to a reversal in June. Ahead of the midterm elections in November, Trump politicized a caravan of thousands of migrants heading toward the U.S. border with Mexico.

kim jong un
xi jinping
climate change
rohingya
uighurs
donald trump
brexit
caravan
jamal khashoggi
2018 in review


Dozens missing amid hunt for survivors as Putin rushes to scene of deadly high-rise gas blast

Abstract: MOSCOW - Rescuers hunted for survivors on Monday after a gas explosion tore through a high-rise residential building in central Russia, killing at least four people and leaving several dozen unaccounted for. President Vladimir Putin rushed to the Urals city of Magnitogorsk, where the blast left hundreds of residents homeless in freezing temperatures on New Year’s Eve — the biggest holiday of the year in Russia. National television showed rescue workers combing through mangled heaps of concrete and metal in temperatures of minus 18 Celsius (minus 0.4 F). A large section of the building collapsed after the explosion around 6:00 a.m. local time (1100 GMT) at the high-rise in the industrial city of Magnitogorsk, nearly 1,700 km (1,050 miles) east of Moscow in the Ural mountains. Officials said four people were confirmed dead and five had been taken to hospital, but that up to 40 could still be trapped under the rubble. “I went out to have a cigarette at quarter-to-six,” a local man told Russian television. “There was a blast and a wave of fire … then people started running out.” Other witnesses said the explosion was strong enough to shatter the windows of nearby buildings. Russian television showed a grim-looking Putin in a black winter jacket meeting with local officials. He was also shown donning a white coat and visiting a victim in a hospital. Senior officials, including the emergencies and health ministers, flew to Magnitogorsk to oversee the rescue operation. Emergencies minister Yevgeny Zinichev told Putin that between 36 and 40 people could be trapped under the rubble. Regional governor Boris Dubrovsky said seven children were among the missing. Authorities said rescue teams were to work through the night, with local temperatures expected to plunge to minus 23 Celsius (minus 9 Fahrenheit). Officials warned that two more sections of the Soviet-era high-rise on Karl Marx Street were in danger of collapsing. Located in the mineral-rich southern Urals region, Magnitogorsk, with a population of more than 400,000 people, is home to one of the country’s largest steel producers. The high-rise was built in 1973 and was home to around 1,100 people. Residents were evacuated to a nearby school. Volunteers offered money, clothing and essentials to the victims, and some said they were ready to provide temporary shelter to those in need. Dubrovsky, the local governor, said authorities planned to buy apartments for people who had lost their homes. Staff from the local Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK), one of the country’s largest steelmakers, took part in the rescue operation. Billionaire Viktor Rashnikov, who controls the plant, called on city residents to help the victims. “This is our common tragedy and pain,” he said in a statement, adding that MMK would provide financial assistance to those in need. Investigators opened a criminal probe into the accident, with the FSB security service confirming the blast had been the result of a gas explosion. Such deadly gas explosions are relatively common in Russia, where much of the infrastructure dates back to the Soviet era and safety requirements are often ignored.

vladimir putin
russia
safety
fsb
high-rise accidents
magnitogorsk


Jimmy Carter says U.S. and China should partner in Africa development, not slide into new Cold War

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter warned Monday of the risks of sliding into a Cold War with China and called on the powers to find common cause on African development. Marking the 40th anniversary of his January 1979 normalization of relations with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, Carter voiced concern that both countries were increasingly describing each other as threats. “If top government officials embrace these dangerous notions, a modern Cold War between our two nations is not inconceivable,” the 94-year-old former president wrote in The Washington Post. “At this sensitive moment, misperceptions, miscalculations and failure to follow carefully defined rules of engagement in areas such as the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea could escalate into military conflict, creating a worldwide catastrophe,” he warned. Carter, who has devoted his post-presidential career to eradicating poverty, said that the “easiest route” to cooperation between the United States and China was in Africa. “Both countries are already heavily involved there in fighting disease, building infrastructure and keeping peace — sometimes cooperatively. Yet each nation has accused the other of economic exploitation or political manipulation,” Carter wrote. “Africans — like billions of other people around the world — do not want to be forced to choose a side. “By working together with Africans, the United States and China would also be helping themselves overcome distrust and rebuild this vital relationship,” he wrote. The United States has stepped up warnings to developing countries about Chinese assistance, accusing Beijing of wooing countries with projects that become debt traps. U.S.-China tensions have soared in 2018 over trade disputes, although President Donald Trump has frozen the latest planned tariff hike and on Saturday reported “big progress.”

china
africa
u.s .
cold war
jimmy carter
donald trump
trade war


Islamic State affiliate suspected as shopping mall bomb kills two in restive south Philippines

Abstract: COTABATO, PHILIPPINES - Two people were killed and around 35 others wounded Monday after a bomb went off outside a shopping mall in the southern Philippine city of Cotabato, police said. The explosion prompted officers to search the mall, leading to the discovery of another suspected bomb which they destroyed, said local police spokesman Chief Inspector Rowell Zafra. A female street vendor and one man were killed, while many of the wounded were shoppers buying goods for traditional New Year festivities. Three of the wounded were in critical condition, officials said. Scattered debris including items sold for New Year celebrations such as horns made from cardboard and plastic, gifts and a bloody slipper lay at the mall’s entrance where the bombing took place. Windows of surrounding buildings were shattered by the blast, eyewitnesses said. Investigators could not immediately say what kind of bomb was used or name any suspects. However, local army commander Maj. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana told ABS-CBN television that an individual was seen carrying a box that he left in front of the mall. It exploded a few seconds later. Sobejana said the bomb had the signature of a “Daesh group,” referring to local Islamist extremists who have declared allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group. He said the military had some “leads” in the incident but did not elaborate. The southern part of the largely Catholic Philippines has been rocked for decades by violent Muslim separatist insurgent groups, including militants linked to IS. More than 100,000 lives have been claimed by the rebellion, according to a government count. The region has also suffered from banditry, bloody feuds between powerful clans and communist guerrilla activity. In September and August, bombs went off in Isulan town, 77 km (48 miles) south of Cotabato, killing at least three people. Authorities said the main suspect in these blasts was the pro-IS Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) armed group. The latest bombing comes as the southern Philippines prepares for a plebiscite in January for the creation of a Muslim autonomous area as part of an effort to end the separatist insurgency. Many of the IS-linked groups have openly rejected these peace efforts. Cotabato Mayor Cynthia Sayadi said that despite the bombing, “we will try to assure the people that … their right to vote (in the plebiscite) will be protected. President Rodrigo Duterte put the southern Mindanao region under martial rule until the end of 2018 after pro-IS militants seized the city of Marawi last year. Earlier this month, legislators approved an extension of this martial law until the end of 2019.

terrorism
philippines
islamic state
rodrigo duterte
marawi
cotabato


IN PICTURES: Japan says good night to 2018, good morning to 2019

Abstract: Japan greeted 2019 — the year of the boar, according to the Chinese astrological calendar — Monday evening and Tuesday morning with traditional visits to both major and minor temples and not-so-traditional events, such as the massive one at the famous Shibuya Crossing, where thousands gathered to shout the countdown displayed on digital signboards. Hours after revelers toasted the new year, early birds ascended to prime viewing spots to witness the first sunrise of 2019. Here is a selection of scenes from the dawning of the new year in Japan. On New Year’s Eve, visitors make their way up the stairs to Kamakura’s famous Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, a shrine first established in 1063. | RYUSEI TAKAHASHI A golden retriever gets in the spirit. | RYUSEI TAKAHASHI Shrine monks carry collected talismans to be burned in otakiage rite. Traditionally, good-luck charms from the previous year are destroyed around New Year’s. | RYUSEI TAKAHASHI Omamori talismans are displayed before being burned at a otakiage (bonfire). | RYUSEI TAKAHASHI RYUSEI TAKAHASHI Priests carry the o-mamori to be blessed and burned. | RYUSEI TAKAHASHI Samurai cosplayers pose Monday afternoon at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, one of the major shrines in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture. | RYUSEI TAKAHASHI Stalls selling traditional festival fare prep for the long evening at Hachimangu. | RYUSEI TAKAHASHI Traditional and contemporary icons mingle on a stall’s mask rack near Kenchoji temple in Kamakura. | RYUSEI TAKAHASHI A monk of Kenchoji temple in Kamakura prepares for the joyo-no-kane rite at midnight. At many temples, a large bell is run 108 times. | RYUSEI TAKAHASHI Some temples allow ordinary visitors, who show up early, the chance to be one of the bell-ringers. | RYUSEI TAKAHASHI The rite is purifying in nature, as it is believed that 108 gongs of the bell are believed to represent evil passions. | RYUSEI TAKAHASHI Thousands of revelers fill the Shibuya ‘scramble’ crossing and shout the countdown to a new year. | KYODO Crowds line up for hatsumode (first temple visit of the year) at Naritasan Shinshoji, a temple founded in 940. | YOSHIAKI MIURA The Great Peace Pagoda (Heiwa no Daito) looms over the grounds of Naritasan Shinshoji. | YOSHIAKI MIURA Temple maidens sell talismans ( omamori ) at Naritasan Shinshoji temple in Narita. | YOSHIAKI MIURA Visitors to Naritasan Shinshoji display a new purchased kumade , ornamental rakes believed to bring prosperity in the new year. | YOSHIAKI MIURA A stall near Naritasan Shinshoji sells daruma. The dolls and modeled after Bodhidharma, a Buddhist monk famous for focus and dedication. | YOSHIAKI MIURA Thousands crowd the grounds of Naritasan Shinsoji on New Year’s Eve. | YOSHIAKI MIURA Stalls selling traditional festival fare are open until the early morning. | YOSHIAKI MIURA Monks ring the large temple bell at Naritasan Shinsoji. | YOSHIAKI MIURA Customarily before praying, temple visitors throw money into large offering collection boxes. | YOSHIAKI MIURA Crowds at Nartiasan Shinshoji | YOSHIAKI MIURA Nartiasan Shinshoji | YOSHIAKI MIURA Visitors to Ikegami Honmonji burn incense before entering the temple to pray for good luck in the new year. | MARK THOMPSON People line up to enter Ikegami Honmonji, one of Tokyo’s largest temples. | MARK THOMPSON Monks sell omamori, talismans believe to protect their owners over the next year. | MARK THOMPSON Sunrise at Naritasan Shinshoji | YOSHIAKI MIURA People witness the first sunrise of the new year from Naritasan Shinshoji on Tuesday morning. | YOSHIAKI MIURA Early-morning visitors to Naritasan Shinshoji | YOSHIAKI MIURA


2020 Olympic torches to be made of recycled aluminum from Fukushima temporary housing

Abstract: Recycled aluminum from temporary housing in disaster-hit Fukushima Prefecture is expected to be used in the crafting of Tokyo 2020 Olympic torches, sources have said. The plan, revealed Monday, is likely to attract interest in Japan and abroad as being another symbolic effort to uphold one of the main themes of the July 24-Aug. 9 Summer Games as a “reconstruction Olympics.” Fukushima Prefecture was devastated by the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and ensuing nuclear disaster. More than 10,000 pieces of aluminum are expected to be needed for the torches, used by runners in the nationwide relay beginning after the Olympic flame arrives in Japan from Greece on March 20, 2020. According to sources, organizers will need to coordinate with local governments in order to determine which metals can be procured from temporary housing no longer in use. Tokyo 2020 organizers are also collecting metals from used electronics handed in by consumers nationwide to forge the approximately 5,000 medals to be awarded at the games. Organizers said in October they had reached their target for bronze medals. The “flame of reconstruction” will first be displayed in Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima prefectures, the three hardest hit by the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami that devastated a large portion of the Tohoku region. The Japan leg of the relay will begin in Fukushima on March 26, and will travel across all 47 prefectures nationwide over a period of 121 days before arriving in Tokyo for the opening ceremony. The design of the torch, which has already been approved by the International Olympic Committee, will be announced next spring.

fukushima
olympics
3.11
2020 tokyo olympics
2020 tokyo paralympics


Japan to begin collecting ¥1,000 departure tax from next Monday

Abstract: Japan will start collecting from next Monday a departure tax of ¥1,000 for each person leaving the country by aircraft or ship regardless of nationality. Under the relevant law enacted last April, the levy will be collected each time an individual leaves the country, and comes on top of airfare, ship fare and travel fees. The government plans to utilize the revenue from the tax for measures to accommodate more foreign visitors to the country, develop tourism bases and improve immigration procedures, officials said. People leaving Japan within 24 hours of their transit entry and children under 2 years old will be exempted from the departure tax. Those with tickets purchased and issued before Monday will be basically exempted from the tax. The revenue from the tax is estimated to hit ¥6 billion in fiscal 2018 through March 2019 and ¥50 billion in fiscal 2019. Specifically, the revenue will be used to set up facial recognition gates at airports for speedier immigration procedures, while also promoting the use of multilingual information boards and helping introduce more cashless payment terminals for public transportation. The number of visitors to Japan has surged in recent years, topping 30 million for the first time ever in 2018. The government has set a goal of increasing the annual number of foreign visitors to 40 million by 2020, when the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will take place. With the departure tax, the government expects to secure stable financial resources for measures to promote tourism, the officials said.


Driver plows through crowds on Tokyo's Takeshita street, injuring nine

Abstract: Nine people were injured — one seriously — when a man rammed his car into pedestrians in the early hours of Tuesday on Harajuku’s famed Takeshita Street in what the driver told police was a terrorist act, according to the authorities. Police arrested Kazuhiro Kusakabe, 21, who was driving a rental car with Osaka license plates, on suspicion of attempted murder. A 19-year-old university student remains unconscious after being hit by the minicar shortly after midnight on the well-known shopping street in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward, which is normally packed with young shoppers and foreign tourists during daylight hours. Investigative sources quoted the man as allegedly saying he had perpetrated an act of terrorism “in retaliation for an execution” and “would not make any excuses” for his actions. It was not immediately clear whether he was referring to a specific execution or Japan’s system of capital punishment. One witness told NHK the scene was “ghastly.” “I saw some guys collapsed on the street. As I walked closer toward the area, many more people had fallen on the ground. By the time I reached the exact place, paramedics were already there helping people,” he said. Another witness, who runs a clothing shop in the area, said, “I am shocked that something like this happened on Takeshita Street.” Kusakabe drove around 140 meters the wrong way on the one-way street, hitting eight men aged between 19 to 51, the police said. The vehicle stopped after crashing into a building. Another man was slightly injured after Kusakabe allegedly struck him after getting out of the car, the police said. Kusakabe fled the scene, but police found him in a nearby park about half an hour later. He purportedly told the police he had driven from Osaka and intended to kill the people he hit. There was a 20-liter tank of kerosene in the rental car, which he said he planned to use to burn the vehicle, the investigative sources said. The incident took place close to Meiji Shrine shortly after midnight. The street was closed to vehicular traffic at the time as it was expected to be crowded on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

tokyo
terrorism
shibuya
harajuku
car attack


A year on, Time's Up movement has taken shape but faces long road to ending sex discrimination

Abstract: NEW YORK - The Time’s Up movement against sexual harassment, founded a year ago, has made tangible progress in the world of showbiz and beyond — by fostering solidarity and encouraging women to speak out — but the road ahead is indeed long. On Jan. 1, 2018, more than 300 top women in Hollywood unveiled a manifesto for change, with the goal of “shifting our society’s perception and treatment of women,” from film sets to farms to auto plants. Tinseltown’s A-listers followed that up with a strong sartorial statement to raise the awareness on the Golden Globes red carpet — the women wore black to drive home the message. But for Lisa Borders, the current president and CEO of Time’s Up, the real shift came later that night when Oprah Winfrey took the stage to accept a lifetime achievement award. “For too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dare speak the truth to the power of those men,” Winfrey said to a standing ovation and even some tears in the audience. “So I want all the girls watching here now to know that a new day is on the horizon.” For Borders, “that was a clarion call.” “I consider this the civil rights movement of the 21st century,” she said last week in an interview with Marie Claire magazine. As the Golden Globes approach once again on Sunday, what exactly has changed in a year? Time’s Up has raised more than $22 million for its legal defense fund, which has already helped more than 4,000 women and men who have reported sexual harassment in the workplace. “At a public awareness perspective, we are better than we were a year ago,” said Ellen Kossek, a professor of management at Purdue University, citing the number of high-powered men who have been fired over their behavior. In the entertainment industry, several top-level scandals over equal pay (Claire Foy making less than her co-star on “The Crown,” for one) have fueled the debate on workplace discrimination of all kinds. According to a survey by the Center for Study of Women in Television and Film, the proportion of women working behind the camera increased by 2 percentage points in 2018 — but still is at only 20 percent. Time’s Up, honoring its mission to look past Hollywood, has given $750,000 to several grassroots organizations, including the Alianza Nacional De Campesinas (National Farmworkers Women’s Alliance). “There’s a lot more potential when you have the resources,” Mily Trevino-Sauceda, the Alianza’s executive director and co-founder, said. Thanks to the attention generated by Time’s Up, her group raised more than $1 million in the past year, after years of toiling with little to no money. The Alianza can now hire its first full-time staffers and work more closely with farm workers who are sexually abused by their employers. “We still have very stubborn companies that think that women are the ones causing the problem,” said Trevino-Sauceda, who says she suffered abuse and harassment herself multiple times. “But we do have certain companies that are looking at getting their supervisors, crew leaders, foremen trained on the subject but because they’re afraid.” Kossek said that in all sectors, “a lot of companies now are hiring consultants for sexual harassment training,” but there is work to be done on evaluating the effectiveness of that training. Even if workplace behavior is slow to evolve, the Time’s Up initiative — combined with the #MeToo movement — has freed up women to speak up. “The women are more willing to speak out, to do interviews — not necessarily that they want their faces to be shown but sharing their stories because they know it can help others,” said Trevino-Sauceda. For Monica Ramirez, the gender justice campaigns director at the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Time’s Up has unleashed a vital public conversation. “It’s the collective power, the collective voice that really has empowered people to begin to talk about what they have experienced,” Ramirez said. “It’s something like I have never seen before.” Ramirez says sexual harassment and gender equality are inextricably linked. “We know that women workers experience different kinds of discrimination in addition to sexual harassment,” she said. The Time’s Up battle cry has made it to Capitol Hill, where workers’ associations are fiercely lobbying lawmakers. “This last year, what helped was that more and more organizations starting talking about how can we collaborate,” Trevino-Sauceda said. “It’s not just how can we share, but how can we partner and collaborate.” The NDWA is looking ahead to this year’s planned introduction of a bill that would reinforce the rights of domestic workers. One of the main sponsors is Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris — a potential presidential candidate for 2020. “Prior to the past year, I don’t think that there was a public conversation about the fact that there are domestic workers across this country who are currently denied the same protection as other workers,” Ramirez said. She is hopeful the new Congress, which has a record number of women, will help forward the Time’s Up movement. “For many of us, the hope is that having more women elected, there will be positive progress for women and girls across the United States,” Ramirez said.

film
celebrities
women
discrimination
time 's up


Phoenix woman in coma for a decade gives birth; police investigate

Abstract: NEW YORK - Phoenix police on Saturday were investigating reports of a sexual assault after a woman who has been hospitalized in a vegetative state for the past decade gave birth. The woman, who was incapacitated after nearly drowning, was a patient at Hacienda Healthcare when she went into labor on Dec. 29 and delivered a baby boy, according to local media. No one knew she was pregnant and staffers were initially unsure why she was moaning, the reports said. “This matter is currently under investigation by the Phoenix Police Department,” Sergeant Tommy Thompson told Reuters when asked about the media reports. Hacienda spokesman David Leibowitz said the facility had recently become aware of a “deeply disturbing incident” involving one of its residents. He declined to say whether its staff were being asked to undergo DNA testing to identify a possible suspect, or whether the facility was taking any preventative measures to protect patients against a similar situation. “While federal and state privacy laws prohibit us from publicly discussing a patient’s health or case, Hacienda has and will continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement and all the relevant regulatory agencies regarding this matter,” Leibowitz said by email. Victim advocate Tasha Menaker, chief strategy officer of the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence, said it would be appropriate for police to run DNA tests on male employees at the facility. Hacienda HealthCare describes itself as Arizona’s leading provider of specialized health care services for medically fragile and chronically ill infants, children, teens and young adults as well as those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. A spokesman for Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said the reports were “deeply troubling” and that the state was re-evaluating its contract and regulatory authority over Hacienda Healthcare to tighten up patient safety measures.


German cyberdefense agency defends handling of data breach

Abstract: BERLIN - Germany’s BSI cyberdefense agency on Saturday defended its role in responding to a far-reaching data breach, saying it could not have connected individual cases it was aware of last year until the entire data release became public. The government said Friday that personal data and documents from hundreds of German politicians and public figures, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, had been published online, in what appeared to be one of Germany’s biggest data breaches. The incident has shocked the establishment and prompted calls for security agencies to clarify whether any security deficiencies they were aware of had been exploited, and if they could have acted sooner to head off the breach. The BSI said in a statement that it was contacted by a lawmaker in early December about suspicious activity on their private email and social media accounts. “Only by becoming aware of the release of the data sets via the Twitter account ‘G0d’ on Jan. 3, 2019, could the BSI in a further analysis on Jan. 4, 2019 connect this case and four other cases that the BSI became aware of during 2018,” it said. “At the beginning of December 2018, it was not foreseeable that there would be more cases.” The BSI said Friday all but one of the seven parties in the lower house had been affected. German media said that party was the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD). Last year, lawmakers said a powerful cyberattack had breached the Foreign Ministry’s computer network. Security officials have blamed most previous breaches of data security on a Russian hacking group, while the Kremlin has consistently denied involvement in such incidents. After the latest data breach, Justice Minister Katarina Barley said she was considering stricter security requirements for software makers and Internet platform operators. “We are examining the extent to which stricter legal provisions are useful and necessary here,” she told weekly newspaper Welt am Sonntag, according to a pre-released article. Authorities were investigating all possibilities, including espionage, one government source said Friday, adding that it was unlikely any single person could have compiled the massive amounts of data that had been released. The BSI said investigations so far had showed the data breaches predominantly concerned private and personal accounts, but that it is responsible for the operational protection of government networks.

internet
hacking
angela merkel
germany
privacy
computers


Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, America's youngest congresswoman, launches term with radical plan

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez began her term as the youngest woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress with a bang by proposing to tax the ultrarich at 60 or 70 percent. The daughter of hardscrabble working-class parents, the 29-year-old New Yorker was working toward making good on a campaign promise. “People are going to have to pay their fair share of taxes,” she told CBS television’s “60 Minutes,” in excerpts released ahead of its Sunday broadcast. The proposal is part of an ambitious tax plan dubbed the “Green New Deal” that aims to eliminate carbon emissions by 2030. The self-described Democratic Socialist nicknamed “AOC” suggested taxing the ultrawealthy up to 70 percent in order to finance the plan. “It’s going to require a lot of rapid change that we don’t even conceive as possible right now. What is the problem with trying to push our technological capacities to the furthest extent possible?” she asked. To pay for the plan, Ocasio-Cortez floated the idea of tax rates as high as 70 percent on the ultrarich. She referred to the progressive taxation system that was in place in the 1960s before Ronald Reagan took office as president when the top earners paid 70 percent in taxes. That rate then gradually dropped. “You look at our tax rates back in the ’60s and when you have a progressive tax rate system, your tax rate, let’s say, from zero to $75,000 may be 10 percent or 15 percent, etc.,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “But once you get to, like, the tippy tops, on your 10 millionth dollar, sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60 or 70 percent. That doesn’t mean all $10 million are taxed at an extremely high rate. But it means that as you climb up this ladder you should be contributing more.” The top marginal tax rate is now 37 percent, following President Donald Trump’s fiscal reforms. It was previously at 39.6 percent. Even though it has little chance of success, the proposal backed by the young lawmaker has already garnered significant support. It landed her on the front page of the New York Daily News, an image of which Ocasio-Cortez was quick to retweet. A Washington Post analysis found that if the approximately 16,000 Americans who earn more than $10 million each paid 70 percent income taxes for any revenue above that marker, the federal government would rake in around $72 billion per year. But the sum would likely be much lower because individuals falling in that bracket would find ways to avoid the heavy tax burden. In a New York Times op-ed, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman backed Ocasio-Cortez, rejecting “the constant effort to portray her as flaky and ignorant.” “On the tax issue, she’s just saying what good economists say,” he added. Ever since her surprise victory during Democratic primaries in June over Joseph Crowley, who had run unopposed for more than a decade and was seen as a contender to become the next speaker of the House of Representatives. The victory has made her a key figure of the liberal wing of the party, and Ocasio-Cortez has demonstrated more than once that she can respond swiftly to her detractors. When Republican campaign consultant Ed Rollins called her a “little girl” on a conservative television talk show, Ocasio-Cortez shot back on Twitter: “If anything, this dude is a walking argument to tax misogyny at 100%.” On Friday, a video released online by a detractor showing a young Ocasio-Cortez dancing with fellow Boston University students to the Phoenix song “Lisztomania” in a remake of a mashup of scenes from the Brat Pack movies. But rather than embarrass Ocasio-Cortez, the release ended up having the opposite of its intended effect. The congresswoman, who has a strong social media presence, responded by posting a new video of her dancing in front of her office on Capitol Hill, writing: “I hear the GOP thinks women dancing are scandalous. Wait till they find out Congresswomen dance too!” With her past as a New York bartender, Ocasio-Cortez is a figurehead of the new wave of young lawmakers who entered Congress after the midterm elections, bringing fresh perspectives and more diversity to the legislature. Asked if she considers herself to be a radical, Ocasio-Cortez told CBS, “You know, if that’s what radical means, call me a radical.” “I think that it only has ever been radicals that have changed this country,” she explained. “Abraham Lincoln made the radical decision to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. Franklin Delano Roosevelt made the radical decision to embark on establishing programs like Social Security. That is radical.”


Poll of over 25,000 Britons finds more would now vote to stay in EU, want second referendum

Abstract: More Britons want to their country to remain a member of the European Union than leave, according to a survey published Sunday which also showed voters want to make the final decision themselves. Britain is due leave the EU on March 29, but Prime Minister Theresa May is struggling to get her exit deal approved by Parliament, opening up huge uncertainty over whether a deal is possible, or even whether the country will leave at all. The survey by polling firm YouGov showed that if a referendum were held immediately, 46 percent would vote to remain, 39 percent would vote to leave, and the rest either did not know, would not vote, or refused to answer the question. When the undecided and those who refused to answer were removed from the sample, the split was 54-46 in favor of remaining. That is broadly in line with other polls in recent months which show a deeply divided electorate, in which opinion has swung slightly toward remaining in the EU. The 2016 referendum voted 52 to 48 percent in favor of leaving. The poll of more than 25,000 voters was commissioned by the People’s Vote campaign, which is spearheading an increasingly vocal push for a second referendum on Brexit. May has strongly opposed holding a second referendum. But the survey showed 41 percent thought the final decision should about Brexit be made by a new public vote versus 36 percent who believe it should be up to Parliament. Removing those who are undecided, the split was 53 percent in favor of another referendum and 47 percent against. Lawmakers are due to vote on whether to accept May’s exit deal during the week beginning Jan. 14.


Venezuela's assembly rejects Nicolas Maduro's legitimacy as president

Abstract: CARACAS - Venezuela’s opposition-controlled but toothless National Assembly declared Nicolas Maduro’s presidency illegitimate on Saturday, calling on the military to support efforts to “restore democracy.” The United States, which has sanctioned Venezuelan officials and entities, hailed the legislature as “the only legitimate and last remaining democratically elected institution” in the country. “We reaffirm the illegitimacy of Nicolas Maduro,” the assembly’s new president Juan Guaido said after being sworn in at the start of a new legislative session. “As of Jan. 10, he will be usurping the presidency and consequently this National Assembly is the only legitimate representative of the people.” Maduro, who has presided over a virtual collapse of the economy in the once-rich OPEC member state, is set to be sworn in on Thursday for a second six-year term after elections widely condemned by the international community. The ballot, on May 20, was boycotted by most of the opposition. On Friday, foreign ministers from 12 Latin American countries and Canada announced in Lima that their governments would not recognize Maduro as president if he attempts to remain in office and urged him to turn over power to the National Assembly. The Maduro government accused the so-called Lima Group of “encouraging a coup d’etat” on instructions from Washington. Mexico, which is a member of the group, withheld its support for the statement. Guaido, in a speech attended by lawmakers and members of the diplomatic corps, declared that the military’s chain of command had been “broken or usurped,” but called on the armed forces to support efforts “to restore democracy.” He committed to “generate conditions for a government of transition and to call free elections.” The U.S. State Department said it “celebrates” the assembly officials’ swearing-in, a ceremony attended by charge d’affaires James Story. “The National Assembly should inspire hope in the Venezuelan people for a peaceful, prosperous, and democratic future, even as the corrupt and authoritarian Maduro regime and its allies seek to deny Venezuelans that right,” State Department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino said in a statement. The National Assembly has been largely sidelined by a separate regime-created Constituent Assembly, which called the elections at a time when most major opposition figures were in jail or banned from running. Washington, which called the vote a “sham,” refused along with the European Union and the Lima Group countries to recognize the results. “Maduro is a usurper, an invader and should be removed,” said Delsa Solorzano, an opposition deputy. But she denied that the call for armed forces’ support was “to carry out a coup d’etat.” The Supreme Court, which has consistently sided with Maduro, rendered the National Assembly powerless after the opposition gained the majority in 2016. “Nothing will come out of the assembly that can have the least impact,” said Peter Hakim, of the Inter-American Dialogue, saying it has been “stripped of power and authority.” “Our hands are tied,” Solorzano acknowledged. A previous attempt in January 2017 by opposition lawmakers to declare Maduro to have abandoned his responsibilities went nowhere. More radical opposition leaders such as Antonio Ledezma or Maria Corina Machado have called on the legislature to immediately install a “government of transition” led by the president of the National Assembly. Failure to do so could deepen divisions within an already fractured opposition. “If there is something worse than doing nothing, it is doing that which weakens and makes you lose respect,” said political analyst Luis Salamanca. Maduro is deeply unpopular, seemingly unwilling or incapable of halting a slide into hyperinflation and economic paralysis that has set off mass migrations of his compatriots. He has shrugged off international and opposition criticism, brushing aside accusations that he is assuming dictatorial powers. “They accuse me of being a dictator to justify anything imaginable,” he said, insisting that his re-election was “democratic” and that his opponents are in disarray, not because of him, but because of their “dependence” on the United States.


FBI arrests Russian over exports of defense-restricted goods

Abstract: MOSCOW - Russia demanded an explanation from the United States on Saturday over the arrest of one of its nationals, amid tensions between the two countries after Moscow held a U.S. citizen for alleged espionage. FBI agents arrested Dmitry Makarenko on Dec. 29 on Saipan, the largest of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Western Pacific. A federal arrest warrant indicates he has since been taken to Florida. While still a fugitive, Makarenko was indicted in June 2017 along with fellow Russian national Vladimir Nevidomy for money laundering and attempting to export defense-restricted goods — military grade night-vision rifle scopes, monoculars and ammunition primers — without obtaining the necessary licenses. Nevidomy has since been tried and convicted. He was sentenced to 26 months in prison with three years of supervised released. The Russian foreign ministry said U.S. authorities had failed to provide information about Makarenko’s arrest to Moscow, which only found out from his family. Meanwhile, a top Russian diplomat said the case of Paul Whelan, the U.S. national detained in Moscow, was very serious. Whelan, a security official at a U.S. auto parts company and former U.S. Marine, was arrested on December 28 “while carrying out an act of espionage,” the FSB security service announced. “The situation around Mr. Whelan is very serious,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told RIA Novosti news agency. “He came to Russia, as we understand, to take measures to carry out intelligence activities in violation of Russian law,” he said, indicating that Whelan had not yet been formally charged. But Whelan’s lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov told RIA Novosti on Thursday that his client had been charged — with espionage. Whelan’s family said he was visiting Moscow for a friend’s wedding and U.S. security experts have raised doubts that he was a spy, given a reportedly checkered history in the U.S. military. Some observers say his arrest came in retaliation for last year’s arrest in the United States of a Russian woman named Maria Butina. Butina was indicted and pleaded guilty to acting as an unregistered agent of the Russian government — a legal charge sometimes used against foreign intelligence agents. Analysts have speculated that Moscow might be hoping to swap Whelan for Butina or another Russian held by the United States. Ryabkov said that given the fact that Whelan has not yet been charged, it was too early to talk about his possible release in a spy swap. Although Whelan entered Russia on his U.S. passport, he also holds British, Irish and Canadian citizenships. Ryabkov said the question of which country’s diplomats would have access to Whelan would be decided on a case-by-case basis, based on conventions on consular relations.


China releases first video of a Sky Hawk, its latest stealth drone, in flight

Abstract: China has for the first time released video showing its latest stealth drone in flight, state media said Sunday. China Central Television (CCTV) on Saturday ran video featuring the “saucer-like” Sky Hawk drone, and state-run Global Times claimed that the new drone’s cutting-edge technology will allow it to fly faster, farther and escape detection. The Global Times, quoting the CCTV report, said the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp.-developed drone, known as the Sky Hawk, had conducted the flight test at an undisclosed location in the country. Video showed the drone taking off and landing, marking the first time that the aircraft has been publicly seen in flight, according to the reports. The drone reportedly made its maiden flight last February, but no video had been published before Saturday’s broadcast. It was also displayed at the Airshow China 2018 in the city of Zhuhai, near Macau, in November, but was not flown there. With a flying wing aerodynamic design similar to the United States’ B-2 stealth bomber, the Sky Hawk “is a high-altitude, long-range and high-speed unmanned aerial vehicle capable of undertaking reconnaissance and patrol missions in hostile environments,” CCTV reported. Experts have predicted that the drone will also operate on China’s future aircraft carriers, including those that employ electromagnetic catapults. The U.S. has already developed the X-47B stealth drone and run experimental operations on aircraft carriers, though that project was suspended in favor of a stealth tanker drone. Based on the images taken last year at Zhuhai, the drone appears to be similar in shape to the X-44A drone which was recently unveiled by Lockheed Martin. Observers have said the Chinese drone is likely to have a wingspan of around 35 feet (just over 10 meters).


Chinese gay dating app Blued temporarily halts registration after underage users reportedly contracted HIV

Abstract: BEIJING - Chinese gay dating app Blued is halting new user registration for a week, it said Sunday, following media reports that underage users caught HIV after going on dates set up via the world’s largest networking app for the LGBT community. China has a vibrant lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender scene, though activists say conservative attitudes among some groups in society have prompted occasional government clampdowns. On Saturday, citing academic research, financial magazine Caixin said juveniles were heavily involved in the gay dating app, where some teenagers had even hosted live-streaming. It added that many gay teenagers had unprotected sex through the app and contracted HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In response, Blued vowed to launch a “comprehensive content audit and regulation,” and crack down on juvenile users posing as adults and on texts, pictures and groups that involve minors. “Blued always forbids juveniles from logging on and using the app,” it said in a statement on its verified account on China’s Twitter-like Weibo. The company added that it has enabled artificial intelligence to weed out pornographic content since last year, and vowed to further support AIDS prevention work. The Beijing-based company did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Sunday. Blued, which was launched in 2010 and now boasts 40 million registered users, is backed by state-run media Beijing News. It is the brainchild of a former policeman who quit his job to play Cupid to millions of gay men in China. Grindr, a Los Angeles-based gay dating app well-known globally, is also owned by a Chinese company.


In space, the U.S. sees a rival in China

Abstract: WASHINGTON - During the Cold War, U.S. eyes were riveted on the Soviet Union’s rockets and satellites. In recent years, it has been China’s space programs that have most worried U.S. strategists. China, whose space effort is run by the People’s Liberation Army, today launches more rockets into space than any other country — 39 last year, compared to 31 by the U.S., 20 by Russia and eight by Europe. On Thursday, it landed a rover on the far side of the moon — a first by any country — and plans to build an orbiting space station in the coming decade. In the decade after that, it hopes to put a taikonaut on the moon to make the first moonwalk since 1972. The rover, Jade Rabbit 2, has rolled down onto the surface, and its radar and panoramic camera have been activated and are working normally. Researchers hope that low-frequency observations of the cosmos from the far side, where radio signals from Earth are blocked by the moon, will help scientists learn more about the early days of the solar system and even the birth of the first stars. China now spends more on its civil and military space programs than Russia and Japan. Its 2017 budget was estimated at $8.4 billion by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. That is far less than the $48 billion the United States spends on its military and civilian space programs, but it is more than double Russia’s civilian space budget, which has been slashed to $3 billion. Overcoming a lag of several decades, China’s leaders have very methodically replicated the stages of space development achieved by other great nations: its first satellite in 1970, its first manned space mission in 2003, the first docking of a manned spacecraft to an orbiting module in 2012, and activation of the BeiDou satellite navigation system, China’s alternative to GPS. “If they continue on this trajectory, they’re going to quickly eclipse Russia in terms of their space technology capabilities,” said Todd Harrison, an expert on military space programs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. China currently poses no threat to the commercial satellite launch market, which remains dominated by companies including U.S.-based SpaceX and Europe’s Arianespace, and by Russia. Nor has China’s progress in space exploration eclipsed that of the U.S. NASA’s head congratulated China on its Chang’e 4 moon landing, but a 2011 U.S. law bars space cooperation with Beijing. The real rivalry is in two areas: in the short term, military uses of space; and in the long term, the exploitation of resources in space. The mining of minerals or water on the moon or on asteroids, notably to produce fuel for rockets, is still a long way off, but American startups are already working on it. Unlike the Cold War, the new conquest of space is unfolding largely in a legal vacuum. In the 1960s and ’70s, Washington and Moscow negotiated several treaties on space, principally to guarantee scientific cooperation and to ban weapons of mass destruction in space. “The treaties are too vague to be really certain what the legal result is for something like space mining,” said Frans von der Dunk, a professor of space law at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Moreover, they have been overtaken by new military technologies: anti-satellite lasers, cyberattacks, electronic jamming and land-based anti-satellite missiles — like the one China tested in 2007. Laws of war govern conflicts on Earth, but there is no equivalent for space. And unanswered questions abound. If one satellite collides with another in space, does that constitute an “attack”? What would be a proportional response? Civilian satellites should be protected from reprisals but what about satellites with dual civilian and military uses? How does a nation respond to a cyberattack of uncertain origin? “It’s very hard to distinguish between weapons and nonweapons in space,” said Jack Beard, a professor in the University of Nebraska’s space law program. “It’s unfortunately hard to envision any major armed conflict on Earth not extending into space. The Chinese have been preparing for whatever eventuality may be in the future, and … they have been experimenting with systems to interfere with our communications, our transmissions from satellites to drones.” Harrison concurs: “The United States has not been keeping pace with the threats against our space systems,” and that has left the U.S. vulnerable. Meanwhile, U.S. dialogue with Beijing is virtually nil, in contrast with Washington’s exchanges with Moscow during the Cold War. “If there’s a crisis in space involving China, it’s not clear our military knows who to call,” said Harrison. But other observers take a more skeptical view of portraying China as an aggressive adversary of the United States. Brian Weeden, of the Washington-based Secure World Foundation, said some proponents of the China-as-threat argument wield it as a way to get money for NASA out of a tight-fisted Congress. They “think that will motivate the U.S. to go off and do the stuff in space that they want to do,” he said. “They see the competition with China as a key to unlocking the political will and money to fund the projects they want to see.”

china
nasa
space
astronomy
moon
chang ' e-4
jade rabbit 2


Taiwan president slams Beijing's 'deliberate campaign' to subvert democracy

Abstract: TAIPEI - China’s refusal to talk to Taiwan’s government is part of a “deliberate campaign” to undermine the island’s democracy, President Tsai Ing-wen has warned, capping a week of escalating rhetoric between the two sides. Tensions between Taiwan and China have risen since Tsai came to power in 2016, as she has refused to acknowledge that the self-ruled island is part of “one China.” Beijing has unilaterally cut off communication with her government and stepped up military drills around the island as well as poached several of its dwindling number of official allies. In a landmark speech Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping described Taiwan’s unification with the mainland as “inevitable,” adding that Beijing is willing to discuss political as well as “peaceful unification” issues with political parties and groups in Taiwan that recognize the “one China” principle. He also reiterated China’s willingness to use force if necessary, especially if Taiwan ever declares full independence. On Saturday, Tsai criticized Beijing’s plan to engage in political negotiations with opposition parties rather than her government as “a continuation of its deliberate campaign to undermine and subvert our democratic process and create division in our society.” “At a time when we are exhausting efforts to avoid provocation and miscommunication, China’s actions are unhelpful and in contrary to democratic practices,” she said in a briefing with foreign media. She stressed that it would be impossible for her government or any responsible Taiwanese politician to accept Xi’s recent remarks “without betraying the trust and will of the people of Taiwan.” She was also referring to Xi’s calls for unification under a “one country, two systems” approach, which was implemented in Hong Kong after Britain handed the city back to China in 1997. China still sees Taiwan as part of its territory to be reunified, despite the two sides being ruled separately since they split in 1949 after a civil war. Tsai also said China’s increasingly muscular rhetoric toward Taiwan was a test of whether democratic allies would protect each other. “If the international community fails to speak up for and assist Taiwan under the circumstances we face today, I have to ask which country will be next?” she asked. The United States diplomatically recognizes China over Taiwan but it remains Taipei’s staunchest political and military ally. Taiwanese frustration has also been intensified by suspicions that Beijing is not doing enough to inform its neighbor about an outbreak of African swine fever on the mainland. Taiwan’s livestock exports have in the past been hammered by disease outbreaks from the mainland. The discovery last week of infected pig carcasses on a Taiwanese island close to China’s shoreline, which authorities believed floated over, has added to a sense of urgency and frustration in Taipei. “I urge the World Organization for Animal Health to intervene and call on countries in the region to engage in outbreak prevention,” Tsai said Saturday. On Sunday, Taiwan’s ruling party was electing a new chairman — a post vacated by Tsai after a recent electoral mauling — in a vote closely watched by China and the United States. Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won in 2016 in a landslide, sweeping away a government that had built much closer ties to China over the previous decade. But in November, Tsai’s DPP suffered a string of defeats in local elections, fueled by a backlash over her domestic reforms and deteriorating ties with China, easily Taiwan’s largest market. Tsai resigned the party chairmanship but stayed on as president. Analysts say the vote for the new party head will set the tone for the run-up to next year’s presidential election. “It’s important because the international community, and China, will be watching,” said J. Michael Cole, a Taipei-based expert with the University of Nottingham’s China Policy Institute. “Any major departure from long-standing policy under President Tsai could alarm international partners and give Beijing ammunition to further crack down on Taiwan.” Voting began Sunday morning, with preliminary results expected to be announced in the evening. Official results will not be announced until Wednesday. While Beijing has reacted frostily to Tsai, she is from a much more moderate wing within her party that favors talks. She is squeezed between China and more radical members of her own party who favor pushing for independence — something Taiwan has never formally declared. One of those running for the chairmanship is You Ying-lung, a polling expert deeply critical of Tsai. He supported a recent call by four party heavyweights for Tsai not to seek re-election in 2020 — although he said the public should ultimately decide. “The DPP has to win the power in 2020. … Right now I can’t see how we are going to win in the future,” You said in a recent Facebook post. You’s opponent is former Cabinet Secretary-General Cho Jung-tai, who is backed by leading DPP politicians. Cho has taken a more conciliatory tone toward Tsai, pledging to promote unity and “restore the confidence” in the party. Yen Chien-Fa, a political analyst at Chien Hsin University, said whoever comes out on top will have significant influence on the 2020 campaign and whether Tsai is the candidate. “A chairman who is at odds with Tsai will definitely be a minus (for the party),” he said. A DPP schism in the run-up to 2020 could favor the Kuomintang, the pro-Beijing party that was turfed out two years ago. It doubled its seats in November’s elections, even defeating the DPP in its traditional stronghold of Kaohsiung. A DPP swing toward its more radical wing might also worry Washington. The U.S. remains Taiwan’s most powerful military ally but maintains the stance that Taipei must not move close to a formal declaration of independence for fear of stoking a Chinese invasion.

china
u.s .
taiwan
xi jinping
tsai ing-wen


China's Xi urges military to be ready for war amid 'risks and challenges' in 2019

Abstract: Just days into the new year, Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered his country’s military to improve its combat readiness and prepare for the possibility of war while also warning of “unprecedented risks and challenges” in 2019. Xi’s warning comes amid territorial disputes in the South and East China seas and rising tensions with the United States over issues ranging from trade to Taiwan. The Chinese president told a meeting Friday in Beijing of the Central Military Commission, the country’s top military authority, that the armed forces must devise strategies in the coming year and take on more responsibilities in readying for and waging war. “The world is facing a period of major changes never seen in a century, and China is still in an important period of strategic opportunity for development,” the official Xinhua News Agency quoted Xi as saying. He stressed that the military should focus on improving its ability to respond quickly and effectively to contingencies, as well as upgrading joint operations capabilities and fostering new combat forces and training under “combat conditions.” Xi also signed a mobilization order for the training of the armed forces, the CMC’s first order of the year, which requires all units of the People’s Liberation Army “to welcome the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China with ‘excellent performance,’ ” according to the state-run Global Times newspaper. Experts say a military parade scheduled to be held in Beijing’s iconic Tiananmen Square to mark the anniversary will be one of the most important events of the year for Xi’s ruling Communist Party. “A military that can fight and win a war will be presented then,” the Global Times quoted Beijing-based military expert and commentator Song Zhongping as saying. “Excellent performance means the capability to always effectively safeguard national security when the military is summoned at any time,” Song added. The challenges Xi spoke of echoed a New Year’s Day editorial published by the People’s Liberation Army Daily, the military’s official newspaper. “Drilling soldiers and war preparations are the fundamental jobs and work focus of our military, and at no time should we allow any slack in these areas,” the newspaper wrote, according to the South China Morning Post. “We should be well prepared for all directions of military struggle and comprehensively improve troops’ combat response in emergencies … to ensure we can meet the challenge and win when there is a situation.” Xi told the Communist Party’s 19th Party Congress in 2017 that China will complete the modernization of its armed forces by 2035, and achieve a “world-class” military by 2050 that can fight and win wars across all theaters — a vow he has repeatedly reiterated. Last week, acting U.S. Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan told civilian leaders of the U.S. military to remember “China, China, China,” singling out Beijing as a key priority in a “great power competition” with the Asian giant. In an editorial published Thursday, the Global Times said the statement likely meant Beijing would have to guard against “more military provocations … in the Taiwan Straits and the South China Sea.” Beijing claims most of the South China Sea, which 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. The United States, which does not having any claims in the waterway, has sent warships and bombers to the area as part of what it says is its “long-standing commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.” This has become a particularly sensitive issue for Beijing, which has been angered by the presence of U.S. military forces in the skies and waters near Taiwan and its man-made islands in the South China Sea, some of which have been built up into garrisons with radar installations and military-grade runways. Beijing says its facilities in the waters are for defensive purposes, but some observers say this is part of a concerted bid to cement de facto control of the South China Sea. Thursday’s editorial offered up one possible solution to the fraying ties, saying that “China needs to hold onto its principles while staying calm.” “China must understand that Washington is strategically on guard against Beijing,” it went on. “It is trying to stop China’s ‘expansion’ through tactical harassments and warnings. What China and the U.S. need to do now is sound each other out, explore one another’s tolerance and form a new balance in the current phase.” Still, it also noted Beijing’s ability “to make Washington pay an unbearable price if the U.S. infringes on China” — specifically mentioning the 70th anniversary and the possible public debut of “Chinese deterrence’s trump card,” the Dongfeng-41 intercontinental ballistic missile, which is believed capable of striking all of the U.S. The editorial also urged China to carry out more maritime combat exercises with live ammunition, “especially training to strike aircraft carriers,” an implicit threat to the U.S. “There is no need to worry that doing so would make Washington unhappy,” it said. “Making them concerned is the whole point of the exercise.”


Australian PM Scott Morrison slams 'ugly racial protests' in Melbourne

Abstract: SYDNEY - Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday slammed “ugly racial protests” in Australia’s second-largest city, after some far-right demonstrators were seen making Nazi salutes. An anti-immigration rally at St. Kilda Beach in Melbourne drew hundreds of demonstrators and counter-protesters on Saturday, but a large Victoria Police presence was broadly successful in keeping the two groups apart. “I thank Vic police for their efforts dealing with the ugly racial protests we saw in St Kilda yesterday. Intolerance does not make Australia stronger,” Morrison tweeted. “Australia is the most successful migrant country in the world… Let’s keep it that way, it makes Australia stronger.” Victoria Police Superintendent Tony Silva said Saturday there was three arrests but no officers or member of the public were known to have been hurt. Immigration remains a hot-button issue in Australia amid concern about jobs and overcrowding in major cities. Nearly half of Australia’s 25-million population was either born overseas or has at least one parent born abroad. The rally was organized by founders of the United Patriots Front, which conducts anti-immigration demonstrations in Melbourne from time to time. They said Saturday’s protest was against alleged African gang violence and youth crime in the city. The location of their protest, the inner city suburb of St. Kilda, and nearby Caulfield, have sizeable Jewish populations. Far-right independent senator Fraser Anning — who demanded “a final solution” to immigration in his maiden speech to the Senate last year — attended the St Kilda rally and said it was the “start of something bigger.” Morrison, whose conservative Liberal-National coalition is struggling to hang on to power in a minority government, last year pledged to slash Australia’s permanent migration intake to address congestion in the big cities. But critics of the government said it was pandering to the views of the coalition’s right-wingers and other far-right politicians ahead of national elections that have to be called by mid-May.

immigration protests ethnicity discrimination australian


China tests its own 'Mother of All Bombs'

Abstract: BEIJING - China has tested its most powerful nonnuclear weapon, dubbed the “Mother of All Bombs” by official media in a reference to a U.S. munition used in Afghanistan. In a short video published on the website of state arms manufacturer Norinco, the massive bomb drops on to a plain and produces a gigantic ball of fire and black smoke. On social networks Wednesday, the official Xinhua News Agency described the bomb for the first time, calling it the “Chinese version of the ‘Mother of all Bombs.'” The bomb — whose strength is only second to that of a nuclear weapon, according to the agency — was dropped by a Chinese H-6K bomber. No details on the date, location or range of the bomb blast were provided. In 2017 the U.S. dropped the most powerful conventional bomb in its arsenal, dubbed the “MOAB” — the “Mother of All Bombs” — in an attempt to destroy a tunnel network being used by the Islamic State (IS) group in the east of Afghanistan. U.S. President Donald Trump said at the time he was “proud” of his troops and congratulated them on their success. The Chinese bomb is 5 to 6 meters long (16 to 20 feet), but weighs less than the American version, according to military analyst Wei Dongxu, who was quoted by the state-run Global Times daily Friday. “The massive explosion that was generated would easily wipe out land fortifications,” said Wei.


¥1 million to 100 people? Zozo chief Maezawa to dole out total of ¥100 million in cash for retweets

Abstract: In the latest headline-grabbing move by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, the founder and CEO of major online fashion mall operator Zozo Inc. has announced a plan to dole out ¥1 million to 100 individuals to mark a successful New Year’s sale. Maezawa, who is scheduled to take a trip to the moon in 2023, wrote on Twitter late Saturday that he would give away a total of ¥100 million in cash out of his own pocket to 100 followers on the social media service who follow his account and retweet his post by the end of Monday. “The Zozotown New Year’s sale was the fastest ever to reach sales of ¥10 billion,” he wrote, “So as a gesture of my appreciation, I will personally be giving a present of ¥1 million in cash to 100 people for a grand total of ¥100 million.” The tweet quickly went viral, garnering more than 2.5 million retweets as of late Sunday after smashing the previous Japan retweet record earlier in the day. It also prompted an incredible upsurge in users following Maezawa’s Twitter account , which went from some 500,000 prior to Saturday’s post to some 2.94 million by late Sunday. In another tweet Sunday, the Zozo chief thanked those who had already participated, saying he believed a “dream,” not cold, hard cash, was the motivating factor behind the attention surrounding his plan. “I think that what everyone wants is a dream, not the money,” he wrote. “If you have ¥1 million, you want to use it for something like friends, family members, society and animals. This makes me want to cry because the use is aimed at things other than yourselves. Japan, you’re not half bad. You have many dreams. As for the retweets, I understand we hit a new Japan record. … Thank you.” In mid-September, Maezawa captured global attention after announcing he would embark on an 800,000-km trip around the moon and back aboard the BFR spacecraft developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, along with several artists he plans to invite. The billionaire, who would become the first private lunar traveler, said he hopes to contribute to world peace, a desire that was given greater urgency following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. Because of this, he said he was seeking “artists committed to making the world a better place.”

social media
twitter
yusaku maezawa
zozo


Abe orders Japanese ministries to prepare response to asset seizures in South Korea following ruling on forced labor case

Abstract: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has directed ministries to look into countermeasures after plaintiffs in South Korea took legal steps to seize the local assets of a Japanese steel-maker that has refused to comply with a court order to pay compensation for wartime forced labor. “It is extremely regrettable. I directed related ministries to consider specific measures based on international law to show our resolute stance” in regard to the matter, Abe said in a TV program aired Sunday, although he did not elaborate. Lawyers representing the South Korean plaintiffs have launched procedures to seize assets belonging to Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. in the country, according to an official statement Wednesday. In response to the action, Foreign Minister Taro Kono urged Seoul to work to prevent Japanese companies from being treated unfairly. The South Korean Supreme Court in October ordered the steel-maker to compensate four South Koreans who were victims of forced labor during Japanese colonial rule. The decision brought an immediate rebuke from Japan, which maintains that the right to seek compensation was terminated under a 1965 treaty signed between the two countries. In another wartime forced labor case, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. faces a similar order by a South Korean court. Meanwhile, Abe said during the NHK TV program that he believes a post-World War II peace treaty with Russia will benefit the United States by contributing to regional peace and stability. “The Japan-U.S alliance is the basis of Japan’s diplomatic and security policies.” Abe is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin later this month. Tokyo and Moscow have been unable to conclude a peace treaty to formally end their wartime hostilities due to a long-standing territorial row over Russian-controlled islands off Hokkaido. The three islands and a group of islets, collectively known as the Northern Territories in Japan, were seized by the former Soviet Union at the end of the war. Putin has expressed concern that U.S. military bases may be set up on the islands once they are handed back to Japan. At their meeting in Singapore in November, Abe and Putin agreed to accelerate the peace treaty negotiations based on the 1956 Japan-Soviet joint declaration, which stipulated that two of the four islands—the Habomai group and Shikotan, as they are known in Japan, be handed back after the conclusion of a peace treaty. Abe said there is no change in his intention to seek to revise Japan’s pacifist Constitution, but that setting a schedule for a first-ever change to the nation’s postwar supreme law is not a top priority. He had said earlier that he would seek to put constitutional amendments into force in 2020. Natsuo Yamaguchi, the head of Komeito, the junior coalition partner of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, said on the same TV program that a wide consensus from the ruling and opposition parties would be needed to pursue constitutional amendments. Regarding national elections, Abe reiterated that he “is not considering at all” dissolving the Lower House and setting a subsequent general election to coincide with a triennial election for the Upper House, slated for this summer. At the same time, Abe stressed that his administration “has been able to implement major reform measures … by (the LDP) winning five national elections,” including the 2012 Lower House election that led to the party’s comeback to power and his return to the post of prime minister. On work to select the name of the country’s next era to succeed the current Heisei Era, Abe said that the government “hopes to choose a name that can be accepted widely by the public and can take deep root in the lives of Japanese people.” The name of the next era is scheduled to be announced on April 1, ahead of Emperor Akihito’s abdication on April 30 and Crown Prince Naruhito’s enthronement on May 1, when the new era is slated to begin.

shinzo abe
history
south korea
nippon steel
wartime labor


Taiwan negotiating with Japan on 'acceptable' solution to food ban

Abstract: TAIPEI - President Tsai Ing-wen has said that her government is seeking an “acceptable” solution to the thorny issue of the island’s import ban on Japanese food products imposed after the 2011 nuclear disaster. During a question-and-answer session with foreign media at the Presidential Office on Saturday, she said her government has consistently stressed the importance of food safety while basing its decisions on scientific evidence and international standards. “In the future, we will continue to communicate with Japan under the spirit of the World Trade Organization and hopefully find a solution both sides find acceptable,” she said. The remarks were her first on the ban since Taiwan voted in a November referendum to maintain the prohibition on agricultural imports and food from five Japanese prefectures. In addition to expressing regret over the referendum result, Tokyo has said it did not rule out taking the matter to the WTO. The trade body has already ruled that South Korea’s import ban on seafood from Fukushima Prefecture and other parts of Japan is “arbitrarily and unjustifiably” discriminatory. Seoul has appealed the ruling. Tsai said that her government will honor the referendum, which is legally binding. Policy steps should be taken in line with the result for two years in principle. As Japan has been the No. 1 destination for Taiwanese tourists and Japanese products remain popular among Taiwanese consumers, Tsai said she hopes the “isolated issue” will not have a negative impact on overall Taiwan-Japan relations. Despite the absence of diplomatic ties, which were severed in 1972, the unofficial relationship between Taiwan and Japan has remained robust. Japan is Taiwan’s third-largest trading partner after China, including Hong Kong, while Taiwan is Japan’s fourth-largest trading partner. Bilateral trade totaled $62.7 billion last year, up about 4 percent from the previous year. Japanese investment in Taiwan last year also increased more than 84 percent from the previous year to $649 million.