Are press activities being undermined in Japan?

Abstract: The Foreign Ministry ordered freelance journalist Kosuke Tsuneoka to surrender his passport after he tried to leave Japan on Feb. 2 for Yemen, which is in the midst of a civil war. The ostensible reason for the order is that Tsuneoka in January attempted to travel to Yemen through Oman, which refused him entry, and the law states that the Japanese government can seize the passport of any citizen who is said to be inadmissible by a foreign country. Tsuneoka has said publicly that he believes the Oman incident is a convenient excuse for the government to prevent him from carrying out journalistic activities. Because of the war, Japan has listed Yemen as an unsafe country. Tsuneoka had asked to interview staff at Doctors Without Borders and the United Nations World Food Program about the relief organizations’ activities, since few mainstream Japanese news outlets have done so. He obtained a visa from Yemen for those purposes. The Foreign Ministry has not commented on Tsuneoka’s allegations, although it is no secret that it doesn’t want reporters going to war zones. In 2015, it confiscated the passport of a photojournalist who had planned to cover Syria . During a Feb. 5 interview with “ Keyaki Hills ,” a program on Abema TV, Tsuneoka said that in January, prior to leaving, he checked with an acquaintance in Oman’s immigration office who confirmed he was not on any “blacklist.” However, when he arrived, he was barred from entering the country. When he boarded the airplane to leave Oman, airline employees told Tsuneoka that someone from the Japanese Embassy had already been there. Usually, embassy staff come to airports to assist Japanese nationals in trouble, but this person apparently didn’t talk to Tsuneoka at all. On his second attempt, he planned to avoid going through Oman, but after he arrived at Haneda airport in Tokyo, the pre-registered departure kiosk did not accept his passport and an on-site immigration officer handed him a document by fax from the Foreign Ministry, which ordered Tsuneoka to surrender it. The document was printed except for the date, which was filled in by hand and indicated the order had been issued that day. Although he had tried to keep his trip to Yemen a secret, he received a telephone call from the police the day before he left asking where he was. Tsuneoka is considering whether to sue the government in a bid to restore his passport. His stated purpose in visiting Yemen is to report on the food situation in the country, which is why he approached the two relief organizations. Reporters Without Borders has said that Tsuneoka’s work in this regard is very important, but the government seems to care more about avoiding problems than it does about Japanese people learning about the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, where over 10,000 people are estimated to have died and thousands more are starving. Another incident reinforcing the idea that the government undermines press activities happened in late December, when the Cabinet Office warned its press club in writing about “questions at odds with facts” asked by a certain member during daily news conferences. The statement is believed to refer to Tokyo Shimbun reporter Isoko Mochizuki, who is known for her relentless interrogation style. On Dec. 26, Mochizuki grilled Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga on the construction of a controversial U.S. air base in the bay off Henoko, Okinawa Prefecture. Mochizuki asked Suga to comment on the use of “red soil” in landfill materials. Red soil is less expensive than rock, but it’s also harmful to marine life and cannot be used legally in Okinawa for such purposes. Suga replied that everything being done at Henoko was legal. Not satisfied with this answer, Mochizuki persisted and was eventually cut off by the moderator. According to a Feb. 6 analysis of the matter in the online magazine Litera , the Cabinet Office took issue with the unnamed reporter’s question in its statement to the press club because, according to the Cabinet Office, it was based on false information, though the use of red soil had already been covered by a couple of media outlets. Mochizuki herself wrote that the Okinawa Defense Bureau placed an order to purchase landfill whose content “other than rock” was “40 percent or less,” and the Okinawa Prefectural government is now calling on the Defense Ministry to look into the landfill data. As Litera points out, it’s natural for the government to argue over the validity of information included in a query, but Suga dismissed the question outright, thus disregarding the public’s right to know. For some reason, the press club letter didn’t come to light until it was covered by the monthly magazine Sentaku on Feb. 1. Then the Japan Federation of Newspaper Workers’ Unions officially protested it. The leader of the federation is Akira Minami of the Asahi Shimbun, who, like Mochizuki, is known for his dogged reporting style. The Cabinet Office press club has since said it will not restrict any reporter’s newsgathering activities but, according to journalist Ryusaku Tanaka, writing in his blog on Feb. 4, the Cabinet Office press club may distrust Mochizuki even more than the Cabinet Office does, since the press club feels that Mochizuki’s adversarial approach makes its job more difficult. Tanaka claims that even other Tokyo Shimbun reporters resent Mochizuki, and speculates that she may be transferred out of her assignment at the prime minister’s residence in August. The problem for Tokyo Shimbun is that Mochizuki appears to be popular with its subscribers. In his Feb. 10 column in, of all places, the Tokyo Shimbun, Hosei University professor Jiro Yamaguchi blasted the Cabinet Office for dodging the truth in the matter of forged documents and statistics while at the same time accusing reporters of promoting fake news. Yamaguchi called for all media outlets to confront the government head-on. As it stands, only a few people such as Mochizuki and Tsuneoka do that, and without the support of their colleagues in deed as well as word, the authorities will always be able to ignore them.


Will removing porn from convenience stores in Japan hurt ailing tabloids?

Abstract: Don’t go looking for titillation at your local convenience store. As reported last month, Japan’s three largest convenience chain operators — 7-Eleven, Family Mart and Lawson — are planning to halt sales of pornographic magazines nationwide by the end of August. While the operators pointed to their increasingly diversified customer base as a reason for ending sales, the large number of foreign visitors expected next year for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics is also said to have contributed to the move. Pornographic material has typically been displayed in convenience stores in a separate section, with outlets in some areas using plastic string or gummed tape to prevent browsers from flipping through the contents and possibly annoying other patrons, especially minors. Internet users were of differing opinions on the new policy, with one Livedoor commentator opining that the mere sight of such publications was “unpleasant for women and children.” “I’ll be happy when they’re gone,” he wrote. “It’s a sight never encountered in convenience stores overseas and, if we take this logic to an extreme, might not the sales of adult magazines in convenience stores be part of the underlying logic that explains why sexual matters in Japan tend to be treated in such a flippant manner?” Still, the pornographic publications also had their defenders, with one poster commenting, “To halt sales of these magazines will put greater pressure on the publishing industry to impose voluntary restraints, and I think freedom of expression may suffer.” The move by the convenience stores is also significant because they have become dominant in retailing of print media. The Mainichi Shimbun last June reported that bookstores, some of which also dispense pornographic publications, have been going out of business at the average rate of 514 a year, with 9,770 shops having closed between 1999 and 2017. The number of stores nationwide is expected to drop below 10,000 by sometime next year. In their stead, publishers have tried to supplant bookstore sales with electronic versions, or by selling online subscriptions. They have also become increasingly dependent on the approximately 55,000 convenience stores around the country. A veteran freelance journalist and author, who contributes to numerous weekly magazines, admitted he finds the convenience chains’ dropping of pornographic material to be troubling. “Yes, I’m worried about the trend, not only because it might adversely affect my livelihood, but also because it can restrict Japanese citizens’ access to important and suppressed information,” he said. “As early as 2007, for example, the tabloid Nikkan Gendai had alleged defects in the construction of a certain company’s apartments, and only just now this has emerged as a national scandal. So I think there’s a need for such aggressive reporting by the tabloid media, and not only from the mainstream media.” The journalist also expressed concern over whether the convenience stores can be relied upon to serve as vanguards for freedom of expression. “The convenience stores have been a visible and easy-to-access sales channel for all publishers, and any efforts to weed out certain genres will affect the magazines’ business,” he said. “At a convenience store recently, I was surprised to see that Friday, Flash and Spa magazines were being displayed in the adult magazine corner. These are not erotic books in a strict sense, and this gave me the impression that convenience stores have no clear policy about how they are going to restrict sales.” In its February issue, monthly magazine Tsukuru highlighted the prolonged decline in magazine circulation, including many of the popular weekly magazines regularly sourced to produce this column. According to data from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, compared with peak figures of two decades ago, sales of Shukan Post fell from 861,352 to a current 211,336; Shukan Gendai, from 738,510 to 209,025; and Shukan Taishu from 353,405 to 73,398. Sales of three magazines (Aera, Sunday Mainichi and Sapio, now a bimonthly) have dropped below the 50,000 watermark. This decline in sales has been across the board, affecting other genres such as women’s magazines as well. Last autumn, the monthly Shincho 45 was shut down due to a flap over its insensitive handling of the LGBT issue. Once an ailing magazine’s sales drop beyond a certain point, it only takes a light shove to move a publisher to pull the plug. The decline in sales of magazines has been attributed to various social, economic and technological factors, including sharp cuts in the pocket money doled out by wives to their husbands for incidentals and greater use of smartphones. At least one retailer, Haga Shoten, has not shied away from a bold and open approach. Situated in its own eight-story building in Tokyo’s Jinbocho bookstore district, it deals almost exclusively in erotica, not merely magazines, comics and books, but also DVDs and “adult goods.” “More than purchasing online or at a convenience store, I think customers should be offered a place that functions in a way that lets them enjoy erotica that much more,” the store’s third-generation proprietor, Hidenori Haga, tells Yukan Fuji (Feb. 10). “I think a specialty shop where we can engage in dialog with the customers is also important,” says Haga, who describes Japan as a “advanced nation in terms of pornography,” but believes that “sex education has lagged behind and a mistaken awareness has permeated males concerning female pleasure and so on.” “If men can obtain knowledge about female psychology or practical sex from adult magazines,” he says, “then I expect they’ll keep buying them even if the prices go up.”

convenience stores
7-eleven
family mart
lawson
pornography


Airbus eyes warplane with no German parts after Saudi arms ban: sources

Abstract: BERLIN - Airbus has decided to redesign the C295 military transport aircraft it builds in Spain to remove German components following Germany’s freeze on arms exports to Saudi Arabia, company sources told Reuters. Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders said earlier this month the company could consider making products free of German parts because of Germany’s “moral superelevation” on arms exports, which was frustrating Britain, France and Spain. German curbs on arms exports to non-EU or NATO countries have long been a thorn in bilateral cooperation because of the historical objections of the Social Democrats (SPD), junior partners in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition. But in October, Germany decided unilaterally to reject future arms exports licenses to Saudi Arabia over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and to freeze deliveries of already approved equipment. Existing deals allow Berlin to stop exports of arms that include German parts. “We are now designing (the German content) out of the plane,” said one source familiar with the plans. Navigational lamps used for landing the planes are built in Germany, with the total German content standing at about four percent, the source said. Airbus has received 208 orders for the military transport from 28 countries, with 166 aircraft in operation worldwide. A second company source said a review was underway to see if German-sourced parts could be replaced on other Airbus aircraft that have smaller amounts of German content. No further details were immediately available. But this source said it would be difficult, if not impossible, to redesign the Eurofighter Typhoon, a multinational program that has about a third German content. Britain’s BAE Systems, which generates 14 percent of its annual sales from selling Typhoons and other arms to Saudi Arabia, last week warned Germany’s freeze on arms exports to Saudi Arabia could hit its financial results. The German move has delayed British government efforts to finalize a £10 billion deal to sell Saudi Arabia 48 new Typhoons. Airbus estimates that the export freeze on Saudi Arabia is affecting delivery of equipment and parts worth billions of euros. One French supplier, PME Nicolas Industrie, has already cut jobs as a result, according to French media. Germany’s SPD said this week it wanted to extend the freeze on arms exports to Saudi Arabia beyond the current March 9 deadline, despite pressure by Britain and France not to do so as it could risk costly compensation claims. Merkel last week declined to say whether the freeze would be extended, but senior conservative lawmakers say they see no immediate progress on loosening the embargo.

airbus
germany
saudi arabia
angela merkel
eurofighter typhoon
eu
u.k .
arms sales


Robert Lighthizer says trade talks with Japan likely to start in March

Abstract: WASHINGTON - The United States and Japan will likely launch trade talks in March, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Wednesday, suggesting the dialogue would begin earlier than had been anticipated. Washington’s top trade negotiator made the remarks during congressional testimony. The bilateral talks had been expected to begin in April or May as the U.S. first needs to focus on ongoing negotiations with China to settle a tariff war. U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed last September to start the negotiations. Tokyo has said talks on a trade deal with Washington will focus primarily on goods, seeming to preclude a more wide-ranging free trade agreement. The first meeting will see Japan and the United States determining the scope of trade negotiations in agriculture and industrial products. As Trump has taken issue with his country’s trade deficit with major exporters like Japan, the focus would be on whether the two nations will take up nontariff measures — such as an import cap on Japanese cars. For such nontariff measures, Japan is seen as hoping to focus on areas where bilateral consultations would be easier, including customs procedures. But speculation has grown that the U.S. will push for a review of regulations on medicine and medical equipment. Abe has been promoting free trade as part of his growth strategy for the export-reliant Japanese economy. As Japan has braced for the launch of bilateral talks with the U.S. — its key trading partner — both a revised Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade accord and Japan’s economic partnership agreement with the European Union have taken effect. In the same congressional testimony, Lighthizer also said the U.S. is pushing for a trade deal with China that includes “significant structural changes” to the Asian nation’s economic model, as well as provisions that ensure Beijing keeps its promises. It’s still too early to tell if China will concede to U.S. demands, the top trade negotiator for the Trump administration said, with plans underway for Trump to invite his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, for a summit to finalize a potential agreement. Lighthizer’s comments contrast with Trump’s more optimistic remarks this week when he raised hopes for an imminent deal. “This administration is pressing for significant structural changes that would allow for a more level playing field — especially when it comes to issues of intellectual property rights and technology transfers,” Lighthizer said Wednesday in prepared testimony before the House Ways and Means committee. U.S. stocks extended their decline. The issues on the table between the U.S. and China “are too serious to be resolved with promises of additional purchases,” said Lighthizer, who is leading the negotiations for the Trump administration. “We need new rules.” Any agreement with Beijing must be enforceable, he added. “We at USTR are very aware of the history of our trading relationship with China, and the disappointments that have resulted from promises that were not kept.” Trump this week raised the prospect that he could sign a new trade deal with Xi, as both sides expressed optimism following the conclusion of the latest round of talks. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said this week that a leaders’ meeting for late March at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida is being tentatively planned. Trump’s hint at a deal-clinching summit with Xi underscores the sense that the two nations are near to an agreement, more than seven months since the U.S. first imposed tariffs on Chinese imports, setting off a conflict that has cast a cloud over the global economy. But with Trump’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam ending without any agreements — a diplomatic effort in which China played a critical role — the risk of a setback remains significant. Trump has extended a deadline to raise tariffs on Chinese goods beyond this week, citing progress in the latest round of talks that wrapped up Sunday in Washington. He didn’t specify how long he’d extend the tariff truce. China has repeatedly promised to ramp up purchases of American goods, including soybeans and energy products.

robert lighthizer
china
tariffs
donald trump
xi jinping
u.s .
steve mnuchin
trade war


French sports store pulls hijab for women joggers after drawing flak from politicians and on social media

Abstract: PARIS - A French sporting goods chain pulled a hijab for women joggers from its shelves after it came under fire from politicians and on social media. Originally created in Morocco at the request of customers there, Decathlon’s “hijab de running” — a nylon hood designed to allow Muslim women to cover their hair while jogging — sparked outrage in France as politicians across the political spectrum said it was a violation of French principles on secularism. After days of acrimonious public debate and virulent criticism on social media, the sports retailer said in a statement late on Tuesday it had suspended the sale of the item in France over concerns about the safety of its staff, which it said had been insulted and threatened on social media. French Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet said on Wednesday that sports stores are free to sell the running hijab and that there are no legal objections. “The debate on this issue became hysterical and I regret that,” she said on radio France Info. In secular France, civil servants cannot wear hair-covering veils during working hours and face-covering veils are banned for everybody in the public space. Items of clothing seen as asserting a religious identity often spark controversy, even if legal. In the summer of 2016, several French seaside towns banned the body-covering burkini swimsuit worn by some Muslim women, arguing that the garment — which leaves only the face, hands and feet exposed — defied French laws on secularism and was causing public unrest. In recent days, politicians from the right and left sharply criticized Decathlon for selling the sports hijab. “Decathlon disowns the values of our civilization on the altar of market and communitarianism marketing,” Lydia Guirous, an Algerian-born spokeswoman of the conservative Les Republicains party, said on her Twitter feed. Socialist legislator Valerie Rabault suggested a boycott of Decathlon, one of Europe’s largest sporting goods retailers. Even Budget Minister Gerald Darmanin of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist government spoke out against the hijab. “I value women’s freedom more than commercial freedom,” he said on French radio station Europe 1. The jogging hijab is still available on Decathlon’s Moroccan website for 79 Moroccan dirhams ($8.29). Similar head-covering garments not expressly associated to Islam such as hoods for hunting or desert-trekking are still available in Decathlon’s French stores. Nike Inc. — among other vendors — still sells sports hijabs in three colors for €30 ($34.20) on its French website.

hijab
women joggers
decathlon
muslims
france
nike


Huawei wages charm offensive in the battle for hearts and minds amid U.S. pressure

Abstract: BEIJING - Huawei Technologies Co. has turned to a blend of wit, sarcasm and defiance to publicly fight allegations that the world’s largest maker of telecommunications equipment is spying for China. It’s a remarkable shift for a giant whose founder, Ren Zhengfei, spurned the media and avoided overt displays of power. Rotating Chairman Guo Ping encapsulates its new credo. Striding onstage before hundreds of people at the phone industry’s flagship conference this week, he opened with a joke directly addressing the company’s demons: “There has never been more interest in Huawei. We must be doing something right.” Guo laid into the U.S., which vaulted Huawei into the public eye when it orchestrated last year’s arrest by Canadian authorities of Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, who is also the founder’s daughter. He urged the crowd in Barcelona, Spain, to reject using politics to manage cybersecurity and turned the spotlight on America, which he said was spying on its own corporations. Some audience members applauded. “Prism, prism on the wall, who is the most trustworthy of them all?” Guo said, referring to the code name of the surveillance system used by the U.S. to access private communications from internet companies. “If you don’t answer that, you can go ask Edward Snowden.” In the short span since Meng’s Dec. 1 arrest, Huawei has gone from besieged target to unapologetic champion of telecommunications security. Assailed by U.S. accusations it aids Beijing, it has morphed into an outspoken company few could have imagined just a year ago. That comes despite facing a concerted American campaign to blockade it from operating in Europe, Australia and around the world. The jury is still out on whether the charm offensive has worked, but in recent weeks the discussion has grown more nuanced. European carriers have offered to help governments devise a way to work with Huawei while warding off security concerns. Leaders in New Zealand, Italy, Germany and the U.K. have pushed back against U.S. pressure for a blanket ban on the Shenzhen-based company’s products. “The U.S. seems to have hit a snag with skeptical responses coming out of the U.K. and other governments saying let’s look at Huawei in a more granular fashion,” said Graham Webster, a fellow at Washington-based research group New America who studies China’s digital economy. Huawei was largely unknown outside of China before recent clashes with the U.S., and Ren hadn’t spoken with foreign media since 2015. But in recent years, the closely held company started publicly releasing financial statements, sponsoring sports teams and churning out cheeky ads around the world. After Meng’s arrest, it orchestrated an unusual public relations move by releasing a translated entry from her personal diary. Huawei said she’d kept a journal for years and wanted to share her feelings on recent events, including how she burst into tears after supporters contacted her to protest her arrest. Then in January, Huawei invited journalists from foreign media to a round-table discussion with billionaire Ren, who denied espionage allegations and a link to the Chinese government and called Donald Trump a “great president.” The founder has been charging hard on the speaking circuit ever since, including sitting down for tea with the BBC, where he stressed that there’s “no way the U.S. can crush us.” The company created a web page and Twitter account called @Huaweifacts, started beefing up its media relations teams and touted new technologies around 5G and its newly launched $2,600 foldable mobile phone. On Wednesday, Guo penned a commentary piece for the Financial Times in which he criticized the hacking of Huawei servers by the National Security Agency. “Clearly, the more Huawei gear is installed in the world’s telecommunications networks, the harder it becomes for the NSA to ‘collect it all,” he wrote. “Huawei, in other words, hampers U.S. efforts to spy on whomever it wants. This is the first reason for the campaign against us.” A Huawei executive even reached out to Trump directly on Twitter when the U.S President commented on American digital supremacy. “Mr. President. I cannot agree with you more. Our company is always ready to help build the real 5G network in the U.S., through competition,” wrote Ken Hu, another of Huawei’s rotating chairmen. Inside the company, Ren told employees to be “combat ready” in the face of global competition and geopolitical challenges. “Now, some countries want to block our investment in scientific research, disrupt our efforts to learn the advanced technologies,” Ren said when addressing employees at a company event on Feb. 16. “We need to be prepared.” Huawei’s communications team said it’s ramping up efforts to respond to what it calls “false allegations, fake news and rumors.” The company kept a low profile in the past because it was privately owned in a highly competitive industry, which could have led to “misperceptions we are too secretive,” spokesman Glenn Schloss said. But Guo’s speech in Barcelona seems to take those efforts to a new level, buoyed by a greater sense of urgency ahead of key court dates. On Thursday, U.S. prosecutors in Seattle are due to detail their criminal case against Huawei, including allegations of intellectual property theft. On Friday, Canada will have to decide whether to extradite Meng, whose next court date is March 6. “The Prism speech was definitely a different level of messaging,” said Webster, the New America fellow. By bringing up the U.S. program, Huawei may be trying to curry favor and remind Europe that the U.S. doesn’t have a spotless track record when it comes to state surveillance, Webster said. Still, Western governments remain cautious about Huawei and have real security concerns as they continue talking to Samsung Electronics Co. and other global tech companies about 5G options. “I wouldn’t say Huawei is pushing on an open door,” Webster said. “If Huawei gets too haughty, I’m not sure how well that’s going to go over.”

huawei
china
guo ping
meng wanzhou
5g
u.s .
telecoms
cyberespionage


Government says factory production is 'pausing' after industrial output fell 3.7% in January

Abstract: Japan’s industrial output fell 3.7 percent in January from December, a third straight monthly decline amid sluggish export demand, the industry ministry said Thursday, prompting the government to lower its basic assessment. The month-on-month pace of decline is the largest in a year. Sagging exports to China amid a tariff war between Beijing and Washington is largely behind the “larger-than-expected” drop, a ministry official said, adding that demand from other Asian countries was also weak. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry downgraded its basic assessment, saying production is “pausing,” compared with the previous month’s view that industrial output was “picking up slowly.” The seasonally adjusted index of production at factories and mines stood at 100.8 against the 2015 base of 100, the ministry said in a preliminary report. The result followed a 0.1 percent fall in December. In January the index of industrial shipments fell 4.0 percent to 99.2, and that of inventories slipped 1.5 percent to 101.6. Output of electronic parts and devices, including smartphones, dropped 8.4 percent from the previous month, partly dragged down by weakening demand from China. Production by automakers and parts suppliers dropped 8.6 percent, affected by a temporary factory shutdown at Subaru Corp. following the discovery of a power-steering defect in certain models. Looking forward, manufacturers polled by the ministry said they expected output to rise 5.0 percent in February and decline 1.6 percent in March. The ministry official said “As companies are cautious about ramping up production, it is difficult to see production will rebound significantly” in the near future. Some private-sector economists appeared more optimistic about the situation further down the road. Takuji Aida, chief economist at Societe Generale Securities, said that despite January’s fall, industrial output will likely recover in the next quarter, beginning in April. “Production will begin to rise in the April-June quarter as economic fundamentals of the U.S. economy have not deteriorated significantly, China will implement economic measures, and domestic demand in Japan remains strong,” Aida said.


Consumers in Japan likely to see food and beverage prices rise from March

Abstract: Waves of price hikes for food and beverage products are set to hit shoppers in Japan from March. Makers say they can no longer prevent soaring material and logistics costs from being passed on to consumers. The price increases are expected to impact households and lead to a tightening of purse strings ahead of the scheduled consumption tax hike in October. In March, prices for products including ice cream and surimi fish paste will rise. Meiji Co. will mark up the prices of 23 ice cream products, with the suggested retail price of its mainstay Meiji Essel Super Cup set to be raised from ¥140 to ¥151. “We’ve implemented measures to absorb cost increases, but it’s difficult to continue sales at the current prices,” said a public relations official from the unit of Meiji Holdings Co. For instance, the per-pack price of Morinaga Milk Industry Co.’s popular Pino bite-sized chocolate-coated ice creams will jump ¥11 to ¥152. Ezaki Glico Co. and Lotte Co. will also follow suit with their products. Also in March, Nippon Suisan Kaisha Ltd. will raise the prices of all its surimi paste products for household use, including packs of “Ikechikuwa” tubes, by 5 to 10 percent. Nippon Suisan attributes the price hikes to increased expenses related to the procurement of materials, such as walleye pollack surimi paste, as well as labor costs. At Nippon Flour Mills Co. the prices of 16 frozen food items, including cooked rice products, will go up by 5 to 13 percent. From April, prices for nonalcoholic drinks, dairy products such as milk and yogurt, and instant noodles will increase. Among major beverage makers, Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Inc. and Suntory Beverage & Food Ltd. plan to raise prices by around ¥20 chiefly for products in 2.0-liter plastic bottles, in their first markups in 27 and 21 years, respectively.


Japan antitrust regulator launches survey to assess global IT giants' sway over vendors

Abstract: Japan’s antitrust watchdog launched Wednesday a survey of transactions involving information technology giants like Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Google LLC to investigate whether their market dominance may be hindering fair competition. As part of the survey, company officials will be interviewed to determine whether their companies’ practices apply unjust pressure on individual sellers and smaller firms in violation of the antimonopoly law. Vendors will also be asked to answer an online questionnaire. “There have been accusations that transactions are opaque and that there have been various disadvantages” for vendors, Akinori Yamada, secretary general of the Japan Fair Trade Commission told a news conference. “There is a need to grasp the actual situation swiftly.” The tech giants are referred to as “platformers” in Japan, as they provide digital infrastructure, or platforms, for the sale of products and services via search engines, social networking sites and e-commerce sites, among others. The commission’s survey is also expected to cover the nation’s own major online marketplaces such as Rakuten Inc. and Yahoo Japan Corp. In the questionnaire, vendors will be asked for feedback about whether transaction terms are unilaterally imposed on e-commerce sites and smartphone app stores run by the platform operators, and how their products are screened before going on sale. The survey may also help the commission get to the bottom of allegations that Amazon intends to force small merchants to shoulder the cost of its plan to start offering reward points to customers for all products sold on its site. If Amazon Japan introduces the new measure, which is apparently scheduled to start from May, without giving vendors the chance to negotiate terms, it could be deemed an abuse of its superior bargaining position over a counterparty, which is prohibited under the antimonopoly law. The watchdog has recently stepped up its regulatory scrutiny of the tech giants. Since January, it has asked businesses using their platforms to report any questionable trade practices. The fair trade commission, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications are also working on new rules to ensure that transactions between companies and platformers are conducted in a transparent and fair manner.

apple amazon.com google rakuten yahoo ftc


Venezuela removed 8 tons of central bank gold last week: legislator

Abstract: CARACAS - At least 8 tons of gold were removed from the Venezuelan central bank’s vaults last week, an opposition legislator and three government sources told Reuters, in the latest sign of President Nicolas Maduro’s desperation to raise hard currency amid tightening sanctions. The gold was removed in government vehicles between Wednesday and Friday last week when there were no regular security guards present at the bank, Legislator Angel Alvarado and the three government sources said. “They plan to sell it abroad illegally,” Alvarado said in an interview. The central bank did not respond to requests for comment. Alvarado and the government sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not say where the central bank was sending the gold. They said the operation took place while central bank head Calixto Ortega was abroad on a trip. In 2018, 23 tons of mined gold were transported from Venezuela to Istanbul by plane, according to sources and Turkish government data. The central bank bought part of this gold from primitive gold-mining camps in the south of Venezuela and exported it to Turkey and other countries to finance the purchase of basic food supplies, given widespread shortages, according to more than 30 people with knowledge of the trade. Some 20 tons of monetary gold were also removed from the central bank’s vaults in 2018, according to the bank’s data, leaving 140 tons remaining, the lowest level in 75 years. Abu Dhabi investment firm Noor Capital said on Feb. 1 that it bought 3 tons of gold on Jan. 21 from the Venezuelan central bank and would not buy more until Venezuela’s situation stabilized. Noor Capital said its purchase was in accordance with “international standards and laws in place” as of that date. Maduro’s government has been seeking to repatriate some 31 tons of gold in the Bank of England’s vaults on fears it could be caught up in international sanctions on the country. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said on Wednesday, during a United Nations meeting in Geneva, that the Bank of England had blocked the government’s assets. Maduro’s government has resorted to selling off gold after falling oil production, the country’s wider economic collapse and mounting sanctions hit public income and made it hard for the country to access credit. The United States, which is backing an attempt by opposition leader Juan Guaido to force Maduro to step down and call new elections, has warned bankers and traders not to deal in Venezuelan gold.

venezuela
central bank
gold
nicolas maduro
angel alvarado
turkey


With first launch in space-based internet project, Airbus and OneWeb aim for new satellite era

Abstract: SEATTLE/PARIS - A rocket carrying six satellites built by Airbus SE and partner OneWeb blasted off from French Guiana on Wednesday, the first step in a plan to give millions of people in remote and rural areas high-speed internet beamed down from space. A successful launch could mark a new era in the satellite services industry. Companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, LeoSat Enterprises, and Canada’s Telesat are working to enable data networks with hundreds or even thousands of tiny satellites that orbit closer to Earth than traditional communications satellites, a radical shift made possible by leaps in laser technology and computer chips. The growth in satellites will spur demand for rocket launch services, and a handful of venture-backed rocket companies are developing smaller boosters to deploy the smaller satellites at lower cost. “We are looking in the next five years at potentially 10,000 satellites needing to be launched and we don’t have the launch capacity at this moment to do that,” said analyst Marco Caceres of aerospace consultancy the Teal Group. The Arianespace Soyuz rocket lifted off from Kourou, French Guiana, at 6:37 p.m. local time, carrying satellites made by the Airbus-OneWeb joint venture called OneWeb Satellites in Toulouse, France. The refrigerator-sized satellites were expected to reach an altitude of 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) more than an hour after launch. It could take 24 hours to fully assess their condition. OneWeb and others aim to expand the availability and speed of satellite-based internet compared with existing providers, such as Hughes Network Systems, whose network is in a higher geostationary orbit. Hughes is also an investor in OneWeb and is helping to build out its ground infrastructure. OneWeb has raised more than $2 billion from investors including Airbus, Coca-Cola, Qualcomm Inc., SoftBank and Virgin Group. It aims to have global broadband coverage in 2021 from about 650 satellites. Virgin Group founder and billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson said OneWeb’s launch gives them a multiyear market advantage over principal competitor Elon Musk’s SpaceX, though enough people lack internet globally to support both constellations. “We think our network is going to be a better network and it’s going to happen quicker than his,” Branson said. OneWeb plans to begin launching more than 30 satellites at a time every month starting as early as September so its constellation is nearly 25 percent complete by year-end, a person with direct knowledge of the project said. Other firms say they are not far behind. Telesat, backed by Loral Space & Communications Inc., is targeting 2022 for broadband services from nearly 300 satellites. Washington, D.C.-based LeoSat Enterprises says it has already signed more than $1 billion in prelaunch provisional agreements for secure data transfers for global banks, telecom providers and governments beginning in 2022. Reuters reported a major shake-up last year at SpaceX’s Starlink project, which CEO Musk has said is critical as a funding source for his broader space transportation ambitions but faces challenges on development and testing. A person with direct knowledge of the program said SpaceX was driving toward a first “production launch” with money-making satellites in the middle of this year. SpaceX already has two test satellites in space and plans to launch a new design based on those “soon,” said one SpaceX official, who asked not to be named. SpaceX has not chosen a location to manufacture the satellites or made a final decision on how it will build, sell and service the terminals that will allow users to connect to the satellite-based internet access points, people with direct knowledge of the project said. Musk told employees in at least one meeting last year that SpaceX could decide to sell broadband to existing internet providers initially and worry about building out its own Earth infrastructure later, according to a person who attended the meeting. SpaceX spokeswoman Eva Behrend declined to comment. A SpaceX official said its initial batch of satellites were currently being manufactured, and that its internal launch targets were on track, but the company has not announced a launch date. The OneWeb project has forced Airbus to rethink the way it builds satellites, overhauling a painstaking customization effort to introduce industrial methods and speed using assembly lines and automation. The two companies plan to open what they say is the world’s first satellite mass-production factory at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center in March for $85 million. Production will ramp up to 15 satellites per week at a cost of $1 million per satellite, executives say. OneWeb Satellites Chief Executive Officer Tony Gingiss said the goal is to be making two to three satellites a day by early summer. “That’s revolutionary in an industry where it costs $50 million to build one satellite and normally takes months and a team of engineers to do,” Gingiss said. OneWeb has ground stations in Canada, Italy and Norway that allow the satellites to communicate with Earth, and has signed a partnership with Qualcomm to develop the technology that links the internet from space to different users, such as airlines.

space oneweb satellites spacex telesat softbank


Doctor performs first 5G surgery

Abstract: BARCELONA, SPAIN - Next-generation wireless technology is taking the medical world a crucial step closer to robots performing remotely controlled surgery, a doctor in Spain said Wednesday after carrying out the world’s first 5G-powered telementored operation. Doctors have telementored surgeries in the past using wireless networks, but blazing fast 5G increases image quality and definition, which are crucial for medical teams to take decisions with as much information, and as few mistakes, as possible. “This is a first step to achieve our dream, which is to make remote operations in the near future,” said Dr. Antonio de Lacy after providing real-time guidance via a 5G video link from a Barcelona congress center to a surgical team that operated on a patient with an intestinal tumor about 5 kilometers away at the Hospital Clinic. 5G greatly reduces latency — the time it takes to get a response to information sent — of wireless networks, so images and data are relayed almost instantly. Experts predict 5G will allow surgeons to control a robot arm to carry out operations in remote locations that lack specialist doctors. De Lacy, the head of the hospital’s gastrointestinal surgery service, used his finger to draw on a screen an area of the intestine where nerves are located and instructed the team how to navigate the surgery. The demonstration was part of the Mobile World Congress, the mobile industry’s biggest annual global event, which is being held in the Mediterranean coastal city this week. John Hoffman, the chief executive officer of mobile communications industry body GSMA, which organizes the annual trade fair, said it was “the world’s first 5G mentored live surgery. This is truly revolutionary and just one of the benefits that 5G will bring us.” During the operation, the 5G connection had a lag time of just 0.01 seconds, compared to the 0.27-second latency period with the 4G wireless networks that currently predominate in developing nations. “If you are going to do remote assisted surgery, you need to be almost there in person. You cannot have more than a couple of milliseconds latency. And that is where 5G technology comes in,” GSMA Director General Mats Granryd said. 5G’s lower latency, faster speeds and vast data capacity could also help revolutionize multiplayer mobile gaming, factory robots and make possible new technologies such as self-driving cars.


Dollar cut gains against yen after Trump-Kim summit ends without progress

Abstract: The dollar cut gains to drift around ¥110.70 in late Tokyo trading Thursday, as the closely followed U.S.-North Korea summit in Hanoi ended without an agreement. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥110.75-76, still up from ¥110.37-38 at the same time Wednesday. The euro was at $1.1381-1381, up from $1.1378-1378, and at ¥126.05-06, up from ¥125.59-59. After rising above ¥111 in overseas trading on receding risk aversion, the dollar mainly moved in a tight range slightly below the level in Tokyo on Thursday. The greenback trimmed more of its gains in the late afternoon following media reports that a news conference about the summit by U.S. President Donald Trump would take place two hours earlier than scheduled, traders said. After cutting short the summit schedule, Trump told the news conference that no agreement was reached with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un mainly because Kim requested international sanctions against his country be lifted entirely. The summit results announced by Trump “did not differ much from what market players had expected,” an official of a foreign exchange margin trading service company said, playing down the impact of the meeting on dollar-yen rates. In Thursday’s trading, a drop in the 225-issue Nikkei stock average, also accelerated by the news about the Trump-Kim summit, weighed on the dollar against the yen, traders said. “Dollar buying lacks momentum due to speculation of an end to the U.S. interest rate hike campaign,” an official of a margin trading service company said. “It will be difficult for the dollar to establish solid ground above ¥111 without big buying factors,” the official added.

foreign exchange
exchange rates
forex
currencies
fx


Tokyo stocks fall back after Wall Street's slide

Abstract: Stocks fell back on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Thursday, as investors moved to lock in profits after Wall Street took a breather overnight following recent gains. The 225-issue Nikkei average lost 171.35 points, or 0.79 percent, to end at 21,385.16, after rising 107.12 points Wednesday. The Topix index of all first-section issues finished down 12.76 points, or 0.79 percent, at 1,607.66. It gained 3.22 points the previous day. Selling outpaced buying from the outset of Thursday’s session after the U.S. Dow Jones industrial average ended below 26,000 for the first time in four market days Wednesday. Investors’ risk appetite was tempered by weaker-than-expected Japanese industrial output for January and Chinese manufacturing purchasing managers’ index for February, both released Thursday, brokers said. The two major stock indicators accelerated their downswings toward the close on media reports that a press conference following the U.S.-North Korea summit in Hanoi would take place two hours earlier than scheduled, the brokers said. Other media reports said U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un cut short their summit schedule as they failed to agree on the communist country’s denuclearization. Another drag to the market came from withering hopes for progress in the U.S.-China trade talks after U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Wednesday that “much still needs to be done” to resolve the two country’s trade issue, according to the brokers. “Investors are waiting to see details of the reported progress in the U.S.-China issue,” including how long the tariff deadline will be extended from Friday and other agreed points, said Yoshihiko Tabei, chief analyst at Naito Securities Co. “Investors may have moved to square positions at the end of February,” said Tomoaki Fujii, head of the investment research division at Akatsuki Securities Inc. Naito Securities’ Tabei expressed a view that fresh buying incentives are necessary for the Nikkei average to regain the levels of around 22,000 seen before its December plunges. Falling issues outnumbered rising ones 1,337 to 702 in the TSE’s first section, while 91 issues were unchanged. Volume increased to 1.301 billion shares from 1.235 billion shares Wednesday. Factory automation companies such as Fanuc Corp., Keyence Corp. and Yaskawa Electric Corp. posted declines, as did semiconductor-related Tokyo Electron and Sumco Corp. Daito Trust Construction Co. plunged 5.86 percent following reported apartment contract problems with consumers. Other losers included cosmetics maker Shiseido Co. and drugmaker Eisai Co. Meanwhile, Toei Co. jumped 6.11 percent after Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. raised its target stock price for the movie production company. Also higher were employment information service firm Recruit Holdings Co. and game-maker Konami Holdings Corp. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key March contract on the Nikkei average fell 170 points to end at 21,390.


Lawyers request bail for ex-Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn for third time

Abstract: Lawyers for Nissan Motor Co.’s former Chairman Carlos Ghosn, who has been detained for more than three months on financial misconduct allegations, filed a request for bail for the third time with a Tokyo court on Thursday. The latest filing with the Tokyo District Court is the first bail request by the ousted car titan’s new legal team, appointed last month, including Junichiro Hironaka, known for winning acquittals in high-profile cases. His previous defense team, led by Motonari Otsuru, a former head of the special squad of Tokyo prosecutors investigating the financial misconduct allegations, made two requests in January. Courts in principle grant bail when there is no risk of a suspect fleeing or destroying evidence. Ghosn, 64, has been charged with understating his remuneration for a number of years in Nissan’s securities reports and transferring derivatives losses from his private asset management company to the automaker. He denies the allegations. The former executive appeared in court in January seeking an explanation for his continuing detention. It was his first public appearance since his arrest in November. The court said he needed to be detained as he could destroy evidence and flee Japan. Hironaka, known in judicial circles as the “acquittal guarantor,” has told reporters that he is “confident that (Ghosn) is innocent” on both charges and it is “extremely odd that a matter which should be resolved internally by a company has been brought to prosecutors.” The arrest of Ghosn on Nov. 19 came as prosecutors and a Nissan executive cooperating with the investigation struck a plea bargain agreement.

nissan
carlos ghosn
corruption
scandals
carmakers


Scientists warn global warming could decimate fish supplies and fuel migration

Abstract: LONDON - Millions of people could lose their livelihoods, food source, and be forced from their homes if the world does not meet the Paris goal to curb global warming which is endangering fish numbers, Canadian researchers said on Wednesday. A study by the University of British Columbia compared the economic and environmental impact of holding the global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as agreed in Paris in 2015, versus the current 3.5 degrees warming scenario. Lead researcher Rashid Sumaila, director of the university’s Fisheries Economics Research Unit, said they found meeting the Paris goal would benefit 75 percent of maritime countries, with the largest gains in poorer nations, by boosting fish supplies. Fisheries provide about 260 million full-time and part-time jobs globally with seafood products a critical export for developing nations, according to the study published in published in the journal Science Advances. But Sumaila warned that failing to curb global warming could threaten the livelihoods and food source of millions of people. “This can turn into a massive crisis as it could cause forced migration not only locally but globally,” Sumaila told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview. “A steady supply of fish is essential to support these jobs, food sovereignty, and human well-being.” Ocean heat — recorded by thousands of floating robots — has been setting records repeatedly over the last decade, with 2018 expected to be the hottest year yet, according to an analysis by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The study found the Paris deal would push up the total mass of the top revenue generating fish species globally by 6.5 percent, with an average increase of 8.4 percent in the waters of developing countries. Sumaila said achieving the Paris targets could increase global fishing revenue by $4.6 billion a year. “The largest gains will occur in developing country waters, such as Kiribati, the Maldives and Indonesia, which are at greatest risks due to warming temperatures and rely the most on fish for food security, incomes and employment,” Sumaila said.


North Carolina Republican operative charged in election fraud scheme

Abstract: NEW YORK - The North Carolina Republican political operative at the center of an absentee ballot fraud scheme that led the state to order a re-run of a congressional election was arrested and charged with obstruction of justice on Wednesday, the Wake County district attorney’s office said. The operative, Leslie McCrae Dowless, was charged with three felony counts of obstruction of justice, two counts of conspiring to commit obstruction of justice and two counts of possession of absentee ballots, according to the district attorney’s statement. He is due to appear in court on March 25. The indictment follows a state investigation into voting irregularities in North Carolina’s 9th congressional district that found evidence Dowless had organized illegal absentee ballot collection to tip the race in favor of Republican candidate Mark Harris. Dowless has previously denied wrongdoing. His attorney, Cynthia Singletary, was not immediately available to comment on Wednesday. The state’s elections board last week described the election as an “absolute mess,” pronounced its results tainted by the scheme and ordered a new election for the seat. Harris, who was leading the race by 905 votes when allegations of irregularities arose, said he would not make a second run for the seat. Dan McCready, the Democrat who ran against Harris, does plan to run again.

north carolina
republicans
election
absentee ballots
leslie mccrae dowless
mark harris
democrats
dan mcready
vote fraud


U.N. aviation agency concealed serious hack linked to Chinese group: media

Abstract: MONTREAL, QUEBEC - The Montreal-based United Nations aviation agency concealed for months a hack of its computers and allowed malware to spread throughout the airline industry, Canada’s public broadcaster reported Wednesday. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) had in November 2016 been the victim of the “most serious cyberattack in its history,” Radio-Canada said. Internal documents obtained by the broadcaster revealed a flawed response to the attack — believed to have been launched by a Chinese hacker group — mired in delays, obstruction and negligence, and attempts by staff to hide their incompetence. American airplane maker and defense contractor Lockheed Martin was the first to raise concerns, alerting the ICAO that its servers had been hijacked to spread malware to government and airline computers. In an email to the ICAO, the Lockheed Martin cyberintelligence analyst described the attack as “a significant threat to the aviation industry.” It had the characteristics of a “watering hole attack” that targets visitors to a website. The U.N. agency, working with 192 member states and industry groups, is responsible for setting international civil aviation standards, including for safety and security. The ICAO information technology team reached out to a New York-based IT agency affiliated with the U.N. to analyze the attack, but then rejected its expertise — not bothering to respond to emails for several days or transmitting unusable data. It would take a fortnight before an analysis revealed that the intrusion was actually an even bigger problem. Mail server, domain administrator and system administrator accounts were affected, giving hackers access to the passwords of more than 2,000 ICAO users to read, send or delete emails. Within 30 minutes of the ICAO piracy, at least one member state’s website, Turkey, had been infected. But the ICAO tech chief continued to downplay its seriousness. An independent investigation in 2017 would conclude that the malicious software used in the attack had been identified by ICAO antivirus software a year earlier, but that the computers had still not been disinfected. The ICAO told AFP that the Radio-Canada report contained “many erroneous interpretations and conclusions,” saying the gravity of the malware found on its servers “has been greatly exaggerated.” “We’re not aware of any serious cybersecurity ramifications for external partners which resulted from this incident,” it said. “And as a standards-setting body, with no operational role or mandate in aviation, the inference that our data security could pose risks to the combined aviation and aerospace sectors, or the general public, is grossly inaccurate.” The agency also has made “robust improvements to its cybersecurity posture and approaches to mitigate further incidents,” it said. In Ottawa, Canadian Transportation Minister Marc Garneau called the revelations “worrying” and vowed to discuss them with ICAO boss Fang Liu.

hacking
icao
lockheed martin
cybersecurity
china
u.n .


Move over ayatollahs: John Bolton turns tweets and talons on 'Guantanamero' Maduro

Abstract: WASHINGTON - John Bolton, U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, shakes stars-and-stripes maracas as he dreams of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro behind bars in an orange prison suit. “Guantanamero … Maduro Guantanamero …,” Bolton sings in a caricature by Venezuelan cartoonist Fernando Pinilla — a play on both the well-known Cuban song, and the U.S. military detention center at Guantanamo Bay. A mounted copy of the cartoon from Miami newspaper Diario Las Americas has joined the trophy wall in Bolton’s West Wing office, which until now has been dominated by mementos associated with his signature foreign policy fight: Iran. One cartoon features an ayatollah hearing about Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. The new addition is a sign of how Bolton’s hawkish focus has zeroed in on a new target — getting Maduro to leave Venezuela. It’s a battle he has waged on Twitter, where his acid-tongued trolling of the socialist leader has made him one of the Trump administration’s fiercest voices on the issue. The United States has led an international effort to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate interim president of Venezuela, considering Maduro’s 2018 re-election a sham. Since January, Bolton has fired off more than 130 withering missives directed at Maduro, accounting for three quarters of all his Twitter activity in that time and more than a third of all his tweets since Trump named him national security adviser in March 2018. A spokesman for Bolton declined comment on the strategy. Bolton, a veteran neoconservative who critics call a warmonger, has tweeted far more about Venezuela in his time as national security adviser than any other topic, including Iran (34 tweets) or the Middle East and Syria (29 tweets). It was Bolton’s most viral Venezuela tweet that was the genesis for the cartoon that now graces his office. “I wish Nicolas Maduro and his top advisors a long, quiet retirement, living on a nice beach somewhere far from Venezuela,” Bolton said, a zing that has since been retweeted 19,000 times and liked 39,000 times. The next day, Bolton talked about the tweet with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, and added a threat: “The sooner he takes advantage of that, the sooner he’s likely to have a nice, quiet retirement on a pretty beach, rather than being in some other beach area like Guantanamo,” Bolton said. In Caracas, Pinilla heard about Bolton’s warning and was inspired. “It was easy to imagine that it would be the soundtrack of that arrest, which is our dream,” said Pinilla, who said he was surprised and honored when he learned from Reuters that his work was hanging on Bolton’s wall. Bolton’s war of words has rankled his targets. Earlier this month, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza held up his phone at a United Nations press conference, brandishing a Bolton tweet warning countries and companies against buying oil and gold from Maduro’s government. “What he’s trying to do here is give orders,” Arreaza complained to reporters. Arreaza follows Bolton on Twitter. Bolton does not follow him back. “Bolton’s gangster-style language and threats are proof of the most sublime diplomatic practice. How regrettable that US foreign policy has fallen into the hands of such a gang,” Arreaza tweeted last week. While Bolton has far fewer followers than Maduro — 543,000 to Maduro’s 3.5 million — Bolton has stronger stats on “engagement,” a measurement of how readers connect with a message, noted Matthias Luefkens, who produces an annual “Twiplomacy” study on how world leaders use Twitter. “His language is very bold, very daring, direct. It’s not diplomatic language that he uses,” said Luefkens, who works for the public relations firm BCW Global in Geneva. The strategy bypasses the time-sucking layers of approvals needed to release a traditional White House statement and also side-steps the media. “It’s the Trump formula of avoiding the gatekeepers,” said Philip Seib, who writes about diplomacy and social media at the University of Southern California’s School for Communication and Journalism. Bolton’s brash style won fans in Caracas among supporters of opposition leader Guaido, like Martha Anez. She gushed about the mustachioed Trump adviser as she welcomed her friends to a crochet circle in her home in a well-to-do district earlier this month. “I dream of Bolton!” Anez quipped. “The first thing I do in the morning, even before my coffee, is check whether or not the gringos have said they will intervene. Here we need a square in honor of Bolton! Because he has helped us,” she said.

john bolton
donald trump
venezuela
nicolas maduro
iran
twitter


After months of setbacks, Theresa May's Brexit deal starts to fall into place

Abstract: Wednesday night’s votes in Parliament suggest that Prime Minister Theresa May is closer to leading Britain out of the European Union with a Brexit deal than at any other point since her negotiations with Brussels began. Instead of another humiliating defeat, Parliament told her to stay the course. Crucially, the group of hard-line Brexiteers who have stood in her way before look split. Several things have changed to make a deal look a lot more likely. Faced with the threat of Cabinet and ministerial resignations, the prime minister conceded Tuesday that she will seek a short delay to Britain’s March 29 exit date — if her deal cannot be passed by March 12, and if Parliament rejects the option of leaving without a deal (which it certainly would) and then votes for a delay. May’s promises were embedded in a parliamentary amendment that was submitted by Labour lawmaker Yvette Cooper on Wednesday and which passed by a wide margin, with just 20 Brexiteers voting against it. If moderates were mollified by May’s concession of the delay, then Brexiteers were chastened by the Labour Party’s decision to formally embrace a second referendum this week. Even with the grudging support of party leader Jeremy Corbyn, it is far from likely that another plebiscite will enjoy a majority in Parliament — but the option has become less theoretical. If Britain’s exit is delayed but no agreement reached, then Parliament might well find a second public vote is the best way to avert a no-deal exit. That is a sobering prospect for hard-liners in May’s party. Indeed, the biggest change is that purist Brexiteers in her party sense that they have lost the battle for a no-deal exit and that they risk no Brexit at all, or a second referendum if they hold out for something the EU will never give. Nobody is buying the argument that a no-deal exit would only be a matter of some brief pain; the government’s own analysis, published this week, added to the volumes of evidence suggesting otherwise. Businesses have been far more vocal than they were before the 2016 referendum. Traditionally euroskeptic quarters of the British media such as the Daily Mail have urged MPs to avoid a no-deal exit. Even Britain’s labor unions, many of whose Labour-supporting members voted to leave the EU but are likely to be hardest hit by a no-deal Brexit, would regard that outcome with horror. In an interview in the Financial Times on Wednesday, leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg indicated that he might be willing to squint hard and accept a de facto, rather than legally airtight, assurance that Britain will not be indefinitely trapped in the EU’s customs union in order to prevent a hard border in Ireland. His comments were the first sign that Brexiteers may be prepared to leave with an imperfect deal rather than risk it all unraveling. Much now rests on whether Attorney General Geoffrey Cox and EU negotiators (who also want to find a way for Britain to make an orderly exit at this stage) can find language that satisfies all sides. The EU has refused to reopen the negotiated Withdrawal Agreement, but there is talk of a special codicil. It will take a legal Houdini to conjure up language that convinces Parliament that Britain can walk away from the customs union, the EU that the integrity of the single market is protected, and Ireland that there will be no customs infrastructure at border. For those who would like to avoid the purgatory and confusion of a delayed Brexit, the uncertainty and contentiousness of a new referendum or the chaos of a no-deal exit, it has been a hopeful week so far. But let us be clear: Nothing is yet clear. The important — or “meaningful,” as it is called — vote on May’s deal will take place on March 12. In Brexitland, two weeks is a very long time.


U.S. calls on Russia to return Crimea to Ukraine, five years after annexation

Abstract: WASHINGTON - The United States reaffirmed Wednesday that it will keep sanctions on Russia until it “returns control of Crimea to Ukraine,” nearly five years after Moscow annexed the peninsula. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Russia’s occupation of the Crimean peninsula five years ago has fueled “an escalation of Russian aggression.” “The world has not forgotten the cynical lies Russia employed to justify its aggression and mask its attempted annexation of Ukrainian territory,” he said. Crimea’s parliament elected a new local government on Feb. 27, 2014, after the territory was seized by a Russian military force amid fighting between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian factions. A referendum on the future of the peninsula, denounced as illegitimate by the United States, was held on March 16 of that year approving Crimea’s reattachment to Russia. “The United States reiterates its unwavering position: Crimea is Ukraine and must be returned to Ukraine’s control,” Pompeo said, denouncing “the worsening repression by Russia’s occupation regime in Crimea.” He called on Moscow to release the more than 70 people that he said have been imprisoned for their peaceful dissent, and “to cease all abuses immediately.” “The United States will maintain respective sanctions against Russia until the Russian government returns control of Crimea to Ukraine and fully implements the Minsk agreements,” he said, referring to a 2015 peace accord that was never applied in its entirety.

russia
crimea
ukraine
mike pompeo
u.s. sanctions


May gains two-week Brexit reprieve from British lawmakers

Abstract: LONDON - British Prime Minister Theresa May won a two-week reprieve on Wednesday from British lawmakers, who postponed a threatened rebellion aimed at blocking a no-deal Brexit after she agreed to a possible delay to Britain’s departure from the EU. But the opposition Labour Party announced it would now support a new public vote on Brexit, the first time since Britain voted in 2016 to leave the EU that one of its main parties has backed giving voters a chance to change their minds. After months of saying that Britain must leave the EU on time on March 29, May opened up the possibility on Tuesday of a short limited extension to the exit date. That was enough to avert a showdown in Parliament on Wednesday with lawmakers — including ministers in her own government who had said they were prepared to join a rebellion this week to avert an exit with no agreement. May’s climbdown took much of the heat out of a series of votes on Wednesday that could have ripped control of the entire process away from the government. In the end, lawmakers backed her promised timetable. But it now means British citizens and businesses will not learn how, or possibly even whether, they are to leave the European Union until the final weeks or even days before the deadline. After a deal she negotiated with European leaders was rejected on Jan. 15 in the biggest parliamentary defeat in modern British history, May is hoping to bring back a tweaked divorce accord for a vote, which could come as early as next week but may not take place until March 12. May has now promised that if her deal is voted down, lawmakers will get a chance to vote on whether to leave with no deal, or to ask the European Union to delay the deadline. Lawmakers voted 502-20 in support of an amendment proposed by opposition Labour lawmaker Yvette Cooper that spelled out May’s proposed timetable. The government backed the amendment. Before May’s concessions on Tuesday, Cooper had been assembling support from all parties for an amendment that would have ensured parliament had a chance to block a no-deal exit and seek a delay. Wednesday’s votes also saw lawmakers defeat a Labour proposal for a permanent customs union with the EU. While that was widely expected, its failure was the trigger for Labour to pledge its support for a new referendum. “Disappointed the government has rejected Labour’s alternative Brexit deal,” the party’s Brexit spokesman, Keir Starmer, tweeted. “That’s why Labour will put forward or support an amendment in favour of a public vote to prevent a damaging Tory Brexit.” Lawmakers also rejected a proposal on Wednesday by the Scottish National Party calling for no-deal Brexit to be ruled out under any circumstances. Most lawmakers oppose a no-deal exit, but May’s promise to allow a vote on that after the vote on her deal was enough to persuade most not to intervene yet. French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that the EU would agree to extend the Brexit deadline beyond March 29 only if Britain justified such a request with a clear objective. “If the British need more time, we would support an extension request if it was justified by new choices from the British,” Macron told a joint briefing with Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel in Paris. “But we would in no way accept an extension without a clear view on the objective pursued.” French officials have said Paris would agree to delay Brexit only if that came with a credible solution, for example if Britain called an election, held a second referendum, or presented a new plan that was acceptable to all sides but needed more time to be finalized. Merkel said she was “totally on the same line” as Macron but appeared more willing to show flexibility. “If Britain needs some more time, we won’t refuse but we are striving for an orderly solution i.e. an orderly exit of Britain from the European Union,” she said. The big shifts on Brexit by both May and Labour this week reflect turmoil within both major parties as the Brexit deadline approaches. Eight Labour lawmakers and three Conservatives quit their parties last week to set up a new anti-Brexit group, the biggest such schism in British politics for decades. Lawmakers in both parties have threatened further defections.

brexit
theresa may
eu
labour
parliament
u.k .


Venezuela's Guaido to meet Bolsonaro in Brazil

Abstract: SAO PAULO - Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido is due to meet Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in Brasilia late Wednesday, sources from both camps said. Guaido, recognized as interim president by 50 countries, will travel to the Brazilian capital from Colombia, where he has stayed since Friday despite a travel ban imposed on him by the regime of Venezuela’s socialist leader Nicolas Maduro. Brazil and Colombia are Guaido allies that have been holding humanitarian aid the National Assembly speaker wants to bring into Venezuela. He failed to do that over the weekend as a military blockade ordered by Maduro held firm. The Guaido camp source said he had not yet decided if he will visit the border area with Venezuela where four people were killed over the weekend in clashes with Maduro’s security services. Guaido met U.S. Vice President Mike Pence at a Lima Group meeting with regional allies in Bogota on Monday, after which he said he would return home this week, despite having received threats. “A prisoner is no use to anyone. Neither is a president in exile,” Guaido told NTN24 television channel on Tuesday. “My role and my duty is to be in Caracas, despite the risks and regardless of what that implies.” Maduro told ABC News in the United States that Guaido would have to face justice when he returns as he flouted a ban on foreign travel. Guaido has dismissed Maduro’s authority as illegitimate over his controversial re-election in May in polls boycotted by the opposition as many of their leaders were unable to stand due to imprisonment, exile or being barred. Venezuela has been struck by a humanitarian crisis that has left millions in poverty and chronic shortages of basic necessities such as food and medication.

venezuela
brazil
juan guaido
jair bolsonaro
colombia
mike pence
u.s .


Russia's military parades hardware seized in Syria

Abstract: ROSTOV-ON-DON, RUSSIA - A train packed with war trophies from Syria including a tank and carriages of weapons arrived to loud fanfare at a southern Russian city on Wednesday, part of a nationwide tour organized by the military to whip up patriotic sentiment. The tour, launched in Moscow over the weekend, aims to show off hardware captured by the Russian military during its Syrian campaigns in support of President Bashar Assad’s forces. The collection will be displayed in dozens of cities across Russia. Thousands of army cadets, men, women and children gathered in Rostov-on-Don on Wednesday to glimpse the artifacts. Exhibits included armored personnel carriers, automatic rifles, pistols and drones that the ministry said Russia had captured from militants during joint operations with Syrian government forces. Soldiers recounted to visitors how the hardware had been captured. Russia launched its military intervention in Syria in 2015, turning the tide of the war in Assad’s favor. Some Russians appeared nonplussed about the train and wrote on social media that the money for the tour could have been better spent on infrastructure or social welfare. “…there’s no money to estimate the cost of renovating hospitals, let alone to carry out the renovations themselves. But at least residents can rejoice in the special defence ministry train with trophies from Syria,” a Twitter user called Vitaly C. wrote.

russia
military
syria
bashar assad
conflict


Driver fleeing earlier crash scene when car swerved around crossing gates, was hit by two NY trains: witness

Abstract: WESTBURY, NEW YORK - A witness told police that the driver who caused a deadly crash by trying to go around a lowered railroad gate on New York’s Long Island was fleeing the scene of an earlier crash, a police official said Wednesday. “The witness said that individual was involved in an accident and went around the gate,” Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said. The car was hit by two commuter trains and burst into flames Tuesday, killing the driver and two passengers, Ryder said. The Long Island Rail Road provided limited service on Wednesday as railroad employees worked to remove the damaged train cars and repair the tracks. Gov. Andrew Cuomo called for a “full investigation into the collision,” which also forced the evacuation of nearly 1,000 passengers and crew members on the two trains. Police said an eastbound train that had just pulled away from the Westbury station struck the car at 7:20 p.m. The car was then struck again by a faster-moving westbound train. The three people in the car were killed and eight people on the westbound train were injured, three of them seriously, officials said. The crash was the fifth incident at the same crossing in 40 years and the second involving a train hitting a vehicle, according to federal safety data. In the others, a person walking or standing on the tracks was hit by a train. County Executive Laura Curran, who joined Ryder and other officials at a news conference, said the crash shows how foolish it is to drive around the gate. “I cannot repeat this enough,” Curran said. “Please do not try to beat the train. Nothing is so important.” The westbound train derailed after hitting the car and crashed into the concrete platform, sending chunks of concrete and rebar into the front car of the train. “It was completely destroyed, the front cab,” Ryder said. Ryder said the engineer and a passenger in the front car survived by running backward through the car before it hit the platform. He said emergency workers rescued the two from the mangled train car. Dr. Anthony Boutin, head of the emergency department at Nassau University Medical Center, said three people were hospitalized with serious injuries and are expected to completely recover. The other crash victims were treated for minor injuries. The grade crossing is one of several scheduled to be eliminated as part of an LIRR modernization project. The railroad’s “A Modern LI” website says that crossing “poses a safety risk to drivers, pedestrians and LIRR customers” and will be replaced with an underpass. After a spike in deaths at railroad crossings in 2017, the U.S. Department of Transportation launched a public awareness campaign with the slogan “Stop! Trains Can’t.” The Federal Railroad Administration developed a crossing-finder app and persuaded technology companies to add grade-crossing warnings to GPS devices and mapping applications. In 2017, there were 2,115 grade-crossing crashes in the U.S., resulting in 271 deaths. That was the highest yearly grade-crossing death toll in a decade; 2008 had 290. Full-year data aren’t available for 2018. Chris O’Neil, chief spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, said that the circumstances of Tuesday’s crash, though tragic, don’t point to any safety issues that require further investigation or new recommendations by the agency.


Saved from Pakistani mob, downed Indian pilot becomes face of Kashmir crisis

Abstract: ISLAMABAD/NEW, DELHI - A downed Indian fighter pilot who was attacked by a mob and then paraded on video by Pakistan’s army has become a social media sensation and a hero in his homeland amid a spiraling crisis between the nuclear-armed neighbors. With Pakistani villagers and soldiers filming his capture and captivity on Wednesday in clips that have since gone viral on social media, the pilot identified by Islamabad as Indian Wing Commander Abhi Nandan has fast emerged as the human face of the dangerous flare-up between the arch-foes. India has not confirmed the pilot’s identity. Indian media have given his name as Abhinandan Varthaman. The pilot and the Indian Air Force (IAF) are at the heart of the crisis between two countries who have conducted airstrikes on each other’s territory in the last two days. The United States and China have appealed for restraint. The airman’s treatment at the hands of Pakistani troops drew both condemnation and praise, while at his house in southern India supporters gathered to record messages of solidarity. In one video posted on social media, a Pakistani soldier ankle-deep in a stream of water in the disputed Kashmir region can be seen shielding the pilot from angry villagers and shouting “enough” as they pummel his bloodied face and strike blows against his limp body. In another video, posted on Twitter by Pakistan’s information ministry, the pilot is blindfolded and can be heard saying “I’ve got hurt and I would request some water.” He then reveals his name and rank before politely fending off questions from soldiers by saying: “I’m not supposed to tell you that.” Later, in a video released by Pakistan’s military, the captured airman is shown without a blindfold, appearing more relaxed, thanking the Pakistani army and sipping tea. “The officers of the Pakistani Army have looked after me well, they are thorough gentlemen,” he said. India’s foreign ministry branded Pakistan’s videos as a “vulgar display” of an injured airman, saying they violated international humanitarian law and the Geneva convention. “Pakistan would be well advised to ensure that no harm comes to the Indian defence personnel in its custody. India also expects his immediate and safe return,” it said in a statement. Pakistan’s army spokesman, Asif Ghafoor, tweeted a photo of the airman and said he was “being treated as per norms of military ethics.” Pakistani tweeters said he had been shown exemplary hospitality. After Pakistan’s government released a picture of the downed pilot, social media platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp were inundated with old videos and photos of him. By Wednesday evening, the two top trends on Twitter in India were about the pilot, with many Indians demanding his release under a #BringBackAbhinandan hashtag. In one video shared on social media, purportedly from 2011, he is seen dining with the hosts of a popular Indian television food show. Asked about attributes important for a pilot, he says: “Bad attitude.” Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the video. Many posts concerned the pilot’s safety, and some expressed relief to see the later video of him clutching a cup of tea. “I Salute Our Brave IAF Pilot,” said Twitter user Aarti, who changed her Twitter profile picture to one of his old mug shots.

pakistan
india
kashmir
geneva conventions
conflict


Pakistan will release Indian pilot Friday as 'peace gesture': Imran Khan

Abstract: ISLAMABAD - Pakistan will release a captured Indian pilot on Friday, Prime Minister Imran Khan told a joint session of Parliament on Thursday, in an overture towards New Delhi after soaring tensions fueled fears of conflict between the nuclear-armed rivals. “As a peace gesture we are releasing the Indian pilot tomorrow,” Khan said, a day after Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was shot down in a rare aerial engagement between the South Asian neighbors over the disputed region of Kashmir.


Nepal tourism minister among seven killed in chopper crash

Abstract: MADHYAMANCHA, NEPAL - Nepal’s tourism minister, Rabindra Adhikari, was among seven people killed Wednesday when a helicopter crashed in the country’s hilly east, officials said. Rescue workers retrieved the bodies of Adhikari, 49, the pilot and five other passengers from a hillside in Taplejung district where the Air Dynasty chopper went down. “The respected minister’s body has been identified,” home affairs ministry spokesman Ram Krishna Subedi said in a press conference. The minister’s personal bodyguard has been identified as among the dead. The owner of the helicopter company was also aboard but his body has not been formally identified. Subedi said two army helicopters had been dispatched to bring the bodies back to the capital Kathmandu. Two other private helicopters had also been sent to assist but local authorities said snowy weather had made it difficult for the choppers to land. A search and rescue team was deployed to the area after locals alerted authorities to flames and smoke rising from a hillside. “The helicopter is in pieces, and scattered all over. Everything was in flames,” said Suraj Bhattarai, a witness who saw the debris. The helicopter crashed into the hillside minutes after taking off from a nearby temple, a local official said. The minister was on a trip to scope out a new airstrip in the region. The exact causes of the crash remain unknown. It is just the latest aviation accident to plague Nepal, an impoverished Himalayan nation with a poor air safety record. Nepal has some of the world’s most remote and tricky runways, flanked by snow-capped peaks with approaches that pose a challenge for even accomplished pilots. The country has a booming private helicopter industry, flying tourists and goods to remote corners of the country where road access is limited or non-existent. In September, six people including a Japanese tourist were killed in a helicopter crash. A US-Bangla Airways plane crashed near the capital’s airport in March, killing 51 people. Nepal-based airlines are banned from flying in European Union airspace. Its poor air safety record is largely blamed on inadequate maintenance and sub-standard management.

nepal
rabindra adhikari
air dynasty
aircraft accidents


Congo Ebola center attacked and set aflame

Abstract: GOMA, CONGO - Armed assailants attacked an Ebola treatment center in eastern Congo on Wednesday, setting off a fire and becoming embroiled in an extended gunbattle with security forces, health officials said. The identity and motive of the assailants were unclear. Aid workers have faced mistrust in some areas as they work to contain an Ebola outbreak. Dozens of armed militia also regularly attack civilians and security forces in eastern Congo’s borderlands with Uganda and Rwanda, which has significantly hampered the response to the disease. The health ministry said in a statement that 38 suspected Ebola patients and 12 confirmed cases were in the centre at the time of the attack. Four of the patients with confirmed cases fled and are being looked for, it said. None of the patients who have been accounted for were injured, nor were any staff members, the ministry added. French medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which runs the center together with the ministry, condemned the “deplorable attack” and said its efforts were focused on the immediate safety of patients and staff. The attack in the city of Butembo was the second in Congo’s Ebola-hit east this week. On Sunday unidentified assailants set fire to a treatment center in the nearby town of Katwa, killing a nurse. The current Ebola outbreak, first declared last August, is the second deadliest of the hemorrhagic fever since it was discovered in Congo in 1976. It is believed to have killed at least 553 people so far and infected over 300 more.


Australia's summer was hottest on record

Abstract: SYDNEY - Australia suffered its hottest summer on record from December through February, and forecasts show the autumn will continue to be drier and warmer than average, the government said Thursday. “After a record hot December and January, it won’t come as a surprise that this summer will be our warmest on record,” said Andrew Watkins, manager of long-range forecasting at the Bureau of Meteorology. Although the final figures won’t be available until Friday, the bureau said it was already clear the average maximum and mean temperature for the three months of summer would for the first time be more than 2 degrees Celsius higher (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) than long-term averages. Rainfall was also below normal, and the bureau said it saw no let-up in a severe drought that has gripped vast areas of the country’s agricultural heartland in the east and southeast for many months. “Unfortunately, the outlook isn’t giving a strong indication that we’ll see a return to average or above average rainfall in many areas over the autumn period,” Watkins said. The bureau reported earlier that January had been the hottest month ever recorded in Australia, with mean temperature across the continent exceeding 30 degrees Celsius for the first time. Watkins said weather patterns over the Indian and Pacific oceans contributed to the higher temperatures and lower rainfall, but that long-term climate change trends were also involved. Authorities said the January heat wave contributed to the deaths of more than a million fish in the Murray-Darling river system, the country’s largest and which runs through five states in the east of the country. Meanwhile, bush fires — which are frequent summer occurrences in Australia’s arid southeast — spread far into the tropical northeast of the country in January.

australia
records
climate change
heat waves


Major events leading up to the second Trump-Kim summit

Abstract: HANOI - A chronology of major developments leading up to the second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi: 1945 : The Korean Peninsula is liberated from Japanese colonial rule after Tokyo surrenders at the end of World War II. 1948 : The peninsula is divided into the Soviet-supported North and the U.S.-backed South. 1950 : The Korean War begins. 1953 : The Korean War ends in an armistice. 1985 : North Korea becomes a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. 1992 : North and South Korea sign a joint declaration on the denuclearization of the peninsula. 1994 : Jimmy Carter becomes the first former U.S. president to visit North Korea. The United States and North Korea sign the Agreed Framework, under which Pyongyang promises to freeze its nuclear program in return for aid. 2000 : The first inter-Korean summit takes place in Pyongyang. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visits North Korea. 2002 : Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi makes a historic visit to North Korea; Pyongyang admits to having abducted Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s. 2003 : North Korea withdraws from the NPT. The first round of six-party nuclear talks, involving the Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the U.S., is held in Beijing. 2005 : North Korea declares it has nuclear weapons. The six countries adopt a joint statement that commits North Korea to giving up its nuclear program in return for energy aid and security assurances. 2006 : North Korea conducts its first nuclear test. 2009 : North Korea says it will quit the six-party talks and carries out its second nuclear test. 2011 : Leader Kim Jong Il dies and is succeeded by his youngest son, Kim Jong Un. 2012 : North Korea agrees to implement a moratorium on its nuclear and missile programs in return for food aid from the United States. But it effectively scraps the deal with a test widely seen as aimed at improving its missile capabilities. 2013 : North Korea conducts its third nuclear test. 2014 : North Korea test-fires a medium-range Rodong ballistic missile for the first time since 2009. 2015 : North Korea says it will restart all of its nuclear facilities. January 2016 : North Korea claims to have conducted its first hydrogen bomb test. May : The ruling Workers’ Party of Korea holds its first congress in 36 years. September : North Korea conducts its fifth nuclear test. January 2017 : Kim says North Korea is in the final phase of preparing to test-launch an intercontinental ballistic missile. June : North Korea releases an American university student who fell into a coma while imprisoned. He later dies. July : North Korea claims its first successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile. August : Trump and North Korea begin to exchange increasingly fiery rhetoric. September : North Korea conducts its sixth and most powerful nuclear test. November : Trump announces the relisting of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. North Korea announces its launch of a new ICBM capable of striking anywhere in the United States with a nuclear warhead and declares its nuclear force as complete. Jan. 1, 2018 : Kim says in his New Year’s address that North Korea is now “capable of thwarting and countering any nuclear threats from the United States.” He also offers to send athletes to the Winter Olympics in South Korea. Jan. 4 : South Korea and the United States agree to postpone their annual military drills until after the Olympics. Jan. 9 : North and South Korea hold their first official talks in more than two years in the truce village of Panmunjom. March 25 : Kim makes a surprise visit to China by train to meet with President Xi Jinping in Beijing, his first overseas trip and his first talks with a foreign leader. April 9 : Trump says he will meet Kim. April 20 : North Korea decides to shut down its only known nuclear test site, in Punggye-ri, and suspend ICBM tests. April 27 : Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in meet on the southern side of the truce village for the first inter-Korean summit in over a decade and agree to work toward “complete” denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. May 10 : Trump says he will meet Kim in Singapore on June 12. May 24 : North Korea says its Punggye-ri site is “completely” dismantled. Trump cancels the scheduled summit with Kim. May 26 : Kim and Moon hold a surprise meeting on the North Korean side of the truce village after Trump revives hopes of the summit in Singapore. June 1 : Trump meets a high-ranking North Korean official at the White House and is handed a letter from Kim. Trump reinstates his summit with Kim for the original date in Singapore. June 12 : Trump and Kim meet in Singapore in the first summit between the sitting leaders of the United States and North Korea. They sign a joint declaration in which North Korea promises to work toward “complete denuclearization” of the peninsula and the United States pledges to provide security guarantees for Pyongyang. Sept. 18-20 : Kim and Moon meet for their third summit in Pyongyang. Kim tells Moon he is prepared to dismantle the North’s Nyongbyon nuclear complex. Oct. 7 : U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with Kim in Pyongyang. Jan. 1, 2019 : Kim says he is willing to meet Trump “anytime” and pledges not to make and test any more nuclear weapons. Jan. 18 : Kim Yong Chol, a close aide of Kim Jong Un, meets with Trump in Washington. Feb. 6-8 : Stephen Biegun, U.S. special representative for North Korea, visits Pyongyang. Feb. 8 : Trump says the second summit to be held in Hanoi. Feb. 19 : Trump says he is in “no rush” to denuclearize North Korea. Feb. 27-28 : Trump and Kim hold their second summit.

north korea
kim jong un
nuclear weapons
kim jong il
history
north korea nuclear crisis
kim il sung
kim-trump summit


In apparent first, North Korea's Kim responds to question from foreign media

Abstract: In an apparent first, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has directly responded to a question from a foreign reporter Thursday in Hanoi, ahead of one-on-one talks with U.S. President Donald Trump at the pair’s second summit. Asked a shouted question from Washington Post reporter David Nakamura in English over whether he felt confident he could get a deal done with Trump, Kim’s interpreter relayed the question and the North Korean leader replied through the interpreter: “It’s too early to say. I would not say I’m pessimistic.” It was believed to be the first time Kim directly responded to a live question from the foreign media as leader of North Korea. Britain’s Channel 4 News posed the first-ever question from international media to Kim in 2013. Kim did not reply.

north korea
media
kim jong un
donald trump
u.s .
nuclear weapons
north korea nuclear crisis
kim-trump summit


'Friends always!' Dennis Rodman touts Trump for Nobel in open letter ahead of U.S.-North Korea summit

Abstract: Ahead of the U.S.-North Korean leaders second summit in Hanoi, there was perhaps no one who saw it more as a slam-dunk opportunity for peace than former U.S. basketball star and friend to leader Kim Jong Un than Dennis Rodman. In an open letter to U.S. President Donald Trump posted to Twitter on Thursday, Rodman, a longtime confidant of Kim’s, threw his support behind the second summit meeting. He encouraged Trump to use his strong relationship with Kim for the sake of the country’s benefit. “You are on the cusp of a big, beautiful deal,” Rodman said in the open letter, calling himself an “ambassador of goodwill to North Korea.” Rodman also said that Trump’s push for talks would make him “the front runner for a Nobel Peace Prize without question.” “You have my forever and forever support!” he wrote. Trump has said that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe nominated him for this year’s peace prize, a claim that Abe has refused to confirm or deny. In the letter, he also wrote that he intends to follow up with Trump and Kim after the summit and was optimistic that peace would be achieved on the Korean Peninsula with the Trump’s “diverse team, amazing global contacts and willingness to think outside the box.” Rodman has forged friendship with Kim, visiting one of the most isolated countries in the world repeatedly in what he has said is an attempt to improve relations between Pyongyang and Washington. The onetime basketball bad boy has also cultivated close ties with Kim, even meeting a daughter of Kim, Ju-ae, The Guardian reported in 2013. When the first meeting between the two leaders took place in Singapore last June, Rodman flew there to observe it. Appearing on CNN, an emotional Rodman expressed his hopes for the two countries to get along in amicably while wiping away tears. In Thursday’s letter, Rodman was equally effusive. “Mr. President and Chairman Kim, I wish you nothing but the best of luck on this second historic Summit… God Bless,” Rodman wrote. “Friends always!”

dennis rodman
north korea
kim jong un
donald trump
nobel peace prize
u.s .
nuclear weapons
north korea nuclear crisis
kim-trump summit