Unfroggetable: Bolivian amphibians get first date that may just save the species

Abstract: LA PAZ - The fate of a species may just rest on this love story. Happily, the first date between Romeo, once the last-known Sehuencas water frog, and Juliet, who was discovered deep inside a Bolivian cloud forest in January, went so well the two have been living together in his aquarium since. According to a statement by Global Wildlife Conservation (GWC) on Monday, the pair were introduced on March 1 after being cleared of chytridiomycosis, which has decimated amphibian populations throughout the Neotropics region. After a period of observation, they were moved into Romeo’s aquarium, where he made a mating call for the first time since 2017: a clear sign he is eager to breed. “Romeo has been really sweet to Juliet, following her around the aquarium and sacrificing his worm meals for her,” said Teresa Camacho Badani, chief of herpetology at the Museo de Historia Natural Alcide d’Orbigny in Bolivia, which is working on the project with the GWC. “After he’s been alone for so long, it’s wonderful to see him with a mate finally.” Romeo had been found in the same cloud forest a decade ago and it was feared that he was the last survivor of his species. With a lifespan of 15 years, time was running out to find Romeo a mate to ensure the survival of the species, although the frog himself never gave up hope, continuing to call out for a mate during his decade in captivity. But it is not quite happily ever after, at least not yet. Romeo hasn’t fully figured out amplexus — the mating position for frogs where the male holds the female until he can fertilize her eggs as she lays them. Some species of frog need to go into amplexus for weeks or even months, but it isn’t known how long it lasts for the Sehuencas. So far Romeo has gotten into the correct position a handful of times — the longest for about 15 minutes on the first day the two were put together. Since meeting Juliet, Romeo has also exhibited a behavior water frog experts had not encountered for this species: a performance in which he rapidly twinkles the toes of his back feet, likely intended to impress the female. Apart from Juliet, four other Sehuencas water frogs were brought in from the wild during the same expedition: two males and two additional females. They were the first Sehuencas frogs that researchers had seen in the wild in a decade. The others have just begun showing signs of being ready to breed, and remain together in a single aquarium. According to the GWC, Bolivia has the 10th highest level of amphibian diversity in the world, but 22 percent of those species now face the threat of extinction. The Sehuencas frog, which is completely aquatic, was once found in abundance at the bottom of small streams and rivers or in ponds deep inside mountain forests. A combination of climate change, habitat destruction, contamination, chytridiomycosis and the introduction of invasive trout provoked the abrupt demise of many aquatic frog species in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru.


After the moon in 2024, NASA wants astronauts to reach Mars by 2033

Abstract: WASHINGTON - NASA has made it clear it wants astronauts back on the moon in 2024, and now, it is zeroing in on the Red Planet — the U.S. space agency confirmed that it wants humans to reach Mars by 2033. Jim Bridenstine, NASA’s administrator, said Tuesday that in order to achieve that goal, other parts of the program — including a lunar landing — need to move forward more quickly. “We want to achieve a Mars landing in 2033,” Bridenstine told lawmakers at a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill. “We can move up the Mars landing by moving up the moon landing. The moon is the proving ground,” added the former Republican congressman, who was appointed by President Donald Trump. NASA is racing to enact the plans of Trump, who dispatched Vice President Mike Pence to announce that the timetable for once again putting man on the moon had been cut by four years to 2024. The new date is politically significant: it would be the final year in Trump’s eventual second term at the White House. Many experts and lawmakers are concerned that NASA cannot make the deadline, especially given the major delays in development of its new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System, which is being built by aerospace giant Boeing. Any mission to Mars would take at least two years, given the distance to be traveled. Getting there alone would take six months, as opposed to the three days needed to reach the moon. A round trip to Mars can only take place when the Red Planet is positioned on the same side of the sun as Earth — that occurs about every 26 months, so the dates are 2031, 2033 and so on. In 2017, a NASA budget bill set 2033 as the target date for the first manned mission to Mars, but NASA itself has talked about the “2030s” in its roadmap. NASA wants to learn how to extract and use the tons of ice at the moon’s south pole. “Water ice represents air to breathe, it represents water to drink, it represents fuel,” Bridenstine said. “The intent of course is to not just get humans to the surface of the Moon but prove that we can live and work on another world.” Democratic lawmaker Eddie Bernice Johnson, the chair of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, asked Bridenstine to put a price tag on the new schedule. The NASA chief said he would make his updated budget request by April 15.

moon
nasa
mars
space
jim bridenstine
donald trump
mike pence


Indian satellite destruction created 400 pieces of debris, endangering International Space Station: NASA

Abstract: WASHINGTON - The head of NASA on Monday branded India’s destruction of one of its satellites a “terrible thing” that had created 400 pieces of orbital debris and led to new dangers for astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Jim Bridenstine was addressing employees of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration five days after India shot down a low-orbiting satellite in a missile test to prove it was among the world’s advanced space powers. Not all of the pieces were big enough to track, Bridenstine explained. “What we are tracking right now, objects big enough to track — we’re talking about 10 cm (six inches) or bigger — about 60 pieces have been tracked.” The Indian satellite was destroyed at a relatively low altitude of 180 miles (300 km), well below the ISS and most satellites in orbit. But 24 of the pieces “are going above the apogee of the International Space Station,” said Bridenstine. “That is a terrible, terrible thing to create an event that sends debris at an apogee that goes above the International Space Station,” he continued, adding: “That kind of activity is not compatible with the future of human spaceflight. “It’s unacceptable and NASA needs to be very clear about what its impact to us is.” The U.S. military tracks objects in space to predict the collision risk for the ISS and for satellites. They are currently tracking 23,000 objects larger than 10 cm. That includes about 10,000 pieces of space debris, of which nearly 3,000 were created by a single event: a Chinese anti-satellite test in 2007 at 530 miles from the surface. As a result of the Indian test, the risk of collision with the ISS has increased by 44 percent over 10 days, Bridenstine said. But the risk will dissipate over time as much of the debris will burn up as it enters the atmosphere.

india
satellite
nasa
iss
space debris
china
u.s .


Democrat-led House panel subpoenas ex-White House personnel chief in security clearance probe

Abstract: WASHINGTON - A Democratic-led congressional committee voted on Tuesday to subpoena a former White House security clearance chief over whistle-blower allegations that the Trump administration inappropriately reversed career officials’ decisions to deny security clearances to some of the president’s advisers. Elijah Cummings, chairman of the House of Representatives Oversight Committee, led the push to subpoena Carl Kline, who was White House personnel security chief for the first two years of Trump’s presidency and now works for the Department of Defense. The committee voted to approve the subpoena for Kline, with 22 Democrats voting in favor and 15 Republicans against. In a letter sent to White House counsel Pat Cipollone on Monday, Cummings said Kline had not responded to the committee’s requests that he testify voluntarily. Cummings said the White House and Kline’s lawyer on Monday responded he would voluntarily testify but would not answer questions about specific security clearance cases or violations. Cummings said on Tuesday these conditions were unacceptable. Tricia Newbold, a career security official at the White House for 18 years, has said the Trump administration overruled security experts to give questionable security clearances to more than two dozen people, who congressional sources said included Republican President Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner. In a letter to the White House on Monday, Cummings said Newbold detailed the cases of three anonymous “senior White House officials” whose clearances career officials recommended should be denied, though the White House went ahead and granted clearances to two of the three unnamed individuals. Two sources familiar with the congressional investigation said that two of the senior officials whose clearances Newbold said were initially denied were Ivanka Trump and Kushner. The White House on Tuesday shot back at Democratic moves to issue a subpoena for Kline. “These requests are absolutely ridiculous,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said in an interview on MSNBC, adding that the White House would not cooperate with Cummings’ demands on security clearances.

white house
elijah cummings
carl kline
tricia newbold
donald trump
u.s .
congress


Chinese woman arrested at Trump resort with malware on thumb drive

Abstract: WASHINGTON - A Chinese woman carrying multiple cellphones and thumb drives bearing malware was arrested on Saturday at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida while the president was staying there, court documents revealed Tuesday. An arrest document in the federal district court of Palm Beach, Florida, says Zhang Yujing tried to gain entry into Mar-a-Lago on Saturday, first claiming she was a member headed to the pool and then claiming to be attending a nonexistent Chinese-American event. U.S. press accounts said she had “Chinese passports” but the court document stated they were for “Republic of China,” the official name of Taiwan, as opposed to “People’s Republic of China,” the mainland. Secret Service agents at the scene inspected her and found four cellphones, a laptop computer, an external hard drive and a thumb drive that “contained malicious software,” according to the document. She had no swimsuit, the document said, despite her initial claim to be headed for a swim. Zhang was arrested and charged with making false statements to federal officers and knowingly entering a restricted building — which Mar-a-Lago is while Trump is in residence.

malware
donald trump
florida
zhang yujing
china
taiwan


U.K. police investigate devices found placed on rail line linked to Brexit

Abstract: LONDON - British police on Tuesday were investigating two attempts to disrupt the rail network that they said were linked to Britain’s exit from the European Union. The devices were found by rail workers on tracks in central England on March 21 and 27, but police said the obstructions had failed to disrupt services. “This was a serious and deliberate attempt by someone to cause significant sabotage and disruption to Britain’s rail network,” Sean O’Callaghan from British Transport Police said in a statement. “We’re are currently keeping an open mind on why someone would put their life at risk to place these items on a live railway, however, our early assessment has led us to believe it relates to Britain’s exit from the European Union,” he said. O’Callaghan said the intent was only to delay services rather than cause damage to the rail infrastructure. A BBC reporter said both devices — left near Yaxley in Cambridgeshire and Netherfield in Nottinghamshire — had notes attached to them. One note said “Leave means leave” and “The other had words to the effect of “We’ll bring Britain to a standstill. Britons voted to leave the EU in a 2016 referendum but the country and the political establishment remains deeply divided three years on. The original date for Brexit was last Friday but having failed to agree a divorce deal, the EU delayed this until April 12 to give lawmakers a chance to find a consensus. There have been warnings from a number of pro-Brexit supporters that failing to deliver on the outcome of the referendum could lead to civil unrest.


Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's offspring being bankrolled by kingdom whose agents murdered him: report

Abstract: WASHINGTON - The children of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi have received multimillion-dollar homes and are being paid thousands of dollars per month by the kingdom’s authorities, The Washington Post reported Monday. Khashoggi — a contributor to the Post and a critic of the Saudi government — was killed and dismembered in October at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul by a team of 15 agents sent from Riyadh. His body has not been recovered. The payments to his four children — two sons and two daughters — “are part of an effort by Saudi Arabia to reach a long-term arrangement with Khashoggi family members, aimed in part at ensuring that they continue to show restraint in their public statements,” the Post said. The houses given to the Khashoggi children are located in the port city of Jeddah and are worth up to $4 million, the newspaper reported. Salah, the eldest of the children, plans to continue living in the kingdom, while the others, who live in the United States, are expected to sell the homes, the paper said. In addition to the properties, the children are receiving $10,000 or more per month and may also receive larger payments that could amount to tens of millions of dollars each, according to the report. Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has been accused of orchestrating Khashoggi’s killing, but the kingdom has claimed that the prince was not involved. Saudi Arabia initially said it had no knowledge of Khashoggi’s fate but later blamed rogue agents for his death. Its public prosecutor has charged 11 people over his murder.

jamal khashoggi
murder
washington post
saudi arabia
mohammed bin salman


Democrats mock Trump over health care walk-back as they prepare for 2020 battle

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Democrats mocked President Donald Trump on Tuesday for pushing back his promise of sweeping health care reform until after the 2020 election, and said they were happy to make it a central campaign issue. Trump in recent days had pledged to use court action to end Obamacare, the signature law of his Democratic predecessor President Barack Obama, and said his Republican Party would over the next few months push for a better health care plan at lower cost for most Americans. But Republican leaders in Congress quickly shied away from the issue and pushed him to reconsider. In a series of late-night posts on Twitter on Monday Trump did just that, saying there would be no vote on any health care legislation until after next year’s election. Democrats gleefully jumped on the delay, saying it showed Trump and his party have no idea what to do with health care beyond repealing Obamacare. “Last night the president tweeted that they will come up with their plan in 2021. Translation: they have no health care plan,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said. “They are for repeal, they have no replace.” Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, said he told Trump on Monday that the party was not about to restart work on comprehensive health care legislation, noting they were unable to pass a plan when they controlled both chambers of Congress in the first two years of the Trump presidency. “I made it clear to him we were not going to be doing that in the Senate,” McConnell told reporters. Democrats won control of the House of Representatives in November elections after campaigning heavily on health care. Trump said on Tuesday he and Republicans would draw up a new health care plan ahead of the 2020 election and implement it soon afterward. “I think we’re going to have a great health care package. … If we get back the House and on the assumption we keep the Senate and we keep the presidency — which I hope are two good assumptions — we’re going to have a phenomenal health care,” Trump told reporters. He said a Republican plan would mean most Americans pay lower premiums and deductibles for their health care than they currently pay under the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. While Trump’s delay gives Republicans more time to knit together an alternative to Obamacare, it all but guarantees a 2020 battle over the divisive issue. “Don’t let President Trump fool you, America. Republicans are not the party of health care. They are the party that wants to end your health care,” Schumer said at a rally on Tuesday. “We Democrats will not stop fighting tooth and nail to protect America’s health care, today, tomorrow, and on in through 2021.” Trump and his fellow Republicans had vowed in the 2016 presidential election to “repeal and replace” Obamacare but failed to do so during their first two years in power, despite control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Several of the leading candidates for the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination, including a number of current U.S. senators, have already made health care a major part of their campaign message. Trump accuses Democrats of seeking “a socialist takeover of American health care,” and is certain to take that argument onto the 2020 campaign trail. “I see what the Democrats are doing. It’s a disaster what they’re planning and everyone knows it,” he told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday.

democrats
health
donald trump
obamacare
congress
u.s .
2020 u.s. presidential election


Turkish opposition demands mandate as Istanbul recount continues

Abstract: ANKARA - Turkey’s main opposition candidate in Istanbul urged the High Election Board (YSK) on Wednesday to confirm him as the elected mayor after it ruled in favor of a partial recount of votes in eight of the city’s 39 districts. Initial results from Sunday’s mayoral elections showed the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) had narrowly won control of Turkey’s two biggest cities, Istanbul and Ankara, in a shock upset for President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party. If those results are confirmed in the coming days, the CHP will gain control of municipal budgets with an estimated total value of 32.6 billion liras ($5.79 billion) for 2019 in Istanbul, Turkey’s commercial hub, and the capital Ankara. Erdogan — who campaigned hard for the AKP ahead of the vote — would likely lose some oversight for local contracts in the two cities, possibly complicating his efforts to drag the Turkish economy out of recession. However, the AKP submitted objections to election results in all districts of Istanbul and Ankara, saying the results had been impacted by invalid votes and voting irregularities. In Istanbul, CHP candidate Ekrem Imamoglu, and his AKP rival, ex-prime minister Binali Yildirim, both said on Monday that Imamoglu was about 25,000 votes ahead, a relatively slim margin in a city of some 15 million people. The chairman of YSK, Sadi Guven, said on Wednesday it had ruled that the recount of what had been marked as invalid votes should go ahead in eight Istanbul districts, some of them AKP strongholds. Imamoglu called on the YSK to “do its job” and name him mayor, accusing the AKP of disrespecting the people of Istanbul. “We want justice. We demand our mandate from the YSK, which has given the numbers, as the elected mayor of this city… The world is watching us, the world is watching this city’s elections,” he told reporters. “Three or four people acting like children who had their toys taken away should not damage this country’s reputation through their own internal fights.” AKP Deputy Chairman Ali Ihsan Yavuz said his party was not doing anything illegal and added that the vote difference between Imamoglu and Yildirim had fallen to below 20,000 votes. “We believe the reality will emerge tonight and we will all accept the results. Both Ekrem Imamoglu and the AK Party will have to accept the outcome,” Yavuz told reporters. Pro-government newspapers on Wednesday said there had been a conspiracy against Turkey in the local elections, with the Star newspaper likening this to an attempted military coup in 2016 and nationwide protests in 2013. Yeni Safak newspaper editor Ibrahim Karagul called for a second vote after what he termed a “coup via elections,” adding without providing evidence that supporters of the U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen — blamed by Ankara for the 2016 coup attempt — were involved. Ahead of the elections, the CHP had formed an electoral alliance with the Iyi (Good) Party to rival that of the AKP and their nationalist MHP partners. In Ankara, opposition candidate Mansur Yavas received 50.9 percent of votes on Sunday, nearly 4 percentage points ahead of his AKP rival. In some 100 rallies during his election campaign, Erdogan had described the opposition alliance as terrorist supporters linked to Gulen’s network and Kurdish militants. Erdogan’s political success has rested on years of stellar economic growth in Turkey, but a recession that has brought surging inflation and unemployment and a plunging lira have taken their toll on the president’s popularity. While Erdogan’s ruling alliance won a nationwide majority of just under 52 percent of all votes, losing Ankara and Istanbul- the city where he started his political life- would significantly dent his dominance. “It is by controlling the municipality that you keep your support happy because it is at the municipal level that you give away lots of things to your core base,” said Wolfango Piccoli, co-president of Teneo political risk advisers. Uncertainty generated by the local elections has added to volatility in the Turkish lira, which sold off sharply nearly two weeks ago, reflecting waning confidence among both Turks and international investors. The lira was flat on Wednesday but slipped 2 percent on Tuesday after relations with Washington soured following a U.S. decision to halt delivery to Turkey of equipment related to the F-35 fighter aircraft. Adding to investor concerns over fraying diplomatic ties and possible U.S. sanctions over the F-35 aircraft and missile defence, the U.S. State Department urged Ankara to respect the “legitimate election results.” Ankara responded by warning against foreign interference. “We urge all parties, including foreign governments, to respect the legal process and refrain from taking any steps that may be construed as meddling in Turkey’s internal affairs,” Fahrettin Altun, Turkey’s presidential communications director, said on Twitter.


Justin Trudeau ousts two ex-ministers from Canada's ruling party over 'broken trust' in alleging corruption

Abstract: OTTAWA - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ousted from his Liberal Party on Tuesday two former ministers whose accusations of political meddling in a prosecution jeopardized his re-election bid. The announcement came at the end of an emergency caucus meeting to consider expelling former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould after her release of a secret recording last week that reignited the simmering scandal. Former Budget Minister Jane Philpott, who had quit in protest over Trudeau’s handling of the controversy, was also removed. “Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott will no longer be members of the Liberal caucus,” Trudeau said. “The trust that previously existed between these two individuals and our team has been broken,” he said. “Whether it’s taping conversations without consent or repeatedly expressing a lack of confidence in our government and in me personally as leader, it’s become clear that (both) can no longer remain part of our Liberal team.” Since February, Trudeau’s government has been rocked by accusations that his inner circle sought to shield engineering giant SNC-Lavalin from a corruption trial. The Montreal-based firm was charged in 2015 for allegedly paying bribes to secure contracts in Libya. Wilson-Raybould refused to ask prosecutors to settle the case, and the trial is set to proceed. After resigning, she testified to lawmakers that she’d experienced “consistent and sustained” political pressure to interfere in the case, including “veiled threats.” Trudeau has steadfastly denied the claims, which also led to the resignations of two other senior officials, and plunged his Liberals behind the opposition Tories in opinion polls just months before elections. On Friday, the House of Commons justice committee looking into the allegations released messages and a secret recording by Wilson-Raybould of a call with Canada’s top bureaucrat, Chief of the Privy Council Michael Wernick, to back her claims. “If a politician secretly records a conversation with anyone,” Trudeau said, “it’s wrong.” He labeled as “unconscionable” the one-time attorney general’s secret recording of the clerk of the Privy Council. The prime minister said the scandal has sidelined his government’s progressive agenda and created divisions within the party. “Our political opponents win when the Liberals are divided,” he said. “We can’t afford to make that mistake, Canadians are counting on us.” Earlier in the day, Wilson-Raybould had expressed her desire to remain in the party and run as a Liberal in the October election.

justin trudeau
canada
corruption
scandals


White House security clearance row shines harsh light on Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, faced little scrutiny on his way to becoming one of America’s most powerful people. But now a row over White House security clearances is pushing the president’s publicity-shy favorite into unwelcome limelight. Unlike his can’t-get-enough-exposure father-in-law, Kushner is a discreet presence. He’s virtually a ghost on social media, where he has 77,000 Twitter followers but doesn’t tweet. And in the White House, he may be a fixture at high-level meetings, but he’ll rarely speak if the press corps is present, waiting until journalists leave the room. So it was a measure of the White House’s need for damage control that Kushner went on the Trump go-to channel, Fox News, late Monday to dismiss concerns over his security access. “I’ve been accused of all different types of things, and all of those things have turned out to be false. We’ve had a lot of crazy accusations,” Kushner said on Fox’s “The Ingraham Angle.” Controversy over Kushner’s access to top secrets has been brewing since the start of the Trump presidency. After all, he was a relatively unknown quantity in Washington — a man with no political or diplomatic experience, or previous vetting, but a ton of potentially tangled business dealings at home and abroad. This week the issue blew up when a veteran White House bureaucrat told Congress that her department had been overruled by higher-ups to grant passes to 25 people initially rejected due to worries over conflicts of interest, foreign influence and personal problems. Among the names that the Democrat-led congressional committee investigating the issue suggests may be on that list: Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump. Kushner was just another privileged New York business scion until his father-in-law and fellow real estate dealer unexpectedly won the presidency in 2016. The change of address to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 2017 catapulted him into the smallest of presidential inner circles. Kushner’s title in the Trump administration is a vague “senior adviser.” In reality, the youthful-looking 38-year-old, who married Ivanka Trump in 2009, has the president’s ear on everything from U.S. drug addiction to selling Saudi Arabia weapons. An Orthodox Jew who is part of what Trump proudly calls the “most pro-Israeli” U.S. government in history, Kushner is also tasked with presenting a new Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. Generations of seasoned U.S. diplomats have already failed there and expectations are low that Kushner’s as yet hidden plan will do better. With Ivanka Trump also tagged as an adviser to her father, critics say the White House has sunken into the kind of nepotism few would have thought possible anymore. “Not since JFK — more than 50 years ago — have family members of the president served in policy positions,” Mark Carl Rom, associate politics professor at Georgetown University, said. “The Trump presidency is a throwback: he is making America 18th century again.” Naturally, Trump does not see things that way. He seems not only to rely heavily on Kushner but genuinely to like and appreciate him. At a big event Monday celebrating prison reform — an issue Kushner says he was inspired to work on due to seeing his own father serve 14 months behind bars for financial crimes — Trump singled out his son-in-law for lavish praise. “You know,” Trump told the audience in the ornate East Room,” Jared has had a very easy life. He was doing phenomenally in New York and everything he touched has turned to gold. “Then, one day, he said,’I want to come down and I want to have peace in the Middle East. And I want to do criminal justice reform. And I want to do all these wonderful things.’ ” Finally, the punchline: “And his life became extremely complex.” In a presidency defined by all-out fights with the opposition Democrats, accusations of administrative chaos, and the morass of the Russia collusion investigation, Trump is believed to value Kushner and his daughter as among the few people he knows he can always rely on. That’s understandable but will depending on family bring Trump more trouble down the road? “The question is: Is their primary loyalty to the Constitution of the United States of America, or to their father?” Rom asked.


Ailing Algerian President Bouteflika, once a hero, resigns under pressure

Abstract: LONDON/CAIRO - Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who led Algeria out of civil war to become its longest-serving president, has resigned after throngs of protesters and even his military allies told the ailing president he had overstayed his welcome. Though Bouteflika has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013, his political demise will deepen political uncertainty in the North African OPEC member. Last elected in 2014, Bouteflika has been largely incapacitated, communicating through statements and governing with the help of his brother Said and a coterie of army officers, businessmen and officials of the ruling FLN party, known collectively as “le pouvoir.” His bid for another term in elections initially slated for April prompted anger and disbelief among Algerians, nearly half of whom are under 25 and no longer want to be ruled by aging veterans of the country’s war of independence from France. During his time in office, Bouteflika worked to co-opt and weaken the country’s opposition parties, leaving no obvious rival to lead Europe’s third-largest gas supplier. Divisions within the ruling elite mean even the establishment was unable to offer up a clear successor. With his departure, a long-standing North African bulwark against terrorism and illegal migration to Europe enters uncharted territory. When he first came to power in 1999, Bouteflika cut a more popular figure. At the time, Algeria was still ravaged by a civil war that began in 1992 after the army, unwilling to accept an expected Islamist victory in parliamentary elections, scrapped the poll. By the end of the decade, the rebels were divided and Bouteflika and the military exploited those splits to defeat them, effectively ending the conflict. As many as 200,000 people died in brutal fighting, thousands went missing, and Algerians who lived through the violence still credit Bouteflika for his role in restoring peace. With the war over, Bouteflika presided over a period of relative domestic stability that saw the economy grow at an average of 5 percent a year during his first three terms in office. Barely touched by the Arab Spring uprisings that spread through the region in 2011, Algeria’s lawmakers approved at the time constitutional changes granting more political rights to key constituencies, including the indigenous Amazigh community, women and businessmen. Critically, a long run of relatively high oil prices provided Bouteflika with the financial resources to buy off public discontent with generous state benefits. During the 2014 electoral race, he quelled smaller protests with a mixture of water canons and enhancements to subsidies and public sector salaries. The slump in oil prices during his fourth term in office, coupled with a failure to modernize and diversify the economy, made those handouts increasingly unaffordable. The country struggled to curb twin fiscal and current account deficits in recent years and its foreign currency reserves shrank to $88 billion in 2018 from almost $177 billion in 2014. His detractors accused Bouteflika of failing the country’s youth and allowing corruption to flourish. Algeria resisted tapping the global debt market despite the oil slump, its leaders, most of them heroes of the anti-colonial movement, wary of “mortgaging” the country’s future to outside powers. Bouteflika was born on March 2, 1937, in Oujda, then French Morocco, though his parents, Ahmed Bouteflika and Mansouria Ghezlaoui, were from the Tlemcen region of Algeria. In 1956, Bouteflika interrupted his philosophy studies to join the military wing of the National Liberation Front, known by the French acronym FLN. He went on to serve in the National Liberation Army, where he was a protege of Houari Boumedienne, a commander in the war against French colonial rule. After Algeria won independence in 1962, Bouteflika became minister for youth and sport in the government of President Ahmed Ben Bella, whom he helped overthrow three years later in a coup led by Boumedienne, the defense minister at the time. Bouteflika then served as foreign minister until Boumediene’s death in 1978. He left the country for about six years following allegations of misappropriating public funds, returning in 1989 to a period of political turbulence. In 1992, the army canceled elections that the Islamic Salvation Front was set to win, triggering the civil war. Bouteflika stayed on the sidelines during the early years of fighting and then, with the support of the army, ran for president. He was the sole candidate in the 1999 ballot, with other contenders withdrawing before polling day, and was elected with 74 percent of the vote. International monitors made allegations of electoral fraud following his repeated landslide victories at the ballot box. While his rise brought initial hopes of economic development and political openness, Bouteflika quickly disappointed, restricting the activities of political parties and banning new ones. Even as the economy improved, Algeria failed to reach its target oil output of 2 million barrels a day, because bureaucracy, taxes and corruption probes within the state-owned petroleum company, Sonatrach, dampened foreign interest in exploration. In his last term, wheelchair-bound, incapable of speaking to the public or of governing effectively, Bouteflika clung on as long as he could, leaving Algeria in a holding pattern, its frustrated youths protesting in the streets. Until his one-time allies in the army stepped in to end the impasse.


Chicago elects gay black woman, Lori Lightfoot, as mayor in historic first

Abstract: CHICAGO - In a historic first, a gay black woman was elected mayor of America’s third-largest city Tuesday as Chicago voters entrusted a political novice with tackling difficult problems of economic inequality and gun violence. Lori Lightfoot, a 56-year-old former federal prosecutor and practicing lawyer who has never before held elected office, won the mayoral race in a lopsided victory. She beat out Toni Preckwinkle, the chief executive of Cook County, in which Chicago is located, by a wide margin of 74 to 26 percent in early voting results with most ballots counted. Preckwinkle is also black. Lightfoot will become Chicago’s first openly gay mayor and the first black woman to hold the post. Since 1837, Chicago voters have elected only one black mayor and one female mayor. Her ascendancy to the top of Chicago government was a stunning development in a city where insider deals and entrenched party politics held sway for decades. “It is a city-wide rejection of the Chicago political establishment at the mayoral level,” said Evan McKenzie, political science professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Preckwinkle has for decades held various local elected offices, which analysts said hurt her in an election in which voters were looking to shake up City Hall — fed up with gun violence that claims more lives than in other major American cities, and years of political corruption in the Democratic stronghold. “People (are) hoping for something different to come along. To be the vessel for that is overwhelming,” Lightfoot told reporters earlier Tuesday. The initial field in the mayoral race consisted of 14 contenders, but Lightfoot managed an upset — sidelining moderates and establishment figures by promising to clean up city government and reduce economic inequality. She and Preckwinkle were the final two left competing in Tuesday’s runoff election. Lightfoot headed a panel investigating the city’s policing problems and held a number of appointed positions in city government. She has promised to increase affordable housing, fight homelessness and crime, and boost oversight of the police department. Voters left little doubt they wanted the next mayor to tackle the major issues vexing the city of 2.7 million people — including economic disparities and gun violence. “The message is that (voters) want new ideas and cleaner government,” McKenzie said. Community groups have for years complained about disparities in living conditions among the sprawling city’s diverse communities. Gun violence, fueled by gangs and the drug trade, plagues economically depressed neighborhoods in the south and west, which are majority black. The downtown business district, and areas to the north and along the city’s famed lake shore, have enjoyed an economic boom even as more than 550 people were murdered last year alone. Reforming the police department, which has a sordid history of abusive tactics, and City Hall, which is mired in a federal corruption probe of one of its members, are also top priorities, McKenzie said. Lightfoot will replace outgoing Mayor Rahm Emanuel — once a rising star in the Democratic Party and former President Barack Obama’s first White House chief of staff. The powerful Emanuel sustained political damage for his handling of murder of black teenager Laquan McDonald and declined to run for a third term. Lightfoot emphasized during her campaign that she was among the few early candidates to declare her candidacy before Emanuel decided not to run again. McDonald was a 17-year-old boy shot dead by police in a 2014 encounter caught on police dash cam video. The video — showing officer Jason Van Dyke firing 16 bullets into the knife-wielding teen even after he fell to the ground — was not released for more than a year. Emanuel faced accusations of an attempted cover-up. He fired the police chief and brought in a reformer who has instituted changes, worked to rebuild public trust, and reduced gun violence. But as Van Dyke was about to go on trial for murder in September, Emanuel announced he would not run for re-election. Van Dyke was convicted and sentenced to nearly seven years in prison.

chicago
elections
lori lightfoot
lgbt
sexuality
ethnicity


Floods hit over 40,000 displaced people living in northwest Syria camps: U.N.

Abstract: BEIRUT - More than 40,000 displaced people in northwestern Syria have seen their camps flooded by heavy rains in the past three days, a United Nations spokesman said Tuesday. Around 14 camps were affected in the northwestern province of Idlib, David Swanson of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told AFP. The Idlib region, controlled by Syria’s former al-Qaida affiliate, is home to more than 3 million people — more than half of them displaced by the country’s eight-year war. Civil defense workers known as the White Helmets have been working to save people and their scant belongings from the rising muddy waters. “For the second day in a row, White Helmets … continue to respond to the catastrophic situation in the northern Syria camps,” they said on Twitter late Monday. One video posted by the group on Sunday showed brown water cascading out of a flooded tent. In another published the same day, civil defense workers clung on to a rope as they waded through a brown torrent above knee level. The downpour has affected tens of thousands of civilians, displaced persons, crops and livestock in Idlib, as well as in the Aleppo and Hasakeh provinces since Saturday, Swanson said. In Aleppo province, tents were destroyed in several camps for the displaced and a hospital in the countryside had to shut down due to the flooding. Syria’s war has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions since starting in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests. Tens of thousands of displaced Syrians in the north of the country depend on handouts from humanitarian aid groups, including food, blankets and heating fuel for the winter months.

floods
syria
idlib
white helmets
u.n .
refugees


Islamic State-backed Boko Haram faction publishes 'execution' video

Abstract: KANO, NIGERIA - Boko Haram’s Islamic State-backed faction has claimed to have executed five Nigerian soldiers but security sources told AFP on Tuesday three of those killed were civilian militia members. The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) video, dated April 1 and said to have been filmed in Borno state, northeast Nigeria, was published online by the IS propaganda arm Aamaq. It showed two men in military fatigues and three in red-orange jumpsuits reminiscent of those worn by IS hostages in Syria and Iraq. All five are shot in the head at point-blank range. Nigerian Army spokesman Sagir Musa said only that he had seen the video. But three senior security sources said at least three of the five were not soldiers. “We have identified three of them as CJTF (Civilian Joint Taskforce) who were held by ISWAP in Baga in December,” said one of the sources on condition of anonymity. The CJTF assists the military with security. ISWAP attacked military bases in and around Baga, on the shores of Lake Chad, in northern Borno, in December last year. The sources said the militia members were trying to flee with civilians when they were detained. All three had been presumed dead. “The first three from the right are known to us by name. … We are still working to establish the identity of the other two,” said one source. “What is surprising is that one of them in military uniform was arrested in his civilian clothing and now he was given some military uniform to make him look like a soldier.” The video comes as Nigerian and regional forces have intensified their activities against ISWAP in northern Borno, particularly around the towns of Monguno and Marte. The Nigerian Army and the Multinational Joint Taskforce (MNJFT) comprising troops from Nigeria, Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger both claim to have inflicted heavy losses. The video will fuel speculation about the direction of ISWAP, which has claimed or been blamed for a spate of attacks against military bases since July last year. There is also wider concern about an increase in jihadi activity in the wider Sahel region, particularly in Burkina Faso, after IS’s Middle East “caliphate” was declared defeated. ISWAP under Abu Mus’ab Al-Barnawi broke away from the group led by Abubakar Shekau in mid-2016 in opposition to his indiscriminate targeting of civilians. Well-informed sources told AFP last month Al-Barnawi had been ousted, some six months after his deputy, Mamman Nur, was killed by more hard-line fighters. They had been angry at Nur’s more moderate approach and back-channel talks with the government, which is seeking an end to the conflict after nearly 10 years and 27,000 deaths. He was also accused of pocketing a putative ransom payment for the release of more than 100 schoolgirls abducted from a school in Yobe state in February last year. ISWAP previously published a video online showing the execution of an aid worker kidnapped in a raid in the Borno town of Rann last year.

islamic state
boko haram
aamaq
conflict
terrorism
death penalty


Ecuador leader says WikiLeaks' Julian Assange breached terms of London embassy asylum

Abstract: QUITO - President Lenin Moreno of Ecuador told radio stations Tuesday that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has “repeatedly violated” the terms of his asylum in the nation’s London embassy, where he has lived for nearly seven years. Moreno, interviewed by the Ecuadorian Radio Broadcasters’ Association, said Assange does not have the right to “hack private accounts or phones” and cannot intervene in the politics of other countries, especially those that have friendly relations with Ecuador. Attorneys for Assange did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Moreno made the comments on Assange after private photographs of him and his family when they were living in Europe several years ago circulated on social media. Although Moreno stopped short of explicitly blaming Assange for the leak, the government said it believed the photos were shared by WikiLeaks. “Mr. Assange has violated the agreement we reached with him and his legal counsel too many times,” Moreno said in the interview in the city of Guayaquil. “It is not that he cannot speak and express himself freely, but he cannot lie, nor much less hack private accounts or phones.” Moreno did not say whether or not the government will take steps to remove Assange from the embassy. Assange took refuge in Ecuador’s London embassy in 2012 to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where authorities wanted to question him as part of a sexual assault investigation. That probe was later dropped, but Assange fears he could be extradited to face charges in the United States, where federal prosecutors are investigating WikiLeaks. Ecuador last year established new rules for Assange’s behavior while in the embassy, which required him to pay his medical bills and clean up after his pet cat. He challenged the rules in local and international tribunals, arguing they violated his human rights. Both courts ruled against him. Last month, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which is linked to the Organization of American States, rejected Assange’s request that Ecuador ease the conditions it has imposed on his residence in the London embassy. Assange says Ecuador is seeking to end his asylum and is putting pressure on him by isolating him from visitors and spying on him. Ecuador has said its treatment of Assange has been in line with international law, but that his situation “cannot be extended indefinitely.”


Prospect of nuclear weapons use 'higher than it has been in generations,' U.N. disarmament chief says

Abstract: NEW YORK - The head of disarmament at the United Nations warned the international community on Tuesday that the threat of nuclear weapons use has increased because the headway made in the post-Cold War era toward denuclearization has “come to a halt.” “The disarmament and arms control framework upon which the gains of the post-Cold War era were made is eroding, but we have nothing else yet with which to replace it,” Izumi Nakamitsu, the U.N. undersecretary general and high representative for disarmament affairs, told Security Council members. The warning was issued at a meeting to discuss the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty ahead of the next NPT review conference to be held in 2020, when the landmark pact marks the 50th year since its entry into force. The NPT is reviewed every five years. “As a result, the prospect of the use of nuclear weapons is higher than it has been in generations,” Nakamitsu said. In February, the United States said it is withdrawing from the 1987 bilateral Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia in response to alleged violations by Moscow, a move that could fuel concerns about a new arms race possibly involving other parties such as China. The situation has been further exacerbated by the trend of nations increasingly modernizing their nuclear arsenals, as well as relying more on rapidly emerging technology that makes acquiring the dangerous weapons easier, the undersecretary general said. The unstable situation is further compounded by the emergence of regional hot spots that “heighten proliferation drivers,” she added. “Together, these developments are placing the NPT under increasing stress and are exacerbating the fault lines that have been clearly evident between state parties for some time now,” she added, noting how the next review conference will be a “defining moment.” Widely recognized as the cornerstone of the international nonproliferation regime, the NPT relies on the pledge by five nuclear powers to work toward disarmament of their nuclear arsenals in exchange for the promise by nonnuclear nations not seek to acquire them, while making nuclear energy for peaceful purposes accessible to any country that wants it. However, nonnuclear countries that have held to their promise have been increasingly frustrated by what they view as lack of progress toward disarmament by the five nations — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — that possess nuclear weapons and are also permanent members of the Security Council. Additionally, countries such as North Korea, Pakistan, India and Israel, which remain outside the treaty, have pursued nuclear activities in ways that have greatly elevated global concerns. In the run-up to the NPT review conference to be held for a month from April 2020, a preparatory meeting through May 10 will get underway later this month at the U.N. headquarters.

nuclear weapons
russia
china
north korea
conflict
u.s .
u.n .


FAA was lax in Boeing 737 Max inspector training, whistle-blowers allege

Abstract: WASHINGTON/CHICAGO - Whistle-blowers have told the Senate Commerce Committee that safety inspectors at the Federal Aviation Administration, including those involved with approvals for the Boeing Co. 737 Max, lacked proper training and certifications, according to the panel’s chairman. “Multiple whistleblowers” provided the committee with information alleging that “numerous FAA employees, including those involved in the Aircraft Evaluation Group for the Boeing 737 MAX, had not received proper training and valid certifications,” Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, said in a letter to the FAA Acting Administrator Daniel Elwell Tuesday. Those claims and two 737 Max crashes since October that have killed 346 people prompted Wicker to launch an investigation into potential connections between training and certification shortcomings and the FAA’s evaluation of the airliner, he said in his letter, which was released by the committee Tuesday. “As the FAA Acting Administrator Dan Elwell stated in last week’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing, ‘In our quest for continuous safety improvement, the FAA welcomes external review of our systems, processes, and recommendations,’ ” FAA spokesman Gregory Martin said in an email. The Senate panel’s probe is the latest in a string of investigations by U.S. officials and lawmakers into how the FAA cleared the 737 Max as safe to fly. The Transportation Department’s inspector general is reviewing the FAA’s process for approving the airworthiness of new jets and aiding a Justice Department criminal probe. A grand jury convened by U.S. prosecutors subpoenaed on March 29 a former Boeing engineer demanding he provide testimony and documents related to the 737 Max. The subpoena, obtained by Bloomberg, was addressed to Peter Lemme, of Kirkland, Washington, and told him to provide documents, emails and other records related to the Boeing 737 Max. The document ordered him to appear April 12 at a grand jury in Washington, D.C. It was signed by Cory Jacobs of the Justice Department’s criminal division. Lemme said in an interview that he worked on automated flight controls on Boeing’s 767 model. He blogs under the name Satcom Guru and has written posts analyzing how the anti-stall system on the 737 Max aircraft behaved in the Lion Air accident. He didn’t work on the 737 Max and has no direct information about how it was designed by Boeing and approved by the FAA, he said. He said he would provide whatever he knows to prosecutors. “I don’t know if the information I have is of any significance,” he said. “I really don’t.” The 737 Max, Boeing’s best-selling single-aisle jet, was grounded March 13 after the second fatal crash in less than five months. An anti-stall system that pushes down the plane’s nose automatically had activated in both cases. The whistle-blowers alleged that some of those FAA personnel may have participated in an agency panel responsible for determining pilot training requirements and other matters related to the 737 Max, Wicker wrote. The committee is concerned that the potential staff shortcomings “may have led to an improper evaluation of the” 737 Max’s anti-stall system linked to the deadly crashes of the jet, Wicker wrote. “According to information obtained from whistleblowers and a review of documents obtained by the committee, the FAA may have been notified about these deficiencies as early as August 2018. Furthermore, the committee is led to believe that an FAA investigation into these allegations may have been completed recently,” Wicker wrote. Wicker also asked Elwell to respond to several questions for the committee by April 16.

faa
737 max
lion air
air accidents
u.s .
ethiopian airlines


Wary of nuclear arms quest, U.S. senators seek details of secret reactor cooperation with Saudis

Abstract: WASHINGTON - U.S. senators from both parties on Tuesday asked Energy Secretary Rick Perry for details about recent approvals for companies to share nuclear energy information with Saudi Arabia, with the lawmakers expressing concern about possible development of atomic weapons. Saudi Arabia has engaged in “many deeply troubling actions and statements that have provoked alarm in Congress,” Sens. Bob Menendez, a Democrat, and Marco Rubio, a Republican, told Perry in a letter, a copy of which was seen by Reuters. The senators said Congress was beginning to reevaluate the U.S.-Saudi relationship, and they believe Washington should not be providing nuclear technology or information to Saudi Arabia now. The Trump administration has been quietly negotiating a deal that would potentially help Saudi Arabia build two reactors. Last week news reports revealed that since November 2017, Perry has authorized so-called Part 810 approvals allowing U.S. companies to share sensitive nuclear information with the kingdom. The approvals were kept from the public and from Congress. The senators asked Perry to provide them by April 10 with the names of the companies that got the 810 approvals, what was in the authorizations, and why the companies asked that the approvals be kept secret. While 810 agreements are routine, the Obama administration made them available for the public to read at Energy Department headquarters. Lawmakers say the department is legally required to inform Congress about the approvals. Perry approved the seven recent authorizations as the administration has tried to hash out nonproliferation standards with Saudi Arabia. Such a pact, known as a 123 agreement, would have to be agreed before U.S. companies can share physical exports of materials and equipment to build reactors. The kingdom has resisted standards on reprocessing spent fuel and enriching uranium, two potential paths to making nuclear weapons. The United States has been competing with South Korea, France, Russia and China on a potential deal to help build reactors in Saudi Arabia. The kingdom is expected to announce the winner this year. Lawmakers from both parties have been concerned about Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaigns in Yemen, which is on the brink of famine, and the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S. resident, last October in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Concern in Congress grew last year after the kingdom’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told CBS that “Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible.” Perry has said the 810 approvals were kept from the public for corporate proprietary reasons. He has also said that if Saudi Arabia relies on China or Russia for building nuclear reactors those two countries don’t give a “tinker’s damn” about non-proliferation. Many non-proliferation experts dispute the notion that a deal with China or Russia would be riskier. These people say the United States has many other levers it can pull to influence nuclear behavior.

rick perry
saudi arabia
congress
part 810
nuclear weapons
mohammed bin salman
u.s .
donald trump


Australia plans to mine moon water within five years

Abstract: SYDNEY - Australia is joining the growing number of nations looking to compete in space, from launching microsatellites that track sheep to mining water on the moon. Its advantage? Half the country already looks like Mars. With advances in technology and the falling cost of launch slots, the fledgling Australian Space Agency, set up last year, is taking a commercial approach to extraterrestrial ventures. It aims to leverage the country’s industrial skills in mining remote locations, developing automation and tapping a fast-growing startup culture to triple the size of the sector to 12 billion Australian dollars ($8.5 billion) by 2030. “We’re witnessing a massive transformation of the sector, due to things like the miniaturization of technology, the lowering cost of launch and faster innovation cycles,” ASA Deputy Head Anthony Murfett said in an interview. ASA aims to be “one of the most industry-focused space agencies in the world.” It will need to be. The government budget for ASA is just AU$41 million for four years, compared to NASA’s annual $20 billion and the European Space Agency’s €5.7 billion ($6.4 billion). Without deep pockets, Australia’s ambitious space projects will need to be commercial enough to interest businesses. Andrew Dempster, director of the Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research at the University of New South Wales, is focused on reducing the investment risk for big resources companies like Rio Tinto Group in a proposal to mine water on the moon. “What’s preventing them from participating at the moment is that the risks that are there are not risks they have dealt with before,” said Dempster. So as well as tackling the engineering challenge, his team needs to make a compelling business case. Rio said in a January report that it was engaging with the industry to see how its mining technology could be used in space, in particular its use of autonomous drilling. ASA head Megan Clark is a nonexecutive director at Rio. Moon water could be a potential source of rocket fuel to enable manned missions to Mars in the long term. “Getting things from the surface of the Earth into orbit or into deep space costs a lot of money,” said Dempster. “If you can produce water in space for less than it costs to get there, then you’re ahead.” Lunar exploration is becoming increasingly crowded. China in January landed the first vehicle on the far side of the moon, Israel’s privately funded Beresheet probe is on its way there and an Indian lander and rover are due to launch this month. The European Space Agency plans to start mining water on the moon by the middle of the next decade. Dempster’s goal is to send a mission there within five years, citing the proliferation of private companies like SpaceX that are making space more easily accessible. Some Australian resources companies are already adapting terrestrial technology for space. Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Australia’s biggest listed oil and gas producer, partnered with NASA to use robot technology to improve safety at its offshore platforms. Woodside will also collaborate with ASA to apply its expertise in remote operations to the space sector. While ASA is less than 9 months old, Australia’s cosmic ambitions go back to the earliest days of the space race. It was one of the first countries to launch a satellite from its own territory, sending a probe into orbit from the Woomera military site as early as 1967. And when Neil Armstrong made the first moonwalk two years later, it was Australia’s Parkes Radio Telescope that picked up the TV signals for most of the transmission that was broadcast to the world. The vast, scarcely populated Outback has long been a mecca for astronomers thanks to its low light pollution and Southern Hemisphere vantage point. The Sliding Spring Observatory, 350 kilometers (217 miles) north of Sydney, houses some of the most powerful telescopes in the world. Today, most commercial opportunities for the country in space remain in the area of communications and remote sensing satellites. Central Queensland University is leading a project that uses satellite positioning to track the movements of individual sheep or cattle to enable fenceless farming. Adelaide-based Myriota is trialing sensors for marine drifters in the ocean that would connect to a satellite network and provide precise data on currents, sea surface temperatures and barometric pressures — a trove of information for agencies and governments seeking to manage fragile marine ecosystems and predict major weather events such as El Nino. Sky and Space Global Ltd., which listed on the Australian stock exchange in 2016, plans to launch a constellation of around 200 nanosatellites, each weighing less than 10 kilograms, that would provide another global communication network for voice, data and instant messaging. Dempster says that the ability for startup companies to find commercial solutions like those are key to the growth of Australia’s space program. “We’re not being weighed down by big lumbering agencies and huge multinationals,” he said. “There’s a lot of agile people with lots of interesting ideas working in this area. Success can occur quite quickly.”


King Xi? Trump says he gave Chinese president monarch moniker based on job-for-life gambit

Abstract: King Xi. That’s what U.S. President Donald Trump says he called Chinese leader Xi Jinping during the American president’s 2017 state visit to Beijing. Trump, speaking Tuesday at the National Republican Congressional Committee spring dinner in Washington, said the Chinese president had denied he was a king, but the U.S. leader was insistent. “He said, ‘But I am not king, I am president.’ I said ‘No, you’re president for life, and therefore you’re king,'” Trump told the audience, prompting laughter. “He said, huh. He liked that. I get along with him great.” Trump’s November 2017 visit to China came just months before the country’s rubber-stamp legislature, the National People’s Congress, removed the two-term limit on the Chinese presidency in March the following year, effectively cementing Xi’s already iron grip on power and clearing the way for him to serve as president for life. Prior to eliminating term limits, Xi embarked on a still-running crackdown on corruption that at the same time removed virtually all of his potential rivals and other threats to his authority within the ruling Communist Party. Trump is known to tout his close relationships with powerful leaders and dictators, including Xi, who he has talked about in the sort of warm terms U.S. presidents normally reserve for long-standing allies. However, his proclamations of strong ties with Xi have in recent months been overshadowed by trade and military tensions between Washington and Beijing. Early last year, Trump began imposing tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese exports to narrow the trade deficit, sparking a trade war. The U.S. leader’s administration has also sparred with Xi’s regime over the disputed South China Sea, where China has built up a series of militarized islands.


Facebook and Twitter find themselves ensnared by Indian-Pakistani rivalry

Abstract: ISLAMABAD/NEW, DELHI - Pakistani social media campaigner Hanzala Tayyab leads about 300 ultranationalist cyberwarriors fighting an internet war with archfoe India in a battle that is increasingly sucking in global tech giants. Tayyab, 24, spends his days on Facebook and encrypted WhatsApp chat rooms organizing members of his Pakistan Cyber Force group to promote anti-India content and make it go viral, including on Twitter, where he has more than 50,000 followers. That ranges from highlighting alleged Indian rights abuses to lionizing insurgents battling Indian security forces in Kashmir, a disputed region at the heart of historic tensions between Pakistan and India. Tayyab’s job became harder Monday when the Pakistan Cyber Force’s Facebook account was taken down, one of 103 Pakistani accounts Facebook said it had deleted because of “inauthentic behavior” and spamming. Some Indian nationalist accounts have also been suspended in recent weeks. Portraying himself as an online combatant defending Pakistan from India’s attempts to destabilize his country, Tayyab plans to continue playing his role in the information war between the nuclear-armed foes. “We are countering the Indian narrative through social media, we are countering the enemies of Pakistan,” Tayyab said in an interview in Islamabad. With a combined population of 1.5 billion, India and Pakistan are hot growth markets for Facebook and Twitter, say analysts. But with many rival ultranationalist and extremist groups using Facebook and Twitter platforms to advance their political agendas, both companies face accusations of bias whenever they suspend accounts. Facebook has been buffeted by controversies across the globe in recent years, including for not stopping the use of fake accounts to try to sway public opinion in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, and for not acting to stamp out hate speech on its platform that was fueling ethnic violence in Myanmar. Four Facebook and more than 20 Twitter accounts belonging to members of the Pakistan Cyber Force have been shuttered in the past two months, according to Tayyab, who is still angry at Twitter for shutting down his previous personal account in 2016. A Twitter spokeswoman said, “We believe in impartiality and do not take any actions based on political viewpoints.” A Facebook spokesperson said the company did not remove the Pakistani accounts because of Indian government pressure, but because people behind them coordinated with one another and used fake accounts to misrepresent themselves. Pakistan and India flirted with war in February, when they carried out aerial bombing missions against each other’s territory for the first time since the 1971 war and fought a brief dogfight over the Kashmir skies. That flare-up was accompanied by a fierce propaganda war on social media. This online battle of political and ideological narratives is one that Pakistan’s military believes it must win at all costs, analysts say. Military spokesmen often warn unconventional “fifth-generation warfare” is being waged against Pakistan. Facebook said Monday the 103 accounts removed were part of a network linked to employees of the Pakistani military’s public relations arm. Tayyab denies the Pakistan Cyber Force is linked to Pakistan’s military, saying the group is made up of volunteers. But analysts say such cyberarmies work directly either for Pakistan’s military or civilian state organizations, acting as de facto proxies or militias in the online battlefields. “These groups who are being resourced and organized are actually a kind of a line of defense for this fifth-generation warfare,” said Shahzad Ahmed, from Pakistani digital rights group Bytes for All. In India, similar nationalist groups are popping up and pushing to purge and punish those whom they perceive to be critical of India — or supportive of Pakistan — on social media. One such group, Clean the Nation, says its actions have resulted in more than 50 people who had posted what it called anti-India comments and remarks critical of India’s armed forces being arrested or suspended from work or education. “This is our motherland, and if someone is abusing people who are protecting our motherland, actually fighting on the ground, I don’t believe they should be allowed to work here or allowed to live here,” Rahul Kaushik, one of cofounders the group, said. “This is a clear case of treason, in our view.” Kaushik said Clean the Nation has no formal links with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, though one BJP leader praised the group when it was founded in late February, following an attack by a Pakistan militant group in Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed 40 paramilitary police. Two of Clean the Nation’s founders, Siddharth Kapoor and Ashutosh Vashishtha, are followed on Twitter by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Others, including Kaushik, have posted pictures on social media of meetings with Modi and other members of his Cabinet.

india
pakistan
social media
media
internet
kashmir
propaganda


South Korean police apologize and army expresses regret for 1948 Jeju massacres

Abstract: SEOUL - South Korean police apologized for the first time Wednesday over massacres that killed 10,000 people decades ago and the military expressed deep regret as President Moon Jae-in seeks to re-examine history. On April 3, 1948, members of the communist Workers’ Party of Southern Korea — an ally of the organization that still rules the North — launched an armed uprising on the southern island of Jeju, attacking a dozen police stations. At the time the division of the peninsula had yet to be formalized and the Korean War was still two years away, but the U.S.-supported South was ideologically split following the end of World War II and Japanese colonial rule. The revolt was quickly put down, but while sporadic clashes continued more than 10,000 civilians were killed by South Korean security forces over the next six years, including beyond the end of the Korean War. “We apologize to the innocent people whose lives were sacrificed,” said Min Gap-ryong, the commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency, at a commemoration of the uprising’s 71st anniversary. “We promise to be an organization that only thinks about and works for Korean citizens so that a tragedy like this will never repeat in our future.” The country’s defense ministry also expressed “deep regret” to the victims, while stopping short of a full apology. The Jeju Incident, as the events are known, remains a highly politicized issue in South Korea, as do some other aspects of the country’s post-war history. Some Jeju-based research and NGOs have claimed it was “Jeju people’s resistance against national division and ‘American Imperialism.’ ” The police apology and ministry’s expression of regret come after left-leaning South Korean President Moon Jae-in has repeatedly spoken on the importance of “setting our history right.” Moon, who brokered talks between Washington and Pyongyang, has stressed the independence struggle against Japan’s colonial rule is at the heart of national identity in both Koreas, while framing the South’s right-wing — who say the victims of Jeju were all communist rebels — as descendants of pro-Japanese collaborators. Last year, Moon became the first South Korean president in more than a decade to attend the annual memorial ceremony on Jeju. At the event he said: “Young people who were falsely accused of being communists during the April 3 Incident defended their country in the face of death. Ideology was nothing more than a cause that justified the massacre.” In 2003 the then South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun — whom Moon served as chief of staff — offered an apology to the victims of the Jeju incident.

south korea
jeju
history
korean war
wwii


Philippine Supreme Court orders release of drug war reports, posing potential airing of extrajudicial killings

Abstract: MANILA - The Philippine Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the release of police documents on thousands of killings of suspects in the president’s anti-drug crackdown, in a ruling that human rights groups said could shed light on allegations of extrajudicial killings. Supreme Court spokesman Brian Keith Hosaka said the court ordered the government solicitor-general to provide the police reports to two rights groups which had sought them. The 15-member court, whose justices are meeting in northern Baguio city, has yet to rule on a separate petition to declare President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drug campaign unconstitutional. Solicitor-General Jose Calida had earlier agreed to release the voluminous police documents to the court but rejected the requests of the two groups, the Free Legal Assistance Group and the Center for International Law, arguing that such a move would undermine law enforcement and national security. The two groups welcomed the court order. “It’s a big step forward for transparency and accountability,” said Jose Manuel “Chel” Diokno, who heads the Free Legal Assistance Group. He said the documents will help the group of human rights lawyers scrutinize the police-led crackdown that was launched when Duterte came to office in mid-2016, and the massive number of killings that the president and police say occurred when suspects fought back and endangered law enforcers, Diokno said. “This is an emphatic statement by the highest court of the land that it will not allow the rule of law to be trampled upon in the war on drugs. It is a very important decision,” said Joel Butuyan, president of the Center for International Law. “These documents are the first step toward the long road to justice for the petitioners and for thousands of victims of the ‘war on drugs’ and their families,” Butuyan said. More than 5,000 mostly poor drug suspects have died in purported gunbattles with the police, alarming Western governments, U.N. rights experts and human rights watchdogs. Duterte has denied ordering illegal killings, although he has publicly threatened drug suspects with death. The thousands of killings have sparked the submission of two complaints of mass murder to the International Criminal Court. Duterte has withdrawn the Philippines from the court. After holding public deliberations on the two groups’ petitions in 2017, the Supreme Court ordered the solicitor-general to submit documents on the anti-drug campaign, including the list of people killed in police drug raids from July 1, 2016, to Nov. 30, 2017, and documents on many other suspected drug-linked deaths in the same period which were being investigated by police.


China plans to replace its longtime envoy to Japan, Cheng Yonghua, sources say, as ties improve

Abstract: BEIJING - China has told Japan that it intends to replace its ambassador to Japan, Cheng Yonghua, early next month, ending what has been an unusually long stint for a Chinese envoy in Tokyo, sources familiar with bilateral ties said Wednesday. With relations between the two countries improving, Beijing has likely deemed it is in a position to send a new ambassador, the sources said. Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou, considered an expert on Japan, is seen as a leading candidate to succeed Cheng. News of the impending replacement comes amid expectations that Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Japan in July, when the nation hosts the Group of 20 summit in Osaka. It would be Xi’s first trip to Japan since he came to power in 2013. To formally begin their role, a new ambassador presents his or her credentials to the Emperor. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government is willing to cooperate with China in making that happen in a swift manner, the sources said. Crown Prince Naruhito is due to ascend the throne on May 1, the day after his father, Emperor Akihito, is set to abdicate. Cheng became the ambassador to Japan in February 2010. For more than nine years he has been at the forefront of diplomatic efforts to improve China-Japan ties, which have seen challenged by a territorial dispute over the uninhabited Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. Tensions between Tokyo and Beijing intensified in particular after the government of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, Shinzo Abe’s predecessor, decided in September 2012 to bring the group of islets under state control. The situation, however, has changed recently, with the neighbors last year marking the 40th anniversary of the signing and taking effect of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and China. The Senkakus, which are called Diaoyu in China, are controlled by Japan but claimed by Beijing. Cheng began working at the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo in 1977, after studying at Soka University in Tokyo. He served as ambassador to Malaysia and to South Korea before being appointed ambassador to Japan in February 2010. His tenure is the longest among Chinese ambassadors to Japan since Tokyo established diplomatic relations with Beijing in 1972. Last year, Cheng worked to realize Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to Japan and Abe’s trip to Beijing. Kong, meanwhile, doubles as China’s special representative for Korean Peninsula affairs at a time when the international community is closely watching whether North Korea will achieve denuclearization as its leader, Kim Jong Un, has pledged.

china
cheng yonghua
kong xuanyou
china-japan relations
diplomacy


Find your 'dwarf' at the 'Forgotten Center'?: Japan calls for fix to odd translations amid tourist influx

Abstract: “Forgotten Center” instead of “Lost and Found” is just one of the mistranslations discovered on websites that may puzzle foreign tourists in Japan, the government said Wednesday, urging the operators to fix such problems as soon as possible. With the country readying itself for a further influx of foreign visitors ahead of next year’s Olympics, the Japan Tourism Agency conducted a survey between February and March examining a total of 85 websites by train and bus operators as well as transportation signs in towns. Peculiar English words were found on websites that rely on automated translations, with problematic examples including the use of “dwarf” for “children” and “release place” for “ticket machines.” The agency also found that translations of some sentences were confusing or incomprehensible, with examples including “what happens to the children fare from what age?” The machine-aided system also did unnecessary translations of the names of train stations on some websites, making it difficult for non-Japanese speakers to comprehend, the agency said. Of the 85 websites, 70 offered explanations in English, Korean and Chinese, it added. Unnatural direct translations and mistranslations from Japanese sometimes crop up in the news and on social media. The operator of the Osaka subway system recently drew global attention when its English websites carried a number of odd translations for train lines and stations as a result of automatic translations that went unchecked. The Sakaisuji Line was translated as the “Sakai muscle” line. The Japanese word “ suji ” in the name means street, but the kanji character can also mean “muscle.” Travelers were also amused to find stations called “Powerhouse Town” (Daikokucho) and “World Teahouse” (Tengachaya), among others. The survey also covered the quality of signs in and around stations on 80 routes, discovering instructions in foreign languages that were printed too small and a lack of information about exactly which line would take tourists to their destinations.

translation
tourism
english
language
internet
2020 tokyo olympics


Japan assures world that Reiwa is all about 'beautiful harmony' and has nothing to do with 'command'

Abstract: The Foreign Ministry confirmed Wednesday the name for Japan’s forthcoming new Imperial era, Reiwa, means “beautiful harmony” in English. Within days of the announcement of the new gengō , as such eras are known, the ministry has presented an English translation for the new name. The move is intended to dispel what the ministry considers erroneous reports overseas that the new era name has connotations of “command” or “order” — one of the most common meanings of the kanji for rei that forms the first half of Reiwa. “Having seen talk overseas that the new gengō means ‘order’ or ‘command,’ we felt the need to let the world know that nobody (in the government) thinks like that,” Hiroatsu Satake, a foreign ministry official, told The Japan Times. “If you look up that individual kanji in dictionaries, I believe a meaning like this does show up, but it has multiple other meanings too. We felt we should at least make it clear this particular one is not the intended meaning here,” Satake said. The foreign ministry’s attempt to dissociate Reiwa from the authoritative nuance of command or law chiefly associated with rei, which is used in terms such as meirei (command) or hōrei (law), may have been clear enough from its issuance of the translation “beautiful harmony.” But that rendition of Reiwa fails to reflect the original context in which the kanji rei was used in “Manyoshu” — the nation’s oldest existing anthology of poetry, from which the new gengō was drawn. Reiwa was inspired by a portion of a passage written by prominent poet Otomo no Tabito, who used rei to render reigetsu , an “auspicious month,” as he detailed the soft manner of an early spring breeze. While acknowledging that the ministry’s translation fails to capture the connotation of “auspicious,” Satake said the ministry placed a greater emphasis on accurately conveying Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s expectations for a new era than staying faithful to the original meaning of rei as was used by the poet in “Manyoshu.” “We came up with ‘beautiful harmony’ based on a statement read out by the Prime Minister (soon after the gengō announcement), thinking about the kinds of expectations he had for these two kanji characters,” he said. In an address to the nation on Monday, Abe said Reiwa suggests a “culture born and nurtured as people’s hearts are beautifully drawn together.” It was “impossible,” the foreign ministry official said, to translate Reiwa verbatim, it being an inventive combination of two kanji characters that has never before entered the Japanese lexicon and has left even native Japanese speakers scratching their heads as they try to parse and interpret it. Satake added that “beautiful harmony,” although promoted by the foreign ministry, is afforded no legally binding power and therefore should be considered just one of the possible ways to interpret Reiwa in English. He preferred to call it an English “explanation” or “interpretation” by the government of Reiwa, instead of the “official translation.” That view was echoed by Masao Yamamoto, a Cabinet Office official. Under the Era Name Law, the only details about gengō that can be specified by a government ordinance are the way it is written in kanji and its kana reading. Other secondary details, such as its intonation and English translation, have no legal backing, he said. “Therefore, it’s not like we’re saying ‘beautiful harmony’ is the only acceptable translation” of the new era name. Indeed, when asked to confirm Reiwa’s English translation as “beautiful harmony,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga didn’t seem aware of it — saying it was his “first time” to hear about it — so could not vouch for the official nature of the translation.

reiwa
foreign ministry
english
translation
kanji
shinzo abe
nihongo
abdication


Japanese teenager lops off Guinness World Record-setting locks ready for Reiwa and college

Abstract: KAGOSHIMA - An 18-year-old Japanese woman, once recognized as having the longest hair in the world among teenagers aged 13-17, had her first-ever haircut Tuesday before starting life at university. Keito Kawahara, who lives in Izumi, Kagoshima Prefecture, said she plans to donate the hair that was cut for medical wigs. Kawahara initially grew her hair to hide a scar on her head that developed as a result of medical treatment shortly after birth. She continued life without cutting her hair, which she braided every morning during high school. There were times when she thought about changing her hairstyle, but instead she focused on studying for university entrance examinations. In March last year, Guinness World Records recognized Kawahara as having the longest hair of all teenagers aged between 13 and 17 years old. At the time, her hair measured 155.5 centimeters (5.1 feet) in length. Kawahara turned 18 in April last year, making her no longer eligible for maintaining the record. As she will start attending university in Kumamoto Prefecture this month, she decided to have a haircut for the first time in her life. She also said she felt it was a good time to do so because Japan will mark the start of a new Imperial era following the abdication of Emperor Akihito on April 30. Her mother, Miyuki Kawahara, 47, who washed her daughter’s long hair every day, said, “I felt kind of sad when I shampooed her hair (before the haircut), but it’s stylish and looks good on her.” The nongovernmental organization that will receive the donated hair said, “We are grateful for the donation of preciously grown hair. It will be used for long wigs, of which there tends to be a shortage.” An Indian girl residing in Italy established a new world record in November. According to Guinness World Records, the length of the girl’s hair was 170.5 centimeters long (5.5 feet).

guinness world records
records
kagoshima
hair
keito kawahara
teens


An enigmatic nod and a smile as Japan's Crown Prince learned he will one day be known as Emperor Reiwa

Abstract: Crown Prince Naruhito nodded with a gentle smile when he learned Monday that the government had picked Reiwa as the next era name, to be used during his reign from May 1, an official with the Imperial Household Agency said. “I understand,” he was quoted as telling Yasuhiko Nishimura, the vice grand steward of the agency who explained the meaning of the new era name to the Crown Prince prior to the announcement made to the public before noon. With Emperor Akihito set to abdicate on April 30, the first Japanese monarch to do so in about 200 years, the government unveiled the new era name to both the Emperor and the Crown Prince in advance. The 85-year-old Emperor looked calm as usual when he heard about the two kanji characters that will replace the current era name, Heisei, according to agency Grand Steward Shinichiro Yamamoto. The name Reiwa is drawn from “Manyoshu,” the country’s earliest extant collection of Japanese poetry. The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has explained that the name means culture coming into being and flourishing when people bring their hearts and minds together in a beautiful manner. Reiwa literally means “beautiful harmony,” according to the government. “I’m very much relieved because I was extremely nervous, being aware of the heavy responsibility of deciding a gengō (era name),” Abe told a TV program later Monday. The selection of an era name from a Japanese classic for the first time in the history of gengō, which date back to the 7th century, is seen as an attempt to show pride in what Abe said is Japan’s rich culture and long tradition. An era name is used for the length of an emperor’s reign. The current Heisei Era, the name of which means “achieving peace,” has been used since 1989 when Emperor Akihito ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne following the death of his father, Emperor Hirohito, posthumously known as Emperor Showa.

reiwa
abdication
royalty
imperial family
emperor naruhito


Immunotherapy: The key to a brighter future for cancer patients in Japan's aging society?

Abstract: YOKOHAMA - As the risk of cancer increases among the country’s aging population, immunologist Tasuku Honjo is pinning his hopes on cancer treatments that shift the approach from traditional methods directly targeting cancer cells to ones that stimulate the body’s immune system to fight the disease. Nobel laureate Honjo, 77, believes his research can help bring about a cure — or at least turn cancer into a nonfatal chronic disease — but the jury is still out on whether immunotherapy can become a first-line treatment option. “Certain types of cancer patients are finally being cured thanks to immunotherapy. So I hope the percentage of such cases will steadily increase along with improvement (in the treatment),” Honjo said in a recent interview. “Even if tumors are not completely eliminated, (people can survive) as long as cancer is kept in check at a level where people can coexist with the disease,” he said on the sidelines of an event in Yokohama arranged by Nobel Media in collaboration with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. The discovery of a protein called PD-1 by Honjo and his team in 1992 has led to the development of the drug Opdivo, an immune checkpoint inhibitor that can trigger the immune system to attack cancer cells by targeting and blocking PD-1. Honjo was jointly awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his contribution to cancer therapy, in which he showed how the protein he discovered could function as a brake on the immune system. His fellow recipient, American immunotherapy scientist James Allison, was recognized for his study of another braking molecule. A distinguished professor and deputy director-general of the Kyoto University Institute for Advanced Study, Honjo gave a lecture and took part in a discussion with other Nobel laureates during the latest Nobel Prize Dialogue, which was held in Japan under the theme of “The Age to Come,” in which a number of policymakers, researchers, students and the general public took part. “To discuss aging populations is a highly topical theme, especially in a Japanese context as the country is experiencing an extreme demographic shift,” Laura Sprechmann, acting CEO of Nobel Media, said in a statement. Aging demographics aren’t unique to Japan and have become a global phenomenon, however, the country in 2005 became the nation with the highest ratio of elderly people among major countries, according to government data. As of Oct. 1, 2017, the number of people 65 or over stood at 35.15 million and accounted for 27.7 percent of the country’s total population of 126.71 million, according to the government’s Annual Report on the Aging Society in 2018. Due to a low birthrate and limited immigration, the nation’s aging population is expected to continue to grow. Cancer is often considered an age-related disease, as numerous studies indicate that the risks of developing it increase with age due to accumulated genetic mutations, among other factors, such as deteriorating immunity linked with aging. As people grow old, their thymus gland, which produces T cells that kill dysfunctional cells or foreign agents, shrinks, thus leaving humans more susceptible to infections and cancers. But Honjo said he can one day imagine a scenario where people, particularly the elderly, can live their lives normally and without pain despite having cancer. “If we live to be old enough, there won’t be any serious problem even if we have some tumors in our bodies,” he said during his lecture. He highlighted three strong points of immunotherapy, which developed from his discovery of PD-1. First of all, he claims his treatment, “has the potential to be effective against all cancers.” “It also causes relatively less pain to patients” compared with other cancer treatments, pointing out that normal cells are not affected by immunotherapy. “Thirdly, it can bring a complete cure,” Honjo said, stressing that cancer did not reoccur in some patients even after they stopped receiving the therapy. He said there are many cases in which patients had no recurrence of cancer for five years. According to Honjo, PD-1 blockade therapy has been approved for treating over a dozen different cancers. The cancers approved for the treatment between 2014 and 2018 include melanoma, lung and colorectal cancers, as well as all highly mutated cancers, regardless of the organ they originate from. “The (PD-1 blockade) therapy is particularly effective against highly mutated cancers. It is a very significant (development) … that we became able to treat various types of cancers that exceed a certain level in mutations with the therapy,” Honjo said. Naturally, patients will react differently to immunotherapy based on differences in their immune response, he said. He noted that raising the response rate of patients to the PD-1 blockade therapy is one area of improvement aimed at making the therapy a first-line treatment option, adding studies are still underway to figure out what types of patients respond the best. There are also some immune-related side effects to immunotherapy, although those are less severe than with traditional cancer treatments, he said. He cited a lack of knowledge about immunity as being among the reasons why adverse effects might be overlooked. Common symptoms of side effects include fatigue, skin rashes and diarrhea. “The education of doctors is a major issue that needs to be addressed,” he said. He also expressed concerns over the future of basic science research in Japan, saying it is essential to create an environment where young researchers, especially in their 30s, can more freely engage in research they wish to pursue. “These days, (the ratio of) young people advancing to graduate schools is declining and it is very concerning,” he said. According to data from the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, the ratio of people advancing to PhD programs has been declining in recent years. “There should be a system to provide a sufficient amount of money that they can use freely for a long time,” Honjo said.

immunotherapy
cancer
tasuku honjo
disease
medicine
health


30% of Japanese in late teens say Diet isn't improving people's lives, while 50% don't know either way

Abstract: Thirty percent of Japanese in their upper teens who responded to a recent online survey said they believe the Diet is not helping to improve people’s lives, a nonprofit organization said Wednesday. The opinion poll, held in February and targeting 800 people aged 17 to 19, showed the percentage of respondents disapproving of the Diet outnumbered the 20.9 percent of people who considered it useful. It also showed that 49.1 percent of respondents said they do not know whether the Diet is playing a helpful role or not. The Nippon Foundation, which conducted the survey, said the results “reflect young people’s lack of interest in national politics.” The organization has been conducting a series of surveys targeting youngsters on topics such as work, marriage and politics, with the aim of offering insight into the minds of young voters after the county lowered the voting age to 18 from the previous 20 in 2016. The latest survey showed only 5.0 percent thought the Diet was serving as a place for meaningful policy debates, while 54.8 percent said they did not think that was the case. Of those who responded negatively, 57.3 percent said lawmakers argue for conflicting goals and 50.2 percent said there are too many discussions not related to policies. Asked what is needed to improve the functions of the Diet, 31.3 percent called for more female lawmakers, followed by 28.5 percent who sought a review on how to manage the Diet and 27.0 percent who proposed bringing in younger lawmakers and setting a cap on the number of times a Diet member can be re-elected.


Japanese authorities say suicide of JAXA contractor was work-related

Abstract: Authorities have recognized the October 2016 suicide of a man involved in satellite control operations at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Tsukuba Space Center as a work-related death, it was learned Wednesday. The labor standards inspection office of Tsuchiura, Ibaraki Prefecture, ruled on Tuesday that Yukinobu Sato’s death was due to adjustment disorder caused by strong psychological stress from his work, the bereaved family told a news conference Wednesday. Sato, then 31, was working on control operations for the greenhouse gas-observing satellite Ibuki at the space center in the prefecture. He took his own life at his home. In October 2015, Sato was transferred from Tokyo-based system development firm Software Consultant Corp. to group company Space Engineering Development Co. He was involved in the satellite control operations based on Space Engineering’s contract with JAXA. According to the bereaved family’s lawyer, the Tsuchiura office recognized that Sato had been involved in software development, in addition to the control operations, and had too many quotas imposed on him. The office also said that Sato had problems with his supervisor, who scolded him when he turned in an overtime work application. Taking into account the major change in Sato’s workload and work duties, the office decided that he was under strong mental stress. At the news conference, Sato’s mother, Hisae, 60, described him as a “kind and sincere son with a strong sense of responsibility.” “No lives should ever be lost because of work,” she said. Space Engineering said it takes the matter seriously and will handle the case carefully. JAXA said the agency will work to assess the situation, including whether it had any room for improvement as the entity that commissioned the control operations.