Japan plans to take steps against 'fake news' by June

Abstract: The government plans to come up with a set of measures aimed at preventing the spread of false online information, or “fake news,” particularly during elections and disasters, according to government sources. Officials are seeking to come up with the package around June, which may include requesting that major U.S. technology companies and other information providers voluntarily formulate a code of conduct, the sources said Monday. While European countries have been staying ahead of such efforts, Japan is hoping to get involved in making international rules by drawing up necessary domestic countermeasures first. Officials say they recognize the need to be careful about not putting freedom of expression at risk, and they have no plans to enshrine new measures against disinformation into law. U.S. tech giants, including Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, are expected to be the main focus of the measures to be drafted by a communications ministry panel of experts, the sources said. At the same time, the government is considering calling on Japanese tech companies such as Line Corp. and Yahoo Japan Corp. that provide news through online apps to improve measures to combat the spread of incorrect information on their platforms. In April 2018, the European Union asked leading U.S. and other tech and advertising firms to draft a self-regulatory code of practice and both sides agreed on a code in September. The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry believes that a similar effort can be produced in Japan.


Japan to test disaster warning system for Asia-Pacific region later this year using Michibiki GPS satellite

Abstract: KOBE - The government is preparing to test a disaster early warning system for the Asia-Pacific region using one of its quasi-zenith satellites later this year, a Kobe-based international organization said Sunday. Preparations are underway for the first test overseas later this year in India and Papua New Guinea as the nation aims to expand its contribution to other Asian countries’ disaster prevention. The initiative is also intended to mitigate potential impacts of natural disasters on Japanese manufacturers’ production and supply chains, according to the Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC). One of Japan’s four Michibiki global positioning system satellites will be used to relay information from institutions monitoring weather conditions, ADRC officials said. The government, working with the ADRC and domestic companies and universities, has developed a receiver to be distributed to local authorities, they said. Experiments have already been conducted within the nation to test reciprocal data transmission. In addition to sending warnings, the system has been used to connect computers at mock evacuation shelters and a disaster response center, the officials said. The system could be particularly effective in encouraging evacuation and managing relief activities in remote areas such as small islands and mountainous regions, they added.

satellite
asia
disasters
disaster warning
michibiki


Aichi police arrest Vietnamese man for allegedly operating underground bank

Abstract: NAGOYA - A 36-year-old Vietnamese man was arrested Sunday for allegedly operating what authorities considered to be an underground bank that sent money illegally from Japan to his home country, police said. The Aichi Prefectural Police believe Chu Anh Tuan illegally has remitted around ¥2.25 billion ($21 million) from Japan to Vietnam since he started the unlicensed operation in April 2013. The man, whose home address and occupation remain unknown, has denied the allegations, according to the police. He was arrested on suspicion of violating the Banking Law by transferring a total of about ¥970,000 from several Vietnamese nationals to the Southeast Asian country through his own bank account between June 2015 and September 2016, police said. They believe he charged ¥800 for remittances of up to ¥30,000 and ¥1,000 for transactions of up to ¥100,000.


Driverless terminal bus goes on test run at Tokyo's Haneda airport

Abstract: A minibus decorated with All Nippon Airways Co.’s signature blue and white logo motors across the tarmac at Tokyo’s Haneda airport. From the outside, it looks like an ordinary bus, with a person sitting in the driver’s seat — except no one is really operating the vehicle. Reporters got a glimpse Tuesday of an autonomous airport bus experiment in progress. It is part of Japan’s first series of experiments on automatic vehicle-control systems designed to carry passengers within an airport’s restricted zone. The project at Haneda is being developed by six companies, including ANA, NEC Corp. and Aichi Steel Corp. The move to go autonomous comes at a time when Japan is grappling with a shrinking labor force amid rising tourist numbers from abroad. As more flights are expected to arrive at and depart from Haneda in the coming years, the goal is to effectively and efficiently carry out operations for the ground crew, said Tadakatsu Yamaguchi, an ANA official. Those tasks include moving passengers between aircraft and terminals as well as unloading and loading their luggage. “As widely reported in the media, our industry regards the lack of drivers as an important issue,” Yamaguchi said. “Through automation, we hope to increase a vehicle’s operation time, enhance vehicle coordination and reduce the labor of bus drivers.” The goal is to have automated transportation in at least one Japanese airport by 2020, the year Tokyo will host the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, according to transport ministry official Haruka Hasegawa. At this stage in the experiment, a driver is always onboard to ensure safety. Officials say they eventually hope the minibus will be driverless. The experiment started Jan. 15 and is scheduled to wrap up this Friday. The bus is traveling 600 meters from the airport’s Terminal 2 to its satellite terminal. The Hino Motors Poncho minibus, capable of carrying 28 people, travels on the designated route using GPS. For areas where GPS is unavailable in the restricted zone, the bus relies on magnetic technology, said Masataka Sakamoto, a representative from one of the six firms, SB Drive Corp., a subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp. The minibus uses a receiver installed in its undercarriage to follow “magnetic markers” embedded in the ground. About 200 magnetic markers have been implanted where the test minibus is running. To avoid collisions with aircraft, a remote human operator conducts safety checks through images from cameras installed inside and outside the bus. In the future, it is expected that a single monitor will handle several vehicles at the same time. Similar autonomous tests have been carried out at Narita International Airport and Sendai International Airport. They will also be carried out at Chubu Centrair International Airport near Nagoya in the future. “The airport is a unique environment where neither bicycles nor people come onto the field and the maximum speed is 30 kph by regulation,” Yamaguchi said. This makes it “an optimal environment” to test how an autonomous vehicle will coexist with cars with drivers on the road, he said.


Facebook's WhatsApp limits users to five text forwards to curb 'misinformation and rumors'

Abstract: JAKARTA - Facebook Inc.’s WhatsApp is limiting worldwide the number of times a user can forward a message to five, starting on Monday, as the popular messaging service looks to fight “misinformation and rumors,” company executives said on Monday. Previously, a WhatsApp user could forward a message to 20 individuals or groups. The limit of five is in expansion of a measure WhatsApp put in place in India in July after the spread of rumors on social media led to killings and lynching attempts. “We’re imposing a limit of five messages all over the world as of today,” Victoria Grand, vice president for policy and communications at WhatsApp, said at an event in the Indonesian capital. WhatsApp, which has around 1.5 billion users, has been trying to find ways to stop misuse of the app, following global concern that the platform was being used to spread fake news, manipulated photos, videos without context and audio hoaxes, with no way to monitor their origin or full reach. The messaging service became part of the political battleground in Brazil’s presidential election last October, with far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro facing claims of using the app to spread falsehoods related to his main opponent. Bolsonaro, who ended up coasting to victory, has denied the charges. The messaging app was also used to mobilize support for a massive truckers strike in Brazil during May 2018 that blocked the country’s main roadways for about 10 days and hampered everything from fuel deliveries to gas stations to shipments of commodities at ports. The app’s end-to-end encryption allows groups of hundreds of users to exchange texts, photos and video beyond the oversight of independent fact checkers or even the platform itself. WhatsApp will roll out an update to activate the new forward limit, starting on Monday, WhatsApp’s head of communications, Carl Woog, told Reuters. Users of devices running Google’s Android system will receive the update first, followed by users of Apple Inc.’s iOS.

facebook
whatsapp
rumors
fake news
jair bolsonaro
forwarding


World's 26 richest own same as poorest half of humanity, stoking anger and threatening democracies: Oxfam

Abstract: DAVOS, SWITZERLAND - The world’s 26 richest people now own the same wealth as the poorest half of humanity, Oxfam said Monday, warning that “out of control” inequality is stoking popular anger and threatening democracies. “We are seeing rich people running away with wealth and poor people sinking in poverty,” Oxfam executive director Winnie Byanyima told AFP in an interview. A new report from the charity was published ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos — a week-long meeting of the global elite, with three of the 26 richest people set to attend. The report found that billionaires around the world saw their combined fortunes grow by $2.5 billion (€2.2 billion) each day in 2018, an annual increase of 12 percent, and urged governments to slap more taxes on the wealthy. The world’s richest man, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, saw his fortune increase to $112 billion last year, Oxfam said, pointing out that just 1 percent of his wealth was the equivalent to the entire health budget of Ethiopia, a country of 105 million people. “Oxfam is saying in this report with evidence that extreme inequality is out of control,” Byanyima said. The 3.8 billion people at the bottom of the scale meanwhile saw their relative wealth decline by $500 million each day, or 11 percent last year, Oxfam said, stressing that the growing gap between rich and poor was undermining the fight against poverty, damaging economies and fueling public anger. “Citizens are angry and frustrated,” Byanyima said. “They are seeing themselves working really hard, but they are seeing that … the things that they expect, a good education for their children, health when they fall ill, social protection when they get older … aren’t there for them.” At the same time, she said, “they are seeing a few people running away with wealth and without paying their fair share.” The numbers are stark: Between 1980 and 2016, the poorest half of humanity pocketed just 12 cents on each dollar of global income growth, compared with the 27 cents captured by the top 1 percent, the report found. Oxfam warned that governments were exacerbating inequality by underfunding public services like health care and education at the same time as they consistently under-tax the wealthy. Calls for hiking taxes on the wealthy have multiplied amid growing popular outrage in a number of countries over swelling inequality. In the United States, new Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made headlines earlier this month by proposing to tax the ultra-rich up to 70 percent. The self-described Democratic Socialist’s proposal came after President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax reforms cut the top income rate last year from 39.6 percent to 37 percent. In Europe, the “yellow vest” movement that has been rocking France with anti-government protests since November is demanding that President Emmanuel Macron repeal controversial cuts to wealth taxes on high earners. And in Britain, a populist campaign helped persuade a majority of voters to opt for quitting the European Union in the country’s 2016 referendum on Brexit. “The super-rich and corporations are paying lower rates of tax than they have in decades,” the Oxfam report said, pointing out that “the human costs — children without teachers, clinics without medicines — are huge” Byanyima lamented that governments faced with growing public anger are taking dangerous shortcuts. “Instead of solving the problem by fixing the economies, making them work for most people, (they) are finding distractions,” she said, pointing to scapegoating of immigrants and other outsiders for social ills. “Inequality is undermining democracy,” she said, warning that “politics (have become) poisonous.” The Oxfam report said “piecemeal private services punish poor people and privileged elites,” stressing that every day, some 10,000 people die due to lacking access to affordable health care. The report, released as the world’s rich, famous and influential began arriving for the annual gathering at the luxury Swiss ski resort town, urged governments to “stop the race to the bottom” in taxing rich individuals and big corporations. Oxfam found that asking the richest to pay just 0.5 percent extra tax on their wealth “could raise more money than it would cost to educate all 262 million children out of school and provide health care that would save the lives of 3.3 million people.”


U.S. air safety agent absences hit record level as shutdown enters Day 31

Abstract: WASHINGTON - The U.S. Transportation Security Administration, where employees are going unpaid amid a partial government shutdown, said on Monday that unscheduled absences among U.S. airport security officers rose to a record 10 percent on Sunday as the shutdown reached its 31st day. The agency said the rate was up from the previous high of 7 percent on Saturday. It also was more than three times the 3.1 percent absence rate on the same day last year, when the government also was partially closed due to legislative funding issues. As the partial government shutdown continues, air safety has become a top concern as the number of TSA agents not showing up for work grows. The agency said many employees, who are not being paid because of the shutdown, are not reporting to work because of financial hardships. More than 50,000 TSA officers are among some 800,000 federal workers who have been ordered to stay home or work without pay during the shutdown. Nearly all 1.78 million passengers screened Sunday faced normal security waits of 30 minutes or less, despite the absences, TSA said. Some airports experienced longer wait times at security checkpoints, and on Sunday, Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport closed one of its checkpoints because of excessive absences. About one-quarter of the U.S. government has been shuttered since Dec. 22 over Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion to fund a wall along the border with Mexico, which Democrats have refused to consider. The promise of a border wall was a mainstay of Trump’s 2016 presidential election campaign. As a candidate, he said Mexico would pay for the barrier, but the Mexican government has refused.

airport security
tsa
u.s. government shutdown


IMF cuts growth forecast as world economy is expected to slow in 2019 amid trade tensions

Abstract: DAVOS, SWITZERLAND - The world economy absorbed more bad news Monday: The International Monetary Fund cut its growth forecast for 2019. And China, the world’s second-biggest economy, said it had slowed to its weakest pace since 1990. The IMF cut its estimate for global growth this year to 3.5 percent, from the 3.7 percent it had predicted in October and down from 2018’s 3.7 percent. The fund cited heightened trade tensions and rising interest rates. “After two years of solid expansion, the world economy is growing more slowly than expected and risks are rising,” IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said as she presented the forecasts at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The IMF is not alone in its pessimism. The World Bank, the OECD and other forecasters have also downgraded their world growth estimates. Among the key concerns is the Chinese economy. The country is slowing just as its leadership tries to turn it into a more modern economy by reducing its reliance on manufacturing and exports and increasing consumer spending. The country reported Monday growth of 6.6 percent in 2018, the weakest since 1990. Demand for Chinese exports weakened last year and the IMF expects China’s growth to decelerate again this year — to 6.2 percent. The IMF left its prediction for U.S. growth this year unchanged at 2.5 percent — though a continuation of the partial 31-day shutdown of the federal government poses a risk. The IMF trimmed the outlook for the 19 countries that use the euro as their currency to 1.6 percent from 1.8 percent. Germany got a big downgrade from the IMF, the result of weaker demand for German exports and problems in the country’s auto industry. Britain’s messy divorce from the European Union and Italy’s ongoing financial struggles also pose threats to growth in Europe. Emerging-market countries are forecast to slow to 4.5 percent from 4.6 percent in 2018. That is partly a result of China’s deceleration, which pinches developing countries that supply it with raw materials such as copper and iron ore. “China’s growth slowdown could be faster than expected, especially if trade tensions continue, and this can trigger abrupt sell-offs in financial and commodity markets” — something that happened when Chinese growth sputtered in 2015, said IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath. Under President Donald Trump the United States has imposed import taxes on steel, aluminum and hundreds of Chinese products, drawing retaliation from China and other U.S. trading partners. “Higher trade uncertainty will further dampen investment and disrupt global supply chains,” Gopinath said. Rising interest rates in the U.S. and elsewhere are also pinching emerging-market governments and companies that borrowed heavily when rates were ultra low in the aftermath of the 2007-2009 Great Recession. As the debts roll over, those borrowers have to refinance at higher rates. A rising dollar is also making things harder for emerging-market borrowers who took out loans denominated in the U.S. currency.

davos
imf
global economy
christine lagarde


'Potentially catastrophic situation': For the poor, the safety net in U.S. shutdown feels anything but safe

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Doris Cochran, a disabled mother of two young boys, is stockpiling canned foods these days, filling her shelves with noodle soup, green beans, peaches and pears — anything that can last for months or even years. Her pantry looks as though she’s preparing for a winter storm. But she’s just trying to make sure her family won’t go hungry if her food stamps run out. For those like Cochran who rely on federal aid programs, the social safety net no longer feels so safe. As the longest government shutdown in U.S. history stretches into a fifth week, millions of poor Americans who depend on food and rental assistance are becoming increasingly worried about the future. Most major aid programs haven’t dried up yet. But each day the stalemate in Washington drags on, the U.S. inches closer to what advocates call a looming emergency. Those dependent on the aid are watching closely under a cloud of stress and anxiety. “I just don’t know what’s going to happen,” Cochran said, “and that’s what scares me the most.” With no indication of an imminent compromise, the Trump administration in recent weeks has scrambled to restore some services across the government. But two agencies crucial to the federal safety net — the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Agriculture — remain largely shuttered. The USDA announced earlier this month that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides food aid to roughly 40 million Americans, will be fully funded through February. But should the shutdown stretch into March its status is unclear: With just $3 billion in reserves, the USDA won’t be able to cover the roughly $4.8 billion it pays in monthly benefits. The department was able to stretch the program for another month based on a loophole in a spending bill. But as a result of congressional rules, food stamp benefits allotted for February are being given out early, before Jan. 20. There is no guarantee recipients will get food stamps for March, but if even if the program continues without a lapse recipients would have to stretch their current allotment for at least six weeks, rather than four. The impact of any lapse in these programs would be dramatic and unprecedented: The USDA says there has never before been a break in food stamp benefits since the program was made permanent in 1964. Food banks are already stretched thin thanks to a notable spike in demand from furloughed federal employees, contractors and others out of work due to the shutdown, said Carrie Calvert, the managing director for government relations at Feeding America, a hunger relief organization. For every meal Feeding America’s network of food pantries serves, federal food aid provides 12. “This is a potentially catastrophic situation,” Calvert said. “This could be an immediate emergency that grows exponentially.” Since the shutdown began, HUD has been unable to renew hundreds of contracts with private building owners who receive significant federal subsidies to provide housing to low-income families, the elderly and people with disabilities. Under these contracts, tenants pay a portion of the rent and the federal government covers the rest. But between December and the end of February, roughly 1,700 contracts are slated to expire, meaning that HUD won’t be able to make their payments. The agency has asked landlords to dip into their reserves to cover rental costs until the government reopens, with a promise of reimbursement. Similarly, come February, 700 rental assistance contracts administered through a USDA program that offers aid to low-income people in rural areas also will expire. A spokesman said the office “is exploring all options to mitigate any potential negative impact” to tenants. Those unknowns are causing anxiety and anguish among America’s most vulnerable. Eneaqua Lewis, 36, lives in a HUD-subsidized apartment on Roosevelt Island in New York City. She said she found out earlier this month her building’s HUD contract expired Jan. 9. Lewis, a single mother raising a 10-year-old, was laid off from a construction job in December. Without an income or any significant savings, Lewis said she’d be forced to drain her meager retirement fund to cover the full amount due with no rental assistance subsidy offsetting the expense. “People are really afraid right now and just don’t know what to do,” Lewis said. “I can’t afford market rate rent here. Where would I go? Where would everyone go? One side of the building is all elderly or handicapped. The other side is all families. Where would we all go?” For Cochran, the mother stockpiling food, a disruption could throw her life into chaos. She lives in subsidized housing in Arlington, Virginia, with her 6- and 8-year-old sons. She used to drive a truck, but recent health issues have left her unable to work. She relies solely on government subsidies to survive, cobbling together just enough to support her children using social security payments, food stamps and cash assistance payments. If any one of those federal programs were to stall, Cochran could end up on the street. Cochran said she’s trying to sell some homemade crafts and clothes to secondhand stores to squirrel away a few extra dollars. She returned the toys she’d bought for her sons for Christmas — a Hot Wheelz racetrack for the 8-year-old, a Mighty Beanz game for the younger boy — so she could buy them shoes. “It was hard, but you have to make choices,” she said. “I’m experiencing quite a bit of anxiety.”

poor
donald trump
usda
hud
food stamps
u.s. government shutdown


Japan is looking at allowing e-money salary payments ahead of foreign worker influx

Abstract: The government is considering allowing firms to pay salaries in electronic money to promote a shift toward a cashless society, sources said Tuesday. The move is being sought as Japan is opening up in April to more foreign blue-collar workers, who are expected to face hurdles in opening bank accounts as they lack domestic assets and transaction histories. In addition to e-money that can be added to integrated circuit (IC) cards and smartphones, deposits to prepaid cards and smartphone apps will be considered. Cryptocurrencies, which tend to be volatile, will likely be excluded. The government is planning to introduce cashless salary payments first in the special zones designated for deregulation, and then nationwide, the sources said. Currently, employees mostly receive salaries in cash or through bank transfers. Japanese labor law insists companies pay salaries in cash at least once a month, in principle, so that they do not pay in kind with their products. Deposits to bank accounts are accepted under a labor ministry ordinance. The government aims to limit those who handle cashless salary payments to dealers in a sound financial state, registered with the Financial Services Agency. Talks will take place between the government and industry bodies to determine how best to protect workers from stalled payments if dealers go under. Although credit cards and e-money have recently become more popular, Japan remains a cash-oriented society, with cashless payments at around 20 percent in 2015, sharply lower than 90 percent in South Korea and 60 percent in China. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government and others have requested the introduction of e-money for salary payments, saying there is already high demand. Last month, the government said at a meeting on special strategic economic zones that the introduction of digital money is a “topic to address swiftly,” while experts at the gathering called for a resolution to the matter by spring. At present, e-money dealers are responsible for protecting deposits of users but face laxer monitoring than banks. If a dealer goes under, it usually takes about three months for recipients to regain their assets, according to the government. Even if insurance companies cover their losses, a problem arises in paying those people who do not have bank accounts.


Spanish taxi strike against app services spreads to Madrid

Abstract: MADRID - Madrid taxi drivers began an open-ended strike Monday against online ride-hailing services like Uber, joining their counterparts in Barcelona who walked off the job three days ago. Barcelona’s striking taxi drivers, many wearing yellow vests like protesters against the government in neighboring France, blocked central streets and tried to force their way into the Catalan regional parliament but were held back by police. Some police struck the protesters with their batons while three officers were injured by objects thrown at them by demonstrators, said a spokesman for Catalonia’s regional police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra. In the Spanish capital hundreds of striking taxi drivers gathered in the central Sol square outside the headquarters of the Madrid regional government as a police helicopter hovered overhead. Some set off firecrackers. The taxi drivers’ strike comes just two days before the start in Madrid of the Fitur international tourism fair, one of the world’s largest. Spanish taxi drivers complain that rival drivers from ride-hailing apps like Uber and Cabify compete unfairly since they do not have the same regulations and costs. Sandra Serrano, a 32-year-old Madrid taxi driver with eight years experience, said ride-hailing app drivers need to be regulated more tightly because “they drive around the streets and capture our clients and we are a bit sick of it. “We don’t mind that they exist but they have to be regulated,” she told AFP at the protest in Sol. In Barcelona ride-hailing app drivers held their own protest, partially blocking the central Avenida Diagonal with their black vehicles. They are angry about new regulations unveiled Friday by Catalonia’s regional government forcing clients to book their services at least 15 minutes before the actual time they are needed. The measure has also upset taxi drivers who argue that ride-hailing services are not a taxi service by law and should therefore be booked 12 to 24 hours ahead of time. Angel Ion, a 43-year-old Cabify driver, accused taxi drivers of wanting to put them out of business. “Since up until now there was no competition, they earned a lot without much effort. Now that there is competition they have to adapt, lower prices, just like bars, restaurants or any other business does,” he told AFP. Drivers for riding-hailing services regularly complain that taxi drivers vandalise their vehicles. Mohamed Bermad, a 55-year-old Algerian, said the windows of his car were broken twice, and his wheels were punctured once, since he joined Cabify 20 months ago. “The problem is that they have remained trapped in time. When I arrived in Spain 35 years ago there was only one television station and one telephone company. Now how many are there?” he added in Barcelona.

strike
regulation
barcelona
spain
madrid
taxi drivers
uber
cabify
yellow vests


U.S. to formally seek extradition of Huawei exec Meng Wanzhou: Globe and Mail

Abstract: OTTAWA - The United States will proceed with the formal extradition from Canada of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, Canada’s ambassador to the United States told the Globe and Mail, in a move certain to ratchet up tensions with China. David MacNaughton, in an interview with the Canadian newspaper published on Monday, said the U.S. has told Canada it will request Meng’s extradition, but he did not say when the request will be made. The deadline for filing is Jan. 30, or 60 days after Meng was arrested on Dec. 1 in Vancouver. Meng, the daughter of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested at the request of the United States over alleged violations of U.S. sanctions on Iran. She was released on bail last month and is due in court in Vancouver on Feb. 6. The Chinese firm, the world’s biggest maker of telecommunications equipment, said it had no comment on ongoing legal proceedings when contacted by Reuters on Tuesday. A U.S. Justice Department spokesman said, “We will comment through our filings.” Canada is one of over 100 countries with which the United States has extradition treaties. Once a formal request is received, a Canadian court must determine within 30 days if there is sufficient evidence to support extradition, and Canada’s Minister of Justice must give a formal order. In an article published on Monday, a former Canadian spy chief said Canada should ban Huawei from supplying equipment for next-generation telecoms networks because the security risk is too great. China’s ambassador last week threatened repercussions if Ottawa blocked Huawei, a warning the Canadian government dismissed. Canadian officials are studying the security implications of 5G networks, the latest generation of cellular mobile communications, but their report is not expected in the immediate future, a source close to the matter said last week. Richard Fadden, who served as the head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service spy agency from 2009 to 2013, cited what he said was mounting evidence for blocking Huawei. “Canada’s government should ignore the threats and ban Huawei from Canada’s 5G networks to protect the security of Canadians,” he wrote in the Globe and Mail. Some Canadian allies have already imposed restrictions on using Huawei equipment, citing the risk of espionage. Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale on Monday told reporters that other companies could supply equipment for future 5G networks but did not give details. China detained two Canadians last month after the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer, and demanded she be released. A court later retried a Canadian who had already been jailed for drug smuggling and sentenced him to death. “If China would resort to putting Canadians to death to defend its corporate national champion, what might it do if the Chinese Communist Party had unfettered access to Canada’s vital communications networks?” said Fadden. Neither Huawei nor the Chinese Embassy responded to requests for comment. A group of 143 academics and former ambassadors from around the world on Monday released an open letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping, urging him to free the two detained Canadians. “(We) must now be more cautious about traveling and working in China and engaging our Chinese counterparts,” they wrote. “That will lead to less dialogue and greater distrust, and undermine efforts to manage disagreements and identify common ground. Both China and the rest of the world will be worse off as a result.” John McCallum, Canada’s ambassador to China, said last Friday that his top priority was the release of the two detainees and scrapping the death penalty for the condemned man.

security
canada
espionage
huawei
5g
meng wanzhou


Dollar dips to below ¥109.50 in Tokyo

Abstract: The dollar was weaker below ¥109.50 in Tokyo trading Tuesday, pressured by lower long-term interest rates in the United States. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥109.43-44, down from ¥109.57-58 at the same time Monday. The euro was at $1.1353-1353, down from $1.1385-1386, and at ¥124.24-25, down from ¥124.75-77. After moving around ¥109.60, the dollar fell to around ¥109.50 toward noon as a risk-averse mood grew after Asian stocks expanded their losses, traders said. The greenback lost further ground in the afternoon, in line with a fall in the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yield in off-hours trading amid a dearth of fresh trading incentives. Players turned risk-averse after a media report that the United States informed Canada of its plan to officially seek the extradition of Huawei Technologies Co. Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, a bank-linked securities firm official said. The official noted that the U.S. move was taken as a warning against China ahead of ministerial-level trade talks between the world’s two biggest economies later this month. If the European and Japanese central banks show bleak economic outlooks at their respective policy-setting meetings as did the International Monetary Fund on Monday, “investor concerns about a global economic slowdown will grow and yen buying would gain ground,” an official at a foreign exchange margin trading service firm said.


Tokyo stocks fall back on profit-taking

Abstract: Stocks turned lower Tuesday, dragged down by selling to cash in gains in the preceding sessions. The Nikkei 225 average fell 96.42 points, or 0.47 percent, to end at 20,622.91. On Monday, the key price gauge gained 53.26 points. The Topix, which covers all first-section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, closed 9.94 points, or 0.63 percent, lower at 1,556.43. It rose 8.78 points Monday. After fluctuating around the previous day’s closing levels, both the Nikkei and Topix headed south in the afternoon as profit-taking grew amid a dearth of major buying incentives, market sources said. The market was hurt by “small-lot selling while trading was extremely thin,” said Chihiro Ota, general manager for investment research and investor services at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. From Monday’s 1.127 billion shares, volume in the first section fell to 1.010 billion, the lowest level since Aug. 24. Tomoaki Fujii, head of the investment research division of Akatsuki Securities Inc., said investors found few trading factors because the U.S. market was closed Monday and prior to the release later this month of earnings results by major Japanese companies. Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities Co., observed that profit-taking took the upper hand in the afternoon following a news report that the United States will soon make a formal request for Canada to hand over Huawei Technologies Co. Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou. Hopes for progress in U.S.-China trade talks receded to some extent, he pointed out. Falling issues outnumbered rising ones 1,466 to 573 in the first section, while 88 issues were unchanged. News curation app provider Gunosy tumbled 7.89 percent following its advance recently. Also weaker were clothing retailer Fast Retailing and chipmaking equipment maker Tokyo Electron. By contrast, airlines JAL and ANA bounced back. Optical equipment producer Olympus and convenience store operator FamilyMart Uny were drew buying as well.

stocks
nikkei
tokyo stock exchange
topix


Showa Shell resumes oil imports from Iran after U.S. sanctions waiver

Abstract: Major crude oil wholesaler Showa Shell Sekiyu K.K. has resumed imports of Iranian oil after Tokyo received a temporary waiver in November from reinstated U.S. sanctions, an industry source said Tuesday. Japan and seven other economies were granted a 180-day waiver from the oil import ban by the United States. Other Japanese oil wholesalers, including industry leader JXTG Holdings Inc., are expected to follow in resuming oil imports from Iran. Major Japanese oil distributors had suspended Iranian oil imports since the October contracts. Iranian oil accounted for about 5 percent of Japan’s crude oil imports before purchases were cut. A Showa Shell ship loaded with Iranian crude has already left the country and is expected to arrive in Japan in early February, according to the source. But the resumption may be short-lived as the U.S. waiver will expire this spring. Washington has been urging the eight economies to end imports from what it calls the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism. The U.S. sanctions are aimed at compelling Tehran to end its nuclear program and support for militant groups in the Middle East. Japanese companies are expected to halt the oil imports from Iran again in February or March in light of the time needed for the settlement of transactions and shipping. Oil prices have recently fallen amid concerns over a slowdown in the global economy, but U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil could fuel worries over supply shortage and lift prices, analysts said.


Toyota, Honda and Panasonic consider joint venture to procure cobalt for electric vehicles

Abstract: Japan’s major auto and battery manufacturers, including Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Panasonic Corp., are considering joint procurement of cobalt, an essential resource for batteries that power electric vehicles, sources said Tuesday. The envisioned joint venture is likely to be set up in a year or so, with each participating company buying a stake of up to around 10 percent, the sources said, at a time when Chinese companies are snapping up cobalt supplies around the world. Nissan Motor Co., Suzuki Motor Corp., Mazda Motor Corp., Subaru Corp. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. are also considering joining the initiative, with Japan’s Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry backing the establishment of the joint company and negotiations with countries possessing cobalt mines, they said. Analysts say that cobalt supplies could fall short of demand as early as 2020 as automakers around the world step up production of electric vehicles, especially in China and Europe, to meet stricter emissions regulations. According to the industry ministry, 54 percent of the world’s cobalt supplies totaling 120,000 tons in 2016 came from Congo. The ministry aims to make all new passenger cars in Japan fully or partly powered by electricity by 2050 to cut carbon dioxide emissions.

toyota
honda
panasonic
batteries
electric vehicles
cobalt


Japan drugmaker Takeda mulls sale of $3 billion in emerging-market assets

Abstract: HONG KONG - Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. is considering a sale of some emerging-market drugs as it expands a push to cut debt after buying Shire PLC for $62 billion, according to sources. The company is working with Bank of America Corp. to gauge potential buyer interest in emerging-market assets it acquired through its 2011 purchase of Swiss rival Nycomed, according to the sources, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The medicines, which include over-the-counter and prescription drugs, could fetch about $3 billion, the sources said. Deliberations are at an early stage, and there’s no certainty they will result in a transaction, according to the sources. “No decisions have been made regarding specific assets for potential disposal at this stage,” a spokeswoman for Takeda said in an emailed statement. A representative for Bank of America declined to comment. Takeda’s takeover of Shire, completed earlier this month, vaulted it into the ranks of the world’s 10 biggest drugmakers and brought lucrative therapies for rare diseases. It also doubled the Japanese firm’s borrowing level and prompted S&P Global Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service to cut its credit rating. Chief Executive Officer Christophe Weber said in an interview this month that Takeda wants to move quickly on asset sales. Takeda has said it’s looking to divest overseas businesses where the company isn’t an industry leader and doesn’t have critical mass. Takeda is reportedly working with JPMorgan Chase & Co. as it evaluates options for its European over-the-counter business. The firm has also been considering disposals of its Xiidra eye-disease treatment and Shire’s Natpara medicine, sources with knowledge of the matter said in September.


France fines Google €50 million for not making its data consent policies clear and accessible

Abstract: PARIS - France’s data watchdog issued a €50 million (¥6.2 billion) fine for U.S. search giant Google, the first such sanction under the EU’s strict General Data Protection Regulation. Google was handed the record fine Monday for failing to provide transparent and easily accessible information on its data consent policies, the data protection regulator said. Officials said Google made it too difficult for users to understand and manage preferences on how their personal information is used, in particular with regards to targeted advertising. “People expect high standards of transparency and control from us. We’re deeply committed to meeting those expectations and the consent requirements of the GDPR,” a Google spokesperson, referring to the General Data Protection Regulation, said in a statement. “We’re studying the decision to determine our next steps.” The ruling follows complaints lodged by two advocacy groups last May, shortly after the landmark GDPR directive came into effect. One was filed on behalf of some 10,000 signatories by France’s Quadrature du Net group, while the other was by None Of Your Business, created by the Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems. Schrems had accused Google of securing “forced consent” via its Android mobile operating software through the use of pop-up boxes, online or in its apps, which imply that its services will not be available unless the conditions of use are accepted. “Also, the information provided is not sufficiently clear for the user to understand that the legal basis for targeted advertising is consent, and not Google’s legitimate business interests,” the French regulator said. “We have found that large corporations such as Google simply ‘interpret the law differently’ and have often only superficially adapted their products,” Schrems said in a statement after the ruling. “It is important that the authorities make it clear that simply claiming to be compliant is not enough.” The GDPR is widely considered the biggest shake-up to data privacy regulations since the advent of the web. Even companies that are not based in Europe must follow the tough new rules if they want their sites and services to be available to European users. The French regulator found that despite changes implemented by Google since last year, it was still failing to respect the spirit of the new rules. It noted, for example, that specifics on how long a person’s data is kept and what it is used for are spread across several different web pages. Modifying a user’s data preferences also requires clicking through a variety of pages such as “More Options,” and often the choices to accept Google’s terms are pre-checked by default. “This type of procedure leads the user to give global consent … but the consent is not ‘specific’ as the GDPR requires,” the regulator said. It said the record €50 million fine reflected the seriousness of the failings as well as Google’s dominant market position in France via Android. “Each day thousands of French users create a Google account on their smartphones,” the regulator said. “As a result the company has a special responsibility when it comes to respecting their obligations in this domain.” It is not the first time the regulator has taken Google to task over its policies. In 2014 it fined the company €150,000 — the maximum possible at the time — for failing to comply with its privacy guidelines for personal data. In 2016 it imposed a €100,000 penalty over noncompliance with the EU’s “right to be forgotten” rule, which allows people to request having references to them removed from search results. Google has contested the decision, saying it should apply only to its European sites, such as Google.fr , and not the global Google.com domain. Earlier this month the advocate general for the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg sided with Google in the case, although a final ruling has not yet been announced.

france
google
privacy
personal information


Carlos Ghosn again denied bail in Tokyo, despite written offer to wear electronic ankle tag

Abstract: Carlos Ghosn’s latest request for bail was rejected Tuesday by the Tokyo District Court despite the ousted Nissan chairman offering to wear an electronic ankle tag in an unusual bid to win release after two months of detention for alleged financial crimes. The ruling, widely anticipated, raises the likelihood that the 64-year-old executive will remain in custody until his trial, and will put pressure on Nissan Motor Co.’s French partner, Renault SA, to find his successor as chairman and CEO. Renault’s board is expected to meet in the coming days to decide who will succeed Ghosn. That step will essentially remove him from the three-way alliance that includes Mitsubishi Motors Corp. Ghosn was almost immediately ousted from the chairmanship of both Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors after his initial arrest Nov. 19 but remains chairman and CEO of their French partner. He has been officially charged with underreporting his salary for eight years through last March and temporarily transferring personal financial losses to Nissan’s books. Ghosn denies the charges. The court did not give a reason for the denial. Bail is rarely granted for defendants in Japan without a confession. Ghosn’s lawyer was not immediately available for comment after the Tokyo District Court announced its decision. Ghosn’s latest bail request also included an offer to hire guards to monitor him and a promise to remain in Tokyo, where he has leased an apartment. He offered to post stock he owns in Nissan as collateral, his spokeswoman said. An earlier request for bail was denied last week due to concerns the executive, who holds French, Lebanese and Brazilian citizenship, was a flight risk, and that he may tamper with evidence if released. In a statement released Monday, Ghosn repeated his intent to clear his name in court. “I will attend my trial not only because I am legally obligated to do so, but because I am eager to finally have the opportunity to defend myself,” he said. “I am not guilty of the charges against me and I look forward to defending my reputation in the courtroom.” The arrest of the once-feted executive, who orchestrated the turnaround of Nissan two decades ago, has clouded the future of the partnership between Nissan and Renault, which has been in turmoil since his arrest. Ghosn had pushed for a deeper tie-up between Nissan and Renault, including possibly a full merger, despite strong reservations at the Japanese firm. On Monday, Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa said this is not the time to discuss revising the partners’ complicated capital ties. Local media have reported that a French government delegation informed Tokyo it would seek an integration of Renault and Nissan, most likely under the umbrella of a single holding company. Renault owns a 43.4 percent stake in Nissan, which in turn holds a non-voting 15 percent stake in Renault. The French government owns a 15 percent voting stake in Renault. Nissan, which has been conducting an internal probe into misconduct by Ghosn, believes he misused company funds for personal purposes, including payments related to his compensation, his residences dotted around the globe, and payments to family members, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

courts
scandals
nissan
renault
carlos ghosn


Line hopes app's links with Japan's Mizuho and Nomura can open 78 million wallets

Abstract: Line Corp. is betting that tie-ups with Japan’s biggest financial institutions will help convince its 78 million users to entrust the free texting app with their money. The operator of Japan’s most popular messaging platform plans to introduce the Line Securities equities trading service jointly with the country’s biggest brokerage, Nomura Holdings Inc., this year, provided it receives the necessary government permits, Tetsuhiko Saito, who heads Line’s financial arm, said in an interview in Tokyo. A banking service offered in partnership with mega-bank Mizuho Financial Group Inc. could become available as early as fall 2020, Saito said. Line dominates messaging in Japan, where about half of the people use the app daily, but user growth has stagnated. Now Chief Executive Officer Takeshi Idezawa is looking to fintech (financial technology) to help monetize the company’s massive subscriber base and reduce reliance on advertising. The problem is most Japanese already have a bank account, as well as credit cards. Line is betting that the backing of Mizuho, Nomura and other partners will provide the security that people have come to expect from traditional financial institutions, while the added convenience and intuitive user experience of a smartphone app will help attract customers. “There is no point in making the same service that’s already offered by banks and brokerages,” said Saito, who became CEO of Line Financial Corp. in December after more than three decades as a banker at Mizuho. “We are creating the kind of financial service that only a communications company like Line could make.” Line Securities is likely to offer equities and foreign exchange trading, while Line Bank will start with deposits, withdrawals and money transfers, Saito said. He declined to give further details, saying the specifics will be decided in the next couple of months. The offerings will eventually expand to make use of Line’s messaging and social-networking capabilities. Line already offers a smart investment service jointly with Folio Co. that lets users choose pre-selected baskets of equities based on keywords such as “drones” or “Japan biotech.” It also sells travel, automotive and other kinds of insurance through a partnership with Sompo Holdings Inc. Still on the drawing board: a loan service with Orient Corp., a unit of Mizuho. “There is no precedent for this many major companies coming together,” said Kazunori Ito, an analyst at Morningstar Investment Services in Tokyo. “Line’s user base is unrivaled in Japan, and all these companies recognize the value.” Japanese households held a record ¥1.859 quadrillion worth of assets as of September, according to data from the Bank of Japan. Cash and deposits accounted for about half of that last fiscal year, with only 16 percent in investment trusts, equities and bonds. By contrast, U.S. families invest about 54 percent of their wealth. That hoard of cash presents an opportunity for both the incumbents and new entrants like Line. “The financial industry has for a long time struggled to get people to shift from savings to investments,” Ito said. “What you need is both a customer base and a user interface and experience that can make it easy for people to get started.” An ecosystem of financial services could also help shore up the company’s mobile payments business — Line Pay — against increasing competition. Its rivals include e-commerce giant Rakuten Inc., which runs its own bank, has a credit card with more than 15 million customers and is building a mobile phone network. PayPay, backed by SoftBank Group Corp., Yahoo Japan Corp. and India’s largest digital-payments company, Paytm, sparked a shopping frenzy last month by promising to give users ¥10 billion in rebates from their purchases. Mercari Inc., whose marketplace app has 10 million users in the country, plans to join the fray this year. Line is spending ¥100 billion by the end of 2021 to develop Line Pay and other mobile services. The loss in the company’s new businesses segment, which also includes artificial intelligence-powered hardware products and a cryptocurrency exchange, widened to ¥8.8 billion in the three months to Sept. 30. “The next few years is investments phase,” Saito said. “Line is looking to make finance a pillar business in the midterm.”

smartphones banks apps line nomura mizuho fintech


Reinvented legacy: Nazi-seized paintings fund foundation for Jews

Abstract: BERLIN - When Hilde Schramm inherited several paintings collected by her father, Hitler’s chief architect and Armaments Minister Albert Speer, she was only sure of one thing: she didn’t want them. Despite determining they probably hadn’t been looted from Jews during World War II, she wanted their legacy to somehow benefit others. So she huddled with friends around a rickety green table at her home-office in Berlin and came up with a plan to sell them and use the proceeds to support Jewish women’s creative projects in Germany. In 1994, that became the Zurueckgeben foundation, a project for which Schramm received an Obermayer German Jewish History Award on Monday. The honor was established by an American Jewish philanthropist to recognize the efforts of non-Jewish Germans to keep alive their nation’s Jewish cultural past. The foundation’s name translates as “return” or “give back” but also can mean “restitution,” and Schramm said it was intentionally chosen to emphasize its goal of raising awareness at a time when looted Jewish property and art was a little talked-about issue. “It was very much our point with this word ‘Zurueckgeben,’ which in a way is a provocation, because in a way nobody really can give back, to raise consciousness about the injury that had been done very broadly in Germany,” she said. Today, there’s a wider understanding that the Nazis plundered precious artworks and other property from Europe’s Jews, partially because of recent stepped-up German government efforts to identify heirs and organize restitution, and the popular 2014 Hollywood film “The Monuments Men.” But most of the focus has been on the big-ticket items like precious paintings and sculptures. Schramm’s foundation encourages Germans to take stock of the more mundane items in their households and question where they came from. In part it’s to fight the cliche perpetrated by the Nazis that all Jews were rich and powerful, and also to dispel the notion that only the Nazi elite profited at the expense of the Jews. “Let it come close to your families and look at what other ways the German population did profit. When Jews were expelled from their jobs, of course non-Jewish Germans could take their job,” Schramm said. “It’s not only the question of real objects being robbed but their whole existence … this is to raise awareness that it did reach almost every family, a kind of involvement or profiting.” Because it’s almost impossible to determine the original owners of smaller items like cutlery and furniture, donors to the foundation often give a symbolic amount to Zurueckgeben, or sell the items and give the proceeds. Since it began, hundreds of Germans have donated and the foundation has been able to pay out some €500,000 ($570,000) in grants to support more than 130 Jewish women’s projects. Those include a children’s theater, exhibitions, dance shows, books and films. The 82-year-old Schramm, a former Greens party state lawmaker as well as an educator and author, has been involved in several other projects related to Nazi-era commemoration and atonement. She was previously honored by Berlin with the Moses Mendelssohn Prize, named after the Jewish philosopher and given to honor people for fostering tolerance. She has also helped organize a nonprofit association to support projects in Greece after the Greek financial crisis, and has hosted seven refugees from Afghanistan and Syria in her own home. That followed German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to open the country’s borders to more than 1 million migrants in 2015-16. “Wherever I went, whatever I did, I saw something which was a blind spot and I took it up,” she said. Schramm was only 9 when the war ended. Even though she was there at times with her father as he rubbed elbows with Hitler and other top Nazis, she said the persecution of the Jews was not something she was aware of. “I had no idea,” she said, pausing contemplatively before adding: “But perhaps I didn’t want to have an idea. I don’t know.” Unlike many other top Nazis, who committed suicide or were executed after the war, Albert Speer served 20 years in a Berlin prison for war crimes after being convicted in the Nuremberg trials. At his trial, Speer, who died in 1981 in London, accepted moral responsibility but insisted he had not known of the Holocaust — a contention that many have questioned. Schramm was able to talk with him and confront him with her questions, which was an opportunity she said a lot of the donors to her foundation never had with their families. “In a way, I always felt in a good situation, as I knew what my father had been and what he had done very soon,” she said. “Many men and women of my generation, they had no answer what their family had done.” Schramm’s award was one of six presented by the organization philanthropist Arthur Obermayer established in 2000. Obermayer was inspired by the help Germans gave him in researching his German roots. He died in 2016.


Ecuador to demand Venezuelan migrants' criminal records after pregnant woman's murder

Abstract: QUITO - Ecuador will ask Venezuelan migrants to present their criminal records upon entering, the country’s vice president said on Monday, following the murder of a pregnant Ecuadorean woman by a Venezuelan man that triggered protests and acts of violence. The Saturday killing in the northern city of Ibarra was the first reported murder committed by a Venezuelan immigrant in Ecuador since hundreds of thousands began arriving, fleeing an economic crisis. Ecuador estimates that 1.3 million Venezuelans entered last year, though many continue on to other countries. “Without generalizing, but with a firm hand, today we must differentiate between Venezuelans who are fleeing Maduro’s government and others who take advantage of the situation to commit crimes,” Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner said, referring to Venezuela’s socialist President Nicolas Maduro. Sonnenholzner added that Caracas has refused to provide Quito with information on its citizens seeking to enter Ecuador. Last year, Argentina eased entry requirements for Venezuelans, given that many struggled to obtain documents, including their criminal background histories, on time. The announcement comes after Ecuador’s president, Lenin Moreno, over the weekend said he would create “units” to check Venezuelans’ legal status “in the streets, in the workplace, and at the border” following the murder. That drew criticism from Venezuela’s foreign minister, Jorge Arreaza, who accused Ecuador of inciting “a fascist persecution against Venezuelans in Ecuador” and noted that Ecuadoreans living in Venezuela had never been discriminated against. While Ecuador has called on its citizens to avoid violence against Venezuelans, representatives of Ecuador’s Venezuelan community said migrants had suffered attacks and threats in the wake of the murder and Moreno’s comments. Some Venezuelan women and children were assaulted in Ibarra’s bus terminal as they waited to flee south to the capital Quito, said Febres Cordero of the Federation of Venezuelans Abroad. “We are concerned about xenophobic acts that have taken place in various cities across the country,” Cordero said.

murder
venezuela
ecuador
nicolas maduro
crimes
migrants


U.K. launches app to allow EU citizens to apply to stay after Brexit

Abstract: LONDON - The British government launched a phone app Monday to allow some 3.5 million EU nationals to apply to stay after Brexit — immediately receiving a mixed reception from immigrants increasingly concerned about their fate. Most European citizens currently living in the U.K. will need to apply for “settled status” or “pre-settled status,” depending on how long they have been there, to continue to work and claim benefits after Brexit. The partial app rollout is a test stage before the scheme becomes fully operational on March 30, the day after the U.K. is due to leave the European Union. It will stay open until late 2020 or 2021, depending on whether the U.K. leaves the EU with a deal or not. But some of those trying to use the system on Monday — which currently requires an Android smartphone and a biometric passport — hit immediate roadblocks. “I’m supposed to be an easy case,” Polish journalist Jakub Krupa, who has been in the U.K. for six and-a-half years, said after the online tool told him it needed “more evidence” to certify his residency. “The system does not recognize me for being in the U.K. for that long,” he said. “I’m not particularly worried but it’s obviously frustrating, undermining confidence in the process.” Prime Minister Theresa May has said repeatedly she wants Europeans living in the U.K. to stay. Officials have vowed to make the process as easy as possible, but there are concerns at how they will cope with what could be some 6,000 applications a day. EU nationals who can prove residency for five years, until the end of 2020, will be granted so-called settled status. Those in the U.K. for less time can apply for the pre-settled category, which will allow them to remain until they hit the five-year mark and can then reapply for settled status. Irish citizens and Europeans who have already gained British citizenship or are entitled to permanent residency do not have to register. The EU scheme “is an important test for the Home Office. The stakes are high,” said Jill Rutter, of the British Future think tank. “Get it right and the U.K. sends a strong message that EU citizens are welcome and the government is in control. Get it wrong and the consequences are dire.” The Home Office reported positive results from a trial of the app conducted on 30,000 people during November and December, although the app still does not work on iPhones. No applications were refused and 81 percent were processed within a week. But almost ten percent were still unresolved three weeks after the trial ended. Bartek Wytrzyszczewski, a Polish citizen who has been living in the U.K. since 2010, was among those to navigate the scheme successfully during its pilot phase. To his surprise, he even received a personal phone call from the Home Office informing him his application had been successful. “The process itself is quite slick … I got the outcome within 24 hours which was quite reassuring,” he said in the northern English city of York, where he studied languages at its university and now works for the local authority. “I do fear for other EU citizens that might be slightly older or less technical than me,” he added. Wytrzyszczewski also feels aggrieved after applying for permanent residency in 2016, only to see his application rejected over a medical insurance issue. “The prevalent feeling that I’ve had is a sense of injustice and a sense of not being welcome … really being treated like a second class citizen,” he said of his post-referendum brush with British bureaucracy. The app uses biometric passports and other databases, alongside photos taken on a phone’s camera, to confirm identities and check tax and other records to confirm people live in the U.K. Applicants must also declare any criminal records. A serious conviction could see their application declined. The process was initially set at £65 — the price of a passport — but Prime Minister May on Monday announced that the fee would be scrapped. The Home Office has hired 1,500 caseworkers and 400 call center staff to help guide people through their applications. If the U.K. agrees to divorce terms with the EU, Europeans arriving before the end of 2020 must apply for their new status by June 30, 2021. In the event of no deal, only those who arrived before Brexit day can apply and have until December 31, 2020 to do so.

citizenship
eu
u.k .
apps
brexit
theresa may


Israel says it struck Iranian targets in Syria after defenses downed missile fired at Golan

Abstract: JERUSALEM - Israel struck what it said were Iranian targets in Syria on Monday in response to missile fire it blamed on Iran, sparking concerns of an escalation after a report that 11 fighters were killed. Israel announced the strikes against facilities it said belonged to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force as they were occurring, continuing its recent practice of speaking more openly about such raids. It said the strikes were in response to a medium-range, surface-to-surface missile the Quds Force fired from Syria at the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Sunday, which Israeli air defenses intercepted. “The air force struck a strong blow against Iranian targets in Syria after Iran fired a missile from there toward Israel,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “We do not allow such acts of aggression to pass by. We are acting against Iran and against the Syrian forces who are tools of Iranian aggression.” Iranian media quoted Air Force Commander Aziz Nasirzadeh as saying “our current and future generations are eagerly and full-heartedly ready for battling with the Zionist regime and eradicating them from the face of the earth.” “We assure the Iranian people that we are ready to retaliate against any threat,” he was quoted as saying, though it was not clear if he spoke before or after the Israeli strikes. Israel said targets included munitions stores, a site at Damascus International Airport that was allegedly the Quds Force’s main logistics hub in the country, an Iranian intelligence installation and an Iranian military training camp. It said it also hit Syrian air defense batteries in response to dozens of missiles fired from them. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said at least 11 pro-regime fighters, including two Syrians, were killed. Russia, which like Iran is a key backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad in the country’s war, said the Israeli strikes killed four Syrian soldiers and wounded six, while damaging Damascus airport infrastructure. The Observatory said airstrikes and ground-to-ground missiles hit targets around the capital including near the Damascus airport, as well as near the Thaala military airport in Sweida province to the south of the capital. The targets included weapons depots belonging to the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah and Iranian fighters, it added. The chain of events leading to the strikes began Sunday. Damascus initially accused Israel of carrying out raids in southern Syria. Syrian state news agency SANA quoted a military source saying Syria’s air defenses went into action after Israel launched the air strikes. In those strikes, the Russian army said Syrian air defenses had destroyed seven Israeli projectiles, after four of the Jewish state’s F-16 military planes “fired rockets into Syrian territory. Shortly afterward on Sunday afternoon, Israel said it had intercepted what it then called a rocket fired at the Golan Heights from Syria. Video spread online of skiers on Mt. Hermon in the Israeli-controlled Golan watching air defenses fire to intercept the missile. The ski center was closed on Monday. Israel then early Monday announced it was striking Quds Force targets in Syria while SANA reported that Syrian air defense systems had responded to “enemy” fire. Israel has pledged to stop its main enemy Iran from entrenching itself militarily in neighboring Syria. It has carried out hundreds of air strikes there against what it says are Iranian military targets and advanced arms deliveries to Tehran-backed Hezbollah. Its warplanes have been targeted by anti-aircraft fire during such raids, but it has rarely faced surface-to-surface missile fire in response. Netanyahu and other Israeli officials have been speaking more openly about the country’s strikes in Syria in recent days, which some analysts partly attribute to the prime minister wanting to burnish his security credentials ahead of April 9 elections. Others say it carries a strategic military purpose as well by sending a stronger message. But Israel also risks an escalation with Syria and Iran, as well as possibly further angering Russia at a time when the United States is seeking to withdraw its forces from Syria. Military coordination between Israel and Russia in Syria took a hit after a friendly fire incident in September that led to a Russian plane being downed by Syrian air defenses during an Israeli raid. The incident angered the Kremlin and complicated Israel’s operations in Syria, particularly after Moscow’s delivery of the advanced S-300 air defense system there in response. On Thursday, Israeli military officials concluded a series of talks with their Russian counterparts aimed at improving their coordination there. More than 360,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since the start of Syria’s civil war with the brutal repression of anti-government protests in 2011.

israel
syria
iran
hezbollah
bashar assad
damascus
golan heights
missile defenses


Drug war-plagued Mexico set new homicide record in 2018 at 33,341

Abstract: MEXICO CITY - Mexico suffered a record 33,341 homicides in 2018, according to official statistics released Monday, breaking the record set in 2017, as violence fueled by a war on the country’s powerful drug cartels plagues the country. More than 200,000 people have been murdered in Mexico since the government controversially deployed the army to fight drug trafficking in 2006. The previous record was 28,866 homicides in 2017. The new record shows the grim challenge facing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, an anti-establishment leftist who took office in December with a promise to curb the gruesome violence. His strategy is built on creating a national guard that will officially bring civilian police duties under military control. Critics say that will only prolong the militarization of the crackdown on drug cartels and exacerbate human rights abuses, which activists say have soared since the army was sent into the streets. In a concession to critics, Lopez Obrador agreed to put the new force under civilian command, but opponents say that will do little to resolve the underlying problems. Creating the national guard will require a constitutional amendment. The legislation cleared the lower house last week with the required two-thirds majority, in a major victory for Lopez Obrador — though he complained the bill as passed did not give the military enough powers during the transition to the new force. The plan still has to pass the Senate, also with a two-thirds majority, and half of Mexico’s 32 state legislatures — most controlled by Lopez Obrador’s party, Morena.

mexico
drug war
andres manuel lopez obrador
murders


Two more van hijackings hit Northern Ireland city as fifth man arrested over car bombing

Abstract: DUBLIN/LONDON - Two vans were hijacked in Londonderry on Monday, police said, two days after the Northern Irish city saw a car bombing involving a stolen car in an attack pinned on a dissident paramilitary group. A bomb in a hijacked car blew up outside the courthouse in the border city on Saturday following a telephoned warning. There were no casualties and politicians on all sides condemned the attack, which has heightened concerns about the uncertainty surrounding Brexit disrupting a hard-won peace in the U.K. province. On Monday, two further hijackings took place, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said. Three masked men hijacked a cargo van at around 11:30 a.m. (1130 GMT), according to police, before abandoning it. A controlled explosion was carried out on the vehicle. Nearby homes were evacuated. Then at around 1:45 p.m. (1345 GMT), police received a report that a delivery driver’s van had been hijacked in another part of Northern Ireland’s second city by four masked men, one of whom was reported to have a gun. The two occupants of the van were ordered to drive it to a particular road and leave it there, the police said. “We are in the process of implementing a public safety operation, establishing cordons and evacuating a number of homes,” said Superintendent Gordon McCalmont. Meanwhile a fifth man has been arrested in connection with Saturday’s blast. Police said they had arrested a 50-year-old man under the Terrorism Act as part of their investigation. On Sunday police arrested four men — two 21-year-olds, a 34-year-old and a 42-year-old. Police have said they believe a paramilitary group calling itself the New IRA was behind Saturday’s blast. PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton said the New IRA (Irish Republican Army) group has mainly been linked to vigilante incidents and that the bombing was “probably the most significant attack in recent years. “We haven’t seen a device of this nature function for quite a while. It’s a high-risk tactic,” he told BBC Radio. A 1998 peace deal largely brought an end to three decades of sectarian bloodshed in Northern Ireland between republican and unionist paramilitaries, as well as U.K. armed forces, in a period known as the troubles. Some 3,500 people were killed in the conflict — many at the hands of the IRA. Hamilton said Sunday that the New IRA were “determined to drag people back to somewhere they don’t want to be.” There are concerns the attack could be a sign of paramilitaries seeking to exploit the current political turbulence over Northern Ireland and its border with the Republic of Ireland, caused by Brexit. “Dissident bomb fuels fear of return to terror after Brexit,” ran a headline on Monday’s Irish Independent. “Incidents such as the Derry bombing remind us that the danger of a ‘hard’ or visible border would really be a target for these mindless yobs who want to haul us all back to our recent dark past,” the newspaper said in an editorial. “This danger must galvanize all our political leaders to do everything they possibly can to avoid such a possibility.” According to a report in the Daily Telegraph late Sunday, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May is considering addressing a current deadlock over Brexit by amending the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that ended the violence in Northern Ireland, after ditching attempts to negotiate a cross-party deal. But speaking in Parliament on the incidents in Londonderry, May said the whole house would join her in condemning Saturday’s attack and praising the bravery of the police in getting people to safety. “This house stands together with the people of Northern Ireland in ensuring that we never go back to the violence and terror of the past,” she said. The explosion has been condemned by political parties across the traditional republican and unionist divide in the province, as well as by leaders in the Republic of Ireland. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar called it “an appalling, reckless and cynical act of terror.”

terrorism
northern ireland
ireland
londonderry
brexit
theresa may
new ira


British academic says he was forced by UAE to confess to spying charges

Abstract: NEW YORK - British academic Matthew Hedges said he had “no other option but to confess” during nearly seven months of detention in the United Arab Emirates on espionage charges. The UAE pardoned Hedges from a life sentence in November after showing a video of him purportedly confessing to being a member of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and researching which military systems the UAE was buying. In the video, which was sometimes inaudible and shown with subtitles that could not be independently verified, Hedges appeared to say he approached sources as a doctoral student. Britain has denied he was a spy and welcomed his pardon. “The confession tape, from my understanding, because I haven’t seen it, (is) an amalgamation or it’s cut and edited from the many months of my detention as well as scenes from court under duress, under threats of torture and psychological pressure,” Hedges told Reuters in an interview in New York. “There was no other option but to confess.” Asked about Hedges’s accusations, a UAE official said the academic had not been subjected to any physical or psychological mistreatment during his detention, and denied that the taped confession had been edited. “The fact remains that he (Hedges) was a part-time academic, part-time businessman and full-time spy,” said Jaber Al Lamki, executive director of Strategic and Media Communications at the UAE’s National Media Council. Hedges, 31, a doctoral student at Durham University, was arrested on May 5 at Dubai airport after a two-week research visit. He was kept in solitary confinement for more than five months and the evidence presented against him consisted of notes from his dissertation research. Hedges said the UAE authorities had asked him to “steal documents and information from the U.K. Foreign Office” and that this shocked him. Lamki denied that the UAE authorities had done any such thing, describing the allegation as “absolute nonsense. Hedges’s research focused on sensitive topics in the UAE, such as security structures, tribalism and the consolidation of political power in Abu Dhabi. His family have described him as a dedicated researcher who fell foul of the UAE’s security and justice system. The UAE said he was a British spy who was given a fair trial for grave espionage offenses. Hedges, who was in New York with his wife, Daniela Tejada, who had campaigned hard for his release, said he was now receiving psychiatric help to recover from his ordeal and expected the process to take years.


Rudy Giuliani backtracks on remark that Trump sought Moscow deal in 2016, calling comment 'hypothetical'

Abstract: WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, backtracked on Monday from earlier comments that Trump pursued a business deal to erect a tower bearing his name in Moscow throughout 2016, saying his statements “were hypothetical and not based on conversations I had with the president.” Giuliani told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that Trump may have continued to pursue the project and had discussions about it with his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, until as late as October or November 2016, when Trump was closing in on his election victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton. Giuliani went a step further with the New York Times, where he quoted Trump as saying the Trump Tower Moscow discussions were “going on from the day I announced to the day I won.” The Moscow deal ultimately did not materialize, but Giuliani’s remarks suggest that Trump’s discussions about the project with Cohen may have dragged on until the election, raising new questions for congressional investigators looking into possible ties between the president and Russia. Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee who appeared as a guest on the same show as Giuliani, said: “That is news to me. And that is big news.” But in an emailed statement on Monday Giuliani changed his story, saying: “My comments did not represent the actual timing or circumstances of any such discussions.” An investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion between Moscow and Trump’s campaign has loomed large over the Trump presidency amid media reports of his team’s alleged connections with Russia.

robert mueller
donald trump
trump tower
rudy giuliani
mark warner
russia probe
michael cohen


Michelin again awards stars to the chef who doesn't want them

Abstract: PARIS - A French chef who shocked the culinary world by handing back his Michelin stars was stunned Monday to find himself back in the prestigious guide’s new edition. Sebastien Bras cited the “huge pressure” that came with Michelin recognition when he asked in September 2017 for his three-star restaurant Le Suquet to be left out of the 2018 guide. Michelin agreed, with the company’s then brand manager Claire Dorland Clauzel saying, “It is difficult for us to have a restaurant in the guide which does not wish to be in it.” Bras spent the following year rustling up inventive French cuisine at his restaurant in the town of Laguiole, in the rural Aveyron region, without worrying about whether it was meeting Michelin’s exacting standards. But on Monday the 47-year-old said he was “surprised” to see the restaurant back in the 2019 guide, this time with only two stars. “This contradictory decision has left us with doubts, even if in any case we no longer worry about either the stars or the strategies of the guide,” he wrote in a statement. Bras took over the kitchen at Le Suquet from his father, Michel, a decade ago. The elder Bras had held three Michelin stars since 1999, and his son said that knowing a single below-par dish could cost him his reputation had created unbearable pressure as a chef. “You’re inspected two or three times a year — you never know when,” he told AFP in 2017. “That means that every day one of the 500 meals that leaves the kitchen could be judged.” “Maybe I will be less famous, but I accept that,” he said of dropping out of the Michelin guide. Michelin said it had celebrated more female chefs and young talent in its 2019 guide to the best restaurants in France. Stephanie Le Quellec won a second star for Parisian restaurant La Scene, while 24-year-old wunderkind Julia Sedefdjian won her first for a new restaurant Baieta. In one of the biggest shocks, star Alpine chef Marc Veyrat lost his third star, along with the Auberge de L’Ill, a restaurant in Alsace that has held three stars for 51 years. “It’s hard for the team, it’s hard for everyone — the customers, the family,” its chef Marc Haeberlin told France 3 Alsace television. “I don’t know how to explain this loss,” said Haeberlin, whose family has run an inn in Alsace for 150 years. Veyrat, known as much for his ever-present wide-brimmed black hat as his love of mountain herbs, confirmed that his restaurant the Maison des Bois had also lost its third star. “I’m terribly disappointed. I can’t understand it at all,” said Veyrat, who earned the coveted third star only last year. “I will stay combative and stand by the team in my kitchen,” Veyrat said, blasting the decision as “unfair.” Gwendal Poullennec, the guide’s new international director, had promised to breathe new life into its pages this year. A record 75 restaurants have earned new spots in the one, two or three star rankings for 2019. “It’s a reflection of the great dynamism of French gastronomy, in all regions, with establishments set up by talented young people who are often entrepreneurs who have taken risks,” Poullennec said. A large number of international chefs are also honored, while Argentine Mauro Colagreco became the only foreigner to currently hold three stars in France. “So many emotions. Thank you! I’m so honored,” said the 42-year-old, whose Mirazur restaurant on the glitzy Cote d’Azur ranked fourth last year on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. Chef Laurent Petit, meanwhile, praised the feared Michelin reviewers for having “the sense” to award him a third star for Le Clos des Sens restaurant in Annecy. “I’m delighted to have won a third star with endive roots and a cabbage tart. Simple, simple, simple,” he said.

france
restaurants
michelin
le suquet
sebastien bras


Ex-prosecutor Sen. Kamala Harris announces U.S. presidential run as Democrat field widens

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Sen. Kamala Harris announced Monday that she is seeking to become the first African-American woman to hold the office of U.S. president, joining an already-crowded field of Democrats lining up to take on Donald Trump. “The future of our country depends on you and millions of others lifting our voices to fight for our American values. That’s why I’m running for president of the United States,” the senator from California said in a video posted on Twitter. Harris joins Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and former housing secretary Julian Castro, among others, either in the race or exploring a run for the 2020 Democratic nomination. Nearly 22 months before the 2020 election, the battle for the White House is already firming up, as Americans begin to assess who might be the opposition party nominee to challenge Trump for control of the White House. Harris made the announcement on the national holiday honoring civil rights movement icon Martin Luther King Jr., whom she said her mother met. “I’m honored to be able to make my announcement on the day that we commemorate him,” Harris told ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “My parents were very active in the civil rights movement and that’s the language that I grew up hearing. And it was about a belief that we are a country that was founded on noble ideals and we are the best of who we are when we fight to achieve those ideals,” she said. Harris’s calls for unity in her newly published memoir — “The Truths We Hold: An American Journey,” from Penguin Press — clearly set the tone for what a Harris candidacy might mean in an America sorely divided by Trump’s unsettling presidency. After two terms as district attorney of San Francisco (2004-2011), she was twice elected as attorney general of California (2011-2017), becoming the first woman and the first black person to serve as chief law enforcement officer of that populous state. Then in January 2017, she took the oath of office as California’s junior U.S. senator, making her the first woman of South Asian descent (her mother is a Tamil Indian) and only the second black woman senator in American history, after Carol Moseley Braun. Her focused and often tough-sounding lines of questioning during closely watched Senate hearings reflect her past as a prosecutor. Harris often proudly recalls that as a prosecutor she fought big banks during the 2008 financial crisis. She casts herself as a champion of middle class families “living paycheck to paycheck” and denounces police brutality and the killing of unarmed black men. The daughter of immigrants — her father is from Jamaica — Harris grew up in the 1960s in the progressive hotbed of Oakland, California, proud of the struggle her parents waged for civil rights. “My mother was the strongest person I have ever known,” she has written on Twitter. Mother Shyamala was only 19 when she came to the United States in 1960 to pursue her studies in California, eventually becoming a renowned cancer researcher. Harris mentions her father, Donald, as well, calling him “a respected economist” who is an emeritus professor at Stanford University. But after her parents separated when she was about 5 years old, it was Kamala’s mother who raised her and her younger sister, Maya, who went on to become a lawyer and an adviser to Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign. Hers was a happy childhood, Harris now says, where education was highly valued, and it inspired her to write her second new book, “Superheroes Are Everywhere,” a children’s picture book that was also published last week. But Harris has also experienced discrimination. “I have too many memories of my brilliant mother being treated as though she were dumb because of her accent,” she wrote in her autobiography. Asked about that, she shared some tough words about Republican President Trump. “There are powerful forces — including this president — that are attempting to vilify immigrants because they were born in another country,” she said recently on CNN.

u.s. senate
democrats
donald trump
african-american
mlk
2020 presidential election
kamala harris


Paris summons Italian envoy over deputy PM's claim that France 'never stopped colonizing' Africa

Abstract: PARIS - France has summoned Italy’s ambassador to protest about comments by Italian Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, who accused Paris of continuing to colonize Africa and causing people to migrate from the continent, a government source told AFP. The ambassador was summoned Monday after the “unacceptable and groundless” comments by Di Maio on Sunday, a source in the Cabinet of French Europe Minister Natalie Loiseau told AFP on condition of anonymity. Di Maio made a series of incendiary remarks while visiting the Abruzzo region in central Italy, the latest sign of serious tensions between the populist government in Rome and France’s centrist leader, Emmanuel Macron. “The EU should sanction France and all countries like France that impoverish Africa and make these people leave, because Africans should be in Africa, not at the bottom of the Mediterranean,” Di Maio said. “If people are leaving today it’s because European countries, France above all, have never stopped colonizing dozens of African countries,” added the leader of the Five Star Movement (M5S), which governs alongside the far-right League party. The International Organization for Migration said over the weekend that more than 100 people were feared missing after a boat carrying migrants capsized off the coast of Libya. The Italian navy flew three survivors to the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa. Italy has closed its ports to rescue boats operated by charities in the Mediterranean under a new hard-line approach to immigration. After making comments criticizing the Italian government and its approach to immigration last year, Macron and the French government have since largely avoided entering into a war of words with Rome. But relations between the two capitals, usually close EU allies, have deteriorated since the M5S-League coalition became the European Union’s first populist-only government in June last year. Di Maio and fellow Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, from the League party, recently backed “yellow vest” protesters who have been demonstrating against Macron’s government since November.

france
africa
accidents
italy
migrants
emmanuel macron
luigi di maio
matteo salvini


Russians' trust in Vladimir Putin falls to 13-year low of 33.4%, state pollster reports

Abstract: MOSCOW - Public trust in President Vladimir Putin has fallen to its lowest level in 13 years, according to a Russian state pollster, a setback for the Kremlin, which works hard to burnish Putin’s image as a wise father-of-the-nation-style leader. The poll, by the Public Opinion Research Center, found that trust in Putin had fallen to 33.4 percent, its lowest level since 2006. The results do not pose an immediate problem for Putin, who won a landslide election victory and a new six-year mandate in March last year, but could embolden would-be successors to begin what is likely to be a long game of jostling for position. Putin’s overall approval rating, which is different from his trust rating, is still high at just over 60 percent. His approval rating has slipped from its peak of nearly 90 percent amid dismay over falling household incomes and unpopular government moves to raise the retirement age and hike value added tax. Putin’s trust rating hit a high of 71 percent in July 2015 after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea the previous year. On the eve of last year’s presidential election, it stood at 55.3 percent. Since then, public trust in him has dropped sharply, falling to 38.3 percent three months later, ending 2018 at 36.5 percent. Putin remains far more trusted than any other politician in Russia, however, the same poll showed. The second and third most trusted politicians in the poll were Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who received trust ratings of 13.7 percent and 9.3 percent, respectively.

vladimir putin
russia
retirement
jobs
surveys
crimea


Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko launches bid for presidency

Abstract: KIEV - Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Tuesday officially launched her bid for the country’s presidency, with polls showing her as the front-runner. “I’m running for the presidency,” she told a session of her nationalist Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party to cheers from the crowd. “I’ve made mistakes,” said Tymoshenko, who is a highly divisive figure in Ukrainian politics. “Maybe sometimes I’m wrong, but I’m wrong sincerely,” she said. “Today we are entering a new era — an era of success, of happiness, of enlightenment … today we begin Ukraine’s journey toward real and powerful greatness.” Tymoshenko is the favorite to win the March 31 vote according to the latest polls, but no candidate yet has an unassailable lead. The 58-year-old has 16 percent support going into the two-round election, according to surveys, ahead of incumbent President Petro Poroshenko with 13.8 percent. In third place is Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian who once played the country’s president in a TV show but has promised to refresh Ukraine’s political system. Tymoshenko has been a leading figure in the political scene for the last two decades, coming to international prominence through her role in the 2004 Orange Revolution. The politician, long recognizable by her braided hair heaped atop her head in traditional style, served as prime minister twice under her protest co-leader Viktor Yushchenko. But her fortunes changed after she lost the 2010 presidential election to pro-Russia Viktor Yanukovych. The following year she faced a string of criminal investigations and was sentenced to seven years in jail, in which she served three. She was released in 2014 — the day that pro-Europe, anti-corruption protests led to Yanukovych’s ouster. Tymoshenko contested that year’s presidential election but came a distant second to Poroshenko, who had served in her cabinet. Supporters say she has the iron will and anti-Kremlin credentials needed to lead Ukraine but detractors accuse her of corruption and say she may have ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

elections
ukraine
yulia tymoshenko
viktor yanukovych
petro poroshenko
viktor yushchenko