Thousands protest against Honduras president

Abstract: TEGUCIGALPA - Thousands of people marched through the streets of the Honduran capital Friday night demanding the resignation of President Juan Orlando Hernandez and an investigation of him and his family. The protestors, from the so-called Movimiento Indignados (Indignant Movement) and numbering around 5,000 according to reporters, shouted “get out J.O.H.,” as they marched to the public prosecutor’s office. “We demand the immediate removal of Juan Orlando Hernandez from the post he is currently usurping, as well as an urgent investigation of him and his family circle and political associates,” the movement said in a statement. It alleged Hernandez has links to people accused of corruption and drug trafficking, including his brother Antonio Hernandez, a former lawmaker who was arrested in Miami, Florida on November 23 and is accused of “large-scale drug trafficking.” President Hernandez has said he was shocked by his brother’s arrest but that nobody was above the law. The opposition says Hernandez, a conservative backed by the United States, was illegitimately re-elected in a November 2017 vote marred by delays and alleged fraud. The indignados have made a return to the streets after their 2015 demonstrations against Hernandez, who was accused of illegally using government money for the 2013 presidential election that he won. Hernandez admitted his conservative ruling National Party had accepted $94,000 that had been misappropriated from social security funds but said the funds had been used without his knowledge. The opposition however charged that more than $300 million was skimmed from the poverty-stricken country’s public health system. Honduras is plagued by endemic corruption and gangs that control drug trafficking and organized crime. This phenomenon has caused a wave of illegal immigration to the United States, notably by minors who fear being forced into gang enrollment.


Democrat Beto O'Rourke says Trump rhetoric recalls Nazi Germany

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke has compared Donald Trump’s attacks on immigrants to Nazi Germany, saying at a campaign event that similar rhetoric might have been heard during the Third Reich. Addressing a town hall gathering in Carroll, Iowa late Thursday, O’Rourke recalled how Trump blasted Mexican immigrants as “rapists” and referred to some people seeking to enter the country as “animals” and an “infestation.” The former congressman from Texas also pointed to other troubling Trump behavior, including his effort to ban all Muslims from entering the country, and his seeming defense of white nationalists at a deadly rally in Virginia in 2017. “Now we would not be surprised if, in the Third Reich, other human beings were described as an infestation, as a cockroach or a pest that you would want to kill,” O’Rourke told attendees, according to video posted on his Facebook page. “But to do that in 2017 or ’18 in the United States of America doesn’t make sense.” In a tweet last June, Trump berated Democrats as “the problem,” and said “they don’t care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our Country, like MS-13.” Trump frequently mentions MS-13, which is a particularly brutal criminal gang operating in the United States and Central America. O’Rourke is polling fourth in a Democratic field of at least 17 candidates including liberal Sen. Bernie Sanders, and which may soon see former Vice President Joe Biden enter the race. O’Rourke later acknowledged the Nazi comparison that he made in front of voters. “I compared the rhetoric that the president has employed to rhetoric that you might have heard during the Third Reich. Calling human beings an infestation is something that we might have expected to hear in Nazi Germany,” O’Rourke told reporters. “Describing immigrants … as rapists and criminals. Seeking to ban all Muslims, all people of one religion,” he added. “What other country on the face of the planet does that kind of thing?” O’Rourke’s comparisons came as U.S. lawmakers have been embroiled in heated debates in Congress about anti-Semitism and whether socialists are Nazis. Six million Jews were exterminated by the Nazis in Europe between 1939 and 1945.

beto o'rourke
nazis
donald trump
immigration
elections


Fight begins over Trump's taxes as lawyer slams Democrats' request for returns

Abstract: WASHINGTON - An attorney for President Donald Trump on Friday blasted U.S. House Democrats’ request for six years of Trump’s tax returns as “a misguided attempt” to politicize the tax laws, accusing lawmakers of harassment and interference in IRS audits. In a statement that mapped out the legal battlefield ahead, William Consovoy said the request, formally filed on Wednesday by U.S. House of Representatives tax committee Chairman Richard Neal, flouts “constitutional constraints.” “The requests for his private tax information are not consistent with governing law, do not advance any proper legislative purpose, and threaten to interfere with the ordinary conduct of audits,” Consovoy said. “We are confident that this misguided attempt to politicize the administration of the tax laws will not succeed,” he said. One of the many investigations targeting Trump on Capitol Hill and in the U.S. court system, the House Democrat’s probe into the president’s tax returns could pull back the curtain on his business empire and his reputation as a savvy deal-maker. Unlike previous presidents over recent decades, Trump has refused to make public past tax returns, while retaining ownership in many enterprises, ranging from golf courses and hotels to Trump Tower in New York City and his Mar-a-Lago private club in Florida. Concerns about possible conflicts of interest have simmered since Trump moved into the White House in January 2017, along with lingering questions from his presidential campaign about his net worth, tax profile and past financial dealings. Seeking answers to such questions, Neal this week invoked a law that gives the head of the tax committee the power to ask the Internal Revenue Service for a president’s returns. He is seeking both Trump’s personal and business tax returns. Asked on Friday about Neal’s request, Trump said before leaving the White House for a trip to California, “From what I understand the law is 100 percent on my side.” Congressional Republicans oppose Neal’s effort, saying such a move sets a dangerous precedent by turning the confidential tax documents of a U.S. citizen into a political weapon. A tax committee spokesman said it had no comment for now. An IRS spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and a spokeswoman for the Justice Department declined to comment. When Neal filed his request to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig two days ago, Neal said it was “critical to ensure the accountability of our government and elected officials.” Trump has long maintained that he cannot release his returns because they are under IRS audit. The IRS, which is overseen by the U.S. Treasury Department, has said that Trump could release his returns even while under audit. Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen recently testified in Congress that he did not believe the president was being audited, but may have used the audit claim to avoid scrutiny that could lead to an audit and IRS tax penalties. In a letter to Treasury General Counsel Brent McIntosh on Friday, Consovoy called the request “a transparent effort by one political party to harass an official from the other party because they dislike his politics and speech.” He argued that any request from the House committee for private tax returns would need to have a legitimate legislative purpose, which he said Neal’s request lacked. Consovoy said the IRS should not comply with the request until it receives a formal legal opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. Consovoy is also Trump’s personal lawyer in a case accusing him of violating the anti-corruption provisions of the Constitution with his Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., which is pending at the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

taxes
donald trump
congress
u.s .
rights


Boeing cuts 737 Max output in wake of two deadly crashes

Abstract: CHICAGO/SEATTLE - Boeing Co. said Friday it plans to cut its monthly 737 aircraft production by nearly 20 percent in the wake of two deadly crashes, signaling it does not expect aviation authorities to allow the plane back in the air anytime soon. Deliveries of Boeing’s best-selling aircraft were frozen after a global grounding of the narrowbody model following the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jet on March 10, killing all 157 people onboard. Production will be cut to 42 airplanes per month from 52 starting mid-April, the company said in a statement, without giving an end date. U.S. and airline officials said they now believe the plane could be grounded for at least two months, but an even longer grounding is a serious possibility. The crash in Ethiopia and the crash of a Lion Air plane in Indonesia last October that killed all 189 people on board have left the world’s largest planemaker in crisis. Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg said on Friday said the company now knows that a chain of events caused both disasters, with erroneous activation of so-called MCAS anti-stall software “a common link” between the two. Boeing said it would not reduce jobs at the new production rate and will work to minimize the financial impact. The company’s board will establish a committee to review how the company designs and develops airplanes, Muilenburg said. The group will “recommend improvements to our policies and procedures” for its 737 Max and other airplane programs. Boeing said it continues to make progress on a 737 Max software update to prevent further accidents. Shares in Boeing Co. fell around 2 percent after the market closed on Friday. While the number of 737 Max planes grounded is just over 370, nearly 5,000 more are on order. Boeing faces logistical issues in finding places to park the growing number of planes as well as being responsible for all their maintenance costs since it has been unable to deliver the jets to customers, two people briefed on the situation said. Manufacturers avoid halting and then resuming production as this disrupts supply chains and can cause industrial snags. Boeing had been planning to speed up production in June to 57 a month. Having to hold planes in storage without delivering them does, however, consume extra cash through increased inventory. Boeing supplier Spirit Aerosystems Holdings said it will continue to make 52 737 Max shipsets — the complete set of parts for each aircraft — per month, storing extras at its facilities. Its shares fell 3.5 percent. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) chairman Robert Sumwalt told reporters that U.S. investigators were given the raw data from Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 as soon as it was read in France last month. He added that the Ethiopian Airlines 302 preliminary report “was very thorough and well done.” Former NTSB chairman Christopher Hart was named by the Federal Aviation Administration this week to head an international team to review the safety of the 737 Max. He told reporters on Friday he thought the review, which will start on Monday, could take about three months. It is still not clear what countries will take part. He said investigators are going to be focused far more on the interaction between software and pilots than mechanical issues in future. “This is territory we are going to see more of,” Hart said.

ethiopian airlines
airlines
accidents
u.s .
boeing 737 max 8


IAEA asks Saudis for safeguards on first nuclear reactor

Abstract: WASHINGTON - The head U.N. nuclear inspector said Friday that his agency is asking Saudi Arabia to agree to safeguards on nuclear material that could arrive by the end of the year for its first atomic reactor. Satellite imagery recently emerged of the Argentine-built project on the outskirts of Riyadh, which comes amid controversy in Washington over U.S. President Donald Trump’s approval of nuclear projects with the oil-rich kingdom. Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that there is nothing secret about the reactor and that Saudi Arabia informed the Vienna-based U.N. body about its plans in 2014. He said the IAEA has encouraged Saudi Arabia to put into force a comprehensive safeguard agreement, under which the agency ensures that nuclear material is not being diverted to weapons use. Saudi Arabia in 2005 signed with the IAEA a so-called small quantities protocol, which exempts countries from inspections if they have no or minimal nuclear programs. “We have proposed to Saudi Arabia to rescind and replace it by the full-fledged comprehensive safeguards agreement,” Amano told reporters in Washington. “They didn’t say no, they didn’t say yes, and they are now giving thoughts. We are waiting. For now, they don’t have the material, so there is no violation.” Amano said that Saudi Arabia may bring in nuclear material “by the end of the year,” although he cautioned that nuclear projects frequently get delayed. Saudi Arabia, the world’s top crude exporter, has announced plans to spend $80 billion to build 16 nuclear reactors over the coming two decades as it diversifies energy. The first project, being built by Argentina’s state-backed nuclear company INVAP, is a so-called low power research reactor (LPRR) that is generally used to train technicians. “Saudi Arabia has been dragging its feet for 30 years on getting meaningful agreements in place; but the LPRR means they MUST abide by international rules,” said Robert Kelley, a U.S. Energy Department veteran and former director of nuclear inspections at the IAEA. “Argentina is not going to supply the nuclear fuel if they don’t,” said Kelley, now a distinguished associate fellow at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. He said that the reactor, with its small size, is insignificant by itself but is “opening a can of worms,” including the prospect of the Trump administration sharing sensitive technology without review. U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry told a recent Senate hearing that his department had given the go-ahead for six applications by U.S. companies to do nuclear work in Saudi Arabia. The approvals come even though Saudi Arabia has not sought a so-called Section 123 Agreement to guarantee the peaceful use of nuclear technology, which is required under U.S. law before any transfer of sensitive material. Saudi Arabia has come under sharp criticism in the United States over the civilian death toll in its offensive in Yemen and for the murder and dismemberment of U.S.-based dissident writer Jamal Khashoggi. “If you cannot trust a regime with a bone saw, you should not trust them with nuclear weapons,” Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman told Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a hearing a week ago. Pompeo, in an interview Friday with CBS, signaled that the United States would ensure that Saudi Arabia does not develop nuclear weapons. “We will not permit that to happen anywhere in the world. The president understands the threat of proliferation,” he said. Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has warned that the kingdom would seek nuclear weapons if archrival Iran obtains one. The Trump administration has allied itself closely with both Saudi Arabia and Israel and withdrawn from an international accord with Iran under which Tehran drastically curbed its nuclear program. Amano, who met with Pompeo in Washington, reiterated that the IAEA has verified that Iran remains in compliance with the agreement, which is strongly backed by the Europeans.

iaea
saudi arabia
donald trump
nuclear weapons


Canadian couple find lost lottery ticket in book about Japan, become last-minute millionaires

Abstract: MONTREAL - A Quebec couple won 1 million Canadian dollars ($750,000) in the lottery after finding a winning ticket that had been forgotten in a book for months, the province’s Loto-Quebec organization says. Nicole Pedneault and Roger Larocque only realized last weekend that they had a winning ticket from an April 5, 2018, drawing. While looking through a book about Japan to help her grandson with a school project, Pedneault noticed something had fallen from the pages. It was a lottery ticket the couple had bought for Valentine’s Day last year. “If my grandson hadn’t asked me to give him some things for his presentation, I wouldn’t have ever found the ticket,” Pedneault said. “The first thing I did when I found the ticket in the book was go look at the deadline for claiming winnings on the Loto-Quebec website,” she said. The ticket was still valid, but not for long — only until Friday. “It’s all just by chance that we found it at the last minute like that,” the winner said as she claimed her check.


Brussels' Manneken-Pis statue becomes a conservation whiz

Abstract: BRUSSELS - Brussels authorities recently discovered that a fault in the 400-year-old plumbing of its Manneken-Pis landmark was causing it to pee away 2.5 tons of water a day. In 2019, such waste is an environmental no-no. A missing part in the guttering under the diminutive statue’s fountain sent his public urination directly down the drain. It may not be the most overwhelming torrent, but it was building up over time — to the equivalent daily water use of five Belgian households. No one is quite sure how long Brussels’ celebrity has been suffering the leak. “We prefer to look to the future,” said city engineer Regis Callens. And the future is recycling. Henceforth, the Manneken’s pee will loop through a recuperation tank to be pumped back through his bronze bladder. “So it’s really a closed circuit. There’s no more waste,” said Callens, giving journalists a tour of the hidden pipework. Brussels was able to detect the anomalous overflow thanks to new electronic monitors dotted around the municipal system. “We want to develop a real policy of limiting waste,” said the city’s new mayor, Benoit Hellings, from the green Ecolo party. “We want to say to Brussels folk, to Belgians and to all Europeans, ‘If the Manneken-Pis is able to stop wasting drinking water, you can too.’ “The Manneken-Pis has become a responsible eco-consumer.” Some accounts date the incontinent cherub’s origin to the 14th century, but the best records suggest the 55-centimeter (22-inch) bronze nude was cast in 1619. The boy seen today at a street corner in Brussel’s tourist-thronged old city is a copy, with the original now in the city museum, safe from theft or vandalism. One legend recounts that the child saved the city from an explosion by peeing on a flame that threatened a gunpowder arsenal in the 17th century. He is now a municipal symbol and tourist draw, and plays a full role in the evolving cultural life of the Belgian capital. He is often dressed up in colorful outfits, including soccer kits to mark the start of the World Cup.

brussels statues conservation water tourism


Top U.S. diplomat 'confident' of third round of Trump-Kim nuclear talks

Abstract: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said he is “confident” there will be a third summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, noting that talks with Pyongyang are continuing after a February nuclear summit in Hanoi failed to yield a deal. Asked if the meeting would come soon, Pompeo told “CBS This Morning” on Friday that he hoped that would be the case. “Look, we came out of Hanoi with a deeper understanding of each other, the positions that the two sides had,” Pompeo said. “The two leaders were able to make progress in that respect. We didn’t get as far as the world is demanding.” Still, Pompeo said U.S.-North Korea diplomatic channels remained open and the two sides have “had conversations after Hanoi about how to move forward.” He did not elaborate. Next week will see two key events that could shape any progress in U.S.-North Korea talks: a summit between Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Washington on April 11 and a session of the North’s Supreme People’s Assembly, the country’s rubber-stamp parliament, in Pyongyang the same day. The Hanoi summit, the second between Trump and Kim in less than a year, fell apart over a failure to reconcile North Korean demands for sanctions relief with U.S. demands for Kim to give up his weapons of mass destruction. North Korea has since warned that it is considering halting talks and may rethink a freeze on missile and nuclear tests, in place since 2017, unless Washington relents and makes concessions. Moon is widely expected to try to convince Trump to offer some limited easing of sanctions as a sign of goodwill, including allowing inter-Korean projects such as the reopening of the Kaesong industrial complex and tourism to Mount Kumgang. But Pompeo remained firm that crippling economic sanctions on the North would not be lifted until it relinquished its nuclear weapons. “President Trump has been unambiguous,” he said. “Our administration’s policy is incredibly clear: Economic sanctions, United Nations Security Council sanctions, will not be lifted until we achieve the ultimate objective that we set out now almost two years ago.” David Kim, a research analyst with the Stimpson Center think tank in Washington, said the South Korean leader ‘is more determined now than ever to persuade Trump to return to the bargaining table with North Korea.” “Moon’s administration thinks these next two months before the first U.S. presidential debate are a crucial time to move towards a deal with North Korea,” he said. “His one-day summit shows that he cannot leave the country for too long as it gives his opposition more fodder to criticize and take advantage of Moon’s domestics economic woes.” In terms of moving the North Korean nuclear negotiations forward, “Trump will have to give more on the peace process and Moon will have to address denuclearization in a more concrete way during their meeting,” Kim added. Pompeo’s remarks came a day after the Japanese Defense Ministry’s think tank warned Friday that Pyongyang could use negotiations with Washington to stall for time. Pyongyang may take advantage of the negotiations to buy time to rebuild its economy while continuing its nuclear and missile development, the National Institute for Defense Studies said in its East Asian Strategic Review 2019 report. As for the North Korean assembly meeting, at which Kim is expected to speak, Pompeo said that the U.S. would be watching “very closely” what he says. However, he added, “I don’t expect there’ll be great surprise.” The assembly meeting follows the North’s first national election in five years last month, in which, unusually, Kim was not on the ballot. His absence from the election — the first time a North Korean leader has not served as a member of the nation’s top legislative body since the inaugural parliamentary election was held in 1948 — has raised speculation that he may assume a new post as head of state through a constitutional revision in an attempt to bolster his grip on power. North Korea-watchers are also closely monitoring whether Kim will map out a new diplomatic policy toward the U.S. at the assembly, though some say the timing of the Moon-Trump talks may postpone any announcement on that front. In a possible indication of what could top that meeting’s agenda, North Korean state-run media has in recent days run stories focusing on a series of recent visits by Kim to large-scale economic projects he has overseen. Last April, the North Korean leader announced that his country had suspended nuclear and longer-range missile tests and that it would mothball its main atomic test site, while also shifting its focus to building up its moribund economy. But in the months since, Kim has made little progress in kick-starting the North’s economy as the country remains under strict U.N. and unilateral sanctions.

mike pompeo
donald trump
north korea
kim jong un
moon jae-in
nuclear weapons
u.s .
south korea
north korea nuclear crisis
kim-trump summit


U.S. count shows no Pakistan F-16s shot down in Indian battle: report

Abstract: NEW DELHI - Pakistan’s F-16 combat jets have all been accounted for, the U.S.-based Foreign Policy magazine says, citing U.S. officials, contradicting an Indian Air Force assessment that it had shot down one of the jets in February. India and Pakistan engaged in an aerial battle over the disputed region of Kashmir a day after Indian jets crossed over into Pakistan to attack a suspected camp of anti-India militants. An Indian jet was brought down during the fight, and its pilot was captured when he ejected on the Pakistani side of the border. India said that it, too, had shot down a Pakistani aircraft, and the air force displayed pieces of a missile that it said had been fired by a Pakistani F-16 before it went down. Foreign Policy said in a report that two U.S. defense officials with direct knowledge of the matter said U.S. personnel had done a count of Pakistan’s F-16s and found none missing. The F-16s are made by Lockheed Martin and, under an end-user agreement, the United States required the host country to allow for regular inspections to ensure they were accounted for and protected, Foreign Policy said. Details of the India-Pakistan air engagement have not been fully provided by either side. If the U.S. report turns out to be true, it would be a further blow to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who said India had taught Pakistan a lesson. “Truth always prevails,” Pakistan’s army spokesman said in a tweet. “Time for India to speak truth about false claims & actual losses on their side.” The Indian Air Force reiterated on Friday that one of its MiG-21 planes had brought down an F-16 in the Nowshera sector of Jammu and Kashmir. Two combat planes went down that day, it said in a statement: one Indian and the other Pakistani. “The Indian Force have confirmed sighting ejections at two different places on that day. The two sightings were at places separated by at least 8-10 km,” it said. “One was an IAF Mig 21 Bison and the other a PAF aircraft. Electronic signatures gathered by us indicate that the PAF aircraft was an F-16,” the air force said. Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, heading into a tight election in the coming week, is campaigning on a platform of tough national security, especially with regard to archfoe Pakistan. New Delhi blames Pakistan for stoking a 30-year revolt in Muslim-majority Kashmir. The success of Indian airstrikes on a camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group in northwestern Pakistan has also been thrown into doubt after satellite images showed little sign of damage. High-resolution satellite images reviewed by Reuters last month showed that a religious school run by Jaish appeared to be still standing days after India said its warplanes had hit the Islamist group’s training camp on the site and killed a large number of militants. Foreign Policy said Pakistan had invited U.S. officials to physically count the F-16 planes after the incident. Some of the aircraft were not immediately available for inspection due to the conflict, so it took U.S. personnel several weeks to account for all of the jets, one of the officials was quoted as saying. The count had now been completed and all aircraft “were present and accounted for,” the official was quoted as saying. India has separately asked the United States for its view on whether the use of the F-16s by Pakistan was a violation of the end-user agreement.

pakistan india kashmir conflict military


Japanese firms move to capitalize on pet boom in China

Abstract: OSAKA - An increasing number of Japanese companies are aiming to seize business opportunities from a pet boom in China. DS Pharma Animal Health Co., a Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co. subsidiary that makes drugs for animals, agreed with a Chinese company in late March on the launch of its anti-epileptic drug for dogs in China, the world’s second-largest pet market after the United States. DS Pharma’s partner is Shandong Sinder Technology Co., a maker of animal medicine with which major trading house Sumitomo Corp. has a 25 percent stake. The DS Pharma-developed drug, called Consave, is expected to go on sale in China in 2022 as the first anti-epileptic drug for dogs available in the country. According to sources including Sumitomo Corp., demand for pets in China has been expanding in line with rising income levels and the aging of its society. The number of pet dogs and cats in China, which has a population of nearly 1.4 billion, is believed to be around 90 million. The Chinese animal drug market is predicted to grow nearly sevenfold from 2014 to the equivalent of some ¥47 billion in 2020. Among other Japanese companies, DoggyMan H.A. Co., a maker of pet foods and other products, has set up three sales footholds in Shanghai and Qingdao, a city in Shandong province. Mitsui & Co. has been selling pet food and other items in China since 2010 through a local unit. “The Chinese pet market is expected to grow further,” a Mitsui official said, noting that the proportion of people with pets is lower in China than in Japan. Major Japanese electronics firms are also pinning high hopes on Chinese demand for appliances and products for pets. Panasonic Corp. aims to launch products, including a compact air cleaner that can remove pet odor, this fiscal year. Sharp Corp., a unit of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., released a toilet system designed to monitor the health conditions of cats in Japan in 2018 and appears ready to launch a pet-related business in China. “There is no doubt that the Chinese pet market has great potential,” an official of the company said.


Meow hear this: Japanese study finds cats recognize their names

Abstract: LONDON - Domestic cats recognize their names even though they may not act like they do, according to a new Japanese study. A team including Atsuko Saito, associate professor at Sophia University, studied how cats kept at homes and a so-called cat cafe, where customers can interact with felines, respond to human utterances. House cats discriminated their names from words that have the same length and accents, according to the study published in Thursday’s edition of the U.K. journal Scientific Reports. Even when the names were uttered by unfamiliar people, the cats reacted by moving their ears and heads. But cats at the cat cafe did not discriminate their own names from those of other cats living with them, according to the research paper. The results of the team’s experiments imply that “cats’ names can be associated with rewards, such as food, petting and play, or with punishments, such as taking them to a veterinary clinic or to a bath,” the paper said.


Japan's top government spokesman eyes U.S. trip in May to raise abduction issue

Abstract: Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga may visit the United States early next month to seek support for resolving the long-standing issue of Japanese who were abducted by North Korea, government sources have said. The trip, possibly from May 9 to 12, will be a rare opportunity for the top government spokesman to leave Japan, the sources said Friday. Suga, who became the top spokesman in 2012, is also in charge of crisis management and the last time he made an overseas trip was in 2015. Suga is concurrently a state minister in charge of the abduction issue and is expected to attend a meeting at the U.N. headquarters in New York to draw international attention to the topic. Arrangements are also being made for Suga to meet with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and senior government officials in Washington, according to the sources. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has prioritized resolving the abduction issue, which dates back to the 1970s and 1980s, and is reportedly willing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to achieve a breakthrough. Abe is also planning to visit the United States later this month for a summit with President Donald Trump, who has said he raised the abduction issue with Kim during their talks in Hanoi in February. The visits by Abe and Suga are seen to be aimed at showcasing the unity of the security allies. Suga’s previous overseas trip in October 2015 took him to Guam, a Pacific island that is home to key U.S. military bases. The government is expected to make a final decision on Suga’s trip after taking into account his Diet schedule and other factors, the sources said.

abductions
yoshihide suga
north korea
mike pence
shinzo abe
donald trump
u.s .


Getting to the bottom of Chicano subculture coverage on Japan

Abstract: Over the past month and a half, a number of Western media outlets have revisited a topic that has long been a hit for online publications. In late February, The New York Times published “ Inside Japan’s Chicano Subculture ,” a video documenting a niche group in the country that is building an identity around a culture created by Mexican-Americans. Journalist Walter Thompson-Hernandez traveled to the archipelago to interview many of the people involved in the subculture, ranging from those in the nation’s lowrider car community to Chicano-inspired musicians. The video also explores the producer’s own identity. The video performed extremely well. As of writing, it has attracted almost 3.7 million views on YouTube. Just as importantly, it set off a wave of aggregation from all sorts of sites, ranging from LatinX to The New York Times of Yeezy sneaker updates, Hypebeast . A short time later, uploads from other media companies on the same subject started to appear on YouTube. Refinery29 examined the issue in a video that was twice as long as The New York Times’ clip in a piece titled “ Why Japanese Women Are Dressing Like Chicanas ,” while CNN-owned entity Great Big Story offered up “ How Chicano Lowrider Culture Found a Home in Japan ” just a few days after the Times’ creation. An article about Chicano culture popped up on Jalopnik before any of the others came out, but failed to leave much of an impression. However, this issue certainly isn’t new to Japan. California alt-weekly OC Weekly wrote about lowrider culture and Chicano rap in Japan back in 2011 , inspired in part by a professor at a nearby university who had reported on the issue in the student newspaper . The following year, Huffington Post offered its own overview of the subculture. Writing and film production on the subject has popped up in English-language media every once in a while ever since, including in The Japan Times . But why such a blitz of videos on the topic in 2019? There’s no news hook to this, and nothing much has really changed — note how many of the same faces appear in multiple videos, including rapper Mona “Sad Girl” going as far back as 2011. What it really represents is a change in how online-centric media is covering Japan (and much of the rest of the world) now. Western coverage of Japanese “trends” has traditionally focused on “wacky” happenings, regardless of how authentic a trend they have actually been. Take a quick moment to recall international coverage in the past of bagelheads and zentai , among hundreds of other items that would make Edward Said smash windows. Such coverage hasn’t vanished entirely — the poop museum in Yokohama is a real winner in this department — but it certainly has diminished to a point. Rather than othering Japan, Western media is now trying to find stories that can connect with their followers — especially if they can generate a reaction. Older pieces on the Chicano subculture tended to be far better than the standard “look at these weirdos” fare, more interested in highlighting an interesting subculture than anything else. This new wave of content, though, focuses primarily on the issue of identity and cultural appropriation. Thompson-Hernandez’s documentary discusses it frequently, while the Refinery29 video goes so far as to try and figure out whether this is actually a problem or not. This in and of itself isn’t a particularly fresh angle at a time when issues such as this are constantly being discussed and both offerings, for the most part, cover it pretty well for creations focusing on a very small percentage of the Japanese population (although Refinery29’s video sometimes slips into making this sound like a generalization). The Great Big Story video barely mentions the issue, preferring to primarily focus on footage of cars. Tellingly, it lags way behind the other two in page views. Stories with a political or emotional charge to them perform super well in 2019. More Japan-centric issues take this approach as well, whether people are talking about the importance of Shintoism in Marie Kondo’s Netflix show to, well, just about every article about Naomi Osaka covering her off-the-court activities . This can draw attention to true societal woes in Japan such as the shortcomings of the entertainment industry or racism , but it can also result in takeaways that feel like real reaches, like how the new era name may actually be fascist . The recent wave of videos focusing on Chicano culture in Japan taps into this shift. Importantly, they work best as standalone videos, which can easily be shared on social media platforms. And this helps generate the real key to the videos’ success — other people start discussing the subject . The videos attract comments on the concept of cultural appropriation on sites such as YouTube and Reddit, especially whether they’re for or against it. It appears that such netizens aren’t only interested in learning about Japan — they’re also interested in listening to the sound of their own voices.

chicano subculture
the new york times
walter thompson-hernandez
refinery29
social media
japan pulse


Japan's outgoing Emperor has made the role his own

Abstract: Among the hundreds of recent articles about the impending end of the Heisei Era was one Asahi Shimbun opinion piece by Yukiya Chikashige, who has covered the Imperial family for the past 30 years. He wrote that women’s weekly magazines invented the modern image of the Emperor and Empress starting in 1958, when the publication he works for, Josei Jishin, was launched during the “Michiko boom.” It would be a year before Michiko Shoda became the first commoner to marry a future emperor and, initially, says Chikashige, Josei Jishin didn’t devote many column inches to her. However, sales of the fledgling magazine were poor, so the editors decided to devote substantial resources to the Empress. Circulation subsequently increased and other women’s weeklies followed suit. What was different about the weeklies’ coverage was their focus on the private lives of the Empress and the Imperial family, purposely avoiding matters such as religion and the ideology of the Imperial system. They concentrated on how the Empress raised her children and spent her leisure time. The consequence of this kind of coverage was to make Empress Michiko and Emperor Akihito representative of the ideal postwar lifestyle, which was much more Western than what the average Japanese person was familiar with. Previously, the Imperial family was an object of reverence and mystery. It was now an aspirational archetype. By the time the Emperor ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne in 1989, he and the Empress were approachable, at least as an idea. They were used to being watched and seemed resigned to this development, maybe even content with it. The public was “generous” with its feelings toward the couple, says Chikashige, even if it still felt beneath all the pomp and pageantry. The Emperor and Empress were thus “above criticism,” in Chikashige’s words. This kind of coverage, pioneered by the women’s weeklies, was eventually adopted by the mainstream press. Chikashige’s analysis is important to our understanding of Emperor Akihito as the first emperor who wholeheartedly took on the role of the people’s “symbol” as defined in the postwar Constitution. His father, Emperor Showa, was presumably born a deity and never completely warmed to this more prosaic job description. Emperor Akihito embraced it, according to a recent NHK documentary . In fact, his entire reign has been an exploration of how to act as a symbol, a process he said was never-ending, even for future emperors. NHK talked to active and retired members of the Imperial Household Agency about their dealings with the Emperor and how he approached his duties. To Emperor Akihito, the job of emperor and the role of symbol are unified and inviolable, whereas the government considered them as being distinct. To the government, the royal family’s “work” ( kōmu ), though more or less ceremonial in nature, could be performed by almost anyone in the palace, but only the Emperor could be a symbol. That’s why when Emperor Akihito told the agency he wanted to step down, the agency suggested that the Crown Prince assume all the Emperor’s day-to-day tasks while the Emperor remained the Emperor. Emperor Akihito refused, recalling the turmoil that ensued when his father died. However, there were other ways that the Emperor confounded the distinction. He and the Empress made a point of traveling to as many World War II battle sites as they could in order to pray for the souls of those killed, and not just Japanese souls. NHK pointed out that the Emperor was doing this of his own accord and the government was not entirely comfortable with it, but the broadcaster avoided saying what was implicit in the Emperor’s actions — that it was Japan who was responsible for all the lost lives he was honoring. As Takeshi Hara, a professor at The Open University of Japan, wrote in the Tokyo Shimbun last week, trips such as these were not part of the Emperor’s regular duties, but they were nonetheless essential to the acts of symbol as the Emperor envisioned that role. When the Showa Emperor made personal appearances, he simply stood in front of a crowd. Emperor Akihito, both as Crown Prince and Emperor, met with individuals and talked to them on their level, and the media loved it. Osamu Watanabe, a constitutional scholar and honorary professor at Hitotsubashi University, also wrote in the Asahi Shimbun that Emperor Akihito’s activities in such matters are unambiguously political. He points out that Japan’s colonial designs and war of aggression during the Showa Era (1926-89) were carried out in the Emperor’s name. That’s why the postwar Constitution stripped the position of all political power. But the Emperor’s political activities during the Heisei Era (1989-2019) cut both ways. After the Cold War ended, says Watanabe, Japan saw its chance to re-engage with the world as a major power and used the Emperor as a diplomatic tool, even in China. However, the Emperor himself took the initiative to express regret for Japan’s past actions in ways that were often at odds with the government’s vaguer stance on the matter. Consequently, liberals who were quick to criticize actions of Emperor Showa that veered from his purely symbolic role raised no objections when his son did the same thing. As put forth in a March 27 interview in the Tokyo Shimbun , the media similarly has become “uncritical” of the Imperial system. Moreover, the people themselves clearly appreciate this streak of activism, much to the disappointment of conservative elements. In particular, says Watanabe, during the current administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, any conspicuous moves toward remilitarization and returning to the values of the Meiji Era (1868-1912) through constitutional revision were expected to be opposed, albeit indirectly, by the Emperor. Watanabe finds this troubling, since there is the danger of reinstituting real political power in the throne and undermining the spirit of democracy. He insists it is the Japanese people, through their elected representatives, who must clarify the country’s responsibilities during the Showa Era and prevent Japan from ever engaging in war again. The Emperor alone can’t do it for them.

imperial family
empress michiko
emperor akihito


Solving the world's largest bitcoin heist

Abstract: “Imagine someone stole everything in your store and you reported the crime to the police,” says Nobuyasu Ogata, defense lawyer for Mark Karpeles. Karpeles, 33, is the former CEO of Mt. Gox, once the largest bitcoin exchange in the world. “A year later,” Ogata says, “the police suddenly arrest you for breach of trust, don’t recover the stolen merchandise and let the criminal go free. That’s essentially what happened with Mt. Gox.” In February 2014, Karpeles discovered the exchange was missing 850,000 bitcoins (around $480 million at the time). It didn’t take long for the information to become public, with Mt. Gox eventually filing for bankruptcy on Feb. 28. At a news conference, Karpeles claimed the exchange had been hacked. He apologized and promised to recover the missing cryptocurrency. The cybercrimes unit of the Metropolitan Police Department launched an investigation into the matter and Karpeles offered to cooperate with the inquiry. Naturally, those following the news have always wondered whether or not Mt. Gox had been hacked in the first place? Given the complexity of the issue, it was always going to be a difficult question to answer. In 2015, agents from the U.S. Treasury Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as members of Japan’s National Police Agency, met with Karpeles in Tokyo. They asked for Karpeles’ cooperation in an ongoing investigation involving an international hacker suspected of hacking several cryptocurrency exchanges, including Bitcoinica in 2012. By August 2015, many assumed the police were going to arrest Karpeles for some reason or another. The special investigation unit that deals mainly with white-collar offenses had taken control of the case, suggesting that the Frenchman would be arrested in order to extract some kind of confession. Karpeles, however, didn’t confess. The police subsequently arrested him on two other charges, with none of the indictments having any direct connection to hacking. Karpeles spent 11 months in detention before bail was granted. “I was interrogated for eight hours each day,” Karpeles recalls. “I was asked about the missing bitcoins. I was even asked if I was Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin. I was asked to sign confessions and statements in Japanese. Sometimes, the prosecutor would have pre-written statements for me in the morning they wanted signed.” Kim Nilsson, a Swedish engineer who had lost 12 bitcoins in the collapse of Mt. Gox, began sharing information with federal authorities in the United States while Karpeles was in detention. They specifically analyzed the block chain, the public ledger of all bitcoin transactions. In September 2016, U.S. authorities received a copy of the Mt. Gox database and used it to track the stolen bitcoins. Tigran “Blockchain Wizard” Gambaryan, an agent in the Internal Revenue Service who has extensive experience in cryptocurrency crime, led a joint task force that looked into the case. The task force concluded that Mt. Gox had been hacked by an outsider who had siphoned off more than 600,000 bitcoins in a period between 2011 and late 2013. It was able to trace the bulk of stolen bitcoins to one individual, a Russian bitcoin exchange operator named Alexander Vinnik. On July 25, 2017, U.S. authorities had Vinnik detained in Greece. He was indicted on 21 counts of money laundering and several other charges, some relating to Mt. Gox. During Karpeles’ trial in the Tokyo District Court, Ogata argued that Karpeles had only been detained because the police had hoped to extract a confession from him. When Ogata tried to enter Vinnik’s indictment into evidence, prosecutors objected, claiming the Russian should be presumed innocent until proven guilty. The fallacy of such an argument was not lost on the panel of judges, who specifically referred to the indictment in their ruling. On March 15, the court found Karpeles guilty of data manipulation and handed out a suspended prison sentence of 2½ years. He was found not guilty on a separate charge of embezzling millions of dollars through customer accounts. It’s perhaps just worth noting that the odds of a partial not guilty verdict in Japan after indictment are less than 1 percent. Many domestic news organizations were muted in their coverage of the sentence that had been handed down. The Nikkei Shimbun noted the indictments had nothing to do with the initial investigation of the hacking. “The Metropolitan Police Department investigation into the missing bitcoins has, in fact, been terminated,” the paper said. Vinnik is expected to be extradited to France. And so it seems the man behind the Mt. Gox theft may have finally been identified. It’s a shame the domestic investigation into the case failed to add much to the end result.

bitcoin
mark karpeles
cryptocurrency
mt . gox


Only about 25% of Japanese universities have imposed blanket smoking ban, survey finds

Abstract: Only about 25 percent of universities in Japan have imposed blanket bans on smoking on all campuses, months before tighter regulations come into force, according to a recent survey. The finding suggests delays in preparation. Smoking will be prohibited in principle on school grounds, effective from July, under the revised Health Promotion Law. The survey, conducted by Shigeharu Ieda, professor of Chukyo University, covered 782 national, municipal and private universities across Japan. Ieda asked the schools about their efforts to ban smoking and checked their websites for related information. The results of the survey, launched in 2002, are published about every six months. According to the latest survey, 197 universities, or 25.2 percent of the total, had implemented blanket smoking bans on all campuses as of March 8, almost double the level of 10 years ago. In addition, 38 schools, or 4.9 percent, had wholesale smoking bans in place on some campuses. Under the revised law, enacted in July last year, smoking will be prohibited in principle on the premises of schools, hospitals and administrative office buildings. According to Ieda, however, some universities have reinstated smoking areas on campus, reversing the blanket bans, after getting complaints from residents about students smoking in areas near the school and litter from cigarette butts, apparently left by students. Even under the revised law, smoking will be permitted at designated outdoor locations on condition that measures against secondhand smoke are taken, including the installation of clearly marked signage at smoking areas. The provision, however, has been criticized as a loophole in the ban. “Universities need to make full efforts to carry out measures against passive smoking on their campuses along with anti-smoking education for students,” Ieda said. Efforts to eradicate secondhand smoke in restaurants and bars have also faced a major setback. A July amendment in the Health Promotion Law was significantly watered down from the health ministry’s earlier proposal, falling short of a comprehensive smoking ban in such establishments. The original plan was compromised after facing fierce resistance from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and industry groups. Japan has long been soft on smoking due largely to vested interests and pork-barrel politics, a system that allows the tobacco industry to thrive. Corporate giant Japan Tobacco Inc. is partially owned by the Finance Ministry.

universities
smoking
secondhand smoke
public health


Japan Times 1944: "Accidental blow to back of head restores sight to blind war veteran"

Abstract: 100 YEARS AGO Wednesday, April 30 1919 Fire destroys 3,700 buildings in Yokohama THE JAPAN TIMES The great fire which raged in Yokohama on Monday was the most destructive in the history of that city. The latest reports say that 13 persons were severely injured and 61 slightly injured in the fire. Earlier reports that two children were burnt to death were not confirmed. The number of buildings destroyed is roughly calculated at 3,700 or over, and more than 20,000 persons have been made homeless. The property loss is estimated at ¥50 million, with ¥800,000 to ¥1 million insurance. As regards the number of destroyed houses, no accurate figure is available as yet. Accounts of the press and even official estimates are varied. The Yokohama city office estimate puts the figure at between 3,500 and 4,000. The Yokohama police headquarters estimate 3,153, this figure covering only the number known up to noon yesterday and also excluding the losses at Minami Naka-dori. The fire is reported to have started in the house of a rikisha man at No. 12 Chitose-cho, 1-chome, owing to the carelessness of the man’s wife in not attending to a fire she had lit. The woman and her husband disappeared. 75 YEARS AGO Wednesday, April 12, 1944 Blow to back of head restores veteran’s sight THE JAPAN TIMES An almost incredible miracle, resulting from a fall while attempting to board a street car has gradually restored vision to the totally sightless and the only remaining eye of Masayoshi Tabe, a China war veteran, who was wounded in the eyes by a rifle bullet in September, 1937 during the Tsangchow operations, says the Yomiuri-Hochi. Tabe, who is 32 years old, lives at present in Omori-ku and is a native of Shimane Prefecture. He left for the front as a first-class private. With his left eye gouged out by a rifle shot, and the right eye protruding fearfully out of its socket, Tabe returned home for treatment at the Tokyo First Army Hospital. Medical care succeeded in keeping the shape of at least the right eye, though completely sightless, while a false eye replaced the left. Back on the home front, Tabe entered the dormitory for blind war veterans at Koishikawa, and there commuted to Hosei University, where he matriculated in the department of the higher teachers’ course. His earnest efforts were rewarded in graduation from the teachers’ course in September 1942. The event which restored sight to Tabe took place just about six months previous to his graduation. One rainy evening in April of that year, the blind war veteran, homeward bound from a visit to a soldier friend, tried to get on a streetcar at the 3-chome Hongokucho stop. At that instant, his feet slipped on the wet platform. Tabe fell flat on his back — the back of his head hitting the pavement with a terrific impact. He lay stunned for a few moments, but kind hands helped him to his feet and Tabe managed to get home safely. He did not relate his accident to any of his dormitory comrades. Next morning while washing his face, Tabe was suddenly conscious of a ray of light penetrating his world of darkness. The morning sun bathed in full light the startled yet radiant face of Tabe as new hope filled his heart. From that time on, sensitivity to light gradually increased. 50 YEARS AGO Tuesday, April 29, 1969 Train lines halted as student mobs run wild THE JAPAN TIMES Passenger train services operated by the Japanese National Railways virtually came to a halt for several hours Monday evening in Tokyo as student mobs stormed key railway stations to mark “Okinawa Day,” the 17th anniversary of the occupation of Okinawa by the U.S. under the San Francisco Peace Treaty. The police had arrested about 800 students by midnight in various sections of the metropolis. By midnight, 106 persons were injured in the police-demonstrators clashes, according to the Metropolitan Fire Board. Of them, 44 were policemen, 39 students, 22 pedestrians, and three whose identities were not immediately known. The student mobs, unable to break the tight police cordon around Kasumigaseki, pushed on to Ginza. Mingling with several thousand pedestrians, they staged running battles with the police, keeping the plush shopping center in chaos until midnight. In Tokyo, the student mobs halted trains by demonstrating on the tracks between Tokyo Station and Shinbashi Station. The students, numbering about 2,000, began to assemble at Tokyo Station around 4 p.m. They occupied a platform and held a rally before jumping onto the tracks to march toward Shinbashi Station at about 5:40 p.m. Most of them wore helmets and carried either steel pipes or wooden staves. 25 YEARS AGO Wednesday, April 6, 1994 Biologists find coral growing in Tokyo Bay THE JAPAN TIMES Biologists have discovered Japan’s northernmost community of coral reefs at the mouth of Tokyo Bay, a study group said Tuesday. The coral, growing in an area stretching over 60 square meters, is 10 meters under the ocean’s surface off the shore of Kyonnan, Chiba Prefecture. The study group, headed by Takashi Hamada, professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo, discovered the coral reefs in colonies last November and has since observed them from a biological point of view. The previous northern limit was said to be some 10 kilometers south of the newly discovered coral reefs. The reefs, the largest of one single community ever discovered in Japan, have been in existence for more than 100 years. The study group attributed the coral growth there to the effect of a warm current flowing into Tokyo Bay from the Pacific. The current is believed to help keep water temperature near the reefs at 14-15 degrees Celsius, even during winter, when the water’s surface temperature usually falls to around 9 degrees Celsius.

yokohama
miracles
coral
tokyo bay
student protests


Elderly man disrupts Japanese bullet train service with 10-km walk on tracks

Abstract: NAGANO - A 77-year-old man was arrested Friday night after allegedly trespassing on the Hokuriku Shinkansen line and disrupting bullet train services by walking on the tracks, police and the operator of the railway said. Katsuichi Sakurai, a farmer from the town of Tateshina, Nagano Prefecture, was found crouching inside a tunnel at around 11:30 p.m., more than three hours after alighting at Sakudaira Station in the prefecture, they said Saturday. He is believed to have walked about 10 km from the station. The police arrested Sakurai for breaking the shinkansen safety law by entering the tracks and said he admitted to the allegation. His words, however, sometimes didn’t make sense and he apparently has difficulty communicating, they added. East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) stopped trains on the line twice between Takasaki and Nagano stations while the police and station workers searched for the man. More than 9,000 passengers were affected by the delay, JR East said. The line debuted in March 2015, directly linking Tokyo with the Hokuriku region on the Sea of Japan coast via Nagano. Also on Friday, another mishap occurred on the Tokaido Shinkansen line when a large billboard above the ticket vending machines at Toyohashi Station in Aichi Prefecture collapsed and hit a man who was buying a ticket, Central Japan Railway Co. said. The man in his 40s involved in the incident, which occurred at around 7 p.m., was not hurt, JR Central said.

bullet trains
hokuriku shinkansen
shinkansen
tresspassing


Scandal-plagued Wells Fargo's interim CEO shouted down at bank's annual meeting

Abstract: NEW YORK - C. Allen Parker is finding out how tough it can be to head up a scandal-plagued company. The interim chief executive officer of Wells Fargo & Co. was interrupted more than a dozen times during the bank’s annual meeting in Dallas on Tuesday by activist shareholders who called executives “frauds” and “criminals” and demanded Parker turn the company around. “Frauds, all of you,” one of the shareholders shouted as Parker tried to continue his opening remarks. “Wells Fargo, you cannot be trusted,” yelled another. “One of the wonderful things about shareholder democracy in this country is that we have meetings like this,” Parker said, adding that time will be set aside for investor remarks later in the meeting. Wells Fargo’s string of scandals began with the revelation that employees opened millions of potentially fake accounts to meet sales goals. Tim Sloan stepped down as CEO last month under mounting pressure from regulators, politicians and investors. Parker is leading the company while it searches for a new top executive.


Japan anti-trust watchdog may stop convenience chains from imposing 24-hour opening on franchises

Abstract: The Fair Trade Commission is considering preventing convenience store operators from forcing franchise owners to run their outlets 24 hours a day, sources close to the matter said Wednesday. Operators unilaterally rejecting franchise holders’ requests to review their business hours to cope with severe labor shortages would be an example of a case subject to the new regulations, the sources said. The antitrust watchdog is exploring the possibility of applying the antitrust law, which prohibits companies from abusing their positions of power, to such cases, to protect vulnerable business partners. This month, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry urged the operators of the eight major convenience store chains to formulate plans to address the acute labor shortages that have been putting a burden on franchise owners. Industry leader Seven-Eleven Japan Co. has said it will review its longtime 24-hour operating policy in light of a dispute with a shop owner who cut business hours at his outlet in Higashiosaka in February without the franchise operator’s approval. The owner of the outlet was initially accused by Seven-Eleven Japan of violating his contract. But the dispute grabbed national headlines, leading the retailer and its rivals to review their round-the-clock business hours. Convenience stores have been increasingly relying on foreign part-time workers amid a labor crunch stemming from the country’s graying population. About 80 percent of convenience store owners who responded to a recent survey by METI said they are worried about rising labor costs. Japan’s graying population and low birthrate is leading to acute labor shortages in many industries. Convenience stores, which have become an important part of the social infrastructure, have also been affected. Seven-Eleven in March began testing shorter hours at 10 stores in Tokyo to gauge the impact on sales and traffic. Lawson Inc. said last month it will experiment with leaving stores unmanned late at night amid growing calls to modify the industry’s round-the-clock operations to cope with the national labor shortage.

convenience stores
japan fair trade commission


Twitter shares jump after results and renewed Trump attack

Abstract: NEW YORK - Twitter Inc. posted better-than-expected quarterly revenue and a surprise increase in monthly users on Tuesday, sending shares up 13 percent to a nine-month high as its campaign to clean up fake and abusive accounts continued to attract advertisers. The microblogging site’s results caught the attention of U.S. President Donald Trump, a prolific tweeter with nearly 60 million followers, who called for the creation of “more, and fairer” social media companies, repeating his claim that Twitter is biased against Republicans, without presenting evidence. Twitter’s monthly active users (MAU) rose 9 million to 330 million in the first quarter from the previous quarter, much better than Wall Street’s average estimate that it would lose 2.2 million users, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. “Twitter is on a path to sustainable revenue growth and accelerated profit expansion, driven by improvements to the user experience and tools enabling direct response and search advertising,” said analyst Michael Pachter at Wedbush Securities. It was Twitter’s last quarter of disclosing MAUs. From now on it will only provide what it calls “monetizable” daily active users (mDAUs), created to measure the number of people exposed to advertising on a daily basis and exclude those who access Twitter via text messages or aggregating sites like TweetDeck. For the first quarter, Twitter said mDAUs rose to 134 million, up 12 percent from a year ago. Analysts were encouraged by signs Twitter had turned a corner in monthly user growth, but said that the new way of measuring users could make comparisons between Twitter and rivals like Facebook Inc. more difficult. “People are not impressed with a made up metric and their reluctance to give us actual users,” said Pachter. “I don’t think the stock can get out of its own way until they come clean and report the same metrics everyone else does.” The company also forecast revenue for the second quarter largely below analyst estimates, and said that it would need to continue to spend heavily on cleaning up Twitter as well as new ad products. Like larger rival Facebook, Twitter has been under pressure over privacy concerns and political influence activity on its service. Twitter has worked to remove thousands of spam and suspicious accounts, which it had blamed for sequential declines in monthly users in recent quarters. Advertisers, which provide Twitter with nearly all of its revenue, have welcomed those moves, but the company is still grappling with the prospect of regulation in the United States and overseas and allegations that its clean-up amounts to censorship. “The best thing ever to happen to Twitter is Donald Trump,” Trump tweeted on Tuesday, after Twitter reported its results, attributing the comment to Fox Business Network host Maria Bartiromo. “So true, but they don’t treat me well as a Republican. Very discriminatory, hard for people to sign on. Constantly taking people off list. Big complaints from many people.” Trump cheered the involvement of U.S. lawmakers who have called on tech executives to testify in Congress. “No wonder Congress wants to get involved — and they should. Must be more, and fairer, companies to get out the WORD!” he tweeted. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. “We enforce the Twitter Rules dispassionately and equally for all users, regardless of their background or political affiliation,” a Twitter representative said. “We are constantly working to improve our systems and will continue to be transparent in our efforts.” On a conference call after earnings, Chief Executive Jack Dorsey said Twitter was open to regulation “when it makes sense” after an analyst pointed to Facebook recently saying it was receptive to governments taking a more active role. “Regulations like GDPR has been a net positive and not just for our service, but also for our broader industry in general,” he said, referring to Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, which imposes stricter transparency on how companies store and monetize user data. Twitter has said compliance with those rules increases the company’s expenses. For the first quarter of 2019, Twitter’s revenue rose 18 percent to $787 million from the year-ago quarter, topping Wall Street’s average estimate of $776.1 million. Ad sales jumped 18 percent to $679 million. In the United States, ad revenue rose by 26 percent, thanks in part to video ads. But Twitter forecast current quarter revenue largely below Wall Street targets. The company expects revenue of between $770 million and $830 million, compared with $819.5 million estimated by analysts. Total operating expense including cost of revenue rose by 18 percent from the first quarter a year ago. The company reiterated that operating expenses would grow about 20 percent in 2019. Twitter reported quarterly profit of $191 million, or 25 cents a share, compared with $61 million, or 8 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding a $124.4 million tax benefit, the company earned 9 cents per share.

twitter
donald trump
social media
maus
facebook


Struggling Harley-Davidson points to tariff impact as Trump weighs in

Abstract: BANGALORE, INDIA/CHICAGO - Harley-Davidson Inc. stuck with a cautious outlook for 2019 on Tuesday that indicated its struggles with long-term competitive problems even as President Trump changed tune on the company, promising to stand up for it in global trade talks. Shares in the Milwaukee-based firm, buffeted by Trump’s rows with Europe and China over tariffs, surged as much as 4 percent after the president called the European Union’s treatment of the company “unfair” and vowed to reciprocate. The company also posted profit for the first quarter that was more than 30 cents per share ahead of expectations, but reported continuing declines in sales that analysts said did not change an overall difficult picture for Harley. Harley’s shares, which have suffered from the company’s struggle in the past decade to attract younger fans as core customers won on the back of its 1960s and 70s heyday grow older, were flat by mid-morning. “We remain cautious in our outlook for the U.S. motorcycle industry, and continue to rate the shares Hold,” Stifel analyst Drew Crum said. Trump had previously criticized Harley for its plans to shift some U.S. production overseas to avoid European Union duties imposed in retaliation for the tariffs the White House placed on imported steel and aluminum last year. EU tariffs on U.S.-manufactured motorcycles, which increased to 31 percent from 6 percent last June, are set to rise to 56 percent in 2021. Harley said retaliatory import duties, mainly comprising those imposed by EU, will cost the company between $100 million and $120 million in 2019. Similarly, China’s tariffs on the bikes exported from the U.S. have increased to 55 percent from 30 percent as a result of the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. “The big impact for us is the European Union tariffs. And nothing has changed since the European Union increased the import tariff from 6 percent to 31 percent last June,” Harley Chief Executive Officer Matthew Levatich said in an earnings call with analysts when asked about Trump’s tweet. Harley’s first-quarter shipments fell 8 percent to 58,891 motorcycles but exceeded a consensus market estimate of 54,420. Its full-year guidance of 217,000 to 222,000 also compared well with a consensus of 217,840, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Both of those consensus figures, however, had fallen sharply on Monday after brokerage UBS warned March sales had been weak and threatened 2019 shipments, flattering the official numbers. The previous annual consensus for 2019 last week stood at 222,150. Overall sales continued to fall. U.S. retail motorcycle sales, or sales by dealers to customers, fell 4.2 percent in the first quarter ended March. 31. European sales were down 2.1 percent. The company’s overall net income fell 26.7 percent to $127.9 million in the quarter, while revenue from motorcycles and related products fell 12.3 percent to $1.19 billion, roughly in line with forecasts. That generated earnings per share, excluding items, of 98 cents, compared with the average analyst estimate of 65 cents per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

tariffs
eu
china
trade war
u.s .
harley davidson
donald trump
motorbikes


John McAfee vows to unmask bitcoin pioneer Satoshi Nakamoto within days

Abstract: PORTLAND, OREGON - John McAfee, the eccentric antivirus pioneer known for his brushes with the law, said he has spoken with bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto and plans to reveal the person’s identity shortly. The background of Nakamoto — a pseudonym that is thought to refer to a person or group of people — has been fiercely debated for years, with a long list of discredited theories fueling suspicion bitcoin’s pioneer is probably dead. In recent days, McAfee has been threatening on Twitter to out Nakamoto, saying that he’s a man living in the U.S. McAfee has said that he will take the step unless Nakamoto comes forward voluntarily. McAfee is now saying that he’ll expose Nakamoto “within a week.” “I’ve spoken with him, and he is not a happy camper about my attempt to out him,” McAfee said in a phone interview from the Bahamas. McAfee’s antics and erratic behavior have overshadowed his past as a software pioneer, and it’s hard to know whether he’s finally tracked down the real Nakamoto — a feat that many others have failed to pull off. But McAfee said in the interview that he has spent a lifetime pursuing hackers, making him well suited to this task. “People forget that I am a technologist,” he said. “I am one of the best.” He founded McAfee Associates in 1987, though the company has since passed through several hands. He was a person of interest in a murder in Belize, after which he returned to the U.S. In recent years, McAfee has been investing in digital coins, as well as promoting them — for a fee — in his own Twitter feed. He also is running for U.S. president. If Nakamoto is indeed alive, that could throw a wrench into bitcoin trading. Nakamoto — possibly along with fellow pioneers of the cryptocurrency — is believed to be one of the largest holders of bitcoins. He may possess nearly 1 million of them, a huge chunk when you consider that entire circulating supply is about 17.6 million coins. The stake would be worth $5.6 billion at current prices. Because these coins haven’t been moved in 10 years, most people have presumed Nakamoto was dead — a theory supported by a lawsuit filed by the estate of a Florida man that claims he helped invent bitcoin. Nakamoto wrote the white paper outlining bitcoin in 2008, and then worked with a group of people to develop the currency, which debuted the following year, McAfee said. If Nakamoto isn’t dead, then these coins could potentially enter the market. And their sale would put pressure on bitcoin prices. Every time a trustee of the now-defunct exchange Mt. Gox sold bitcoins to pay back creditors, the currency’s price dipped sharply. Theories about Nakamoto have circulated for years. The New York Times and New Yorker have both tried to find the person or people behind the pseudonym. In a 2014 cover story, Newsweek identified the real Nakamoto as a California physicist, who denied the report. In a 2016 blog post and interviews with three media outlets, Australian entrepreneur Craig Wright had said that he is Nakamoto. McAfee’s threat to out Nakamoto was prompted in part by a recent libel lawsuit that Wright filed against a podcaster who questioned if Wright is Nakamoto. Wright isn’t the man he found and spoke to, McAfee said. “My entire life I’ve been tracking people who are the best in the world, and hiding their identity,” he said in the interview. “Finding Satoshi was a piece of cake for me.”

john mcafee
bitcoin
satoshi nakamoto
belize
hacking
computers
mt . gox


Dollar almost unchanged around ¥111.80 in late Tokyo trading

Abstract: The dollar was almost unchanged around ¥111.80 in Tokyo trading late Wednesday as a wait-and-see mood grew before the Bank of Japan announces the outcome of its two-day monetary policy meeting on Thursday. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥111.81-81, against ¥111.85-85 at the same time Tuesday. The euro was at $1.1216-1216, down from $1.1245-1245, and at ¥125.41-43, down from ¥125.78-78. The dollar-yen pair moved in a narrow range as investors retreated to the sidelines to check the Japanese central bank’s economic outlook report, due out Thursday, a currency broker said. “Active trading was held in check” ahead of a meeting between Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and a summit between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump later this week, an official at a foreign exchange margin trading service firm said. The dollar briefly rose close to ¥112 on buying from Japanese importers before falling back below ¥111.90. The U.S. currency’s topside becomes heavy when it approaches ¥112 as players backed by real demand are eager to hold the yen prior to Japan’s 10-day holiday period starting on Saturday, an official at a foreign exchange margin trading service firm said.


SoftBank's Masayoshi Son lost $130 million in bad bet on bitcoin, report says

Abstract: NEW YORK/TOKYO - Masayoshi Son, the billionaire founder of SoftBank Group Corp., made a huge personal bet on bitcoin just as prices for the digital currency peaked, losing more than $130 million when he cashed out, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, quoting people familiar with the matter. Son, who launched the world’s biggest venture capital fund on the strength of his long-term investment acumen, made the transaction at the recommendation of a well-known bitcoin booster, whose investment firm SoftBank bought in 2017, it said. The investment came at the peak of the bitcoin frenzy in late 2017 after the digital currency had already risen more than tenfold that year. The exact size of the bet couldn’t be determined, but bitcoin peaked at nearly $20,000 in mid-December 2017 and Son sold in early 2018 after bitcoin had plummeted, the paper said. Bitcoin traded at around $5,300 (about ¥592,600) on Monday. A SoftBank spokesman reportedly declined to comment on Son’s behalf. Under Son’s direction, SoftBank has evolved into a global telecommunications and internet conglomerate, and his penchant for pursuing out-of-the-box ideas appears as strong as ever as he looks to craft a connected future run by computers far more “intelligent” than humans. Now 61, Son is already a legend in Japan, where comic books depict the rags-to-riches story of a third-generation Korean-Japanese from a poor neighborhood who climbed his way up to become one of the nation’s richest men.

softbank
masayoshi son
bitcoin
investments
cryptocurrencies


Nikkei retreats to 22,200 as traders take money off table

Abstract: Stocks turned lower Wednesday on the Tokyo Stock Exchange as selling ensued to lock in gains. The 225-issue Nikkei average sagged 59.74 points, or 0.27 percent, to end at 22,200.00, after rising 41.84 points on Tuesday. The Topix index of all first-section issues closed down 10.92 points, or 0.67 percent, at 1,612.05. It rose 4.35 points the previous day. Profit-taking wiped out early gains that followed Wall Street’s overnight advance, brokers said. Weakness in Shanghai stocks also weighed on Japanese shares, they said. An official of an online securities firm said, “Profit-taking emerged prior to the (10-day) holiday” in Japan starting Saturday. Market players were increasingly shrinking their positions, the official said. Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities Co., said that investors adopted a “strong wait-and-see stance” ahead of the peak of earnings announcements in Japan on Friday. He added that stocks’ downside was solid as the S&P 500 index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index closed at their all-time highs in New York trading Tuesday. Losers trounced winners 1,510 to 547 in the TSE’s first section, while 79 issues were unchanged. Volume grew to 1.213 billion shares from Tuesday’s 995 billion shares. Kose dropped 3.98 percent on a news report that the cosmetics maker’s consolidated operating profit fell short of its forecast in the year through March. Other major losers included convenience store operator FamilyMart Uny, auto parts supplier Denso and Sony. By contrast, Nidec closed 0.76 percent higher the day after the motor maker provided upbeat profit estimates for the year ending in March 2020. Also bought were employment information service firm Recruit Holdings, clothing chain operator Fast Retailing and technology investor SoftBank Group. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key June contract on the Nikkei average fell 70 points to end at 22,170.


Hitachi to acquire U.S. industrial robot-maker for $1.43 billion

Abstract: Hitachi Ltd. said Wednesday it has reached a deal to buy U.S. assembly robot-maker JR Automation Technologies LLC for $1.43 billion (¥160 billion) to strengthen its factory automation business in the American market. Hitachi said it agreed Tuesday to buy the manufacturer from private equity firm Crestview Partners, which holds a 93 percent stake in the company. The Japanese manufacturer will acquire all shares in the Michigan-based technology provider by the end of this year. JR Automation Technologies was founded in 1980 and has strengths in automated manufacturing and technology solutions. The company has about 2,000 employees at 23 manufacturing facilities in North America, Europe and Asia, it said. Hitachi has expanded its factory automation business in the United States since buying U.S. air compressor-maker Sullair LCC in 2017.

jr automation technologies
automation
u.s .
robots
acquisitions
hitachi ltd .


Adding to Ghosn woes, Nissan slashes profit outlook to near-decade low

Abstract: Nissan Motor Co. slashed its full-year profit forecast to its lowest in nearly a decade due to weakness in the United States, just as it adjusts to life without Carlos Ghosn and charts its future with alliance partner Renault SA. The automaker expects operating profit for the year ended March to drop 45 percent versus a year earlier to ¥318 billion ($2.84 billion), from a previous forecast for ¥450 billion, on expenses related to extending vehicle warranties in the United States, its biggest market. In a statement on Wednesday, Nissan said sales had taken a hit in the aftermath of the arrest of former Chairman Ghosn, contributing to a decline in profit to its lowest since the year ended March 2010. This is the second cut to the automaker’s operating profit forecast in two months and adds pressure on Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa just as he works to draw a line under Ghosn’s legacy by overhauling corporate governance and seeking a more equal footing with Renault, Nissan’s biggest shareholder. Nissan is scheduled to announce its full-year earnings results on May 14. Falling profit has been a headache since before Ghosn was first arrested in November on allegations of financial misconduct. Currently in jail following his fourth arrest, Ghosn — who denies wrongdoing — could learn as early as Thursday whether he will be released on bail for a second time. Nissan has struggled to reduce costly sales incentives in the United States. For years it has relied on heavy discounting in its biggest market to sell its Rogue compact sport utility vehicles and Altima sedans to expand market share, under aggressive targets Ghosn set during his time as chief executive. Saikawa has since pledged to stop chasing market share and instead focus on improving profit margins. The automaker has also turned its focus to China as its next major growth market, albeit just as vehicle sales in the world’s biggest auto market have slowed. Since his ouster at Nissan in November, Ghosn has accused his former colleagues of a boardroom coup aimed at scotching his plan to merge Nissan and Renault. In a video statement shown to reporters earlier this month, Ghosn said Nissan had “management problems” since he gave up the CEO role two years ago, which had resulted in profit warnings. While Nissan’s troubles could raise the need for stronger cooperation with Renault, the Japanese automaker appears to be resisting closer ties with a partner it exceeds in both vehicle sales and profitability. “Now is not the time to think of such things,” Saikawa told a group of reporters outside his house in Tokyo on Monday, in response to a Nikkei report that Nissan would reject an integration proposal from Renault. “At the moment we are focused on improving Nissan’s earnings performance. Please give us time to do that.”

nissan
carlos ghosn
renault
u.s .
scandals
carmakers


Japan to shut down nuclear plants if counterterror steps not taken in time

Abstract: Japan’s nuclear regulator decided Wednesday not to let power companies operate reactors if they fail to install sufficient counterterrorism measures by specified deadlines. The decision by the Nuclear Regulation Authority came after three utilities that operate five nuclear plants in western and southwestern Japan requested that their deadlines be extended as they expect delays in completing counterterrorism steps required under stricter regulations introduced in 2013 following the Fukushima nuclear crisis. Kyushu Electric Power Co., Kansai Electric Power Co. and Shikoku Electric Power Co. had sought to postpone their five-year deadlines by one to three years, citing reasons such as the need to carry out massive construction work. The three companies told the NRA that the measures would not be on time at 10 of their reactors, according to documents published on the regulator’s website. But the regulator has declined their requests for extensions. The power plant operators are required to build facilities that can keep reactors cool via remote control and prevent the massive release of radioactive materials if the units are the target of a terrorist attack, such as from planes being flown into them. Nuclear plant operators need to set up such facilities within five years of the nuclear safety watchdog approving detailed construction plans for the plants. But several firms have warned they will not meet these criteria. The NRA said after a meeting earlier Wednesday it would no longer push back the deadline as it has done in the past. “There is no need to extend the deadline, and nuclear facilities have to stop operations if the operators fail to meet it,” an NRA official said. He added that several other reactors were also at risk of being shut down. A reactor at the Sendai power plant in Kyushu could be the first to be suspended if Kyushu Electric Power fails to finish work by the deadline next March. Following the No. 1 reactor at the Sendai plant, the No. 2 reactor at the complex is facing a deadline in May 2020. The deadline for the No. 3 reactor at the Takahama plant in Fukui Prefecture operated by Kansai Electric is August 2020. At an NRA meeting Wednesday, one of the commissioners said, “The construction work did not fall behind schedule because of natural disaster,” expressing the view that there is no need to extend the deadlines. “We cannot overlook the operations of nuclear facilities when they become incompatible with meeting standards,” NRA Chairman Toyoshi Fuketa said. Before the Fukushima disaster, Japan relied on nuclear power for roughly 30 percent of its electricity. But this declined to less than 2 percent after the crisis as reactors were suspended for emergency safety checks, with many unable to resume operations under the stricter rules. The ratio has since recovered somewhat, but it remains below 10 percent due to a protracted process of stringent safety checks by the regulator. Shares of all three companies tumbled on the news. Kansai Electric ended down 7.8 percent, Kyushu Electric fell 5.3 percent and Shikoku Electric dropped 5 percent. A draft by the industry ministry said nuclear should account for 20 to 22 percent of power supply in 2030 and renewables 22 to 24 percent, in line with the trade ministry’s goals set in 2015. But many experts view the nuclear target as difficult to achieve in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima crisis, which led to a big shift in public opinion after it exposed industrial and regulatory failings and led to the shutdown of all the country’s reactors.

fukushima no . 1
terrorism
nuclear energy
meti
sendai nuclear plant


Nissan snubs Renault with new COO pick as more Carlos Ghosn allies step down

Abstract: Nissan Motor Co. said Tuesday that Chief Competitive Officer Yasuhiro Yamauchi, 63, will be promoted to chief operating officer, a post that has been vacant since November 2013. His appointment will take effect on May 16, along with other senior management appointments announced Tuesday. Senior Vice President Asako Hoshino and two others were named executive vice presidents. Nissan hopes the appointments will help “improve and strengthen governance and stabilize operations,” the automaker said in a statement. Nissan has an agreement with Renault SA to let an official from its French partner assume the post of COO or a higher position. Renault apparently demanded such a post based on the agreement, but Nissan did not comply. It named Chief Quality Officer Christian Vandenhende from Renault as vice COO. Nissan also said Executive Vice President Daniele Schillaci will step down on May 15. Schillaci, who was close to former Chairman Carlos Ghosn, has overseen the company’s electric vehicle strategy and Asian operations. Many senior foreign officials seen as close to Ghosn have left Nissan. In January, Jose Munoz, Nissan’s former executive in charge of the China operations, stepped down, followed by Arun Bajaj, former senior vice president in charge of human resources, in March. Bajaj was targeted as part of Nissan’s in-house investigation into the alleged misdeeds by Ghosn that led to the fallen auto titan’s arrest. Board member Toshiyuki Shiga, a former COO who was seen as Ghosn’s right-hand man, has also said he will step down, pending approval at Nissan’s shareholders meeting in June.

nissan
renault
carlos ghosn
scandals
carmakers


Laundry-phobics' dreams crushed as Tokyo-based developer of Laundroid robot files for bankruptcy

Abstract: When Seven Dreamers Laboratories Inc. unveiled its prototype laundry-folding robot in 2015, it generated a buzz, with people saying they couldn’t wait to buy one if it ever went to market. But the AI-based tidying device dubbed Laundroid is apparently coming to an end before its commercial debut, as the Tokyo-based developer filed for bankruptcy Tuesday with the Tokyo District Court, citing insufficient funds to continue operations. A spokesperson for Seven Dreamers, a contest-winning startup that had received over ¥10 billion in funding, said development of robot is over for now. According to Teikoku Databank Ltd., a credit research company, Seven Dreamers Laboratories had accumulated ¥2.2 billion in debt as it struggled to ship the robot and invested heavily in research and development. After postponing its initial sales goal in fiscal 2017, it had to push back its goal for fiscal 2018, too. “We were unable to secure funds necessary for the development,” the spokesman said, adding it was difficult to improve the robot to a satisfactory level. The startup had planned to sell Laundroid for ¥1.85 million. Seven Dreamers had said that, because people have to spend so much time folding laundry in their lifetimes, it wanted to set them free from that chore with Laundroid, which looked like a big closet but was apparently packed with robotics and image recognition technologies that would allow it to fold clothes. The concept of the laundry-folding robot has attracted much attention and interest from investors in Japan and abroad. The startup was partnering with Panasonic Corp. and Daiwa House Industries Co. Seven Dreamers Laboratories, which was founded in 2014, won the Japan round of the 2018 Startup World Cup, an international competition for startups, to advance to the final.

laundroid
robots
robots
bankruptcy
seven dreamers laboratories
robotics
automation


Strong, shallow M6.1 earthquake rocks northeast India and is felt in Tibet

Abstract: NEW DELHI - A strong 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck India’s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh early Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The epicenter of the shallow quake was about 40 km (25 miles) southeast of Along, and 180 km southwest of the state capital Itanagar. It struck at 1:45 a.m. (2015 GMT Tuesday). Arunachal Pradesh is India’s least densely populated state, but is still home to more than 1.2 million people, according to the state government’s website. China’s official state news agency Xinhua said the quake was felt in Tibet, which neighbors the Indian state. New Delhi and Beijing for decades have disputed control of Arunachal Pradesh — a dispute that remains unresolved. India considers Arunachal Pradesh one of its northeastern states, while China claims about 90,000 sq. km (34,750 sq. miles) of the territory. Arunachal Pradesh also borders Myanmar and Bhutan. USGS estimated there was a “low likelihood” of casualties and damage from the quake.

earthquakes
india
tibet
arunachal pradesh
china
xinhua
usgs


Self-powered heart 'pacemaker for life' in pigs unveiled, offering hope for humans

Abstract: PARIS - Scientists on Tuesday unveiled a battery-free pacemaker that generates its energy from the heartbeats of pigs in what could pave the way for an “implant for life” in humans suffering from heart defects. Millions of patients rely on pacemakers — small electrical implants in the chest of abdomen — to help regulate their heartbeats after chronic or acute illness. Even with recent technological advances, pacemaker batteries can be rigid or bulky, and may need replacing several times over the lifespan of a device. Energy harvesters, which generate electricity from pulses sent by the body, have shown to be effective in recent years, but only in small animals such as rats, as well as cell models with low energy demands. Now researchers in China and the United States believe they have successfully trialed a self-powered pacemaker in adult pigs — an animal remarkably physiologically similar to humans. The animals selected suffered from irregular heartbeat similar to human pacemaker patients. The team developed an implantable generator that sits on the surface of the heart and bends with each heartbeat, thereby generating electricity from kinetic energy. “(The pacemaker) was fully implanted in adult pigs and all of the energy for cardiac pacing is reclaimed from the heart-beating energy of the same animal,” Zhou Li, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and lead study author, told AFP. When they powered up the devices they found that the pigs’ irregular heartbeat was corrected. The energy retained from every heartbeat also turned out to be higher than the energy demands of most current pacemakers in humans, opening the door to someday giving patients a permanent power source for their implants. “It could be an ‘implant for life,’ ” said Zhou. “This is our aim and the final goal of the scientific research in the field.” The team stressed however that more work was needed to determining the long-term safety and durability of the devices before human versions could be developed. Zhou said the self-powering technology could also have a range of applications in areas such as self-charging devices and “smart” clothing. Tim Chico, professor of cardiovascular medicine and honorary consultant cardiologist, University of Sheffield, who was not involved in the research, called the experiment “very encouraging. “This study was performed in pigs, whose hearts are the same size as humans, and so are often used to test devices or treatments before use in man,” he said. The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.

pacemakers
pigs
china
medicine
u.s .
heart disease


WHO recommends one-hour maximum screen time per day for under-5s

Abstract: GENEVA - Children aged two to four should not be allowed more than one hour of “sedentary screen time” per day and infants less than one year old should not be exposed to electronic screens at all, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday. The United Nations agency, issuing its first such guidelines, said under-fives should also be physically active and get adequate sleep to help develop good lifelong habits and prevent obesity and other diseases in later life. Sedentary screen time would include watching television or videos and playing computer games. “Healthy physical activity, sedentary behavior and sleep habits are established early in life, providing an opportunity to shape habits through childhood, adolescence and into adulthood,” the WHO said in the guidelines to member states. Children between one and four years old should spend at least three hours in a variety of physical activities spread throughout the day, it said. Infants under one should interact in floor-based play and avoid all screens, it said. Being inactive is a “leading risk factor” for mortality and fuels the global rise in overweight and obesity, the WHO said. In a report two years ago, the WHO said the number of obese children and adolescents worldwide had jumped tenfold to 120 million in the past 40 years and that the rise was accelerating in low- and middle-income countries, especially in Asia. Excessive weight can lead to diseases including diabetes, hypertension and some forms of cancer, it said. Early childhood is a period of rapid physical and cognitive development during which habits are formed and family lifestyle routines are adaptable, it said in the guidelines, drawn from evidence in hundreds of studies, many from Australia, Canada, South Africa and the United States. “Sedentary behaviors, whether riding motorized transport rather than walking or cycling, sitting at a desk in school, watching TV or playing inactive screen-based games are increasingly prevalent and associated with poor health outcomes,” the WHO said. Chronic insufficient sleep in children has been associated with increased excessive fat accumulation as measured by body mass index (BMI), it said. Shorter sleep duration has been associated with more TV viewing and time spent playing computer games, it added. “Improving the physical activity, sedentary and sleep time behaviors of young children will contribute to their physical health, reduce the risk of developing obesity in childhood and the associated noncommunicable diseases in later life and improve mental health and well-being,” the WHO said.

who
children
electronic screens
world health organization
health
united nations
television
computer games