Aeon rolls out real-time video interpreting service for non-Japanese customers in 10 languages

Abstract: In light of an increasing number of foreign customers, supermarket giant Aeon Co. on Friday launched a real-time video interpreting service. Shop clerks at about 550 Aeon stores now carry smartphones or tablet devices that can access interpreters through video chat software to assist non-Japanese customers. The Chiba-based Aeon, Japan’s largest retail group, said interpreting operators are available in 10 languages — English, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai, Vietnamese, Russian, French and Tagalog. It rolled out the support due to an expected surge in tourists from China during the Chinese New Year season, set to begin next week. Japan will also host major sports events, including the Rugby World Cup this year and the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic games, said Ee Shen Ai, an Aeon spokesperson. On top of having multilingual employees, Aeon has provided a telephone interpreting service for foreign customers at some outlets, Ee said. The face-to-face video chat will be more convenient because interpreters will be able to see the products, she said. Ee added that the firm has been seeing more international shoppers in recent years who are eager to purchase items including cosmetics and medical products. The Aeon group, which ran about 17,000 stores nationwide as of last August, plans to expand the interpreting service to more outlets.

aeon language retailers tourism translation expats


JAL-operated Boeing 787 skids off runway into mud at Narita Airport

Abstract: One of Narita Airport’s two runways was briefly closed Friday morning when a Japan Airlines Co. plane ran off the apparently icy runway while taxiing after landing. There were no reports of injuries among the 201 passengers and crew on board, but the closure caused disruption to other flights, according to the airline and the transport ministry. The Boeing 787 arriving from the Indian capital, New Delhi, touched down at the airport shortly before 7 a.m. The 4,000-meter-long runway reopened around 2:50 p.m., according to Narita International Airport Co. The operator suspended its work to tow the plane from the site until late Friday night, so as not to block the runway before all of the day’s landings and take-offs were complete. The plane remains stranded, with its left main landing gear stuck in soft mud at the side of the runway. The taxiway was apparently slippery due to the cold weather and overnight snowfall, with ice on the tarmac potentially contributing to the incident. “We believe the surface of the runway was frozen. We applied brakes after (the aircraft) started skidding but we could not stop,” the captain of the plane was quoted as telling JAL. With the aid of landing steps, passengers were allowed to disembark from the aircraft from around 9 a.m. They were bussed to a terminal building. “I heard the sound of tires spinning free and saw snow fly up into the air. It felt almost like a car slipping,” said Ayumi Oshio, 58, a passenger from Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima Prefecture.

runway
narita airport
new delhi
japan airline co .


Flu infection rates surge to record high across Japan

Abstract: Japan is facing another winter flu crisis with a record-high average of 57.09 patients diagnosed last week with the ailment per medical institution conducting flu tests, the health ministry said Friday. The figure for the seven days through Sunday compares with last winter’s weekly peak of 54.33 and was the highest since comparable data became available in 1999, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said. Around 2.23 million people are estimated to have been diagnosed with influenza during the reporting period, up about 100,000 from the previous week, it said. The patients include 3,205 who were hospitalized, with 628 in severe condition. Both numbers were higher than the peaks last winter of 2,050 and 379, respectively. The total number of patients this season is estimated to have reached around 7.64 million. The most common viruses detected were the type-A strain that caused a pandemic in 2009, and the type-A Hong Kong strain, the ministry said. The data is based on reports by some 5,000 designated medical institutions throughout the country. In terms of prefectures, Saitama had the largest number of patients per institution with 84.09, followed by Niigata with 77.70 and Chiba with 73.00. A total of 8,928 day care centers, schools and kindergartens were fully or partly closed during the week, up from 6,343 marked in the previous week. More than half of the hospitalized flu patients were those in their 70s or older, while some 20 percent of such patients were aged between 0 and 9. On Monday, Matsumoto Kyoritsu Hospital in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, announced that 19 hospitalized patients and 35 staff members have contracted the flu since Jan. 11, and a male patient and a female patient in their 80s died. On Thursday, Nagoya Prison in Aichi Prefecture said that about 300 people — 200 prisoners and 100 staff members — have contracted the flu since late December. As people rush to take preventive measures, Kenei Pharmaceutical Co., a major manufacturer of alcohol disinfectant in Osaka, said their sales for January more than doubled from a year before. Bic Camera Inc., a major electric appliance store chain, saw its sales of humidifiers increase by 50 percent between Jan. 1 and 27 compared with the same period last year.


Throngs gather near Japanese Embassy to mourn South Korean 'comfort woman'

Abstract: SEOUL - Hundreds of mourners gathered Friday near the Japanese Embassy in Seoul for the funeral of a South Korean woman forced as a girl into a brothel to provide sex for the Japanese military during World War II. The mourners, dressed mostly in black on a bitterly cold morning and holding paper cutouts of yellow butterflies, followed a hearse carrying Kim Bok-dong. The procession stopped in front of a bronze statue of a girl, representing those described as “comfort women” — a euphemism used to refer to women who provided sex, including those who did so against their will, for Japanese troops before and during World War II. The scene near the embassy was the culmination of an hourslong march that wrapped up five days commemorating Kim, who had regularly led rallies to demand that Japan more fully acknowledge the suffering of the women. The Japanese government on Friday expressed concern about the funeral passing near its embassy. The funeral “poses a problem in light of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations if it disturbs the peace of the embassy or violates its dignity,” Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasutoshi Nishimura told a news conference. Tokyo has asked Seoul on a routine basis to maintain the peace of its embassy, he said. Japanese leaders have repeatedly offered apologies or expressions of remorse, but many of the women and their supporters want reparations from Tokyo and a fuller apology. Of the 239 Korean women who have come forward as victims, only 23 are still alive. Kim, who died at age 92 on Monday and had been suffering from cancer, had been a beloved leader of the protest movement, often sitting beside the bronze statue at weekly rallies that have been held since 1992 on a strip of sidewalk across from the site of the embassy. Her death has been met with grief around South Korea, with President Moon Jae-in crediting her relentless advocacy for giving South Koreans the “braveness to face the truth.” As the limousine carrying Kim’s remains slowly rolled up to the statue Friday morning, mourners carried 94 vertical funeral banners that represented Kim’s age when counted in the traditional Korean manner and were marked with phrases thanking Kim and demanding Japanese reparations and remorse. Many people cried during the march that started at City Hall. Led by an activist who shouted into a microphone from a truck, the marchers chanted anti-Japan slogans such as “Japan formally apologize!” and “Japan provide formal compensation!” “You always looked out for her and now grandma (Kim) is at a good place,” said a tearful Lee Yong-su, another former comfort woman, as she sat beside the statue and stoked its cheek and arms. “I feel very sorry and sad. We all know that voice that would shout (during rallies). She can shout no more and she never received a formal apology.” Yoon Mee-hyang, who heads an activist group representing South Korean comfort women, said Kim “overcame the war and also the Korean society’s patriarchal prejudice” with her campaign that highlighted the suffering of women during war. “Let us all become Kim Bok-dong,” Yoon said. “When the remaining number of victims becomes zero and the Japanese government feels relieved, we hope to see hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, millions of butterflies around the world shouting (in Kim’s voice) ‘Listen, Japanese government!’ ‘Listen, criminals of war!’ “ Born in the South Korean town of Yangsan, Kim was dragged away from home at the age of 14 and forced to have sex with Japanese soldiers at military brothels in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore from 1940 to 1945. She was one of the first victims to speak out in the early 1990s and break decades of silence over the wartime brothels. Kim traveled around the world testifying about her experience, including at the United Nations World Conference on Human Rights in 1993 and at a U.N. Human Rights Council panel in 2016. Kim never married or had children. “It’s heartbreaking and I feel sorry that she died without ever getting what she pushed for,” said Kim Hyeon-ah, 37, who said she took her morning hours off at work to participate in Kim’s funeral. “We come from a generation that didn’t experience war and we are grateful that Kim taught us how the human rights of women become vulnerable during wartime.” A 1991-1993 Japanese government investigation concluded that many of the women were recruited against their will, leading to a landmark Japanese apology, although the investigation found no written proof in official documents. Many South Koreans say past Japanese apologies didn’t go far enough. There’s also a sentiment that Tokyo’s past statements have been weakened by conservative Japanese leaders who have argued that the women weren’t coerced. Japan insists that all wartime compensation issues were settled in a 1965 treaty that restored diplomatic ties between the countries and was accompanied by more than $800 million in economic aid and loans from Tokyo to Seoul, which was then under a military dictatorship. In recent years, South Korean courts, which are now fully independent, have ruled that the treaty cannot block the constitutional rights of individuals seeking reparations from Japan. Kim’s death comes as relations between South Korea and Japan have sunk to their lowest point in years amid disputes over wartime history. Those disputes also include Tokyo’s reluctance to comply with rulings by South Korean courts over wartime forced labor during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 through 1945. In November, Moon’s government announced plans to dissolve a foundation funded by Japan to provide payments to South Korean comfort women. If those plans go ahead, the move would effectively kill a controversial 2015 agreement between the countries to settle a decadeslong impasse over the issue. Many in South Korea believed that Seoul’s previous conservative government settled for far too little in a deal where Tokyo agreed to fund the foundation with ¥1 billion ($9 million). There’s also criticism that Japan still hasn’t acknowledged legal responsibility for atrocities during its colonial occupation of Korea. Japan had said it didn’t consider the money it provided to the fund as formal compensation, repeating its stance that all wartime compensation issues were settled in the 1965 treaty.

kim bok-dong
comfort women
history
wwii
south korea-japan relations


Nagoya court rules against man accused of domestic violence based solely on wife's account

Abstract: NAGOYA - On Thursday a high court rejected a claim by a man that he had been wrongly certified as a perpetrator of domestic violence, overturning a lower court order for his former wife and local authorities to pay damages for inappropriate certification. The man in his 40s living in Aichi Prefecture had sought ¥3.3 million ($30,320), saying he was prevented from seeing his daughter, who was living with the mother, after police accepted his former spouse’s request in 2016 to hide her address. At that time, the former wife claimed she was the victim of abuse and the Aichi prefectural police accepted the request without trying to verify her account, according to the plaintiff. After receiving a police report, the local municipality limited access to the former wife’s address in the government database. Presiding Judge Atsuhiko Nagano of the Nagoya High Court said the man used violence such as “pushing the former wife’s buttocks with his foot” and that she was “stressed out at that time as her daughter became mentally and physically unstable due to a dispute (between her parents) over visitation.” “We cannot say that she failed to satisfy the requirements as a victim of domestic violence who deserves legal protection,” Nagano said. “Police are not necessarily required to investigate claims by the (alleged) perpetrators because they give priority to ensuring the victims’ safety,” he added. Last April, the Nagoya District Court ordered the then-wife and the prefectural government to pay ¥550,000 in damages, saying, “Although we cannot say the abuse was unfounded, there was a possibility of exaggeration (in her plea) as there was no medical certificate submitted.” Both the plaintiff and defendants appealed the court decision. The couple divorced after the district court ruling. According to the ruling, the couple were married in 2006 and their daughter was born the following year. The mother and the daughter have lived separately from the father since 2012.

domestic violence
aichi
nagoya high court


Man arrested after leading police to corpse of missing 19-year-old Tokyo student

Abstract: A 35-year-old man was arrested Thursday after the exhumation of a body, confirmed later to be that of a missing 19-year-old female university student, east of Tokyo. The Metropolitan Police Department arrested Koichi Hirose on suspicion of dumping the body, which was found earlier in the day on farmland in Kamisu, Ibaraki Prefecture, based on information provided by the suspect. The body was located 12 km from his apartment. Hirose is said to have told police that he killed the woman after she screamed and then dumped her body. He also told police he first met the victim online before she disappeared last November. On Nov. 20, the student took a train from Ayase Station in Tokyo to the city of Kashima, Ibaraki Prefecture, and later headed to the adjacent city of Kamisu by taxi. She exited the taxi at a convenience store at around 6 p.m. The student, a native of Tochigi Prefecture and a resident of Tokyo’s Katsushika Ward, had asked a local resident to show her the way to Hirose’s home before she disappeared. The signal from her mobile phone cut out around 11 p.m. on Nov. 20, near the site where the body was discovered, according to investigative sources. Last week, police searched Hirose’s home on suspicion that he abducted and confined the victim, questioning him on a voluntary basis. At that time, the suspect said he met her on Nov. 20 but she quickly went home, the sources said. But he changed his story Wednesday. “I killed her inside the car when we met for the first time because she made a fuss. I dug a hole and buried her,” Hirose was quoted as saying. According to local residents, Hirose moved to the apartment around last summer but did not socialize with neighbors. “He was not sociable and looked like the kind of person who does not open his heart to others,” said a man who used to work with Hirose at a construction company in Kashima. The man said that he heard Hirose did not have a job before he moved there. The body was discovered in a usually deserted area in Kamisu’s Suda district, which is surrounded by vast fields.


Chiba education board admits it showed girl's report of abuse to father now suspected of fatal assault

Abstract: CHIBA - Local officials admitted Thursday they handed a copy of a school questionnaire, in which a third-grader wrote that she had been physically abused by her father and asked teachers to help, to the father in response to his emphatic request, about a year before his arrest over her death. The officials at the education board in Noda, Chiba Prefecture, apologized for conducting an act that showed an “extreme lack of consideration,” saying that they yielded to Yuichiro Kurihara’s request due to his “intimidating demeanor” that made them “frightened.” His daughter, 10-year-old Mia, died last week at home in the city northeast of Tokyo. Police arrested the 41-year-old father on suspicion of assaulting her. In a news conference Thursday, Noda Mayor Yu Suzuki and officials from the education board disclosed the contents of the questionnaire on bullying completed by Mia in November 2017 when she was a third-grader. She wrote in the questionnaire, which that school had promised would be kept “secret,” that she was “bullied by family” and that her father used “violence,” forcing her to “wake up in the middle of the night” and that he “kicks and beats me when I am awake.” “Can’t you do anything about this?” the girl also wrote in a plea to her teachers at a public elementary school in Noda. “We apologize for not being able to save the life of a small child,” Suzuki said. The descriptions in the questionnaire led to the decision by a child consultation center to place Mia in a temporary care facility between Nov. 7 and Dec. 27 that year, believing it to be highly likely that she had been abused by her father. However, the measure apparently angered Kurihara, who demanded the school give him a copy of the questionnaire during a visit there on Jan. 12 — about two weeks after Mia was given permission to leave the facility on condition she live at a relative’s house. “Can’t you understand how it feels to have a family member separated?” the father said at the time, adding that he would take the matter to court, according to the city. After the school rejected the request, citing lack of consent from the pupil, her parents went to the local education board three days later with what the father claimed was a letter of consent from their daughter to show the questionnaire to them. The board gave a copy to them after Mia’s 31-year-old mother, also said to have been physically abused by Kurihara, confirmed that the letter was written by her daughter. Mia was transferred to a separate public school in Noda three days later. At that school, she was given a similar questionnaire twice, in June and November last year, but each time she wrote she was “not bullied” by anyone. Experts on child welfare denounced the city for handing the questionnaire to her abusive parent. Their action “might have resulted in a more vicious attack on the child,” by the father, said Tetsuro Tsuzaki, a former head of a child consultation center. “(The school and the education board) should have contacted a child consultation center when they received such a request from her father.” Naoki Ogi, an education commentator and special professor at Hosei University, echoed the view, saying that it was an “extremely dangerous act.” “I think Mia was in despair after her questionnaire was handed (to her father), which must have made it impossible for her to trust adults,” Ogi said. Mia’s death has added to cases that have raised concerns over Japan’s child protection systems. It comes at a time when the government has pledged to improve measures to prevent child abuse following the death of 5-year-old Yua Funato in Tokyo in March last year, who had written “forgive me” in a notebook begging her parents to stop mistreating her. Following her death the government compiled emergency measures to tackle child abuse, including a plan to boost the number of child welfare staff nationwide by about 2,000 by fiscal 2022, from 3,253 as of April 2017.


U.K. revisiting secret plan to keep Irish border open after Brexit using Fujitsu tracking tech, Sun reports

Abstract: BANGALORE, INDIA - Britain’s department for exiting the European Union has been examining a secret new high-tech plan of keeping the Irish border open with the plan to be ready for a road test in March, the Sun newspaper reported late on Tuesday. Officials have been working on the plan, which has been drawn up by Japan’s Fujitsu and involves a tracking system that monitors vehicles on designated routes, for 10 months, the report said, citing leaked documents. Brexit Minister Steve Barclay is closely examining the plan, the report said. However, it added that the plan has been “dusted down” in the last week in the aftermath of members of Parliament voting to replace the present Irish backstop with a different one that could include “alternative arrangements. The plan aims at ensuring that there is no requirement for physical checks on the border, according to the report. It would involve a tracking system that will monitor vehicles on designated routes when they cross from Northern Ireland to Ireland through number plate recognition cameras and GPS technology. The Irish border is presently open and frictionless with no controls as both the United Kingdom and Ireland are EU members. Britain is due to leave EU on March 29. Britain, Ireland and the EU want to avoid physical checks on the border between Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland that ceased with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

brexit
fujitsu
eu
the sun
northern ireland
ireland
gps
u.k .
surveillance


Apple reaches €500 million settlement with France over back taxes

Abstract: PARIS - Apple said Tuesday that it had reached an agreement with French authorities to settle 10 years of back taxes, becoming the latest U.S. company to make a deal with France, which has led a European push for higher taxes on tech giants. Apple paid nearly €500 million ($570 million) to resolve the case in a confidential settlement reached in December, a source familiar with the case said, confirming a report in French news weekly L’Express. “The French tax administration recently concluded a multiyear audit on the company’s French accounts and an adjustment will be published in our public accounts,” Apple said in a statement. “We know the important role taxes play in society and we pay our taxes in all the countries where we operate, in complete conformity with laws and practices in force at the local level,” the company said. French authorities declined to comment further, citing the confidentiality of tax matters. Apple is one of several American technology giants in the line of fire in Europe over their tax strategies, which see them route their income through low-tax nations such as Ireland or Luxembourg. In 2016, it was ordered by the European Commission to pay €13 billion in back taxes to Ireland. The European Commission said Apple paid an effective corporate tax rate of just 0.005 percent on its European profits in 2014 — equivalent to just €50 for every million. The deal in France comes as the government prepares to push ahead with its own unilateral “GAFA tax” — an acronym of Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon — faced with the failure of EU members to agree on how to get technology companies to pay more tax on their European operations. The levy, to be put to parliament in a bill this month, would affect companies with global sales of more than €750 million and €25 million in France. It would be retroactive to Jan. 1 and is expected to raise €500 million this year. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has called the question of how and where global companies pay their taxes “a major issue in the 21st century.” But an agreement among EU members has proved elusive. Ireland, Denmark and Sweden have all blocked plans for a levy for fear of dissuading investment, and Germany has proved lukewarm on the issue, fearing U.S. retaliation against its car industry. The issue has been referred to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which aims to come up with an international agreement by 2020. According to L’Express, the deal between France and Apple was clinched after several months of talks, and concerned the small amount of revenue the firm booked in France even as the sales it reported in Europe ballooned. The report said Apple’s European revenues exploded sevenfold, from €6.6 billion in 2008 to €47.7 billion in 2017, most of which was booked in Ireland where Apple has its European headquarters. At 12.5 percent, Ireland’s corporate tax rate is much lower than in France, where companies pay 33 percent tax on their profits. Apple insisted Tuesday that it was contributing to the French economy, saying it had invested €800 million on outsourcing in the country in 2018. It is the second U.S. tech heavyweight to reach a settlement with French tax authorities in the past year. In February 2018, Amazon said it had settled a French claim for nearly €200 million and would start declaring all its earnings in the country, ending a dispute that had dragged on for years. In 2017, however, France’s tax collection drive suffered a setback with a local court ruling that Google was not liable to pay €1.1 billion in taxes claimed on revenues transferred from France to Ireland. Anti-globalization groups have criticized the government’s push to settle cases out of court. “If you steal to eat you go to prison. When the GAFAM (GAFA plus Microsoft) steal billions the state does an out-of-court deal,” the anti-capitalist group Attac France tweeted on Tuesday.


Trump's China tariffs seen delivering on effort to curb targeted imports

Abstract: WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imports from China continue to attract opposition from economists and much of the business community. They also may be delivering on at least one goal of the administration’s trade wars: reducing imports of targeted products from China. In a new study, economists at the Institute of International Finance found 25 percent tariffs imposed last summer on a $50 billion list of more than 1,000 products ranging from electric cars to industrial seals and medical imaging machines reduced both the value and volume of those products imported from China. They also found that 10 percent tariffs on a further $200 billion in imports that took effect in late September had less of an impact and had led to a well-documented pre-tariff surge in imports as companies sought to get ahead of the tariffs. The IIF study released Tuesday affirms one of economics’ founding truths — raise a price on a product and demand for that product tends to fall. It points to how businesses are adapting to Trump’s tariffs. “U.S. importers are using fewer Chinese goods, while Chinese exporters are partially lowering prices to offset tariffs,” wrote IIF researchers Sergi Lanau, Gene Ma and Greg Basile. But it also illustrates how tariffs may do little to fulfill another of Trump’s stated goals: reducing the U.S. trade deficit. The impact on total U.S. imports from China in 2018 was “muted,” the researchers wrote, largely because of the rush to get ahead of tariffs that it caused on the larger $200 billion list. Trump initially threatened to raise those tariffs to 25 percent on Jan. 1 but has delayed that to March 1 as he has sought to negotiate a deal with Xi Jinping, his Chinese counterpart. “Moreover, strong U.S. growth in 2018 lifted imports from all countries, offsetting the impact of tariffs on the wider U.S. trade deficit,” the IIF economists added. The IIF study also found that the tariffs had done little to reduce the U.S. bilateral deficit with China, amid retaliatory duties from Beijing and “a large reduction in China’s imports from the U.S.” That impact of the retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports, the IIF researchers said, would be the focus of one of their next studies.


U.S. warns European allies against using Chinese gear, specifically Huawei's, for 5G networks

Abstract: BRUSSELS - The United States sees the European Union as its priority to convince allies not to buy Huawei Technologies Co. equipment for next-generation mobile networks, a U.S. State Department Official said on Tuesday. “We are saying you need to be very, very cautious and we are urging folks not to rush ahead and sign contracts with untrusted suppliers from countries like China,” the official said in Brussels after meeting EU and Belgian counterparts. The official is due to travel to France and Germany later this week and said the United States would use all diplomatic and mobile industry events to warn European governments.


Dissecting the Bank of Japan's zero-rate policy 20 years on

Abstract: Long before the U.S. and Europe embraced radical monetary policies last decade during the global financial crisis there was the Bank of Japan. Twenty years ago this month — back when the American economy was running hot under Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and the euro was making its debut on the world stage — the BOJ adopted zero interest rates, taking central banking into uncharted waters. Barely two years later, while benchmark rates in the U.S. and Europe were around 5 percent, it doubled down with a quantitative easing program to flood the banking system with cash. The BOJ’s strategies were seen as both extreme and peculiar to Japan — that is until the 2008 financial markets conflagration and resulting economic contractions forced the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank down similar paths. Fast forward to 2019 and the Fed is normalizing policy while the ECB is laying the groundwork to do the same. Despite moving first, the BOJ finds itself the outlier again, locked into an even more radical negative-rate regime and asset purchases of bonds, stocks and property trusts that dwarf anything attempted elsewhere. Japan’s 20-year experience shows the limits of what central banks can do on their own and underscores the importance of broader economic reform and fiscal policy that dovetails with monetary programs. Perhaps the most pertinent lesson for the Fed and ECB is the danger of reversing course too soon. “Monetary policy can buy time but it doesn’t solve all the problems,” said Kenji Yumoto, who helped run Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi’s economic advisory panel in 1999 and is now vice chairman of the Japan Research Institute. Ben Bernanke, whose academic work drew many lessons from Japan, was among the BOJ’s critics back in the 1990s for its “self-induced paralysis” and lack of “Rooseveltian resolve.” He turned far more sympathetic after his stint as Fed chairman through the financial crisis. Inside the BOJ, there was huge concern about making the fateful cut in benchmark rates. Yasuo Gotoh told fellow board members that it felt as if they were “stepping into a fairy tale like ‘Alice in Wonderland.'” Eiko Shinotsuka, who cast the one dissenting vote, later recalled that the board didn’t know how things would turn out, but felt it had no choice. The pressure was palpable on the morning of Feb. 12, 1999, as Gov. Masaru Hayami led the debate on the matter. Markets were reeling as yields on Japan’s benchmark 10-year bonds more than doubled in the space of three months and the yen surged more than 20 percent from an eight-year low in August the year before. In a rare move then, four government officials including the economy minister attended the meeting. They didn’t participate directly in the discussions but behind the scenes politicians had been lobbying Hayami to act. One even asked the governor why the BOJ couldn’t underwrite government debt or buy massive amounts of bonds. The board took the plunge and the zero rates era began. But just a year and a half later it increased rates to 0.25 percent. The timing proved to be poor: the dot-com boom went bust and pulled Japan down with it in 2001, forcing a reversion back to zero and the addition of quantitative easing. It stuck with such settings for the next five years. Then came the decision to try to normalize policy in 2006 as the economy picked up and consumer prices rose slightly. But again, global clouds gathered on the horizon. As the financial crisis unfolded around the world and the Fed led the way out with decisive action, Japan mostly muddled along until Haruhiko Kuroda took the reins at the BOJ in 2013 and amped up its stimulus program. A fundamental problem for the BOJ — then and now — is that policies such as zero or negative rates and quantitative easing were never supposed to run as long as they have. They’re meant to jolt households and companies to borrow, spend and invest, spurring prices to rise, the economy to perk up and then allow the central bank to wind back the stimulus. “We never thought QE and zero-rate policy would be inflationary,” said Rob Subbaraman, who was with Lehman Brothers in Japan at the time. Subbaraman, now Nomura’s Asia ex-Japan chief economist in Singapore, says the private sector had no incentive to borrow, undermining whatever the BOJ did. Instead, two decades of rock-bottom interest rates have hurt the nation of savers, who have responded by tightening their belts. Low-cost loans have propped up unprofitable companies while big business has piled into investing overseas as the market shrinks at home. Those two decades of failure to reflate the economy have created a whole generation of consumers with little understanding or expectation of rising prices, complicating Kuroda’s efforts even further. Banks and debt markets have been caught in the crossfire, with negative rates crushing the profit margin on lending and the BOJ’s massive asset buying under quantitative easing sucking the life out of bond trading. While it’s hard to call the world’s greatest monetary experiment a success, it’s also clear things would have been far worse without it. The BOJ has got the better of deflation, even if the consumer price index dips into the red briefly in 2019 because of low oil prices and one-off changes in phone and education costs. And instead of economic malaise, Japan has enjoyed a modest expansion in recent years, with unemployment near the lowest since 1992 and wage growth, though tepid, still the best in many years. The country has achieved all this despite an ill-timed tax increase in 2014, a slowdown in economic reform efforts by Shinzo Abe’s government and unprecedented demographic headwinds. Japan’s population continues to fall and one in three people are now age 60 or older. Bloomberg Economics’ Yuki Masujima is among those who argue that despite its many failings, Japan on balance has benefited from the adoption of unorthodox monetary policy. “It was a choice — slow death or risky but powerful treatment,” said Masujima. He sees the challenge now in the diminishing returns of policy, even after the stepped up aggression under Kuroda, while negative side effects keep accumulating. “Sooner or later the break-even point will come,” said Masujima. “But it’s much easier to introduce policy than it is to exit.”

monetary policy
boj
zero interest rates
haruhiko kuroda
abenomics


Dollar falls below ¥109.70 in Tokyo

Abstract: The dollar dropped below ¥109.70 in Tokyo trading Wednesday as the yen attracted purchases against major currencies. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥109.65-66, down from ¥109.86-86 at the same time on Tuesday. The euro was at $1.1389-1389, down from $1.1424-1424, and at ¥124.89-89, down from ¥125.50-50. The dollar moved between ¥109.90 and ¥110 in early trading as a wait-and-see mood spread ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address. When the Nikkei stock average added to gains around midmorning, the dollar topped ¥110. But the greenback soon took a sharp downturn in thin trading reflecting the closure of Chinese markets for the weeklong Luna New Year holiday, sinking below ¥109.70. Selling of the U.S. currency took the upper hand following the yen’s appreciation against the Australian dollar prompted by Reserve Bank of Australia Gov. Philip Lowe’s remarks suggesting a rate cut possibility, traders said. The dollar temporarily showed resilience but returned to levels below ¥109.70 in late trading, dampened by the euro’s decline versus the yen on selling sparked by the release of weaker-than-expected new manufacturing orders in Germany, a currency broker said. Trump’s speech, which ended past noon Japan time, had little impact on the dollar-yen pair, an official at a major Japanese bank said.


Nikkei turns moderately higher on Wall Street rally

Abstract: The benchmark Nikkei average rebounded modestly on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Wednesday, aided by an extended rally on Wall Street. The 225-issue Nikkei average climbed 29.61 points, or 0.14 percent, to end at 20,874.06, after gaining over 120 points in morning trading. On Wednesday, the key market gauge lost 39.32 points. On the other hand, the Topix index of all first-section issues closed down 0.75 point, or 0.05 percent, at 1,582.13. It added 1.55 points the previous day. The Tokyo market got off to a firmer start after the Dow Jones industrial average extended its winning streak to a third session on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, thanks partly to Boeing Co.’s brisk earnings report, brokers said. In the afternoon, profit-taking weighed on stocks. But the Nikkei managed to remain afloat backed by purchases of mainstay issues, while the Topix sank into negative territory toward the day’s closing. “Although sentiment has been good so far this week, reflecting rises in overseas equities, there have been no buying incentives strong enough to push the Nikkei above the psychologically important threshold of 21,000,” said Hiroaki Hiwada, strategist at Toyo Securities Co. The key index came close to the line but failed to break it for the fourth session in a row. One reason for the market’s top-heaviness on Wednesday was investor reluctance to boost buying before seeing Softbank Group’s earnings report, due to be released after the closing, Hiwada pointed out. U.S. President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, delivered while the Tokyo market was in session, had little impact on trading, brokers said. Falling issues outnumbered rising ones 1,106 to 936 in the TSE’s first section, while 85 issues were unchanged. Volume increased to 1.250 billion shares from Tuesday’s 1.228 billion shares. Cosmetics makers attracted purchases in the wake of U.S. peer Estee Lauder’s surge on Wall Street. Shiseido advanced 4.57 percent, Kose 3.53 percent and Fancl 2.42 percent. Musical instrument-maker Yamaha jumped 12.67 percent on its strong business performance and announcement of an own-share buyback plan. Other major winners included clothing retailer Fast Retailing and drugmaker Takeda. By contrast, mobile game app developer DeNA slumped 3.14 percent following its profit warning for the year to March. Automaker Suzuki dropped 4.33 percent due to its report on disappointing earnings in the April-December period. Also on the minus side were technology giant Sony and game-maker Nintendo. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key March contract on the Nikkei average rose 40 points to end at 20,870.

nikkei
tokyo stock exchange
stocks
topix


Court dismisses Sapporo Breweries' tax refund request over beer-like drink Goku Zero

Abstract: A court dismissed Wednesday a lawsuit filed by Sapporo Breweries Ltd. demanding a liquor tax refund of ¥11.5 billion ($105 million) paid on sales of a beer-like alcoholic beverage. Sapporo Breweries began selling Goku Zero in June 2013 as a “third-category” beer-like beverage, which have a lower liquor tax rate than regular beer and happoshu (low-malt beer). It suspended shipments the following year because tax authorities said the beverage might fall under another category. Sapporo Breweries changed its production process and resumed sales of Goku Zero as a happoshu beer in July 2014. The company later sought the return of the ¥11.5 billion paid in additional liquor tax after determining the original product was in fact a third-category beer. The Tokyo District Court decided that Goku Zero cannot be classified as a third-category beer. Brewers in Japan have been vying to develop third-category beers, as the reduced tax rate enables them to offer lower prices to consumers. Third-category beers include beverages that use alternatives to malt, such as soy or pea protein. The tax rates for beer and beer-like drinks are set to be unified in stages by 2026, with beer to be taxed less and happoshu and third-category beers to be taxed more.


Lawson closes two franchise stores in Saitama that falsified food expiration times

Abstract: Lawson Inc. said Wednesday it closed two of its franchise convenience stores after discovering they had systematically falsified expiration times on some food items prepared in the stores over a period of several years. The company is now checking all other outlets throughout Japan to see if there have been similar incidents, and plans to strengthen its control over their operations through measures such as installing cameras in kitchens and keeping closer track of how many food labels are issued at each store. It has already closed the two stores, both run by the same franchise owner who also knew about the label tampering by employees, according to Lawson. The company operates around 14,000 convenience stores in Japan. It is not known whether the owner ordered the relabeling. The stores, located in Saitama Prefecture near Tokyo, were found to have extended by seven hours the expiration times on boxed meals and baked goods, including pork bowls and sandwiches, by changing labels on the products two hours before they were due to expire, Lawson said. “We deeply apologize for having caused serious inconvenience to our customers,” Lawson said in a statement. One of the stores continued with the practice for 2½ years since its opening in July 2016, affecting up to 13,700 items, while the other conducted the package tampering between around 2014 and June 2017, it said. Lawson launched an investigation into the cases and reported the matter to police after its customer service center received an anonymous report last month. Lawson said it has not received any report of health problems caused by the expired products. An examination of similar food items by a third party found that one of nine samples contained bacteria exceeding the upper limit set by the government seven hours after the specified expiration time. The headquarters of Lawson intends to become more directly involved in quality control at all outlets by keeping records of all products cooked within the stores and those discarded after expiration. It will also introduce labels that are harder to remove.


SoftBank Group reports 62% jump in operating profit, rising to record high

Abstract: SoftBank Group Corp. on Wednesday reported robust earnings for the April-December period, crediting positive returns on investments in other businesses and ventures. The group’s operating profit rose to a record ¥1.85 trillion, a rise of 62 percent compared to the same period the previous year. It also boasted a 52 percent jump in net profit to ¥1.53 trillion for the same nine-month time frame. SoftBank attributed the strong performance to the success of its Vision Fund and Delta Fund investments as the conglomerate transitions from a telecommunications company to an investment firm. The funds’ combined operating income was ¥808 billion, which accounts for 43 percent of the company’s total. In particular, the company said that the Vision Fund saw a valuation gain of ¥693.2 billion from the increase in the fair values of ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc., New York-based co-working firm WeWork Cos. and India’s online hotel startup Oyo Rooms, as well as other investments. At a news conference Wednesday, founder Masayoshi Son said the Vision Fund would soon exceed $100 billion. He also mentioned SoftBank Group’s debt at the gathering, as market watchers have grown uneasy over the course of several months. He offered a rebuttal to their concern, saying that even though the exchange filing states that the interest-bearing debt is ¥17 trillion, ¥7 trillion of that is made up of liabilities from individual companies under the conglomerate, such as SoftBank Corp., the country’s third-largest mobile phone network. The SoftBank Group itself has about ¥4 trillion worth of interest-bearing debt, Son said. “Although we are a parent company, we don’t pay even ¥1 as a co-maker,” Son said. “There are different shareholders. … Thus, we don’t repay on the behalf of them. It is not my responsibility.” Son also touched on the loss incurred in the group’s investment into graphics chipmaker Nvidia Corp. A fall in its share price racked up a ¥299 billion loss from April through December, the company reported. At the same time, by taking advantage of a derivative gain, the group said it minimized the loss to ¥50 billion. Highlighting the positive net profit, Son said this was possible because the group had taken appropriate actions while Nvidia shares were rising. “As far as the balance, there isn’t much effect,” Son said. “The case with Nvidia is one simple example on how we operate.” Son rejected criticism from analysts that he is inept at selling, pointing out that the company had successfully sold and collected profits in other dealings.

softbank
masayoshi son
financial results


Nissan, Renault launch joint probe into Ghosn's alleged misconduct

Abstract: Nissan Motor Co. and its alliance partner Renault SA have launched a joint investigation into the alleged financial misconduct of their former chairman, Carlos Ghosn, at the Amsterdam-based company overseeing the Japanese-French partnership, a source close to the matter said Wednesday. Nissan will also ask an accounting firm to look into Ghosn’s remuneration and other spending by Renault-Nissan B.V., which he led before his arrest in November for alleged financial misdeeds at Nissan, the source said. French media have reported that the Nissan-Renault joint venture also made payments to a Renault executive over several years, while former French Justice Minister Rachida Dati received about 600,000 euros ($685,000) in remuneration as a lawyer between 2009 and 2013. She did not report her legal service to the Dutch firm when she ran in the European Parliament election in 2009, they reported. Ghosn, who was dismissed as chairman at both Nissan and Renault, has been accused of understating his pay by around ¥9 billion ($83 million) in Nissan’s securities reports over eight years through last March. He is also charged with aggravated breach of trust for having transferred to Nissan personal losses worth ¥1.85 billion from his private asset management company in 2008, and have the company pay $14.7 million to Khaled al-Juffali, a Saudi businessman who extended credit to him. Nissan, whose own internal probe found that Ghosn misused company assets and funds for private purposes, is considering filing a damages suit against the former boss.


Toyota slashes net profit forecast due to market turbulence

Abstract: Dragged down by recent stock market turbulence, Toyota Motor Corp. slashed its net profit forecast for the current business year on Wednesday and now estimates the figure will be down by 25 percent compared to fiscal 2017. Despite record sales of ¥22.47 trillion and increased operating profit of ¥1.93 trillion for the April-December period, net profit decreased to ¥1.42 trillion, down 29.3 percent from the same period the previous year. Toyota revised down its net profit forecast to ¥1.87 trillion from ¥2.3 trillion. The firm saw profit of ¥2.49 trillion in fiscal 2017. The decline is mainly caused by the equity-market rout in December, which inflicted about ¥310 billion damage in shares of nongroup companies that the automaker holds, said executive Masayoshi Shirayanagi. Since this is because of the fluctuating valuation of shares, “it’s not that the profit fall reflects our competitiveness,” Shirayanagi said during a news conference at Toyota’s Tokyo headquarters. During the nine-month period, the Toyota group sold 8 million vehicles, an increase of 153,000, thanks to growth in Asian countries, although sales in the Japanese and U.S. markets declined. Shirayanagi said the performance in the U.S. market needs to be improved. The sales and operating profit forecasts for the full year ending in March remain unchanged at ¥29.5 trillion and ¥2.4 trillion, respectively. The firm also expects to sell 10.5 million units worldwide. Asked how prepared Toyota is in the event the U.K. does a “hard Brexit,” Shirayanagi said even if the automaker does everything it can, “the impact will be unavoidable.” Toyota operates two plants in the U.K. and one of them produces about 600 vehicles daily. Nearly 90 percent of those are shipped to other member countries of the European Union, while the plant also gets about 2 million parts delivered every day, many of which are from countries outside of the U.K. The manufacturing operation is run according to a just-in-time system, so “if we don’t receive even a single part, we’ll have no choice but to halt the operation of the plant,” said Shigeki Tomoyama, executive vice president of Toyota. “From our standpoint, we sincerely hope that (the U.K.) will manage to avoid a no deal Brexit,” he said.

brexit
earnings
autos
toyota motor corp .


EU's Tusk rebuffs May, and says Brexiteers deserve a place in hell

Abstract: BRUSSELS - The European Union will make no new offer on Brexit and those who promoted Britain’s exit without any understanding of how to deliver it deserve a special place in hell, Council President Donald Tusk said on Wednesday. The United Kingdom is on course to leave the European Union on March 29 without a deal unless Prime Minister Theresa May can convince the bloc to reopen the divorce deal she agreed in November and then sell it to skeptical British lawmakers. As companies and governments across Europe step up preparations for the turmoil of a no-deal exit, diplomats and officials said the United Kingdom now faces three main options: a no-deal exit, a last-minute deal or a delay to Brexit. Rebuffing May’s bid to renegotiate just a day before she is due in Brussels, Tusk said he wished the United Kingdom would reverse Brexit but that the bloc was preparing for a disorderly British exit as it would not gamble on peace in Ireland. He said he no longer believed there was a way to stop Britain leaving due to the “pro-Brexit stance” of both the prime minister and the leader of the opposition. “I’ve been wondering what that special place in hell looks like, for those who promoted Brexit, without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely,” Tusk said at a joint news conference with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar. The remark, which will anger Brexit supporters in Britain, was tweeted from his account as he spoke the words, indicating it was not an off-the-cuff remark. Brexiteer Nigel Farage responded: “After Brexit we will be free of unelected, arrogant bullies like you — sounds like heaven to me.” Varadkar said the Brexit deal, which was rejected by the U.K. parliament, was “the best possible.” He said Britain’s political instability was another proof of why the backstop was needed. At meetings in Belfast, May tried to tackle the biggest obstacle to getting a deal ratified by the British parliament — an insurance policy covering the possible future arrangements for the border between EU-member Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland. May said she would seek an alternative arrangement that avoids the need for a hard border or legally binding changes to the border backstop to introduce a time limit or create an exit mechanism. Brexit has snagged on the 310-mile (500-km) frontier because there is disagreement on how to monitor trade without physical checks on the border, which was marked by military checkpoints before a 1998 peace deal ended three decades of sectarian conflict. As a way to prevent a hard border, Brussels and London agreed a so-called backstop — basically a promise that unless the sides come up with a better idea then the United Kingdom would remain bound by EU market and customs rules so that goods would not have to be checked. But the Northern Irish party that props up May’s government says it could endanger the province’s place in the United Kingdom, while Brexit supporters in May’s Conservative Party worry it would lock the country into EU rules for the long term. British ministers, The Sun newspaper said, have been examining a plan drawn up by Japan’s Fujitsu to track trade across the border, while the Telegraph said ministers had discussed delaying Brexit by eight weeks.

eu
brexit
donald tusk
theresa may
ireland
leo varadkar
northern ireland
u.k .


U.S. sends aid to Colombia-Venezuela border amid Maduro rejection of help

Abstract: WASHINGTON - The United States has sent food and medicine to Colombia’s border with Venezuela, U.S. officials said on Tuesday, although it is still unclear how the aid will get past the objections of President Nicolas Maduro, who has blocked shipments in the past. Two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said the aid will be staged at the main Colombian-Venezuelan border crossing at Cucuta. One official said more supplies would be staged in Brazil and in the Caribbean. “I anticipate having perhaps a dozen locations all around Venezuela where such aid will be staged,” the official said. The U.S. officials said trucks carrying the aid, including high-protein foods, would arrive in Cucuta this week at the request of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who last month declared himself to be the South American nation’s interim president. Opposition lawmaker Miguel Pizarro told reporters in Caracas on Tuesday that Guaido’s team would talk about how the aid would move once it was in place. Shipments were also coming from Venezuelan companies abroad, Colombia, Canada and Germany. A senior U.S. administration official said it was up to Guaido to decide when and how to move the supplies into the country. “We will seek to help him to do so by whatever means possible,” the official said. Prepositioning aid in warehouses or in truck convoys at border posts for weeks, or sometimes months, is common while officials negotiate safe passage. Franklin Graham, chief executive of relief group Samaritan’s Purse and the son of renowned Christian evangelist Billy Graham, said until humanitarian groups had access inside Venezuela, most aid likely would remain outside. Samaritan’s Purse has operated for the past three years in Cucuta, giving food, medicine and backpacks to Venezuelans heading to Colombia on foot. The group also has managed to get a small amount of aid inside the country, which Graham called “a drop in the bucket” compared to what is needed. “The government of Venezuela needs to open the borders, that’s it: Open the borders and let food convoys come into your country, open up your airports and let food flights fly in,” said Graham, who said he spoke to U.S. President Donald Trump about the situation in December. “We are preparing to fly in as soon as we get the green light,” he said. The Cucuta crossing was mainly quiet on Tuesday, but police officials told Reuters that more migrants have been asking where humanitarian aid will be delivered. In the nearby border town of La Parada, hundreds of people, some in wheelchairs, lined up in the hot sun to buy medicine. Maria Gomez, a 53-year-old seamstress, arrived from San Cristobal in northern Venezuela to buy her elderly mother the Losartan pills she needs for hypertension. “It’s cheap here, I always come,” she said as a pharmacist handed over the pills. “We cannot buy drugs in Venezuela, you die before you get them.” Pressure is growing on Maduro to step down after more than a dozen European Union nations on Monday joined the United States, Canada and a group of Latin American countries in recognizing Guaido as Venezuela’s legitimate leader. However Russia, China and Turkey continue to back Maduro, accusing Western nations of meddling. The 35-year-old Guaido, the head of Venezuela’s National Assembly, has galvanized the opposition with a hopeful message. He has repeatedly called on Venezuela’s military, which has remained loyal to Maduro, to support a transition to democracy. The United States could attempt to seek the approval of the United Nations Security Council to deliver aid without Maduro’s cooperation, but Russia would likely block such a move. So far, Maduro has rejected foreign aid. “We are not beggars. You want to humiliate Venezuela, and I will not let our people be humiliated,” he said on Monday. Maduro’s government, overseeing an economic collapse that has prompted 3 million Venezuelans to flee the country, lashed out at the EU nations for recognizing Guaido, accusing them of submitting to a U.S. “strategy to overthrow the legitimate government.” With Maduro in control of Venezuela’s military and all the territory, getting aid in will be hard, said Jeremy Konyndyk, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, who cautioned against politicizing the assistance. “The more it looks like an overt attack on the authority of Maduro, that makes the aid more of a target,” said Konyndyk, who has led U.S. government responses to international disasters.

colombia
venezuela
nicolas maduro
cucuta
juan guaido
donald trump
humanitarian aid
u.s .


Pope admits priests and bishops sexually abused nuns and thinks 'it's still going on'

Abstract: ABOARD, PAPAL PLANE - Pope Francis admitted Tuesday that Catholic priests and bishops had sexually abused nuns, the latest scandal to rock the church. “There are some priests and also bishops who have done it,” the pontiff said in response to a journalist’s question on the abuse of nuns, speaking on the return flight from his trip to the United Arab Emirates. The papal admission followed a rare outcry last week from the Vatican’s women’s magazine over the sexual abuse of nuns, leaving them feeling forced to have abortions or raise children not recognized by their priest fathers. The issue hit the headlines last year after a nun accused an Indian bishop of repeatedly raping her in a case that triggered rare dissent within the country’s Catholic Church. Francis said the problem could be found “anywhere” but was prevalent in “some new congregations and in some regions. “I think it’s still going on, because it’s not something that just goes away like that. On the contrary,” he added. He said the church has “suspended several clerics” and the Vatican has been “working (on the issue) for a long time.” “I don’t want to hear it said that the Church has not got this problem, because it has. “Must we do more? Yes! Do we want to? Yes!” he said. He said it was a cultural problem, the roots of which lie in “seeing women as second class. The February issue of Women Church World, a supplement distributed with the Vatican’s Osservatore Romano newspaper, warned that nuns have been silent over abuse for decades for fear of retaliation. It said the Vatican received reports of priests abusing nuns in Africa in the 1990s. “If the Church continues to close its eyes to the scandal — made even worse by the fact that abuse of women brings about procreation and is therefore at the origin of forced abortions and children who aren’t recognised by priests — the oppression of women in the Church will never change,” editor Lucetta Scaraffia wrote. In the Indian case, Bishop Franco Mulakkal was arrested on Sept. 21 in the southern state of Kerala on suspicion of raping the nun in question 13 times between 2014 and 2016. Pope Francis suspended him the day before his arrest, appointing another bishop in his place. Mulakkal, 53, who headed the diocese of Jalandhar in the northern state of Punjab, has denied the allegations. The nun first spoke out in June but police only started formal questioning in September, as fury over the case mounted. Five nuns — in a rare public show of dissent within the Indian Church — and dozens of supporters staged days of protests. Failure by Church officials to take action on sexual abuse allegations has been one of the biggest scandals to hit Roman Catholicism globally in recent years.

pope francis
vatican
catholic church
india
sex crimes
uae


Taliban says U.S. promised to halve its troops in Afghanistan by April: RIA

Abstract: MOSCOW - A Taliban official said on Wednesday that the United States had promised to withdraw half of its troops from Afghanistan by the end of April during talks last month, RIA news agency reported, more than past estimates of the planned pull-out. There was no immediate reaction from the Pentagon or the U.S. Department of State to the comments from a member of a Taliban delegation visiting Moscow. But they came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump told Americans his administration had accelerated talks for a political settlement in Afghanistan and would be able to reduce U.S. troops there as negotiations advance to end America’s longest war. U.S. and Taliban delegations met in Qatar in January and are due to meet again in February. A U.S. official at last month’s meeting said significant progress was made, though more talks were needed on U.S. demands for a Taliban cease-fire before any withdrawal and other issues. “Yes, the Americans told us (last month) that they would withdraw half of their troops from the beginning of February to the end of April,” Abdul Salam Hanafi was quoted as saying by Russian news agency RIA. Hanafi said Washington and the Taliban had also agreed that all foreign troops would eventually leave, and that Afghanistan would never be used as a base for attacks on the United States. “The timeline (of the withdrawal) will be discussed at future meetings,” Hanafi said. The Taliban militants are in Moscow for talks with Afghan opposition politicians, including former President Hamid Karzai — discussions that the current Afghan government has said is not in the country’s best interests. A U.S. official said in December that Trump was planning to withdraw more than 5,000, or more than a third, of the 14,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

taliban
moscow
united states
president donald trump
war
terrorism
u.s. military
soldiers


Jury enters second day of deliberations in 'El Chapo' trial

Abstract: NEW YORK - Jurors in the U.S. trial of accused Mexican drug cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman began their second day of deliberations in a federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday. Guzman, 61, is accused of leading Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, which became one of the most powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world. He twice escaped from prison in Mexico, and will face the possibility of life in a U.S. prison if convicted. The 11-week trial, which featured testimony from more than 50 witnesses, offered the public an unprecedented look into the inner workings of the cartel, named for the state in northwest Mexico where Guzman was born in a poor mountain village. Prosecutors said he trafficked tons of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine into the United States over more than two decades, consolidating his power in Mexico through murders and wars with rival cartels. The defense argued that Guzman was set up as a “fall guy” by Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a drug kingpin from Sinaloa who remains at large. The 12 jurors began deliberating on Monday afternoon after receiving instructions from U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan. They are seven women and five men whose names have not been disclosed for security reasons. At least three jurors are immigrants, three are Spanish speakers and several have ties to law enforcement. Almost all of them had heard of Guzman before the trial began, but said they could be impartial. The only exception was a woman from Ethiopia who said she had “no clue” who he was. The jury sent the judge two notes with legal questions on Monday afternoon. In the first, they asked whether a “drug war” could be considered “part of a drug trafficking crime with specific reference to the weapons charge.” Jurors heard extensive testimony about deadly wars between Guzman and rival drug traffickers during the trial. One of the 10 criminal counts Guzman faces is that he used weapons in furtherance of his drug crimes. Cogan told the jury they could not consider the weapons charge until they had found Guzman guilty of one of four drug-related counts. He said they were free to consider evidence of drug wars while weighing those counts. In the second note, the jury asked whether “ephedrine is considered methamphetamine.” Witnesses in the case testified that ephedrine is one of the ingredients used to make methamphetamine. Cogan told the jurors that they would have to refer to the evidence in the case.


Iran warns Israel against further airstrikes targeting its positions in Syria

Abstract: LONDON/JERUSALEM - Iran warned Israel on Tuesday of a “firm and appropriate” response if it continued attacking targets in Syria, where Tehran has backed President Bashar Assad and his forces in their nearly eight-year war against rebels and militants. Without responding directly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nevertheless said it was important to block Iranian influence in Syria. Israel, which views Tehran as its biggest security threat, has repeatedly attacked Iranian targets and those of allied militia in Syria. With an election looming in April, Israel has been increasingly open about carrying out air strikes. In a meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem in Tehran, the secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, said the Israeli attacks violated Syria’s territorial integrity and were unacceptable. “If these actions continue, we will activate some calculated measures as a deterrent and as a firm and appropriate response to teach a lesson to the criminal and lying rulers of Israel,” Shamkhani was quoted as saying by Fars news agency. In Jerusalem, Netanyahu said he would hold talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 21, focussing on Iran’s threat along the Syrian border. Moscow is a main backer of the Damascus government. “It’s very important that we continue to prevent Iran from entrenching in Syria. In many ways we blocked that advance. But we are committed to continuously blocking it, continuously preventing Iran from creating another war front against us right here opposite the Golan Heights,” Netanyahu said. In January, Israeli warplanes carried out a strike on what they called an Iranian arms cache in Syria, and Netanyahu has said attacks will continue. Syria’s Moualem was quoted on Tuesday by a Hezbollah-run media unit as saying: “The Syrian government considers it to be its duty to keep Iranian security forces in Syrian territory.” Iran has also repeatedly said it will keep forces there. Moualem was in Tehran for negotiations before the meeting of the leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran in the Russian Black Sea resort town Sochi on Feb. 14 about the situation in Syria.

iran
israel
syria
benjamin netanyahu
conflict


At Trump's State of the Union, women in white make a statement

Abstract: WASHINGTON - He didn’t count on the women in white. U.S. President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday was billed as his attempt to unify the country. But female Democratic lawmakers from the House of Representatives, many of them dressed elegantly in white to celebrate 100 years of women having the right to vote, projected a picture of calm displeasure during Trump’s speech that made clear his version of unity was not one they could accept. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the most powerful Democrat in the country, sat behind the president on the stage, wearing a white pantsuit. She shook her head or looked on disapprovingly when he challenged Democrats or laid out a dark vision of illegal immigrants assailing America. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a young politician with a strong social media presence, looked down or away when Trump delivered comments she viewed as egregious and stared daggers at colleagues who stood and clapped. Then the president spoke about women in the workforce, and the dynamic changed. Briefly. As he lauded the growing number of women finding jobs in the economy, the women lawmakers in white rose and cheered, apparently for themselves, for filling many of the open jobs in Congress during the congressional elections in November. “You weren’t supposed to do that,” Trump said with a smile, pointing at them and drawing laughter. Telling them not to sit down yet because there was more good news to come, Trump went on to recognize the record number of women serving in the Capitol. They cheered some more and chanted: “USA, USA!” Republicans joined in. It was a rare moment during the long speech, which otherwise drew mixed reactions from the audience, divided with Republicans on one side of the chamber and Democrats on the other, in a reflection of the deep partisan chasm that has characterized the country before and after Trump’s 2016 election victory. When Trump said the United States would be at war with North Korea had he not won the presidency, Democrats groaned. When he declared the state of the union “strong,” they disagreed and most stayed in their seats. When he warned against “ridiculous partisan investigations,” the sound of hissing could be heard. Proclaiming that the United States would never be a socialist country, Trump drew an ovation from Republicans and even some Democrats. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic presidential hopeful, hesitated but eventually stood up and clapped. Ocasio-Cortez, a self-described Democratic Socialist, smiled broadly. There were some moments of bipartisanship. When the president called for embracing the principles of compromise, Pelosi stood up and applauded heartily. Trump turned around and nodded to her in acknowledgement. Lawmakers applauded an elderly American who helped liberate the Dachau concentration camp in Germany during World War II and erupted in cheers for former astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon. But those moments were more a rarity than a rule. At the beginning of the evening, as Trump entered the chamber, Republicans clapped, while some Democrats stood and kept their hands folded. The image-conscious president’s signature red tie hung slightly to the left in his jacket as he walked in, and stayed that way while he spoke. On the chamber’s balcony, first lady Melania Trump, dressed in black, sat with specially invited guests. They included Debra Bissell, whose parents Trump said were killed by an illegal immigrant; Matthew Charles, a former drug dealer who was released from prison as part of bipartisan prison reform efforts; and Joshua Trump, a sixth-grade student from Delaware who has been bullied because of his last name. Pelosi’s guests included two active-duty transgender members of the U.S. Army, Capt. Jennifer Peace and Maj. Ian Brown, in a critique of Trump’s efforts to ban transgender men and women from serving in the military. During the 35-day government shutdown that ended on Jan. 25, Pelosi essentially rescinded Trump’s invitation to deliver his address in the House chamber. The White House considered choosing another location for the president’s speech, perhaps at a venue near the U.S.-Mexico border to emphasize his call for a wall to keep out illegal immigrants. But Trump decided to delay, wanting the pageantry and spotlight that only come with the annual address to Congress inside the Capitol’s walls. He got the pageantry. He got the decorum. But unity was scarce.

women
donald trump
democrats
nancy pelosi
congress
republicans


Top U.S. general says Trump Syria exit plan caught him off-guard, warning Islamic State still poses threat there

Abstract: WASHINGTON - A top U.S. general warned on Tuesday that Islamic State would pose an enduring threat following a planned U.S. withdrawal from Syria, saying the militant group retained leaders, fighters, facilitators and resources that will fuel a menacing insurgency. The remarks by U.S. Gen. Joseph Votel, head of the U.S. military’s Central Command, represent the latest warning by current and former U.S. officials about the risk of a resurgence by Islamic State following a planned U.S. withdrawal from Syria ordered in December by President Donald Trump. “We do have to keep pressure on this network. … They have the ability of coming back together if we don’t,” Votel told a Senate hearing. He added that territory under Islamic State’s control had been reduced to less than 20 sq. miles (5,180 hectares) and would be recaptured by U.S.-backed forces prior to the U.S. withdrawal, which he said would be carried out in a “deliberate and coordinated manner.” Votel told the Senate hearing he was not consulted ahead of Trump’s surprise decision to withdraw America’s some 2,000 troops from Syria, which helped trigger the resignation of his defense secretary, Jim Mattis. Trump’s Syria withdrawal has fueled rare, vocal opposition from within his own Republican party. The Republican-led U.S. Senate on Monday backed largely symbolic legislation that broke with Trump by opposing plans for any abrupt withdrawal of troops from Syria and Afghanistan. It warned “a precipitous withdrawal” could destabilize the region and create a vacuum that could be filled by Iran or Russia. The Pentagon’s own internal watchdog released a report on Monday saying Islamic State remained an active insurgent group and was regenerating functions and capabilities more quickly in Iraq than Syria. “Absent sustained (counterterrorism) pressure, ISIS could likely resurge in Syria within six to twelve months and regain limited territory,” the report from the Pentagon’s inspector general said.

syria
islamic state
joseph votel
donald trump
conflict
u.s .
congress
terrorism


Venezuela's Guaido challenging Maduro through humanitarian aid

Abstract: CARACAS - Boosted by the backing of 19 European Union countries, Venezuela’s opposition leader, Juan Guaido, is plowing on with his bid to bring humanitarian aid into the country despite President Nicolas Maduro’s vow to block it. Venezuela’s National Assembly, headed by self-proclaimed acting president Guaido, was to discuss the process of gathering badly-needed food and medicines in neighboring countries before bringing it in. Guaido has pleaded with the military, the key power behind Maudro’s authority, not to block the aid, claiming that up to 300,000 people face death without it. “Here in Venezuela nothing will enter, not one invading soldier,” said Maduro, who claims humanitarian aid would be a precursor to a U.S.-led invasion. Maduro has repeatedly accused the United States of being behind an attempted coup by Guaido, who declared himself acting president on Jan. 23. The U.S., which has not ruled out a military intervention in crisis-wracked Venezuela, was the first to recognize his claims followed by a dozen Latin American countries. Britain, France and Spain were among 19 EU nations to side with Guaido on Monday after Maduro ignored a deadline they had set for him to announce new presidential elections. Guaido is trying to force Maduro from power, set up a transitional government and hold a new presidential poll. He thanked each EU country in turn on Twitter “for supporting all Venezuelans in this struggle we undertake to rescue our nation’s democracy, freedom and justice.” But key Maduro ally Russia slammed what it called interference in the oil-rich but now poor Latin American country, saying it was an attempt to “legitimize usurped power.” Guaido, 35, claims his legitimacy from the constitution and has been ramping up pressure on Maduro by calling his supporters out into the streets. The next mass demonstration is due for Feb. 12. Guaido and Maduro led rival rallies in Caracas on Saturday that brought tens of thousands of people into the streets. Guaido must still find a way to bring in the humanitarian aid given the military’s loyalty to Maduro. The young lawmaker accused the military on Monday of planning to divert aid being stockpiled in Colombia, Brazil and an unidentified Caribbean island, in order to distribute it through the socialist government’s subsidized food program for its own supporters. Guaido appealed to the military’s “conscience” to let the aid reach those most in need. Guaido knows he also needs the armed forces on his side to dislodge Maduro, although he was boosted on Saturday by the defection of a top air force general. His fledgling alternative administration will also hold talks in Washington Feb. 14 on responding to “the largest hemispheric humanitarian crisis in modern history.” Analysts Eurasia Group say the humanitarian crisis “represents a lose-lose gambit for Maduro as he will either have to allow the goods to enter the country, further bolstering Guaido, or force the military to block their entry, which would likely lead to more blowback in the streets.” Maduro, though, remains steadfast. “They want to send two little trucks with four casseroles. Venezuela doesn’t have to beg to anyone,” he said. “If they want to help then end the blockade and the sanctions.” The U.S. has stepped up the pressure on Maduro’s regime by imposing sanctions on state oil company PDVSA in a bid to starve the administration of its funding. But on Monday, Guaido accused Maduro of trying to illicitly transfer up to $1.2 billion from public coffers to a bank in Uruguay, urging the Montevideo government “not to lend itself to stealing.” Under Maduro’s stewardship, oil-dependent Venezuela has plunged into an economic crisis, suffering from hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicine. Eurasia said U.S. oil sanctions are “set to have a broad impact” with the government facing “the prospect of running out of gasoline, which could serve as another social catalyst.” Guaido branded Maduro illegitimate over his reelection in May, which the opposition boycotted after several of its leaders were either jailed, barred or forced into exile. The U.S. and EU dismissed the elections as a fraud. Maduro has flatly rejected demands for new elections, telling Spanish television he would not “cave in to pressure.” He has supported plans for a meeting of Latin American and EU states in a “Contact Group” in Montevideo on Thursday, though, saying it would lead to “dialogue.” The United Nations said 40 people were killed in clashes with security forces in a week of protests last month, coinciding with Guaido’s self-proclamation as acting leader. Local NGO Foro Penal said almost 1,000 people were detained between Jan. 21 and 31.

venezuela
humanitarian aid
eu
juan guaido
nicolas maduro
russia
u.s .
donald trump


Georgia's Stacey Abrams rebuts Trump's State of the Union address: 'We do not succeed alone'

Abstract: ATLANTA - Stacey Abrams harnessed the frustration of Democrats on Tuesday with a sharp rebuke of President Donald Trump for abandoning working Americans and fomenting partisan and cultural discord. Just months after narrowly losing her bid to become America’s first black woman governor, the Georgia Democrat stepped onto the biggest stage of her political career to deliver her party’s rebuttal to Trump’s State of the Union address. She was the first black woman to deliver such an address and used the high-wattage event to blister Trump on everything from education and school safety to being out of touch with the middle class. But she was especially stinging when it came to Trump’s role in the 35-day partial government shutdown over his demands for a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. “The shutdown was a stunt engineered by the president of the United States, one that defied every tenet of fairness and abandoned not just our people, but our values,” Abrams said. Her speech was much shorter than the president’s hour-plus address. And she largely avoided the pitfalls of others who delivered similar responses, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who broke from his script in 2013 to swig sips of water, and Democratic Rep. Joe Kennedy III, who was ridiculed for his overuse of ChapStick in 2018. Still, a union hall in Atlanta doesn’t compare to the grandeur — and bright lights — of the House chamber, where Trump delivered his speech. In choosing Abrams to deliver the Democratic response to Trump, party leaders acknowledged the power and influence of women — especially black women — in anchoring the Democratic base. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is trying to persuade Abrams, 45, to run for Senate in 2020, sensing the opportunity to flip a Republican-held seat and bolster turnout in Georgia, which could become a presidential battleground. Some potential 2020 Democratic presidential contenders were quick to praise her performance. “Stacey Abrams achieved in a matter of minutes something Donald Trump failed to do in over an hour — to embrace and give voice to the spirit and core values that make America great,” former Vice President Joe Biden tweeted. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said, “I think all know why she would have been a wonderful governor of Georgia.” In her speech, the Yale-educated attorney traced her personal story to her parents, who were raised in segregated Jim Crow Mississippi. She recalled how her family and neighbors overcame adversity by relying on each other and valuing education. “These were our family values: faith, service, education and responsibility,” she said, crediting her parents, both of them United Methodist ministers, for teaching her about “this uncommon grace of community.” “We do not succeed alone,” she added. “In these United States, when times are tough, we can persevere because our friends and neighbors will come for us.” Abrams’ audience at the union hall included workers, activists, labor leaders, health care professionals, educators, entrepreneurs and voters who her aides say had trouble casting their ballots in 2018. Abrams abandoned her governor’s race without a formal concession, asserting that her opponent, Brian Kemp, used his last post as secretary of state to make it harder for people, particularly minorities and the poor, to cast ballots. Kemp defended his job performance, but Abrams has still emerged as a leading voting-rights advocate nationally. “Let’s be clear: Voter suppression is real,” she said Tuesday, arguing that the issue must be solved before government will be capable of addressing matters from climate change to expanding health care access. “This is the next battle for our democracy, one where all eligible citizens can have their say about the vision we want for our country,” Abrams said. “The foundation of our moral leadership around the globe is free and fair elections, where voters pick their leaders — not where politicians pick their voters.” As she did running for governor, Abrams spoke candidly about her personal debts, which Republicans have used as an attack. Abrams often said her student loans and other debts amassed caring for family members left her more empathetic than most politicians to what the majority of U.S. households experience in day-to-day life. “My family understood firsthand that while success is not guaranteed, we live in a nation where opportunity is possible,” she said. Republicans are not sparing Abrams, with the Republican National Committee lambasting what it calls “extreme policies” that were “rejected by her home state of Georgia last November.” Trump resisted any shots at Abrams leading up to their prime-time juxtaposition. But last fall, as he advocated for Kemp, the president called Abrams “unqualified” for statewide office. Even as she critiqued Trump, she said she wasn’t rooting for his failure. “I’m disappointed by the president’s approach to our problems,” she said. “I still don’t want him to fail. But we need him to tell the truth, and to respect his duties and the extraordinary diversity that defines America.”

stacey abrams
democrats
donald trump
republicans


In State of the Union, Trump cites 'moral duty' to build wall and blasts 'partisan' probes

Abstract: WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump cast his fight against illegal migration to the U.S. as a moral struggle, and charged in his second State of the Union address that “partisan investigations” threaten economic progress under his administration. “We have a moral duty to create an immigration system that protects the lives and jobs of our citizens,” Trump said. “No issue better illustrates the divide between America’s working class and America’s political class than illegal immigration. “Wealthy politicians and donors push for open borders while living their lives behind walls and gates and guards,” he said. Trump’s address comes with a second partial government shutdown looming in just 10 days if the president and congressional Democrats can’t resolve their differences over funding his proposed wall on the U.S. border with Mexico. His speech was delayed by a week because of the shutdown, which ended Jan. 25 after Trump capitulated to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who refused to consider money for the wall while the government was closed. “I will get it built,” Trump vowed, without offering Democrats any reason to vote for his top campaign promise. While White House aides said in advance of Trump’s speech that he would attempt to strike a bipartisan tone, he derided his opponents and attacked unspecified investigations of his administration without mentioning Special Counsel Robert Mueller by name. He boasted of “an economic miracle” taking place under his leadership and said, “the only thing that can stop it are foolish wars, politics or ridiculous partisan investigations. If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation. It just doesn’t work that way.” Those remarks were met with cheers on the Republican side of the chamber and audible groans on the Democratic side. Pelosi’s office responded with a tweet. “Sorry, sir,” her office said. “But Article 1 of the Constitution is the legislative branch. And it has the responsibility to exercise oversight of the other branches of government. We would be delinquent in our duties if we failed to provide the necessary oversight. #SOTU” Trump’s attempt to cast his immigration position in moral terms rebuts critics including Pelosi and Pope Francis. She has called Trump’s proposed wall “immoral,” and the pope has said of the president’s immigration policies that “a person who only thinks of building walls, and not building bridges, is not Christian.” Pelosi sat on the dais in the House chamber, watching over his shoulder as Trump delivered his speech. She had little visible reaction to his immigration remarks. The divisions between the two parties were stark, as many female lawmakers on the Democratic side of the chamber plan wore suffragette white. The Republican side was dominated by men in dark suits. A rare moment of comity broke out after Trump celebrated job gains by women. Democratic women stood, applauding and cheering. “You weren’t supposed to do that,” Trump said, smiling. “Don’t sit yet, you’re going to like this.” He then noted that a record number of women are serving in Congress, leading the Democratic women stand again and chant, “USA! USA!” Republicans across the room smiled and some clapped. “That’s great,” Trump said. Trump challenged Democrats, who are preparing to conduct oversight of many aspects of his administration, to “reject the politics of revenge, resistance and retribution — and embrace the boundless potential of cooperation, compromise and common good. “Together, we can break decades of political stalemate. We can bridge old divisions, heal old wounds, build new coalitions, forge new solutions and unlock the extraordinary promise of America’s future,” Trump said — just months after he campaigned for Republicans in midterm elections by demonizing Democrats in a zealous and unapologetic appeal to his base supporters. Rising Democratic star and former Georgia gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams planned to argue in the party’s televised response that Trump and Republicans have left the nation’s middle class behind by abandoning the values of fairness and equality. “In Georgia and around the country, people are striving for a middle class where a salary truly equals economic security,” Abrams said in an excerpt released in advance. “But instead, families’ hopes are being crushed by Republican leadership that ignores real life or just doesn’t understand it.” Hours before the speech, the Republican-controlled Senate rebuked Trump for his Syria and Afghanistan policies, a rare step for the body. A measure that passed 77-23 included a provision authored by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that urges Trump not to exit military conflicts in the two countries. But Trump will defend his efforts to get the U.S. out of long-running conflicts in Syria and Afghanistan. “As a candidate for president, I pledged a new approach,” Trump will say, according to the advance excerpts. “Great nations do not fight endless wars.” Trump vowed in December to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria “now,” though he and his aides have since tempered the promise saying the move would be gradual. In Afghanistan, Trump wants to bring home 14,000 American troops without plunging the country into chaos. After losing more than 2,300 U.S. soldiers and spending more than $900 billion in Afghanistan since 2001, critics say the U.S. risks losing hard-won gains in what has become America’s longest war. His administration is seeking an agreement with the Taliban that would include a commitment to prevent terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and Islamic State from continuing to use Afghanistan as a base of operations.

donald trump
immigration
congress
democrats
republicans
u.s .
russia probe


Despite bipartisan sheen, Trump's State of the Union also touched all the right buttons with his base

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Even as he appealed for unity, President Donald Trump made it clear in his State of the Union address on Tuesday that his idea of common ground is having Democrats back his policy agenda and stop investigating his administration. For all of Trump’s talk about bridging “old divisions” and pursuing bipartisan initiatives, Trump previewed the well-trod themes that will power his 2020 re-election campaign: a hard line on immigration and border security, a deep suspicion of trade deals, and an “America First” foreign policy. This time, the dissonance between Trump’s words and the political reality was more jarring than ever. For the first time in his presidency, Trump had a Democrat seated behind him in the House chamber, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and spoke to a Congress where Democrats share power with Republicans. Beyond Capitol Hill, the field of Democrats seeking to challenge Trump for the presidency is growing by the week. The speech suggested that Trump, while talking up such lofty bipartisan goals such as combating HIV and childhood cancer, was signaling to his most passionate supporters that he was not about to compromise on the issues that matter most to them. “While there were many unifying moments, the president took time to appeal to his base over issues that split the parties such as investigations, immigration and abortion,” said Ron Bonjean, a longtime Republican strategist in Washington. “Nothing has changed after tonight’s delivery by Trump because both sides are simply too dug in to allow any sort of major compromise legislation to occur,” Bonjean said. Fresh off a month-long partial government shutdown that damaged him politically, Trump showed no inclination he would back off his demand for more than $5 billion for a barrier along the U.S. border with Mexico — and in fact used a large portion of the speech to make his case for the wall to the American people. In doing so, Trump employed much of same rhetoric he used during last year’s congressional elections, warning of an “onslaught” of migrants from Central America, labeling the border “lawless” and declaring that “countless” Americans had been murdered by illegal immigrants. For a reminder of how his party fared in those midterm elections, Trump only had to look at the sea of white outfits worn by Democratic women in attendance on the House floor. They chanted “USA! USA!” when Trump recognized their achievement. Regardless, Trump delivered a stark warning to Democrats such as Pelosi who have said they will push to hold his administration accountable: Back off, or I won’t work with you. “If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation,” Trump said. “It just doesn’t work that way.” And in talking about the vibrant American economy, Trump implied he would be quick to blame Democrats for any slowdown. Trump also re-stoked America’s culture wars, spending a portion of the speech blasting abortion-rights legislation in New York and Virginia, a move that will endear him to evangelical voters. “There was very little difference between this speech and what you’d hear at one of his campaign rallies,” said Doug Thornell, a longtime Democratic congressional aide. “To many people this speech will be remembered for his continued obsession with the wall, the demonization of immigrants, and his bizarre attack on congressional investigations. Truly stunning.” But Alex Conant, a former top aide to Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio, said that Trump succeeded in showing that he was open to working with Democrats on issues such as prescription drug prices. “After a tough couple of weeks, this was the reset that Trump needed,” Conant said. “He laid out a popular agenda and framed the big political issues of the day in the most favorable way possible.” There are clear signs that the showdown over the border wall has dinged the president: The most recent Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll had Trump’s approval rating at a shade over 39 percent, the lowest it has been since early last October. The number of Americas who disapprove of Trump’s job performance stood at more than 56 percent. With Trump’s re-election campaign set to begin in earnest, the president must also await the final determination of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating ties between Trump’s campaign team and Russian officials as well as possible obstruction of justice. A year ago, Trump made a similar plea for bread-breaking with Democrats, only to have the year swallowed up by scorched-earth congressional elections, a divisive fight over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, and finally the 35-day government shutdown. All the while, Trump regularly blasted Democrats on his Twitter feed as unhelpful, obstructionist and unpatriotic. “There is no reason to think he wants unity. He thrives on disunity,” said John Geer, an expert on public opinion at Vanderbilt University. “The president may call for working together, but past behavior suggests otherwise.”

donald trump
democrats
congress
republicans
2020 u.s. presidential election


U.S. must probe if American weapons went to Yemen militias, including al-Qaida and Iran-backed rebels: general

Abstract: WASHINGTON - The U.S. must examine whether American-made military gear in Yemen is being transferred to unintended recipients, including al-Qaida and Iran-backed rebels, a top general said on Tuesday. Gen. Joseph Votel, who heads U.S. Central Command covering the Middle East, expressed concern to senators about a CNN investigation that found weaponry and equipment provided by the U.S. to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates has ended up being used across war-torn Yemen by a number of militias. “We have to look more closely at the allegations in this particular situation to find out what happened,” Votel told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We will have to examine that better.” Recipients of United States defense equipment must agree not to re-export or transfer that gear without first getting U.S. authorization. According to CNN, the Washington-backed, Saudi-led coalition that is fighting the Houthi rebels in Yemen has transferred American-made weapons and military vehicles to al-Qaida-linked fighters, hard-line Salafi militias and other groups. The network showed footage of mine-resistant U.S.-made military vehicles no longer in coalition custody and said U.S. weapons could be ordered for purchase in a market. “We take allegations of misuse of U.S.-origin defense equipment very seriously, and initiate investigations promptly upon receiving credible evidence,” Pentagon spokesman Johnny Michael said. Any investigation would ultimately be conducted by the U.S. State Department, which said it is aware of the report and is seeking additional information. “While battlefield losses of equipment do occur in active conflict zones, we expect all recipients of U.S. origin defense equipment to abide by their end- use obligations and not retransfer equipment without prior U.S. government authorization,” a State Department spokesman told AFP. Yemen’s rebels are mired in a war with government forces backed since 2015 by a Saudi-led coalition. The conflict has triggered what the U.N. calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with millions of people at risk of starvation. The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate in December approved a largely symbolic resolution to end U.S. military support for Riyadh’s intervention in Yemen. Washington has also carried out a long-running drone war against Yemen’s al-Qaida branch, which has taken advantage of the chaos in Yemen to strengthen its own operations, particularly in the country’s south. The Pentagon sees al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula as the jihadist network’s most dangerous branch, and has intensified its strikes against AQAP since President Donald Trump took office in 2017. In Iraq in 2014, as the national army collapsed in the face of an onslaught by the Islamic State group, much of the Iraqis’ U.S.-provided weaponry was captured by the jihadis and used in their rampage.

weapons
yemen
joseph votel
cnn
saudi arabia
donald trump
u.s .
uae