Dollar almost flat around ¥110.75 in Tokyo as U.S.-China trade talks continue

Abstract: The dollar was almost flat around ¥110.75 in Tokyo trading Friday, with players waiting to see the outcome of the ongoing U.S.-China trade talks. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥110.74-76, against ¥110.76-76 at the same time Thursday. The euro was at $1.1346-1346, up from $1.1334-1334, and at ¥125.65-66, up from ¥125.54-55. The dollar rose above ¥110.70 around midmorning on buying by Japanese importers, shrugging off earlier sluggishness caused chiefly by a slight downturn in the Nikkei stock average. The greenback was trapped in a very narrow band in the afternoon amid a dearth of market-moving factors. “The dollar was supported by growing expectations for progress in the trade negotiations” ahead of a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He later on Friday, an official of a major securities firm said. Another market source pointed out that players refrained from active trading in view of range-bound movements of the dollar-yen pair since the beginning of this week. A Japanese bank official suggested the possibility of “risk-on” dollar-buying gathering steam if the U.S.-China talks are able to make investors expect a certain agreement to be clinched before the current trade war truce expires on March 1.


Nikkei snaps four-day winning streak as profit-taking takes hold

Abstract: Stocks turned lower on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Friday as profit-taking gained strength following four consecutive winning sessions. The 225-issue Nikkei average fell 38.72 points, or 0.18 percent, to end at 21,425.51. On Thursday, the key market gauge gained 32.74 points. The Topix index of all first-section issues edged down 3.98 points, or 0.25 percent, to finish at 1,609.52 after a marginal rise of 0.03 point the previous day. Tokyo stocks got off to a dismal start, in the wake of a downturn on Wall Street Thursday. Investor sentiment was dampened by weaker-than-expected economic data including U.S. durable goods orders, brokers said. For the rest of the session, the market was pressured by selling to lock in profits amid a dearth of fresh trading incentives, they added. In particular, stocks were hurt by individual investors’ small-lot selling, an official at a bank-affiliated securities firm said. Moves to square positions emerged ahead of the weekend, Masahiro Ichikawa, senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Co., pointed out. Ichikawa also said players refrained from active trading to await the outcome of the ongoing high-level trade talks between the United States and China that started in Washington on Thursday. Still, the market resisted sinking deeper, underpinned by hopes that Washington and Beijing can clinch a deal to settle their trade dispute before the March 1 deadline, Hiroaki Hiwada, strategist at Toyo Securities Co., noted. Volume dropped to 988 million shares from Thursday’s 1.203 billion shares, hitting the lowest level since Aug. 24 last year. Falling issues outnumbered rising ones 1,288 to 731 on the TSE’s first section, while 111 issues were unchanged. Semiconductor-related Tokyo Electron, Advantest and Sumco met with selling triggered by the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index’s fall on Thursday after an eight-session advance. Also on the shady side were air conditioner manufacturer Daikin and convenience store operator FamilyMart Uny. By contrast, Nippon Paper Industries attracted buying after Daiwa Securities Co. raised its investment rating and target share price for the company. Among other major gainers were cosmetics producer Shiseido and drug maker Astellas. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key March contract on the Nikkei average sagged 40 points to 21,400.

stocks
nikkei
tokyo stock exchange
topix


Rakuten and China's JD.com to tie up for unmanned delivery service in Japan

Abstract: Major Japanese and Chinese e-commerce companies Rakuten Inc. and JD.com Inc. said Thursday they will tie up and commercialize an unmanned delivery service in Japan to save the time, cost and labor involved in parcel shipments in the wake of the explosive growth of online shopping. Rakuten will employ JD.com’s drones and unmanned ground vehicles, which the Chinese firm already operates in commercial services in its home country, as it prepares to introduce autonomous delivery in Japan. The Tokyo-based firm has been conducting experiments and trial services of autonomous parcel delivery since 2016, seeing it as an effective solution to the “last mile” issue of cutting the time and cost of shipping packages from transportation hubs to consumers’ doors. JD.com, also known as Jingdong, launched the world’s first commercial drone delivery in 2016 in China and is aiming to expand its service abroad. JD.com Vice President Xiao Jun said there are “many opportunities” in Japan for drone deliveries in mountainous areas and remote islands. “The unmanned drones and vehicles are just the first step in the Japanese market and we would like to cooperate with other leading Japanese companies in product development and application,” he said at a news conference in Tokyo. The JD.com drone to be introduced by Rakuten is 160 centimeters wide and 60 cm high, weighs 5 kilograms and is capable of traveling 16 kilometers. The unmanned ground vehicle, 171 cm in length, 75 cm in width and 160 cm in height, has a top speed of 15 km per hour. Rakuten said last month it plans experimental drone deliveries of merchandise purchased by its customers during the business year starting April. The government relaxed rules on unmanned deliveries by drones in September last year, allowing flights beyond the line of sight of an operator. Japan Post Co. began testing drone deliveries between its two postal offices in Fukushima Prefecture in November.


Green tea KitKats made with matcha from Japan and China finally headed to Europe

Abstract: Swiss food giant Nestle has said that it will launch matcha-flavored KitKat chocolate bars across Europe later this month. The decision reflects solid demand from consumers in Europe for the chocolate product with powdered green tea, which hit store shelves in Japan in 2004. Matcha KitKats are “inspired by one of the most popular of the 350-plus KitKat varieties that have been available in Japan over the years,” Nestle said Tuesday in a press release. The product “is manufactured in Hamburg, Germany, using … real matcha green tea from Japan and China,” it said. The Daily Mirror, a British tabloid, reported in its online edition that the matcha-flavored chocolate bars will be “finally” available in Britain “15 years after being created in Japan.” Comments welcoming the arrival of the product in Europe have been posted on social media.


Subaru tops Consumer Reports' annual auto brand rankings for first time

Abstract: NEW YORK - Automaker Subaru Corp.’s namesake brand topped U.S. magazine Consumer Reports’ annual rankings, released Thursday, for the first time. “Subaru’s strong predicted reliability and owner satisfaction marks drove it to the head of the pack,” the magazine said. It rose from seventh in last year’s rankings. Among other Japanese brands, Toyota Motor Corp.’s Lexus luxury brand came fifth, Mazda Motor Corp. sixth and Toyota’s flagship brand ninth. The namesake brand of Honda Motor Co. was ranked 13th, while Nissan Motor Co. ranked 21st. South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co.’s Genesis luxury brand fell to second place from last year’s top spot, while German automaker Volkswagen AG’s Porsche rose to third from fifth. Meanwhile Tesla Inc.’s Model 3 lost a coveted recommendation from Consumer Reports, dropping its brand from the top 10 of the magazine’s closely watched annual ranking. The electric-carmaker’s shares dropped. The magazine said owners have complained about issues including loose-fitting exterior parts and defective glass, casting doubt on the Model 3’s reliability and costing the car its recommendation. The sedan’s fall from grace contributed to Tesla dropping to No. 19 in Consumer Reports’ brand rankings, down 11 spots from last year and its lowest-ever ranking. The dropped recommendation follows two Model 3 price cuts this year to partially offset lower federal tax incentives. The moves have raised concern among some investors about demand for the vehicles keeping pace after deliveries surged in the second half of last year. “All three Tesla models have below-average reliability, and we don’t recommend any of them,” said Jake Fisher, director of auto testing at the magazine published by the nonprofit group Consumers Union. Consumer Reports has built up the credibility of its ratings by refusing carmakers’ advertising dollars and restricting the companies from using its recommendations in marketing campaigns. Tesla pushed back on the magazine’s assessment. “Not only are our cars the safest and best-performing vehicles available today, but we take feedback from our customers very seriously,” the company said in an emailed statement.

toyota carmakers lexus volkswagen subaru hyundai tesla


Crowds see off Guaido and Venezuela convoy bound for Colombia border to load aid

Abstract: CARACAS - Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido left Caracas with some 80 lawmakers on Thursday on a 800-km (500-mile) trip to the Colombian border where they hope to receive food and medicine to alleviate shortages in defiance of President Nicolas Maduro. Crowds formed alongside a main highway out of the capital, waving Venezuelan flags and whooping in support, as the convoy of buses departed. Guaido, recognized by dozens of countries as Venezuela’s legitimate head of state, has pledged to bring in the humanitarian aid by land and sea on Saturday. Guaido invoked the constitution to assume an interim presidency on Jan. 23 and denounces Maduro as an usurper. “Through this call for humanitarian aid, the population will benefit from the arrival of these goods to the Venezuelan border,” said opposition legislator Edgar Zambrano, as he waited to board a bus in a plaza of eastern Caracas. Maduro’s beleaguered socialist government denies there is an economic crisis in Venezuela and has said soldiers would be stationed along the country’s borders to prevent potential incursions. He accuses the Trump administration, which recognizes Guaido and is supporting the relief effort but has levied crippling sanctions against his government, of seeking to force his ouster. Guaido still has not provided details on how they will bring in the aid. Opposition figures have suggested forming human chains across the Colombian border to pass aid packages from person to person and fleets of boats arriving from the Dutch Caribbean islands. The United States has sent tons of aid to Colombia’s border with Venezuela, which Maduro has mocked as a “cheap show.” Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, has alleged the aid is poisonous and could lead to cancer. On Wednesday, Maduro’s socialist administration said it had closed the country’s maritime border with the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire, after Curacao’s government said it would help store aid destined for Venezuela. Colombia expelled five Venezuelans from Cucuta for “carrying forward activities which attack citizen security and social order,” its migration agency said in a statement late on Wednesday. “We know there is interest by the Maduro dictatorship in affecting national security because of coming events,” agency director Christian Kruger added in the statement.

u.s .
venezuela
colombia
nicolas maduro
humanitarian aid
donald trump
juan guaido


Were dinosaurs killed off by asteroid or volcanoes? It's complicated, but perhaps both, studies suggest

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Every school child knows the dinosaurs were killed off by an asteroid smashing into the Earth some 66 million years ago. But the story may not be quite that simple — massive volcanic eruptions over hundreds of thousands of years may have contributed to the dinosaurs’ demise at the end of the Cretaceous Period. Two studies published Thursday in the journal Science contributed to the long scientific debate about what exactly finished off the mighty reptiles. Before the 1980s, the dominant theory had been that huge and prolonged volcanic eruptions caused a rapid and deadly shift in the planet’s climate by sending vast clouds of ash, gas and dust into the atmosphere. Then scientists discovered the huge Chicxulub crater of an ancient asteroid impact off the Caribbean coast of Mexico, which they posited had sent so much debris into the atmosphere that it hampered photosynthesis in plants and killed off three-quarters of life on Earth. Ever since, scientists have maintained a lively debate about the relative contribution of each cataclysmic event to the mass die-off. The authors of the two reports published Thursday were able to date massive lava flows with far greater precision, whittling it down from around a million years to a period of tens of thousands of years. “We are able to re-create with great precision the order of events at the end of the Cretaceous Period,” Loyc Vanderkluysen, a professor of geoscience at Drexel University in Philadelphia. He was part of a team that dated the vast lava flows known as the Deccan Traps in India using radiation measurements. The other team used a different dating method. The expulsion of lava there over a million years left the Deccan flows more than 1,200 meters (4,000 feet) thick in places today, a volume large enough to cover an area the size of France to a depth of several hundred meters, he said. The new datings by the two teams match up: One found that a “pulse” of volcanic eruptions occurred just before the mass extinction. The other is less precise but suggests the majority of lava flows came after the asteroid hit Earth, backing up the idea that the impact triggered an earthquake so massive it would have registered 11 on the moment magnitude scale, something never witnessed by humans. That in turn set off a wave of volcanic eruptions that lasted some 300,000 years. “That bolsters the theory that the impact was the main cause,” said Vanderkluysen. “It’s like shaking a bottle of Orangina; it can accelerate volcanic activity.” The close correlation of the two events — eruptions and extinction — is unlikely to be a coincidence, the researchers say. Other periods of intense volcanic activity have coincided with mass extinction events said Blair Schoene, a professor of geosciences at Princeton and a co-author of the other study. “The big question is, would the extinction have happened without the impact, given the volcanism, or conversely, would the extinction have happened without the volcanism, given the impact? I don’t think we know that answer,” he said. “The main take-home point is that it’s not that simple. Nature is complicated,” he added. “By studying both phenomenons in as much detail as possible, we can try and figure out what the whole story is.” Mapping the timeline of that long-ago mass extinction is crucial, Schoene said, to understanding the consequences of the current “sixth extinction,” which humans are currently causing.

nature evolution animals paleontology dinosaurs


Space crew unfazed ahead of first launch since Russian rocket failure

Abstract: MOSCOW - Two astronauts who survived a midair rocket failure in October said on Thursday they had received counselling following their brush with death and felt ready to fly again next month. Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin and U.S. astronaut Nick Hague appeared relaxed in Russia’s Star City as they discussed preparations for their first space flight since then. Together with NASA astronaut Christina Koch they are due to blast off for the International Space Station shortly after midnight on March 15. A sensor failure two minutes after launch on Oct. 11 forced Ovchinin and Hague to perform an emergency landing from which they escaped physically unscathed. “We had conversations with psychologists … I understood they were assured both that everything was in order with us and that we felt that everything was in order psychologically,” Ovchinin told reporters. “So I think … everything will work out for us this time.” Hague said he had not experienced lingering problems since the launch failure. “It was for me fairly uneventful in terms of any kind of lingering effects and for my family we’ve been able to prepare for this flight just like we prepared for the last one,” he said. As the pair hurtled back to Earth in a capsule in October, Ovchinin could be heard in video inside the capsule saying “that was a quick flight.” He later described the G-forces they experienced during the landing as a akin to a concrete block seven times his weight being placed on his chest.

u.s .
iss
nasa
space
russia
soyuz
nick hague
alexei ovchinin


'Harbinger of doom': Tiny T-rex sheds light on prime dinosaur predators

Abstract: PARIS - A tiny cousin of T-rex discovered in the United States could provide a key missing link in understanding how the apex predators evolved to top the food chain, scientists who unearthed the dinky dinosaur said Thursday. The Moros intrepidus, standing just 3 feet (1 meters) high at the hip and weighing as much as an adult human, roamed the plains of modern-day Utah around 96 million years ago, making it the earliest member of the Tyrannosaur family yet identified on the North American continent. The team behind the discovery believes the new dinosaur — whose name means “harbinger of doom” — offers clues as to how its more famous cousin reached its epic size. “Early in their evolution, Tyrannosaurs hunted in the shadows of (dinosaurs) such as Allosaurs that were already established at the top of the food chain,” said Lindsay Zanno, paleontologist at North Carolina State University and lead author of the study detailing the findings. By the time of the Cretaceous period — around 80 million years ago — Tyrannosaurs had evolved into the enormous, iconic predators so well known today. But the discovery of Moros intrepidus shows they achieved such size and dominance in a relatively short time-scale of roughly 15 million years. “When and how quickly Tyrannosaurs went from wallflower to prom king has been vexing paleontologists for a long time,” said Zanno. “Moros is key to understanding how quickly Tyrannosaurs ascended from minor players in the ecosystem to top of the food chain,” she told AFP. The specimen found by Zanno and the team would have weighed a shade less than 80 kg (175 pounds), making it extremely nimble. “We know that Moros was lightning fast and likely hunted on smaller prey,” she said. “Although the earliest Cretaceous Tyrannosaurs were small, their predatory specializations meant that they were primed to take advantage of new opportunities when warming temperatures, rising sea-level and shrinking ranges restructured ecosystems.” The study was published in the journal Communications Biology.

u.s .
archaeology
dinosaurs
tyrannosaurus rex


Future of food under 'severe threat' amid rapid decline in species diversity, U.N. warns

Abstract: LONDON - The future of food supplies is under “severe threat” because of the number of animal and plant species that are quickly disappearing, a United Nations report said Friday as the world grapples with how to feed a growing population. People are depending on fewer species for food, said the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization, leaving production systems susceptible to shocks caused by pests or disease, droughts and other extreme weather events due to climate change. Although about 6,000 plant species can be used for food, less than 200 varieties are widely eaten, and only nine make up most of the world’s total crop production, the FAO said in the first report of its kind to assess biodiversity in food systems. “The loss of biodiversity for food and agriculture is seriously undermining our ability to feed and nourish an ever-growing global population,” FAO chief Jose Graziano da Silva said in a statement. “We need to use biodiversity in a sustainable way, so that we can better respond to rising climate change challenges and produce food in a way that doesn’t harm our environment,” he said. By analyzing data from 91 countries, the FAO said there was “mounting evidence” the world’s biodiversity was under “severe threat” due to pollution, badly managed water and land use, poor policies, overharvesting and climate change. Climate change will become a steadily bigger threat to biodiversity by 2050, adding to damage from pollution and forest clearance to make way for crops, according to more than 550 experts cited in reports approved by 129 governments last March. From insects to sea grass, crustaceans and fungi, nearly a quarter of nearly 4,000 wild food species are in decline, with the hardest hit regions being Latin America, Asia and Africa, the report said. Global food production must become more diverse and include species that are not widely eaten but could be better equipped to withstand hostile climates and disease, it said. “Compounded by our reliance on fewer and fewer species to feed ourselves, the increasing loss of biodiversity for food and agriculture puts food security and nutrition at risk,” Graziano da Silva added. Diversification could also help fight malnutrition globally by bringing little-known but highly nutritious foods into the mainstream, like fonio, a small grain that is well-suited to hot climates with unpredictable weather patterns. The U.N. has said countries must double the productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers by 2030 to eliminate hunger and ensure all people have access to food. One person out of every nine already does not have enough food and the world population is expected to reach 9.8 billion by 2050.

pollution
food
agriculture
climate change
hunger


Islamic State 'Voice of Paris attacks' killed in Syria airstrike, sources say

Abstract: PARIS - A top French Islamic State jihadi who became notorious after voicing an audio recording claiming responsibility for the November 2015 attacks in Paris has been killed in an overnight airstrike, security sources told AFP. Fabien Clain, who is believed to have gone to Syria in March 2015, was killed in the terror group’s last Syrian redoubt of Baghouz, the sources said on condition of anonymity. Clain is a seasoned jihadist, who was found guilty of helping send extremists to fight U.S. forces in Iraq in 2009 before leaving himself to live in Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate six years later. In his video after the Paris attacks, Clain can be heard announcing that “eight brothers wearing explosive belts and carrying assault rifles” had conducted a “blessed attack on … Crusader France.” The chilling propaganda recording warned that the Paris 2015 jihadi rampage was just “the beginning of the storm. The IS gunmen slaughtered 129 people in coordinated attacks at restaurants and bars around Paris, the Bataclan concert hall and the national stadium in an atrocity that stunned the world. His brother, Jean-Michel, also a jihadi, was wounded in the same raid that killed Fabien in Baghouz, where the last IS fighters are holding out against U.S.-backed Syrian forces, the sources said. There was no immediate confirmation of the report from the French defense or foreign ministries. Fabien, also known as Brother Omar, or Abu Adam Al-Faransi, converted to Islam in the 1990s and is thought to be in his early 40s. He was originally from the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion, but later moved to mainland France. He was sentenced to five years in prison in 2009 for organizing a network responsible for sending recruits to fight U.S. soldiers in Iraq. At the time, he and brother Jean-Michel were active in a radical Islamist network, known as the Artigat cell, in the Toulouse area of southwest France. They are believed to have been radicalized by a Frenchman of Syrian origin, Olivier Corel, dubbed the “white imam.”

france
u.s .
terrorism
syria
islamic state
paris attacks
baghouz
fabien clain


Armed group caught in Haiti returned to U.S. before court hearing, shocking Port-au-Prince

Abstract: PORT-AU-PRINCE - The U.S. State Department said several men arrested in Haiti with a cache of weaponry at a time of violent demonstrations have been returned to the United States before a scheduled court hearing in the Caribbean nation. The department said in an emailed statement that the return was coordinated with Haitian authorities, but a spokesman for Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Henry Ceant told Radio Vision 2000 on Thursday that he was not aware of the men’s departure and demanded an immediate explanation from the justice minister. Five U.S. citizens were among eight men arrested on Sunday while carrying automatic weapons and other arms and driving in cars without license plates. Police spokesman Michel-Ange Louis-Jeune has said the men told police they were on a “mission,” but they refused to say anything else except that they would call their unidentified bosses. Prosecutors had said the men would appear in court on Wednesday. Instead, they were taken to the airport. One of them men is a Haitian citizen and apparently was not returned. Jean Clarens Renois, a presidential candidate, said the situation has eroded confidence in Haiti’s government. “The seven guys easily left the country,” he said. “It’s kind of incomprehensible for a nation. There is no authority at all.” The arrests came after more than a week of violent demonstrations in which Haitians demanded the resignation of President Jovenel Moise amid rising inflation and allegations of corruption. Ceant has promised to reduce certain government budgets by 30 percent, lower the cost of goods and investigate allegations of misspending tied to a Venezuelan program that provided Haiti with subsidized oil. Haitians, however, remained wary of those promises, and Renois said people have lost trust in the government especially given the outcome of the case involving the eight men. “I used to read that Haiti is a failed country,” he said. “Now we can say that.”

guns
u.s .
violence
haiti
jean-henry ceant


Alabama woman who joined Islamic State in Syria sues to return to U.S.

Abstract: WASHINGTON - The father of an Alabama woman who joined the Islamic State group in Syria filed suit against the Trump administration Thursday in an effort to allow her return to the United States. Ahmed Ali Muthana argues in the suit, filed in federal court in Washington, that his 24-year-old daughter, Hoda Muthana, is an American citizen by birth and should be allowed to come back to the U.S. with her toddler son, the child of her late jihadi husband. She is now in a Syrian refugee camp with the 18-month-old boy after fleeing the remnants of the Islamic State. Her lawyers said she expects to be charged with providing material support to terrorism if she is allowed to return to the United States. “Ms. Muthana has publicly acknowledged her actions and accepted full responsibility for those actions,” the lawyers said. “In Ms. Muthana’s words, she recognizes that she has ‘ruined’ her own life, but she does not want to ruin the life of her young child.” However, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, under orders of President Donald Trump, said Wednesday that the young woman is not a citizen and will not be admitted back to the United States. He said the diplomatic status of her father when she was born means she is not a U.S. citizen. Pompeo did not outline the legal rationale but in an interview Thursday, asked if the key issue was that her father had been a diplomat, Pompeo told NBC’s “Today” show: “That’s right. She may have been born here. She is not a U.S. citizen, nor is she entitled to U.S. citizenship.” In a separate interview with the Fox Business Network, Pompeo dismissed the “heart-strings” pitch in Muthana’s pleas to return home. “This is a woman who inflicted enormous risk on American soldiers, on American citizens. She is a terrorist. She’s not coming back,” he said. Muthana was born in 1994 in New Jersey to a father who had served as a diplomat from Yemen, according to her lawyer. But the lawyer, Hassan Shibly, said her father had ended his diplomatic service “months” before she was born and she is a U.S. citizen. Her family says she had a legitimate passport when she left the U.S. to join the Islamic State in Syria in 2014. The Obama administration initially determined she was not a citizen and notified her family that it was revoking her passport in January 2016. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a person born in the U.S. to an accredited foreign diplomatic officer is not subject to U.S. law and is not automatically considered a U.S. citizen at birth. The United States grants citizenship to virtually everyone born on its soil under the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment — ratified in 1868 after the Civil War and abolition of slavery. The only significant exception is children of accredited foreign diplomats, as the 14th Amendment provides citizenship to everyone “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States. It is extremely difficult for the United States to strip a person of citizenship, a step taken by Britain in the case of homegrown jihadis. Muthana, who remains in the custody of U.S.-allied Kurdish fighters, furtively went to Syria in 2014, when the Islamic State group was carrying out a grisly campaign of beheadings and mass rape and turned to social media to praise the killings of Westerners. Trump’s order on Muthana came even though he is pushing other Western countries to bring back hundreds of jihadis to prosecute at home as the United States prepares to withdraw troops from Syria.

terrorism
syria
islamic state
donald trump
mike pompeo
u.s.-backed coalition
u.s. citizenship
hoda muthana


Ballot-tampering by leading GOP candidate's aides prompts new poll for North Carolina congressional seat

Abstract: RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA - North Carolina’s elections board Thursday ordered a new election in the nation’s last undecided congressional race after the Republican candidate conceded that his apparent victory was tainted by evidence of ballot-tampering by political operatives working for him. The State Board of Elections voted 5-0 in favor of a do-over in the 9th Congressional District but did not immediately set a date. In making the motion to order a new election, election board chairman Bob Cordle cited “the corruption, the absolute mess with the absentee ballots.” The vote came after the GOP candidate Mark Harris, in a surprising turn, dropped his bid to be declared the winner and instead said he believes a new election should be held. He reversed course on the fourth day of an election board hearing at which investigators and witnesses detailed evidence of ballot fraud by operatives on his payroll. “Through the testimony I’ve listened to over the past three days, I believe a new election should be called,” Harris said. “It’s become clear to me that the public’s confidence in the 9th District seat general election has been undermined to an extent that a new election is warranted.” At the same time, Harris denied any knowledge of the illegal practices allegedly used by his operatives. Harris left the hearing room without answering questions. It was not immediately clear whether he intends to run in a new election. The decision Thursday could leave the seat empty for months. The elections board’s attorney plans to review the laws on scheduling new primaries and a new general election and propose dates to the elections board for its approval. Harris led Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes out of about 280,000 cast last fall in a mostly rural district that includes part of Charlotte and extends eastward through several counties along the southern edge of the state. But the state refused to certify the outcome as allegations surfaced that Harris political operative Leslie McCrae Dowless may have tampered with mail-in absentee ballots. The congressional seat has been in Republican hands since 1963. North Carolina Republican Party executive director Dallas Woodhouse said he learned of Harris’ decision only minutes before. “There’s no way that anybody has contemplated what’s next,” he said. Harris told the board that he is still dealing from health problems caused by a blood infection that landed him in a hospital and led to two strokes since the election, adding, “I struggled this morning with both recall and confusion.” But he insisted: “Neither I nor any of the leadership of my campaign were aware of or condoned the improper activities that have been testified to in this hearing.” According to testimony and other findings detailed at the board hearing, Dowless conducted an illegal “ballot harvesting” operation while working for Harris. Dowless and his assistants helped voters obtain absentee ballots and then gathered up the filled-in ballots from them by offering to put them in the mail, the board was told. Dowless’ workers in rural Bladen County testified that they were directed to collect blank or incomplete ballots from voters, forge signatures on them and even fill in votes for local candidates. It is generally against the law in North Carolina for anyone other than the voter or a family member to handle someone’s completed ballot. Earlier Thursday, Harris testified that Dowless had assured him that he wouldn’t collect absentee ballots in violation of state law. “I’ll never forget. He said it again and again. He said, ‘We do not take the ballot,'” Harris testified.

u.s .
elections
fraud
republicans
democrats
north carolina
mark harris
leslie mccrae dowless


Nicolas Maduro shuts Venezuela's border with Brazil as Juan Guaido goes in search of aid

Abstract: CARACAS - President Nicolas Maduro ordered the closure of Venezuela’s border with Brazil on Thursday in an increasingly fraught power struggle with Juan Guaido, the opposition leader spearheading efforts to bring humanitarian aid into the country despite a military blockade. Guaido set out in a convoy of vehicles to personally pick up U.S. aid being stockpiled on the other side of the Colombian border, defying Maduro’s military to stop him. Recognized as interim president by more than 50 countries, he left the capital Caracas for the Colombian border in a convoy of several vehicles for the 900-kilometer (560-mile) trip. Embattled Maduro has dismissed Guaido’s humanitarian caravan as a “cheap show” and slammed aid as a precursor for a U.S. military intervention in the oil-rich but crippled Latin American country. The 35-year-old leader of the Venezuelan legislature proclaimed himself acting president January 23 and wants to oust Maduro, set up a transitional government and hold new elections. A separate caravan of buses and trucks containing opposition lawmakers had earlier left eastern Caracas bound for the border. Several of the trucks were stopped by security forces and their drivers forced to get out, but the rest of the caravan was allowed to continue, lawmakers said. “We know that the regime is going to put all obstacles to prevent us from reaching the border, but nothing is stopping us, we are going to continue,” said opposition lawmaker Yanet Fermin. Signaling his growing disquiet, Maduro announced Thursday that the border with Brazil — which along with Colombia is one of the main potential avenues for aid delivery — would be “completely and absolutely” closed from 8:00 pm (0000 GMT) until further notice. Maria Teresa Belandria, Guaido’s designated ambassador in Brazil, said aid deliveries would go ahead nonetheless. “The operation goes on. There’s no going back,” Belandria said. She said 100 tons of food, medicines and emergency kits were waiting to be trucked from Boa Vista to Pacaraima on the Venezuelan border. Maduro also warned Thursday he was considering “a total closure of the border with Colombia” to Venezuela’s west. He has already ordered the military to barricade a major border bridge to prevent supplies from entering the country from Cucuta, Colombia, where tons of humanitarian aid are being stockpiled, most of it from the United States. The military announced a ban on vessels putting to sea from Venezuelan ports until Sunday to avoid actions by “criminal” groups. • Fight over aid- Meanwhile, Maduro — mirroring Guaido’s move in an attempt to show his socialist government was able to look after its people — ordered a shipment of thousands of food boxes to be distributed to the needy along the Colombian border. Shipments of food and medicine for the crisis-stricken population have become a key focus of the power struggle between Maduro and Guaido. Guaido, who says 300,000 people could die without an influx of aid, says he aims to rally a million volunteers to start bringing it in by Saturday. It remained unclear how he proposed to do so if the blockade continues, but experts have pointed to the notoriously porous 2,200 kilometer (1,360-mile) border, which is perforated by well-worn drug trafficking and contraband routes. • Battling bands- Guaido said the planned entry points for aid were the Brazilian and Colombian borders, the island of Curacao and the seaports of Puerto Cabello and La Guaira. Venezuela’s vice president Delcy Rodriguez said the government was shutting down air and sea links between Curacao and Venezuela. However Carlos Faria, one of the leaders of a group of Venezuelans organizing aid shipments via Curacao, told AFP a plane carrying 50 tons of food and medicine was expected from Miami on Thursday and would be loaded onto a Venezuela-bound ship on Friday. Amnesty International’s Americas director Erika Guevara urged authorities to “guarantee access” for those bringing in aid. Meanwhile, the White House said U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence would visit neighboring Colombia on Monday in a show of support for Guaido. Underlining the swell of international support for Guaido, British entrepreneur Richard Branson plans to hold a pro-aid concert just inside Colombia on Friday, while Maduro’s government stages a rival concert on its side of the border, around 1,000 feet (300 meters) away. “All the artists that are going to sing in Colombia should know that they are committing a crime, they are endorsing a military intervention,” Maduro said.

brazil
venezuela
nicolas maduro
juan guaido


Car bombing near anti-Islamic State base in east Syria kills 20, says U.S.-backed force

Abstract: BEIRUT - A car bomb Thursday killed oil workers and fighters from a US-backed force battling the Islamic State group in east Syria, the Kurdish-led alliance said, with a monitor putting the death toll at 20. A spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said the attack killed mostly oil workers, as well as fighters in the village of Shheel close to an oil field acting as a base for the anti-IS force. Jihadist “cells are trying to stop our progress,” Adnan Afrin told AFP. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 14 oil workers and six conscripts died after “the car bomb was detonated remotely.” The SDF fighters were escorting the workers in vehicles from the Omar oil field, the monitor said. The SDF are fighting to expel the jihadis from the last shred of their “caliphate” in the village of Baghouz, some 100 km (60 miles) south along the Euphrates river. The SDF took control of the Omar oil field in October 2017, and have turned it into their main base in the area. IS seized large swaths of Syria and neighboring Iraq in 2014, declaring a “caliphate” there, but have since lost all but the Baghouz holdout to various offensives.

u.s .
terrorism
syria
islamic state
syrian democratic forces


'Flying bulldog': Unseen for 40 years, world's largest bee buzzes back

Abstract: PARIS - The world’s largest bee — a giant insect roughly the size of a human thumb — has been rediscovered in a remote part of Indonesia in its first sighting in nearly 40 years, researchers said Thursday. Despite its conspicuous size, no one had observed Wallace’s giant bee — discovered in the 19th century by British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace and nicknamed the “flying bulldog” — in the wild since 1981, the Global Wildlife Conservation said. “To actually see how beautiful and big the species is in life, to hear the sound of its giant wings… was just incredible,” said Clay Bolt, a specialist bee photographer who snapped the enormous insect. “My dream is now to elevate this bee to a symbol of conservation in this part of Indonesia, a point of pride for the locals there.” The bee (full name Megachile pluto), which lives in the Indonesian island region of North Moluccas, makes its nest in termite mounds, using its large fang-like mandibles to collect sticky resin to protect its home from the termites. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species lists the bee as “vulnerable,” meaning that while its numbers are relatively solid, the remoteness of its population makes it hard to study. Several previous expeditions to the region where the bee lives failed to spot it. Indonesia is home to an abundant variety of flora and fauna but there are fears for some animal and insect communities as forests being cut down for agriculture threaten many species’ natural habitat. “I hope this rediscovery will spark future research that will give us a deeper understanding of the life history of this very unique bee and inform any future efforts to protect it from extinction,” said Eli Wyman, an entomologist at Princeton University who accompanied Bolt on the trip.

nature indonesia animals endangered bees


Filipino rebel commanders to become officials under peace deal that sets up Muslim autonomous region

Abstract: MANILA - Some of the fiercest Muslim rebel commanders in the southern Philippines are in Manila to be sworn in Friday as administrators of a new Muslim autonomous region in a delicate milestone to settle one of Asia’s longest-raging rebellions. President Rodrigo Duterte will lead a ceremony to name Moro Islamic Liberation Front leader Murad Embrahim and some of his top commanders as among 80 administrators of a transition government for the five-province region to be called Bangsamoro. About 12,000 combatants with thousands of firearms are expected to be demobilized starting this year under the peace deal. Thousands of other guerrillas would disarm if agreements under the deal would be followed, including providing the insurgents with livelihood to help them return to normal life. The Philippine and Western governments and the guerrillas see an effective Muslim autonomy as an antidote to nearly half a century of Muslim secessionist violence, which the Islamic State group could exploit to gain a foothold. “The dream that we have fought for is now happening and there’s no more reason for us to carry our guns and continue the war,” rebel forces spokesman Von Al Haq said in an interview ahead of the ceremony. Several commanders long wanted for deadly attacks were given safety passes to be able to travel to Manila and join the ceremony, including Abdullah Macapaar, who uses the nom de guerre Commander Bravo. Known for his fiery rhetoric while wearing his camouflage uniform and brandishing his assault rifle and grenades, Macapaar will be one of the 41 regional administrators from the Muslim rebel front. Duterte would pick his representatives to fill the rest of the 80-member Bangsamoro Transition Authority, which will also act as a regional parliament with Murad as the chief minister until regular officials are elected in 2022. Members of another Muslim rebel group, the Moro National Liberation Front, which signed a 1996 autonomy deal that has largely been seen as a failure, would also be given seats in the autonomous government. Disgruntled fighters of the Moro National Liberation Front broke off and formed new armed groups, including the notorious Abu Sayyaf, which turned to terrorism and banditry after losing its commanders early in battle. The Abu Sayyaf has been blacklisted by the United States as a terrorist organization and has been suspected of staging a suspected Jan. 27 suicide bombing that killed 23 mostly churchgoers in a Roman Catholic cathedral on southern Jolo island. “We have already seen the pitfalls,” Al Haq said, acknowledging that the violence would not stop overnight because of the presence of the Abu Sayyaf and other armed groups, some linked to the Islamic State group. “It’s a very difficult and challenging process.” Under the peace deal brokered by Malaysia, the rebels gave up their goal of a separate state in exchange for broader autonomy. The 40,000 fighters and at least 7,000 firearms that Murad’s group has declared would be demobilized in three phases depending on progress in the enforcement of the agreement. Bangsamoro replaces an existing poverty-wracked autonomous region with a larger, better-funded and more powerful entity. An annual grant, which could reach more than $1 billion, is to be set aside to bolster development in a region deeply scarred by decades of war. Centuries of conquest — first by Spanish and American colonial forces that had ruled the Philippine archipelago followed by Filipino Christian settlers — have gradually turned Muslims into a minority group in the southern Mindanao region, triggering conflict over land, resources and sharing of political power. Uprisings seeking self-rule have been brutally suppressed by government forces, feeding more resentment. Security has been a major issue due to the proliferation of firearms and armed groups that have resorted to ransom kidnappings and extortion for survival such as the Abu Sayyaf.

terrorism
philippines
muslims
abu sayyaf
rodrigo duterte
bangsamoro
_asia


Fashion diplomacy: South Korean officials don coats with coded warm-and-fuzzy message to Kim

Abstract: SEOUL - Seoul security officials are wearing jackets embroidered with a secret well-wishing message for Kim Jong Un, deploying a code representing key moments in inter-Korean relations ahead of a summit between the North Korean and U.S. leaders. The dark blue coats — worn by about 10 officers in the Blue House’s National Security Office — have the 12-digit sequence 615104427919 sewn onto the back. The number 615 marks the June 15 North-South joint declaration in 2000, 104 is for the Oct. 4 North-South joint declaration in 2007, 427 is for the historic Panmunjom Declaration on April 27 last year, and 919 stands for the Sept. 19 Pyongyang Joint Declaration that also took place in 2018. “We just hope to keep the positive spirit alive,” one jacket-wearer said. “We have ordered and are wearing the jackets at work voluntarily. It was solely our idea to do this,” he added. A Blue House spokesman refused to say whether the jacket wearers had the upcoming summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim specifically in mind this week as they donned the coats, which they had made last year. Kim is expected to visit Seoul not long after the summit. Cross-border ties improved dramatically as the leaders of the two Koreas met three times last year — twice at the border truce village of Panmunjom and once in the Pyongyang — and a reconciliatory push gathered pace. The May 26 summit, the second inter-Korean talk held at Panmunjom last year, was not included on the coats as no declaration was released following the event, the Blue House jacket-wearer said. “We wanted to have these numbers sewn on the back of our jackets so that we remember those key dates and wish our best for the next inter-Korean summit,” he added. He told how one of his colleagues came up with the idea, brought it up during a work meeting and others agreed. During Moon’s visit to Pyongyang last year, the North Korean leader promised to pay a return visit to the South’s capital. If he visits as expected this year, Kim will be the first North Korean leader to set foot in Seoul since the nations split at the end of World War II. Moon welcomed Kim’s comments at the time, agreeing to meet with him “more frequently” in 2019. Kim is scheduled to meet Trump in Hanoi on February 27 to 28, following their first summit in Singapore last year. Critics say Pyongyang has made no concrete commitments so far and is unlikely to surrender its nuclear weapons.

kim jong un
south korea
moon jae-in
kim-trump summit


Spies and satellites: Analyzing North Korea's economy isn't easy

Abstract: TOKYO/SEOUL - As informal markets and budding entrepreneurs rise to fill more of the void left by failed state-owned enterprises in North Korea, analysts outside the notoriously secretive country are finding it even more tricky to measure its economy. That is the message from Cho Tae-hyoung, the chief of the North Korea research team at South Korea’s central bank in Seoul, which is considered the most authoritative source for estimates on Kim Jong Un’s economy. Cho and his colleagues at the Bank of Korea draw on a grab-bag of hard data, suppositions and guesswork that would bring despair to economists studying most countries. Their best guess is that North Korea’s gross domestic product contracted 3.5 percent in 2017 to about $32.3 billion — 40 times smaller than the South’s GDP. Annual per capita income in North Korea is about $1,300, according to the BOK, less than a twentieth that of the South and about half the level of Vietnam, where Kim will travel later this month for a summit with Donald Trump. Figures for 2018 won’t be available until midyear but the outlook isn’t encouraging, according to Cho, who spoke in an interview on Feb. 13. He cited the impact of sanctions that cut exports to China by about 90 percent in 2018. With official statistics from North Korea both scant and suspect, the BOK combs through figures compiled by South Korean government departments and its spy agency, analysis of satellite images, debriefings from defectors, reports from think tanks, Chinese trade data, and (with great caution) speeches by Kim and state media out of Pyongyang. Satellite images indicate that more markets are popping up around the country every year, and that they are getting bigger. But the pictures don’t show enough detail on everything that’s being traded, in what volume and for what price. Knowing what vendors pay in rent and what they pay any staff is equally hard to discern. “The job of estimating the North Korean economy has become more and more difficult,” said Cho, who concedes that the BOK in many cases doesn’t know how the data it uses is originally compiled. He feels more confident about calculations for the rate of growth (or decline) in the economy than putting a number on its size. The model the BOK uses to calculate the North’s GDP is based on the one it developed for measuring South Korean GDP and uses the so-called production approach. Ideally, Cho said he would like to also apply the expenditure approach to North Korea’s national accounts but there isn’t enough data. Cho cautions against assuming that the modest economic development seen in the changing face of Pyongyang is replicated outside the capital, particularly in the countryside. But he does see the rise of the services sector as a nationwide trend that is increasingly important for the economy and has come in tandem with Kim Jong Un’s greater acceptance of market forces.

north korea
trade
kim jong un
development
north korea nuclear crisis


South Korean women ditch makeup and 'escape the corset' in rebellion against ideals of beauty

Abstract: SEOUL - South Korean university student Yim Ji-su used to sacrifice up to two hours of sleep each morning for her laborious makeup routine, from applying foundation and concealer to perming her shoulder-length hair. But about six months ago, she joined a growing band of young women who have given up makeup and cut their hair short to rebel against long-held ideals of beauty they claim to have been subjected to in male-dominated South Korea. The phenomenon has sparked debate in the beauty-obsessed nation, and brands are rethinking their marketing strategies to cater to the growing movement. “We are not dolls, we are human beings,” Yim, a third-year student in Korean literature said in an interview in Seoul, bare-faced and sporting a buzz cut. “By escaping this corset, I feel like I am myself again,” she said, adding that a number of students at her campus have jumped on the bandwagon. South Korea’s wide range of skin-care and cosmetic products has earned the industry the nickname “K-beauty,” a term reminiscent of the moniker “K-pop,” which refers to the booming pop music scene. South Korea has become one of the world’s top 10 beauty markets, according to global market research firm Mintel, with many women taking it to the extreme of plastic surgery to reach uniform beauty standards. But it is also known as a socially conservative country — it has one of the worst gender wage gaps among developed nations and is ranked 115 out of 149 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2018 Global Gender Gap report. Against this backdrop, discontent among women about society’s patriarchal aspects has been slowly growing. Tens of thousands of women took to the streets in Seoul last year to protest a spy-camera porn phenomenon in which victims were filmed illicitly when changing or having sex. Around the same time, a small group of women also began joining what is known as the “escape the corset” movement, taking to social media to post images of themselves destroying their cosmetics. YouTube star Lina Bae used to offer makeup tutorials on the video-sharing site, but in a viral video last June, she revealed the dark side of the rigid beauty standards and the ridicule she has had to suffer. In her video, which has attracted nearly 7 million views, Bae said some viewers told her, “I would kill myself if I were you” and “Didn’t know pig can make up.” She said many women are so insecure about their own appearances that they have to put on makeup even for a short trip to the supermarket. “I am not pretty, but it is fine,” says Bae, whose real name is Bae Eun-jeong, as she wipes away her bronze eye shadow and red lipstick in the video. “I will not be able to wear this corset forever,” she added. Despite the growing movement, analysts said that the K-beauty sector is unlikely to be affected, and Mintel data showed that it is expected to reach a retail market value of $11.4 billion in 2019, from $10.7 billion in 2018. “(It) is a movement that is emerging among South Korea’s younger generations today, but it is a trend that has not yet reached the mainstream public,” said Hwa Jun Lee, a senior beauty analyst at Mintel in Seoul. But he warned brands not to take the trend lightly. Some companies have already begun responding to the growing movement by shifting away from the existing rigid beauty standards to emphasize minimalism, with “all-in-one” beauty products that simplify skin-care routines, said Lee. Popular South Korean cosmetics brand Missha, meanwhile, has featured a short-haired female model in one of its latest commercials, and other local brands like Laka are the same. “While still in its nascent stage, it is important for brands to note that the ‘Escape the corset’ movement has the potential to grow further in the future,” the analyst said. Supporters of the movement said giving up makeup is only the start of a bigger push for greater gender equality, as South Korean women confront daily sexism. “It is about women’s choice. . . . The movement is about changing our everyday culture,” said Shin Ji-ye, a 28-year-old politician who stole headlines last year when she ran to become mayor of Seoul but lost. But campaigner Heather Barr said it would be a long haul for feminists in South Korea to achieve greater women’s rights, including introducing stronger legislation against abuse and sexual harassment. “(It) will take a sustained effort, but they show no signs of giving up,” said the senior women’s rights researcher at global watchdog Human Rights Watch.

women
south korea
cosmetics
discrimination
beauty services


Family ties thwart Cambodia's efforts to tackle bride trafficking to China

Abstract: PHNOM PENH - Although a rising number of Cambodian women are being sold as brides in China, complaints and convictions are on the decline, with many victims refusing to speak out because their families are colluding with trafficking rings, a regional police chief says. Thousands of Cambodian women have gone to China in recent years on the pretense that they would be able to marry, work and send money home to their families, only to find themselves sold into forced — and often abusive — marriages, campaigners say. But survivors who return to Cambodia often decide against filing police complaints because they fear implicating their relatives in criminality, according to Thol Meng, deputy chief of the anti-trafficking bureau in the province of Kompong Cham. “When a victim gets in trouble in China, the family seeks our help to rescue them, but once they get home, the families do not want to cooperate,” said Meng, whose province is a major hub in Cambodia for traffickers seeking to send people to China. “Maybe they (relatives of victims) are concerned that we will find that they received money from the traffickers,” he said in an interview. China’s one-child policy and preference for boys has created a huge gender imbalance that reverberates across Southeast Asia. China will have an excess of 40 million men of marrying age by 2020, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Although the policy was relaxed in 2016, its legacy remains, fueling the trafficking of women and girls from Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos, according to campaigners. Almost 7,000 Cambodian women have been trafficked to China and forced into marriage, the government said in 2016 — the latest available official data. But campaigners say the real number is likely far higher, with many cases going unreported. Kompong Cham saw four trafficking convictions last year — down from 20 in 2015 — despite the demand for Cambodian brides in China “rising sharply” in recent years, according to Meng. Originally, the traffickers were Chinese or out-of-town Cambodians, the police chief said. They stood out when visiting the country’s far-flung areas, but have since changed tactics and recruited locals — known as “brokers” — to do their work. “Many of these brokers, they don’t really know what they are doing — just that they can get $100 for each girl,” Meng said, adding that the four convictions last year were all of local women who personally knew the victims they helped send to China. “Personally, I feel that they are also victims,” he added. “I pity them, but the law does not compromise.” The masterminds, he said, had peddled their lies to the point where “brokers” would send their own offspring to China. In response, police have been traveling to the poorest and most remote parts of the province to hold forums on the dangers. Attendance is good and the response generally positive, Meng said, but he fears the lure of life abroad — and the desperation of poor families — will keep driving young women toward China. “I guess no matter how much information we spread on the risks and dangers, the reality is that people need to support their families, so they will go after all,” he said. “They are not hard of hearing. They are desperate and poor.”

china
organized crime
cambodia
human trafficking


'Mission accomplished': JAXA's Hayabusa2 space probe lands on Ryugu asteroid, 300 million kilometers away

Abstract: A probe launched by JAXA to examine the Ryugu asteroid, 300 million kilometers from Earth, for clues about the origin of life and the solar system successfully landed on the space rock Friday, scientists said. Data from the Hayabusa2 probe showed changes in speed and direction, indicating it had touched down on the asteroid and was blasting back to its orbiting position, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). About 50 members of the operation team and some 20 other people who were monitoring the developments Friday morning at JAXA’s control room, in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, erupted in joy when signals arrived confirming Hayabusa2 had landed and fired a projectile, pumping their fists, clapping and hugging. “We have completed our mission,” JAXA Research Director Takashi Kubota told reporters. “Today, the hand of humankind has reached a new starlet,” said Hayabusa2 Project Manager Yuichi Tsuda, an associate professor at JAXA’s Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, at a news conference. “The touchdown was in the best conditions, and as desired.” The asteroid is thought to contain relatively large amounts of organic matter and water from some 4.6 billion years ago, when the solar system was born. After landing, the probe was set to return to its orbit around Ryugu, with further touchdowns planned for later in the year. Hayabusa2 will eventually fire an “impactor” to blast out material from underneath Ryugu’s surface, allowing the collection of “fresh” materials unexposed to millennia of wind and radiation. Scientists hope those samples may provide answers to some fundamental questions about life and the universe, including whether elements from space helped give rise to life on Earth. Communication with Hayabusa2 is impossible at times because its antennas are not always pointed toward Earth. The mission has not been completely plain sailing, and the probe’s landing was originally scheduled for last year. That was pushed back after surveys found the asteroid’s surface was more rugged than initially thought, forcing JAXA to take more time to find a suitable landing site. The Hayabusa2 mission, with a price tag of around ¥30 billion ($270 million), was launched in December 2014 and is scheduled to return to Earth with its samples in 2020. Photos of Ryugu — which means “dragon palace” in Japanese and refers to a castle at the bottom of the ocean in an ancient Japanese tale — show an asteroid shaped a bit like a spinning top, with a rough surface. Hayabusa2 observes the surface of the asteroid with its camera and sensing equipment but has also dispatched two tiny Minerva-II rover robots, as well as the French-German robot Mascot, to help surface observation. Scientists are already receiving data from those probes deployed on the surface of the asteroid. The 10 kilogram (22-lb.) observation robot Mascot is loaded with sensors and can take images at multiple wavelengths, investigate minerals with a microscope, gauge surface temperatures and measure magnetic fields. At about the size of a large fridge, Hayabusa2 is equipped with solar panels and is the successor to JAXA’s first asteroid explorer, Hayabusa — which is Japanese for falcon. That probe returned from a smaller, potato-shaped asteroid in 2010 with dust samples, despite various setbacks during its epic seven-year odyssey, and was hailed as a scientific triumph.


Accused of rape, Tsuyoshi Tabata leaves LDP, in latest 'terrible third-time lawmaker’ scandal

Abstract: House of Representatives member Tsuyoshi Tabata left the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Thursday, joining the LDP’s cohort of “terrible third-time lawmakers” considered prone to scandals and gaffes. The LDP accepted the resignation of Tabata, 46, who was elected for the third time to the lower chamber of the Diet in the Tokai bloc, under the proportional representation system, in the 2017 election. A woman has filed a criminal complaint against Tabata, a former Bank of Japan employee, over an alleged rape. Some in the LDP are calling for Tabata’s resignation as a Diet member to minimize the impact of his scandal on unified local elections in April and the election for the House of Councilors in the summer. But such a move could lead to tensions between LDP factions. Tabata is a member of the faction led by Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai. If Tabata resigns his Lower House seat will be passed to Takeru Yoshikawa, who belongs to the faction of Policy Research Council Chairman Fumio Kishida. Yoshikawa competed unsuccessfully for a seat in the Shizuoka No. 5 constituency against independent lawmaker Goshi Hosono, who recently joined the Nikai faction. Yoshikawa heads the LDP branch for the constituency. Tabata’s resignation would likely reignite tensions between the Nikai and Kishida factions, observers said. Tabata first won a seat in the Lower House election in December 2012, when the LDP achieved a sweeping victory and returned to power. Other scandal-hit former LDP lawmakers said to be among the “terrible” group that won seats for the first time in the 2012 election include Mayuko Toyota, who lost her seat in the October 2017 election after making headlines for verbally abusing her secretary, and Kensuke Miyazaki, who quit his seat in February 2016 after admitting to having an extramarital affair while his wife was pregnant.

fumio kishida
ldp
scandals
sex crimes
goshi hosono
toshihiro nikai
tsuyoshi tabata


Japan stresses its claim to South Korea-held islets on 'Takeshima Day' as bilateral tensions simmer

Abstract: MATSUE, SHIMANE PREF. - Japan on Friday stepped up its claim to a pair of South Korea-controlled islets, amid escalating tensions with its neighbor resulting from disputes over wartime issues. “It is clear that Takeshima, which has been illegally occupied by South Korea, is our country’s inherent territory in light of historical facts and international law,” Hiroshi Ando, a parliamentary vice minister in the Cabinet Office, said of the islands in the Sea of Japan at an annual ceremony hosted by the Shimane Prefectural Government. “We will take a firm attitude to convey our country’s position to the South Korean side and continue to deal with the matter in a persistent and calm manner,” Ando said. As part of efforts to demonstrate its position on the islets, called Dokdo in South Korea, the central government has sent a representative of Ando’s rank to the ceremony each year since 2013. In a speech, Shimane Gov. Zembee Mizoguchi criticized South Korea, saying Seoul “attempts to make the occupation of Takeshima an established fact through landings by government and parliamentary officials, among other means.” In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said in a news conference, “Territory and sovereignty are the foundation of a nation. We will continue to relay information at home and abroad so that our country’s position will be accurately understood.” The annual ceremony has been held on Feb. 22 since 2006 after the Shimane Prefectural Government designated the day as “Takeshima Day” the previous year, a century after the prefecture declared it had assimilated the islets following Cabinet approval. The two uninhabited islets, covering a total land area of 0.2 square kilometers, consist of volcanic rock with little vegetation or drinking water, but are located in rich fishing grounds. South Korea has stationed security personnel on the disputed islets, roughly 200 km from either country, since 1954, and effectively controls them. The territorial row drew fresh attention after it was recently reported in Japan that South Korean researchers conducted a state-funded survey in waters around the islets and took sediment samples from the sea floor in 2012. Bilateral ties have already chilled in the wake of rulings by the South Korean Supreme Court in October and November ordering Japanese companies to compensate for what the court recognizes as wartime forced labor during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945, and an incident in which a South Korean navy vessel allegedly locked its fire-control radar on a Japanese patrol plane in December. In a move that further worsened diplomatic ties, South Korean National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang recently called for an apology from Emperor Akihito to resolve a separate historical dispute over the “comfort women,” a euphemism for women who provided sex, including those who did so against their will, for Japanese troops before and during World War II.

disputed islands
south korea
shimane
takeshima
takeshima day
south korea-japan relations


Airport and railway staff do their duties darkly on ni ni ni 'Ninja Day' in central Japan

Abstract: NAGOYA/TSU, MIE PREF. - Staff at Chubu airport donned ninja attire and a railway station ceremonially named itself “Ninja City Station” on Friday to celebrate “Ninja Day” in central Japan. Feb. 22 was designated Ninja Day by the Japan Anniversary Association at the request of the cities of Koka, Shiga Prefecture, and Iga, Mie Prefecture, as it emphasizes the number two, which is pronounced ni in Japanese. The station is located in Iga, where the famous Iga ninja clan was active in feudal times. East of Mie at Chubu airport, around 50 people including airline staff and cleaning crews conducted their duties while wearing red or black ninja outfits, airport operator Central Japan International Airport Co. said. Another 3,500 airport workers, such as those in stores or providing security, wore badges that said they were doing their ninmu (duty). As a play on words, the kanji nin was written with the same character used in ninja instead of the correct one, which means task or responsibility. The celebration is part of a local promotional campaign to increase the number of foreign visitors by taking advantage of the feudal mercenaries’ overseas popularity. “We want Chubu airport to be known as Ninja airport,” said Masato Kondo, director of the airport company. At the railroad station in Iga Prefecture, a sign was put up bearing the station’s new nickname, “Ninja City Sta.” above the one with its official name. It also decided to start calling a local line “the Ninja Line.” “I hope that the region becomes more vibrant as the power of the ninja will attract more visitors,” said Sadako Fukuta, an 86-year-old resident.

rail
tourism
ninja
mie
chubu airport
iga
koka
ninja day


Measles spreading in Japan at fastest pace in a decade, led by Mie and Osaka

Abstract: The number of measles cases in Japan since the start of the year has grown at its fastest pace in the past decade, with Mie Prefecture leading the increase. The National Institute of Infectious Diseases said Tuesday that 167 new measles patients were reported in 20 of the nation’s 47 prefectures between the start of 2019 and Feb. 10. The health ministry has issued a notice calling on medical institutions to take preventive measures against the highly infectious disease. The institute said Mie saw 49 new measles patients during the period, followed by 47 reported in Osaka Prefecture, 17 in Aichi Prefecture, 11 in Tokyo and six in Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo. According to the Mie Prefectural Government, of 49 people who participated in a seminar held by a religious group late last year at a facility in Tsu, the capital of the prefecture, 29 have been diagnosed with measles. Of the 29 patients, 24 came from Mie, three from Gifu Prefecture and one each from Aichi and Wakayama prefectures. The disease spread to their family members and those who had contact with those infected at medical institutions and schools. In the city of Osaka, 12 employees at the Abeno Harukas commercial complex of Kintetsu Department Store Co. and 11 customers had been diagnosed with measles or were suspected of having measles as of Wednesday. The Osaka Prefectural Government said a woman in her 40s infected with measles traveled between Tokyo Station and Shin-Osaka Station and back via the Shinkansen bullet train on Feb. 8 and Feb. 10. The authority warned that the disease may have been spread to an unspecified number of people. After a latent period of some 10 days, the disease causes symptoms including fever, cough and a runny nose, which are followed by skin rashes. While patients normally recover in seven to 10 days after the symptoms appear, some may develop complications such as pneumonia and inflammation of the brain. Receiving a vaccination twice is said to be effective in preventing measles. Over 95 percent of Japanese aged 2 or older have antibodies against the disease, a source said. A ministry official said a large measles outbreak is unlikely, but called on people to consult with doctors quickly if they suspect they are experiencing any of the known symptoms.


Electromagnetic body scanners slated for testing in one of Japan's busiest subway stations in March

Abstract: The transport ministry said it will begin using body scanners that can “see through” clothing next month on a trial basis to check subway passengers at Tokyo Metro Co.’s Kasumigaseki Station for dangerous items. The experiment will use technology that converts electromagnetic terahertz waves emitted by people and objects into images and can determine the shape of some objects hidden by clothing. The test is being carried out to bolster security in the wake of a fatal assault on a bullet train last year. It will be conducted at the hub, one of the busiest subway stations in the country, in the capital’s Chiyoda Ward. “We are studying various ways to carry out inspections, including methods involving other devices, and (this experiment) will be the first one. We may conduct more experiments using other methods,” a ministry official said Friday. The body scanners will be installed at one or two of the station’s ticket gates near the Hibiya Park exit between March 4 and 7. The scanners will be used seven hours a day, including during rush hours, to scan objects carried by passengers, according to the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry. Data from passengers, including facial images, may be recorded in the test. The ministry said it will discard personal information collected in the test by the end of March. As for luggage, the equipment to be used cannot verify what is inside passengers’ baggage. Objects less than 5 cm in length and width will not usually appear on the monitor. Even if they do, their chemical properties will not be recognized. The scanning process does not require passengers to stop or subject them to bag checks. People who do not wish to participate will be able to use other ticket gates, the ministry said. Around 150,000 passengers use the station daily. Incidents on bullet trains in recent years have raised concerns about the security of public transportation and the government is exploring ways to strengthen measures in the run-up to the 2020 Tokyo Games. The ministry hopes to learn whether the scanners, which sound similar to devices used at airport security checkpoints, can detect mock knives and explosives without interrupting operations at the station. As part of the new security measures on railways, the ministry has decided to ban “unwrapped” knives on trains starting in April. The experiment at Kasumigaseki Station will be run by Sohgo Security Services Co., also known as Alsok.

terrorism
security
subway
2020 tokyo olympics
kasumigaseki


New Zealand marks eighth anniversary of Christchurch quake that killed 185, including 28 Japanese

Abstract: CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND - The city of Christchurch marked on Friday the eighth anniversary of an earthquake that killed 185 people and caused extensive damage from which New Zealand’s oldest city is still recovering. Of the victims, 115 people were killed when the six-story Canterbury Television Building collapsed. Among them were 28 Japanese, as well as other foreign nationals, who were studying English at a language school on the third floor of the building. A small service at the Canterbury Earthquake National Memorial on the banks of the Avon River included a minute’s silence at 12:51 p.m. to mark the exact time the magnitude 6.3 quake struck on Feb. 22, 2011. Mayor Lianne Dalziel said in her remarks that the community continues to gather each year to ensure the lives of those who were lost “live on not only in the memories of those who loved and knew them well, but also in our collective memories.” She also paid tribute to the foreign victims, saying, “Christchurch is the final resting place to many from overseas (and we acknowledge) what that means to their families.” Kazuo and Seiko Horita, who lost their 19-year-old daughter Megumi in the building collapse, were among the families who traveled from Japan to attend the service. Upset about a lack of justice, Kazuo, her father, said, “I intend to keep seeking an apology from the city of Christchurch for approving the construction of a faulty building.” Also in attendance were Kikuo and Chizuko Suzuki, who have traveled to Christchurch from Nagoya every year since their daughter Yoko, a 31-year-old nurse who was studying English at the King’s Education language school, died in the collapse. Kikuo, 72, lamented the decision by the authorities not to pursue criminal prosecution in relation to the CTV Building collapse. “But I also feel New Zealand did what they could under the circumstances,” he said. Eight years on, a sense of frustration lingers among some families as no one has been held responsible for the structural deficiencies blamed for the collapse of the building, which claimed more than half of the victims. “I don’t think there is one person in New Zealand who thinks that justice is being served,” said Maan Alkaisi, who lost his wife, Maysoon Abbas, in the building’s collapse and is a spokesman for the CTV Families Group. In 2017, the police announced they would not pursue criminal prosecution in relation to the collapse, citing a lack of evidence to provide a reasonable prospect of conviction. Alkaisi said he is equally disappointed that a bill currently before Parliament to make it harder for negligent engineers to escape prosecution does not include reconstruction projects already underway in the city. The “one year, one day” rule in New Zealand’s penal code prevents anyone from being held criminally responsible for a death more than a year and a day after negligence contributing to the death occurs.

new zealand
earthquakes
christchurch
disasters
anniversaries


It's Cat Day: Let's celebrate with crappy photos!

Abstract: Feb. 22 is Cat Day in Japan as the date, 2-22, can sound like “ nyan nyan nyan ” (“meow, meow, meow”). While many people online are showing off the cutest photos of their fur babies, others are posting less-than-flattering pictures of their kitties with the hashtag #crappiest cat photo competition (猫の写真へたくそ選手権) . It puts together Japan’s two favorite things: online competitions for crappy photos and, of course, cats. After looking through piles of blurry messes, here are some of the highlights. View this post on Instagram 今日のにゃんこ！(=^ェ^=)おとん！ピント合わせるところ間違ってない？ 🐾 🐾 🐾 🐾 🐾 🐾 #ねこ #ネコ #猫 #くろねこ #クロネコ #黒猫 #今日のにゃんこ #今日のニャンコ #スナックモナ #スナックネロ #土あっぷ祭 #土アップ祭 #猫の写真へたくそ選手権 #猫の写真下手くそ選手権 #blackcat #schwarzeKatze #chatnoir #검은고양이 #gattonero #gatonegro #gatopreto #atratafeles #чёрныйко A post shared by Mamoru_Goto (@mamomamo_g) on Feb 20, 2019 at 12:55am PST “My cat today. I think it’s focusing on something, if I’m not mistaken?” View this post on Instagram #猫の写真へたくそ選手権 納豆ネバネバ〜〜的な舌👅 #bashofu #love #beautiful #fashion #kimono #japan #textile #handweaving #naturaldye #bananafiber #naturalfiber #primitive #ikat #norwegianforestcat #cat #cute #ノルウェージャンフォレストキャット #ねこ #猫 A post shared by bashofu_love［芭蕉布］ (@bashofu_love) on Feb 20, 2019 at 4:51am PST “Its tongue is like sticky nattō .” View this post on Instagram うちの子なんてまだまだ序の口だわね… #猫の写真へたくそ選手権 #cat #catstagram #catsofinstagram #cats #ねこ #にゃんこ #ネコ #きじとら #キジトラ男子部 #猫のいる暮らし A post shared by ERI (@yuamax_e) on Feb 20, 2019 at 9:39pm PST “My child is still a novice…” View this post on Instagram うちのミル あっ可愛♡って いつも 撮るけど 気乗りしない ミル #猫の写真へたくそ選手権 #うちのミル A post shared by @ mil_0925_s on Feb 20, 2019 at 3:18pm PST “Our family’s Miru. Ah, so cute. I’m always taking photos. Miru is never interested.” View this post on Instagram #猫の写真へたくそ選手権 あくびしたとき撮れるやつ A post shared by kantachasuke (@kantachasuke) on Feb 20, 2019 at 7:11am PST “I took a photo of it yawning.” View this post on Instagram #猫の写真へたくそ選手権 A post shared by グリム (@glim1029) on Feb 20, 2019 at 6:16am PST View this post on Instagram ＊本人はごきげんです＊ ＊ 頭をなでなでしていると、だんだんと 白目になっていくくるみさん。 これでもゴロゴロ喉を鳴らしながら あくびまでしてごきげんです。 ＊ ＊ #ねこ #ネコ #猫 #cat #にゃんすたぐらむ #ねこすたぐらむ #catstagram #silvertabby #catstagram_japan #ねこ部 #ネコ部 #猫好き #ねこのいる生活 #猫のいる幸せ #猫のいる暮らし #サバトラ#さばとら #ミックス猫 #保護猫を家族に #里親になろう #里親になりました #猫の写真へたくそ選手権 A post shared by Maki Yoko (@yocco.89) on Feb 19, 2019 at 11:40pm PST “It’s actually happy. Whenever I pet it, the white parts around its eyes come out. It kept purring and was so happy until it yawned.” View this post on Instagram ❅❅❅ ぼく…ラッピングされてまう？ﾚ(ﾟ∀ﾟ;)ﾍ=З=З=Зﾆｹﾞﾛ!!( ﾟдﾟ)ﾊｯ! 大好きなゴムが……触れないにゃ(๑꒦ິȏ꒦ິ๑) ❅ ❅ ❅ #ラウ#きじとら#きじとらねこ #とらねこ#ねこ#ねこ好き#にゃんこ#みんねこ#イケメン#イケにゃん #かわいい #かわいいねこ #cat#cats#chat#tabby#tabbycat#gatto#gatton #Kitty#KAT#meowcat #meow #芸人か#ラッピング#猫の写真へたくそ選手権 A post shared by Min (@min52115) on Feb 6, 2019 at 5:43am PST “I’m … wrapped up? I … can’t touch my favorite piece of rubber.” View this post on Instagram 2匹の妖怪発見した #茶トラ #茶トラ男子部 #スコティッシュ #スコティッシュフォールド #すこてぃっしゅふぉーるど #にゃんすたぐらむ #こねこ #子猫 #ねこ #猫の写真へたくそ選手権 A post shared by ナッツ＆レオ (@nutsuun) on Jul 5, 2018 at 11:14pm PDT “I found two yōkai (monsters).” View this post on Instagram 本当はハンサムニャンコのディーノくん… 撮影のタイミングが悪いだけなんです^^; #猫の写真へたくそ選手権 #ねこ部 #くろねこ A post shared by Yoshitaka Yamazaki (@yoshitaka.yamazaki) on Feb 20, 2019 at 1:20am PST “Seriously, Dino-kun is a handsome cat … it’s just that I had bad timing taking this photo.” View this post on Instagram ダイナ猫元気💮猫の運動神経すごい。着地もちゃんと出来るのです。 ・ 猫じゃらしを操るおばさんは腕と膝が痛いですが、猫が元気なのが一番です。 ・ ・ #猫 #cat #cats #kitty #adorable #kat #katt #고양이 #gato #katze #gatto #gata #pusa #catstagram #кошка #catsofinstagram #instameow #ilovemycat #catlover #cutecat #instacats #catphotography #photooftheday #petsofinstagram #instacute #dailyfluff @cats_of_instagram #cuteanimals ・ #ねこのきもち #dinahthecat #猫の写真へたくそ選手権 A post shared by ayachiyo (@ayachiyonya) on Jan 10, 2019 at 6:34am PST “Daina the cat is happy. The cat’s reflexes are amazing. And it can stick the landing.” View this post on Instagram . 下手くそとはまた別かもしれんけど🤔 一番変な顔で撮れてしまったやつ . . #猫の写真へたくそ選手権 #猫 #cat #catstagram #petstagram #猫好き #猫好きな人と繋がりたい #写真 A post shared by Ⓞ.ᴇʀɪ (@_aknot.ir) on Feb 19, 2019 at 10:38pm PST “Although it may not be crappy, I took a photo of the weirdest face.” View this post on Instagram #猫の写真へたくそ選手権 #猫#愛猫 A post shared by まくら（真紅良）ぼっち｜ω・） (@makura_0830) on Feb 19, 2019 at 8:42pm PST View this post on Instagram #猫の写真へたくそ選手権 #cat #catsofinstagram #ちょんま A post shared by 田島家の猫 (@tajicat4) on Feb 19, 2019 at 8:36pm PST


Youths rally for action on climate change outside Diet as 'Friday' movement reaches Japan

Abstract: Students calling for action to address climate change took to the streets in front of the Diet on Friday, joining what has become a global youth movement. About 20 individuals, including high school and university students, sought to raise the alarm about climate change and make their voices heard, holding up handmade placards that read “Live with the Earth” and “Act Now!” Organizers took a cue from a broader movement called #FridaysForFuture that began in 2018 when 15-year-old Greta Thunberg spent her school hours not in class, but sitting in front of Sweden’s legislature demanding political action against climate change. She posted her daily activity on Instagram and Twitter, grabbing attention in Europe and beyond. Held in an area where government offices are concentrated, the event at the Diet was the first of its kind in Japan, according to the people who decided to organize it. “Young people can change society as a whole if our perceptions change,” said Aina Koide, a 20-year-old university student who is leading the initiative. “My hope is that more young people will share that view and come,” she said, adding that the priority is to raise awareness about environmental issues. Among the participants in the event were a female university student who rushed to the roughly hourlong rally in her job-hunting suit, and students who had their eyes opened to the issue while spending time abroad. Isao Sakai, an 18-year-old high school student, recalled that the environmental science class he took during his stay in the United States was an “eye-opening experience.” “I didn’t care about climate change until then. But knowledge makes a difference,” Sakai said. “First off, more young people need to become aware of what’s happening.”

global warming
climate change
environment


Inspector who died of mystery cause suspected of stealing cash from Hiroshima police station safe

Abstract: HIROSHIMA - Police suspect an officer found dead in 2017 stole about ¥85.72 million ($774,000) in cash from a safe at a police station in the city of Hiroshima earlier that year, investigative sources said Thursday. The police suspect the theft at Hiroshima Chuo Police Station on May 8, 2017, was an inside job. The cash, which was evidence in a fraud case, has still not been found. The Hiroshima Prefectural Police have already decided to collect money from officers to cover the loss suffered by the fraud victims as a result of the theft, as they did not want to use taxpayer’s money for that purpose. The male officer in his 30s, who held the rank of inspector, worked in the community safety section of the police station until March 2017 and was involved in the fraud investigation. He had returned tens of millions of yen borrowed from colleagues and others for gambling, but it was not known how he obtained the money. The officer was found dead at his home in September 2017. He did not leave a suicide note and the cause of his death remains unknown, according to the sources. The police have questioned around 600 people, including former and current officers of the police station. The safe was locked and its keys were in a drawer of the accounting section chief’s desk when the cash was found missing. It was also found that the section chief was supposed to take the keys home but had not done so at the time. The prefectural police plans to punish those who were senior officers of the police station at the time for failing to properly manage the safe.


Labor union at Japan's MUFJ Bank to request first hike in base pay in four years

Abstract: MUFJ Bank’s labor union plans to request a base pay increase at this year’s spring wage talks for the first time in four years, becoming the only union from one of the three mega-banks to do so, according to sources close to the matter. After reviewing such factors as the looming consumption tax hike in October, the union at MUFJ Bank, the core unit of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., decided to request a 0.5 percent base pay bump, the sources said Monday. Unions at rivals Mitsui Sumitomo Banking Corp. and Mizuho Financial Group Inc. are not seeking a base pay hike amid a sluggish business climate hurt by the low interest rate environment created by the Bank of Japan’s ultraeasy monetary policy, other sources said. The union at Mitsui Sumitomo will forgo its request for a second consecutive year, while Mizuho’s union will be doing the same for the fourth consecutive year. The unions are expected to present their demands to management in late March. For this year’s annual wage negotiations, Toyota Motor Corp.’s union, whose negotiations tend to be reflected in wage talks in other sectors, did not present a specific target for a base pay hike, demanding instead an overall increase in benefits. Keidanren, the nation’s most powerful business lobby, has also departed from focusing on raising base pay and is instead suggesting its members consider improving labor conditions “comprehensively,” such as by enhancing benefits for working parents.


Trump extends China tariff deadline after 'substantial' progress

Abstract: WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump said he’ll extend a deadline to raise tariffs on Chinese goods beyond this week, citing “substantial progress” in the latest round of trade talks that wrapped up Sunday in Washington. “The U.S. has made substantial progress in our trade talks with China on important structural issues including intellectual property protection, technology transfer, agriculture, services, currency, and many other issues,” Trump said in a Twitter posting on Sunday evening. “As a result of these very productive talks, I will be delaying the U.S. increase in tariffs now scheduled for March 1.” If the sides make further headway in negotiations, Trump said he and Xi planned to meet at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to conclude an agreement, though he didn’t offer any details on the timing of the meeting or how long he expects the tariff extension to last. “Substantial” progress was made on “specific issues” as the latest round of trade talks concluded, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported, without giving more details. U.S. stock futures climbed in Asian trading Monday following the news, while the offshore yuan extended gains and the yen — which typically weakens when investors’ appetite for risk grows — edged lower. The latest U.S.-China trade meeting was supposed to end Friday, but China’s Vice Premier Liu He extended his visit to Washington into the weekend. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday that a leaders’ meeting at Mar-a-Lago is being tentatively planned for late March. The U.S. Trade Representative’s office plans to issue a formal order this week to delay the rise in tariffs. Pushing back the March 1 deadline to more than double U.S. tariffs on more than $200 billion of Chinese goods will help soothe investor worries that a ratcheting-up of the trade war would derail a global economic expansion that’s already showing signs of softening. The latest round of negotiations produced an agreement on a currency provision, according to Mnuchin, who didn’t elaborate on its details. It was learned earlier that the U.S. was asking China to keep the value of the yuan stable to neutralize any effort to soften the blow of U.S. tariffs. Still, the negotiating teams hadn’t struck a deal as of late Saturday on how to monitor the currency pact. The Trump administration has said it will insist to strong enforcement measures as part of any trade deal after complaining that Beijing failed to act on past reform pledges. During the latest round of talks, the sides continued to put their commitments in writing. The documents, which cover issues like U.S. accusations that foreign companies are forced to transfer their technology in China and alleged intellectual property theft will eventually be merged into a single agreement for the presidents’ final approval, according to a person familiar with the talks. The person said a draft agreement on China’s technology transfer policies — one of the toughest issues — took shape over the course of the week. The two sides have been holding rounds of talks in Washington and Beijing in recent weeks to forge a deal envisioned by Trump and Xi during a Dec. 1 dinner in Buenos Aires. The leaders agreed at the time to hold off on escalating the trade war for 90 days while their administrations sought common ground on issues ranging from intellectual-property theft to soybean purchases. China offered to buy an additional 10 million metric tons of American soybeans during the most recent talks, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said on Twitter on Friday. Uncertainty posed by the trade war has taken a toll on both economies and caused some turmoil in financial markets. Chinese exports have suffered a weak patch amid the dispute, representing a drag on growth with shipments to the U.S. falling for two straight months through January. But U.S. exports to China have suffered as well, and the U.S. Federal Reserve said Friday that net exports would detract from last year’s economic expansion. Gross domestic product will expand at a slower pace this year in both countries, according to analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. That pessimism contributed to a plunge in global equities at year-end, though markets have since recovered partly on optimism that the trade tensions will cool. After suffering its worst December since the Great Depression, the S&P 500 Index rebounded almost 8 percent in January and is up about 3 percent this month. The Shanghai Composite Index of Chinese equities plunged 25 percent last year, recouping about 12 percent in 2019.

china
yen
trade
xi jinping
tariffs
donald trump
trade war


With Ghosn still under lock and key in Tokyo, foreign execs are getting spooked about taking jobs in Japan

Abstract: The stunning arrest, indictments and long incarceration of former Nissan Motor Co. Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn have given pause to foreign executives considering taking on senior jobs at Japanese companies. As Ghosn enters his fourth month in jail and awaits a trial still several months away, the imprisonment of the most high-profile non-Japanese in this nation’s business world may stymie efforts to diversify Japan’s corporate ranks with overseas talent, according to management experts. Foreign executives may think twice about accepting positions until they see how his case plays out and whether it leads to stricter compliance rules. “It’s having a chilling effect,” said Yumiko Ohta, a partner in Tokyo with the law firm Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe who advises clients on corporate governance. “It’s going to be much more difficult to recruit foreign executives into Japan.” The inability of such a prominent business leader to win his release while awaiting trial could scare some non-Japanese — no matter how law-abiding — from accepting Japan postings and also make international companies more reluctant to post them here, said Johan Uittenbogaard, managing partner with recruiting company Odgers Berndtson in Tokyo. “There’s another layer of risk,” he said. “You start thinking about it: Even if you haven’t done anything wrong, you can get put in jail for three months.” Even Ghosn’s defense lawyer, Junichiro Hironaka, raised the issue during a news conference last week in which he said his client is the victim of a conspiracy by his Nissan underlings. Ghosn hired Hironaka this month after his previous legal team twice failed to win bail. “It’s bizarre to me how this became such an incident,” Hironaka said. Ghosn, 64, remains in Tokyo Detention House, accused of aggravated breach of trust and filing false statements to regulators regarding $80 million in deferred income. He was arrested Nov. 19 and faces as many as 10 years in prison if convicted. He denies all charges, calling the accusations “meritless and unsubstantiated” during a courtroom appearance last month. “This will become a big problem for Japan and its business,” Hironaka said. “Nissan should have solved this problem internally.” Japan has a limited history with foreign CEOs. The most high-profile examples in recent years include Ghosn, Howard Stringer at Sony Corp., Christophe Weber at Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. and Sarah Casanova at McDonald’s Holdings Co. Japan. A study published in 2015 found only about a dozen examples of foreign CEOs in Japan, said co-author Sheela Pandey, an assistant professor of management at Pennsylvania State University Harrisburg. Those “extremely rare” executives typically encounter culture clashes and opposition from Japanese subordinates, and the handling of Ghosn’s case throws up another red flag, she said. “Foreign CEOs will be reluctant to work in Japan,” Pandey said in an email. “This does not help with becoming more international.” To be sure, there are still many foreigners who want to work in Japan and won’t be deterred by Ghosn’s case, said Anne Raphael, a Paris-based managing partner at Boyden France who helps luxury goods companies do executive searches. Foreign executives seeking to work in Japan likely have a special fondness for the country, Raphael said. “Personal tastes play an important part in foreign executives choosing to work in Japan,” she said. Still, the concern triggered by Ghosn’s arrest is hindering efforts to hire executives from abroad, said Casey Abel, managing director in Tokyo at recruiter HCCR K.K., which works with clients in the auto industry. Recently, two foreign candidates for executive positions decided to wait and see how the Ghosn case plays out before accepting offers, Abel said. He wouldn’t disclose the companies or any details about the clients except to say they were vice president-level engineering experts. “It’s creating trepidation,” Abel said. “I’ve got, right now, 15 people that we’re talking to at an executive level for automotive clients in Japan, and I’ll say two-thirds of them have very pragmatically, directly brought this up as a concern.” Ghosn’s case also comes at a time of increased demand at many Japanese companies for non-Japanese to join their boards of directors, said Nobuyuki Tsuji, who manages the Tokyo office for recruitment firm Spencer Stuart. His responsibilities include working with technology, media and industrial companies. The Tokyo Stock Exchange last year revised its corporate governance code, calling on members to improve the diversity of their boards in terms of “gender and international experience.” About 8 percent of publicly traded companies surveyed by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry had at least one non-Japanese on the board, according to a May 2018 report. “Even very good executives might have concerns that if something happened — even not because of wrongdoing by him or her — there might be a possibility that they would get arrested and not get out,” Tsuji said. Japanese companies already faced significant obstacles trying to recruit outsiders. Japan ranked 29th out of 63 economies — behind Cyprus and Estonia — in terms of its ability to attract and develop talent, according to a survey published in November by IMD World Competitiveness Center in Lausanne, Switzerland. Asian economies ranking higher than Japan were Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Taiwan. In terms of its appeal to overseas talent, Japan ranked 28th last year, compared with 10th in 2014, according to the survey. “Japan needs foreign executives,” said Seth Sulkin, chief executive officer of Pacifica Capital, a real estate developer in Tokyo. “There really are only two major growth industries in Japan, and that’s inbound tourism-related business, and exports, and you need foreign executives for both.”