Tip of the iceberg: Researchers confirm finding 1,600 secret graves in Mexico since 2006

Abstract: MEXICO CITY - Mexican researchers said Thursday they have confirmed the existence of 1,606 secret graves containing 2,489 bodies from 2006 to 2017, but that may just scratch the surface of the true numbers behind what the study called a “building phenomenon.” “Those are not all the graves. … Unfortunately, it’s just a fraction,” Denise Gonzalez, lead coordinator of the study, said at press conference at Mexico City’s Iberoamericana University. The study found that Tamaulipas, Guerrero, Veracruz, Sinaloa and Zacatecas were the states with the most reported cases of secret graves, all places with a strong presence of organized crime groups. University investigators worked alongside local human rights’ groups to conduct the study that they say shows the “deterioration of security” in Mexico. They criticized the country’s Attorney General’s Office and said the government gave inconsistent statistics on secret graves and bodies recovered. “The Attorney General’s Office is actively violating the rights of information and of memory,” said Carlos Dorantes of the human rights organization Article 19, which participated in the study. Karla Quintana, the government’s national search commissioner, said the new administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador inherited a “forensic emergency” when he took office Dec. 1. She added the government is working on a digital database of disappeared persons, and said the president will meet Monday with families to update them on his administration’s work to find and identify their missing relatives. “We need to have this information to give answers to family members waiting on their loved ones,” Quintana said. She also highlighted a lack of resources, saying the commission has a “one-person team” in its archives department and is short on personnel to carry out the exhumations. Leticia Hidalgo, whose son disappeared in Nuevo Leon in 2011, asked Quintana to locate those like her son. “We don’t have any more time. … We urge you to go out and look,” Hidalgo said. Quintana said she does not know exactly how many disappeared people there are in Mexico. Roberto Cabrera Alfaro, her predecessor at the national search commission, estimated earlier this year that the figure likely is more than 40,000. The 11-year period covered by the study begins with 2006, when then-President Felipe Calderon launched a militarized effort against drug cartels that set off an increase in killings. Researchers said the alarming numbers of secret graves in the country are indicative of the rampant violence that goes unpunished. “It is reflective of the level of social decay and dehumanization that the country has reached,” the report reads. Lopez Obrador’s administration released its first official report over the secret graves in May. Authorities reported having found 222 of them with 337 bodies between the administration’s first day though May 13.

murder
drugs
mexico
mass murder
andres manuel lopez obrador


Witness at Navy SEAL trial admits killing teenage prisoner in Iraq

Abstract: SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - A Navy SEAL called by prosecutors to testify at the murder trial of a decorated comrade dropped a bombshell Thursday when he acknowledged killing a wounded militant in what he described as an act of mercy. Special Operator 1st Class Corey Scott, who got an immunity deal for his testimony, said he asphyxiated the teenage Islamic State fighter after Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher unexpectedly stabbed him. Before the stabbing, Gallagher and Scott had stabilized the prisoner and he was breathing normally through a tube inserted to clear his airway as they treated him for wounds suffered in an airstrike in Iraq. Scott said he was startled when Gallagher stabbed the boy once below the collarbone. Gallagher then grabbed his medical bag and walked away. Scott said the patient would have survived the stabbing, but he decided to plug the youth’s air tube because he believed he would eventually be tortured by Iraqi forces. The testimony came as a surprise to prosecutors and a major boost to Gallagher, who is fighting charges of murder and attempted murder. The prosecutor, Lt. Brian John, accused Scott of lying, saying he never revealed those details in previous conversations. Scott said no one asked him how the patient died and cited the immunity deal that allowed him to finally fess up. “So you can stand up there and you can lie about how you killed the ISIS prisoner so Chief Gallagher does not have to go to jail,” John said. “You don’t want Chief Gallagher to go to jail, do you?” “He’s got a wife and family,” Scott said. “I don’t think he should be spending his life in prison.” Scott had wanted to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, but the judge rejected that. Instead, he granted him immunity to testify for the prosecution. The testimony follows another comrade who described the stabbing and a former SEAL who said Gallagher later scoffed that the victim was “just an ISIS dirtbag.” The former SEAL, Dylan Dille, also described several instances when he said Gallagher had fired at civilians, once shooting an old man. The defense has said Gallagher only treated the teenage prisoner for a collapsed lung and that disgruntled sailors fabricated the murder accusations because he was a demanding platoon leader and they didn’t want him promoted.

conflict
u.s .
murder
california
iraq
u.s. navy
islamic state
navy seals
edward gallagher


Defendant's boast of being serial killer doubted in Chinese scholar slaying

Abstract: CHICAGO - A man on trial for killing a visiting scholar from China searched the internet for basic instructions to committing murder before the woman vanished, which one expert on serial killers says may be a sign that his boast to have killed 12 other people is false. Brendt Christensen’s claim came in conversations recorded by his girlfriend, Terra Bullis, who he may have been trying to impress by saying he was a serial killer. Bullis, the prosecution’s star witness, who testified at the federal trial for a second day Thursday, wore an FBI wire over several weeks, once becoming so nervous recording her boyfriend-turned-suspect that she fainted. Christensen, a former University of Illinois doctoral student who is now 29, described to her how he lured Yingying Zhang into his car on June 9, 2017, as she waited for a bus and then forced the 26-year-old into his apartment. There, he raped, choked and stabbed Zhang, then beat her to death with a baseball bat and decapitated her. “Do you think you might be the next successful serial killer?” Bullis asks him in one conversation. He answers: “I already am.” He calls Zhang victim “No. 13” and says he’s been killing since around 2001 when he was 19. Christensen has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping resulting in death, though his lawyer told jurors during opening statements he did kill Zhang. He faces a possible death sentence if convicted. For someone who purports to be a seasoned killer going back to his days as an undergraduate in physics in Wisconsin, Christensen devoted lots of time researching the topic leading up to Zhang’s disappearance. He downloaded an article, “Beyond the Grave —Understanding Human Decomposition,” and a paper on “The Criminal Mind of Serial Killers,” and he visited an “abduction 101” fetish forum. “The contents of Christensen’s internet search history demonstrate his lack of knowledge of basic things that proficient serial killers with high body counts would know,” says Enzo Yaksic, a Boston-based researcher who has studied serial killers for over 15 years. But Christensen does share some traits with convicted serial killers. He targeted a stranger, say prosecutors. Sexual fantasies underpinned his desire to kill and he idolized serial killers in history, especially Ted Bundy. A recent study co-authored by Yaksic noted serial killers often share a fondness for violent fictional characters. Christensen’s favorite novel, prosecutors say, was “American Psycho,” about a young professional who kills at night. A 2015 FBI report on serial killers said 70 percent percent were highly stressed before they began killing. In 2016, Christensen’s marriage was unraveling. The once straight-A student began getting Fs in all his classes and he abandoned his quest for a Ph.D. He also shared a longing for infamy, texting two weeks before Zhang went missing that, “I don’t care how I will be remembered, just that I am.” Choking is also a marker for some serial killers, said Yaksic, because it satisfies their craving for control. Christensen told Bullis he choked Zhang for 10 minutes. “She was stronger than any victim I’ve ever had,” he says, adding that some of his victims “were gone in one punch.” Killers have been known to exaggerate their number of victims, possibly in a bid to become yet more notorious. Before he was executed in 1989, Bundy claimed to have killed 100 women after saying it was 30. The claims often can’t be proven or disproven, so it’s likely no one will ever be able to say with complete certainty Christensen is lying. Prosecutors dangled the possibility Christensen killed before during opening sessions last week. Under most circumstances, mention of previous, unproven crimes would lead to a mistrial. But prosecutors seem to want to illustrate, not that Christensen actually killed others, but that homicidal fantasies motivated his killing of Zhang, whose body was never found. Agent Andrew Huckstadt told jurors this week that the FBI continues to investigate Christensen’s claims. He said that saying they’ve been unable to corroborate them is “not the same as saying it’s completely impossible.” The investigation likely involves checking if Christensen’s DNA matches DNA found at the scenes of unsolved homicides in Illinois and Wisconsin. He grew up in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and got his degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before moving to the Champaign-Urbana area in 2013. Government filings say there’s evidence of at least one previous assault. They say a woman, referred to as “M.D.,” told the FBI after Christensen’s arrest the she met him for a date in 2013. After meeting for coffee, she says he drove her to a cemetery, choked her and sexually assaulted her. Defense lawyers say Christensen was in a drunken stupor when he spoke about other victims and that it isn’t true. They’ve also denied M.D.’s allegations. Actual serial killers, explained Yaksic, demonstrated more patience than Christensen, who only happened upon Zhang and pulled up to her during the day along streets lined with surveillance cameras. Yaksic says he thinks there’s only “a minuscule chance” Christensen killed before, categorizing him as “wannabe serial killer.” “Wannabes,” he said, “are often compelled by a mixture of emotions and hubris … aspects of their personality that lead to their apprehension before they come close to achieving their goals.”

china
u.s .
murder
fbi
illinois
serial killers
ted bundy
brendt christensen
yingying zhang


Three people killed as passenger train slams into standing freight in south Pakistan

Abstract: KARACHI, PAKISTAN - A Pakistani railroad official says a passenger train has collided with a freight train in the southern city of Hyderabad, killing three people and injuring several others. Mohammad Rizwaz, Hyderabad station superintendent, says the exact cause of Thursday’s collision was unclear and authorities were still investigating. The passenger train was traveling to the eastern city of Lahore from the port city of Karachi when it collided with a freight train. According to Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, authorities transported the injured to a hospital. Hyderabad is in southern Sindh province. Train accidents are common in Pakistan, where decades-old tracks are often poorly maintained.


Thousands of protesters try to storm Georgia parliament after Russian's address

Abstract: TBILISI - Thousands of protesters attempted Thursday to storm the Georgian parliament in Tbilisi, furious that a Russian lawmaker addressed the assembly from the speaker’s seat during an international event. Demanding that the parliamentary speaker resign, about 10,000 protesters broke riot police cordons to enter the parliament courtyard, an AFP reporter witnessed. Police pushed them back, but several protesters continued trying to enter the building. Earlier, tens of thousands rallied in central Tbilisi, demanding speaker Irakli Kobakhidze step down after a Russian lawmaker controversially addressed the country’s parliament from the speaker’s seat. Russian Communist lawmaker Sergei Gavrilov was speaking during an annual meeting of the Inter-parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO), a forum of lawmakers from predominantly Orthodox countries. The Russian MP’s presence in fiercely pro-Western Georgia’s parliament prompted outrage in the ex-Soviet nation, which in 2008 fought and lost a brief but bloody war with Moscow over breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. A group of Georgian opposition lawmakers demanded the Russian delegation leave the parliament’s plenary chamber. Many protesters held Georgian and EU flags and placards that read “Russia is an occupier.” “This is a spontaneous protest by ordinary Georgians, it has not been organized by any political party,” an MP from opposition European Georgia party, Giga Bokeria, told AFP at the rally. Georgian oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili — widely believed to be calling the shots in Georgia as the leader of his ruling Georgian Dream party — said in a statement that he “fully shares the sincere outrage of the Georgian citizens. He added that he told the speaker to suspend the session. “It is unacceptable that a representative of the occupier country chairs a forum in the Georgian parliament,” Ivanishvili said.


Oregon governor sends police after GOP senators who fled Capitol to block climate bill vote

Abstract: SALEM, OREGON - Oregon Gov. Kate Brown deployed the state police Thursday to try to round up Republican lawmakers who fled the Capitol to block a vote on a landmark economy-wide climate plan that would be the second of its kind in the nation. Minority Republicans want the cap-and-trade proposal, which is aimed at dramatically lowering the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, to be sent to voters instead of being instituted by lawmakers — but negotiations with Democrats collapsed, leading to the walkout, Kate Gillem, a spokeswoman for Senate Republicans, said Thursday. Brown had warned a day earlier that she was in “close communication with Oregon State Police” and “prepared to use all resources and tools available.” Oregon State Police can force any senators they track down in Oregon into a patrol car to return them to the Capitol. “Send bachelors and come heavily armed,” Sen. Brian Boquist, a Republican from Dallas, said late Wednesday as the prospect of a walkout loomed. “I’m not going to be a political prisoner in the state of Oregon. It’s just that simple.” Boquist, who is reportedly in Idaho, did not respond to emails on Thursday after the Senate president publicly rebuked him for the remarks. Gillem confirmed on Thursday that some members left the state to avoid a vote because state police don’t have jurisdiction outside Oregon. Democrats have an 18 to 12 majority in the chamber, but need 20 members present for a quorum. This is the second time in this legislative session that minority GOP lawmakers have used a high-stakes walkout as a way to slow the process. Democrats have a rare supermajority in the House and Senate, meaning their Republican colleagues don’t have many ways to influence the debate on major policy bills that would affect their constituents. Republicans walked out of the Senate last month to block a school funding tax package. The standoff lasted four days, until the governor struck a deal to table legislation on gun control and vaccine requirements. The tactic is rare, but has been used throughout history, sometimes creating comical scenes. Abraham Lincoln once leaped out of a window in an attempt to deny a quorum when he was a lawmaker in Illinois. In Washington three decades ago, U.S. Sen. Bob Packwood (R-Oregon) was carried feet first into the Senate chamber after Democrats ordered the arrest of Republican senators who were denying a quorum. In 2003, Texas Democrats fled to neighboring Oklahoma to deny a quorum, holing up in a Holiday Inn to block a GOP redistricting bill. The Republican House speaker ordered state troopers to find the Democrats and have them arrested. The Democrats returned to Texas after the bill’s deadline passed and it was effectively killed. On Thursday, Oregon’s Senate president pleaded with Republicans to return. “I beg and beseech my fellow legislators to come to the floor. I need you, the Legislature needs you, the people of Oregon need you to pass budgets to take care of our citizens,” Senate President Peter Courtney said in an emotional plea on the Senate floor. “I cannot do it without you. We cannot do it without you.” The walkout brings all Senate business to a halt with just over a week left in the legislative session. Senators still need to vote on the budget as well as legislation on affordable housing, paid family medical leave and an increased tobacco tax. But the cap-and-trade legislation remains a sticking point. Under the proposed bill, Oregon would put an overall limit on greenhouse gas emissions and auction off pollution “allowances” for each ton of carbon industries plan to emit. The legislation would lower that cap over time to encourage businesses to move away from fossil fuels: The state would reduce emissions to 45 percent below 1990 levels by 2035, and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Those opposed to the cap-and-trade plan say it would exacerbate a growing divide between the liberal, urban parts of the state and the rural areas, which tend to be more conservative. The plan would increase the cost of fuel, damaging small business, truckers and the logging industry, which is already in free-fall due to federal environmental protections, they say. “Protesting cap and trade by walking out today represents our constituency and exactly how we should be doing our job,” said Senate Republican Leader Herman Baertschiger, Jr., of Grants Pass. A small group of loggers gathered to protest outside the Capitol on Thursday. Bridger Hasbrouck, a 32-year-old self-employed logger from Dallas, Oregon, said the bill if passed would be “devastating” to his business because he uses diesel fuel to power all his logging equipment. “There’s a whole lot involved but the biggest thing that’s very crippling is the fact that these bills would impose regulations that would take trucks off the road that people are using to earn their living,” he said. “The American dream of owning a small business, it starts to go away.” Democrats say the measure is an efficient way to lower emissions while investing in low-income and rural communities’ ability to adapt to climate change. It has the support of environmental groups, farmworkers and some trade unions. The proposal also contains a $10 million investment to protect workers adversely affected by climate change policy, as some in transportation or manufacturing sector could face layoffs. The legislation provides unemployment benefits and pathways to clean energy jobs that, under the law, must provide competitive wages and benefits. California has had for a decade an economy-wide cap and trade policy like the one Oregon is considering. Nine northeastern states have more limited cap-and-trade programs that target only the power sector. Brown, a Democrat, said Wednesday she’s willing to extend the legislative session — due to end next week — to keep the bill alive.

u.s .
oregon
republicans
emissions
climate change
kate brown


Then there were two: Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt to fight it out for PM post

Abstract: LONDON - Fervent Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson and foreign minister Jeremy Hunt emerged on Thursday as the only two candidates left in the race to become British prime minister, with the flamboyant Johnson odds-on favorite to win next month. Despite a series of scandals in the past and criticism about his attention to detail, Johnson has dominated the race since Theresa May announced a month ago that she would step down after failing to get her Brexit deal through parliament. About a dozen candidates put their names forward, but In a fifth and final ballot of Conservative lawmakers, which eliminated Environment Secretary Michael Gove, Johnson was again way out in front with 160 out of 313 votes, versus Hunt’s 77. One ballot paper was rejected. Whoever wins will have to find a solution to the Brexit turmoil, Britain’s biggest political crisis in a generation, which eluded May for three years and ultimately led to her downfall. Known for his mop of blonde hair, Johnson, 55, who served as London mayor for eight years, has cast himself as the only candidate who can deliver Brexit on Oct. 31 while fighting off the electoral threats of Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party and socialist Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour. Johnson increased his share of the vote of Conservative lawmakers at each of the ballots: 114 out of 313 votes in the first ballot on June 13, 126 on June 18, 143 on Wednesday, and 157 and 160 on Thursday. Gove was third with 75. Interior minister Sajid Javid was knocked out in the fourth round earlier on Thursday. Betting markets gave Johnson a 92 percent probability of becoming prime minister and Hunt just 7 percent. “I look forward to getting out across the U.K. and to set out my plan to deliver Brexit, unite our country, and create a brighter future for all of us,” Johnson said. Hunt, once an opponent of leaving the European Union who has now promised to exit with a deal, cast himself as the underdog. “In politics surprises happen as they did today,” he said. “I do not doubt the responsibility on my shoulders — to show my party how we deliver Brexit and not an election, but also a turbo-charged economy and a country that walks tall in the world.” Hustings will be held across the country for the roughly 160,000 Conservative Party grassroots members who will decide on who will be their new leader — and Britain’s next prime minister. The result of the postal ballot will be announced in the week of July 22. Johnson has pledged to leave the European Union on Oct. 31 with or without a deal. The EU has said it will not renegotiate the divorce deal that May agreed last year and the British Parliament has indicated it will block a no-deal exit. He has not addressed how he will solve that riddle, while Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said before a meeting of EU leaders on Thursday that the bloc was losing patience with Britain and would not consider another delay to the divorce. “If they choose Boris Johnson, he will have to deal with us on the agreement we have done with Theresa May,” Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said. The rise of Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson — known as simply “Boris” — to pole position for leading the world’s fifth largest economy, is the grandest twist so far in a career that has morphed from journalism via TV-show fame, comedy and scandal into the brinkmanship of Britain’s Brexit crisis. Born in New York, Johnson was educated at Eton, Britain’s most exclusive school, and at Balliol College, Oxford. He began his career at a management consultancy in the City of London but dropped out after a week. He then turned to journalism but was sacked from The Times newspaper for making up quotes. Hired by The Daily Telegraph, Johnson infuriated European officials and delighted then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher by lampooning the European Economic Community establishment with a host of sometimes misleading reports from Brussels. After entering politics, Johnson was sacked from the Conservative Party’s policy team while in opposition for lying about an extra-marital affair. But his charismatic oratory and disarmingly self-deprecating confidence allowed him to survive both gaffes and scandal. He won two terms as London mayor from 2008 to 2016. In 2016, he became one of the most recognizable faces of the Brexit campaign which won the referendum with 52 percent of the votes cast versus 48 percent for staying in. His bid to replace former prime minister David Cameron, who resigned after the referendum, was foiled by Gove who pulled out of his campaign saying Johnson was unsuitable for the job. After May won the premiership, she prompted consternation in European capitals by appointing Johnson foreign minister. He resigned in 2018 over May’s handling of Brexit. Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt, the son of an admiral, was educated at the prestigious fee-paying Charterhouse school before studying philosophy, politics, and economics at Magdalen College, Oxford. After working as an English teacher in Japan, he went on to found an educational publishing firm. He speaks fluent Japanese and has a Chinese wife. After Johnson resigned as foreign secretary, Hunt, while on a visit to China, accidentally referred to his wife as Japanese. He supported remaining in the EU in the 2016 referendum but has since promised to lead Britain out of the bloc. Hunt says that while he would prefer to leave the EU with a deal, he believes a no-deal exit is better than no Brexit. He was the most senior figure vying to succeed May to reject a threat to leave with no deal by the end of October, saying lawmakers would block any such move. “Any prime minister who promised to leave the EU by a specific date — without the time to renegotiate and pass a new deal — would, in effect, be committing to a general election the moment parliament tried to stop it,” he said. “And trying to deliver no deal through a general election is not a solution; it is political suicide. “A different deal is, therefore, the only solution. … That means negotiations that take us out of the customs union while generously respecting legitimate concerns about the Irish border.”

u.k .
conservatives
boris johnson
brexit
jeremy hunt


Roy Moore vows to run for U.S. Senate again in 2020, even though Trump tweets he 'cannot win'

Abstract: MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA - Alabama Republican Roy Moore announced Thursday that he is running for U.S. Senate again in 2020 after failing to win the seat two years ago amid sexual misconduct accusations. With his return to the political stage, Moore faces a crowded GOP primary field as he aims for an eventual rematch against Democratic Sen. Doug Jones, who bested him in the 2017 special election to fill the seat previously held by Jeff Sessions. “I believe in America. I believe we’ve got to have politicians that go to Washington and do what they say,” Moore said during his announcement. Some state and national Republicans, worried that Moore’s too polarizing and could jeopardize what should otherwise be a reliable GOP seat, have discouraged him from entering the race. Republicans see retaking the Alabama seat as a top priority in 2020. “He can do what he wants to, but we’re certainly going to oppose him in every way,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, said in a brief interview with The Associated Press before Moore’s announcement. President Donald Trump tweeted last month that Moore “cannot win” and said Republicans need to retake the seat in the once reliably red state. “Republicans cannot allow themselves to again lose the Senate seat in the Great State of Alabama,” Trump wrote in a tweet. “I have NOTHING against Roy Moore,” Trump wrote, but warned that “Roy Moore cannot win.” Moore brushed aside that criticism Thursday: “Can I win? Yes I can win.” He says establishment Republicans don’t want him in the Senate. During the 2017 race, six women accused Moore of pursuing romantic or sexual relationships with them when they were teenagers as young as 14 and he was an assistant district attorney in his 30s. Two accused him of assault or molestation. Moore denied the accusations and has said he considered his 2017 defeat, when he lost to Jones by 22,000 votes out of 1.3 million cast, “a fraud.” A crowded GOP primary field is competing to challenge Jones. U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne, former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville and legislator Arnold Mooney have already announced bids. Moore retains a strong following among some evangelical voters in the state. He was twice elected as the state’s chief justice but was twice stripped of those duties after a judicial ethics panel said he defied, or urged defiance of, federal court orders regarding same-sex marriage and the public display of the Ten Commandments.

congress
republicans
alabama
mitch mcconnell
donald trump
roy moore
doug jones
2020 u.s. election


Defying Trump, U.S. Senate votes to block Saudi arms sales

Abstract: WASHINGTON - The Republican-led Senate voted Thursday to block $8.1 billion in U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other Arab allies, as legislators outraged with the kingdom delivered a symbolic rebuke to President Donald Trump. Some seven Republicans joined Democrats in supporting each of three resolutions that would prevent the controversial sales announced earlier this year by Trump. The measures would block 22 separate sales of aircraft support maintenance, precision-guided munitions and other weapons to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan at a moment of heightened tensions in the Middle East. The votes were only assured this week when Republican leadership agreed to hold the sensitive roll calls on the arms sales that critics say will aggravate the devastating war in Yemen. Trump’s administration took the extraordinary step of bypassing Congress to approve the sale in May, as his administration declared Iran to be a “fundamental threat” to the stability of the Middle East. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had said the administration was responding to an emergency caused by Saudi Arabia’s historic rival Iran, which backs the Houthi rebels in Yemen. Senators, including some Republicans, said there were no legitimate grounds to circumvent Congress, which has the right to disapprove arms sales. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Trump loyalist on several other fronts, offered a full-throated rebuke of the arm sales — and of the Saudi leadership. Graham said he hoped his vote would “send a signal to Saudi Arabia that if you act the way you’re acting, there is no space for a strategic relationship.” The senator was referring to last year’s brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey at the hands of Saudi agents, an incident that triggered a full-blown crisis in Riyadh’s relations with the West. “There is no amount of oil that you can produce that will get me and others to give you a pass on chopping somebody up in a consulate,” Graham said, adding that there is also “no amount of threat coming from Iran that’s going to require me to give a pass to this brutal barbaric behavior.” The measures would still need to pass the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives before they go to the president’s desk. Trump is expected to veto them, and it will remain an uphill climb for Congress to come up with a two-thirds vote to overcome a veto.

u.s .
congress
yemen
saudi arabia
weapons
donald trump
lindsay graham
jamal khashoggi


Remaining signatories to Iran nuclear deal to hold crisis talks in Vienna

Abstract: BRUSSELS - The remaining signatories to the Iran nuclear deal will hold crisis talks in Vienna next week to discuss how to save the accord despite the withdrawal of the U.S., the EU said Thursday. Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and Iran will meet on June 28 as tensions in the Persian Gulf soar after attacks on tankers and the shooting down of a U.S. drone. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Thursday it brought down an unmanned surveillance aircraft, prompting U.S. President Donald Trump to warn it had made a “big mistake.” The European Union announced the emergency convening of the multicountry commission that oversees the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the bloc’s 28 leaders met for a summit in Brussels. “The meeting has been called with the intention of ensuring the continued implementation of the JCPOA in all its aspects and discuss ways to tackle challenges arising from the withdrawal and re-imposition of sanctions by the United States on Iran, as well as recent announcements by Iran regarding the implementation of its nuclear commitments,” the bloc said in a statement. On Monday Tehran started a 10-day countdown to surpass a stockpile limit on enriched uranium set by the deal, saying it would exceed the 300-kg restriction by Thursday. The Islamic republic said it would only pull back from the threat if other parties to the nuclear deal “live up to their commitments.” Tensions between Tehran and Washington have escalated since Trump pulled out of the accord last year. The United States has since bolstered its military presence in the region to head off a perceived threat and blacklisted Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization. The crisis in the Persian Gulf reached new heights on Thursday with the downing of the U.S. drone, which Tehran says infringed its airspace but which the Pentagon insists was in international skies.

conflict
gas
military
oil
nuclear weapons
iran
nuclear energy
shipping
iran nuclear deal
hormuz tanker attack


At least 30 dead as bus plunges off Indian mountain road

Abstract: MUMBAI - At least 30 people were killed and 37 injured when a bus plunged off a road in India’s hilly northern state of Himachal Pradesh on Thursday, a government official said. “About 60 to 65 people were on board the bus,” said Akshay Sood, a senior civil servant in Kullu district, where the accident took place. “Relief and rescue are still going on, and the number (of dead) may rise.” Indian roads are among the world’s deadliest, with nearly 148,000 people killed in more than 460,000 accidents in 2017, according to government data. Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his dismay over the accident. “Deeply saddened by the bus accident in Kullu. Condolences to the families of those who lost their lives. I hope the injured recover soon,” Modi’s office said in a tweet.


Iran downs U.S. surveillance drone, drawing warning then down-playing from Trump

Abstract: TEHRAN - Iran’s Revolutionary Guard shot down a U.S. surveillance drone Thursday in the Strait of Hormuz, marking the first time the Islamic Republic directly attacked the American military amid tensions over Tehran’s unraveling nuclear deal with world powers. The two countries disputed the circumstances leading up to an Iranian surface-to-air missile bringing down the U.S. Navy RQ-4A Global Hawk, an unmanned aircraft with a wingspan larger than a Boeing 737 jetliner and costing over $100 million. Iran said the drone “violated” its territorial airspace, while the U.S. called the missile fire “an unprovoked attack” in international airspace over the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf and President Donald Trump tweeted that “Iran made a very big mistake!” Trump later appeared to play down the incident, telling reporters in the Oval Office that he had a feeling that “a general or somebody” being “loose and stupid” made a mistake in shooting down the drone. The incident immediately heightened the crisis already gripping the wider region, which is rooted in Trump withdrawing the U.S. a year ago from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal and imposing crippling new sanctions on Tehran. Recently, Iran quadrupled its production of low-enriched uranium to be on pace to break one of the deal’s terms by next week while threatening to raise enrichment closer to weapons-grade levels on July 7 if Europe doesn’t offer it a new deal. Citing unspecified Iranian threats, the U.S. has sent an aircraft carrier to the Middle East and deployed additional troops alongside the tens of thousands already there. All this has raised fears that a miscalculation or further rise in tensions could push the U.S. and Iran into an open conflict 40 years after Tehran’s Islamic Revolution. “We do not have any intention for war with any country, but we are fully ready for war,” Revolutionary Guard commander Gen. Hossein Salami said in a televised address. The paramilitary Guard, which answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said it shot down the drone at 4:05 a.m. Thursday when it entered Iranian airspace near the Kouhmobarak district in southern Iran’s Hormozgan province. Kouhmobarak is about 1,200 km (750 miles) southeast of Tehran. The drone took off from the southern Persian Gulf and collected data from Iranian territory, including the southern port of Chahbahar near Iran’s border with Pakistan, the Guard said in comments that appeared aimed at showing it could track the aircraft. The U.S. military has not commented on the mission of the remotely piloted aircraft that can fly higher than 10 miles in altitude and stay in the air for over 24 hours at a time. Iran used its air defense system known as Third of Khordad to shoot down the drone — a truck-based missile system that can fire up to 18 miles (30 km) into the sky, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. Typically, militaries worldwide call out to errant aircraft entering their airspace before firing. It’s unclear whether Iran gave any warning to the U.S. drone before opening fire. The U.S. military says Iran fired on and missed another drone last week near the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20 percent of all global oil moves. The U.S. has been worried about international shipping through the strategic waterway since tankers were damaged in May and June in what Washington has blamed on limpet mines from Iran, although Tehran denies any involvement. On Wednesday in the UAE, the U.S. Navy showed fragments of mines that it said bore “a striking resemblance” to those seen in Iran The RQ-4 Global Hawk was at least 34 km from Iranian territory when it was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile, said Air Force Lt. Gen. Joseph Guastella, commander of the U.S. Central Command. He said it was an attempt to disrupt U.S. efforts to monitor the Persian Gulf region. But Salami, speaking to a crowd in the western city of Sanandaj, described the American drone as “violating our national security border.” “Borders are our red line,” the Revolutionary Guard general said. “Any enemy that violates the borders will be annihilated.” Iran’s Foreign Ministry also said the drone entered Iranian territory, and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that it would take its case to the United Nations. Russian President Vladimir Putin urged caution, warning any war between Iran and the U.S. would be a “catastrophe for the region as a minimum.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealed to “all peace-loving countries” to support U.S. efforts to halt what he called escalating Iranian provocations. “In the last 24 hours, Iran has intensified its aggression against the United States and against all of us,” he said, adding that “Israel stands by the United States and its military.” America stations some RQ-4 Global Hawks at the Al-Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates, near the capital, Abu Dhabi. Associated Press journalists saw the drones on the base’s tarmac during a March 2016 visit by then-Vice President Joe Biden. The U.S. military occasionally publishes images from there of the drones, which have a distinguishable hump-shaped front and an engine atop. Iran has claimed to have shot down U.S. drones before. In the most famous incident, in December 2011, Iran seized an RQ-170 Sentinel flown by the CIA to monitor Iranian nuclear sites after it entered Iranian airspace from neighboring Afghanistan. The Iranians later reverse-engineered the drone to create their own variants. Elsewhere in the region on Thursday, Saudi Arabia said Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels fired a rocket at a desalination plant in al-Shuqaiq, a city in the kingdom’s Jizan province. The state-run Saudi Press Agency quoted military spokesman Col. Turki al-Maliki as saying it caused no damage or casualties. The Yemeni rebel Al-Masirah satellite news channel earlier said the Houthis targeted a power plant in Jizan, near the kingdom’s border with Yemen, with a cruise missile. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Trump had been “briefed on the reports of a missile strike in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia” and other regional issues Wednesday and Thursday. A coalition led by Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally, has been battling the Houthis since March 2015 in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest nation now pushed to the brink of famine by the conflict. In recent weeks, the Houthis have launched a new campaign sending missiles and bomb-laden drones into Saudi Arabia.

u.s .
drones
iran
global hawk
uae
donald trump
republican guard
gulf of oman


Children and rescuers among 20 civilians reported killed by Syria regime fire despite truce

Abstract: MAARET AL-NUMAN, SYRIA - Regime bombardment killed 20 civilians including eight children and three rescue workers in jihadist-run northwest Syria Thursday, as fighting killed dozens on the edges of the anti-government bastion. The Idlib region, home to some 3 million people, is supposed to be protected by a months-old international truce deal, but it has come under increased bombardment by the regime and its Russian ally since late April. The United Nations has warned that the spike in violence could spark one of the worst humanitarian disasters in Syria’s grinding eight-year conflict. A regime airstrike targeted an ambulance in the town of Maaret al-Numan, killing three rescue workers inside, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. An AFP photographer saw a destroyed ambulance and rescuers carrying a survivor from the vehicle with his arm in shreds. Syrian charity Benefsej, which owned the ambulance, said three of its workers had been killed. “It was a direct targeting of the ambulance,” said charity member Fouad Issa. A woman also died in the ambulance while she was being transported for treatment, he added. In a statement posted on social media networks, the charity described the attack as a “violation of international humanitarian law. “Ensuring the protection of humanitarian and health facilities via the international community is a necessity for us to continue our work.” Russia and rebel backer Turkey brokered an agreement in September seeking to stave off an all-out regime assault on Idlib, but the deal was never fully implemented as jihadis refused to withdraw from the planned buffer zone. The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, led by ex-members of al-Qaida’s former Syria affiliate, extended its control over the region, which spans most of Idlib province as well as slivers of the adjacent provinces of Latakia, Hama and Aleppo. The Syrian government and Russia have upped their bombardment of the region since late April, killing more than 440 civilians, the Britain-based Observatory said. The United Nations says more than 23 hospitals and one ambulance have been hit in the Idlib region since late April. Some 330,000 people have been forced to flee their homes, it says. U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock on Tuesday warned the world is facing “a humanitarian disaster unfolding before our eyes. The same day U.N. chief Antonio Guterres called on Russia and Turkey to “stabilize the situation,” warning “civilians are paying a horrific price.” Fighting raged Thursday in the north of Hama province, leaving at least 27 anti-regime fighters and 31 loyalists dead in the clashes around Tal Meleh village, the Observatory said. More than 90 fighters were killed in the same area over the two previous days, said the war monitor. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem on Wednesday pledged a full return of regime control to Idlib in the latest such warning from the Damascus government. “Idlib is a Syrian province and the operations the Syrian army is conducting are on Syrian soil and a legitimate right towards liberating the land,” he told the Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen television channel. Analysts have, however, said they did not expect a full-out offensive to retake the region on Turkey’s doorstep for now. Syria expert Sam Heller said the regime and Russia were seeking to secure neighboring loyalist areas and a key Russian military airbase to the west of Idlib, as well as exert pressure on Turkey to implement the September buffer zone deal. “Damascus is still evidently intent on taking the whole of Idlib, and all Syrian territory nationwide,” the International Crisis Group analyst said. “But it’s Russia that’s enabled this latest military push, seemingly with more limited aims.” On Thursday, President Bashar Assad met the Kremlin’s Syria envoy, Alexander Lavrentiev, and Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin in Damascus, state news agency SANA reported. They discussed developments in Syria, including efforts to eradicate “terrorism,” SANA said, using the regime’s term for rebels and jihadists. Syria’s war has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions at home and abroad since it started in 2011 with the repression of anti-government protests.

conflict
russia
syria
bashar assad
idlib


Sex tapes apparently showing Mahathir aide with another man cloud PM's succession plan

Abstract: KUALA LUMPUR - Leaked sex videos purporting to show a potential successor to Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad with another man have deepened rifts within the ruling coalition and raised concerns of a turbulent transition from the 93-year-old leader. The sex tapes, which are allegedly of Economic Affairs Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali, were widely distributed to journalists and politicians via WhatsApp last week. Sodomy is a crime in Malaysia; in the past, Anwar Ibrahim, whom Mahathir has named as his successor, spent about a decade in prison under the law. Azmin, who is said to be close to Mahathir, denied he was in the videos, saying they were a “nefarious plot” to end his political career. In a video posted on his Facebook page last week, Muhammad Haziq Abdul Aziz, an aide at the time to a deputy minister in Azmin’s party, claimed he was one of the men in the video and the other was Azmin. Haziq was arrested last week and later released on police bail. He has been sacked from his post and Reuters was unable to contact him directly. The episode has sharpened focus on whether Mahathir will stick to a promise before last year’s general election to hand over power to Anwar, and the potential for political instability in Malaysia. The uncertainty threatens to disrupt already stuttering efforts to revive a struggling economy, including Mahathir’s pre-election promise to cut mounting government debt, a key benchmark of reform success for investors and ratings agencies. Azmin, as minister of economic affairs, is a central figure in stabilizing public finances. A close aide to Mahathir said the veteran leader, who is often referred to by the honorific “Tun,” would stick to the pre-election agreement unless it was taken out of his hands by a shift in consensus within the Pakatan Harapan alliance. “Tun is prepared to fulfill his promise,” the aide said, asking not to be named due the sensitivity of the matter. “Of course, if Pakatan Harapan, or the people, want someone else, then that’s different.” Mahathir dismissed the sex videos as “fake” last week, angering Anwar’s camp, who felt he should wait until the police had investigated, people close to Anwar said. Mahathir’s office did not respond to queries on whether he has been priming Azmin as a potential successor and on the rising tensions in the coalition. Six senior sources within the ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition said that Azmin, a 54-year-old father of six, has been targeted because he is seen as a rival to Anwar. On Tuesday, Azmin said he was convinced the videos were the work of insiders in the Parti Keadilan Rakyat party, the biggest component of the Pakatan alliance. Anwar and Azmin are the president and deputy president in PKR. Azmin’s office declined to comment further. Anwar has said it was “slander” to suggest he had anything to do with the leaked footage. His office declined to comment further. Anwar was fired as Mahathir’s deputy prime minister in 1998 before he was slapped with sodomy and corruption charges, souring their relationship until they formed an unlikely alliance ahead of a shock victory in last year’s election. “The increasingly dirty battle to succeed Mahathir will exacerbate tensions within the ruling coalition, making it harder for the government to reduce the fiscal deficit and boost economic growth,” said Peter Mumford, analyst at Eurasia Group. “The jockeying for power encourages politically motivated spending rather than cost-cutting.” Mahathir has fueled suspicion by shifting the timeline for his departure from the initially set two years. Most recently, he has said he will serve as premier for two to three years. “The infighting and the attacks against Azmin could potentially strengthen the case for Mahathir to delay the transition or serve out a full government term,” said Adib Zalkalpi, director at political risk consultancy Bower Group Asia. Mahathir, a shrewd operator who has often taken allies and opponents by surprise in a political career spanning 70 years, has been actively nurturing Azmin, who was until recently one of Anwar’s closest aides. Azmin, a soft-spoken technocrat, was handed a powerful new ministry and oversight over some state-owned companies that are at the core of Mahathir’s economic reform program. “Clearly Mahathir has taken steps to actively empower Azmin and to almost divide and conquer,” said Eurasia’s Mumford. Anwar, a rousing public speaker who once led thousands in rallies against Mahathir, has been preparing to rule for over 20 years and members of his faction within the PKR say they are determined to ensure he becomes prime minister. They fear a possible flip-flop by Mahathir and are garnering support from sections in the coalition to push the prime minister to announce that he will stand aside in May next year, three people familiar with the matter said. Many in PKR acknowledged Azmin as a future prime ministerial candidate, but one lawmaker close to Anwar said he was being “unscrupulously ambitious.”

anwar ibrahim
malaysia
sex
lgbt
scandals
sexuality
mahathir mohamad
mohamed azmin ali


Chinese crackdown on foreign names for places and businesses draws social media backlash

Abstract: BEIJING - The Manhattan neighborhood, Venice Garden, the Vienna hotel chain — to the ears of the Chinese government, the names are too foreign-sounding and must go. Provinces and cities across China have been issuing notices pressuring both private and public officials to rename businesses, bridges and neighborhoods, reflecting renewed efforts by President Xi Jinping’s government to “Sinicize” China. The move came to light after Vienna Hotels, which according to its website operates 2,500 properties in China, fought back on social media this week, and other users jumped in to ridicule the move. China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs confirmed Friday that the campaign is underway but said some local governments are not implementing the new rule accurately. It maintained that foreign names have an ugly social influence. The post on the ministry’s website added that along with foreign names, names that are “weird, repetitive or self-aggrandizing” should also be changed. Local governments, from Inner Mongolia in the north to Hainan island off the southern coast, have been sending out instructions urging the change. Last week, the Civil Affairs Department in Hainan posted on its official website a list of 84 names of hotels, neighborhoods, movie theaters, roads and bridges in 10 cities, three counties and one economic development zone. It said the names need to be cleaned up for several reasons, most of which had to do with “worshipping of and having blind faith in foreign things.” Fifteen of the 84 names are hotels run by the Vienna Hotel Group. Vienna Hotels said it had complained to the Hainan Civil Affairs Department and was awaiting a response. Its brand is registered with the national trademark bureau from 2012 to 2022, the post said. Comments on Chinese social media generally poured scorn on the campaign, with users comparing it to North Korea. “This is improper, they did too much, it violates the rights of having a name freely,” said Chen Xiaoyang, a project operator at a technology company based in Beijing. An April notice from the Ministry of Civil Affairs and five other ministries said the names of places should “serve national sovereign rights” first. “If the hotels and neighborhoods have foreign names, they may not sound patriotic in the eyes of the authority, which likes to keep everything under control,” said Zhang Lijia, a writer and commentator. International hotel chains such as Hilton, Sheraton and Intercontinental and other foreign companies are exempted. You Yunting, an intellectual property lawyer in Shanghai, said the hotel names are trademarks that have been registered. The name-correction campaign “is trampling the law,” he said. “It cannot be decided by personal preference.”


Green-tech megacity taking shape in China

Abstract: HONG KONG - Entrepreneur Tony Verb is on a mission to promote technology that can help make cities greener and smarter in China’s Greater Bay Area, now being shaped as a low-carbon megalopolis. Hong Kong-based Verb, co-founder of the investment firm GreaterBay Ventures & Advisors, plans to back urban tech businesses working on autonomous e-vehicles, flying taxis, artificial intelligence, robotics and clean energy. Verb is betting on China’s master plan to develop the Pearl River Delta into a sustainable innovation hub, which he believes will serve as “a great case study” for the world’s cities. In February, Beijing announced it would foster links between nine cities in Guangdong province and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao to forge the world’s biggest urban area, with 70 million people. Under the Greater Bay Area (GBA) plan, each city has a different role, but the blueprint is centered on developing the delta in a high-tech way that also preserves its ecology. The strategy comes as China exits an era of breakneck growth when planning and finance for infrastructure were overlooked, said Witman Hung, Hong Kong deputy to China’s 13th National People’s Congress. Travel Sentry founder John Vermilye remembered visiting factories in the delta in 2003, and seeing plastic pellets flowing into sewage drains and workers in flip-flops carrying pots of molten zinc from the furnace to molding machines. “Sixteen years ago, we were telling businesses how to be sustainable and what changes they needed to make — but now they’re getting this from the government directly,” said Vermilye, whose firm develops luggage security standards. Marred by smog, dirty soil and contaminated water, China — the world’s biggest energy user and greenhouse-gas emitter — decided development had to respect and protect its environment. Leaders introduced “ecological civilization” as a constitutional goal in 2012, said Christine Loh, chief development strategist at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). In 2014, Beijing declared war on pollution, introducing environmental laws and inspectors who swept through businesses. It then launched “Made in China 2025,” cementing a move away from being the world’s factory floor to innovation-led growth. While Hong Kongers may be divided about closer political and legal ties with the mainland, the GBA is already an economic powerhouse attracting many startups. Its GDP is $1.6 trillion, similar to the Tokyo Bay area, and leaders want it to rival Silicon Valley. Shenzhen is home to tech heavyweights like Tencent and Huawei. It is also one of China’s three sustainable development zones, tasked with serving as a technology test bed for green solutions in sectors like waste and environmental restoration. The coastal megacity of 12.5 million helps the bay lead the way in electric vehicles and low-carbon transit. “All over the delta, you are seeing the gradual rollout of e-buses, e-vans and e-taxis,” said Loh. That came after Beijing started giving subsidies for electric transport, buoying home-grown e-vehicle-maker BYD. Shenzhen now has 16,000 e-buses plying its streets, a world first, and by the end of 2018, it also had 20,000 e-taxis, the Xinhua News Agency reported. Meanwhile, electric trains whiz around the delta. Hong Kong’s MTR alone moves 5.76 million passengers each weekday in a city of 7.4 million. This year authorities linked up Hong Kong to the mainland’s express rail link, slashing commuting times. With Beijing’s target to cut energy consumed per GDP unit by 3 percent this year, bay officials are also pushing green construction and the use of data and technology, Hung said. “Every time there’s a new building, every time a power plant is being built or modified, you have to meet such rules,” he added. Siu Hung Chan, managing director of power company CLP’s China business, said data analytics and machine-learning are fostering smart cities in the delta. Shenzhen uses street cameras and apps to direct drivers to parking lots and uncongested roads, while Cisco is building a “model smart city” in Guangzhou’s Panyu district. Still, the bay’s history as the world’s workshop and site of three of its 10 busiest ports means the challenge is big. “While the industries are gone, the rivers are still there and the pollution is still there,” said Hung. The GBA sits in the Indo-Burma hot spot, one of the world’s most biodiverse areas, but also one of its most threatened. When Shenzhen’s mayor took office in 2017, his first priority was taking care of the black, smelly water, Hung said. Now there is a “river chief system” led by the mayor, who is personally in charge of several rivers, while almost 100 officials have been assigned to look after others. “It becomes their personal responsibility to make sure the river becomes clean again,” said Hung. With the delta spanning three administrative areas, there have been cross-border efforts to clean up the air, but it often falls short of World Health Organization standards. Another part of the GBA plan is to protect wetlands, forests, coastlines and marine ecosystems. A group of Hong Kongers, led by local foundation AquaMeridian and the Canadian International School, have nominated the city’s southern waters to be protected under a conservation campaign run by the nonprofit Mission Blue. As the planet warms, many studies deem the region at high risk of floods and landslides, but there are also opportunities to plan better for those threats, said Loh of HKUST. With the population seen growing to 100 million by 2030, according to Savills, the delta is testing “sponge cities” where landscapes and underground tanks absorb and store rainwater. Weather chiefs from the three administrations are also exploring how AI and data can improve forecasts, while AI is being used to predict landslides. HKUST, meanwhile, uses drones to sniff emissions from ships to see if they have switched to cleaner fuel. Loh is hopeful of a greener future for the GBA, noting the low-carbon development plan enjoys top-level political support, with Hong Kong playing a key role in financing green projects. “China is speed-fighting pollution,” she said.

china
hong kong
recycling
development
environment
conservation
cities
greater bay area


Former top Filipino diplomat Albert del Rosario, a Xi critic, blocked from entering Hong Kong

Abstract: MANILA - A former Philippine foreign secretary who accused Chinese President Xi Jinping of crimes against humanity in court said Friday he was barred from immediately entering Hong Kong and held at the airport for unclear reasons. Former Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario told The Associated Press by telephone that he flew to Hong Kong on Friday for a business meeting but was blocked by immigration officers from entering. He said he was later brought and held in a small airport immigration lounge. Immigration personnel told him an unspecified “case” they could not specify was the reason why he was not allowed to enter the territory immediately. At the time he talked with The AP by cellphone, he said he has already been held for two hours. “I keep reminding them that I’m traveling on a diplomatic passport and according to the Vienna Convention, they have no right to hold me,” del Rosario said, referring to the international treaty that specifies the privileges of diplomats to carry out their work without fear of coercion by a host country. Del Rosario said he was told he would be moved to another airport area shortly to have a discussion with an immigration official. Last May, former Philippine Supreme Court Justice and top anti-graft prosecutor Conchita Carpio-Morales said she was also barred for about four hours from entering Hong Kong for a vacation with her family and ordered to take a flight back to Manila. Hong Kong airport and immigration officials later told her “there was a mistake” and that she could proceed with her trip to Hong Kong, but she and her family had already decided to return home because of the incident, she said at the time. Del Rosario and Carpio-Morales took the bold step of filing a complaint before the International Criminal Court against Xi and other Chinese officials over Beijing’s assertive actions in the disputed South China Sea, which they say deprived thousands of fishermen of their livelihoods and destroyed the environment. They accused Xi and other Chinese officials of turning seven disputed reefs into man-made islands, causing extensive environmental damage, and of blocking large numbers of fishermen, including about 320,000 Filipinos, from their fishing grounds. Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua to Manila then called the complaint a “fabrication.” Chinese officials also raised their concern over the complaint in a meeting with Philippine officials in Manila in April, saying the case is “affecting the prestige of our leader,” a Philippine official told the AP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly. When del Rosario was Philippine foreign secretary, he also spearheaded the filing of an arbitration case to challenge the legal basis of China’s sweeping territorial claims in the South China Sea on historical grounds. The Philippine move was sparked by a standoff between Filipino and Chinese ships in 2013 in the disputed Scarborough Shoal, which Beijing later effectively seized. An international arbitration panel invalidated China’s territorial claims in a 2016 ruling and upheld the Philippines’ right to exploit marine resources, including potential undersea oil and gas deposits, in its exclusive economic zone, a stretch of coastal waters. China has ignored and defied the arbitration decision. The legal offensive against China contrasted with President Rodrigo Duterte’s rapprochement with Beijing since he took office in mid-2016 while often criticizing the security policies of the United States, a treaty ally. Del Rosario has said that he and Carpio-Morales filed the complaint against Xi and other Chinese officials “to be able to push back against the bullying and harassment that we have been encountering from our goliath of a neighbor.”

china
hong kong
philippines
rights
xi jinping
albert del rosario


China's Xi presses economic theme in Pyongyang speech

Abstract: BEIJING - Chinese President Xi Jinping offered encouragement for North Korea’s new focus on economic development in a speech in Pyongyang, turning to a topic Beijing has long pressed with its communist neighbor, amid wider concerns over the North’s nuclear weapons program. In an address at a banquet Thursday night, Xi noted that the nation under leader Kim Jong Un had “initiated a new strategic line of economic development and improving people’s livelihoods, raising socialist construction in the country to a new high tide,” according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency. The North’s long-moribund economy has shown some recent improvements, but it remains heavily dependent on aid — mainly from China — and food security is a constant concern. China has agreed to U.N. economic sanctions over the North’s nuclear and missile programs but is wary of any measures that could push its economy toward collapse, potentially unleashing instability and chaos on its border. Xi’s speech also touched on the nuclear issue, saying all sides agreed to “stick to peace talks so as to make even greater contributions to peace, stability and prosperity in the region and the wider world,” Xinhua said. The North’s state media said Friday Xi and Kim held broad discussions over the political situation surrounding the Korean Peninsula and called for stronger bilateral ties in the face of “serious and complicated changes” in the region. The Korean Central News Agency said the leaders reached “shared understanding” on the issues they discussed. The report did not give any specifics on the stalled nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang over disagreements in exchanging sanctions relief and disarmament. “The supreme leaders …. broadly exchanged their opinions on the political situation of the Korean Peninsula and other serious international and regional issues,” the KCNA said. They assessed that deepening their relationship was in line with the “mutual interest of the two countries in face of serious and complicated changes in the environment and would be favorable for the region’s peace, stability and development.” Chinese state media earlier reported that Kim told Xi he is waiting for a desired response from Washington and the U.S. should meet North Korea halfway to “explore resolution plans that accommodate each other’s reasonable concerns.” Xi said his government is willing to play a constructive role in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. “The international community expects the U.S. and North Korea to continue to talk and achieve results,” he said, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. Xi and Kim attended a dinner reception and a mass games performance later Thursday. On Friday, Xi concludes the first visit to North Korea by a Chinese president in 14 years, and his first since taking office six years ago. Xi is expected to meet with President Donald Trump next week in Japan and could pass him a message from Kim about the nuclear negotiations. His two-day state visit to North Korea, announced just three days ago, began with the synchronized pomp of all major events in the country. About 10,000 cheering people and a 21-gun salute greeted Xi and senior Chinese officials at an arrival ceremony at Pyongyang’s airport. The CCTV evening news showed Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, waving to the crowd after emerging from their Air China plane, then being greeted by Kim and his wife, Ri Sol Ju, before receiving flowers and watching goose-stepping troops march by. The crowd stood in tight formations, waving flowers and chanting slogans to welcome Xi. Other people lined the roads and cheered from overpasses as Xi’s motorcade traveled to central Pyongyang, where he joined Kim in an open-top vehicle. They waved to crowds as they rode to the square where the embalmed bodies of Kim’s grandfather and father, the first two leaders of North Korea, lie in state. Following the banquet, the leaders and their wives attended a mass performance of music, dance and calisthenics at a packed 110,000-seat Rungrado 1st of May Stadium. The spectacle featured gymnasts, dancers and flip card-holding spectators performing in precise unison — at one point producing a huge image of a waving China’s flag in the stands, then flipping their cards to show the North Korean one. Xi and Kim waved to cheering crowds during the performance, dubbed “Invincible Socialism,” according to KCNA. Performing groups sang Chinese favorites and put on what KCNA termed “the peculiar display of Chinese folk dances.” The show ended with red fireworks over the May Day Stadium. Nuclear talks between the U.S. and North Korea broke down after the failed summit between Kim and Trump in February in Vietnam. The U.S. is demanding that North Korea abandon its nuclear weapons entirely before international sanctions are lifted. North Korea is seeking a step-by-step approach in which moves toward denuclearization are matched by concessions from the U.S., notably a relaxation of the sanctions. “Over more than a year, the North Korean side has taken many positive measures to avoid escalation of the situation and manage and control the peninsular situation, but it hasn’t received an active response from the relevant party,” Kim told Xi on Thursday, according to CCTV. Xi was expected to endorse North Korea’s calls for an incremental disarmament process. China is also pushing for a resumption of six-nation disarmament talks it had hosted but which broke down a decade ago.

china
north korea
kim jong un
nuclear weapons
south korea
xi jinping
north korea nuclear crisis


Millions of pigs culled as swine fever spreads in Asia, in what may be worst animal disease outbreak ever

Abstract: HANOI - Millions of pigs have been culled in China and Vietnam as a U.N. food agency urges Asian governments to make containing virulent African swine fever their top priority. With an announcement by the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization that infections have spread to Laos, some experts are saying it is the largest animal disease outbreak in history. The FAO said in a report late Thursday that more than 3.7 million pigs in the region had been culled since the outbreak began in China last August. Vietnam has been hit the hardest, culling at least 2.6 million pigs, followed by China, which reported more than 1.1 million. All the figures were provided to the FAO by governments of countries affected by the epidemic. Smaller outbreaks have been reported in Hong Kong, Taiwan, North Korea, Cambodia and Mongolia after cases were first reported in China’s northeast in August. African swine fever is harmless to people but fatal and highly contagious for pigs, with no known cure. With pork supplies dwindling as leading producer China and hard-hit Vietnam destroy huge numbers of hogs and tighten controls on shipments, prices have soared by up to 40 percent globally and caused shortages in other markets. “This is the largest animal disease outbreak in history,” said Dirk Pfieffer, a veterinary epidemiologist at the City University of Hong Kong. “We’ve never had anything like it.” In South Korea, where diets rely heavily on pork, there is concern that an outbreak could hurt an industry with 6,300 farms raising more than 11 million pigs. “Animal disease containment in its broadest sense should be prioritized within the highest levels of governments,” the FAO said, warning, “Outbreak control strategies must be in place.” China has reported 139 outbreaks in all but two of its 34 provinces. The U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts its total hog herd will shrink by 18 percent this year to 350 million animals, the lowest since the 1980s. This year’s Chinese pork output might fall by up to 35 percent, according to Rabobank, a Dutch bank. Vietnam reported in mid-May that 1.2 million pigs — about 5 percent of its total 30 million, an industry worth $18 billion — had died or been destroyed. FAO said Thursday that number had more than doubled to 2.6 million. Military and police were mobilized to help contain the outbreak, officials said. Rabobank expects Vietnamese pork production to fall 10 percent this year from 2018. The mass culling in Vietnam could sink many farmers deeper into poverty, said Wantanee Kalpravidh, a regional coordinator of the FAO’s Emergency Center for Transboundary Animal Disease. Last month, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc urged authorities to prevent the disease, found in 58 of 63 provinces, from escalating into an epidemic. In My Duc, a suburb of Hanoi, disinfecting lime powder has been scattered around empty pig farms and checkpoints were set up to control shipments. “We have to prevent and fight this disease like fighting an enemy,” Phuc told Cabinet officials. Farmer Nguyen Van Hoa lamented that only three pigs had died from the fever but authorities culled 40 of his pigs. They were among 14,000 hogs buried in My Duc district in the past month. About 2.4 million Vietnamese households engage in small-scale pig farming. In Cambodia, more than 2,400 pigs have died or were culled since April in an eastern province bordering Vietnam, the FAO said. Sem Oun, a 58-year-old farmer and father of two in Ta Prum, a village near the capital Phnom Penh, frets that the illness could spread from Vietnam. “I don’t have any other job and my income that provides for my entire family relies solely on these pigs. If they die because of swine flu then everybody in the family will die too,” he said. Hong Kong authorities have killed 10,700 pigs in two outbreaks, including one triggered by an animal imported from the mainland that was found to be infected. Two dead pigs infected with a virus similar to those in mainland Chinese were found in Taiwan, the FAO says. Efforts to fight the epidemic have gotten entangled in regional geopolitics. North Korea scaled back cooperation with South Korea after the collapse of a February summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump, hampering joint work on stemming the spread of the disease following an outbreak near North Korea’s border with China. South Korea’s agricultural ministry said that blood tests of pigs from some 340 farms near the border with the North were negative. Fences and traps have been installed near farms to protect hogs from being infected by wild boars that roam the inter-Korean border. The North’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said quarantine efforts were focused on disinfecting farms and transport vehicles, restricting visitors, and banning the distribution of food products containing pork. Its references to nationwide quarantine efforts suggest the disease may have spread beyond regions near China. Thailand and other countries still free of infections have taken strong preventive actions, including banning importation of pork, sausages, ham or bacon. Sorawit Taneeto, director-general of Thailand’s Department of Livestock Development, urged people to cooperate with soldiers at checkpoints in border provinces and quarantine areas. Airports are using more dogs like beagles to help in luggage inspections.

food
agriculture
animals
disease
pigs
swine fever


Hong Kong protesters demand total withdrawal of contentious extradition bill

Abstract: HONG KONG - Thousands of people dressed in black marched in Hong Kong on Friday to press for the total withdrawal of a controversial extradition bill that has triggered violent protests and plunged the financial hub into political crisis. Demonstrators, mostly students wearing hard hats, goggles and face masks, disrupted traffic on key roads in a mostly peaceful protest to demand that embattled leader Carrie Lam, who promoted and then postponed the bill, scrap it altogether. “We want to fight for our freedom,” said high school student Chan Pak-lam, 17, who was protesting in sweltering heat of about 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit). “We want the law to be withdrawn, not suspended. I will stay here until tonight, 10 p.m. maybe. If the government doesn’t respond, we will come again.” The protests, which pose the greatest popular challenge to Chinese President Xi Jinping since he took power in 2013, once again forced the temporary closure of government offices over security concerns. Millions have clogged the streets of the Chinese-ruled city this month to rally against the bill, which would allow people to be extradited to the mainland to face trial in courts controlled by the Communist Party. It triggered the most violent protests in decades when police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the crowds. Friday’s marchers demanded the government drop all charges against those arrested in last week’s clashes, charge police with what they describe as violent action and stop referring to the protests as a riot. Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong, who walked free from prison on Monday, urged police chief Stephen Lo to speak to the protesters, while others expressed anger at how some police have treated the demonstrators. “We are mad at how they treat the protesters,” said Democratic lawmaker Ted Hui Chi-fung. Lam’s suspension has done little to pacify opponents, who fear the law could put them at the mercy of the mainland Chinese justice system which is plagued by torture, forced confessions and arbitrary detentions. The turmoil has also raised questions over Lam’s ability to govern, two years after she was selected and pledged to “unite and move forward.” Justice Secretary Teresa Cheng became the latest government minister to apologize over the bill. “Regarding the controversies and disputes in society arising from the strife in the past few months, being a team member of the government, I offer my sincere apology to all people of Hong Kong,” Cheng wrote in her blog. “We promise to adopt a most sincere and humble attitude to accept criticisms and make improvements in serving the public.” Since it returned to Chinese rule in 1997, Hong Kong has been governed under a “one country, two systems” formula that allows freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China, including a much-cherished independent judiciary. But many accuse China of obstructing democratic reforms, interfering with elections and of being behind the disappearance of five Hong Kong-based booksellers, starting in 2015, who specialized in works critical of Chinese leaders. While Lam admitted shortcomings over the bill and said she had heard the people “loud and clear,” she has rejected repeated calls to step down. Concerns over the bill spread quickly, from democratic and human rights groups to the wider Hong Kong community, including pro-establishment business figures, some usually loath to contradict the government. Some Hong Kong tycoons have started moving personal wealth offshore. Protesters gathered early Friday outside government offices before marching toward police headquarters. One activist read a letter of support from a Taiwan student. “Brave HKers, perhaps when faced with adversity, we are all fragile and small, but please do not give up defending everything that you love,” the protester read through a loud hailer, to applause from the crowd. Beijing has never renounced the use of force to take over self-ruled Taiwan, which it regards as a recalcitrant, breakaway province. Many have waved Taiwan flags at recent demonstrations in Hong Kong, images certain to rile authorities in Beijing. Taiwan, overwhelmingly opposed to a “one country, two systems” formula for itself, has voiced support for Hong Kong. After promises that post-handover Hong Kong should enjoy a high degree of autonomy, Beijing’s squeeze has fueled widespread resentment and in 2014 sparked pro-democracy protests that paralyzed parts of the city for 79 days.

china
hong kong
rights
protests
hong kong extradition protests


Defense Ministry says Russian bombers violated Japanese airspace, prompting ASDF scramble

Abstract: The Defense Ministry said on Thursday that Russian bombers had violated southern Japanese airspace, prompting Air Self-Defense Force fighters to scramble and escort the planes out of the area. Two Tu-95 bombers entered Japanese airspace near Minamidaito Island in Okinawa Prefecture for about three minutes from around 8:55 a.m. on Thursday, the ministry said. One of them re-entered, flying near Hachijo Island in the Izu island chain, south of Tokyo, for around two minutes just past 10:20 a.m., the ministry said, adding that there were no dangerous maneuvers. The two bombers were spotted flying southward from the Sea of Japan through the Tsushima Strait between Japan’s southwest and South Korea in the morning, and then later turning north over waters near Okinawa Prefecture, the ministry said. The government lodged a “stern protest” with Russia, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry. The Russian Defense Ministry denied a violation had occurred, Russia’s Tass news agency reported, citing the ministry as saying the “flight was carried out in strict compliance with the international rules” and “without any violations of the borders of other states.” Two ASDF fighters “escorted” the bombers during parts of the over 14-hour flight of the Russian aircraft, according to the Tass report. In September 2015, what appeared to be a Russian aircraft violated northern Japanese airspace off the Nemuro Peninsula on Hokkaido, according to Japan’s Defense Ministry. The area is near Kunashiri Island and the Habomai islet group, two of four Russian-controlled islands that are claimed by Japan.

okinawa
russia
self defense forces
izu
hachijo island
minamidaito island


New law holds government responsible for teaching Japanese to all foreign residents

Abstract: Amid a steady rise in the number of foreign residents, the Diet on Friday unanimously enacted a law that spells out for the first time the government’s responsibility for systematically promoting Japanese-language education. Experts largely hailed the legislation as a step forward in a country where the absence of legal and fiscal backing has long dissuaded municipalities from taking active steps to teach the language to foreign residents. The law, however, is fundamentally philosophical, and avoids mapping out specific measures that should be taken by the government. Its effectiveness will also likely hinge on how much funding it receives. Still, the legislation for the first time stipulates that the government operate under the basic philosophy that foreign residents “who wish to study Japanese must be guaranteed as much as possible of the opportunity to do so, in a way that would match their needs, abilities and circumstances they are placed in.” The law covers children, students, salaried workers, technical interns and refugees. It also clarifies that municipalities bear the responsibility to take appropriate measures to facilitate Japanese-language education and urges employers to provide foreign workers and their families with tutorial opportunities. The law tasks the central government with implementing “fiscal measures” toward these goals. The legislation also calls for improving the quality of Japanese schools and urges the state to take steps to improve the salaries of their teachers. Moreover, as part of its push for a “comprehensive” educational policy, it stipulates that the government set up a special council to foster coordination among the education ministry, foreign ministry and other relevant agencies. The bill was submitted by a cross-party group of lawmakers at a time when Japan is steadily drawing more foreign residents but has largely “failed to provide a sufficient environment where they can study Japanese,” lawmaker Masaharu Nakagawa told the Upper House committee on education Thursday. Figures compiled by the Justice Ministry show that the number of non-Japanese residents across the nation had hit a record 2.73 million as of the end of last year, up 6.6 percent from a year earlier. The demographic is predicted to grow further in line with a new visa system launched in April that paves the way for importing more foreign labor for what are typically regarded as blue-collar jobs in the construction, agriculture, fishery, nursery and building-cleaning industries, among others. Uichi Kamiyoshi, an associate professor of Japanese education at Musashino University, said the law is significant in that it gives legal backing to efforts to teach foreign residents Japanese. “Municipalities in Japan have long been hard-pressed to do anything about Japanese education, because the lack of any legal basis for promoting it has meant they have no way of convincing naysayers why they need to do it, and that they would have to do it within the limitations of their own budget,” Kamiyoshi said. Although the 2001 law for promoting culture and the arts does mention the importance of “enriching” Japanese education, its fundamental emphasis is on facilitating foreign residents’ understanding of Japanese culture, rather than encouraging their integration with Japanese society — the spirit underlying the new law, he said. Iki Tanaka, manager of the YSC Global School, which is operated by the nonprofit organization Youth Support Center, agrees that the absence of a legal basis has “left municipalities figuring out on their own” what to do with the needs of their non-Japanese residents, leading to a “vast discrepancy” in the level of assistance each doles out. While voicing hopes the law will help rectify such disparities, Tanaka says she isn’t entirely optimistic. “I doubt the enactment of the law alone would immediately translate to a generous amount of funding, so we will probably need to think how best we can utilize limited budgets and resources.”

immigration
diet
education
language
nihongo
foreign students
expats
foreign trainees
foreign workers
local government


U.S. State Department keeps Japan on top tier of human trafficking list for second year

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Japan remained in a group of countries the United States judges to fully meet minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking, according to a State Department report released Thursday. The department placed Japan in Tier 1, the highest classification on the four-tier list, for the second straight year because “authorities continued to demonstrate serious and sustained efforts during the reporting period.” The ranking categories are Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 2 Watch List and Tier 3. The department cited Japan’s efforts such as increasing labor inspections of the nation’s Technical Intern Training Program and convicting and incarcerating more traffickers than in the previous year. Last year, Japan was upgraded from Tier 2, partly due to the launch of an interagency task force to combat enjo kōsai , or compensated dating, and the “JK business,” which offers dating services by joshi kōsei , or female high school students, for adult men. According to the 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report, Japanese authorities continued to take law enforcement action against child sex trafficking in JK businesses, with seven prefectures passing ordinances banning such businesses. The ordinances prohibit girls younger than 18 from working in compensated dating services and require JK business owners to register their employee rosters with local public safety commissions, it said. The report, however, said Japan can do more toward the elimination of trafficking. It accused the government of not fully enforcing technical intern reforms aimed at blocking foreign-based recruitment agencies from charging excessive fees, and recommended harsher sentencing practices. “Authorities continued to prosecute traffickers under laws carrying lesser sentences, which courts often suspended in lieu of incarceration, and they continued to suspend the majority of convicted traffickers’ prison sentences. Some traffickers received only fines,” it read. In the report, countries with poor human rights records such as China, North Korea, Russia, Iran, Syria, Myanmar and Venezuela remained on Tier 3, the lowest level. Some of these countries allow human traffickers to run rampant, and others are human traffickers themselves, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in launching the 2019 report. “In North Korea, the government subjects its own citizens to forced labor both at home and abroad and then uses proceeds to fund nefarious activities,” Pompeo said. “In China, authorities have detained more than a million members of ethnically Muslim minority groups in internment camps,” he said. “Many are forced to produce garments, carpets, cleaning supplies and other goods for domestic sale.”

u.s .
foreign trainees
human trafficking
enjo kosai
state department
compensated dating
jk business


Finance Minister Taro Aso survives no-confidence motions over rejection of Japan pension report

Abstract: Opposition party-submitted resolutions rebuking Finance Minister Taro Aso for his refusal to receive a report questioning the ability of the country’s pension system to meet retirees’ needs were voted down in the Diet on Friday. The House of Representatives rejected a no-confidence motion against Aso, who opposition parties argue made an “unprecedented” and “outrageous” move in rejecting a report on the basis that it does not give a true representation of the situation. Aso, who also serves as minister for financial services and deputy prime minister, refused last week to receive the report, saying the panel’s estimate contradicted the government’s position that the pension system is able to meet “to some extent” people’s household financial requirements in retirement. Opposition parties ratcheted up pressure on Aso by submitting a censure motion in the House of Councilors, but it was also voted down earlier in the day. The ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito control both chambers. The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Democratic Party for the People and the Japanese Communist Party were among the parties that submitted the resolutions. The pension issue came to the fore ahead of an Upper House election this summer. A Financial Services Agency panel estimated in the report that an average retired couple would face a public pension shortfall of ¥20 million ($186,000) if they live to be 95 years old. Aso said the report caused “extreme worries and misunderstanding” among the public, while Prime Minister Shinzo Abe labeled it “misleading” because it is an average figure presented without context. With a rapidly aging society, Japan’s social security costs, currently about a third of its annual state budget, are set to increase in the years to come. Aso, an outspoken veteran politician known for being gaffe-prone, has a poor record when it comes to his past comments about the rising number of elderly people. In 2016, Aso drew criticism after he said in a speech before voters that he had seen a 90-year-old person on television say, “I’m worried about my sunset years.” Aso then said in his speech, “How much longer do you intend to live?” The Abe administration has been seeking to enhance social security services in order to create a society in which people can live to be 100 without experiencing financial worries. Opposition parties have criticized Abe for failing to address public concerns about the pension system, which could be a hot-button topic in the upcoming election. When Abe was prime minister between 2006 and 2007, the LDP suffered a defeat in the 2007 Upper House race due in part to its mishandling of pension records.

ldp
taro aso
diet
finance ministry
aging
elderly
pensions


More foreign travelers venturing beyond Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya areas, reports says

Abstract: About 18 million foreign travelers visited regions outside of the Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka metropolitan areas in 2018, some 40 percent more than the number of travelers who visited only those metropolitan areas, an annual government report showed Friday. The figure marked steady growth from the 10.2 million visits logged in 2015, according to the 2019 white paper on tourism, which was adopted at a Cabinet meeting the same day. Of the 31.19 million foreign travelers to Japan last year, 57.7 percent visited regions outside of the three metropolitan areas, and they spent more than ¥1 trillion. The report found that foreign travelers seeking experiences, including skiing, visiting hot springs or engaging in nature tourism, have a strong tendency to visit nonmetropolitan areas. Such travelers also tend to spend more per head than those who do not engage in experience-based consumption. The three metropolitan areas cover Tokyo and seven prefectures: Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Aichi, Kyoto, Osaka and Hyogo. In Tokyo and the prefecture of Osaka, consumption by foreign visitors accounted for approximately 45 percent of total travel-related consumption. The white paper also showed that among natural disasters, earthquakes in particular have the effect of pushing down the number of guests at accommodations sharply after their occurrence. Such effects are clearer and tend to last longer for foreign guests, compared with Japanese guests, it said. While enjoying a rise in employment, employee wages and the number of job offers, the accommodation sector is grappling with a heightened shortage of workers, the report said. Investment in lodging-related construction is increasing around the country, with total planned construction costs for 2018 exceeding ¥1 trillion, about nine times the figure six years ago.


Older drivers in Japan cause fatal accidents at twice the rate of under-75s, report shows

Abstract: People aged 75 or older caused more than double the number of fatal traffic accidents in 2018 than drivers younger than them on a per-driver basis, a government report showed Friday, highlighting the road safety challenges the country faces as its population rapidly ages. According to the latest white paper on traffic safety approved by the Cabinet, drivers and motorcycle riders aged 75 or older caused 8.2 fatal accidents per 100,000 licensed road users in 2018, about 2.4 times the number caused by those aged 74 or younger. The number of accidents resulting in death by drivers aged 75 and over totaled 460. By age group, those aged 16 to 19 caused the highest number of fatal accidents at 11.1 per 100,000 licensed road users. Those in their 30s caused 2.9 per 100,000 drivers, people in their 40s caused 3.0 and those in their 50s caused 3.3. The report pointed to various ways the elderly driver issue could be addressed, such as promoting the use of vehicles with advanced safety technologies like automatic braking systems. It also said that efforts should be made so that elderly people can live more easily without driving. “It is essential to build a society that allows senior citizens to live independently despite the degradation of their physical abilities due to aging, supported by advanced technologies and other means,” the paper said. With the number of overseas visitors to Japan on the rise in the run-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, traffic accidents involving foreign drivers have also increased, the report showed. Among accidents caused by drivers of rental cars in 2018, 158 were caused by foreign nationals, up 2.3 times from 2014, while the number of overseas visitors who used rental car services in Japan increased about eightfold from 2011 to around 1.4 million in 2017, according to the paper. Mix-ups between the brake and the accelerator were more frequent among elderly drivers aged 75 and over than among younger drivers, the white paper also showed. While the proportion of fatal accidents caused by confusion between the brake and the accelerator stood at 1.1 percent of the total for drivers under the age of 75, the rate rose to 5.4 percent among drivers aged 75 or over. In 2018, the number of traffic deaths in Japan came to 3,532, hitting a record low since the statistics began in 1948. Of them, those aged 65 and over accounted for a record high of 55.7 percent. The proportion of elderly people among the number of pedestrians who died in traffic accidents stood at 71.5 percent. The white paper stressed that the road safety of elderly people, both as pedestrians and drivers, is an important issue. There is a need to use self-driving and other new technologies to enhance road safety, it said. The report also looked back on the 30 years of the Heisei Era, which ended on April 30. Traffic fatalities decreased sharply over the 30 years, with the number falling by over two-thirds during the period, it said. As factors behind the decline, the report cited improvements in the rate of seat belt usage and the safety features of vehicles, including air bags, as well as tougher regulations against drunken driving.


Japan to provide 1.3 million vaccines to kids in developing countries as part of U.N. SDG targets

Abstract: The government said Friday it will provide vaccines to around 1.3 million children in developing countries in line with U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, which address such issues as poverty, inequality, climate and peace. The update to Tokyo’s action plan for achieving the U.N. goals by 2030 comes as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe prepares to highlight the country’s contributions at next week’s Group of 20 summit in Osaka, which he will chair. “Japan can contribute to making a society where no one is left behind,” he said at a meeting on the U.N. goals at his office. Health is one of the major themes addressed by the 17 SDGs, and boosting access to vaccines is part of the program. To provide the vaccinations, and meet another goal of preventing 1 million deaths from AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, Tokyo plans to offer around $4 billion. Japan also aims to provide quality education to some 9 million children in developing countries by 2021, and build disaster-mitigating infrastructure for 5 million people by 2022. Tokyo has drawn up guidelines for implementing the SDGs and expects to revise these in December after the Tokyo International Conference on African Development to be held in Yokohama in August, and other meetings on aid for developing countries.

u.n .
poverty
education
g20
development
vaccinations
sdgs


Former vice minister of Japan farm ministry charged with murder of son, 44

Abstract: Former farm ministry official Hideaki Kumazawa was indicted Friday in connection with the murder of his 44-year-old son earlier this month at their home in Tokyo. According to the indictment, the former vice minister, 76, stabbed Eiichiro Kumazawa in the neck multiple times at around 3:15 p.m. on June 1. He then called the police to report that he had fatally stabbed his son. The son died at the hospital from massive blood loss. Kumazawa later said the stabbing was prompted by fear his son might harm children. He said he saw similarities between his son and Ryuichi Iwasaki, the man who attacked over a dozen schoolchildren from Caritas Elementary School plus two adults during a stabbing spree in Kawasaki on May 28, leaving two dead, investigative sources said. He said he heard his son say he would “kill” students after becoming incensed by noise from an athletic meet at the elementary school near their home, the sources said. Kumazawa said his son was socially withdrawn and had exhibited violent behavior toward him and his wife. Iwasaki lived with his aunt and uncle but hardly left home, according to officials from Kawasaki’s mental health and welfare center. A graduate of the University of Tokyo, Hideaki Kumazawa joined the predecessor of the farm ministry in 1967 and became vice minister in 2001. He stepped down the following year amid criticism about the ministry’s handling of mad cow disease. He served as Japanese ambassador to the Czech Republic from 2005 to 2008.

murder
stabbing
indictment
hikikomori
hideaki kumazawa