Puerto Rico governor slams 'bully' Trump as hurricane relief fight rages on

Abstract: MIAMI - Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello, who has clashed with President Donald Trump over disaster aid and has complained that residents of the U.S. territory are treated like “second-class citizens,” indicated that he’s tired of being pushed around by the White House. “If the bully gets close, I’ll punch the bully in the mouth,” Rossello told CNN. “It would be a mistake to confuse courtesy with courage.” The comments escalate a war of the words between Trump and Rossello, who is pushing to keep disaster aid flowing to repair the devastation brought by Hurricane Maria in late 2017. During a private lunch with Republican U.S. senators on Tuesday, Trump said Puerto Rico has received too much money and pushed back against providing more, according to those present. He’d also previously suggested that the aid was being diverted to pay bondholders, which isn’t the case. The Tuesday episode reprized an approach Trump has advocated before. Rossello insists the president is misinformed about the island, which is still recovering from the 2017 storm that killed an estimated 3,000 people and crippled its electricity system. While the Federal Emergency Management Agency has spent billions to directly aid families and help with the immediate emergency, funds have flowed more slowly into what FEMA calls “permanent work” — restoring infrastructure and facilities to pre-disaster levels. The government’s immediate approach buttressed claims that it’s been treated differently than states such as Florida and Texas that were hit with disasters. A University of Michigan report found the government took took 30 times as long in Puerto Rico after Maria to get to the same level of staffing as Florida saw after Hurricane Irma. At a press conference Thursday in Washington to rally support for making Puerto Rico the 51st state, Rossello renewed his criticism of Trump. “The comments from the president show a lack of empathy,” Rossello said. “They’re inaccurate. They’re unjust and I feel that he has advisers who must be misleading him.” “I would ask the president to cease the insults and the attacks,” he said. “We are not your political adversaries, Mr. President. We are your U.S. citizens.”

aid
disasters
puerto rico
donald trump
fema
ricardo rossello
hurricane maria


Mitch McConnell sets up Senate 'nuclear option' rule change to speed Trump nominees and thwart Democrats

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to force votes next week on a Republican plan to change the Senate’s rules to short-circuit Democrats’ ability to slow nominations from President Donald Trump. McConnell announced the rules change on the Senate floor Thursday, setting up a potential vote next week on using the procedural “nuclear option” to change the Senate rules via a simple majority. McConnell has already used the procedure to gut the 60-vote threshold for Supreme Court nominees after former Democratic Leader Harry Reid deployed the so-called nuclear option years ago to eliminate it for all other judicial nominees. McConnell blamed “unprecedented obstruction” of Trump nominees by Democrats as the reason for the change. Delays have “crippled” the ability of the Trump administration to staff up, McConnell said, including numerous lower-level appointees. “The status quo is unsustainable for the Senate,” McConnell said. “The Senate is going to do something about it.” The move will free up more time to fulfill McConnell’s top priority: confirming as many conservative judges as possible. Shifting the judiciary to the right will be an important part of the party’s pitch to voters in 2020. McConnell complained that even Senate Democrats running for president were preventing the president from staffing his administration, and he warned that such obstruction would become the new norm and Republicans would use the same tactics against Democrats. Several Republicans had said this week they were hopeful a deal would be reached with Democrats to change the rules to speed nominations, but that hasn’t happened yet. Major nominations such as Cabinet officials, circuit court judges and Supreme Court picks would still have up to 30 hours of debate before a final vote, but lower level picks and District Court judges would have just two hours of debate instead of 30. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has previously said he would oppose the rules change unless concessions were made to Democrats. Senate Republicans have angered Democrats by repeatedly violating a “blue slip” tradition of only moving forward with judicial nominations when home-state senators sign off on their selection. Democrats also protested vigorously when McConnell and Republicans eliminated the 60-vote threshold for ending filibusters on Supreme Court nominees.

u.s .
republicans
democrats
mitch mcconnell
donald trump
chuck schumer


Al-Shabab takes credit after Mogadishu car bombing kills at least 15

Abstract: MOGADISHU - At least 15 people died when a car bomb exploded on a busy street and ripped into a nearby restaurant in Somalia’s capital on Thursday, medics said. Security officials and witnesses reported bodies strewn on the ground as plumes of smoke rose high into the air after the bomb detonated on Mogadishu’s Maka Al-Mukarama road, one of the seaside capital’s main thoroughfares, an area busy with businesses and travelers. It struck as people were eating lunch. The attack was claimed by al-Qaida’s Somali affiliate, al-Shabab, in a statement posted on a pro-Shabaab website. Abdulkadir Abdirahman Adan, director of the Aamin Ambulance service, said that 15 people had been killed, as well as several more wounded by the ferocious blast. Witnesses described scenes of devastation. “The car bomb struck a restaurant along the road,” said Abdulahi Osman, who was nearby when the blast hit. “This really was a disaster.” Vehicles were tossed into the air by the force of the explosion, which also damaged surrounding buildings. Witnesses said several cars and three-wheel motorbikes were destroyed. “I saw 16 people carried from the blast scene — and more than 10 of them were already dead,” Osman added. Ambulance workers rushed in to help take the wounded to hospital. “I don’t know whether they were dead or wounded, but I could see several people strewn in the street — some of them were motionless,” said Suado Ahmed, another witness who was at the scene moments after the blast. Teams of ambulance workers carried away those killed and wounded on stretchers, while volunteers also helped by using plastic sheeting to lift the bodies away. The bombing is the latest in a recent string of blasts in Mogadishu, which has been hit frequently by al-Shabab attacks. On Saturday, Shabab gunmen attacked a complex housing government ministries in Mogadishu, killing 11 people, including the deputy labor minister. Since then at least four people have been killed this week in three blasts, including car bombs and roadside explosions. “Another day. Another funeral. Another friend dead. Another acquaintance burnt alive. I have been to 4 funerals in 4 weeks. Mogadishans used to talk about being at the wrong place at the wrong time, now its degenerated to being at any place at any time,” city resident Dalmar Hassan wrote on Twitter. Shabab fighters have been fighting for more than a decade to topple the government. They fled fixed positions they once held in Mogadishu in 2011, and have since lost many of their strongholds. But they retain control of large rural swathes of the country, and continue to wage a guerrilla war against the authorities, striking at the heart of Somalia’s government, despite years of foreign military support.

terrorism somalia al-qaida al-shabab mogadishu


Outrage to icon: Paris marks 30 years of I.M. Pei's Louvre pyramid

Abstract: PARIS - It was once decried as an architectural “obscenity,” but as the Louvre’s glass pyramid turned 30 on Friday, it had long since become a cherished icon of the French capital. One eminent writer called for revolt in the streets when French President Francois Mitterrand’s flamboyant culture minister, Jack Lang, first unveiled plans for what is now regarded as Chinese-American architect I. M. Pei’s masterpiece. Plonking a modernist pyramid into the center of a Renaissance palace was considered sacrilege, with one satirical magazine calling it a tomb and joking that Mitterrand — who was suffering from cancer — “wants to be the first pharaoh in our history.” Pei — who will be 102 next month — remembers “receiving many angry glances in the streets,” with up to 90 percent of Parisians said to be against the project at one point. Yet in the end, even that stern critic of modernist “carbuncles,” Britain’s Prince Charles, pronounced it “marvelous.” Over the next few days, JR, one of the world’s most famous street artists, will create a huge collage with the help of 400 volunteers to celebrate its 30th birthday by revealing “the Secret of the Grand Pyramid.” The sphinx-like Mitterrand, who had embarked on a string of grand projects to transform the French capital, hedged his bets from the start. “It’s a good idea, but like all good ideas it is difficult to do,” the wily old Socialist leader had warned Lang. A whole wing of the Louvre was then occupied by the Ministry of Finance, which held the purse strings of the state, and would be difficult to budge. The museum’s huge “Napoleon Courtyard was an appalling car park,” Lang said. “The museum was handicapped by the lack of a central entrance.” Pei’s masterstroke was to link the three wings of the world’s most visited museum with vast underground galleries bathed in light from his glass and steel pyramid. Such was his success that the conservative French daily Le Figaro, which had led the campaign against his “atrocious” design for years, celebrated his genius with a supplement on the 10th anniversary of the pyramid’s opening in 1999. Pei, who grew up in Hong Kong and Shanghai, was not the obvious choice for the job, having never worked on a historic building before. But Mitterrand was so impressed with his modernist extension to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., that he insisted he was the man for the Louvre. Already in his mid-60s when the project began, nothing had prepared Pei for the hostility his plans would receive. He needed all his tact and dry humor to survive a series of encounters with planning officials and historians. One meeting with the French historic monuments commission in January 1984 ended in uproar, with Pei unable even to present his ideas. “You are not in Dallas now!” one of the experts shouted at him during the “terrible session,” where he felt the target of anti-Chinese racism. Not even Pei’s winning of the Pritzker Prize, the “Nobel of architecture” in 1983, assuaged his detractors. Lang said he is still “surprised by the violence of the opposition” to Pei’s ideas. “The pyramid is right at the center of a monument central to the history of France (the Louvre is the former palace of the country’s kings.)” The Louvre’s then-director, Andre Chabaud, resigned in 1983 in protest at the “architectural risks” Pei’s vision posed. The present incumbent, however, is in no doubt that the pyramid helped turn the museum around. Jean-Luc Martinez is all the more convinced having worked with Pei in recent years to adapt his plans to cope with the museum’s growing popularity. Pei’s original design was for up to 2 million visitors a year. Last year the Louvre welcomed more than 10 million. “The Louvre is the only museum in the world whose entrance is a work of art,” Martinez insisted. The pyramid is “the modern symbol of the museum,” he said, “an icon on the same level” as the Louvre’s most revered artworks such as the “Mona Lisa” or the “Venus de Milo.” Pei is not alone in being savaged for changing the cherished landscape of Paris. In 1887, a group of intellectuals that included Emile Zola and Guy de Maupassant published a letter in the newspaper Le Temps to protest the building of the “useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower,” an “odious column of sheet metal with bolts.”

france
history
paris
architecture
art
museums
louvre
anniversaries
i.m . pei


Manila rearrests Duterte critic journalist Ressa

Abstract: MANILA - Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, a prominent critic of President Rodrigo Duterte, was rearrested on Friday in what press freedom advocates called retaliation for her news site’s dogged coverage of the government. Ressa and her website Rappler have been hit with a string of criminal charges in recent months that have sent shock waves through the Philippine media scene, prompting allegations she and her team are being targeted for their work. “I’m being treated like a criminal when my only crime is to be an independent journalist,” Ressa told reporters before her arrest at Manila airport, where she had just landed from a trip abroad. Bail for Ressa, who holds Philippine and American passports, is normally automatic in this case and she went before a judge on Friday morning. After her release on the equivalent of $1,700 bail, she told reporters, “The press in this country is under attack. … We won’t take the threat sitting down. The rule of law has been weaponized.” She was taken into custody on a charge that she allowed her name to be used to circumvent a Philippine law against foreign ownership of media properties, a charge that stems from a 2015 investment into Rappler. Under the constitution, the media is an economic sector that is reserved for Filipinos or Filipino-controlled entities. Philippine authorities arrested Ressa in February on an internet libel charge, which sparked international condemnation and allegations that she was being targeted for Rappler’s critical stance on Duterte. “This case against Ressa … is unprecedented and speaks volumes of the Duterte administration’s determination to shut the website down for its credible and consistent reporting on the government,” said Carlos Conde of Human Rights Watch. Rappler has reported extensively, and unflatteringly, on Duterte’s deadly narcotics crackdown, which has claimed thousands of lives and which rights groups say may be a crime against humanity. But it also casts a critical eye generally on the president’s leadership and his government, including the nation’s deep-rooted corruption and Manila’s moves to court Chinese trade and investment. Duterte’s anti-drugs campaign is his signature initiative and he fiercely defends it against criticism. High-profile critics have wound up in jail or been pushed out of their jobs in government, including the nation’s first female chief justice of the Supreme Court. Ressa insists the site is not anti-Duterte, saying it is just doing its job to hold the government to account. This latest case comes after she as well as current and former associates of Rappler have been bit by government prosecutors with tax and securities fraud charges. The country’s corporate regulator revoked Rappler’s business licence last year over the bond sale, but the site continued operating as it appealed the case in the courts. Last month, Ressa spent a night in detention but eventually posted bail for allegedly libelling a businessman in a news article written in 2012. Ressa’s legal team said this latest case would not stop Rappler from doing its work. “Let it be clear that these acts of harassment will not deter our clients from doing their duty as journalists,” legal counsel Francis Lim said in a statement. “We believe in the rule of law.” The government has repeatedly denied that the numerous cases against Ressa and Rappler are connected to journalism, saying the law is being applied evenly and fairly.

media
censorship
philippines
rodrigo duterte
maria ressa


South Korea's Moon to visit White House next month in bid to salvage Kim-Trump nuclear talks

Abstract: In a bid to salvage broken-down nuclear negotiations with North Korea, U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean leader Moon Jae-in plan to hold a summit next month in Washington, the White House has announced. The meeting will be the first between the two since the Trump administration’s denuclearization negotiations with Pyongyang broke down in late February after a summit in Hanoi. Moon is scheduled to arrive in the U.S. on April 10 and hold a summit with Trump the following day. “The leaders will have in-depth talks to discuss ways to strengthen the Seoul-Washington alliance and to coordinate their stance on setting up a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula through complete denuclearization,” the South Korean presidential office said Friday. In a separate statement, the White House confirmed the meeting. “The alliance between the United States and the Republic of Korea remains the linchpin of peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and in the region,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement, using the official name of South Korea. The summit will, notably, take place as the first session of North Korea’s 14th Supreme People’s Assembly convenes in Pyongyang on April 11. This meeting follows its first national election in five years in mid-March, in which, unusually, leader Kim Jong Un was not on the ballot. His absence from the election — the first time a North Korean leader has not served as a member of the nation’s top legislative body since the inaugural parliamentary election was held in 1948 — has raised speculation that he may assume a new post as head of state through a constitutional revision in an attempt to bolster his grip on power. North Korea-watchers are also closely monitoring whether Kim will map out a new diplomatic policy toward the U.S. at the assembly. After the second summit between Trump and Kim ended when the U.S. president rejected an apparently step-by-step proposal by Kim to dismantle some facilities at the Yongbyon nuclear site in exchange for sanctions relief, Moon has struggled to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table. The South Korean leader, who has invested much of his political capital into the denuclearization talks, is likely to use the meeting with Trump to help bridge the gap between the two sides. Moon has held three summits with Kim in his bid to forge a path to peace between the two Koreas, but he has seen his domestic support rate falter. About a month after the Hanoi summit’s collapse, his presidential approval rating hit a record low of 43 percent, according to a Gallup Korea poll released Friday. Seoul is also pushing to hold an inter-Korean summit in the South Korean capital this year as part of efforts to improve cross-border relations and help tackle the current denuclearization stalemate, the South’s Unification Ministry has said. The U.S. has said it remains open to dialogue with North Korea despite the summit breakdown and that it will seek denuclearization talks while maintaining pressure and sanctions on the North. Pyongyang, for its part, has also tempered its reaction in the wake of the talks, though top North Korean officials have said that Kim will soon make a decision on whether to continue diplomatic talks and maintain the country’s moratorium on missile launches and nuclear tests. After the Hanoi summit ended early without a highly anticipated agreement, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho and Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui met reporters in the Vietnamese capital in the early morning hours of March 1. Choe said the U.S. was “missing an opportunity” and suggested Kim may have lost interest in striking a deal on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. In an interview with South Korean news outlets that day, Choe issued another veiled warning, referring to Kim’s New Year’s message in which he said he would have to pursue a “new path” if the U.S. maintained crippling sanctions against the North. Mintaro Oba, a former U.S. State Department official who worked on North Korean issues, said the news was not surprising in that Moon had hoped for a summit ahead of the Hanoi meeting. Oba also said that given the harder-line tack Trump had taken in Hanoi, apparently on the advice of senior U.S. officials, “getting to Trump directly and appealing to his personal investment in the diplomatic process is critical for Moon.” Still, Oba noted, “Trump has always been on a completely separate track” from these officials when it comes to North Korea. “He has a personal stake in this diplomatic process because he has embraced summit diplomacy and bet on the value of his personal relationship with Kim Jong Un — and demonstrating success is critical to sustaining his claim to being a great dealmaker,” he said.

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


Huge number of spycam crimes puts pressure on South Korea hidden camera industry

Abstract: SEOUL - Shin Jang-jin’s shop in Incheon offers seemingly innocuous household items, from pens and lighters to watches and smoke detectors, but with a secret feature — a hidden 1 millimeter-wide lens that can shoot video. Over the past decade, Shin has sold thousands of gadgets. But his industry is coming under pressure as ultra-wired South Korea battles a growing epidemic of molka (spy camera) videos — mostly of women, secretly filmed by men in public places. Shin insists his gadgets serve a useful purpose, allowing people to capture evidence of domestic violence or child abuse, and said he has refused to serve customers looking to spy on women in toilets. “They thought I would understand them as a fellow man. I turned them away.” But the 52-year-old admits he is not always able to spot unscrupulous buyers. In 2015 he was questioned by police after one of his products — a camera installed inside a mobile phone cover — was used to secretly film women in a dressing room at a water park outside Seoul. He had sold the device to a female customer and said he had no idea she would use it to film and distribute illicit footage online. Under current regulations, “spycam” buyers are not required to give personal information, making it difficult to trace their ownership and use of the devices. But some lawmakers are hoping to change that, co-sponsoring a bill in August that requires hidden camera buyers to register with a government database, raising alarm among retailers like Shin. Spycam crimes have become so prevalent that female police officers now regularly inspect public toilets to check for cameras in women’s stalls. In one case, offenders livestreamed footage of around 800 couples having sex — filmed in hotel rooms using cameras installed inside hair-dryer holders, wall sockets and digital TV boxes. As well as secretly filming women in schools, toilets and offices, “revenge porn” — private sex videos filmed and shared without permission by disgruntled ex-boyfriends, ex-husbands, or malicious acquaintances — is believed to be equally widespread. In a burgeoning scandal that has shaken South Korea’s entertainment industry, K-pop star Jung Joon-young was arrested this month on charges of filming and distributing illicit sex videos without the consent of his female partners. The number of spycam crimes reported to police surged from around 2,400 in 2012 to nearly 6,500 in 2017. According to official statistics about 98 percent of convicted offenders are men — ranging from school teachers and college professors to church pastors and police officers — while more than 80 percent of victims are women. “I turn customers away when it isn’t clear why and what they want hidden cameras for,” said Lee Seung-yon, who customizes spycam gadgets in Seoul. But he admitted his approach is no guarantee against crimes. With the bill currently under consideration by a National Assembly committee, gadget retailers like Shin fear it will lead to a loss of potential customers. “More than 90 percent of spycam porn crimes are due to mobile phones, not specialized items,” he said, adding that any crackdown on the gadgets is akin to blaming knife makers for knife-related murders. While there is no official data to support Shin’s claim, a police official said that “most” spycam footage is taken using smartphones. But women’s rights activists say the claim is “misleading,” citing numerous cases involving customized cameras. Furthermore, they argue that since smartphones sold in South Korea are required to make a loud shutter noise when taking pictures — a measure put in place to combat spycam crimes — many offenders deploy high-tech devices or use special apps that mute the sound to secretly film victims. “Victims in most spycam crimes realize they were filmed only after illicit footage had been shared online whereas crimes involving mobile phones are much easier to catch in the first place,” said Lee Hyo-rin of the Korea Cyber Sexual Violence Response Center. “The sole purpose of these gadgets is to deceive others,” she said.

gadgets
sex
tech
women
privacy
south korea
pornography
cameras
spy cameras


More swine fever cases confirmed in central Japan

Abstract: NAGOYA - The Aichi Prefectural Government said Friday that additional swine fever cases have been confirmed in Seto and Tahara in the prefecture. The prefectural government will slaughter about 2,400 pigs kept at the farms. Cases of swine fever had already been found in Toyota and Tahara in the prefecture in February, and another case was confirmed in Seto on Wednesday. When the prefectural government checked the farm in Seto adjacent to the one where swine fever was detected on Wednesday, two pigs tested positive. After receiving a report that pigs had died at the farm in Tahara on Thursday, the prefectural government conducted an on-site inspection and found nine pigs that tested positive for swine fever. Aichi Gov. Hideaki Omura told reporters that prefecture would “make every effort” to prevent a further spread of the disease and protect the farming industry.


Probe reveals 759 cases of suspected abuse and 171 deaths of foreign trainees in Japan

Abstract: A recent probe into Japanese firms using the state-sponsored Technical Intern Training Program to deal with acute labor shortages has revealed 759 cases of suspected abuse, including unpaid wages, the Justice Ministry said Friday. The findings confirm growing concerns about the link between the interns’ working conditions and their disappearances from work. Last year, the number of missing foreign trainees rose to 9,052, compared with 7,089 the previous year. As of December, 328,360 foreign people were registered as technical interns. The results of the probe showed that 231 interns weren’t paid overtime wages and another 58 were being paid below the legal minimum. One intern was paid only ¥60,000 per month during a 7-month stint and received an hourly payment of ¥700 for an average of 60 hours of overtime per month. The ministry also found that 171 interns died while in the program between 2012 and 2017, the officials said. There were some 150,000 foreign trainees in 2012 and about 270,000 in 2017. The officials revealed that in 28 of the deaths, trainees died due to accidents that occurred on the job, including by drowning after falling off of fishing boats or suffering from heat exhaustion. Another 59 interns died from sickness. Among them were two trainees who had logged overtime and whose cases were reported to the labor standards inspection office because their working hours were hovering around the life-threateningly high cap specified in Article 36 of the Labor Standards Law. The fatal cases included 17 suicides, including one case in which a trainee was given only four days off over 3½ months. The officials admitted they had not been aware of 43 of the cases, which had either gone unreported by the organizations supervising the trainees’ programs or had not been included in the ministry’s records. “These cases of people vanishing and deaths have left us with a lot to reflect on,” a ministry official said. The official admitted there had been flaws in responding to intern disappearances, such as failures to acquire evidence of alleged abuses and failures in the process of interviewing those who escaped and investigating their cases. The Justice Ministry set up a team tasked with investigating what was behind the disappearance of technical interns after it came under fire in November for mistakes in processing records from a survey on interns who had fled. The appointed officials looked into reports, including from the trainees themselves, claiming that interns had been forced to work under harsh conditions for little pay, to check whether abuses of trainees’ rights had triggered any disappearances. They also verified records to determine whether such violations were related to any reported deaths. The team surveyed 5,218 trainees who had fled their workplaces between January 2017 and September 2018 but were later found, and 4,280 organizations that were accepting such trainees under the internship program, by conducting on-the-spot investigations or by telephone or email. The officials said, however, that 113 firms refused to cooperate and another 270 were unreachable. During a regular news conference on Friday, Justice Minister Takashi Yamashita called the failure to detect the deaths “extremely unacceptable.” “I want to take thorough measures to better grasp the backgrounds of the fatal cases through regular inspections,” he said. The officials speculated that the enactment of a new law in November 2017, to improve supervision of companies employing foreigners under the trainee program, has helped curb further abuses of the program. Under the law, Japanese employers are obliged to secure accreditation for their training programs. The government also created a watchdog for the program, to more effectively confirm whether companies are complying with the new rules and not exploiting the trainees. In fact, the probe showed that in 2018, after the implementation of the law, 658 trainees were confirmed as having fled their workplaces. A year earlier, the number stood at 1,163. The official said, however, that with the increase in technical interns in Japan “there may be more cases that have not yet come to light.” The findings have prompted the ministry to improve measures aimed at detecting and preventing further violations, including a mandatory requirement for firms accepting foreign interns to transfer wages to the trainees’ bank accounts to enable immigration officers to track the history of such transactions. The government will also require companies using the program to share the number of trainees’ residence cards to help detect whether a trainee is trying to change jobs without permission. The government is also working to strengthen support for foreign nationals and improve multilingual services to make such support more accessible.

immigration
labor laws
jobs
justice ministry
visas
foreign trainees
foreign workers


Whaling vessel leaves Taiji port for last 'scientific' mission before Japan withdraws from IWC

Abstract: WAKAYAMA - A whaling vessel left the port of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, on Friday for the last mission of what the government calls a scientific research program before the country withdraws from the International Whaling Commission and starts commercial whaling from July. The No. 7 Katsu Maru departed from the town, known for its whaling and dolphin-hunting practices, to join several other vessels on the mission to catch minke whales between April and June. The vessels are scheduled to catch 80 whales off Miyagi and Aomori prefectures and another 47 whales off Abashiri in Hokkaido to collect data on their age and size, among other information. The Taiji vessel is expected to take part in commercial whaling, which Japan will resume on July 1 for the first time in 31 years, the day after the nation officially leaves the IWC. The ship will hunt minke whales for about a week from its base before reaching Kushiro in Hokkaido, or Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, which have facilities for processing whales. Japan halted commercial whaling in line with a moratorium adopted in 1982 by the IWC, and has hunted whales for what it claims to be scientific research since 1987 — a practice criticized internationally as a cover for commercial whaling. Tokyo notified the IWC of its withdrawal in December after its proposal to resume commercial whaling and change decision-making rules at the body was rejected at an annual meeting in September, amid a long-standing rift between pro- and anti-whaling nations.


Vietnamese nun in Tokyo prays for compatriots who lost lives at work in Japan, fearing more to come

Abstract: Rows of wooden mortuary tablets inscribed with names line an altar at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo — silent testimony to Vietnamese people who died after coming to Japan to work or study. “Whenever I am contacted about a death, I can speak only two words: ‘Why?’ and ‘Again?'” said Thich Tam Tri, a Vietnamese Buddhist nun who has been counseling migrants from her home country after arriving almost two decades ago. “These young people … were living in great poverty in remote rural areas and their parents were suffering hardship,” she said after offering incense and prayers at the altar of Nisshinkutsu Temple in Minato Ward. “They wanted to work hard in Japan,” Tri said. “They had dreams. And then they suddenly died.” Lured by higher wages but often burdened by debts to recruiters, Vietnamese are the fastest-growing group of foreigners in Japan, which on Monday will implement a new system to allow more workers into the country to cope with a historic labor shortage. Many of the 140 Vietnamese nationals whose names are on the tablets came to Japan through a technical trainee program that acts as a back door to blue-collar jobs in a country, where immigration is a touchy subject. Others came as students and worked part-time. Next to the adults’ memorials are rows of smaller tablets for unborn infants, many aborted. Debate over the new visa program highlighted problems with the trainee system, such as overwork, unpaid wages and harassment. Tri said many of those for whom she prays died of stress-related illnesses, others in accidents. Some committed suicide. “Their families back home also had hopes for them,” she said. “They were so proud, and bragged about their sons and daughters to their neighbors in the countryside.” “They had many hopes. Instead, what they got were their (children’s) remains, mortuary tablets and some photographs.” Nguyen Thi Trang was a trainee working for an agricultural cooperative in northern Japan when she died in February of meningitis. She had a husband and two small children in Vietnam. “I agreed for her to go because the income is a little higher than in Vietnam. If I knew that my decision would lead to this, I never would have dared to let her go to work like that,” her husband, Vu Ngoc Thuy, said at his home. Thuy said his wife did not receive medical care quickly enough. Toshimi Matsubayashi, the head of the cooperative, said that Trang was taken to the hospital soon after she fell ill, and that the organization had paid her medical expenses. All of the cooperative’s trainees are treated properly, she added. The new visa program will let about 345,000 blue-collar workers enter Japan over five years in 14 sectors facing labor shortages. If conditions are good under the new system, there will probably be more waves of Vietnamese workers searching for a better life, Tri said. “There are trainees who worked hard for three years and went back to Vietnam and rebuilt their decrepit houses into fine concrete homes. There is that kind of good news,” Buddhist nun Tri said. “Increasingly, it is becoming a borderless world, and what is important in human relations is to transcend religion, to transcend culture and put emphasis on love,” she said.

immigration
jobs
expats
foreign trainees
foreign workers
vietnamese community
technical interns


Name of Japan's new era to be revealed at 11:30 a.m. Monday, with Abe statement due at 12

Abstract: The government said Friday it will announce the name of Japan’s forthcoming new era at 11:30 a.m. Monday, and that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will make a statement on the decision from noon. The announcement will come a month before the new era, the 248th in Japan’s history, starts on May 1, when Crown Prince Naruhito succeeds to the throne following Emperor Akihito’s abdication the previous day. Top government spokesman Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference Friday that he will announce the name the Cabinet decides. “The prime minister will convey the meaning of the new era name and his message directly to the public,” he added, referring to the statement Abe will read out. A gengō (era name) is used for the length of an emperor’s reign and a change of era is an important event as the name is widely used in minting coins and producing calendars and official documents among other purposes. The Gregorian calendar is also widely used in the country. Suga had said earlier that on March 14 the government officially asked experts in such fields as Japanese literature, Chinese literature, Japanese history and East Asian history to come up with era-name proposals. On Monday morning, the government will present a shortlist of candidates to a panel of representatives from business, academia and media organizations to hear their opinions. It will also gather input from leaders and deputy leaders of both Diet chambers, before the Cabinet approves an ordinance to introduce the new name. Suga said the government will announce the panel members the same morning. Kyoto University’s Shinya Yamanaka, who won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 2012 for developing iPS cells, and novelist Mariko Hayashi are among candidates to be panel members, according to sources close to the matter. Also on Friday, Abe visited the Imperial Palace to meet with the Emperor. The outcome of the one-on-one meeting will not be disclosed, but the prime minister is believed to have explained how the new era name will be determined on Monday. The 85-year-old Emperor expressed his wish to retire in a rare video message in 2016, citing his concern that he might not be able to fulfill his official duties due to his advanced age. In the following year, the Diet enacted one-off legislation to enable him to abdicate. He will be the first Japanese monarch to do so in around 200 years.

shinzo abe
yoshihide suga
imperial family
abdication
heisei
reiwa
emperor naruhito


Fukushima radioactive contaminants found as far north as Alaska's Bering Strait

Abstract: ANCHORAGE, ALASKA - Radioactive contamination from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant crippled by tsunami in 2011 has drifted as far north as waters off a remote Alaska island in the Bering Strait, scientists said on Wednesday. Analysis of seawater collected last year near St. Lawrence Island revealed a slight elevation in levels of radioactive cesium-137 attributable to the Fukushima disaster, the University of Alaska Fairbanks Sea Grant program said. “This is the northern edge of the plume,” said Gay Sheffield, a Sea Grant marine advisory agent based in the Bering Sea town of Nome, Alaska. The newly detected Fukushima radiation was minute. The level of cesium-137, a byproduct of nuclear fission, in seawater was just four-tenths as high as traces of the isotope naturally found in the Pacific Ocean. Those levels are far too low to pose a health concern, an important point for people living on the Bering Sea coast who subsist on food caught in the ocean, Sheffield said. Cesium-137 levels some 3,000-times higher than those found in the Bering Sea are considered safe for human consumption under U.S. Environmental Protection Agency drinking water standards, officials said. A 9.0 magnitude quake and tsunami in March 2011 triggered meltdowns at three of the Fukushima plant’s six reactors, spewing radiation into the air, soil and ocean and forcing 160,000 residents to flee. It was the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl 25 years earlier. The results reported on Wednesday came from a long-term but small-scale testing program. Water was sampled for several years by Eddie Ungott, a resident of Gambell village on the northwestern tip of St. Lawrence Island. The island, though part of the state of Alaska, is physically closer to Russia than to the Alaska mainland, and residents are mostly Siberian Yupik with relatives in Russia. Fukushima-linked radionuclides have been found as far away as Pacific waters off the U.S. West Coast, British Columbia and in the Gulf of Alaska. Until the most recent St. Lawrence Island sample was tested by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the only other known sign of Fukushima radiation in the Bering Sea was detected in 2014 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA scientists found trace amounts of Fukushima-linked radionuclides in muscle tissue of fur seals on Alaska’s St. Paul Island in the southern Bering Sea. There was no testing of the water there, Sheffield said. The people of St. Lawrence Island, who live well to the north of St. Paul Island, had expected Fukushima radionuclides to arrive eventually, she said. “They fully anticipated getting it. They didn’t know when,” she said. “The way the currents work does bring the water up from the south.”

fukushima no . 1
great east japan earthquake
tsunami
radiation
nuclear power
disasters
alaska
noaa
st. lawrence island
bering strait


Crown Prince Naruhito's memoir of time at Oxford reissued in English ahead of May 1 accession

Abstract: LONDON - Crown Prince Naruhito’s memoir was republished Thursday in English translation by a U.K. publisher ahead of his ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne on May 1. The book, published by Renaissance Books, records the 59-year-old prince’s experiences while studying at the University of Oxford in England between 1983 and 1985. He became the first in line to the throne following the death of his grandfather, Emperor Hirohito, posthumously called Emperor Showa, in 1989. The book, sold at £12.95 (¥1,880), was first released in Japanese in 1993 and later translated into English by the late Hugh Cortazzi, who served as a British ambassador to Japan. The translated edition was published in 2006 under the title “The Thames and I: A Memoir of Two Years at Oxford,” becoming the first autobiographical work of a future Japanese emperor to appear in English. On the release of the English edition, the prince fondly recalled his time at Oxford and expressed his wish to bring Japan and the U.K. closer together through his writings. The memoir describes the Crown Prince’s daily life during his time at the university, where he studied the historical importance of the River Thames as a transport system. As well as an account of his academic experiences, the memoir also features colorful observations and anecdotes about student life in the city and the Crown Prince’s trips around the U.K. and Europe. In one humorous episode, he recalls being refused entry to a bar after his jeans were deemed too casual to meet the dress code. Another passage describes how he narrowly avoided flooding his student dormitory when he attempted to do the laundry by himself for the first time. His years in Oxford marked the first time anyone in the direct line of succession to the Chrysanthemum Throne had studied outside Japan. Despite his royal title and status, the Crown Prince lived alongside his peers in an ordinary dormitory, making the most of the opportunity to socialize with fellow students. Before his death in August 2018, Cortazzi said the memoir offered a rare insight into the prince’s character. “I believe it reveals the Crown Prince’s charm, modesty, sense of humor and conscientious dedication to his studies and will enhance his international image,” he wrote. The memoir was reissued in association with the Japan Society in London to mark the historic occasion of the accession. It will be followed by a new book, co-edited by Cortazzi, detailing the history of the relationship between the Japanese and British royal families from the year 1850 onward.

u.k .
universities
royalty
books
imperial family
abdication
oxford university
the thames and i
emperor naruhito


Campaigns kick off across Japan for prefectural and metropolitan assembly elections

Abstract: OSAKA - Campaigning began Friday across Japan for prefectural and major metropolitan assembly elections set for April 7, with economic policies, aging, population decline and assistance for the elderly and working mothers the broad issues of concern for voters and candidates. A total of 3,062 candidates were running in 41 prefectural assembly elections, while 1,396 people were standing for election in 17 metropolitan assemblies, according to Kyodo News. In addition to the assembly races, 11 gubernatorial elections and six mayoral elections are also taking place on April 7, campaigning for which began on March 21 and March 24 respectively. In Osaka, races for the city’s governor and mayor, as well as the prefectural and municipal elections, are being closely watched locally and in Tokyo for their impact on the fortunes of Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka) — the local political party that has a plurality but not a majority in the assemblies. Up for grabs are 88 seats in the prefectural assembly and 83 seats in the municipal assembly, down from 86 seats four years ago. Osaka Ishin had 40 of the 88 prefectural assembly seats and 34 of the 86 municipal assembly seats before the campaign started. To form a majority, it cooperated in both chambers with Komeito, but the two parties have fallen out over a proposal to dissolve the current city council structure and merge Osaka’s 24 wards into four semi-autonomous wards. Osaka Ishin— members of which include Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui, who is running for Osaka mayor now, and Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura, who in turn is standing for governor — has made realizing the merger its mission. But it’s long been opposed not only by Komeito, but also the Liberal Democratic Party and all other major parties. Osaka Ishin is aiming for a majority in both assemblies, but that could prove difficult. Losses by Osaka Ishin candidates to LDP candidates in the municipal assembly in particular could mean a final tally that allows for any two of the three largest parties (Osaka Ishin, Komeito and the LDP) to join forces to form a majority. That would mean the end of Osaka Ishin’s merger plan, at least in its current form. It would also spell trouble for Osaka Ishin’s national party, Nippon Ishin no Kai, in the Upper House election in July. Nippon Ishin has been a staunch supporter of the LDP in the Diet. Losses by its Osaka Ishin members in the April 7 election could lead to Nippon Ishin dissolving or merging with other parties.


613,000 in Japan aged 40 to 64 are recluses, says first government survey of hikikomori

Abstract: About 613,000 people aged 40 to 64 are believed to fall into the category of recluses, who hide themselves away in their homes without working, the government’s first survey on the age group showed Friday. The estimated number of recluses, known as hikikomori , in that age group is higher than those age 15 to 39. There are an estimated 541,000 recluses that fall into the younger age bracket, a Cabinet Office survey in 2015 showed. The total number of social recluses in Japan is thought to be over 1 million, an official said. “Adult hikikomori is a new social issue,” said welfare minister Takumi Nemoto. “It should be addressed appropriately by conducting studies and analyses.” The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry defines hikikomori as people who have remained isolated at home for at least six consecutive months, not going to school or work and not interacting with people outside their family. Of those surveyed, 76.6 percent of recluses were men. Most, both men and women, began withdrawing from society after retirement, according to the survey, which was conducted in December and involved 5,000 households with at least one member in the age group. The study showed a total of 46.7 percent of recluses have lived that way for at least seven years, highlighting a trend in which older people are shutting themselves in their homes for longer periods. One in three hikikomori was financially dependent on elderly parents. Of those surveyed, 21.3 percent said they have been disconnected with those around them for three to five years. The number of surveyed people who cited retirement as a trigger for their withdrawal stood at 36.2 percent, followed by those who pointed to troubles with human relationships or illness, both at 21.3 percent. Those who said they felt like misfits in their workplace accounted for 19.1 percent. One in three hikikomori aged between 40 and 44 — a generation said to have lived through an “employment ice age” when new graduates found it hard to secure jobs — became socially reclusive between the ages of 20 and 24 years old, suggesting their inability to find work was behind the problem at least to some extent. Either a hikikomori’s father or mother provided financially for their shut-in child in 34.1 percent of cases, and some families rely solely on a parent’s pension. A 56-year-old man from Tokyo said that his parents were in their 70s when he started withdrawing from society at the age of 40. After his father died in 2016 and his mother died in 2017, he was introduced to a person from a support group who looked for a lower-priced place for him to live. “I was lucky to have found someone who helped me, but once you become a hikikomori, it is difficult to consult others,” he said. “I wish there was a system specially designed to support such people.”


Sai, meaning disaster, picked as kanji that best sums up Heisei Era in insurance firm survey

Abstract: In a survey conducted by Sumitomo Life Insurance Co., sai , meaning disaster or harm, topped the list of kanji characters representing the Heisei Era. The result apparently reflected Japanese people’s clear memories of a host of difficulties during the period, including the March 1995 sarin nerve gas attack in the Tokyo subway system by the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult, which killed 13 people and injured more than 6,400 others, and the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami, which have left more than 18,000 people dead or unaccounted for. According to the survey, 21 percent of respondents picked the character. The survey was conducted online in early February, covering 1,000 people in their 20s to 60s. Hen , meaning change, came second, picked by 7.1 percent. Many who chose that character said people’s lives have changed dramatically during the Heisei Era, citing the spread of mobile phones, the advancement of information technologies and the introduction of the consumption tax. Ran , for disorder or confusion, ranked third, with 6.9 percent of respondents selecting it. The burst of Japan’s bubble economy in the early 1990s and the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers in 2008, which triggered a global financial crisis, were among major events and developments cited as reasons to choose that character. The Heisei Era started on Jan. 8, 1989, the day after Emperor Akihito assumed the throne. The era is set to end on April 30, when he abdicates. The next era is scheduled to start on May 1, in line with the enthronement of Crown Prince Naruhito, the eldest son of the current Emperor, the same day. The government will announce the name of the new era on Monday. The list also included several other characters with negative connotations. Geki , meaning severe or serious, came fifth, and nan , meaning trouble, sixth, while ku , for suffering, and shin, for quake or jolt, both ranked seventh. Meanwhile, hei , a character meaning peace and used in the current era name, ranked fourth and wa , for harmony, ninth. They were picked as Japan did not wage war with any other nation during the Heisei period.

kanji
nihongo
disasters
sumitomo life insurance
surveys
heisei


With Emperor lacking grandson in 1997, Japan secretly discussed allowing empresses to reign

Abstract: The government secretly considered the option of allowing women to ascend the Imperial Throne from 1997, before officially starting a debate on the issue under a panel of experts in 2005, internal documents and other sources showed Thursday. While the plan was later dropped, the confidential talks helped lay the groundwork for the government of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who served between 2001 and 2006, to lean toward revising the Imperial House Law, which allows only male heirs who have emperors on their father’s side to reign. The secret meetings started in 1997 under then-Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and were attended by government members such as Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Teijiro Furukawa. At that time, Emperor Akihito had no grandson. “We were aware that we had to think about how to ensure stable succession,” Furukawa said. The meetings continued until 2004, and a document compiled in May that year called on the government to “swiftly start considering” changing the law to allow women and their descendants to ascend the throne. Koizumi launched an advisory panel on the issue that wrapped up nearly one year of discussions by proposing in 2005 that female monarchs be allowed, in a bid to avoid an expected succession crisis for the world’s oldest hereditary monarchy. Koizumi was eager to pursue the proposal, but the plan fizzled out following the birth in 2006 of Prince Hisahito, the Japanese Imperial family’s first male heir in 41 years, to Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko. With the 85-year-old Emperor set to abdicate April 30, the first Japanese monarch to do so in about 200 years, the issue of stable succession is once again under the spotlight. Crown Prince Naruhito, 59, will ascend the throne the following day. There are currently 18 Imperial family members and 13 of them are women. After the Crown Prince ascends the Chrysanthemum Throne, there will be only three male heirs — the Crown Prince’s younger brother Prince Akishino, 53, Prince Hisahito, 12, and Prince Hitachi, 83, the younger brother of the Emperor. The conservative governments led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, including his first between 2006 and 2007, have been cautious about changing the male line of succession, although they do apparently recognize the need to address the dwindling number of Imperial family members. The 1947 Imperial House Law stipulates that only men can succeed to the throne, and requires women to abandon their Imperial status after marrying commoners.

shinzo abe
women
emperor akihito
imperial family
abdication
ryutaro hashimoto


Bill requiring 'war crime' label on goods made by Japan firms put on hold in South Korean province

Abstract: SEOUL - The introduction of a bill to a South Korean provincial assembly to require the labeling of certain school goods as “made by war crime companies” will be put on hold, one of the sponsors of the proposal said Thursday. In the wake of a statement issued by Hwang Dae-ho, a Gyeonggi-do assembly member belonging to the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, a committee in charge canceled deliberations on the bill that were set to start Friday. Hwang, however, said the sponsors will start preparations to submit the draft to the committee after gaining a social consensus. The education authority of the province, near Seoul, has opposed the proposal, saying the sticker is inappropriate and may cause confusion. South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha has urged the assembly to consider the proposal carefully, in an unusual interference by a state minister in the affairs of a regional assembly.

wwii
education
south korea
wartime labor
south korea-japan relations


Apple infringed three Qualcomm patents, jury finds

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON - Mobile phone chip supplier Qualcomm on Friday won a legal victory against iPhone maker Apple, with a jury in federal court in San Diego finding that Apple owes Qualcomm about $31 million for infringing three of its patents. Qualcomm last year sued Apple alleging it had violated patents related to helping mobile phones get better battery life. During an eight-day trial, Qualcomm asked the jury to award it unpaid patent royalties of up to $1.41 per iPhone that violated the patents. The $31 million penalty is small change for Apple, the second most valuable U.S. company after Microsoft Corp. with a market value of $866 billion and annual revenue totaling hundreds of billions of dollars. But the setting of a per-phone royalty rate for Qualcomm’s technology gives the chip supplier a fresh line of attack in its two-year old legal battle with Apple. The biggest case, filed by Apple in early 2017, begins in April. Apple has sought to dismantle what it calls Qualcomm’s illegal business model of both licensing patents and selling chips to phone makers. Qualcomm has accused Apple of using its technology without paying. “The technologies invented by Qualcomm and others are what made it possible for Apple to enter the market and become so successful so quickly,” Don Rosenberg, Qualcomm’s general counsel, said in a statement. “We are gratified that courts all over the world are rejecting Apple’s strategy of refusing to pay for the use of our IP.” In a statement, Apple said it was disappointed with the outcome. “Qualcomm’s ongoing campaign of patent infringement claims is nothing more than an attempt to distract from the larger issues they face with investigations into their business practices in U.S. federal court, and around the world,” Apple said. It declined to comment on whether it would appeal. In other cases against Apple, Qualcomm has won sales bans on iPhones in Germany and China, though the Chinese ban has not been enforced and Apple has taken moves it believes allow it to resume sales in Germany. Qualcomm also suffered a setback with U.S. trade regulators who found that some iPhones infringed one of the San Diego-based company’s patents but declined to bar their importation into the United States, citing the damage such a move would inflict on rival Intel Corp. The verdict on Friday could come into play in the trial in April because it puts a per-phone dollar figure on some of Qualcomm’s intellectual property. Qualcomm’s patent licensing model relies on charging phone makers a cut of the selling price of the phone, a practice Apple has alleged is unfair and illegal. During an earlier trial between Qualcomm and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Apple executives outlined their company’s extensive negotiations to reduce those license fees to $7.50 per phone for Qualcomm’s patents. The San Diego jury valued just three of Qualcomm’s patents in the company’s portfolio at $1.41, a figure that the chip supplier believes bolsters its contention that its licensing practices are fair. “The three patents found to be infringed in this case represent just a small fraction of Qualcomm’s valuable portfolio of tens of thousands of patents,” Rosenberg said in a statement. Gaston Kroub, a patent lawyer in New York not involved in the case, said the verdict was clearly a win for Qualcomm. But it does not say much about the value of Qualcomm’s entire patent portfolio and was unlikely to spark settlements discussions, he said. “Apple is very skilled at handling appeals and taking a longer-term view. This isn’t something that will bring Apple to the table with any sense of urgency,” Kroub said.


Trump's auto tariff threat 'makes me sad,' Toyota chief Akio Toyoda says

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda on Friday lamented U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to impose hefty tariffs on automobile imports, including those from Japan. Underscoring Toyota’s contribution to the U.S. economy and employment, Toyoda said he is saddened by calls in the United States for managed trade on Japanese automobile imports amid concern about their effects on national security. “I don’t know why they call it a national security threat. That really makes me sad,” he said in a speech at the Economic Club of Washington. “I hope that this kind of conversation can go away,” Toyoda said, speaking through an interpreter. Toyoda was in the U.S. capital to introduce the 2020 GR Supra, a sports car that goes on sale this summer. In the latest show of Toyota’s commitment to the United States, the automaker said Thursday it will expand investment in the world’s largest economy by 30 percent to reach $13 billion by 2021. Toyoda pledged to increase the carmaker’s investment in the United States as he stressed its close ties with local dealers, suppliers and communities. “What I can promise you is that Toyota would like to stay in this country” regardless of the ultimate decision Trump’s administration makes on imported cars, he said.

akio toyoda
tariffs
donald trump
toyota motor corp .


Japanese companies remain wary in wake of Brexit delay vote

Abstract: Japanese companies remain vigilant after the U.K. Parliament on Thursday voted to extend the March 29 deadline for the country’s exit from the European Union amid lingering uncertainty on the issue. It is not clear how long Brexit will be put off or whether the EU will approve an extension. The automobile industry would likely suffer a major impact from a no-deal Brexit because of its extensive supply chains. Last month, Nissan Motor Co. said it would cancel a production plan for a model at a plant in Britain. Toyota Motor Corp. is examining options, including a review of its investments in Britain that may involve termination of production in the country. Japanese firms are expected to implement measures devised in preparation for Brexit this month as planned. Honda Motor Co. plans a six-day production halt in April as it braces for disruptions to its procurement of parts. “We cannot change parts procurement plans or personnel deployment easily,” a Honda official said. Sony Corp. will stick to its plan to relocate its registered European headquarters from Britain to the Netherlands by the end of this month. Some companies are undecided about what to do in this uncertain situation, including Sharp Corp. and Panasonic Corp. Hitachi Ltd., which makes train cars in Britain, procures 30 percent of the parts from outside the country. It is closely watching the situation and assessing the long-term impact of a possible no-deal Brexit. On Friday, the Japanese government held a meeting on Brexit that brought together officials from related agencies at the Prime Minister’s Office. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasutoshi Nishimura, chair of the meeting, instructed the officials to collect further information. Meanwhile, the government said its framework with the EU for smooth mutual transfers of personal information between businesses, which entered into effect in January, will remain effective after Brexit, including data exchanges between Japanese and British companies.

toyota
honda
nissan
japanese companies
brexit


Co-pilot with All Nippon Airways unit found to be over alcohol limit, delaying another flight

Abstract: All Nippon Airways Co. said Friday an international flight run by a group company was delayed the same day after a breath test showed the co-pilot had a higher than permissible alcohol level. The co-pilot from Air Japan Co. had drunk more than 10 330-ml cans of beer and two glasses of white wine at his home and at a bar on Wednesday night, plus a bottle of red wine on Thursday morning, before his Friday flight at 12:55 a.m. ANA and Air Japan are subsidiaries of ANA Holdings Inc. The co-pilot, in his 40s, was replaced by another pilot, causing the flight from Tokyo’s Haneda airport to Hong Kong to be delayed by 9 minutes, ANA said. The incident comes after the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry warned Air Japan to improve alcohol checks after another pilot for the airline was found over the limit last month. In the February incident, a co-pilot in his 40s had planned to fly without telling his company about his alcohol consumption the night before, ANA said. He had consumed between two and three times the company’s limit, which is equivalent to two midsize bottles of beer, or about a liter. ANA also prohibits drinking 12 hours prior to flying. The Japanese airline industry has been hit by a series of incidents involving drinking by flight crews, prompting the ministry to urge carriers to review their rules and introduce mandatory alcohol tests for pilots. “We were not able to prevent a similar incident from occurring and we take it very seriously,” ANA said. ANA and its rival, Japan Airlines, have pledged to administer more stringent alcohol tests to pilots and use new testing equipment in response to the recent incidents.

airlines
ana
jal
aviation
drinking
pilots
all nippon airways co .


Trump's trade war cost U.S. economy $7.8 billion in 2018, study says

Abstract: WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump’s trade battles cost the U.S. economy $7.8 billion in lost gross domestic product in 2018, according to a study by a team of economists at leading American universities. The authors of the new paper said they had analyzed the short-run impact of Trump’s actions and found that imports from targeted countries declined 31.5 percent, while targeted U.S. exports fell by 11 percent. They also found that annual consumer and producer losses from higher costs of imports totaled $68.8 billion. “After accounting for higher tariff revenue and gains to domestic producers from higher prices, the aggregate welfare loss was $7.8 billion,” or 0.04 percent of GDP, the researchers said. The study was authored by a team of economists at the University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University, Yale University and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and was published by the National Bureau of Economic research. Having dubbed himself the “tariff man,” Trump pledged on both the campaign trail and as president to reduce the trade deficit by shutting out unfairly traded imports and renegotiating free trade agreements. Trump has pursued a protectionist trade agenda to shield U.S. manufacturing. Washington and Beijing have been locked in a tit-for-tat tariff battle, and Trump has imposed tariffs that have roiled other major trading partners. As China and the U.S. work to end the trade war, China’s parliament on Friday approved a law aiming to create a transparent environment for foreign firms. The authors said that although U.S. tariffs favored sectors located in “politically competitive” counties, the retaliatory tariffs imposed on U.S. goods have offset the benefits to these areas. “We find that tradeable-sector workers in heavily Republican counties were the most negatively affected by the trade war,” the researchers said.


New data suggest eggs increase risk of heart attacks and strokes

Abstract: WASHINGTON - The debate over whether eggs are good for you has lasted for decades: Although a good source of protein, they also contain potentially harmful cholesterol. Now, after analyzing 30,000 Americans from six separate studies, researchers have concluded that eating an extra half an egg a day increased the risk of cardiovascular disease by 6 percent and premature death by 6 percent. That is relatively little, especially given that a half an egg is double what the average American eats daily. The study, published Friday by the Journal of the American Medical Association, also found that an additional 300 milligrams of dietary cholesterol per day increases the risk of heart disease by 17 percent and premature death by 18 percent. But, again, 300 mg is twice the average daily amount eaten by Americans. A large egg contains about 186 mg of cholesterol. The new data suggest that eating eggs increases the risk of heart attack or stroke, although the study does not establish a causal link. Still, it offers enough data to “make a strong statement that eggs and overall dietary cholesterol intake remain important in affecting the risk of (cardiovascular disease) and more so the risk of all-cause mortality,” physician Robert Eckel, of the University of Colorado, wrote in an editorial in JAMA. But as Tom Sanders, a professor of dietetics at King’s College London, points out, these results differ from a large U.S. study published in 1999 that found no effect. A 2013 analysis of 3 million adults published in the British medical journal BMJ also found no effect. A recent Chinese study even concluded cholesterol decreased the risk of cardiovascular disease. Sanders thinks the new results are only relevant for the United States, where the average person eats more eggs and meat than in Europe. “Eggs in moderation — around three to four per week — is fine, and that is what current U.K. dietary guidelines say,” Sanders said. In France, national nutrition guidelines refute the idea that you should not eat more than two eggs a week: “You can eat them regularly.” And dietitian Victoria Taylor, of the British Heart Foundation, insists that the way you eat the egg and with what is so important. “Eating healthily is all about balance. If you’re eating too much of one thing it leaves less room in the diet for other foods that may have more health benefit. “Eggs are a nutritious food and, while this study focuses on the amount we’re eating, it’s just as important to pay attention to how the eggs are cooked and to the trimmings that come with them. For example, poached eggs on whole-grain toast is a much healthier meal than a traditional fry-up.”


Hundreds of thousands of youth activists join world climate demonstration

Abstract: MONTREAL - Hundreds of thousands of young people skipped school across the globe on Friday to march through the streets for an international day of student protests aimed at pushing world leaders into action on climate change. Classrooms in metropolises from Bangkok to Berlin and Lagos to London emptied as organizers of the student strike led demonstrations in more than 100 countries. Students flooded into the streets across Europe, North and South America, and Asia carrying placards reading: “There is no planet B,” “You’re destroying our future” and “If you don’t act like adults, we will.” Despite three decades of warnings, carbon dioxide emissions hit record levels in 2017 and again last year. Loading the atmosphere with greenhouse gases at current rates will eventually lead to an uninhabitable planet, scientists say. In Stockholm, Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg — who inspired the protests — warned that time was running out. “We are living through an existential crisis that has been ignored for decades and if we do not act now it may be too late,” the 16-year-old, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, told Swedish public television station SVT. Across the world, their placards formed a mosaic: “Like the ocean, we will rise” (Sydney) “Our future in your hands” (Berlin) “System change, not climate change” (Vienna) “Don’t be a Trump” (Hong Kong) “The Titanic would have NO problem in 2019” (Elmshorn, Germany) And everywhere, “There is no planet B.” Montreal drew some of the largest crowds, estimated by organizers at nearly 150,000. In the United States, protests were more low-key, with events held in New York, Washington, Chicago and St. Paul, Minnesota, where one sign read: “So bad even introverts are here!” Further south in Latin America, placards with messages such as “climate change is not ‘fake news'” were seen in Buenos Aires — while young people also took to the streets in the Chilean capital Santiago and Colombia’s Medellin. In Delhi, one of the world’s most polluted cities, 200 students took part in a colorful protest, waving ribbons, juggling and performing stunts with hoops. “We have to make a choice whether we want to sit and be indifferent or do something for our planet,” said 16-year-old student Srijani Datta. In Sydney, 18-year-old Charles Rickwood warned that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef could be destroyed. “If current trends in the environment continue, we’ll see the one, two degrees increase in our ocean then it will simply become unsustainable and we could lose the entire Great Barrier Reef,” he told AFP. European students were also out en masse. Several thousand youngsters thronged the streets of central London in a raucous demonstration with banners and placards. Packing into Parliament Square, they cheered and chanted “Change … now!” before marching past Downing Street and massing outside Buckingham Palace. “They’re not going to stop me trying to save the planet,” said 15-year-old Joe Crabtree from southwest London, who had missed two exams to join the rally. More than 1 million marched overall, according to estimates by organizing groups such as the Youth For Climate movement and AFP reporters. The Friday for Future movement said more than 300,000 young people demonstrated in Germany alone. As youngsters hit the streets, nations meeting at the U.N. environment assembly in Kenya announced they had agreed to “significantly reduce” single-use plastics over the next decade. But experts said the pledge — which only referred to man-made global warming and made no mention of the fossil fuels driving it — fell far short of the steps needed to tackle Earth’s burgeoning pollution crisis. The global action drew a mixed reaction from politicians. Germany’s Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said the demonstrators should be in class while Australian Education Minister Dan Tehan said striking was “not something that we should encourage.” But New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern hailed the action, saying: “We hear you and we’re getting on with setting a path for carbon neutrality.” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres offered his strongest support yet for the strikes, writing in The Guardian newspaper: “Without ambitious action, the Paris agreement is meaningless.” Guterres also called for world leaders to come to the Climate Action Summit in New York in September “with concrete, realistic plans” to further reduce their emissions by 2020, in order to reach a target of 45 percent lower emissions over the next decade, and to net zero by 2050. In the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius, students circulated a petition to be submitted to the government demanding concrete measures. The Paris treaty calls for capping global warming at “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) but the planet is currently on track to heat up by double that figure. The U.N.’s climate science panel warned in October that only a wholesale transformation of the global economy and consumer habits could forestall a catastrophe. “My eyes hurt from pollution. My shirt gets dirty from dust,” 13-year-old protester Shagun Kumari said in Delhi. “I want fresh air that won’t harm my lungs and clean water to drink so that I don’t keep falling sick.”

children
australia
canada
new zealand
climate change
environment
montreal


Trump issues first veto over measure to end his emergency declaration on border wall

Abstract: WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump issued the first veto of his presidency on Friday to block a measure passed by Democrats and Republicans in Congress that would terminate his emergency declaration for a wall on the border with Mexico. The veto, made necessary after a strong and unusual rebuke from members of Trump’s Republican Party, capped a week that left Trump politically wounded — at least temporarily. Congress is unlikely to muster the votes to override the veto, a fact that left White House officials confident despite disappointment that it had passed the Republican-controlled Senate at all. The bipartisan vote on Thursday was a slap at Trump for his decision to circumvent Congress and take money already designated for other programs to pay for a barrier on the southern border. Twelve Republicans joined Democrats to pass the measure, concerned that the president had overstepped his authority. Trump repeated his view that a crisis existed at the border, called the resolution reckless and said he was proud to veto the measure. The emergency declaration is being challenged in court as an unconstitutional usurpation of Congress’ power of the purse. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said her chamber would vote on March 26 to override the veto. The Senate would have to vote to override the veto as well, requiring more Republicans than the original 12 to sign on, which is unlikely to happen. Trump was flanked by border officials and people whose relatives were killed by someone who was in the United States illegally. They praised him for standing firm on the issue, which resonates strongly with his political base.


After New Zealand massacre, Trump downplays white nationalism threat

Abstract: NEW YORK - U.S. President Donald Trump played down any threat posed by racist white nationalism on Friday after the gunman accused of the New Zealand mosque massacre called him “a symbol of renewed white identity.” Trump, whose previous responses to the movement have drawn scrutiny, expressed sympathy for the victims who died at “places of worship turned into scenes of evil killing.” But he declined to join expressions of concern about white nationalism. Asked whether he thought it is a rising threat around the world, he said, “I don’t, really.” “I think it’s a small group of people that have very, very serious problems, I guess,” Trump said. “If you look at what happened in New Zealand, perhaps that’s the case. I don’t know enough about it yet. But it’s certainly a terrible thing.” Trump was asked about white nationalism and the shooting deaths of 49 people at mosques in Christchurch after he vetoed Congress’ resolution to block his declaration of a national emergency at the Mexico border. His veto, aimed at freeing money to build more of a border wall, is expected to survive any congressional effort to overturn it. Questioned about the accused gunman’s reference to him, Trump professed ignorance. “I didn’t see it. I didn’t see it,” he said. “But I think it’s a horrible event … a horrible, disgraceful thing and a horrible act.” The man accused of the shootings, Brenton Tarrant, left behind a lengthy document that outlined his motivations. He stated that he was a 28-year-old Australian white nationalist who hates immigrants and was set off by attacks in Europe that were perpetrated by Muslims. In a single reference, he mentioned the U.S. president. “Were/are you a supporter of Donald Trump?” was one of the questions he posed to himself. His answer: “As a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose? Sure. As a policy maker and leader? Dear god no.” The White House denounced the connection. But the mention from the suspect, who embraced Nazi imagery and voiced support for fascism, nonetheless cast an uncomfortable light on the way that the president has been embraced by some on the far right. Trump, who as a candidate proposed a ban on all Muslims entering the United States, has drawn criticism as being slow to condemn white supremacy and related violence. After a 2017 clash between white nationalists and anti-racist protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, left one demonstrator dead, Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides” of the confrontation. He also did not immediately reject the support of David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard, during his presidential campaign. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, tied Trump’s inflammatory language to the violence half a world away. “Words have consequences — like saying we have an invasion on our border and talking about people as though they were different in some fatal way,” Blumenthal said on CNN. “I think that the public discourse from the president on down is a factor in some of these actions.” Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who declared his Democratic candidacy for president this week, said, “We must call out this hatred, this Islamophobia, this intolerance, and the violence that predictably follows from the rhetoric that we use.” Trump’s hard-line immigration rhetoric and calls to return America to its traditional past have been embraced by many on the conservative fringes, including some who troll online with racist imagery, as well as white supremacists who have looked to engage in violence. In Florida, Cesar Sayoc, who had decorated his van with Trump propaganda, was accused of mailing explosives last fall to Democratic Party officials and media members, many of whom had been criticized by the president. The president said Sayoc had been “insane” long before he became a Trump fan. Last month, a former Coast Guard official was accused of stockpiling weapons in a plot to kill media members and liberal politicians as part of a plan to transform the U.S. into a white ethno-state. It took more than a week for Trump to respond to the plot, which he deemed “a shame.” Many experts who track violent extremists have identified white nationalism as a growing threat in the U.S. and abroad. In January, for example, the New York-based Anti-Defamation League said that domestic extremists killed at least 50 people in the U.S. in 2018, up from 37 in 2017, and said, “White supremacists were responsible for the great majority of the killings, which is typically the case.” Some critics have accused U.S. authorities of not dedicating adequate resources to stem a threat of domestic terrorism. However, The Washington Post reported last week that internal FBI data showed more domestic terrorism suspects were arrested last year than those allegedly inspired by international terrorist groups.

guns
immigration
christchurch
ethnicity
discrimination
mass shootings
donald trump


Profile of mosque shooter: A white nationalist seeking revenge

Abstract: SYDNEY - The gunman behind at least one of the mosque shootings in New Zealand on Friday tried to make a few things clear in the manifesto he left behind: He is a 28-year-old Australian white nationalist who hates immigrants. He was angry about attacks in Europe that were perpetrated by Muslims. He wanted revenge, and he wanted to create fear. Though he claimed not to covet fame, the gunman — whom authorities identified as Brenton Tarrant — left behind a 74-page document posted on social media under his name in which he said he hoped to survive the attack to better spread his views in the media. While his manifesto and video were an obvious play for infamy, they contain clues for a public trying to understand why anyone would target dozens of innocent people who were simply spending an afternoon engaged in prayer. There could be no more perplexing a setting for a mass slaughter than New Zealand, a nation so isolated from the mass shootings that plague the United States that police officers rarely carry guns. Yet the gunman highlighted New Zealand’s remoteness as a reason he chose it. He wrote that an attack in New Zealand would show that no place is safe and that even a country as far away as New Zealand is subject to mass immigration. He said he grew up in a working-class Australian family, had a typical childhood and was a poor student. Tarrant has spent little time in Australia in the past four years and only had minor traffic infractions on his record. A woman who said she was a colleague of his when he worked as a personal trainer in Grafton said she was shocked by the allegations against him. “I can’t … believe that somebody I’ve probably had daily dealings with and had shared conversations and interacted with would be able of something to this extreme,” Tracey Gray told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. The rambling manifesto is filled with confusing and seemingly contradictory assertions about his beliefs. Beyond his white nationalistic views, he claimed to be an environmentalist and said he is a fascist who believes China is the nation that most aligns with his political and social values. He said he has contempt for the wealthiest 1 percent. And he singled out American conservative commentator Candace Owens as the person who had influenced him the most, while saying “the extreme actions she calls for are too much, even for my tastes.” Throughout the manifesto, the theme he returns to most often is conflict between people of European descent and Muslims, often framing it in terms of the Crusades. Among his hate-filled statements is a claim that he was motivated toward violence by an episode that occurred in 2017 while he was touring through Western Europe. That was when an Uzbek man drove a truck into a crowd of people in Stockholm, killing five. He said his desire for violence grew when he arrived in France, where he was offended by the sight of immigrants in the cities and towns he visited. Three months ago, he said, he started planning to target Christchurch. He said he has donated to many nationalist groups but claimed not to be a direct member of any organization. However, he admitted contacts with an anti-immigration group called the reborn Knights Templar and said he got the approval of Anders Breivik for the attack. The lawyer for Breivik, a right-wing Norwegian extremist who killed 77 people in Oslo and a nearby island in 2011, told Norway’s VG newspaper that his client — who is in prison — has “very limited contacts with the surrounding world, so it seems very unlikely that he has had contact” with the New Zealand gunman. The gunman rambled on about the supposed aims for the attack, which included reducing immigration by intimidating immigrants and driving a wedge between NATO and the Turkish people. He also said he hoped to further polarize and destabilize the West, and spark a civil war in the United States that would ultimately result in a separation of races. The attack has had the opposite impact, with condemnation of the bloodshed pouring in from all quarters of the globe, and calls for unity against hatred and violence. The gunman used various hate symbols associated with the Nazis and white supremacy. For instance, the number 14 is seen on his rifle, a possible reference to the “14 Words,” a white supremacist slogan attributed in part to Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. He also used the symbol of the Schwarze Sonne, or black sun, which “has become synonymous with myriad far-right groups who traffic in neo-Nazi,” according to the center. His victims, he wrote, were chosen because he saw them as invaders who would replace the white race. He predicted he would feel no remorse for their deaths. And in the video he livestreamed of his shooting, no remorse can be seen or heard as he sprays terrified worshippers with bullets again and again, sometimes firing at people he has already cut down. The gunman — a licensed gun owner who bought the five guns used in the shootings legally — left a scene of carnage that shocked the nation, and the world. It was, in the words of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern “one of New Zealand’s darkest days.”

guns
immigration
australia
new zealand
christchurch
mass shootings
brenton tarrant


Student-led climate rally envelops the globe

Abstract: WELLINGTON - A global day of student protests aimed at spurring world leaders into action on climate change to protect the planet for future generations kicked off in Australia and New Zealand on Friday. Thousands of young people marched in Wellington carrying placards reading “Time’s Melting Away” and “Act Now or Swim” as part of an ambitious plan to stage 1,000 demonstrations in more than 100 countries during a worldwide day of action. Participants in a rally calling for action on climate change — part of a worldwide ‘global strike’ campaign — hold up signs on Friday in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward. About 80 people took part in the Tokyo event. | YOSHIAKI MIURA Thousands more gathered in Sydney, demanding the conservative government to do more to curb the use of fossil fuels. The international student strike was set to see classrooms empty in cities across the globe, from Boston to Bogota, Dhaka to Durban and Lagos to London. Participants in a rally calling for action on climate change — part of a worldwide ‘global strike’ campaign — hold up signs on Friday in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward. About 80 people took part in the Tokyo event. | YOSHIAKI MIURA “This is young people taking the reins and realizing that they do have people power, that’s really awesome,” Abigail O’Regan, 20, said in the New Zealand capital. The protests were inspired by Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg, who camped out in front of Parliament in Stockholm last year to demand action from world leaders on global warming. Participants in a rally calling for action on climate change — part of a worldwide ‘global strike’ campaign — hold up signs on Friday in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward. About 80 people took part in the Tokyo event. | YOSHIAKI MIURA “We are only seeing the beginning,” tweeted Thunberg, who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her activism. “I think that change is on the horizon and the people will stand up for their future.” Participants in a rally calling for action on climate change — part of a worldwide ‘global strike’ campaign — hold up signs on Friday in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward. About 80 people took part in the Tokyo event. | YOSHIAKI MIURA Some teachers and political leaders have tried to cajole or threaten students against skipping school, to little avail. In Australia, Education Minister Dan Tehan questioned whether the protests truly represented a grassroots movement. “Students leaving school during school hours to protest is not something that we should encourage,” he told public radio. “Especially when they are being encouraged to do so by green political activists.” Participants in a rally calling for action on climate change — part of a worldwide ‘global strike’ campaign — hold up signs on Friday in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward. About 80 people took part in the Tokyo event. | YOSHIAKI MIURA His comments came as a report showed Australia’s annual carbon emissions had reached record levels, raising questions it will meet targets agreed under the 2015 Paris climate agreement. But the budding activists have received encouragement from New Zealand Prime Minster Jacinda Ardern, who said it was important for the young generation to send a message, even at a time when she was trying to console the nation after mass shootings at two mosques left at least 49 people dead. Participants in a rally calling for action on climate change — part of a worldwide ‘global strike’ campaign — hold up signs on Friday in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward. About 80 people took part in the Tokyo event. | YOSHIAKI MIURA “We hear you and we’re getting on with setting a path for carbon neutrality,” the 38-year-old leader said in a statement. “Please keep bringing as many people as you can with you because we simply won’t achieve our goals alone.” Wellington university student Josie Mason, 20, said she was “excited by the fact that youth are being heard.” “They call our generation the ‘slacktivists’ because it’s really easy to say you’re going to an event on a Facebook page or like something but not really do anything,” she said. Participants in a rally calling for action on climate change — part of a worldwide ‘global strike’ campaign — hold up signs on Friday in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward. About 80 people took part in the Tokyo event. | YOSHIAKI MIURA Despite 30 years of warnings about dire impacts, carbon dioxide emissions hit record levels in 2017 and again last year. Loading the atmosphere with greenhouse gases at current rates, scientists agree, will eventually lead to an unlivable planet. “On climate change, we have to acknowledge that we have failed,” Thunberg told the global ruling class in Davos in January. The U.N.’s climate science panel warned in October that only a wholesale transformation of the global economy and consumer habits could forestall a climate catastrophe. Children take part in the global Climate Strike rally in Brisbane, Australia, on Friday. | REUTERS

children
australia
new zealand
climate change
environment


Group seeking to overthrow Kim was behind raid on North Korean Embassy in Spain, Washington Post reports

Abstract: WASHINGTON - A dissident organization committed to overthrowing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was behind a raid on the North Korean embassy in Spain last month, The Washington Post reported on Friday, quoting people familiar with the planning and execution of the mission. The newspaper, which did not further identify its sources, identified the group as Cheollima Civil Defense, which also goes by the name Free Joseon. It said the group came to prominence in 2017 after evacuating a nephew of Kim from Macau when potential threats to his life surfaced. The Post’s sources said the group did not act in coordination with any governments and U.S. intelligence agencies would have been especially reluctant to be involved given the sensitive timing of the mission ahead of a second summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi on Feb. 27 and 28. According to Spanish media accounts, broadly confirmed by a Spanish Foreign Ministry source, a group of unidentified men entered North Korea’s embassy in Madrid on Feb. 22, bound and gagged staff, and drove off four hours later with computers. There has been no claim of responsibility. The dissident group identified by the Washington Post could not be reached for comment and its purported website has made no mention of any involvement in the raid. On Feb. 25 the website posted a statement saying the group had “received a request for help from comrades in a certain Western country” and that “it was a highly dangerous situation but (we) responded.” The group said an important announcement would be coming that week, but no details of any operation have been released. The Madrid embassy is where North Korea’s chief working-level negotiator in talks with the United States, Kim Hyok Chol, was ambassador until 2017. Intelligence experts said computers and phones reportedly seized in the raid would be eagerly sought by foreign intelligence agencies given the information they might contain on Kim Hyok Chol and others. Asked about the Washington Post report, the U.S. State Department referred queries to the Spanish authorities. The CIA declined to comment.


'Our gun laws will change': New Zealand's leader vows action after racist mosque massacre

Abstract: CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND - New Zealand’s prime minister vowed to toughen the country’s gun laws after revealing Saturday that the man accused of murdering 49 people in two mosques legally purchased the arsenal of firearms used in the massacre. Jacinda Ardern said the gunman, 28-year-old Australian Brenton Tarrant, obtained a “Category A” gun license in November 2017 and the following month began purchasing the five weapons used in Friday’s attacks in the southern city of Christchurch. The firearms included two semi-automatic rifles, two shotguns and a lever-action weapon, she said, speaking to reporters in Wellington before heading to Christchurch. “The mere fact … that this individual had acquired a gun license and acquired weapons of that range, then obviously I think people will be seeking change, and I’m committing to that,” she said. “While work is being done as to the chain of events that led to both the holding of this gun license and the possession of these weapons, I can tell you one thing right now — our gun laws will change.” She confirmed that the gunman and two suspected associates who were also arrested had not been on the radar of any intelligence agencies, even though he had published a manifesto online indicating plans for attacks on Muslims. “They were not on any watch lists either here or in Australia,” she said. “The individual charged with murder had not come to the attention of the intelligence community, nor the police, for extremism. “I have asked our agencies this morning to work swiftly on assessing whether there was any activity, on social media or otherwise, that should have triggered a response. That work is already underway.” Tarrant appeared in Christchurch District Court on Saturday and was remanded without a plea until his next scheduled appearance in the South Island city’s High Court on April 5. Handcuffed and wearing a white prison suit, Tarrant did not speak. His court-appointed lawyer made no application for bail or name suppression. He was likely to face further charges, police said. There was a heavy police presence at a hospital where families of the more than 40 wounded had gathered. Eleven people remained in intensive care, hospital authorities said. Funerals were planned on Saturday for some of the victims, several of whom were born overseas. Dozens of people laid flowers at cordons near both mosques in Christchurch, which is still rebuilding after a devastating earthquake killed almost 200 people in 2011. New Zealand tightened its gun laws to restrict access to semi-automatic rifles in 1992, two years after a mentally ill man shot dead 13 people in the southern town of Aramoana. But firearms laws are lax compared to neighboring Australia, which enacted a strict gun control regime in the wake of a similar massacre in 1996, and most other developed nations outside of the United States. Anyone over 16 can apply for a New Zealand firearms license, valid for 10 years after completing a safety course and a police background check. Most guns do not require registration under New Zealand’s Arms Act and police do not know “how many legally or illegally owned firearms there are in New Zealand,” according to a police statement last year. In 2014, police estimated there were up to 1.2 million legal firearms in civilian ownership, or around 1 for every 4 members of the public — twice the per capita number of guns in Australia. Separate “endorsements” are required to own semi-automatic weapons like those used in Friday’s attack, as well as pistols and other restricted weapons. However, police and firearms experts have pointed to several loopholes allowing owners to bypass registration of semi-automatics. Ardern noted the failure of several earlier attempts to reform gun laws and said a ban on semi-automatic weapons would now be considered. A 1997 police review of gun laws called for such a ban, but attempts to update the Arms Act since 1992 have stalled in Parliament.

guns
immigration
new zealand
christchurch
mass shootings
jacinda ardern