U.S. Treasury chief says 2020 deadline for Tubman $20 bill not possible

Abstract: Washington - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Friday called “completely erroneous” a published report that an initial 2020 deadline for completing the design of a $20 bill featuring Harriett Tubman could have been met. Mnuchin told a congressional committee last month that the redesign of the $20 bill featuring Tubman, a 19th century abolitionist leader, had to be delayed. But The New York Times on Friday published an image of a $20 bill featuring Tubman that it said it had obtained from a former Treasury Department official. The image depicts the bill featuring Tubman in a dark coat with a wide collar and a white scarf. The newspaper said the design process was far enough along that the Trump administration likely could have met the original 2020 deadline. Mnuchin and officials at the department’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing rejected this assertion. “As secretary, my first responsibility is to ensure all security and anti-counterfeiting measures are properly taken in accordance with BEP’s mandates,” Mnuchin said in a statement. “The suggestion that this process is being stalled is completely erroneous.” Bureau of Engraving and Printing Director Len Olijar said that the government had not “scrapped” any earlier design and that all options remained on the table. He said the design published by the newspaper was not a new $20 note because it lacked the new security features that the government plans to include. “There is nothing about that illustration that even begins to meet technical requirements for the next family of notes,” Olijar said in his statement. He said the bureau’s plan was always been to redesign the $10 and $50 bills first. In testimony last month before a House committee, Mnuchin had said that officials believe it is important for security reasons to redesign the $10 and $50 bills first. He said the redesigned $20 bill will now have to wait until 2028, with decisions on the final design, including who will be featured, not being announced until 2026. Two Democrat senators said they were not satisfied with the explanations being given by the Trump administration. During the 2016 campaign, Trump criticized the Obama administration’s decision to put Tubman on the $20, calling it an act of “pure political correctness” and saying he wanted to see the nation’s seventh president, Andrew Jackson, a Trump hero, remain on the $20. The announcement to replace Jackson with Tubman, famous for her efforts to spirit slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad, was made by Obama Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, who said the redesign should be completed in time to coincide with the 100th anniversary in 2020 of the passage of the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote. Two Democratic senators on Friday said they were not satisfied with the explanation Mnuchin has given for missing the 2020 deadline. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the sponsor of legislation to put Tubman on the $20 bill, said “the Trump administration has no excuses left for its needless delay of the redesign of the $20 bill.” Sen. Ron Wyden said: “Rather than technical delays, it appears the administration simply does not want to see an African-American woman placed on our currency. Congress needs answers about how far along the redesign was before Secretary Mnuchin blocked it.”

currency
ethnicity
donald trump
harriet tubman
steve mnuchin


Giant leap for womankind: Who will be the first female moonwalker?

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Who will take the giant leap for womankind? More than 50 years after the end of the Apollo program, NASA plans to return to the moon by 2024 to test the next generation of spacecraft ahead of an eventual crewed mission to Mars. The new program has been named Artemis after Apollo’s twin sister in Greek mythology, and the space agency has said that the mission will also carry the first woman to stride the lunar surface. So, who will she be? No one knows for sure, but it is a likely bet the candidate will be selected from among NASA’s current roster of 12 female astronauts. They are between 40 and 53 years old and are former military pilots, medical doctors and scientists who were picked from among thousands of applicants since the late 1990s. Predicting who will join Neil Armstrong in the annals of history isn’t an exact science, but several former astronauts and experts say the proximity of the deadline means it probably won’t be a new recruit. “Now, personally, I’d be OK with flying a rookie astronaut to the moon,” said former astronaut Eileen Collins, who flew and commanded space shuttles in the 1990s and 2000s. “But if you have enough astronauts who have already flown, they know how they’re going to react in space. Some go up there and they have symptoms that might interfere with their ability to do the work. But you don’t know who that is.” Ken Bowersox, a senior official at NASA, agreed. “I think it will be better to send people who have had at least one flight,” he said. That objective will be easier than ever before because there have never been so many female astronauts. When NASA was first established in 1958, it only recruited from the military, which was at the time exclusively male. All 12 moonwalkers between 1969 and 1972 were men, and it wasn’t until 1983 that Sally Ride became the first American woman sent to space. The four women of the 21st class of astronauts, recruited in 2013, represent a good mix of youth and experience. Currently between the ages of 40 and 41, they will all have made their first space forays between now and 2020. Anne McClain, an ex-army helicopter pilot, will be on the International Space Station until the end of June. Well spoken, with a self-assured gaze and a light smile, she embodies the ineffable “right stuff” of NASA’s early recruits. Also currently in the ISS is Christina Koch, an engineer and passionate mountain climber. She will soon beat the record for the longest time a woman has been in space, at 11 months. Back in March, the pair almost conducted the first all-female spacewalk, but a lack of a proper fitting spacesuit meant McClain had to give her place up for her male colleague Nick Hague. “I think Christina Koch or Anne McClain would be my two top picks,” said Janet Ivey, the presenter of a children’s show on space and a governor of the National Space Society. But their two female colleagues from the same class, Jessica Meir, a marine biologist who specializes in penguins and geese, and former F/A 18 fighter pilot Nicole Mann, who flew in Iraq and Afghanistan, are also highly qualified. They are both in the middle of their training to go to the space station. In a 2016 interview, all four declared themselves ready to go to Mars if the opportunity presented itself. It is hard to imagine them turning down a trip to the moon. There is no upper age limit for space. The iconic John Glenn made his last flight at the age of 77 as a U.S. senator. There is nothing, therefore, excluding the highly experienced Sunita Williams, who is preparing for her third space mission and will be 58 in 2024 — especially since NASA has long “appreciated the leadership skills that came along with test pilots,” according to Kent Romninger, the former chief of the astronaut office from 2002 to 2006. “Suni,” as she is known, has piloted about 30 different aircraft in her military career. Two other women, Serena Aunon-Chancellor and Kate Rubins, have also flown to space recently. The other five haven’t flown since 2010 but remain on active duty. There are five women in the 2017 batch, but they have yet to complete their initial training. They are not ruled out yet, but the calendar isn’t on their side — especially since NASA tends to stick to a cycle of astronauts once their order is set, says Michael Lopez-Alegria, a former astronaut who spent 20 years with the agency. When it comes down to the final call, though, the process “is fairly opaque,” he conceded. In Houston, the chief astronaut will be keen to build a team whose profiles will be complementary, a mix of ex-military and scientific backgrounds, and of different personalities. The mission foresees a four-member crew, two of whom will walk the moon. Why not have two women?

moon nasa space history women astronomy planets anniversaries


WHO panel decides not to declare an international Ebola emergency, citing economic harm

Abstract: GENEVA - A World Health Organization panel decided on Friday not to declare an international emergency over Congo’s Ebola outbreak despite its spread to Uganda earlier in the week, concluding such a declaration could cause too much economic harm. Congo’s epidemic is the second-worst ever, with 2,108 cases of Ebola and 1,411 deaths since last August. It has now reached Uganda, where three cases were recorded, all in people who had arrived from Congo. Two of them died. In a statement, the panel of 13 independent medical experts on the WHO’s Emergency Committee urged neighboring “at risk” countries to improve their preparedness for detecting and managing imported cases, “as Uganda has done.” “This is not a global emergency, it is an emergency in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a severe emergency and it may affect neighboring counties,” Dr. Preben Aavitsland, the panel’s acting chair, told a news conference at the U.N. agency’s headquarters in Geneva. “It was the view of the Committee that there is really nothing to gain by declaring a PHEIC (Public Health Emergency of International Concern), but there is potentially a lot to lose.” Such a declaration would risk creating restrictions on travel or trade “that could severely harm the economy in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” Aavitsland said. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, speaking by telephone from Kampala, said, “The spread of Ebola to Uganda is a new development, but the fundamental dynamics of the outbreak haven’t changed.” Ugandan authorities have now drawn up a list of 98 contacts, or contacts of contacts, potentially exposed to the Ebola virus, of whom 10 are considered “high risk,” said Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s emergencies program. Vaccination of those contacts and health workers with a Merck experimental vaccine is to start on Saturday, he said. Some medical groups had urged the committee to declare an emergency which would have led to boosting public health measures, funding and resources. Lawrence Gostin, a global health law professor at Georgetown University Law School, voiced disappointment that the panel had failed to declare an emergency for the third time. “The @WHO was criticized for delay in declaring a PHEIC in W Africa. Will its failure in DRC affect legitimacy?” Gostin tweeted. He said he admired the panel members but disagreed with their conclusion. Only four emergencies have been declared in the past decade, including the worst ever Ebola outbreak, which hit West Africa in 2014-2016. The others were an influenza pandemic in 2009, polio in 2014 and the Zika virus in 2016. Ryan told Reuters on Friday that there had been no sign of local transmission of Ebola virus in Uganda. “No evidence yet. … But we’re not out of the woods yet,” he said, noting that the incubation period is up to 21 days.


Brazilian judge absolves Bolsonaro's knife attacker because of mental illness

Abstract: RIO DE JANEIRO - A Brazilian judge on Friday absolved the man who stabbed then-presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro in his torso last year, citing his mental illness and ordering him held indefinitely in a prison mental facility. Adelio Bispo de Oliveira has been in police custody since Sept. 6 when he was accused of stabbing Bolsonaro while he was campaigning in the streets of Juiz de Fora, a city 115 miles (186 kilometers) north of Rio de Janeiro. The blade pierced the candidate’s intestine and put his life in danger. The attacker was beaten badly by Bolsonaro supporters after the stabbing. Police said Bispo confessed to the attack and Bolsonaro went on to win the presidential election. On Friday, judge Bruno Savino ruled that Bispo’s preventive detention should be converted into an indefinite internment in a mental facility within the federal prison system. “The hospitalization will last for an indefinite period until medical experts have proven that he is no longer dangerous,” Savino said in a statement from the federal justice system in Minas Gerais state. The judge had already declared the attacker could not be jailed because he was mentally ill on May 27, so the ruling had been expected. Bolsonaro said he will appeal the decision. “Now, if Adelio wanted to say who paid him to try to kill me, it would have no legal value because he is crazy,” the far-right president told O Globo newspaper. “They tried to assassinate me. I believe I know who it was, but I cannot say because I do not want to prejudge anyone.” The judge ruled that Bispo must complete his hospitalization within federal prison system to minimize the risk of an escape and another attack. He said that during his examination by experts he said he intended to attack Bolsonaro again as well as former President Michel Temer. At the moment of the attack, Bolsonaro was on the shoulders of a supporter, looking out at the crowd and giving a thumbs up with one hand. He was already leading polls with his pro-gun and anti-corruption agenda, while drawing widespread criticism for several racist and homophobic comments.

mental illness
jair bolsonaro
brazil
assaults


Iran is far from hitting cap on enriched uranium, diplomats say

Abstract: VIENNA - Iran has multiplied the speed at which it enriches uranium but it is still far from the maximum rate possible under its nuclear deal with major powers, meaning it would be months before production ceilings are hit, diplomats who follow it say. Against a backdrop of rising tensions with the United States, which pulled out of the 2015 deal a year ago and has since imposed ever more punishing economic sanctions against Tehran, Iran has stayed within the deal’s key limits while threatening to discard at least some of them. Since it withdrew from the deal, Washington has reinstated its sanctions against Tehran and added new ones in a bid to isolate the Islamic Republic — an effort Iran calls “economic terrorism.” Iran’s response has included accelerating uranium enrichment, which is allowed under the deal but shortens the time in which it will reach the deal’s cap on its stock of enriched uranium. Inspectors from the U.N. atomic watchdog, which is policing the deal’s nuclear restrictions, told member states a week ago that Iran has accelerated its uranium enrichment to around 12 kg a month, roughly three times the previous rate, diplomats who attended the quarterly technical briefing said. The watchdog’s chief Yukiya Amano confirmed the acceleration this past week but declined to elaborate. If it continues producing at that rate, Iran is likely to hit the deal’s 202.8 kg limit on its enriched uranium stock in around two months. Its stock was 174.1 kg on May 20, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency’s last quarterly report said. A new mode of operation enabling the acceleration was observed on May 22, the IAEA told member states, according to diplomats who attended. Exceeding the uranium cap at the heart of the deal would prompt a diplomatic crisis, forcing the other signatories to confront Iran. European powers have scrambled to do what little they can to shield Iran from U.S. sanctions in a bid to convince it not to abandon the deal and ramp up its nuclear activities. Iran could still produce enriched uranium much faster even without breaching the deal, which was aimed at extending the time Iran would need to produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon if it chose to. Diplomats in Vienna who monitor its progress closely say Iran is capable of hitting the uranium ceiling in as little as 10 days, which shows the latest acceleration is relatively moderate. “They could really put a knife to our throats,” one diplomat said, referring to the pressure that would put on other signatories to respond. What Iran plans to do is unclear, but the IAEA told member states that Tehran is also on course to hit another of the deal’s limits, on heavy water, a material less directly linked to proliferation than enriched uranium, in mid- to late August, diplomats say. But the points at which Iran is set to hit the uranium and heavy water limits are later than the date in early July by which Iran has said its economy must be shielded properly from U.S. sanctions or it will enrich uranium to a higher level than the 3.67 percent allowed by the deal. European powers have already said they reject such “ultimatums.”

iran
nuclear weapons
nuclear power
iran nuclear deal


U.S. Treasury chief on solid ground in withholding Trump tax returns, Justice Department says

Abstract: WASHINGTON - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin did not violate the law by refusing to provide President Donald Trump’s tax returns to Congress because the confidentiality of returns is protected under the law, the Justice Department said in a legal opinion released Friday. Federal law “protecting confidentiality of tax returns prohibited the Department of the Treasury from complying with a request by the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee for the president’s tax returns,” a department official said in the opinion provided to the Treasury Department. The memorandum from Assistant Attorney General Steven Engel, who heads the Office of Legal Counsel, supports the position already taken by the Treasury Department. It is likely to draw fire from Democrats in Congress who have argued the legal reasoning is misguided. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal had issued a subpoena demanding the administration turn over six years of Trump’s returns. He has said he is likely to try to enforce the subpoena by going to court. The administration has been refusing to cooperate with a number of congressional probes of Trump, his family and his presidency, with the fight over his tax returns just one example. “While the Executive Branch should accord due deference and respect to congressional requests, Treasury was not obliged to accept the committee’s stated purpose without question, and based on all the facts and circumstances, we agreed that the committee lacked a legitimate legislative purpose for its request,” Engel wrote. A spokesman for Neal had no immediate comment on the opinion.

taxes
donald trump
congress
u.s .
steve mnuchin


White House aides Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner made as much as $135 million last year

Abstract: NEW YORK - Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner took in as much as $135 million in revenue during their second year as aides to President Donald Trump, generated by their vast real estate holdings, stocks and bonds and even a book deal, according to their financial disclosures released Friday. Ivanka Trump’s stake in her family’s Washington, D.C., hotel down the street from the Oval Office generated $3.95 million in revenue in 2018, barely changed from a year earlier. The hotel, a favorite gathering spot for foreign diplomats and lobbyists, is at the center of two federal lawsuits claiming Donald Trump is violating the Constitution’s ban on foreign government payments to the president. Another big Ivanka Trump holding, a trust that includes her personal business selling handbags, shoes and accessories, generated at least $1 million in revenue in 2018, down from at least $5 million the year before. Ivanka Trump announced in July of last year that she planned to close her fashion company to focus on her work as a White House adviser for her father. The disclosure for her husband, Jared Kushner, shows that he took in hundreds of thousands of dollars from his holdings of New York City apartments and that he owns a stake in the real estate investment firm Cadre worth at least $25 million. The disclosures released by the White House and filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics show minimum revenue for the couple of $28 million last year generated from assets valued at more than $180 million. The disclosures filed by federal government officials each year show revenue, assets and debts in broad ranges between low and high estimates, making it difficult to precisely chart the rise and fall of business and financial holdings. Among the dozens of sources of income for Ivanka Trump was a $263,500 book advance for “Women Who Work: Rewriting the Rules for Success,” published in 2017. Trump has pledged to donate royalties to her charitable fund. Kushner’s holdings of apartment buildings through his family real estate firm, Kushner Cos., were the source of much of his income. Westminster Management, the family business overseeing its rental buildings, generated $1.5 million. Separately, one of the family’s marquee holdings, the iconic Puck Building in the Soho section of Manhattan, generated as much as $6 million in rent. Among other properties cited in the disclosure was a former warehouse-turned-luxury-condominium in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn that brought in more than $350,000 in sale proceeds and rent. Former and current tenants in the building have filed a suit against the Kushner Cos. alleging it used noisy, dusty construction to make living conditions unbearable in an effort to push them out so their apartments could be sold. The Kushner Cos. has said the suit is without merit. Cadre has also drawn conflict-of-interest questions. It launched a fund to take advantage of massive tax breaks by investing in downtrodden areas designated “Opportunity Zones,” a Trump administration program pushed by both Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. Also, this month the Guardian newspaper reported that Cadre has received $90 million in foreign funding from an opaque offshore vehicle since Kushner entered the White House. Kushner lawyer Abbe Lowell did not immediately respond to email and phone messages seeking comment. Kushner appears to have cut his debt. He had loans and lines of credit worth at least $27 million at the end of last year, down from a minimum value of $40 million the previous year. His lenders include Bank of America, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank. Deutsche Bank is also a major lender to President Trump’s company and has been subpoenaed by congressional investigators looking into his finances. Both Kushner and his wife took steps to distance themselves from their businesses before taking on their roles as unpaid White House advisers. Kushner stepped down as CEO of Kushner Cos. and sold stakes in many holdings, while Ivanka Trump similarly stepped away from executive roles at her companies.

ivanka trump
jared kushner
donald trump
wealth


Trump walks back foreign election dirt comments, says 'of course' he would tell FBI

Abstract: WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump shifted gears Friday on election interference, saying “of course” he would go to the FBI or the attorney general if a foreign power offered him dirt on an opponent. Trump’s new stance was a walk back — to a degree — after he set off a Washington firestorm earlier in the week by asserting he would not necessarily contact law enforcement if offered damaging material from an overseas source. But in his latest comments, the president still said he would look at the proffered information to see whether it was “incorrect.” “Of course, you have to look at it,” Trump said during a birthday appearance on “Fox and Friends.” He added: “But of course, you give it to the FBI or report it to the attorney general or somebody like that. You couldn’t have that happen with our country, and everybody understands that.” That was a step back from his comments to ABC days earlier. “OK, let’s put yourself in a position: You’re a congressman, somebody comes up and says, ‘Hey I have information on your opponent.’ Do you call the FBI? You don’t,” Trump said in an interview that aired Wednesday. “I’ll tell you what. I’ve seen a lot of things over my life. I don’t think in my whole life I’ve ever called the FBI.” His assertion that he would be open to accepting a foreign power’s help in his 2020 campaign alarmed Democrats, who condemned it as a call for further election interference while Republicans struggled to defend his comments. Asked by ABC News what he would do if Russia or another country offered him dirt on his election opponent, Trump said: “I think I’d want to hear it.” He added that he’d have no obligation to call the FBI. “There’s nothing wrong with listening.” Special counsel Robert Mueller painstakingly documented Russian efforts to boost Trump’s campaign and undermine that of his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. In a segment released Friday from the president’s interview earlier this week, Trump told ABC that “it doesn’t matter” what former White House counsel Don McGahn told investigators and that McGahn may have been confused when he told prosecutors he had been instructed to seek Mueller’s removal. McGahn was a crucial witness for Mueller, spending hours with investigators and offering detailed statements about episodes central to the special counsel’s investigation into possible obstruction of justice. McGahn described how Trump directed him to press the Justice Department for Mueller to be fired by insisting that he raise what the president perceived as the special counsel’s conflicts of interest. Trump denied that account, saying, “The story on that very simply, No. 1, I was never going to fire Mueller. I never suggested firing Mueller.” Asked why McGahn would have lied, Trump said, “Because he wanted to make himself look like a good lawyer. Or he believed it because I would constantly tell anybody that would listen — including you, including the media — that Robert Mueller was conflicted. Robert Mueller had a total conflict of interest.” Though Trump tried to cast doubt on McGahn’s credibility, it is clear from the Mueller report that investigators took seriously his statements, which in many instances were accompanied by contemporaneous notes, and relied on his account to paint a portrait of the president’s conduct. It is also doubtful that McGahn, a lawyer, would have had any incentive to make a misstatement given that lying to law enforcement is a crime and Mueller’s team charged multiple Trump aides with making false statements. Though Mueller’s investigation didn’t establish a criminal conspiracy between Russia and the president’s campaign, Trump repeatedly praised WikiLeaks in 2016 and at one point implored hackers to dig up dirt on Hillary Clinton, The role of Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., in organizing a 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer offering negative information on Clinton was a focus of Mueller’s probe into Russian meddling in the last presidential campaign. Trump Jr. spoke with the Senate Intelligence Committee for about three hours Wednesday to clarify an earlier interview with the committee’s staff.

elections
donald trump
democrats
republicans
russia
hacking
cyberattacks
2020 u.s. presidential election


Moldova caretaker resigns to end political crisis but demands an early vote

Abstract: CHISINAU - A caretaker government in Moldova on Friday announced its resignation in order to end a power struggle that has heightened political tensions in the impoverished ex-Soviet republic. But the administration dominated by the Democratic Party, which is led by the powerful oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc, also said it still considers the new Moldovan government to be illegal and that an early election should be held as the way out of the political crisis that followed months of stalemate after an inconclusive election in February. Moldova’s new coalition government was formed last weekend with the pro-Russia Socialist Party of President Igor Dodon and a pro-European ACUM group. But the Democrats — backed by Moldova’s Constitutional Court — have disputed the government’s legitimacy, claiming it was formed after a postelection deadline. The stalemate has triggered a power struggle that has raised fears of political instability in one of Europe’s poorest nations. “The Constitutional Court decisions are still standing and the new government will be an illegal one,” Democratic Party vice president Vladimir Cebotari said after announcing the government’s resignation. “Because of this we will most likely end up having early elections, the only solution to the current crisis.” “The Democratic Party remains open to dialogue,” he said. The party position was echoed by caretaker Prime Minister Pavel Filip who also pointed out that his government’s resignation doesn’t cancel the Constitutional Court’s ruling. The Constitutional Court had also suspended Dodon over his refusal to dissolve parliament and replaced him with Filip. Filip then ordered parliament to dismantle and called a snap election for September. But this was rejected by Dodon — Modova’s president since 2016 — and the new administration. Dodon described the outgoing government’s resignation Friday as a “small but symbolic victory.” He urged the Constitutional Court to revise what he described as “unlawful” decisions it had made. The new administration has insisted that the Constitutional Court is dominated by Democratic Party allies. New Prime Minister Maia Sandu expressed hope that the decision by the Democratic Party to concede defeat is “sincere.” She called for the resignation of the Constitutional Court judges and the country’s general prosecutor. “I have a message to the entire world: Moldova is finally free,” Sandu said. “And we would like to thank everybody, who helped us in these difficult times.” Corruption-plagued Moldova has been beset by political turmoil and has been an arena of rivalry between the West and Russia since it won independence after the 1991 collapse of Soviet Union.


20 years after Columbine mass shooting, a debate on bulldozing the school

Abstract: DENVER - Two decades after the name “Columbine” became synonymous with a school shooting, the suburban Denver community surrounding the school is debating whether it’s time to tear down a building that also became a beacon for people obsessed with the killings. School officials said the number of people trying to get close to or even inside the school reached record levels this year, the 20th anniversary of the 1999 attack that killed 13 people. People try to peek into the windows of the school library, mistaking it for the long-demolished room where most of the victims died, or ask people on campus how to take a tour. The buses full of tourists have mostly stopped over the years, but not the visitors. This year alone, security staff contacted more than 2,400 “unauthorized” people on Columbine’s campus. Then, a few days before the anniversary, a young woman described as obsessed with the attack flew to Colorado and bought a shotgun, killing only herself yet sparking lockdowns and new fears. School security has intercepted others with a similar infatuation with the crime and its teen perpetrators — so-called Columbiners. District security chief John McDonald can rattle off some of the most frightening instances of people who came to the campus: An Ohio couple later charged with planning a domestic terror attack; a Utah teen later arrested for a bombing plot against his school; and a Texas man apprehended at the school after he said he was filled by one of the shooter’s spirits and intended to “complete his mission.” “These people, they want the building,” McDonald said. “They want to experience it, to walk the halls … The only way we can stop that interest in the building is to move it. Otherwise they’re not going to stop coming.” But Columbine, named after Colorado’s state flower, represents more than one day to this suburban area southeast of Denver. Boisterous call-and-response chants of “We are Columbine” dominate school pep rallies and more solemn occasions including an April ceremony marking the anniversary. At the nearby memorial just over a crest named “Rebel Hill” for the school’s mascot, a plaque quotes an unnamed student: “You’re a Columbine Rebel for life and no one can ever take that away from you.” “It’s not just a building, it’s like a second home to us,” said Jenn Thompson, who as a 15-year-old huddled inside a science classroom during the attack. “It’s still standing 20 years later. It represents us, still standing 20 years later.” She hopes her own daughter, 8, can attend the school, which has a student body of about 1,700 pupils. The fates of mass shooting sites around the United States are varied. In Newtown, Connecticut, voters authorized the demolition of the Sandy Hook Elementary School building where 26 students and teachers were killed in 2012 and construction of a new school with the same name near the original site. The building where 17 people were killed in a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018 is also expected to be razed; there has been no public discussion about the school’s name. After a shooter killed 12 people inside an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater in 2012, the building reopened with a new name and auditoriums identified with letters rather than numbers. In Orlando, the owner of the Pulse nightclub plans to make the site into a museum and a memorial to the 49 people gunned down there in 2016. The discussion of Columbine’s future is likely to take months. An initial proposal would keep the school’s new library, which was built after the attack, and construct a new school on the existing campus but further from nearby streets to give security more room to intercept intruders. An online survey gauging community support will close this week. District officials will spend the summer reviewing and summarizing responses. If they decide to present a plan to the school board in August, its members will determine whether to put the estimated $60 million or $70 million expense on November ballots. Conversations with victims’ families, survivors and current staff convinced district officials that changing the school’s name was a nonstarter, said Jefferson County Public Schools Superintendent Jason Glass. “Until you’ve heard those thousands of people yelling ‘We are Columbine’ together, you don’t really get it,” he said. “The sense of pride is real.” Some of those closest to the shooting have changed their minds over the years on the best course of action. After the attack, Frank DeAngelis, then the school’s principal, met with the families of those killed, students and staff about their scarred building’s future. He said the majority felt demolishing it meant “the two killers had won.” So construction crews repaired the bullet holes, replaced broken glass and covered bloodstains and burns with fresh paint and flooring before classes resumed in the fall. The library was closed off and later torn down. Its former location became an airy atrium in the school’s cafeteria with a ceiling mural of an aspen tree canopy and 13 clouds — representing the dead. But after years of coping with unwanted visitors, DeAngelis, who retired in 2014, said he now supports the proposal to demolish and rebuild the school. “I think if we would have known or projected what was going to happen, we may have had a different discussion about going back into the building,” DeAngelis said. Retired English teacher Paula Reed said she initially balked at the idea of demolishing the building she worked in for 32 years. Her opinion shifted a few days later. “I never loved that building,” Reed said. “I loved the community, my kids, my colleagues. And their needs simply matter more than my sentimentality.”

mass shootings
schools
guns
u.s .
violence
children
history


Zimbabweans, feeling trapped, often have to wait months to get their hands on a new passport

Abstract: HARARE - With Zimbabwe’s economy in shambles and political tensions rising, leaving the country seems the best option for many who are desperate for jobs. But those dreams often end at the passport office, which does not have enough foreign currency to pay to import proper paper and ink. A passport now takes no less than a year to be issued. An emergency passport can take months amid a backlog of 280,000 applications, never mind recent ones. Zimbabweans at the main office in the capital, Harare, have taken to sleeping in line for any chance at being served the following day — and that’s just to submit an application. Several million Zimbabweans already left for neighboring South Africa and other countries during years of economic turmoil under former leader Robert Mugabe. The hardships have only deepened under current President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who took over after Mugabe’s forced resignation in late 2017. The new government’s slogan “austerity for prosperity” now has a bitter ring. Unemployment is rampant and inflation is at 75 percent, the highest since 2009, when Zimbabwe’s currency collapsed under the weight of hyperinflation. Rapid devaluation of the local currency against the U.S. dollar — also used as official currency — has seen basic items such as cooking oil changing prices several times a day. The health sector is collapsing, forcing those who can afford it to seek treatment abroad. At the passport office, the desperation to escape is all too clear. “Guys, it’s either we jump the queue or we will have to jump the border,” one teenager told a group of friends plotting to sneak to the front of the line. Another teen, 19-year-old Brian Ndlovu, said coming to the office makes him “feel like there is really no way out of this country. We are trapped.” The teens’ plot to jump the queue failed, in large part because those at the front had camped there for days and knew each other by name. Emma Chirwa said she only reached the front of the line because she had been sleeping outside the office since June 5. “I was No. 34 on Friday. They served no one. On Thursday, they served 12 people,” she said, huddled in a blanket on Sunday night. In the biting cold of the Southern Hemisphere’s winter, dozens of people, including women with toddlers, slept on cardboard boxes or in the dust, holding their places. Around midnight, one man parked his motorbike and joined his wife in blankets on the line. People laughed. Some huddled around a fire of scrap wood taken from the grounds of an adjacent school. A small enterprise has emerged, with some young men holding places in the line for a fee. Others sell pens, food items and foreign currency while a generator powered a photocopy machine. By daylight, the line snaked for more than a kilometer and included school children in uniform. A preacher holding a Bible took advantage of the crowd to deliver sermons about resilience and hope. But for many, the spirit is slipping. For those seeking an emergency passport, the task requires multiple lines and a week of sleeping outside the office. One applies for an ordinary passport, then waits for a chance to upgrade the application to an emergency passport. Those who are booked for a date in 2020 have to join another line to plead for an earlier date. The delays are due to a lack of foreign currency to import special paper, ink and other materials, as well as machine breakdowns, according to the National Passport Agency’s registrar-general, Clemence Masango. The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, a government body, has described the passport crisis as “a major human rights challenge” and launched an investigation. In response, officials are promising change. “We have sourced the foreign currency, and the machine is now working, so the backlog will be cleared soon. We have to bring dignity to our people,” Home Affairs Minister Cain Mathema said Wednesday, vowing “a return to normalcy” in a month. But for those badly in need of a legal way out of Zimbabwe, such official statements count for little without action. In a busy, cramped corridor, people clutching envelopes waited in yet another line outside what they mockingly called the “mercy office.” It is where they plead with senior officials that their situations are dire enough for their emergency passport applications to be processed in days, not months. One woman said the date she can upgrade her passport application to an emergency one is May 2020. “My mother needs an urgent medical operation in India,” she said. “She will be dead by then.”

zimbabwe
passport
south africa
robert mugabe
emmerson mnangagwa


Strait of Hormuz: Key waterway is vulnerable and under pressure

Abstract: DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - The Strait of Hormuz, a strategically important waterway for the world’s seaborne oil transits, has been at the center of decades of regional tensions. In the latest incident, on Thursday two tankers came under attack in the Gulf of Oman, to the southeast of the strait. U.S. President Donald Trump, whose country is in an escalating standoff with Tehran, said the incident has Iran “written all over it.” Tehran denied involvement. The attacks came one month after four ships, including two Saudi oil tankers, were damaged in mysterious “sabotage attacks” off the United Arab Emirates. Here is some background on the strait, which Iran has repeatedly threatened to close in case of a military confrontation with the U.S. Gateway to the Persian Gulf The Strait of Hormuz links the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and is situated between Iran and Oman. It is vulnerable due to its narrowness — some 50 kilometers (30 miles) — and its depth of no more than 60 meters (200 feet). The corridor is dotted with sparsely inhabited or desert islands that are strategically important, notably the Iranian islands of Hormuz, Qeshm and Larak. Oman’s Mussandam Peninsula juts out to the Strait of Hormuz toward Iran, separated from the rest of the sultanate by United Arab Emirates territory. With their back to the UAE coast, the strategic and disputed islands of Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Mussa serve as observation posts of all the Persian Gulf coastline. Iran under the Western-backed shah gained control of the islands in 1971 as Britain granted independence to its Persian Gulf protectorates and withdrew its forces. Oil transit hot spot The strait is a vital corridor connecting the petroleum-rich states of the Middle East with markets in Asia, Europe, North America and elsewhere. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), 35 percent of the world’s seaborne oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz. Zone of tension and conflict Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, the ideological army of the Islamic republic, controls naval operations in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran repeatedly criticizes the presence of foreign powers in the region, notably the U.S. Fifth Fleet stationed in Bahrain, and it has threatened to close the strait if it comes under attack. Oil transit was disrupted in 1984 during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), when more than 500 vessels were destroyed or damaged in a “Tanker War.” In 1988, an Iran Air flight from Tehran to Dubai, via Bandar Abbas, was shot down by missiles fired from a U.S. Navy cruiser patrolling the strait. All 290 people on board were killed. The crew of the USS Vincennes said they mistook the Airbus for an Iranian fighter. In April 2015 the Revolutionary Guard boarded and took into custody in the strait a container ship flying the flag of the Marshall Islands. The following month Revolutionary Guard sailors fired warning shots in an apparent bid to intercept a Singapore-flagged cargo ship in the Persian Gulf.


Indian doctors to go on strike over workplace assaults

Abstract: KOLKATA - Indian health workers have called a nationwide strike in the coming week to protest over growing safety concerns at work, after three doctors were badly beaten in the state of West Bengal, officials said Friday. Tens of thousands of medical professionals across the country will skip work on Monday to demand legal protection for health workers, who often face violence from families who allege patients have been neglected, the Indian Medical Association said. “We are demanding an immediate end to the violence against doctors. The strike is in response to a grave situation,” said IMA’s secretary-general, R.V. Asokan, adding that the strike will not affect emergency services. Asokan said more than 300,000 of the organization’s members began a three-day protest on Friday, wearing black badges to show solidarity with their colleagues in West Bengal. Doctors across several states also wore safety helmets to symbolize the dangers they face at work. Medical professionals in West Bengal’s capital, Kolkata, have been on strike since Monday, when a family assaulted three doctors after a relative died during treatment at a state-run hospital. The family alleged the death was caused because the doctors were negligent and lashed out violently, leaving two of the medical staff critically injured. Police arrested four of the attackers and started an investigation into the assault. Medical services across state-run hospitals in West Bengal remained crippled on Friday, with doctors marching in the streets demanding justice and protection. “Patients’ family and relatives hurl abuses and even assault us if they are unhappy with treatment of their dear ones,” said Aniran Majumdar, a protesting doctor in Kolkata. An ultimatum by the state government to end the protest has been ignored, with medical workers demanding the chief minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee apologize for comments they say trivialized the attack on the three doctors. The federal health minister also appealed to the striking doctors to return to work. Thousands of patients and their relatives seeking treatment were left to wait in front of hospitals in Kolkata amid reports of fresh acts of violence at some hospitals. “I have been waiting for three days outside the hospital gate to get a blood transfusion for my son suffering from Thalassemia,” said Anita Monday, 34, who traveled from a village about 100 kilometers away. India spends less than 2 percent of its GDP on health care, making it one of the lowest investors in the sector globally, with the World Health Organization placing it below both Iraq and Venezuela. The country suffers from a lack of infrastructure and shortage of doctors, particularly in its vast rural areas.


Following protests, plans for controversial Hong Kong extradition bill 'suspended' indefinitely

Abstract: HONG KONG - Hong Kong’s embattled chief executive, Carrie Lam, on Saturday said a divisive bill that would allow extraditions to China will be “suspended” indefinitely — a major climb-down by her government after a week of unprecedented protests. Lam has come under huge pressure to abandon the controversial legislation, including from her allies and advisers. “The government has decided to suspend the legislative amendment exercise, restart our communication with all sectors of society, do more … work and listen to different views of society,” the pro-Beijing leader told reporters. “We have no intention to set a deadline for this work and promise to report to and consult members of the Legislative Council panel on security before we decide on the next step forward.” The international finance hub on Wednesday was rocked by the worst political violence since its 1997 handover to China, when tens of thousands of protesters were dispersed by riot police firing tear gas and rubber bullets.Opponents of the bill, including leading lawyers and rights groups, note that China’s justice system is controlled by the Communist Party and is marked by torture and forced confessions, arbitrary detention and poor access to lawyers. As criticism mounted, signs also emerged of a growing discomfort among Communist Party leaders in Beijing, and Lam held her news conference at the same government complex that was besieged by protesters earlier in the week. The South China Morning Post said Lam held an emergency meeting Friday night with her advisers and Chinese officials were also meeting in the nearby city of Shenzhen to map a way out of the impasse. Tensions were running high, with protest organizers planning another mass rally Sunday,when in addition to calling for the bill to be completely dropped, they plan to also push for accountability of the police for the way protests have been handled. Lam, who is appointed by a committee stacked with Beijing loyalists, had previously refused to consider abandoning the bill despite months of criticism from business and legal bodies — and a record-breaking rally last Sunday in which more than 1 million protesters hit the streets, according to its organizers. “I feel deep sorrow and regret that the deficiencies in our work and various other factors have stirred up substantial controversies and disputes in society following the relatively calm periods of the past two years,” Lam said. On Friday she found herself facing growing calls from within her own political camp to reverse course and tamp down spiraling public anger — including from hard-line pro-Beijing lawmakers. “Shouldn’t (we) cool the citizens down? I think to postpone it for a little bit is not a bad thing. At this moment, the government should self-examine,” Ann Chiang, a hard-core pro-Beijing lawmaker, told i-Cable News. But others have warned against Lam bending to the protesters. “If the government caves in to violence and external influences, in the long run that would also make Hong Kong ungovernable,” pro-Beijing lawmaker Regina Ip told reporters. Opposition to the extradition bill has united an unusually wide cross section of Hong Kong. James To, a lawmaker from the city’s pan-democratic camp, called on Lam to step down. “The credibility of our chief executive has already been written off, it’s a kind of government that cannot have any credibility to rule anymore,” he told reporters Friday.Anson Chan, a former chief secretary for Hong Kong, said Friday in an interview that Lam still could keep her post if she backs down. “What the people are attempting to tell is that we are very worried about the consequences of passing the extradition bill, because no one will feel safe, even in their own beds, after passage of this bill,” Chan said. “It places everybody’s individual freedom and safety at risk,” said Chan, who as chief secretary was the top local civil servant under former British Gov. Chris Patten. Beijing has vocally supported the bill and earlier in the week threw its full support behind the Lam administration, calling protesters “rioters.” But it has since sought to distance itself as public anger spiraled. “The central government gave no instruction, no order about the … amendment,” Lu Xiaoming, the Chinese ambassador to Britain, told the BBC. “This amendment was initiated by the Hong Kong government.” On Friday night, thousands of parents gathered in a park in the heart of the city’s commercial district to condemn the use of rubber bullets and tear gas against predominantly young protesters on Wednesday. Y. Chan, a 50-year-old mother of two, said she was outraged watching the scenes unfold. “It’s calling for all mothers who had enough already of what happened the other day,” she said. “My kids were out there also that day. And although I want them to be safe, want them to be at home, but this is their home. They are defending it.” The extradition bill has drawn criticism from U.S. and British lawmakers and human rights groups, prompting Beijing to lash back with warnings against “interference” in its internal affairs.

protests
hong kong
carrie lam
china
rights
hong kong extradition protests


U.S. has 'deep concerns' about U.N. official's trip to China

Abstract: BEIJING - The U.S. government expressed deep concerns to the U.N. about a reported trip by the U.N. counterterrorism chief to the restive Xinjiang region in China’s far west. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan, in a phone call Friday with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, called the visit “highly inappropriate in view of the unprecedented repression campaign underway in Xinjiang against Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Muslims.” The Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed that Vladimir Ivanovich Voronkov, the undersecretary-general of the U.N. counterterrorism office, is in China at the country’s invitation, but didn’t provide any details. “More specific information will be released in time,” ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a daily briefing. China has faced international criticism over internment camps in Xinjiang that hold an estimated 1 million members of the Uighur and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups. Chinese officials describe the camps as vocational training centers and say they are necessary to curb religious extremism. Sullivan told Guterres that “Beijing continues to paint its repressive campaign against Uighurs and other Muslims as legitimate counterterrorism efforts when it is not,” and that Voronkov’s trip puts the U.N.’s reputation and credibility at risk. Geng has previously said the U.S. accusations are “fabricated lies” and that the United States should not interfere in China’s internal affairs. Human Rights Watch criticized the United Nations for sending a counterterrorism official instead of a human rights expert, saying it risks deflecting attention from what it called “a massive government rights violation against the Turkic Muslim population.” Chen Xu, China’s new ambassador in Geneva, told reporters Thursday that China had invited U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to visit the camps in Xinjiang “to see for herself.” U.N. spokeswoman Marta Hurtado confirmed Bachelet had met Chen and that her office is continuing to negotiate “full access” for any trip to China. Geng said China would welcome a visit but added, “we will never allow people with political purposes to interfere in China’s internal affairs and damage China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity with their visit to Xinjiang.”

china
xinjiang
ethnicity
rights
religion
u.s .
u.n .


Hong Kong tycoons start moving assets offshore as fears rise over new extradition law

Abstract: HONG KONG - Some Hong Kong tycoons have started moving personal wealth offshore as concern deepens over a local government plan to allow extraditions of suspects to face trial in China for the first time, according to financial advisers, bankers and lawyers familiar with such transactions. One tycoon, who considers himself potentially politically exposed, has started shifting more than $100 million from a local Citibank account to a Citibank account in Singapore, according to an adviser involved in the transactions. “It’s started. We’re hearing others are doing it, too, but no one is going to go on parade that they are leaving,” the adviser said. “The fear is that the bar is coming right down on Beijing’s ability to get your assets in Hong Kong. Singapore is the favored destination.” Hong Kong and Singapore compete fiercely to be considered Asia’s premier financial center. The riches held by Hong Kong’s tycoons have until now made the city the larger base for private wealth, boasting 853 individuals worth more than $100 million — just over double the number in Singapore — according to a 2018 report from Credit Suisse. The extradition bill, which will cover Hong Kong residents and foreign and Chinese nationals living or traveling through the city, has sparked unusually broad concern it may threaten the rule of law that underpins Hong Kong’s international financial status. Hong Kong’s Beijing-backed leader, Carrie Lam, has stood by the bill, saying it is necessary to plug loopholes that allow criminals wanted on the mainland to use the city as a haven. She has said the courts would safeguard human rights. Protests and violence forced an initial legislative debate to be shelved last Wednesday and it is unclear when they would resume to pass the bill. Professor Simon Young, of the University of Hong Kong’s law school, said it was understandable that some Hong Kong residents might be considering moving assets out of the city, given the little-noticed financial reach of the bill. If the bill becomes law, it will be possible for mainland Chinese courts to request Hong Kong courts to freeze and confiscate assets related to crimes committed on the mainland, beyond an existing provision covering the proceeds of drug offenses. “This has been largely overlooked in the public debate but it is really a significant part of the proposed amendments,” Young said. “It may not have been overlooked, of course, by the tycoons and those giving them legal advice.” The head of the private banking operations of an international bank in Hong Kong, who declined to be named, said clients have been moving money out of Hong Kong to Singapore. “These aren’t mainland Chinese clients who might be politically exposed, but wealthy Hong Kong clients,” the banker said. “The situation in Hong Kong is out of control. They can’t believe that Carrie Lam or Beijing leaders are so stupid that they don’t realize the economic damage from this.” A Hong Kong government spokesman did not directly address Reuters’ questions over capital flight, but said Hong Kong’s “world class financial infrastructure” and open, international market had a regulatory regime “completely compatible with that of overseas markets.” The amendments seek to simplify case-by-case extraditions to jurisdictions, including mainland China, beyond the 20 with which Hong Kong already has extradition treaties. As well as removing an explicit block on extraditions to mainland China in the current Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, the amendments also remove the restrictions on the mainland from the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Ordinance, known as the MLAO. According a recent Hong Kong Bar Association study, the MLAO allows foreign jurisdictions to ask Hong Kong authorities to gather evidence for use outside the city “and to render other forms of assistance, such as freezing and confiscating the assets of persons wanted for crimes in other jurisdictions.” Search, seizure and confiscation can involve cases with a penalty of two years in prison or more, compared with the threshold of seven years for extraditions under the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, the submission notes. Requests can also be made at the investigative rather than prosecution stage. The association notes that the mutual legal assistance amendments would “significantly strengthen the impact of the amended Fugitive Offenders Ordinance in relation to criminal prosecutions on the mainland.” The Hong Kong government spokesman noted that any external confiscation order had to be registered in a Hong Kong court and could be challenged. It had to meet a “double criminality” standard, whereby it had to be based on conduct that was also a crime in Hong Kong. “The rights and freedoms of Hong Kong people and foreigners in Hong Kong, including their assets, are fully protected by the Basic Law,” the spokesman added, referring to Hong Kong’s mini-constitution. Prominent commercial lawyer Kevin Yam said he was aware of rich Hong Kong figures taking steps to move assets to Singapore as they matured or market conditions proved favourable. “At this point I would say it is a steady trickle rather than stampede but is most definitely happening,” he said. Three other private bankers said they had received inquiries from clients about the impact of the bill, but had not yet seen the funds move. Yam said few expected the bill to be widely exploited by Beijing overnight if passed, but it was creating a climate of deep unease, with the fear it could be used more liberally in coming years. “It is great for Singapore,” he said. “And such an own goal for Hong Kong.”

hong kong
wealth
china
rights
protests
investments
hong kong extradition protests


China denies its vessel intentionally hit Filipino boat that sunk

Abstract: MANILA/SINGAPORE - China has acknowledged its fishing vessel hit a Filipino boat in the disputed South China Sea in an incident that prompted an outcry in the Philippines but denies the collision was intentional. The Philippines has filed a diplomatic protest after Filipino fishermen said a Chinese vessel rammed their anchored boat on June 9, then abandoned them as the boat sank in the Reed Bank. Philippine officials strongly condemned the Chinese action. The Chinese Embassy said in a statement late Friday that the Chinese vessel accidentally hit the Filipino boat as it tried to maneuver while being “besieged” by several Filipino fishing boats. It said the Chinese captain tried to rescue the Filipinos but was afraid of being besieged by other Filipino boats. Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin said on his personal Twitter account Thursday he had “fired off a diplomatic protest yesterday” on the incident, which he said in another tweet he’d call a “hit and run.” President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman, Salvador Panelo, described the act as uncivilized, outrageous and barbaric in what could be the most serious flare-up between Manila and Beijing in three years. Panelo also urged China to investigate and sanction the crew members, supporting the call of Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, who said diplomatic steps should be taken. “The captain and the crew of the Chinese vessel should not have left the injured party without any assistance. Such act of desertion is inhuman,” Panelo said in a statement, adding the Chinese crew violated international protocols that require them to assist a vessel in distress. Despite the tough talk from multiple officials, Lorenzana appeared to soften his stance Thursday, saying the government had yet to determine if the vessel was indeed from China. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang, speaking at a regular briefing in Beijing, referred to it as an ordinary maritime traffic accident that can be dealt with by proper channels. He blamed the media for hyping up the issue. The U.S. urged China to refrain from coercion and intimidation in the South China Sea. “China’s efforts to assert its expansive and unlawful maritime claims — including by using coercion and intimidation against other claimants and users of the SCS, undermines the stability of the region,” a State Department spokesperson said, using the acronym for the South China Sea. At a briefing Thursday, Panelo said these incidents could affect ties between China and the Philippines and that the government would consider it an act of aggression if the collision was intentional. Duterte may decide to minimize ties or even opt for a more severe response if the issue escalates, his spokesman said. “Beijing will have to cope with the chorus of outcry from the Philippine public,” said Collin Koh, a maritime security research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. “The pressure from this incident looks set to heap upon the Duterte administration to seek accountability from Beijing.” Since Duterte’s election in mid-2016, the Philippines has pivoted toward China, mending ties that deteriorated from 2012 when the Philippine Navy apprehended a group of Chinese fishing frigates at the Scarborough Shoal, a reef approximately 120 nautical miles west of the Philippine island of Luzon. The dispute led the Philippines, then under former President Benigno Aquino III, to file a case before an international tribunal, which in July 2016 ruled in its favor and rejected China’s claims. That didn’t stop Beijing from reclaiming portions of the sea and building a defense base in the area. “The critics of Duterte’s China policy are going to seize on this unfortunate incident to cast a shadow of doubt over his approach to the South China Sea,” said Richard Heydarian, a fellow at the National Chengchi University in Taiwan and author of a book on the president. “This is definitely a soft power disaster for China and could possibly sink Duterte’s ability to convince the people of his approach to Beijing.” Lorenzana had condemned the crew of the Chinese fishing vessel for abandoning the 22 distressed Filipinos aboard FB Gimber 1, who were later rescued by a Vietnamese fishing boat and a Philippine Navy ship. The incident took place near Reed Bank, an area claimed by both Manila and Beijing where there’s a pending oil exploration plan by Philippines company PXP Energy Corp. The Chinese crew members’ act of leaving the area as the Philippine boat was sinking indicates they hit the vessel intentionally, said Lt. Col. Stephen Penetrante, spokesman for the military unit in charge of the disputed waters. “It is far from accidental, because if it is, they should have stopped and rescued our fishermen,” he said on Wednesday. A statement from the same military unit on Thursday however said the Chinese vessel “accidentally collided” with the Philippine boat. China asserts control over more than 80 percent of the South China Sea, a key shipping route also claimed by Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

china
south china sea
philippines
vietnam
military
u.s .
disputed islands
south china sea ruling


Wall Street learns hard lesson on why not to say 'pig' in China

Abstract: NEW YORK - Wall Street is getting a costly language lesson. For financial professionals around the globe this past week, rising trade tensions and fears of a slowdown were no match for an unlikely drama suddenly unfolding in China: UBS Group AG’s struggle to quell a public uproar over an economist’s quip about pork prices. Inside banks and investment firms, debate swirled across desks and trading floors. Many were baffled by the outrage. Was the furor in China — amplified by state media and a local industry group’s demand for the economist’s firing — some sort new front in the trade war? Might U.S. and European banks finally on the cusp of expanding in mainland China be thwarted over perceived slights? And what exactly was the insult? At issue was an attempt by UBS’s global chief economist, Paul Donovan, to weigh in on whether a swine flu epidemic in China should worry investors focused on global inflation: “It matters if you are a Chinese pig,” he said of the disease. “It matters if you like eating pork in China. It does not really matter to the rest of the world.” That phrasing was ready-made for mistranslation. Jasmine Fan, a strategist at BlackRock in New York, who grew up in China and speaks both Mandarin and English, echoed other bilingual denizens of her industry who grasped the issue and attempted to explain it. “I don’t think there’s any problem in the English context, but it does sound pretty bad when you read the Chinese translation,” she said. For starters, the expression “if you are” is fairly common in English, yet relatively rare in Chinese, where it’s more likely to be understood as a personal reference to the listener. Another problem was Donovan’s undiplomatic combination of “Chinese pig.” “Usually, when traders refer to swines, they use the word ‘hog’ instead,” said Victor Shih, an associate professor at the University of California, San Diego. “‘Pig’ is often used in a derogatory way.” Local rivals of UBS, which have been trying to wrest business from more established Western wealth managers, were quick to condemn Donovan’s remarks. The Chinese Securities Association of Hong Kong, representing financial institutions including local branches of mainland companies, demanded dismissals. “Almost everyone in the Chinese finance community has been offended by this tasteless comment,” Hao Hong, head of research and chief strategist at Bocom International Holdings Co., said in a post on his WeChat account Friday. UBS asked Donovan to go on leave, took down a recording of his comments and issued a statement, saying “we apologize unreservedly for any misunderstanding caused by these innocently intended comments.” Yet that privately frustrated many English speakers across Europe and in the U.S. struggling to understand the backlash. In interviews with analysts and fund managers in those regions, many said the reaction in China was clearly overblown. Several expressed sympathy for Donovan and said they were disappointed his Zurich-based employer didn’t defend him more strongly. They asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation. UBS and a number of other global banks happen to be poised to expand their businesses in the mainland after years of waiting. Late last year, the Swiss firm increased its stake in a securities unit there to 51 percent. Firms including Nomura Holdings Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse Group AG have received approvals to expand or have been working toward majority stakes. Bill Bishop, who writes the Sinocism newsletter on Chinese current affairs, said he doubts the incident was “manufactured” by authorities. Instead, it is a reminder that global companies hoping to expand in China always need to speak carefully or risk punishment. “It goes back to the power and allure of the Chinese market, and the leverage it gives to China and the Chinese people when they want to wield it,” said Bishop, who speaks Mandarin and lived in the country for a decade until 2015. That dynamic is heightened now by U.S.-China trade negotiations, said Michael Hirson, a Eurasia Group analyst focusing on China and Northeast Asia. “The state media has taken a more defensive and aggrieved tone,” he said. On Friday, the website of the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, published a commentary titled: “Chief economist of UBS, who gives you the courage to insult China?” According to the article, Donovan’s comments “are unacceptable. It’s not about tolerance. On the issues of national pride, national principles and national feelings, we absolutely won’t tolerate the sickening words and behavior that hurt China.” The episode also went viral on social media. As the business week wound down, the hashtag “suspension of UBS’s chief economist” ranked within the top 10 on Weibo, a platform similar to Twitter, drawing in more than 1 million views. “The Chinese internet can be very sensitive about such things,” said Peter Zarrow, a history professor at the University of Connecticut, who predicts the controversy will soon blow over. “‘If you are an American pig,'” he noted, that “doesn’t sound very nice either.”


Japan's Daiwa House apologizes after video emerges of man's half-naked swim in apartment water tank

Abstract: Daiwa House Industry Co. has apologized after a video was posted online showing a man swimming in a water tank for an apartment building built by the company in Fukuoka Prefecture. In the video, the man, who works at a company hired by Daiwa House for tank cleaning, was half-naked inside the tank. The video is believed to have been shot when the man and two other workers were on duty last September, sources said. Daiwa House said it became aware of the video on Tuesday. After checking the water quality in the tank on Wednesday, it filed a damage report with police. “We apologize wholeheartedly for causing trouble to the residents and owner” of the building, Daiwa House said Thursday. There have been no reports of illnesses among the residents, it said.


Kyushu Electric to take reactor offline in March due to delay in building anti-terrorism facility

Abstract: FUKUOKA - Kyushu Electric Power Co. will be forced to halt a Kagoshima Prefecture nuclear reactor next March due to a delay in the construction of a facility meant to prepare for possible terrorist attacks, company officials said. The No. 1 reactor at the Fukuoka-based company’s Sendai power plant will be the first in Japan whose operation will be suspended because of a delay in the construction of such a facility. In April this year, the Nuclear Regulation Authority decided to order that reactors be halted if such facilities were not completed by a set deadline. On Wednesday, the authority indicated its policy is to issue such an order about a week before the deadline. Kyushu Electric will miss a deadline on construction of the required facility for the 890,000-kilowatt reactor before the deadline of March 17, 2020, officials said, and it has become a certainty that the plant will halt operations. A significant reduction in the construction period is difficult despite efforts to boost efficiency, as the company is placing importance on the safety of workers, officials said. The Sendai plant’s No. 2 reactor will also be halted as Kyushu Electric expects to miss that reactor’s May 21, 2020, deadline. The No. 2 reactor has an output capacity of 890,000 kilowatts. The officials said taking the reactors offline will pose no problems for the company’s electricity supply, as its thermal power generation can make up for the loss. But the company hopes to shorten the period of suspension as much as possible to minimize the impact on its earnings, the officials added.

kyushu electric
terrorism
nuclear energy


Local residents concerned about planned expressway closures during June 28-29 Osaka summit

Abstract: OSAKA - A planned expressway closure for the Group of 20 summit in Osaka on June 28-29 is giving rise to concern about its impact on local businesses and people’s daily lives. Sections totaling 160 kilometers (100 miles) on the Hanshin Expressway will be closed for four days from June 27 to secure clear routes for participants of the event. The meeting will bring together leaders and other officials from a total of 37 countries and organizations. The closure will facilitate their travel from hotels to the meeting venue on the man-made island of Sakishima in the Osaka Bay area. The daily traffic volume on the expressway sections totals some 450,000 vehicles. To prevent serious traffic congestion on other local roads, the Osaka Prefectural Police are asking citizens not to drive during the four-day period. But a survey by the police in early May found that 24 percent were planning to drive during the period, up 8 percentage points from December last year. Most of them cited reasons related to work. Aiming to cut total local traffic volumes by half during the period, police will step up their campaign through television commercials and other ways. During the restriction period, goods transportation is likely to be affected significantly, because the Port of Osaka is in fifth place among Japan’s trading ports, with about 310 container ships arriving monthly. The Japan Coast Guard is asking ships entering the port between June 24-30 to present their schedules in advance. Ships are requested to carry flags for identification that have been distributed to them. On and near Sakishima, 11 container terminals operate. Some 16,000 transportation vehicles, including trailer trucks, come and go there every day. Konoike Transport Co., an Osaka-based distribution company, will bring forward planned transportation to avoid expected traffic congestion. A Konoike official, however, said it is not sure whether the company will be able to operate trailer trucks smoothly as inspections are expected on local roads. Security will be tightened on Sakishima, which has some 24,000 residents. “The level of security will be much tighter” than during the 1995 summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Osaka, 71-year-old local resident Yoko Iwatate said. “I’ll try not to go shopping or go out,” said Iwatate, who attended a briefing for locals on security and other measures taken for the G20 summit. On Saturday, a ceremony was held in the city of Osaka to welcome police personnel from other prefectures who have arrived to help the local police force. The G20 meeting will be “unprecedented in size as an international conference hosted by Japan,” Takahisa Ishida, head of the Osaka Prefectural Police headquarters, told people attending the ceremony. The planned operations will be “an acid test” of the nation’s police ahead of other planned large-scale events requiring massive security, he said. Tokyo will host the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games next year, while the 2025 World Exposition will be held in Osaka.

osaka
summit
vehicles
roads
police
g20
europe
u.s .
highways


Poll shows nearly 40% back Osaka merger plan; 24% oppose

Abstract: Nearly 40 percent of the public nationwide approve of the Osaka merger plan, far exceeding those who oppose it, an opinion poll said. As many as 14.5 percent of respondents clearly support the plan to realign the Osaka Municipal Government into special districts in a bid to improve administrative efficiency, according to the survey. A further 24.4 percent support the plan to some extent, with the total share of supporters standing at 38.9 percent, according to the survey, which was conducted over four days through Monday. The survey also found that 8.1 percent clearly oppose the plan and 15.5 percent oppose it to some extent. The combined percentage stood at 23.6 percent. Political group Osaka Ishin no Kai, whose pet policy is the merger plan, won the Osaka gubernatorial and mayoral races in April and the Sakai mayoral election in Osaka Prefecture in May. The prefectural chapter of Komeito, which initially disapproved of the plan, has recently agreed to work with Osaka Ishin toward its realization. Among respondents who support the Liberal Democratic Party, whose local chapter is divided over the metropolis plan, 44.5 percent support the plan, including those who back it to some extent. Meanwhile, those who oppose the plan clearly or somewhat totaled 23.3 percent. The percentage of Komeito supporters who approve of the plan stood at 27.3 percent, including those who are somewhat supportive, matching the percentage for total opponents. Among respondents who support Nippon Ishin no Kai, Osaka Ishin’s national party, the total approval rate for the metropolis plan reached 86.7 percent. The interview survey was conducted on 2,000 people 18 or over nationwide. Valid answers came from 62.8 percent.

osaka
surveys
osaka ishin no kai
elections
komeito
ldp


Abe denounces tanker attacks, but stays silent on possible suspects and urges 'restraint'

Abstract: Japan “resolutely denounces” attacks on two oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, regardless of who is responsible for them, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Friday after speaking with U.S. President Donald Trump by phone. Abe, who returned to Tokyo in the morning from a two-day visit to Tehran, did not name any country as a suspect in the attack, but the United States has already pointed to Iran. Amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, Abe instead said Japan will work closely with the United States and the international community for peace and stability in the region. “I believe that all parties concerned should exercise restraint to prevent causing unforeseen situations and refrain from any action that could escalate tensions,” Abe also told reporters at his office in Tokyo shortly after the phone conversation, which lasted about 30 minutes. While Thursday’s attacks on the tankers, including one operated by a Japanese company, have raised fears of a new confrontation between Washington and Tehran, Abe was mum on the chances of conflict. “President Trump expressed appreciation for my visit to Iran and efforts.” According to the White House, Trump thanked Abe for his effort to facilitate communication with Iran. They discussed Abe’s recent trip to Tehran and the circumstances surrounding the attacks on the two tankers. The two leaders also touched on negotiations for a Japan-U.S. trade agreement and Trump’s visit to Japan for the Group of 20 summit slated for June 28 and 29 in Osaka, it said in a brief statement. The United States has released footage purportedly showing an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps patrol boat removing an unexploded mine from the Japanese-operated Kokuka Courageous in the Gulf of Oman. Iran has denied those allegations. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that Washington’s judgment is based on “intelligence, the weapons used, the level of expertise needed to execute the operation, recent similar Iranian attacks on shipping, and the fact that no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and proficiency to act with such a high degree of sophistication.” During his visit to Iran, Abe sought to broker dialogue between the two foes, tapping into Tokyo’s traditionally friendly ties with Tehran. Abe conveyed Trump’s message that Washington is ready to open talks with Tehran, but Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday flatly rejected the proposal. “I do not consider Trump as a person worth exchanging any message with and I have no answer for him, nor will I respond to him in the future,” Khamenei, who ultimately decides on Iran’s policy direction, told Abe. With his visit, Abe became the first sitting Japanese prime minister to travel to the country in 41 years. Khamenei also said in a statement, released after meeting with Abe, that Iran believes “problems will not be solved by negotiating with the United States, and no free nation would ever accept negotiations under pressure.”

shinzo abe
donald trump
conflict
u.s .
military
iran-japan relations


Many foreign hopefuls apply to join Aichi Prefecture-based ninja troupe

Abstract: NAGOYA - Several applicants living overseas have applied to join a group of ninja in Aichi Prefecture. Of the 20 applicants for a position that became available in the team this year, 15 were foreigners, indicating the deep-rooted popularity of ninja amid an increase in the number of visitors to Japan. The group, Tokugawa Ieyasu and Hattori Hanzo Ninja Corps, which debuted in 2015, promotes the charm of Aichi through its activities mainly at Nagoya Castle and through performances held at the weekend. The ninja corps started to draw attention after a foreign news agency reported in 2016 that an administrative body was recruiting a ninja, according to Sankosha Co., an advertising agency based in Nagoya. It is commissioned by the prefecture to promote the team. Applications came from about 200 people living overseas, including in the United States, Russia, Italy, Tunisia and Macedonia, according to Sankosha. Requirements for the position included a passion to be a ninja and experiences in performance and sports as well as Japanese language skills. A man from the United States won the highly competitive race and played an active role as the team’s first foreign ninja for a year. Foreigners accounted for 70 to 80 percent of the total applicants for a position in the ninja team from the next year onward. This year, John Patrick Jandernoa, a 26-year-old man from Michigan, won the position and joined the team as its second ninja from abroad. Jandernoa, who started learning dance when he was in junior high school, acted in musicals and other performances until last year. A ninja admirer from childhood, he came to Japan after graduating from a university. He was waiting for a position in the ninja corps to open up while he studied Japanese. On Thursday, Jandernoa debuted at an event held at Chubu Centrair International Airport in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture. Dressed in a black ninja costume, he presented a series of acrobatic moves such as a somersault with four Japanese team members. Jandernoa expressed his eagerness to perform ninja techniques across Japan.

ninja
nagoya castle
u.s .
tourism
foreign workers


Examining the morbid fascination with violence on social media in Japan

Abstract: Twenty-one-year-old Yuka Takaoka stabbed a man in an apartment in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district in late May, leaving him in a critical condition. During questioning, Takaoka reportedly told police that she stabbed the man because she loved him so much she just couldn’t help it. “After killing him, I also wanted to die,” she reportedly told police, according to the website Tokyo Reporter . Social media users drew parallels between her actions and that of a “ yandere ” character, a common trope in anime describing a person who is romantically obsessed with somebody else and the violent lengths they go to in order to fulfill their love. Netizens were especially drawn to disturbing images of Takaoka online showing her calmly smoking a cigarette while sitting next to her victim’s bloody body (it’s as bad as it sounds, and best not sought out). There’s also a disconcerting shot of Takaoka grinning as she sits in the back of a police car. Naturally, it didn’t help that Takaoka’s Instagram account features images of her dressed in cosplay as yandere personalities from popular TV shows. Social media users started to express an admiration for Takaoka online. Some expressed an interest in her yandere actions on Japanese message boards, while others admitted to being genuinely smitten by her. Posts even started appearing in English from people who defended her actions, while fan art started to be shared on Twitter — a sure sign you’ve made it on social media. People have long been interested in what makes a killer tick, and the domestic publishing industry certainly hasn’t shied away from putting such characters in the spotlight . Books by murderers such as Tatsuya Ichihashi have become bestsellers, while self-confessed cannibal Issei Sagawa even landed appearances on TV shows and in magazines, where he contributed restaurant reviews. More recently, however, attitudes toward such individuals have changed and outlets are far less willing to give criminals a platform for them to air their views. Globally, however, news outlets have never devoted as much space to talking about criminals as they do now. “True crime” podcasts and TV shows have become something of a phenomenon in the English-language world in recent times. “The Last Podcast on the Left” even offered its own take on Takaoka’s case, at least until it dissolved into a discussion about … William Gibson? In Japan, a couple of domestic true crime podcasts have been created in English, although neither look as if they have been updated recently. However, true crime stories in Japanese are being published in other formats. One writer published a comprehensive article on various arson and murder cases in Yamaguchi Prefecture that occurred in 2013 on the website Note, generating enough money to allow them to write a whole book on the subject. The media, meanwhile, still profiles the lives of killers in an almost exaggerated manner, such as was the case with the man behind the recent stabbing rampage in Kawasaki. This also happened in the media’s coverage of Takaoka’s case. What’s noticeable, however, is how vocal the backlash has been against Takaoka’s supporters. Multiple YouTube videos have been uploaded that express both shock and anger that people could treat her in the same way as they treat their favorite anime character. What’s more, all of the above Instagram and YouTube comments from her supporters have now been countered by criticism. Twitter has similarly seen many critical of this interest , with people urging others not to engage in this sort of behavior. Such a response is becoming the norm for violent incidents that have been broadcast online, which certainly gathered steam following the outcry over the videos of the Christchurch mosque shooting earlier this year. Online interest in murder and violence isn’t going to go away anytime soon. As the Takaoka incident highlights, however, an increasing number of social media users are prepared to step in and remind people that it’s not fiction, but reality.


Combating an unfounded fear of Japan's recluses

Abstract: Although the term “ hikikomori ,” which describes people who shun social contact and seek extreme degrees of isolation, has been in common use for several decades, it has taken on a more sinister cast recently as the media has come to view it as a social problem. In the wake of two incidents that have been linked to hikikomori — the stabbings of children and adults at a school bus stop in Kawasaki that resulted in two deaths, and the murder in Nerima Ward, Tokyo, of a middle aged man by his father — the word has suddenly become synonymous with “potential criminal.” According to a June 6 Tokyo Shimbun article , the government has said the public should not connect the term to these two crimes, but the Justice Ministry does not keep statistics related to hikikomori. In order to examine whether a relationship existed, the newspaper checked articles from Kyodo News and other outlets from 1999 to 2019 and found 43 cases where persons identified as social recluses committed violent crimes, an average of two a year. Nonetheless, some are saying the perception of a causal relationship that is now being spread through media outlets could drive those labeled as “social recluses” deeper into isolation. The two incidents are being blamed on hikikomori because the label is applied so broadly, and news organizations adore labels because they make their job easier. According to U.S.-based journalist Makiko Iizuka writing for Yahoo News , new labels are always being introduced in Japan and they invariably create negative stereotypes: “parasite singles,” “freeters” (young part-timers who are not students), “ hinkon joshi ” (destitute girls) and so on. News outlets cling to these terms “with a sense of titillation,” she writes, making them “trendy” and establishing them as behavioral predictors that exacerbate prejudices. Such labels tend to be suspect in the U.S., where diversity has more of a purchase. In Japan, however, the public is receptive to them, and they are sometimes used to describe people who may not display many of the attributes affiliated with a particular label, if only for the sake of convenience. This is how hikikomori became the link between the Kawasaki case and the Nerima case. According to the Asahi Shimbun , Yuko Ando, the host of Fuji TV’s afternoon news show, noted on the day of the Kawasaki tragedy that the perpetrator seemed to want to broadcast his discontent with society, but that “just killing himself” would have accomplished the same thing. Lawyer Haruo Kitamura, who was in the studio, expanded on Ando’s implication, saying if people wanted to die, they should die alone. The same sentiment was expressed frequently on social media, the Asahi Shimbun said, alarming professionals who try to help hikikomori cope with their situations. Such views, they warned, are likely to cause more despair that could lead to suicide or another incident such as the one in Kawasaki. This view is now seen as a possible motivating factor in the Nerima case. The murder suspect, a retired top-level government bureaucrat, allegedly killed his adult son in a kind of preemptive action, since he believed the son showed hikikomori traits and thus feared he might carry out a crime similar to the one in Kawasaki. It appears to matter little that the victim had almost nothing in common with the Kawasaki suspect except a short temper, and manifested few qualities associated with hikikomori. Nevertheless, the murder suspect has become a kind of hero to people who believe that hikikomori pose a palpable existential threat. One of these people is former Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, who wrote a long essay on the idea that those who contemplate killing themselves should just do it and not harm others in the process. Excerpted in the online version of President magazine , Hashimoto’s essay criticizes those who complain that this position is cold-hearted. He is skeptical of the consensus that says people inclined to commit suicide should always be talked out of it. Hashimoto believes it is impossible to eliminate suicide completely, so he supports an individual’s right to self-annihilation. People who think otherwise, he argues, are trading in abstract ideals and ignoring reality. It could be argued that people who want to commit suicide must be persuaded to leave this world without hurting others, and it is the media’s job to focus on the families of victims of such murder-suicides, since that kind of publicity will impress on those people the grief they cause when they kill others as part of their final act. Consequently, Hashimoto finds the Nerima suspect’s stated motive commendable, since he took his obligations as a parent to the ultimate limit. He admits he might do the same thing if he were in the same position. Hashimoto’s assumptions are problematic. Although the Kawasaki suspect ended up taking his own life, there is no indication that his primary impulse was suicide. Writing in Gendai Business , Masae Ido theorized that the alleged killer acted out of malice toward his uncle and aunt, who raised him after his parents divorced and supposedly discriminated against him in relation to his cousins. However, instead of inflicting violence on them, he inflicted it on innocents, presumably with the aim of hoisting on his aunt and uncle eternal guilt and public opprobrium. Japan is admired for its low violent crime rate, but it should be noted that 55 percent of murders and attempted murders carried out in Japan in 2016 were committed by relatives of the victims , a possible consequence of social pressure on families to be responsible for their members, no matter what their age. In fact, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is seeking to codify this responsibility in its proposed revised Constitution . However, this is already addressed by the judicial system. Murder convictions for family members rarely merit sentences of more than a few years, and seldom the death penalty. In that sense, the existential threat to society isn’t hikikomori but the family structure itself.


Japan's Izumo helicopter carrier, destroyer visit Vietnam's strategic Cam Ranh port

Abstract: HANOI - The Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Izumo helicopter carrier and a destroyer arrived at Vietnam’s strategic Cam Ranh International Port on Friday in a move seen as highlighting growing the two countries ties amid Chinese moves in the disputed South China Sea. The MSDF ships’ visit to the key port near the disputed Spratly and the Parcel island chains in the South China Sea comes amid growing defense cooperation between Tokyo and Hanoi. Observers say is was also intended to aid in deterring China’s continued militarization of the waterway. The Izumo anchored in Cam Ranh Bay for the second time, after its first visit two years ago. The helicopter carrier and the Murasame destroyer have been engaging in activities in the Indo-Pacific region, including joint military exercises with the U.S. earlier in the week, according to the Defense Ministry.

izumo
south china sea
china
military
self defense forces
vietnam-japan relations


Amid U.S.-China trade war, Osaka braces for G20 summit

Abstract: OSAKA - Ready or not Osaka, here it comes. The Group of 20 Summit, that is. In less than two weeks, one of the world’s largest gatherings of world leaders outside the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York takes place in Osaka. About 30,000 people, including leaders from over 30 countries and international organizations, their delegations and members of the media will be in town on June 28 and 29. Much media attention is likely to focus on U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping and their efforts to end a trade war. Will journalists, politicians and economists someday speak of the “Osaka Summit” as the moment when economic disaster was averted? Or, will the city’s name be forever associated with blunders and misunderstandings that set the world on the wrong path? Answers to those questions will have to wait for history’s verdict. For now, Osaka’s leaders recognize they can do little more than work with the central government to ensure Trump, Xi and all dignitaries get in and out of Osaka without incident. Especially a terrorism-related incident. To that end, a police presence of at least 25,000 is expected, but the final number may only be publicly known after it’s all over. Nine areas of Osaka will have heavy traffic restrictions from June 27 to 30. Access to train stations will be difficult. Roads will be temporarily blocked when the VIP motorcades get their police escorts to and from Kansai or Itami airports. Needless to say, coin lockers and trash cans will be shut and many businesses will close. Foreign nationals in train stations with suitcases and backpacks may find themselves stopped by police and asked about the purpose of their Osaka visit. Local media have spent a lot of time of late warning residents that the summit will greatly disrupt their daily lives. The impression one gets is that the G20 is a kind of international festival, but not one that will be much fun for the spectators. However, there has been less talk about something far more important than whether Osaka Mayor Ichiro Matsui will chow down on takoyaki or yakisoba with Trump or the other leaders, or whether Osaka merchants will face delivery delays during the summit period. Late last month, Matsui endorsed an international coalition of cities that are committing to use 100 percent renewable energy by 2050. He was joined by the mayors of Amsterdam, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Brussels, Chicago, Christchurch, Durban, Helsinki, Hamburg, Houston, Jakarta, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Mexico City, Milan, Montreal, New York, Paris, Port Vila, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Rotterdam, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Sydney, Tokyo and Tshwane. This was one of many promises the mayors made to accelerate decarbonization efforts. Yes, it’s a bunch of local politicians making promises. Yes, without the right policy and legislative follow-up measures at the local and national levels now rather than later, it’s a goal that will be difficult if not impossible to achieve. But it’s a sign of deeper changes in Japan and around the world. Cities like Osaka and Tokyo are not waiting on corrupt national politicians and bureaucrats in the pockets of the oil and fossil fuel corporate lobbies to go green. They are leading, not following, the shift to clean energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Is it enough to meet internationally agreed upon carbon reduction efforts? No, of course not. But Osaka can secure a positive legacy at the G20 Summit by reinforcing the message that denying climate change or repeating the coal industry’s mantra of “everybody wants to go green until they go brown” — warning about brownouts due to allegedly unstable renewable supplies — is bad politics and bad business at the local level, and is no longer in sync with the needs and desires of urban voters in Japan and elsewhere. View from Osaka is a monthly column that examines the latest news from a Kansai perspective.