Mystery of Garfield phones washing up in France highlights problem of plastic pollution

Abstract: PLOUARZEL, FRANCE - For more than 30 years bright orange “Garfield” phones have been washing up on the French coast to the bemusement of local beach cleaners, who have finally cracked the mystery behind them. Locals had long suspected a lost shipping container was to blame for the novelty land line phones, modeled on the prickly feline cartoon character, which have plagued the northern Finistere beaches for decades. “Our association has existed for 18 years and in that time we have found pieces of Garfield telephones almost each time we clean,” said Claire Simonin, head of the beach cleaning group Ar Viltansou in Brittany. But it wasn’t until a local resident revealed that he had discovered the container after a storm in the 1980s that they were finally able to locate it — wedged in a partially submerged cave only accessible at low tide. “He told us where it was … it was very, very dangerous,” Simonin said after an expedition to track it down. “We found this incredible fissure that is 30 meters (100 feet) deep and at the very bottom, there were the remains of a container.” “Under the boulders in front of the entrance, we found 23 complete handsets with electronics and wires. They were everywhere,” she added. But the mystery, first reported by the France Info public broadcaster, is not fully solved. “We have no idea what happened at the time. We do not know where it came from, what boat,” said Fabien Boileau, director of the Iroise Marine Nature Park in Finistere. “And we don’t know if several containers fell into the water, or only one.” The dry-witted Garfield, first dreamed up by illustrator Jim Davis in the late 1970s, has since spawned a television show, a film series starring Bill Murray as the voice of the titular cat, and a merchandising empire worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually. The “Garfield” phone discoveries in France however highlight the problem of plastic in the oceans, campaigners say. “Seeing these plastic phones on the beaches, especially so long after the incident, is a stark reminder of the persistence of plastic waste in the ocean,” said Jo Ruxton, co-founder of Plastic Oceans Foundation. “Plastic was designed not to break down and large items like these being hardly weathered after 30 to 40 years is a clear indication of this,” she added. The world currently produces more than 300 million tons of plastics annually, and there are at least 5 trillion plastic pieces floating in our oceans, scientists have estimated. Some forecasts predict that there will be more plastic in the seas than fish by 2050. But lost shipping containers — of which there were 1,390 in 2017, according to the World Shipping Council — account for a small proportion of the pollution compared with the packaging industry. “Phones typically don’t end up in the sea,” said Jocelyn Bleriot of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a British charity that focuses on reducing waste. “Whereas plastic packaging is pervasive. You find it pretty much everywhere. On every beach, you’ll find a bottle of shampoo, you’ll find a packet of crisps, or you’ll find a bottle of soda or whatever. That’s what you see on beaches. That’s what washes up.” Even animals living in the deepest ocean trenches have been found with fragments of plastic in their gut, according to new research published in February showing how the scourge reached into the bowels of the planet. Eventually plastics like the phones “become so weathered that they start to become brittle and break up into ever smaller fragments, attracting harmful chemicals during the process,” Ruxton explained. “Eventually they become so small that they are mistaken for plankton and are eaten by marine animals and become part of the food chain that leads to us.” The long-term impact of plastic on humans is still undetermined, but governments are beginning to take action to stem the levels of plastic that reach the ocean. The European Parliament this week approved a proposal that would ban the top 10 most common single-use plastic products in Europe by 2021.


Snapshot of extinction: Fossils show day of killer asteroid

Abstract: WASHINGTON - New research captures a fossilized snapshot of the day nearly 66 million years ago when an asteroid smacked Earth, the day when nearly all life on Earth went extinct, including the dinosaurs. The researchers found evidence in North Dakota of the asteroid hit in Mexico, including fish with hot glass in their gills from flaming debris that showered back down on Earth. They also reported the discovery of charred trees, evidence of an inland tsunami and melted amber. Separately, University of Amsterdam’s Jan Smit disclosed that he and his colleagues even found dinosaur footsteps from just before their demise. Smit said the footprints — one from a plant-eating hadrosaur and the other of a meat eater, maybe a small Tyrannosaurus rex — is “definite proof that the dinosaurs were alive and kicking at the time of impact. … They were running around, chasing each other” just before they died. “This is the death blow preserved at one particular site. This is just spectacular,” said Purdue University geophysicist and impact expert Jay Melosh, who wasn’t part of the research but edited the paper, released Friday by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Melosh called it the field’s “discovery of the century.” But other experts said that while some of the work is fascinating, they have some serious concerns about the research, including the lack of access to this specific Hell Creek Formation fossil site for outside scientists. Hell Creek — which spans Montana, both Dakotas and Wyoming — is a fossil treasure trove that includes numerous types of dinosaurs, mammals, reptiles and fish trapped in clay and stone from 65 to 70 million years ago. Kirk Johnson, director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History who also has studied the Hell Creek area for 38 years, said that the work on the fish, the glass and trees “demonstrates some of the details of what happened on THE DAY. That’s all quite interesting and very valid stuff.” But Johnson said that because there is restricted access to the site, other scientists can’t confirm the research. Smit said the restrictions were to protect the site from poachers. Johnson also raised concerns about claims made by the main author, Robert DePalma, a University of Kansas doctoral student, that appeared in a New Yorker magazine article published Friday but not in the scientific paper. For decades, the massive asteroid crash that caused the Chicxulub crater in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula has been considered the likely cause of the mass extinction often called the “KT boundary” for the division between two geologic time periods. But some scientists have insisted that massive volcanic activity played a role. Johnson and Melosh said the new research helps prove the asteroid crash case. There were only a few dinosaur fossils from that time, but the footsteps are most convincing, Smit said. The site includes ant nests, wasp nests, fragile preserved leaves and fish that were caught in the act of dying. Smit said that soon after fish die they get swollen bellies — but these fossils didn’t show swelling. The researchers said the inland tsunami points to a massive earthquake generated by the asteroid crash, somewhere between a magnitude 10 and 11 —more than 350 times stronger than the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Purdue’s Melosh said as he read the study, he kept saying, “Wow, wow, what a discovery.” The details coming out of this are “mind-blowing,” he said.


Mexican tries to rob bank with stolen front-end loader

Abstract: MEXICO CITY - Police in Mexico say they caught a man who stole a front-end loader, drove it to a local bank, knocked down a wall, chained a safe to the machine and tried to drag it off. Prosecutors in the central state of Morelos say the loader had a front bucket as well as a jackhammer the thieves used to destroy the wall of the bank. They then chained the bank’s safe to the vehicle, apparently to drag it away. They didn’t get far, however. Alerted by reports of the equipment theft, police in the town of Oaxtepec used surveillance cameras to locate the men and detect their noisy slow-motion robbery attempt early Friday. One suspect was detained, while the others fled.


Europe watches Brexit with frustrated disbelief as deadline day deepens morass

Abstract: BRUSSELS - The date for the U.K.’s departure from the European Union was seemingly chiseled in stone: March 29, 2019. When it finally arrived with no Brexit, Europeans could only shake their heads in frustrated disbelief. They saw three years of bluster on how Britain would exit the EU on its own terms dissolve Friday when the last of three votes in Parliament failed to approve Prime Minister Theresa May’s divorce deal, leaving an uncertain course. “There was no game plan — well, no strategy,” Philippe Lamberts, a key member of the European Parliament’s Brexit steering group, said of the British approach in an interview. Few in Britain would disagree. For decades, the bloc was the target of ridicule in Britain for what was perceived as European hubris and an inefficient bureaucracy. But on Friday, there was little gloating on the continent as May failed to get the deal through Parliament, sending London deeper into the Brexit morass. The EU called another emergency summit for April 10, two days ahead of a new withdrawal date. A chaotic “no deal” departure scenario is expected to be costly to U.K. businesses and inconvenient at its border. May said there would be grave implications. The EU doesn’t want to inflame passions even more because it too stands to suffer, with hundreds of billions of euros and tens of thousands of jobs at stake for a U.K. exit without transitional measures in place. “In Brexit, everybody loses,” said Ewa Osniecka-Tamecka, a vice rector of the College of Europe, speaking at a branch in Natolin, Poland. “Brexit diminishes both the EU and the U.K.” There was frustration among EU officials who felt that they did their part and Britain didn’t. Even Britain’s Nigel Farage, a driving force behind Brexit and a staunch EU opponent, has nothing but admiration for EU negotiator Michel Barnier, who kept 27 nations aligned while Britain crumbled into chaos. “I wish he was on my team and not their team,” said Farage, a member of the European Parliament. Almost three years after the Brexit referendum on June 23, 2016, the British government and Parliament still seem to be at a loss over what they really want from the EU. “Britain is at a dead end,” said Nathalie Loiseau, who was France’s Europe minister until she resigned this past week to run in the May 23-26 EU elections. “Europeans have other priorities than having to wait until the U.K. takes a decision.” Lamberts said he was stunned at how May’s Conservative Party as well as lawmakers in the Labour Party seemed to act in their own interests. “It’s the inability to build compromise,” Lamberts said. “That’s it. Party above country, in the most brutal sense of the word.” Manfred Weber, a European lawmaker from Germany and center-right candidate to head the European Commission, said the repeated rejection of the deal highlighted “a failure of the political class in Great Britain — there’s no other way to describe it.” Some saw Friday’s events as another blow to Britain’s international standing. “The British have given the world a great deal, from modern parliamentarism to the world title in the discipline of ‘muddling through,'” historian Michael Stuermer wrote in a front-page commentary in German daily Die Welt. Now, however, “the damage to the country’s reputation is unmistakable.”


No-deal Brexit fears rise as Parliament sinks May's deal

Abstract: LONDON - Lawmakers rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal for a third time on Friday, sounding its probable death knell and leaving Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union in turmoil on the very day it was supposed to quit the bloc. The decision to reject a stripped-down version of May’s divorce deal has left it totally unclear how, when or even whether Britain will leave the EU, and plunges the three-year Brexit crisis to a deeper level of uncertainty. “I fear we are reaching the limits of this process in this House,” May told Parliament after the defeat. “The implications of the House’s decision are grave.” Within minutes of the vote — which took place as thousands of Brexit supporters protested outside Parliament — European Council President Donald Tusk said EU leaders would meet on April 10 to discuss Britain’s departure from the bloc. A succession of European leaders said there was a very real chance Britain would now leave without a deal, a scenario that businesses fear would cause chaos for the world’s fifth-biggest economy. White House national security adviser John Bolton said that President Donald Trump sympathized with May, and restated that the United States was keen to sign a trade deal with Britain once it was no longer in the EU. May had framed the vote as the last opportunity to ensure Britain actually left the EU, making a passionate plea to lawmakers to put aside party differences and strongly-held beliefs. But in a special sitting of Parliament, they voted 344-286 against the EU Withdrawal Agreement, agreed after two years of tortuous negotiations with the bloc. “The legal default now is that the United Kingdom is due to leave the European Union on April 12,” May said. She cautioned that any further delay to Brexit would probably be a long one beyond the current deadline, and would mean Britain holding elections to the European Parliament. The British pound, which has been buoyed in recent weeks by hopes that the likelihood of an abrupt “no-deal” Brexit is receding, fell half a percent after May lost, to as low as $1.2977, but then recovered some of its losses. “If the deadline is extended longer, we will re-engage with sterling because that will be the start of the slow death of Brexit,” said Salman Ahmed, global investment strategist at Lombard Odier Investment Managers. May had offered on Wednesday to resign if the deal passed, in a bid to win over euroskeptic rebels in her Conservative Party who support a more decisive break with the EU than the divorce her deal offers. The vote leaves her Brexit strategy in tatters. With no majority in Parliament for any Brexit option so far, it is unclear what May will now do. Options include asking the EU for a long delay, Parliament forcing an election, or a “no-deal” exit. However, May’s spokesman said she would continue talks with opponents of the deal and some political correspondents said she could bring it back a fourth time, perhaps in a “run-off” against any alternative that Parliament itself came up with. Britain now has under two weeks to convince the 27 members of the EU that it has an alternative path out of the impasse, or see itself cast out of the bloc on April 12 with no deal on post-Brexit ties with its largest trading ally. French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking as Parliament voted, said the EU needed to accelerate no-deal planning and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said that unless Britain came up with a plan, there would be a “hard” Brexit. May’s deal had twice been rejected by huge margins this year and, although she was able to win over many Conservative rebels, a hard core of euroskeptics, who see “no-deal” as the best option, and the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which props up her minority government, refused to back it. The DUP’s deputy leader, Nigel Dodds, said avoiding future customs checks between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland — which might be required under May’s deal — was more important than leaving the EU. On Monday, lawmakers who have tried to grab control of the process will attempt to agree on an alternative Brexit plan that could command majority cross-party support in Parliament. The options that have so far gathered most support involve closer ties to the EU, and a second referendum. A first attempt at nonbinding “indicative votes” on Wednesday failed to produce a majority for any of the eight options on offer. Many lawmakers believe the only way to solve the crisis will be a snap election — even though it would throw up a host of unknowns for the major parties. “The last thing this country needs right now is a general election,” transport minister Chris Grayling told Sky News. “We’ve actually got to sort out the Brexit process, we can’t throw everything up in the air.” The 2016 referendum vote to leave the EU revealed a United Kingdom divided over many more issues, and has provoked impassioned debate about everything from secession and immigration to capitalism, empire and what it means to be British. Hundreds of thousands of Britons marched through London last Saturday demanding a second referendum, while on Friday thousands of angry Brexit supporters protested in the capital. “What should have been a celebration is in fact a day of betrayal,” said Nigel Farage, a leading Brexit campaigner. The uncertainty around Brexit, the United Kingdom’s most significant political and economic move since World War II, has left allies and investors aghast. Opponents fear Brexit will make Britain poorer and divide the West as it grapples with both the unconventional U.S. presidency of Donald Trump and growing assertiveness from Russia and China. Supporters say that, while the divorce might bring some short-term instability, in the longer term it will allow the United Kingdom to thrive if cut free from what they cast as a doomed project to forge European unity.


Hundreds of thousands march against Algerian leader Bouteflika

Abstract: ALGIERS - Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Algiers on Friday to demand the resignation of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in the biggest demonstration since unrest erupted six weeks ago. In at least one location, a Reuters correspondent saw police opening fire with tear gas and rubber bullets, and chasing and beating demonstrators, after youths hurled stones at them. The turnout came days after the military called for the aging leader’s removal to end a growing political crisis. State television showed protests in several other cities. The protests have been largely peaceful but have put pressure on the army to act. Some witnesses estimated the number of people on the streets on Friday at around 1 million, but authorities said the number was lower. While many people resent the power held by Bouteflika and his shrinking inner circle, they also reject the idea of army intervention in civilian political life. “Street pressure will continue until the system goes,” said student Mohamed Djemai, 25, as hundreds of riot police kept an eye on the protests and helicopters flew overhead. “We have only one word to say today: all the gang must go immediately, game over,” said Ali, a merchant, as other protesters shouted “The people want the fall of the regime!” — the rallying cry of the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011. Families stood on balconies above the streets cheering the marchers, who ranged from journalists, doctors and teachers to homeless people. The crowds shared out dates and water and bought ice cream from street vendors. The army chief of staff, Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaed Salah, on Tuesday asked the Constitutional Council to rule whether the ailing 82-year-old president was fit for office. The move further isolated Bouteflika, who has failed to placate the protesters by reversing a decision to seek a fifth term. Bouteflika established himself in the early 2000s by ending a civil war that had claimed 200,000 lives. But he has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013, and now faces the biggest crisis of his 20 years in power. Algeria has long been dominated by veterans of the 1954-1962 independence war against France, but many now see these as too old and out of touch. The protesters want to replace the establishment with a new generation capable of modernizing the oil-dependent state and giving hope to a young population impatient for a better life. “You are the Titanic. You will sink!” protesters shouted. The military, for its part, has stayed in its barracks throughout the unrest. “There is a risk in involving soldiers in the protests because the soldiers are young. They could end up not listening to orders to confront protesters,” said a former military intelligence officer. But Salah’s call for Bouteflika to step down was a clear reminder to Algerians that the army intends to retain its vast influence in national affairs. Saadia Belaid, a woman crying as she wore the flag of Algeria, said: “I’m crying because they kidnapped Algeria, and the army’s proposal is a real travesty.” One banner read: “We want Salah to go.” However, Salah’s call received backing from the ruling FLN party and the main trade union, signaling that Bouteflika’s time was all but up. In the latest blow, one of Bouteflika’s few remaining influential supporters, leading businessman Ali Haddad, resigned as head of the influential FCE business forum, according to a letter seen by Reuters. Haddad, who was awarded large public works projects by the government and has investments in the media, has helped to fund Bouteflika’s election campaigns over the years. Under the constitution, the chairman of parliament’s upper house, Abdelkader Bensalah, would serve as caretaker president for at least 45 days if Bouteflika stepped down. There is, however, no obvious long-term successor.


Mueller report on Trump and Russia to be made public by mid-April, U.S. attorney general says

Abstract: WASHINGTON - U.S. Attorney General William Barr plans to make public a redacted copy of special counsel Robert Mueller’s nearly 400-page investigative report into Russian interference in the 2016 election by mid-April, “if not sooner,” he said in a letter to lawmakers on Friday. “Everyone will soon be able to read it on their own,” Barr wrote in the letter to the top Democrats and Republicans on the Senate and House Judiciary committees. He said he was willing to appear before both committees to testify about Mueller’s report on May 1 and May 2. On March 22, Mueller completed his 22-month probe and Barr on Sunday sent a four-page letter to Congress that outlined the main findings. Barr told lawmakers that the investigation did not establish that members of the election campaign of President Donald Trump conspired with Russia. Speaking to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida on Friday Trump said he had “great confidence” in Barr. Asked whether he agreed with Barr’s decision to release the Mueller report to the public, Trump said, “If that’s what he’d like to do I have nothing to hide. This was a hoax. This was a witch hunt.” Leading congressional Democrats are pressing for a quick release of the entire Mueller report. “We need to see the Mueller report ASAP, with only those redactions that are absolutely necessary to protect intelligence sources and methods. Congress and the American people need the full story about what happened in 2016,” said Sen. Mark Warner, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. A Mueller spokesman would not comment on the letter to Congress that Barr issued on Friday. Mueller left unresolved the question of whether Trump obstructed justice during the investigation. Barr said that based on the evidence presented, he concluded it was not sufficient to charge the president with obstruction. Barr said his letter on Sunday “was not, and did not purport to be an exhaustive recounting” of Mueller’s investigation and said he believed the public should be allowed to read the report and judge for themselves. Lawmakers have since been clamoring for more details. In a statement on Friday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said the April 2 deadline he imposed on Barr’s Justice Department “still stands” and he urged the release of a “full and complete” report without redactions. The top Republican on the committee, Doug Collins, said on Twitter that Barr was “following his word” by pledging to release the report and chided Nadler for setting an arbitrary deadline. Barr said in his letter on Friday that certain information must be redacted before the report is released, including secret grand jury information, intelligence sources and methods and information that by law cannot be public or might infringe on privacy. Nadler rejected that notion, saying Barr must “work with us to request a court order to release any and all grand jury information to the House Judiciary Committee.” The federal rules of criminal procedure make it a crime for government officials to publicly divulge sensitive grand jury materials such as transcripts, unless a federal judge signs off first. Barr said on Friday that although Trump also has the right to assert executive privilege on some materials in the report to keep them from being made public, Trump has said publicly he intends to defer to Barr. Because of that, Barr added, there were no plans for the Justice Department to submit the report to the White House for a privilege review. During his investigation, Mueller brought charges against 34 people, including Russian agents and former Trump aides. The U.S. intelligence community has concluded that Russia used a campaign of hacking and propaganda to sow discord in the United States, harm Clinton and boost Trump’s candidacy. Russia denied election interference.

russia
robert mueller
donald trump
vladimir putin
espionage
scandals
2016 u.s. presidential election
russia probe
matthew whitaker


Russian arms export company opens helicopter training center in Venezuela

Abstract: MOSCOW - Russia’s arms export company said it has opened a training center for military helicopter pilots in Venezuela after Moscow flew in troops and equipment. A spokesman for Rosoboronexport, the export wing of Russia’s arms corporation, told Russian news agencies that the helicopter training center opened Friday “with Russian and Venezuelan specialists participating.” The center that trains pilots to fly Russian-built Mil helicopters was built on the basis of a contract between Rosoboronexport and state-run Venezuelan military industrial company Cavim, Interfax news agency quoted spokesman Vyacheslav Davydenko as saying. The announcement came after two Russian military planes landed a week ago at the main airport outside Caracas and offloaded equipment and troops, ratcheting up international tensions. The United States and more than 50 other countries recognize Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president while Russia, along with China, backs President Nicolas Maduro. U.S. President Donald Trump called on Russia to “get out” of Venezuela, while Russia said its troops will stay for as long as needed. The military specialists are apparently helping to fix a malfunctioning Russian S-300 ground-to-air missile system, U.S. envoy Elliott Abrams said Friday. The Kremlin and Foreign Ministry have insisted the troops came to Venezuela as part of a long-standing agreement on military and technical cooperation, while Venezuela’s military attache to Moscow said there was no question of them taking part in a military operation. Russia is aiming for “deepening of cooperation with the (Venezuelan) Defense Ministry,” Rosoboronexport spokesman Davydenko said. He said Venezuela, Russia’s largest client in Latin America, has already received “a significant amount of Russian arms and military technology” including Sukhoi 30-MK2 fighter planes, Mil helicopters, tanks, armed personnel vehicles, artillery, air defense systems and Kalashnikovs. “This has allowed the country in a very short time to obtain serious potential, reliably ensuring national security and defense capacity,” he said.

russia
venezuela
juan guaido
nicolas maduro
donald trump
kremlin


Maltese court charges African teenagers of hijacking tanker after it rescued over 100 migrants

Abstract: VALLETTA - Three teenage migrants were charged in a Maltese court Saturday with hijacking a small commercial tanker that had rescued them and others off the coast of Libya. The three, who have pleaded not guilty, were among 108 Africans rescued by the El Hiblu 1 tanker earlier this week. They are accused of threatening the crew Wednesday to try to force the boat to go to Malta and not take them back to Libya. Maltese soldiers boarded the tanker without incident and escorted it to Valletta’s harbor on Thursday. The defendants are 15, 16 and 19. One of them from Cote d’Ivoire and the other two from Guinea. They pulled the hoods of their jackets over their faces as the were escorted out of court by police Saturday. EU states have been at loggerheads over migration since a spike in Mediterranean arrivals caught the bloc by surprise in 2015, stretching social and security services and fueling support for far-right, nationalist and populist groups. Sea arrivals have fallen from more than a million in the peak year to some 140,000 people last year, according to U.N. data. But political tensions around migration run high in the EU, especially ahead of the European Parliament election in May.

malta
africa
u.n .
refugees
cote d'ivoire


Experimental 'cow toilets' aim to cut e-moo-ssions

Abstract: THE HAGUE - A Dutch inventor is banking on a new bovine urinal to help cut emissions that cause environmental damage. Tests have started on a farm in the Netherlands on the device, which collects some of the 15 to 20 liters (4 to 5 gallons) of urine that the average cow produces a day. That produces huge amounts of ammonia in a country like the Netherlands, which is the world’s second-biggest agricultural exporter, after the United States. “We are tackling the problem at the source,” Henk Hanskamp, the Dutch inventor and businessman behind the “Cow Toilet,” said Friday. “A cow is never going to be completely clean. but you can teach them to go to the toilet.” The way the toilet works is “udderly” ingenious. The urinal is in a box placed behind the cow, while in front is a feeding trough. Once the animal finishes eating a robot arm stimulates a nerve near the udders, which then makes it want to urinate. The cow toilets are currently being tested on a farm near the eastern Dutch town of Doetinchem, and seven of its 58 cows have already learned how to use them without the need for stimulation. “The cows have got used to it,” Hanskamp said. “They recognize the box, lift their tail and pee.” “The stables have become cleaner and the ground is drier. Less damp ground is better for the health of the cows’ hooves,” Jan Velema, a vet who took part in the tests, was quoted as saying by De Volkskrant newspaper. The Netherlands is already introducing stricter rules on emissions of ammonia, which can cause atmospheric pollution and irritate the eyes in humans. The chemical can also be implicated in the creation of environmentally damaging algae blooms when it mixes with water. Hanskamp, whose company develops agricultural machinery, says it could “reduce by at least half the amount of ammonia produced” were the cow to urinate on open ground. The company aims to have them on the market by 2020, he said.

cows netherlands agriculture animals pollution inventions


Australia warns social media execs about extremist material on platforms

Abstract: SYDNEY - Australia pledged Saturday to introduce new laws that could see social media executives jailed and tech giants fined billions for failing to remove extremist material from their platforms. The tough new legislation will be brought to Parliament in the coming week as Canberra pushes for social media companies to prevent their platforms from being “weaponized” by terrorists in the wake of the Christchurch mosque attacks. Facebook said it “quickly” removed a staggering 1.5 million videos of the white supremacist massacre livestreamed on the social media platform. A 17-minute video of the March 15 rampage that claimed the lives of 50 people was widely available online and experts said was easily retrievable several hours after the attack. “Big social media companies have a responsibility to take every possible action to ensure their technology products are not exploited by murderous terrorists,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a statement. Morrison, who met with a number of representatives from tech firms Tuesday — including Facebook, Twitter and Google — said Australia will encourage other G20 nations to hold social media firms to account. Attorney-General Christian Porter said the new laws will make it a criminal offense for platforms not to quickly take down “abhorrent violent material” like terrorist attacks, murder or rape. Executives could face up to three years in prison for failing to do so, he added, while social media platforms — whose annual revenues can stretch into the tens of billions of dollars — would face fines of up to 10 percent of their annual turnover. “Mainstream media that broadcast such material would be putting their license at risk and there is no reason why social media platforms should be treated any differently,” Porter said. The government was so far “underwhelmed” by the response from tech giants at their Tuesday meeting with Morrison, Communications Minister Mitch Fifield told reporters Saturday. But cyber-security expert Nigel Phair, from the University of New South Wales, cast doubt over the ability of proposed Australian laws to impose jail time. “The penalty is only for Australian domiciled executives, and on the whole they’re marketing executives, not those responsible for running and maintaining the platform,” he told broadcaster SBS earlier in the week.

australia
social media
media
internet
censorship
terrorism


With a piece of paper, Trump called on Kim to hand over all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons

Abstract: WASHINGTON - On the day that their talks in Hanoi collapsed last month, U.S. President Donald Trump handed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a piece of paper that included a blunt call for the transfer of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and bomb fuel to the United States. Trump gave Kim both Korean and English-language versions of the U.S. position at Hanoi’s Metropole hotel on Feb. 28, according to a source familiar with the discussions. It was the first time that Trump himself had explicitly defined what he meant by denuclearization directly to Kim, the source said. A lunch between the two leaders was canceled the same day. While neither side has presented a complete account of why the summit collapsed, the document may help explain it. Now seen by Reuters, the document’s existence was first mentioned by White House national security adviser John Bolton in television interviews he gave after the two-day summit. Bolton did not disclose in those interviews the pivotal U.S. expectation contained in the document that North Korea should transfer its nuclear weapons and fissile material to the United States. The document appeared to represent Bolton’s long-held and hard-line “Libya model” of denuclearization that North Korea has rejected repeatedly. It probably would have been seen by Kim as insulting and provocative, analysts said. Trump had previously distanced himself in public comments from Bolton’s approach and said a “Libya model” would be employed only if a deal could not be reached. The idea of North Korea handing over its weapons was first proposed by Bolton in 2004. He revived the proposal last year when Trump named him as national security adviser. The document was meant to provide the North Koreans with a clear and concise definition of what the United States meant by “final, fully verifiable, denuclearization,” the source said. After the summit, a North Korean official accused Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of “gangster-like” demands, saying Pyongyang was considering suspending talks and may rethink its self-imposed ban on missile and nuclear tests. The English version of the document called for “fully dismantling North Korea’s nuclear infrastructure, chemical and biological warfare program and related dual-use capabilities; and ballistic missiles, launchers, and associated facilities.” Aside from the call for the transfer of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and bomb fuel, the document had four other key points. It called on North Korea to provide a comprehensive declaration of its nuclear program and full access to U.S. and international inspectors, to halt all related activities and construction of any new facilities, to eliminate all nuclear infrastructure, and to transition all nuclear program scientists and technicians to commercial activities. The summit was cut short after Trump and Kim failed to reach a deal on the extent of economic sanctions relief for North Korea in exchange for its steps to give up its nuclear program. The first summit between Trump and Kim, which took place in Singapore in last June, was almost called off after the North Koreans rejected Bolton’s repeated demands for it to follow a denuclearization model under which components of Libya’s nuclear program were shipped to the United States in 2004. Seven years after a denuclearization agreement was reached between the United States and Libya’s leader, Moammar Gadhafi, the United States took part in a NATO-led military operation against his government and he was overthrown by rebels and killed. Last year, North Korea officials called Bolton’s plan “absurd” and noted the “miserable fate” that befell Gadhafi. After North Korea threatened to cancel the Singapore summit, Trump said last May that he was not pursuing a “Libya model” and that he was looking for an agreement that would protect Kim. “He would be there, he would be running his country, his country would be very rich,” Trump said at the time. “The Libya model was a much different model. We decimated that country,” Trump added. The Hanoi document was presented in what U.S. officials have said was an attempt by Trump to secure a “big deal” under which all sanctions would be lifted if North Korea gave up all of its weapons. U.S.-North Korean engagement has appeared to be in limbo since the Hanoi meeting. Pompeo said on March 4 he was hopeful he could send a team to North Korea “in the next couple of weeks,” but there has been no sign of that. Jenny Town, a North Korea expert at the Washington-based Stimson Center think tank, said the content of the U.S. document was not surprising. “This is what Bolton wanted from the beginning and it clearly wasn’t going to work,” Town said. “If the U.S. was really serious about negotiations they would have learned already that this wasn’t an approach they could take.” Town added, “It’s already been rejected more than once, and to keep bringing it up … would be rather insulting. It’s a nonstarter and reflects absolutely no learning curve in the process.”

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


Trump tells why new sanctions on Pyongyang are not necessary: North Koreans already 'suffering greatly'

Abstract: PALM BEACH, FLORIDA - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he decided not to put additional sanctions on North Korea a week earlier because he wanted to maintain a good relationship with leader Kim Jong Un and because the North Korean people are already “suffering greatly.” “I didn’t think that additional sanctions at this time were necessary. It doesn’t mean I don’t put them on later,” Trump told reporters at his Florida resort. A week ago Trump said he had decided against imposing new large-scale sanctions on North Korea. Trump and Kim met in Hanoi last month for a second summit, which collapsed over conflicting demands by Pyongyang for sanctions relief and by Washington for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. North Korea argues that its weapons program is needed for defense. Washington has said it aims to re-engage with Kim, but North Korea has warned it is considering suspending talks and may rethink a freeze on missile and nuclear tests, in place since 2017, unless Washington makes concessions. “They are suffering greatly in North Korea. They’re having a hard time,” Trump said on Friday. The president said he had a very good relationship with Kim. “I think it’s very important that you maintain that relationship at least as long as you can,” Trump said.

north korea
donald trump
kim jong un
nuclear weapons
north korea nuclear crisis
kim-trump summit


Foreign Minister Taro Kono suggests need to end reversal of Japanese names in English

Abstract: Foreign Minister Taro Kono has indicated that his ministry would consider breaking with its tradition of reversing Japanese names in English and some other foreign languages. Kono, who is fluent in English, cited the example Friday of Chinese and Korean names that are used in the same order regardless of language, citing Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. “The prime minister is Shinzo Abe (not Abe Shinzo as in Japanese) and I’m Taro Kono (not Kono Taro). We need to think about whether Japan should follow the Japanese” name order, Kono told reporters. Kono, who often prefers communicating in English with his counterparts during official talks, did not give further details. It is customary for Japanese people to put their given names before surnames when they use foreign languages. “It’s natural to discuss whether (such a change) should be made, including whether it should be in time for the Emperor’s accession ceremony (in October) or the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics” in 2020, Kono said. Emperor Akihito is set to abdicate on April 30 — the first living Japanese monarch to do so in about two centuries — and Crown Prince Naruhito will succeed him the following day.


Education on AI proposed for all university and technical college students in Japan

Abstract: A panel of experts has called for all university and technical college students in Japan to be given beginner-level education on artificial intelligence. The proposal is part of a package of AI-related ideas presented by the panel at the day’s meeting of the government’s innovation promotion council, headed by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga. The proposals, released Friday, are expected to be reflected in a comprehensive innovation policy package, which will be drawn up around June, and an AI strategy, to be formulated by summer. In Japan, some 500,000 people graduate from universities and technical colleges every year. The panel called for having all university and technical college students take beginner-level programs on math, data science and AI, and letting half acquire the skills to apply AI to their own fields of study. It also asked the government to provide working adults with opportunities to learn such AI skills. Aiming to beef up research and development on AI, the panel proposed the establishment of a related cooperation network with universities and other research organizations. The government was urged to strengthen its support for AI and other researchers. With regards to areas where AI should be actively used, the panel cited the health, medical and nursing care sectors; agriculture; disaster resilience and preparedness; transport infrastructure and logistics; and regional revitalization. The panel specifically hopes AI will be used to reduce the burden on workers in the medical and nursing care sectors, beef up safety of infrastructure at a low cost and promote so-called smart cities. At Friday’s meeting, the government council decided seven principles that researchers and others should take into account in establishing an AI society with humans at its center, including respect for fundamental human rights, privacy protection and the creation of an environment to ensure fair competition.


Osaka panel urges prosecutors to reopen probe into government's murky Moritomo Gakuen land deal

Abstract: OSAKA - A judicial panel is urging prosecutors to reinvestigate a case against a former senior Finance Ministry official who was involved in the state land sale that sparked allegations of cronyism against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The Osaka No. 1 Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution said Friday in its March 15 decision that it was “unjust” that prosecutors decided not to indict Nobuhisa Sagawa for charges including alleged document-tampering in connection with the heavily discounted sale of land in 2016 to school operator Moritomo Gakuen, which had ties to Abe’s wife, Akie. But the independent judicial panel of citizens stopped short of demanding the indictment of Sagawa, who led the ministry bureau that handled the land sale. As a result, Sagawa is unlikely to face mandatory indictment. Based on the panel’s recommendation, prosecutors are obliged to review the case, although further action on their part is unlikely. An 8,770-sq.-meter plot of land in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, was sold in June 2016 to the nationalist school operator for ¥134 million ($1.2 million) despite being valued at ¥956 million, with the price discounted ostensibly to cover the cost of removing buried waste. The suspicious deal came to light in February 2017 and sparked accusations of cronyism in the Abe administration, prompting Abe to say in the Diet that he would resign if evidence showing any involvement in the deal by himself or his wife was found. The Finance Ministry was later found to have rewritten documents on the land sale from February to April the same year to remove references to Akie Abe and any words describing the sale as having been conducted under “special circumstances.” Following the prime minister’s Diet remarks, opposition lawmakers argued that bureaucrats discounted the land in consideration of Akie Abe’s role in the project and tampered with the documents. Abe’s wife temporarily served as honorary principal of the elementary school that Moritomo planned to open on the land. The independent panel noted in its decision that Sagawa was “effectively in command” of the issue and his explanation that he did not instruct his subordinates to falsify the documents “lacked credibility.”

moritomo gakuen
finance ministry
shinzo abe
corruption
scandals
real estate


Will Japan finally promote its female politicians?

Abstract: Next month’s local assembly elections will be the first opportunity to test a law passed last year to boost the number of female lawmakers. Japan has one of the lowest participation rates of women in national parliaments in the world , and the law is meant to remedy this deficit, even if it includes no enforceable quotas or penalties. Consequently, the media has been examining local assemblies and prospects for female candidates. Tokyo Shimbun ran an article about the Chiba prefectural assembly in its Chiba edition. Of 95 seats, only eight are held by women, and they belong to parties with fewer seats. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its factions enjoy the greatest representation with 51 seats, all men. The Chiba Minshu no Kai has 11 seats, all men. And Komeito has eight seats, all men. This time, the LDP is endorsing female candidates for the assembly, the first time the party’s Chiba chapter has done so. However, neither of the two potential candidates mentioned are LDP members, and both already serve on municipal assemblies, so even if they are elected it doesn’t mean there will be a net increase in the number of women politicians. The LDP is simply shuffling women from one legislative body to another. Female candidates for the assembly will mainly be incumbents, with at most one new person endorsed by each party. The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan said it would field three women, two sitting members and one newcomer. The Japan Communist Party (JCP) is the exception, with two new female candidates. Shin Miyakawa, a Diet lawmaker, told Tokyo Shimbun that it’s difficult to find women willing to run. He talked to six prominent women in his Chiba constituency and found no takers. But if you look more locally, the portion of female participants grows. Tokyo Shimbun reports that of the 21 seats in the city assembly of Urayasu in northwest Chiba, eight are occupied by women, and that seems to be the case in many local assemblies in the prefecture. One reason for this discrepancy is the scale of Chiba. Campaigning prefecture-wide is more expensive and time consuming than campaigning for municipal office, and many women still have more obligations than their male counterparts in terms of work-life balance. As Tomoko Yamamoto, a member of the Chiba prefectural assembly and a politician for 20 years, told Tokyo Shimbun, there is still “an aversion” toward women who run for local office. According to the new law, the parties themselves should actively promote more women candidates. The JCP, which is more powerful locally than it is nationally, has proven it can be done. As of Feb. 4, the party had 2,763 members in local assemblies , 1,000 of which are women, or 36.2 percent. Of the 148 JCP members in prefectural assemblies, 80 are women, or 54.1 percent. Of the 18 JCP members of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, 13 are women. Only 5.4 percent of the LDP’s local assembly members are women. Another municipality that has come under media scrutiny is Tarumizu in Kagoshima Prefecture . Kyushu has always been known for its male-dominant social customs, so the fact that Tarumizu’s municipal assembly has never had a single female member is seen as being unremarkable, but also emblematic of women’s participation nationwide. In a March 8 Asahi Shimbun article , the chairman of Tarumizu’s assembly, Setsuo Ikeyama, took offense at the suggestion that the city somehow prevents women from being elected. Few women seek office, he says, and those who do fail to get enough votes. One problem is that due to demographics, the number of seats over the past 20 years has decreased from 22 to 14, so it has become a game of musical chairs: incumbents scrambling for fewer positions, and since the incumbents have always been men, it’s more difficult for women to get involved. In addition, while Tarumizu employs female civil servants, none are in key supervisory positions, another stepping stone to political office. The assembly chairman says he heard that these women refuse promotions when they are offered them, because division chiefs often have to answer assembly members’ questions. Even male civil servants refuse promotions for this reason. In a different Asahi Shimbun article, a female civil servant claims that women are not placed in positions where they can gain leadership experience. Female civil servants tend to be relegated to welfare divisions, which are considered less prominent than general affairs, finance and planning — all male domains. Another point is community activity, a common springboard to local politics. In a Kobe Shimbun article on Sept. 14 last year , Hideko Takeyasu, a professor at Kyoto Women’s University, while explaining the total absence of women in the Hyogo prefectural assembly, pointed out that neighborhood association chiefs are most often men, so women aren’t cultivated as community leaders. Prefectural elections are heavily influenced by established organizations that tend to choose male candidates, but since the election rate for female candidates in municipal races is high, as much as 98.7 percent, the problem would seem to be a lack of female candidates. That’s why quotas are necessary. Women politicians face other obstacles that are more clearly sexist in nature. A recent Mainichi Shimbun article described in shocking detail the amount of harassment elected women receive. And, as described in another Asahi Shimbun article , when they run for office, women already working risk a great deal in terms of benefits like health insurance and pensions. Addressing these specific issues is important but, as Chiba prefectural assembly member Yamamoto told Tokyo Shimbun , nothing will solve these problems as effectively as simply having more women in office, because then “society would change,” presumably since those women would pass legislation that benefits women. However, given that the new law has no teeth, it’s unclear if actual social change is the government’s goal.

women
diet
rights
discrimination
local government
sexism


With resellers, fans must take matters into their own hands

Abstract: Few groups in Japan respond to a slight quite like Disney devotees. This year marks the 35th anniversary of the conglomerate’s Tokyo Disneyland park, and to celebrate and rack up some more revenue, earlier this year it unveiled a line of limited-edition goods tied to the occasion. After the release, however, it soon became clear that resellers were snatching up all those special mouse-centric goods to put up on third-party sites such as Mercari. Disney obsessives were none too thrilled about these people polluting the “Happiest Place on Earth” with their money-making schemes. They took to social media to vent, finding sympathy among other fans deprived of small-batch towels covered in their favorite characters. Resellers have long been a scourge of Japanese netizens, up there with the copyright collection agency JASRAC and TV stations asking to use videos of disasters. The topic has become especially prevalent online this year, thanks to a bunch of special events, concerts and goods being disrupted by folks scooping up the items before fans can get a fair chance at buying them. It’s also earned a bigger spotlight because big changes are emerging to curb the practice. Scalpers have long been a staple outside of music festivals and marquee sporting events, semi-discreetly hollering to anyone needing last-minute, price-inflated tickets. The internet made reselling more convenient for all involved and, as a result, much more prevalent. Resellers can now buy items online and use programs to help them game the system. This approach — not limited just to Japan — results in third parties getting the desired goods rather than actual fans. Resellers then turn to those very fans in order to make a nice profit. The live music industry has been particularly active in combating this trend, instituting digital entry for high-demand shows requiring smartphone tickets and personal identification. But Cyzo recently published an article about how this shift doesn’t eliminate the problem entirely, as plenty just let others borrow phones with tickets on them, while the trust placed in this system has made staff less strict when checking digital tickets, according to sources quoted in the piece. One solution might come from vigilant fans themselves. This year’s most sought-after concert ticket will be to the final gigs Arashi plays before its break. But as Yahoo! Japan reported earlier this month, fans are on edge over resellers gobbling those tickets up. One way of stopping them? Arashi supporters, who could report any suspicious activity and resales by using a dedicated form set up by the original ticket vendor to report resales on secondary markets. Sports clubs have also tried to block out scalpers, though the end result has on at least one occasion become newsworthy for all the wrong reasons. In February, the Hiroshima Toyo Carp required fans to physically go to the team’s home stadium to take part in a ticket lottery, but it descended into chaos due to high demand, with supporters screaming at staff. Meanwhile, recent resale examples persist — a special line of collaborative clothes between GU and a member of Exile became too hard to get because of resellers. Same goes for a line of glasses sold at J!ns designed in tandem with the smartphone game “Touken Ranbu.” And, go on YouTube and you’ll stumble across channels devoted to offering tips on how to get the most from reselling goods from various stores, including Costco and Don Quijote, with all comments disabled because it would get messier than a Jordan Peterson video. Yet, like so many aspects of Japan of late, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics has prompted the government to get involved. Last December, the Diet passed a law that will make ticket scalping illegal ahead of the games, coming into effect in mid-June of this year. Netizens busted out clapping-hand emojis in response. But that joy might not last. Harbor Business Online talked to a reseller about the law and, besides offering a peek into how reselling works (join as many fanclubs as you can), the interview subject doesn’t seem too worried. They say the law is already on most resellers’ minds, and they believe as long as demand for limited goods exists, scalpers will find a way.


When apo-den telephone scams take deadly turns

Abstract: On Feb. 28, the body of Kuniko Kato, 80, was found in her ransacked apartment in Tokyo’s Koto Ward. Her wrists had been bound with clear plastic wrap and her mouth and ankles bound with duct tape. While the specific cause of death has not been made public, she appeared to have suffocated. A police search of the crime scene turned up some ¥1.3 million in a bookshelf and about ¥200,000 in a billfold. A metal strongbox tucked into a closet did not appear to have been disturbed. A short time earlier, Kato had confided to a male acquaintance that an unknown caller had asked her over the telephone, “Have you got money?” The perpetrators involved in the death of Kato apparently learned that her son was a dentist, and impersonated him to request funds to “transfer a patient to another hospital.” “A team of crooks can pull off a caper by forcing their way in and leaving within about half an hour,” Masaru Hagiuda, a former police investigator in Tokyo, is quoted as saying in Friday (March 29). “It’s extremely common among seniors to stash money at home,” adds Itsuo Tobimatsu, a former detective from Hyogo Prefecture. Veteran crime reporter Atsushi Mizoguchi concurs. Writing in Nikkan Gendai (March 26), he notes one of the main reasons the thieves target the elderly is because many keep large sums of cash in their homes (“A problem exacerbated by the low interest rates paid by banks,” he pointed out.) Known colloquially as tansu yokin (chest of drawers savings) the hoarded funds are seen by crooks as “buried treasure” and an easy target. Mizoguchi predicts that as long as people persist in holding on to large amounts of cash, such crimes are likely to increase. A review of security camera footage in the vicinity of Kato’s apartment eventually enabled police to track down three suspects. They included Tatsumi Komatsuzono, a 27-year-old construction worker and former mixed martial artist from Kanagawa Prefecture who had belonged to a gang of hot-rodders, and two others: Hiroki Sue and Yuta Sakai, both 22 and from the eastern part of Nagano Prefecture. The trio is suspected of involvement in at least two similar robberies in Tokyo. Shukan Bunshun (March 28) noted that Sue had a felony record, having been charged with violation of the anti-stalking law. Last year he had ignored a restraining order to keep him from approaching his former girlfriend, whom he had severely beaten in a dispute over money. Shukan Jitsuwa (March 28) called Sue and his cohorts han-gure , a term for loosely organized groups of low-level hoods sometimes described in English reportage as “former members of hot-rod gangs” or “nondesignated crime groups.” The three had added a new twist to the type of crime called apo-den sagi (fraud via telephone appointment). Apo-den is short for apointomento denwa , (telephone appointment). Rather than make efforts to bilk the intended victim through some sort of subterfuge, the criminals in this case adopted a new modus operandi of apo-den gōtō (robbery), simply forcing their way into the victims’ homes and then grabbing whatever cash or valuables they found on the premises. Shukan Gendai (April 6) credits a heretofore unknown section in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police with the apprehension of the three suspects. It goes by the acronym SSBC, which stands for Sosa Shien Bunseki Center (Investigation Support Analysis Center). Launched in April 2009, it is staffed by a team of experienced mid-career detectives and skilled civilian technicians, employed at a ratio of 6 to 4. The article went into step-by-step details of police efforts to track the suspects, from checking license numbers shot by security cameras in the vicinity of the crime to tracking their suspects’ movements on the expressway through the vehicle’s electronic toll-collection device. The cyber cops electronically trailed the suspects’ car, a silver Suzuki Wagon R, to a convenience store in Kawasaki where the felons felt, because they were beyond the boundary of Tokyo, it would be safe to let down their guards. One suspect was determined to regularly patronize the store, indicating he lived close by. By March 13, all three were in police custody — albeit maintaining their innocence. “Crooks keep coming up with new variations on their scams, so keeping up with them has been like a game of cat and mouse,” Tokyo-based attorney Ryo Wakai tells Weekly Playboy (April 8). Despite success in preventing transfers to swindlers’ accounts, such predatory crimes are still appallingly common. In the Tokyo metropolitan area, 34,658 were reported last year, a year-on-year increase of 8,747 cases. And with 6,368 incidents already reported by the end of February, this year appears likely to eclipse 2018. Last year some 2,700 individuals were prosecuted on charges of fraud. Although calls to make the penalties more severe have increased, currently offenders of the “It’s me, send money” scams face up to 10 years imprisonment. On the other hand, homicide in the process of a robbery provides for capital punishment or life imprisonment. If a victim dies during commission of a robbery, a sentence of up to 30 years imprisonment applies. Weekly Playboy advises its readers on methods to protect their elderly parents from such depredations. A former police detective, Yuji Yoshikawa, tells the magazine that the criminals typically plan their schemes carefully, first obtaining name lists of retirees and focusing on neighborhoods with numerous elderly residents. “Ninety percent of calls by fraudsters are made to conventional land-line telephones in the victims’ homes,” notes the aforementioned attorney Wakai, who advises halting use of land lines in favor of mobile phones. If land lines are retained, the subscriber should add caller ID to screen out unfamiliar callers. “Using an answering machine is also effective,” he added. With Mother’s Day approaching, it’s a good time to look into devices that afford protection, Weekly Playboy concludes.


Crowds descend upon Imperial Palace's Inui Street to see cherry blossoms

Abstract: Crowds of spectators enjoyed cherry blossom viewing along Inui Street at the Imperial Palace in central Tokyo on Saturday after the area was opened to the public. Inui Street, which stretches about 750 meters from Sakashita to Inui gates, is lined with 103 cherry trees of 31 varieties. The street has been opened to the public during the annual cherry blossom and autumn foliage seasons since 2014. It was originally opened to commemorate Emperor Akihito’s 80th birthday. The latest public viewing, which will continue until April 7, is the last of the Heisei Era, which will come to a close on April 30 with the Emperor’s abdication. In light of positive reviews from visitors, the Imperial Household Agency is discussing plans to continue the event after the new era begins on May 1. Many visitors to Inui Street expressed gratitude to Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. “I’d like to thank Their Majesties for their substantial services for the sake of the people,” said Kyoko Matsumoto, from Chikushino, Fukuoka Prefecture, who visited the street with her daughter.


Japanese municipalities and companies urged to craft evacuation plans in event mega-quake rocks Pacific coastal areas

Abstract: The government Friday urged municipalities and companies to flesh out preparations for a massive earthquake that could occur off the Pacific coast, including evacuation plans for areas that may not be affected by the initial temblor. Based on guidelines released the same day, local governments and companies will consider their responses according to the scale of a potential disaster, with the most serious case assuming a quake exceeding magnitude 8 along the Nankai Trough, which extends from off the coast of central Honshu to the country’s southwest. The government estimates there is a 70 to 80 percent chance of a magnitude 8 to 9 quake occurring along the trough within the next 30 years. In the worst case scenario, the quake could produce massive tsunami waves over 30 meters high, possibly killing up to 323,000 people, according to the estimate. As previous quakes have first occurred in the eastern part of the trough, residents living in coastal areas that may not be devastated by the initial temblor will also be urged to evacuate. Local governments will designate areas in which residents will be asked to leave their homes in advance because it could be too late for them to evacuate once an aftershock occurs. The evacuation period for such people is expected to last for about a week. Companies in unaffected areas will be urged to continue operating as usual while looking out for the safety of their employees. “We will explain the guidelines (to parties concerned) and make utmost efforts to ensure, together with local governments, the safety of citizens,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a news conference.


Two Japanese teens drown in lake on Australia's Fraser Island

Abstract: SYDNEY - Queensland police announced on Saturday two Japanese teenagers died after drowning in a lake on a popular tourist island north of Brisbane. Police said the bodies of the two 16-year-old boys were found in the waters of Lake McKenzie, a picturesque freshwater lake on Fraser Island, on Saturday morning after they were reported missing from a tour group just after 5 p.m. local time on Friday. In Yokohama the same day, Kanagawa University High School announced that two students who were participating in an international exchange program in Australia disappeared on Friday and were found dead Saturday. The two are believed to be the same students found dead on Fraser Island. Local police will prepare a report for the coroner. Fraser Coast Mayor George Seymour told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation the drowning deaths were “highly unusual.” “It’s really unimaginable how somebody, let alone two people, could drown there,” he said. “It’s a calm lake in the middle of an island … whatever has happened is highly unusual.” Fraser Island is located roughly 350 km north of Brisbane. The World Heritage-listed location is the largest sand island in the world.

fraser island
kanagawa university high school


Filipino woman killed, another injured after being hit by car in Yamagata city

Abstract: YAMAGATA - One Filipino woman was killed and another was in a critical condition Saturday after both were hit by a car while walking home from work in the city of Yamagata, police said. Inoue Colline Grace Coner, 33, was confirmed dead and Konno Queenie Dumas, 30, was rushed to hospital and remains in a critical condition, local police said. The accident occurred around 2:45 a.m. when the women, who both live in the city, were returning home from work. They may have been crossing the road when the accident occurred, according to police. The driver, Kenya Oba, 35, was arrested at the scene.

inoue colline grace coner
konno queenie dumas
accidents


Thai police arrest 15 Japanese in Pattaya call center scam targeting Japan

Abstract: BANGKOK - Thai police have said 15 Japanese have been arrested for alleged involvement in a call center scam that defrauded people in their homeland. The police said Friday that the 15 were arrested following a raid on an upscale house in the beach resort town of Pattaya. According to police sources, it is the first time a scam targeting people in Japan has been uncovered in Thailand. The sources said the police launched an investigation after rumors began circulating of a Japanese gang running a phone scam in town.


Based on answers from 25 respondents, survey finds 70% of adults convicted of abusing own kids were mistreated as children

Abstract: Based on a small sample size, more than 70 percent of adults convicted of abusing their own kids — or children they lived with — experienced being abused or neglected when they were children themselves, a survey showed Saturday. Even though the survey by Japanese research institute Riken is based on a small sample of 25 people, Kumi Kuroda, a psychiatrist who led the survey, said its results show that effects of abuse and neglect could extend into adulthood and that people with adverse childhood experiences need outside support in their parenting. Kuroda’s survey team contacted 124 people who were serving time in prison for child abuse and sent a set of over 400 questions to those who offered to cooperate. Of 25 people who responded, 18, or 72 percent, said they had adverse childhood experiences such as physical abuse, neglect or emotional maltreatment, the survey found. Eleven of them, or 44 percent, had mental health problems such as depression and alcoholism, and 17, or 68 percent, were in challenging parenting situations such as having three or more infants to raise or having children with health problems. The team also surveyed 74 adults who have no record of abusing children, and 13 of them, or 18 percent, said they experienced abuse or neglect as children.


Trump's Venezuela envoy pledges sanctions on banks backing Maduro

Abstract: WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump’s special representative for Venezuela pledged on Thursday that Washington would “expand the net” of sanctions on the South American nation, including more on banks supporting President Nicolas Maduro’s government. “There will be more sanctions on financial institutions that are carrying out the orders of the Maduro regime,” Elliott Abrams told a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing. The United States and dozens of other countries have recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as oil-rich Venezuela’s interim president and increased pressure on Maduro, a socialist, to step down. Washington this week revoked the U.S. visas of senior Venezuelan officials and said on Wednesday it had identified efforts by Maduro to work with foreign banks to move and hide money. Abrams, a neoconservative who has long advocated an activist U.S. role in the world, said he had been asking European banks to take steps to shield individual Venezuelans’ assets from Maduro’s government. He did not name the banks. Some lawmakers pressed Abrams, who was appointed to his current position in January, about granting temporary protected status (TPS) for more than 70,000 Venezuelans in the United States. More than 3 million people are believed to have fled Venezuela in recent years amid a deep economic crisis marked by widespread shortages of food and medicine as well as hyperinflation. Sen. Marco Rubio, Republican chairman of the Senate’s Western Hemisphere subcommittee, which held the hearing, warned that the flight of millions of Venezuelans could threaten regional stability. “This has the potential to be a regional catastrophe of epic proportions,” Rubio, who has worked closely with Trump on the administration’s Venezuela policy, told the hearing. Maduro, who took over as president in 2013 and was re-elected last year in a vote widely viewed as fraudulent, blames the crisis on a U.S.-backed sabotage campaign. His opponents say his socialist policies have caused the meltdown. Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, who wrote legislation calling for TPS, said: “The Venezuelan diaspora is fantastic, they’re incredible. All the more reason to give them TPS.” Abrams said TPS was under consideration and he would discuss it with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. There are 74,000 Venezuelans who have applied for asylum in the United States, Abrams added. He accused Russia and Cuba of shielding Maduro, who Abrams said was protected by “thousands and thousands” of Cuban military and intelligence officials while Moscow has supplied tens of millions of dollars to the government. Abrams confirmed media reports he had had at least two rounds of secret talks with Maduro’s foreign minister, Jorge Arreaza. Mark Green, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said the Venezuelan economy had contracted by 50 percent and estimates were it could contract by another one-third this year, leading to a “profound collapse.” “When you have inflation by some estimates 2 million percent, nobody has the ability to buy anything anyway, so there will be profound despair and hopelessness,” Green testified in the hearing. Abrams said the World Bank and International Monetary Fund had plans involving “billions of dollars” of funding to rebuild the economy after Maduro was no longer in charge of Venezuela. He added that Venezuela was “not fundamentally a bankrupt country” and that there would be “lots of people who are ready to invest” if there was a change in its leadership and economic policy.

venezuela
sanctions
donald trump
nicolas maduro
juan guaido
tps
u.s .
ellion abrams


Japan's fourth-quarter GDP upgraded, but business conditions index continues downtrend

Abstract: Japan’s economy grew an annualized real 1.9 percent in the October-December period, upgraded from preliminary data thanks to an upswing in capital expenditure, the government said Friday. The reading showed the world’s third-largest economy had rebounded after a string of natural disasters caused a contraction the previous quarter, although economists remained cautious following a downgrade by the Cabinet Office the previous day of another key economic indicator. Friday’s upgrade was largely in line with the average forecast, for 1.8 percent growth, that had been made by private-sector economists polled by Kyodo News. Compared with the previous quarter, real gross domestic product — the total value of goods and services produced in the country adjusted for inflation — grew 0.5 percent, according to the data from the Cabinet Office. Capital expenditure increased 2.7 percent from the previous quarter as manufacturers of telecommunications equipment and production machinery ramped up spending. Private consumption, which accounts for more than half of the national economy, rose just 0.4 percent, downgraded from the preliminary 0.6 percent growth, as tepid wage gains kept households from spending more freely. Net exports, falling amid slowing demand from China, pushed down real GDP by 0.3 percentage point. Public investment fell 1.7 percent, downgraded from the 1.2 percent fall initially reported. In nominal terms, or unadjusted for inflation, GDP rose an annualized 1.6 percent or 0.4 percent on a quarterly basis. The upward revision for the October-December period led to an upgrade to real GDP growth in 2018 from 0.7 percent to 0.8 percent. Japan’s economy needed all the momentum it could get heading into 2019, with early data for the current quarter suggesting growth will be hit hard by the slowdown in China, the U.S.-China trade war and a softening tech cycle. The recent pattern of expansion and contraction in the economy is not the stable growth path Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would like to see in the run-up to a demand-sapping sales-tax hike later this year. The upward revision in GDP growth had been expected by economists given stronger-than-expected capital expenditure figures for the quarter released last week. But those figures also showed very little quarterly growth in business spending outside the manufacturing sector. The figures didn’t prompt a rethink among economists, who are increasingly concerned about the current quarter and the possibility of the economy contracting or, even worse, slipping into a recession ahead. Worries about a possible recession were prompted by government data released Thursday, which downgraded its assessment of a key indicator of economic trends. The Cabinet Office’s coincident index of business conditions for January was down 2.7 points from the previous month at 97.9 against the 2015 base of 100. It was the index’s third consecutive decline, prompting the office to say that it was “signaling a possible turning point.” Prior to that, the office had said conditions were “weakening.”

gdp
economy
economic indicators
shinzo abe
recession


Japan's household spending rises 2.0% in January, up for second month

Abstract: Spending by households rose 2.0 percent from a year earlier in January, up for the second straight month on more expenditure on home renovations, government data showed Friday. Households with two or more people spent ¥296,345 ($2,660) in the reporting month after adjusting for inflation, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. The ministry raised its assessment of household spending, saying it showed “signs of recovery,” the first upgrade since last August. Previously, the ministry said household expenditure was “pausing in its recovery.” In January, spending on housing soared 18.0 percent from a year earlier, the highest growth among sectors, due to an increase in home renovations. Outlays on education also expanded 17.7 percent. A ministry official said it is not certain whether the rise in household spending was caused by last-minute demand before a planned consumption tax hike from the current 8 percent to 10 percent in October. Household spending is a key indicator of private consumption, which accounts for nearly 60 percent of Japan’s gross domestic product. The average income of salaried households with at least two people stood at ¥471,124, a 3.6 percent increase and the third straight monthly rise from a year earlier after adjusting for inflation.

household spending
economy
economic indicators
internal affairs ministry


Lawyer Takashi Takano is all apologies for Ghosn's dramatic bail release and the disguise that wasn't

Abstract: Former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn’s incognito emergence Wednesday from a Tokyo jail launched a barrage of speculation and amusement from the media and the public over his motive for donning a cap, surgical mask and construction worker outfit upon his release. On Friday, the confused Japanese public got an answer. Takashi Takano, one of Ghosn’s attorneys, confessed in a blog post that it was his idea to protect Ghosn’s well-being, but it failed. Ghosn, who turns 65 on Saturday, was released on bail after 108 days of detention. Observers were shocked when he came out of the Tokyo Detention House alongside a phalanx of guards as well as other men wearing similar caps, surgical masks and construction worker outfits. Takano said the legal team’s first task after securing Ghosn’s bail was to bring him to his residence without delay so that he could be reunited with his family and regain some sense of normalcy, albeit under strict conditions. “If Mr. Ghosn had headed to his residence without disguise, he would have been chased by innumerable camera crew via motorcycles, cars and helicopters,” Takano explained. “The whole world would know where his small residence is located. He may lose his health instead of recovering. It’s not just him. His family members and neighbors’ lives may be disrupted.” Takano apologized to his friends who undertook the initiative for causing trouble and regretted that his “premature plan has tarnished (Ghosn’s) reputation that he has built through his life.” Keiko Ishikawa, a crisis communications consultant, echoed the lawyer, saying that the legal team’s effort backfired. “I think the tragedy was that the lawyer’s desire to protect him came across as if he might be hiding something,” she said. Ghosn wouldn’t have accepted the disguise under ordinary circumstance, but his judgement may have been clouded and he may have thought that it would be in his best interest to obey the lawyer’s instruction since he was not familiar with Japanese customs, Ishikawa added. Some critics on social media have said that, if he’s really innocent, he should not have had to disguise himself and should have emerged from the center proudly. Ghosn is accused of falsifying his remuneration for years. He was later slapped with more charges including aggravated breach of trust for the alleged transfer of private investment losses to Nissan during the global financial crisis of 2008. He denies wrongdoing and argues the charges stem from a conspiracy within Nissan to block his plan to merge with the carmaker Renault, its largest shareholder. The detention has been met with international criticism. Critics have dubbed the Japanese legal system as one of “hostage justice,” in which suspects are detained for long periods in an effort to coerce a confession and interrogations are often conducted without an attorney present. Since Ghosn’s release on bail, the Japanese media has been fixated on his failed disguise. He slipped into a silver van with the guards and drove away, with watchers assuming it was one of the staff going home. A few lucky — or possibly tipped off — media outlets caught his exit and followed the vehicle. Ghosn is now with his family at the residence where he’ll stay, effectively under house arrest with limited access to information and people, Takano wrote in his post. The strict bail conditions that Ghosn agreed to — such as camera monitoring and restricted mobile phone and internet access — may have been the deciding factor in his release, legal experts said. The terms are similar to another case Takano worked on, said Tokyo-based defense lawyer Seihou Chou, who used to work for Takano’s office and outlined his thoughts in a blog post. Fuji TV reenacted Ghosn’s release by bringing in the same type of minivan to the studio and dressing a man in an outfit resembling Ghosn’s. NHK tracked down a store that sells a similar type of construction work outfit and showed Ghosn taking a walk at a park in Tokyo on Friday, but he did not speak to the media. Ghosn’s legal team has said it would be willing to hold a news conference, but one hasn’t been scheduled yet. Ishikawa speculated that Ghosn may not be in the best condition to withstand stress at this point. On his blog post, Takano called on the media to respect his privacy. “Every public figure needs a place for rest where the person can relieve their exhaustion and spend time with their relatives at ease,” Takano said. “Every private figure has a right to work safely to make a living. Please understand these matters of course.”

takashi takano
nissan
carlos ghosn
renault
courts
corruption
scandals
junichiro hironaka


The mind distracted: Technology's battle for our attention

Abstract: PARIS - Between distractions, diversions and the flickering allure of a random suggestion, the major computer platforms aim to keep us glued to our screens. Now some people think it is time to escape the tyranny of the digital age. Everyone who has stared for hours at a screen has had some exposure to the phenomenon of “captology” — a word coined by behavioral scientist B.J. Fogg to describe the invisible and manipulative way in which technology can persuade and influence those using it. “There is nothing we can do, like it or not, where we can escape persuasive technology,” the Stanford University researcher wrote in 2010. All of us experience this “persuasive technology” on a daily basis, whether through the endlessly scrollable Facebook pages or the autoplay function on Netflix or YouTube, where one video starts as soon as another ends. “This wasn’t a design accident — it was created and introduced with the aim of keeping us on a certain platform,” said user experience (UX) designer Lenaic Faure. Working with Designers Ethiques, a French collective seeking to push a socially responsible approach to digital design, Faure has developed a method for assessing whether the attention-grabbing element of an application “is ethically defensible.” In the case of YouTube, for example, if you follow the automatic suggestions, “there is a sort of dissonance created between the user’s initial aim” of watching a certain video and “what is introduced to try and keep him or her on the platform,” he said. Ultimately the aim is to expose the user to partner advertisements and better understand his or her tastes and habits. UX designer Harry Brignull describes such interactions as “dark patterns,” defining them as interfaces that have been carefully crafted to trick users into doing things they may not have wanted to do. “It describes this kind of design pattern — kind of evil, manipulative and deceptive,” he explained, saying the aim is to “make you do what the developers want you to do.” One example is that of the newly introduced EU data protection rules that require websites to demand users’ consent before being able to collect their valuable personal data. “You can make it very, very easy to make people click ‘OK,’ but how can you opt out, how can you say ‘no’?” Brignull asked. Even for him, as a professional, it can take at least a minute to find out how to refuse. In today’s digital world, attention time is a most valuable resource. “The digital economy is based upon competition to consume humans’ attention. This competition has existed for a long time, but the current generation of tools for consuming attention is far more effective than previous generations,” said David S.H. Rosenthal in a Pew Research Center study in April 2018. “Economies of scale and network effects have placed control of these tools in a very small number of exceptionally powerful companies. These companies are driven by the need to consume more and more of the available attention to maximize profit.” Faure suggests that for a design to be considered responsible, the objective of the developer and that of the user must largely line up and equate to the straightforward delivery of information. But if the design modifies or manipulates the user, directing him or her toward something they did not ask for, that should then be classed as irresponsible, he says. French engineering student Tim Krief has come up with a browser extension called Minimal, which offers users a “less attention-grabbing internet experience,” on the grounds that the internet “should be a tool, not a trap.” The extension aims to mask the more “harmful” suggestions channeled through the major platforms. An open-source project, the extension should “make users more aware about such issues,” Krief said. “We don’t attribute enough importance to this attention economy because it seems invisible.” But is this enough to fight the attention-grabbing tactics of powerful internet giants? Brignull believes some designers can bring about change but are likely to be restricted by the wider strategy of the company they work for. “I think they will have some impact — a little impact — but if they work in companies, those companies have a strategy … so it can be very difficult to have an impact on the companies themselves.” Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, former head of the French Data Protection Authority (CNIL), also believes that design can be used to effect positive change. “Design could be another defense whose firepower could be used against making individuals the playthings” of developers, she said in January in a presentation on the attention economy. Faure says he has seen a growing demand for an ethical approach to digital design and thinks his method could help “bring better understanding between users of services and the people who design them.” This type of initiative “could be a way to tell the big platforms that such persuasive designs really bother us,” Krief said.

computers internet smartphones psychology


Mark Zuckerberg's vow to really make a privacy-friendly Facebook seen as tall order

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO - After building a social network that turned into a surveillance system, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he’s shifting his company’s focus to messaging services designed to serve as fortresses of privacy. Instead of just being the network that connects everyone, Facebook wants to encourage small groups of people to carry on encrypted conversations that neither Facebook nor any other outsider can read. It also plans to let messages automatically disappear, a feature pioneered by its rival Snapchat that could limit the risks posed by a trail of social media posts that follow people throughout their lives. It’s a major bet by Zuckerberg, who sees it as a way to push Facebook more firmly into a messaging market that’s growing faster than its main social networking business. It might also help Facebook ward off government regulators, although the Facebook CEO made clear that he expects the company’s messaging business to complement, not replace, its core businesses. But there are plenty of obstacles. Facebook has weathered more than two years of turbulence for repeated privacy lapses, spreading disinformation, allowing Russian agents to conduct targeted propaganda campaigns and a rising tide of hate speech and abuse. Zuckerberg submitted to two days of grilling on Capitol Hill last April. All that increases the challenge of convincing users that Facebook really means it about privacy this time. Encrypted conversations could alleviate some of those problems, but it could make others worse. Security is an “admirable goal,” said Forrester Research analyst Fatemeh Khatibloo. “I’m just not sure it addresses the bigger issues Facebook is facing right now.” Facebook grew into a colossus by vacuuming up people’s information in every possible way and dissecting it to shoot targeted ads back at them. Anything that jeopardizes that machine could pose a major threat to the company’s share price, which would also affect its ability to attract and retain talented engineers and other employees. In an interview Wednesday, Zuckerberg predicted Facebook’s emphasis on privacy will do more to help the company’s business than hurt it. While most of the stock market slipped in Wednesday trading, Facebook’s shares gained $1.25 to close at $172.51. The Facebook CEO has been telegraphing some of these changes to investors for the past six months, but his Wednesday blog post is the first time he has explained the idea to the more than 2 billion people that use Facebook’s services and look at its ads. Those ads are expected to generate $67 billion in revenue this year, according to the research firm eMarketer. If everything falls into place, Facebook will also display similar advertising on the privacy-protected messaging services. Those services are also likely to offer other moneymaking features, such as a digital wallet, as Facebook attempts to build something similar to Tencent’s popular WeChat service in China. “If you think about your life, you probably spend more time communicating privately than publicly,” Zuckerberg said during the interview. “The overall opportunity here is a lot larger than what we have built in terms of Facebook and Instagram.” That’s far from proven. While Facebook has already tried to show ads in the Messenger app, it’s seen only limited success. It hasn’t even tested the concept in WhatsApp since it acquired that service for $22 billion in 2014. “There are some huge unknowns about how successful Facebook is going to be rolling advertising into a more private messaging environment,” said eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson. Some critics are convinced that Facebook has become so powerful — even a threat to democracy as well as to people’s privacy — that it needs to be reined in by tougher regulations or even a corporate breakup. But unraveling Facebook could become more difficult if Zuckerberg can successfully stitch together the messaging services behind an encrypted wall. “I see that as the goal of this entire thing,” said Blake Reid, a University of Colorado law professor who specializes in technology and policy. He said Facebook could tell antitrust authorities that WhatsApp, Instagram Direct and Facebook Messenger are tied so tightly together that it couldn’t unwind them. Combining the three services also lets Facebook build more complete data profiles on all of its users. Already, businesses can already target Facebook and Instagram users with the same ads, and marketing campaigns are likely coming to WhatsApp eventually. Facebook’s focus on messaging privacy raises other concerns. Messaging apps have in the past helped fake news and rumors spread fast, sometimes with deadly consequences. A report from University of Oxford researchers last year found evidence of widespread disinformation campaigns on chat applications like WhatsApp. In one particularly brutal example, the Indian government last year accused WhatsApp of fueling rumors that led to lynchings and mob violence that wounded dozens. Facebook responded by restricting the number of groups to which a message could be forwarded and labeling forwarded messages as such. On Wednesday, Zuckerberg said that Facebook needs to protect both privacy and safety as it encrypted messaging services, although he noted to an “inherent trade-off” between security and safety, simply because Facebook won’t be able to read encrypted conversations. And in some cases, Facebook could allow some content to automatically disappear in a day or two, as if it were a fleeting mirage. “Some people want to store their messages forever and some people think having large collections of photos or messages is a liability as much as it is an asset,” Zuckerberg said. “Figuring out the balance is a really important one.”

mark zuckerberg
facebook
surveillance
privacy
instagram
messenger
whatsapp
u.s .


Japan to pull a U-turn on ride-sharing ban in bid to fill transport gaps in rural areas, Abe says

Abstract: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says the government plans to promote ride-sharing services that are currently banned in most areas to help improve the availability of transportation in rural areas. “It is necessary to review the current system from the standpoint of (transportation service) users,” Abe said Thursday at a meeting to discuss growth strategies and structural reform measures. The legal revisions required for deregulation would also allow taxi operators, which have opposed ride-sharing, to engage in the management of such operations, government officials said. Ride-sharing services that match drivers of private vehicles with people seeking transportation are prohibited in Japan except in areas where no public transportation is available. Where such services are available they can only be used by local residents and are typically managed by local governments and nonprofit organizations. “The involvement of taxi operators will benefit both municipalities and service users,” as it will lessen local governments’ burden in running ride-sharing operations while enhancing users’ convenience in areas where there are not enough drivers, Abe said. Details will be finalized by summer, and a bill to revise the relevant transport-related law will be submitted to the Diet next year, the officials said. Once the ban is lifted, tourists would also be able to use such services, they added.

ride-sharing
transportation
shinzo abe
tourism
rural life


Greenback falls below ¥111 in Tokyo on global growth jitters

Abstract: The dollar dropped below ¥111 in Tokyo trading Friday amid growing concerns about the course of the global economy. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥110.98-98, down from ¥111.78-78 at the same time Thursday. The euro was at $1.1209-1210, down from $1.1307-1307, and at ¥124.41-42, down from ¥126.39-40. After trading around ¥111.50-60 in the early morning, the dollar fell below ¥111.50 as the benchmark Nikkei stock average sank deep into negative territory. In the afternoon, the greenback passed ¥111 as players stepped up selling in light of fresh Chinese trade figures that were far weaker than expected for February. After a series of announcements including bleak growth forecasts by China and the European Union, the poor Chinese export performance fueled investor fears about a global economic slowdown, analysts said. Selling pressure increased as the dollar failed to stably stay at levels above ¥112, an official at a foreign-exchange margin trading service firm said. Meanwhile, a domestic bank official said if the U.S. government’s jobs report for February shows strong numbers, the greenback would top ¥111.30.