Toyota's committee-designed Japan Taxi becomes pricey symbol of Olympic budget-busting

Abstract: Toyota Motor’s Japan Taxi, born in a government committee and designed to be an all-things-to-all-people cab, has become a high-priced icon of Tokyo’s budget-busting 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Launched in 2017, the indigo car is the realization of a government project to put a taxi on Japan’s roads that could carry wheelchair users, luggage-laden travelers and foreign visitors of all sizes. It includes a wheelchair ramp, heated seats, smartphone chargers, an array of anti-collision sensors and even virus-killing air conditioning. But the liquefied petroleum gas-hybrid taxi doesn’t come cheap, selling for ¥3.5 million ($31,786.40) — almost a third more than the Crown model it replaces. “We wanted to build something that tried to please as many people as possible,” Hiroshi Kayukawa, the chief engineer who oversaw Japan Taxi’s development, told Reuters at Toyota’s headquarters in Toyota, Nagoya Prefecture. The effort has not been without some wrong turns. Many drivers complained that the Japan Taxi wheelchair ramp was awkward and took too long to deploy. Operators worry about costs after transport ministry subsidies expire. And the taxi’s complex design — conceived by a transport ministry committee with representatives from carmakers, taxi companies and advocates for the disabled — has scuttled at least one attempt to export it. “I would give it 70 out of 100,” said Hiroaki Kaneko, a 20-year veteran driver for Hinomaru Kotsu, one of Tokyo’s leading taxi companies. “As a universal taxi I would give it 50.” Although it wasn’t built with the 2020 Games in mind, Toyota rolls it off the line with Olympics and Paralympic logos plastered on each side. The carmaker hopes that Olympic sheen will help it replace a third of Tokyo’s 30,000 taxis before the Games. The event, which starts in July 2020, is expected to cost more than twice the initial estimate of ¥734 billion ($6.67 billion). “We thought the Olympics would be a good way to increase the appeal of the car. We want to get it adopted as quickly as possible,” Kayukawa said. Toyota’s Japan Taxi cars are parked in Tokyo on March 4. | REUTERS A rush of pre-Olympic orders for the cab is helping Toyota generate sales for what the company says is a money-losing project. Only 2,000 Japan Taxis are built each month, far below the number Toyota would normally consider viable, and a small fraction of the 28,000 cars the company produces every day globally. A spokesman said the company’s rationale for the project was not profit, but “to contribute to the creation of a rich society by supporting the movement of many people with taxis.” Government subsidies are giving taxi firms incentives to buy the vehicles. Hinomaru Kotsu has already replaced half of its 620 taxis. By September two-thirds of the fleet will be Japan Taxis, said Satoshi Touma, who is in charge of vehicle management. Hinomaru, like other operators, gets a transport ministry universal taxi payment and an eco-friendly vehicle subsidy from the Tokyo Metropolitan government. Combined, they cover most of the taxi’s extra costs, Touma said. But those subsidies “will disappear once the Olympics end,” Touma added. Overseas, Japan Taxi’s unsubsidized price tag dissuaded Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, according to a Toyota executive who spoke to Reuters. Didi, which “loved the fact that you can carry your small suitcase right on” and other purpose-designed features, asked Toyota about the taxi last year, the source said. But it decided it was too difficult to pare back the design and reduce costs, said the executive, who was not authorized to speak to the media and requested anonymity. Toyota and Japanese officials have promoted Japan Taxi as providing accessibility for disabled travelers in Japan for the Paralympics. On a rainy day in March, the Japan National Tourism Organization deployed two taxis to take U.S. Paralympian Daniel Romanchuk and Canadian-born Josh Grisdale, a disabled tourism promoter, on a trip around Tokyo. Romanchuk, who had just competed in the Tokyo Marathon, usually stows his wheelchair in the trunk when he takes a taxi, said his mother, Kim. The Japan Taxi allowed him to roll his wheelchair inside, but he had to wait in the rain as the driver attached the foldable ramp. Grisdale, who uses a taller, bulkier electric wheelchair that is hard to fit in the Japan Taxi, traveled in a specialized van instead. Paralympian Daniel Romanchuk enters a Japan Taxi during his tour of Tokyo on March 4. | REUTERS “It’s hard to find a one-stop solution; there are so many variables,” Romanchuk’s mother said. The tricky ramp dented the taxi’s user-friendly image, and Kayukawa’s team redesigned it after drivers complained it was tricky to deploy. “We probably over-engineered it,” he said. His engineers had assumed the ramp would rarely be used, and decided it could be stashed in the trunk. They didn’t invite drivers to test it before production began, Kayukawa added. The new, larger ramp is now stored under the rear passenger seat. Hinomaru likes its Japan Taxis because they consume half the fuel of older vehicles and their anti-collision sensors have reduced accidents by 10 percent. That means more profit amid worries about competitors such as Didi Chuxing and Uber Technologies, which are partnering with Toyota to develop car-sharing services. Toyota made other tweaks when it addressed the wheelchair ramp problem. It also made the automatic sliding passenger door close 1.5 seconds faster, reduced rear windscreen wiper noise with an intermittent setting and lowered the money tray on the driver’s seat to reduce shoulder strain. When the Olympics are over, Kaneko and Touma would like Toyota to make other changes, including a more spacious trunk, a bigger fuel tank and passenger windows that open. The Ministry of Transport, Land and Infrastructure says there is more work to be done on the universal taxi project. “We would like to a see another vehicle that fills a gap between Japan Taxi and more specialized wheelchair carriers,” automotive section official Daisuke Kakuya said.

toyota
japan taxi
taxis
olympics
carmakers
2020 tokyo olympics
2020 tokyo paralympics


Few Japanese firms plan to hire foreign workers under new immigration law, poll suggests

Abstract: Only 1 in 4 Japanese companies plan to actively employ foreign workers under a new government immigration program, a poll has found, complicating Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to ease the country’s tightest job market in decades. Also, the bulk of the firms that may hire immigrants under the program do not plan to support them in securing housing, learning Japanese language skills or acquiring information on living in Japan, the Reuters Corporate Survey showed. The survey results underscore the challenge Japan faces in coping with its dwindling and aging population, which has put pressure on the government to relax tight controls on foreign labor. Immigration has long been taboo in the country as many Japanese prize ethnic homogeneity. A lack of language ability, cultural gaps, costs of training, mismatches in skills and the fact that many foreign workers cannot stay permanently in Japan under the new system were among factors behind corporate wariness about hiring foreign workers, the poll showed. The law, which took effect in April, creates two new categories of visas for blue-collar workers in 14 sectors that face a labor crunch, such as construction and nursing care. It is intended to attract up to 345,000 blue-collar workers to Japan over five years. But the survey suggests the government may struggle to get the workers it needs to ease the country’s labor woes, where there are now 1.63 jobs available for every job seeker — the most since the beginning of 1974. “Taking education costs, quality risks and yields into account, costs will go up” by hiring foreign workers, wrote a manager at a rubber manufacturer, who said the firm has no plans to hire foreign workers. “We have failed in the past by employing foreign workers who could not blend in with a different culture,” a manager of a metal products maker wrote. Some 41 percent of firms are not considering hiring non-Japanese at all, 34 percent are not planning to hire many and 26 percent do intend to hire such foreign workers, the survey conducted from May 8 to 17 showed. Of those considering hiring foreign workers, the majority said they have no plans to support them in areas such as housing, Japanese language study and information on living in the country, it showed. The survey, which is conducted monthly for Reuters by Nikkei Research, polled 477 large and midsize firms with managers responding on condition of anonymity. Around 220 answered the questions on foreign workers. Under the new law, those in a category of “specified skilled workers” can stay for up to five years but cannot bring family members. Another category is for more skilled non-Japanese nationals and allows them to bring relatives as well and stay in the country for longer. While foreign workers are generally viewed as cheap labor in Japan, 77 percent of firms see no change in wage levels across the workforce a whole when hiring staff with specified skills. Some 16 percent expect wages to decline, and just 6 percent see wages rising. Foreign workers “will help ease the labor crunch, bringing down overall wages,” a manager at a steel-maker wrote in the survey. Abe, whose conservative base fears a rise in crime and a threat to the country’s social fabric, has insisted that the new law does not constitute an “immigration policy.” Japan has about 1.28 million foreign workers — more than double the figure logged a decade ago but still just 2 percent of the workforce. Some 260,000 of them are trainees from countries such as Vietnam and China who can stay three to five years.

foreign workers
companies
surveys
foreign trainees


Sony CEO vows to tackle game addiction, as WHO prepares to recognize disorder

Abstract: Sony Corp. will tackle game addiction, its chief executive said Wednesday as the World Health Organization prepares to formally recognize it as a disorder. “We need to take it seriously and adopt countermeasures,” Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida said in an interview with media outlets, without elaborating. Sony, the maker of PlayStation consoles, saw its gaming business generate 27 percent of the group’s overall sales and 35 percent of operating profit in fiscal 2018 at ¥2.31 trillion ($21 billion) and ¥311 billion, respectively. The electronics and entertainment giant logged a record net profit of ¥916.27 billion for the year ended in March on strong demand for its game software, subscription-based gaming services and music streaming services. “We’ve already implemented a ratings system (to restrict players by age) and have been taking measures based on our own standards,” Yoshida said. Sony has provided guidance on suitable age thresholds for users of game software, depending on the depiction of violence and sexual themes, Yoshida said. Sony also provides parental control settings on the PlayStation 4 to limit the amount of time a child can play a game. The WHO is set to include gaming addiction in its International Classification of Diseases, in a revision to be approved at its annual assembly through next Tuesday. The move is expected to help prompt health professionals to report such cases of addiction more frequently and develop preventive and treatment measures, the U.N. organization said.

addiction
who
kenichiro yoshida
video games
sony corp .


Plan said in works to send up to 10,000 more U.S. troops to Mideast amid Iran threat

Abstract: WASHINGTON - In a move to beef up defenses against potential Iranian threats, the Pentagon on Thursday will present plans to the White House to send up to 10,000 more troops to the Middle East, U.S. officials said. The officials said no final decision has been made yet, and it is not clear if the White House will approve sending all or just some of the requested forces. Officials said the move is not in response to any new threat from Iran, but is aimed at reinforcing security in the region. They said the troops would be defensive forces, and the discussions include additional Patriot missile batteries, more ships and increased efforts to monitor Iran. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans have not been formally announced. Thursday morning’s meeting comes as tensions with Iran continue to simmer, and it wasn’t clear if a decision would be made during the session. Any move to deploy more forces to the Middle East would signal a shift for President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly emphasized the need to reduce America’s troop presence in the region. U.S. officials have provided few details about possible Iranian threats, but indicated they initially involved missiles loaded onto small Iranian boats. This week officials said the missiles have been taken off the boats near Iran’s shore, but other maritime threats continue. Sending more troops could also raise questions on Capitol Hill. During back-to-back closed briefings for the House and Senate on Tuesday, defense leaders told congressional officials the U.S. doesn’t want to go to war with Iran and wants to de-escalate the situation. Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told lawmakers the U.S. is seeking to deter, not provoke, Iran, even while accusing Tehran of threatening U.S. interests in the Mideast. Shanahan told reporters, “Our biggest focus at this point is to prevent Iranian miscalculation.” Many in Congress are skeptical of the administration’s approach to Iran, questioning whether it is responding to significant new Iranian threats or escalating a situation that could lead to war. CNN first reported that the Pentagon will brief the White House on a plan that could send thousands of additional U.S. troops to the Middle East. Air force Col. Patrick Ryder, spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declined to comment, saying, “As a matter of long-standing policy, we are not going to discuss or speculate on potential or alleged future operations or plans.” In early May, the U.S. accelerated the deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group to the Mideast and sent four B-52 bomber aircraft to the region. The Pentagon also decided to move a Patriot air-defense missile battery to an undisclosed country in the area. The Trump administration has evacuated nonessential personnel from Iraq, amid unspecified threats the administration said are linked to Iranian-backed militias in the country. On Sunday, a rocket was fired into Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, landing less than a mile from the sprawling U.S. Embassy. There were no injuries and no group claimed responsibility, but the rocket was believed to have been fired from east Baghdad — which is home to Iran-backed Shiite militias. Some Democrats say Trump is responsible for drawing Iran’s ire. Last year he abruptly pulled the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal, negotiated during the Obama administration to prevent Iran from nuclear weapons production, without crafting a coherent strategy for how to combat other Iranian behavior like supporting extremist organizations. He also has reimposed punishing sanctions that have crippled Tehran’s economy, and designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization in April. “I have yet to see any exhibited strategy,” said Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, a former CIA officer. She said she finds many of the administration’s recent statements on Iran to be “deeply troubling.”


Belarus reburies over 1,200 Jews unearthed in Nazi-era mass grave

Abstract: BREST, BELARUS - Belarus on Wednesday buried more than 1,200 Jewish Holocaust victims whose remains were unearthed this year after builders stumbled across a Nazi-era mass grave beneath a construction site in a residential area. Soldiers were called in to the city center of Brest on Belarus’ western border with Poland where they exhumed the bones of 1,214 people killed during the Nazi occupation at the site of what served as a Jewish ghetto from 1941-42. Their remains were buried on Wednesday in 120 blue caskets embossed with the star of David that were laid side-by-side and two-deep in a giant grave in a city cemetery to the north of Brest at a ceremony led by a local Jewish rabbi. The funeral ceremony, which also featured a gun salute by Belarusian soldiers, was attended by around 300 people, including Israel’s ambassador in Belarus and Jewish community members. Attendees, some of whom closed their eyes in prayer, took turns to toss earth onto the caskets before the pit was filled in. “The soul goes up to heaven through this process, so it was very important for the Jewish community that it was all done with Jewish custom,” said Israel’s ambassador in Belarus, Alon Shoham. Nazi Germany occupied Belarus, then part of the Soviet Union, during World War II. Tens of thousands of its Jews were killed by the Nazis. Brest was part of Poland before the war. The mass grave was uncovered by chance in January as builders were laying the foundations for an elite housing development, prompting an operation to exhume their remains. Some of the skulls they found bore bullet holes, suggesting victims had been executed by a shot to the back of the head. Soldiers also found personal effects such as leather shoes that had not rotted. “I have mixed feelings,” Jewish community member Regina Simonenko said after the funeral. She said she had been shaken by the sheer horror of the events, but that it was important that they had been remembered. “If we don’t remember, then things like this can happen again.”

belarus nazis brest holocaust wwii judaism


Trump coal moves hasten but don't increase emissions, say U.S. officials

Abstract: BILLINGS, MONTANA - The Trump administration’s decision to lift a moratorium on coal sales from public lands could hasten the release of more than 5 billion tons of greenhouse gases, but officials concluded Wednesday it would make little difference in overall U.S. climate emissions. That conclusion from the Bureau of Land Management comes after a judge ruled last month the administration had failed to consider the environmental effects of resuming coal sales from public lands. Sales were largely halted in 2016 under President Barack Obama over worries about climate change. But the moratorium was rescinded by then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke soon after President Donald Trump took office, fulfilling a campaign pledge from the Republican. Critics said the Trump administration’s contention that resuming sales would have negligible effects on the environment was absurd given the scope of the federal coal program. About 40 percent of coal burned in the U.S. comes from federal leases, primarily in Western states including Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Montana and New Mexico. Companies have mined about 4 billion tons of coal from federal reserves in the past decade, contributing $10 billion to federal and state coffers through royalties and other payments. In Wednesday’s report, the Bureau of Land Management analyzed applications from companies for coal leases totaling more than 2.5 billion tons of the fuel. Just over 5 billion tons of greenhouse gases would be produced by burning the fuel for electricity over the next 20 years, the agency said. That’s equivalent to just over 1 percent of greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector for 2017, according to the agency. The agency’s conclusion was based on the assumption that coal sales would have resumed as normal once the moratorium ended in 2019. “The lifting of the coal leasing pause would not change the cumulative levels of (greenhouse gas) emissions resulting from coal leasing,” officials wrote. Environmentalists who sued to reinstate the moratorium said that assumption was flawed. They also blasted officials for providing only a 15-day comment period. “This seems to be both absurd and tremendously insulting to the public,” said attorney Michael Saul with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of several groups that sued to block the moratorium. “Economics plus physics tell us that mining more cheap coal means burning more coal, which means more CO2 in the atmosphere and a hotter planet.” The attorneys general of California, New Mexico, New York and Washington — all Democrats — also had challenged Trump’s move to end the moratorium. A spokeswoman for the National Mining Association, which intervened in the court cases on behalf of the Trump administration, declined comment on Wednesday’s report. The industry group has said previously that it was the Obama administration that violated federal law, by imposing the moratorium without first analyzing its effects on the coal industry. In February, Interior Department officials had announced a sale of coal leases on public lands in Utah by issuing a statement headlined “The War on Coal is Over.” They said the sale would not have been possible if the administration had not overturned the Obama-era moratorium.

coal
emissions
environment
climate change
donald trump
pollution
carbon
u.s .
blm


U.S. border holding center to reopen after 32 migrants contract flu

Abstract: SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - U.S. authorities say 32 migrants have tested positive for influenza at a major processing center on the Mexican border that was temporarily closed to stop the outbreak. It’s unclear if anyone ill came in contact with a 16-year-old Guatemalan boy who was held at the facility in McAllen, Texas. He died Monday, a day after he was diagnosed and transferred to a smaller station. A Border Patrol official says the 32 sick children and adults have been quarantined at a smaller processing center. The official spoke with reporters on condition of anonymity because there is an ongoing investigation. The official says the center has been cleaned and will soon reopen. The closure further strains an overstretched system. Migrants were sent to other stations during the brief shutdown.

flu
mcallen
texas
u.s .
immigration
mexico
u.s.-mexico border


Israeli scientists brew beer with revived ancient yeasts

Abstract: JERUSALEM - Israeli researchers raised a glass Wednesday to celebrate a long-brewing project of making beer and mead using yeasts extracted from ancient clay vessels — some over 5,000 years old. Archaeologists and microbiologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority and four Israeli universities teamed up to study yeast colonies found in microscopic pores in pottery fragments. The shards were found at Egyptian, Philistine and Judean archaeological sites in Israel spanning from 3,000 BC to the 4th century BC. The scientists are touting the brews made from “resurrected” yeasts as an important step in experimental archaeology, a field that seeks to reconstruct the past in order to better understand the flavor of the ancient world. “What we discovered was that yeast can actually survive for a very, very long time without food,” said Hebrew University microbiologist Michael Klutstein. “Today we are able to salvage all these living organizms that live inside the nanopores and to revive them and study their properties.” Beer was a staple of the daily diet for the people of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Early Egyptian texts refer to a variety of different brews, including “iron beer,” “friend’s beer,” and “beer of the protector.” The yeast samples came from nearly two dozen ceramic vessels found in excavations around the country, including a salvage dig in central Tel Aviv, a Persian-era palace in southern Jerusalem and ‘En Besor, a 5,000-year-old Egyptian brewery near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip. The project was spearheaded by Hebrew University microbiologist Ronen Hazan and antiquities authority archaeologist Yitzhak Paz. Other researchers of ancient beers, such as University of Pennsylvania archaeologist Patrick McGovern, have concocted drinks based on ancient recipes and residue analysis of ceramics. But the Israeli scientists say this is the first time fermented drinks have been made from revived ancient yeasts. Aren Maeir, a Bar Ilan University archaeologist, excavates at Tel es-Safi, the biblical city of Gath, where ancient Philistine beer pots yielded yeasts used to brew a beer offered to journalists. He likened the revival of long-dormant yeast to the resurrection of ancient beasts fictionalized in “Jurassic Park,” but only to a point. “In Jurassic Park, the dinosaurs eat the scientists,” he said. “Here, the scientists drink the dinosaurs.” “It opens up a whole new field of the possibility that perhaps other microorganizms survived as well, and you can identify foods such as cheese, wine, pickles,” opening a portal into tasting cultures of the past, he said. For this initial experiment, the team paired up with a Jerusalem craft brewer to make a basic modern-style ale using yeast extracted from the pots. The ale had a thick white head, with a caramel color and a distinctly funky nose. The mead, made using yeast extracted from a vessel found in the ruins of a palace near Jerusalem that contained honey wine roughly 2,400 years ago, was champagne bubbly and dry, with a hint of green apple. The beer incorporates modern ingredients, like hops, that were not available in the ancient Middle East — but it’s the revived yeast that provides much of the flavor. “We tried to recreate some of the old flavors that people in this area were consuming hundreds and thousands of years ago,” said Shmuel Naky, a craft brewer from the Jerusalem Beer Center, who helped produce the beer and mead. Yeasts, he said, “have a very crucial impact on flavor.” Naky described the beer as “spicy, and somewhat fruity, and it’s very complex in flavor,” all attributes produced by the ancient yeast. Genome sequencing of the yeast colonies extracted from the pots showed that the ancient strain of yeast was different from the yeast used in beer-making today, but similar to those still used to make traditional Zimbabwean beer and Ethiopian tej, a type of honey wine. The researchers said their next aim is to pair the resurrected yeasts with ancient beer recipes to better reproduce drinks from antiquity.

beer
israel
antiquities authority
history
alcohol


Trump foe Michael Avenatti charged with bilking client, apparently Stormy Daniels

Abstract: NEW YORK - Michael Avenatti, the attorney who rocketed to fame through his representation of porn star Stormy Daniels in her battles with President Donald Trump, was charged Wednesday with ripping her off. Federal prosecutors in New York City say Avenatti used a doctored document to divert about $300,000 that Daniels was supposed to get from a book deal, then used the money for personal and business expenses. Only half of that money was paid back, prosecutors said. Daniels isn’t named in the court filing, but the details of the case, including the date her book was released, make it clear that she is the client involved. Avenatti denied the allegations on Twitter. “No monies relating to Ms. Daniels were ever misappropriated or mishandled. She received millions of dollars worth of legal services and we spent huge sums in expenses. She directly paid only $100.00 for all that she received. I look forward to a jury hearing the evidence,” he wrote. Avenatti added in a later tweet that his agreement for representing Daniels “included a percentage of any book proceeds.” The charges pile on top of previous allegations of legal misconduct by Avenatti, who represented Daniels when she sued to be released from a nondisclosure agreement involving an alleged tryst with Trump. The president denies an affair took place. Avenatti was previously charged in New York with trying to extort up to $25 million from Nike by threatening to expose claims that the shoemaker paid off high school basketball players to steer them to Nike-sponsored colleges. And in Los Angeles, he’s facing a multicount federal indictment alleging that he stole millions of dollars from clients, didn’t pay taxes, committed bank fraud and lied during bankruptcy proceedings. Avenatti has denied the allegations against him on both coasts, saying he expects to be exonerated. The Los Angeles charges alone carry a potential penalty of more than 300 years in prison. “I look forward to a jury hearing all of the evidence and passing judgment on my conduct,” Avenatti wrote in a text message to The Associated Press. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, initially hired Avenatti to handle a lawsuit she filed last year in which she sought to invalidate the nondisclosure agreement she’d signed with Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen in exchange for $130,000. The money was supposed to buy her silence during Trump’s run for president about an alleged affair between the two. In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws in connection with the payment. In announcing the new charges Wednesday, prosecutors said that Avenatti sent a “fraudulent and unauthorized letter” to Daniels’ literary agent, instructing the agent to send payments not to Daniels but to a bank account Avenatti controlled. They said he used the stolen funds to pay employees of his law firm and pay for hotels, airfare, dry cleaning and his Ferrari. “Far from zealously representing his client, Avenatti, as alleged, instead engaged in outright deception and theft, victimizing rather than advocating for his client,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in news release. Avenatti “blatantly lied” and stole to maintain his “extravagant lifestyle,” Berman said. Daniels raised concerns with Avenatti about late payments around the time her book, “Full Disclosure,” was published in October, according to the indictment. “When is the publisher going to cough up my money,” she asked Avenatti in early December, according to the indictment. Avenatti responded that he was “working them and threatening litigation,” prosecutors said, but he did not tell Daniels he had already received the money. Daniels began publicly raising concerns about Avenatti’s conduct in November. In a statement, she said Avenatti had launched a fundraising effort to raise money for her legal case without telling her. She also said he had filed a defamation lawsuit against Trump, on her behalf, against her wishes. “For months I’ve asked Michael Avenatti to give me accounting information about the fund my supporters so generously donated to for my safety and legal defense. He has repeatedly ignored those requests,” she said. “Days ago I demanded again, repeatedly, that he tell me how the money was being spent and how much was left. Instead of answering me, without my permission or even my knowledge Michael launched another crowdfunding campaign to raise money on my behalf. I learned about it on Twitter.” At the time, Avenatti responded that he was still Daniels’ “biggest champion.” He said that under his retention agreement, she had agreed to pay him just $100 for his services, and he was entitled to keep all the money he raised for her legal defense to defray what he said were substantial costs of her case. The defamation case initiated by Avenatti against Trump backfired, with a judge ordering her to pay the president’s legal bills. When Avenatti was first charged with defrauding other clients and extorting Nike in March, Daniels said she was “saddened but not shocked.” She added on Twitter that she had fired Avenatti a month earlier after “discovering that he had dealt with me extremely dishonestly.”

michael avenatti
stormy daniels
new york
donald trump
nike
u.s .
california


Search warrants tied to former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen released

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Months before the FBI raided Michael Cohen’s office and hotel room, investigators were examining the flow of foreign money into his bank accounts and looking into whether the funds might be connected to a plan to lift sanctions on Russia, according to court filings unsealed Wednesday. The five search warrant applications, made in the early weeks and months of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation in 2017, were made public in response to requests from The Associated Press and other media organizations. Ultimately, Cohen was not charged by Mueller or by prosecutors in New York with anything related to Russian collusion or illegal influence peddling, but the documents shed further light on how he capitalized financially on his closeness to the president immediately following the 2016 election. Cohen, who at the time was the president’s personal lawyer and a close aide and confidant, quickly cut deals to act as a highly paid consultant to several foreign and domestic companies with business interests linked to federal government decisions. Investigators said in the warrant applications that a corporate entity Cohen had created, Essential Consultants LLC, had received multiple deposits from foreign businesses and entities, including from companies they said had “significant ties to foreign governments or are entities controlled by foreign governments.” Essential Consultants received funds from U.S. and foreign corporations who appear to have approached Cohen “in connection with political objectives in the Trump administration,” investigators wrote. Investigators were especially curious about deposits of more than $416,000 from an account linked to an investment management firm, Columbus Nova, LLC. The warrants link that firm, and the holding company that controls it, to Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian oligarch with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. In an application to search his Trump Organization email account, prosecutors said Cohen exchanged over 230 phone calls and 950 text messages with the CEO of Columbus Nova between Nov. 8, 2016, and July 14, 2017. There were no text messages or phone calls before Election Day in 2016, prosecutors said. Columbus Nova has said in a statement that it is solely owned and controlled by Americans. It has described as false any allegation that Vekselberg used Columbus Nova as a conduit for payments to Cohen. The warrant applications also make clear that investigators at the time were examining whether any of the fund transfers were connected to Cohen’s involvement in a plan, described months earlier in a New York Times story, to try to get the U.S. to lift sanctions on Russia. Cohen has acknowledged offering his insights into Trump’s administration to multiple corporate clients, but said he broke no laws in doing so. Representatives for Cohen, who began serving a three-year prison sentence this month, declined comment Wednesday. The newly unsealed material reveals nothing about Trump’s own role in the crimes that put Cohen behind bars. Cohen is now serving a three-year prison sentence for tax evasion, lying to Congress about a Trump real estate project in Moscow, and campaign finance violations related to hush-money payments he orchestrated to two women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump, the porn actress Stormy Daniels and erotic model Karen McDougal. The warrant applications, which covered requests to search Cohen’s email accounts, including one associated with the Trump Organization, were blacked out in certain sections to protect the secrecy of an ongoing federal investigation into Cohen’s campaign finance crimes. Cohen has said he arranged payments to McDougal and Daniels at Trump’s behest, which the president has denied along with the affairs.

michael cohen
robert mueller
viktor vekselberg
u.s .
donald trump
russia probe


Jury rejects insanity plea and convicts Vermont man of murder of five teens in wrong-way crash

Abstract: BURLINGTON, VERMONT - A Vermont jury on Wednesday found a wrong-way driver who claimed he was on a secret mission guilty of murder in the deaths of five teenagers killed on an interstate highway. The jury’s verdict against Steven Bourgoin came on the second day of deliberations following a two-week trial. Bourgoin, 38, had pleaded not guilty to five counts of second-degree murder and other charges. He faces 20 years to life in prison on each count. Defense attorneys acknowledged that Bourgoin caused the October 2016 crash but said he was insane at the time. Jurors rejected that claim. Chittenden County State’s attorney Sarah George said she was grateful “for such a diligent and thoughtful jury” and for the bravery and courage of parents and families of the victims who attended the court proceedings. “I want the community to know that these were children, they were kids, they were high school students. They were 15 and 16 years old and had really incredible personalities, really big dreams, really impressive talents and it was all taken from them by one person,” George told reporters. The crash killed Mary Harris, 16, of Moretown; Cyrus Zschau, 16, of Moretown; Liam Hale, 16, of Fayston; Janie Cozzi, 15, of Fayston; and Eli Brookens, 16, of Waterbury. Four of the teenagers attended Harwood Union High School in Duxbury. Cozzi attended Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, New Hampshire. After the verdict, one by one, parents held up photos of their child and gave statements to the media. “We’d like it to be about the kids now and no more about Steven Bourgoin,” Sarah Zschau said. Colleen Ovelman said she is relieved to put this part of the tragedy behind her “so I can move beyond focusing on my son Eli’s death and go to focus on his life and the beautiful person that he was.” During the trial, psychiatrists said that in the days leading up to the crash, Bourgoin thought he was on a secret mission, believing he was in danger and thinking he was getting inferences from lights, radios and television static about what to do. Prosecutors countered that Bourgoin was troubled at the time of the crash, grappling with custody, relationship and financial issues, but his condition did not meet the legal definition of being insane. They outlined how Bourgoin left his home that night, got onto Interstate 89 going south and then turned around, approaching 90 mph (144 kph) north in the southbound lane. He collided with the car that carried the teenagers in Williston. After the initial crash, Bourgoin allegedly stole a Williston police cruiser and again headed south on the interstate before turning around and crashing again into vehicles at the original crash scene. Bourgoin was seriously injured and initially arraigned at the hospital. Defense attorney Robert Katims said there would be an appeal. “We think we presented the overwhelming medical evidence with regard to the sanity issue and we’re disappointed that the jury found otherwise,” he said, calling the case “incredibly difficult.” “And I think the jury spending over a day and a half or so on deliberations proves that it was an incredibly difficult case,” he said.

vermont
steven bourgoin
u.s .
traffic accidents


Vigilante attacks on the rise in Mexico as year's victims top 100

Abstract: MEXICO CITY - Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission says vigilante attacks in which mobs injure or kill people suspected of wrongdoing are increasing. The commission says there have been 241 such attacks since the start of last year, compared to 162 in the previous three years combined. There have already been 67 attacks with 107 victims so far this year. Since the start of 2015, 121 people have been killed in such attacks. Its report released Wednesday says the attacks are expressions of the country’s insecurity, violence and impunity. The report cautioned that there are no official statistics and that cases were collected from media reports and a survey. The attacks have occurred most frequently in the central states of Puebla and Mexico.


Captured in 2001, 'American Taliban' John Walker Lindh to go free but with restrictions

Abstract: ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA - John Walker Lindh, the young Californian who became known as the American Taliban after he was captured by U.S. forces in the invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, is set to go free after nearly two decades in prison. But conditions imposed recently on Lindh’s release, slated for Thursday, make clear that authorities remain concerned about the threat he could pose once free. Lindh converted to Islam as a teenager after seeing the film “Malcolm X” and went overseas to study Arabic and the Quran. In November 2000, he went to Pakistan and from there made his way to Afghanistan. He joined the Taliban, and was with them on Sept. 11, 2001, when al-Qaida terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The U.S. attacked Afghanistan after the country failed to turn over al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Lindh was captured in a battle with Northern Alliance fighters in late 2001. He was present when a group of Taliban prisoners launched an attack that killed Johnny Micheal “Mike” Spann, a CIA officer who had been interrogating Lindh and other Taliban prisoners. Television footage of a bearded, wounded Lindh captured among Taliban fighters created an international sensation, and he was brought to the U.S. to face charges of conspiring to kill Spann and providing support to terrorists. Eventually, he struck a plea bargain in which he admitted illegally providing support to the Taliban but denied a role in Spann’s death. Lindh received a 20-year prison sentence. He served roughly 17 years and five months, including two months when he was in military detention. Federal inmates who exhibit good behavior typically serve only 85 percent of their sentence. His probation officer asked the court to impose additional restrictions on Lindh while he remains on supervised release for the next three years. Lindh initially opposed but eventually acquiesced to the restrictions, which include monitoring software on his internet devices; requiring that his online communications be conducted in English and that he undergo mental health counseling; and forbidding him from possessing or viewing extremist material, holding a passport of any kind, or leaving the U.S. Authorities never specified their rationale for seeking such restrictions. A hearing on the issue was canceled after Lindh agreed to them. The Bureau of Prisons said Lindh rejected an interview request submitted by The Associated Press, and his lawyer declined comment. But there have been reports that Lindh’s behavior in prison has created cause for concern. Foreign Policy magazine reported in 2017 that an investigation by the National Counterterrorism Center found that Lindh “continued to advocate for global jihad and to write and translate violent extremist texts.” A former inmate who knew Lindh from the time they spent at the same federal prison said he never heard Lindh espouse support for al-Qaida or indicate he’d be a risk for violence, but he found Lindh to be antisocial and awkward around others, with an unyielding, black-and-white view of religion. The inmate spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he wanted to avoid further stigmatization from his time in Lindh’s prison unit. Michael Jensen, a terrorism researcher at the University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, said it’s clear the government has concerns about Lindh’s mindset. “For three years he’s going to be watched like a hawk,” Jensen said. He said Lindh represents an interesting test case, as he is on the leading edge of dozens of inmates who were convicted on terror-related offenses in the aftermath of Sept. 11 and are eligible for release in the next five years. He said there’s little research to indicate the efficacy of deradicalizing inmates with connections to radical Islam, but he said the research shows that recidivism rates for those connected to white supremacy and other forms of extremism are high. Lindh was housed in Terre Haute, Indiana, with other Muslim inmates convicted on terror-related charges. The rationale was to keep those inmates from radicalizing others in the general prison population, Jensen said. Those inside the unit were supposed to be limited in their ability to communicate with each other. “But the reality is these guys still talk to each other,” he said. Lindh, for his part, admitted his role and his wrongdoing in supporting the Taliban, but he and his family have bristled at any notion that he should be considered a terrorist. When he was sentenced, Lindh said he never would have joined the Taliban if he fully understood what they were about. He also issued a short essay condemning acts of violence in the name of Islam that kill or harm innocent civilians. Lindh’s time in prison has provided only a few clues about his current outlook. He filed multiple lawsuits, which were largely successful, challenging prison rules he found discriminatory against Muslims. In the more recent lawsuits he used the name Yahya Lindh. One lawsuit won the right to pray in groups at the prison in Terre Haute. A second lawsuit reversed a policy requiring strip searches for inmates receiving visitors, and a third won the right to wear prison pants above the ankle, which Lindh said is in accordance with Islamic principles. Some have criticized Lindh’s pending release. In March, the legislature in Alabama, where Spann grew up, adopted a resolution calling it “an insult to Agent Johnny Micheal Spann’s heroic legacy and his remaining family members.” In addition, Republican Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby and Democratic New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan wrote a letter last week to the Bureau of Prisons expressing concern. “We must consider the security and safety implications for our citizens and communities who will receive individuals like John Walker Lindh who continue to openly call for extremist violence,” they wrote.

john walker lindh
afghanistan
al-qaida
terrorism
cia
u.s .
9/11
mike spann


New York judge refuses to block Trump bank subpoenas

Abstract: NEW YORK - A federal judge in New York refused Wednesday to block congressional subpoenas seeking financial records from two banks that did business with President Donald Trump. U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos said in a ruling delivered from the bench that Trump and his company were unlikely to succeed in a lawsuit arguing that the subpoenas seeking records from Deutsche Bank and Capital One were unlawful and unconstitutional. Ramos also concluded that the subpoenas have “a legitimate legislative purpose.” The lawyers for the House Financial Services and Intelligence committees say they need access to documents from the banks to investigate possible “foreign influence in the U.S. political process.” Deutsche Bank has lent Trump’s real estate company millions of dollars over the years. The hearing falls two days after a federal judge in Washington ruled against Trump in a similar case, finding that the president cannot block a House subpoena for information from a financial services firm that had done accounting work for him and the Trump Organization. And it comes a day after Trump blocked his former White House lawyer, Don McGahn, from testifying before the House Judiciary Committee. In a written submission prior to Wednesday’s hearing, lawyers for two congressional committees wrote that Trump’s effort to block the subpoenas was “flatly inconsistent with nearly a century of Supreme Court precedent.” The lawyers said the House’s Committee on Financial Services and Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence sought the information as it investigates “serious and urgent questions concerning the safety of banking practices, money laundering in the financial sector, foreign influence in the U.S. political process, and the threat of foreign financial leverage, including over the president, his family and his business.” Lawyers for Trump responded in writing that accepting the view of the committees would mean “Congress can issue a subpoena on any matter, at any time, for any reason, to any person, and there is basically nothing a federal court can do about it.” Trump’s lawyers had asked the judge to temporarily block Congress from obtaining the records. The banks took no position in the dispute. The ruling is the second blow in New York on Wednesday to the privacy of Trump’s financial details. State lawmakers earlier passed a measure that would allow the president’s tax returns to be released to congressional committees.

new york
congress
donald trump
deutsche bank
capital one
u.s .


New York lawmakers put Democrats a step closer to getting Trump tax returns

Abstract: ALBANY, NEW YORK - New York lawmakers gave final passage to legislation Wednesday that would allow President Donald Trump’s state tax returns to be released to congressional committees that have, so far, been barred from getting the president’s federal filings. The Democrat-led Senate and Assembly both approved the measures Wednesday, sending them to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat. A spokesman has said the governor supports the principle behind the legislation but will review the bill carefully before deciding whether to sign it. The legislation doesn’t target Trump by name, but it would allow the leaders of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee or the Joint Committee on Taxation to get access to any New York state tax returns filed by elected officials and top appointed officials. The legislation would apply to personal income tax returns, as well as business taxes paid in New York. An earlier version of the proposal passed the state Senate two weeks ago that would have allowed congressional committees to get any New Yorker’s returns, regardless of whether they held public office. Lawmakers later narrowed the legislation to address concerns that it went too far, prompting the Senate to hold a second vote on the new language Wednesday. New York Republicans have railed against the bill. John Flanagan, who leads the Senate GOP, called the legislation “troubling” and “bad public policy.” The proposed changes to state law were made amid a battle going on in Washington over Trump’s federal returns. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said he wouldn’t comply with a congressional subpoena seeking six years of Trump’s tax returns, in part because the request “lacks a legitimate legislative purpose.” U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has threatened to go to court to get the administration to comply. Much of the information on Trump’s state returns would mirror the information included on a federal return, giving the Democrats a potential end-run around the IRS, if they wished to take it. With New York being Trump’s home state and headquarters of many of his business enterprises, the legislation could give Democrats access to the president’s state tax returns at a time when the White House and Democrats who control the House continue to wrangle over the president’s federal tax returns. Democrats are seeking six years of Trump’s personal and business tax returns to aid a committee investigation into whether the IRS is doing its job properly to audit a sitting president and whether the law governing such audits needs to be strengthened. If Congress does request and obtain Trump’s state tax returns, that doesn’t mean the public gets to see them. Under federal law, the confidential information in the returns is supposed to be for the committee’s eyes only. The New York bills have no time limitation on the tax filings that could be shared with Congress. They require that the returns be requested “for a specified and legitimate legislative purpose,” wording that could ostensibly give state officials the ability to refuse some requests they felt were primarily political in nature. The New York bills would become law immediately upon being signed by Cuomo, though it could be delayed by a court challenge.

new york
taxes
donald trump
congress
u.s .
steve mnuchin


Libya's Khalifa Hifter tells Macron there will be no Tripoli cease-fire without negotiator

Abstract: PARIS - Libyan commander Khalifa Hifter said in a meeting on Wednesday with French President Emmanuel Macron that he cannot work toward a cease-fire because he has no one with whom to negotiate. Hifter opened a military offensive on the Libyan capital of Tripoli in early April despite commitments to move toward elections in the North African country. Libya is divided between Hifter, whose self-styled Libyan National Army controls the east and much of the south, and Libyan Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj, who runs the U.N.-supported but weak government in Tripoli. During a more than hour-long closed door meeting, Macron asked Hifter to work toward a cease-fire and a return to the political process, according to a statement from Macron’s office. When the question of a cease-fire is put on the table, “the reaction of … Hifter is ‘with whom can I negotiate a ceasefire today?’ ” an official of the presidential Elysee Palace said. Hifter considers the Sarraj government is being eaten from within by armed militias and considers “it’s not for him (Hifter) to negotiate with representatives of these militias,” the official said. The official wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the delicate talks and asked to remain anonymous. The closed-door meeting came two weeks after Macron hosted Libya’s struggling U.N.-backed prime minister, who has denounced Hifter’s offensive as an attempted coup. Macron’s office has expressed support for Sarraj. The official rejected claims that France is secretly backing Hifter, saying that France is trying “to create a dynamic” between the two. “Sarraj is the legitimate prime minister of Libya and Hifter … is an essential actor in the Libyan crisis,” the official said. Paris hosted the two men in 2017 in a bold bid to launch a peace process and organize elections. The statement from the president’s office said the meeting was “to facilitate dialogue between the two Libyans, in the context of military operations on the outskirts of Tripoli.” The statement noted commitments by the Libyans in Paris, Italy and the United Arab Emirates: creating a transitional government, unifying Libyan institutions and preparing elections. Hifter used the meeting to justify his offensive on Tripoli, the official said, but added that the Paris meeting was able to advance the situation. “At the end of the meeting, Hifter recognized that inclusive political discussions are necessary, and he agreed that, when conditions are right, to the relaunching of political dialogue,” the official said. “He didn’t say he would make a political (gesture) tonight or tomorrow, but was convinced at the end of the meeting of the need” for it, the official said. The fighting over Tripoli erupted on April 4, with the LNA led by Hifter and aligned with a rival government in the east, launching a push on the country’s capital, located in the west, and militias loosely allied with the U.N.-supported government in Tripoli. The death toll from the fighting stood at 510 on Sunday, according to the World Health Organization, mainly combatants but also including civilians. Tens of thousands have been displaced or trapped by Hifter’s offensive. The U.N. envoy for Libya warned on Tuesday that the oil-rich nation was “on the verge of descending into a civil war” that could imperil its neighbors. Ghassan Salame told the U.N. Security Council that extremists from the Islamic State group and al-Qaida are already exploiting the security vacuum. Libya has been split between rival authorities in east and west since 2014, with each side backed by various militias. Hifter’s forces have battled Islamic extremists and other rival factions across eastern Libya, and recently made inroads in the south. Hifter presents himself as a strong hand that can restore stability after years of chaos that transformed Libya into a haven for armed groups and a major conduit for migrants bound for Europe. His opponents, however, view him as an aspiring autocrat and fear the country could return to one-man rule as under longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was ousted and killed in 2011.

libya
khalifa hifter
tripoli
emmanuel macron
fayez sarraj
france
conflict


India's Congress leader Rahul Gandhi faces backlash over poor election performance

Abstract: NEW DELHI - Honest, intelligent and open to new ideas is how officials of India’s main opposition Congress describe their leader, Rahul Gandhi, but the party’s election performance has been so poor he now risks losing even his family’s traditional seat. As vote-counting trends on Thursday showed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party winning 285 seats against just 53 for Congress, current and former party officials blamed a lackluster campaign and a failure to overhaul its top team. “If they want to change anything, change the leadership,” said a Congress official in the western state of Rajasthan, referring to the old guard around Gandhi. “You need to give young people a chance.” He was among five current and three former party officials who said that Gandhi’s inability to jettison older leaders responsible for a major debacle in the 2014 general election and push forward newer, younger faces was a mistake. All eight sources sought anonymity. Gandhi’s office did not respond to a request from Reuters for an interview. Still, the 48-year-old Gandhi remains powerful within a party that has ruled India for most of its history since independence from Britain in 1947, and is unlikely to face a leadership challenge immediately. But Congress’s continued slide has raised questions both about its future and the role of his family. Younger Indians find it difficult to accept that Gandhi was appointed Congress president only because of his lineage as the son, grandson, and great-grandson of prime ministers, said prominent historian and columnist Ramachandra Guha. “The Congress should dump the Dynasty,” he said on Twitter. In May 2014, after Congress slumped to its worst performance in a general election, with 44 seats, Gandhi told reporters, “There’s a lot for us to think about, and, as vice president of the party, I hold myself responsible.” Five years on, his party has suffered a further drubbing at the hands of Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and he was himself trailing in the family borough of Amethi in northern Uttar Pradesh, though he was leading in a second constituency from which he is contesting, in southern India. Congress also proved unable to effectively parry Modi’s campaign emphasis on national security, after aerial clashes and heightened tension with archrival Pakistan following a suicide attack in disputed Kashmir that killed 40 Indian policemen. At the end of last year, Congress’s hopes of upsetting Modi had increased, after it won three heartland states in elections, largely driven by voter concerns about weak farm incomes and a lack of jobs. But Congress fumbled communications on key policies, with a publicity campaign this year that escaped the notice even of some of its own workers, and failed to forge pre-election alliances in key states, said the party officials. The campaign was substantially delayed because of disagreements between 66-year-old Anand Sharma and other senior leaders, two party officials said. Sharma denied the accusation, saying that putting together the campaign was a complex process. “There was no delay whatsoever in the launch of Congress campaign,” he added. The campaign was launched on April 7, just four days before the first round of voting began in a general election spread over seven phases across 39 days. In Rajasthan, which Congress won last year, its choice of 68-year-old Ashok Gehlot as chief minister, instead of 41-year-old Sachin Pilot, backfired, losing it the support of a key caste grouping, the official said, leaving the BJP likely to sweep all 25 seats. Gandhi was encircled by a “college of sycophants,” said a former Congress official who joined a rival bloc this year. “It doesn’t matter if you have talent or merit,” the former official said, adding, “What matters is you have the right family name or the right mentor.” In contrast to Modi, a tea vendor’s son who rose through party ranks, Gandhi’s lineage is a weakness the prime minister has repeatedly exploited. In Uttar Pradesh, which elects the bulk of India’s lawmakers, Congress this year drafted in Gandhi’s charismatic sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, to burnish its fortunes. But that made little difference to results.

india
rahul gandhi
elections
narendra modi


Coast Guard will help reassert U.S. leadership in Arctic, John Bolton tells grads

Abstract: NEW LONDON, CONNECTICUT - U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton has told 240 new Coast Guard Academy graduates they will help lead the way in “reasserting American leadership in the Arctic.” Bolton gave the keynote speech Wednesday at the 138th commencement at the academy in New London, Connecticut. He said the Coast Guard will help the U.S. challenge Russia’s growing military influence in the Arctic and push back against China’s “illegitimate claim to ‘near-Arctic’ status.” Bolton says the Coast Guard will soon receive a new “polar security cutter,” the first of many icebreakers President Donald Trump plans to introduce to an aging U.S. fleet to enable a year-round U.S. presence in polar regions. Bolton says the U.S. and its allies want the Arctic to be a “low tension” region where no country coerces others.

arctic
john bolton
russia
donald trump
u.s .
u.s. coast guard


Democrat wary of Trump's July 4th extravaganza, fearing it may be taxpayer-paid campaign rally

Abstract: WASHINGTON - A Democratic senator says he fears President Donald Trump’s planned July Fourth extravaganza on the National Mall could turn into a giant Trump rally on the taxpayers’ dime. Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico questioned Interior Secretary David Bernhardt at a congressional hearing Wednesday about Trump’s Independence Day planning for the National Mall. Trump has tweeted he plans to make this year’s celebration one of the biggest in history and deliver a speech from the Lincoln Memorial. Udall is raising concerns that the Trump event would take a “nonpartisan celebration and turn it into a de facto political rally.” Bernhardt, whose job includes overseeing the National Mall and other public lands, promises the event will be a “celebration about America.” The administration has released few details of the planning.

donald trump
tom udall
david bernhardt
u.s .
congress


Europe's populists hoping to cause upsets as EU elections kick off

Abstract: LONDON - Populists are hoping to cause upsets across the EU as the European Parliament elections got underway Thursday in polls that could challenge the Brussels consensus. Britain and the Netherlands kicked off four days of voting across the continent in a contest in which rising populist forces are hoping to make significant gains, threatening closer EU integration. Polls opened within half an hour of each other in the two countries early Thursday, with the first results not announced until late Sunday once voting in all 28 EU members has been completed. More than 400 million voters across the bloc are eligible to elect 751 MEPs — with Britain unexpectedly included. Having voted to leave the EU in a seismic referendum in 2016, Britain was originally meant to depart on March 29 and therefore not take part in these elections. But its MPs have not been able to agree on a divorce deal and Britain now finds itself in the absurd situation of electing lawmakers to an institution it is planning to leave. The Brexit Party, formed only this year by euroskeptic figurehead Nigel Farage, is leading the latest British opinion polls by a solid margin. “We are attempting a peaceful political revolution in this country,” he told the party’s final rally Tuesday. “The establishment: they’re not frightened — they’re absolutely terrified!” Farage said of his new party’s rise. In the Netherlands, flamboyant populist Thierry Baudet, a classics-quoting climate skeptic, is on course to beat Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s Liberals. Once best known for naked Instagram selfies and controversial comments about women, Baudet, 36, stunned Europe in March when his Forum for Democracy became the biggest party in the Dutch Senate. Around the continent, national leaders are scrambling to mobilize their supporters to resist the populist surge. These are the ninth European Parliament elections since they began in 1979 and voter turnout has dropped each time, hitting 43 percent in 2014. European governments fear a good showing for euroskeptics will disrupt Brussels decision-making. Opinion polls predict a significant advance for nationalist and populist forces opposed to closer EU integration and threatening mainstream reform efforts. Matteo Salvini of Italy’s anti-immigrant League party and Marine Le Pen of France’s far-right National Rally (RN) want their Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF) group to become the third largest in Brussels. Le Pen wants to strike a blow to President Emmanuel Macron’s faltering presidency by overtaking his centrist, pro-European party Republic on the Move. Polls give the RN party a slight edge. “Everything has changed,” she said. “Before we were on our own on the European scene . . . we didn’t have any allies. But in the space of a few months, a whole range of political forces have risen up in spectacular fashion,” she said. Meanwhile, in Britain, the rise of Farage is adding to the pressure for Prime Minister Theresa May to announce her resignation in the days to come over her failure to deliver Brexit on time. The British leader’s woes were made worse Wednesday when her representative in Parliament, Andrea Leadsom, quit, putting May’s government under further strain. However, the strong showing by euroskeptics is not expected to sweep the whole bloc, with voters from Spain to Ireland and the former Soviet Baltic states showing solid backing for the EU. The latest Eurobarometer survey commissioned by the European Parliament found 61 percent of respondents calling their country’s EU membership a good thing — the highest level since the early 1990s. The polls will open on Friday in the Czech Republic and Ireland, and on Saturday in Latvia, Malta and Slovakia. But most countries will be voting Sunday, with the results expected overnight into Monday. Nine different projections this month predict that the EPP, the main center-right bloc in the assembly, will come out with the most seats ahead of the main center-left PES bloc and then the ALDE liberals. Former Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker is stepping down after five years as president of the European Commission. EPP leader Manfred Weber is their candidate to replace him, while the PES is putting up former Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans. The hunt will also be on for someone to replace former Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk as head of the EU leaders’ council. Other prime jobs up for grabs will be those held by a trio of Italians: High Representative for Foreign Relations, Federica Mogherini, Mario Draghi at the European Central Bank and European Parliament Speaker Antonio Tajani.


May's premiership hangs by thread as key minister quits over Brexit

Abstract: LONDON - Theresa May’s premiership is hanging by a thread as a high-profile Cabinet minister quit and a growing revolt over Brexit looked set to force the British leader from power. Andrea Leadsom resigned late on Wednesday, saying she no longer believed the government’s approach will honor the result of the 2016 referendum. May said she was “sorry” Leadsom had quit, while rejecting her reasons for doing so. The premier’s office said she would stay focused on delivering Brexit. Leadsom and other ministers spent much of Wednesday in private talks plotting to kill May’s last-gasp plan to use a possible second referendum to get her divorce agreement through Parliament. As the pro-Brexit faction within May’s Cabinet discussed how to coordinate their revolt, the most senior rank-and-file members of her Conservative Party held a crisis meeting to weigh up whether to throw her out. The pound fell as investors braced for the prospect that a pro-Brexit hard-liner will succeed May, and could rip Britain out of the European Union with no deal to cushion the blow. Both the Times and Daily Mail reported May is expected to announce the timetable for her departure on Friday, though one of the premier’s aides rejected that idea, according to the BBC. Wednesday was a day when May’s authority appeared visibly to drain away. As she spoke in the Commons, her colleagues paid little attention to what she said. Many did not even show up to watch the prime minister set out her “bold” new plan for Brexit. On Thursday, elections were set to take place for the European Parliament that the premier hoped the U.K. wouldn’t have to hold, and her party is bracing for a drubbing. With May’s time in office drawing to a close, the fate of Brexit looks set to be decided by her successor. The trigger for the unrest was the prime minister’s announcement on Tuesday of a package of measures aimed at getting her Brexit deal through Parliament. The proposals, which included a temporary customs union and the possibility of a second referendum to ratify the divorce deal, shocked pro-Brexit ministers who complained it wasn’t what they had agreed to in Cabinet. “I do not believe that we will be a truly sovereign United Kingdom through the deal that is now proposed,” Leadsom wrote in her letter to May. “I have always maintained that a second referendum would be dangerously divisive and I do not support the government willingly facilitating such a concession.” According to people familiar with the matter, there is no chance the Cabinet will now back the Withdrawal Agreement Bill — which was due to be announced in Parliament on Thursday — in its current form. Ministers including Environment Secretary Michael Gove, and Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay were especially unhappy and believe May must cancel her plan to put the draft law to a vote in the first week of June. Home Secretary Sajid Javid, who’s also concerned about the referendum proposal, asked to meet May, but was rebuffed. Other ministers including Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt also sought meetings. The irony for May is that those who have been arguing for a second referendum don’t think her offer goes far enough, and so the concession that has cost her support on the Conservative side has also failed to win new backers from the opposition. Throughout the day, Parliament corridors buzzed with intrigue as MPs discussed May’s future. Many Tories, including senior government officials, believe she has just days left before she’s forced to announce her resignation. One official said the situation looked bleak, while another said it felt like the end. The powerful so-called 1922 Committee of rank-and-file Conservatives, which oversees leadership elections, met late afternoon to discuss whether to change the party’s rules to make it easier to oust the premier. Chief Whip Julian Smith met with them but stayed for just two minutes, departing without speaking to the waiting press. Two people familiar with the situation said the panel decided not to change party rules to allow for an earlier vote of no confidence to get rid of May. Current rules don’t allow Tories to hold a ballot until a year after she survived the last one, in December. Committee Chairman Graham Brady told reporters he will meet with May on Friday after she campaigns in the European elections on Thursday. Then, he said he’ll meet with the committee executive to discuss next steps. Polling in recent weeks indicates the Tories are set for a humiliating defeat in Thursday’s European vote, falling behind the Brexit Party led by the resurgent figurehead of the 2016 referendum campaign, Nigel Farage, as well as Labour and the Liberal Democrats. Outlining her plans in the Commons earlier, May insisted she had a “duty” to ask Parliament to try to pass the agreement she negotiated with the EU. She promised her Withdrawal Agreement Bill would go to a vote — and that the question of a second referendum will need to be faced. “While I’m here I have a duty to be clear with the house about the facts,” she said. “If we’re going to deliver Brexit in this Parliament we’re going to have to pass a Withdrawal Agreement Bill, and we’re not going to be able to without holding votes on those issues that have divided us the most.” May has promised Brady she’ll spell out next month a timetable for her departure, after holding a vote on her Brexit legislation. But the signs she may not even have that long. “Politics is a nasty, sometimes brutal, ghastly business,” former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith told TalkRadio, adding that May’s successor could be in place before Parliament’s summer break. “It’s time to go.”

brexit
theresa may
eu
elections
nigel farage
u.k .


Bolsonaro revises decree, banning Brazilians from bearing assault weapons

Abstract: BRASíLIA - Brazilians will no longer be permitted to carry assault weapons on the street after pro-gun President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday revised an order that enabled millions of civilians to be armed in public. Eligible “common citizens” will be allowed to carry handguns but not rifles, the government said in a statement, admitting the change was in response to public outcry and legal and political challenges to the decree announced earlier this month. Only rural landowners will be permitted to purchase such weapons, provided they are kept at home. “There were criticisms that there might be some excesses (in the decree) and the government was sensitive to these criticisms,” Justice Minister Sergio Moro said in an interview with Brazilian media on Wednesday. “Normally the use of those weapons with the greatest potential for harm is restricted to the security forces,” Moro added. The controversial decree still enables a wide range of professions, including truckers, politicians, hunters and even some journalists, to carry weapons without having to prove why they need them. Brazilian arms maker Taurus said Monday it had received 2,000 orders for its T4 assault weapon that is designed for police and military use following the loosening of restrictions. Its shares soared 7.6 percent Tuesday, but on Wednesday had given up more than half of those gains. The Supreme Court is considering whether Bolsonaro’s decree breaches the constitution after an opposition party challenged the order on the grounds it was “an abuse of power.” The decree also faces political hurdles. An open letter signed by the governors of 14 states, including some with high rates of violence, that was published Wednesday criticized the decree for failing to improve security. “On the contrary, it will increase the amount of arms and ammunition that can supply criminals and also the risk of arguments and fights between citizens ending in tragedy,” they wrote. Bolsonaro, a former army captain, has defended the order as honoring the result of a 2005 referendum in which nearly 64 percent of Brazilians rejected a law that included, among other things, a total ban on the sale of firearms. But experts warn the loosening of restrictions will fuel gun violence in a country which already has one of the highest homicide rates in the world. Brazil recorded 64,000 murders in 2017 — a rate of almost 31 per 100,000 inhabitants, or three times higher than the level the United Nations classifies as endemic violence.


Fighting rages after Syria rebels retake northwest Idlib village

Abstract: BEIRUT - Syrian opposition fighters said Wednesday they recaptured a village on the edge of their stronghold in northwestern Syria that had been seized two weeks earlier by government forces in an offensive that wrecked a months-old cease-fire in the densely populated area. State TV Al-Ikhbariya later reported that government troops were in intense clashes with the insurgents inside the village, in what appeared to be an attempt by the Syrian army to wrestle control of Kfar Nabuda. The capture of Kfar Nabuda by government forces on May 8 was the most serious challenge to the cease-fire in Idlib province and surrounding areas negotiated by Russia and Turkey in September. It was the first ground advance by government forces on the rebel stronghold, home to 3 million people, since the cease-fire averted an earlier offensive. The area is among the last outside President Bashar Assad’s control — and the last area still held by anti-government rebels in the country’s eight-year civil war. Naji al-Mustafa, a spokesman for the opposition fighters, said they regained control of the village on Wednesday following an overnight counteroffensive. He said they aim to regain control of all the areas seized by the government over the last two weeks. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed government forces were repelled from Kfar Nabuda, adding there were clashes on the outskirts. The rebel advance was met with intense government and Russian airstrikes on the enclave. The Observatory said at least 18 were killed since late Tuesday in strikes on four villages and towns, including 12 in an airstrike on a market in Maaret al-Numan. Syrian first responders, the White Helmets, put the death toll in the market airstrike at nine. In Ankara, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said talks with Russia to contain the violence were ongoing. “We have told (the Russians) the (Syrian) regime must be controlled. The regime’s attacks must be stopped,” Akar said. “They said they would work on it.” Russia had said the insurgents are increasingly directing their missiles toward its military base in the coastal province of Latakia, explaining its participation in the strikes against the rebel stronghold, despite sponsoring the cease-fire. On Sunday, Moscow said Syrian forces had halted their attacks, but activists reported continued shelling and strikes. Government forces seized Kfar Nabuda on May 8, cutting into rebel-held territory. The capture of the village facilitated government troop advances to the west and north, leading to the fall of several villages. The clashes erupted on April 30, wrecking the cease-fire brokered by Russia and Turkey and raising fears of a wider government offensive. The violence has already displaced 180,000 people inside the rebel-held area that straddles most of northwestern Idlib province and parts of neighboring Hama. The U.N., the U.S. and others have called for an end to the violence.

syria
idlib
kfar nabuda
russia
turkey
conflict


Endangered crested ibis returned to South Korean wild 40 years after extinction

Abstract: SEOUL - An endangered bird was reintroduced to the wild by South Korean authorities Wednesday, four decades after it went extinct on the peninsula. The crested ibis is listed as South Korea’s National Monument number 198, but was last seen in the wild in 1979 in the Demilitarized Zone dividing the peninsula. China and Japan are also part of the species’ natural range, but the species was driven to the edge of extinction — partially because pesticide use eliminated its food sources — until captive breeding programs were set up. Starting with birds donated by Beijing, the South Korean captive-bred population has reached 363, and the environment ministry said 40 of them had been selected and released into the Upo wetland 350 km (218 miles) southeast of Seoul. The species — Latin name Nipponia nippon — is also known as the Japanese crested ibis, but is best known in the South for a popular children’s song composed in the 1920s, when the Korean Peninsula was under Japanese colonial rule. The song describes the sound of the bird’s call as a sad reminder of a lost mother, and was banned by the Japanese authorities — who reportedly saw it as a form of anti-colonial resistance — but became popular again after Korea regained its independence in 1945.

endangered
crested ibis
south korea
birds
environment
nipponia nippon
wwii
history
animals


Illegal ozone-depleting CFC gases traced to China in study

Abstract: PARIS - Industries in northeastern China have spewed large quantities of an ozone-depleting gas into the atmosphere in violation of an international treaty, scientists said Wednesday. Since 2013, annual emissions from northeastern China of the banned chemical CFC-11 have increased by about 7,000 tons, they reported in the peer-reviewed journal Nature. “CFCs are the main culprit in depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer, which protects us from the sun’s ultra-violet radiation,” said lead author Matt Rigby, an atmospheric chemist at the University of Bristol. Chlorofluorocarbon-11 was widely used in the 1970s and 1980s as a refrigerant and to make foam insulation. The 1987 Montreal Protocol banned CFCs and other industrial aerosols that chemically dissolve protective ozone 10-to-40 km (6-25 miles) above Earth’s surface, especially over Antarctica and Australia. Following the ban’s entry into force, global concentrations of CFC-11 declined steadily until about 2012. But last year startled scientists discovered that the pace of that slowdown dropped by half from 2013 to 2017. Because the chemical does not occur in Nature, the change could only have been produced by new emissions. Evidence pointed to East Asia, but could not nail down the exact origin. “Our monitoring stations were set up in remote locations far from potential sources,” explained co-author Ron Prinn, a professor at MIT. Reports last year from the Environmental Investigation Agency fingered Chinese foam factories in the coastal province of Shandong and the inland province of Hebei, which surrounds Beijing. Suspicions were strengthened when authorities subsequently shut down some of these facilities without explanation. To probe further, an international team of atmospheric scientists gathered additional data from monitoring stations in Japan and Taiwan. “Our measurements showed ‘spikes’ in pollution when air arrived from industrialised areas” in China, said another lead author, Sunyoung Park from Kyungpook National University. The team also ran computer simulations that confirmed the origin of the CFC-11 molecules. “We didn’t find evidence of increased emissions from Japan, the Korean Peninsula or any other country,” added Luke Western, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Bristol. The findings also has implications for the fight against climate change. “Perhaps even more serious is the role of CFCs as long-lived greenhouse gases,” Joanna Haigh, a professor at Imperial College London, noted last year in reaction to the initial report. Two decades ago, CFCs — more potent by far as greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide or methane — accounted for around 10 percent of human-induced global warming. Pouring more CFC-11 into the air could also prevent ozone from returning to normal levels, scientists warn. “If emissions do not decline, it will delay the recovery of the Antarctic ozone hole, possibly for decades,” said Paul Fraser, an honorary fellow the CSIRO Climate Science Centre in Australia. CFC-11 persists in the atmosphere for about half a century, and still contributes about a quarter of all chlorine — the chemical that triggers the breakdown of ozone — reaching the stratosphere. At its most depleted, around the turn of the 21st century, the ozone layer had declined by about 5 percent. Today, the “hole in the ozone” over the South Pole is showing clear signs of recovery. But a study last year found that the ozone layer is unexpectedly declining in the lower stratosphere over the planet’s populated tropical and mid-latitude regions. Up to now, CFCs and other molecules have mainly eroded ozone in the upper stratosphere, and over the poles. That study identified two possible culprits: industrial chemicals not covered by the Montreal Protocol called “very short-lived substances” (VSLSs), and climate change.


Narendra Modi promises inclusive India after stunning election win

Abstract: NEW DELHI/KOLKATA, INDIA - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to unite the country on Thursday after a huge election win, with his party on course to increase its majority on a mandate of pursuing business-friendly policies and a hard line on national security. Official data from India’s Election Commission showed Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party ahead in 298 of the 542 seats available, up from the 282 it won in 2014 and more than the 272 seats needed for a majority in the lower house of Parliament. That would give it the first back-to-back majority for a single party since 1984. “Together we will build a strong and inclusive India,” Modi said on Twitter on Thursday. “India wins yet again!” Modi’s victory boosted financial markets as investors expect his government will continue to pursue economic reforms. He will be under pressure to create employment for the tens of millions of young people coming on to the jobs market in the next few years and to boost depressed farm incomes. “The immediate challenges are to address employment, the issue of agricultural income and revive the banking sector,” said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Care Ratings in Mumbai. But making good on his promise to unite the country will be difficult as the BJP campaign was often divisive, prompting the minority Muslim community to express fears that they were being treated as second-class citizens. His pledge to take a strong stand against the separatist movement in Muslim-majority Kashmir has also added to tensions with nuclear archrival Pakistan. Members of his party now want him to take a harder line on national security, as well as build a controversial temple on the site of a mosque that was demolished by a Hindu mob in Ayodhya in 1992. “I want Modi to finish terrorism from Kashmir (and) make Pakistan bite the dust again and again,” Shekhar Chahal, a BJP worker from New Delhi said on Thursday. “I am confident that Modi will also make the temple in Ayodhya.” At BJP headquarters in New Delhi, party workers set off firecrackers and began decorating the building with floral decorations ahead of an expected victory party. “It’s a stamp of approval by voters on the honest and decisive leadership of Prime Minister Modi,” said Nalin S Kohli, a BJP spokesman. Congress leaders were sombre. “Why despite a weak economy people preferred the BJP is something we have to understand,” said Salman Soz, a party spokesman. “People have given them a second chance. I hope they use it well.” The NDA’s predicted margin of victory, at 348 seats to 85 for the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, according to TV channel NDTV, is much larger than surveys indicated in the runup to the vote, when most polls showed it would be the largest alliance but would fall short of an overall majority. Final results are due by Thursday evening. Modi was under pressure when he began campaigning, losing three state elections in December amid rising anger over farm prices and unemployment. However, campaigning shifted toward India’s relationship with nuclear-armed rival Pakistan after a suicide car bomb killed 40 Indian police in the contested Kashmir region in February, to the benefit of the rightwing BJP, analysts said. Longtime foe Pakistan has signalled a willingness to open peace talks with India, but in a possible warning, it announced that it has conducted a training launch of a surface-to-surface ballistic missile, which it said is capable of delivering conventional and nuclear weapons at a range of up to 1,500 miles. The BJP has also capitalized on the star power of Modi, a frenetic campaigner, as well as superior financial resources. It outspent Congress by six times on Facebook and Google advertising, data showed, and by as much as 20 times overall, sources said this month. The poor showing from Congress, that was ahead in just 52 seats, will lead to questions over the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, a scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty whose father, grandmother and great grandfather all served as prime minister. Gandhi, who is expected to address media at 4 p.m., trailed the BJP candidate in the Amethi constituency that his family has held almost continuously for the last four decades. “The Congress party has not been able to improve at all,” said Rahul Verma, a fellow at the center for Policy Research in New Delhi. “One big story is the emerging challenge for the Congress to remain a national alternative to the BJP. That now is under question.” The BJP performed strongly in several states where it has previously struggled, including in West Bengal, where it targeted the Trinamool Congress, a powerful regional party in campaigning that often turned violent. The BJP was leading in 17 of 42 seats in the state, which sends the third largest number of lawmakers to Parliament, significantly better than the two it won in 2014, Election Commission data showed. “The party is heading for a stunning victory in West Bengal,” said Jayprakash Majumdar, a BJP vice president in the state. Indian stocks surged to historic highs as Modi headed for victory. The broad Nifty index rose as much as 2 percent, continuing a strong run after exit polls showing a Modi victory were released on Sunday. “For global investors, political stability and continuity is an important factor while taking a view on investing in any country,” said R Sivakumar, head of fixed income at Axis Mutual Fund in Mumbai. “This will keep India on the radar of global equity investors.”


U.S. Navy sends ships through Taiwan Strait for eighth time in nine months

Abstract: The U.S. Navy has again sent ships through the Taiwan Strait, making transits of the waterway increasingly regular amid growing economic and military acrimony between the United States and China. The U.S. Navy has ramped up its operations in the strait over the past year, sailing through the 180-km waterway that separates Taiwan from China at least eight times in about nine months. Prior to that, such operations were considered relatively rare, occurring at a pace of about once a year. The most recent transit was carried out Wednesday by USS Preble guided-missile destroyer and the navy oil tanker Walter S. Diehl, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet told The Japan Times on Thursday. “The ships’ transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Cmdr. Clay Doss said in a statement. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry confirmed the transit, and said it had occurred without incident. China’s Foreign Ministry said Beijing had “closely observed the situation” and “voiced its concerns to the U.S.” “The U.S. should cautiously handle Taiwan-related issues, to avoid any harm to bilateral ties, and to maintain regional peace and stability,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said. The Taiwan Strait separates mainland China from self-governed and democratic Taiwan, which Beijing views as a renegade province that must be brought back into the fold — by force if necessary. The U.S. has no formal ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to help it defend itself and is the island’s main source of arms. The Pentagon says Washington has sold Taipei more than $15 billion in weaponry since 2010. Although the strait is regarded as an international waterway, China has long been sensitive about the presence of U.S. military forces there. Late last month, the U.S. Navy sailed warships through the strait, a move that angered China just days after it marked the 70th anniversary of its navy. China has grown suspicious of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and her pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, along with any push for the island’s formal independence. Chinese President Xi Jinping said in January that Beijing reserves the right to use force to bring Taiwan under its control, but would strive to achieve peaceful “reunification.” Beijing has called Taiwan “the most important and sensitive issue in China-U.S. relations” and has bolstered its military presence near the island, sailing its sole operating aircraft carrier through the Taiwan Strait in January and March of last year and holding large-scale “encirclement” exercises and bomber training throughout last year and into this year. Wednesday’s U.S. transit of the strait also came as the Taiwan Navy held a major live-fire exercise off the island’s east coast. The drills were part of the annual Han Kuang exercises that simulate an attack by China, during which navy ships fired cannons and missiles and released depth charges, while fighter jets launched munitions and anti-submarine warfare aircraft released buoys. Taiwan’s lightly populated east coast is home to a key air base and other important military installations. “We will conduct military exercises regularly at the location where we think the war could be possibly happening,” media reports quoted navy Capt. Soong Shu-kou as saying. “The waters off Taiwan’s eastern coast are the important area where we need to conduct military drills often. Because this area could be a significant battleground in the future,” he said. Defense Ministry spokesman Chen Jung-ji said Taiwan was accelerating the pace of training as a way of deterring Chinese aggression. “We can only depend on ourselves to defend our own country. We will conduct more training to strengthen our combat capabilities in the face of the ongoing military threats” from China, Chen said. Just days earlier, the Preble also stoked the ire of Beijing when it sailed near the disputed Scarborough Shoal, which is claimed by China, in the South China Sea. The U.S. “freedom of navigation operation” was the second such sailing near China’s man-made islets in the waterway in a month. In response to that operation, as well as the ramped-up pace of missions there and in the Taiwan Strait, the state-run China Daily said in an editorial Wednesday that Beijing had shown “utmost restraint in responding to the incitements by the U.S.” “With tensions between the two countries already rife, there is no guarantee that the presence of U.S. warships on China’s doorstep will not spark direct confrontation between the two militaries,” the editorial said. In addition to the rising military tensions, Beijing and Washington continue to face off in a protracted trade war in which both sides appear to be unwilling to bend — stances that could have a dramatic effect on the global economy. But while the U.S. continues to lock horns with China on the trade front, “the dire consequences of a head-on conflict with China would be too costly for it to bear,” the China Daily editorial said. “To prevent such an all-lose scenario from materializing, the U.S. had better exercise caution and stop its provocative practice” near Taiwan and in the South China Sea.

taiwan
military
china
south china sea
u.s .
disputed islands