U.S. cities brace for immigration raids and say they will not participate

Abstract: WASHINGTON - U.S. cities expecting to be hit by a wave of immigration raids intended to deport recently arrived families who are in the United States illegally said on Friday they would not cooperate with federal authorities. In a call with reporters earlier this week, Mark Morgan, the acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the agency would target for deportation families that have received a removal order from a U.S. immigration court. The Washington Post reported on Friday that the operation is slated to launch on Sunday and is expected to target up to 2,000 families facing deportation orders in as many as 10 U.S. cities, including Houston, Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles. A spokesman for ICE declined to comment, saying it would not offer details on operations before their conclusion. Chicago’s Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she had terminated ICE’s access to Chicago Police Department (CPD) databases related to federal immigration enforcement activities in response to the threat of raids. “I have also personally spoken with ICE leadership in Chicago and voiced my strong objection to any such raids. Further, I reiterated that CPD will not cooperate with or facilitate any ICE enforcement actions,” Lightfoot said in a statement. The Los Angeles Police Department said in a series of tweets it would not participate or assist in the immigration enforcement actions. Houston’s Mayor Sylvester Turner noted in a statement the “rich cultural contributions” of the city’s immigrants, and said: “The city does not try to do ICE’s job, nor does it try to impede ICE.” Morgan said earlier this week that ICE wanted to deport families who had recently arrived illegally in the United States to discourage more Central Americans from arriving. The number of migrants apprehended crossing the U.S.-Mexico border surged in May to the highest level since 2006. Most of the migrants are fleeing violence, poverty and corruption in Central America, and are seeking asylum, a process that can take years. Many families are released into the United States for the duration of the process because of limits on how long children can be detained. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Separately, the governor of Texas said the state was deploying 1,000 National Guard troops to the border after he said more than 45,000 people were apprehended illegally crossing in the past three weeks.

immigration
police
migrants
u.s .
rights


Adopted street dog named world's ugliest mutt in California

Abstract: PETALUMA, CALIFORNIA - Scamp the Tramp’s looks have made him a winner — but it wasn’t a beauty contest. The snaggle-haired, bug-eyed pooch took the top prize Friday at the 31st annual World’s Ugliest Dog contest in Petaluma, California. Owner Yvonne Morones of Santa Rosa, California, won an appearance with Scamp on television’s “Today” show, plus $1,500 in cash, another $1,500 to donate to an animal shelter — and bragging rights. Scamp, an adopted street dog, beat out 18 other contestants who showed off their droopy tongues, bowed legs and other strange attributes. Organizers say the contest isn’t just skin-deep. It is also about bringing attention to the needs of rescue dogs. Most of the competitors were previously abandoned or were rescued from kill shelters in the United States.


Bear enters Montana home, takes a nap in closet

Abstract: MISSOULA, MONTANA - A black bear somehow locked itself inside a Montana home and then nestled onto a closet shelf that wasn’t too hard, wasn’t too soft, but was just right for a nap. Missoula County sheriff’s officials say the bear just yawned when deputies knocked on the window and unlocked the door in an attempt to coax it to leave Friday morning. They had to call Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department officials, who tranquilized the bear so it could be re-located. Sheriff’s officials say in a Facebook post that deputies responded at 5:45 a.m. to a call that a bear opened the door to the Butler Creek’s mudroom and somehow locked the deadbolt once inside. They say the bear “began ripping the room apart” before climbing up the closet for a nap.


A perilous time to have temps running the Pentagon

Abstract: WASHINGTON - It is a perilous time to have temps running the Pentagon. U.S. President Donald Trump’s brinkmanship with Iran is on the boil, spilling beyond diplomacy to a planned air attack on Iran that Trump said he ordered, then pulled back — at least for now. This as the U.S. undertakes an unusual troop deployment to the Mexican border, tends its nearly two-decade war in Afghanistan and grapples with stalled talks with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program. Through it all, the U.S. has no defense secretary, but rather an acting one who is taking over from another acting one, who suddenly quit. And the latest one, Army Secretary Mark Esper, who takes over Sunday, might only be able to serve as acting Pentagon chief for less than two months under the rules, requiring yet another short-term boss before it is all sorted out. On Friday night, Trump officially announced he intended to nominate Esper for the permanent job. Temporary leadership is a hallmark of Trump’s administration. “It gives me more flexibility,” Trump has said of the many people in acting leadership jobs, not always by his choice. The practice lets Trump quickly, if temporarily, install allies in important positions while circumventing the Senate confirmation process, which can be risky with Republicans running the chamber by a slim 53-47 margin. But the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, says it is out of hand. “With everything going on in Iran and all the provocations and counteractions, and to have no secretary of defense at this time is appalling,” he said. “It shows the chaos in this administration. They have so many empty positions, revolving doors, in the most sensitive of security positions.” Tensions with Iran quickly escalated this past week after an attack on freighters at sea that the U.S. blamed on Iran. Tehran announced it was breaking from commitments it made under the accord that restrains its nuclear ambitions — a deal Trump withdrew from last year. Iran then downed a U.S. drone, prompting Trump to order a retaliatory strike that he said he shelved 10 minutes before Iran was to be hit. As the situation grew more dangerous, the acting defense secretary, Patrick Shanahan, stepped down, saying he wanted to spare his family a public airing of domestic problems linked to his messy divorce nearly a decade ago. Trump said months ago he would nominate Shanahan for the defense job and seek his Senate confirmation but he never did. Officials said repeatedly that the vetting of Shanahan was dragging on. Trump immediately named Esper as the new acting secretary, but because of limitations laid out in court decisions and legislation governing how top vacancies are filled, he may only be able to serve for six weeks. Inside the Pentagon, lawyers are debating how to get Esper through what would be a difficult legal and congressional confirmation process. Defense officials said Thursday they had yet to find a clear way forward. For the moment both Shanahan and Esper have been attending White House and other meetings and taking part in debates over how to respond to Iran’s destruction of the drone. Esper is slated to take over as acting defense secretary at midnight Sunday, then head out Tuesday to a meeting of NATO defense ministers. There it will be critical for Esper to convince allies that he is now in charge, and that the U.S. national security leadership is stable and able to make decisions in crises. While lawmakers have expressed initial support for Esper, who is well known on the Hill and previously served on committees as legislative staff, there is no guarantee he will get quick approval. As a former executive at defense contractor Raytheon, Esper may have to excuse himself from decisions involving the company. That could include sensitive, top-level negotiations with Turkey over its decision to buy a Russian missile defense system, and America’s counteroffer of the Raytheon-made Patriot surface-to-air weapon. The law prohibits Esper from being nominated for the job while also serving as acting secretary. If he is nominated, he will have to step down and move to another job until the Senate votes on his confirmation. So that would mean yet another acting secretary. Anyone chosen to fill in temporarily won’t have all of the decision-making power that a defense secretary needs when the nation is at war in several countries and conducting major military operations in dozens. If the administration’s churning leadership suits Trump’s style, it is not always his intent. Appointments have been marked by missteps and confusion: Trump has withdrawn 63 nominees, compared with 31 pulled back by President Barack Obama at this point in his first term, according to the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service. He has also decided against nominating some candidates he favored after realizing the Republican-led Senate would reject them. Altogether, 22 of the top 42 people in Cabinet jobs have been acting, or slightly over half, from the 2017 start of Trump’s presidency through mid-April, according to data compiled by incoming Yale political science professor Christina Kinane. That is well above the average. From the 1977 start of Jimmy Carter’s presidency through Obama’s administration, 224 people held Cabinet posts and 57 were acting, or just 1 in 4, Kinane’s figures show.

donald trump
iran
afghanistan
north korea
mark esper
patrick shanahan
military
u.s .
congress
immigration


Duterte accepts Beijing's proposal to jointly investigate allegation that Chinese vessel abandoned 22 Filipinos after sinking their boat

Abstract: MANILA - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has accepted China’s proposal to jointly investigate allegations that a Chinese fishing vessel abandoned 22 Filipinos after it sank their boat in the South China Sea, his spokesman said on Saturday. But aside from China and the Philippines, Duterte wants a third country to be included in the joint investigating committee that will be created to determine what really transpired in the Reed Bank, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said. “We are by no means relinquishing any inch of our sovereign rights, nor compromising the rights of our 22 fishermen. We are demanding justice for our countrymen, and we are using all legal means toward that end,” Panelo said in a statement. Critics have accused Duterte of toeing China’s line rather than taking a stand in defense of his country’s fishermen and its sovereign rights after he described the sinking as a “little maritime accident.” Duterte’s defense minister, navy chief and spokesman have publicly denounced the Chinese crew. His foreign minister, Teodoro Locsin had lodged a protest with Beijing and in a tweet on Friday rejected the idea of a joint investigation. The issue could complicate what are determined efforts by Duterte to build a strong relationship with China, despite deep mistrust among his U.S.-allied defense apparatus, which remains wary about China’s maritime militarization and what it sees as bullying and denial of Manila’s access to its own offshore oil and gas reserves. The sinking took place on June 9 near the Reed Bank, the site of untapped gas deposits that an international arbitration court in 2016 ruled the Philippines had sovereign rights to exploit. Beijing disputes that. China’s embassy in Manila has said the crew had sought to rescue the Filipino fishermen but fled after being “suddenly besieged by seven or eight Filipino fishing boats.” “A joint and impartial investigation will not only promote the expedient resolution of the issue, it will also be in accordance with international law … which places paramount emphasis on the use of peaceful means to resolve international disputes,” Panelo said.

philippines
rodrigo duterte
china
fishing
accidents


Indonesia to vet public servants to identify Islamists

Abstract: JAKARTA - Indonesia plans to tighten vetting of senior public servants amid fears that hard-line Islamist ideology has permeated high levels of government, according to documents reviewed by Reuters and a senior official involved in the plan. Indonesia is officially secular, but there has been a rise in politicians demanding a larger role for Islam in the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country, with some groups calling for an Islamic state. The rise in conservatism was a major test for President Joko Widodo in the April election, with some Islamist groups accusing him of being anti-Islam and throwing their support behind political rivals, including challenger Prabowo Subianto. Widodo was re-elected for a second term but voting patterns revealed deepening divisions between areas known for a moderate following of Islam and conservative Muslim regions that backed Prabowo. The senior government official, who is part of a team formulating the new vetting policy, said Widodo intends it to be a part of his legacy of ensuring Indonesia remains a model for moderate Islam. The official said the president strongly believed that radical Islam threatened the state apparatus as well as the future of democracy. The vetting plan was a big priority for him, said the official, who declined to be identified. “He wants that before the next election in 2024, hard-line and radical elements be weeded out to aim for a healthier democracy,” said the official. Widodo’s office did not respond to requests for comment. According to the documents reviewed by Reuters, the government wants to introduce stricter background checks and a new psychological test to gauge candidates’ political leanings — especially for those seeking promotions to the top two rungs of the bureaucracy. The official said the plan will be rolled out by the end of the year at 10 of the country’s biggest ministries by budget and several state-owned enterprises. Ministries to be targeted as priorities include Finance, Defence, Health, Education, Religious Affairs, and Public Works. Priority enterprises include state energy company Pertamina, flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, the biggest state bank BRI, state miners Antam and Timah, and two state media companies. Civil servants would not be sacked but the new policy could be used to keep those with hard-line leanings from rising through the ranks, the official said. One of the factors driving the new policy is a 2017 survey done by independent Jakarta-based pollster Alvara Research Center that found one in five civil servants and 10 percent of state enterprise workers did not agree with the secular state ideology Pancasila, and instead favored an Islamic theocratic state. “What we’re seeing is not sudden but the result of seeds that were planted years ago through small movements that at the time were not considered a threat to the state. For over 10 years, these ideas have been tolerated, accepted, and perhaps even used by elements of the state,” one government document said. The government official who spoke to Reuters is part of a team of 12 officials and experts that will work with the National Agency to Promote Pancasila and with civil society organizations to formulate new metrics to strengthen existing recruitment tests. Pancasila includes upholding national unity, social justice and democracy alongside belief in God, and enshrines religious diversity in an officially secular system of government. The official said the government is expecting a backlash both from within the state bureaucracy and from rights activists who could liken the moves to the authoritarian era of former President Suharto, when loyalty to the state ideology was mandatory and equated with loyalty to the regime. “We are aware the Pancasila was used in the past as a tool to consolidate power, but we believe it is an umbrella that protects all Indonesians and is a tool to unify against the virus of radicalism,” Benny Susetyo, an official at the national Pancasila agency, said in an interview. A representative for the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), an Islamist group that calls for Shariah law to be imposed in Indonesia, said the planned vetting procedures would “amount to discrimination against Islam.” “This government is affected by the disease of secularism and is trying to separate politics and religion, which is very dangerous,” said Novel Bamukmin of the FPI’s Jakarta chapter. “They should be focusing on targeting the communists and Shia (minority Muslims) in the bureaucracy instead,” he added.

indonesia elections discrimination religion terrorism ethnicity


In surprise move, Sri Lanka extends emergency following Easter suicide attacks

Abstract: COLOMBO - AFP-Jiji A state of emergency was extended by Sri Lanka’s president on Saturday, going back on pledges to relax the tough laws introduced after the Easter Sunday attacks that killed 258 people. Maithripala Sirisena said in a decree he believed there was a “public emergency” in the country, and was invoking provisions of the public security act extending the state of emergency. The tough laws, granting sweeping powers to police and security forces to arrest and detain suspects, were due to expire on Saturday. Just over 100 people, including 10 women, are in custody in connection with April’s Easter Sunday suicide attacks against three churches and three luxury hotels in Colombo. In late May, Sirisena told diplomats — from Australia, Canada, Japan, the U.S. and European states — the security situation was “99 percent back to normal” and he would allow the emergency laws to lapse by June 22. He assured diplomats security forces had either detained or killed all those directly involved in the attacks, blamed on a local jihadi group and claimed by the Islamic State group. There was no immediate word from the government why Sirisena changed his mind, but security remains tight in the capital. The emergency can be declared for a month at a time, and parliament must ratify it within 10 days. The continuation of the emergency came as police announced criminal investigations against several top officers, including the inspector-general, for negligence and lapses ahead of the bombings. Sirisena himself has been criticized for failing to act on precise Indian intelligence that jihadis were about to hit Christian churches and other targets in Sri Lanka. A parliamentary public inquiry has been told Sirisena — who is also the minister of defence and law and order — failed to follow proper national security protocols. The mainly Buddhist nation of 21 million people was about to mark a decade since ending a 37-year-long Tamil separatist war when the Islamic extremists struck.

colombo
islamic state
religion
terrorism
sri lanka attacks


Fresh Hong Kong protest ends peacefully with demands unmet

Abstract: HONG KONG - Protesters in Hong Kong ended their overnight siege of police headquarters peacefully, disappointed that their demands for the territory’s leader to formally withdraw a contentious extradition bill and police to apologize for heavy handed tactics are unmet. By daybreak Saturday, police cleared the streets of barriers set up by protesters to snarl traffic in the Asian financial center, and only a few groups in the mostly youthful crowd remained. Many slept outside the legislature. Hong Kong has been rocked by major protests for the past two weeks over legislative proposals that many view as eroding the territory’s judicial independence and, more broadly, as a sign of Chinese government efforts to chip away at the city’s freedoms. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam indefinitely suspended debate on the bills a week ago, making it likely they would die. But protesters are demanding that she formally withdraw the proposed changes to the extradition laws, which would expand the scope of criminal suspect transfers to include mainland China, Taiwan and Macau. Some also want Lam to resign. Legal and business groups in Hong Kong oppose the legislation, saying critics of China’s ruling Communist Party would be at risk of torture and unfair trials on the mainland and that it further erode the “one country, two systems” framework under which Hong Kong has been governed since the handover from British rule in 1997. The peaceful ending to Friday’s protests drew a sigh of relief in the city of 7.4 million people, after police unleashed tear gas and rubber bullets last week in violent clashes that left dozens injured on both sides. Police were previously criticized for their use of force but this time waited out the protesters. Police did issue a statement at 4:50 a.m. condemning them for blocking key streets and seriously disrupting work at police headquarters. “Police have shown the greatest tolerance to the protesters who assembled outside PHQ, but their means of expressing views have become illegal, irrational and unreasonable,” the statement said in part. Activist Joshua Wong called on police to answer demands over heavy handed tactics used during a mass protest on June 12, including the firing of 150 rounds of tear gas, rubber bullets and beanbag rounds, and the beating of unarmed protesters by police with truncheons. “We … urge police to apologize to the people” over the use of such tactics and their labeling of the gathering as a riot, Wong said. Around police headquarters, masked and helmeted protesters covered surveillance cameras with masking tape and lashed barriers together with nylon cable ties. The auxiliary bishop of Hong Kong’s Catholic Diocese, the Rev. Joseph Ha, appealed to the protesters to avoid violence. He warned that public opinion could turn against them. “You have already been on the roads for a long time,” he said on Cable TV Hong Kong. “You’ve already done a lot. You have already expressed very clearly your hopes and wishes. But I am really worried about your personal safety. … Please, absolutely, do not use violence.” Since the confrontations June 12, police have eased their approach, hoping to avoid a replay of 2014 protests, when officers unleashed 87 rounds of tear gas at protesters in the same location as the current protests. When the smoke from that response cleared, bigger crowds returned, angrier than before, and didn’t leave for nearly three months. The Communist Party under Chinese President Xi Jinping has been pushing ever more aggressively to quiet independent voices in Hong Kong. Beijing has squelched all reporting on the protests in mainland media and accused foreign forces of stirring up disturbances in Hong Kong. Opposition to the legislation has come from a broad range of civic, human rights, legal profession and commercial organizations. On Friday, the Hong Kong Bar Association reiterated is criticism, saying Lam’s decision to suspend but not withdraw the bill was “wholly unsatisfactory” because it could still dictate the parameters of future consultation on the issues of surrender of fugitives and cross-border legal assistance. Amnesty International went a step further, saying police must “end the unlawful use of force against peaceful protesters,” and issuing a report documenting 14 incidents of apparent police violence on June 12. Officers appeared “out of control, placing peaceful protesters who posed no threat in danger of serious injury,” Man-kei Tam, the group’s Hong Kong director, said in a statement.

hong kong
protests
china
rights
hong kong extradition protests


Hong Kong police vow to pursue protest leaders involved in siege of headquarters

Abstract: HONG KONG - Hong Kong police on Saturday vowed to pursue the ringleaders of a 15-hour blockade of their headquarters that involved thousands of anti-government demonstrators as a push to oust the city’s pro-Beijing leader evolves. The largely young protesters surrounded the headquarters throughout Friday and into the early hours of Saturday morning, the latest manifestation of angry demonstrations sweeping Hong Kong. The international finance hub has been rocked by the worst political unrest since its 1997 handover to China. Millions have marched this month to oppose a hugely unpopular proposed law that would have allowed extraditions to the Chinese mainland. Officers also used tear gas and rubber bullets to clear protesters during another massive demonstration outside the city’s parliament, fanning widespread anger at the police. The spark for the current wave of protests was an attempt by Chief Executive Carrie Lam to pass the Beijing-backed extradition law, which she has now postponed following the huge public backlash. But the demonstrations have morphed into a wider movement against Lam’s administration and Beijing after years of sliding political freedoms. Protest leaders plan to hold another huge rally on July 1, but student-led groups — communicating through encrypted messaging apps — have begun embracing spontaneous, fast-moving acts of civil disobedience. “We need to flow like water,” said one protester named Chris, espousing a famous philosophy from martial arts superstar and Hong Kong legend Bruce Lee. It was unclear if demonstrators would rally in large numbers for a third weekend, with the streets quiet and popular protest sites nearly devoid of people on Saturday morning. Eric, a 22-year-old office worker and protester, said he would wait to see what directions came through on social media in the coming days. “There are many camps and each person has their own way of resistance,” he said. During Friday’s demonstrations outside police headquarters, large crowds of protesters blockaded entrances, taped over CCTV cameras and shouted at police. Many chanted “release the righteous” and “shame on police thugs” — references to those detained during violence between demonstrators and the police. Opposition groups have demanded an investigation into allegations of police brutality and the release of those detained during the clashes. Officers remained inside their fortified building throughout Friday. The protest was noisy but peaceful — with the exception of thrown eggs and demonstrators shining laser pens at the windows. The crowds eventually dispersed in the early hours of Saturday some 15 hours after their demonstration began. In a statement Saturday morning, police called the protest “illegal, irrational and unreasonable” saying it would “stringently follow up” on those behind the blockade. Police have defended using tear gas and rubber bullets on June 12 as a necessary and proportionate response to meet violent protesters who were trying to break into the city’s parliament. But rights group Amnesty International said Friday it had verified multiple instances of police violence that breached international laws, and influential legal bodies in Hong Kong have backed an inquiry into police tactics. Although Hong Kong was returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997, it is still administered separately under an arrangement known as “one country, two systems.” The city enjoys freedoms unseen on the mainland but many residents have been alarmed in recent years by what they feel is a tighter grip by Beijing. Hong Kong’s leaders are not elected and calls for universal suffrage have fallen on deaf ears. In 2014, pro-democracy protesters seized key intersections for two months but failed to win any concessions from Beijing. Since then, many of that movement’s leaders have been jailed, and some Beijing critics have found themselves banned from politics or even disappearing into Chinese custody. Opposition to the extradition bill managed to unite a wide cross section of Hong Kong. Critics feared the law would ensnare both Hong Kongers and foreigners in mainland China’s opaque and politicized justice system, and also give Beijing a tool to target critics based in the semi-autonomous territory.

hong kong
police
protests
china
rights
hong kong extradition protests


Pakistani Pashtun activists say arrests of their leaders herald a state crackdown

Abstract: ISLAMABAD - After a deadly clash between troops and activists at a security post in northern Pakistan, organizers of a rights movement that has unnerved the powerful army say a campaign of intimidation against them has intensified, with many top leaders detained. The military denies a crackdown against the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), which campaigns against alleged extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances of Pashtuns and other ethnic minorities, but says it is acting against lawbreakers. Manzoor Pashteen, the PTM’s charismatic figurehead, said he has seen his closest aides detained. Two lawmakers who are part of the group’s leadership have also been arrested. “In the past, they wanted to stop protests. Now they want to stop the movement,” Pashteen, who says he is the only member of the group’s core leadership not in custody, told Reuters. “They have directly arrested the leadership and begun a campaign to malign them (on social media).” The PTM’s appeal among Pakistan’s more than 35 million Pashtuns — and its unusually direct criticism of the powerful military over alleged human rights violations — has brought it into conflict with the authorities, who allege it is being bankrolled by hostile neighboring countries. The group has been barred from parts of the country and security forces have regularly tried to stop its rallies by arresting workers. Some analysts and senior PTM members believe the latest arrests targeting leaders and aides were an attempt to isolate Pashteen within the group and provoke more hard-line elements into a violent response that could then be used as a pretext to move against it. The military press wing said there was no campaign against the PTM and that security forces had acted within the law. “A few individuals are trying to incite Pashtun youth in a post-conflict environment, exploiting the ethnic/linguistic angle,” the military’s spokesman, Major General Asif Ghafoor, told Reuters in a statement. “Whereas the state is responsible to address their genuine post-conflict care, no-one will be allowed to challenge the writ of the state … a few individuals have been arrested for taking the law into their hands and they are facing legal procedures.” FRESH ARRESTS Many ethnic Pashtuns hail originally from the borderlands with Afghanistan, the focal point of a near-decade long insurgency by Islamist militants. PTM leaders complain that violence in their traditional homeland has led to Pashtuns throughout Pakistan being unfairly targeted and suffering abuses at the hands of security forces in the name of fighting terrorism. The latest flash point came last month in North Waziristan, a majority Pashtun region on the Afghan border where the Pakistani Taliban controlled swathes of territory until they were pushed out by military operations in 2009 and 2014. On May 26, a group of protesters led by PTM leaders and serving parliamentarians Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir was fired upon by soldiers at a security check post, according to PTM representatives. Kifayat Azad, a close aide of Dawar and Wazir, told Reuters that 13 civilians were killed in the incident. At least 25 PTM members were arrested in the following days, he said, of whom 10 have since been released on bail. In its account of the incident, the army said the protest was aimed at exerting pressure for the release of a “suspected terrorists’ facilitator arrested the other day.” Troops exchanged fire with the protesters when they attacked the check post, it said, adding that three of the attackers were killed. Rights groups in Pakistan have called for an investigation into the incident. The PTM emerged last year after the killing of an ethnic Pashtun man by police in the southern city of Karachi, which led to a series of nationwide protests and turned the issue of alleged state violence against Pashtuns into a national debate. Journalists at local television channels and newspapers have since said they face a complete ban on covering PTM protests and statements made by the groups leaders. The military has in the past denied that it muzzles Pakistan’s media. TURNING POINT In a strongly worded speech in April, the military’s spokesman warned PTM “their time is up” and said the group had received funding from Afghan and Indian intelligence agencies. PTM has denied taking foreign funding. Analysts say the speech set the stage for the current spate of arrests. Ghafoor’s “warning that the PTM’s ‘time is up’ a few weeks ago seems to mark an official turning point in the state’s strategy,” said Nida Kirmani, professor of sociology at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. “This crackdown will only increase their (Pashtuns’) sense of alienation.” Days after the check post incident, Pashteen said he was in a car with his close aide Idrees Mehsud when they noticed they were being followed. As the car turned a corner onto another street, a number of men in plainclothes were waiting, alongside police officials. Pashteen said the men told him they wanted to ask Mehsud a few questions. He was then taken away in a car and remains in custody. The arrest followed the detention of Dawar and Wazir, whose election to Pakistan’s parliament last year affirmed PTM’s popularity amongst the country’s Pashtun electorate. Both men have spoken out against military operations in the former tribal areas bordering Afghanistan since being elected, and have led large demonstrations across the country. Another senior member and human rights advocate, Gulalai Ismail, is in hiding after being threatened with arrest. Her father told Reuters security officials routinely search their home and harass the family without providing a warrant. Police officials did not respond to request for comment. Pashteen says PTM believes in non-violent protest as a way to secure the rights of Pashtuns and other marginalized groups. “If people truly believe that those who live in the tribal areas are human beings, that they are Muslims, whether they accept them to be Pakistanis or not, they have the right to not be killed extrajudicially,” he said.

pakistan ethnicity protests discrimination


Opposition to submit no-confidence motion against Abe Cabinet

Abstract: Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan leader Yukio Edano has decided, jointly with other opposition parties, on the party’s plan to submit a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet during the ongoing Diet session, informed sources said Saturday. The envisaged motion is aimed at highlighting the opposition camp’s confrontational approach to the Cabinet, a senior CDP official said. After confirming cooperation of their senior officials Monday, the opposition parties are expected to jointly submit the no-confidence motion to the House of Representatives the same day. The battle between the ruling and opposition blocs looks set to heat up ahead of Wednesday’s end of the current Diet session, pundits said. The development came after Abe decided not to call a snap election for the Lower House on the same day as a triennial election this summer for the Upper House. The opposition side apparently believes that a no-confidence motion is no longer likely to encourage Abe to dissolve the Lower House and call a snap election, for which the opposition parties are not ready. The CDP is seeking the support of the Democratic Party for the People, the Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party, as well as a Lower House group, for jointly submitting the no-confidence motion against the Cabinet. Speaking to reporters in the city of Okayama on Saturday, Edano said that senior officials of the five opposition groups are exchanging opinions on strategies toward the end of the Diet session, including the plan to submit the motion against the Cabinet. Meanwhile, a censure motion against Abe that was submitted by the opposition side to the Upper House on Friday is expected to be rejected by a majority vote by the ruling camp at a plenary meeting of the house on Monday. As a summit between Abe and French President Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to be held in Tokyo on Wednesday, the ruling camp aims to vote down the envisaged no-confidence motion against the Cabinet at a plenary session of the Lower House on Tuesday, soon after it is submitted. The government and the ruling camp are not considering extending the current Diet session, informed sources said.

yukio edano
shinzo abe
diet
cdp
sdp
jcp
dpp


Fiancee of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi says Japan should broach subject at G20 summit

Abstract: LONDON - The fiancee of slain Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi has called on the Japanese government to bring up the issue of his murder during the Group of 20 summit in Osaka starting Friday in hopes of getting to the bottom of the high-profile case. “I want to find out who will claim responsibility for it,” 36-year-old Hatice Cengiz said in London on Monday, noting that “many questions” remain over the death of Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last October. The Washington Post columnist had long been critical of Saudi Arabia’s royal family. “This matter should be highlighted by Japan’s state leader at the G20 summit,” the Turkish woman said during an interview. Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is facing allegations of being involved in Khashoggi’s murder, is expected to attend the G20 summit scheduled for Friday and Saturday in the city of Osaka. Taking into account that Saudi Arabia is the largest crude oil supplier to Japan, Cengiz said Tokyo will be able to demand that Riyadh bring to light the killing of the U.S.-based Saudi journalist. “It’s easier for people to give a warning to those with whom they have a close relationship,” she said. The Saudi government initially asserted Khashoggi had left the consulate alive last Oct. 2 but later said a group of rogue operators killed him that day. Riyadh denies the crown prince had any involvement in the murder. Turkey, meanwhile, has called on the Saudi government to hand over the suspects, but the request has been rejected. In the latest development over the issue, Agnes Callamard, U.N. special rapporteur on arbitrary killings, on Wednesday released a report determining there was “credible evidence” to warrant further investigation of high-level Saudi officials’ individual liability, including that of the crown prince. Cengiz expressed dissatisfaction that many of the world’s leaders, other than Turkey, have not seriously responded to the case. “Turkey dwelled on the issue in a humanitarian and moral approach. However, we don’t see severe response from the world leaders who will attend G20 in Japan,” she said. “They should not feel comfortable with the way they are responding to this incident.” She also said the “whole world” was disappointed with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump for taking a protective approach toward the Saudi crown prince, who is widely considered to be the power behind the throne. Khashoggi was assassinated in the consulate during his visit to obtain documents needed for getting married to Cengiz. His body is still unaccounted for. In an emotional interview, Cengiz said she is still having a difficult time accepting his death, recalling that “Jamal was very important to me.” As a journalist, she said Khashoggi was “extraordinary” and that he was “fighting for democracy.” On a possible reason the Saudi government is not disclosing the whereabouts of Khashoggi’s body, she responded that it is “because they did something so evil that (it) cannot be made public.” Regarding suspicions that the Saudi crown prince was involved in the plot, Cengiz said, “I would rather wait for the outcome of the Saudi-led investigation to say something clear about this question.” She said Saudi Arabia has not contacted her so far and no details have been shared on the issue. In a trial held in Saudi Arabia in January, prosecutors sought the death penalty for five of 11 defendants allegedly involved in the killing of the journalist, but their names and positions have not been disclosed.

jamal khashoggi
g20
saudi arabia
osaka
hatice cengiz


China's ties with North Korea hurting Tokyo's hopes of realizing Abe-Kim summit

Abstract: BEIJING - Japan is keeping a close watch on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s attempts to bolster relations with North Korea as Tokyo continues to grapple with the best way to go about arranging a summit with Pyongyang, diplomatic sources said. Closer ties between Beijing and Pyongyang could crush the hopes of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has been trying to pave the way for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in cooperation with the United States. As Beijing has been eager to use Pyongyang as a bargaining chip to move ahead with trade negotiations with Washington, it is unlikely China would help Japan — a close U.S. ally — realize a summit with North Korea, the sources said. Abe, who has recently expressed willingness to meet with Kim “without conditions,” has been doing his best to deepen personal relations with U.S. President Donald Trump, whose efforts at denuclearizing Pyongyang have stalled. Xi’s surprise two-day visit to North Korea through Friday could encourage Kim to keep his distance from the United States and Japan, which would further reduce the chances of a meeting between Abe and Kim, a Japanese government source said. Abe has emphasized that Tokyo and Washington have been working in tandem to tackle matters related to the Korean Peninsula, including nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles and the abduction issue. Trump and Kim, meanwhile, failed to strike a deal at their second summit in Hanoi in late February over the gap between Washington’s insistence on denuclearization and the amount of sanctions relief demanded by Pyongyang. Since then, their talks have been deadlocked. In an apparent bid to prod the U.S. into making concessions in negotiations, North Korea fired “projectiles” that appeared to be short-range ballistic missiles in early May. Pyongyang claims it has already implemented concrete measures to attain denuclearization and urged Washington to ease sanctions, which have taken a toll on the North’s economy. With the United States showing little signs of shifting its hard-line stance against North Korea, Abe has started to change his tune. “I myself need to face Chairman Kim without conditions” to resolve several bilateral issues, he said early last month. Abe had previously suggested a future summit with Kim would not be possible without a guarantee of progress. Abe may have believed that North Korea really wants the international community to lift economic sanctions and would ask for Japan’s help as long as its negotiations with the United States remained at a stalemate, the government source said. In reality, however, North Korea has not leaped at Abe’s offer. On the contrary, its state-run media have lambasted Japan’s proposal for a summit as “the height of brazen-facedness.” “Abe tenaciously knocks at the door of Pyongyang while making an advertisement as if the Japanese government’s policy for negotiation with the DPRK has changed,” the Korean Central News Agency quoted a spokesperson for a state agency as saying earlier this month. “But there is nothing changed in its hostile policy towards the DPRK,” the news agency also quoted the spokesperson as saying, using the acronym for the North’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Under such circumstances, China is set to boost its economic and political influence over North Korea. The two countries, which fought together in the 1950-1953 Korean War against U.S.-led United Nations forces, have been long described as “blood brothers.” Although Sino-Japanese ties have improved, it is “almost impossible” for China to support Trump’s friend Abe in his bid to meet Kim, as Beijing is engaged in a tit-for-tat trade war with Washington, one of the diplomatic sources said. Echoing this view, Jeff Kingston, director of Asian Studies at Temple University Japan in Tokyo, said: “Japan is seen to be a U.S. client state, so it is viewed through that lens in North Korea and China. “I don’t think Beijing will help Tokyo in any substantive way in terms of overall policy” toward North Korea, Kingston added.

china
xi jinping
shinzo abe
kim jong un
japan-north korea ties


Xi might visit Japan next spring, China's new ambassador Kong Xuanyou reveals

Abstract: China’s new ambassador to Japan revealed on Friday that Beijing and Tokyo are working to arrange a state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping “in the near future,” possibly next spring. “I hope it will be during a good season, like the time when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom,” Kong Xuanyou said during a news conference at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo. “Both sides are now working hard toward arranging the timing like that,” he said. Kong was appointed China’s top envoy to Tokyo on May 30. Prior to that, he had worked in Japan for a total of nearly 15 years as a diplomat. A visit by Xi would be the first by a Chinese president as a state guest since May 2008 and further underline the recent improvement in Sino-Japanese ties. Bilateral ties were severely strained after Tokyo nationalized some of the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea in 2012. The unpopulated islets are also claimed by China and Taiwan. Kong pointed out that Beijing and Tokyo began efforts to improve diplomatic ties as early as 2014. That said, he denied the ongoing trade war with the United States has prompted Beijing to improve ties with Tokyo, saying both nations made the decision in light of their long-term interests. “Trump was not the U.S. president” in 2014, Kong noted. “It was an important decision based on the assessment of national interests of each country,” he said. The ambassador said ties between China and Japan “finally returned to a normal condition” last year, apparently referring to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s visit in May. At the time, Li declared that bilateral ties had finally been brought back to a “normal track” after meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo. Kong also asserted that the two-day G20 summit in Osaka starting on Friday will be held “at a very important moment,” given the rise of “unilateralism and protectionism.” He then criticized the trade policies of the Trump administration. “To our regret, the new American administration launched in 2017 has stuck to an America First policy — unilateralism and protectionism. It has been brandishing tariffs against other countries and stirring up trade friction with China,” Kong said. “This is toxic for China-U.S. relations and has negative impacts on the world. The international society is deeply concerned about it,” the ambassador said. “A trade war won’t make America great again. It will just bring threats to the world economy,” he said, taking a jab at Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan. Kong’s news conference took place as Xi was in Pyongyang to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Before coming to Tokyo as the ambassador, Kong served as China’s special representative on Korean Peninsula issues. Kong said he hadn’t received much information about the results of the Xi-Kim meeting but emphasized that it was “not hastily planned” as Kim, who has visited Beijing four times in his official capacity as leader, asked him to come over. “We’re firmly convinced that (Xi’s visit) will make new contributions to the prosperity and stability of the region,” he said.

kong xuanyou
xi jinping
shinzo abe
kim jong un
china-japan relations


Abe sets ruling bloc's winning bar at Upper House majority

Abstract: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday set the win-or-lose bar for the ruling coalition in this summer’s House of Councilors election at the majority of seats in the Upper House. The prime minister spoke of the line dividing victory from defeat for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, Komeito, when he appeared in an internet program and on a television program the same day. “The focal point of the election will be on political stability,” Abe, also president of the LDP, said, vowing that he will put all his effort into securing the number of seats that will enable stable political administration. While he did not clarify what he meant by the term majority, his target was apparently based on the total 245 seats in the post-election Upper House, including those that will not be contested in the upcoming election. The bar is not high, as the LDP can lose about 25 seats from the total number of seats currently held by the party, and the ruling coalition will still be able to reach the target if Komeito manages to maintain all of its current seats. Abe noted that constitutional amendment will also be an important issue in the election. Criticizing the opposition parties for refusing to become involved in discussions about revising the Constitution in the Diet, Abe said he wants the people to decide whether they will choose parties that fail to deliberate or parties that hold discussions. He added that he wants to proceed with further discussions on the topic after the election. On whether he will call for a snap election for the House of Representatives on the same day as the Upper House election, he pointed out the need for a level-headed judgment. A snap election “is not even in the back of my mind,” he added, dismissing the idea once again. Abe said that many younger Lower House LDP lawmakers have requested he call a double election. However, he indicated that he considers creating a political vacuum undesirable, with the Group of 20 summit, which will be held in the city of Osaka from Friday, drawing nearer. The prime minister also commented on a new Japan-U.S. trade deal currently under negotiation. On the handling of agricultural and livestock products, Abe clearly noted that there is no room for compromise exceeding the levels that Tokyo agreed to in the Trans-Pacific Partnership multilateral free trade agreement. The United States withdrew from the TPP framework after President Donald Trump took office in January 2017. Abe voiced confidence that Tokyo and Washington will be able to reach an agreement within the scope of the TPP. He said that the bilateral accord must be approved by the Diet. “We won’t conclude (the negotiation) unless it (the agreement) serves our national interests,” he added. Regarding Trump’s announcement that he will run for president again in the 2020 election, Abe said that he hopes that the event will be something befitting a world leader, with Trump and other candidates discussing their policies and engaging in constructive debates.

upper house
majority
shinzo abe
election


'Here is Osaka wonderful city!': Granny group releases English rap video to welcome G20 summit

Abstract: OSAKA - An Osaka-based “idol group” made up of women whose average age is 66 has released a rap music video in English to welcome the Group of 20 summit that starts in the city on Friday. The video for “Oba Funk Osaka,” uploaded to YouTube, shows the obachan (older women) dancing through the streets and singing that the locals are “the funniest people in the world.” Osaka obachan are known for being loud, witty, talkative and friendly. In the video they play on this stereotype, even offering candy they’re said to always carry with them. “Up to now, we moved like we were undergoing rehab. But this time we nailed it,” said Eiko Funai, a 71-year-old who along with other members of the group performed in tiger-patterned outfits that Osaka women of a certain age are said to favor. “We hope that people all over the world get energized after watching the video,” she said of the music with a James Brown-like intro and lines such as “Let’s talk! Let’s dance! Here is Osaka wonderful city!” The release of the video by the group, Obachaaan, which formed in 2011 and now has seven regular members, came ahead of the two-day G20 summit to be hosted by Japan for the first time.


Japanese junior high school students slightly more open to marijuana use, survey suggests

Abstract: Junior high school students have become slightly more open to the use of marijuana, in part due to the influence of the internet, an official survey suggests. In the latest biennial survey by the National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 1.9 percent of about 70,000 junior high school students polled said they either don’t mind marijuana use at all or don’t mind as long as the amount being used is low, up from 1.5 percent in 2016. While the number of juvenile cases regarding marijuana use is on the rise in Japan, 0.3 percent of the respondents said they had tried illegal drugs, including stimulants. That percentage remains unchanged from the previous survey. Takuya Shimane, a researcher at the center who was in charge of the survey, said increased use of the internet is one of the biggest factors behind young people becoming more receptive to illegal drugs and that it is important to raise awareness about the problems associated with their use. “There is no doubting that they are influenced by watching videos of drug use and developments abroad decriminalizing marijuana,” Shimane said. The survey, the 12th of its kind, was conducted from September to December 2018, covering 183 schools across the country.

junior high schools
marijuana
survey
drugs


2020 Tokyo Olympics puts spotlight on animal welfare

Abstract: The International Olympic Committee sets procurement standards for materials used in conjunction with the games. One of these standards is sustainability, which was first established for the 2012 London Olympics. In terms of meals supplied to athletes and others, ingredients must be produced and harvested using methods that have no negative environmental impact. Seafood should be caught within legal quotas. Fruit and vegetables must not be grown on deforested land. In this regard, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics was called out last summer when, according to the magazine Shukan Asahi , athletes and rights groups wrote to local organizers complaining that livestock farming in Japan does not adhere to practices that guarantee animal welfare. In Japan, most meat, eggs and dairy items are produced using factory farm methods, which stress productivity at the expense of the animals’ comfort and well-being. In particular, they pointed out that the use of battery cages for egg-laying hens and stalls for pregnant and nursing sows in pork production are prohibited in many countries. The athletes asked to meet with Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike to discuss the matter, but no meeting took place. In addition, animal welfare organizations demanded that standards for livestock production be revised to reflect this global trend toward humane treatment but, on Nov. 2, the organizing committee of the 2020 Games notified these groups that they were unlikely to satisfy the demands. Something similar happened before the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, and more humane standards were implemented by the time the games began. That, apparently, won’t be the case for Tokyo. There is no incentive to crack down on relevant industries because, as professor emeritus Yoichi Matsuki of the Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University told the Shukan Asahi, Japan exports very little of its livestock products overseas, so there is no economic pressure to change their methods. In Western countries, high-yield livestock farming is considered deleterious to animal welfare and food safety, but in Japan it’s usually only connected to food safety. The Shukan Asahi included shocking photos of animals in distress, but in the text the main benefits of allowing chickens to roam free and cattle to graze is that the animals don’t consume the amount of drugs required to address the infirmities that arise when they are kept in close quarters. A kilogram of meat produced in Japan contains twice as much pharmaceuticals as that produced in the United States. Fifty-nine percent of Japanese chicken contains antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Such revelations could indirectly promote more humane livestock husbandry, but without attendant explanations of how animals suffer in high-productivity environments the matter will always center on the consumer rather than the animal, which is deemed a resource rather than a sentient being. This perception gap was illuminated last spring during the early weeks of NHK’s current morning serial, “ Natsuzora ” (“Summer Sky”), which takes place partly on a Hokkaido dairy farm just after World War II. The agriculture ministry cooperated with NHK to provide notes on the show on its own homepage , elucidating the dairy farming methods depicted on the show. The ministry’s overall goal is to promote Hokkaido’s dairy industry. In the explanations, it mentions animal welfare infrequently and only in positive terms, which is easy since the drama is set during a time before factory farming became the norm. The cows graze because that was what dairy cows did in the 1940s and ’50s. The welfare group Animal Rights Center started posting rejoinders to the ministry’s explanations to emphasize that the situations presented do not represent milk production today. The farm in the drama is relatively small: only five or six cows cared for by four people, which, by today’s industry standard, makes it unproductive. The average dairy farm in 2017 employed roughly 2½ people administering around 80 cows, which are mostly chained up indoors at all times. Milk production per cow has doubled since the time of “Natsuzora” and, as a result, the cows have become weak, overweight and disease-prone. A cow can live up to 20 years, but milk cows typically don’t last more than five or six years before they’re slaughtered. For several weeks Animal Rights Center provided more information about modern dairy farming in rebuttal to the ministry posts, including the use of stanchions to limit cow’s movements, the painful removal of horns to protect handlers and other cows and the use of grain-heavy diets, which are bad for cows, in order to increase the fat content of milk. A common refrain of animal rights groups is that people who consume animal products willfully disregard the suffering of the animals involved, and there is something of that censuring tone in the center’s explanations, but there’s also a sense that most Japanese are simply ignorant of how their food is produced. When the press does cover animal welfare, the English term is used and usually in conjunction with foreign production. An April 29 Mainichi Shimbun article about Sustainable Development Goals reported on how cattle farming in Australia, which exports beef to Japan, had changed over the years in response to “consumer demand that animals be raised in a more natural environment.” Japan’s situation is not mentioned. If animal welfare in Japan is covered here it’s usually by nonconventional media. On May 30, the magazine Alterna posted a story online on egg production in Japan, which consumes more eggs per capita than any other country. The reason is productivity. The number of laying hens has not increased appreciably over the past 30 years, but the number of farms has decreased, meaning more hens per farm. More than 90 percent of the birds are now kept in battery cages in extremely cramped conditions, meaning they cannot move or spread their wings. All the Japanese public really knows about egg production is that the price has not changed since the Showa Era. That, apparently, is all they need to know.

2020 tokyo olympics
olympics
animals
animal welfare
food
meat
eggs


Embracing social media to protect others from danger in Japan

Abstract: Japan has developed a reputation for being a safe country, an image bolstered by recent record lows in reported crime . The reality, though, is that life in Japan can be just as dangerous as it is overseas. A recent viral post on Twitter sparked debate on this issue, and it’s worth taking the time to examine why it caused the uproar it did. In early June, Twitter user @y37336878 shared a tweet highlighting an accessory they believed women in modern Japan could find useful. The item was clip-on hair extensions available in a variety of bright colors, allowing users to give their locks a Technicolor streak. The Twitter user suggested that such a product could be useful because women with dyed hair are considered by many to draw less attention from creeps in public or gropers on trains. The product is easy to remove, so women can feel safe going to work and then remove it once they get to their destination. The tweet has garnered more than 30,000 retweets and 50,000 “likes,” with many in @y37336878’s responses thanking her for the advice and saying how once they adopted it they didn’t have to deal with any potential annoyances (or worse). Others pointed to cheaper extensions for those looking to save some money. It didn’t take long for other suggestions on how to avoid harassment and assault to trickle in. One user thought the original idea was great — but would work even better when paired with a black face mask . Another individual had been using the colored hair attachments for a while and reported no problems on trains, but pointed out that students could get in trouble with their schools by using them (a point echoed by several other people online as the post spread). Another said no amount of makeup or extensions guaranteed total safety. Perhaps not surprisingly, this prompted all kinds of discussion on Twitter. As the online outlet Finders noted in their write up on the issue, it isn’t the first time someone has suggested altering one’s hair to avoid sexual predators. A former TBS announcer went on the radio to say she avoided molesters as a high school student by using lots of makeup. Last December, freelance writer Kei Himeno shared a tweet where she revealed that, after dying her hair blonde, she has avoided the usual issues women in Japan face in their daily lives, which also includes being maliciously kicked by people on public transit. It’s all a reminder that despite the prevailing image of Japan as a safe nation, there are many situations where that frankly isn’t true — especially as far as women are concerned. While some media reports say the number of sexual violence cases is low, the reality is that many go unreported or victims aren’t aware of what has happened to them . Then there are the thousands of posts online from women who have faced assault, molestation or violence while simply going about their day in Japan. Where Japanese society appears to have fallen short, social media has stepped in as a place where women (and other concerned individuals) can help one another deal with their problems and share vital information. The hair extension and dyeing advice is just one recent example. A recent drawing done by one Twitter user showed the ways women in Japan are assaulted at nearly every age, offering a place for victims to talk things over and offer advice. Other posts have offered warnings of specific men to avoid at train stations, while others have alerted people to men in Shinjuku Station who deliberately walk into women (an issue that has been in the spotlight online since last year ). Another viral tweet found a user calling for an unofficial organization made up of lawyers to defend women who stab attackers with safety pins. It received a lot of positive responses. There’s a long way to go before Japan becomes a country that is actually safe for women, but online spaces have given them a platform to trade tips and stories in a way that might help others stay safe.

social media
twitter
women
sex crimes
groping
japan pulse


Japan is finding it hard to say who's poor anymore

Abstract: One of my recollections from the bubble economy of the 1980s was a passage in a 1987 book titled “Hokokuron” (“The Theory of National Wealth”). Its author, the late economist Taiichi Sakaiya, stood out as one of the bubble era’s most fervent cheerleaders. An American business executive, Sakaiya wrote, once played host to a group of visiting Japanese high school students. “I live in a 14-room house on the outskirts of Boston,” he informed them. “We have a pool and greenhouse.” “How much would you say it’s worth?” a student asked. “About $2 million,” came the reply. “Oh, America has really become poor,” the student responded. “In Japanese yen, that’s only about ¥250 million. My family lives in a three-story house in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, on about 18 tsubo (approximately 59.5 square meters) of land. We could easily get ¥1 billion ($8 million) for our place.” That was not an exaggeration. In those heady times, according to one estimate, the market value of the Imperial Palace — a somewhat larger property situated in the same Tokyo ward — was assessed as being worth more than the entire state of California. The excesses of the bubble were rooted mainly, but not entirely, in inflated land values. With the complicity and even encouragement of major banks, land owners collateralized their property, sinking the proceeds into risky investments. After the inevitable crash, they were not only wiped out, but left with huge, irredeemable debts. The havoc wrought by the bubble’s collapse notwithstanding, capitalism in Japan is alive and well. A report issued in 2018 by Paris-based Capgemini Consulting found that the United States boasted the greatest number of so-called high net worth individuals, around 5.29 million people, and Japan ranked second, with 3.16 million. The estimated total assets of these moneyed Japanese came to ¥847 trillion, or an average of ¥268 million per person. The numbers of high net worth individuals from the previous year’s report rose by 9.4 percent, indicating that more Japanese are getting richer. Noting that “Humanities studies won’t hack it,” Shukan Gendai (June 15) profiled 30 successful male entrepreneurs with educational backgrounds in the physical or natural sciences, or engineering. An accompanying table listed their alma maters and estimated personal assets. Many are first-generation company founders who started information technology-related businesses from the late 1980s or in the decades that followed. One person on the list whose name was recently in the news was Masahiro Noda, chairman of the OBIC Group, whose Mobara Country Club played host to President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last month. Noda, 80, is said to have amassed a personal worth of at least ¥295.5 billion. As for the others on Gendai’s list, just under half are relatively young — with 10 in their 40s and three in their 30s. Katsuya Uenoyama, head of PKSHA Technology, which specializes in algorithm modules, and Motoki Shioda, a co-founder of the mobile game company Akatsuki, Inc., are both 36. Gendai’s writer clearly viewed a liberal arts education as not being conducive to financial success. Naturally, a technical education does not rule out humanitarian concerns. Disturbed with the problem of human poverty, biotech company founder Mitsuru Izumo, 39, had initially aspired to work for the United Nations. After gaining acceptance at the Faculty of Letters at the elite University of Tokyo, he transferred to its Faculty of Agriculture. Izumo’s firm, Euglena, is promoting midorimushi , a highly nutritious algae-like substance with promising potential. Izumo told the magazine that since his company went public, his lifestyle “hasn’t changed a bit.” “Can you drive two cars at the same time?” he asks, rhetorically. “You can live in a splendid big house, but cleaning requires a lot of work. My jackets are from Uniqlo (a low-priced casual retailer), and somebody gave me my watch as a gift. A person needs to have a sense of how to spend money, but for me it’s enough to have a sense about my company’s product.” More than the affluent, however, it’s been those on the other end of Japan’s economic spectrum who have been the focus of the latest headlines, particularly as concerns rise over their post-retirement years. The headline of the May 21 issue of Nikkan Gendai screamed, “sharp increase in impoverished seniors.” The accompanying article painted a bleak picture of the future, describing Japan as “the archipelago where the elderly are abandoned.” Two weeks later the media was incensed when a council at the Financial Services Agency issued an estimate that because the public pension system won’t be able to sustain people’s standard of living, a couple who will live to age 95 will need at least ¥20 million in savings. As one result, companies may face greater pressure to extend worker retirement until the age of 70. At a meeting with legislators in the Diet’s Upper House earlier this month, Abe vehemently attacked the agency’s estimate as being “idiotic.” An acerbic cartoon by Mitsuru Yaku in Shukan Taishu (July 1) caricatured a seated Abe as the Hindu-Buddhist deity Enma, the judge of the underworld, who sends departed souls to (in this case) financial heaven or hell. On Abe’s right stands Finance Minister Taro Aso, who Yaku portrayed as “Keneo,” the old man who teams up with Datsue-ba, the old hag of hell, to mete out punishment according to the gravity of the deceased’s sins. Aso is frequently targeted by the media because of his considerable personal wealth and disinclination to show discretion in the ways he spends it. Friday (June 28) published a detailed compilation of Aso’s reported assets, which it found to be “exceeding ¥500 million.” In addition to real estate holdings, he reportedly owns shares in numerous major corporations, including Kyushu Electric Power Co. (4,934 shares), Nishitetsu Railways (15,663) and Bridgestone Tire (4,350), among others.

wealth
bubble era
entrepreneurs
katsuya uenoyama
pksha technology
poverty
pensions
taro aso


Drone may have tracked Japanese tanker ahead of attack, experts say

Abstract: DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - The “flying object” that flew over a Japanese tanker before it was rocked by a blast in strategic waters in the Middle East earlier this month could have been a reconnaissance drone, experts have said. The owner of the Kokuka Courageous said the tanker’s crew saw a “flying object,” just before a blast that caused a fire on board the vessel, sparking a crisis between Washington and Tehran. “The crew members are saying that they were hit by a flying object. They saw it with their own eyes,” Yutaka Katada, head of Kokuka Sangyo shipping company, said the day after the mysterious June 13 attack. “We have received a report saying that something seems to have flew in, there was an explosion and it created a hole in the body of the ship,” he told reporters in Tokyo. Katada said the unidentified object flew over the methanol-laden tanker a first time — and returned a second time three hours later, when the blast went off. The Kokuka Courageous was hit around the same time as another tanker in the area, the Norwegian-owned Front Altair, which was hit by three explosions, according to the Norwegian Maritime Authority. The ships were in the strategic Gulf of Oman on their way toward the Indian Ocean. The United States — as well as Britain and Saudi Arabia — have accused Iran of being behind the attacks but Tehran has denied any involvement. The U.S. Navy says limpet mines, classic maritime weapons used during World War II, were placed above the water level on the hull of the Kokuka Courageous, and caused the blast. Experts agree. They point to evidence found after the attack of explosives linked to the cone-shaped devices that can be nailed or magnetically attached to the metal hull of a vessel. “When we observe the evidence, it is not something caused by an object impacting the vessel,” says Jean-Louis Vichot, a former director of the French Naval Academy and retired vice admiral. “It is in fact a footprint of a limpet mine, one that has not exploded,” he said. “The crew spoke of a drone … maybe a device sent on a reconnaissance mission,” Vichot added. The possibility that an observation drone was launched to track a future target, formally identify it and monitor its surroundings, is also shared by the former head of a French intelligence service who declined to be named. “One or several drones could have been used to surveil the most vulnerable vessels,” he said. “It is a classic technique of asymmetrical warfare,” the expert added. Shortly after the drone’s initial flight, the assailants must have approached the tanker from behind — to avoid being spotted by the crew who were on deck — and discreetly planted the mines before disappearing, experts said. This would mean that the crew on board the ill-fated tanker could have, in all good faith, thought that the “flying object” they had seen overhead had indeed hit their vessel. But the former intelligence chief said drones could in the long term be a key device used by assailants to carry out attacks, which will prompt the adoption of a series of security and defensive measures to protect shipping. He also noted that Iran “considers itself among the world’s top five drone powers.” Systems to detect and neutralize drones exist but their performance has yet to be tested efficiently, and their cost for civilian shipping is exorbitant, experts say.

kokuka courageous
shipping
iran
gas
oil
hormuz tanker attack


Princess Mako's marriage prospects unknown, Crown Prince Akishino says

Abstract: Crown Prince Akishino said Friday he does not know whether the marriage between his daughter, Princess Mako, and her boyfriend, Kei Komuro, will take place, with the plan still pending following reports that Komuro’s family is involved in a financial dispute. “I have not heard from my daughter about it, so I do not know how things are at this stage and what she thinks about it,” said the 53-year-old crown prince, who became heir to the throne with the ascension of his brother, Emperor Naruhito, on May 1. The crown prince made the remarks at a news conference with his wife, Crown Princess Kiko, ahead of their first official visit to Poland and Finland from Thursday to mark the 100th anniversary of the two countries’ establishment of diplomatic ties with Japan. Princess Mako and Komuro, both 27, announced their planned engagement in September 2017 and said their wedding would take place in November 2018, but the Imperial Household Agency said in February last year that the couple will delay the event until 2020. The decision followed a string of reports that Komuro’s mother was involved in a financial dispute with her former fiance, including over educational expenses for her son that the former fiance shouldered. Komuro said in January his family believes the financial issues have already been resolved, but his mother’s former fiance was reportedly unconvinced. The princess’ boyfriend from her university days has been studying at Fordham University’s law school in New York since August last year and is aiming to pass the state’s bar examination. In November, the crown prince asked Komuro’s family to resolve outstanding financial issues if they want the wedding to go ahead. “If (their marriage) cannot be celebrated by many people, we cannot hold the betrothal ceremony,” he said. The crown prince and his wife will stay in Poland through July 2 and travel to Finland before returning on July 6. They are scheduled to meet with the presidents of both countries and attend various commemorative events. “I look forward to deepening exchanges with the people of the countries I am visiting,” the crown prince said.

princess mako
marriage
crown prince akishino
kei komuro


U.S. plays down expectations for Trump-Xi meeting in Osaka, insists it isn't ready to compromise

Abstract: TOKYO/BEIJING/WASHINGTON - U.S. officials sought to play down expectations for a highly-anticipated meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping this week, insisting the U.S. wasn’t prepared to compromise on its demands for meaningful Chinese economic reforms. The two leaders are set to meet on the sidelines of the Group of 20 leaders meeting in Osaka with senior U.S. officials telling reporters Monday the encounter was likely to take place Saturday. The scheduling of the meeting, which came after a call between the two leaders last week, has raised hopes that they might be able to put trade talks that broke down last month back on track. Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on a further $300 billion in Chinese products including smartphones, laptops and children’s clothing if he doesn’t see any progress in a move that would sharply escalate the trade war. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke by phone with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on Monday, the two countries said, with China’s commerce ministry adding they had agreed to continue communicating. No other details on the substance of the call were immediately available. The three are expected to meet in person in Osaka ahead of the Trump-Xi meeting to hammer out the final agenda. Chinese officials this week said both sides need to be prepared to compromise for talks to succeed, but U.S. officials have so far maintained a hard line. Trump has focused much of his ire on the U.S. trade deficit with China, which in goods alone hit a record of almost $420 billion in 2018, and has been pushing for more Chinese purchases as part of the talks. But in a briefing call Monday, U.S. officials said he was focused above all on securing real structural reforms in China to address U.S. complaints about intellectual property theft and the widespread use of industrial subsidies among other things. The president was comfortable that the tariffs he already had in place on $250 billion in imports from China meant he was in a strong position going into his meeting with Xi, the officials said, with those duties already forcing companies to relocate from China. Trade negotiations broke down last month after the U.S. accused China of reneging on key aspects of the deal, leading to an escalation that has begun directly affecting large companies from both countries. Failure to reach even a temporary truce in Osaka risks leading to a modern-day cold war that could alter global supply chains. U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross last week downplayed the prospects of a major deal, telling Bloomberg TV the gathering was too broad an event to expect much progress. The best-case scenario laid out by officials and analysts from both countries is that the meeting might yield a pause in any new U.S. tariffs and a resumption of the talks, similar to the truce struck between Trump and Xi at the G20 summit in Argentina late last year. Stocks are pricing in about a 20 percent chance of a resolution in the trade war, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. strategists wrote in a recent note to clients. That’s a change from mid-April, when markets had priced in an 80 percent chance of a deal.

donald trump
china
xi jinping
tariffs
trade war
u.s .


U.S. Supreme Court allows foul language trademarks in F-word case

Abstract: WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Monday struck down a long-standing U.S. ban on trademarks on “immoral” or “scandalous” words and symbols, ruling in a case involving a clothing brand with an indelicate name that the law violates constitutional free speech rights. The justices ruled against President Donald Trump’s administration, which defended the law that had been in place since 1905, and in favor of Los Angeles streetwear designer Erik Brunetti, who was turned down by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office when he sought to trademark his brand name FUCT. All nine justices agreed in the decision written by liberal Justice Elena Kagan that the prohibition on “immoral” trademarks ran afoul of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment right to free expression. However, three justices wrote dissents to say the bar on “scandalous” trademarks should have been upheld. The Supreme Court followed a course it took in 2017 when it struck down a similar law forbidding the registration of “disparaging” trademarks in a case involving an Asian-American dance rock band called The Slants, a name federal trademark officials had deemed offensive to Asians. When the 2011 trademark application for FUCT was rejected, the Patent and Trademark Office noted that brand name sounds like a profanity — sometimes politely called the “F-word” — though is spelled differently, and concluded that Brunetti’s products contained sexual imagery, misogyny and violence. “There are a great many immoral and scandalous ideas in the world (even more than there are swear words),” Kagan wrote in Monday’s decision, adding that the trademark law covers them all. “It therefore violates the First Amendment.” “Today is a good day for Americans,” Brunetti’s lawyer, John Sommer, said. “The U.S. Supreme Court has taken the government out of the business of deciding questions of morality.” The justices, who are due to wrap up their current term in the coming days with a handful of other major rulings on tap, upheld a 2017 lower court ruling striking down the law. The decision removes the authority of government officials to bar federal trademark registration for profane language or sexually graphic images. The Trump administration had warned that invalidating the law would unleash a torrent of extreme words and sexually graphic images on the marketplace. Brunetti’s brand includes products such as a pullover sweatshirt saying “The world is fuct,” sweatpants saying “We are fuct,” and a T-shirt saying “Fuct is free speech, free speech is fuct.” Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer and John Roberts were the three justices who partly dissented. Sotomayor said the government will now have no choice but to register “the most vulgar, profane or obscene words and images imaginable.” Breyer said such words could even lead to physical altercations. “Just think about how you might react if you saw someone wearing a t-shirt or using a product emblazoned with an odious racial epithet,” Breyer said. Brunetti sought a trademark because it would make it easier to protect his brand of casual clothing against counterfeiters. The brand’s name is clever, Brunetti said, because of its association with the profanity, while the acronym also means “Friends U Can’t Trust.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which specializes in intellectual property law, ruled in Brunetti’s favor in 2017. The American Civil Liberties Union called the ruling a victory for the First Amendment. “Government bureaucrats should not be deciding what speech is or is not deserving of trademark protection based on what they consider to be too ‘scandalous’ and ‘immoral,’ ” ACLU attorney Emerson Sykes said. The Trump administration had argued that banning vulgar terms and sexually indecent images did not discriminate against anyone’s viewpoint, and that the government should not be forced through the trademark system to promote words and images that would be shocking or profane to the public. On Monday, Kagan offered examples of the law’s bias toward certain views, highlighting the government’s approval of anti-drug or pro-religious messages but rejection of a trademark for “Bong Hits 4 Jesus.” The dissenting justices suggested the “scandalous” provision of the law could be salvaged to forbid obscenity or profanity because it does not attack ideas, but only the way in which ideas are expressed. Justice Samuel Alito, who agreed to strike down the law, said Congress could come up with a narrower statute banning vulgarity that conveys only emotion. “The registration of such marks (trademarks) serves only to further coarsen our popular culture,” Alito said. The case marked the latest important free speech decision by the justices. In another free speech case decided last year, the court struck down a Minnesota law prohibiting apparel bearing political messages in polling sites. Also last year, the court blocked a California law requiring clinics that counsel women against abortion to notify clients of the availability of abortions paid for by the state, finding that it violated the free speech rights of the Christian-based facilities.

trademarks
free speech
erik brunetti
patents
fuct
elena kagan
first amendment
u.s .
u.s. supreme court


Iranians say their 'bones breaking' under U.S. economic sanctions

Abstract: TEHRAN - As the U.S. piles sanction after sanction on Iran, it’s the average person who feels it the most. From a subway performer’s battered leather hat devoid of tips, to a bride-to-be’s empty purse, the lack of cash from the economic pressure facing Iran’s 80 million people can be seen everywhere. Many blame President Donald Trump and his maximalist policy on Iran, which has seen him pull out of Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and levy punishing U.S. sanctions on the country. In recent weeks, Iran has threatened to break out of the deal unless European powers mitigate what it calls Trump’s “economic warfare.” Iran also appeared ready to push back against the buildup of U.S. forces in the region, after shooting down an American drone it says violated its airspace last week. In response, U.S. officials have announced yet more stringent sanctions. But alongside Trump, many Iranians blame their own government, which has careened from one economic disaster to another since its Islamic Revolution 40 years ago. “The economic war is a reality and people are under extreme pressure,” said Shiva Keshavarz, a 22-year-old accountant soon to be married. She said government leaders “keep telling us to be strong and endure the pressures, but we can already hear the sound of our bones breaking.” Walking by any money exchange shop is a dramatic reminder of the hardships most people are facing. At the time of the nuclear deal, Iran’s currency traded at 32,000 rials to $1. Today, the numbers listed in exchange shop windows have skyrocketed — it costs over 130,000 rials for one U.S. dollar. Inflation is over 37 percent, according to government statistics. More than 3 million people, or 12 percent of working-age citizens, are unemployed. That rate doubles for educated youth. Depreciation and inflation make everything more expensive — from fruits and vegetables to tires and oil, all the way to the big-ticket items, like mobile phones. A simple cell phone is about two months’ salary for the average government worker, while a single iPhone costs a 10 months’ salary. “When importing mobile phones into the country is blocked, dealers have to smuggle them in with black market dollar rates and sell them for expensive prices,” said Pouria Hassani, a mobile phone salesman in Tehran. “You can’t expect us to buy expensive and sell cheap to customers. We don’t want to make a loss either.” Hossein Rostami, a 33-year-old motorbike taxi driver and deliveryman, said the price of brake pads alone had jumped fivefold. “The cause of our problems is the officials’ incompetence,” he told The Associated Press as fellow motorbike drivers called out for passengers in Tehran. “Our country is full of wealth and riches.” The riches part is true — Iran is home to the world’s fourth-largest proven reserve of crude oil and holds the world’s second-largest proven reserve of natural gas, after Russia. But under Trump’s maximum-pressure campaign, the U.S. has cut off Iran’s ability to sell crude on the global market, and threatened to sanction any nation that purchases it. Oil covers a third of the $80 billion a year the government spends in Iran, meaning that a fall in oil revenues cuts into its social welfare programs, as well as its military expenditures. The rest of the country’s budget comes from taxes and non-oil exports, among them oil-based petrochemical products that provide up to 50 percent of Iran’s $45 billion in non-oil export. In Tehran’s Laleh park, retired school teacher Zahra Ghasemi criticized the government for blaming “every problem” on U.S. sanctions. She says she has trouble paying for her basic livelihood. The price of a bottle of milk has doubled, along with that of vegetables and fruit. “We are dying under these pressures and a lack of solutions from officials,” Ghasemi said. Years of popular frustration with failed economic policies triggered protests in late 2017, which early the following year spiraled into anti-government demonstrations across dozens of cities and towns. The current problems take root in Iran’s faltering efforts to privatize its state-planned economy after the devastating war with Iraq in the 1980s, which saw 1 million people killed. But Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said earlier this month that the crunch on oil exports is hitting harder today than during the 1980s war, when Saddam Hussein’s forces targeted Iran’s oil trade. “Our situation is worse than during the war,” Zanganeh said. “We did not have such an export problem when Saddam was targeting our industrial units. Now, we cannot export oil labeled Iran.” Still, many Iranians pin the economic crisis on corruption as much as anything else. “Our problem is the embezzlers and thieves in the government,” said Nasrollah Pazouki, who has sold clothes in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar since before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. “When people come to power, instead of working sincerely and seriously for the people, we hear and read after a few months in newspapers that they have stolen billions and fled.” He added: “Whose money is that? It’s the people’s money.” Sanctions do cause some of the problems, said Jafar Mousavi, who runs a dry-goods store in Tehran. But many of the woes are self-inflicted from rampant graft, he said. “The economic war is not from outside of our borders but within the country,” Mousavi said. “If there was integrity among our government, producers and people, we could have overcome the pressures.” Yet people come and go each day to work on Tehran’s crowded metro, seemingly earning less each day for the same work. In one train car, Abbas Feayouji and his son Rahmat play mournful-sounding traditional love songs known as “Sultan-e Ghalbha,” or “King of Hearts” in Farsi. “People pay less than before,” said the elder Feayouji, a 47-year-old father of three, as he took a short break to speak to the AP. “I don’t know why they do, but it shows people have less money than before.”

iran
sanctions
donald trump
inflation
oil
economy
u.s .
iran nuclear deal


Motegi denies Japan will agree to early farm tariff deal with U.S.

Abstract: Economic revitalization minister Toshimitsu Motegi denied again Tuesday the possibility of an early farm tariff deal with the United States as part of bilateral trade negotiations. “There will be no partial agreement. It will be a package agreement,” Motegi told a news conference, rejecting U.S. calls for a separate deal to lower or eliminate Japanese tariffs on agricultural imports. “We will continue our negotiations for mutual benefit while keeping Japan’s position,” he said, showing Japan’s resolve to strike a package deal also covering industrial tariff issues. U.S. exports of agricultural products to Japan has been negatively affected by the recent enforcement of the Trans-Pacific Partnership regional free trade pact and Japan’s economic partnership agreement with the European Union. At a Senate hearing June 18, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer expressed a wish to reach an agreement with Japan at an early point, especially on agricultural tariffs.

tariffs
toshimitsu motegi
trade
agriculture
robert lighthizer
u.s .
ustr


U.S. agriculture secretary says American farmers are 'casualties' of trade war

Abstract: WASHINGTON - U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue acknowledged that American farmers are “casualties” of President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, according to an interview broadcast on Tuesday. Perdue told CNN he did not expect a trade deal to be reached when Trump meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping this weekend at the G20 summit in Osaka but hopes one can be struck by the end of the year. The Trump administration has designated aid for farmers, a key constituency that helped carry the Republican to his 2016 electoral win, but they still have been among the hardest hit from the trade dispute with China. “I think they are one of the casualties with trade disruption, yes,” Perdue told CNN. “We knew going in that when you flew the penalty flag on China, the retaliation, if it came, would be against the farmer. “I’ve told the president — and the president understands — you can’t pay the bills with patriotism,” Perdue told CNN. “We know that and certainly he knows that. That’s why he’s trying to supplement the damage they’re having from trade disruptions with market facilitation.” The Trump administration last month unveiled a $16 billion aid package for farmers to offset losses from the 10-month trade war with China. Payment rates to farmers would be determined by where they farm rather than what crops they grow. The trade dispute, which escalated this month after Washington and Beijing raised tariffs on imports of each other’s goods, has left U.S. farmers sitting on record volumes of soybeans with China halting purchases. China once was a destination for more than 60 percent of U.S. soybean exports.

trade war
sonny perdue
donald trump
china
u.s .


U.S. tariffs on China-made consumer tech goods seen cutting sales and delaying upgrades

Abstract: WASHINGTON - U.S. consumers will delay or forgo technology upgrades if President Donald Trump imposes a new round of 25 percent tariffs on Chinese goods, slowing the U.S. innovation engine, technology industry executives said on Monday. Trump’s administration is preparing to levy tariffs on an additional $300 billion worth of Chinese imports after a public comment period ends on July 2 if the U.S. and Chinese presidents cannot relaunch talks to end their trade war. The two countries have been at odds since July 2018 over a host of U.S. demands that Beijing adopt policy changes that would better protect American intellectual property and make China’s market more accessible to U.S. companies. Consumer technology products, including cellphones, laptop and tablet computers, smart speakers and video gaming consoles, would make up $167 billion of that $300 billion total, or more than half the target list, said Sage Chandler, vice president of international trade for the Consumer Technology Association. Chandler told a hearing on the tariffs hosted by the U.S. Trade Representative’s office that imposing the tariffs would raise the retail price of cellphones by an average of $70, while the price of laptop computers would rise by $120 and video game consoles by $56. “A lot of consumers will look at that and say: ‘I’ll just wait for the next generation.’ That’s a lot of money for the average consumer,” Chandler told Reuters. Chandler, whose association represents major tech groups including Apple Inc., Facebook Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Intel Corp., told the hearing the proposed tariffs would extend a ripple effect that would spread through the U.S. economy. “Because technology is now the backbone of so many other industries — from agriculture to manufacturing — taxes on technology hit far beyond the technology industry,” Chandler said. Win Cramer, founder and chief executive of JLab Audio, a California-based maker of Bluetooth wireless headphones, said he added eight employees after the company’s products were spared from the previous round of tariffs. But Cramer said he may have to lay off some of those people, as a 25 percent tariff would shrink sales. “The proposed tariffs on products that make up 80 percent of our business would be catastrophic. We would be forced to lay off employees and raise prices to consumers,” he said. “The factory jobs that build our products never existed in America.” Other company executives from industries ranging from food equipment to fashion products repeated a refrain from five days of hearings last week — that they relied heavily on China for production and it would be extremely difficult and costly to shift their supply chains to other countries, taking two to three years to do so. Christine Robins, chief executive of Georgia-based gas barbecue grill maker Char-Broil LLC, said the tariffs would force the company to raise prices, increasing the risk that large retailers would try to cut costs by contracting directly with Chinese factories for private-label grills and “squeeze out” established U.S. brands such as Char-Broil.

tariffs
china
donald trump
trade
trade war
apple
smartphones
phones


Tokyo stocks pull back on stronger yen

Abstract: Stocks fell back on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Tuesday, pressured by the yen’s strengthening against the dollar. The 225-issue Nikkei average lost 92.18 points, or 0.43 percent, to end at 21,193.81, after gaining 27.35 points on Monday. The Topix index of all first-section issues closed down 4.25 points, or 0.27 percent, at 1,543.49. It edged up 1.84 points the previous day. Tokyo stocks were mixed in the morning session, as investors continued to refrain from active trading ahead of an expected meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in Osaka later this week, brokers said. The yen’s sustained strength weighed on the stock market, brokers said. Both the Nikkei and Topix indexes stayed in negative territory throughout afternoon trading, as the dollar slipped below ¥107 in Tokyo trading for the first time since early January following a Bloomberg report on Trump’s recent private conversations with confidants about the United States withdrawing from the security treaty with Japan, brokers said. “Amid a dearth of fresh incentives, the Bloomberg report likely triggered futures-led selling,” said an official of a Japanese brokerage firm. “The lack of strong buying interest facilitated the market’s drop in the afternoon,” said Masayuki Otani, chief market analyst at Securities Japan Inc. Subdued trading is expected to continue “unless the direction of the U.S.-China trade dispute becomes clear,” Otani said. Falling issues outnumbered rising ones 1,209 to 821 in the TSE’s first section, while 114 issues were unchanged. Volume increased to 1.02 billion shares from 830 million Monday. The stronger yen hit export-oriented names, among them automaker Toyota and industrial robot producer Yaskawa Electric. Japan Display plunged 9.09 percent after its announcement Tuesday of the withdrawal of a major Taiwanese financial group from talks on a capital injection into the financially troubled liquid crystal display panel maker. Among other major losers were clothing store chain Fast Retailing and drug maker Eisai. By contrast, major mobile phone carriers NTT Docomo, KDDI and SoftBank fared well as investors sought safe bets, brokers said. Furniture retailer Nitori gained 2.46 percent thanks to a rise in same-store sales between May 21 and Thursday. Also on the positive side were railway operator JR East and construction machinery maker Komatsu. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key September contract on the Nikkei average dropped 150 points to end at 21,080.