France to seal billions-worth in deals with China but will push back against 'Belt and Road' project

Abstract: PARIS - France and China planned to sign trade deals worth billions of euros on Monday during a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping but Paris will also take the opportunity to push back against Beijing’s “Belt and Road” infrastructure initiative. President Emmanuel Macron wants to forge a united European front to confront Chinese advances in trade and technology. Xi’s visit also provided a stage for protesters seeking more European action over the alleged mistreatment of minorities in China. After he and Xi meet later on Monday, the two will hold further talks on Tuesday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the European Union executive. Xi arrived in France after visiting Italy, the first Western power to endorse China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative as Rome tries to revive its struggling economy. The Belt and Road Initiative plan, championed by Xi, aims to link China by sea and land with Southeast and Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa, through an infrastructure network on the lines of the old Silk Road. France says Silk Road cooperation must work in both directions. “An awakening was necessary,” Macron said in Brussels on Friday. “For many years we had an uncoordinated approach and China took advantage of our divisions.” An official in Macron’s office said significant progress was expected in terms of opening up the Chinese market for some farm goods, especially poultry. French officials have also voiced hope that a multi-billion dollar deal for China to buy dozens of Airbus planes could be finalized. In a column in the French daily Le Figaro published on Sunday, Xi made clear he wanted Paris to cooperate in the Belt and Road project, calling for more trade and investment in sectors ranging from nuclear energy to aeronautics and farming. “French investors are welcome to share development opportunities in China. I also hope that Chinese companies can do better in France and make a greater contribution to its economic and social development,” he wrote. French officials describe China as a both a challenge and partner, saying France must remain especially vigilant over any Chinese attempts to appropriate foreign technology for its own purposes. The EU is already weighing a more defensive strategy on China, spurred by Beijing’s slowness in opening up its economy, Chinese takeovers in critical sectors, and a feeling in European capitals that Beijing has not stood up for free trade. As part of efforts to further that approach, Macron will play host Merkel and Juncker on Tuesday to meet with Xi to move away from a purely bilateral approach to ties. “Macron is not happy to see China win so many prizes in Rome, so he has invented a bizarre European format by inviting Merkel and Juncker as a counterbalance to show that he is the driving force behind European integration,” said one Paris-based Asian diplomat. Rights organizations also urged Macron not to skirt the subject of human rights in China, especially Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region. Several hundred demonstrators converged in central Paris on Monday with slogans protesting against the alleged mistreatment of China’s Muslim Uighurs and in defense of Tibet, 60 years after that region’s failed uprising against Chinese rule. “Foreign officials have often justified not challenging Chinese leaders on human rights out of ostensible concern that they might ‘lose face,’ ” Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “But President Macron should keep in mind that the faces that matter are those of the countless people wrongly imprisoned, tortured and persecuted by President Xi and his government.”

france
china
belt and road
trade
eu
xi jinping
emmanuel macron
angela merkel
jean-claude juncker


Japanese stocks bounce back on short-covering and buying before stocks go ex-dividend

Abstract: The Nikkei 225 average rebounded Tuesday from five-week lows to close sharply higher as cyclical stocks rose on short-covering, following a sell-off the previous day driven by fears of a sharp global economic slowdown. With the end of the business year looming this Sunday for the majority of listed Japanese companies, the market was also underpinned by investor purchases of stocks before they went ex-dividend later in the day. The Nikkei ended 2.15 percent higher at 21,428.39 after recording its biggest drop since late December on Monday. Analysts said risk aversion eased somewhat after a slide in Wall Street paused overnight, but concerns about a U.S. recession lingered. On Monday, benchmark 10-year Treasury yields fell to their lowest levels since December 2017, while the yield curve between three-month bills and 10-year notes inverted further as investors continued to assess last week’s dovish pivot by the U.S. Federal Reserve. An inverted yield curve is widely seen as a signal of a recession. “In the short-term, an inversion of U.S. yields will likely keep worrying investors,” said Hikaru Sato, a senior technical analyst at Daiwa Securities. “But in the longer term, investors are concerned about Japan-specific problems such as the yen’s level, which has been trading at a higher level against the dollar than last year.” He said that with Japanese companies ending their fiscal year in March, concerns about annual earnings results and forecasts for the next fiscal year will likely keep investors on edge. Exporters rebounded, with Panasonic Corp. rising 4.1 percent, Yaskawa Electric rising 2.4 percent and Advantest Corp. jumping 1.9 percent. Analysts said index futures were in demand by index and mutual funds before stocks went ex-dividend. Renesas Electronics advanced 2.9 percent after the company said it would buy back up to ¥10 billion of its own shares. The broader Topix benchmark gauge rallied 2.57 percent to 1,617.94, with all of its 33 subsectors trading in positive territory. Every industry category in the main section gained ground, led by land transportation, pharmaceutical and construction issues. Shares staged a solid rebound after the Nikkei fell Monday by 650 points to 20,977.11, its lowest close since Feb. 15 and the steepest daily fall since Dec. 25, on rekindled concern over a global economic slowdown. “After a round of selling, investors broadly bought on dips,” said Maki Sawada, vice president of the investment research and investor services department at Nomura Securities Co. Stocks advanced further in the afternoon, with the market also supported by buying to secure dividends for the second half of fiscal 2018. Tuesday was the last trading day to gain rights to dividends from companies with a business year ending this month. The market was also boosted by purchases of stock futures, with traders projecting reinvestment by some institutional investors who have secured the rights and anticipate dividend proceeds, said Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities Co. On the first section, advancing issues outnumbered decliners 2,001 to 116, with 23 ending the day unchanged. Land transportation, retail and food issues were bought as many investors sought to receive dividends or free tickets. Railway operator Keio climbed ¥300, or 4.3 percent, to ¥7,230, retailer Aeon rose ¥85.50, or 3.8 percent, to ¥2,333.50 and Takeda Pharmaceutical gained ¥111, or 2.4 percent, rising to ¥4,710. Some domestic demand-driven issues were also higher as investors refrained from buying export-related issues amid concern about the global economic outlook, brokers said. Daiwa House Industry advanced ¥148, or 4.3 percent, to ¥3,592 and construction firm Kajima was up ¥67, or 4.2 percent, at ¥1,668. Nintendo surged ¥1,450, or 4.8 percent, to ¥31,900 following a Wall Street Journal report that the company plans to launch two new versions of its Switch gaming console as early as the summer. Trading volume on the main section rose to 1.741 billion shares from Monday’s 1.328 billion.


Dollar firms to around ¥110.20 in Tokyo trading

Abstract: The dollar firmed modestly Tuesday to trade around ¥110.20 in Tokyo, supported by a stock market rally. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥110.19-19, up from ¥110.06-06 at the same time Monday. The euro was at $1.1312-1312, up from $1.1307-1307, and at ¥124.65-65, up from ¥124.45-45. After moving around ¥110.00, the dollar topped ¥110.20 in midmorning trading in line with a sharp rebound by the Nikkei 225 stock average. But the greenback lost steam when it approached the ¥110.30 threshold. Selling of dollars for yen for settlement purposes ahead of the fiscal 2018 end on Sunday pushed the U.S. currency down, close to ¥110, around noon, traders said. In the afternoon, the dollar moved narrowly between ¥110 and ¥110.20 amid a lack of trading incentives, market sources said. Investors increasingly retreated to the sidelines to wait for the announcements of U.S. economic data, including the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index for March, a currency broker said. An official at a Japanese bank said the dollar repeated minor ups and downs on buying on higher stocks and selling on lower U.S. long-term interest rates. Safe-haven buying of the yen vis-a-vis the dollar came to a halt as excessive global slowdown fears receded after the release of a strong German economic index, an official at a foreign exchange margin trading service firm noted.


Apple lays out plans for its news app and credit card

Abstract: CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA - Apple laid out the details of its news subscription service, Apple News Plus, and a new credit card at an event Monday. It’s also expected to launch a video service that could compete with Netflix, Amazon and cable TV itself. The news service costs $10 a month and includes roughly 300 magazines and a handful of major newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal and The Los Angeles Times. Missing from the announcement were other major newspaper publishers, who have reportedly been wary of Apple’s terms. Apple says advertisers won’t track readers inside the app. That distinguishes it from Facebook and Google, the other major online news hubs. The company also said it is launching a MasterCard credit card called Apple Card. It will integrate Apple Maps to show users where they spend money, but at the same time, Apple says it won’t know where you spend or where. It won’t have any late fees or annual fees and will offer 2 percent cash back. Other cards also offer cash-back rewards. Apple made the announcements at its Cupertino, California, headquarters during an event studded with Hollywood celebrities. The iPhone has long been Apple’s marquee product and main moneymaker, but sales are starting to decline. The company is pushing digital subscriptions as it searches for new growth. Netflix, of course, turned “binge watching” into a worldwide phenomenon several years ago. Apple’s new video service is expected to have original TV shows and movies that reportedly cost it more than $1 billion — far less than Netflix and HBO spend every year. Making must-have TV shows and movies that are watchable on any device has turned Netflix into a force in both Silicon Valley and Hollywood. But Apple had remained focused on making devices: iPhones, iPads, computers and its Apple TV streaming box for TVs. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs began toying with the idea of building a powerful TV business, but he couldn’t pull it off before his death in 2011. It has taken his successor, CEO Tim Cook, nearly eight years to draw up the script that the company will now try to execute. “Apple is very late to this game,” Paul Verna, an analyst at eMarketer, said. “Netflix has become the gold standard in how to create and distribute content, using all the data they have about their viewers.” Netflix’s prowess has attracted 139 million subscribers worldwide. But Apple will have several other deep-pocketed competitors fighting for consumers’ dollars. Amazon has also become a formidable force in video streaming. Walt Disney Co. is launching its own service this year, armed with an imposing library that became more formidable with its purchase of 21st Century Fox’s films and TV series. AT&T is debuting another streaming service built around HBO. Apple has plenty of money to spend, though, with about $245 billion in cash and marketable securities. It must prove itself attractive to Hollywood even without a track record for supporting high-quality programming and then ensuring it gets widely seen. As part of its efforts to make quick connections, Apple hired two longtime Sony television executives, Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, in 2017. They have reportedly signed up stars such as Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg and Jennifer Aniston.

apple
magazines
newspapers
iphones
video games


SMBC Nikko to offer customers AI-based advice on Japanese stocks

Abstract: SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. said it will launch a service Friday to advise individual customers on investment in Japanese stocks utilizing artificial intelligence. The unit of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. hopes to gain a wide range of customers, including novice investors, through the online service designed to propose an optimum asset management method. SMBC Nikko will operate the service jointly with Japanese AI technology developer Heroz Inc. The AI-based service will show stock prices expected a month ahead of all firms listed on Japanese stock exchanges for more than one year, based on their earnings data and daily stock price movements. It will propose the best portfolios for customers according to how much loss they can accept. SMBC Nikko will offer the service free of charge to all customers who open accounts at the brokerage firm. “We want a lot of people to use the service,” an SMBC Nikko official said, noting that the system is easy to understand for novice investors.


Nintendo shares climb after report of two new Switch models in works for avid and casual gamers

Abstract: Nintendo Co. shares had their best day in almost eight months after The Wall Street Journal reported the company plans to introduce two new models of its Switch console as early as this summer. One of the models will have enhanced features to cater to avid gamers, while the other version is expected to be a cheaper alternative for casual players, the Journal reported, citing unidentified Nintendo parts suppliers and software developers. Nintendo shares ended up 4.8 percent on Tuesday in Tokyo after climbing as much as 6.8 percent earlier, the most on an intraday basis since Aug. 1. In January, Nintendo cut its forecast for Switch shipments to 17 million units in the fiscal year through March, down from an earlier projection of 20 million. The Kyoto-based company needs hit games that appeal to more consumers beyond its most loyal customers. In an interview conducted before Christmas and was published in January, the Sankei Shimbun cited President Shuntaro Furukawa as saying the company is not considering a price cut or a new model. “If the article is accurate, this would support our forecast of virtually flat” year-on-year Switch sales next fiscal year, Masahiro Ono and Yui Yasumoto, analysts at Morgan Stanley MUFG, wrote in a research note after the story. “The appearance of a lower-price model could also drive demand for a wider range of software.” The new models may be launched at the E3 2019 video game expo in Los Angeles in June, with a wider release possible months later, the Journal said, citing one person familiar with the plans. Unit sales will range between 17 million and 18 million units this fiscal year and 15 to 17 million the following year, the Morgan Stanley MUFG analysts forecast.


Bayer announces nearly $800 million settlement to resolve Xarelto litigation

Abstract: BERLIN - German drugs giant Bayer said Monday it and its U.S. partner, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, had agreed in principle to jointly pay nearly $800 million to settle a legal dispute over anticoagulant Xarelto. The cost would be shared equally by both companies to resolve almost all of the “approximately 25,000 Xarelto claims in the United States,” Leverkusen-based Bayer said in a statement. Both companies reserved the right to withdraw from the $775 million (€685 million) settlement if an insufficient number of plaintiffs accept it, Bayer said. “More than five years after the Xarelto litigation began, and with Bayer and Janssen Pharmaceuticals prevailing in all six cases that went to trial, the companies have reached an agreement in principle to settle in the amount of 775 million US dollars,” Bayer said in a statement. While plaintiffs have claimed side effects, the German company has insisted that its medication has been successfully prescribed to 45 million people around the world. “Bayer continues to believe these claims are without merit and there is no admission of liability under the agreement,” it said. “However, this favourable settlement allows the company to avoid the distraction and significant cost of continued litigation.” Bayer and Janssen, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, jointly developed the oral anticoagulant drug, and Janssen markets it in the United States. The deal comes as Bayer faces far bigger legal troubles following its takeover of agrochemicals giant Monsanto, whose glyphosate weedkillers Roundup and Ranger Pro have been linked by litigants to cancer.

bayer
xarelto
janssen pharmaceuticals
johnson & johnson
u.s .


Migrants seeking to reach Europe face widespread sexual torture, especially in Libya, says study

Abstract: PARIS - Migrants trying to reach Europe face routine rape and sexual torture throughout their journey, and especially in Libya, with men facing abuse nearly as routinely as women. That’s according to a study released Monday by the Women’s Refugee Commission that is based on dozens of interviews with aid workers and migrants. Along the journey, smugglers torture migrants and film it to extract ransom payments from their families, and to thin the number of people in their unofficial prisons, according to the witness accounts. They report systematic sex abuse in official detention as well. Monday’s report comes as Europe has blocked rescues at sea. The EU-funded Libyan coast guard now intercepts migrant boats and brings them back to detention centers where, migrants say, the abuse resumes.

libya
women
refugees
immigration
eu
sex crimes
women 's refugee commission


U.N. weighs assisting Bangladesh in relocating 100,000 reluctant Rohingya to remote isle

Abstract: DHAKA - The United Nations said Monday it was examining how to assist Bangladesh in relocating thousands of Rohingya refugees to a remote island despite warnings it could trigger fresh humanitarian upheaval. Dhaka says shifting 100,000 refugees to a muddy silt islet in the Bay of Bengal will take pressure off overcrowded camps along its southern border, where almost a million Rohingya Muslims live in cramped tent cities. But the move to Bhashan Char — which is an hour away by boat from the mainland — is unpopular with many refugees and experts have raised concerns about the island’s capacity to withstand the monsoon that tears along Bangladesh’s coastline every year. Bangladesh, which has built shelters and flood walls on the island, says it will begin relocating refugees there on a voluntary basis from April. The U.N. resident coordinator’s office in Bangladesh said Monday it would “engage constructively” with the government to ensure any refugees moved there could live “in safe and sustainable living conditions. “We are also examining the potential operational implications of setting up a humanitarian response on Bhasan Char, including the requirements, time frames and costs involved in providing services,” the statement said, stressing that any relocation be on a voluntary basis. The island only emerged from the water in 2006 and lies in a coastal area prone to flooding, cyclones and other extreme weather that has killed hundreds of thousands in past decades. A U.N. special rights rapporteur in January warned rushing refugees to the island could spark a “new crisis. But Dhaka says the island is ready, pointing to a newly-constructed three-metre (nine-feet) embankment they say will keep out tidal surges in the event of a cyclone. Some U.N. officials have visited the island but access has not been granted to the media. Bangladesh has spent some $280 million transforming the muddy strip but previous deadlines for shifting the Rohingya from camp sites in Cox’s Bazar have passed unmet. The camps there host nearly a million refugees who have fled persecution in neighboring Myanmar in waves going back decades. The largest exodus was in August 2017, when the first of about 740,000 Rohingya escaped violence in Myanmar described by UN investigators as bearing the hallmarks of genocide. The fetid camps quickly swelled into the largest refugee settlement on earth, with huge levels of humanitarian aid needed to care for their inhabitants. The U.N. refugee agency said Monday nearly $1 billion was needed for the Rohingya in Bangladesh but only a tiny fraction had been raised so far. Khaled Khalifa, a regional UNHCR representative, told reporters in Dhaka “every penny short” of the $920 million needed this year would impact lives on the ground.

bangladesh
rohingya
refugees
cyclones
myanmar
genocide
u.n .


Cleared by Robert Mueller, Trump still faces slew of other probes

Abstract: NEW YORK - The Mueller investigation is over, but President Donald Trump now faces a slew of other investigations by federal prosecutors in New York and Democrats in Congress that could create more deep troubles for his administration. The biggest threat comes from federal prosecutors in New York, who have already prized a guilty plea on multiple charges from Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, and who could be a dangerous witness against the president in other cases. Investigators in the notoriously aggressive SDNY office — Southern District of New York — and its sister bureau in Brooklyn, are believed to be looking at a whole manner of possible wrongdoing by Trump, his family, and his Trump Organization real estate group. Those range from Trump’s election-eve hush payments for alleged former mistresses, financial improprieties surrounding the celebrations of his inauguration, and possibly illegal funneling of foreign money to the Trump campaign and inauguration. The New York state attorney general has opened inquiries into violations by the Trump family charity, real estate dealings, and taxes. Most of those probes are taking place in secret, but the state attorney general has already sued Trump, members of his family and the Trump Foundation alleging it was used as a virtual slush fund for family needs in “a pattern of persistent illegal conduct.” In all of those, Cohen, who has been sentenced to three years in prison, is potentially a dangerous witness as a longtime insider who has turned against his former boss. One particularly explosive case is the SDNY probe into the payoffs Cohen illegally arranged to buy the silence of at least two women, Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, who claimed credibly to have had affairs with Trump before he ran for president. Those were part of “catch-and-kill” arrangements with tabloid newspaper National Enquirer, which Cohen has testified had for years financial arrangements to protect Trump from any damaging personal news. Cohen testified that the payment he made to Daniels, which was ruled an illegal use of campaign funds, was ordered and reimbursed by Trump himself — a possible criminal act. A third woman, Summer Zervos, a one-time contestant on Trump’s reality television show “The Apprentice,” has sued him for defamation after he said she lied in claiming that he groped and forcibly kissed her. Trump’s lawyers have failed to get the case thrown out, opening the door to the possibility that the president could be forced to confront his accuser in court as a witness. In his February testimony in Congress, Cohen raised issues of financial malfeasance by Trump and the Trump Organization in banking and real estate deals. He said Trump falsified data in financial disclosures to banks and insurance companies, providing more meat for federal investigators. For that and the probe into the Trump Foundation, eyes are now on the figure who likely knows more secrets about Trump than anyone else: Allen Weisselberg, the accountant who has served the Trump Organization for four decades. Meanwhile in the U.S .capital Trump is fighting a lawsuit brought by the attorneys general of Maryland and Washington alleging that Trump’s continued ownership of a hotel in Washington frequented by lobbyists, company executives and foreign governments violates the Constitution’s “emoluments” ban on the president profiting from his office. Evidence has shown that Trump has reaped significant financial gains from the Trump International Hotel just a few blocks from the White House, and from his properties in New York, based on the patronage of those seeking favor with the president. It’s not clear how far the emoluments case will go: the Justice Department is fighting to have it quashed as baseless. And in Congress, Democrats have stepped up pressure with several investigations of the president. The main one, by the House Intelligence Committee, parallels the Mueller probe’s focus on Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign had a role in that. And the House Judiciary Committee is examining allegations of obstruction of justice against Trump, after Mueller declined to conclude anything from his evidence on this subject. “We’re going to move forward with our investigation into obstruction of justice, abuses of power, corruption, to defend the rule of law, which is our job,” committee chairman Jerry Nadler said.

robert mueller
donald trump
michael cohen
sdny
trump organization
stormy daniels
karen mcdougal
summer zervos
russia probe


Democrats demand full Robert Mueller report; Trump says that's OK with him

Abstract: WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump said Monday the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s full report “wouldn’t bother me at all” as congressional Democrats clamored for the Justice Department to release the entire document and not just the summary from Attorney General William Barr. Trump’s remarks came as Democrats prepared to huddle behind closed doors Monday evening to plot strategy for their own investigations of obstruction of justice and Russian election interference, among other matters related to the president, following the release of Barr’s summary, Barr’s four-page document said Mueller did not find that Trump’s campaign “conspired or coordinated” with the Russian government to influence the 2016 presidential election — knocking down arguments from Democrats who have claimed there was evidence of such collusion. But Mueller reached no conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice, according to Barr’s summary, instead setting out “evidence on both sides” of the question and stating that “while this report does not conclude the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.” Absent a recommendation from Mueller, Barr stepped in and decided there wasn’t sufficient evidence to establish that the president obstructed justice. While Democrats have said Barr’s letter should not be considered the final word on what Mueller found, Trump still claimed total vindication. He said on Monday that “we can never let this happen to another president again.” As he has many times before, he suggested the investigation was tainted from the beginning and said it was a “terrible thing.” He even accused those responsible for launching it of “treasonous things against our country” and said they “certainly will be looked into.” Trump has spent months railing against former Justice Department officials, including former FBI Director James Comey, accusing them of an illegal witch hunt for the purpose of delegitimizing his presidency. He has also falsely claimed that the investigation was based on memos compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, and even blamed former Sen. John McCain, who died last year, for passing the memos to the FBI. But the investigation began months before the FBI ever saw the dossier — and the FBI already had a copy by the time McCain turned it in. Trump, asked on Monday if he’d be OK with the release of the full report, responded: “Up to the attorney general, but it wouldn’t bother me at all.” Republicans followed Trump’s lead, with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham promising to “unpack the other side of the story” of the Russia investigation. Graham, who spent the weekend with Trump in Florida, said his committee will investigate the actions of the Justice Department in the Russia investigation, including the FBI’s use of the Steele dossier. Graham’s comments echoed Trump’s own complaints Sunday in which he compared the probe to a failed coup and said those behind it should be held responsible. But Graham wouldn’t go quite as far, saying he believed that the Mueller investigation was legitimate and had to happen in order to answer questions about Russian interference in the 2016 election. The South Carolina Republican also had a warning for Trump using his pardon power to help those who were ensnared by Mueller’s investigation. “If President Trump pardoned anybody in his orbit, it would not play well,” Graham said. Among those whom Mueller charged during the course of his investigation were the president’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn. Five Trump aides pleaded guilty and a sixth, longtime confidant Roger Stone, is awaiting trial on charges that he lied to Congress and engaged in witness tampering. Monday morning, White House aides and allies blanketed television news broadcasts to trumpet Barr’s letter and claim that Trump had been the victim in a probe that never should have started. Democrats said they were still waiting for the full report, in addition to the underlying evidence that Mueller used. “The fact that special counsel Mueller’s report does not exonerate the president on a charge as serious as obstruction of justice demonstrates how urgent it is that the full report and underlying documentation be made public without any further delay,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement Sunday evening. “Given Mr. Barr’s public record of bias against the Special Counsel’s inquiry, he is not a neutral observer and is not in a position to make objective determinations about the report.” Given the report, Democrats seemed more likely to focus on their ongoing investigations, calls for transparency and frustrations with Barr, rather than engaging with the talk of impeachment that has been amplified on Pelosi’s left flank. As the release of Mueller’s report loomed, Pelosi recently tried to scuttle that talk by saying she’s not for impeachment, for now. In a joint statement, Nadler, House intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., seemed to concede that collusion had not been found, saying they have confidence in Mueller, “notwithstanding the very public evidence of Trump campaign contact with and willingness to receive support from Russian agents.” Still, they said, “it will be vital for the country and the Congress to evaluate the full body of evidence collected by the special counsel, including all information gathered of a counterintelligence nature.” Ahead of their Monday meetings, Democrats discussed strategy in a flurry of calls over the weekend. Pelosi and Schumer talked repeatedly, including several calls Sunday from her home in San Francisco. As soon as Barr’s letter arrived, Pelosi quickly convened a call Sunday with Cummings, Schiff and Nadler to go over its main points. They were on the same page with their response, according to a person familiar with the call. Nadler later held a conference call with Democratic members on the Judiciary panel and reiterated calls for transparency. People familiar with the calls requested anonymity to discuss them freely. Republicans unified to call for Congress to move on. “This case is closed,” said House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy in a statement.

democrats
robert mueller
donald trump
william barr
lindsey graham
nancy pelosi
u.s .
russia probe


Pig's head found at site of planned mosque in southwest France

Abstract: BORDEAUX, FRANCE - Workers building a mosque in southwestern France found a pig’s head and animal blood at the entrance to the site on Monday, the latest in a series of attacks on Muslim places of worship over the past decade. Construction of the mosque in the small town of Bergerac — known for its fine Bordeaux wines and for its association with literary figure Cyrano de Bergerac — has been contested since it was first proposed in 2017 and finally approved in October 2018, despite widespread local opposition. “The perpetrators smeared the walls with animal blood and placed a severed pig’s head” on the front gate of the construction area, the deputy public prosecutor of Bergerac, Charles Charollois, told AFP. The vandalism took place overnight and wasn’t discovered until workers arrived in the morning. “This building project is controversial,” Charollois said. “There have been administrative and legal appeals to stop it, so there are many leads for us to follow.” Bergerac’s police commissioner, Frederic Perissat, “strongly denounced and condemned these acts that damage our freedom of conscience and expression and are contrary to the principles of separation of church and state,” and called for “mutual respect” in the community. Over the past few days, posters declaring “Bergerac is the city of Perigord, not Islam!” — referring to the former name of the Dordogne region — had been pasted around the town, according to its mayor Daniel Garrigue. “I can’t say that they’re connected, but I note that they’re in the same spirit,” Garrigue said. In France, desecrating a religious facility is a crime punishable by up to seven years in prison. The attack on the site in Bergerac comes less than two weeks after a gunman killed 50 Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand, and injured another 50, during a shooting spree at two mosques. Following the massacre, French President Emmanuel Macron ordered police to increase security at all places of worship. France is home to Europe’s biggest Muslim and Jewish communities alike, and both faiths have been recurring targets of hate crimes in recent years. Attacks on mosques and Islamic sites have been a yearly occurrence since 2007, when 148 Muslim headstones in a national military cemetery near Arras were smeared with anti-Islamic slurs and a pig’s head was placed among them. Dozens of French mosques were also assaulted following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January 2015, with some targeted with firebombs, grenades or gunfire. Similar hate crimes have targeted Jewish sites. In February, vandals spray-painted swastikas on around 80 graves in a Jewish cemetery in Quatzenheim, near the German border. The mosque in Bergerac is not the first to raise hackles among local residents. Plans for a huge mosque in Marseille, home to a large North African community, were scrapped in 2017 after eight years of legal battles.

france
muslims
bergerac
hate crimes
jews
christchurch mosque shootings


Heavy-weapons fire rocks Yemen's Hodeida as U.N. pushes to get warring sides to pull out

Abstract: ADEN - Yemen’s warring parties exchanged heavy weapons fire overnight in Hodeida, residents and military sources said, as the United Nations scrambled to salvage a cease-fire deal in the Yemeni port city that is a lifeline for millions at risk of starvation. The clashes were the heaviest since the ceasefire went into effect on Dec. 18, residents said, and came as the United Nations announced a deal setting out details of a mutual military withdrawal envisaged by the Stockholm truce accord. Iran-aligned Houthi forces traded artillery, mortar and rocket salvos with troops of a Western-backed, Saudi-led coalition late on Sunday and early on Monday, with explosions heard across the Red Sea city, residents said. “The Houthis tried a surprise assault on our troops but we stopped them,” a military source from the internationally-recognised government said. The Houthis’ Al Masirah TV accused government forces of shelling their positions without provocation. The fighting affected Hodeida’s usual flash-points — the “July 7” district, 4 km (2.5 miles) away from the port, and southern outskirts where thousands of United Arab Emirates-backed troops are massed. Saudi Arabia has come under increased scrutiny over the Yemen war and its activities in the region since the murder in October of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. The kingdom signed an agreement with the United Nations on Monday to protect children from violence in Yemen, more than a year after the U.N. blacklisted the coalition for killing and injuring hundreds of children there and attacking dozens of schools and hospitals. The Houthis and the Saudi-backed government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi agreed at U.N.-sponsored talks in December to a truce and troop withdrawal from Hodeida, the entry point for the bulk of Yemen’s humanitarian aid and commercial imports. The cease-fire has broadly held although sporadic clashes continued as the United Nations struggled to implement a troop withdrawal, a confidence-building measure meant to clear the way for a broader peace settlement after four years of war. However, the U.N. observer team chief, Danish Gen. Michael Anker Lollesgaard, was expected to convene both sides this week to formally launch newly agreed steps towards disengagement, according to sources involved in the discussions. Houthi forces had agreed to withdraw 5 km (3 miles) from the Hodeida district ports of Saleef, used for grain, and Ras Isa, an oil terminal, as a first step, three sources said. The Houthi withdrawal and the pullback by coalition forces 1 km away from both the “Kilo 7” area and from Saleh city district would take place simultaneously as a second step, they said. The government forces’ retreat would free up access to Red Sea Mills, which holds some 50,000 tons of World Food Program grain, enough to feed 3.7 million people. Under the deal, humanitarian corridors would also be reopened. The second phase of the pullout would see both sides withdraw troops 18 km (11 miles) from the city, and heavy weaponry 30 km (18 miles) away. Tens of thousands of people have died in the war pitting the Houthis against the coalition, which intervened in Yemen in 2015 to restore Hadi’s government after it was ousted from the inland capital Sanaa. The war has displaced over 2 million people and driven the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country to the verge of famine. The World Health Organization said on Monday it had recorded 108,889 suspected cases of cholera and 190 associated deaths with the disease since the start of 2019 in several provinces. Around a third of the cases were children under five, it said. Yemen’s conflict is widely seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Houthis, who control Sanaa and most population centers, deny being puppets of Tehran and say they are waging a revolution against corruption.

yemen
hodeida
houthis
saudi arabia
jamal khashoggi
conflict
u.n .
hunger


Now what? Brexit scenarios and the paths ahead

Abstract: LONDON - With MPs set to vote on finding a way forward on Brexit, various outcomes are possible. The U.K. is left with four general directions: back a deal, go for no deal, a long delay or stopping Brexit. Those options could entail various courses of action, including Prime Minister Theresa May’s resignation and a general election. Leave with deal on May 22 British MPs have twice rejected by overwhelming margins a draft divorce agreement struck between London and Brussels in November last year. A new vote on the agreement, which allows for a long transition period and time for trade ties to be negotiated, will only be brought forward if it has sufficient support to pass. If MPs overcome numerous objections from “Brexiteers” and “Remainers” and approve the deal, Britain will leave the European Union on May 22. No-deal Brexit April 12 or later If the deal is not passed, and no other course of action can be agreed upon, the default option would be that Britain leaves without a deal. According to a European official that hard deadline would be midnight Brussels time on April 12 but French President Emmanuel Macron said this was not “necessarily” the case and a later date for no-deal Brexit could be agreed on. May has not ruled out the possibility of a no-deal, though MPs have voted against ever leaving without a deal. New plan, long Brexit delay MPs are set to hold “indicative votes” this week on a range of alternative Brexit options that could rip up the withdrawal agreement and remove some of May’s red lines, such as ending freedom of movement. If a course of action can be agreed upon, Britain could ask EU leaders for another, much longer delay by April 12. That would mean it would have to hold European Parliament elections at the end of May. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, has advised EU leaders that this longer extension should be at least until the end of 2019 and possibly much longer to allow for a proper change in Brexit strategy. The longer delay would allow time for a change in prime minister if May quits. It would also open up other options such as holding a general election or, perhaps, a second referendum. Britain’s Electoral Commission has budgeted for European elections and could hold them at short notice but May has said it would be “unacceptable.” “I don’t believe it’s right to be in a situation of holding European parliamentary elections three years on from people having voted to leave the EU,” she said. Stop Brexit This is by far the least likely option but is still a possibility. An estimated 1 million people flooded London on Saturday calling for a second referendum on EU membership. An online petition asking the government to end the Brexit process has garnered more than 5.5 million signatures since last Wednesday. The European Court of Justice has ruled that Britain could unilaterally revoke its Article 50 notification — the formal procedure for leaving the EU. New PM, elections? Within these four general pathways, there is the possibility that May might resign or a general election could be triggered. May resigns The price of getting rebel Conservatives to support May’s deal could be her stepping down as prime minister. She is opposed to canceling Brexit, a longer extension, or a Brexit solution that runs contrary to the Conservative manifesto. She has also said she does not intend to lead the Conservatives into the next general election. That is slated for 2022 but could happen within weeks. Several contenders have been mooted to replace May, among them David Lidington, Michael Gove, Boris Johnson, Jeremy Hunt, Sajid Javid and Dominic Raab. General election If Parliament comes up with an option that the government finds impossible to deliver or runs against the Conservative manifesto, a general election could be the only option left. A general election could come through the government losing a confidence vote in Parliament, or by the government seizing the initiative and calling a snap poll. It would reset Parliament and a clear outcome with a government majority could result in a much stronger administration. However, for both major parties, finding a clear Brexit manifesto that all their MPs can commit to could prove a challenge.


U.K. lawmakers vote to take wheel of sinking Brexit ship — but just for one day

Abstract: LONDON - In a highly unusual bid to find a way through the Brexit impasse after Prime Minister Theresa May’s EU divorce deal was rejected again, U.K. lawmakers wrested control of the parliamentary agenda Monday from the government — for just one day. Lawmakers will now vote Wednesday on a range of Brexit options, giving parliament a chance to indicate whether it can agree on a deal with closer ties to Brussels and then try to push the government in that direction. Nearly three years after the 2016 EU membership referendum, and four days before Britain was supposed to leave the bloc, it remains unclear how, when or even if Brexit will take place, with both parliament and the nation still bitterly divided. The vote underlined the extent to which May has lost authority over her own lawmakers and ministers, though she said the government would not be bound by the results of the so-called indicative votes. “The government will continue to call for realism — any options considered must be deliverable in negotiations with the EU,” said a spokesman for the Department for Exiting the European Union. Brexit minister Stephen Barclay had said Sunday that if parliament took control of the Brexit process, a snap election — which the main opposition Labour party would be likely to back — could be the result. May too has made clear that she would not implement any proposal that ran counter to her election manifesto, which promised a clean break with the EU. Third vote on May’s deal? But while lawmakers may struggle to turn Wednesday’s indicative votes into law, any kind of a consensus reached would pile pressure on a prime minister who has accused parliament of having no more viable solution than her own deal. Monday’s vote was put forward by Oliver Letwin, a lawmaker in May’s Conservative Party. The prime minister had earlier admitted that the deal she had agreed with the EU after two years of talks still did not have enough support to pass. May has not ruled out bringing back her deal for a third time this week. Thursday would be the most likely day. The Sun newspaper reported that she had suggested Sunday that she could resign if that would persuade enough doubters in her party to back her deal. Some of her lawmakers have already publicly urged her to go. Parliament backed Letwin’s proposal more clearly than had been expected, by 329 votes to 302, helped by three junior ministers who resigned in order to defy the government line. “The amendment … upends the balance between our democratic institutions and sets a dangerous, unpredictable precedent for the future,” the Brexit department spokesman said. Sterling rose slightly after the votes but the gains were muted, with traders little wiser about the U.K.’s future relations with the European Union. “No government could give a blank cheque to commit to an outcome without knowing what it is,” May said before the vote. “So I cannot commit the government to delivering the outcome of any votes held by this house.” Snap election? Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn raised the prospect of putting any proposal supported by lawmakers back to the people. “This House must also consider whether any deal should be put to the people for a confirmatory vote,” he told parliament after the votes. Last week, the EU agreed to delay the U.K.’s original March 29 departure date because of the deadlock. Now, it will leave the EU on May 22 if the prime minister’s deal is approved this week. If not, it will only have until April 12 to determine its plans. European Council President Donald Tusk said last week that all Brexit options were still open for the U.K. until April 12, including a deal, a departure with no deal, a long extension or even revoking Article 50 and remaining in the EU. May’s deal was defeated in parliament by 149 votes on March 12 and by 230 votes on Jan. 15. To get her deal passed, May must win over at least 75 MPs who voted against her on March 12 — dozens of rebels in her Conservative Party, some opposition Labour Party MPs and the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which props up her minority government but has rejected her deal so far. Earlier, May’s divided Cabinet of senior ministers had met to discuss a way forward. Some reports said ministers had “war-gamed” a national election. “I think we’re going to end up with a general election before the end of this year, probably in the summer,” Conservative lawmaker Andrew Bridgen, who supports Brexit, told Sky News.

brexit
theresa may
eu
u.k .
u.k. parliament


U.S. Congress faces long road ahead in fight over special counsel's report

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Lawmakers seeking special counsel Robert Mueller’s report are likely to face a protracted legal battle that will turn on U.S. President Donald Trump’s right to keep communications with his advisers private, legal and political experts said. On Sunday, U.S. Attorney General William Barr sent a summary to lawmakers saying the Mueller investigation found Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign did not conspire with Russia. But the probe left unresolved the question of whether Trump engaged in obstruction of justice, setting out “evidence on both sides of the question.” Barr concluded there was insufficient evidence to bring an obstruction case against Trump, prompting Democratic lawmakers to call for the release of the full report and the underlying evidence Mueller relied on. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat, said on CNN on Sunday he would “try to negotiate” with the Justice Department to obtain the full report, but that the committee would issue subpoenas and litigate if needed. Other Democrats, including candidates vying for the 2020 presidential nomination, have called for release of the full report. The Justice Department has not said whether it will release Mueller’s full report, but Barr has said he will be as transparent as possible. Ross Garber, a lawyer in Washington focusing on political investigations, said Congress would have a difficult time persuading judges to release materials marked as classified or privileged by the executive branch, and that even a successful challenge could take years. “Congress faces substantial legal and procedural hurdles in any effort to get these materials,” Garber said. Barr is required by law to keep secret information obtained from grand jury proceedings. This would not apply to information obtained from Trump advisers and other witnesses who agreed to sit down voluntarily with Mueller. Barr could also keep parts of the report under wraps by invoking a Justice Department policy against disparaging individuals who have not been charged with crimes. The most contentious fight will likely be over any materials the White House tries to shield from public view by claiming executive privilege, a legal doctrine generally used to keep conversations between the president and advisers private. The doctrine is rooted in the idea that the president should be able to receive candid advice on policy matters. If Barr withholds information based on executive privilege or Justice Department policy, Democrats could bring a lawsuit seeking to force disclosure. But it could be months before the Democrat-led House is even in a position to sue, legal experts said. Lawmakers would first need to make a formal demand for the report by invoking their subpoena power. If Barr refused to release it, Democrats would then vote to hold him in contempt of Congress, experts said. Congress would then sue to enforce its contempt finding. Legal experts said that, while executive privilege has been recognized by the Supreme Court, it must be narrowly asserted and balanced against Congress’ need for information to fulfill its duty of oversight over the executive branch. Garber said an executive privilege claim would be particularly strong if it were invoked to keep private the nature of Trump’s private conversations with close advisers, like former White House lawyer Don McGahn, who sat for interviews with Mueller’s team. Those sorts of communications are exactly what the privilege is intended to keep private, Garber said. But Mitchel Sollenberger, a professor of political science at the University of Michigan, Dearborn, said courts would be sympathetic to arguments by lawmakers that they need more information about the Mueller investigation to do their job. In 2012, Republican lawmakers sued Democratic President Barack Obama’s attorney general, Eric Holder, to obtain documents over a federal law enforcement operation targeting gun traffickers, codenamed Fast and Furious. The litigation dragged on for six years before ending in a settlement that called for the production of documents after Obama and Holder had already left office. John Marston, a former federal prosecutor in Washington now at law firm Foley Hoag, said it would be in the best interests of both Democratic lawmakers and the public to compromise with Barr and avoid a protracted court fight. “I’m sure there are many ways to structure access to a significant amount of this information,” Marston said. “Negotiating and finding a common agreement on access to the materials would help us all move past this.”

congress
robert mueller
donald trump
russia probe


Madrid 'firmly rejects' Mexican president's demand for apology over Spanish conquest

Abstract: MADRID - The 500-year-old wounds of the Spanish conquest have been ripped open afresh with Mexico’s president urging Spain and the Vatican to apologize for their “abuses” — a request Madrid said it “firmly rejects.” Spain’s centuries of dominance in the New World, backed by the Catholic Church, leapt from the history books to the headlines when Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called Monday on Spanish King Felipe VI and Pope Francis to apologize for the conquest and the rights violations committed in its aftermath. “I have sent a letter to the king of Spain and another to the pope, calling for a full account of the abuses and urging them to apologize to the indigenous peoples (of Mexico) for the violations of what we now call their human rights,” Lopez Obrador said. He made the remarks in a video, filmed at the Mayan ruins of the indigenous city of Comalcalco and posted on Facebook and Twitter. “There were massacres and oppression. The so-called conquest was waged with the sword and the cross. They built their churches on top of the (indigenous) temples,” added the anti-establishment leftist. “The time has come to reconcile. But let us ask forgiveness first.” Spain’s rejection was immediate and blunt. “The government of Spain deeply regrets that the letter the Mexican president sent to his majesty the king, whose contents we firmly reject, has been made public,” a statement said. “The arrival, 500 years ago, of Spaniards to present Mexican territory cannot be judged in the light of contemporary considerations,” it said. “Our two brother nations have always known how to read our shared past without anger and with a constructive perspective.” The demand for an apology comes as Spain gears up for a snap general election on April 28 in which conservative parties are trying to portray socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez as a weak defender of the nation’s interests because of his attempts at dialogue with Catalan separatists. The leader of center-right party Ciudadanos, Albert Rivera, said Tuesday the Mexican president’s letter “is an intolerable offense to the Spanish people.” Esteban Gonzalez Pons, a lawmaker in the European Parliament with the conservative Popular Party, said Lopez Obrador should “stop fighting” dead Spanish conquistadors and instead fight Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro “who continues to kill.” Mexico has stayed neutral in Venezuela’s crisis and unlike Spain it has not recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president. Arturo Perez-Reverte, one of Spain’s most popular contemporary writers, also weighed in, saying if the Mexican president “really believes what he says he is a fool.” “If he doesn’t believe it, he as no shame,” he added. But far-left party Podemos said the Mexican president was “right” to demand an apology. After making his remarks, Lopez Obrador visited the city of Centla, the scene of the first battle between Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes and the indigenous peoples of the land now known as Mexico, on March 14, 1519. With the help of horses, swords, guns and smallpox — all unknown in the New World at the time — Cortes led an army of fewer than 1,000 men to defeat the Aztec empire, the start of 300 years of Spanish rule over Mexico. The abuses continued until independence in 1821, and beyond, Lopez Obrador said. “Thousands of people were murdered during this period. One culture and civilization imposed itself on another,” he said later in a speech. Mexico has a complicated relationship with its colonial past. Its history, culture, food and the Mexican people themselves are the product of mestizaje , the mixing of the Old and New Worlds. According to a government study, 98 percent of Mexicans have some combination of indigenous, European and African ancestry. But although that mixture made modern Mexico — and gave the world chocolate, tacos de carnitas and Day of the Dead — it is also a past tainted by violence, rape and oppression. Lopez Obrador, 65, took office in December after a landslide election win that represented a firm break with Mexico’s traditional political parties. A folksy populist, he pulls no punches in going after elites and has sought to cast himself as a champion of indigenous peoples.

spanish conquest
mexico
spain
andres manuel lopez obrador
colonialism


U.S. media takes heat following conclusion of Robert Mueller's probe into Trump and Russia

Abstract: NEW YORK - Holding a copy of The New York Times to the camera Monday, a giddy Steve Doocy of Fox News Channel said the headline about special counsel Robert Mueller’s findings in the Russia investigation “probably killed whoever had to type this.” Motivated by the typical soul-searching that can accompany the climax of a major story, or simple revenge, the performance of news professionals quickly became an issue following Mueller’s conclusion that he could find no evidence of a conspiracy by President Donald Trump and his campaign team to work with the Russians to influence the 2016 election. At issue: Did some news organizations spend too much time or leap to premature conclusions about Trump’s potential involvement? “It is the worst journalistic debacle of my lifetime and I’ve been in this business about 50 years,” said Fox analyst and former Washington bureau chief Brit Hume. “I’ve never seen anything quite this bad last this long.” The National Review criticized CNN and MSNBC for routinely taking stories about the investigation from the Times and Washington Post and blowing them up into major stories. The Review said it would be nice if some people involved in the coverage admitted they were wrong, but isn’t expecting it. Trump retweeted a “Fox & Friends” segment on Monday titled “Spygate: The Attempted Sabotage of Donald J. Trump.” Even some liberals, like journalist Glenn Greenwald, offered criticism. Money earned by MSNBC hosts “won’t erase the role they played in going on the air every day and manipulating people’s fears and disseminating a false conspiracy theory that rewarded them greatly.” Reporter Matt Taibbi, who also suggested several reporters and commentators connected too many dots that didn’t add up, wrote that nothing Trump is accused of going forward will be believed by a large segment of the population. “Imagine how tone-deaf you’d have to be not to realize it makes you look bad, when news does not match audience expectations,” he wrote. Representatives for CNN and MSNBC declined comment Monday on their coverage. Defenders cautioned against lumping a diverse media ecosystem all together. If there’s a multimillion dollar investigation into whether a president colluded with a foreign power to influence a national election, is that a story that journalists are supposed to ignore? Americans would have been far worse off if reporters had not dug into connections between Russians and Trump’s associates, including his sons, wrote Margaret Sullivan, media columnist for the Washington Post. The reporting has not been invalidated by Mueller’s findings, she wrote. Sullivan is worried that a backlash will cause some news organizations to take the edge off their coverage of the president. They shouldn’t back down, but at the same time should also spend more time on subjects like health care and the economy that Americans care about, she wrote. It makes no sense to expect the media to not have been aggressive, said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, communications professor and director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. “They were covering a process, and the process was providing regular news, including indictments,” she said. The issue was also clearly on the president’s mind, given how many times he tweeted “no collusion” and sent his lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, on media interviews to talk about. Each reporter and news organization should take the time to examine coverage, said Tom Bettag, a longtime “Nightline” executive producer and now a professor of journalism at the University of Maryland. At the same time, he doesn’t think the press needs to apologize and any individual mistakes couldn’t compare to a systemwide failure in the run-up to the Iraq War. For the most part, reporters did not know what Mueller was going to come up with and that was reflected in the coverage, Bettag said. Jamieson, author of “Cyber Wars: How Russian Trolls and Hackers Helped Elect a President,” faults the media for failing to pay enough attention to what Russia actually did in 2016 and pushing politicians to make sure it doesn’t happen again. “I don’t know what the press is going to do when it is confronted with hacking again,” she said.

robert mueller
fox news
donald trump
journalism
u.s .
russia probe


Boeing readies 737 Max software fix as families wait for Ethiopia crash report

Abstract: SEATTLE/KIGALI - Boeing Co. will provide airlines that have bought the 737 MAX with free software upgrades, the U.S. manufacturer said on Monday, as Ethiopian Airlines told Reuters it expected a preliminary crash report this week or next. Any fixes to the MAX software, the focus of investigations in two deadly crashes that have prompted worldwide groundings of the aircraft, must still get approval from governments around the world. The U.S. Transportation Department said Monday it is forming an outside panel to review the Federal Aviation Administration’s aircraft certification program amid growing concerns after two fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes since October. The causes of separate Lion Air and Ethiopian Airline crashes are also still unknown, though Ethiopian Airlines Chief Executive Officer Tewolde Gebremariam said he trusts Boeing. “Despite the tragedy, Boeing and Ethiopian Airlines will continue to be linked well into the future,” Tewolde said on Monday. “Ethiopian Airlines believes in Boeing. They have been a partner of ours for many years.” Meanwhile, Boeing has begun briefing airlines on software and training updates for the MAX, with more than 200 global airline pilots, technical experts and regulators due in Renton, Washington, where the plane is built this week. The sessions follow a briefing with carriers including three U.S. airlines on Saturday, part of Boeing’s effort “to communicate with all current, and many future, MAX customers and operators,” a Boeing spokeswoman said. Tewolde told Reuters the leading African airline may or may not attend the briefing. Lion Air Managing Director Daniel Putut said his airline would send two people on Wednesday, a pilot and an engineer. The crash of an Indonesian Lion Air flight last October killed 189 people and first brought the safety of the 737 MAX into focus. The 737 MAX is Boeing’s best-selling plane, with orders worth more than $500 billion at list prices. Boeing’s shares closed 2.3 percent higher at $370.46 on hopes that a fix is nearing completion, but have lost about 12 percent and $29 billion in market value since the March 10 crash. In another blow to Boeing, France announced on Monday that Airbus had agreed to sell 300 aircraft to China Aviation Supplies Holding Company, including 290 A320 planes and 10 A350, in a deal worth about is €30 billion ($34 billion). Upgrading an individual 737 MAX with Boeing’s new software only takes about an hour per plane, though the overall process could stretch on far longer as it is rolled out across the global fleet due to stringent testing and documentation requirements by engineers and regulators, according to a senior FAA official with knowledge of the process. “Clearly there is pressure to get the airplanes ungrounded but there is tremendous pressure to make sure it was done right,” the FAA official said. “The last thing in the world you want is to have the thing hurried and then find problems with it.” Ethiopian and French investigators have pointed to “clear similarities” between the two crashes, putting pressure on Boeing and U.S. regulators to come up with an adequate fix. No direct link has been proven between the crashes but attention has focused on whether pilots had the correct information about the “angle of attack” at which the wing slices through the air. Qatar Airways, one of the largest Middle East carriers, threw its support behind Boeing on Monday. The airline will, however, delay the April delivery of another MAX jet until the cause of the crash is known, said Qatar Chief Executive Akbar al-Baker. “I am sure that the aircraft will get back into the skies soon and that Boeing will get to the bottom of what happened and if there is something technical wrong that they will find a fix for it,” he said. Garuda Indonesia was invited to the briefing but requested a webinar instead, only to be rebuffed, Chief Executive Ari Askhara told Reuters on Monday. Last week, Indonesia’s national carrier said it planned to cancel its order for 49 737 MAX jets, citing a loss of passenger trust. Garuda, which has only one 737 MAX, had been reconsidering its order before the Ethiopian crash. Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA, another MAX operator, suspended on Monday two routes between the United States and Brazil that it said it can only service with the longer-range MAX 8, but is not currently revising its MAX orders.

boeing
737 max
ethiopian airlines
lion air
airbus
air accidents


Pentagon calls missile defense system's intercept of ICBM-class target a 'success'

Abstract: In a move that could have ramifications for defending the United States from North Korean nuclear weapons, the U.S. said Monday that it had successfully conducted a “salvo” intercept of an intercontinental ballistic missile-class target — the first test of its kind. The U.S. Missile Defense Agency said that two ground-based interceptors (GBI) in California were used in the test, which struck the mock target over the Pacific. It said one destroyed the target’s re-entry vehicle, while the other “then looked at the resulting debris and remaining objects, and, not finding any other re-entry vehicles, selected the next ‘most lethal object’ it could identify, and struck that.” The target was launched from a test site in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific, some 6,400 km (4,000 miles) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, where the interceptors were launched, the MDA said. MDA Director Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves hailed the test, calling it a “critical milestone.” “This was the first GBI salvo intercept of a complex, threat-representative ICBM target,” Greaves said in a statement. “The system worked exactly as it was designed to do, and the results of this test provide evidence of the practicable use of the salvo doctrine within missile defense.” The idea of employing a salvo intercept is meant to boost the chances of striking an incoming missile. In an actual combat scenario, such a missile could deploy decoys and other measures designed to help the re-entry vehicle that holds the warhead avoid being destroyed by the interceptor. Although Greaves said that the test demonstrated that the U.S. has “a capable, credible deterrent against a very real threat,” some observers have voiced skepticism, saying the military remains far away from creating a defense that can protect against an unexpected incoming launch of multiple missiles or a launch that includes decoys and multiple re-entry vehicles. In 2017, North Korea flight-tested two models of ICBMs, which are defined by the U.S. government as any ballistic missile with a range capability in excess of 5,500 km. Experts believe at least one of those North Korean designs are capable of hitting most, if not all, of the continental United States. Since the test of its last ICBM, the Hwasong-15, in November 2017, Pyongyang has held to a self-imposed moratorium on flight-testing any longer-range missiles. But after U.S. President Donald Trump’s second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jon Un in Hanoi ended in deadlock, it remains uncertain how long this testing halt will continue. Trump in January unveiled a bolstered U.S. missile defense strategy that labeled Pyongyang an ongoing and “extraordinary threat” despite his earlier claim that the threat posed by the North had been eliminated after his first summit with Kim in Singapore last June.

missiles
north korea
nuclear weapons
weapons
military
u.s .
north korea nuclear crisis


In Thai poll mess, allies of tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra race coup-prone generals to secure majority

Abstract: BANGKOK - Thailand’s first election since the 2014 coup was always going to be messy. But it’s turning out to be even more chaotic than many observers expected, setting the stage for renewed tumult after five years of military rule. Election authorities have faced calls to resign for repeatedly delaying the full results and failing to account for mounting irregularities, including one candidate whose vote totals dropped 80 percent at one point during the count. After the Election Commission finally released some seat totals, it issued a correction about an hour later. It plans to release the vote count on Friday. Based on the limited information available, allies of exiled tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra were set to win the most seats, followed by the military-backed Palang Pracharath party. Now both of them are racing to win over allies to form a majority in the 500-member lower house of parliament. An Asian election monitor said Tuesday that the run-up to the vote was “heavily tilted” to benefit the military-backed party and criticized a messy ballot-counting process that created mistrust. The Bangkok-based Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL) stopped short of declaring outright fraud in the election. “The environment at large is heavily tilted to benefit the military junta,” Amael Vier, an official of the civil society group that seeks to promote democratic elections, told a news briefing. “A lot of people still express distrust towards the electoral process.” Asked if the election had been free and fair, another ANFREL official declined to comment directly, however. “So many things have to be considered together,” said its mission head, Rohana Nishanta Hettiarachchie. “It is unfair to conclude that the whole process was free and fair or not.” Thailand’s Election Commission was not immediately available for comment. It has previously declined to comment on accusations of cheating. The deck was already stacked in favor of the military, which appoints a 250-strong Senate that can also pick a prime minister — likely to be current junta chief Prayuth Chan-ocha. In theory that means he only needs 126 seats to take power. But Prayuth has a problem as well. If he takes power without a lower-house majority, Thaksin’s allies could hold a no-confidence vote and boot him out. Then comes another election, or possibly yet another coup — a now routine event that constantly weighs on Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy. “If the military can come to terms with the fact that despite all of their efforts they still can’t win, or if there’s a clear resistance, maybe they would stop,” said David Streckfuss, a scholar of Southeast Asian politics and honorary fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “But I don’t have much hope for that.” For the military, it wasn’t supposed to be this way. After Prayuth in 2014 deposed a government led by Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin’s sister, the ruling junta wrote a new constitution that was designed to finally break the former premier’s lock on Thailand’s electorate. The army even emulated Thaksin’s populism, which had endeared him over the years to poorer Thais — particularly in the north and northeast — who still laud his policies of cheap health care and guaranteed crop prices. The military’s party proposed lower taxes, a minimum wage increase of more than 30 percent, and price support for rubber, rice, and sugar cane. In the end they still fell short of winning a democratic mandate, although that doesn’t mean they’ll lose power. The junta has a range of tools to ensure it gets its way, including the backstop of an appointed Senate. Thaksin ripped the election as “rigged” in a scathing op-ed published in the New York Times. Reeling off a litany of election irregularities, Thaksin warned that the junta may try to buy off smaller parties or disband pro-democracy political parties. “Whether or not the junta’s leaders now allow the pro-democracy parties to form a government, they will find a way to stay in charge,” Thaksin said. “They have no shame, and they want to be in power no matter what.” Thaksin has reason to be skeptical. He or his allies have won the most seats in every Thai election over the past two decades, only to see the military or courts oust them. He hasn’t stepped foot in Thailand since he was convicted for corruption in a case brought after the 2006 coup that ousted him. He denies all wrongdoing. The courts have disbanded three parties linked to him over the years, most recently earlier this month when Thai Raksa Chart was banned for nominating Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya as its prime ministerial candidate. The judges acted soon after King Maha Vajiralongkorn opposed the move, disrupting Thaksin’s election strategy. Now another party called Future Forward, which opposes military rule and did surprisingly well on Sunday, faces legal challenges after its leader was accused of breaking a draconian computer-crimes law for online commentary critical of the junta. In the short term it’s unlikely Thailand will see large street protests ahead of the king’s coronation ceremony, which is scheduled for early May. It’s one of the most significant events on the calendar in Thailand, where royals are officially treated as semi-divine. But after the Election Commission officially certifies results by May 9, anything is possible. A decade ago, demonstrators disrupted a regional summit after a pro-Thaksin party was disbanded — something the military would hope to avoid as it hosts world leaders this year, potentially including U.S. President Donald Trump. “I don’t think the coalition will last more than two years,” said Punchada Sirivunnabood, an associate professor at Mahidol University, who writes frequently about Thai politics. “It’s the same dividing lines taking a new form.”

thaksin shinawatra
thailand
elections
prayuth chan-ocha


Senior North Korean diplomat arrives in Beijing as top U.S. denuclearization official visits Chinese capital

Abstract: BEIJING - A North Korean top diplomat arrived in Beijing from Pyongyang on Tuesday morning, Kyodo News confirmed, with state-run media saying he is scheduled to visit Laos. Upon arrival at a VIP section of Beijing’s international airport, Ri Su Yong, a vice chairman of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, climbed into a car provided by the Chinese Communist Party while concealing his face. The North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency reported later in the day that Ri left Pyongyang on Tuesday to visit Laos, but did not mention details of his itinerary. The Southeast Asian nation is a one-party-rule state similar to North Korea. North Korean Ambassador to Russia Kim Hyun Joon, who temporarily returned home, also arrived in Beijing on Tuesday. In Pyongyang, he may have made arrangements for leader Kim Jong Un’s rumored first official visit to Russia, diplomatic sources said. Kim Hyun Joon, who is expected to return to Moscow sometime soon, did not answer reporters’ questions as he arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport. North Korea has continued diplomatic activities even after Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump fell short of a deal at their Feb. 27-28 summit in Hanoi over the scope of North Korea’s denuclearization and sanctions relief. To convince the international community to relax economic sanctions against North Korea, Pyongyang has recently become eager to conduct multilateral diplomacy instead of focusing on bilateral talks with the United States, foreign affairs experts say. As North Korea’s economy has been hit hard by the economic sanctions designed to thwart the country’s nuclear and ballistic missile ambitions, Pyongyang has called for the easing of them, saying it has already taken concrete steps toward denuclearization. Trump, however, said after the Hanoi summit that North Korea pledged to “totally” dismantle its main Yongbyon nuclear complex, but the lifting of the sanctions would require Pyongyang to scrap other nuclear facilities and programs, including undeclared ones. Meanwhile, Stephen Biegun, the U.S. special representative for North Korea, was also in Beijing to talk with China about how to deal with issues related to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Before the second summit between Washington and Pyongyang in the Vietnamese capital, Biegun held working-level talks with his North Korean counterpart Kim Hyok Chol, an interlocutor leading negotiations with the United States. It was not clear whether the visits by the U.S. and North Korean officials were related.

north korea
kim jong un
donald trump
stephen biegun
china
u.s .
nuclear weapons
north korea nuclear crisis
kim-trump summit


Citing 'Eastern values,' Indonesia theme park covers up bare-breasted mermaids

Abstract: JAKARTA - A pair of bare-breasted mermaid statues have been given the family values treatment at an Indonesian amusement park where officials slipped golden tube tops over their chests. While the nude statues have been on display for years at Jakarta’s Ancol Dreamland, a recent policy aimed at respecting “Eastern values” has seen the mermaids get an official cover-up. The statues were initially just covered with gold fabric, but they’ve now also been moved to a more secluded area after visitors kept pulling the coverings down, park sources said. Ancol Dreamland spokeswoman Rika Lestari insisted no outside agitators were behind the cover-up. “There was no pressure from any group,” she said. “Ancol is trying to become an amusement park and vacation spot for families.” That didn’t stop the park’s move from being widely mocked. “Thanks Ancol. Now, no one will commit adultery of the eyes from looking at the mermaids’ breasts,” comedian Soleh Solihun wrote on Twitter. Earlier, Lestari told the Indonesian newspaper Kompas: “We’re Eastern people, we have Eastern culture, so what was inappropriate we made it more appropriate. “It’s just a matter of perception, because what we’ve done was the best for us. It’s a good thing, so why not.” Indonesia is the world’s biggest Muslim majority country and relatively conservative social values are prevalent.


China's former top internet regulator sentenced to 14 years in prison

Abstract: BEIJING - China’s former top internet regulator was sentenced to 14 years in prison for corruption, completing the downfall of a once-high-flying official who mingled with executives from Apple and Facebook. Lu Wei was found guilty of taking bribes on Tuesday by the Ningbo People’s Intermediate Court in the eastern province of Zhejiang, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. He was found to have accepted some 32 million yuan ($4.6 million) from companies and individuals seeking help with regulatory issues and promoting their businesses online, the report said. Lu was convicted after a one-day trial in October. He told the court that he would obey the sentence and not appeal, Xinhua said. The former Beijing propaganda official was named as China’s first national internet regulator in 2014 after the country established the Cyberspace Administration of China to manage a market that now has more than 800 million users. Lu spearheaded Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “Clear Cyberspace” campaign, purging “unhealthy” online content, reining in news portals and muzzling opinion leaders. While serving as chief internet censor at home, Lu sought to portray himself as a forward-looking official on the world stage, shaking hands with Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook. Lu challenged critics of Chinese efforts to block foreign websites, offering a standard response still used by local authorities: “China welcomes any law-abiding foreign companies.” Under his watch, the cyberspace administration introduced a series of regulations on instant-messaging applications targeting Tecent Holdings Ltd.’s WeChat, constraining user profiles, managing online comments and establishing procedures for summoning technology companies for official inquiries. The charges against Lu spanned his career across several government bodies, including Xinhua, the Beijing Municipal Government and the Communist Party’s propaganda department, according to prosecutors. He was officially put under investigation in November 2017, becoming the first senior official to fall after Xi secured a second term as party chief.


South Korea professor forced students to write daughter's thesis, government report finds

Abstract: SEOUL - A Seoul university professor forced students to write her daughter’s thesis to gain entry to an elite dental school, a government report revealed Tuesday, the latest scandal to hit South Korea’s hypercompetitive education system. The professor, who teaches at Seoul’s Sungkyunkwan University, made her graduate students conduct a three-month experiment — and even asked them to fabricate the results — before the daughter published the findings in an academic journal under her own name. The daughter then included the thesis in an application to Seoul National University’s dental school — the top institution of its kind in the country — and earned admission last year. South Korea is notorious for its hypercompetitive education system and academic performance is seen as pivotal in defining adult lives, holding the key to the best jobs, social status and even marriage prospects. Many parents feel pressured to send their children to the nation’s top schools and frequently make headlines for cheating the system — including the case of a high-school teacher arrested last year on charges of stealing exam papers for his daughters. Top politicians, including current education minister Yoo Eun-hae, have apologized in the past for ethical lapses related to their children’s education. Yoo last year admitted falsifying her home address to enrol her daughter in a prestigious elementary school in central Seoul. In the latest case, the education ministry said it had asked prosecutors to investigate if any laws were broken. “The Education Ministry plans to ask her university to expel the professor,” an official said. The investigation discovered the professor had one of her students do 54 hours of volunteer work — converting a book into braille — in her daughter’s name, for which she was paid 500,000 won (around $440). The daughter also won a number of academic awards for posters and research reports that were actually completed by her mother’s students, it said. It has been widely reported that the country’s graduate students are frequently subject to abuse and exploitation — including working long hours in the lab and running errands such as laundry for their professors.


Japan and Nepal sign government-to-government labor pact

Abstract: KATHMANDU - Nepal has signed a memorandum of cooperation to send to Japan “specified skilled” workers for the first time. The broad framework agreement, signed in Kathmandu on Monday by Japanese Ambassador Masamichi Saigo and a Nepalese government representative, opens the door to Nepalese blue-collar workers getting jobs in Japan based on the government-to-government recruitment model. The agreement takes effect April 1. “The actual flow of workers from Nepal to Japan will take time because different bilateral mechanisms need to be set up to ensure that only those who meet employment criteria reach Japan,” said Narayan Regmi, spokesman at Nepal’s Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security. The ministry will set up a body that will facilitate the recruitment process, he added. The Japanese government decided in December to recruit 345,000 foreign workers in five years from nine countries, including Nepal, to address the rapidly depleting and aging workforce. Nepal proposed to Japan setting up a government-to-government recruitment mechanism to prevent recruitment agencies in Nepal from duping workers. A similar mechanism set up with South Korea to send Nepali workers under the Employment Permit System has been successful in protecting workers. Scores of cases in which workers were fleeced by recruitment agencies in Nepal or exploited by employers in job destinations such as Qatar and Malaysia are reported every year. Tens of thousands of Nepalese head to other countries for work every year. An estimated 4 million work abroad. Over two decades of political turmoil that started in 1996 when former rebel Maoists started a 10-year-long armed insurgency dried up investment and jobs in Nepal.

visas
labor shortage
nepal-japan relations
foreign workforce


Tokyo pension office head replaced over hate speech tweets, some targeting South Koreans

Abstract: The head of a Tokyo pension office who repeatedly tweeted discriminatory remarks against individuals including South Koreans was replaced Monday. The governmental Japan Pension Service and sources said that in the now deleted tweets Yukihisa Kasai called South Koreans “cowardly people with vassal-like spirits” and said, “Korean residents should be purged from Japan and new entries refused.” Kasai, who headed the Japan Pension Service branch office in Setagaya Ward, also described Japanese opposition lawmakers as “a group of extortionists who get money for just being there.” Kasai admitted to writing the messages after he was pinned him down as the originator of the tweets, according to the Japan Pension Service, which effectively dismissed him by transferring him to its human resource division, administered by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. Less than a week earlier, a director of the ministry was dismissed after allegedly assaulting an airport worker in Seoul and telling the worker he hates South Koreans. The director, who was on a personal trip, was under the influence of alcohol and temporarily detained March 19, South Korean police said.

pensions
hate speech
yukihisa kasai
south korea
social media
twitter
racism
zainichi
mhlw


Marrow donor volunteers in Japan hit monthly high after swimmer Rikako Ikee's leukemia announcement

Abstract: The number of individuals registering as bone marrow donors reached a monthly record of 11,662 in February after teenage swimming star Rikako Ikee announced she has leukemia, according to the Japan Marrow Donor Program. New registrations exceeded 10,000 in a single month for the first time. The monthly average ranges from around 2,000 to 4,000, the organization said Monday. A total of 503,883 individuals are currently registered with the donor bank, the majority of whom are in their 40s, according to the group. As the age limit for donors is set at 55, the donor bank will work to increase younger donors at blood donation centers this year. Treating leukemia requires the patient’s bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cell to match the donor’s. If there is no match within the family, the patient looks to a third party. “Currently only about 60 percent of patients are matched with someone. We’d like as many people as possible to register as donors, especially those who are younger,” a spokesperson for the group said. The 18-year-old Ikee shot to fame at last summer’s Asian Games in Jakarta, where she was named the first female MVP after becoming the first swimmer to win six gold medals, all in record times. She announced her diagnosis last month, sending shock waves throughout Japan and eliciting words of support.

rikako ikee
leukemia
medicine
disease
cancer


No change in Japan's opposition to Israel's annexation of Golan Heights, says Suga

Abstract: Japan does not recognize the annexation of the Golan Heights by Israel and there is no change in this position, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tuesday. Suga made the remark at a news conference after U.S. President Donald Trump signed a proclamation Monday officially recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, located in southwestern Syria. “We will keep a close eye on the future course of the matter, with interest,” Suga said. Japan’s government is preparing to dispatch Ground Self-Defense Force troops to the command of the Multinational Force and Observers, which oversees a cease-fire in the Egypt-Israel border zone in the Sinai Peninsula. Suga said the U.S. move has no particular effect on the plan. Also Tuesday, Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya said the purpose of dispatching GSDF personnel to the MFO is to monitor the cease-fire between Israel and Egypt and to maintain security in the region. “There will be no direct impact” from the U.S. decision, Iwaya added.

israel
golan heights
yoshihide suga
donald trump
syria
gsdf
self defense forces


Lawyers seize Nachi-Fujikoshi assets in South Korea over wartime labor case

Abstract: SEOUL - A team of lawyers representing Korean plaintiffs in an ongoing wartime labor case against Japanese machinery manufacturer Nachi-Fujikoshi Corp. said Tuesday that based on a court decision they have seized assets in South Korea owned by the company. The assets were the company’s stake in an affiliated company in South Korea, which the lawyers say would cover possible compensation for 23 plaintiffs in the case. The value of the stake is estimated at 765 million won (¥74.3 million). The case is still pending a ruling by the Supreme Court after the plaintiffs, all former members of the so-called Korean Women’s Volunteer Labor Corps, won at district- and appeals-court levels. South Korean courts have also approved the seizure of assets held by two other Japanese companies over wartime labor cases, steel-maker Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. and manufacturer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. But those seizures were approved to proceed after the South Korean Supreme Court ruled against the two companies last year and ordered them to compensate Korean plaintiffs for forced labor during World War II. On March 15, Ulsan District Court decided to freeze Nachi-Fujikoshi’s stake in Daesung-Nachi Hydraulics Co. based on a lawyers’ request, according to a statement. The lawyers also said they have seized additional assets held by Nippon Steel in South Korea that are worth 568 million won to compensate plaintiffs in the case involving that company. In January, a district court in Daegu approved seizure procedures for a stake worth 405 million won owned by Nippon Steel in a joint venture with South Korean steel-maker POSCO. The lawyers said, however, that they would seek to hold negotiations with the Japanese companies before actually selling the seized assets. The plaintiffs in the Nachi-Fujikoshi case claim they were brought to Japan from the Korean Peninsula — then under Japanese colonial rule — under false pretenses and forced to work at the firm’s munitions factory in Toyama without adequate food. Tuesday’s announcement came the day after a group of lawyers supporting plaintiffs in cases against Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said South Korea’s intellectual property office had obtained the company’s rights to two trademarks and six patents, based on a court decision. The rulings and subsequent legal steps against Japanese companies have further strained bilateral ties that have been marred by bitter memories of Japan’s colonization of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. The Japanese firms entangled in wartime labor cases in South Korea have refused to engage in talks with plaintiffs’ lawyers over compensation. The Japanese government maintains that the issue of claims stemming from the nation’s decadeslong colonial rule has already been settled as part of a 1965 treaty that established diplomatic ties between Tokyo and Seoul.

nachi-fujikoshi
wartime labor
forced labor
wwii
south korea-japan relations


Caroline Kennedy stresses importance of prefecture to visiting Okinawa students

Abstract: NEW YORK - Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy on Monday called on visiting students from Okinawa Prefecture to come to the United States again and learn more about the country. During her meeting in New York with about 20 high school and university students from Okinawa, Kennedy stressed the importance of the prefecture to the future of the bilateral alliance. “The future of the U.S.-Japan alliance, which is the strongest and the most important in the world right now today, really depends on Okinawa,” she said. The students are visiting the United States under an exchange program organized by Japan’s Foreign Ministry to help them increase the understanding of bilateral relations. “We are here to think about the future of Okinawa and to share real Okinawa,” said Yurino Tamaki, 21, of the University of the Ryukyus. Kennedy looked delighted as she received bingata cloth produced using Okinawa’s traditional dyeing technique. The former ambassador to Japan said that she made the craft when she visited Okinawa. The students also toured the White House and the State Department in Washington. In New York, they met with Koro Bessho, Japan’s ambassador to the United Nations.

caroline kennedy
okinawa
u.s. military
u.s. bases


GSDF launches new bases in Kagoshima and Okinawa for defense of Japan's southwestern islands

Abstract: The Ground Self-Defense Force launched new camps on Amami Oshima island in Kagoshima Prefecture and Miyako Island in Okinawa Prefecture on Tuesday, as part of its moves to enhance the defense of southwestern islands in the country. The camps will take charge of first response in the case of an emergency and serve as key footholds for related operations. The GSDF continues to revamp its organization in response to military threats from China, although the Defense Ministry has officially denied that is the purpose. “Our defense policy is not developed with a military threat from a particular country in mind,” Defense Ministry spokesman Hajime Aoyagi said during a news briefing Tuesday. “That being said, the southwestern islands span a large area of 1,200 kilometers and there is a lack of a Self-Defense Forces presence except for the main island of Okinawa and Yonaguni Island” located close to Taiwan, he added. The new GSDF camps will be “very important” in “filling in the lack” of SDF personnel in the area, as well as ramping up first response efficiency should an emergency, such as a natural disaster happen, he added. A total of about 560 troops, drawn from a security unit and surface-to-air and surface-to-ship missile units, are to be stationed at the Amami Oshima camp. At the Miyako camp, 380 security unit personnel will be deployed by the end of this month. Surface-to-air and surface-to-ship missile unit personnel will be deployed there in fiscal 2019 from April or later, bringing the total number of GSDF troops at the camp to between 700 and 800. For the defense of the southwestern islands, the GSDF set up a coastal security unit on Yonaguni Island in Okinawa in 2016. Last year, an amphibious unit was launched in Nagasaki Prefecture for the protection of remote islands. Work to build a camp on Ishigaki Island in Okinawa was recently started. On Tuesday, the GSDF also carried out an organizational revision to reinforce its rapid deployment unit. In addition, to step up cyberdefense, a unit was set up at the Western Army in Kumamoto Prefecture.

gsdf
kagoshima
okinawa
amami oshima
miyako island
self defense forces


Suga to whittle down Japan era name candidates on April 1, with Cabinet's final decision later in day

Abstract: The government plans to narrow down a list of candidates for the new era name on April 1, the same day it will pick and announce the next era name, government sources said Monday. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga will pick around three new era name candidates from the some 20 to 30 proposals to be submitted by scholars commissioned by the government, the sources said. Soon after hearing opinions from a panel of experts and the heads and deputy heads of both chambers of the Diet, the government will make its final selection at a Cabinet meeting, the sources said. The government will follow procedures used to select the current era name of Heisei in 1989 when deciding on a name for the next era. On March 14, the government officially commissioned a few specialists in Japanese and Chinese literature and Japanese and Asian history to make proposals for the new era name. The scholars are expected to propose two to five names each, along with their meanings and detailed information on their sources. Suga will pick the candidate names after hearing opinions from Yusuke Yokobatake, director-general of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau. He is set to make the selection just before a Cabinet decision on the name of the next era, apparently in order to reduce the risk of information leaks, sources familiar with the situation said. The government has no plans to disclose the creator of the new era name for the time being. Suga told a news conference Monday that the commissioned scholars do not want their names disclosed. If their names were announced, speculation would grow over who made which proposals, a situation that does not seem appropriate, Suga said. Japan’s first era name is believed to be Taika, used between 645 and 650. The new era name will be the 248th. After the new name is decided at a Cabinet meeting on April 1, it will be implemented on May 1 in line with the enthronement of Crown Prince Naruhito following the abdication of his father, Emperor Akihito, on April 30.

yoshihide suga
history
abdication
nihongo
imperial family
gengo
nengo