House intel panel hires veteran prosecutor who went after Russia mob to lead Trump probe

Abstract: WASHINGTON - The U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee said on Tuesday it has hired a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan with experience investigating Russian mobsters and white-collar crime to lead its probe into the Trump administration. The hiring of Daniel Goldman is the latest move by the House’s new Democratic majority to add legal firepower to an expanding list of investigations into the affairs of Republican President Donald Trump and his associates. The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, recently announced that he had retained Barry Berke, a prominent criminal trial lawyer, and Norman Eisen, a former adviser to President Barack Obama, to work on his expansive probe into Trump and other issues. Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that Goldman joined the panel in February as senior adviser and director of investigations. Schiff also named a new budget director and three other people for various roles. The committee’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign has taken on new life since the Democrats took control of the House in November elections. The panel is set to hear testimony from Michael Cohen, the president’s onetime “fixer,” for a second time on Wednesday since he turned on his former boss. Goldman was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York for a decade through 2017, serving as the lead prosecutor in the conviction of Las Vegas sports gambler William “Billy” Walters for insider trading. But likely more relevant to the committee’s probe is Goldman’s tenure as deputy of the Southern District’s Organized Crime Unit, where he oversaw a major Russian mob case against more than 30 individuals for money laundering and racketeering. Goldman has also worked as a legal analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, commenting on special counsel Robert Mueller’s 22-month-old investigation into links between the Trump campaign and Russia. NBC did not return a request for comment. Goldman attended last summer’s trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and was at the December sentencing of Cohen, who is due to start a three-year sentence in May for violating campaign finance laws and other crimes. In other recent hires by the Democrats, the House Financial Services Committee enlisted the help of Bob Roach, a longtime investigator of complex financial and money laundering issues for the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Russia has denied meddling in the 2016 election. Trump has said there was no collusion between his campaign and Moscow, and has called the Mueller probe a “witch hunt.”

u.s .
congress
organized crime
russia
donald trump
adam schiff
russia probe
jerrold nadler
daniel goldman


Trump goes on tweet rant, hitting 'stone cold CRAZY' opponents as pressure mounts

Abstract: WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump branded Democratic opponents “crazy” and guilty of overreach Tuesday in a fevered response to a huge new Democratic-led probe of his alleged crimes. In a searing burst of early morning tweets, the president said the House Judiciary Committee investigation launched Monday was “the greatest overreach in the history of our Country.” “The real crime is what the Dems are doing, and have done!” he said. Another tweet labeled Democratic leaders “stone cold CRAZY.” “PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!” said another. Trump’s exclamation mark- and capital letter-laden outbursts indicated rising temperature in a White House under assault from multiple directions. Democrats, who took control of the House of Representatives last November, suspect Trump of a slew of potentially impeachable offenses, including obstruction of justice and abuse of office. The powerful judiciary committee is demanding information from 81 Trump-connected individuals and entities, including his sons. The new front opened just as Trump braces for the results of an independent probe into his dealings with Russia by special prosecutor Robert Mueller. Rumors that Mueller is close to ending his two-year investigation have set Washington on edge. Debate over whether the prosecutor’s findings should be made immediately public is already underway, with Democrats warning that attempts at a cover-up by the White House could lead them to subpoena Mueller to testify. Trump’s response to the pressure has been consistent with his longtime playbook: to insult accusers, admit no weakness, and rely on backing from his ultra-loyal political base. Polls show that the president’s support among Republican voters remains strong, even if Democratic voters are just as convinced in opposition. However, cracks in Republican support at the top echelons of the party have appeared. When the Democratic majority in the House voted to overturn Trump’s controversial use of emergency powers to force funding for U.S.-Mexico border wall construction, that was expected. However, this week four Republican senators broke ranks to join their Democratic opponents in the upper house, meaning the motion can pass there too. Trump will likely be able to brush aside that rebuke by using the first veto of his presidency. However, the fact that he has lost the guaranteed backing of his party in the Senate could point to trouble ahead. In Trump’s combative vision of politics, the looming probes are not all bad news. Already the White House is framing the Democratic onslaught as symptomatic of leftist radicalism supposedly threatening the country. Trump has made the specter of far-left socialism a growing part of his 2020 re-election campaign, even claiming that Democrats want to replicate the violent chaos underway in Venezuela. “Democrats are harassing the president to distract from their radical agenda of making America a socialist country, killing babies after they’re born, and pushing a ‘green new deal’ that would destroy jobs and bankrupt America,” Trump spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said late Monday. Trump’s other main angle of attack has been to dismiss the validity of the Mueller probe, which he has repeatedly dubbed a “witch hunt” and “phony” in hopes of reducing its credibility. But in an indication that the president’s rhetorical bombshells risk misfiring, former Trump White House lawyer Ty Cobb went public Tuesday with a surprising defense of Mueller, calling him an “American hero.” “I don’t feel the investigation is a witch hunt,” Cobb told ABC News podcast “The Investigation.”

u.s .
congress
twitter
robert mueller
democrats
donald trump
russia probe


Three 'improvised explosive devices' found in London, near Heathrow, Waterloo Station and city airport

Abstract: LONDON - British counterterrorism officers are investigating three “small improvised explosive devices” believed capable of starting small fires that were found in separate locations in London on Tuesday. The suspicious packages containing padded envelopes were found at an office block next to Heathrow Airport, the post room at Waterloo Station and at offices near London City Airport in the east of the capital, according to Scotland Yard. “The packages — all A4-sized white postal bags containing yellow Jiffy bags — have been assessed by specialist officers to be small improvised explosive devices,” London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement. The item sent to the Compass Centre, close to Heathrow’s north runway, was opened by staff resulting in “part of the package burning,” although there were no injuries and flights were not affected, according to police. “These devices, at this early stage of the investigation, appear capable of igniting an initially small fire when opened,” it added, noting they were treating the incidents as “a linked series. Officers were called to Compass Centre at 9:55 local time (0955GMT), and two hours later the alarm was raised at Waterloo Station in central London. “The package was not opened. Specialist officers attended and made the device safe,” police said of the parcel found at the rail hub. It was not evacuated and train services were not impacted. At 12.10, another suspicious package was reported at the offices of City Aviation House, at the Royal Docks in the east of the capital close to London City Airport. The package was also not opened and flights continued to operate as normal. “The Met Police has issued advice to transport hubs across London to be vigilant for and report suspicious packages to police,” the force added.

terrorism
heathrow
london
waterloo station
london city airport


Queen marks 50th anniversary of investiture of son Charles as Prince of Wales

Abstract: LONDON - Britain’s Queen Elizabeth held a reception at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday to mark the 50th anniversary of the investiture of her oldest son, Charles, as Prince of Wales. Senior royals including Charles’s own sons, William and Harry, and their wives, Kate and Meghan, attended the party, which the palace said paid tribute to the prince’s 50 years of service to Wales. Charles was created Prince of Wales, the title traditionally held by the heir to the British throne, in July 1958 when he was 9. He was formally invested with the title at a televised ceremony at Caernarfon Castle in July 1969. The regalia that Charles wore for the occasion, along with the coronet, sword and other regalia used in the ceremony, were on display at the reception. Joining the royals were figures from the prince’s Welsh charities while there were musical performances by students from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and a speech by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. Charles, 70, has waited longer than any of his predecessors to become monarch and would be the oldest-ever king at the start of his reign when he succeeds his 92-year-old mother, who herself holds the record for the longest reign in British history.

u.k .
royalty
prince charles
queen elizabeth


In Brussels, May's top lawyer struggles to secure last-minute movement on Brexit deal

Abstract: BRUSSELS - Talks between U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May’s top government lawyer and European Union negotiators, intended to win concessions from the bloc on Brexit, ended with no agreement in Brussels on Tuesday. May has sent Attorney General Geoffrey Cox to seek changes to her deal in a last-ditch bid to get it through Parliament and smooth the U.K.’s departure from the European Union. The talks between Cox, U.K. Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay and EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier ended with no agreement after more than three hours. Sources from both sides said negotiations among lower-ranking officials would continue on Wednesday. An EU official said Tuesday’s talks did not go well. The U.K. is due to leave the EU in 24 days, but Parliament’s rejection of May’s deal in January has put in doubt how, when or possibly even if the country’s biggest foreign and trade policy shift in more than 40 years will take place. May has charged Cox and Barclay with securing changes to the so-called Irish backstop, an insurance policy to prevent a “hard border” between the U.K. province of Northern Ireland and EU-member Ireland if a future trading relationship falls short. Time is of the essence. Some businesses are increasingly concerned over the risk of a disorderly Brexit, which BMW said on Tuesday could mean it would move some production of engines and its Mini model out of the U.K. Earlier, foreign minister Jeremy Hunt said the government still wanted “to leave at the end of this month and it depends how quickly we can get a deal through.” “Our ask of the EU is an important ask… but it is one ask and it’s a simple one. We need substantive changes that will allow the attorney general to change his advice to the government that says that, at the moment, theoretically, we could be trapped in the backstop indefinitely.” May has struggled to convince the EU that she can get the deal through a deeply divided Parliament in London, where lawmakers are increasingly flexing their muscles to try to influence the U.K.’s departure from the bloc. She has offered lawmakers the chance to seek to prevent a no-deal departure and to delay Brexit if Parliament rejects the deal in a vote she has promised to hold by March 12. Both U.K. and EU officials have said any delay would probably be just for a few months. May’s Chief Whip Julian Smith, who is charged with trying to rustle up enough support for her plan in Parliament, told her top ministers Tuesday that the vote next week will be tight, according to three people who spoke on condition of anonymity. He predicted that in the votes that follow a no-deal Brexit was likely to be taken off the table, and that the government would be instructed to seek an extension to talks. He also said he expected lawmakers to put down further amendments that would pass and put the U.K. on course to staying in the customs union. May has no majority in Parliament, and so needs as many lawmakers in her Conservative Party as possible to back her deal. As some are implacably opposed, either because they don’t want Brexit or they think she’s staying too close to the EU, she also needs votes from the opposition Labour Party. Ministers, meanwhile, are hoping Cox can convince euroskeptic lawmakers he has done enough to remove the threat of the U.K. ending up in the EU’s customs union indefinitely — something Brexit supporters say would make a mockery of the 2016 vote to leave the bloc. The U.K. government had been looking at either an end date on the provision or some way for London to be able to stop the arrangement unilaterally, but have in recent days been less specific about what the changes would amount to. Both options have long been rejected by the EU, which cites its commitment to the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland. Asked after a meeting of senior ministers whether May had set out specific details of what Cox was seeking, her spokesman said: “No … you can expect them (Cox and Barclay) to be having detailed discussions around the legally binding changes we’re seeking to the backstop, but it wasn’t discussed at cabinet.” U.K. and EU officials said the change could come in an addendum to May’s agreement — something the government hopes will be enough to change minds in Parliament, where deep divisions over Brexit have become increasingly entrenched. “How we get there is something we’re prepared to be flexible about,” Hunt said. “But the crucial thing that we are looking for is to see whether Geoffrey Cox is going to be able to change his advice to the government.”


Nearly quarter of national lawmakers worldwide were women in 2018, but up just 1% over 2017

Abstract: GENEVA - Nearly a quarter of all lawmakers serving in national parliaments worldwide are women, after more progress toward gender parity was made in 2018, the International Parliamentary Union said Tuesday. The IPU, which was founded in 1889 and is one of the world’s oldest international organizations, has for decades tracked the number of women elected to national legislative bodies. In 1995, just 11.3 percent of the world’s parliamentarians were female, a figure that rose 18.3 percent in 2008 and hit 24.3 percent last year, according to data in the latest IPU report. The increase in 2018 compared to 2017 figures was, however, just a modest 1 percent. The IPU, a grouping of 178 legislative chambers that seeks to improve representative democracy worldwide, urged nations to redouble efforts towards gender parity by using tactics including carefully designed quotas. The “30 percent rule” that set out the minimum allowable level of female representation in a given parliament proved to be an effective first step when introduced in parts of Latin America last century and those quotas are now being revised upwards, the IPU said. Political parties insisting on parity in terms of the candidates they field has also proven successful, the organization said. The latest IPU report incorporated data from 50 countries that held elections last year. The report highlighted “historic” results from November elections in the United States. “Both the lower (23.5 per cent) and upper houses (25 per cent) included more women than ever before,” the IPU said in a statement. The Americas and Europe continued to lead the way in female representation in parliament, with the Middle East and North Africa lagging at the bottom among regions.


French jihadist Jean-Michel Clain killed in Syria: wife

Abstract: NEAR BAGHOUZ, SYRIA - Prominent French jihadi Jean-Michel Clain was killed last month, his wife told AFP Tuesday after fleeing the last redoubt of the Islamic State group in eastern Syria. Clain’s wife, Dorothee Maquere, said he was killed in mortar shelling after being wounded in the coalition drone strike that killed his brother, Fabien, who was France’s most wanted jihadi. Fully veiled in black and surrounded by her five children, including a 2-week-old baby she was cradling under a red blanket, Maquere said her husband was killed less than two weeks ago. “The drone killed my brother-in-law and then the mortar killed my husband,” she said at a screening area run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which is spearheading the battle against the last pocket of IS territory. Maquere and her children were among the last civilians to leave Baghouz, the farming village on the banks of the Euphrates where die-hard IS members are making a bloody last stand. Fabien Clain, 41, gained notoriety after voicing an audio recording claiming responsibility for the November 2015 attacks in Paris, when IS jihadis slaughtered 129 people in coordinated attacks. The U.S.-led anti-IS military coalition, of which France is also a member, confirmed Fabien Clain’s death last month. His younger brother Jean-Michel, 38, was wounded in the same Feb. 20 coalition strike on Baghouz, Maquere said, adding that he died in a mortar attack later. While Fabien was seen as a senior propagandist among the foreign ranks of IS fighters, his younger brother was mostly known as a singer of the “nasheed” chants heard on some of the videos released by the jihadi organization. Jean-Michel’s widow gave this description of the two brothers’ role in IS, possibly the most brutal organization in modern jihad: “He was a singer … and my brother-in-law, he wrote the lyrics.” Maquere seemed confused and bitter in her new surroundings at the SDF screening center, where suspected IS members, many of them wounded, were being interrogated. The latest evacuees received basic care, water and blankets. The widow was seen sitting on a rug with four of her children, a pack of freshly distributed diapers next to her. She said she did not regret moving from southwestern France with her family four years ago to the proto-state Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed in 2014. Maquere described the makeshift camp where the last people left in the IS held portion of Baghouz have been hunkered down. “Everything happens outdoors, there are no houses anymore, everybody lives outside, which is not surprising because we were being bombarded day and night,” she said. When asked if she would describe the “caliphate” — which was once the size of Britain and administered millions of people — as a failure, she said: “You could say that.” Maquere said she wanted nothing from France and did not wish to return there but wanted to remain in Syria. “I want to continue to live here with my children, to rebuild myself,” she said. “I want to be left alone after everything I’ve been through … some place where I can live, where I won’t be bothered, where I can live my life,” she said. Maquere said she wanted to be allowed to practice her religion freely. “This is what every Muslim wants, nothing more.” She also said she thought Hayat Boumedienne, another prominent French jihadi whose fate remained unclear, was also killed recently in the Baghouz pocket. Boumedienne, 30, was believed to be very active in IS and is also known as the widow of Amedy Coulibaly, who was killed four years ago after carrying out deadly attacks in France. Coulibaly took hostages at a Jewish supermarket on the edge of Paris on Jan. 8, 2015, four of whom were killed before elite forces stormed the shop and gunned him down. The Malian-born jihadi claimed his attack, which came a day after two brothers killed 12 people at the offices of satirical publication Charlie Hebdo, in the name of IS. His wife had traveled to Syria a few days earlier.

france
terrorism
syria
islamic state
baghouz
fabien clain
jean-michel clain


Traffickers used Russia's World Cup to enslave us, say Nigerian women

Abstract: MOSCOW - Blessing Obuson thought Russia’s soccer World Cup would be an opportunity to find a job and flew into Moscow from Nigeria last June on a fan ID. Instead, she found herself forced to work as a prostitute. Fan IDs allowed visa-free entry to World Cup supporters with match tickets, but did not confer the right to work. Despite that, Obuson, 19, said she had hoped to work as a shop assistant to provide for her 2-year-old daughter and younger siblings back in Nigeria’s Edo state. Instead, she said she was locked in a flat on the outskirts of Moscow and forced into sex work along with 11 other Nigerian women who were supervised by a madam, also from Nigeria. “I cried really hard. But what choice did I have?” Obuson told Reuters after being freed by anti-slavery activists. She said her madam had confiscated her passport and told her she’d only get it back once she’d worked off a fictional debt of $50,000. Obuson told her story to a rare English-speaking client who got anti-slavery activists involved. Two Nigerians were later arrested and charged with human trafficking after striking a deal to sell Obuson for 2 million roubles (around $30,000) to a police officer posing as a client, according to her lawyer, statements from prosecutors, and evidence presented at court hearings in the case attended by Reuters journalists. The case is still under investigation. Obuson’s case is not isolated. Reuters met eight Nigerian women aged between 16 and 22 brought into Russia on fan IDs and forced into sex work. All said they had endured violence. “They don’t give you food for days, they slap you, they beat you, they spit in your face … It’s like a cage,” said one 21-year old woman, who declined to be named. In September, a Nigerian woman was killed by a man who refused to pay for sex, police said. The Nigerian embassy later identified her as 22-year old Alifat Momoh who had come to Russia from Nigeria with a fan ID. Russian police say 1,863 Nigerians who entered the country with fan IDs had not left by Jan. 1, the date when the IDs expired. Kenny Kehindo, who works with several Moscow NGOs to help sex trafficking victims, estimates that more than 2,000 Nigerian women were brought in on fan IDs. Neither Russian police nor the Nigerian embassy in Moscow replied to requests for a comment. A Nigerian foreign ministry spokesman also did not respond to text messages and phone calls requesting a comment. “Many are still in slavery,” said Kehindo, who said he had helped around 40 women return to Nigeria. “Fan ID is a very good thing, but in the hands of the human traffickers it’s just an instrument,” he said, calling for more cooperation between the authorities and anti-trafficking NGOs during major sporting events, including the 2022 Qatar World where a fan ID system is also being considered. Anti-slavery group Alternativa said its helpline had fielded calls from Nigerian women held in St Petersburg and other World Cup host cities. While a prosecution has been launched in Obuson’s case, police have been unable to act against suspected traffickers in other cases due to a lack of evidence. “A lot of girls are still out there,” said Obuson.

russia
rights
soccer
world cup
nigeria
sex crimes
human trafficking
2018 world cup


Satellite images show madrassa buildings still standing at scene of Indian bombing in Pakistan

Abstract: NEW DELHI/SINGAPORE - High-resolution satellite images reviewed by Reuters show that a religious school run by Jaish-e-Mohammad in northeastern Pakistan appears to be still standing days after India claimed its warplanes had hit the Islamist group’s training camp on the site and killed a large number of militants. The images produced by Planet Labs Inc., a San Francisco-based private satellite operator, show at least six buildings on the madrassa site on March 4, six days after the airstrike. Until now, no high-resolution satellite images were publicly available. But the images from Planet Labs, which show details as small as 72 cm (28 inches), offer a clearer look at the structures the Indian government said it attacked. The image is virtually unchanged from an April 2018 satellite photo of the facility. There are no discernible holes in the roofs of buildings, no signs of scorching, blown-out walls, displaced trees around the madrasa or other signs of an aerial attack. The images cast further doubt on statements made over the last eight days by the Indian government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the raids, early on Feb. 26, had hit all the intended targets at the madrassa site near Jaba village and the town of Balakot in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. India’s foreign and defense ministries did not reply to emailed questions sent in the past few days seeking comment on what is shown in the satellite images and whether they undermine its official statements on the airstrikes. Missed the target? Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Project at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, who has 15 years’ experience in analyzing satellite images of weapons sites and systems, confirmed that the high-resolution satellite picture showed the structures in question. “The high-resolution images don’t show any evidence of bomb damage,” he said. Lewis viewed three other high-resolution Planet Labs pictures of the site taken within hours of the image provided to Reuters. The Indian government has not publicly disclosed what weapons were used in the strike. Government sources said last week that 12 Mirage 2000 jets carrying 1,000 kg (2,200 lbs) bombs carried out the attack. On Tuesday, a defense official said the aircraft used the 2,000-lb Israeli-made SPICE 2000 glide bomb in the strike. A warhead of that size is meant to destroy hardened targets such as concrete shelters. Lewis and Dave Schmerler, a senior research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation studies who also analyzes satellite images, said weapons that large would have caused obvious damage to the structures visible in the picture. “If the strike had been successful, given the information we have about what kind of munitions were used, I would expect to see signs that the buildings had been damaged,” Lewis added. “I just don’t see that here.” Pakistan has disputed India’s account, saying the operation was a failure that saw Indian jets, under pressure from Pakistani planes, drop their bombs on a largely empty hillside. “There has been no damage to any infrastructure or human life as a result of Indian incursion,” Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor, the director general of the Pakistan military’s press wing, said in a statement to Reuters. “This has been vindicated by both domestic and international media after visiting the site.” Bomb craters In two visits to the Balakot area in Pakistan by Reuters reporters last Tuesday and Thursday, and extensive interviews with people in the surrounding area, there was no evidence found of a destroyed camp or of anyone being killed. Villagers said there had been a series of huge explosions but the bombs appeared to have landed among trees. On the wooded slopes above Jaba, they pointed to four craters and some splintered pine trees, but noted little other impact from the blasts that jolted them awake about 3 a.m. on Feb. 26. “It shook everything,” said Abdur Rasheed, a van driver who works in the area. He said there weren’t any human casualties: “No one died. Only some pine trees died, they were cut down. A crow also died.” Mohammad Saddique from Jaba Basic Health Unit and Zia Ul Haq, senior medical officer at Tehsil Headquarters Hospital in Balakot said they had seen no casualties. Political fire India must hold a general election by May, and pollsters say Modi and his Hindu nationalist party stand to benefit from his aggressive response to a suicide bomb attack that killed 40 Indian paramilitary police in the disputed Kashmir region on Feb. 14. India’s Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said on the day of the strike that “a very large number of Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists, trainers, senior commanders, and groups of jihadis who were being trained for Fidayeen action were eliminated” in the attack. Fidayeen is a term used to describe Islamist militants on suicide missions. Another senior government official told reporters on the same day that about 300 militants had been killed. On Sunday the president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Amit Shah, put the number killed at more than 250. The Indian government has not produced evidence that a camp was destroyed or that any militants were killed in the raid. That has prompted some opposition politicians to push for more details. “We want to know how many people actually died,” said Mamata Banerjee, the firebrand chief minister of West Bengal state, in a video published by her All India Trinamool Congress party in a tweet on Feb. 28. “Where did the bombs fall? Did they actually fall in the right place?” Banerjee, who is seen as a potential prime ministerial candidate, said that she stood behind the Indian Armed Forces, but that they should be given a chance to speak the truth. “We don’t want a war for political reasons, to win an election,” she said. Modi has accused the opposition Congress party, and other opponents such as Banerjee, of helping India’s enemies by demanding evidence of the attacks. “At a time when our army is engaged in crushing terrorism, inside the country and outside, there are some people within the country who are trying to break their morale, which is cheering our enemy,” Modi said at an election rally on Sunday.

conflict
india
kashmir
pakistan
narendra modi
_asia


Natural disasters and poor farming practices lead to North Korea's worst yield in more than a decade

Abstract: SEOUL - North Korea recorded its worst harvest for more than a decade last year, the United Nations said Wednesday, as natural disasters combined with its lack of arable land and inefficient agriculture hit production. The isolated North, which is under several sets of sanctions over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, has long struggled to feed itself and suffers chronic food shortages. But last year’s harvest was just 4.95 million tons, the United Nations said in its Needs and Priorities assessment for 2019, down by 500,000 tons. It was “the lowest production in more than a decade,” Tapan Mishra, the U.N.’s resident coordinator in the North, said in a statement. “This has resulted in a significant food gap.” As a result 10.9 million people in the North needed humanitarian assistance — 600,000 more than last year — with a potential for increased malnutrition and illness. That is equivalent to 43 percent of the population. But while the number of people needing help rose, the U.N. has had to cut its target for people to help — from 6 million to 3.8 million — as it seeks to prioritize those most in need. Funding has fallen far short of what the U.N. says it needs. Only 24 percent of last year’s appeal was met, with Mishra describing it as “one of the lowest funded humanitarian plans in the world.” Several agencies had been forced to scale back their programs and some faced closing projects, he said, appealing to donors to “not let political considerations get in the way of addressing humanitarian need.” “The human cost of our inability to respond is unmeasurable,” he said, adding that sanctions had created unintended delays and challenges to humanitarian programs, even though they are exempt under U.N. Security Council resolutions. The impoverished North has been frequently condemned by the international community for decades of prioritizing the military and its nuclear weapons program over adequately providing for its people — an imbalance some critics say the U.N.’s aid program encourages. Ahead of his Hanoi summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last week, U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly dangled the prospect of the North becoming an economic powerhouse if it gave up its arsenal, but the two were unable to reach a deal. The Center for Strategic and International Studies said — based on its analysis of satellite imagery — activity is “evident” at a North Korean long-range rocket test site, suggesting Pyongyang may be pursuing its “rapid rebuilding” after the failed summit. The country industrialized rapidly following the end of the Korean War and for a time was wealthier than the South. Funding from Moscow papered over the effects of chronic economic mismanagement, but that came to an end with the collapse of the Soviet Union, which was followed by a crippling famine. That episode — known as the Arduous March, when hundreds of thousands of people died — is in the past but North Korea does not have access to the latest agricultural technology or fertilizers and its yields are well below global averages. It is also a rugged, largely mountainous, country with only around 20 percent of its land area suitable for cultivation. It was hit by a heat wave in July and August last year, followed by heavy rains and flash floods from Typhoon Soulik. As a result, the U.N. said, rice and wheat crops were down 12 to 14 percent. The figure is significantly larger than in the South, where rice production was down only 2.6 percent last year, according to Seoul’s statistics, even though it experiences similar weather and climate. The North’s soybean output slumped 39 percent and production of potatoes — promoted by leader Kim as a way to increase supplies — was down 34 percent, the U.N. said. Last month Pyongyang told the U.N. that it was facing a shortfall of 1.4 million tons of food this year. Mishra insisted that humanitarian agencies were able to monitor their programs “rigorously” to make sure that help reached the most vulnerable people, adding: “We simply cannot leave them behind.”

north korea
u.n .
poverty
hunger
kim-trump summit


India dominates list of world's most polluted cities

Abstract: NEW DELHI - India dominated a list of the world’s most polluted cities in 2018, taking 22 of the top 30 spots, according to a Greenpeace report. Air pollution is estimated to contribute to 7 million premature deaths every year and is considered by the United Nations to be the single biggest environmental health risk. While Delhi was again named the capital with the dirtiest air, in tenth place, neighboring business city Gurugram, which in 2016 changed its name from Gurgaon, took the not-so-coveted top spot. Cities in China, Pakistan and Bangladesh were also placed in the top 30. The 2018 World Air Quality Report, compiled by Greenpeace and IQAir AirVisual, used air pollution data from tens of thousands of public and private monitoring stations across the world to rank over 3,000 cities from dirtiest down to cleanest. At a country level, weighted by population, Bangladesh emerged as the most polluted country on average, closely followed by Pakistan and India, with Afghanistan and Mongolia also within the top 10. “In addition to human lives lost, there’s an estimated global cost of $225 billion in lost labor, and trillions in medical costs,” said Yeb Sano, executive director of Greenpeace South East Asia. “This has enormous impacts, on our health and on our wallets.” The report looked at measurements of fine particles known as PM2.5, which can penetrate into the airways to cause respiratory problems. Of the over 3,000 cities included in the list, 64 percent exceeded the World Health Organization’s annual exposure guideline for PM2.5. Average concentrations of the pollutant in Chinese cities fell by 12 percent from 2017 to 2018. Beijing now ranks as the 122nd most polluted city in the world. “In recent times, East Asia has demonstrated a strong correlation between rapid economic development and increased air pollution,” the report found. It added that as the need to reduce air pollution has become more pressing in countries like China, “extensive monitoring networks and air pollution reduction policies have been put into place.” The report also highlighted a lack of public information on air quality, particularly in Africa and South America. Real-time information is a “cornerstone in generating public awareness and driving action to combat air pollution in the long-term,” it added.

india
united nations
air pollution
greenpeace
delhi
environmentalism
2018 world air quality report


U.S. sends B-52s for missions over disputed South and East China seas and around Japan

Abstract: A U.S. B-52 bomber was sent near disputed islands in the South China Sea and another circumnavigated Japan, conducting joint military exercises with the Air Self-Defense Force, the U.S. Pacific Air Forces said Wednesday. Monday’s mission in the contested South China Sea was the first reported flight in the area by a B-52 since November. The Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) said that the two B-52s had taken off from Andersen Air Force Base on the U.S. island territory of Guam, and participated in “routine training missions.” “One bomber conducted training in the vicinity of the South China Sea before returning to Guam, while the other conducted training in the vicinity of Japan in coordination with the U.S. Navy and alongside our Japanese air force counterparts before returning to Guam,” the PACAF said in a statement. Aircraft Spots, a Twitter account tracking movements of military aircraft, showed one B-52 as having flown near Scarborough Shoal, a disputed uninhabited reef that Beijing calls Huangyan Island. The shoal, which is also claimed by Taipei and Manila and sits just 230 km (140 miles) from the Philippine coast, has long been a subject of speculation amid Beijing’s massive land-reclamation projects in the South China Sea. Some experts believe China may seek to fortify the shoal as part of a bid to cement control of the strategic waterway. The B-52 aircraft involved in the mission were part of the U.S. Air Force’s “continuous bomber presence” based in Guam. Since 2004, the U.S. has rotated B-1, B-52 and B-2 long-range bombers out of Guam to conduct training missions in Asia. Akin to the U.S. Navy’s so-called freedom of navigation operations, in which it has sailed warships near disputed islands claimed by China in the South China Sea, the air force missions are intended to assert that the area is international airspace as well. Beijing has built up a series of military outposts in the South China Sea, which includes vital sea lanes through which about $3 trillion in global trade passes each year. Washington and Beijing have frequently jousted over the militarization of the South China Sea, where China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines all have competing claims. The U.S. does not maintain any claims there, but says the operations are conducted globally with the aim of promoting freedom of navigation. China effectively seized Scarborough Shoal — a prime fishing spot — from the Philippines in 2012 after a tense standoff. In the wake of this, and a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration that invalidated China’s claim of sovereignty over much of the South China Sea, the coral outcrop has become synonymous with the regional power struggle in the waterway. In January last year, the U.S. sent a guided-missile destroyer to within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of the shoal, stoking anger from China. U.S. Indo-Pacific commander Adm. Philip Davidson said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee last month that China also continues to intimidate Filipino fishermen in the area of Scarborough Shoal. “Chinese Coast Guard vessels now fall under the command of the Central Military Commission and regularly harass and intimidate fishing vessels from our treaty ally, the Philippines, operating near Scarborough reef, as well as the fishing fleets of other regional nations,” Davidson said. A separate posting by the Aircraft Spots Twitter account showed that the exercise took one of the bombers over the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan, with the aircraft flying around Japan. The U.S. Air Force sent two B-52s over the East China Sea in January for “routine training” near Okinawa Prefecture. The U.S. and Japanese forces regularly conduct exercises in the East China Sea — home to the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands — and Beijing, which also claims the islets and calls them the Diaoyu, often dispatches government ships and aircraft to the area surrounding them. In November 2013, China declared an air defense identification zone, in which aircraft are supposed to identify themselves to Chinese authorities, in the East China Sea. The United States and Japan have refused to recognize the ADIZ, and many observers have viewed it as an attempt by China to bolster its claims over disputed territories, like the uninhabited Senkakus. Beijing said in 2017 that Washington should respect the ADIZ after Chinese officials warned a U.S. bomber that it was illegally flying inside the East China Sea zone. The Pentagon rejected the Chinese call and said it would continue its flight operations in the region. The United States is obligated to defend aggression against territories under Japanese administration under Article 5 of the U.S.-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security, and top U.S. officials have said this extends to the Senkakus. Training missions such as Monday’s have appeared to gain more publicity amid protracted military and trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.

china
east china sea
u.s .
military
senkakus
disputed islands
south china sea


India's Kerala to give workers a siesta to help beat the heat

Abstract: MUMBAI - Workers in India’s Kerala state are now getting a three-hour afternoon siesta as part of a series of benefits aimed at combating soaring temperatures and improving labor conditions, government officials said on Wednesday. Kerala, which suffered its worst floods in a century last year, is bracing itself for more extreme weather conditions in 2019 and the state’s disaster management authority last week issued sunstroke warnings for the next three months. “There is extreme heat in Kerala. So we are making arrangements for workers and have announced a three-hour break from noon until 3 p.m.,” said Sreedharan Tulasidharan, a labor commissioner with the Kerala government. There are an estimated 3 million migrant workers in Kerala, which offers daily wages that are up to three times higher than in other Indian states, labor rights campaigners say. Most work in the construction, agriculture, mining and fishing industries. “We call them our guests. Migrant workers’ output is very high. Their productivity contributes to our GDP. We are nurturing and treating them well,” Tulasidharan told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone. Climate experts have warned that the world can expect higher temperatures and more frequent heat waves, with the poorest communities likely to be worst-affected as the impacts of climate change kick-in. The World Health Organization says heat-stress, linked to climate change, is likely to cause 38,000 extra deaths a year worldwide between 2030 and 2050. Home to 60 percent of the world’s population, Asia-Pacific is the planet’s most disaster-prone region, according to the Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2017. India, with approximately 1.3 billion people, is the second most populous country in the world and also among the most disaster-prone. Heat waves in India caused over 2,400 deaths in 2015, according to government data. Officials of the Kerala’s disaster management authority said cases of heat stroke and sunburn were already being reported and they had asked various government departments to take precautionary measures. “Summer in Kerala was never harsh,” said Sekhar L. Kuriakose, a senior official with the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority, which issued the sunstroke warning last week. “This year we saw temperatures rise by 3 degrees in 14 days during February. That is not normal,” said Kuriakose. Kerala announced health and pension benefits for migrant workers in November. Last week, the state inaugurated hostels for migrant workers in Palakkad town and now plans to expand the scheme. With high levels of literacy and an aging population, Kerala leans heavily on migrant workers, said Benoy Peter, executive director at Kerala’s Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development, a non-profit.

india
disasters
climate change
heat
kerala
labor relations


South Korea sees signs North is restoring part of missile launch site it tore down: Yonhap

Abstract: WASHINGTON - South Korean intelligence agencies have detected signs that North Korea is restoring part of the Dongchang-ri missile launch site it tore down, Yonhap News Agency reported on Tuesday. Specifically, Yonhap said the closed-off country, under pressure for years to discontinue its nuclear program, is putting back a roof and a door on the facility. South Korea’s National Intelligence Service also said during a briefing for the National Assembly’s intelligence committee that “the U.S. information is the same as ours,” according to Yonhap. A second summit on denuclearization between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last week broke down over differences on how far North Korea was willing to limit its nuclear program and the degree of U.S. willingness to ease sanctions on the country. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday he was hopeful the United States would send a delegation to North Korea in the coming weeks. South Korean President Moon Jae-in called for officials to try to find a way to restart talks between the North and the United States. The breakdown of the summit was a blow for Moon, who had hoped eased U.S. sanctions would help lead to a restart of inter-Korean projects, including a factory park, key to his vision for a pan-peninsula economic community.

u.s .
north korea
kim jong un
nuclear weapons
missiles
south korea
donald trump
moon jae-in
dongchang-ri


Pakistan Navy says it stopped Indian sub from entering its waters

Abstract: KARACHI, PAKISTAN - Pakistan has stopped an Indian submarine from entering its waters, the navy said Tuesday, as tensions continue to run high between the nuclear-armed foes. The development came days after a rare aerial dogfight between India and Pakistan over the disputed territory of Kashmir ignited fears of an all-out conflict, with world powers rushing to urge restraint. “The Pakistan Navy stopped an Indian submarine from entering our territorial waters,” a naval spokesman said. He added “the Indian submarine was not targeted, in line with the government’s policy of maintaining peace. It was the first such incident since 2016, when Pakistan said it had “pushed” an Indian submarine away from its waters. The navy later said the submarine was detected on Monday within Pakistan’s maritime zone, or 200 nautical mile (370 km) exclusive economic zone, but did not give further details on the location. It also released what it said was video of the submarine, with the grainy black and white footage showing only what appeared to be a periscope above water. The timestamp at the beginning of the video clip read 8:35 p.m. on Monday. India said its navy remained “deployed as necessary. “Over the past several days we have witnessed Pakistan indulging in false propoganda,” an Indian Navy spokesman tweeted Tuesday. An Indian government source also dismissed the video, telling AFP: “Why would a submarine in Pakistani waters have its periscope up?” Tensions between the arch-rivals have escalated significantly over recent days, after a suicide bombing in Indian-administered Kashmir killed 40 Indian paramilitaries. A militant group based in Pakistan claimed responsibility for the Feb. 14 blast, and 12 days later Indian jets bombed what New Delhi called a terrorist training camp deep inside Pakistan. Pakistan has denied any damage or casualties, and independent reporting has shown the strikes hit a heavily forested area with little infrastructure nearby. Residents have said just one person was injured. The next day Pakistani aircraft entered Indian airspace and the two nations’ jets engaged in aerial dogfights, with at least one Indian aircraft shot down and its pilot captured by Pakistan. The pilot was handed back to India last Friday in what Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan called a “peace gesture. Both sides also claimed a second plane had been shot down, but they have disputed whose plane it was and what happened to the pilot. Pakistani and Indian soldiers have continued to fire over the Line of Control — the de-facto border dividing Kashmir — in the days since, killing several civilians on both sides. Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule in 1947. Both claim the Himalayan territory in full and have fought two wars over it.

conflict india kashmir pakistan submarines


This year's extended Golden Week holiday in Japan is a headache for many working parents

Abstract: The Golden Week holiday period, extended to 10 days this year due to events surrounding the Imperial succession, has left working parents who are unable to take the entire time off in limbo, as most nurseries and kindergartens will be closed. Many people working in medical and nursing care services, tourism and other industries will have to work right through the break, which will begin Saturday, April 27, and run through Monday, May 6. Some municipalities are scrambling to assess the feasibility of making extra provisions. “It looks like I’ll have to work since it will be a busy period,” said a 36-year-old female employee of an accounting office in Sendai. Her husband also expects he will have to work through the holiday, while the nursery school that their 4-year-old daughter attends plans to close for the entire period. “Small companies can’t afford to close for 10 straight days. The government should have been more considerate of working people who leave their children with others when it decided to create the extended holiday,” the woman said. “The feeling is it made light of the situation as if to say, ‘Someone will do something.'” The Diet passed a bill in December to designate May 1, when Crown Prince Naruhito, 58, accedes the Imperial Throne, a one-off national holiday. With April 29 and May 3 to 6 already assigned as national holidays in 2019, April 30 and May 2 then became holidays because the law stipulates that any weekday sandwiched by national holidays itself becomes a holiday. Complaints about this year’s Golden Week have been growing online. Some say they are unable to leave children with their grandparents because they also work or live too far away. Some child care centers and kindergartens open on Saturdays but close on Sundays and holidays. Although some local governments will, if booked in advance, take in children at designated child care centers that are opened specifically for holidays, the number of available staff is limited. The committees in both houses of the Diet that deliberated on the bill creating the 10-day holiday adopted an additional resolution urging the government to “take all possible measures to avoid any trouble in the life of the people,” including child care services. But an official in charge at the Cabinet Office said, “It’s difficult for the government to introduce unified countermeasures.” As municipal governments are responsible for overseeing authorized child care centers, the official said, local governments should devise their own solutions. But an official with the Kumamoto Municipal Government said, “Nothing really has been decided by us. It would help if the government laid out a course of action.” Some other local authorities, including Tokyo’s Toshima Ward, are considering the expansion of temporary services. While more than 5,000 children are routinely looked after at day care centers in Toshima Ward, only 40 are accepted during the holiday. “We are studying if we can open more facilities as an exception” during the 10-day holiday, a Toshima official said. A key question is whether enough child care workers can be procured. A social welfare corporation operating authorized child care centers nationwide is set to accept children, if requested, during the period. “We have to manage somehow,” said a company official. Mika Ikemoto, a senior researcher at the Japan Research Institute, said the central government should “proactively” adopt countermeasures in cooperation with local governments “without leaving the matter to parents and care facilities.”

children
holidays
golden week
parenthood


Japan's health ministry approves world's first trials for using iPS cells to treat corneal disease

Abstract: The health ministry conditionally approved Tuesday the world’s first clinical study to treat patients with corneal disease by using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. The study, to be conducted by a team of researchers from Osaka University, will be the sixth time the government has authorized clinical studies using iPS cells. The team will transplant 0.05-mm-thick layers of corneal tissue produced from iPS cells into four adult patient s who suffer from a disease that causes corneal haze and decreased vision. The patients will each receive a transplant of some 3 million to 4 million corneal cells, which is almost the same amount of corneal cells that are in the eyes of healthy people. The transplanted cells are expected to keep making more corneal cells, and so contribute to the recovery of sight. The first transplant operation will be conducted as early as June, according to the team. The disease, called corneal epithelial stem cell deficiency, is caused by losing cells in the eye that produce the cornea due to illness or injury. Safe and effective medical treatments have yet to be established for the condition. A total of 1,600 patients are waiting for corneal donations in Japan, according to an estimate by the ministry. The treatment being developed by the team at Osaka University may become a new option for such patients. Conventional corneal transplant operations are prone to rejection because immune cells get implanted along with the rest of the cornea. The sheets of corneal cells to be used in the study do not contain immune cells, so the team believes that they are unlikely to trigger rejection reactions. A ministry committee has said it will require the team to provide more detailed documents explaining the clinical study to the patients before it can proceed. If the study is successful, the team will aim to start clinical trials and to secure state approval for the manufacture and sale of regenerative medical products using the technology within five or six years. Induced pluripotent stem cells, which can grow into any type of body tissue, were identified by Kyoto University’s Shinya Yamanaka, who won the 2012 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his work. The world’s first clinical study using iPS cells was conducted in 2014 by the government-backed Riken institute, transplanting retina cells into a woman with age-related macular degeneration. The other four studies have tackled Parkinson’s disease, heart disease, platelet transfusions and damage to spinal cords.

ips
transplants
osaka university
corneas


JR East introduces system to send security camera images directly to police in emergencies

Abstract: East Japan Railway Co., or JR East, said Tuesday it will introduce a system that can send images directly and automatically to police from its video surveillance cameras at stations in the event of an emergency, as Tokyo strengthens anti-terrorism measures in advance of the 2020 Summer Games. In the run-up to the games, JR East said it will also increase the number of security cameras at stations in the capital and surrounding areas and set up a special department that will be tasked with monitoring images from them around the clock. By July next year, when the Olympics open, a total of about 22,000 security cameras will be in place near ticket gates and on platforms at around 1,200 stations as part of efforts to ensure public safety, the company said. Concerns about attacks on public transportation infrastructure have grown due to incidents aboard bullet trains in recent years. In 2015, a man’s self-immolation onboard a shinkansen resulted in the death of the man as well as another passenger, and injured 26. Last year a man with a knife killed one passenger and hurt two others. JR East has decided to newly equip 8,300 local train cars operating in the greater Tokyo area and 200 shinkansen carriages with security cameras. It also plans to install security cameras in all train cars manufactured from this point forward. Luggage inspections for train passengers are common in some countries but are not conducted in Japan. There has been strong opposition among railway companies due to the inconvenience to passengers and the difficulty of finding space for such checks in stations. On Monday the transport ministry began an experiment at Kasumigaseki Station, operated by Tokyo Metro Co. in a district of the capital where government offices are located, using a body scanner at two of the ticket gates to monitor objects under clothing. The experiment, which is running for seven hours per day, including peak hours, through Thursday, is aimed at helping the ministry identify potential problems as it considers the feasibility of such a system. Around 150,000 passengers per day use Kasumigaseki Station, which was one of the targets of the nerve gas attack by the Aum Shinrikyo cult in 1995.

jr east
tokyo 2020 olympics
security camera


Japan, U.S. and South Korea to hold high-level talks on North Korea nuclear issue

Abstract: A senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official will visit Washington from Wednesday for high-level talks with U.S. and South Korean counterparts on North Korea’s denuclearization, the ministry has said. The trilateral talks will involve discussion on a possible response to last week’s second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam, which ended without tangible progress toward the North’s denuclearization. During his visit through Friday, Kenji Kanasugi, director general of the ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, plans to coordinate denuclearization efforts with Stephen Biegun, U.S. special representative for North Korea, and Lee Do-hoon, South Korea’s special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, according to the ministry. Kanasugi is expected to be briefed by Biegun on the outcome of the U.S.-North Korea summit in Hanoi, and will stress Japan’s position that sanctions must be maintained against North Korea until Pyongyang denuclearizes in a complete and verifiable way. At the summit, the United States and North Korea remained apart over the denuclearization steps that would lead to an easing in existing economic sanctions on Pyongyang. In addition to North Korea’s denuclearization, resolving the issue of Pyongyang’s abductions of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s is also a top priority for Tokyo.

u.s .
north korea
nuclear weapons
south korea
north korea nuclear crisis
u.s.-japan relations
south korea-japan relations
kim-trump summit


Tokyo Skytree celebrates 60th anniversary of iconic fashion doll Barbie's debut

Abstract: An event marking the 60th year since the debut of iconic fashion doll Barbie kicked off at Tokyo Skytree on Wednesday, showcasing the doll’s history and diversity. The event, named Barbie Loves Tokyo Skytree Runway, will run through May 6. At the tower’s Tembo Galleria, a series of colorful dioramas — featuring props such as a birthday cake and a closet — are set up for visitors to take photos. The wall of the Galleria’s Floor 445 corridor is adorned with images of Barbie in different professional uniforms dating back to 1959. The Floor 450 corridor exhibits an array of Barbie dolls with a variety of hair and eye colors, body shapes and clothes. A limited edition 60th anniversary Barbie is also shown. A pop-up store has opened in the corridor, selling Barbie products that also feature Tokyo Skytree, like a box of chocolates, plastic folders and hand towels. Skytree Cafe at Tembo Deck Floor 340 is serving four kinds of Barbie-themed menus. A strawberry milk beverage costs ¥850. Actress and talk show host Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, seen as the pioneer for women in Japan’s media, was invited to the event on Wednesday as a guest. Asked for her message to women, she said, “The most important thing in life is to stay healthy.” “And… to stay confident in yourself,” she added. A one-of-a-kind doll based on the image of Kuroyanagi is among the exhibits. According to the U.S. toy-maker Mattel Inc.’s unit in Japan, Mattel International, Barbie debuted on March 9, 1959, wearing a black and white striped swimsuit. Sales in Japan began three years later. The 30-centimeter-tall doll has since mirrored societal changes toward women, representing more diverse demographics. Barbie has appeared in a variety of skin tones, professions and body shapes. She has had more than 200 careers, ranging from astronaut, journalist, engineer and entrepreneur to president of a country, according to the company. There were scientist and athlete versions of Barbie even before the U.S. banned discrimination in education and other activities on the basis of sex in 1972. In 1980, the first black and Hispanic Barbies hit the market. In 2016, Mattel released the doll in three body shapes — curvy, tall, and petite — to better reflect the world girls see around them. Miho Kobayashi, Mattel International’s branding manager, said the curvy version sells the most. Kobayashi said the company believes “variation” is the key to the dolls’ popularity. “This version shows better the differences in body shape than the other two,” she said. Each year, 53 million Barbie dolls are sold. They are available in more than 150 countries.

barbie
women
fashion
dolls
tokyo skytree
toys
anniversaries
mattel


Japan ranks at bottom of G20, and in lowest quarter globally, for percentage of female MPs

Abstract: OSAKA - Japan ranked 165th out of 193 countries for its percentage of female politicians holding seats in lower or single parliamentary chambers, a report by the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union shows. The updated data for 2018, released just ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8, showed that only 47 of Japan’s 463 lawmakers, or 10.2 percent, were women, as of Jan. 1, 2019. That’s the lowest percentage among the Group of 20 nations and a seven place drop from the previous year, when the nation was also the lowest in the G20 for its percentage of female lower-house lawmakers. The report also noted that only 50 of 241 upper-chamber lawmakers, or 20.7 percent, were women. The IPU’s updated report comes as Japan prepares for local elections next month, an Upper House election in late July and the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Osaka in late June. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said women’s participation in society is one of the issues that will be on the summit’s agenda. Human rights activists involved in gender issues expressed disappointment with the results. “It’s a real shame that Japan’s ranking is the lowest among the G20 countries,” said Atsuko Miwa, director of the Osaka-based Asia-Pacific Human Rights Information Center and co-chair of this year’s Civil 20, the group of civil society organizations that provides recommendations to G20 members. “I think that a major reason is that while more than 100 countries have introduced gender quotas (to raise the percentage of female lawmakers), Japan has not. Doing so would be one positive action to address the imbalance,” she said. “Women account for 51 percent of the Japanese population, and it’s crucial that the voices of women and their issues be reflected in politics in order to address various problems of modern society. “More women in politics will have a positive effect on solving Japan’s demographic problems, realizing work-life balance and showing the importance of society being involved in taking care of people,” she added. While only 10 percent of Lower House members are female, the situation was more varied at the local level. Data from the Gender Equality Bureau Cabinet Office showed that, as of 2017, women made up 17.2 percent of large municipal assemblies, and 14.4 percent of smaller city assemblies. But they only made up 10.1 percent of prefectural assemblies and 9.9 percent of town and village assemblies.


Four Niigata teens arrested over assault on high schooler captured in video that went viral in Japan

Abstract: NIIGATA - Four teenage boys were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of assaulting a high school student boy last month, police said, after a video showing the boy being hit and kicked went viral on social media. The four boys, all 16 years old and living in the city of Niigata, allegedly injured the 16-year-old student’s head and waist in mid-February, the police said. The student reported the incident to police on Feb. 19. The video showed more than four people kicking the victim or hitting him with a stick, but the police have concluded that the four boys arrested played major roles in the assault. Two of the four and the injured student attend the same high school in the city, while the other two left school last year, according to the school. The video was filmed on a beach near the school on the evening of Feb. 15. The school came to know of the video last month after receiving a report from a member of the public.

niigata
bullying
social media
schools
high schools
video
niigata seiryo high school


Kagoike couple at heart of Japan PM Abe's Moritomo Gakuen cronyism scandal plead not guilty

Abstract: OSAKA - The former head of a school operator and his wife, who are at the heart of a cronyism scandal linked to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of fraud related to public subsidies for their schools, claiming their arrests were politically motivated. Yasunori Kagoike, the 66-year-old former chief of Moritomo Gakuen, and his 62-year-old wife Junko have been charged with defrauding the central government of roughly ¥56 million ($500,000) in subsidies between March 2016 and February 2017, by alleged padding of construction costs for an elementary school in Osaka Prefecture on land purchased from the government. The two were also indicted for allegedly reporting an incorrect number of teachers at their preschool, to unlawfully receive a total of around ¥120 million in subsidies from the prefecture and the city of Osaka between fiscal 2011 and fiscal 2016. “I will not tolerate a politically motivated investigation (or) politically motivated arrests,” Kagoike said during the couple’s first hearing at the Osaka District Court. They were arrested in July 2017 after it was revealed that Moritomo Gakuen had purchased the land in Toyonaka the previous year for ¥134 million despite it being valued at ¥956 million. The heavily discounted sale sparked favoritism allegations against Abe, as his wife Akie had been named honorary principal of the elementary school. She stepped down from the post in the wake of the scandal. Kagoike claimed he had received special treatment in the land deal with the Finance Ministry as he was an acquaintance of the prime minister and his wife. Meanwhile, government officials have insisted that the discount was given to cover the cost of removing underground waste at the site. Kagoike and his wife were detained for some 10 months before being released on bail last May. The ministry has punished 20 officials, including Nobuhisa Sagawa, former head of the National Tax Agency, over falsifying and destroying documents related to the land deal. But prosecutors have not indicted any officials over the matter. Abe has told the Diet that neither he nor his wife was involved in the land sale, and that he would resign if evidence to the contrary is found.

shinzo abe
osaka
courts
corruption
fraud
scandals
toyonaka
moritomo gakuen
yasunori kagoike


Mother and boyfriend held for leaving girl, 3, at Yokohama home with severe burns while they played pachinko

Abstract: YOKOHAMA - The Kanagawa Prefectural Police on Tuesday arrested a woman, 22, and a man, 21, who lives with her, on suspicion of leaving her three-year-old daughter severely burned at her home in Yokohama. The unemployed woman, Kaho Hashimoto, and the man, Satoshi Tanaka, who works as a driver, have both admitted to charges of neglecting their duty of care for the girl, according to investigative sources. They are suspected of leaving the girl at home around noon Monday with severe burns on her back. Hashimoto and Tanaka went out to play pachinko. The girl’s injuries will take three months to heal, according to the sources. Hashimoto told the police that she “mistakenly splashed very hot water on the girl when showering.” On Monday evening, Hashimoto’s five-year-old son asked a man in his 50s living in the neighborhood for help, saying, “Mom is gone.” Police officers who arrived at Hashimoto’s house found the girl semiconscious in bedclothes in a room, with the burned area of her body covered with plastic wrap. The suspects were questioned by police after returning home shortly past 8 p.m. on the day.


Ex-editor of comic magazine hit with 11-year prison term for killing wife

Abstract: The former deputy editor of a popular Kodansha Ltd. comic magazine was sentenced Wednesday to 11 years in prison for killing his wife in 2016. The Tokyo District Court ruled that Pak Jong Hyon, 43, strangled his wife to death in a bedroom of their Tokyo home. Pak had claimed she took her own life. In handing down the ruling, presiding Judge Minoru Morishita said Pak’s act was “malicious.” But his motive for killing her remains unclear. After the sentence was read out, Pak shouted, “I didn’t do it,” and the judge told him to sit down. Prosecutors had sought a 15-year prison term, claiming Pak clearly intended to kill her. According to the ruling, the former deputy editor of the publisher’s Morning magazine strangled his wife Kanako, 38, on Aug. 9, 2016. “We take the ruling seriously. As the employee suggested he will appeal, we will continue to handle the matter cautiously while” keeping an eye on future developments, Kodansha said in a statement.


Fix to 737 Max anti-stall software is ready: industry sources

Abstract: NEW YORK - A fix to the anti-stall system suspected in the crash of a Boeing 737 Max 8 jet that killed 189 people in Indonesia is ready, industry sources said Saturday, as the company tries to avoid a lengthy grounding of its planes. Boeing was due to present the patch to officials and pilots of U.S. airlines — American, Southwest and United — in Renton, Washington state, where the plane is assembled, other sources said. “Boeing has already finalized the necessary corrective measures for the Max,” an aviation sector source said on condition of anonymity. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will receive the patch “early next week,” a government source added. Asked how long the certification process could take after the patch is in the hands of the authorities, this source said that nothing has been decided yet. The FAA declined to comment. The Lion Air crash in Indonesia last October and another accident this month involving an Ethiopian Airlines jet, which killed 346 people between them, have raised major concerns about the safety certification of the 737 Max 8 model. The Ethiopian Airlines crash on March 10 led to the global grounding of 737 Max planes. Although it will take months to determine the exact cause of both crashes, investigators in the Lion case have honed in on the MCAS automated anti-stalling system designed to point the nose of the plane downward if it is in danger of stalling, or losing lift. American Airlines and Southwest pilots were set to test simulators with the updates on Saturday, according to the sources. Boeing neither confirmed nor denied the information. The FAA had given until April for Boeing to make the necessary changes to the critical anti-stall system, and on March 15 two anonymous industry sources said the upgrade would be ready in about 10 days. A spokesman for United Airlines, whose fleet includes 14 of the 737 Max 9 planes, confirmed the company’s attendance at the training session. Southwest and its SWAPA pilots union “have subject matter experts from our Technical Pilot Team and Training Teams headed to Boeing to review documentation and training associated with the modification to the B737 speed trim system,” a spokeswoman said. The company is one of the biggest 737 Max 8 customers, owning 34 of the planes. “We’ve been working diligently and in close cooperation with the FAA on the software update. We are taking a comprehensive and careful approach to design, develop and test the software that will ultimately lead to certification,” a Boeing spokeswoman said. “There will be training provided by Boeing.” In addition to the software modification, the industry sources said Boeing has also finalized updates to its flight and pilots’ training manuals, as the FAA asked. “We have been engaging with all 737 Max operators and we are continuing to schedule meetings to share information about our plans for supporting the 737 Max fleet,” the Boeing spokeswoman said, declining to confirm the timeline for the changes. In another modification, the 737 Max will be outfitted with a warning light for malfunctions in the anti-stall system, an industry source told AFP on Thursday, standardizing a feature previously sold as an optional extra. Neither the Lion Air aircraft nor the Ethiopian Airlines jet had the feature, the industry source said. US and Ethiopian authorities have said this month’s crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 near Addis Ababa bore “similarities” to last year’s Lion Air crash. Since the Ethiopian crash, pressure has intensified on Boeing and the image of the company — which also makes combat aircraft and space equipment — has been eroded. Share value of the firm, which says it is the world’s largest aerospace manufacturer, has dropped 12 percent since the accident, wiping out $28 billion in market capitalization Boeing and the FAA are under investigation by the Transportation Department over how the rollout of the jet was handled, including the anti-stall system. The acting FAA head is among transport officials who are to testify on Wednesday before a congressional subcommittee. Questioning is likely to focus on tight links between Boeing and the regulators, who maintain offices in the airplane factories and delegated a large part of the certification process for the 737 Max and its anti-stall system to employees of Boeing, sources said. News reports say that the Department of Justice has also opened a criminal investigation into the 737 Max’s development. Ralph Nader, the veteran U.S. consumer protection advocate who lost a relative in the Ethiopia crash, called Friday for an organization to defend passengers’ rights.

boeing
ethiopian airlines
lion air
air accidents


Apple's iPhone struggles unravel ambitions of Japan Display

Abstract: When Japan Display Inc. broke ground on a new factory in central Japan in 2015, the future looked bright for one of the world’s top vendors of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels. The plant would strengthen the company’s position as the primary screen supplier for Apple Inc. as sales of the iPhone 6 soared. And the U.S. smartphone juggernaut said it would front most of the $1.5 billion in costs, with Japan Display paying it back with a percentage of screen sales, according to two company sources. Four years later, Apple’s shifting fortunes have brought Japan Display to its knees and threaten to end Japan’s long run as a leader in display technology. A slowdown in iPhone sales, combined with a proliferation of new iPhone models — many of which use newer organic light-emitting displays (OLED) — have left Japan Display’s new factory running at half capacity. But it still owes Apple a majority of the construction cost, one of the company sources said. He declined to give the exact amount. Desperate for capital, Japan Display is looking to an investor group, led by China Silkroad Investment Capital, for a bailout, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said. The deal would give the Chinese group a near-majority stake in exchange for an investment of $500 million to $700 million, the sources said. The group plans to build an OLED panel plant in China using Japan Display’s technology, according to those two sources. The company’s woes show how weak iPhone sales and a broader slowdown in the smartphone business are causing pain across the Asian electronics supply chain. “In retrospect, the new plant was unnecessary,” one of the sources with direct knowledge of the bailout talks said. “But the decision wasn’t wrong back then. Japan Display started to pick up steam thanks to Apple at the time, and Apple wanted the new plant.” Japan Display wasn’t alone in betting on robust growth in iPhone sales, which looked especially attractive because of Apple’s now-abandoned strategy of offering few variations in each product cycle. “We were all thrilled to see lifetime sales of a single iPhone model reaching 100 million units,” a source at another Apple parts supplier said. “Supplying components for just one model in massive volume is extremely cost-efficient,” he said. “At the same time, we exposed ourselves to huge volatility risks.” Japan Display has built relationships with other smartphone vendors, including Chinese powerhouses Huawei, Xiaomi, and OPPO. But it is losing their orders too as sales growth softens and the Chinese players switch to domestic panel makers such as BOE Technology and Tianma Microelectronics, which have sharply improved the quality of their screens. Japan Display supplied almost a third of Huawei’s smartphone screens in 2015, but its share had plunged to 4 percent by the third quarter last year as the Chinese company turned to BOE and Tianma, according to researcher IHS Markit. Sources at Japan Display and other Apple suppliers interviewed for the story declined to be identified as they are not authorized to talk to the media. Suppliers rarely speak about business with Apple on the record because of strict nondisclosure agreements. Japan Display was formed in 2012 in a government-backed merger of the ailing display units of Sony Corp. Toshiba Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. It boasts strength in so-called thin-film transistor technology (TFT), crucial for making high-resolution images on both LCD and OLED panels. In addition to its Apple business, which accounted for more than half the company’s revenue over the last four years, it’s a top supplier of dashboard panels for major automotive component companies such as Continental . But Japan Display has struggled to navigate the fast-changing display business. Its new LCD factory was still under construction when Apple informed Japan Display in autumn 2015 that it planned to move quickly away from LCD to the newer OLED technology, two former company officials said. It was too costly by then to abandon the half-completed plant, one of them said. Japan Display’s management at the time, led by former Sanyo Electric executive Mitsuru Honma, promised to start mass-production of OLED panels by 2018. In the meantime, the management shut down older, unprofitable LCD lines to shift resources to OLED, but its main investor, a state-backed fund, blocked plans for drastic job cuts for fear of public backlash, one of the former officials said. Unexpectedly weak sales of the iPhone 6s created a cash crunch in 2016, and Honma resigned early the next year after the company took a $640 million bailout from the state-backed fund. The new chief executive, Nobuhiro Higashiiriki, declared a full-on shift to OLED. But the company was already behind rivals, notably Samsung Electronics, and still needed more cash for OLED investment. Disappointing sales of the iPhone XR, the only LCD model in Apple’s 2018 lineup, were yet another blow. “The company now looks exhausted, with many engineers leaving,” one former employee said. Some board members have expressed concerns about technology transfer that may follow the proposed Chinese investment, sources familiar with the talks said. But the government investment fund has run out of patience. “We don’t have any other option,” one of the company sources said, adding that the government has been quiet about the bailout plan. “They could argue that display technologies are not something Japan must keep and protect, when Chinese panel makers are ramping up more display plants.”


In hunt for reinvention, Apple seen ready to launch streaming TV, news and other services

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO - Apple looks to begin a fresh reinvention on Monday as it rolls out Hollywood stars for its new streaming television service, part of a broad shift in direction for the California technology giant. Having seen a pullback in the once-sizzling smartphone market, Apple will seek to diversify by getting deeper into the television business. It may also launch a subscription news service. The iPhone maker, which has officially been mum on its plans, was expected to bring in Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and “Star Wars” director J.J. Abrams for a launch event at its Silicon Valley headquarters. “It seems fairly obvious they are launching a new video service,” said Techsponential technology market analyst Avi Greengart. Big questions to be answered include how compelling content will be, how much the service will cost, and what makes it unique in an increasingly crowded streaming TV market, according to the analyst. “If the content is compelling enough, people will subscribe,” Greengart said. “This is not new, but it is hard to do well.” The event comes with Apple under pressure to diversify its revenues amid sluggish growth in smartphones, which have delivered the bulk of Apple’s profits for the past decade. While iPhone sales remain enviable, growth has stalled. But the money Apple rakes in from selling services or digital content has climbed. The Cupertino-based company recently stopped disclosing iPhone sales numbers with quarterly earnings releases and has taken to stressing the money-making potential of services, apps, music, movies and more to the millions of people using its devices. The new service will be “a pivotal step for Cupertino in further driving its services flywheel and entering the ‘streaming content arms race,’ which is clearly starting to take form,” said Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities in a research note. Ives said he believes Apple’s services business will be “worth roughly $400 billion on a standalone basis.” In streaming, Apple is taking on not just Netflix and Amazon but some of the biggest names in the media-entertainment world. Walt Disney Co. has announced its new streaming service will launch this year, as will another from WarnerMedia, the newly acquired media-entertainment division of AT&T. The new entrants, with more expected, could launch a formidable challenge to Netflix, which has some 140 million paid subscribers in 190 markets, and to other services such as Amazon and Hulu. These rivals are coming into a segment that has been transformed by the spectacular growth of Netflix and a growing movement by consumers to on-demand TV delivered over internet platforms. Subscriptions to online video services globally climbed 27 percent last year to 613 million, eclipsing cable TV subscriptions for the first time, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. Apple is also widely believed to be set to launch a subscription news service described as a “Netflix for news” with partners in the media world. A New York Times report said the Wall Street Journal would be part of an Apple service likely to cost $10 a month, but that many other news organizations, including the prestigious New York daily and the Washington Post, were balking due to Apple’s demand for 50 percent of the revenue. According to Bloomberg News, the website Vox would also be part of the Apple News effort. The move comes amid deepening woes for the news sector, which is facing a difficult transition to a digital world where few people want to pay for information and advertising is problematic. Along with investing some of its considerable war chest in original shows, Apple could try to spice up its streaming service by adding benefits, such as access to its music library or storage capacity at iCloud. Amazon uses that kind of tactic, making its video service available as part of Prime subscriptions that include free shipping on purchases from the e-commerce colossus and loyalty program discounts at its Whole Foods grocery shops. For its video service, Apple may be investing as much as $2 billion a year in original content, according to BTIG Research analyst Richard Greenfield, but that will be less than Netflix and some others. The big questions remaining are whether Apple will offer its content free for owners of its devices, and how it will work with third-party television services, according to Greenfield. Laura Martin, an analyst with the research firm Needham & Co., said Apple’s prospects are strong as it shifts from being a “product” company to an “ecosystem.” Martin said in a research note that Apple can count on 900 million people with at least one Apple device to feed this ecosystem of services, which includes Apple Pay, music and other digital content. “Apple’s business model is essentially a subscription business model,” Martin said. “Apple’s access to more than 900 million unique users globally, most of them among the wealthiest individuals in the world, plus its culture of creating hardware and services with proven commercial appeal makes it well-positioned.”

television apple iphone streaming netflix


Several of Theresa May's ministers plotting to oust her from top job: newspaper

Abstract: LONDON - Prime Minister Theresa May’s top ministers are moving to oust her within days, The Sunday Times reported, as her Brexit strategy lay in tatters just weeks before the United Kingdom is due to leave the European Union. If May is toppled, Brexit will be thrust into doubt. It is unclear how, when and even if the United Kingdom will leave the EU. May, who voted to stay in the EU and won the top job in the chaos following the 2016 referendum, had vowed to deliver Brexit but she undermined her leadership with a botched snap election in 2017 which cost her party its parliamentary majority. The Brexit divorce deal she struck with the EU in November has been overwhelmingly rejected twice by British lawmakers. The Sunday Times cited 11 unidentified senior ministers and said they had agreed that the prime minister should stand down, warning that she has become a toxic and erratic figure whose judgment has “gone haywire.” “The end is nigh. She will be gone in 10 days,” the Sunday Times quoted an unidentified minister as saying. “Her judgment has started to go haywire. You can’t be a member of the Cabinet who just puts your head in the sand,” the newspaper cited a second unidentified minister as saying. The Sunday Times reported that May’s de facto deputy, David Lidington, is one contender to be interim prime minister but others are pushing for Environment Secretary Michael Gove or Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt. The newspaper said Cabinet ministers will confront May on Monday. If she refuses to go, ministers would threaten to resign. The Mail on Sunday reported that Gove is the consensus candidate among Cabinet ministers who believe Lidington is too pro-EU. But euroskeptic lawmakers also expressed skepticism about the Leave-backing Gove. “I’m advised (Michael Gove) would also go for Customs Union plus single market with Labour votes,” Steve Baker of the euroskeptic European Research Group (ERG) said. “Problems with that… Next.” The Sunday Telegraph reported that former Education Minister Nicky Morgan, who voted to remain, is popular among several prominent pro-Leave lawmakers as a “unity candidate” to succeed May. May’s office declined to comment on the reports. Earlier a Downing Street source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that a Times report Saturday that there were discussions in May’s office about her departure was incorrect. Betting odds indicate there is now a 20 percent chance that May will be out of her job by the end of this month, Ladbrokes said Saturday. Brexit had been due to happen on March 29 before May secured a delay in talks last Thursday with the European Union. Now a May 22 departure date will apply if Parliament rallies behind the British prime minister this week and she is able to pass her deal. If she fails to do so, Britain will have until April 12 to offer a new plan or decide to leave the European Union without a treaty.


U.S. pro-Israel lobby AIPAC sees partisan cracks as Democratic presidential candidates stay away

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Powerful has long been the word used to describe the U.S.’s pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, which for decades has helped assure nearly universal support in Washington for the Jewish state. But as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee meets for its annual conference starting Sunday, it is seeing rare partisan cracks, with none of the Democratic presidential candidates confirmed to attend. The shift comes under the cloud of politics in Israel, whose right-wing prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is flying to Washington for AIPAC weeks before he faces elections. President Donald Trump, who will warmly welcome Netanyahu, seized on the Democrats’ non-attendance, telling reporters Friday, “They are totally anti-Israel. Frankly, I think they’re anti-Jewish.” Democratic candidates have cited scheduling or given no reason, although an aide to Senator Bernie Sanders, who is Jewish, said the socialist was concerned that AIPAC was giving a platform to “leaders who have expressed bigotry and oppose a two-state solution.” Trump has rallied in full force behind Netanyahu, backing his hard line on Iran and taking once taboo steps such as recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and, just Thursday, accepting Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which the Jewish state captured from Syria in 1967. But American Jews lean left and only 24 percent approved of Trump’s job performance in a recent survey by the Pew Research Center. “AIPAC is in a difficult position because it is supposed to be the voice of the pro-Israel community, but in reality the Jewish community as a whole is opposed to the government of Israel as well as the government of the United States,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the liberal Jewish advocacy group J Street. AIPAC has hardly lost the Democrats. While candidates will stay away, its top brass in Congress will speak at AIPAC including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. And AIPAC’s legislative goals face little serious pushback. Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. aid, receiving more than $3 billion in military financing in the 2018 fiscal year. “I think it’s an established fact that on Capitol Hill there is overwhelming, bipartisan support and that support is just as deep in the Democratic Party as in the Republican Party,” said Jason Isaacson, who heads the Washington office of the American Jewish Committee. “I think it’s not surprising that people in their visceral, passionate resistance to the U.S. president associate him with the prime minister of Israel and from that draw the conclusion that to oppose the president you must oppose people who share common strategic concerns,” he said. Some analysts say Trump’s staunch support for Netanyahu has more to do with evangelical Christians, a loyal constituency, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo highlighting his religious beliefs when he visited Jerusalem on Thursday. A recent Gallup poll found that 76 percent of U.S. Republicans sympathized more with Israel than the Palestinians, compared with 43 percent of Democrats. Dina Badie, chair of the international studies program at Centre College in Kentucky, said that AIPAC was at a “crossroads” after decades of bipartisan outreach. “AIPAC is not changing. AIPAC has remained largely consistent in terms of its approach to lobbying, its legislative agenda and the type of priorities it has. What has changed are the political circumstances and the environment in which it’s operating,” she said. She added that Netanyahu has alienated left-leaning Americans, including Jewish Americans, with his rightward turn, while the United States has become increasingly polarized. “AIPAC has always had a hard-line approach that has been compatible with the way Netanyahu is dealing with the Palestinians, but because Netanyahu is seen as toxic in progressive circles, the fact that AIPAC is somehow aligned with Netanyahu’s approach is becoming less palatable to Democrats,” she said. She said AIPAC, while not seeking to be partisan, could see itself enjoying less influence when Democrats are in power if this year’s conference turns out not to be an aberration. Among newly elected Democrats, Rep. Ilhan Omar, who is Muslim, provoked outrage even among much of her party when last month she suggested that supporters of Israel show “allegiance to a foreign country.” She apologized for the comment, widely seen as anti-Semitic, but Republicans have kept citing it as evidence of creeping bigotry. Ben-Ami, the head of J Street, said the focus on Omar was misplaced. The gunman who shot dead 11 people last year at a Pittsburgh synagogue had been enraged by Jewish support for refugees. “The true threatening form of anti-Semitism is coming not from the left but the right. It’s not just here, it’s all around the world, and it’s from the autocrats and ethno-nationalists that not only Trump but Netanyahu are embracing,” he said.

u.s .
israel
benjamin netanyahu
republicans
democrats
aipac


Spain's Socialist party in the lead, poll finds, but short of majority

Abstract: MADRID - Spain’s Socialists led in a poll published in the daily El Pais on Sunday, but fell short of a majority with its main ally ahead of a general election next month. The Socialists would win 27.1 percent of the vote, or 122 seats in the 350-seat parliament. Together with far-left ally Podemos they would have 162 seats in parliament. That is exactly the same number that a coalition of three right-wing parties — People’s Party (PP), Ciudadanos and far-right Vox — would have, according to the poll conducted between March 14-19. Both blocs would be short of the 176 seats needed to secure an outright parliamentary majority. Socialist Pedro Sanchez could clinch a majority to get re-elected as prime minister if he gets the support of the array of parties that backed him last June when he won a vote of confidence against PP’s government at the time. Sanchez then received the backing of Podemos and small regional parties. But two Catalan pro-independence parties that voted for him in 2018 did not support his budget proposal last February, prompting him to call for a snap election. The Socialists would be the most voted party in the April 28 election, with 27.1 percent of votes, followed by PP with 19.3 percent but losing 61 seats from the last election in 2016, while Ciudadanos would get 17.7 percent of votes and gain 23 seats in parliament, according to the poll. Podemos would receive 12.3 percent of votes and lose 31 seats, while Vox would get 10.2 percent, equivalent to 31 seats, being the first time in nearly four decades that far-right lawmakers would be elected to Spain’s parliament. A poll of polls published by El Pais on March 13 gave the Socialists 27.3 percent of the vote, PP 20 percent, while support for Vox rose sharply to 12.1 percent. Sunday’s poll was conducted by 40db with 1,500 respondents and had a margin of error of 2.58 percentage points.

election
politics
spain
catalan
pedro sanchez


Calling claim 'blood libel,' Netanyahu denies profiting from submarine contract

Abstract: JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied profiting from a state contract to buy submarines from a German conglomerate, calling claims from a political rival “blood libel” in a rare broadcast interview on Channel 12. In question were shares Netanyahu held in a company that later became affiliated with the conglomerate, a holding he sold at great return on investment. Netanyahu insisted he reported holding the shares, then selling them, and paid the appropriate tax on the gain. “There is no connection between my investment and the submarines,” he said. “I sold my shares 1.5 years before the first submarines was sold.” “The lie is that I made a profit from the submarines; that is blood libel.” “Blood libel” is a loaded term, as it historically refers to false accusations that Jews in the Middle Ages ritually sacrificed Christian children on the holiday of Passover. Benny Gantz, Netanyahu’s top rival in April 9 elections, sought to pin Netanyahu’s investments more directly to the sale of the submarines. He said Netanyahu received 16 million shekels ($4.4 million) and called for a national commission of inquiry. Israel sealed the order for more than $2 billion in submarines and corvette warships from ThyssenKrupp AG beginning in 2015 under a deal that has raised concerns about possible bribery at the highest levels of Israel’s security apparatus. Former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, who is running on the opposition Blue & White’s ticket, opposed the order at the time, saying the submarine purchases were unnecessary. Police have already concluded there is enough evidence to charge at least six people in the case, including the prime minister’s personal legal adviser and his former chief of staff. Netanyahu has given testimony in the probe, but hasn’t been named as a target. Attorney General Avihai Mandelblit has, however, recommended charges against the prime minister in three other corruption cases, pending a hearing. In the latest poll published Friday by the Jerusalem Post, Gantz’s Blue and White party was forecast to win 30 seats out of 120 in April’s elections, while Netanyahu’s Likud would garner only 27. Even so, Netanyahu would still have an easier time forming a coalition government; the survey showed he could easily put together a 65-seat majority, to Gantz’s 55, because there are more parties likely to align with Netanyahu. The prime minister appeared on television to defend himself as he was preparing to leave for the U.S., where he’s scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump.

israel
benjamin netanyahu
elections
scandals
benny gantz