Maezawa's offer of prize money for retweets sets Twitter abuzz

Abstract: Yusaku Maezawa has accomplished an awful lot in his life. He has founded a number of successful companies, including online fashion retailer Zozotown. He’s worth billions of dollars. He’s secured a trip to space to address one of humanity’s biggest problems — a lack of art inspired by being on the moon . Last week, however, he managed his finest hour, creating the most retweeted tweet in history . Maezawa surpassed earlier historic posts such as “ celebrities hanging out ” and “ guy wants chicken nuggets ” by offering anyone who followed his account and retweeted a specific tweet the chance to win a significant amount of money . Following the success of Zozotown’s recent new year sale, Maezawa wrote that he would choose 100 random people who heeded his directions and gift them ¥1 million ($9,250) each. More than 5 million users jumped at the chance. The opportunity to win free stuff has long been central to the modern online experience, from avenues to enjoy music and movies without opening up one’s wallet to the faint-but-slight chance of winning a jersey . Maezawa’s ad hoc lottery targeted precisely what people appear to want the most from such giveaways — money — and, given his status, it probably seemed more legitimate than the usual torrent of “Like and RT to win!” scams that appear on the platform. As some users observed , the number of followers flocking to Maezawa’s account grew significantly soon after his announcement. BuzzFeed Japan wondered if this violated Twitter’s terms of service, as such could be construed as essentially buying followers, which would be a clear violation of its rules. BuzzFeed Japan asked Twitter, which said that such offers were OK. People creating multiple accounts for the sole purpose of winning, meanwhile … well, that’s still a gray area. Poke around social media and you’ll find a few people digitally rolling their eyes at how seemingly desperate many were to win some cash. While there’s plenty of valid concern over this, it’s arguably also unfair to judge anyone for trying to win the prize, because it’s a nice chunk of change. Well, almost everybody. Celebrities of varying backgrounds also retweeted Maezawa’s post, sparking a number of divisive opinions because many assumed that these people didn’t need a few extra thousand in their pockets. TV personalities such as Kurochan and Chinatsu Wakatsuki got in on the action, the latter coming under some criticism for apparently joining Twitter for the sole purpose of winning the prize (that said, such a claim could easily be untrue, as Twitter handle @zozodaisukidesu certainly sounds like something a bot could have made). Comedian Panther Ogata dodged a lot of criticism — and actually won some sympathy — by posting that he could use the cash because his family had just had a baby and he would be paying for a house over the next 35 years. Unfortunately, Ogata does not appear to have won, so one can only assume he’ll have to keep on entertaining. Maezawa closed the contest at the end of Jan. 7 and messaged the winners directly the following day (not before reminding everyone to watch out for fakes pretending to be him in order to get personal info). And it appears he kept his word , with recipients showing how he contacted them or flexing their bank books . Those who didn’t win any money tried to guess how the winners were selected. While plenty of variances pop up, user @okera1127 found that many recipients of the cash proposed to use it in a charitable manner, and used their real name and photo on Twitter. Seeing as part of Twitter’s attraction in Japan is its anonymity, some expressed their frustration with this possibility. Then again, these people were up against more than 5 million other followers, so they probably shouldn’t take it all too personally. Maezawa’s treasure might now be gone and the number of followers may plunge , but his spirit of giving has become something of a trend in itself on Twitter. Inspired by the stunt, everyone from the winners themselves to random folk holding wads of cash is attempting to get in on the act, offering something to random folk who follow and retweet. Failing that, you can try to win ¥4 from another Twitter user who has lambasted this whole concept. It’s perhaps not a reliable way to boost overall net value, but I guess there’s always a chance.

twitter
yusaku maezawa
zozotown
kurochan
chinatsu wakatsuki
panther ogata
japan pulse


Japan's vernacular press coverage tiptoes around tattoo controversy

Abstract: Before the Olympic Games come to Tokyo in the summer of 2020, Japan will get a chance to prove its mettle as an international sporting events host with the Rugby World Cup this fall. The games will be spread out among 12 stadiums nationwide, which means the whole country will be the focus rather than just cosmopolitan Tokyo. Consequently, omotenashi (Japanese-style hospitality) will be tested across a wider range of cultural sensibilities, since many of the host communities are not necessarily on the beaten foreign tourist path. Take Beppu, Oita Prefecture. Five matches, including one of the quarterfinals, will take place at the Oita Stadium, which is in the city of Oita and, according to the Dec. 30 issue of the Nishinippon Shimbun , there is some concern in the local hospitality sector regarding what to do about foreign players and spectators with tattoos. It’s assumed that when in Beppu these visitors will want to partake of what makes the region famous — its onsen (hot-spring baths) — but, according to the newspaper, 70 percent of the area’s 400 onsen facilities do not allow bathers with tattoos because they are afraid inked guests “make other guests uncomfortable,” and by “other guests” they mean Japanese guests, who make up almost all of their business. The local hoteliers association says it will survey member establishments for their opinions. As it stands, there are 100 facilities that say they will “accept” tattooed patrons, and the association is hoping to persuade others to relax their rules if only during the one-month period of the Rugby World Cup. A Dec. 25 article in the Sankei Shimbun features an English-language website that publicizes a map of 100 tattoo-friendly onsen, but it also implies that many of the accommodations in the area are resistant to the idea. A representative from an inn told the Sankei Shimbun that it’s “difficult” to try and distinguish whether someone sporting a tattoo is “antisocial,” while a city official said many facilities didn’t want to “disappoint” people who had come “so far” to take a bath, without really clarifying if those people were Japanese or foreign guests. The organization that designed the map said one option is for hot-spring facilities to set aside exclusive bathing times for tattooed patrons. The cautious tone of these two articles suggests that most hot-spring resorts in Beppu will remain closed to tattoo-sporting visitors before, during and after the Rugby World Cup. The average Japanese person’s aversion to tattoos or, more precisely, to people who have voluntarily submitted themselves to tattooing — which describes a good number of foreign athletes — seems to be deeply ingrained. In September, the Mainichi Shimbun ran a feature that attempted to explain this aversion as a means of addressing the recent internet trolling of popular TV personality Ryuchell, who in August posted images of himself on Instagram sporting tattoos with the names of his wife and newborn son. The Mainichi cited a 2014 survey by the Kanto Federation of Bar Associations that said only 1.6 percent of 1,000 respondents aged between 20 and 60 years old had ever had tattoos. Regarding the question, “Is it OK for a celebrity to have a tattoo?,” the answers were split evenly between the affirmative and the negative, but when asked if it was OK for a family member to get one, 81.4 percent replied “no.” The most commonly cited objection to Ryuchell’s tattoo was that it wasn’t something a father should have. Cultural anthropologist Yoshimi Yamamoto told the Mainichi Shimbun that tattooing has a long history in Japan for reasons that were ritual in nature or symbolized membership in a group. However, it was used by the government to mark criminals during the Edo Period (1603-1868) and authorities only cracked down on tattoo artists in the Meiji Period, including those serving Ainu people and Okinawans, for whom tattoos are part of their respective cultures. While this policy did much to demonize tattoos among some members of the general public, tattooing continued to flourish as an indigenous art form until the 1960s, when movies about organized crime were popular. Although the gangsters in these movies often had noble intentions, the fact that they favored tattoos reinforced the notion that tattooed individuals were antisocial forces. More to the point, Yamamoto’s research shows that modern Japanese homes included dedicated bathrooms, obviating the need to make regular trips to sentō (public baths), one of the few places where it was common to see tattoos. Closed off from public viewing, tattooed flesh acquired even more of a forbidden cachet and, whereas before the ’60s there was a dual outlook on tattoos, afterward that outlook shaded overwhelmingly toward the negative. As in the Nishinippon Shimbun and Sankei Shimbun articles, most vernacular media coverage of the tattoo controversy avoids the question of whether banning tattooed visitors from onsen counts as improper discrimination, probably because the media would also have to mention the possibility that behind some of the bans is a fear of foreigners. The Mainichi Shimbun article partially addresses this matter, qualifying tattoos as merely a form of personalized decoration. The newspaper quotes Tomohiro Suzuki, a social psychology associate professor, who predicts that, as with pierced ears and dyed hair, Japanese society will eventually grow to tolerate tattoos as “fashion statements.” It may merely come down to terminology. Thanks to those yakuza movies, the Japanese word for tattoo, “ irezumi ,” carries with it the notion of rebellion. The English word, “tattoo,” is less loaded. Since the mass media tends to sympathize with businesses that don’t wish to risk losing customers over a principle, it may take longer for society to accept tattoos, even if such prejudices contradict common sense. Unlike the hot-spring employee mentioned in the Sankei Shimbun article, most people can tell the difference between gangsters and foreign rugby players.


American woman brings pistol and bullets onto U.S.-Japan flight

Abstract: CHIBA - An American woman who was found to be in possession of a pistol and bullets on a flight from Atlanta to Narita airport near Tokyo last week was denied entry to Japan, airport sources said Friday. The woman, believed to be in her 30s, told Delta Air Lines crew during the flight that she had mistakenly brought the handgun and ammunition with her onto the plane, despite passing through security inspection at the southern U.S. airport, the sources said. The cabin crew took the handgun from the woman until the plane’s arrival on the afternoon of Jan. 3, the sources said, adding that she apparently owned it for self-defense. The woman returned to the United States the same day she arrived, they said. The case follows an earlier one at Narita in which an American co-pilot was found to be in possession of live bullets during a security inspection before departing the Japanese airport on Dec. 14, the sources said. The American Airlines pilot, who said the bullets were in his luggage by mistake, left the ammunition with airport staff and worked as scheduled, they said. Describing both cases as “serious incidents,” the transport ministry asked U.S. transportation security authorities on Jan. 4 to take necessary preventive measures. The ministry made similar requests following a series of incidents in 2017 in which live bullets were brought onto planes from the United States arriving at Narita and Haneda airports. As Japan steps up security for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, airport officials have said it is also important to make sure that inspections of incoming passengers at overseas airports be strengthened.


Japanese police arrest leading suspect in fraudulent Tokyo land deal

Abstract: A 59-year-old man believed to be one of the main suspects in a bogus land deal in Tokyo has been arrested, a key development in the investigation into a mass-scale fraud that swindled billions of yen from the country’s leading house builder. Misao Kaminsukasu was arrested Friday after arriving in Japan from the Philippines. Since last month, he had been detained in Manila on suspicion of providing false documents to the Japanese Legal Affairs Bureau on June 1, 2017, according to the Japanese police and the Philippines’ Bureau of Immigration. Kaminsukasu, who has denied the allegations, is believed to be one of the masterminds of a criminal group that swindled Sekisui House Ltd. out of about ¥5.55 billion in a deal to sell a 2,000-sq.-meter plot of land in a top-rated location in Tokyo’s Shinagawa Ward, an investigative source said. Kaminsukasu led negotiations with the company for the land, which was formerly used as the site of an inn, a Japanese investigative source said. Tokyo police have already arrested 16 people in connection with the case. Kaminsukasu fled to the Philippines a few days before eight of them were arrested last October. He turned himself in at the Japanese Embassy in Manila on Dec. 19 after the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department placed him on an international wanted list. He was then detained by Philippine immigration authorities. Sekisui House concluded the land deal on April 24, 2017, and had paid ¥6.3 billion in total by June 1 that year. But an application to change the ownership was turned down by the Japanese bureau as the documents were found to have been tampered with. The total recognized by police as having been fraudulently gained has been reduced to about ¥5.55 billion, as the company had received ¥750 million from the same group from a different contract to sell an apartment.


Huawei fires employee arrested in Poland on spying charges

Abstract: HONG KONG/WARSAW - Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei said on Saturday it had sacked an employee arrested in Poland on spying charges in a case that could intensify Western security concerns about the company. Poland’s internal affairs minister, Joachim Brudzinski, called for the European Union and NATO to work on a joint position over whether to exclude Huawei from their markets following the arrest of the Chinese employee and a former Polish security official on Friday. Huawei, the world’s biggest producer of telecommunications equipment, faces intense scrutiny in the West over its relationship with China’s government and U.S.-led allegations that its devices could be used by Beijing for spying. No evidence has been produced publicly and the firm has repeatedly denied the accusations, but several Western countries have restricted Huawei’s access to their markets. In August, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a bill that barred the U.S. government from using Huawei equipment and is mulling an executive order that would also ban U.S. companies from doing so. Brudzinski said Poland wanted to continue cooperating with China but that a discussion was needed on whether to exclude Huawei from some markets. “There are concerns about Huawei within NATO as well. It would make most sense to have a joint stance, among EU member states and NATO members,” he told private broadcaster RMF FM. “We want relations with China that are good, intensive and attractive for both sides,” he added. Seeking to distance itself from the incident, Huawei said in a statement it had sacked Wang Weijing, whose “alleged actions have no relation to the company.” “In accordance with the terms and conditions of Huawei’s labor contract, we have made this decision because the incident has brought Huawei into disrepute,” the statement said. “Huawei complies with all applicable laws and regulations in the countries where it operates, and we require every employee to abide by the laws and regulations in the countries where they are based,” the company’s statement added. A Huawei spokesman, Joe Kelly, declined to give any further details. The two men have heard the charges and could be held for three months. A spokesman for the Polish security services had told Reuters the allegations related to individual actions, and were not linked directly to Huawei Technologies Cos Ltd. A deputy digital affairs minister in Poland said, however, that Warsaw was analysing any involvement by Huawei in building the country’s 5G telecommunications infrastructure, Money.pl portal reported. Any decision by Western governments over whether to exclude Huawei from their markets would have to consider the possible impact on the speed and cost of 5G development, analysts say. “My best-case outcome is that Europe uses this window of opportunity and figures out how to have a minimal risk for the best network possible,” said Jan-Peter Kleinhans, an IT security expert at Stiftung Neue Verantwortung, a Berlin-based think tank. A LinkedIn profile for Wang showed he has worked for Huawei’s Polish division since 2011 and previously served as attache to the Chinese General Consul in Gdansk from 2006-2011. Wang did not immediately respond to a request for comment via the social media site. China’s Foreign Ministry has expressed concern over the case and is urging Poland to handle the case “justly.”

huawei
poland
eu
china
donald trump
u.s .
espionage
police


Former kidnap victims say Wisconsin girl Jayme Closs needs space, time to heal

Abstract: CHICAGO - Katie Beers’ joy quickly turned to deep concern when she learned 13-year-old Jayme Closs had been found alive in rural Wisconsin nearly three months after police say a man shot and killed her parents and then abducted the girl from their home. “She is going to have to grieve the loss of her parents and also come to terms with the fact she was abducted, escaped and whatever (other) hell she went through,” said Beers. “And it’s not going to be easy.” Beers knows that better than most. Sunday will mark 26 years since a then-10-year-old Beers was rescued from an underground concrete bunker in Bay Shore, New York, where she had been held captive for more than two weeks by a family friend who had lured her to his home with the promise of birthday presents. As Jayme begins to process her trauma, experts and former victims say what she needs most is space and time to discuss it on her own terms. And with the help of a supportive and understanding family, she likely will be able to recover and live a happy life. “One of the things that helped me recover so quickly is that nobody forced me to talk about what happened,” said Beers, 36, who is married and has two children. “I didn’t even do interviews until I was 30. I didn’t have to relive it every day.” Authorities said Jayme was skinny, disheveled and wearing shoes too big for her when she approached a stranger and pleaded for help Thursday in the small north woods town of Gordon, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) from her hometown of Barron. Jake Thomas Patterson, 21, was quickly arrested and jailed on kidnapping and homicide charges. It is unclear exactly what Jayme experienced — including whether she was coerced with threats or physically abused — so people must be careful how they interact with her, said Duane Bowers, a trauma therapist who works with families of missing and exploited children and adults. Although friends and family might be eager to know details, the only control the victim has is when, to whom and how they tell their story, Bowers said, adding that is especially true of Jayme, who has lost so much. For most child kidnapping victims, they have the hope that their parents will find them, “but in this case she knew her folks were dead and couldn’t find her,” Bowers said. So now, “she needs to feel . . . in control and experience her memories in a way that . . . doesn’t retrigger” her trauma. Elizabeth Smart, who was 14 when she was kidnapped at knifepoint from her Salt Lake City home in 2002, said that everyone endures different mental and psychological trauma after kidnappings, but Jayme will have to confront the fact that there “is no going back to the way things were.” “Probably one of the more difficult issues is going to be finding that new sense of normalcy in her life,” said Smart, a 31-year-old mother of three. “Not re-creating the old but (creating) the new and learning to be OK with that.” She cautioned questions that might seem harmless could be hurtful. Smart said she would get defensive when people asked her why she didn’t run or scream when her captors sometimes traveled with her out in the open. Smart was found nine months after her disappearance while walking with her kidnappers in a Salt Lake City suburb by people who recognized the couple from media reports. As an adult she realized they didn’t mean any harm, she said. “My brain heard that question as: ‘You should have tried harder. You should have run, you should have yelled, this is somehow your fault,’ ” Smart said. “So, I would just caution her community and anyone able to interact with her to really think about the questions they are asking her.” Beers and Smart said they are proof that trauma survivors can go on to live happy and fulfilling lives. “It’s never going to be easy, but with the correct support, the correct people to talk to and people there who love you, she’s going to be able to survive and thrive,” said Beers, who was raised by a foster family after her rescue because of abuse she had suffered within her own family before the kidnapping. “They just surrounded me with love and gave me a normal home and that to me . . . was the most important thing,” Beers said. It won’t happen quickly, though, Bowers said, and people need to realize that Jayme will relive her trauma in different ways throughout her life — including if she forms romantic relationships or has children of her own. “People tend to think, ‘OK, it’s been a year now, you should be fine,’ ” Bowers said. “You might learn to cope and deal with it, but it will never go away.” He said it is also important for Jayme to know that “anything you’re thinking and feeling is normal. Don’t be afraid of it; don’t think there’s something wrong with you. . . . You’re not the bad guy here.” Smart said she would tell Jayme that “she is a survivor and she is a hero. She’s incredibly strong and incredibly brave and there’s so many people who love her and are in awe of her and who want to help her and support her in any way. “And I would tell her that this experience might feel like it’s defining, it might feel like that’s who she is now, but it doesn’t have to be,” Smart said. What is more, she said, Jayme’s escape and rescue are “the reason why we can never give up hope on any missing child.”

kidnapping
jayme closs
katie beers
elizabeth smart
murder
sex crimes
sychology


Can insect pet food slash canines' carbon paw print?

Abstract: LONDON - Love your dog, but worried about the environmental impact of its meat-heavy diet? Now one British company is offering a solution — feed your pooch insects instead. It launched a dry dog food on Thursday made from black soldier fly larvae in a bid to tackle the “carbon paw print” created by pets in the animal-loving nation. “One of the very best things we can do for the environment is to reduce our meat consumption, but up until now there haven’t been many options for our carnivorous four-legged friends,” said Tom Neish, the brains behind Yora dog food. There are nearly 9 million dogs in Britain, where almost half of adults own a pet, according to the PDSA veterinary charity. Studies suggest pets consume about a fifth of the world’s meat and fish, and a dog’s carbon footprint is more than twice that of a four-wheel drive car, according to Yora. Compared to beef farming, it said the grubs need just 2 percent of the land and 4 percent of the water to produce each kilogram of protein, which means they generate 96 percent less greenhouse emissions. The grubs are grown on vegetable waste at a Dutch farm and the left over matter provides fertilizer for crops. Neish said a teaspoon of fly eggs could create 100 kg of high-protein larvae in 14 days. “It’s an amazing nutrient cycle that has been underutilized,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “Insects have been part of the food cycle since the beginning of time, but we just haven’t been tapping into it.” Vet Rory Cowlam, who stars in the BBC TV show “The Pets Factor,” predicted other pet food companies would follow suit. “Insect protein is a really sustainable way of producing protein,” he added. “I think it’s really exciting and I’m sure we’re going to see a huge trend now.” Yora is named after one of the last uncontacted tribes in the Amazon rainforest, which is threatened by the rising demand for farmland to meet the world’s booming appetite for meat. But Neish, who is developing a similar food for cats, admitted it could be a challenge to persuade the public to “get over the ick factor.” “Once you overcome your preconceptions it’s actually quite tasty,” he added. “It has a slightly mushroomy flavor. I’ve tasted quite a few insects in my trials because I don’t think I should feed a dog anything I wouldn’t eat myself.”


'Yellow vest' protests hit with police water cannons and tear gas in Paris

Abstract: PARIS - Paris police fired water cannons and tear gas to push back “yellow vest” demonstrators from around the Arc de Triomphe monument on Saturday, in the ninth straight weekend of protests against French President Emmanuel Macron’s economic reforms. Thousands of protesters in Paris marched noisily but mostly peacefully through the Grands Boulevards shopping area in northern Paris, close to where a massive gas explosion in a bakery killed two firefighters and a Spanish tourist and injured nearly 50 people early on Saturday. But small groups of demonstrators broke away from the designated route and threw bottles and other projectiles at the police. Around the 19th-century Arc de Triomphe at the top of the Champs Elysees boulevard, riot police fired water cannon and tear gas at militant protesters after being pelted with stones and paint, witnesses said. Groups of protesters also gathered on and around the Champs Elysees, the scene of disturbances in recent weeks, many of them calling loudly for Macron to resign. “Macron, we are going to tear down your place!” one banner read. The Interior Ministry estimated that there were a maximum of about 84,000 demonstrators nationwide on Saturday — more than the 50,000 counted the previous week but well below the record 282,000 estimated on Nov. 17, the first day of the protests. In Paris, the ministry counted 8,000 demonstrators, more than in the past two weekends, when authorities tallied just 3,500 people on Jan. 5 and only 800 on Dec. 29. Much of central Paris was in lockdown on the first week of post-Christmas sales, with bridges across the Seine river closed and official buildings such as parliament and the Elysee presidential palace protected by police barriers. In Paris, 156 “gilets jaunes” (yellow vest) protesters were arrested, some for carrying objects that could be used as weapons, police said. As of 2000 GMT, 108 remained in custody. Nationwide, 244 people had been arrested, of which 201 remained in custody. By nightfall, there had been no looting or burning of cars as seen in previous weeks and traffic circulation had resumed around the Arc de Triomple area. There were also thousands of marchers in the cities of Bordeaux and Toulon in southern France as well as Strasbourg in the east and the central city of Bourges. Bourges authorities said nearly 5,000 yellow vests stuck to the designated demonstration area. The historical city centre was off-limits for demonstrators, but some 500 protesters made their way to the centre where they scuffled with police and set garbage bins on fire. Many businesses in Bourges had boarded themselves up to avoid damage and authorities had removed street furniture and building site materials that could be used for barricades. In Strasbourg, up to 2,000 demonstrators gathered in front of the European Parliament building and later marched to the centre of the city on the Rhine river border with Germany. No serious violence or looting was reported there. More than 80,000 police were on duty for the protests nationwide, including 5,000 in Paris. The “yellow vests” take their name from the high-visibility jackets they wear. Their rage stems from a squeeze on household incomes and a belief that Macron, a former investment banker seen as close to big business, is indifferent to their hardships. Macron, often criticized for a monarchical manner, is to launch a national debate on Jan. 15 to try to mollify the yellow vest protest, which has shaken his administration. The debate, to be held on the internet and in town halls, will focus on four themes — taxes, green energy, institutional reform and citizenship. But aides to Macron have said changing the course of Macron’s reforms aimed at liberalizing the economy will be off limits.

yellow vests
protests
paris
france
taxes


Obama protege Julian Castro seeks to become America's first Hispanic president

Abstract: SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS - Julian Castro, the telegenic former mayor of San Antonio, Texas and Obama-era Cabinet member, launched his bid to become the nation’s first Hispanic president Saturday, emphasizing a message of hope and diversity at a time when Americans are locked in angry debate over immigration and border security. “I am a candidate for president of the United States,” the 44-year-old Castro told a crowd in San Antonio’s historic Guadalupe Plaza, during a speech that frequently invoked the immigrant heritage that brought his family to the U.S. from Mexico. Often called a rising star in the Democratic Party, Castro, who was Obama’s housing secretary — and the youngest member of that Cabinet — is expected to be part of a diverse field of candidates eager to challenge President Donald Trump. At a time when the federal government has been partly shut down over Trump’s demand for funds to build a wall on the Mexican border, Castro sounded a contrasting message. He said San Antonio, a city that is nearly two thirds Hispanic, “represents America’s future: diverse, fast-growing, optimistic.” “Yes, we must have border security, but there is a smart and humane way to do it. And there is no way in hell that caging children is keeping us safe,” Castro said. “We say no to building a wall and say yes to building community,” he added, to roars from the crowd. Trump wants the border wall to block illegal immigrants he has sought to equate with crime, drugs and gangs. “There is a crisis today — it’s a crisis of leadership. Donald Trump has failed to uphold the values of our great nation,” Castro said. Urging his supporters to look around the blue-collar neighborhood where he grew up, Castro said, “there are no frontrunners that are born here, but… with big dreams and hard work, anything is possible in this country.” He added that his grandmother Victoria would surely have been amazed when she arrived from Mexico in 1922 — she went on to work as a maid and a cook — had she known that one grandchild would end up in Congress and the other as a presidential candidate. Castro’s twin brother Joaquin, who introduced him Saturday, is a congressman. The two rode to the event together on the same bus line that once took them to public school. Julian Castro’s strong oratorical skills, experience in the Obama Cabinet and as mayor of the nation’s seventh largest city, coupled with his charisma, could help propel him into the top tier of Democratic candidates. Castro’s national profile rose sharply in 2012 when he became the first Latino to deliver a keynote speech at the Democratic national nominating convention. A Latino candidate would be expected to generate enthusiasm among the country’s large and growing population of Hispanic voters, around two thirds of which supported Hillary Clinton in 2016. But he would start out as one of the underdogs in a political showdown that may well feature heavyweights like former vice president Joe Biden, U.S. senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris, and perhaps even billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg. Another Democrat, 37-year-old Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii — a lifelong surfer — announced Friday that she too will seek the party’s presidential nomination. Castro is the third candidate with a Latino background to seek the presidency in recent years, after two Republicans — Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida — unsuccessfully faced Trump in that party’s 2016 primary campaign.

julian castro
2020 u.s. presidential election


Pompeo 'optimistic' Syrian Kurds can be protected without risk to Turkey

Abstract: ABU DHABI - Washington’s top diplomat said Saturday he was “optimistic” a way could be found to protect Syrian Kurds while allowing Turks to “defend their country from terrorists” following a U.S. pullout from Syria. “We are confident we can achieve an outcome that achieves both of those,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told journalists in Abu Dhabi. The Gulf emirate is his latest stop in a regional tour aimed at reassuring allies after a shock December announcement by President Donald Trump that U.S. troops would be withdrawn from Syria. Pompeo’s remarks follow tensions between the U.S. and Turkey over the fate of Washington’s Syrian Kurdish allies in the fight against Islamic State group jihadis. Turkey had reacted angrily to suggestions that Trump’s plan to withdraw troops was conditional on the safety of the U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters, seen by the Turkish government as terrorists. US-led operations against IS in Syria have been spearheaded on the ground by the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces. Ankara sees the backbone of that alliance, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), as a terrorist group linked to the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) which has fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state. Pompeo said that Washington recognized “the Turkish people’s right and (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan’s right to defend their country from terrorists.” But, he added, “we also know that those fighting alongside of us for all this time deserve to be protected as well.” Pompeo said he had spoken to Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. “Many details (are) still to be worked out but I’m optimistic that we can achieve a good outcome,” he said. Multiple operations including American-backed assaults have ousted IS jihadis from most of the swathes of Syria and Iraq they captured in 2014. But Trump’s announcement raised fears of a long-threatened Turkish assault against the Kurds. On Thursday, Cavusoglu repeated that threat, telling NTV television: “if the (pullout) is put off with ridiculous excuses like Turks are massacring Kurds, which do not reflect the reality, we will implement this decision.” That came after a tense meeting between Turkish officials and Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton in Ankara, aimed at coordinating the pullout process after Bolton set conditions that appeared to postpone it indefinitely. The terms included the total defeat of IS — still active in some parts of Syria — and ensuring protection for Kurdish fighters. The U.S.-led coalition launched operations against IS in September 2014, forming the SDF a year later with some 25,000 Kurdish fighters and 5,000 Arabs — all Syrian. Backed by U.S. arms and air support, the YPG-dominated group has overrun the de facto Syrian capital of IS, Raqa, and a large part of Deir Ezzor province. But that stirred Turkish fears of a breakaway Kurdish state on its border. As well as fighting IS, the YPG has also battled pro-Ankara forces in northwestern Syria, pulling SDF forces away from the battle against jihadis in the east of the country. Trump’s announcement last month prompted the YPG to call on Syrian government troops to deploy alongside their own forces in the north to help counter a potential Turkish offensive. A spokesman for the U.S. military said Friday it had begun “the process of our deliberate withdrawal from Syria.” But U.S. defence officials quickly sought to clarify that while gear was being pulled out, “we are not withdrawing troops at this stage.” In an interview with U.S. broadcaster CBS on Saturday, Pompeo said “the president’s guidance is incredibly clear” on the withdrawal. Syria’s devastating conflict began in 2011 with anti-government demonstrations that were brutally crushed, sparking a complex war involving multiple foreign militias and jihadi groups, as well as regional and international powers including the US. The withdrawal announcement had also sparked concerns among Arab states and Israel that it could open the way to growing Iranian influence. Pompeo has pledged to “expel every last Iranian boot” from Syria, and on Saturday sought to downplay the impact of the U.S. pullout on this goal. “The fact that a couple of thousands of uniformed personnel in Syria will be withdrawing is a tactical change,” he said. “It doesn’t materially alter our capacity to continue to perform the military actions that we need to perform.” The U.S. is looking to create an anti-Iran front — the Middle East Strategic Alliance — bringing together Gulf countries as well as Egypt and Jordan. Washington is set to convene an international summit in Poland next month focusing on stability in the Middle East, including Iran’s influence.

syria
kurds
turkey
mike pompeo
islamic state


Animated film to spotlight Polish bear that served in WWII

Abstract: WARSAW - During World War II, Wojciech Narebski and his fellow Polish servicemen had to lift crate after heavy metal crate of artillery. Fortunately for them, one of the soldiers had superhuman strength: Cpl. Wojtek, a Syrian brown bear. “When he saw that we were struggling, he’d want to help. . . . He’d come over, grab a crate and carry it to the truck,” Narebski, now 93, said of his days with Wojtek in the 22nd Artillery Supply Company. This can be heavy work, even for a bear. When Wojtek got tired, he would simply stack one crate on top of the other, “which also helped us, because we didn’t have to lift the crate off the ground,” recounted the veteran who spent 2½ years with the friendly giant he considered a brother. “Of course he got a reward. Honey, marmalade. That was his favorite.” Wojtek the bear also liked to drink beer and eat cigarettes, take showers, snuggle with his handler at night and wrestle with his comrades. When an opponent lost, Wojtek would lick their face in apology. Old photos show the bulky beast — who grew to be over 180 cm (6 feet) tall and weighed about 220 kg (490 pounds) — giving bear hugs, opening his toothy jaw wide for food, and enjoying a day at the beach with smiling soldiers. The unbelievable true story of the orphaned cub, who was found by Polish troops in Persia and then traveled through Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Italy and Scotland as a morale-booster, is now being turned into an animated movie. The British-Polish filmmakers hope to release the family-friendly “A Bear Named Wojtek” in 2020 on the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day. But the film’s British producer, Iain Harvey, was skeptical when Scottish animator Iain Gardner first approached him. “To be honest I thought, ‘This man has had too many whiskies,'” Harvey said, before realizing, “For once, the magic is real.” “When you actually find a story that is almost like a fairy tale but is real, and documented and true, it just opens up so many more emotions, I think,” he said — “you know, that humanity can have magic and that things can happen that you wouldn’t normally think are rational.” Not that all the lore is true. Wojtek probably did not visit the Sphinx in Egypt, as recounted by some storytellers. Nor did the Nazis necessarily know they had a special animal enemy and bombard his positions. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, however. Docile Wojtek was an enlisted soldier, with his own pay book, rations and rank — a status he needed to sail from Egypt to Italy with his comrades in arms. “The port authority is being difficult about the bear and monkey,” reads a 1944 entry in the company’s journal — yes, there was a monkey too. “Only after consulting the British High Command in Cairo does the port authority allow them to board the ship.” There were hundreds of nonhumans milling about during the war, according to wartime Polish refugee Krystyna Ivell, who herself had a chameleon in Palestine. “You have no mother, you have no sisters, you have no father, you’re all alone, you might die, so of course you find something to love,” said the 83-year-old, who put together a London exhibition and compiled a book titled “Wojtek Album,” with photos and anecdotes about the bear. “Stray dogs. Foxes. Horses. You name it. Everybody wanted a pet. . . . I remember a bloke who had a ferret, and used to have it under his khaki shirt and the head would appear,” she said. What was special about Wojtek, according to Narebski, was that he seemed to believe he was human. “Because he was brought up from a cub among people, he acquired human traits. . . . In a bear’s body there was a Polish soul,” said Narebski, who was known as “Little Wojtek.” The bear was known as “Big Wojtek.” He recalled an occasion in Italy, along the Adriatic Sea, when the hairy Cpl. Wojtek managed to break away from the men and make a beeline for the water, giving beachgoers a fright. “Well he didn’t pay them any attention . . . it was hot and he swam around a bit, shook himself off, and then came right back.” This docility is what Gardner, the animator, finds interesting about the imagery of a bear in a human conflict. “The most common kind of cultural shared image that we have of a bear is that it’s a savage animal. You know, it’s a beast,” Gardner said. “And yet you put it in the context of the Second World War and you have to ask, ‘Who are the animals?'” After the war, Wojtek ended up at Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland, where he died at the age of 21 in 1963. At the time, the BBC announced “with regret the death of a famous Polish soldier.”

animals animals wwii pets poland anime cartoons


Border plan sparks fear in Kosovo's Serb enclaves

Abstract: GRACANICA, KOSOVO - A possible land swap between Serbia and Kosovo, suggested by their leaders to end one of Europe’s most volatile territorial disputes, has sparked concerns that the border could be redrawn along ethnic lines and reignite festering communal animosities. With few details made public, media reports say the Serb majority northern border region around the city of Mitrovica would be incorporated into Serbia under the plan, which would also see Belgrade hand over a mainly ethnic Albanian region in Serbia. The trade-off would also see Belgrade finally recognize its former province as an independent state, 20 years after a bitter war between Serbia’s forces and pro-independence ethnic Albanian guerrillas that led to Kosovo breaking away from Serbia in 2008. Kosovo’s President Hashim Thaci, who along with Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic last year raised the possibility of redrawing the border, has insisted a revised version would not be drawn along ethnic lines. But the plan has sent ripples of alarm through minorities in these regions, notably among ethnic Serbs living in enclaves dispersed in Kosovo who would be unaffected by such a deal. A territory swap would mean “clear ethnic division so that within decades there will be no Serbs left in Kosovo,” said Stefan Filipovic, a 24-year-old Kosovan Serb activist in Gracanica, one of those enclaves and a short drive south of the capital, Pristina. There are an estimated 120,000 Serbs living in Kosovo in total. Of those some 40,000 are thought to live around Mitrovica — and are likely set to be part of the land swap — while a further 80,000 live deeper in Kosovo and would remain under Pristina. Gracanica, home to one of Kosovo’s main Orthodox monasteries, is one of six mainly Serbian municipalities that are like islands surrounded by Kosovo Albanian neighborhoods. For Rada Trajkovic, an ethnic Serb politician in his 60s living in Gracanica, the border change would amount to creating “two mono-ethnic spaces” and lead to Serbs leaving Kosovan enclaves. Trajkovic is one of the few Kosovar Serbs willing publicly to criticize Srpska Lista, or Serbian List, the minority’s main political outlet. Most of Trajkovic’s fellow Serb colleagues back the Belgrade line of President Vucic. Long a taboo subject, a territorial exchange has the backing of the United States as well as several EU officials. Germany, however, is opposed, warning of the potential for a renewed flare-up of the hard-line nationalism that has marked the still fragile Balkans in the past. A NATO-led peacekeeping force has guarded Kosovo since it broke away from Serbia in a bloody war from 1998 to 1999 that left more than 13,000 dead. Border revision “is a very dangerous, particularly dramatic idea,” says Filipovic, who feels “abandoned by Belgrade.” For Trajkovic, “if they cede the north of Kosovo to Serbia, I don’t see why the (Kosovar) Albanians would show empathy with those (Serbs) living” in the enclaves. In the nearby village of Laplje Selo, a mainly Serb area home to around 1,000 people encroached upon by the glass and steel residences of Pristina, few people will speak openly of the border topic, still less openly criticize Vucic. But in the local pub, four Serbs sip rakija , a type of brandy, as they debate whether Vucic is abandoning them to “an Albanian prison.” With barely a hint of irony, one explains that “if someone can save us it’s (Ramush) Haradinaj,” the former Kosovo Liberation Army fighter-turned prime minister who Belgrade and the Serbs consider a war criminal. Haradinaj opposes border revision, warning that it will only lead to “new wars.” “I imagine president Vucic won’t leave us to fend for ourselves,” says Jagoda Trajkovic, a 69-year-old pensioner, as he drops off his grandson at Laplje Selo’s tiny school. Others are not so confident. They include Father Sava Jancic, abbot at Visoki Decani, a Serb Orthodox medieval monastery and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Recent years have passed in the vicinity in tranquil enough fashion, save for occasional demonstrations by Kosovar Albanians demanding the monks give up some of their land. But in 2008, the year Kosovo declared independence, an Albanian fired a missile at the churchyard wall. “I am personally in possession of very credible information . . . according to which they are already working on the details of an exchange of land along ethnic lines,” says Father Sava, who during the conflict protected Kosovar Albanians from Serbian forces. In his view, border alterations “would amount to abandoning 80,000 Serbs, leaving them with a very low and dubious level of security and protection.” One of the very few to oppose President Vucic in public, Father Sava was last year the target of a Belgrade tabloid press campaign that described him as a “great Albanian patriot” — or, essentially, a traitor.

kosovo serbia ethnicity religion yugoslavia


'Get us out': In U.K. city where Nissan plant is lifeblood, Brexit voters urge MPs to hurry up

Abstract: LONDON - “It just needs to be sorted,” said 23-year-old Adam Green, a frustrated “leave” voter in Brexit-backing Sunderland, where patience with parliamentary delays over Britain’s departure is wearing thin. The former shipbuilding city in northeast England, where the Nissan car plant is now the lifeblood, played a starring role in Britain’s seismic decision to leave the European Union. The city’s 61 percent vote in favor of leaving in the 2016 referendum signaled early on where the nation was heading on the night of June 23, 2016, and celebrations at the count were beamed worldwide. Now, as MPs prepare for Tuesday’s decision on whether to back the divorce deal that was struck between London and Brussels, voters in Sunderland are urging them to get on with it and get Britain out. The years of wrangling since the referendum over how, or even if, Britain leaves have certainly dampened the high spirits of that June night in 2016. “It’s become an absolute joke,” said Green, who is unemployed for medical reasons, as he stood outside the Bridges main shopping center. “It’s disrespecting my vote completely. Myself and my whole family voted for us to come out,” he said. “The MPs need to get their heads down and get us out. “I just want it over and done with because I’m sick of hearing about Brexit,” he added. The University of Sunderland campus was built in the 1990s on the site of former shipyards that once dominated the banks of the River Wear in this working-class city of 275,000 people. Sunderland was a coal trading port, had its own collieries, was a glass-making center and boasted a major brewery. The heavy industry has largely evaporated, though the docks are still going and ships’ horns echo among the cranes. Besides its car-making prowess, Sunderland’s pride now rests on its soccer team. Despite two straight relegations to the third-tier League One, the Black Cats still draw huge crowds to games at their 49,000-seater Stadium of Light, built on the site of a disused coal mine. On match days, the stadium roar drifts throughout Sunderland’s streets. “Sunderland is a city where people feel quite rooted, with a strong sense of community,” said Peter Hayes, the university’s senior lecturer in politics. “That perhaps makes them feel a little bit less cosmopolitan,” he said. “There’s a kind of anti-elite feeling in Sunderland,” he said, explaining the “leave” vote, which went against Nissan’s preference. “If we leave the EU on bad terms, there are very serious economic problems that Sunderland is going to face,” he added, saying that if Nissan shifted production to Europe, it would be a “disaster.” Britain’s largest car factory employs more than 7,000 workers and builds 500,000 vehicles per year, including the Juke, Qashqai and electric Leaf models. Some 55 percent are exported tariff-free to the EU. Stephen O’Brien, a city councilor for the pro-EU opposition Liberal Democrats, said a no-deal Brexit’s effect on the city’s manufacturing would be “more devastating than losing the pits and the boat industry.” Strolling along Roker Beach, a sweeping bay where kayakers brave the chilly North Sea, 67-year-old Brian Halse said: “It’s just a shambles. I did vote for Brexit. I would like us to go out. I think we’re better off by ourselves. “I like (Prime Minister) Theresa May but nobody’s backing her the way they should. We should all stick together and go out the best way we can.” Ronnie Quinn, 60, picking litter on the riverbank by the Wearmouth Bridge, said MPs were “acting like children” instead of upholding the referendum result. “I voted to leave — and we won. The country’s made a choice and they should all be working together to shift Britain out,” he said. “I would prefer no deal. The country did all right before the EU.” But Liz Sulaiman, 74, out walking her dog on the seafront, said she was more worried about the effects of a potential no-deal Brexit on her grandchildren. “Sunderland’s already not doing so well so I don’t think it’s going to do any better,” the housewife said. “You’re going to lose a lot of jobs. We don’t need that in the northeast. It’s all happening in the south; they don’t seem to care about us. We’re just out on a limb and if we lose Nissan, we lose an awful lot.”

nissan
brexit
sunderland
eu
trade
u.k .
carmakers


Vietnam emerging as front-runner to host second Trump-Kim Jong Un summit

Abstract: Vietnam has emerged as the apparent front-runner for hosting a second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, after a second report cited the Southeast Asian country as a potential host city. The U.S. side has proposed to the North holding the talks in Vietnam in mid-February, the Yomiuri Shimbun daily reported Sunday, citing unidentified sources, as expectations grow that a second summit could help break the stalemate in ongoing denuclearization negotiations. The report said Pyongyang was reviewing the U.S. proposal and had yet to give a formal response. Sunday’s news echoed an earlier report by the South Korean daily Munhwa Ilbo, which said that Trump and Kim could meet in Vietnam’s capital for the summit. Hanoi is a longtime ally of Pyongyang that has seen its relations with Washington improve in recent years. The country hosted North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho from Nov. 29 to Dec. 2, though it was unclear if the summit was discussed. South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo newspaper previously reported that Mark Lambert, a senior U.S. State Department official handling North Korea issues, had visited Vietnam last month, though it was not known if he was in the country at the same time as Ri. Hanoi, which is less than 3,000 km from Pyongyang, appears to be an acceptable host site: It is accessible for both leaders, boasts top-flight hotels, and the ruling Communist Party maintains a security apparatus that would be able to prevent protests. It also has experience in hosting high-level events such as the APEC forum. Other countries that have emerged as potential candidates include Thailand, Indonesia and Mongolia. Trump said last week that discussions on the location are underway and that further details will be announced soon. “We are negotiating a location,” he said. The White House has remained evasive on the exact timing of the summit, though officials have previously said they expect the meeting to happen sometime early this year. “It will be announced probably in the not too distant future. They do want to meet and we want to meet and we’ll see what happens,” he said. Trump, who held a landmark summit with Kim in Singapore in June that resulted in a vaguely worded pledge “to work toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” said earlier this month that he had received a “great letter” from the North Korean leader but declined to reveal its contents. The latest letter from Kim came after he said in a New Year’s speech that while he was willing to meet Trump again at any time to produce results “welcomed by the international community,” Pyongyang could change its approach to nuclear talks if Washington persists with crippling sanctions imposed over its nuclear weapons and missile programs. In his address, Kim urged the United States to take reciprocal measures in exchange for denuclearization steps the North Korean dictator has claimed his country has taken since last year. Experts say the North likely expects these measures to include some form of eased sanctions and that any chance of a successful second summit could hinge on this. For his part, Trump said last week that the sanctions will remain “in full force and effect” until the United States sees “very positive” results. China — which Kim visited last week — and Russia have both pushed for an easing of the crushing sanctions on North Korea that Pyongyang says is halting its attempt to fix its moribund economy. Kim devoted a large chunk of his New Year’s address to reiterating his shift in focus from nuclear weapons to rebuilding the economy.

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


India's Rahul Gandhi vows to reform sales tax and seek investment as election nears

Abstract: NEW DELHI - India’s main opposition Congress party will simplify the goods and services tax (GST) and take “rational economic decisions” to attract foreign investment if voted back to power in a general election due by May, its leader Rahul Gandhi said on Saturday. Launched in 2017, the GST was initially hailed as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s biggest economic reform as it replaced more than a dozen federal and state levies and unified Asia’s third largest economy. But its chaotic implementation and complexities — months after a shock ban by Modi on high value bank currency aimed at unearthing untaxed wealth — badly hurt small businesses and led to millions of job losses in the cash-driven economy, presenting the biggest challenge to Modi’s re-election chances. Gandhi, scion of India’s Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, said during a visit to Dubai that foreign investment was at a multiyear low in India due to the “ill-advised and badly thought out economic moves” such as the currency ban and a “poorly designed GST.” “We will take some rational economic decisions,” he told a press conference, which was broadcast live on Twitter. “We will restructure the GST and we will embrace investments from the Middle East and other parts of the world. We are the party of (India’s economic) liberalization, we are the party that gave the fastest economic growth in the first decade of the century, and will do that again.” He said his main priority would be to create jobs, simplify the GST, rebuild confidence in institutions such as the Reserve Bank of India — whose governor resigned recently after a fight over autonomy with the government, and the Supreme Court. Four Supreme Court judges held a rare press conference early last year saying that “unless this institution is preserved and it maintains its equanimity, democracy will not survive in this country.” Modi told a BJP convention in New Delhi on Saturday that for Congress “every institution was wrong and only they were right.” The Congress press conference was organized by the Indian Overseas Congress, which is present in about 35 countries, as Gandhi tries to reach out to rich Indians living abroad for funds and social media support for the party that has dominated the country’s politics for decades before being nearly decimated in the last general election in 2014 by Modi. But back home, Gandhi received a jolt when bitter rivals Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) announced an election tie-up without Congress in Uttar Pradesh state, which sends the highest number of lawmakers to the lower house of parliament. “The BSP and SP have made a political decision,” Gandhi said. “It’s on us on how to strengthen the Congress party in Uttar Pradesh and we will fight with our full capacity. Whether we do or their alliance does, the BJP is not winning there.” Modi said at the Delhi convention that the opposition was working on a “desperate alliance,” while the BJP would give a “strong government.” The Hindu nationalist BJP lost power in three key states recently, forcing the government to announce a flurry of measures to woo small businesses and the less well-off since then.


Millions of Hindu devotees begin gathering in northern India for world's largest festival

Abstract: ALLAHABAD, INDIA - Hindu devotees began gathering Sunday in northern India for the world’s largest religious festival, with millions of pilgrims traveling to bathe in holy rivers for the spectacular Kumbh Mela. State authorities in Uttar Pradesh are expecting 12 million visitors to descend on Allahabad for the centuries-old festival, which officially begins Tuesday and continues until early March. The ancient city rises alongside the banks of the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers, and the meeting point of the three is considered highly sacred in Hinduism. Hindus believe bathing there during the Kumbh helps cleanse sins and frees the soul from the cycle of death and rebirth. Two days before the gigantic bathing ritual begins, naked holy men wandered the banks smeared in ash, offering blessings for devotees. “We help devotees get rid of their pains and troubles through our blessings, sacred ash, yoga, knowledge and wisdom,” said Prahlad Puri, a holy man with his long knotted hair tied in a bun. “We distribute food, we serve the poor.” According to Hindu mythology, gods and demons fought a war over a sacred pitcher, or kumbh, containing the nectar of immortality. During the tussle, a few drops fell to Earth at four different locations — one being Allahabad. The historic city was recently renamed Prayagraj by the state’s conservative Hindu government but is still widely known by Allahabad, the name it was given by Muslim rulers hundreds of years ago. The Mela, which runs until March 4, was recognized as an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2017.

hindu
india
festival
allahabad
uttar pradesh
religion


Students tasked with developing dishes using Fukushima produce to promote prefecture's recovery

Abstract: A group of elementary, junior high and high school students in the city of Fukushima are taking part in an initiative to develop original recipes using local agricultural products as part of a broader project to highlight the city’s recovery from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. The first phase of the campaign, known as the Fukko Project, whereby the students create new dishes, started Dec. 16. It is designed to help the children learn about local agriculture so they will be able to implement their own action plans to assist Fukushima’s recovery. “I am convinced that the experiences of thinking about and taking actions to better their hometown will serve as a driving force for these children in the future,” said Kimio Suzuki, the director of the municipal Mikawadai Learning Center, the organizer of the campaign. The dishes they create will be served at several locations, including the cafeteria in Fukushima City Hall. Eighteen students ranging from fifth grade in elementary school to second grade in high school from five schools are participating in the initiative. Those schools are Sakura no Seibo High School, Sakura no Seibo Junior High School, Gakuyo Junior High School, Mikawadai Elementary School and an elementary school affiliated with Fukushima University. In February, a group of judges, including Minoru Honma, the head of the city board of education, will select two dishes that will be served by the students who have been divided into two groups. In addition to city hall, the Kiichigo restaurant located in the Corasse Fukushima complex will also serve the dishes. The building has a store that features regional products. The hope is the children’s efforts will increase the chances that visitors will want to try dishes made from local produce. On the initiative’s first day, a city official explained to the students about the harmful rumors related to the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant meltdowns and about regional specialities such as peaches, freeze-dried tofu and gyōza (dumplings). The students, some of whom were just 3 or 4 years old when the 2011 earthquake happened, sampled some of the products before setting off to plan their own dishes. “I now understand the thoroughness of the (city and prefecture’s) decontamination and inspection processes,” said Ikumi Nakatsuka, 12, a sixth-grader at Mikawadai Elementary School. “I am amazed by the different efforts done up until this point.” Mariko Chiba, 16, a Sakura no Seibo High School student, said she is enthusiastic about the project. “I want to guide elementary and middle school students in this project and complete a menu featuring what the city has to offer,” she said. After the food project is complete, the learning center is hoping to start another similar project wherein students would devise a plan to attract tourists to local festivals and hot spring areas.


Japanese government pushes back against New York Times editorial on whaling

Abstract: NEW YORK - The Japanese government has rebutted an editorial in The New York Times urging it to halt its whaling practices, saying the country is committed to the conservation of whales. The editorial, titled “Japan: Stop Slaughtering Whales,” was published late last year after the country announced a decision to leave the International Whaling Commission to resume commercial whaling. The country “sets strict catch limits based on scientific methodology” established by the IWC, Foreign Ministry Press Secretary Takeshi Osuga said in a letter to the editor Friday that appeared on the newspaper’s online edition, countering the earlier editorial. “This ensures the sustainability of all whale species Japan will catch for hundreds of years,” he said. “Japan’s actions fully comply with international law,” the letter said, explaining that the country’s whaling is limited to its exclusive economic zone where it has sovereignty over the use of the maritime resources there. Osuga also said, “There is no general international prohibition on whaling.” “Whaling has been a part of Japanese culture for centuries,” the same as it has been in Norway, Iceland and Denmark, as well as among indigenous people in the United States and Canada, he said. “It is unfair to single out Japan,” the letter said. Osuga said, “It is offensive to dismiss Japan’s concern for protection of its own cultural heritage and the industry closely related to it as a ‘gambit by nationalist politicians’ motivated by ‘short-term political gain,'” as the editorial claimed.


North Korea tells Japan it may raise wartime labor issue if Tokyo keeps up pressure on abductees

Abstract: North Korea has told Japan it could raise the subject of wartime forced labor during Tokyo’s occupation of the Korean Peninsula in any future bilateral talks, diplomatic sources have said. The wartime labor issue has been the source of heightened tensions between Tokyo and Seoul after South Korea’s top court last year ordered several Japanese companies to compensate South Korean workers for forced labor. Japan has refused to comply with the ruling based on its stance that the matter of compensation for wartime labor was resolved under a 1965 agreement that normalized relations with South Korea. Pyongyang has repeatedly criticized this stance in state-run media. Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula from 1910 until the end of World War II in 1945. According to the sources, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho warned his Japanese counterpart, Taro Kono, via a Mongolian diplomat in mid-December, that he would have “no choice” but to bring up the matter if Tokyo insists on pursuing the issue of Pyongyang’s abductions of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s. Japan is unlikely to back down on the abduction issue, which Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said is a top priority. One official close to Abe said the administration will pursue a resolution to the issue “no matter what the other side says.” This means that even if Japan does open a dialogue with North Korea, as South Korea and the United States have done, negotiations will likely be fraught with obstacles. Ri met with Mongolian Foreign Minister Damdin Tsogtbaatar in Ulan Bator on Dec. 8. According to the sources, Ri asked Tsogtbaatar to relay the message that Japan was being illogical by asking for the return of individuals it identifies as abductees who have already died or never entered North Korea in the first place. Ri also said that should Tokyo continue to focus on the abductions, he would bring up the issue of the “more than 8.4 million Koreans who were forced to work” under Japanese colonial rule, the sources said. Japan passed the National Mobilization Law in 1938, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, allowing it to begin requisitioning workers at home the following year and later on the Korean Peninsula. Abe said last week that his government is “using various channels” to communicate with North Korea, including over a potential summit with leader Kim Jong Un. Asked by a reporter about meeting Kim, Abe said last June’s summit in Singapore between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump meant the “situation has greatly changed” and as both sides work toward further talks, “I think next time around I will also have to face Kim Jong Un.” For his part, Kim, too, appears interested in talks with Abe, telling South Korean President Moon Jae-in in late April that he is ready to hold a dialogue with Japan at “any time.” However, Abe has said time after time that Japan will hold back any economic incentives until all of its concerns — the nuclear, missile and abduction issues — are resolved. For North Korea, some experts say Japan represents a potential cash cow and could play a key role in a claimed shift by Kim from a focus on nuclear weapons to his country’s tattered economy. For Tokyo, with its long historical links to the Korean Peninsula, its nuclear-armed neighbor represents more than a mere security concern — despite its arsenal of shorter-range missiles capable of striking much of Japan. Rather, the normalization of ties with the North is seen as one of the final pieces in a puzzle Japan is still trying to solve more than 70 years after its colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula ended with its defeat in World War II.

north korea
wartime labor
taro kono
shinzo abe
wwii


Japan wage data errors undermine trust in government indicators, poll shows

Abstract: Nearly 80 percent of people have lost trust in the government’s economic indicators in the wake of a recent revelation that years of faulty wage data have been released, a Kyodo News survey showed Sunday. The data issue has led to some unemployment benefits and workers compensation going unpaid. In a nationwide opinion poll conducted Saturday and Sunday on 1,041 registered voters, the support rate for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet was nearly flat at 43.4 percent, after it fell to 42.4 percent in December from 47.3 percent in November apparently over wrangling in the Diet about the passage of a bill to accept more foreign workers. The disapproval rate slightly declined to 42.3 percent from 44.1 percent in December. The survey showed 78.8 percent of respondents do not trust official indicators after the government said Friday it had failed to pay over ¥50 billion in benefits to nearly 20 million people due to the labor ministry’s publishing of faulty jobs data for the past 15 years. The sampling errors came to light after it was revealed that the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry had published its monthly labor survey without collecting enough data beginning in 2004. Under existing rules, the ministry must review all business establishments in the country with 500 or more employees. But in Tokyo it had collected data from only a third of the roughly 1,400 such establishments, leading the data to show nationwide wages that were lower than they actually were. Labor minister Takumi Nemoto said in a news conference there was a manual shared by those involved in compiling the data saying only some of the large firms needed to be surveyed, though he denied the data was systematically manipulated to make wages appear smaller than they actually were. Some 69.1 percent of people polled in the weekend survey found Nemoto’s explanation and response to the matter insufficient, with only 18.0 percent saying the minister is addressing the issue properly. The incident triggered a backlash not only from people receiving benefits and compensation but also corporate executives who have been repeatedly urged to raise wages by Abe’s administration. Among other recent developments, the public is supportive of the government’s response to South Korea’s top court rulings since last year ordering Japanese companies to compensate South Koreans for labor during Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. The survey showed 80.9 percent supported the Japanese government’s rejection of the court orders, with 11.3 percent against it. Japan maintains that the issue of compensation was settled “completely and finally” under a bilateral accord to settle property claims signed alongside the 1965 Japan-South Korea treaty that established diplomatic ties. Tokyo recently requested talks with Seoul as a Japanese steel-maker faced the imminent seizure of its assets in South Korea. As for Abe’s announcement earlier in the month that the new era name will be revealed one month before the upcoming Imperial succession on May 1, 66.2 percent were in favor of the decision. Era names are widely used in Japanese calendars, newspapers and official documents, along with the Gregorian calendar. Regarding the House of Councilors’ election this summer, 31.9 percent said they will vote for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in the proportional representation segment, 9.4 percent for the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and 3.5 percent for Komeito, the LDP’s coalition partner. The survey contacted 746 randomly selected households with eligible voters and 1,206 mobile phone numbers, of which 1,041 provided valid answers.

wage data
poll
kyodo news
prime minister shinzo abe


Restaurants and retailers in Japan rethinking use of plastic in bid to curb pollution

Abstract: Japan is increasingly rethinking its use of plastic as the fight against marine pollution is spreading worldwide. The Foreign Ministry has decided to refrain from using plastic straws and cups in international conferences and receptions they organize, in line with the government’s plan to take up the issue of ocean pollution at the Group of 20 summit in Osaka in June. Major restaurant chain Ringer Hut Co. announced Thursday that it will stop using plastic straws at all of its stores across the country, totaling some 780, by Monday. In December, Skylark Holdings Co. stopped using plastic straws at all 1,370 outlets of its Gusto restaurant chain. They now provide customers with straws made from corn upon request. “Many customers choose not to use straws after learning that the change was for environmental reasons,” a Skylark official said. Ootoya Holdings Co. removed plastic straws from self-service drink areas at around 150 restaurants. “There were no complaints from customers when plastic straws were removed in an experimental trial,” a company official said. Ootoya is considering reviewing its use of plastic take-out containers. The beverage industry has also been acting to reduce plastic waste. The Japan Soft Drink Association plans to reuse all used plastic bottles by fiscal 2030. The move “is designed to demonstrate the industry’s resolve to take voluntary action before debates on regulations start,” an association official said. The association also plans to beef up its campaign against plastic bottle littering.

plastic
straws
ocean pollution
plastic waste
ringer hut co .


Carlos Ghosn's wife slams Japan detention as 'draconian' in letter to Human Rights Watch

Abstract: TOKYO/NEW YORK - The wife of former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn has written a letter to Human Rights Watch, a global advocacy group, criticizing her husband’s long detention and Japan’s criminal justice system as unfair and harsh. “My husband’s is a case study in the realities of this draconian system,” Carole Ghosn wrote in a nine-page letter Monday to the Tokyo branch of the organization. Carlos Ghosn was arrested Nov. 19 and has been charged with falsifying financial reporting in underreporting his income and with breach of trust in having Nissan Motor Co. shoulder his personal investment losses and make payments to a Saudi businessman. Ghosn, who led Nissan for two decades and rescued the automaker from near bankruptcy, asserted his innocence in the Tokyo District Court last week. It was his first public appearance since his arrest. Carole Ghosn’s letter describes how prosecutors interrogate prisoners without a lawyer present in an apparent effort to get a confession — conditions that are routine for suspects in Japan. The system has come under fire from international human rights groups, as her letter notes. Confined to an unheated cell, her husband has lost almost 3 kg in two weeks, with meals of mainly rice and barley, she wrote. He is denied his medication, given 30 minutes to exercise daily and is allowed to bathe two or three times a week, she said. Prosecutors often try to extract confessions from prisoners in detention that could last months, Carole Ghosn claimed in the letter. “For hours each day, the prosecutors interrogate him, browbeat him, lecture him and berate him, outside the presence of his attorneys, in an effort to extract a confession,” she said. “No human being should be detained under conditions so harsh that their only plausible purpose is to coerce a confession,” said the letter, which cited cases in which people were later found innocent but had been detained for months. Shin Kukimoto, deputy prosecutor in the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office, told reporters last week that prosecutors are confident they have a case. Ghosn’s lawyers have complained about the prolonged detention, but their appeals have been rejected. Prosecutors say Ghosn is a flight risk and he may tamper with evidence. No trial date has been set. Carole Ghosn’s letter defended her husband’s character and his record in the auto industry. “My husband is well-known as a person of unimpeachable honor, honesty and integrity,” she said in her letter. Last week, she issued a shorter statement expressing worries about her husband’s health when he had a fever. He has since recovered. Ghosn’s family has not been able to meet with him, and so far only lawyers and embassy officials have been allowed visits. The government has denied requests to end his detention. His lawyers have said it would likely take more than six months for his case to come to trial. The Foreign Ministry said Ghosn’s rights are assured under the country’s laws. “He is treated under the appropriate procedure, assuring fundamental human rights of individuals and undergoing strict judicial examination in (accordance) with relevant domestic laws of Japan,” ministry spokeswoman Natsuko Sakata said in an email.

carlos ghosn
rights
nissan
carole ghosn
scandals
renault


Poland mulls curbing state use of Huawei products after worker is arrested

Abstract: WARSAW - Poland could consider banning the use of Huawei products by public bodies, a senior government official said on Sunday, following the arrest of a Chinese Huawei official in the east European country last week. The Polish government could also look to tighten legislation to allow the authorities to limit the availability of products made by any company deemed to pose a threat to security. Poland arrested a Chinese employee of Huawei and a former Polish security official on spying allegations, officials and sources told Reuters on Friday, a move that could fuel Western security concerns about the telecoms equipment maker. A government official who is responsible for cybersecurity told Reuters “abrupt” policy changes toward Huawei were not warranted after the arrests. But he said the use of the company’s products by state entities could be reviewed. “We will analyze whether … our decision can include an end to the use … of Huawei products,” Karol Okonski told Reuters. “We do not have the legal means to force private companies or citizens to stop using any IT company’s products. It cannot be ruled out that we will consider legislative changes that would allow such a move,” he added. A spokesman for Poland’s security services said on Friday the Polish official arrested by the country’s Internal Security Agency (ISA) had been responsible for issuing security certificates for equipment used by public administration. “(He) used to work for a number of public institutions, held important managerial positions and was also connected with … institutions that protect internal security,” he told public broadcaster TVP. Seeking to distance itself from the incident, Huawei said on Saturday it had sacked its employee, adding his “alleged actions have no relation to the company.” Huawei, the world’s biggest producer of telecommunications equipment, faces intense scrutiny in the West over its relationship with China’s government and U.S.-led allegations that its devices could be used by Beijing for spying. No evidence has been produced publicly and the firm has repeatedly denied the accusations, but several Western countries have restricted Huawei’s access to their markets. Poland’s internal affairs minister, Joachim Brudzinski, called for the European Union and NATO to work on a joint position over whether to exclude Huawei from their markets. “We are examining the readiness of the (EU and NATO) countries to work on a joint position,” Okonski told Reuters referring to the new generation of 5G telecoms infrastructure.

poland
huawei
china
u.s .
espionage
sanctions


Renault-Nissan's Carlos Ghosn received $8 million from Dutch joint venture: French newspaper

Abstract: PARIS - Ousted Renault-Nissan alliance chairman Carlos Ghosn was paid $8 million (€7 million) through a Dutch joint venture between Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors, the French financial newspaper Les Echos reported on its website. Les Echos said Sunday that Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors in June 2017 set up joint venture Nissan Mitsubishi BV (NMBV) in the Netherlands to pay bonuses to staff and managers of the two carmakers. The venture’s top directors were not initially supposed to receive bonuses from the unit, but in February 2018 — and without the knowledge of other directors — Ghosn was hired as an employee by the unit, which made him eligible for payments, the paper reported. A Nissan spokesman did not immediately respond to a request from comment. Ghosn has been detained in Japan since his Nov. 19 arrest and faces charges including underreporting of his income for the five years through 2015. He denied those charges at a court appearance last week. Reuters reported last week that one of Ghosn’s senior executives received an additional six-figure salary via the Dutch joint venture overseeing Renault’s alliance with Nissan. There is nothing to suggest that the payments were illegal, but they highlight governance issues and potential conflicts of interest.


All the rage: Chinese vent their stress in Beijing 'anger room'

Abstract: BEIJING - It took Smash customer Qiu Siyu just a few sharp blows with a baseball bat to wreck what looked like an old car radio, after which two friends battered telephones, audio speakers, rice cookers and even a mannequin. All three paid 158 yuan ($23) to spend half an hour in an “anger room” in Beijing, where patrons wearing protective gear use hammers and bats to vent their frustration on household objects while staff play music of their choice in the background. Qiu, a bespectacled 16-year-old high school student with braces, said she was there to vent anger about school. “It feels so good when I destroy those bottles and watch them explode,” she said, smiling sweetly. Since the venture opened in September, customers have smashed around 15,000 bottles every month, said 25-year-old Jin Meng, who co-founded Smash with her friends. Not intended to promote violence, Smash aims to help people deal with the pressures of living in big cities like Beijing, Jin said, adding that their target customers are between 20 and 35 years old. Another customer, Liu Chao, 32, looked relaxed and pleased after his session. “If you have money, you can smash anything — smash some TVs, computers, wine bottles, furniture, mannequins, but the only thing you can’t do is to smash someone,” said Liu. Similar ventures already exist in other countries, including the United States. Jin said around 600 people visit Smash each month. “A woman brought all her wedding photos here, and she smashed them all. We welcome people to bring their own stuff,” Jin said. “Every time when we come across cases like this, they affirm our belief that we’ve provided a safe place to let out negative energy. And we are happy for that.” In Beijing, Jin said her next step is to open a new anger room in a shopping mall where people can take a break from their shopping to smash a bottle or two.


SpaceX's 10% workforce cut includes 577 layoffs at California HQ

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO - Hours after launching its first rocket of the new year on Friday morning, Elon Musk’s company told stunned employees that roughly 10 percent of SpaceX’s workforce would be laid off. Workers were sent home early to await notification to their private email addresses about their fate. The vast majority of Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s more than 6,000 employees are employed at its headquarters and rocket factory in Hawthorne, California, and hundreds of others are based in Seattle, Florida, Washington, D.C. and Texas. Some 577 positions will be cut in Hawthorne, Jan Vogel, executive director of the South Bay Workforce Investment Board, said in an interview Sunday. Those cut include production managers, avionics technicians, machinists, inventory specialists and propulsion technicians. “It’s always unfortunate when there are large layoffs,” Vogel said. “We’re in touch with SpaceX and we’re to provide transitional services to impacted employees. There are a lot of aerospace companies in the Los Angeles area. We’re ready to help people.” Fewer Launches SpaceX flew a record 21 missions in 2018 for customers that include commercial satellite operators, NASA and the U.S. military. But the market size for launches is not infinite, and SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell warned there might be a slowdown in orders from the geo-telecommunications industry. “Next year you won’t see as many launches as you see in 2018,” Shotwell said in an interview with CNBC last May. “2019 is a lower-cadence year.” Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 to revolutionize space technology. The company, along with Boeing Co., has a contract with NASA to fly American astronauts to the International Space Station on a spacecraft named Crew Dragon. Despite the ongoing government shutdown, Crew Dragon is slated to fly for the first time in February without humans on board. SpaceX is also working on a space-based broadband satellite network and Starship, a larger spacecraft designed to carry humans to Mars. “To continue delivering for our customers and to succeed in developing interplanetary spacecraft and a global space-based Internet, SpaceX must become a leaner company,” SpaceX said in a statement Friday. “This action is taken only due to the extraordinarily difficult challenges ahead and would not otherwise be necessary.” Musk is also the chief executive of electric-car maker Tesla Inc., which laid off roughly 9 percent of its workforce in June. As with Tesla, some SpaceX employees who were laid off took to social media to thank Musk for the opportunity to working for him, including Justin Arredondo, a supply chain specialist. Last week, SpaceX disclosed in a regulatory filing that it had sold $273 million in equity as part of a plan to raise a total of $500 million. The sale would boost the rocket company’s market capitalization to around $30.5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported in December. To contact the reporter on this story: Dana Hull in San Francisco at dhull12@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Craig Trudell at ctrudell1@bloomberg.net , Virginia Van Natta, James Ludden For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

spacex
layoffs
california
elon musk
jobs


Pacific trade deal spurs Canadian farm sales to Japan as U.S. looks on

Abstract: WINNIPEG, MANITOBA - At the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo last month, beef promoters flew in a chef from Canada to cook New York strip steaks for hungry Japanese importers and restaurant suppliers. The annual Canadian beef buffet reception attracted 126 people, up sharply from the usual 30 to 40. A trade deal among Pacific nations — called the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership — took effect on Dec. 30 among the first six of 11 member countries to ratify it, including Canada, Japan and Australia. The pact’s real prize, Canadian exporters say, are reduced Japanese tariffs for beef, pork, wheat and canola oil. Japan is the world’s third-largest beef importer and seventh-largest wheat buyer, often buying top-quality supplies to meet consumer demand for soft, white breads and beef raised on grain, not grass. For Canada, following a year of volatile relations with the United States and China, the deal offers a rare opportunity to seize market share from the United States, which withdrew from the pact after President Donald Trump took office. Canada’s opportunity illustrates the risks of Trump’s drastic trade actions. Farmers are key Trump supporters, but they have been among the hardest-hit from the trade war with China. U.S. beef packers such as Tyson Inc. and National Beef Packing Co. also stand to lose, while Canadian grain exporters Richardson International and Viterra may gain. At the Tokyo beef buffet, enthusiasm for Canadian beef transcended borders. “The interest was as high as I’ve ever seen,” said Dennis Laycraft, executive vice president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, who has been visiting Japan since the 1980s. “This new agreement is one of the most significant opportunities we’ve seen since the original NAFTA (North American Free Trade) agreement was signed.” Among those sampling Canadian beef were buyers from the Japanese units of Costco Wholesale Corp., Cargill Inc. and JBS SA, Laycraft said. Costco declined to comment and JBS did not respond. In a statement, Cargill said it advocates for U.S. participation in the Pacific trade pact so that exporters and consumers do not miss out on its benefits. Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson said the company wants to see a bilateral pact between the U.S. and Japan “to ensure we remain competitive.” Sensing opportunity, Alberta packer Harmony Beef made it a priority last year to secure Canadian and Japanese approval allowing it to sell to Japan. Now Harmony is planning its first shipment next month of 52,000 pounds (23,636 kg) of fresh and frozen beef. “We put pressure on and fast-tracked the Japan approval,” said Harmony’s director of marketing, Cam Daniels. “They are an affluent society that is willing and able to pay for the best.” Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, is Canada’s second-biggest beef market after the United States. Even so, Canada’s sales to Japan amounted to 27,000 tons from January through October 2018, about what U.S. exporters ship there in one month. Lower tariffs boost any product’s competitiveness in Japan in the long run, but in the short term, preferences for specific brands, as well as a country’s supply capacity, are also factors, said a Japanese official from the farm ministry who was not authorized to speak publicly.

beef
canada
trans-pacific partnership
tariffs


Chinese exports in December contracted the most in two years, raising risks for global economy

Abstract: BEIJING - China’s exports unexpectedly fell the most in two years in December, while imports also contracted, pointing to further weakness in the world’s second-largest economy in 2019 and deteriorating global demand. Adding to policymakers’ worries, data on Monday also showed China posted its biggest trade surplus with the United States on record in 2018, which could prompt U.S. President Donald Trump to turn up the heat on Beijing in their bitter trade dispute. Softening demand in China is being felt around the world, with slowing sales of goods from iPhones to automobiles, prompting warnings from the likes of Apple and from Jaguar Land Rover, which last week announced sweeping job cuts. The dismal December trade readings suggest China’s economy may have cooled faster than expected late in the year, despite a slew of growth-boosting measures in recent months ranging from higher infrastructure spending to tax cuts. Some analysts had already speculated that Beijing may have to speed up and intensify its policy easing and stimulus measures this year after factory activity shrank in December. China’s December exports unexpectedly fell 4.4 percent from a year earlier, with demand in most of its major markets weakening. Imports also saw a shock drop, falling 7.6 percent in their biggest decline since July 2016. Analysts had expected export growth to slow to 3 percent with imports up 5 percent. “Today’s data reflect an end to export front-loading and the start of payback effects, while the global slowdown could also weigh on China’s exports,” Nomura economists wrote in a note, referring to a surge in shipments to the U.S. over much of last year as companies rushed to beat further tariffs. “The export growth print also suggests that the recent strength of the yuan might be short-lived; Beijing will perhaps be more eager to strike a trade deal with the U.S.; and that policymakers will need to take more aggressive measures to stabilize GDP growth.” Net exports had already been a drag on China’s economic growth in the first three quarters of last year, after giving it a boost in 2017. Asian shares and U.S. stock market futures fell as the surprisingly weak Chinese data added to fears of weaker corporate profits and investment, while the yuan currency gave up some of its early gains. China’s politically-sensitive surplus with the U.S. widened by 17.2 percent to $323.32 billion last year, the highest on record going back to 2006, according to Reuters calculations based on customs data. China’s large trade surplus with the United States has long been a sore point with Washington, which has demanded Beijing take steps to sharply reduce it. Washington imposed import tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods last year and has threatened further action if Beijing does not change its practices on issues ranging from industrial subsidies to intellectual property. China has retaliated with tariffs of its own. However, Beijing’s export data had been surprisingly resilient to tariffs for much of 2018, possibly because companies ramped up shipments before broader and stiffer U.S. duties went into effect. As many market watchers predicted, that boost has faded in the last few months. China exports to the U.S. declined 3.5 percent in December while its imports from the U.S. were down 35.8 percent for the month. China’s total global exports rose 9.9 percent in 2018, its strongest performance in seven years, while imports increased 15.8 percent. But December’s gloomy data, along with several months of falling factory orders, suggest a further weakening in its exports in the near term. “A trade recession is likely, in our view,” Raymond Yeung, chief economist at ANZ, said in a note, predicting a period of export contraction similar to 2015-16. “The global electronics cycle remains the key driver of Chinese exports. A potential downturn in the sector poses the real risk to China’s external outlook even if China and the U.S. reach a resolution on their trade dispute.” ING said a fall in electronic shipments could be related to foreign companies avoiding using China-made electronic components, adding that exports and imports of electronic parts and goods will likely shrink this year. The higher tariffs China levied on U.S. supplies also hit overall import growth. For all of 2018, soybeans, the second largest imports from the U.S., fell for the first time since 2011. Even if Washington and Beijing reach a trade deal in their current round of talks, it would be no panacea for China’s slowing economy, analysts say. “The import slowdown is consistent with other signs that growth in China’s domestic economy continued to weaken,” said Louis Kuijs, head of Asia economics at Oxford Economics. “Overall economic growth slowed further in the fourth quarter and remains under pressure from weaker exports, slow credit growth and cooling real estate activity.” Chinese policymakers are widely expected to roll out more support measures in coming months if domestic and external conditions continue to deteriorate. Early this month, the central bank said it would slash banks’ reserve requirements — the fifth such cut in a year — as it tries to encourage more lending and reduce the risk of a sharp slowdown. “If pressure on the economy is still relatively large in the first half, a cut every quarter should be highly likely,” said Xu Gao, chief economist at Everbright Securities. In an annual meeting of top leaders last month, China said it will boost support for the economy in 2019 by cutting taxes and stepping up policy adjustments. A few analysts believe interest rate cuts are a possibility, but most expect Beijing will refrain from massive stimulus measures like those deployed in the past, due to worries that it could add to a mountain of debt and weaken the yuan. Sources told Reuters last week that Beijing is planning to lower its economic growth target to 6-6.5 percent this year after an expected 6.6 percent in 2018, the slowest pace in 28 years.

exports
china
imports
trade
tariffs
u.s .


'Fork in the road': Top U.S. grocer says America's nervous about economic future

Abstract: NEW YORK - America’s biggest supermarket chain is seeing signs that U.S. shoppers are getting nervous about the future. “It’s fascinating right now from a customer standpoint. They feel incredibly good about the economy but very nervous about where things are headed,” Kroger Co. Chief Executive Officer Rodney McMullen said in an onstage interview at the National Retail Federation’s annual trade show in New York City. “If you talk about questions in the present,” American shoppers feel just fine, but “if you change the question a little to ‘where do you think things are going,’ there’s a lot of uncertainty,” he said. Kroger operates supermarkets and other types of stores in about 35 states plus the District of Columbia under various banners, giving the Cincinnati-based company a clear window into Americans’ buying habits. McMullen’s observations come at a time when the consumer environment in the U.S. is the strongest in years, with low gas prices and rising median wages fueling consumer confidence. But cracks have started to emerge: retailers’ in-store traffic slipped during the critical Black Friday weekend in November, and a series of lackluster holiday sales reports in the past week suggest consumer optimism may not be as high as forecasters expected heading into the Christmas season. McMullen said he isn’t yet bracing for the worst, and executives at Kroger “don’t see anything that would cause us to say there’s a recession right around the corner.” Still, the U.S. appears to be at a “fork in the road,” and if wider macroeconomic issues like trade negotiations don’t get resolved, the situation could take a turn for the worse, he said. “It’s easy to paint a picture where things could be fabulous” and another “where things could be a recession,” McMullen said. “If those things don’t play out the way we all want it to, then I think a recession is something that could happen.”

kroger
recession
u.s .
trade war
u.s. consumers