Nippon Ishin no Kai lawmaker ousted from party over Russia 'war' gaffe

Abstract: KUSHIRO, HOKKAIDO - An opposition lawmaker was expelled from his party Tuesday amid growing criticism over his remarks on the possibility of Japan waging war with Russia to regain control of a group of islands at the center of a territorial spat. House of Representatives member Hodaka Maruyama on Tuesday submitted a letter of resignation to Nippon Ishin no Kai after he asked the head of a group of former residents of the islands whether he would support a war with Russia. Later in the day, the party decided to expel Maruyama rather than accept his resignation. “His acts and remarks were inexcusable as a national lawmaker. This is also a serious issue in terms of diplomacy. I think he should resign as a lawmaker,” said Osaka Mayor Ichiro Matsui, who also heads Nippon Ishin. Maruyama was accompanying about 60 people visiting Kunashiri Island off Hokkaido from Friday through Monday under a visa-free exchange program between Japan and Russia. On Saturday night, while drinking heavily during his stay on Kunashiri, he made a series of gaffes in conversations with the head of the group, Koyata Otsuka. He reportedly asked, “Do you support, or oppose, getting back this island by war?” He was also quoted by the group as saying, “Is there any way (to solve the issue) if we don’t have a war?” Otsuka replied that he did not want to use the word “war” to discuss the territorial dispute, according to the group. Maruyama retracted the remarks as he faced reporters in Tokyo Monday night. “I apologize for making many people feel uncomfortable. I would like to retract my inappropriate remarks,” he said. “I lacked consideration for former islanders.” On Tuesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Maruyama’s remark was “extremely regrettable.” “Our position remains that we will seek to resolve the territorial issue and sign a peace treaty through diplomacy,” Suga said. Noting that Maruyama’s remark does not reflect Tokyo’s official stance in any way, the top government spokesman brushed off concerns that it could affect future negotiations over the territorial dispute. At the moment, Tokyo has no plan to provide Moscow with an official explanation about the comments, he said. Kunashiri is one of the four Russia-held, Japan-claimed islands, called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia, which also include Etorofu, Shikotan and the Habomai islet group. Tokyo asserts the seizure of the islands by the Soviet Union following Japan’s World War II surrender in 1945 was illegal, while Moscow maintains it was a legitimate result of the war.

nippon ishin no kai
russia
territorial disputes
hodaka maruyama


Japan and South Korea foreign ministers likely to meet this month in Paris

Abstract: Japan and South Korea are arranging for their foreign ministers to meet later this month on the sidelines of a gathering of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, government sources said Monday. Taro Kono of Japan and Kang Kyung-wha of South Korea are expected to discuss the issue of compensation for laborers made to work during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula through the end of World War II, as well as recent developments concerning North Korea. The talks, slated to coincide with an OECD ministerial council meeting to be held in Paris from May 22 to 23, would be their first since they met in mid-February in Munich, where they were attending a security forum. On that occasion, the two remained at odds over the wartime labor issue. Last year, South Korea’s top court ordered Japanese companies to compensate Korean laborers for forced labor, a decision Tokyo has protested as contrary to a 1965 accord it says settled the issue “finally and completely.” The issue escalated further this month after lawyers for the laborers requested to a South Korean court that the companies’ seized assets be liquidated. In the upcoming talks, Kono is expected to repeat calls for Seoul to step in. On North Korea, the two ministers are expected to discuss Pyongyang’s recent launches of short-range ballistic missiles and agree to work with mutual ally the United States toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Kono is also likely to push for South Korea to lift a ban on seafood from Fukushima and seven other prefectures, despite the World Trade Organization last month ruling in favor of the restrictions imposed in the wake of the 2011 nuclear disaster. On Monday, South Korea’s new ambassador to Japan said he hopes to work on a “future-oriented” approach to bilateral relations. “I feel a great sense of responsibility assuming this position at a crucial time for ties between our countries,” Nam Gwan-pyo told Kono during their meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo. “During my tenure as ambassador, I hope to work toward the improvement and future-oriented development of ties,” he said. Nam, who previously worked at the South Korean Embassy in Tokyo between 1992 and 1995 and has served as ambassador to Hungary and Sweden, has taken the job at a time when the neighboring countries are having trouble seeing eye-to-eye on a range of issues. During the meeting, Kono welcomed Nam and said he looks forward to working with him. “Our peoples are interacting very actively, as evidenced by the more than 10 million people that come and go between our countries annually. Taking their lead, and with your help, I hope that we can resolve the difficult situation between our governments,” Kono said.

wwii
history
wartime labor
south korea-japan relations
taro kono
kang kyung-wha


Emperor Naruhito receives first briefing from Abe since ascending to throne

Abstract: Emperor Naruhito met Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday for his first official briefing about the current situation at home and abroad since he ascended to the Chrysanthemum Throne on May 1. The content of the discussions between the emperor, the prime minister and his Cabinet ministers cannot be disclosed in accordance with an unwritten rule under a practice called naisō . Abe is believed to have explained the spring decorations to be presented by the emperor, according to sources close to the matter. A photograph released by the Imperial Household Agency showed the emperor listening to Abe in a room at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. This is the first time that the agency has released a photograph of the meeting since Emperor Emeritus Akihito and Abe met when the then-emperor turned 80 in December 2013. On May 1, Emperor Naruhito received a report from Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga. In May 1973, the then-Defense Agency chief Keikichi Masuhara, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party government of then-Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, resigned after opposition parties criticized him for revealing a remark made by Emperor Hirohito, who is posthumously known as Emperor Showa. Masuhara was criticized for attempting to have Emperor Showa intervene in expanding the capabilities of the armed forces, leading to his resignation.

shinzo abe
imperial palace
emperor naruhito


Decoding of Jomon woman's genome suggests common ancestor unites Japanese and Han Chinese

Abstract: A research team led by the National Museum of Nature and Science said Monday it has sequenced and analyzed with high accuracy the whole genome of a woman who lived about 3,500 to 3,800 years ago, in the second half of Japan’s Jomon Period, for the first time. The results of the genome analysis, which was almost as accurate as similar analysis performed on modern people thanks to the well-preserved DNA, suggest that a common ancestor diverged into the Jomon people and Han Chinese about 18,000 to 38,000 years ago, the researchers said. Members of the group including Hideaki Kanzawa, a researcher at the museum, and Naruya Saito, professor at the National Institute of Genetics, sampled DNA from molars discovered with pieces of a female skull bone at the Funadomari site on Rebun Island in Hokkaido. The analysis also found that the Jomons are genetically close to groups in East Asian coastal areas from the Russian Far East through the Korean Peninsula, including indigenous Taiwanese people. It also showed they gathered in relatively small population groups and lived by hunting. Among other discoveries, the Jomon woman had brown eyes and thin hair, as well as a high alcohol tolerance, and was genetically adapted to a high-fat diet. Many sea lion bones have been dug up at the Funadomari site. Members of the team also include researchers from Sapporo Medical University, Kanazawa University and the University of Yamanashi. Details of the study will be published shortly in the Anthropological Society of Nippon’s English-language journal.

china
history
genetics
dna
jomon
national museum of nature and science
gene analysis


UNESCO panel recommends adding Japan's Mozu-Furuichi tombs to World Heritage List

Abstract: A UNESCO advisory panel has recommended adding two ancient tumulus clusters in western Japan, including the country’s largest keyhole-shaped mound, to the World Cultural Heritage list, a government official said Tuesday. Among the sites is the mausoleum of Emperor Nintoku in Osaka Prefecture, officially called Daisen Kofun. It is one of the three largest mounded tombs in the world, together with the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor in China and the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. The world heritage listing for the sites, collectively called the Mozu-Furuichi tumulus clusters, is expected to be officially approved at a meeting in Azerbaijan from June 30 to July 10 of the World Heritage Committee of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Local authorities first proposed the tomb clusters as a World Cultural Heritage site candidate to the Cultural Affairs Agency in September 2007. The government submitted a letter of recommendation to UNESCO to seek their listing in January last year. The tumulus clusters would be the 19th Japanese cultural property on the World Heritage list, following the inscription last year of a set of Christian sites in Kumamoto and Nagasaki prefectures. If registered, the total number of world heritage sites in Japan will increase to 23, including 19 cultural and four natural sites. Mariko Kobayashi, head of the Cultural Resources Utilization Division at the Cultural Affairs Agency, told a news conference early Tuesday that the historical value of the tumulus clusters and their preservation status have been highly recognized. “It’s good that all of those have been acknowledged,” she said. Japan’s government has sought the listing of 49 tombs built between the fourth and the fifth centuries, which vary in size and shape. Emperor Nintoku’s mausoleum, which is part of the Mozu cluster in the city of Sakai, has a keyhole-shaped mound at its center, which is 486 meters in length. Its total length, including the surrounding moat and ramparts, is 840 meters. Some academics have expressed doubt the tomb may have actually been the grave of Emperor Nintoku, but the site continues to be managed by the Imperial Household Agency as one of a number of imperial mausoleums in the country. Approximately 10 kilometers to the east of the Mozu cluster is the Furuichi cluster, which includes the Emperor Ojin mausoleum — the second largest in Japan, at a length of 425 meters.

history
archaeology
unesco
world heritage
osaka prefecture
daisen kofun
emperor nintoku
mozu-furuichi


Tokyo's Shibuya district to ban drinking on some streets during Halloween

Abstract: Tokyo’s busy Shibuya district has decided to ban drinking alcohol on some streets during the Halloween season, officials said Monday. The prohibition applying to outdoor areas around Shibuya Station will possibly be introduced this fall after a number of incidents last year, including the overturning of a small truck that led to the arrests of several men in their 20s. A total of more than 300,000 Japanese and non-Japanese, many of them clad in costumes and aged from their teens to their 30s, crowded around Shibuya’s iconic scramble crossing on Halloween last Oct. 31 and the weekend prior, according to Tokyo police. A panel was set up by Shibuya Ward to discuss how to respond to escalating pranks in public spaces in the district — one of the capital’s major recreational hubs — during the annual celebration, which started to become popular in Japan in the 2000s. The panel is expected to issue an interim report on Wednesday. The ward plans to decide on penalties and submit a draft ordinance to assembly members, with the goal of being able to enforce the new rules by this fall.


Okinawa-based U.S. Marines may start moving to Guam in October 2024

Abstract: HAGATNA, GUAM - The planned transfer of U.S. Marine Corps personnel from Okinawa Prefecture to the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam may start as early as October 2024 and be completed within 18 months, a marine spokesman has said. The current plan will relocate approximately 5,000 marines, of whom about 1,700 will be permanently based on Guam and the remainder rotated every half year, according to Tina Rose Muna Barnes, speaker of the island’s legislature who was earlier briefed by a representative of Marine Corps Activity Guam. About 19,000 U.S. Marines are based in Okinawa. The United States had previously said about 4,000 marines would be moved from Okinawa to Guam. The planned transfer is based on a 2006 Japan-U.S. agreement on the realignment of U.S. forces. A new marine base is being built near Andersen Air Force Base on northern Guam, to be completed by 2026. The base will be named Camp Blaz, after Marine Brig. Gen. Vicente “Ben” Blaz, a Guam native who after his military service went on to serve as Guam’s representative in the U.S. House of Representatives. He died in 2014. 1st Lt. Brett Lazaroff, a communications officer in Marine Corps Activity Guam, said recently by email that the transfer of the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force is expected to begin during the first half of the fiscal year that begins in October 2024. Approximately 2,400 dependents will be accompanying the 5,000 marines. Guam currently hosts around 7,800 U.S. service members. A number of infrastructure projects, including the construction of roads and medical facilities, are being undertaken to cope with the expected surge in the island’s population. But concerns have mounted over delays in such projects due to a lack of skilled labor. The environmental impact of the construction and the work’s potential influence on the island’s cultural resources, such as prehistoric features, have also spurred concern among locals. The Spirits of the People of Guam, a local nonprofit group, says the marines’ relocation raises concerns about the impact on the island’s public safety, social services and public utilities. “As with any construction projects in Guam, there are always challenges to overcome and concerns that need to be addressed. Some of these are a shortage of skilled labor on Guam, and environmental and cultural concerns,” Lazaroff said. He stressed, however, that the U.S. Marine Corps is trying to mitigate concerns through transparency, dialogue and partnerships with local government agencies while balancing the need to build a military base. Guam Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero says her administration will proceed responsibly with what she says is an expensive military buildup for the island that comes with an $8.7 billion price tag, including an up to $3.1 billion contribution from the Japanese government. “With the military buildup and the economic influx it will bring, our administration is determined to see that it be done responsibly and at a pace that will benefit and respect our local people, culture and environment,” the governor said in an address in April. The force realignment plan revised by Japan and the United States in 2012 stipulates that approximately 9,000 U.S. Marines in Okinawa will be relocated outside Japan, to such places as Guam and Hawaii. The plan also includes the relocation of a U.S. Marine air base to a new site within Okinawa. The planned base relocation to the Henoko coastal area of Nago, which involves landfill work, has run into stiff opposition from locals and environmental groups, with the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pushing ahead with land reclamation work nonetheless. The two countries have agreed to decouple the U.S. Marines’ Guam relocation from progress in the base relocation on Okinawa and start relocating Okinawa-based marines to the U.S. territory in the first half of the 2020s. But Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga acknowledged in October that the two projects are “consequently linked,” suggesting that the United States would not proceed with the Guam relocation unless the base relocation happens in Okinawa


AI robot duo to guide visitors during test trial at Tokyo Station

Abstract: East Japan Railway Co. on Wednesday showed the media a test trial of two artificial intelligence robots designed to guide passengers at Tokyo Station. The robots — Pepper of SoftBank Robotics Corp. and SEMMI of German railway company Deutsche Bahn AG — were deployed at an information desk in a shopping and dining center called Gransta on the basement floor of the station. Visitors can ask for directions to stores and restaurants in the facility in languages including Japanese, English and Chinese, JR East said. The trial, which began Monday and will last through May 31, comes as part of a technological exchange between JR East and Deutsche Bahn that began in 1992. They will look at the machines’ capabilities and visitors’ reactions to their appearance. Pepper is a semi-humanoid robot widely used in Japan, while SEMMI is a robotic concierge with a more lifelike human-looking face on a stand. Chisa Uno, 44, who was out shopping, stopped to ask SEMMI for directions to Tokyo Tower. “Excuse me. I am not able to answer because I haven’t studied enough,” SEMMI replied, shaking its head in apology. Uno said of the interaction, “It’s a shame, but I felt that it was doing its utmost to communicate.” Tokyo Station has approximately 450,000 passengers every day.

tokyo
rail
softbank
tourism
robots
tokyo station
jr east
ai


British Steel to be placed into administration, threatening thousands of jobs, report says

Abstract: LONDON - British Steel, the country’s second-largest steel producer, will be placed into administration as early as Wednesday, Sky News reported, jeopardizing some 25,000 jobs. Administrators from EY are in court this morning to finalize an insolvency process, the broadcaster said, after a failure to secure a £30 million ($38 million) loan from the government. Owned by investment firm Greybull Capital, British Steel employs around 5,000 people, mostly in Scunthorpe, in the north of England, while 20,000 more depend on its supply chain. Signs of the ripple effect on related companies were already beginning to emerge. Hargreaves Services, which supplies materials handling and other services to British Steel, said if the company ceases to trade, this could reduce Hargreave’s revenue in next full year by £11 million and its profit before tax by about £1.3 million. “The situation with British Steel is very difficult,” Michael Gove, Britain’s environment minister, had earlier told BBC radio. “I’m afraid I cannot pre-empt what the business secretary may say later,” he added. Greybull Capital, which specializes in trying to turn around distressed businesses, paid former British Steel owners Tata Steel a nominal one pound in 2016 for the loss-making company. British Steel had asked the government for a £75 million loan but has since reduced its demand to 30 million pounds after Greybull agreed to put up more money, according to a source who is close to the negotiations.


Finally in cross-hairs of Trump's tariffs, U.S. retailers sound alarm

Abstract: NEW YORK - After surviving a year mostly unscathed in President Donald Trump’s trade war, retailers are finally sounding the alarm bell — and loudly. Home Depot Inc. estimated Tuesday the hit to product costs could be $1 billion a year. J.C. Penney Co. said further escalation — especially if the latest proposals on apparel and shoes go into effect — would have a “meaningful impact.” Department-store chain Kohl’s Corp. partly blamed an 11 percent cut to its profit outlook on the U.S.’s recent move to raise tariffs on Chinese goods. The Trump administration avoided most consumer products in the first rounds of tariffs on imports from China, America’s largest trading partner. But that changed in recent weeks, with the administration bumping to 25 percent levies on $200 billion of goods including handbags and furniture, then initiating a separate process to tax another $300 billion, including clothing, shoes and electronics. Companies have been saying a move like that would end up raising prices for consumers, and now chains are telling investors that’s exactly what they’ll do. Auto-parts seller AutoZone Inc. in its Tuesday call dropped the I-word — inflation — noting that consumers needing new car parts have no choice but to swallow the higher prices that tariffs will bring. “We are not pleased about the tariffs. We are concerned about what that will do not so much to AutoZone or our business, but more to what it would mean to the U.S. economy,” said Chief Executive Officer William C. Rhodes. Boot Barn Holdings Inc. gets about half its goods from China and CEO James Conroy says that any price increases can be passed down to consumers. He’s betting that because a lot of its products are workwear items, like flame resistant clothing, shoppers won’t balk at paying more. “We obviously hope this goes away entirely, but even if we had to pass the entire cost along, I think it’s a relatively modest increase for a product that tends to be non-discretionary,” Conroy said during an earnings call last week. Escalation of the trade war hasn’t been good for retail stocks. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF has declined 6 percent since Trump called for raising tariffs on May 5. That’s more than double the drop of the S&P 500 Index. Like every company that sources from China, Home Depot is looking at manufacturing alternatives, finance chief Carol Tome said. The retailer couldn’t say how this latest increase in duties would impact its annual guidance because it came less than two weeks ago. “There is not a CFO out there who likes change,” Tome said in an interview. But “we have to be agile.”

china
u.s .
tariffs
retailers
donald trump
trade war
home depot
j.c. penney


Libyan National Army hires firm to forge closer ties with U.S.

Abstract: WASHINGTON - A Libyan general who has gained control of the Libyan city of Benghazi and is believed to have ties to the CIA has hired a Texas-based lobbying firm to help him forge closer relations with the U.S. as he seeks to defeat rival militias and consolidate his hold on the North African country. Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter and his Libyan National Army have hired Linden Government Solutions, based in Houston, according to a foreign agent registration document released Tuesday by the Justice Department. Linden, which would receive about $2 million under the 13-month agreement, also will assist with “international coalition building, and general public relations” for the Libyan National Army. Hifter last month was granted a phone call with President Donald Trump and has been gaining international support in his campaign to take control of an oil-rich country that has been in turmoil since the uprising that toppled dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. A White House statement about the call said “the two discussed a shared vision for Libya’s transition to a stable, democratic political system.” The chaos that followed the overthrow and killing of Gadhafi resulted in a divided country, with a weak U.N.-supported administration in Tripoli overseeing the country’s west and a government in the east aligned with Hifter. Hifter served as a senior officer under Gadhafi but defected in the 1980s during Libya’s ruinous war with Chad, in which he and hundreds of soldiers were captured in an ambush. He later spent more than two decades in the suburbs of Washington, where he is widely believed to have worked with the CIA, before returning to join the uprising in 2011. He eventually built up the forces known as the Libyan National Army. The Linden executives leading the firm’s representation, Stephen Payne and Brian Ettinger, have extensive knowledge of Libya, the company said in a statement. Payne, Linden’s president, said he has been in communication with Hifter for the past five years, according to the statement. Libya has struggled to rebuild its oil industry — its main source of revenue — since 2011. The firm’s statement doesn’t mention a specific role for Linden in Libya’s energy industry, but both Payne and Ettinger have experience in international oil and natural gas markets. Payne and Ettinger traveled to Libya in 2011 on a humanitarian mission, before Gadhafi was removed, and helped negotiate the release of several imprisoned journalists, the statement said. Ettinger is Linden’s general counsel. A brief biography for Payne described him as doing foreign travel advance work for the George W. Bush administration. He also served on Bush’s campaigns. Other clients Payne has represented include Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, JP Morgan, Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

u.s .
cia
libya
tripoli
houston
donald trump
khalifa hifter
brian ettinger
linden government solutions


Japan and U.S. at odds over auto and farm tariffs, but quotas not raised during talks

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Japan and the United States on Tuesday remained at odds over tariff cuts on automobiles and agricultural products as part of a bilateral trade deal, according to a Japanese official. The United States did not refer to quotas restraining Japanese auto exports to the country, the official told reporters after a meeting in Washington. Officials from the two governments met to lay the groundwork for a meeting between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump next Monday in Tokyo. Bilateral trade and policy toward North Korea are likely to top the agenda at the summit, which is part of Trump’s four-day state visit to Japan starting Saturday. At Tuesday’s meeting, the United States pushed Japan to cut tariffs on American farm products as early as possible, the official said. The Japanese side expressed its position of limiting any market liberalization steps to those in line with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership pact, and claimed that it would take time to draw up a trade agreement that covers all of Japan’s some 9,000 trade items. “Both sides can’t reach any agreement that is unlikely to gain understanding at home,” senior Japanese trade official Kazuhisa Shibuya told reporters following the working-level session. American farmers and ranchers are demanding the administration level the playing field because they have started losing market share in Japan following the recent commencement of the revised TPP — an 11-member free trade agreement including Japan and farming nations such as Australia and Canada — and an FTA between Japan and the European Union. Trump withdrew the United States from the original TPP in 2017, given his preference for bilateral trade deals. On Tuesday, Tokyo said it would slash duties on U.S. farm products to TPP levels on the condition that Washington remove tariffs on all industrial goods, including a 2.5 percent tariff on Japanese cars. But the U.S. side showed its reluctance to accept the request on automotive tariffs, according to informed sources. Japan levies no tax on imported vehicles. The Japanese official quoted Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeff Gerrish, who attended the meeting, as saying the two sides see a considerable gap in their views, but that it was meaningful to understand each other’s positions. The two sides did not discuss a six-month window Trump set last week to negotiate with Japan, the European Union and other U.S. trading partners to address what the administration called “the threatened impairment of national security” over automobile and vehicle parts imports, according to the official. Economic revitalization minister Toshimitsu Motegi and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer plan to meet or speak by phone ahead of the summit, the official said. In a meeting last month, Abe and Trump agreed to aim for a swift conclusion to negotiations for a bilateral trade pact. Motegi and Lighthizer launched the talks in April. The Trump administration regards the deal as a tool to reduce the U.S. trade deficit with Japan.

shinzo abe
u.s .
trade
carmakers
tariffs
donald trump


Japan's trade surplus plunged 90% in April on weak exports to China

Abstract: Japan’s goods trade surplus plunged 90.3 percent in April from a year earlier to ¥60.4 billion ($546 million), as exports to China remained weak on the back of U.S.-China trade tensions, government data showed Wednesday. The result represented the third straight month of black ink, according to a preliminary report by the Finance Ministry. Exports fell 2.4 percent to ¥6.66 trillion, down for the fifth consecutive month, due to a slump in shipments of chipmaking equipment to China, underlining the growing threat to the world’s third-biggest economy from a bruising Sino-U.S. trade war, while imports rose 6.4 percent to ¥6.60 trillion on a rise in crude oil prices. Data also showed Japan’s trade surplus with the United States rose for a second month, as auto exports accelerated, which could draw U.S. President Donald Trump’s ire before U.S.-Japan trade negotiations begin this week followed by a leaders summit a few days later. China-bound exports, including semiconductor manufacturing equipment and auto parts, dropped 6.3 percent from a year earlier, marking a decline for the second consecutive month. Imports from the world’s second-largest economy climbed 5.9 percent, leaving Japan with a deficit of ¥318.3 billion. Among other trading partners, Japan’s trade surplus with the United States expanded 17.7 percent to ¥723.2 billion. With the European Union, Japan had a surplus of ¥3.4 billion, supported by auto exports to Belgium. Against Asian countries including China, Japan’s surplus dropped 36.8 percent to ¥450.1 billion. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will visit Japan on May 24 to meet economic revitalization minister Toshimitsu Motegi to accelerate trade talks ahead of a leaders summit a few days later, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the plan. Trump angered foreign automakers by declaring that some imported vehicles and parts posed a national security threat, and Tokyo fears the U.S. government could attempt to set a quota on Japanese car imports. The specter of a drawn-out trade war comes at a delicate time for Japan’s economy. Gross domestic product data out Monday showed Japan’s growth unexpectedly accelerated in January to March because imports fell more than exports, suggesting domestic consumption was weakening at the same time that external demand had turned down. The GDP data showed declines in consumer and business spending, a bigger source of concern as companies worried about the future. Last month, imports rose 6.4 percent year on year from a 1.2 percent gain in March, thanks to increases in oil and related purchases. Faltering overseas demand and weak consumer spending could keep policymakers under pressure to forego a twice-delayed tax hike in October, although a rebound in manufacturers’ confidence may ease some fears of a recession in the world’s third-largest economy. Investors are closely watching the government’s monthly report, due later this week, for a possible downgrading of its view that the economy is in a gradual recovery, which would rekindle speculation about a tax hike delay. However, there are some positive signs for the economy. Core machinery orders, a highly volatile data series regarded as an indicator of capital spending in the coming six to nine months, rose 3.8 percent in March, separate data on Wednesday showed. Furthermore, manufacturers surveyed by the Cabinet Office forecast core orders to jump 15.7 percent in April to June after a 3.2 percent decline in the previous quarter. In Japan, a sales tax increase to 8 percent from 5 percent in April 2014 hit consumers hard and triggered a sharp economic slump. Since then, Abe has twice delayed the planned tax hike to 10 percent, as he has prioritized economic growth over fiscal reforms, despite the industrial world’s heaviest public debt burden, which sits at twice the size of Japan’s $5 trillion economy.

china
europe
u.s .
trade
asia
tariffs
donald trump
trade war


U.S. delay to Huawei ban gives tech sector time to adjust

Abstract: BEIJING/BOSTON - The United States is delaying some restrictions on U.S. technology sales to Chinese tech powerhouse Huawei in what it calls an effort to ease the blow on Huawei smartphone owners and smaller U.S. telecoms providers that rely on its networking equipment. The Trump administration insists the sanctions are unrelated to its escalating trade war with China, and many analysts see it as aimed at pressuring U.S. allies in Europe to accede to Washington’s entreaties to exclude Huawei equipment from their next-generation wireless networks, known as 5G. The U.S. government says that the ban on selling technology to Huawei, the world’s biggest maker of mobile network gear and the No. 2 smartphone brand, will be delayed by 90 days as it applies to existing hardware and software. Shares in tech companies rose Tuesday on the news. The U.S. claims Huawei is a cybersecurity risk and has targeted it against the backdrop of a wider battle with China over economic and technological pre-eminence that has included tariffs on billions worth of trade and limits on business. Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei sought to put a brave face on the situation, saying Tuesday that the company has “supply backups” if it loses access to American components. Huawei Technologies Ltd. relies on Google’s Android operating system and U.S. components suppliers for its smartphones. “I should say this impact will be very big, but Google is an extremely good company,” Ren Zhengfei told Chinese reporters. “We are discussing emergency relief measures,” he added, without giving details. Industry analysts say Huawei might struggle to compete if it cannot line up replacements for Google services that run afoul of the U.S. curbs. Google says its basic services still will work on existing Huawei smartphones. However, the company would be barred from transferring hardware or software directly to Huawei. That would affect maps or other services that require the American company’s support. In Brussels, a senior Huawei European representative lashed out at the actions of the Trump administration and warned that other companies around the world should be worried, too. “This is dangerous. Now it is happening to Huawei. Tomorrow it can happen to any other international company,” Abraham Liu, Huawei chief representative to the European Union’s institutions, told reporters. China’s government repeated its promise to defend Chinese companies abroad but gave no details of what Beijing might do. The 90-day grace period announced Monday by Washington exempts from U.S. licensing requirements any technology needed to maintain and support existing networking equipment and smartphones. It also authorizes U.S. providers to alert Huawei to security vulnerabilities and engage the Chinese company in research on standards for next-generation 5G wireless networks. However, last week’s ban applied to new equipment, and Monday’s order does not address exemptions for that. Even before Monday’s order, Google said it would support existing devices. The Commerce Department said that would allow rural U.S. telecom operators that depend on Huawei equipment for “critical services” time to make other arrangements. Companies including Google that supply software — Huawei’s smartphones run on its Android operating system — can continue to provide updates. Britain’s cybersecurity agency issued guidance saying the temporary reprieve means “people should be able to update their handsets as normal.” “This license will allow operations to continue for existing Huawei mobile phone users and rural broadband networks,” Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said in a statement. In a report, the global risk assessment firm Eurasia Group said that if the sanction process helps persuade European network carriers to also shun Huawei equipment, a full ban on purchases of U.S. technology products and services could be avoided. The move to delay the ban on Huawei may follow a familiar script with the Trump administration, which in its attempt to change the U.S.’s trade relations with major economies like China and Europe has often announced restrictions or tariffs only to delay their implementation. That increases pressure on the other side but also gives them an incentive to negotiate. It hasn’t always worked. The U.S. has announced new tariffs on European and Chinese goods several times, only to see them retaliate with tariffs on U.S. goods. That has raised the stakes in the trade wars, hurting global commerce and economic growth. As China looks to respond to President Donald Trump’s move against Huawei, Apple makes a prominent potential target for retaliation. Apple is Huawei’s main American rival in smartphones and its iPhones are assembled in China. The country is also Apple’s No. 2 market after the United States. Attacking Apple might be politically awkward for Chinese leaders who have accused Washington of mistreating Huawei. Business groups say Chinese officials are trying to reassure American companies they are welcome despite the tariffs war. But regulators have an array of tools including tax and safety inspections that can hamper a company with no official acknowledgement it is targeted. Huawei’s U.S. sales collapsed in 2012 after a congressional panel told phone carriers to avoid the company and its smaller Chinese competitor, ZTE Corp., as security threats. Despite that, Huawei’s sales elsewhere have grown rapidly. The company reported earlier its global sales rose 19.5 percent last year over 2017 to 721.2 billion ($105.2 billion). Huawei smartphone shipments rose 50 percent over a year earlier in the first three months of 2019 to 59.1 million, while the global industry’s total fell 6.6 percent, according to IDC. Shipments by Samsung and No. 3 Apple declined.

china
u.s .
apple
cybersecurity
huawei
donald trump
5g
trade war


Where in Asia offers the best expat pay packages? Japan

Abstract: HONG KONG - With Hong Kong and Singapore routinely topping the charts as the most expensive places to live and play, it may come as some surprise that Japan offers the best pay packets for expats in Asia. The average expatriate pay package provided by companies in Japan to mid-level employees is $386,451 (¥42.7 million) a year, eclipsing what’s on offer anywhere else in the region, according to a report by consultancy ECA International. Japan also saw the biggest increase in expat package values last year, thanks to a stronger yen and steeper housing costs, said Lee Quane, a regional director at the firm. ECA’s annual MyExpatriate Market Pay Survey measured expat packages by cash salary along with other perks including accommodation allowances and international school subsidies. It also took the various countries’ tax systems into account. Perhaps because of some of the challenges living in India entails — think bad traffic, overcrowding and pollution — it came in at No. 3, with companies offering mid-level staff an average package of $299,728 to attract overseas talent. Hong Kong, the world’s least-affordable city, took the No. 4 slot in Asia, with firms shelling out $276,417 to international employees. Add-on benefits over and above salary were the highest in the region. Singapore only just squeezes into the top 10. The city-state, known for its low taxes, good schooling and easy outdoor lifestyle, mean companies don’t need to offer as many other bells and whistles. On balance, it’s still better to be based in Asia as an expat, the ECA study found. Packages in the U.S. averaged just $250,028. In Australia, seen as a dream destination for many because of its wide open spaces and coastal cities, packages were $266,848. Topping the list globally was the U.K., with an average expat package of $421,798. “The rise in accommodation costs was partly responsible, with housing and rental prices rising throughout the U.K.,” Quane said. “This was particularly the case in Central London, a location that has long attracted high numbers of expatriate workers.” ECA’s survey canvassed more than 280 companies in 160 countries and over 10,000 international assignees. Data was collected in late 2018.

china
u.s .
hong kong
australia
singapore
pay
expat


Celeb chef Jamie Oliver's U.K. restaurant chain folds, threatening 1.000 jobs

Abstract: LONDON - Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s British restaurant chain filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, partly due to increased competition and escalating rents in local commercial districts. The insolvency will leave 1,000 people out of work and reignited worries about local retail and food outlets in Britain, which are struggling to attract customers much like downtowns in the United States. “I’m devastated that our much-loved U.K. restaurants have gone into administration,” Oliver wrote on Twitter. “I am deeply saddened by this outcome and would like to thank all of the staff and our suppliers who have put their hearts and souls into this business over the years.” Financial firm KPMG, which will oversee the process, said all but three of the group’s 25 eateries will close. They include restaurants in the Jamie’s Italian chain, as will the more upmarket Fifteen, and steak house Barbecoa. Two restaurants and a diner at Gatwick Airport will continue to operate, while joint administrators explore options for the site. Overseas branches of Jamie’s Italian, Jamie’s Pizzeria and Jamie’s Deli are not affected, nor is Fifteen Cornwall, which operates as a franchise. Other chains run by celebrity chefs have also struggled in recent years. Thomas Keller closed Bouchon in Beverly Hills at the end of 2017, saying it couldn’t remain profitable. That same year, Guy Fieri closed Guy’s American Kitchen and Bar in Times Square and Daniel Boulud closed DBGB Kitchen and Bar in New York, saying it didn’t get enough business during the week. Bad behavior can also hurt chains’ success. In March, Mario Batali gave up his financial stakes in all of his restaurants after being accused of sexual harassment. Todd English, who was sued for sexual harassment in 2017, has closed numerous restaurants in Boston, Mexico City, Las Vegas and New York. Oliver said Jamie’s Italian was launched in 2008 “with the intention of positively disrupting mid-market dining” with higher quality ingredients, animal welfare standards, better service and good value. But the launch came just as local businesses throughout the U.K. were squeezed by the onset of the 2008 financial crisis. Rising food prices, increasing rents and competition took a toll. The company had been in trouble for at least two years, despite Oliver’s global fame on the back of his cookbooks and television shows. Last year, it shuttered 12 of its 37 sites in Britain, while five branches of the Australian arm of Jamie’s Italian were sold off and another put into administration. He has personally pumped 13 million pounds into his Italian chain, but it was not enough. “I appreciate how difficult this is for everyone affected,” he said. Will Wright, a partner at KPMG and joint administrator, said that the directors at Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group had worked hard to stabilize the business, but costs were rising and consumer confidence was brittle. He said the priority now is to support those that have been made redundant. Simon Mydlowski, a partner at Yorkshire law firm Gordons and an expert on the hospitality industry, said Jamie’s is the latest brand that has failed to keep pace in a rapidly changing sector where a business needs to keep evolving. “A number of suppliers will have been caught unawares here, perhaps showing a little too much trust in the Jamie Oliver name, but this is not the first big restaurant chain to have suffered and it won’t be the last,” he said in a statement. “Faced with higher rent, rising food prices and increased competition, restaurants need a point of difference — it’s no coincidence that smaller brands with the freedom and flexibility to keep things fresh are currently the ones performing well.”

restaurants
u.k .
jobs
bankruptcy
jamie oliver


Detroit OKs land deals and jobs plan for Fiat Chrysler plant

Abstract: DETROIT - Fiat Chrysler can move forward with plans to build a new assembly plant in Detroit and invest $900 million to retool and modernize another. Land deals and community benefits agreements tied to the project were approved Tuesday by the Detroit City Council. A Fiat Chrysler representative told state officials in Lansing that construction can begin immediately, with vehicles expected to roll off the assembly line by late next year. The automaker also will retool and modernize its Jefferson North Assembly Plant, which will be adjacent to the new facility. The Jeep Grand Cherokee; a new, three-row, full-size Jeep SUV; and plug-in hybrid models will be built at Jefferson North. “One of the largest auto production centers in America … is going to be on the east side of Detroit,” Mayor Mike Duggan said Tuesday. “It’s going to be transformative.” For the city, it means jobs. Detroit’s unemployment rate of about 8 percent is more than double the national average of 3.6 percent. Fiat Chrysler expects to create 4,950 new jobs. Under the company’s contract with the United Automobile Workers, laid-off employees get first choice, followed by temporary employees at the current plant. As part of the city’s incentive package, Detroit residents then will have a four-week window to apply and be considered for any remaining jobs before they are open to anyone else. The company has said about 4,218 jobs will be classified as front-line workers. An additional 345 will be filled by electricians, plumbers, laborers and others in the skilled trades, while 387 are expected to be supervisory positions. New employees would start work late this year or in early 2020. The city is preparing residents for the Fiat Chrysler jobs through information sessions. They also can receive assistance to help prepare for the application and interview process. Detroit also plans a campaign to make sure residents are aware of the job openings. Fiat Chrysler spokesman Ron Stallworth said the company is committed to hiring resident of the city. “We’re putting strong efforts into doing so,” he added. The company also is getting tax breaks and 215 acres (87 hectares) of adjacent land the city had to acquire. The land deals are about $108 million, with Detroit and the state splitting it about equally. One sticking point in the plan involved deals and land swaps with Crown Enterprises, owned by the family of businessman Manuel “Matty” Moroun. The city will pay Crown Enterprises about $43 million for 82 acres (33 hectares) needed for the Fiat Chrysler deal. Detroit also is giving Crown Enterprises 117 acres (47 hectares) of city-owned property elsewhere in Detroit. That land is valued at $10.5 million, the city said. Some councilmembers expressed concern that the city is giving up too much. Council President Brenda Jones said last week that she supports the new jobs that come with the plant, but “equally important are all the swap agreements and how much the city is spending to make this happen.” “Everyone in the community is not just looking for a job,” she added.


Nikkei ends marginally higher after Wall Street rise

Abstract: The benchmark Nikkei average closed marginally higher on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Wednesday, after U.S. shares staged a rebound overnight. The 225-issue Nikkei average rose 10.92 points, or 0.05 percent, to end at 21,283.37. Tuesday, it dropped 29.28 points. On the other hand, the Topix index of all first-section issues finished down 4.09 points, or 0.26 percent, at 1,546.21, after losing 4.62 points the previous day. The Nikkei made a firm start thanks to robust U.S. equities and the yen’s weakening. The Wall Street rebound came as concerns over the U.S.-China trade row eased somewhat due to Washington’s decision to loosen its trade restrictions on China’s Huawei Technologies Co., brokers said. The key index soon lost steam, however, partly weighed down by a drop in Shanghai equities and a slight rebound of the yen, they said. It intermittently fell into negative territory in the afternoon. An asset management company official attributed the Nikkei’s sluggish afternoon performance to a media report that the U.S. government is considering limiting access to U.S. technologies by as many as five Chinese firms, including major surveillance-equipment-maker Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. The new U.S. move, if realized, would further fuel the trade tensions between the United States and China, market sources said. Chihiro Ota, general manager for investment research and investor services at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc., said that Japan’s machinery order data and trade statistics, both announced on Wednesday, “did not affect the market.” The country’s seasonally adjusted core machinery orders in March increased 3.8 percent from the previous month to ¥868.8 billion, up for the second straight month, according to the Cabinet Office data. Its customs-cleared trade surplus in April plunged 90.3 percent from a year before to 60.4 billion yen, the statistics from the Finance Ministry showed. Falling issues outnumbered rising ones 1,097 to 945 on the TSE’s first section, while 99 issues were unchanged. Volume decreased to 1.203 billion shares from Tuesday’s 1.254 billion shares. Cosmetics makers, including Shiseido Co. and Kose Corp., rose after the Japan National Tourism Organization said Tuesday that the estimated number of foreign visitors to Japan hit a monthly record high in April. Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Toho Titanium Co. also gained ground. Suzuki Motor Corp. dropped 5.52 percent on a media report that the Competition Commission of India has started looking into a suspected anti-competitive practice at an Indian unit of the company. Parcel delivery firm Yamato Holdings Co. and railway operator West Japan Railway Co. were also out of favor. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key June contract on the Nikkei average was up 30 points at 21,280.


Lawyer for Ghosn says 'outrageous' bail rules on seeing wife violate Japan's Constitution

Abstract: A lawyer for former Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn has slammed “outrageous” restrictions on his client’s ability to see his wife and predicted the tycoon’s trial will not start for at least a year. In an interview, Takashi Takano revealed that the top court this week backed a lower court’s decision to restrict Ghosn’s access to his wife Carole under the terms of his bail. The former Nissan chief was bailed for a second time on April 25 and is now preparing for trial on four charges of financial misconduct ranging from concealing part of his salary, to using Nissan funds for personal expenses. The tough terms of his bail mean he needs court permission to visit his wife, Carole, whom prosecutors believe has made contact with people involved in the case against the tycoon. Ghosn applied for permission shortly after his release, but was denied. His lawyers separately filed an appeal to overturn the restrictions altogether, but the Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected that appeal, Takano said. “It’s inhumane. It’s outrageous, even by Japanese standards,” Takano said. The longtime attorney said it was the first time in his career he had seen a court ban a client from seeing their spouse. “It’s very rare,” he said at an interview in his Tokyo office, arguing that the restrictions violate the U.N.’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. “This is a clear violation of our own Constitution as well as a violation of the human rights treaty, which our government ratified … (a) long time ago,” he added. Ghosn’s case has gripped observers inside Japan and internationally since his dramatic Nov. 19 arrest as he stepped off his private jet in Tokyo. He was detained for 108 days as prosecutors investigated financial misconduct allegations and then charged him on three counts. He finally won bail for the first time in March, agreeing to conditions including living in a court-appointed residence monitored by cameras. But when prosecutors leveled a fresh allegation against him in April, he was rearrested and spent another 21 days at the Tokyo Detention House before winning bail a second time. Ghosn is due to attend his first pretrial meeting with judges and prosecutors on Thursday as part of procedures dealing with evidence and arguments ahead of a trial, Takano said. “There are four indictments and those cases are a little bit complicated,” he said. “And this process will last, I think, at least one more year” before the trial begins, he added. Ghosn denies all the charges against him and has vowed to “vigorously defend himself against these baseless accusations,” Takano said, adding he “fully expects to be vindicated.” He argues the allegations against him are the result of a “plot” by Nissan executives who were opposed to his plans to bring the Japanese firm closer to its alliance partner Renault. Ghosn has been stripped of his leadership positions at Nissan, Renault and the third firm in the auto alliance, Mitsubishi Motors. Takano said the 65-year-old was in “good fighting spirits” but that his health appeared fragile. “He looks depressed and he is so disappointed to know that he could not communicate with his wife,” Takano said. “His mental as well as physical condition looks not so good now,” Takano said without elaborating.


Japanese mobile carriers KDDI and SoftBank postpone sales of new Huawei smartphones following U.S. blacklisting

Abstract: Two major mobile carriers said Wednesday they will postpone sales of new smartphone handsets produced by Huawei Technologies Co. after Washington effectively banned U.S. firms from exporting components to the Chinese tech giant. KDDI Corp. and SoftBank Corp. have both said they will put off sales of Huawei’s new smartphone models for their Au and Y!mobile services respectively, which were initially scheduled to begin later this month. Another major mobile carrier, NTT Docomo Inc., said the same day it will stop taking orders for the new Huawei handsets, although the company said last Thursday it will launch a new high-end Huawei model in the summer. KDDI and SoftBank said they made the decision as it remains unclear whether U.S. technology giant Google LLC will continue providing services, including its Android operating system, to the Chinese smartphone-maker following the declaration of a national emergency over technology threats by U.S. President Donald Trump last week. Trump said the government was banning American companies from using telecom technology and services provided by entities deemed a national security threat, a move apparently targeting Huawei. U.S. officials this week, however, issued a 90-day reprieve on the ban on dealing with Huawei, saying breathing space is needed to avoid huge disruption. “We need to check whether our customers will be able to safely use Huawei smartphones amid concerns over Google’s (future) moves,” a SoftBank spokesman said. Google said Tuesday in a statement it will be able to provide software updates and security patches to existing Huawei smartphones as the U.S. Commerce Department eased restrictions to let American firms offer maintenance work to the Chinese firm for 90 days. Still, concerns remain over services for Huawei’s new smartphones as it is uncertain whether popular applications offered by Google such as Gmail and YouTube can be used on the handsets in the future. The developments come despite Huawei’s efforts to ensure it will continue offering services without disruption. “There will be no impact on our existing products and services,” Wu Bo, Huawei Device Co.’s regional president covering Japan and Korea, told reporters on Tuesday in Tokyo. A senior Huawei employee said the company is planning to introduce its own operating system for its smartphones, possibly this fall, as a countermeasure to the U.S. restrictions, according to the Chinese media. The Chinese mobile phone manufacturer had the fifth-largest smartphone shipment volume in Japan in the year ended in March, accounting for 6.2 percent of the total, after Apple Inc., Sharp Corp., Sony Mobile Communications Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.

smartphones
phones
huawei
kddi corp .
softbank corp .


Mexico eyes new immigration facilities on Guatemala border amid U.S.-bound surge

Abstract: MEXICO CITY - Mexico is studying a change in the way it handles migrants who have been overwhelming its facilities near the border with Guatemala, and may try to keep more of them in newly constructed voluntary shelters rather than in detention facilities. Tonatiuh Guillen, director of the National Immigration Institute, told The Associated Press this week that migrants requesting asylum or certain other visas would be free to come and go from the shelters. He said the first such shelter would be built in Chiapas near the southern border. Guillen said officials are looking at a 37-acre (15-hectare) property in Tapachula. “If everything goes well, in the second half of the year we would begin design and hopefully construction of the new facility that is more like a shelter and not confinement, coexistence and not control,” he said. Mexico has been overwhelmed in recent months by the flow of U.S.-bound migrants, especially Central American families with children, many of whom have travelled in caravans. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has insisted that his main strategy to deal with migration is to improve conditions in migrants’ countries of origin so they don’t feel compelled to leave. However, detentions and deportations in Mexico are up 150% so far this year. Mexico’s efforts did not appear to immediately appease President Donald Trump, who unleashed a broadside on Twitter on Tuesday. Trump wrote that he was “very disappointed that Mexico is doing virtually nothing to stop illegal immigrants from coming to our Southern Border” and added that “Mexico is wrong and I will soon be giving a response!” It was not clear what precisely triggered Trump’s tweet. White House officials said no announcement was scheduled. Guillen did not provide many details for the plan that is still being developed. But he said the idea is to reduce the number of immigrant detention centers — there are now more than 50 — and reserve them for migrants who are awaiting deportation. Other migrants, such as those requesting asylum or holding regional permits to work or travel in southern Mexico, would have access to the new shelters. “This proposal speaks to the crisis in Mexico’s immigration system and mainly in the” National Immigration Institute, said Abbdel Camargo, a researcher at the College of the Southern Border. He said that while details are unclear, he worries that the shelters could become recruitment centers for workers rather than humanitarian shelters for families. Camargo said the idea appeared to formalize what authorities had already done in moving migrants from the detention center in Tapachula to a fairground, which did not have adequate facilities for them. “This government needs to urgently move from words to deeds,” said Ana Saiz, director of Sin Fronteras, a non-government organization that along with two other groups denounced detention conditions in a report to Mexico’s Senate. Saiz said that days after that report, the government closed five small immigration detention centers, including one where abuses had been reported. Guillen said the immigration agency had fired some 600 employees for reasons including “inadequate conduct, signs of corruption, others for (poor) performance, others for not passing confidence controls…” But Saiz still has doubts. “There’s a lot of talk about looking for alternatives, but the detention centers are full, the massive operations continue. They separate families and even a child lost her life,” she said, referring to a 10-year-old Guatemalan girl who died last week after apparently falling from a bunk at a Mexico City detention center. The death is under investigation. The government has denied separating families, but admits it is overwhelmed. “The Institute does not have infrastructure for families,” Guillen said. “The (detention centers) have a very severe control model and from the perspective of children, it’s completely inappropriate.” But he said the kids are there because the government decided to keep them with their parents. The National Human Rights Commission recently denounced confinement conditions and the lack of accurate counts of who was held at the Tapachula facility. Guillen said the change in approach is needed urgently. But it will take time to build the shelter facilities and the U.S. is entering another election cycle where the threat of harsher measures against migrants could increase. “This is a transition period,” Guillen said. “I hope that these flows are a stage, a circumstance, a situation and that we find a way to ease the number and improve the (migrants’) treatment quickly.”

u.s .
immigration
mexico
guatemala
refugees
donald trump
chiapas
andres manuel lopez obrador


Tension flares between Roma and nationalist extremists in Hungary

Abstract: TOROKSZENTMIKLOS, HUNGARY - Several hundred radical nationalists, including hard-line extremists, protested in a small town in eastern Hungary on Tuesday over what they call “Roma crime. In the town of Torokszentmiklos, east of Budapest, a few hundred Roma, mostly men, held a counterprotest commemorating the killing of innocent Roma in a series of shootings a decade ago that traumatized the country and helped give rise to the political far right. Although no violence ensued on Tuesday, the groups faced off in a way that has been largely unseen in recent years after a turbulent and sometimes violent period shook Roma-Hungarian ties about a decade ago. A new political group named Our Homeland Movement, an offshoot of the former far-right party Jobbik, called for the radicals’ protest, which unnerved the town’s large and mostly impoverished Roma community. The root cause was a fight last month between a Roma man and non-Roma locals in a bar that was captured on video by someone and spread via social media by Our Homeland Chairman Laszlo Toroczkai. It had more than 200,000 followers on Facebook. Facebook shut down Toroczkai’s page in response to his call for the protest, saying it had violated a protected minority. The extremist movement was founded last year by former members of Jobbik, a party that rose to prominence a decade ago on a hard-line anti-Roma message. “The allegedly fearful Roma threaten all of us,” Toroczkai told the protesters, including hundreds of shaven, tattooed men in uniform black clothes. “What I see are thousands of Hungarian compatriots living in fear of these criminals.” After Jobbik failed to weaken the ruling Fidesz party’s lock on power in elections last year, Toroczkai quit and formed Our Homeland, which allies itself with openly Nazi and ultra-radical fringe groups and calls on the government to step up against “Gypsy crime” — a term once coined by Jobbik. Roma residents in Torokszentmiklos rejected the wholesale criminalization of all because of the transgressions of a few. They said they suspected politicking behind Toroczkai’s presence, as Our Homeland is one of nine parties running for representation in the European Parliament in elections on Sunday. The ruling Fidesz party is expected to score a major win in the vote. “For Toroczkai to enlarge personal crimes is just a political move,” said Roma activist Lajos Balogh. “There are no collective crimes. But Toroczkai wants to attract former Jobbik voters.”


U.N. rights expert slams U.K. welfare spending cuts

Abstract: BERLIN - A U.N. human rights expert on Wednesday sharpened his criticism of cuts to social support in Britain, pointing to “record levels of hunger and homelessness” in the country and describing recent changes as window-dressing. Philip Alston, the U.N. Human Rights Council-appointed expert on poverty, visited Britain in November and was critical at the time of British policy. Releasing a new report in Geneva, he said there are 14 million people — one-fifth of the population — living in poverty, and cited increases in homelessness and food banks. “The bottom line is that much of the glue that has held British society together since the Second World War has been deliberately removed and replaced with a harsh and uncaring ethos,” he wrote. Alston said the government has acted on some issues he raised previously, delaying the rollout of a new welfare program known as Universal Credit and improving it. But, he added, despite a booming economy and “for all the talk that austerity is over, massive disinvestment in the social safety net continues unabated.” Britain’s Conservative-led government enacted spending cuts in welfare as part of austerity programs to balance the books after the 2008 financial crisis. In October, Prime Minister Theresa May declared that the end is nigh for austerity. “It is difficult to see recent changes as more than window dressing to minimize political fallout,” Alston said. “The situation demands a new vision that embodies British compassion and places social rights and economic security front and center.” His report also raised concern over the potential impact of Britain’s exit from the European Union. It said that “if Brexit proceeds, it is likely to have a major adverse impact on the most vulnerable.” However, it also argued that “Brexit presents an opportunity to re-imagine what the United Kingdom stands for,” including social inclusion and legislative recognition of social rights. The U.K.’s Department for Work and Pensions rejected the report’s findings, calling it a “barely believable documentation of Britain, based on a tiny period of time spent here.” It said it painted a “completely inaccurate picture” of the government’s approach to tackling poverty. It said that “our welfare reforms are focused on supporting people into employment.”

rights
u.n .
u.k .
homeless
hunger
social welfare


Libya on verge of civil war and being exploited by extremists, says U.N. envoy

Abstract: UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. envoy for Libya warned Tuesday that the oil-rich nation “is on the verge of descending into a civil war” that could divide the country and imperil the security of its neighbors and the wider Mediterranean region. Ghassan Salame told the Security Council that extremists from the Islamic State and al-Qaida are already exploiting the security vacuum sparked by the offensive to take the capital Tripoli launched April 4 by the self-styled Libyan National Army led by Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter. He said the black flags of the Islamic State extremist group are appearing in southern Libya and there have been four attacks by its fighters in the south since April 4 that together have killed 17 people, wounded more than 10 and led to eight kidnappings. “Libyan forces that had in the past courageously defended their country against these terrorist groups are now busy fighting each other,” Salame said. Besides innocent Libyans being increasingly subjected to the increasing wrath of Islamic State extremists, he said, “there will be spillover of this violence to Libya’s immediate neighbors.” Civil war in Libya in 2011 toppled and later killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, and the chaos that followed resulted in a divided country, with a U.N.-aligned, but weak, administration in Tripoli overseeing the country’s west and a government in the east aligned with Hifter. Each is backed by an array of militias and armed groups fighting over resources and territory. Salame lamented that when Hifter launched the offensive on April 4 “the capital was enjoying a measure of increased security, the population a much more stable currency and an improved economic outlook, and the political process, despite many obstacles, was moving forward” with a national conference days away to chart a roadmap to elections and a united future for Libya. But 48 days into Hifter’s offensive, he said, more than 460 people have died, including 29 civilians, over 2,400 mainly civilians have been wounded, and over 75,000 civilians have been forced from their homes. Humanitarian officials estimate that “over 100,000 men, women and children remain trapped in immediate front-line areas, with over 400,000 more in areas directly impacted by the clashes, he said. And “nearly 3,400 refugees and migrants are trapped in detention centers exposed to, or in close proximity to, the fighting.” Salame said there are also numerous reports of extremists, people on U.N. sanctions blacklists, and people wanted by the International Criminal Court “appearing on the battlefield on all sides.” He called on the Security Council to support the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry “to determine who has taken up arms and support the establishment of mechanisms to ensure the exclusion of unwanted elements.” Salame also said “arms are pouring in again to all sides” supplied by many countries that he did not name, in violation of a U.N. arms embargo against Libya. The U.N. envoy said “full civil war is not inevitable” — but “it may occur by the will of some parties, and by the inaction of others.” He called on the Security Council to urge an immediate cease-fire and return to a U.N.-led political process. “A better future is still possible, but we all must be seized with the fierce urgency of now while the front lines remain on the outskirts of Tripoli and before the battle moves, God forbid, to the capital’s more densely populated neighborhoods,” Salame said.

conflict
terrorism
u.n .
libya
al-qaida
islamic state
khalifa hifter
ghassan salame


Train to nowhere? California's high-speed rail plan looking more like a pipe dream

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO - Keith Erwin was about to buy the land that his auto repair shop sits on when he was turned down because California’s much awaited high-speed rail line was going to pass through the spot. Five years later, he sees no train coming anytime soon and no longer believes in it. “It’s a train that’s going to go nowhere,” the mechanic said at his garage in Fresno, just steps from where the train is supposed to eventually pass. Even though construction is well under way in Fresno, Erwin insisted: “I think they’re out of money. I don’t think they’re going to build it at all from what we see.” In February, newly elected Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he was drastically revising downward the high-speed rail project to link Los Angeles to San Francisco in three hours, even though the plan was approved in a 2008 referendum. The federal government indicated Thursday it was scrapping a $900 million subsidy due to “chronic” construction delays. On Tuesday, California and its high-speed rail authority filed suit to prevent the Trump administration from canceling the subsidy awarded in 2010 for the train project. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, claims the U.S. Transportation Department lacks authority to withhold the subsidy in question, which the Obama administration allocated nearly a decade ago but has remained untapped. The court challenge seeks an injunction to keep the grant intact. The state also plans to petition for an immediate temporary restraining order to prevent the department’s Federal Railroad Administration from redirecting the money to other projects. In formally canceling the grant last week, the FRA said California had “repeatedly failed to comply” with terms of the allocation and “failed to make reasonable progress on the project.” More broadly, a growing chorus of critics and multiple court challenges set back the project, and construction only began in 2015. Train travel has not been popular in this sprawling state — the most populous in the country — where the car is king. While many countries began providing high-speed rail starting in the 1980s, California kept investing in road infrastructure. “The culture of the state itself has really been about our vehicles and our cars … but now that’s changing,” California High Speed Rail regional director Diana Gomez said. Her group is responsible for creating, building and implementing the project. She noted that younger generations now want to use public transportation and are placing their bets on high-speed rail, which is better for the environment. Traveling the 380 miles (600 kilometers) that separate Los Angeles from San Francisco takes at least six hours by car. It’s only an hour by plane but chronic traffic jams to get to the airport followed by security checks make the three-hour train journey an appealing solution for many travelers. “But let’s be real. The project, as currently planned, would cost too much and take too long. There’s been too little oversight and not enough transparency,” Newsom said in his State of the State address in February. “Right now, there simply isn’t a path to get from Sacramento to San Diego, let alone from San Francisco to LA. I wish there were.” The project budget has jumped 20 percent over initial estimates, to reach $77 billion. But California is not giving up on what critics call the “train to nowhere.” Newsom said focus would now be on a section of the corridor that’s only about a third of the total distance, linking Merced and Bakersfield, with Fresno at the halfway point. Industry watchers say the reduced ambitions are a mistake. “It absolutely does not make sense,” said Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, an urban planning professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Any transit project needs big (urban) centers as origins and destinations, and so to have something like that … all but kills the project.” Gomez, however, sees the short link as just the beginning. “Once people see high speed rail running, then you know there will be more support for it to continue,” she said. “We have enough funds to build this segment up so let me do that and then continue working on the environmental documents for the rest of the state.” There are many obstacles, including procedures for expropriation of land that have proven far more complicated than anticipated. “It was chaos getting moved,” said Erwin, the mechanic, noting that staff at the project kept quitting or getting fired. “Unorganized people didn’t know what they were doing. … It was just a big mess and it still is.” Martin Wachs, a UCLA professor emeritus of urban planning, said California should have capitalized on its existing rail network, including that currently dedicated to freight. “What I would have recommended at the time was to improve the service along those routes gradually, building more patronage for rail and making it more politically popular by virtue of having more people and then extending that system until the point where we had genuine high-speed rail,” he said. Instead, authorities treated the high-speed rail as a separate program from the rest of California’s rail systems. The first train is not expected to travel through Fresno for another decade at best. And even if that happens, “I won’t ride it,” snorted Erwin.

california
rail
shinkansen
bullet trains


U.S. research on children's health risks in doubt due to EPA funding cut

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Long-running research projects credited with pivotal discoveries about the harm that pesticides, air pollution and other hazards pose to children are in jeopardy or shutting down because the Environmental Protection Agency will not commit to their continued funding, researchers say. The projects being targeted make up a more than $300 million, federally funded program that over the past two decades has exposed dangers to fetuses and children. Those findings have often led to increased pressure on the EPA for tighter regulations. Children’s health researchers and environmental groups accuse the EPA of trying to squelch scientific studies that the agency views as running counter to the Trump administration’s mission of easing regulations and promoting business. “A lot of the centers, including mine, have identified a lot of chemicals that are associated with diseases in children,” said Catherine Metayer, an epidemiologist who directs research into children’s leukemia at University of California at Berkeley through the federal program. The EPA awarded smaller than average funding for the research grants for this year, asked Congress to cut funding for it from its budget, and has refused to commit to future funding for the program. “The EPA anticipates future funding opportunities that support EPA’s high priority research topics, including children’s health research,” spokesman James Hewitt said, while declining to answer questions on the future for the national research projects. Children’s centers at universities around the country typically get joint funding from the EPA and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in three- and five-year packages, with most packages running out in 2018 and 2019. With no word on future funding, researchers overall “have been kind of scrambling to find a way to continue that work which is so important,” said Tracey Woodruff, director of the children’s center at the University of California at San Francisco. Woodruff’s federally funded work includes looking at how flame-retardant chemicals and PFAS compounds — a kind of stain-resistant, nonstick industrial compound — affect the placenta during pregnancy. The Trump EPA has come under increasing pressure from states to regulate PFAS as it shows up in more water supplies around the country. With no news from the EPA on any more funding in the future, “we’ve been winding down for about a year” on work funded through those grants, Woodruff said. On Tuesday, a banner across a website home page for the overall children’s research declared “EPA will no longer fund children’s health research.” The EPA and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences have jointly funded the children’s environmental health research since 1997, through grants to at least two dozen children’s environmental research centers around the country. The annual grants averaged $15 million through 2017. In the current fiscal year, the EPA contributed $1.6 million, agency spokeswoman Maggie Sauerhage said. The research often involves enrolling women while they are still pregnant and then following their children for years, to study environmental exposures and their effects as children grow, said Barbara Morrissey, a toxicologist and chairwoman of the EPA’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee. The long-term projects often produce much stronger results overall than one-off studies do, Morrissey said. Each children’s center funded by the grants also works to spread information about environmental threats to local health workers and to families. The institute is under the National Institutes of Health, which has numerous other children’s environmental research studies underway but said with the EPA joint program left hanging, it was considering a new program to put lessons learned about pediatric risks into practice in communities. EPA’s funding for the grants comes from the agency’s Science To Achieve Results, or STAR, program for research into environmental threats. The Trump administration 2020 budget request sought to eliminate funding for the STAR grants, and sought a nearly one-third cut in the EPA’s budget overall. A House Appropriations subcommittee released its own budget proposal Tuesday to restore funding for the STAR grants and boost the agency’s overall budget from last year by 8%, rejecting the administration’s requests for cuts. EPA spokespeople did not respond when asked why the EPA had asked Congress to end funding for the grant program, and whether the agency would commit to continuing the children’s health research if Congress overrides the EPA and restores funding for the grants, as expected. The science journal Nature first reported funding concerns for the program. In a statement Tuesday, Ken Cook of the Environmental Working Group said “crippling research to protect children’s health, while bowing to the agenda of the chemical industry, is the calling card of the EPA in the Trump administration.” Even if the administration restores funding to previous levels, for one year or several years, the time span of grant cycles and grant-funded work means that uncertainty over continued federal support is making the intended multiyear research untenable, researchers and program supporters said. “The whole point of these children’s centers is to be following children over time,” Morrissey, the chairwoman of the advisory committee to the EPA, said. “That’s why it’s so high-quality.”

pollution
u.s .
children
health
epa
pesticides
donald trump


Washington first U.S. state to legalize composting of human remains

Abstract: LOS ANGELES - Washington on Tuesday became the first U.S. state to legalize human composting after its eco-friendly governor signed a bill to that effect in a bid to cut carbon emissions from burials and cremations. Under the new law that will go into effect next May, people who die in the state will have the option to have their bodies transformed into soil suitable for use in gardening. The process is called recomposition. “Recomposition offers an alternative to embalming and burial or cremation that is natural, safe, sustainable, and will result in significant savings in carbon emissions and land usage,” said Katrina Spade, who lobbied for the law and is the founder of Recompose, a Seattle-based company set to be the first to offer the service. “The idea of returning to nature so directly and being folded back into the cycle of life and death is actually pretty beautiful,” Spade added in a statement sent to AFP. She said she became interested in the process about 10 years ago after turning 30 and thinking more about her mortality. Spade then began examining the technical aspects of creating an environmentally friendly “third option” that could compete with the $20 billion U.S. funeral industry, which offers conventional burial and cremation. Her approach — developed with Washington State University, which did clinical trials with donor bodies — calls for a dead person to be placed in an hexagonal steel container filled with wood chips, alfalfa and straw. The container is then shut and the body is decomposed by microbes within 30 days. The end product is a dry, fluffy nutrient-rich soil resembling what one would buy at a local nursery and suitable for vegetable gardens. “Everything — including bones and teeth — is recomposed,” Spade said. “That’s because our system creates the perfect environment for thermophilic (i.e. heat-loving) microbes and beneficial bacteria to break everything down quite quickly.” The process used by Recompose is the same as that used for decades with farm animals and the clinical trials carried out by the university in Washington found that it was also safe for use with humans.

carbon
u.s .
death
washington state
environment
jay inslee
recomposting


Poland's sextuplets doing fine as mom visits her newborns

Abstract: WARSAW - A 29-year-old Polish mother who gave birth to sextuplets has been able to leave her hospital bed and visit her babies in another ward, where the infants are said to be doing fine, doctors said Tuesday. The four girls and two boys were born prematurely Monday in the 29th week of pregnancy by cesarean section in Krakow, southern Poland. Dr. Ryszard Lauterbach at the University Hospital said the babies were “born in a condition surprisingly good for sextuplets,” but their respiratory, nervous and digestive systems are immature and require medical care. The sextuplets were a surprise to the family — their mother, Klaudia Marzec, said on TVN24 the family was not expecting six but five babies. “We have made some logistical plans at home for five, but now they will need to be changed,” Marzec said. “Now we just want them to leave hospital in the best condition possible.” They were conceived naturally, the hospital said. The couple have a 2½-year-old son. The babies, whose individual birth weights ranged from 890 grams (1.96 pounds) to 1,300 grams (2.86 pounds), are in incubators. Doctors say the little ones can breathe on their own but will likely remain in the hospital for around three months. Hospital director Marcin Jedrychowski called the operation an “extremely difficult” one that involved up to 40 doctors and medical personnel. The surprise sixth girl had a moment of warm physical contact with her mother before a sixth incubator arrived for her, according to Lauterbach. The boys’ names are Filip and Tymon and the girls were named Zosia, Kaja, Nela and Malwina. Their father, Szymon Marzec, said their arrival was a “great joy, but we also have plenty of concerns.” “We are happy that the kids are in the best hands possible, and all that we can give them now is our love and presence near them.” Only one in about 4.7 billion spontaneous pregnancies leads to sextuplets, the hospital said.


As measles cases spread, fight against vaccinations likened to a contagious disease

Abstract: GENEVA - Faced with a global resurgence of measles, health experts called Tuesday for countries to step up the fight against vaccine resistance, warning the movement was spreading like a contagious disease. World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus joined experts and health ministers from a range of countries at an event on “promoting vaccine confidence,” amid rising concerns that resistance to immunization is allowing preventable diseases to flourish. “No country can afford to be complacent about immunization,” Tedros told the meeting in Geneva, where the WHO is hosting its main annual gathering. The WHO says cases of measles — a highly contagious viral infection that can prove fatal — surged 300 percent in 2018. Resurgence of the once all-but-eradicated disease is linked to the growing anti-vaccine movement in richer nations, which has been identified as a major global health threat. “It’s a contagious disease,” Seth Berkley, who heads the GAVI Vaccine Alliance, told AFP, warning that misinformation about vaccine safety “spreads at the speed of light.” The anti-vax phenomenon has adherents across Western countries but especially in the U.S., where it has been fueled by the spread on social media of medically baseless claims, debunked 20 years ago, that the jab could cause autism. The United States, which sponsored Tuesday’s event with the EU and Brazil, lamented the “misinformation” causing vaccination rates in the country to decline. “Vaccines are some of the most thoroughly tested medical products we have. Vaccines are safe, effective, and lifesaving,” U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told the meeting. He slammed “social media conspiracy groups (that) confuse well-meaning parents so they hesitate to get the recommended vaccinations.” “This misinformation has real impacts,” he said, pointing to the more than 700 measles cases in the U.S. so far this year. Azar dismissed questions about whether past statements by President Donald Trump in support of some anti-vaccination movement claims may bear some responsibility for the problem. Pointing to recent comments by the president urging Americans to “get your kids vaccinated,” he stressed Trump was “extremely firm” in his support of vaccination. EU Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukatis meanwhile suggested that vaccine skepticism was in part linked to the fact that vaccines have been so effective that most people have no concept of how devastating the diseases they prevent can be. “We have become victims of our own success,” he said. Among the measures being taken to inoculate populations against the spread of misinformation about vaccine safety was putting pressure on social media companies like Facebook and Twitter to remove or flag demonstrably false information. “This is wrong information that is killing people,” Berkley said. According to WHO, vaccines save some 3 million lives annually. “Vaccines do not cause autism. Vaccines actually cause adults,” said Katherine O’Brien, who heads WHO’s immunization department.

u.s .
disease
who
vaccinations
measles
donald trump
alex azar
tedros adhanom ghebreyesus


U.S. Justice Department offers to share Russia probe papers to avoid House action against Barr

Abstract: WASHINGTON - The Justice Department said Tuesday it is willing to provide the House Intelligence Committee with documents from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, as long as the panel agrees not to take any action against Attorney General William Barr. The unusual request comes after the committee’s chairman, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California, warned that the committee would take an unspecified “enforcement action” against Barr or the Justice Department after they refused to hand over an unredacted version of Mueller’s report and other documents related to the Russia investigation that shadowed Donald Trump’s presidency for nearly two years. The move is likely to deepen tensions in the already fraught relationship between congressional Democrats and Barr, who they’ve accused of trying to stonewall and block Congress’ oversight power. A separate House panel voted earlier this month to hold Barr in contempt for failing to comply with a similar subpoena. So far, the Justice Department missed a subpoena deadline to hand over an unredacted version of Mueller’s report and declined to hand over what Schiff described as “a dozen narrow sets of documents” that were referred to in the report. In a letter to Schiff on Tuesday, Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd said that the DOJ would be willing to make less-redacted portions of the report available to members of the committee and that officials were reviewing troves of investigative documents that were also requested by the committee. The Justice Department is willing to provide expedited access to the investigative information because of the committee’s interest in counterintelligence matters, but only if the committee “confirms today that it will not pursue any vote on an ‘enforcement action,’ ” Boyd said. The department needs a “reasonable amount of time” to review the documents, Boyd said. But, if the committee votes to hold the attorney general in contempt, the Justice Department would stop that process, he added. Schiff said earlier this month he issued the subpoena to compel the department’s compliance and warned that the committee could take legal action if the Justice Department continued to “ignore or rejects our requests.” The intelligence committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the enforcement action, though Schiff has not said whether that would mean a vote to hold Barr in contempt, or some sort of civil action.

u.s .
congress
robert mueller
donald trump
adam schiff
russia probe
william barr


States sue over rule allowing clinicians to refuse abortions on moral or religious grounds

Abstract: NEW YORK - Nearly two dozen states and municipalities sued the federal government Tuesday to stop a new rule that lets health care clinicians decline to provide abortions and other services that conflict with their moral or religious beliefs. The lawsuit in Manhattan federal court asks a judge to declare the rule unconstitutional and say it was passed in an arbitrary and capricious manner. The rule was issued by the Department of Health and Human Services and is scheduled to take effect in July. San Francisco had previously filed a similar action. The department has said the rule requires hospitals, universities, clinics and other entities that receive federal funding to certify compliance with some 25 federal laws protecting conscience and religious rights. Most laws pertain to medical procedures such as abortion, sterilization and assisted suicide. The department has previously said that past administrations haven’t done enough to protect such rights in the medical field. The suit is being brought by Colorado; Connecticut; Delaware; the District of Columbia; Hawaii; Chicago, Cook County and the state of Illinois; Maryland; Massachusetts; Michigan; Minnesota; Nevada; New Jersey; New Mexico; New York City and state; Oregon; Pennsylvania; Rhode Island; Vermont; Virginia; and Wisconsin. A spokesman for federal government lawyers declined comment on the lawsuit. The city of San Francisco sued over the regulation on May 2, hours after President Donald Trump announced it during a White House Rose Garden speech marking the National Day of Prayer. New York Attorney General Letitia James said the new lawsuit is meant to stop the federal government from “giving health care providers free license to openly discriminate and refuse care to patients.” She called it a “gross misinterpretation of religious freedom that will have devastating consequences on communities throughout the country.” According to the lawsuit, the rule drastically expands the number of health providers who can refuse to provide services, allowing everyone from ambulance drivers to receptionists and customer service representatives at insurance companies to cite the rule. The lawsuit said the rule conflicts with various state laws requiring health care professionals to carry out certain actions even if they cannot comply with some health-care directives for reasons of conscience.

religion
u.s .
abortion
donald trump
letitia james


Arizona prisons ban book 'Chokehold' about black men in justice system

Abstract: PHOENIX, ARIZONA - Arizona has banned prisoners from reading a book that discusses the impact of the criminal justice system on black men, drawing outcry from First Amendment advocates who say the move is censorship. The American Civil Liberties Union called on the Arizona Department of Corrections this week to rescind the ban on “Chokehold: Policing Black Men.” The book by Paul Butler, a former federal prosecutor, examines law enforcement and mass incarceration through its treatment of African-American men. “In order for them to ban a book, they have to show the restriction is related to a legitimate prison interest,” said Emerson Sykes, an ACLU attorney. “There’s no interest to keep inmates from learning about the criminal justice system and policing.” Butler, a criminal law professor at Georgetown University, said his publisher was notified by email in March that his book had “unauthorized content.” The notice did not specify what led to the decision but warned that some aspect of the 2017 book was “detrimental to the safe, secure, and orderly operation of the facility.” Butler said he is mystified as to what raised alarm bells. He uses the title, which is a maneuver police have used to restrain a suspect by the neck, throughout the book as a metaphor for how society and law subjugate black men. Nowhere does Butler advocate violent or retaliatory behavior. “I disavow violence because first, I think it’s immoral, and second, because it wouldn’t work,” Butler said. “I’ve received letters from several inmates who have read ‘Chokehold’ while they are serving time. No one has indicated that reading ‘Chokehold’ has caused any problems in prison.” Arizona’s corrections department prohibits inmates from receiving publications that contain any depictions or descriptions that would incite or facilitate a riot, a resistance or stopping work. They also can’t contain pictures, illustrations or text that encourage “unacceptable sexual or hostile behaviors.” Any publications with sexually explicit material or sexual representations of inmates and law enforcement also are not permitted. Corrections spokesman Andrew Wilder said the department had not yet received the ACLU’s letter asking for the ban to be reversed and declined further comment Monday. The agency is in a court battle over a similar case. Prison Legal News, a monthly journal, sued corrections officials in 2015 for refusing to deliver four issues in 2014. The publication said in court documents that there were descriptions of “non-salacious” sexual contact between jail guards and prisoners when talking about incidents where inmates were sexually harassed. The case is set for trial later this year. Supporters say access to books for the more than 2 million people incarcerated in the U.S. can make all the difference for life outside the prison walls. More education decreases the likelihood of repeat offenses and can lead to better job prospects later, according to inmate advocates. They point to studies showing the literacy rates of incarcerated white, black and Hispanic people are significantly lower than their non-incarcerated counterparts. About half of the adult prison population doesn’t have a high school degree, said Christia Mercer, a philosophy professor at Columbia University who has taught classes in New York prisons. Reading books can be transformative and help them feel like they are using their time to make something of themselves. “Unless the book itself promotes violence, there is never reason not to allow it,” Mercer said. Arizona’s population of 7.1 million is roughly 5 percent black, according to the U.S. census. As of October 2018, the corrections department found black people make up 14.5 percent of the 42,000 inmates in the Arizona system. “One in 19 black men are in prison in Arizona right now,” Butler said. “Rather than acknowledge it’s a good thing that inmates want to read about and debate important public policy, Arizona pushes back against rehabilitation, against literacy, against the Constitution.” Sykes, of the ACLU, said the group is prepared to sue if corrections officials fail to respond to its written request to end the book’s exclusion. He believes the ban was made based on content, which would be unconstitutional. It’s not uncommon for state prisons to ban books, Sykes said. “Chokehold” is also not the first book dealing with racial justice issues to be prohibited. In January 2018, New Jersey banned from two prisons “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander. The 2010 book looks at how black felons convicted of minor crimes are seemingly set up to fail. Officials reversed course after receiving a letter from the ACLU. “When these issues come up, we try our best to push back against them,” Sykes said. “Unfortunately, the reality is I think in many cases, no action is taken because people whose rights are being affected are not in a strong position to push back.”

censorship
prisons
arizona
aclu
african-americans
chokehold : policing black men
paul butler