Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn pushes for Parliament vote on new Brexit referendum

Abstract: LONDON - British opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn moved a step closer to paving the way for another referendum on European Union membership by trying to use Parliament to grab control of Brexit from Prime Minister Theresa May. With the clock ticking down to March 29, the date set in law for Brexit, the United Kingdom is in the deepest political crisis in half a century as it grapples with how, or even whether, to exit the European project it joined in 1973. Since May’s divorce deal with the EU was rejected by 432-202 lawmakers last week, the biggest defeat in modern British history, lawmakers have been trying to plot a course out of the crisis, yet no option has the majority support of Parliament. Labour put forward an amendment seeking to force the government to give Parliament time to consider and vote on options to prevent a “no deal” exit including a customs union with the EU, and “a public vote on a deal.” “It is time for Labour’s alternative plan to take center stage, while keeping all options on the table, including the option of a public vote,” said Corbyn, who put his name to the amendment. It was the first time the Labour leadership had put forward in Parliament the possibility of a second vote, which was welcomed by some opponents of Brexit. However, the party said it did not mean it supported another referendum and lawmakers cautioned that the amendment would not garner the support of Parliament. Clarity from London is some way off: Lawmakers have so far put forward six amendments with proposals for a delay to Brexit, a new vote and even for Parliament to grab control of the process. They will vote on the next steps on Jan. 29. Beyond the intrigues of British politics, the future of Brexit remains deeply unpredictable, with options ranging from a disorderly exit that would spook investors across the world to a new referendum that could reverse the whole process. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde told CNBC on Tuesday that a no-deal Brexit was “obviously the worst case scenario.” Ever since the United Kingdom voted by 52-48 percent to leave the EU in June 2016, Britain’s leaders have repeatedly failed to reach a consensus on how to leave the EU. May on Monday proposed tweaking her deal, a bid to win over rebel Conservative lawmakers and the Northern Irish party which props up her government, but Labour said May was in denial about the crushing defeat of her plans. She refused to rule out a no-deal Brexit, warning that another referendum would strengthen the hand of those seeking to break up the United Kingdom and could damage social cohesion by undermining faith in democracy. With May’s Brexit policy in tatters, lawmakers in the British Parliament are trying to wrest control of Brexit, though there is no clear majority for an alternative to May’s deal. The EU was not impressed with May’s speech on Monday, as highlighted by the fact that none of its top officials nor its Brexit negotiator made any comments- positive or negative. German Justice Minister Katarina Barley said on Tuesday she was disappointed by May’s plan to break a deadlock over Brexit and suggested a second referendum. Without a approved deal or an alternative, the world’s fifth largest economy will move to basic World Trade Organization rules on March 29 — a nightmare scenario for manufacturers dependent on delicate supply chains which stretch across Europe and beyond. Company chiefs are shocked at the political crisis and say it has already damaged Britain’s reputation as Europe’s pre-eminent destination for foreign investment. “Brexit is the most stupid economic decision for a long time, the worst thing that can happen,” Kasper Rorsted, boss of German sportswear firm Adidas, told the Suddeutsche Zeitung. Asked if Brexit could be averted, he said: “I think the train has already left the station. Emotionally, I hope that all parties can come to their senses.” Supporters of Brexit say that while there may be some short-term disruption, the warnings of chaos are overblown and that in the long term, Britain will thrive if it cuts loose from what they cast as a doomed German-dominated experiment in European unity.

jeremy corbyn
brexit
labour
eu
u.k .
theresa may


Effort to rescue toddler in Spain borehole now at most dangerous stage, engineer says

Abstract: TOTALAN, SPAIN - Efforts to reach a 2-year-old boy who fell into a borehole in southern Spain more than a week ago are nearing their most dangerous stage, an engineer on the rescue team said on Monday. The toddler, Julen, fell down the shaft as his family walked through a private estate in Totalan, Malaga, on Jan. 13. There have been no signs of life since. Miners have been drilling day and night to create a parallel shaft, hoping they will be able to cut across by Tuesday to find the child. Work slowed on Sunday after the drill bit hit hard rock and officials said there was a risk of more collapses as they carved out the horizontal passage. “The most dangerous part, the most delicate part, still remains to be done,” mining engineer Juan Lopez Escobar told Canal Sur. “It is a complicated job where lives will be at risk, but they have practiced that, and they are the best,” he added. Rescuers found that the borehole — 100 meters (300 feet) deep and just 25 cm (10 inches) wide — was blocked with earth, raising fears that soil had collapsed onto the child. “We’re at 53 meters, and we’re just another 7 meters away (from where) we start the next job of creating the chamber,” Angel Vidal, the lead engineer overseeing the work, told reporters. Spanish miners and engineers have been joined by workers from a Swedish firm who helped locate 33 Chilean miners rescued after 69 days underground more than seven years ago. Children and families have joined candlelight vigils across Spain in support of the missing boy. El Pais reported that his parents suffered another tragedy in 2017 when their 3-year-old son died suddenly after suffering a cardiac arrest while walking along a beach.


Scientists warn of climate 'time bomb' for world's groundwater

Abstract: PARIS - Future generations face an environmental “time bomb” as the world’s groundwater systems take decades to respond to the present day impact of climate change, scientists warned on Monday. Found underground in cracks in soil, sand and rock, groundwater is the largest usable source of freshwater on the planet and more than 2 billion people rely on it to drink or irrigate crops. It is slowly replenished through rainfall — a process known as recharge — and discharges into lakes, rivers or oceans to maintain an overall balance between water in and water out. Groundwater reserves are already under pressure as the global population explodes and crop production rises in lockstep. But the extreme weather events such as drought and record rainfall — both made worse by our heating planet — could have another long-lasting impact on how quickly reserves replenish, according to a study published in Nature Climate Change. An international team of researchers used computer modeling of groundwater datasets to put a timescale on how reserves may respond to the changing climate. “Groundwater is out of sight and out of mind, this massive hidden resource that people don’t think about much yet it underpins global food production,” said Mark Cuthbert, from Cardiff University’s School of Earth and Ocean Sciences. “The effect we are having now is going to have this really long lag-time in terms of climate change. There’s a memory in the system — and the memory is very large in some places,” he told AFP. Cuthbert and his team found that only half of all groundwater supplies are likely to fully replenish or re-balance within the next 100 years — potentially leading to shortages in drier areas. “This could be described as an environmental time bomb because any climate change impacts on recharge occurring now, will only fully impact the baseflow to rivers and wetlands a long time later,” Cuthbert said. The process through which rainwater is filtered through bedrock and accumulated underground can take centuries and varies greatly by region. As climate change delivers longer droughts and bigger superstorms, the extremes of rainfall become more pronounced, impacting groundwater reserves for generations to come. The team found that reserves in arid areas took far longer — several thousand years in some cases — to respond to alterations in climate than reserves in more humid parts. “Parts of the groundwater that’s underneath the Sahara currently is still responding to climate change from 10,000 years ago when it was much wetter there,” Cuthbert said. “We know there are these massive lags.” The team said their research showed one of the “hidden” impacts of climate change, and called for immediate action to ensure future generations aren’t left high and dry. “Some parts of the world might get wetter, some might get drier but it’s not just the overall amount of rainfall that is important, it is also how intense the rainfall is,” Cuthbert added. “Climate science says that changes in rainfall intensity are very significant for groundwater.”

groundwater
climate change
droughts
global warming
environment


At least 65 killed in Taliban attack on Afghan intelligence base: sources

Abstract: GHAZNI, AFGHANISTAN - At least 65 people were killed in a Taliban-claimed attack on an Afghan intelligence base, security sources said Tuesday, raising the toll substantially from the 12 announced previously. Militants detonated a vehicle packed with explosives at the training facility before gunmen arrived in a car and opened fire. “We took about 65 bodies out of the rubble yesterday,” Mohammad Sardar Bakhyari, deputy head of the provincial council in Wardak province where the attack Monday came as the latest blow to beleaguered security forces. Bakhyari’s announcement came after nearly a day of confusion surrounding the toll. On Monday provincial officials told AFP just 12 people had been killed in the attack. Figures given by officials to other media ranged from 12 dead to more than 100 killed. One senior security official who spoke on condition of anonymity said at least 70 had been killed. The attack was on a training facility for the NDS, the Afghan intelligence agency, meaning that any toll will likely be difficult to confirm. It saw militants ram a Humvee filled with explosives into the National Directorate of Security (NDS) base in Maidan Shahr, the capital of Wardak, which lies about 50 kilometers south of Kabul. The Taliban — who have been waging a 17-year war against the Western-backed Afghan government — later claimed responsibility for the assault. Images from the scene show the attack caused the roof to partially collapse. “Then at least three other attackers in a Toyota car who were following the Humvee entered the compound,” Wardak provincial council member Abdul Wahid Akbarzai said Tuesday. The attackers were killed quickly, he said, but most of the casualties were caused by the roof collapse. “It is a big loss,” council head Akhtar Mohammad Tahiri said. “The NDS forces are better trained and equipped than the Afghan police and army soldiers who have been dying in record numbers.” He added that the militants had been dressed in uniforms used by Afghan special forces. The attack comes days after a Taliban suicide bomber targeted the convoy of Logar province’s governor, killing at least seven security guards. Fights between security forces and Taliban fighters have continued to intensify across the country during the freezing Afghan winter, which traditionally experiences a reduction in combat. The recent skirmishes come as the Taliban announced a resumption of talks with U.S. officials in Qatar as the two sides discuss a possible peace deal that could pave the way for the insurgents’ participation in the next government. Washington has not confirmed their claim that the talks are continuing. U.S. special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has headed a flurry of diplomatic activity in recent months seeking to bring the Taliban to the table for talks. But last week the insurgents threatened to suspend the fledgling process.

taliban
afghanistan
kabul
u.s .
terrorism
maidan wardak


Islamic State claims suicide attack on Kurdish-U.S. convoy in Syria that killed five

Abstract: BEIRUT - A suicide bomber attacked a convoy of U.S. troops and their allies in Syria on Monday, killing five members of a Kurdish-led force fighting the Islamic State group, a monitor said. The assault, claimed by IS jihadis, came less than a week after another deadly attack on U.S. forces in Syria, and a month after Washington announced a U.S. troop pullout from the war-torn country. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said five fighters from the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were killed in the blast on a road in northeastern Hasakeh province. “A suicide attacker driving a bomb-laden car targeted a convoy of American forces accompanied by the SDF on the Hasakeh-Shadadi road,” said the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria. Shadadi lies to the south of Hasakeh, capital of the eponymous province, which has been relatively spared by the war that erupted in Syria nearly eight years ago. The coalition confirmed the attack by a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), but said there were no U.S. casualties. “A combined U.S. and Syrian partner force convoy was involved in an apparent VBIED attack today in Syria,” coalition spokesman Sean Ryan said on Twitter. “There were no U.S. casualties.” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said the attacker had ploughed into an SDF vehicle. Footage on Kurdish media showed a plume of gray smoke rising from a road flanked by dry land. A witness told AFP the blast happened by a checkpoint held by Kurdish forces a dozen kilometers (around 8 miles) outside Shadadi as the convoy drove past. The witness said he heard planes fly overhead, before the area was completely cordoned off by Kurdish fighters. The Kurdish security forces known as Asayesh said the attack hit 10 meters from a checkpoint outside Shadadi, but unlike the Observatory it said no one had died. “A bomb-laden car driven by a terrorist tried to target a coalition convoy as it passed by, lightly wounding a female member of the Asayesh,” the statement said, reporting no other injuries. The reason for the conflicting casualty tolls was not immediately clear. The Islamic State group’s propaganda channel, Aamaq, claimed the attack. The car bombing came less than a week after another attack, also claimed by IS, on the U.S.-led force and its local partners in the strategic city of Manbij. Four Americans — two members of the military, a Pentagon civilian and a contractor — were killed in a suicide bombing targeting a restaurant in the city center on Jan. 16. That attack cost Washington its worst combat losses since it deployed in the war-torn country to combat IS jihadists, who established a self-proclaimed caliphate across swaths of Iraq and Syria in 2014. Ten civilians and five SDF fighters were also killed in the Manbij attack. The U.S. Department of Defense had previously reported only two American personnel killed in combat in Syria, in separate incidents. This month’s attacks targeting the U.S.-led coalition and its allies follow U.S. President Donald Trump’s shock December announcement that he had ordered a complete troop pullout from Syria, as IS had been “largely defeated. Trump and other senior U.S. officials have since sent mixed messages about the pace and scope of the withdrawal. On Sunday, a former envoy to the U.S.-led coalition said the United States had no plan for Syria after the pullout. Brett McGurk, who quit in protest after Trump’s pullout announcement, told an interview with CBS “there’s no plan for what’s coming next” and this is increasing the risk to U.S. forces. Turkey has repeatedly urged Washington to make way for its own military plans in northern Syria, where the beleaguered Kurds are increasingly turning to the regime and its Russian sponsor for support. In a phone call with Trump on Sunday, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara was ready to take over ensuring the security of Manbij. He said last week’s deadly attack was a “provocation” aiming to impact the decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, where a civil war has killed more than 360,000 people since 2011. The SDF is fighting to expel IS fighters from the remaining shreds of their caliphate in eastern Syria near the Iraqi border, but the jihadis have continued to claim attacks nationwide and abroad.


Venezuela puts down mutiny by national guard unit seeking ouster of Nicolas Maduro

Abstract: CARACAS - Venezuela plunged deeper into turmoil on Monday as security forces put down a pre-dawn uprising by national guardsmen that triggered violent street protests and the Supreme Court moved to undercut the opposition-controlled congress’ defiant new leadership. Socialist party chief Diosdado Cabello said 27 guardsmen were arrested and more could be detained as the investigation unfolds. The mutiny struck at a time when opposition leaders have regained momentum in their efforts to oust President Nicolas Maduro. They have calling for a nationwide demonstration Wednesday, urging Venezuelans — especially members of the armed forces — to abandon Maduro. The uprising triggered protests in a poor neighborhood just a few miles from Venezuela’s presidential palace. It was dispersed with tear gas as residents set fire to a barricade of trash and chanted demands that Maduro leave power. The military said in a statement said that it had recovered all the weapons and captured those involved in what it described as “treasonous” acts motivated by “obscure interests tied to the far right.” It said at around 2:50 a.m., a small group of guardsmen took captive a captain in charge of a police station in western Caracas and then moved across the capital in two military trucks to the poor neighborhood of Petare, where they stole a cache of weapons from another outpost. Officials said 25 soldiers were quickly caught at the national guard outpost 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the Miraflores presidential palace, and two more arrests were made at another location. A few hours earlier, a group of heavily armed national guardsmen published a series of videos on social media saying they won’t recognize Maduro’s government, which has come under increasing domestic and international pressure over a newly begun second term that the opposition-controlled congress and many nations consider illegitimate. In one of the videos, a man identifying himself as 3rd Sgt. Alexander Bandres Figueroa, addressing the “people of Venezuela,” urges his compatriots to take to the streets to show support for their rebellion. “You asked to take to the streets to defend the constitution, well here we are,” he said in a video shot at night in which several heavily armed men and a national guard truck can be seen in the background. “You wanted us to light the fuse, so we did. We need your support,” he added. At daybreak in the adjacent neighborhood of Cotiza, a group of shirtless young men, some with their faces covered, built a barricade across the street with a burning car, heavy sewer grates and a large chunk of concrete. An angry group of women shouted that they have lived for too long without running water and tear gas fired by security forces choked their children. “Freedom! Freedom!” they chanted. “Maduro has to go!” “We must defend our homeland,” Maria Fernanda Rodriguez, a 36-year-old manicurist, said with her eyes welling from the tear gas. Hours later, the government-stacked Supreme Court said it was throwing out recent measures by the National Assembly that declared Maduro’s presidency illegitimate, deepening a standoff with the opposition-controlled legislature. The justices ruled that the new leadership of congress itself is invalid, and urged the country’s chief prosecutor to investigate whether congressional leaders had acted criminally in openly defying the nation’s constitution. Juan Guaido, a 35-year-old newly seated as president of congress, shrugged off the court’s warning and reiterated his call for people to take to the streets Wednesday — a historic date commemorating the end of Venezuela’s military dictatorship in 1958 — to demand Maduro abandon power. “The National Assembly is the only institution elected by the people of Venezuela,” Guaido said at a news conference at the legislature. Dozens of foreign governments have refused to recognize Maduro’s second term, some saying they are ready to recognize Guaido as interim president until fair elections can be held. In addition, the Trump administration is weighing tougher financial sanctions on Venezuela, while a dozen mostly conservative Latin American and Caribbean governments said they will block officials from Maduro’s government from entering their countries and take steps to freeze assets that are the byproduct of corruption While discontent among Venezuelans is rising amid widespread food shortages and hyperinflation, Maduro is believed to have the loyalty of his top military command. In the past, troops have easily put down small uprisings. Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said on Twitter that those responsible for the incident would be punished with the full force of the law. Maduro was the target of an apparent assassination attempt Aug. 4 when two drones armed with explosives detonated near him as he spoke at a military parade. Officials have jailed dozens of suspects, including an opposition lawmaker. In June 2017, rogue police officer Oscar Perez stole a helicopter and flew it over the capital, launching grenades at the Supreme Court building. He and several comrades died in a gunbattle with police after months on the lam. Cabello, Venezuela’s powerful socialist party leader, said the opposition demonstration expected Wednesday doesn’t worry him, because the government will flood the streets with its own loyal supporters. “It’s the right that stirs up violence — not us,” Cabello said. “How many marches do we hold here every week without a single act of violence?”


China vows to crackdown on underperformers in ongoing war on air pollution

Abstract: BEIJING/SHANGHAI - China will order detailed punishment measures for officials in regions that miss air-quality targets this winter, refusing to accept unfavorable weather or mounting economic pressure as excuses, an environment ministry official said Monday. China is in the fifth year of a war on pollution to reverse the environmental damage of four decades of breakneck economic growth and cut concentrations last year of hazardous particles known as PM2.5 by an average of 9.3 percent in 338 cities. But in the key northern control area of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the concentration of such particles rose to an average of 73 micrograms per cubic meter in the last three months of the year, more than double the official 35-microgram standard. That prompted fresh fears that local governments were turning a blind eye to polluters. Henan province, home to the worst-performing cities in the last quarter of 2018, blamed “unfavorable weather conditions” for the rise. “There is no way for local officials to evade punishment by using weather conditions as an excuse,” said Liu Bingjiang, head of the atmospheric environment department at China’s environment ministry. “Similarly, the economic situation cannot be used as an excuse,” he told a regular briefing. “For those who failed to meet the targets, we will hold them accountable publicly and local governments will need to come out with detailed punishment measures.” The ministry has repeatedly warned that China’s economic slowdown brought fresh challenges in the effort to curb smog. Economic growth fell to 6.6 percent in 2018, the lowest in 28 years, the statistics bureau has said. But while China will try to take a more “nuanced” approach to pollution, aiming to make companies “feel at ease,” Liu said it would show no leniency in punishing offenders. China will impose even tougher ultra-low emission standards at steel mills this year, and has also pledged more action to clean up coal consumption in the north.


Second woman carrying gene-edited baby in China; doctor faces police probe, state media reports

Abstract: BEIJING - A researcher who claimed to have created the world’s first genetically edited babies will face a Chinese police investigation, state media said Monday, as authorities confirmed that a second woman became pregnant during the experiment. He Jiankui shocked the scientific community last year after announcing he had successfully altered the genes of twin girls born in November to prevent them from contracting HIV. He had told a human genome forum in Hong Kong that there had been “another potential pregnancy” involving a second couple. A provincial government investigation has since confirmed the existence of the second mother and that the woman was still pregnant, the official Xinhua news agency reported. The expectant mother and the twin girls from the first pregnancy will be put under medical observation, an investigator told Xinhua. The provincial government probe found He had “forged ethical review papers” and “deliberately evaded supervision,” according to Xinhua. He had “privately” organized a project team that included foreign staff and used “technology of uncertain safety and effectiveness” for illegal human embryo gene-editing, it said. Investigators told Xinhua that the scientist was “pursuing personal fame” and used “self-raised funds” for the controversial experiment. Eight volunteer couples — HIV-positive fathers and HIV-negative mothers — signed up to He’s trial, investigators found, with one couple later dropping out. Details of the experiment — which has not been independently verified — triggered an immediate backlash from the global scientific community and the Chinese government ordered a halt to He’s research work days after it was publicly announced. Such gene-editing work is banned in most countries, including China. He will be “dealt with seriously according to the law,” and his case will be “handed over to public security organs for handling,” Xinhua said. Speaking at the genome summit in Hong Kong in November, He said he was “proud” of altering the genes of the babies, given the stigma affecting AIDS patients in the country. The public outcry over his experiment also drew attention to the growing HIV epidemic in China, which has seen a drastic surge in new cases in recent years. The scientist was educated at Stanford University in the U.S. and recruited back to China as part of Beijing’s “Thousand Talents Plan” to reverse a brain drain, according to a copy of He’s resume published on the website of the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in Shenzhen. SUSTech said in a statement Monday it had terminated the researcher’s employment after earlier saying He’s work had “seriously violated academic ethics. He said the twins’ DNA was modified using CRISPR, a technique that allows scientists to remove and replace a strand with pinpoint precision. Experts worry meddling with the genome of an embryo could cause harm not only to the individual but also future generations that inherit the same changes, and say there are too many scientific and technical uncertainties to permit clinical trials. Following the storm sparked by He’s announcement, scientists have called for an international treaty on gene-editing.

china
he jiankui
hiv
stanford
dna
crispr
gene editing


Police bust multimillion-dollar Australia-China baby formula crime ring

Abstract: SYDNEY - Six people have been charged after Australian authorities uncovered a multimillion-dollar crime syndicate stealing baby formula and vitamins from major retailers across Sydney for shipment to China, police said Monday. Four members of one family and two other men have been arrested and charged over the “organized criminal group” that New South Wales Police believe has operated for several years. “We’re thinking this is quite an expansive criminal group that was exploiting an overseas market at the disadvantage of the Australian public,” NSW Police Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty told reporters in Sydney. Doherty said investigators were still probing where the products were being sold, but alleged that so far, “thousands of shipments of baby formula were sent to China.” Premium baby milk formula, vitamins and honey from Australia are highly sought after in China, where consumers are fearful of lax food safety standards that have resulted in deaths and health scares. The investigation kicked off in February last year after police received reports of thefts from Sydney retailers. Investigators said they searched two Sydney homes in August and seized 4,000 tins of baby formula, “large quantities” of vitamins, Manuka honey as well as more than 215,000 Australian dollars ($154,000) in cash. The latest arrest was of a 31-year-old man on Saturday at Sydney Airport after he arrived on a flight from China. “It’s been a meticulous investigation … and we anticipate further arrests will happen,” Doherty said, adding that police estimated around AU$1 million worth of powdered milk was stolen in just the past 12 months. “Police will continue to pursue these people, because not only are they making a quick dollar out of greed and disadvantaging mums and dads of Australia, they are literally taking baby formula out of the mouths of babes.” There is also a growing gray market in Australia where purchasing agents known as daigou help Chinese customers secure products in Australia by buying them from local shops and shipping them to China, raking in a tidy profit in the process. Analysts estimate that there are thousands of daigou who can make an average of AU$100,000 each year by reselling the products. Local media estimated that a tin of milk powder sold for AU$30 in Australia could be sold for AU$80 in China. The demand, particularly for baby formula, has been so high in Australia that some supermarket giants have imposed limits on purchases or moved the milk behind the counter.

police
australia
china
crime
milk
food safety
scandal
poison
infant formula


Report revealing undeclared North Korean missile base HQ seen as backing up first-strike capability

Abstract: WASHINGTON - One of 20 undeclared ballistic missile operating bases in North Korea serves as a missile headquarters, according to a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) published on Monday. “The Sino-ri missile operating base and the Nodong missiles deployed at this location fit into North Korea’s presumed nuclear military strategy by providing an operational-level nuclear or conventional first strike capability,” the report said. The discovery of an undeclared missile headquarters comes three days after U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he “looks forward” to another summit to discuss denuclearization with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in late February. CSIS, which last reported on the 20 undeclared bases in November, said the Sino-ri base has never been declared by North Korea and as a result “does not appear to be the subject of denuclearization negotiations.” The report noted that missile operating bases would presumably be subject to declaration, verification and dismantlement in any denuclearization deal. “The North Koreans are not going to negotiate over things they don’t disclose,” said Victor Cha, one of the authors of the report. “It looks like they’re playing a game. They’re still going to have all this operational capability,” even if they destroy their disclosed nuclear facilities. Located 132 miles (212 km) north of the demilitarized zone, the Sino-ri complex is a 7-sq.-mile (18-sq.-km) base that plays a key role in developing ballistic missiles capable of reaching South Korea, Japan, and even the U.S. territory of Guam in the Western Pacific, the report said. It houses a regiment-sized unit equipped with Nodong-1 medium-range ballistic missiles, the report added. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Satellite images of the base from Dec. 27 show an entrance to an underground bunker, reinforced shelters and a headquarters, the report said.

north korea
missiles
csis
donald trump
kim jong un
south korea
japan
u.s .
nuclear weapons


A decade later, China's lethal infant milk scandal leaves a legacy of distrust

Abstract: SHANGHAI/HONG, KONG - More than a decade after tainted infant milk powder in China killed six children and exposed institutional neglect of food safety, Chinese parents still don’t trust local companies to feed their babies. That could mean another goldmine for foreign producers as the battle for infant milk shifts to the hundreds of smaller cities beyond the metropolises of Shanghai and Beijing. The deadly milk scandal of 2008 was a watershed moment for China’s consumers. Some 300,000 children were poisoned after Chinese suppliers added melamine, a chemical used to make plastic, to powdered milk to artificially boost protein levels. Tuesday marks the 10th anniversary of the sentencing to death in China of those at the center of the contamination and its concealment. The scandal fueled a new era of consumer suspicion and China’s $27 billion infant-formula industry was reshaped to the near-exclusion of homegrown companies among the market leaders. While Chinese government regulations on milk powder production are in line with international standards, consumers like Chen Jijie, a Beijing-based mother of two, will neither forgive nor forget. “I won’t even consider giving domestic brands a chance, even 10 years later,” said Chen, who has a 2-year-old child and a newborn baby. “The incident brought my confidence in Chinese baby formula brands to the lowest level.” Nestle SA’s share of China’s milk-formula market has quadrupled since the scandal to make it the clear leader, while annual revenue at Australia and New Zealand upstart A2 Milk Co. has soared to close to 1 billion New Zealand dollars ($673 million) from only NZ$1.5 million before the crisis. Foreign milk labels are still viewed by consumers as safer, higher-quality and a mark of affluence, but domestic suppliers are fighting back with savvy branding and lower prices. The prize is clear: With only a quarter of Chinese moms breast-feeding, China’s infant-formula market will expand 21 percent to about $32 billion in 2023, according to Euromonitor International. Both Danone and Nestle are focused on parents in so-called lower-tier cities. Danone is bolstering its e-commerce business, since there are fewer retail stores that stock its goods in rural China, while Nestle is assessing which of its products can best capture demand in these areas. In a statement, Nestle said it carefully chooses its ingredient suppliers. The company also set up a dairy farming institute in northeast China in 2014 that helps teach farmers to produce safe, high-quality milk. Meanwhile, Chinese dairy companies are finding that some sort of association with foreign cows — real or imagined — can go a long way toward gaining market share. Chinese milk giants Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co. and China Mengniu Dairy Co., which were both found to have batches of tainted milk a decade ago, are racing to build up foreign milk sources in a bid to win over local mothers. Mengniu sells a high-priced, made-in-New-Zealand line called Milk Deluxe, whose tins are emblazoned with snowy, Alps-like mountains. “In the short term, seeking overseas milk sources is the most effective way for Chinese dairy brands to win back consumer confidence,” said Luo Yixin, a consumer analyst at Hua Tai Securities. Among Chinese producers of milk powder, the only company that’s managed to eke out any meaningful share since the scandal is Feihe International Inc. It had 8.6 percent of the market in 2017, Euromonitor said. Even then, Feihe’s success is likely tied to a branding campaign that implied a foreign provenance: Up until 2013, it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and named American Dairy Inc. After reverting to its Chinese name and going private, the company’s top-selling product line, Firmus, emphasizes that its milk is sourced from cows in the milk belt that spans from Wisconsin in the U.S to Hokkaido in Japan. Its cows are actually located in Heilongjiang in the country’s northeast. “Domestic baby formula has the highest quality in history and compares with the leading brands in the global market in technology, equipment and management,” said Feihe in a statement to Bloomberg. “We spare no efforts to improve the technology and enhance linkages with international dairy peers.” Products made and packaged overseas can command a price that’s as much double that of domestically produced milk, said UOB Kay Hian consumer analyst Robin Yuen. In Australia and New Zealand, Asia Pacific nations that promote their agricultural credentials, the 2008 scandal helped forge a new trading channel: China-bound infant formula sold through the mail. From Sydney to Adelaide, so-called daigou shoppers soon started clearing supermarket shelves of tins to resell them at a profit to Chinese mothers. A2 Milk, named after a naturally occurring protein, was vaulted into China’s top league and Chinese demand now accounts for an estimated 50 percent of revenue. There’s little sign of demand dropping off any time soon, even after China introduced tighter manufacturing controls and, on Jan. 1, new e-commerce rules that seek to formalize the daigou trade and make it taxable. “We’ve got decades in this cycle and we’re right at the start,” said Keong Chan, chairman of AuMake International Ltd., a Sydney-listed owner of shops targeting Chinese buyers and re-sellers of Australian products including A2 Milk powder. The next generation of middle-class consumers in lower-tier cities “could be an even bigger market than the first,” he said. A spokesman for A2 declined to comment. Chief Executive Officer Jayne Hrdlicka said in an interview late last year that she saw “a huge opportunity” in China, as well as in the U.S. China’s home-grown infant formula producers see younger and lower-income parents, less scarred by the melamine scandal, as their hope for growth. But some consumers like Chen, the mother of two, may be lost to Chinese companies forever. “The most important criteria for baby formula is whether it’s safe,” she said. “I only choose international brands.”


Taiwan's 'Bikini Climber' social media star dies after falling down ravine

Abstract: TAIPEI - Taiwanese rescue teams were trying Tuesday to retrieve the body of a dead hiker who became famous on social media for taking selfies on top of mountain peaks dressed in a bikini. Gigi Wu — dubbed the “Bikini Climber” by fans — used a satellite phone on Saturday to tell friends she had fallen down a ravine in Taiwan’s Yushan national park and badly injured herself. Rescue helicopters struggled to reach her because of bad weather and officials eventually located her body on Monday. “The weather conditions in the mountains are not good, we have asked our rescuers to move the body to a more open space and after the weather clears we will make a request for a helicopter to bring the body down,” Lin Cheng-yi, from the Nantou County Fire and Rescue Services, told reporters. Officials said Wu had told friends she was unable to move the lower half of her body after a fall of some 20-30 meters (65-100 feet) but was able to give her coordinates. She is the latest in a string of social media adventure seekers who have met an untimely end. In October, an Indian couple visiting a popular overlook in California’s Yosemite National Park fell to their deaths after taking a selfie. New Taipei City native Wu, 36, built up a sizeable social media following through photos of herself at the top of mountains dressed in bikinis. She usually wore hiking clothes to scale the mountains, only changing into a bikini once she reached the top. In an interview with local channel FTV last year, she said she had scaled more than 100 peaks in four years. “I put on a bikini in each one of the 100 mountains. I only have around 97 bikinis so I accidentally repeated some,” she said. When asked why she did it, she replied: “It just looks so beautiful, what’s not to like?” While Taiwan is a largely tropical country, it boasts a spine of towering peaks down its middle that regularly top 3,000 meters. In the winter, temperatures routinely drop well below freezing on the mountain slopes. Lin said their top rescue team hiked for 28 hours to reach the body, only sleeping for three hours because they knew temperatures were rapidly plunging.


Strong 6.1 magnitude quake hits off Indonesia

Abstract: JAKARTA - A strong 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck off the Indonesian coast early Tuesday, but no tsunami warning was issued and there were no immediate reports of damage. The quake hit at a depth of 31 kilometers (19 miles) off Sumba island, some 150 kilometers west southwest of the city of Waingapu, according to the United States Geological Survey. It was followed by a weaker quake in the same area with an initial reading of 5.2 magnitude, according to Indonesia’s disaster agency. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. Indonesia is still reeling from a deadly tsunami at the end of December triggered by an erupting volcano in the middle of the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra islands that killed more than 400 people. The vast Southeast Asian archipelago is one of the most disaster-hit nations on Earth due to its position straddling the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates collide. The tsunami was Indonesia’s third major natural disaster in six months, following a series of powerful earthquakes on the island of Lombok in July and August and a quake-tsunami in September that killed around 2,200 people in Palu on Sulawesi island, with thousands more missing and presumed dead.


China rebukes former envoys over letter calling for release of detained Canadians

Abstract: BEIJING - China on Tuesday lashed out at a group of former diplomats and academics who signed an open letter to President Xi Jinping calling for the release of two Canadians detained on national security grounds. Former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor were on Dec. 10 arrested for activities that “endanger China’s national security” — a phrase often used by Beijing when alleging espionage. Their detentions are thought to be in retaliation for Canada’s arrest on a U.S. request of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, who is facing fraud charges linked to violations of Iran sanctions. Written in English and Chinese, the letter said both Kovrig and Spavor worked to improve understanding of China and to promote better relations with the world. “Kovrig and Spavor’s detentions send a message that this kind of constructive work is unwelcome and even risky in China,” read the page-long letter, which had 143 signatories from 19 countries. But China reacted angrily, with foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying calling it a “great disrespect” that also interferes with China’s sovereignty and judicial process. “It is a call to exert pressure, to demand the Chinese side to release two Canadian citizens who have been investigated by the relevant departments according to the law,” Hua told a regular news briefing. “Do they want China’s 1.4 billion people to sign an open letter to the Canadian leader?” The letter comes amid heightened diplomatic tensions between Ottawa and Beijing since Meng’s arrest. A Chinese court last week sentenced a Canadian man to death for drug trafficking following a retrial, a drastic increase of his previous 15-year prison sentence. On Monday, Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. David MacNaughton said Washington will be formally requesting Meng’s extradition, the Globe and Mail reported. Officials have until Jan. 30 to file the request but have not specified when they would submit the paperwork. Hua called on both countries to drop the case, saying Meng’s arrest was a “serious mistake.” “It is not an ordinary criminal case. It’s an abuse of the bilateral extradition treaty between the United States and Canada,” Hua said. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau welcomed the letter, pointing out that Canada stands for the rule of law. “It’s a very clear principle that has served us well over the past decades, that we have systems of justice that are independent from political interference and Canada will always defend that,” he told journalists in Ottawa. The missive was signed by six former Canadian ambassadors to China: Fred Bild, Joseph Caron, Earl Drake, David Mulroney, Guy Saint-Jacques and Robert Wright; former U.S. ambassadors Gary Locke and Winston Lord; and Hong Kong’s last British Gov. Chris Patten. Former ambassadors to China from Germany, Mexico, Britain and Sweden also lent their names, along with many of the world’s leading China academics. The letter is meant to send a message that China’s current action will alienate much of the world, said Jan Weidenfeld, head of European affairs and business strategy at the Mercator Institute for China Studies, one of the letter’s signatories. “It’s not clear whether China is playing by the rules at the end of the day… who’s to tell me that I, or a colleague won’t be next?” he said. Based out of Hong Kong, Kovrig had taken leave from his diplomatic posting to work for the International Crisis Group think tank when he was arrested. Spavor is based in northeast China and facilitates trips to North Korea, including past visits by former basketball star Dennis Rodman. “We who share Kovrig and Spavor’s enthusiasm … must now be more cautious about traveling and working in China and engaging our Chinese counterparts,” the letter said. “That will lead to less dialogue and greater distrust, and undermine efforts to manage disagreements and identify common ground. “Both China and the rest of the world will be worse off as a result.”

china
xi jinping
canada
huawei
diplomacy


Nursing homes see spate of deaths amid flu outbreak across Japan

Abstract: Amid an outbreak of influenza, the nation has seen a spate of deaths in recent days following mass infections at nursing care facilities. A facility called Shimizu Funai no Sato in Nantan, Kyoto Prefecture, said Tuesday that an 83-year-old resident died Sunday amid the outbreak, which has infected 14 residents in their 70s to 90s and 12 staff members. The man’s condition deteriorated rapidly on Saturday before his death the following day, according to the facility. Others diagnosed with influenza are recovering, the facility said. On Monday, the Hyogo Prefectural Government announced that seven residents of the Hokudanso facility in Awaji died after contracting influenza this month. The residents, age between 71 and 99, were among 74 residents and staff members who came down with the disease. According to the prefectural government, a staff member at the facility was diagnosed with influenza on Jan. 8. The facility reported the mass infection on Jan. 11, when one of the residents died. All residents and staff members at the facility received flu vaccinations, but only staff members were given anti-flu drugs as a precaution. Hideki Yoshimura, who heads the facility’s operator, Chidorikai, said the company dealt with the problem by temporarily barring infected staff from coming to work and infected residents from going out, among other measures. “The infection has spread much further than expected,” Yoshimura added. On Sunday, the Akita Prefectural Government said a 96-year-old woman diagnosed with influenza died of pneumonia at the Shokyoen facility in the town of Ugo, bringing the death toll from the outbreak at the site to four this month. At a news conference on Sunday, Yutaka Ando, the mayor of Ugo — which runs the facility — vowed to prevent further deaths. According to Ando and other officials, the facility has spaces for infected residents partitioned with curtains because it has no private rooms. They said the measure is appropriate as it follows the health ministry’s guidelines. “We will consider measures to be taken when flu infection occurs at the facility, including isolation,” Ando said. According to the health ministry’s latest data, the average number of flu patients per medical institution exceeded 30, a threshold which suggests an outbreak, in the week through Jan. 13. The total number of flu patients who were treated at medical institutions across the country during that week is estimated at 1,635,000, nearly triple the total of about 586,000 the previous week.


Kumamoto to showcase recovery as host of Asia-Pacific water security meeting in 2020

Abstract: KUMAMOTO - The city of Kumamoto will host an international meeting in 2020 to discuss water security issues in the Asia-Pacific region, the city’s mayor said Monday. For the gathering of the fourth Asia-Pacific Water Summit, which starts on Oct. 19 next year, the organizer plans to call for the participation of leaders or ministers of 50 countries in the region, according to its secretariat office in Tokyo. “Kumamoto’s efforts to preserve groundwater are evaluated highly globally,” Kumamoto Mayor Kazufumi Onishi said at a news conference, adding that he hopes the two-day meeting will be an opportunity to show local efforts to restore the region in the aftermath of big earthquakes that hit the city in April 2016. Delegates from the countries and international organizations to be invited will likely discuss various topics such as climate change, rain water harvesting, urban water supply and waste water management. Kumamoto will be the second Japanese city to host the international meeting, after Beppu in Oita Prefecture, where its first gathering was held in 2007 with Crown Prince Naruhito in attendance. The second summit took place in Chiang Mai in Thailand in 2013, and the third one was held in 2017 in Yangon. The organizing body, the Asia-Pacific Water Forum, began operations in 2006. At a governing council meeting in Singapore earlier this month, the organizer authorized Kumamoto to host next year’s summit.

kumamoto
asia-pacific water summit
climate change


Japan to recommend southwestern islands in Kagoshima and Okinawa for UNESCO listing again

Abstract: The Cabinet on Tuesday approved a decision to again recommend a chain of southwestern islands as a candidate for UNESCO’s 2020 World Heritage list, after withdrawing the initial bid on the U.N. body’s advice to conduct a further review. The recommendation will be done by Feb. 1. The 43,000-hectare area covers Amami Oshima and Tokunoshima islands in Kagoshima Prefecture, as well as the northern part of the main Okinawa island and Iriomote Island in Okinawa Prefecture. The area boasts extensive subtropical forests that are home to rare species such as the Amami rabbit, Okinawa rail and Iriomote cat. Tokyo marked the area as a candidate for the natural heritage list in February 2017, but dropped the bid last June after a UNESCO panel sought the addition of a forest in a former U.S. military site in northern Okinawa. In line with the panel’s input, Japan will include the forest — which is rich in rare plants and animals — in its new proposal. The site it occupies was returned by the U.S. military to Japan in December 2016. The fresh bid highlights Tokyo’s efforts to conserve biodiversity on islands with various endemic species and fend off invasive species while also welcoming tourists to the area. After the formal recommendation is submitted to UNESCO, an advisory panel from the body will conduct an on-site survey in the fall and release its evaluation in around May 2020. Then, the World Heritage Committee will decide whether to register the islands in the summer of 2020. For this year’s registration, Japan has recommended as a cultural heritage site the Mozu-Furuichi Kofungun tomb site in Osaka Prefecture, one of the largest ancient tombs in the country. At present, Japan has four UNESCO World Natural Heritage sites, including the Shiretoko Peninsula of Hokkaido and the Ogasawara Islands in the Pacific.

kagoshima
okinawa
unesco
world heritage
amami oshima
tokunoshima
iriomote
animals


Government and firms in Japan will have to show how they are fighting sexual harassment under revised law, sources say

Abstract: Central and local governments as well as private-sector firms will be required to document the ways they are fighting sexual harassment in their annual action plans on women’s empowerment, according to sources with knowledge of the matter. The new requirement will be included in a bill to revise the law aimed at creating environments where women can fully use their abilities, the sources said Monday. The compilation of such actions plans are currently based on an existing but temporary law put into force in April 2016 with a lifespan of 10 years. The government apparently plans to submit the amendment to the ordinary Diet session, which is set to start on Jan. 28, and hopes to implement the new measure during fiscal 2019, which starts in April. Based on discussions with local government heads and academics, the government is said to have examined the situation since the law’s enforcement and found it necessary to overhaul the content of the action plans, in order to improve workplaces for women. On sexual harassment, the annual action plans currently cover how companies and the central and local governments deal with such complaints. The government is now planning to require them to additionally report in the plans their progress in compiling manuals on tackling sexual harassment and implementing related training programs, the sources said. The government also plans to expand the reach of the action plans by broadening the scope of companies required to compile them, lowering the size threshold from firms with 301 or more staff to those with 101 or more, the sources said. With a view to helping women gain opportunities to work in a wider variety of positions, the government plans to require the proportion of women in each position to be reported, in addition to the rate of growth in the number of women in each position, the sources said. On work-style reform, the government will call for both the proportion of workers exceeding the limit on overtime hours to be reported and the average overtime hours per worker to be reported, with the aim of correcting long working hours across workplaces.


Government cuts off subsidies to Tokyo Medical University over entrance exam discrimination

Abstract: The education ministry said Tuesday it will not provide any subsidies to Tokyo Medical University for this or the next fiscal year after the institution was found to have discriminated against female applicants in its entrance examinations. The ministry said the decision is based on the indictment last year of university leaders over the backdoor admission of a bureaucrat’s son in exchange for a government subsidy. Seven other universities that were similarly found to have manipulated their entrance exams will also have state subsidies reduced, according to the ministry. Among them, Nihon University will face a 35 percent cut in the current fiscal year through March. In addition to admissions anomalies, the school’s management was called into question over a dangerous late tackle by one of its American football team members that injured an opposing team player in May last year. The foul play had been ordered by two coaches. The six other universities — Fukuoka University, Iwate Medical University, Juntendo University, Kanazawa Medical University, Kitasato University and Showa University — will face a 25 percent cut in fiscal 2018. “I demand that each university ensure the fairness of its entrance exams,” education minister Masahiko Shibayama said at a news conference. Private schools in Japan receive state subsidies depending on the number of students and teachers. In fiscal 2017, Tokyo Medical University received ¥2.3 billion and Nihon University ¥9.1 billion. Government payment of subsidies for fiscal 2018 was pending for the schools. Tokyo Medical University admitted in August it had been deducting points from exam scores for over 10 years to curb the enrollment of women, as well as men who had failed the exam previously. Nihon University later said it had favored applicants who were kin of graduates. The unfair treatment of female applicants at Tokyo Medical University was described as being aimed at preventing a shortage of doctors at affiliated hospitals, in the belief that women tend to resign or take long periods of leave after getting married or giving birth. The university also disliked accepting male applicants who had failed in the past because they tended to fail the national exam for medical practitioners, which would bring down the university’s ratio of successful applicants and hurt its reputation. The effect of a government suspension of subsidies are not limited to a single fiscal year, but are applied in the following fiscal year as well. From the third year, subsidies increase in stages by 25 percentage points. The full amount would be restored in the sixth year — fiscal 2023 for Tokyo Medical University — if no further law violations are found. The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry uncovered a number of improper practices in medical school admissions following a probe into the country’s 81 universities with medical faculties. The probe was conducted in August following the revelations at Tokyo Medical University.

tokyo medical university
discrimination
women
medical schools


Japan's convenience store giants to remove pornographic magazines from shelves

Abstract: The three largest convenience chain operators now plan to remove pornographic magazines from their store shelves across the nation by the end of August, after FamilyMart on Tuesday joined the move announced by its two rivals Seven-Eleven and Lawson the previous day. FamilyMart said all of its shops — run either directly by the firm or franchisees — will, with some possible exceptions, stop selling adult magazines for men, citing an increasingly diversified customer base in recent years. Seven-Eleven, FamilyMart and Lawson are the nation’s first, second and third largest respectively by number of shops. A spokesperson at the chain operator FamilyMart UNY Holdings Co. said about 2,000 of its 16,683 stores in Japan have already stopped selling such magazines. In the past, Lawson’s main customers were men in their 20s and 30s, but “we’ve seen more elderly people, women and children shopping at our stores,” said Li Ming, a spokesperson at Lawson Inc. Lawson is also seeing a surge in the number of international travelers coming to their stores these days. Displaying sexually explicit magazines restricted to those aged 18 or older in stores could hurt the image of Japan, Li said. About 4,000 Lawson stores already no longer sell adult magazines, Li said. The chain had 14,574 stores as of December. While acknowledging that there is a certain market for such products, sales are not strong, so it makes more sense to instead have products that appeal to a wider range of consumers, he added. Seven-Eleven, which boasts over 20,000 stores nationwide, also plans to clear out porn magazines from its shelves by August, said Katsuhiko Shimizu, a spokesperson at Seven & I Holdings Co. Shimizu cited a similar reason to Lawson, saying the move is aimed at providing a better shopping environment for a wider range of shoppers. But the firm is still not sure if the plan can be thoroughly implemented, as some franchisees might say they need to keep selling adult magazines, Shimizu said. FamilyMart also said such stores will be allowed to keep the items. Ministop Co., a smaller Chiba-based convenience store operator, stopped selling adult magazines at all of its stores in January of last year.

convenience stores
familymart
seven-eleven
lawson
pornography


Kei Komuro's family financial trouble resolved? Depends who you ask

Abstract: Kei Komuro, Princess Mako’s longtime suitor whose prospective engagement to her is currently up in the air, claimed in a statement Tuesday that financial troubles blocking the way to his marriage to the princess had already been resolved. In the statement, Komuro claimed that his mother’s ex-fiance agreed that Komuro’s family does not need to repay ¥4 million he spent on them before his engagement ended. But later in the day, the ex-fiance, whose name is being withheld, told the Asahi Shimbun that he still expects the sum to be returned, saying he had not intended to give the money to the family. “The trouble hasn’t been resolved yet,” the man was quoted as saying by the Asahi. He also told the paper that he used the money in question to financially support Komuro’s family, including university fees for Komuro. According to Komuro, the money was paid over the duration of the man’s engagement to Komuro’s mother, from 2010 to 2012. Princess Mako is the eldest child of Prince Akishino, Crown Prince Naruhito’s younger brother. She and Komuro held a news conference in September 2017 to announce that they were set to be officially engaged, but their envisioned wedding was postponed from November 2018 to 2020 after a weekly magazine reported the financial trouble. “I deeply apologize for causing anxiety over the relationship between my mother and her ex-fiance,” Komuro said in the statement sent to major media outlets, including The Japan Times. In the one-page statement, he said that when the man broke off his engagement with Komuro’s mother in 2012, his mother offered to repay the roughly ¥4 million he spent while the two were engaged. The former fiance “clearly stated that he did not expect the money to be repaid,” and Komuro and his mother considered the matter to be resolved, according to the statement. However, the man sent a letter to Komuro’s mother in 2013, a year after their engagement ended, asking to be paid. After consulting an expert, Komuro’s mother met the man in person and rejected his request, leading him to say that he would also consult an expert and get back to them, Komuro alleged. Since that meeting, Komuro said in his statement there were no developments on the money issue until a weekly magazine reported the story and other media outlets followed up in late 2017. According to the Asahi, the ex-fiance also claimed that Komuro’s mother had suggested returning the money in monthly installments of ¥10,000 or so a month — a suggestion he turned down and asked that Komuro’s mother reconsider. Prince Akishino said in a November news conference that Komuro and the princess “should provide a befitting response” to the issue if they still want to wed. He also said that “it may be necessary to clear up and resolve this problem,” adding that “we cannot hold the official betrothal ceremony” unless the public can “celebrate” the engagement. Tuesday’s statement marks Komuro’s first public statement on the financial issues since the story broke. In the statement, Komuro expressed his gratitude to the former fiance for providing financial help over the years. He also said that he hopes the ex-fiance will come to share a mutual understanding with Komuro and his mother. Komuro is currently enrolled in a three-year law program at Fordham University in New York in the hope of passing the bar examination in that state. He was working as a paralegal at a law firm in Tokyo prior to starting his studies in the United States in August 2018.

kei komuro
princess mako
marriage
prince akishino
imperial family


Japan government to boost support for rural experience programs for children

Abstract: The central government will strengthen its financial support for programs in which elementary, junior high and high school students stay in the countryside in communities centered on farming, forestry and fishing. It hopes that such experiences will help urban children get interested in country life and may encourage them to consider settling in rural areas in the future, an official at the Cabinet Secretariat said. The experience program initiative was jointly launched in fiscal 2008 by the education ministry, the agriculture ministry and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Currently, the central government provides tax revenue grants to local governments to help them cover accommodation and other expenses connected to experience programs for elementary school students. From fiscal 2019, it will expand the financial support to also cover programs for junior high school students, officials said. For pilot programs for elementary and junior high school students conducted jointly by the urban municipalities that send children and the rural areas that receive them, the state gives financial support to both sides. Programs for high school students will additionally become eligible for such assistance. In fiscal 2016, 320,000 elementary, 370,000 junior high school and 150,000 high school students participated in farming, forestry and fishing community experience programs. As a measure to promote local revitalization, the central government is aiming to boost the annual number of participating elementary school students to 650,000, that of junior high school students to 750,000, and that of high school students to 300,000 by fiscal 2024. It hopes to achieve the targets through the planned financial support. The state has been promoting migration to regional areas to rectify the over-concentration of the population in Tokyo. More and more people, however, are born in urban areas, such as the capital and surrounding areas, and grow up without any contact with the countryside. The government expects that children may consider migrating to regional areas when they grow up if they discover local attractions by staying in the countryside, albeit temporarily, and experience farming, forestry and fishery activities.

children
farming
forestry
fishing
rural life


Pollen season predicted to arrive in mid-February across much of Japan

Abstract: If you suffer from pollen allergies and live in eastern or western Japan, forecasters recommend starting treatment as soon as possible. This spring’s pollen season is expected to kick off in mid-February and peak in March across much of Japan, with allergy sufferers in Tokyo likely to experience the symptoms for the longest period, according to the latest projections by the Japan Weather Association. The airborne volume of cedar and cypress pollen in most areas would be more than the 10-year average, but roughly the same level or less compared with the previous season, the association said. In Hokkaido, the volume of white birch pollen is forecast to be less than usual and less than the previous season’s count. Last year, cypress pollen levels were elevated nationwide. Tokyo recorded the highest levels in the past 10 years — 4.9 times the 10-year average — the report says. This season’s levels are forecast to be lower, as the flower buds are not growing as much. Cedar pollen dispersal is expected to start later than normal in eastern and western Japan because of higher-than-usual winter temperatures, possibly delaying the awakening of cedar male flowers, which produce the pollen, from hibernation. In the regions of Kyushu, Shikoku, Tokai and Kanto, the cedar pollen season is likely to begin in mid-February. The association suggests that hay fever sufferers in these regions start taking treatments by the end of January. “The pollen season could start earlier,” said Ayako Kato, the association’s spokeswoman. In northern Japan, the season is predicted to arrive between early- to mid-March. The cedar pollen counts peak in March in many areas, with the dispersal of cypress pollen following soon after. From Hokkaido to the Kanto-Koshin and Tokai regions, the pollen counts are projected to be 50 percent to 60 percent of last year’s, while the Hokuriku region is predicted to see 40 percent or higher, the association says. Akita Prefecture, meanwhile, is estimated to see quantities that are more than double those of last year. This is due to the fact that the prefecture observed low levels of pollen last year, so this year’s levels would not mark a sharp increase from the 10-year average, Kato said.

pollen
japan weather association
hay fever


Mystery deepens over human bones used as teaching aids at schools in Japan

Abstract: The mystery over the recently discovered use of real human bones as skeleton models at schools has continued to deepen. How the real bones were procured is unknown in most cases, as no precise records exist. People familiar with the matter say that the bones seem to have been purchased or donated long ago. But how they ended up in the hands of the schools largely remains a mystery. According to prefectural education boards, human bones have been discovered so far at 16 schools in six prefectures: Ishikawa, Fukui, Aichi, Oita, Miyazaki and Kagoshima. The first case was at Tsurumaru High School in Kagoshima Prefecture, where a real skull was found in a specimen cabinet in a biology lecture room in July 2016. It turned out to be from a woman who is believed to have died some 50 years before. This prompted investigations by prefectural education boards in many parts of the country, leading to similar discoveries at other schools. In many cases, human bones were used in biology classes, while Konan High School in Kagoshima Prefecture used them as drawing models in art classes. A Miyazaki prefectural school for the visually impaired used them in manual therapy classes for those training to be nationally certified massage practitioners. Skeleton models made of real human bones “were procured from India and sold to university hospitals and elsewhere until around the Showa 40s” (1965 to 1974), said an official from a producer of medical study materials. A record for one such model at Toryo High School in Aichi Prefecture said it was “bought in the 47th year of Showa” (1972). In the Meiji Era (1868 to 1912), dissection experiments were conducted at various medical institutions using the bodies of people without relatives, with the cadavers provided by hospitals, according to Tatsuo Sakai, professor at Juntendo University’s faculty of medicine. Skeleton models were made from the bodies for educational purposes, he said. In the middle of the Meiji Era, many medical institutions were scrapped due to financial difficulties. Skeleton models may have then been donated to local schools, according to Sakai. Many of the schools where human bones were discovered are traditional institutes dating back to the pre-World War II period. Among them is Takefu High School in Fukui Prefecture. According to the prefectural education committee, a real skull found at the school is believed to have been kept since the Meiji Era. At Takada High School in Oita Prefecture, a skull was kept in a wooden box on which a person’s name was written along with a note saying that it was donated in the Showa 10s (1935 to 1944). But at many other schools, details of how the bones were procured are unknown. According to Sakai and others, the possession of skeleton models that were legally made of real bones does not constitute a crime. An education ministry official called for reporting suspicious bones to local educational boards or police.


Shooting in Tokyo's Kabukicho district leaves man dead; police suspect yakuza links

Abstract: Police said Tuesday a man believed to have shot and killed another man the previous day at a karaoke bar in Tokyo’s Kabukicho entertainment hub fled from the scene via motorcycle, suggesting the suspect had prepared a means of getaway. The victim, identified as Lee Hung-jong, a 65-year-old South Korean national living in Tokyo, was a member of a group under the Sumiyoshikai crime syndicate more than 20 years ago, according to the police. Lee sustained three gunshot wounds and was found collapsed Monday afternoon inside the karaoke establishment. The suspected attacker is also thought to have gang links and police suspect it was a premeditated attack resulting from personal trouble between them. The police have found what they believe is the motorcycle used by the suspect along with a helmet and a cap on a street not far from the crime scene and have begun investigating surveillance camera footage in the area. The karaoke bar is located in the center of the Kabukicho district and is about 500 meters northeast of JR Shinjuku Station. A number of yakuza are based in the area, which has become increasingly popular as the number of foreign tourists in Tokyo has increased. Police received an emergency call from a worker at the karaoke bar in Shinjuku Ward at around 6:30 p.m. Monday, reporting gunshots had been heard and a man was lying bleeding inside the establishment. The man was found face down with three bullet wounds to his chest and other areas of the body in front of an elevator on the fourth floor. He was taken to a hospital where he was confirmed dead. Police believe the man was shot in a room on the fifth floor, as spent bullet casings were found there. The gun has not been found.


Digital media firm BuzzFeed joins Verizon in trimming workforce, cuts 15% of jobs

Abstract: NEW YORK - Digital media company BuzzFeed is cutting 15 percent of its jobs, or about 200 people, to trim costs and become profitable. BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti wrote employees Wednesday that the layoffs will help BuzzFeed avoid having to raise money from investors again. The privately held company has not been profitable for several years. It has raised hundreds of millions from such investors as Comcast’s NBCUniversal. The New York company is best known for its viral posts and quizzes, and has a well-regarded news division. Many digital media companies have cut jobs or sold off in recent years as Facebook and Google gobble up the bulk of digital advertising dollars. Verizon also said Wednesday that it is cutting about 800 jobs in its media division, which includes Yahoo and HuffPost.

digital media
buzzfeed
verizon
jobs
yahoo
huffpost


Local upstart Luckin Coffee takes on U.S. rival Starbucks in China

Abstract: BEIJING - When Starbucks came to China two decades ago, it promised to open a new store every 15 hours. Now a homegrown rival, Luckin Coffee, plans to build a high-tech shop every 3½ hours to dethrone the U.S. giant. The Chinese upstart is burning through millions of dollars to lure customers with steep discounts, challenging Starbucks’ dominance by targeting office workers and students who prefer to have their java on the go or delivered to their doorstep. While Starbucks and British rival Costa Coffee offer lounging spaces for people to work or meet friends, most Luckin outlets are more like “delivery kitchens.” The shops often are no bigger than a studio apartment, with no tables, display counters or even cash registers because all payments are made using mobile phones. Luckin’s no-frills approach means customers pay about a third less for a cup compared to global brands. A tall latte costs 31 yuan (around $5) at Starbucks but only 24 yuan at Luckin. Customers who walk into one of Luckin’s blue-and-white outlets need only spend a few minutes there to scan a code and pay for their coffee, which has been pre-ordered through the company’s smartphone app. “I like the convenience. There are no long lines or having to sit alone while your coffee is brewed,” said Yu Qian, a financial analyst in Beijing. “The coffee itself is a little sweeter, more like the sweet milk tea that is popular in China.” Luckin’s aggressive strategy mirrors tactics used by other Chinese startups that have dislodged Western brands from one of the world’s top consumer markets. “The big advantage for us of having pickup stores versus the big stores is that in terms of rental costs, we pay significantly less than our competitors,” said Luckin’s chief strategy officer, Reinout Schakel. After only a year in business, the company announced plans this month to open 2,500 outlets by the end of the year, which would push its total store strength to 4,500. By comparison, Starbucks has some 3,600 stores across the country. The U.S. behemoth has an 80 percent stake in China’s $3.4 billion coffee-shop market, according to research group Euromonitor. But Schakel sees room for growth. Chinese consumers currently drink just four to five cups of coffee per year, compared to about 300 cups in Japan or South Korea, which were also traditionally tea-drinking markets, he said. After the United States, China is Starbucks’ fastest-growing market and its second-biggest. Its Reserve Roastery in Shanghai, which opened in late 2017, is the company’s biggest store in the world. But it was a latecomer to China’s huge food delivery industry. The Seattle-based company partnered with Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba’s delivery service ele.me only after Luckin started eating into its market share in July. “Our delivery service today covers more than 2,000 stores across 30 cities, within three months of its launch,” said Derek Ng, communications director for Starbucks China. Competition has also prompted Starbucks to focus on its more upmarket Reserve brand of rarer coffees from around the world, said Hu Yuwan, an analyst at Daxue Consulting in Shanghai. But the U.S. chain has recently started doing discounts, Hu said, adding that the coffee rivalry reminded her of the discount wars between Uber and its local rival Didi Chuxing, which later dislodged the American ride-hailing giant from the Chinese market. Schakel — who is also Luckin’s chief financial officer — says the startup can afford to burn money to grab market share over the next few years. “Are we competing with Starbucks? Probably to some extent. We don’t care whether the demand is coming from new coffee drinkers or from Starbucks coffee drinkers,” he said. Luckin’s caffeine-fueled expansion has been funded by investors including Centurium Capital, a private equity fund founded by the former China head of Warburg Pincus, and GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. The company raised about $400 million in two rounds of funding last year and says it has been valued at $2.2 billion, making it the first coffee unicorn — a privately held startup worth over $1 billion — to come out of China. Schakel declined to comment on rumors that Luckin is seeking a listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. But China’s landscape is littered with startups that have gone belly-up after bleeding money on discounts and aggressive advertising. “Am I worried whether we are going to go down that path? Absolutely not,” Schakel said. “Even if we sell our products at a discount at the right scale, (it can) be profitable.”


Airbus CEO warns it could move U.K. operations in event of 'no-deal' Brexit

Abstract: LONDON - The chief executive of Airbus warned Thursday that the aviation giant could move its U.K. operations out of Britain if the country leaves the European Union without a deal on trade relations, in one of the starkest assessments yet of the economic impact of a “no-deal” Brexit. CEO Tom Enders said Brexit threatened to destroy a century of development in the Britain’s world-leading aviation industry. Business leaders have expressed growing frustration at the lack of progress in securing a Brexit deal before Britain’s scheduled March 29 exit from the bloc. Last week British lawmakers threw out the divorce deal Prime Minister Theresa May had struck with the EU, and attempts to find a replacement are gridlocked. U.K. firms are bracing for disruption amid fears that a no-deal Brexit will cause economic chaos by eliminating trade agreements and imposing tariffs, customs checks and other barriers between the U.K. and the EU, its biggest trading partner. “Aerospace is a long-term business and we could be forced to re-direct future investments in the event of a no-deal Brexit,” Enders said. “And make no mistake there are plenty of countries out there who would love to build the wings for Airbus aircraft.” Airbus has more than 14,000 employees in Britain — with 110,000 more working in jobs supported by Airbus programs — as well as some £6 billion ($7.83 billion) in annual turnover. “Please don’t listen to the Brexiteers’ madness which asserts that, because we have huge plants here, we will not move and we will always be here,” Enders said in a statement released by Airbus. “They are wrong.” Warnings from businesses have grown louder in recent days, but the Airbus comments are notable because of the tone — and the pointed reference about a willingness to pull up stakes and go. The Bank of England has said that in a worst-case scenario, a sudden Brexit with no deal on future relations, could trigger a recession, with Britain’s economy shrinking 8 percent within months as unemployment and inflation soar. The British government is split between ministers who think leaving without a deal would be manageable and those who believe it must be avoided at all costs. U.K. Treasury chief Philip Hammond — who falls into the latter category — said that during Britain’s 2016 EU membership referendum, voters had been promised “that they were voting for a more prosperous future” by choosing to leave the EU. Addressing a meeting at the World Economic Forum gathering in Davos, Switzerland, Hammond said that “leaving without a deal would undermine our future prosperity, and would … represent a betrayal of the promises that were made.” Since her Brexit deal was rejected by Parliament last week, May has been holding talks with government and opposition politicians, business representatives and trade union leaders. But she has shown little appetite for radically altering her Brexit plan, or lifting her insistence that Brexit means leaving the EU’s single market and customs union. Instead, she hopes to win lawmakers’ backing for her deal after securing changes from the EU to a contentious measure designed to ensure an open border between EU member Ireland and the U.K.’s Northern Ireland. EU leaders insist they won’t renegotiate the withdrawal agreement. “A deal that doesn’t give us a legally binding workable guarantee that there won’t be a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland is a deal in name only,” Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Thursday. “And that’s not something that we could accept.” “The truth is nobody can know for sure what will happen in a no-deal scenario,” Varadkar said in Davos. “That’s why we’ve worked so hard over the past two years to put together a withdrawal agreement, a withdrawal agreement that gives everyone a transition period to adjust to any permanent changes that may take place.” Britain’s divided Parliament is set to vote Tuesday on May’s proposal — and on rival plans, including attempts by groups of legislators to delay Britain’s exit and to rule out a “no-deal” Brexit. May’s government has rejected both ideas, but a growing number of lawmakers believe Britain will have to ask the EU to delay Brexit past March 29 to solve the Brexit impasse. “It is a disgrace that more than two years after the result of the 2016 referendum, businesses are still unable to plan properly for the future,” Enders said. “And we, along with many of our peers, have repeatedly called for clarity. But we still have no idea what is really going on here.”

airbus
no-deal
brexit
tom enders
theresa may
u.k .


Airlines say U.S. shutdown pushing aviation system to 'tipping point'

Abstract: DALLAS/WASHINGTON - U.S. airline bosses are stepping up their criticism of the partial government shutdown, warning that the closing threatens to snarl air travel as it drags into its 34th day. “We are close to a tipping point as employees are about to miss a second paycheck,” JetBlue Airways Corp. Chief Executive Officer Robin Hayes said on a conference call Thursday with analysts and investors. “The longer this goes on, the longer it will take for the nation’s air travel system to rebound.” CEOs at larger carriers backed him up, with American Airlines Group Inc.’s Doug Parker warning of “long lines” and “delayed airspace.” Southwest Airlines Co. said it lost out on as much as $15 million (¥1.6 billion) in sales this month because of the shutdown. “We’d be crazy not to be concerned about this,” Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said in an interview. “Common sense tells us the longer this goes on, the more problems are likely.” The Federal Aviation Administration said it hadn’t seen any impact on air traffic control in the last few weeks. “We have not observed any appreciable difference in performance over the last several weeks compared to the same periods during the previous two years,” the FAA said in a statement. The rising alarm from airline CEOs echoed complaints this week from unions representing pilots, flight attendants and air-traffic controllers. “We have a growing concern for the safety and security of our members, our airlines, and the traveling public due to the government shutdown,” a union coalition said in a statement late Wednesday. “Air traffic controllers, transportation security officers, safety inspectors, air marshals, federal law enforcement officers, FBI agents, and many other critical workers have been working without pay for over a month,” the coalition said. The statement was released by the Air Line Pilots Association, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

airlines
air traffic controllers
pilots
security
flight routes
u.s. government shutdown


Hitachi boss says nationalization is 'only path' to save Wales nuclear plant project

Abstract: LONDON - Hitachi’s frozen nuclear power project in Britain can only be revived if it is nationalized, the Nikkei business paper reported the company’s chairman as saying on Wednesday. “Nationalization is the only path,” Hiroaki Nakanishi was quoted as saying at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos. But he added that legal changes would be required for the British government to take a majority stake in the business to fill a funding gap left by the private sector. The chairman said private investors had little appetite to support the power plant after seeing similar projects around the world stall, the Nikkei reported. Hitachi last week froze construction of the Wylfa Newydd plant in Wales due to financing difficulties. It had launched the project after acquiring U.K.-based Horizon Nuclear Power in 2012. The U.K. government had agreed to take a one-third equity stake in the project, alongside investment from Hitachi, Japanese government agencies and other strategic partners. Fundraising efforts subsequently fell short, however. Britain has put nuclear power at the heart of its low-carbon energy policy, in stark contrast to Europe’s biggest economy Germany, which is phasing it out in the wake of Japan’s 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Last year, Hitachi’s Japanese rival, Toshiba, also pulled the plug on a nuclear power plant project in northwest England. The Franco-Chinese project Hinkley Point C — Britain’s first new nuclear power station in a generation — is still under construction, however. British anti-nuclear campaigners have long denounced London’s steadfast commitment to nuclear, urging it to focus instead on renewable sources such as wind and solar. “A clever move now would be for the government to accept that the nuclear bet didn’t pay off, stop holding back renewables and have an urgent rethink about the future of U.K. energy,” Doug Parr, chief scientist for Greenpeace U.K., said earlier.

hitachi
nuclear plant
hiroaki nakanishi
davos
germany
fukushima nuclear disaster
toshiba
u.k .
wef


George Soros warns of China's use of AI to control citizens, calling Xi Jinping 'most dangerous' foe of open societies

Abstract: NEW YORK - Billionaire George Soros warned of the dangers of artificial intelligence in the hands of authoritarian regimes such as China and called the country’s president, Xi Jinping, “the most dangerous” opponent of open societies. “The instruments of control developed by artificial intelligence give an inherent advantage of totalitarian regimes over open societies,” the former hedge fund manager said Thursday at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Soros said China is developing a centralized database that will use algorithms to determine whether a person poses a threat to the one-party system. Soros, 88, has become a lightning rod for his political views and philanthropic efforts. A longtime supporter and financial backer of progressive causes and Democratic politicians, he’s become a target of right-wing activists. In October, an apparent explosive device was discovered at his suburban New York home. At last year’s Davos conference, Soros maligned cryptocurrencies and lashed out at social media giants Facebook Inc. and Google, comparing them to gambling companies that foster addiction among users. He said such firms exploit the data they control and called them a “menace” to society that need more oversight. In 2011, Soros returned outside investors’ money and converted his firm into a family office — investing solely on behalf of himself, his family members and the Open Society Foundations, a worldwide network of philanthropies that promotes the rule of law and economic advancement.

george soros
china
ai
xi jinping
davos
surveillance


U.S. universities unplug from China's Huawei under pressure from Trump's national security law

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO - Top U.S. universities are ditching telecommunications equipment made by Huawei Technologies and other Chinese companies to avoid losing federal funding under a new national security law backed by the Trump administration. U.S. officials allege Chinese telecom manufacturers are producing equipment that allows their government to spy on users abroad, including Western researchers working on leading-edge technologies. Beijing and the Chinese companies have repeatedly denied such claims. The University of California at Berkeley has removed a Huawei videoconferencing system, a university official said; the UC campus in Irvine is working to replace five pieces of Chinese-made audio-video equipment. Other schools, such as the University of Wisconsin, are in the process of reviewing their suppliers. UC San Diego has gone a step further. The university in August said that, for at least six months, it would not accept funding from or enter into agreements with Huawei, ZTE Corp. and other Chinese audio-video equipment providers, according to an internal memo. The document said the moratorium would last through Feb. 12, when the university would revisit its options. These actions, not previously reported, signal universities’ efforts to distance themselves from Chinese companies that for years have supplied them with technical equipment and sponsored academic research, but which are now in the cross-hairs of the Trump administration. The moves are a response to the National Defense Authorization Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law in August. A provision of that legislation bans recipients of federal funding from using telecommunications equipment, video recording services and networking components made by Huawei or ZTE. Also on the blacklist are Chinese audio-video equipment providers Hikvision, Hytera, Dahua Technology and their affiliates. U.S. authorities fear the equipment makers will leave a back door open to Chinese military and government agents seeking information. U.S. universities that fail to comply with the NDAA by August 2020 risk losing federal research grants and other government funding. That would be a blow to public institutions such as the sprawling University of California system, whose state funding has been slashed repeatedly over the last decade. In the 2016-2017 academic year, the UC system received $9.8 billion in federal money. Nearly $3 billion of that went to research, accounting for about half of all the university’s research expenditures that year, according to UC budget documents. The new law is part of a broader Trump administration strategy to counter what it sees as China’s growing threat to U.S. economic competitiveness and national security. The president has slapped tariffs on a slew of Chinese goods and made it tougher for foreign companies to purchase minority stakes in U.S. tech companies, causing Chinese investment in Silicon Valley to plunge. In addition, Trump last year signed legislation prohibiting the U.S. government from buying certain telecom and surveillance equipment from Huawei and ZTE. And he is considering a similar ban on Chinese equipment purchases by U.S. companies. At the center of the storm is Huawei, a global behemoth in smartphones and telecom networking equipment. The company’s chief financial officer has been under house arrest in Canada since December for allegedly lying about Huawei’s ties to Iran. Another Huawei employee was arrested this month in Poland on espionage allegations. U.S. universities have already felt the sting of Trump’s China policies. The State Department shortened the length of visas for certain Chinese graduate students. And the administration is considering new restrictions on Chinese students entering the United States. Chinese students are by far the largest group of international students in the United States and provide a lucrative source of revenue for universities. Pressure to dump Huawei and other Chinese telecom suppliers is adding to the strain. In addition to the University of Wisconsin, half a dozen institutions, including UC Los Angeles, UC Davis and the University of Texas at Austin, said they were in the process of reviewing their telecommunications equipment or had already done so and determined they were compliant with the NDAA. But Huawei is more than an equipment vendor. It participates in research programs, often as a sponsor, at dozens of schools, including UC San Diego, the University of Texas, the University of Maryland and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. In addition to an explicit equipment ban, the NDAA calls for creating regulations that would limit research partnerships and other agreements universities have with China. The law requires the secretary of defense to work with universities on ways to guard against intellectual property theft and create new regulations aimed at protecting academics from exploitation by foreign countries. Universities that fail to comply with those rules risk losing Defense Department funding. UC San Diego highlighted this section of the law in a campus newsletter in September. Fears of a more rigorous crackdown from Washington would seem to be justified. In June, 26 members of Congress sent a letter to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, sounding an alarm over Huawei’s research partnerships with more than 50 U.S. universities that “may pose a significant threat to national security.” The lawmakers called on DeVos to require universities to turn over information on those agreements. Separately, a White House report from June points to a research partnership on artificial intelligence between UC Berkeley and Huawei as a potential opening for China to gather intelligence that could serve Beijing’s military and strategic ambitions. That partnership started in 2016. UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said the university does not participate in research involving trade secrets. He said the school only enters research partnerships whose findings can be published publicly. Such open-source research is not subject to federal regulations. Mogulof said UC Berkeley has no plans to change any of the research partnerships it has with Huawei. The company is involved in at least five UC Berkeley research initiatives, including autonomous driving, augmented reality and wireless technology, in addition to artificial intelligence. Still, a person with knowledge of the matter said that the university’s relationship with Huawei had “cooled” and that some Berkeley researchers are choosing not to proceed with their research agreements with the company to avoid scrutiny from university and government officials. The chill is spreading. The United Kingdom’s Oxford University this month cut ties with Huawei, announcing it would no longer accept funding for research or philanthropic donations. “The decision has been taken in the light of public concerns raised in recent months surrounding U.K. partnerships with Huawei,” a university spokesman said in a statement.


Tokyo stocks bounce back as high-tech shares surge

Abstract: The Nikkei average rebounded sharply Friday after getting a lift from heavy buying of high-tech shares. The 225-issue Nikkei average soared 198.93 points, or 0.97 percent, to end at 20,773.56 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. On Thursday, the key market gauge closed 19.09 points lower. The Topix index of all first-section issues closed up 13.50 points, or 0.87 percent, at 1,566.10. It gained 5.57 points the previous day. Heavy purchases were seen for Tokyo Electron and other semiconductor-related issues following their U.S. counterparts’ robust performances Thursday, market sources said. Japanese chip-linked names “attracted buybacks after their recent falls,” an official at a bank-linked securities firm said. Hiroaki Kuramochi, chief market analyst at Saxo Bank Securities Ltd., expressed his view that the dollar’s firmness versus the yen prompted futures-linked stock buying and purchases of export-oriented names. Ryuta Otsuka, strategist at the investment information department of Toyo Securities Co., attributed Friday’s advance to buying by short-term players. “I guess domestic institutional investors refrained from buying prior to the release of earnings reports” by major Japanese firms next week, Otsuka added. Volume increased to 1.330 billion shares from Thursday’s 1.149 billion shares. Gainers far outnumbered losers 1,337 to 697 in the TSE’s first section, while 93 issues were unchanged. Tokyo Electron ended 4.68 percent higher. Its peers Sumco, Shin-Etsu Chemical and Advantest also surged. Chemical producer Asahi Kasei was upbeat on expectations for a possible share buyback, brokers said. Also on the plus side were clothing store chain operator Fast Retailing and cosmetics producer Shiseido. By contrast, optical equipment producer Olympus and drugmaker Astellas met with selling. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key March contract on the Nikkei average jumped 220 points to 20,780.

stocks
nikkei
tokyo stock exchange
topix