On heels of Lyft's lackluster IPO, Uber files documents for U.S. public share offering

Abstract: LOS ANGELES - Uber filed documents Thursday for its much-anticipated public share offering expected to be the largest in the tech sector in years, and a bellwether for other venture-backed start-ups eying Wall Street listing. The filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission contained no specific pricing or timing for the market debut for Uber, which according to media reports was expected to raise some $10 billion. Uber’s valuation in its latest private investment round was more than $70 billion, but reports said the ride-hailing giant was likely to seek a market value of close to $100 billion. The filing noted that Uber offers ride-sharing in some 700 cities but has bolder ambitions to reshape how people and goods are transported with operations such as meal deliveries, freight, and electric bikes and scooters. “Our mission is to ignite opportunity by setting the world in motion,” the document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. “We revolutionized personal mobility with ride-sharing, and we are leveraging our platform to redefine the massive meal delivery and logistics industries. While we have had unparalleled growth at scale, we are just getting started.” Uber said it operates on six continents with some 14 million trips per day and has totaled more than 10 billion rides since it was founded in 2010. The filing contained a “placeholder” amount of $1 billion to be raised but that figure is expected to increase ahead of the initial public offering (IPO) expected in May. The move comes after a lackluster market debut for Uber’s U.S. rival Lyft, which has lost more than 10 percent of its value since its IPO last month. Chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi, who took over in 2017 as part of an effort to reform a corporate culture marred by misconduct and other scandals, said Uber has taken steps to restore its brand and credibility. “Taking this step means that we have even greater responsibilities — to our shareholders our customers and our colleagues,” Khosrowshahi said in a letter announcing the IPO.


SpaceX's Falcon Heavy conducts first commercial flight

Abstract: NEW YORK - The most powerful operational rocket in the world, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, launched its first commercial mission on Thursday from Florida in a key demonstration for billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s space company in the race to grasp lucrative military launch contracts. The 23-story-tall Heavy, which previously launched Musk’s cherry red Tesla roadster to space in a 2018 debut test flight, blasted off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center carrying its first customer payload. “T plus 33 seconds into flight, under the power of 5.1 million pounds of thrust, Falcon Heavy is headed to space,” SpaceX launch commentator John Insprucker said on a livestream. Roughly three minutes after clearing the pad, Heavy’s two side boosters separated from the core rocket for a synchronized landing at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The middle booster, after pushing the payload into space, returned nearly 10 minutes later for a successful landing on SpaceX’s seafaring drone ship 400 miles (645 km) off the Florida coast. In the 2018 test mission, Heavy’s core booster missed the vessel and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. Liftoff with Heavy’s new military-certified Falcon 9 boosters was crucial in the race with Boeing-Lockheed venture United Launch Alliance and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin as Musk’s SpaceX, working to flight-prove its rocket fleet one mission at a time, aims to clinch a third of all U.S. National Security Space missions — coveted military contracts worth billions. The U.S. Air Force tapped SpaceX in 2018 to launch for $130 million a classified military satellite and in February added three more missions in a $297 million contract. Falcon Heavy carried a communications satellite for Saudi-based telecom firm Arabsat, which will beam internet and television services over Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

u.s .
space
pentagon
elon musk
spacex
falcon heavy
arabsat
boeing-lockheed


Rocket is just NASA's first headache in rush to get boots on the moon in 2024

Abstract: DENVER - In the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, Alan Campbell, a project manager for space systems at the famed Draper Laboratory that built the computer which took astronauts to the moon 50 years ago, is waiting for news from NASA. His firm has continued to specialize in the advanced technology required for space travel and is a natural candidate to help the U.S. space agency in its quest to return to the moon by 2024 — once final requests for proposals go out. “We don’t know when those are going to be because NASA is all thrown into a loop right now,” Campbell told AFP from Draper’s booth at the 35th Space Symposium, which is being held in Colorado Springs. “They’re still trying to figure it out,” he said. “We can’t really work on their problems until they tell us, ‘These are the problems we want people to work on.’ ” It’s a similar wait for hundreds of other companies, ranging from aerospace giants to the most specialized of subcontractors, many of whom are at the annual space industry event. Until March 26 of last year, American boots were set to return to the moon in 2028 following the last such mission by Apollo 17 in 1972. Last month though, the administration of President Donald Trump said it was speeding up that timetable by a full four years, throwing NASA into overdrive. The first problem is linked to the super heavy rocket required for the lunar mission, the skyscraper-sized Space Launch System (SLS). Boeing, the prime contractor, is years behind and isn’t certain it will be ready for its first test flight, without humans, in 2020. At its booth, the U.S. aerospace giant had relegated a model of the SLS to a corner. The Orion capsule that will transport the astronauts, built by competitor Lockheed Martin, should be ready, program manager Michael Hawes assures AFP, and it will be delivered in January to the Kennedy Space Center. Lockheed Martin has proudly displayed a lifesize model of the Orion outside the conference hall. But walking on the moon will require more than a rocket and a capsule: NASA wants to assemble a mini-station in lunar orbit, called the Gateway, where the astronauts will make a stopover before their descent to the lunar surface. Sierra Nevada Corporation envisions an inflatable space habitat to house the astronauts while in moon-orbit. At this stage, the company does not know when NASA wants it delivered. Kimberly Schwandt, a spokeswoman for the company, is unperturbed. “Whatever NASA decides for the timetable, we are ready and willing,” she said at the company’s booth. Europeans are also here in large numbers and ready to pitch in with a communications module. “Technically, we know that we can do it,” said Johann-Dietrich Worner, director general of the European Space Agency (ESA). “And we hope that we can do it in time. “It depends a little bit also on the calendar of the Americans,” Worner said. The heads of European space agencies attending the symposium told NASA chief Jim Bridenstine they need a plan to be finalized before the fall because the ESA budget will be approved in November. “I’d be happy to make a trip out to Europe in order to give their political leadership the assurances necessary,” said Bridenstine, aware that Trump’s abrupt shift in the moon timetable was done without consultation with international partners. The most urgent priority, according to industry executives, is for NASA to come up with the full requirements for the lander that would take the astronauts from the Gateway to the moon. Some of the more experienced firms caution that it may already be too late to build one in keeping with the accelerated timetable. “We need to be bending metal next year, which means tooling already has to be in house,” said Rob Chambers, director of Human Space Exploration Strategy at Lockheed Martin Space. “And I hope somebody ordered a bunch of aluminium.” Others warned that NASA will need to loosen its legendary bureaucracy to move things ahead. Lookheed Martin’s Hawes, the Orion program manager, pointed to development of the capsule to illustrate the point. “Just to give you an example, on the Orion program we have 400 regularly scheduled meetings a week between the NASA team and the Lockheed Martin team,” Hawes said. “Does that speak urgency to you?” Another issue is spacesuits. “If you’re going to do something on the moon, you need spacesuits,” said The Aerospace Corporation’s Dean Eppler, who has spent 20 years testing prototypes. The current calendar calls for delivery of a new spacesuit prototype to NASA in 2023 — for testing.

nasa
space
boeing
lockheed martin
moon
orion
donald trump
esa
gateway


China's top image provider shuts website and says sorry after putting logo on first photo of black hole

Abstract: SHANGHAI - China’s largest provider of stock images, Visual China Group, shut its website and apologized on Friday after it falsely claimed copyright of images such as the first photo of a black hole and China’s national flag. The company, which partners with U.S. photo agency Getty Images, said in a post on its official Weibo account the incident revealed its weak management and that it was cooperating with authorities investigating the matter. Shares in the company slumped by the maximum 10 percent allowed. The topic “Visual China apologizes” was among the most-read items on China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform on Friday, with over 250 million views. According to its website, Visual China has over 40 million editorial images and 1.25 million videos. Criticism of the company mounted earlier this week after Visual China put its logo over the first photo of a black hole, which was the work of a team of 200 scientists known as the Event Horizon Telescope project. The company said it had obtained a nonexclusive editing licence from the project for media use. Other users also questioned why the company was asking for payment for the use of images like China’s flag and logos of Chinese companies such as Baidu. The Tianjin city branch of China’s internet watchdog said on Weibo that it had met the company’s leaders on Thursday evening and ordered them to rectify its website. Visual China acknowledged that its website had issues with noncompliant pictures that it said had been provided by contractors, and pledged to “learn from these lessons.” Political control of the internet has tightened under President Xi Jinping, with demands that companies tighten oversight of “harmful information,” which could range from vulgar to politically sensitive content. The country’s leaders have also pledged to do more to protect intellectual property rights amid complaints by the United States and other key trading partners about the theft of such assets. Elliot Papageorgiou, the Shanghai-based head of the IP practice at law firm Clyde & Co., said Visual China’s use of the black hole image was embarrassing due to the photo’s high profile. “It comes at an inconvenient time because China is trying hard to get recognition for some positive steps it is taking to protect intellectual property,” he said.

space
astronomy
copyright
black holes
visual china group


Nikkei hits four-month high of 21,870, dressed up by Fast Retailing

Abstract: The benchmark Nikkei average gained further ground and hit a four-month closing high Friday, led by the strength of index heavyweight Fast Retailing. The 225-issue average gained 159.18 points, or 0.73 percent, to close at 21,870.56 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, its highest finish since Dec. 5. On Thursday, the key market gauge rose 23.81 points. On the other hand, the Topix index of all first-section issues ended down 1.12 points, or 0.07 percent, at 1,605.40, after declining 1.14 points the previous day. After moving sluggishly in early trading following a strong start, the Nikkei firmed gradually due mostly to hefty purchases of clothing chain Fast Retailing triggered by rosy earnings announced Thursday for the half ending in February, market sources said. The Nikkei maintained its strength in afternoon trading, bolstered mainly by continued buying of Fast Retailing shares, the sources said. In the meantime, the Topix remained in negative territory for most of the session as buying was held in check ahead of the release of Japanese and U.S. corporate earnings next week, the sources said. Fast Retailing alone pushed up the Nikkei by about 160 points on a closing basis, a market source said. The yen’s drop against the dollar prompted futures-linked purchases, said Masahiro Ichikawa, senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Co. Ryuta Otsuka, strategist at the investment information department of Toyo Securities Co., said the Nikkei’s rise was driven by “buying by speculators, such as hedge funds.” But “the Topix showed the reality” of the Tokyo market, Otsuka noted. Most market players “failed to move before the earnings reporting season as well as the 10-day holiday” due to start in late April in Japan, he added. Falling issues outnumbered rising ones 1,219 to 809 in the TSE’s first section, while 113 issues were unchanged. Volume inched down to 1.101 billion shares from Thursday’s 1.111 billion shares. Fast Retailing closed 7.89 percent higher. Technology investor SoftBank Group was also buoyant after U.S. ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc., in which SoftBank is the top shareholder, filed for an initial public offering on Thursday. Employment information service firm Recruit Holdings and automaker Toyota were among other major winners. By contrast, convenience store chain Lawson tumbled 12.21 percent, with investor sentiment battered by its weak operating and net profit estimates for the year ending in February 2020. Also sold were optical equipment maker Olympus, daily goods maker Kao and mobile phone carrier KDDI. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key June contract on the Nikkei average rose 190 points to end at 21,860.


Strong Chinese trade data sees dollar hit one-month high of ¥111.86 in late Tokyo trading

Abstract: The dollar was firmer above ¥111.80 in Tokyo trading late Friday, hitting the highest level since March 15, buoyed by strong Chinese trade data for March. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥111.86-86, up from ¥111.08-09 at the same time Thursday. The euro was at $1.1288-1288, slightly up from $1.1281-1281, and at ¥126.27-27, up from ¥125.32-33. The dollar moved around ¥111.60-70 in early trading, carrying over its strength in overnight trading overseas stemming from purchases inspired by a robust U.S. economic indicator. Later in the morning, the greenback rose further to around ¥111.80 briefly on the back of the benchmark 225-issue Nikkei stock average’s continued advance and real demand-backed purchases, traders said. After fluctuating around ¥111.70-80 in afternoon trading, the U.S. currency climbed above ¥111.80 in late hours as China’s trade data for March showed healthy growth in exports. Large-lot purchases of the euro contributed to the yen’s drop, which in turn helped the dollar to advance against the Japanese currency, a currency broker said. “Dollar purchases gained slight momentum after the U.S. currency rose above a technical threshold at around ¥111.50,” an official of an asset management firm said. The official also noted that market players became cautious about buying the dollar when it approached ¥112.


Tokyo court extends Ghosn's detention to April 22; lawyers for ousted Nissan boss appeal

Abstract: A Tokyo court decided Friday to extend the detention of former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn to April 22, following his rearrest last week over fresh allegations of financial misconduct. Ghosn, 65, was served a fourth arrest warrant on April 4 over a new allegation that his misuse of Nissan funds led the automaker to sustain a $5 million loss. The new allegation came less than a month after he was released on bail. The latest decision by the Tokyo District Court came as the Sunday deadline for his release from his latest detention was approaching. His lawyers appealed the decision the same day. Ghosn has already been indicted on charges of violating Japan’s financial instruments law by allegedly underreporting his remuneration to regulators, and aggravated breach of trust in relation to the alleged transfer of private investment losses to Nissan. The new arrest warrant was served for a different allegation — aggravated breach of trust over payments made to a distributor in Oman that totaled $15 million between December 2015 and July 2018. Tokyo prosecutors suspect that $5 million of this was transferred to a bank account owned by Good Faith Investments — a Lebanese investment firm that Ghosn effectively owns — before part of it was channeled to his wife’s company based in the British Virgin Islands, a tax haven. Some of the money may have been spent to cover the costs of purchasing a luxury yacht worth ¥1.6 billion ($14 million) mainly for use by the family and a water scooter, according to sources familiar with the matter. Ghosn, whose nearly two decades of charismatic leadership at the automaker came to a sudden end after his initial arrest in November, has denied any wrongdoing. The handling of Ghosn’s case has brought Japan’s criminal justice system under international scrutiny for practices including long detention periods for suspects and interrogations conducted without a lawyer present. Critics have dubbed the system “hostage justice.” Ghosn’s wife, Carole, was questioned by prosecutors at a Tokyo court Thursday, where she is believed to have answered questions about the alleged transfer of Nissan funds to her company based in the British Virgin Islands.

corruption
scandals
nissan
carmakers
carlos ghosn


Yoshinoya reveals first annual net loss in six years, citing cost of new tablet device order system

Abstract: Yoshinoya Holdings Co. incurred an annual net loss for the first time in six years for the year ended in February, the fast-food restaurant group said Thursday. The red ink came as the company, known for its mainstay gyūdon beef-on-rice bowls, booked an impairment loss related to the introduction of a new order-taking system using tablet devices — a move designed to lower labor costs. The company posted a consolidated net loss of ¥6 billion, compared with a profit of almost ¥1.5 billion a year before. Two executives, including President Yasutaka Kawamura, will take pay cuts of up to 20 percent for three months to take responsibility for the poor financial performance. At a news conference, Kawamura said the company’s gyūdon restaurants in Japan, totaling some 1,200 outlets, will offer 2 percent of the value of cashless payments as reward points once the consumption tax is raised to 10 percent from 8 percent in October. The move is designed to prevent a decline in gyūdon sales. The company is concerned that customers will shift to convenience stores, whose operators plan to provide reward points equivalent to 2 percent of the amount of cashless payments to cushion the impact of the tax increase. The cost for Yoshinoya’s point program can be considered as “something like sales promotion expenses,” Kawamura said. The company expects to swing back into profitability in the year ending in February 2020, projecting a net profit of ¥100 million.

restaurants
fast food
yoshinoya
financial results


Amazon Japan raises cost of Prime membership for first time in 11 years, by 26% to ¥4,900

Abstract: U.S. e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc. has raised the price of its Prime membership service in Japan for the first time since launching the service 11 years ago, citing rising costs. The annual price for shipping, video-streaming and an array of other services rose by 26 percent to ¥4,900 ($44) starting from Friday, the Seattle-based company said in a statement the same day. Fees for monthly users were raised by ¥100 to ¥500 per month. Prime membership prices differ by country, and the cost in Japan still pales in comparison to the United States, where the annual fee is $119. Amazon has built Japan into one of its biggest overseas markets even as the government estimates e-commerce penetration at less than 6 percent and a graying population remains wary of shopping online. In the past five years, the company has bolstered its offerings in the nation, rolling out services such as music, video, Amazon Fresh and Prime Wardrobe. Amazon follows a slew of other companies in Japan that have raised prices on goods such as ice cream, cup ramen and bottled drinks, all citing increased costs for logistics and personnel as the labor market remains tight. Parcel carrier giant Yamato Holdings Co. said in 2017 it would negotiate higher prices with business customers, including Amazon, as the increase in demand for its delivery services took a toll on its workers. Meanwhile, the Fair Trade Commission said Thursday it had terminated an antitrust investigation into Amazon Japan G.K.’s planned reward point program. The move followed a decision by the unit of Amazon.com Inc. to withdraw a plan that would have obliged all sellers using its online shopping platform to provide reward points. The FTC judged that Amazon Japan’s decision resolved concerns over potential abuse of its dominant bargaining position. The probe began after Amazon Japan said in February it would offer customers reward points worth at least 1 percent of purchase amounts for all items from late May. Under the program, sellers using the company’s platform would have shouldered the costs for the reward points. On Wednesday, Amazon Japan said it will allow each seller to decide a reward point policy on its own.

streaming
amazon
e-commerce
amazon japan
home delivery


Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi Motors hold first meeting of new management body in France

Abstract: PARIS/LONDON - The new management body of Nissan Motor Co., Renault SA and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. held its first meeting Friday and began discussing ways to strengthen the alliance in the wake of former Chairman Carlos Ghosn’s multiple arrests. Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa, Renault CEO Thierry Bollore and Mitsubishi Motors CEO Masuko Osamu attended the meeting, which was chaired by Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard at the French carmaker’s headquarters in Boulogne-Billancourt, in the suburbs of Paris. “The potential of the alliance must now be valued properly and that’s in our hands. It’s up to us to define our future,” Renault said in a statement, though it did not elaborate further. The three carmakers said last month they would establish the new body and operate it in a “consultative” manner after criticizing the previous management structure, where power was concentrated in Ghosn’s hands. Ghosn was chairman of the three companies and CEO of Renault and Nissan-Renault B.V. He was initially arrested by Japanese prosecutors for alleged financial misconduct at Nissan in November but has denied all charges despite spending months in detention. Under the new organization, the three partners aim to enhance the synergistic effects of an alliance that became the world’s second-largest auto group in terms of global vehicles sales last year. Talks of a possible review of their capital structure — a potential source of tension — have been shelved for now. Senard said in a news conference last month that the board has nothing to do with the review of capital structure. Some Nissan executives view the partnership as unfair, while the French government, Renault’s largest shareholder, has sought to merge the two companies, according to sources familiar with the matter. Renault holds a 43.4 percent stake in Nissan, which has a 15 percent stake in its French partner without voting rights and a 34 percent share in Mitsubishi Motors. In a video message released Tuesday, Ghosn said his arrest was the result of “backstabbing” by Nissan, saying that a “few executives” there felt threatened by what might happen to the company’s autonomy in a potential convergence or merger with Renault. The message was recorded shortly before his fourth arrest last week. Nissan and Renault said separately Friday it has established a new research and development center in Shanghai to speed up development of technology needed to launch autonomous driving and internet-connected and electric vehicles in the world’s largest auto market.

nissan
carmakers
mitsubishi motors
renault


China's ENN Ecological pulls out of plan to buy Toshiba's LNG business in U.S.

Abstract: Chinese chemicals maker ENN Ecological Holdings Co. is scrapping a plan to buy Toshiba Corp.’s liquefied natural gas operations in the United States, the Japanese firm has said. The Chinese company notified Toshiba of its decision, citing “considerable uncertainty” partly caused by the delayed completion of the purchase, Toshiba said late Thursday. The deal, initially planned to be wrapped up by the end of March, has yet to be completed due to the prolonged approval process of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. Toshiba said last November it would sell Toshiba America LNG Corp. to ENN Ecological for $15 million as part of its restructuring measures and would pay about ¥93 billion ($836 million) to the Chinese company, given the risk the business would be unprofitable with a future drop in LNG prices. Toshiba had planned to book the payment as a special loss in the fiscal year that ended March 31 but will now estimate the impact of the cancellation of the deal on its earnings. The company is in the midst of efforts to restore its footing after suffering huge losses in the U.S. nuclear power industry. In 2013, the firm said it had signed a deal with a U.S. firm to secure rights to process U.S.-produced natural gas into 2.2 million tons of LNG annually over 20 years from 2019. Toshiba aimed to procure the LNG for Japanese utility companies for power generation but LNG prices have since declined, making it difficult to make the operation profitable.

china
gas
lng
toshiba
enn ecological holdings co .


Daihatsu to recall 1.9 million cars in Japan over brake problem

Abstract: Daihatsu Motor Co. said Thursday it will recall about 1.92 million cars in Japan due to faults that can affect the vehicles’ braking system. The recall affects 1,916,973 cars across 22 models, including the Move and Tanto minivehicles manufactured between December 2010 and September 2018. It also covers the Stella and Pixis Mega minicars, which were built by Daihatsu and sold by Subaru Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp., respectively. The minicar maker reported a total of 416 cases involving two types of problems affecting the brake system, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. No accidents have been reported due to the problem. In the cars subject to the recall, Daihatsu said that improper waterproofing of the cowl panel can cause rusting or perforation of the brake booster, resulting in a longer braking distance. It also warned that improper greasing work on a strut set can cause the brakes to malfunction.

toyota carmakers daihatsu subaru recalls mlit


Fast Retailing cuts profit estimate as slowing Uniqlo sales in Japan offset brisk business abroad

Abstract: Fast Retailing Co. said the brisk performance of its Uniqlo casual clothing brand in overseas markets helped lift the group’s profits in its first half, but the firm also downgraded full-year estimates due to slowing sales at home. For the six months through February, its consolidated net profit rose 9.5 percent from a year earlier to a record-high ¥114.03 billion ($1.02 billion) on robust Uniqlo sales in China and Southeast Asian countries. Operating profit grew 1.4 percent to ¥172.94 billion on sales of ¥1.27 trillion, up 6.8 percent, both record highs. But for the year ending in August the company lowered its operating profit forecast to ¥260 billion from the ¥270 billion it had projected in January due to a slump in domestic Uniqlo sales for the first half, in which relatively warm weather dented demand for autumn clothing, the company said Thursday. It maintained its outlook for a net profit of ¥165 billion and sales of ¥2.30 trillion for the 12 months. “I believe our sales will not decline in China because of its very thick layer of middle-income households and we can achieve our target of opening 1,000 stores (in the country by fiscal 2021),” President and CEO Tadashi Yanai told a news conference in Tokyo. The company said sales at more than 600 stores in China increased about 20 percent in the first half despite a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy. Overseas stores helped Uniqlo post ¥88.49 billion in operating profit, up 9.6 percent, on sales of ¥580 billion, up 14.3 percent. Domestic operating profit in Uniqlo operations, however, fell 23.7 percent to ¥67.74 billion on sales of ¥491.34 billion, down 0.5 percent, the company said. “Overseas sales continued to surpass those in the domestic market. We have established a firm basis as a global firm and reached a new stage of growth,” said Yanai, adding that the company would open its first Uniqlo store in India later this year. As of the end of February, the company operated 825 stores in Japan and 1,311 abroad.

uniqlo
retailers
fast retailing
financial results
fast fashion


Nissan informs ministry it will recall 740,000 Note cars and fix problems in microbuses

Abstract: Nissan Motor Co. informed the transport ministry on Thursday that it will recall a total of 745,372 Note subcompact vehicles. The affected cars were manufactured between July 2012 and February this year. According to the ministry, a front-wheel suspension spring could break because of a problem with its shape. A total of 120 incidents concerning problems related to the defect had been reported as of Thursday. Nissan also informed the ministry that it will perform improvement measures for a total of 16,864 microbuses of two models — its Civilian and the Journey, which is manufactured for Isuzu Motors Ltd. The vehicles were produced between January 1999 and December 2013. Injuries have been reported because of the defect in the microbuses, in which a grip used as a support to help people get in the driver’s seat can fall off. Also Thursday, Subaru Corp. filed with the ministry to recall a total of 33,181 Legacy vehicles, citing the possibility of a fire from the speedometer due to a short circuit. According to the ministry, 17 cases of related problems have been reported and in 14 of those incidents fires occurred.

accidents
nissan
carmakers
traffic accidents
subaru
recalls
mlit


Suzuki to log ¥80 billion loss over recall of 2 million cars

Abstract: Suzuki Motor Corp. said Friday it will book a special loss of around ¥80 billion ($714 million) for the business year ended last month over a recall of 2 million vehicles affected by improper product inspections. The automaker also submitted to the transport ministry an investigation report compiled by its lawyers regarding inappropriate checks on brakes and fuel economy.

carmakers
suzuki
financial results
recalls


U.S. medical association blasts military's transgender policy that calls for correcting 'deficiencies'

Abstract: SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - A new Trump administration regulation set to go into effect Friday directs military secretaries to kick out transgender service members who refuse to serve in their birth sex after being “given an opportunity to correct those deficiencies.” The American Medical Association told The Associated Press on Thursday the policy and its wording mischaracterizes transgender people as having a “deficiency” and defies science by classifying the need to transition to another gender among “administratively disqualifying conditions” that include those the Pentagon has labeled as a “congenital or developmental defects.” The new regulation strips transgender troops of rights they only recently secured under the Obama administration to serve openly and receive care if they choose to transition to another gender. The Defense Department said its use of the words “deficiencies” is military lingo for when an individual fails to meet standards to maintain a lethal force. It is not a reference to gender dysphoria, a condition of extreme distress from not identifying with one’s biological gender, Lt. Col. Carla Gleason said. The department says transgender people can serve if they remain in their biological sex. “The only thing deficient is any medical science behind this decision,” American Medical Association President Dr. Barbara L. McAneny said. Decorated Army helicopter pilot Lindsey Muller was a plaintiff in one of four lawsuits that tried to block the policy from taking effect. But the final legal injunction was lifted in March, though new legal challenges are expected. Muller said she and other transgender troops feel demoralized. “Under our ethical standards, we can’t say anything derogatory against the administration, while we are being presented in a disparaging and derogatory light,” said Muller, 37, who is based in Fort Carson, Colorado. Troops like Muller, who began openly identifying as a woman in 2016, are worried they will be discharged. The administration says it will not boot current service members who transitioned before the Pentagon issued its directive, though the government has also said it retains the right to eliminate that protection. Muller said the policy will cost the armed forces far more in terms of losing experienced personnel like herself and training replacements than any costs associated with specialized health care for trans service members. She plans to retire from the military next year after serving 20 years. Under the new policy, a service member can be discharged based on a diagnosis of gender dysphoria if he or she is “unable or unwilling to adhere to all applicable standards, including the standards associated with his or her biological sex, or seeks transition to another gender.” It said the discharge should come after an individual “has been formally counseled on his or her failure to adhere to such standards and has been given an opportunity to correct those deficiencies.” The policy calls for troops diagnosed with gender dysphoria to be medically evaluated before discharging them to see if they qualify as having a disability. Otherwise gender dysphoria can be considered a “condition that interferes with military service” like sleep walking, bed wetting, motion sickness, and personality disorders. “They can dress it up in whatever words they want, but when you carefully look at this it’s total disrespect for these human beings by saying a core piece of them is not acceptable,” former acting U.S. Army Surgeon General Gale Pollock said. Pollock signed a statement with two former U.S. surgeons general and two other former military surgeons general, saying they are “troubled by the Defense Department’s characterization of the need to undergo gender transition as a ‘deficiency,’ and by the addition of gender dysphoria to official lists of ‘congenital or developmental defects’ that include bed-wetting and ‘disturbances of perception, thinking, emotional control, or behavior.’ ” An estimated 14,700 troops identify as transgender. Military chiefs testified before Congress last year that they found no problems with transgender troops on morale or unit cohesion. Many have received medals since the armed forces welcomed them in 2016. Transgender troops say the regulation mirrors the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that prohibited gay men and women from serving openly in the armed forces before Congress repealed it in 2010.

u.s .
lgbt
pentagon
transgender
ama
donald trump
gender dysphoria


Three million pasta meals and counting, California chef feeds poor and homeless kids

Abstract: LOS ANGELES - For thousands of poor or homeless children in California, you could say that chef Bruno Serato is a real super-hero, vanquishing hunger by the plateful — 3 million meals in 14 years, to be exact. His powers lie in the pasta topped with tomato sauce that he prepares on weekdays for some 5,000 underprivileged kids living in the region of Anaheim, in Southern California. “With the pasta, I can win the war against hunger,” jokes the 62-year-old during a recent interview at his famed restaurant The White House, located some 25 miles (40 km) south of Los Angeles. “I don’t need missiles, I don’t need guns, I don’t need stuff like that,” he adds. “I just need pasta to win the war.” Every week, from Monday through Friday, Serato faithfully boils nearly 800 pounds (350 kg) of spaghetti and potfuls of sauce to feed hungry children through his Caterina’s Club foundation, named after his mother. The genesis for his project dates to April 18, 2005, when Serato, who was born in France to Italian parents and who moved to the United States in 1980, toured a children’s center near his restaurant. He was accompanied by his mother, who was visiting from Italy and who was horrified by what some of the children were eating for dinner because their families couldn’t afford a proper meal. One 6-year-old boy, who lived in a motel and whose parents had no money or even a kitchen in which to cook, was munching on chips. “Like all Italian mothers, she said: ‘If he’s hungry, he can eat pasta’ and we immediately headed to the restaurant kitchen to make him some,” recalled Serato. “I haven’t stopped making pasta since,” he added. Serato has since served 3 million meals to hungry children in nearly 90 sites, including schools and community centers, throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties. On Thursday, he and his foundation are celebrating that milestone with 200 children invited to his restaurant. He recently decided to shut down his upscale restaurant at lunch to focus on the meals for the children. “We were busy at lunch before but never fully booked,” he said. “So I made a choice.” Giving has become a way of life for Serato. Born in 1956 in Laon, in northern France, he fondly recalls his bucolic childhood with six brothers and sisters. His parents were agricultural workers, and though they were poor and he often wore hand-me-downs, Serato says he never lacked for anything. “I ate spaghetti with marinara sauce every day because it didn’t cost anything, and I never went hungry!” He says people love to help others, but often don’t know how to get started. “Just start with one small thing,” he advises. “You can start with a ‘hello,’ a ‘good morning.’ Do one plate of pasta, give a hug, give a little jacket that you don’t use to someone who needs it. “Start low-key, don’t start with a big deal. I mean, I didn’t start with 5,000 pasta (meals). Start very low-key,” he said.

u.s .
california
poverty
homeless
pasta
bruno serato


Italy warns of Libya humanitarian and migration emergency as fighting rages in Tripoli

Abstract: ROME - Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte warned Thursday that the deteriorating situation in Libya could create a humanitarian crisis and increase the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean. “Ongoing fighting and a rising number of dead, now estimated at several hundred, as well as the wounded and displaced, signals the real risk of a humanitarian crisis that must be quickly resolved,” Conte told parliament. “The humanitarian emergency, with its consequences on the flow of migrants … requires determination and rapid action,” Conte said. Dozens of people are confirmed dead in Libya since military strongman Khalifa Haftar’s forces launched an offensive last week to capture the capital Tripoli, which is controlled by a U.N.-backed government and an array of militias. U.N. chief Antonio Guterres has warned that Libya is on the brink of “a very dangerous situation” as the rival forces battle for control of Tripoli. Thousands of people have fled heavy fighting on the outskirts of the capital. Former colonial power Italy’s far-right deputy prime minister and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has taken a hard line against immigrants, particularly those making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean from Libya.

conflict
italy
u.n .
libya
refugees
tripoli
antonio guterres
giuseppe conte
matteo salvini


WikiLeaks designed 21st century model for leak-based journalism in a wired age

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Using cryptography and virtual drop boxes, Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks created a revolutionary new model for media to lure massive leaks from whistleblowers, exposing everything from U.S. military secrets to wealthy tax dodgers’ illicit offshore accounts. Assange’s arrest in London Thursday on a U.S. extradition request to face computer crime charges could spell the end of 13-year-old WikiLeaks. But his legacy will live long in the world’s media. News outlets and journalists everywhere can now offer potential sources encrypted apps and secure virtual mailboxes to receive secrets that were once divulged by discreet whispers, furtive phone calls and unmarked manila envelopes. Skilled at hacking and cryptography — and motivated by a deep distrust of traditional institutions — Australia-born Assange applied his libertarian streak to the challenge of breaking government secrecy. In 2006 he built an online platform that offered an anonymous, encrypted path for leaking computerized files without fear of exposure. Leaks have forever been crucial currency in journalism. But no one had before created a convenient, relatively easy-to-use electronic drop box that could almost instantly, with absolute secrecy, take delivery of gigabytes of documents. And he did it at a ripe time, when the wired world was emerging and social media were taking off. For Assange, it was the opportunity to democratize powers previously the domain of governments alone that drove his exploits. “Cryptography was then the exclusive property of states,” he wrote in 2013. “By writing our own software and disseminating it far and wide we liberated cryptography, democratized it and spread it through the frontiers of the new internet.” WikiLeaks’ first release in December 2006 was an apparent assassination order by a Somali rebel leader that may or may not have been authentic. But it drew attention. Over the next year, WikiLeaks obtained documents exposing the Kenyan leader’s corruption, the secret operating rules for the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison camp, and offshore banking records from a Swiss bank. It began scooping mainstream media on stories ranging from secret climate-change discussions to Iran’s nuclear activities and Icelandic banking fraud. In 2010, U.S. Army intelligence official Chelsea Manning — a transgender woman then known as Bradley Manning — began secretly feeding hundreds of thousands of classified files to WikiLeaks. They showed evidence of possible war crimes by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, including a never-before-seen video of a U.S. helicopter attack in Iraq that killed 18 people, including civilians and two Reuters journalists. The stunning leak could not have been carried out in the old days of faxes and printers, and put WikiLeaks into the mainstream. Assange partnered with The New York Times, The Guardian, Der Spiegel and others to help sort through and make sense of the Manning material. WikiLeaks won awards and Assange was put on the cover of Time magazine. “What WikiLeaks demonstrated was the potential for a stateless transparency organization to get around the ability of the most powerful governments in the world to suppress information,” said Micah Sifry, author of a 2011 book on WikiLeaks. Almost as soon as he hit that peak, Assange’s star began to fade. Political pressure to counter WikiLeaks was huge. A multicountry effort got major credit card and payment firms to cut WikiLeaks’ financial lifeline of donations. And he began to fall out with collaborators, a victim of a domineering personality that made WikiLeaks a one-man show and his insistence that leaked material be published unedited, even if doing so could harm people ranging from soldiers in the field to human rights activists and others. But by 2012 others were already adopting his model of setting up encrypted, anonymous paths for leakers to contribute documents. WikiLeaks copycat sites opened in different countries. Journalists became trained in the use of encryption and secret file transfers. “Exposing the secrets of the U.S. government was a powerful signal that nobody could keep information under control in the internet age,” said Sifry. Though U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden did not deliver his trove of top-secret intelligence and military documents to a media drop box in 2013, he used the encrypted communications Assange helped popularize to communicate with the journalists who collaborated with him. In 2013 the Freedom of the Press Foundation, which had aided WikiLeaks with financing, developed a new anonymous drop box free for anyone to use: SecureDrop. The New Yorker, an early adopter, explained its value to leakers: “As it’s set up, even we won’t be able to figure out where files sent to us come from. If anyone asks us, we won’t be able to tell them.” SecureDrop is important to the most successful WikiLeaks-like operation, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. In recent years it has obtained from leakers millions of financial account files detailing money laundering and tax avoidance from offshore banking centers — digital troves that became known as the “Panama Papers” and “Paradise Papers.” The top of the ICIJ’s web page offers links to SecureDrop and other encrypted tools for sharing information. And it has one simple invitation: “Leak to us.”

media
censorship
privacy
julian assange
wikileaks
surveillance


Plumbing the depths and scouring shores, clues emerge in 'missing' ocean plastics conundrum

Abstract: VIENNA - Humanity dumps millions of tons of plastics into the world’s oceans annually, yet only a tiny fraction remains visible on the surface, and scientists don’t know why. Now an international team of researchers believe they may be closer to determining where Earth’s “missing plastics” end up, using an unprecedented global effort to track and draw down one of the most polluting materials ever invented. As images of plastic-clogged beaches and swirling gyres of debris bobbing on the high seas are prompting governments and cities to curb their throwaway culture, a growing body of evidence suggests a deeper problem of plastic permeating all ocean depths. Of the between 4 million and 12 million tons that enter the oceans each year, just 250,000 tons are thought to stay at the surface. Overall, more than 99 percent of plastic dumped at sea over several decades are unaccounted for. As plastics degrade through erosion, UV light and microbial decay, their density changes, putting them at the mercy of ocean currents — and, once they get pulled lower in the water, much harder for experts to track. “It’s quite difficult to decide where it all is because there are so many processes at work,” said Alethea Mountford, from Newcastle University’s School of Natural and Environmental Sciences. “Even plastic at the surface can sink down and go back up again — it’s moving between different possible sinks in different areas of the ocean at any time.” In a potential breakthrough, Mountford used a computer model of ocean currents for plastics of three different densities to project where most of the world’s fragments collect once they start to sink. The model showed significant build-ups at various depths in the Mediterranean Sea, Indian Ocean and the waters surrounding Southeast Asia. Much of the plastic ends up on the seabed, as researchers outlined earlier this year in a separate study that found microplastic fibers in the guts of tiny shrimp that live at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. While Mountford stressed that her research was preliminary, the results could help focus further investigations on the ocean areas identified and enable better studies of the damage plastics cause to marine life. Mountford’s work draws on that of Eric van Sebille, associate professor in oceanography and climate change at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. He said that most plastic pollution research had traditionally focused on the fragments that stay on the surface — and with good reason. “We know the most about the garbage patches so it makes sense to focus on them and if you look at the impact, the surface plastic probably does have the most because most organisms live there,” he said. “But if you want to understand the complete problem then we need to get a deeper view.” Van Sebille’s current research is based on the fact that plastic pollution is now so prolific that monitoring the waste fragments themselves can provide valuable insight into how oceans circulate. His hunch — which should be borne out as modeling gets more sophisticated — is that the vast majority of plastics dumped in the oceans wash back ashore. This would account for the huge disparity in the volume entering the oceans and the smaller amounts that can be seen today. “Plastic gets out of a river, it stays within the coastal zone for a while and it has the opportunity to wash back to shore and quite a lot of it might do that,” he said. Van Sebille added that while the problem of plastic pollution today may seem insurmountable, focusing clean-up efforts in coastal areas could save much more widespread plastic contamination in the long run. “More and more we think that plastic spends a lot of time in that coastal zone so you don’t need to do that much clean up to get rid of 10 million tons,” he said. In a series of studies on plastic waste unveiled Tuesday at the European Geosciences Union in Vienna, one paper showed plastic contamination on the Forni Glacier, a vast body of frozen water high up the Italian Alps. A team of Italian experts found between 28 and 74 items per kilogram of sediment analyzed — meaning that the entire glacier is home to 131 million to 162 million plastic items. “From marine trenches to glaciers we have now found microplastics,” said Roberto Sergio Azzoni, from the University of Milan, who led the research.


Mission failure: Contact lost with Israeli spacecraft moments before it crashed on the moon

Abstract: YEHUD, ISRAEL - An Israeli spacecraft lost contact with Earth and crashed just moments before it was to land on the moon late Thursday, failing in an ambitious attempt to make history as the first privately funded lunar mission. The spacecraft lost communication with ground control as it was making its final descent to the moon. Moments later, the mission was declared a failure. “We definitely crashed on surface of moon,” said Opher Doron, general manager of the space division of Israel Aerospace Industries. He said the spacecraft was in pieces scattered at the planned landing site. Doron said that the spacecraft’s engine turned off shortly before landing. By the time power was restored, he said the craft was moving too fast to land safely. Scientists were still trying to figure out the cause of the failure. “One of the inertial measurement units failed. And that caused an unfortunate chain of events we’re not sure about,” he said. “The engine was turned off. The engine was stopped and the spacecraft crashed. That’s all we know.” The mishap occurred in front of a packed audience that included Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and was broadcast live on national television. The small robotic spacecraft, built by the nonprofit SpaceIL and state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, had hoped to match a feat that has only been achieved by the national space agencies of three countries: U.S., Russia and China. “If at first you don’t succeed, try try again,” Netanyahu said. He vowed to put an Israeli spacecraft on the moon “intact” in the next two years. Scientists, who were giddy with excitement only second earlier, were visibly distraught, and celebrations at viewing centers across the country were dashed. President Reuven Rivlin hosted dozens of youngsters at his official residence. The children, some wearing white spacesuits, appeared confused as the crash unfolded. “We are full of admiration for the wonderful people who brought the spacecraft to the moon,” Rivlin said. “True, not as we had hoped, but we will succeed in the end.” The failure was a disappointing ending to a 6.5 million km (4 million mile) lunar voyage, almost unprecedented in length, that was designed to conserve fuel and reduce price. The spacecraft hitched a ride on the SpaceX Falcon rocket, launched from Florida in February. For the past two months, Beresheet traveled around the Earth several times before entering lunar orbit in hopes of joining the exclusive club of countries that have made it to the moon. The U.S. space agency NASA broadcast the landing attempt live on its dedicated TV channels, as well as online. While NASA regrets the end of the SpaceIL mission without a successful lunar landing of the Beresheet lander, we congratulate SpaceIL, the Israel Aerospace Industries and the state of Israel on the incredible accomplishment of sending the first privately funded mission into lunar orbit,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “Every attempt to reach new milestones holds opportunities for us to learn, adjust and progress,” he added. “I have no doubt that Israel and SpaceIL will continue to explore and I look forward to celebrating their future achievements.”

nasa
space
israel
benjamin netanyahu
spacex
moon
beresheet


3D laser imaging shines new light on 'Last Supper' site

Abstract: JERUSALEM - The arched stone-built hall in Jerusalem venerated by Christians as the site of Jesus’ Last Supper has been digitally re-created by archaeologists using laser scanners and advanced photography. The Cenacle, a popular site for pilgrims near Jerusalem’s walled Old City, has ancient, worn surfaces and poor illumination, hampering a study of its history. So researchers from Israel’s Antiquities Authority and European research institutions used laser technology and advanced photographic techniques to create richly detailed three-dimensional models of the hall built in the Crusader era. The project helped highlight obscure artwork and decipher some theological aspects of the second-floor room, built above what Jewish tradition says is the burial site of King David. “We managed, in one of the … holiest places in Jerusalem, to use this technology and this is a breakthrough,” Amit Re’em, Jerusalem district archaeologist at the Israel Antiquities Authority, told Reuters of the project, which began in 2016. Re’em pointed to reliefs of what he described as the symbols of the “Agnus Dei,” a lamb that is an emblem of Christ, and the “Lion of Judah” on keystones in the hall’s vaulted ceiling. “It tells the story of this room,” Re’em said. “It delivers the message of the Last (Supper) Room, Christ as a Messiah, as victorious, as a victim — and the lion, the lion is a symbol of the Davidic dynasty. They combine together in this room.” Some archaeologists have questioned whether the room is the actual venue of the Last Supper, the final meal, which the New Testament says Jesus shared with disciples before his crucifixion. Ilya Berkovich, a historian at the INZ research institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences who worked on the project, said the endeavor opens “incredibly new horizons” with enormous potential.

christianity
israel
jerusalem
3d
jesus
cenacle
last supper


Trump's silence on Russia's election hack is inviting another attack, says James Comey

Abstract: SAUSALITO, CALIFORNIA/WASHINGTON - Former FBI Director James Comey said the U.S. remains unprepared for another attack on its elections and faulted the attorney general for suggesting that the government was “spying” on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016. Echoing the findings of U.S. intelligence agencies, Comey said Russia intervened in the 2016 election to damage American democracy, undermine Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and bolster Trump. Russian officials have denied the accusations. But Comey said Trump’s “denial of a fundamental attack” on the U.S. means “we’re inviting it to happen again with our president’s silence.” The former FBI leader also said he was concerned by Attorney General William Barr’s comments on Wednesday that he’s starting his own inquiry into counterintelligence decisions that may have amounted to political espionage, including actions taken during the Russia probe in 2016. “I really don’t know what he’s talking about when he talks about spying on the campaign,” Comey said. “The FBI and Department of Justice conduct court-ordered surveillance. If the attorney general has come to the belief that that should be called spying, wow, that’s going to inspire a whole lot of conversations in the Department of Justice.” Barr told a Senate panel that he wasn’t saying improper spying occurred but that he was going to look into that allegation, which is frequently advanced by Trump and House Republicans. Barr said there was “was probably a failure by a group of leaders there at the upper echelon” of the FBI. The comments come after Trump renewed his criticism of Comey, whom he fired in 2017 amid the FBI’s probe of Russia’s role in the 2016 election. On Tuesday, Trump accused Comey of “an attempted coup” as he continued his attacks on the probe that was taken over by Special Counsel Robert Mueller shortly after the then-FBI director was fired. “Everything about it was crooked, every single thing about it,” Trump said of the Russia investigation on Tuesday. “There were dirty cops. These were bad people. If you look at McCabe and Comey, and you look at Lisa and Peter Strzok, these were bad people. And this was a — an attempted coup. This was an attempted takedown of a president.” According to Barr, Mueller has said his probe didn’t “exonerate” Trump on the question of whether he obstructed justice in the investigation after finding evidence “on both sides of the question.” Read More: Barr Says He’s Starting Inquiry Into ‘Spying’ Against Trump. Comey admitted to what he said were his own shortcomings as head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, saying he wished he had done more to beef up U.S. defenses against cybersecurity threats. “I failed to push us to the decision point of how do we want to deploy against this threat effectively,” he said. “We failed to do an adequate job of pushing the information flow across the semi-permeable barrier across the government and the private sector. We’re nowhere near where we need to be.” He also joked about what he would do differently if he could go back to 2013, the year he was sworn in to what was expected to be a 10-year term. “Going back to 2013?” Comey said. “Can I decline to accept the appointment as FBI director?”

u.s .
russia
cybersecurity
fbi
james comey
donald trump
william barr


Some in EU imagine there could be another Brexit delay after Halloween deadline

Abstract: BRUSSELS - The ink was not yet dry on EU leaders’ deal to give Britain a hard-fought, second delay to Brexit until November when some diplomats and officials in the bloc grudgingly conceded: This may well not be the last extension. The Wednesday evening European Union summit ran into the wee hours of Thursday after staunch opposition from French President Emmanuel Macron to a longer postponement of Brexit swung the balance in favor of the Oct. 31 compromise. European Commission Secretary-General Martin Selmayr coined a new Twitter tag: #29MarchMeans12AprilMeans31Oct — a quip on how Britain had been due to leave the EU last month, then got a reprieve recess until Friday and now a new delay, months longer than London had sought. Selmayr’s line seemed to be a play on British Prime Minister Theresa May’s now-mothballed slogan, “Brexit means Brexit.” And what will come after Oct. 31? More delays are on the cards, depending on developments in Britain, according to EU officials and diplomats. “If Britain decides to hold a second Brexit referendum, we will extend again, even in June. That would make absolute sense. You cannot cut the maximum term. You can only extend it,” said a senior EU official who was present at the summit talks. ‘Everything is possible’ Another one echoed that: “The legal situation is that everything is possible. A week is a long time in politics and we have now given 29 weeks. That is a very, very long time and a lot could happen.” To be sure, the political price Britain would have to pay for any further recess would spike, the sources said, and it is by far not a foregone conclusion that all the 27 states staying on together after Brexit would endorse another extension. But, despite Macron’s impassioned resistance to prolonging the Brexit uncertainty to no end, there is precious little appetite in the EU for the most damaging “no-deal” Brexit. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has made it clear repeatedly that she wants an orderly British departure and is ready to exercise her patience to achieve that. European Council President Donald Tusk, who Thursday confessed again that the best way forward would be to cancel Brexit altogether, is seen as trying to drag out the process in the hope that Britain could eventually change its mind. Britain’s promises In exchange for the Oct. 31 extension, Britain had to commit to holding elections for the European Parliament on May 23-26 and promise not to undermine EU policymaking. But even Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the European Commission — the term of which ends Oct. 31 — said fears that Britain could alone stall the bloc’s agenda were overblown as majority backing was enough to pick replacements for himself and Tusk, while the EU’s 2021-27 budget was not yet up for approval. “We have heard voices coming from Britain that Britain wants to be a very difficult partner for the others,” Juncker said after the summit, alluding to prominent hard-line euroskeptics in May’s Conservative Party. “That’s nothing new.” Beyond France, Austria was among a few EU states more amenable to a shorter Brexit lag. Any delay for London would have to be approved unanimously by the other 27 capitals. While no single EU member country would be keen to shoulder a veto on its own, a small group of reluctant capitals could block any further Brexit delay. “It cannot be ruled out. Though it cannot be taken for granted either,” a third senior EU official said when asked if the rolling Brexit timeline would have another sequel. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte — whose country is traditionally a close ally of Britain, would be among those hardest hit by any abrupt split and hence favors kicking Brexit into the long grass — admitted it might be hard. “I would expect this is the last delay,” Rutte said after the EU summit wrapped up. “On Oct. 31 the British will either have agreed to a deal, have decided to cancel Brexit or leave without a deal.”


After ousting of Algerian and Sudanese heads of state, other longtime leaders could be next

Abstract: PARIS - Strongmen in the Middle East and North Africa will be warily eyeing popular protests, fed by frustration with living standards and an elite perceived as corrupt, that helped push veteran Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and now Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir from power. While recent events in those two countries have been unique, analysts say the rapid downfalls of Bouteflika and Bashir are a warning to authoritarian leaders in the region that they ignore popular anger, especially over economic grievances, at their peril. The Sudanese Army said Thursday that al-Bashir had been removed from power and detained after 30 years in power following four months of protests. Last week, mass protests led Algeria’s ailing Bouteflika to step down after 20 years. Protesters against al-Bashir’s iron-fisted rule denounced the military “coup,” and thousands rallied outside army headquarters, demanding a civilian-led transition. In both situations, longtime rulers were pushed aside by existing security structures on the back of mass protests, in a sign for authoritarian leaders that an army can be a foe as well as a friend. But this also dashed popular hopes for a true revolution, leaving a potential for further instability. And as populations surge in the region, with the demographic switching toward a younger, more digitally savvy generation, discontent may deepen further. “The Algerian and Sudanese contexts are very different indeed. But at the same time, there is a lesson here for autocrats and dictators, that the craving for justice, democracy and equal opportunities is universal,” said Marc Pierini, visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe. “In both countries, people are fed up by seeing the people sitting in power, calling all the shots, and pocketing the money,” said Pierini, a former EU ambassador to Tunisia and Libya, Syria, Morocco and Turkey. “It is also interesting that armed forces are not necessarily solidly behind these autocrats anymore and perhaps have a longer view,” he said. Algeria’s neighbor Morocco is run by a monarchy, while heavyweight Egypt is headed by strongman President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, a former army general. He came to power after the ousting of Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist who himself was elected into power after the uprising that felled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Sharan Grewal, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, said it is difficult to predict whether the latest convulsions will trigger a repeat of the 2010-11 Arab Spring protests that ousted regimes in Egypt and Tunisia and led to war in Syria and Yemen. “That said, revolutions do tend to occur in waves,” he said, citing the Arab Spring and the so-called color revolutions in post-Soviet states like Ukraine and Georgia in the previous decade as well as the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989. Noting that the demands of the protesters to beat corruption and improve living standards resonate beyond Sudan and Algeria, he added, “You can be sure that dictators across the region are looking at these uprisings with worry.” Haim Malka, senior fellow and deputy director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said regimes have been “slow to grasp and adjust to a combination of demographic, technological and economic shifts.” “The region will face more turbulence as citizens and regimes attempt to renegotiate the contours of the social contract,” he said. “It will take years” for a new equilibrium to emerge. The tremors in Algiers and Khartoum will reverberate well beyond the Middle East. Another strongman to leave the stage this spring was Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who stepped down in what analysts saw as a bid to ensure a controlled power transition at a time of increased economic uncertainty. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose ruling party lost control of Turkey’s two biggest cities in March polls and is now contesting the results in Istanbul, will be watching events in Sudan particularly closely after hosting al-Bashir on multiple occasions in defiance of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant. And even when a leader is removed from power, it is far from the end of the story. Anthony Skinner, director at Verisk Maplecroft risk assessment firm, said Bouteflika’s interim successor, Abdelkader Bensalah, was “between a rock and a hard place” as he sought to cater to the demands of protesters while ensuring stability. “I expect protesters to sustain pressure on the political elite,” he said, even as police resort more to water cannons, tear gas and truncheons. “The administration wants to stick to the current road map without having to make further concessions,” he said.

algeria
egypt
protests
turkey
sudan
omar al-bashir
morocco
abdelazia bouteflika


Sudanese protesters defy curfew to demand new military rulers quit

Abstract: KHARTOUM - Sudanese protesters angry that army commanders have taken control after removing veteran president Omar al-Bashir in a palace coup defied a night-time curfew to keep up four months of mass demonstrations on Friday. Protest leaders dismissed the transitional military council formed by top brass after they toppled al-Bashir on Thursday, as the “same old faces” from the old regime, which had ruled the country with an iron fist for three decades. Demonstrators demanded a civilian body to lead the transition to democracy and bring an end to the multiple conflicts that have pushed the country into worsening poverty. Most shops and offices were closed on Friday, which is the day of prayer and rest in Sudan. Vast crowds were expected to throng the streets of Khartoum and its twin city, Omdurman, after the main weekly Muslim prayers at noon raising fears of confrontation. Washington called on the military council “to exercise restraint and to allow space for civilian participation within the government.” The European Union urged the army to carry out a “swift” handover to civilian rule. Sudan’s last elected prime minister, opposition Umma party leader, Sadiq al-Mahdi, who was overthrown by al-Bashir in a military coup in 1989, was expected to address supporters after prayers at one of Omdurman’s most revered mosques. Since returning to Khartoum from self-imposed exile, Mahdi has allied his party with the grass-roots who were the driving force behind the mass protests that preceded Thursday’s coup. The Sudan Professionals Association — a well organized umbrella group of doctors, teachers and engineers — has called for a huge turnout at Friday’s turnout as has the wider opposition Alliance for Freedom and Democracy. Despite warnings from the new military council to respect the night curfew, the soldiers posted outside army headquarters made no move to disperse the protesters who camped out there for a sixth straight night on Thursday, demonstrators said. Protesters were seen chatting with soldiers. They said their quarrel was with the commanders who had led the coup, not the rank and file. “There was no difference between last night and previous days and nights for us,” said one protester who gave his name as Abu Obeida. “This is now our square. We have taken it and won’t leave until victory is achieved. “We broke the curfew. We will continue doing it until we have a civilian transitional government.” Ibnouf said a transitional military council would replace the president for two years, adding that the country’s borders and airspace were shut until further notice. He said the council was also imposing a 10 pm (2000 GMT) to 4:00 am (0200) GMT curfew. State television later broadcast footage of him taking the oath to become head of the council, alongside his new deputy, army chief of staff Lieutenant General Kamal Abdelmarouf. State television said there would be a fresh announcement from the military council on Friday. Al-Bashir, who swept to power in a 1989 coup, was one of Africa’s longest-serving presidents and is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of genocide and war crimes. Ibnouf apologized for “the mismanagement, the corruption and the injustice” that had led to mounting social inequality. He also apologized for the regime’s resort to strong-arm tactics to attempt to crush the protests, which had led to the “loss of people’s lives.” But his apology fell on deaf ears among the protesters, who had repeatedly defied bullets and tear gas to keep up their sit-in before the army stepped in. Thursday’s announcement meant “we have not achieved anything,” said another protester who gave his name only as Adel. “We will not stop our revolution. We are calling for the regime to step down, not only al-Bashir.” It was a far cry from the scenes of celebration that had initially greeted the army’s announcement it would intervene on Thursday, when demonstrators cheered and hugged soldiers on the streets, some of whom joined the demonstrations. The opposition Sudanese Congress Party called for the establishment of a joint military and civilian council to rule for a four-year transitional period. It also urged the army to give executive powers to civilians. UN chief Antonio Guterres called for a transition that would meet the “democratic aspirations” of the Sudanese people and appealed for “calm and utmost restraint by all,” his spokesman said. That came after the African Union decried al-Bashir’s military ouster, saying it was “not the appropriate response to the challenges facing Sudan and the aspirations of its people.” The military council said it was declaring a cease-fire across the country, including in war-torn Darfur. But the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA-AW) fighting government forces in Darfur denounced what it called a “palace coup.” Sudan’s feared National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) said it was freeing all the country’s political prisoners, state media reported. But in the eastern cities of Kasala and Port Sudan, the releases failed to materialise, prompting protesters to storm NISS buildings, according to witnesses. Protesters have otherwise largely heeded the calls of organizers to refrain from attacking government official or buildings as they press their campaign for sweeping reform.


Boeing makes 96 flights to test software on troubled Max jet and gives pilots simulator time

Abstract: DALLAS - Boeing’s CEO says crews have made 96 flights to test a software update for its troubled 737 Max jet and will make more in coming weeks as the company attempts to convince regulators to let the plane fly again. Dennis Muilenburg also said Thursday that the company has met with pilots and airline officials in the U.S. and abroad, holding flight-simulator sessions to demonstrate the software changes. The Federal Aviation Administration, which will consider whether the plane can resume flying in the U.S., plans to meet Friday with safety officials and pilots from American, Southwest and United, the three U.S. carriers that were using the Max jet. An FAA spokesman said the agency wants to hear from the airlines and pilots before deciding what Boeing must do before the plane is allowed to fly. Regulators around the world grounded the Max last month after deadly crashes involving the plane in Indonesia and Ethiopia. In both cases, faulty information from a sensor caused anti-stall automation to kick in when it wasn’t needed and push the plane’s nose down. Pilots struggled to counter the plane’s actions but were unable to avoid crashing. Regulators in Europe and China are conducting their own reviews of the plane, and company insiders and analysts expect foreign regulators to take longer than the FAA to approve the Max’s return to service. Boeing representatives have visited the United Kingdom, Singapore and China to discuss its work on the Max with pilots and airline officials, including demonstrating the software update in flight simulators, Muilenburg. The Boeing CEO spoke during a leadership forum at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, as the former president sat in the front row. Muilenburg did not take any questions, and left immediately after his remarks. Separately, Sen. Edward Markey and other Senate Democrats introduced a bill that would require aircraft makers to provide airlines with all safety equipment now considered optional and to do it at no extra charge. The planes that crashed in Indonesia and Ethiopia did not have two optional displays that might have alerted the pilots to the malfunctioning sensors suspected of playing a role in the crashes. Markey said if they had been installed, the crashes might have been avoided. The Air Line Pilots Association endorsed the legislation. A Boeing spokesman said the company’s planes are equipped with “all critical features” necessary for safety. Boeing has said it will provide the two displays free of charge in the future.

boeing
aviation
ethiopian airlines
737 max
lion air
air accidents
dennis muilenburg
mcas


Ethiopia inquiry shows Boeing Max hurtling uncontrolled to disaster

Abstract: ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopia Airlines’ doomed 737 Max jet hit excessive speed and was forced downward by a wrongly triggered automation system as pilots wrestled to regain control, a preliminary report into the crash that has shaken the aviation world showed on Thursday. Three times Capt. Yared Getachew cried “pull up” before the Boeing jetliner plunged into a field 6 minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa last month, killing all 157 passengers and crew, said the report by Ethiopian investigators. The disaster — and parallels with another 737 Max crash in Indonesia where 189 people died last October — has led to the grounding of Boeing’s flagship model. It has also brought uncomfortable scrutiny over new software, pilot training and regulatory rigor. While the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority’s Accident Prevention and Investigation Bureau had a remit to investigate rather than blame, it implicitly pointed the finger at Boeing by defending the pilots, recommending the U.S. company fix its control systems, and saying regulators must be certain before allowing the Max back in the air. “The crew performed all the procedures repeatedly provided by the manufacturer but was not able to control the aircraft,” Transport Minister Dagmawit Moges told a news conference. “Since repetitive uncommanded aircraft nose down conditions are noticed … it is recommended that the aircraft control system shall be reviewed by the manufacturer.” Boeing, the world’s biggest plane-maker and one of the United States’ most important exporters, with a $500 billion order book for the Max, says a new software fix for its anti-stall system will enable pilots to always override if necessary. According to the report by the Ethiopian investigators, an alarm indicating excess speed was heard on the cockpit voice reporter as the jet reached 500 knots (575 mph) — well above operational limits. The plane had faulty “angle of attack” sensor readings, its nose was pushed down automatically, and the crew lost control despite following recommended instructions, it said. “Most of the wreckage was found buried in the ground,” the report said, indicating the strength of the impact on an arid field in an agricultural zone. No bodies were recovered, only charred fragments among the debris in a crater. Boeing has seen billions wiped off its market value since the crash, but its shares actually rose 2.4 percent on Thursday. Morgan Stanley said the report of flight control problems, which Boeing was already trying to fix, meant a “worst case scenario” of a new cause was probably off the table. Families of the victims, regulators and travelers around the world have been waiting to find out to what extent Boeing technology or the pilots’ actions played a role. A final report is due within a year. The preliminary report into the Lion Air disaster in Indonesia suggested pilots also lost control after grappling with so-called MCAS software, a new automated anti-stall feature that repeatedly lowered the nose based on faulty sensor data. “It had to take a second disaster to wake up the major players to pay attention to something that could’ve been resolved after the first disaster,” said one woman, who lost her father in the Ethiopian crash, asking not to be named. “Whatever the issues were, they better be 110 percent sure about their resolution, otherwise the 157 lives lost would have been for nothing if something like this happens again. This is a lesson to not take shortcuts in order to try and save bucks.” U.S. regulator the Federal Aviation Administration, under fire for its certification of the Max, cautioned the inquiry was not over. “As we learn more about the accident and findings become available, we will take appropriate action,” it said. Boeing may press to know how crew members responded to problems triggered by the faulty data. Questions on whether the pilots had leveled out the plane before disengaging MCAS and how many times MCAS activated were not answered at the news conference in Addis Ababa that lasted about 40 minutes. The New York Times quoted Dagmawit as saying pilots turned MCAS off and on, which is not the step recommended in published Boeing procedures telling crew to leave it off once disabled. With bereaved families angry and confused, relatives of one woman killed in the Ethiopian crash filed the first lawsuit on behalf of a U.S. victim in Chicago. The complaint accused Boeing of putting “profits over safety” and also targeted Rosemount Aerospace, the manufacturer of the angle of attack sensor. U.S. consumer activist Ralph Nader, whose grand-niece died in Ethiopia, called for consumers to boycott the Max. Pilots around the world were watching closely too. “If the preliminary report from the Ethiopian authorities is accurate, the pilots quickly identified the malfunction and applied the manufacturer’s checklist,” said Capt. Jason Goldberg, spokesman for Allied Pilots Association, which represents American Airlines pilots. “Following this checklist did not appear to allow the pilots to regain control of the aircraft.”

u.s .
boeing
faa
aviation
ethiopian airlines
737 max
lion air
air accidents
mcas


Assange: Cooped up in embassy for years

Abstract: LONDON - During his nearly seven years holed up in the Ecuadoran embassy in London, devoid of sunlight, exercise and companions, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange lived like a recluse. Visibly aging and suffering from deteriorating physical and psychological health, the 47-year-old Australian adopted a subsistence lifestyle, with just a cat for daily company. That ended on Thursday when police dragged the whistleblower from his diplomatic home — his worn face now framed by a bushy white beard and his signature silver hair worn in a ponytail. Assange sought asylum in the embassy in June 2012 after a British judge ruled he should be extradited to Sweden to face allegations of sexual assault. He was last seen in public in May 2017, giving a clenched fist salute from the cramped flat’s balcony after Swedish prosecutors dropped the rape investigation against him. ‘My mind is not confined’ In the first year of his stay, Britain had maintained a 24-hour police guard at the doors of the embassy — reportedly costing British taxpayers millions of pounds. Stuck inside, the former computer hacker was forced to call home a room measuring 18 square meters (190 square feet) and comprising a bed, computer, shower and microwave. He reportedly divided the space into an office and a living area, exercising on a small running machine and using a sun lamp to make up for the lack of natural light. He would occasionally entertain visitors, ranging from diplomats and journalists to celebrities like Vivienne Westwood and Pamela Anderson. The whistleblower only very rarely emerged onto the balcony, citing concerns for his personal safety. He compared his plight to living on a space station — despite being just around the corner from luxury department store Harrods. “My mind is not confined,” Assange told AFP in 2013. “The physical circumstances are difficult. However, I’m working every day.” He spent much of his time working on his computer and online, tweeting and taking part in media conferences and campaigns via video link. At times he also contributed to RT, a Russian state-owned television channel. ‘Akin to imprisonment’ But the years of captivity eventually took their toll on Assange’s physical and mental health. His lawyers repeatedly went to court to ask unsuccessfully for British prosecutors to remove the arrest warrant hanging over him for breaching bail. They argued his conditions were “akin to imprisonment.” Noting a 2016 U.N. panel ruling that he was being detained arbitrarily, they said that without access to adequate medical care or sunlight, his continued confinement imperilled his life. In one hearing they complained he was suffering from a bad tooth, a frozen shoulder and depression. Cat fight Meanwhile, relations with his Ecuadoran hosts also began to suffer. Quito cut his internet and mobile phone access last year, accusing him of breaking “a written commitment” not to interfere in its and allies’ foreign policies. The move infuriated Assange, who sued the government for violating his “fundamental rights” by limiting his access to the outside world. He also complained the embassy was requiring his visitors — including journalists and lawyers — to disclose “private or political details such as their social media usernames.” Another point of friction became a cat given to Assange in 2016 — for which he soon created a spoof Twitter account with the handle @EmbassyCat. A Quito memo leaked to the country’s media showed officials had concerns for the “well-being, food, hygiene, and proper care” of the cat, and warned it could be removed to a shelter.


White House reportedly considered releasing detained migrants in sanctuary cities as retaliation

Abstract: WASHINGTON - White House officials have tried to pressure U.S. immigration authorities to release migrants detained at the border into so-called sanctuary cities such as San Francisco to retaliate against President Donald Trump’s political adversaries, the Washington Post reported on Thursday . The Post, which reviewed emails on the issue and spoke to unnamed officials at the Department of Homeland Security, said the White House proposed the measure at least twice in the past six months. Sanctuary cities are those where local officials decline to hand over illegal immigrants for deportation. The White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the report. A DHS spokesman told Reuters in a statement the plan was “a suggestion that was floated and rejected, which ended any further discussion.” The Post quoted a White House official as saying the same thing. Trump administration officials proposed the measure in November as a caravan traveled through Mexico with mostly migrants from Central American countries toward the southern U.S. border. The proposal emerged again in February during a standoff with Democrats over funding the president sought to build a wall on the border, one of the signature issues of his 2016 election campaign and presidency. The Post said a Nov. 16 email broached the proposal, asking officials at different agencies whether members of the migrant caravan could be detained at the border, then bused to “small- and mid-sized sanctuary cities,” where local officials refuse to hand over illegal immigrants for deportation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s district in San Francisco was one of those the White House considered targeting, the Post cited the DHS officials as saying. Ashley Etienne, a spokeswoman for Pelosi, denounced the administration for its “cynicism and cruelty” over the plan. “Using human beings — including little children — as pawns in their warped game to perpetuate fear and demonize immigrants is despicable, and in some cases, criminal,” she said, adding that Americans had “resoundingly rejected this administration’s toxic anti-immigrant policies.”


Magnitude 6.8 quake temporarily triggers tsunami warning for eastern Indonesia

Abstract: JAKARTA - Indonesia’s geophysics agency said it has ended a tsunami warning that was triggered by a strong earthquake Friday east of Sulawesi island. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake, which struck at a relatively shallow depth of 17 km (10.5 miles), had a magnitude of 6.8. The warning was in effect for about 40 minutes. The epicenter was far from the central Sulawesi city of Palu, which was devastated by a 7.5 magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami in September, but it was felt there anyway and people ran into the streets in panic. More than 4,400 people were killed in the Palu disaster. Disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the quake was felt in different areas for 4 to 6 seconds. He said authorities in some eastern coastal areas and islands had ordered residents to go to higher ground. The quake hit off the coast of eastern Sulawesi, on the other side of the island from disaster-hit Palu. “I ran straight outside after the earthquake — everything was swaying,” 29-year-old Palu resident Mahfuzah said. Thousands in Palu were still living in makeshift shelters six months after the late September disaster, which displaced at least 170,000 residents in the city and surrounding districts. Entire neighborhoods still lay in ruins, despite life returning to normal in other areas of the tsunami-struck city. The force of the September quake saw entire neighborhoods leveled by liquefaction — a process where the ground starts behaving like a liquid and swallows up the earth like quicksand. Apart from the damage to tens of thousands of buildings, the disaster destroyed fishing boats, shops and irrigation systems, robbing residents of their income. Indonesia has said the damage bill in Palu topped $900 million. The World Bank has offered the country up to $1 billion in loans to get the city back on its feet.

indonesia
earthquakes
natural disasters
sulawesi
palu


Trump says no to eased sanctions, but South Korea's Moon keeps nuclear talks with Kim alive

Abstract: South Korean President Moon Jae-in, on a mission to Washington on Thursday to kick-start nuclear diplomacy by persuading U.S. President Donald Trump to ease crushing sanctions on North Korea and gain an OK for inter-Korean projects, fell short in talks with Trump. But is there a path forward for the U.S. and North Korea? And if so, what role could Moon play? Trump rejected Moon’s calls for planned confidence-building economic projects with Pyongyang, dealing a blow to his efforts to restart nuclear talks with Kim Jong Un after Trump’s summit with the North Korean leader broke down in Hanoi in late February, in part over Kim’s demands for immediate sanctions relief. Trump, speaking ahead of closed-door talks at the White House with Moon, said it “isn’t the right time” for signing off on sanctions exemptions for inter-Korean projects, including the reopening of the Kaesong industrial facility and Mount Kumgang tourism site, which Moon and Kim agreed to during their third summit in September last year. Still, Trump did offer a qualified answer to a question on whether he would be willing to accept “smaller deals” to keep negotiations alive. “I’d have to see what the deal is,” he said. “There are various smaller deals that maybe could happen. Things could happen. You can work out, step by step, pieces.” But, he added, “At this moment, we’re talking about the big deal. The big deal is we have to get rid of the nuclear weapons.” During the summit in Hanoi, Trump insisted on what officials described as “a big deal” that called for trading sanctions relief for Kim relinquishing all the North’s nuclear and other weapons programs — a bridge too far for the North Korean leader, who had instead offered to dismantle the Yongbyon nuclear facility in exchange for the easing of some sanctions. Frank Aum, a former senior Pentagon adviser on North Korea now with the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, said Trump appeared “open to any reasonable North Korea proposal and wouldn’t turn down a good deal just because it was a small one.” “Trump’s apparent openness to a smaller deal is significant in the sense that President Moon can take this indication of flexibility to Chairman Kim as a way to entice North Korea back to talks,” Aum said, cautioning, however, that a smaller deal would have to be considerably in Trump’s favor — something the North Koreans would be unlikely to go for. Vipin Narang, a North Korea expert and professor of international relations at MIT, said this interpretation is possible, but noted that Trump’s “intuition is that a small deal cannot by definition be a ‘good deal’ ” for Trump the businessman. “My interpretation was more pessimistic than others perhaps — that he meant, ‘I’ve heard this suggestion about small step-by-step deals, but nah, I’m going to go big or go home and try to get all the nukes.’ At least for now,” Narang said. Whatever the case, the two sides’ diplomatic outreach is now likely to gain at least some momentum after weeks of silence, with Trump reiterating Thursday that “the door remains open to dialogue,” and saying that a third summit with Kim “could happen.” Indeed, the U.S. leader reportedly asked Moon to “contact” North Korea, likely via inter-Korean summit talks, and to let him know of Pyongyang’s current stance on negotiations. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, quoting an unidentified senior Moon administration official, said that Moon would aim to meet with Kim at an early date, returning to the role of mediator after meeting Kim three times last year — in April and May at the truce village of Panmunjom and in September in Pyongyang — and helping Trump realize his two summits with Kim. “At this point, I think President Moon will arrange a call or meeting with Chairman Kim in the near future to convey President Trump’s desire to continue negotiations and willingness to demonstrate flexibility,” Aum said. “Given that the relationship between Trump and Kim is still good, I think Kim will be willing to give diplomacy another shot,” he said, adding that another visit to Pyongyang by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to discuss potential compromises would not be out of the question. But Aum cautioned that the Trump administration and Kim regime would need to do their homework before any meeting because “this third summit, if it happens, will be the last shot.” The Moon-Trump summit came as details of a meeting this week of the North’s rubber-stamp parliament emerged Friday. That event saw changes in the pecking order of its cadres and the elevation of one official who has been the target of U.S. sanctions. North Korea replaced its longtime nominal head of state, Kim Yong Nam, 91, with Choe Ryong Hae, a senior figure in both the military and ruling party. Choe was named Thursday to the role of president of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, the official Korean Central News Agency reported. The promotion solidifies Choe’s status as Kim’s No. 2 official, giving him more authority to enforce Kim’s rule over the state’s most powerful bodies. He has led departments “that perpetrate the regime’s brutal state-sponsored censorship activities, human rights violations and abuses, and other abuses in order to suppress and control the population,” according to the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which has targeted Choe with sanctions. Even though there is no doubt about Kim’s position as the country’s supreme leader — Kim was also re-elected to his seat of power as the chairman of the State Affairs Commission on Thursday — the reclusive state has used a figurehead for decades to carry out routine functions such as receiving diplomats, with only the most important guests gaining an audience with the country’s real leader.

u.s .
north korea
kim jong un
nuclear weapons
south korea
north korea nuclear crisis
donald trump
moon jae-in
kim-trump summit