Tokyo stocks tumble on global economic slowdown concerns

Abstract: Stocks nose-dived on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Friday over rekindled fears about a global economic slowdown, forcing the benchmark Nikkei average to give up more than 400 points. The 225-issue average tumbled 430.45 points, or 2.01 percent, to end at 21,025.56, after breaching the 21,000 line for the first time since Feb. 15 on an intraday basis. On Thursday, the Nikkei fell 140.80 points. The Topix index of all first-section issues finished down 29.22 points, or 1.82 percent, at 1,572.44, after losing 13.59 points the previous day. Stocks fell sharply right after the opening bell, hit by heavy risk-averse selling spurred by overnight sell-offs in the European and U.S. markets. Investors shied away from stocks and other risk assets in the wake of the European Central Bank sharply cutting its growth forecasts for the eurozone on Thursday. The ECB also decided at its policy-setting meeting to start a new program to supply liquidity to the banking system and refrain from raising interest rates this year. The ECB moves hurt market sentiment, which had already been soured since China lowered its 2019 growth target, brokers said. Stocks accelerated their downswings after the release of export data by China that were far weaker than expected, they also said. Many participants cited the yen’s strengthening against the dollar as another damper to the market. Ryuta Otsuka, strategist at the investment information department of Toyo Securities Co., said stocks were “sold excessively,” observing that investors overreacted to the projected slowdown in the EU economy, which was something that had already been expected. Investor attention has shifted from rosy events to dismal ones, including not only macroeconomic developments but domestic corporate activities, such as a big chip production cut by Renesas Electronics Corp. and Mizuho Financial Group Inc.’s profit warning, said Masayuki Otani, chief market analyst at Securities Japan Inc. Falling issues overwhelmed rising ones 2,003 to 107 in the TSE’s first section, while 23 issues were unchanged. Volume swelled to 1.67 billion shares from Thursday’s 1.25 billion shares, thanks partly to active transactions linked to the fixing of special quotations to settle March index futures and option contracts. Financials were battered by drops in U.S. long-term interest rates. Megabank group Mitsubishi UFJ lost 2.25 percent, and insurer Dai-ichi Life plunged 4.78 percent. Kawasaki Kisen dived 12.63 percent after the shipping firm sharply lowered its net profit estimate for the year ending this month. Other major losers included clothing store chain Fast Retailing and chipmaking gear manufacturer Tokyo Electron. Among the handful winners was Sekisui House, which gained 1.42 percent on strong earnings. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key June contract on the Nikkei average tumbled 460 points to end at 20,770.

stocks
tokyo stock exchange
nikkei
topix


Growth fears and Chinese equity plunge haunt global stocks

Abstract: LONDON - Deepening fears for the health of the global economy pushed world stocks to three-week lows on Friday after China exports contracted by a fifth, sending shares in some of the country’s key indexes more than 4 percent lower. The February data out of Beijing came in well below expectations of a 4.8 percent drop and worsened the already brittle mood on world markets, after European Central Bank slashed growth forecasts and unveiled a new round of policy stimulus on Thursday. While the timing of the Lunar New Year made it difficult to draw a true signal from the China data noise, the scale of the drop was alarming, especially when coupled with somber new data from Germany and Norway. The data knocked Chinese stocks off the 20-month highs hit earlier in the week, with mainland equity indexes plunging more than 4 percent in their worst day in five months. Japan’s Nikkei. closed 2 percent lower. The dark mood spilled into European stock markets where the STOXX 600 index slipped 0.7 percent, poised for the first weekly drop in a month. “The trade data from China is a big part of it,” said Fiera Capital’s co-chief Investment Officer Julian Mayo. “Our own view is that the Chinese economy is slower than people generally think, but I think the world economy is probably slower than people think. So you put those two together and it is not surprising that the trade data was weaker than expected.” European auto and financial stocks were at the forefront, both sectors slipping nearly 2 percent. A surprise decline in German industrial orders added concerns over the health of China’s economy, while financials nursed losses for a second day after the European Central Bank cut its growth forecasts and pushed out an interest rate hike. ECB President Mario Draghi said the economy was in “a period of continued weakness and pervasive uncertainty” as he pushed out a planned rate hike and instead offered banks a new round of cheap loans. MSCI’s 47-country benchmark world index dropped for a fifth straight session- its longest losing streak since December’s rout. The pressure looked to continue on Wall Street, with S&P 500 E-Mini futures easing 0.4 percent. Yet the cocktail of growth woes and dovish central banks proved a boon for bonds. Germany’s benchmark 10-year bond yield took a step closer to zero percent and both German and French benchmark yields were at their lowest level since 2016- the year that saw the ECB ramp up stimulus and cut rates to fight deflation and weak economic growth. “The ECB has had a bullish impact on bond markets and that is set to continue,” said Ciaran O’Hagan, rates strategist at Societe Generale in Paris. “We were not expecting something so clear, so soon, and markets were not either, so bond yields are likely to stay low for longer.” U.S. 10-year Treasury yields touched a fresh two week low 2.627 percent. On currency markets, the euro inched up to $1.1216 after tumbling 1 percent on Thursday to touch $1.1176- its lowest since June 2017. The dollar weakened 0.2 percent after reaching a new 2019 high against a basket of currencies that includes the euro as traders bet the United States would fare better than Europe in the coming months, despite some soft patches in the U.S. economy. Investors will be scouring U.S. payrolls data for February due out later in the day, with analysts uncertain how much payback there might be for January’s outsized jump. There was also a chance the jobless rate could fall by more than forecast, given the recent strength in employment. In commodity markets, oil prices eased as U.S. crude output and exports climbed to record highs, undermining efforts by producer club OPEC to tighten global markets. Oil futures fell around $1 with U.S. crude at $55.75 a barrel, while Brent crude fell to $65.14.

equities
stocks
bonds
foreign exchange
fx


Suntory says it may hike price of its U.S. subsidiary's whiskey in EU due to tariff dispute

Abstract: NEW YORK - Suntory Holdings Ltd. is considering raising the prices of whiskey products a U.S. subsidiary sells in Europe due to the negative earnings impact from punitive European Union tariffs against the United States, Suntory President Takeshi Niinami has said. The EU introduced 25 percent tariffs on U.S. goods, including whiskey, in June last year in retaliation against restrictions on steel and aluminum imports put in force by Washington. Beam Suntory Inc., a major American distilled spirit maker acquired by the Japanese beverage producer in 2014, sells bourbon whiskey products such as Jim Beam globally. “We hope to manage price hikes well in April or later,” Niinami said in a recent interview. Niinami, however, suggested that the company will not increase its prices by more than 10 percent, considering the sluggish European economy and the rising popularity of Scotch whisky thanks to a drop in the British pound. According to Niinami, Suntory may skip the price hike or change the size of the markup depending on the region. He also said Beam Suntory aims to grab the largest market share for U.S.-made whiskey by 2025. By expanding sales of products jointly developed with the help of Japanese technologies, Beam Suntory hopes to overtake Brown-Forman Corp., the maker of Jack Daniel’s and the top whiskey supplier in the United States, according to Niinami. On Thursday, Suntory Holdings said that later this month it will release in the United States a new bourbon whiskey called Legent, which was developed jointly with Beam Suntory and will be blended like a Japanese whisky. “With the completion of this product, we also finished the integration with Beam,” Niinami said.

suntory
eu
tariffs
takeshi niinami
beam suntory
whisky
u.s .
trade
drinking
trade war


IHI finds at least 200 cases of improper airplane engine inspections at Tokyo plant

Abstract: Heavy machinery maker IHI Corp. said Friday it has found 211 cases in which airplane engines were improperly inspected over the past two years, including by uncertified workers. It has also found cases where qualified workers did not follow the prescribed order in conducting maintenance work and where inspectors falsified the inspection dates, according to an interim report released Friday. The supplier of Boeing Co. and Airbus S.A.S. said a shortage of inspectors and other factors led to misconduct that began in January 2017, at the latest, in a Tokyo factory where IHI provides maintenance for around 100 to 150 engines a year. IHI first admitted to the misconduct on Tuesday. There are no problems in the capability and performance of the affected engines, the company said. IHI is the latest major manufacturer to become embroiled in a scandal over quality control. Subaru Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. revealed some of their vehicles had been inspected by unqualified workers, while Kobe Steel Ltd. and Mitsubishi Materials Corp. admitted to fabricating product data. The machinery giant examined around 40,000 inspection records from the past two years after an on-site inspection by the transport ministry early this year identified malpractice. IHI received a whistleblower report in April last year pointing to possible misconduct in inspecting airplane engines after routine repair and maintenance operations. But the company later concluded, in its own probe, that no misdeeds had been committed. The transport ministry has ordered eight other companies in the industry to report by early April on whether they have found similar misconduct.


Companies led by ex-Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn donated to his children's school and Paris ball

Abstract: Companies headed by Carlos Ghosn, the embattled former head of Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA, made donations to his children’s school and the posh debutantes’ ball in Paris where his daughters were presented. The contributions, first reported by L’Express Magazine, were confirmed by the organizations involved. The gifts are the latest revelations about Ghosn’s use of company funds, including an extended weekend for eight couples at Rio de Janeiro’s Carnival and lavish events at the Versailles Palace. The disclosures come as the carmakers audit the Dutch company that oversees their partnership, with the conclusions expected by the end of March. The alliance had a budget of €900,000 in 2018 for “donations and sponsors,” L’Express said. Ghosn, 64, was released on bail Wednesday after being held for 108 days in a Tokyo prison on charges of underreporting his income and breach of trust at Nissan. Gaining his liberty will allow him more time to prepare his legal defense for a trial that may be months away, and to defend himself in the court of public opinion. He has denied wrongdoing. The Renault-Nissan alliance and Ghosn’s family are listed as donors by the American School of Paris for the construction of its new campus, which includes a “Ghosn room.” His son Anthony attended the school, as did his daughter Maya, according to her LinkedIn profile. In a statement, the school said the auto alliance “has been a valued partner.” Renault began supporting the debutantes’ ball in Paris, an event typically held each year for 25 young high-society women, a decade ago. Ghosn’s daughter Nadine attended in 2005, and Caroline in 2006, while Anthony put in an appearance in 2013, said Ophelie Renouard, the ball’s organizer. Renouard invited the Ghosn daughters after she saw their father on the cover of the French magazine Le Nouvel Economiste in 2005 and was struck by his international profile and links to Asia, she said. Ghosn was named CEO of Renault that year. He served as Nissan CEO from 2001 to 2017. The sponsorship relationship was “legitimate,” Renouard said, and involved the use of Twingo cars, with Renault getting a table at the event. “Renault was seeking positive coverage in Asia, where we are quite strong, with a presence in China, Japan and the Philippines,” she said. The sponsorship for the 2019 edition of the ball was signed in October, according to Renouard, who personally invited Anthony Ghosn to attend the glitzy event in 2013, when his father and sister Nadine also joined. A spokeswoman for the Ghosn family said Renault had a sponsorship relationship with the debutantes’ ball that helped the carmakers’ image, as well as a policy to support the schools attended by the children of its expatriate staff. It’s not unusual for international companies to make such contributions, she said. Spokesmen for Renault and the Renault-Nissan alliance declined to comment. Ghosn was ousted as chairman of Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. shortly after his November arrest and resigned in January as chairman and chief executive officer of Renault, thus losing his position atop the alliance. His downfall has triggered tension within the carmaking pact, which is intertwined by cross-shareholdings.

nissan
carlos ghosn
renault
france
scandals


Japan's Toyota Tsusho to run Myanmar's first car auction

Abstract: YANGON - Toyota Tsusho Corp., the Toyota Motor Corp. group’s trading arm, will hold Myanmar’s first car auction later this month with local startup Rebbiz Co., with the aim of building a marketplace for used car transactions. T.T.A.S. Co., the official local dealership of Toyota Motor, has said they will host the first such auction in Yangon on March 16 and 17, and that they plan to sell more than 200 cars. The firm is also the operator of CarsDB, Myanmar’s largest online automobile market. Cars expected to be sold at the auction include Toyota, Ford, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Chevrolet and Land Rover models, of which 80 to 90 percent are used vehicles, the partners said at a recent news conference in Yangon. Automobile imports to the Southeast Asian nation have grown since 2011, when decadeslong military-junta control was replaced by civilian rule. There are an estimated 800,000 registered vehicles in the country. New vehicle sales stood at about 17,500 in 2018, according to the Automotive Association of Myanmar. But Daiki Kato, managing director of Toyota Tsusho’s wholly owned dealership, said that the vast majority of vehicles there do not go through proper inspection for resale, with details of past accidents or theft concealed in order to sell them. CarsDB posts trade information on 15,000 vehicles on its website, which has over 200,000 subscribers. The company has about 1.2 million Facebook followers. For the upcoming auction, the firm will screen all vehicles for quality. Toyota Tsusho has conducted car auctions in China, India and Indonesia. It has also established a local unit in Indonesia, where it sold about 61,000 vehicles in 2018.


Airbus enters March with four orders, for Bombardier jet, and 103 cancellations

Abstract: LONDON - Two months into 2019, Airbus SE has logged cancellations for 103 jetliners and garnered a grand total of four new sales — and the sales were for the A220 plane manufactured in Canada by Bombardier Inc. The deal for the A220s — formerly the Bombardier C Series — with Pacific Ocean carrier Air Vanuatu represented Airbus’s only new business in February and broke an order drought in January. Cancellations last month included 42 A350 wide-bodies jettisoned by unprofitable Persian Gulf carrier Etihad Airways and 25 single-aisle A320neos that had been ordered by Germania, which has filed for bankruptcy. February also featured 23 cancellations for the A380 superjumbo after Airbus said the flagship program would be wound up early: 20 at leasing firm Amedeo and three originally ordered by Russia’s now defunct Transaero and later assigned to Air Accord. Those losses follow the scrapping in January of eight A380 orders at Australia’s Qantas Airways and five A220s contracted to a private buyer. Airbus said it won’t record the cancellation of 39 A380s at Dubai-based Emirates until details are finalized. That should also allow it to book its first major orders this year, for 30 A350s and 40 smaller A330neos that the Persian Gulf carrier has said it will buy.


Trump asks military to house 5,000 child migrants amid mounting 'crisis' at Mexican border: Pentagon

Abstract: WASHINGTON - The Trump administration has asked the U.S. Department of Defense to prepare to house up to 5,000 unaccompanied illegal immigrant children amid what it calls a mounting “crisis” at the border, the Pentagon said Thursday. The Department of Health and Human Services, “requested DoD support to identify space to house up to 5,000 unaccompanied alien children on DoD installations, if needed, through September 30, 2019,” said Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Col. Jamie Davis. “DoD will work with the military services to identify potential locations for such support, and will work with HHS to assess any DoD facilities or suitable DoD land for potential use to provide temporary shelter for unaccompanied alien children,” he said.

pentagon
immigration
u.s .
mexico
donald trump
border wall


Mexican journalist seeking U.S. asylum again ordered deported as judge calls fears of death 'merely speculative'

Abstract: HOUSTON - A Mexican journalist has again been ordered deported from the United States despite his fear that his past stories about corruption make him a target in one of the world’s most dangerous countries for reporters. The attorney for Emilio Gutierrez Soto and his son, Oscar, said Thursday that he would appeal an immigration judge’s decision denying them asylum. Judge Robert Hough’s Feb. 28 order says Emilio Gutierrez Soto’s testimony was not credible and that he had not shown that he would be singled out for his reporting on the Mexican military were he to return now. Press freedom advocates have highlighted Gutierrez’s articles that alleged military forces were robbing and extorting local people in Chihuahua, which borders New Mexico and part of West Texas. He and Oscar Gutierrez Soto entered the U.S. in 2008. Gutierrez says he was threatened for writing those articles and fears he will be targeted if forced to return to Mexico. Hough said that those fears were “merely speculative” given the decade that’s passed since the articles were published. The judge also said Mexico “has laws which protect free speech and the government generally respects these rights.” Eight journalists were killed in Mexico last year in connection with their reporting work, according to Reporters Without Borders, more than any other country besides Afghanistan. Two journalists in Mexico have already been killed this year. In many parts of the country, drug cartels and organized crime gangs are largely free to harass and murder reporters with impunity. The asylum request made by Gutierrez and his son was first denied in July 2017, and they were taken into detention that December during a check-in with immigration authorities. The two were released in July, two months after an immigration appeals court ordered a new asylum hearing. Their attorney, Eduardo Beckett, said Thursday that the two were not under immediate threat of deportation after the order, but are under a “dark cloud … which causes much anxiety and stress not knowing the final result.” “It is well documented that persons who have filed complaints or have gone public against government authorities have paid with their lives,” Beckett said in an email. The National Press Club said it would mobilize in support of the Gutierrez family. Emilio Gutierrez is currently serving a journalism fellowship at the University of Michigan.

emilio gutierrez soto
mexico
reporters without borders
murder
u.s .
refugees


Chimps have diverse 'cultures' in need of conservation as habitats decline, study says

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Some chimpanzee groups are stone-throwers. Some use rocks to crack open nuts to eat. Others use sticks to fish for algae. As researchers learn more about Homo sapiens’ closest living genetic relatives, they are also discovering more about the diversity of behaviors within chimpanzee groups — activities learned, at least in part socially, and passed from generation to generation. These patterns are referred to as “traditions” — or even animal “culture.” In a new study, scientists argue that this diversity of behaviors should be protected as species are safeguarded, and that they are now under threat from human disturbance. “What we mean by ‘culture’ is something you learn socially from your group members that you may not learn if you were born into a different chimpanzee group,” said Ammie Kalan, a primatologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. “As chimpanzee populations decline and their habitats become fragmented, we can see a stark decline in chimpanzee behavioral diversity,” said Kalan, co-author of the sweeping new study, published Thursday in the journal Science. The 10-year study, led by researchers at the Max Planck Institute and the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research, examines data on 144 chimpanzee communities in Africa and the occurrence of 31 specific behaviors, such as tool usage or rock throwing. The regions with the least human impact showed the greatest variety in chimp behaviors. But areas greatly altered by logging, road-building, climate change and other human activities showed markedly less behavioral diversity — an 88 percent lower probability of exhibiting all behaviors. Multiple factors drive the loss. “With the increase of human disturbance, chimps may not be able to live in such large groups anymore — and it has been shown that group size is connected with social learning,” said co-author Hjalmar Kuehl, also a primatologist at the Max Planck Institute. For example, researchers studying chimpanzee groups in parts of West Africa encountered mysterious piles of stones alongside battered tree trunks. The rocks had been thrown against the trees by chimpanzees for reasons still unclear to the scientists who first documented the behavior in 2016. Perhaps the purpose was to mark territory, or proclaim dominance within a group, or start a game, or something else, the biologists surmised. But not all chimpanzees are stone-throwers. Some groups use stones to crack open tree nuts. Researchers recently discovered an archaeological site in West Africa that showed chimpanzees had used stones there for nut-cracking for more than 4,000 years. Elsewhere in West Africa, sticks were the tools of choice, with young chimps in Guinea learning from their elders to use them to “fish” in lakes for long strands of algae to eat. Or, in Nigeria, to poke termite mounds to gather the insects for food. Sixty years ago, scientists had limited knowledge of chimpanzees in the wild, until researcher Jane Goodall first recorded behaviors like tool usage, which previously were associated only with humans. In 1999, Goodall and other scientists popularized the phrase “chimpanzee cultures” in an article in the journal Science. The use of the term has ignited debate ever since — including resistance from some anthropologists— but also launched further research. Most likely genetics and socially learned behavior interact to form animal “culture” in chimpanzees and other species, said Carl Safina, an ecologist and author of several books on animal behavior who was not involved in the study. This has implications for conservation. “We have come to understand that behavioral diversity matters for protecting species,” said Andrew Whiten, an evolutionary psychologist and zoologist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland who was not involved in the study. “The greater the diversity of behavior, the more likely a species will be able to deal with future changes and challenges in their environment,” he said. “It’s not good news when their options are limited.” Last month, Whiten co-authored a “Policy Forum” article in Science, titled “Animal cultures matter for conservation,” arguing that policy-makers should include behavioral diversity alongside other measures of biodiversity. “Culture is not the tip of the iceberg for these great apes — some kind of nice luxury — but an intrinsic and essential part of their local adaptation,” Carel van Schaik, an anthropologist at the University of Zurich who was not involved in the new study, wrote in an email. Lydia Luncz, a primatologist at the University of Oxford, agrees. “We are far from understanding yet what is the cultural repertoire of chimps,” said Luncz, who also was not involved in the study. “It would be a tragedy to lose more of the cultural heritage of our closest living relatives.”

max planck institute for evolutionary anthropology


NASA captures unprecedented images of supersonic shock waves with help of 'rock star' pilots

Abstract: WASHINGTON - NASA has captured unprecedented photos of the interaction of shock waves from two supersonic aircraft, part of its research into developing planes that can fly faster than sound without thunderous “sonic booms.” When an aircraft crosses that threshold — around 1,225 kph (760 mph) at sea level — it produces waves from the pressure it puts on the air around it, which merge to cause the ear-splitting sound. In an intricate maneuver by “rock star” pilots at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, two supersonic T-38 jets flew just 30 feet (nine meters) apart below another plane waiting to photograph them with an advanced, high-speed camera, the agency said. The rendezvous — at an altitude of around 30,000 feet — yielded mesmerizing images of the shock waves emanating from both planes. With one jet flying just behind the other, “the shocks are going to be shaped differently,” said Neal Smith of AerospaceComputing Inc., an engineering firm that works with NASA, in a post on the agency’s website. “This data is really going to help us advance our understanding of how these shocks interact.” Sonic booms can be a major nuisance, capable of not just startling people on the ground but also causing damage — like shattered windows — and this has led to strong restrictions on supersonic flight over land in jurisdictions like the United States. The ability to capture such detailed images of shock waves will be “crucial” to NASA’s development of the X-59, the agency said, an experimental supersonic plane it hopes will be able to break the sound barrier with just a rumble instead of a sonic boom. A breakthrough like that could lead to the loosening of flight restrictions and the return of commercial supersonic planes for the first time since Concorde was retired in 2003. Some countries and cities banned the Franco-British airliner from their airspace because of its sonic booms.


Scientists begin exploring depths off Seychelles to gauge warming effects on last unexplored frontier

Abstract: ALPHONSE ATOLL, SEYCHELLES - An unprecedented mission to explore the Indian Ocean and document changes taking place beneath the waves began its research on Thursday, in Seychelles waters. The British-led Nekton Mission arrived off the tiny atoll of Alphonse in the early morning hours, after looming bad weather forced a change of plan and of route. The ambitious expedition will delve into one of the last major unexplored frontiers on the planet, a vast body of water that’s already feeling the effects of global warming. Understanding the Indian Ocean’s ecosystem is important not just for the species that live in it, but also for an estimated 2.5 billion people at home in the region — from East Africa to the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian sub-continent and Southeast Asia. Though the mission will use hi-tech submersibles in its work, research began on Thursday with more modest equipment: a device to measure the water’s chemistry and a Neuston net used to retrieve zooplankton. “When you actually finally begin doing the science, it’s a bit of a relief and a lot of fun,” said Louise Allcock, a professor of zoology at the University of Ireland, in Galway. Alphonse is a tiny atoll, the tip of a submerged mountain, 232 nautical miles southwest of Seychelles’ capital Victoria. Within two miles of its shores, the ocean is as deep as 5,000 meters (3 miles). Little is known about the biodiversity of Alphonse Atoll, as it remains unexplored beyond scuba depth. Mission member Stephanie Marie is a marine researcher from the Seychelles. She recently spent a week on Alphonse working on a study of a fish species called the Giant Trevally, or GT. She says she is excited to find out what’s down there. “When you have amazing weather, you have a lot of things to see, like the sharks, the GT, the corals also, so it’s like a different place, a different scenery every time,” she said. Marie’s role is to collect zooplankton to conduct taxonomy identification. “I’m really excited. It’s going to be eye opening, because I’ve never seen so deep,” she said. “It’s really important. Fish feed on zooplankton, so we need to see its quality, because if the ecosystems changes it may have an impact on the fish we feed on.” The mission expects to discover new species, as well as document evidence of climate change and of human-driven pollution. The data will be used to help the Seychelles consolidate and expand its policy of protecting almost a third of its national waters by 2020. The sea area to be protected is larger than Germany. The initiative is a key component of Seychelles “blue economy,” which attempts to balance development needs with those of the ocean environment. The Associated Press is the only news agency working with British scientists from the Nekton research team on its deep-sea mission that aims to unlock the secrets of the Indian Ocean. AP video coverage will include exploring the depths of up to 300 meters (1,000 feet) off the coast of the Seychelles in two-person submarines which will search for underwater mountain ranges and previously undiscovered marine life, a behind-the-scenes look at life on board, interviews with researchers and aerial footage of the mission. The seven-week Seychelles expedition is expected to run until April 19.

seychelles
indian ocean
oceans
nekton mission
global warming
environment


Megaphones, hacking, propaganda: Robert Mueller details Russian U.S. election meddling

Abstract: WASHINGTON - From breaking into computers to paying for a megaphone, Russian efforts to undermine the U.S. political system have been spelled out in detail by special counsel Robert Mueller, who has described an elaborate campaign of hacking and propaganda during the 2016 presidential race. While Mueller has yet to submit to U.S. Attorney General William Barr a final report on his investigation into Russia’s role in the election, the former FBI director already has provided a sweeping account in a pair of indictments that charged 25 Russian individuals and three Russian companies. Key questions still to be answered are whether Mueller will conclude that Trump’s campaign conspired with Moscow and whether Trump unlawfully sought to obstruct the probe. Trump has denied collusion and obstruction. Russia has denied election interference. Here is an explanation of Mueller’s findings about Russian activities and U.S. intelligence assessments of the ongoing threat: WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT RUSSIAN “TROLL FARMS”? On Feb. 16, 2018, Mueller charged 13 Russian individuals and three Russian entities with conspiracy to defraud the United States, wire and bank fraud and identity theft. It said the Internet Research Agency, a Russian-backed propaganda arm known for trolling on social media, flooded American social media sites Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram to promote Trump and spread disparaging information about his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. The indictment said the Russian efforts dated to 2014, before Trump’s candidacy, and were intended to sow discord in the United States. The St. Petersburg-based so-called troll farm employed hundreds of people for its online operations and had a multimillion-dollar budget, according to the indictment. It had a management group and departments including graphics, data analysis and search-engine optimization. Employees worked day and night shifts corresponding to U.S. time zones. Its funding was provided by Evgeny Prigozhin, a businessman who U.S. officials have said has extensive ties to Russia’s military and political establishment, and companies he controlled, including Concord Management and Consulting and Concord Catering. Prigozhin has been described by Russian media as being close to President Vladimir Putin. He has been dubbed “Putin’s cook” because his catering business has organized banquets for Russia’s president. The Russians targeted Americans with information warfare, adopting false online personas and creating hundreds of social media accounts to push divisive messages and spread distrust of candidates and America’s political system in general, the indictment said. They aimed to denigrate Clinton and support the candidacies of Trump, who won the Republican presidential nomination, and Bernie Sanders, her rival for the Democratic nomination. HOW WERE AMERICANS UNWITTINGLY RECRUITED? In Florida, a pivotal state in U.S. presidential elections, the Russians steered unwitting Americans to pro-Trump rallies they conceived and organized. The indictment said the Russians paid “a real U.S. person to wear a costume portraying Clinton in a prison uniform at a rally” and another “to build a cage large enough to hold an actress depicting Clinton in a prison uniform.” The accused Russians used false Facebook persona “Matt Skier” to contact a real American to recruit for a “March for Trump” rally, offering “money to print posters and get a megaphone,” the indictment said. They created an Instagram account “Woke Blacks” to encourage African-Americans not to vote for “Killary,” saying, “We’d surely be better off without voting AT ALL.” Fake social media accounts were used to post messages saying American Muslims should refuse to vote for Clinton “because she wants to continue the war on Muslims in the Middle East.” Alternatively, they took out Facebook ads promoting a June 2016 rally in Washington, “Support Hillary. Save American Muslims” rally. They recruited an American to hold up a sign with a quote falsely attributed to Clinton that embraced Islamic sharia law, the indictment said. Some of the accused Russians traveled around the United States to gather intelligence, the indictment said, visiting at least 10 states: California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Texas. WHAT ROLE DID RUSSIAN MILITARY OFFICERS PLAY? On July 13, 2018, Mueller charged 12 Russian military intelligence officers with hacking Democratic Party computer networks in 2016 to steal large amounts of data and then time their release to damage Clinton. The Russian hackers broke into the computer networks of the Clinton campaign and Democratic Party organizations, covertly monitoring employee computers and planting malicious code, as well as stealing emails and other documents, according to the indictment. Using fictitious online personas such as DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, the hackers released tens of thousands of stolen emails and documents. The Guccifer 2.0 persona communicated with Americans, including an unidentified person who was in regular contact with senior members of the Trump campaign, the indictment said. Guccifer 2.0 cooperated extensively with “Organization 1” — the WikiLeaks website — to discuss the timing of the release of stolen documents to “heighten their impact” on the election. On or about July 27, 2016, the Russians tried to break into email accounts used by Clinton’s personal office and her campaign, the indictment said. The same day, candidate Trump told reporters: “Russia, if you are listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” referring to emails from a private server Clinton had used when she was secretary of state. To hide their identity, the Russians laundered money and financed their operation through cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, Mueller’s team said. IS THE THREAT OVER? The U.S. intelligence community’s 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment report cited Russia’s continuing efforts to interfere in the American political system. It stated, “Russia’s social media efforts will continue to focus on aggravating social and racial tensions, undermining trust in authorities, and criticizing perceived anti-Russia politicians. Moscow may employ additional influence toolkits — such as spreading disinformation, conducting hack-and-leak operations or manipulating data — in a more targeted fashion to influence U.S. policy, actions and elections.” The report said Russia and “unidentified actors” as recently as 2018 conducted cyber activity targeting U.S. election infrastructure, though there is no evidence showing “any compromise of our nation’s election infrastructure that would have prevented voting, changed vote counts or disrupted the ability to tally votes.”

propaganda
robert mueller
facebook
instagram
hillary clinton
evgeny prigozhin
wikileaks
donald trump
russia probe
gucifer


Trudeau maintains he didn't apply inappropriate pressure in corruption case

Abstract: TORONTO - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that an “erosion of trust” and “lack of communication” with his former justice minister led her to resign and accuse him of applying inappropriate pressure in a corruption prosecution — a dispute that has shaken his government. But the prime minister made no apologies as he discussed the issue at a nationally televised news conference. Former Justice Minister and Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould told a parliamentary committee last week that Trudeau and senior officials tried to pressure her into instructing prosecutors to avoid criminal prosecution of Montreal-based engineering giant SNC-Lavalin and instead require it to pay fines for alleged bribery in Libya. The case has led to the resignations of two high-profile Cabinet ministers and his top aide, as well as opposition calls for him to step down Trudeau and his aides deny doing anything wrong, saying they were only pointing out that prosecution could endanger thousands of people’s jobs because a conviction would make the company ineligible for government contracts. “In regards to standing up for jobs and defending the integrity of our rule of law, I continue to say there was no inappropriate pressure,” Trudeau said. The prime minister said Wilson-Raybould told him on Sept. 17 that she was declining to seek a remediation agreement, which would allow the company to pay a fine instead of facing criminal prosecution. But Trudeau said he and other officials felt she was still open to arguments on the issue because such an agreement would be possible until the last moments of a trial. “We considered that she was still open to hearing different arguments and different approaches on what her decision could be,” Trudeau said. “What we see now is that she wasn’t prepared to change her mind.” Trudeau said Wilson-Raybould did not come to him to express her concerns about inappropriate pressure and said he wishes she had. He said situations were “experienced differently and I regret that.” “I am obviously reflecting on lessons learned,” he said. “There are things we have to reflect on and understand and do better next time.” Wilson-Raybould was demoted from her role as attorney general and named veterans affairs minister in January as part of a Cabinet shuffle. She resigned weeks later. Wilson-Raybould has said she believes she was demoted for failure to give in to the pressure. Trudeau’s former chief aide, Gerald Butts, denied that in testimony to a parliamentary committee on Wednesday. He said the shakeup, which involved several other Cabinet posts, was due to other factors. Trudeau said he tries to foster an environment where his lawmakers can come to him with concerns, but one of his Liberal party colleagues, Celina Caesar-Chavannes, took issue with that, tweeting, “I did come to you recently. Twice. Remember your reactions?” Caesar-Chavannes, who is not running for re-election, did not elaborate and did not immediately return messages seeking comment. She has issued messages of support for Wilson-Raybould on Twitter. Other Liberal lawmakers have rallied around Trudeau in an election year.

corruption
justin trudeau
jody wilson-raybould
snc-lavalin
libya
canada


Frenchman, a Syria jihad veteran, convicted of Brussels Jewish museum terror murders

Abstract: BRUSSELS - Frenchman Mehdi Nemmouche was found guilty Thursday of the “terrorist murders” of four people at Brussels’ Jewish museum, the first case of a Syria jihad veteran to stage an attack in Europe. Nemmouche, 33, sporting a trimmed beard and wearing a navy blue sweater, showed no emotion and stared into space as the verdict was delivered. He now faces a life sentence for the anti-Semitic attack in the Belgian capital on May 24, 2014, following his return from Syria’s battlefields. Sentencing could be as early as Friday. The 12 jurors, accompanied by the presiding judge and two other magistrates, had deliberated for more than two days in secret at a Brussels hotel before returning their verdict. Nemmouche was found to have killed the four victims in cold blood in less than 90 seconds, but he denied the accusation, telling the court he had been “tricked. This referred to arguments made by defense lawyers that Nemmouche was not to blame for the cold-blooded slaughter, but that he was caught up in some kind of plot targeting the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. The legal argument had centered around Israeli couple Miriam and Emmanuel Riva, the first two of the four people killed in the attack. A young Belgian employee, Alexandre Strens, and French volunteer Dominique Sabrier were also murdered. According to the defense, the museum shooting was not the work of the Islamic State group but a “targeted execution” aimed at Mossad agents. The defense said the Israeli couple who were killed were in fact Mossad agents murdered by another man who had hunted them down. The Riva family’s lawyers have furiously rejected the theory and said attempts to pass off the tourists as secret agents was “an absolute scandal. “Let’s stop the joking,” prosecutor Yves Moreau told the court earlier this week, describing the arguments presented by the defense as “complete nonsense” against compelling evidence. Miriam Riva worked for Mossad but, as an accountant, she was not operational, said the investigating judges who traveled to Israel during their investigation. Yohan Benizri, the head of Belgium’s Coordinating Committee of Jewish Organizations, denounced what he called a “nauseating conspiracy theory. The 12 jurors also found fellow Frenchman Nacer Bendrer, 30, who was accused of supplying the weapons, to be the co-author of the attack. The investigation showed that the two men had dozens of telephone conversations in April 2014, when Nemmouche was preparing for the killings. Six days after the massacre, Nemmouche was arrested in the French city of Marseille in possession of a revolver and a Kalashnikov-type assault rifle. At the trial, Bendrer admitted that Nemmouche had asked him for a Kalashnikov when he came to Brussels in early April, but claimed he never delivered it. Among other personal effects, Nemmouche upon arrest carried a nylon jacket with gunshot residue, as well as a computer in which investigators found six videos claiming the attack with an off-camera voice-over thought to be Nemmouche. In total, the prosecution said it had identified 23 pieces of evidence pointing to Nemmouche, who also physically resembles the shooter seen on the museum’s surveillance video. “We are both deeply convinced that the two accused did indeed commit these acts,” one of the two prosecutors said in their indictment. The prosecutors say the attack was the first carried out in Europe by a jihadist returning from fighting in Syria. The Brussels killings came 18 months before the Nov. 13, 2015, Paris attacks, which left 130 dead.

syria
brussels
terrorism
mehdi nemmouche
mossad
islamic state
france


Spain police find elderly pair held in 'house of horrors' who were apparently drugged and fed via tube

Abstract: MADRID - Spanish police said Thursday they rescued an elderly man and woman locked up in a house, allegedly drugged and fed via a tube by a couple whose other “wards” died mysteriously. The Civil Guard police force in the southwestern city of Cadiz said a German-Cuban couple are suspected of having befriended elderly people to rob them of their assets, accumulating more than €1.8 million ($2 million) over four years. In what police described as a “house of horrors” in the seaside resort town of Chiclana de la Frontera, they found an elderly German man and a Dutch woman in a “terrible state,” locked up in separate rooms, drugged and fed via a nasogastric tube, without needing it. It is unclear exactly how old they are. The two were taken to a care home where their health “improved significantly.” The discovery of the couple came during an investigation launched when police were notified by their German counterparts that a wealthy centenarian woman called Maria Babes was missing. Police found her in a care home in Chiclana, where she had arrived in a bad state. Questioned, Babes told police the couple had approached her in Tenerife, where she lived “without family or friends nearby,” befriended her, offered to look after her and transferred her to Chiclana. Babes told police she was kept locked up for several months in a house, with her hands tied up. “In October, she had more than €162,000 in the bank and after this couple appeared in her life, by mid-December she had under €300, her house in Tenerife had been sold and she didn’t receive one euro of the sale,” the Civil Guard said in a statement. The couple have been arrested and partially identified as Estrella, a Cuban national, and Markus, who has both Cuban and German citizenship, according to a source close to the investigation. They have been charged with fraud, document falsification, domestic abuse, money laundering, asset stripping and misappropriation of funds. But before managing to detain them, police said the couple went to the care home and took Babes away. Five hours later, she was dead. “Maria left the center at 11:00 a.m., in good health, and her death was reported at 4:00 p.m. while she was in a car with her carers,” police said. The couple also allegedly insisted on cremating her body rapidly, so no autopsy was done. Babes’s death was registered as having been from natural causes. After their detention, police searched the couple’s home in Chiclana and found they had another house rented out nearby. That is where they found the Dutch woman and German man. They also discovered that the Dutch woman had pretended to be Babes to sign for the sale of her home. Police identified four other people who had been “looked after” by the couple and alleged that the four “had died unexpectedly once they (the couple) had taken all their capital.” Police did not provide further details on these four people who died while under the couple’s care. The arrested couple allegedly laundered the money, which they robbed by building a tourist complex on protected land in El Palmar, a coastal town in Cadiz province that is popular with surfers, using fake documents. Police arrested four other people suspected of helping the couple launder their money. The Guardia Civil said they had asked officials in Britain, Italy, Germany and Cuba to check if the arrested couple had bank accounts or financial products in those countries.


U.S. general warns of Islamic State resurgence as 'caliphate' collapse nears and survivors flee

Abstract: NEAR BAGHOUZ, SYRIA - A top U.S. commander warned Thursday that the battle against the Islamic State group was “far from over” despite the jihadists’ loss of territory, as survivors abandoned the last shred of the group’s collapsing “caliphate” in eastern Syria. A fierce assault by U.S.-backed forces has sparked an exodus of dust-covered children, veiled women dragging suitcases and disheveled men, many of them wounded, from the village of Baghouz where besieged IS fighters are making a last stand. But Gen. Joseph Votel, head of the U.S. Central Command, warned that many of those being evacuated are “unrepentant, unbroken and radicalized,” calling for a “vigilant offensive” against the group. The Syrian Democratic Forces are waiting for more survivors to leave before dealing what they hope will be a final blow to jihadis holed up in a makeshift camp along the banks of the Euphrates. The SDF was not advancing Thursday out of concern for remaining civilians, but its fighters entered the settlement two days earlier and now control a chunk of it, an SDF source told AFP. Remaining families have been pushed toward the far end of the camp near the river, he said. Inside Baghouz on Thursday afternoon, an eerie quiet was interrupted by a brief burst of automatic gunfire. AFP journalists taken into the battered hamlet watched the SDF stage a controlled explosion of a mine found on the side of a road during a sweep of the area. Shortly after, a convoy of trucks carrying civilians and a handful of white vans carrying the wounded came trundling down the same street and out toward a screening point on the edge of village. Hundreds of women disembarked at the outpost, where they waited to be processed and searched by the SDF and members of the U.S.-led coalition. More than 7,000 people have exited the enclave over the past three days, mostly women and children. The deluge of fire unleashed by SDF artillery and coalition air strikes at the weekend appears to have taken a toll on the die-hard jihadist still inside. Votel, however, told Congress on Thursday that IS remains prepared for a resurgence, even though its territory is disappearing. “Reduction of the physical caliphate is a monumental military accomplishment — but the fight against ISIS and violent extremism is far from over and our mission remains the same,” he told Congress. “The ISIS population being evacuated from the remaining vestiges of the caliphate largely remains unrepentant, unbroken and radicalized,” he said. “We will need to maintain a vigilant offensive against this now widely dispersed and disaggregated organization.” U.S. President Trump stunned allies in December when he announced all 2,000 U.S. troops would withdraw from Syria as IS had been defeated. The White House later said that around 200 American “peacekeeping” soldiers would remain in northern Syria indefinitely. Members of Trump’s administration, including the U.S. Defense Department, have repeatedly warned that without a sustained presence, jihadis could resurge in Syria within months. Around a tenth of the nearly 58,000 people who have fled the last IS bastion since December were jihadis trying to slip back into civilian life, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor. IS fighters had previously managed to secure passage out of their former strongholds before U.S.-backed forces recaptured the territory. Remaining jihadis, however, are now surrounded on all sides, with Syrian government forces and their allies on the west bank of the Euphrates blocking any escape across the river and Iraqi government forces preventing them from moving downstream. A senior SDF officer said 400 jihadis were captured on Tuesday night as they attempted to slip out of Baghouz and reach remote hideouts. The battle against IS is now the main front in the Syrian war, which has claimed more than 360,000 lives since 2011. The capture of Baghouz would mark the end of IS territorial control in the region, where its caliphate proclaimed in 2014 once covered huge swaths of Syria and Iraq. At its peak, the proto-state was the size of the United Kingdom and administered millions of people. It effectively collapsed in 2017 when IS lost most of its major cities in both countries in the face of multiple offensives. But despite the impending loss of Baghouz, which the SDF says is only days away, the group continues to carry out deadly attacks in Syria and Iraq.

islamic state
baghouz
syria
joseph votel
syrian democratic forces
conflict
u.s .
terrorism
donald trump


Putin rides horse with female cops ahead of International Women's Day

Abstract: MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin mounted a horse on Thursday and cantered with female police officers in footage broadcast across Russia ahead of International Women’s Day. Putin has carefully cultivated a macho image during his 19 years in power with photo-ops depicting him riding a horse bare-chested in Siberia, taking a dip in icy water and piloting a firefighting plane. The 66-year-old, whose ratings have slipped in recent months, was shown on state television in jeans and a jacket with a raised collar, riding a brown horse flanked by female police officers on white horses. They cantered gently around a training facility for mounted police in Moscow followed by other uniformed officers riding in rows. Putin afterward gave the police officers a horse named Golden Ray, Russian news agencies reported. Ahead of International Women’s Day on Friday, Putin said women were increasingly taking an interest in working in law enforcement agencies and that just over a quarter of employees at the Interior Ministry were now women. Pollsters say Putin’s ratings have dipped recently due to years of falling real incomes and an unpopular move by the government last year to raise the retirement age. However, he remains broadly popular and a state pollster this month put his approval rating at almost 65 percent.

international women 's day
women
vladimir putin
russia


After bloc's offer to break impasse falls short, May to warn EU that fate of Brexit vote is in their hands

Abstract: BRUSSELS/LONDON - U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday will tell the European Union that the outcome of a historic vote on her Brexit deal next week is in its hands, as signs emerged that the two sides are at least trying to make progress toward a deal. The European Union made a new offer in a bid to break the Brexit impasse, though it falls short of what the U.K. has demanded, people familiar with the EU side of the negotiations said. May will on Friday seek to shift the blame onto the EU and say she still hopes to get legally binding changes ahead of the vote next week in the U.K. Parliament on whether to approve her Brexit deal. “We are working with them, but the decisions that the European Union makes over the next few days will have a big impact on the outcome of the vote” she will say in a speech in Grimsby, an English fishing port that voted strongly for Brexit in 2016. Negotiators are racing against the clock to make additions and assurances that everyone can agree on. Talks have been acrimonious as the EU and U.K. try to find a way to make the so-called Irish backstop more palatable. With the March 29 deadline looming, European and British officials were becoming increasingly gloomy about the prospect of a breakthrough, with the U.K. accusing the bloc of intransigence and European negotiators irritated by the latest negotiator May has sent in to seek concessions, Attorney General Geoffrey Cox. Talks are expected to continue into the weekend, and if they fail, Parliament will likely vote against May’s deal for the second time, plunging the country into political chaos. It is unclear if the EU’s new proposal will be enough. But it aims to bolster the review system that is already set out in the deal, according to the people who spoke on condition of anonymity. These check-ins are scheduled every six months to help track and speed up the process of replacing the backstop with a better solution. Many U.K. lawmakers say the backstop risks binding the U.K. to EU rules forever, especially since the U.K. cannot exit it unilaterally. Now officials are trying to deliver legally binding assurances to them that it won’t happen. The EU’s new plan goes further than concessions outlined in a letter to May from European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Council President Donald Tusk in January, according to the officials. But they fall far short of the demands made by Cox this week, which the EU flatly rejected. He wanted a change to the arbitration system set out in the deal to make it easier for the U.K. to leave the backstop without the EU’s approval. The EU is waiting for the U.K. to respond. That would be tantamount to reopening the Brexit deal — agreed by the two sides in November — which European leaders have said must not happen. Even if May accepts the latest proposal, EU officials are still pessimistic about whether it will work in convincing British lawmakers to back the deal in a vote Tuesday. Just two months ago, Parliament rejected the deal in the largest defeat for a U.K. government in over a century. Some European governments have given up hope of much progress before the U.K. is scheduled to leave the bloc on March 29 and believe a Brexit delay is inevitable. If May’s deal fails to pass next week, she has promised MPs they will be able to vote on whether to leave the EU without a deal at the end of the month or delay Brexit. Officials say the next 72 hours are crucial as negotiators continue to thrash out ideas for the backstop. May could go to Brussels to finalize the deal before the vote, but this is by no means certain, EU officials said. There is no agreement yet over how the concessions will be formalized, the people said. Possibilities include a further exchange of letters between the two sides, a joint declaration that interprets the original deal or legal statements from each side.

eu
brexit
theresa may
northern ireland
trade
u.k .


Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation toll: Six top Trump aides (so far)

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Former Trump campaign Paul Manafort was hit Thursday with the longest sentence yet arising from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, 47 months in prison. Since taking over the probe in May 2017, Mueller has filed charges against six former senior aides and associates of Trump. Of them, five — including Manafort — have pleaded guilty or been convicted. The sixth, longtime Trump political consultant Roger Stone, was arrested and charged only in January. Here are the top Trump associates who have been charged: Paul Manafort Manafort, 69, a veteran Republican political consultant, was Trump’s campaign chairman for several months in 2016. He was charged in two separate cases, one in Alexandria, Virginia, and the second in Washington, with a range of crimes arising from his decade working for wealthy Moscow-allied politicians in Ukraine. Those crimes include money laundering, tax evasion and bank fraud. He was convicted by a jury in the Alexandria case and then entered a plea deal in the Washington probe. But he was then charged with lying to investigators, invalidating his plea deal. While his cases are not directly related to Russian election meddling, Manafort’s cases revealed he had multiple Russian contacts during the election campaign and shared campaign data with one, raising suggestions of collusion. His case could also figure in allegations of obstruction against Trump, who some suspect dangled a pardon for Manafort in exchange for not revealing information that would damage the president. Michael Flynn Trump’s former national security adviser Flynn, 60, was investigated over his contacts with Russia’s ambassador and actions working for Turkey during and after the campaign. Eventually he was charged in a plea deal with prosecutors for lying to the FBI, and has reportedly cooperated in the investigations as he awaits sentencing. Michael Cohen Cohen, 52, Trump’s longtime personal attorney and fixer, was sentenced to three years in prison in December after pleading guilty to tax evasion, violating campaign finance laws and making false statements to Congress, implicating Trump and the White House in some of those crimes. He is to report to prison on May 6, following his testimony to several committees in Congress investigating Russia and Trump. Rick Gates Gates, 46, was Manafort’s business partner in Ukraine and deputy chairman on the Trump campaign. Threatened with many of the same crimes Manafort was charged with, he reached a plea deal to lesser charges of lying to the FBI and financial fraud, and testified against Manafort at his trial. He continues to cooperate while awaiting sentencing. George Papadopoulos Papadopoulos, 31, served on Trump’s foreign policy advisory team and tried to set up meetings with Russian officials including Vladimir Putin. He was sentenced to two weeks in prison after admitting he lied to the FBI. Roger Stone Stone, a longtime Republican campaign consultant and Trump friend, was arrested on Jan. 25 and charged with seven counts including obstruction, lying to Congress and witness tampering. The investigation has focused on Stone’s alleged contacts with WikiLeaks, which published materials stolen from the Democrats by the Russians during the campaign. Stone pleaded not guilty. Other indictments Several other minor figures in Mueller’s investigation have been charged and convicted in plea deals. Mueller has also charged 25 Russians with conspiracy related to meddling in the 2016 election, including a group of hackers from the GRU, Moscow’s military intelligence bureau, and a group of social media experts from Russia’s Internet Research Agency troll farm. All are believed to be safely in Russia and not expected to go on trial. In June 2018, Konstantin Kilimnik, who worked with Manafort in Ukraine and allegedly has ties to Russian intelligence, was charged with obstruction of justice.

paul manafort
roger stone
michael flynn
michael cohen
rick gates
george papadopoulos
corruption
donald trump
2016 u.s. presidential election
russia probe


'Blood up to your knees': Defeated IS jihadis remain defiant in final stronghold

Abstract: NEAR, BAGHOUZ SYRIA - Defeated but unrepentant, some jihadis limping out of their besieged final bastion in eastern Syria still praise the Islamic State and promise bloody vengeance against its enemies. The skeletal and disheveled figures shuffling out of the smoldering ashes of the “caliphate” may look like a procession of zombies, but their devotion seems intact. At an outpost for U.S.-backed forces outside the besieged village of Baghouz, 10 women stand in front of journalists, pointing their index fingers to the sky in a gesture used by IS supporters to proclaim the oneness of God. They shout in unison: “The Islamic State is here to stay!” Most refuse to disclose their names or nationalities. Indistinguishable under their identical black robes, a group of women arriving at the screening point manned by the Syrian Democratic Forces swarm around reporters like hornets. Some throw rocks at the cameras of those trying to film them, while one screams at a photographer and calls him a pig. Another grabs the uncovered hair of a female reporter, saying: “Have you not read the Koran, are you not ashamed?” A third woman snarks at the way the reporter is dressed: “God curses women who resemble men.” The SDF are closing in on diehard jihadis and their relatives holed up in a makeshift encampment inside the village of Baghouz. More than 7,000 people have fled the bombed-out bastion over the past three days, escaping shelling by the SDF and airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition against IS. But for Umm Mohammed, a 47-year-old woman from Iraq’s Anbar province, the men who have fled are “the cowards and the meek.” As for the women, “we left because we are a heavy burden on the men,” she says. “We are waiting for the (next) conquest, God willing.” Nearby, a little boy hums a jihadi anthem as he walks beside his mother, his jacket covered with dust. The so-called “cubs of the caliphate” — boys raised under IS rule and trained to fight from a young age — are the reason the group will survive, another Iraqi woman says. “The caliphate will not end, because it has been ingrained in the hearts and brains of the newborns and the little ones,” says the 60-year-old, refusing to give her name. Many women say they want to raise their children on the ideology of the caliphate, even as its territorial presence fizzles out. Abdul Monhem Najiyya is more ambivalent about the group. “There was an implementation of God’s law, but there was injustice,” he says, claiming he worked as an accountant for IS. “The leaders stole money … and fled,” he says. “We stayed until the bullets flew over our heads.” The 30-year-old with white hair prays for the “caliphate” and wishes IS “many conquests” to come. But he says many senior IS figures have fled to the northwestern province of Idlib or crossed into Turkey and Iraq. Najiyya’s harshest words are for the group’s elusive leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whom he says he never saw once. “He left us in the hands of people who let us down and left,” he says. “He bears responsibility, because, in our view, he is our guide.” When asked why it took him so long to quit the redoubt, Najiyya said he was afraid of being detained by the SDF because his cousins are IS fighters. He also says that rumors the jihadis would be granted safe passage to Idlib, largely controlled by a rival jihadi group, encouraged some to stay. Nearby, a bearded man with a leg wound cursed the coalition, whose warplanes have pummeled the last jihadi redoubt. “I only surrendered because of my injury,” he says. “I have been with IS since the beginning.” One woman, who says she is from Damascus, said: “We have left, but there will be new conquests in the future.” Speaking from behind a veil that covers her face, she says: “We will seek vengeance, there will be blood up your knees.”

syria
islamic state
religion
violence
terrorism
syria civil war


Trump still hopes for North Korea deal after ominous report of missile site prep

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Satellite photos showing new activity at a North Korean rocket launch site raised fresh doubts that Kim Jong Un will ever give up his drive for nuclear weapons, yet talks continue and President Donald Trump said he was still hoping for the agreement that eluded the leaders at last week’s summit. The president said his relationship with the North Korean leader remains “good” even though Trump walked away from negotiations at their high-profile meeting in Vietnam. He said then that the North’s concessions on its nuclear program weren’t enough to warrant sanctions relief, and he said Wednesday he’d be unhappy if reports prove true that Kim is rebuilding a launch site after promising in Vietnam to extend his ban on nuclear and rocket tests. “I would be very, very disappointed in Chairman Kim,” Trump said when reporters asked him about reports of new work at the Sohae Satellite Launch Station, which is tucked into the hills northwest of Pyongyang. “I don’t think I will be” disappointed, Trump said, “but we’ll see what happens.” Past administrations discovered the perils of trying to do business with North Korea, which has a history of backing out of agreements. Trump believes his discussions will be different because Kim has publicly announced his desire to focus on economic development in his reclusive nation, which is suffering under harsh U.S. and international sanctions. Trump has favored direct talks with Kim, but with no third summit under discussion right now, the next stage of negotiations is likely to be conducted at lower levels. Trump’s envoy to North Korea, Steve Biegun, had lunch Wednesday at the State Department with his counterparts from Japan and South Korea. The South Koreans have proposed semiofficial three-way talks with the United States and North Korea as it works to put nuclear diplomacy back on track. Suh Hoon, the director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, told his nation’s lawmakers in Seoul that North Korea was restoring facilities at a rocket launch site it had dismantled last year in a goodwill measure. Meanwhile, 38 North, a website specializing in North Korea studies, said commercial satellite imagery indicates the rebuilding started between Feb. 16 and March 2. And the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington, issued another report saying satellite imagery taken Saturday — just two days after the summit ended — showed North Korea “pursuing a rapid rebuilding” of the rocket site. Some analysts think the work is a signal that Kim is getting ready to conduct more tests, but others suggest he’s just registering his disappointment that no agreement was reached at the summit. Trump himself added to the confusion, saying his administration had a hand in the report on Sohae being made public. “It’s a very early report. We’re the ones that put it out,” Trump said without elaborating. Joel Wit, a North Korea proliferation expert who helped negotiate with North Korea in the mid-1990s, said the new work at Sohae is Kim’s way of showing that he’s “getting impatient with lack of progress in negotiations.” “We have to watch to see what else happens,” Wit said. “It’s a space launch facility and has been used to send satellites into space. … Problem is, some of the technologies are the same.” He said there is no evidence that North Korea’s work at the site signals Kim is preparing to test another intercontinental missile. He said North Korea has never tested an ICBM at Sohae. “Preparations for any launch would require a wide range of activities not observed at the site,” Wit said. Trump and Kim, who also met in Singapore last year, have not said if there will be a third summit. For now, discussions with North Korea will be conducted by their subordinates. Biegun, the U.S. envoy to North Korea, gave members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee a classified update Tuesday afternoon on Capitol Hill. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said that before any further summits between the leaders, there must be lower-level discussions to determine how far Kim is willing to go to denuclearize. That’s all the more important “to continue to test the North Koreans’ willingness now that they know they’re not going to get an easy deal,” Menendez said. Committee Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said Biegun has a vision of where the U.S. wants to take the talks. “He has clear knowledge of the steps that it takes to get there, and he’s laid that out for the North Koreans,” Risch said. There’s no framework agreement “to put the details on it yet,” he said. But he added: “The differences have been narrowed.” Less upbeat, Committee member Edward Markey, D-Mass., said the work at Sohae could be a sign that Kim is more interested in getting concessions from the U.S. than conducting good faith efforts to denuclearize. He said he’s also worried that future satellite launches at Sohae could help Kim further his work on ballistic missiles to threaten the U.S. and its allies with a nuclear attack. “President Trump never codified in writing North Korea’s missile and nuclear testing freeze,” Markey said. “Without that formal commitment, North Korea might claim it is doing nothing wrong and derail the fragile diplomatic process underway.”

north korea
missiles
kim jong un
nuclear weapons
donald trump
south korea
china
u.s .
north korea nuclear crisis


South Korea puts pro-engagement academic in charge of relations with Pyongyang

Abstract: SEOUL - An academic and former head of a research institute was Friday appointed as Seoul’s new unification minister, the South’s key point of contact on inter-Korean affairs. The appointment of Kim Yeon-chul comes days after the U.S. and North Korea held a second much-anticipated summit in Vietnam, but failed to reach any agreement on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Kim, a pro-engagement academic who has headed the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification since last year, is replacing Cho Myoung-gyon in the role, which is seen as key in inter-Korean relations. Cho, who took the post in 2017, is a longtime civil servant who first joined the unification ministry in 1980. He has participated in several meetings with his North Korean counterpart as part of a growing rapprochement between Seoul and Pyongyang. U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made headlines at their groundbreaking first summit in Singapore last year, but their commitment to the “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” was criticized as vague. The no-deal outcome from their second meeting in Hanoi has been a disappointment for the South Korean president. He had brokered the talks process between Washington and Pyongyang and touted the summit as a “remarkable breakthrough” for peace negotiations on the Korean Peninsula. In spite of the collapse of the Hanoi summit, Moon said earlier this month Seoul would consult with the U.S. on ways to resume South Korean tourism to the North’s Mount Kumgang. He said he would also discuss restarting operations at the Kaesong Industrial Complex, where Southern firms used to be staffed by Northern workers. Moon has been pushing for the resumption of both projects as he seeks to engage Pyongyang, but doing so would fall foul of sanctions imposed on the North. The newly appointed Kim was a vocal critic of President Park Geun-hye’s decision to shutter the Kaesong firms in 2016, in response to Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile tests. He also supported Moon when he used South Korea’s position as host of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics to reopen communications with Pyongyang. The appointment of Kim, a longtime confidant of Moon, comes as part of a cabinet reshuffle. Kim has “expert knowledge on economic cooperation with North Korea and its nuclear issues,” the Blue House said.

south korea
kim yeon-chul
north korea
nuclear weapons
north korea nuclear crisis
moon jae-in


Pakistan escalates crackdown on militants after attack in Indian Kashmir that triggered airstrikes

Abstract: ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has detained more than 100 suspected militants, the country’s interior ministry said Thursday, amid an ongoing crackdown on extremist groups prompted by weeks of high tension with neighboring India. Members of two Pakistani militant groups accused of attacks on Indian soil were targeted in the operation, which was announced Monday following an insurgent attack in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir that killed 40 Indian paramilitary fighters last month. “Law enforcement agencies have taken 121 people under preventive detention as of today,” the interior ministry said in a statement. A government official told AFP that security forces detained members of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), which claimed responsibility for the February suicide attack, and U.N.-listed terrorist organization Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD). India says JuD is a front for the militant Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group, which it accuses of carrying out the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks which killed more than 160 people. JuD leader Hafiz Saeed is wanted by the U.S. but has largely operated freely in Pakistan in the past, despite a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head. A source close to the groups confirmed to AFP that authorities were detaining suspected militants on a daily basis. Nearly 200 religious schools, along with several hospitals and other charitable organizations run by the militant groups, have been seized and their operations turned over to provincial governments, the interior ministry said. The crackdown was part of an ongoing drive against proscribed organizations and not conducted under pressure from India, Interior Minister Shehryar Afridi claimed on Tuesday. Last month’s suicide bomb attack in Indian Kashmir spurred tit-for-tat air raids between India and Pakistan, igniting fears of an all-out conflict as world powers pleaded for restraint. Pakistan captured one Indian pilot, releasing him on Friday in a bid to pull both countries back from the brink, though tensions remain high.


Government to request Japan's gambling venues use facial recognition to restrict admission of addicts

Abstract: The government said Thursday it plans to ask horse race and pachinko parlor operators to consider using facial recognition systems to restrict admission of gambling addicts. The adoption of facial recognition systems is part of a basic plan to combat gambling addiction that the government drafted to pave the way for opening casinos in the nation. Facial recognition systems can help efficiently identify gambling addicts after restrictions on their entry into racetracks and pachinko parlors are requested by themselves or family members, officials said. The government’s plan also includes the removal of automated teller machines from such gambling sites. After seeking views from the public, the government aims to adopt the plan next month. The plan will be reviewed every three years, and will also cover bicycle and speedboat racing. The government said that admission restrictions on gambling addicts based on requests by family members will be introduced for pachinko parlors during fiscal 2019, which ends in March next year. The draft plan calls for the introduction of a system in fiscal 2020 that enables gambling addicts to set a maximum limit on how much they will buy when purchasing horse and boat race betting tickets online. The plan also presses for the gambling industry and its operators to develop advertisement guidelines so as not to fuel people’s desire to gamble. Under the plan, the welfare ministry will set up consultation offices on gambling addiction in all prefectures and ordinance-designated major cities by around fiscal 2020. In fiscal 2020, the ministry will conduct a survey on issues involving gambling addiction, including multiple debts, poverty, abuse, suicide and crime. Before that, in fiscal 2019, the ministry will start looking into the effects of gambling addiction on child abuse. The draft calls on the education ministry to strengthen school education on gambling addiction. The National Police Agency will also instruct prefectural police departments to clamp down on illegal gambling.


Eight years after Great East Japan Earthquake, many disaster victims are struggling to repay relief loans

Abstract: Many residents in the hardest-hit prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima are struggling to repay emergency relief loans that they received in the wake of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, a Jiji Press survey of related municipalities showed. In the three prefectures, a total of ¥49.6 billion in public funds was disbursed, based on damage that resulted from the disaster and covering about 28,000 cases, under a program to allow low-income families to borrow up to ¥3.5 million each. In some 4,000 cases the first repayment deadlines had passed by March 2018, but in 1,703 cases, the deadlines were missed. Miyagi accounted for as many as 1,598 of the 1,703 cases, with overdue balances totaling about ¥140 million as of March 2018. As of December, loan delinquencies had soared to ¥650 million in 4,784 cases in Sendai alone, according to the city government. Many families struggling to repay relief loans include elderly people and college students, while authorities are unable to reach some borrowers, according to the department in charge of the relief loan program. “A borrower of loans from taxpayers shouldn’t say this, but my family is on a very tight budget,” said a 76-year-old woman in Sendai. She said her family borrowed ¥1.7 million under the public loan program because related subsidies and charity grants were not enough to repair their house, which was officially recognized as being severely damaged. Her husband then became unable to work due to illness, and the family failed to meet its first repayment deadline last October, she said. Yoshihiro Sato, a lawyer who belongs to a bar association in Sendai, called on borrowers who are having difficulties repaying relief loans to first seek advice from local authorities and others about possible debt moratoriums and cuts in repayments. “No action could lead borrowers to incur delinquency charges, while also increasing debt collection burdens on authorities,” Sato said. A Sendai official said that the central government should take measures, including extending repayment deadlines, to support disaster victims struggling to rebuild their incomes. An official of a different municipal government suggested there is a need to provide low-income earners with grant-type assistance, instead of loans. Following the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, 13 municipalities in Hyogo Prefecture provided a total of ¥130.9 billion in relief loans to people under a similar program. A total of ¥5.3 billion remained outstanding as of September 2018. In 2015, the central government adopted a policy to allow municipalities to decide whether to exempt borrowers from repaying remaining loans if their repayment capacities are projected to remain low. Kobe opted to stop collecting loans and had forgiven ¥6.5 billion in outstanding loans by June 2017. Total debt collection costs at the Kobe Municipal Government had reached ¥4.3 billion by fiscal 2014.

disasters iwate miyagi fukushima debt tohoku 3.11


Tokyo hospital probed over alleged suggestions, one fatal, that kidney patients halt dialysis

Abstract: The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has begun investigating a hospital suspected of suggesting to 149 kidney disease patients since 2013 that they not receive dialysis treatment, resulting in the death of at least one female renal patient and decisions by some 20 others to quit, it was learned Thursday. The patient in her 40s died about a week after signing a letter of consent to end dialytic treatment, after a doctor at Fussa Hospital in western Tokyo explained to her and her family that the decision may result in death, the sources said. According to guidelines set in 2014 by the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy, the termination of hemodialysis should only be considered in specific cases, including when it is difficult to continue the treatment safely and when the treatment itself could elevate the risk of death. The doctor told her in August last year she could either continue receiving dialysis or stop it, the sources said. The woman, who had undergone the treatment at a different clinic, went to the public hospital to seek advice on the best course of treatment. “There is a possibility that the patient was not in a terminal phase, in which case the medics should not have proposed stopping her dialysis treatment,” said Kazuyoshi Okada, a doctor and member of the investigation committee set up by the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy to probe the woman’s case. A further investigation into the matter has been launched by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. According to a media report, two other patients at the hospital — men in their 30s and 50s — also chose to have their dialysis treatment stopped, and the older man later died. “We are checking whether the hospital is managed and operated appropriately,” an official at the metropolitan government said. A hospital spokesman declined to comment on the matter. Yoshiaki Takemoto, another member of the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy, said that a doctor would probably only face a situation where a patient has to withdraw from hemodialysis about once a year. “I have never been in such a situation,” said Takemoto, a professor of urology at Osaka City University. Hemodialysis is used to treat patients with declining kidney function. In general, patients use dialysis machines about three times a week to remove waste from blood. Each treatment takes three to five hours. The number of people who receive hemodialysis has been increasing in Japan and topped 300,000 for the first time in late 2011, according to the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy.

tokyo
hospitals
dialysis
kidney disease
fussa
fussa hospital


Six years into Abe's womenomics push, women in Japan still struggling to shine

Abstract: Six years have passed since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced plans to create a “Japan in which women can shine,” urging more working mothers to take on leadership positions with pride. But as the world marked International Women’s Day on Friday, few women have taken on the challenges that remain firmly in place in Japan despite the womenomics policy adopted by Abe. Many continue to face hurdles that include entrenched social perceptions and a disproportionate burden in maintaining family homes. According to a report released Thursday by the International Labour Organization to mark International Women’s Day, the ratio of Japanese women in management and other leadership positions stayed stuck at 12 percent in 2018, while the ratio of women in those positions globally was 27.1 percent. Japan’s figure remains the lowest among the Group of Seven nations, up just 3.6 points from 1991. In the World Economic Forum’s annual World Gender Gap Index in 2018, Japan was ranked 110 out of 149 countries, although it had moved up four spots from the previous year mainly due to narrower wage gaps and an increase in women’s employment. The main culprit behind Japan’s low ranking, which has remained below 100 for several years, is scant female participation in the political arena. Figures released by the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union earlier this week revealed that Japan was ranked lowest among Group of 20 nations in terms of the percentage of female politicians, with women occupying just 10.2 percent of 463 seats in the Lower House. Negative perceptions regarding women in top leadership roles, both in politics and the private sector, remain persistent not only among Japanese men but also among women. In a study released in November by Women Political Leaders and Kantar Public, which surveyed some 1,000 adults from each of the Group of Seven countries, only 28 percent of Japanese women said they would feel comfortable with having a woman as the CEO of a major company. The highest rating in the G7 — 70 percent — was recorded among women in the United States. While the figures align with perceptions — both inside and outside of Japan — that women living and working in the nation face difficulties, grassroots efforts to highlight accomplished women have emerged. Last year the Act on Promotion of Gender Equality in the Political Field was enacted, and on Thursday a civic group that aims to increase the number of female lawmakers met to discuss the issue. Participants, including lawmakers from several parties, reported on the measures they currently saw in place as well as their goals for bringing more women into the political arena. The group, named “the team that promotes a quota system,” pledged together with the lawmakers to remind voters and politicians that increasing the number of female lawmakers will deliver a brighter future for Japan. Last year Melanie Brock , a longtime Australian resident of Japan, launched Celebrating Women in Japan , an initiative designed to highlight the work of talented women in the nation. Using social media, the project publishes profiles of women in Japan who play active roles in business and public life. “Once people know more about what Japanese women are already doing, in spite of all of the obstacles that exist, maybe that’s when Japan sees the value of that, too,” Brock told The Japan Times last year.


Through gene editing, Japan team develops iPS cells with lower rejection risk

Abstract: KYOTO - A research team in Japan has tapped genome editing to successfully produce induced pluripotent stem cells, known as iPS cells, that have a reduced risk of rejection. The outcome of the research by the team led by Akitsu Hotta, a lecturer at Kyoto University’s Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, was expected to be published on the electronic version of the U.S. journal Cell Stem Cell on Friday. Rejection occurs when the type of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) in the transplanted cell is different from that of the transplant recipient. The risk of rejection is low when iPS cells created from people whose inherited HLA type was the same as that of their parents are transplanted into others with the same HLA type. Because the inheritance of identical HLA types is rare, however, HLA type surveys of over 150,000 people are said to be necessary to create a bank of low-rejection-risk iPS cells, which could then be used to reduce rejection risk for more than 90 percent of the Japanese public. The research team created iPS cells from cells of people who had inherited various HLA types, and turned them into blood cells after removing certain HLA genes through genome editing. These blood cells were subject to reduced attacks by the recipients’ immune systems. The team believes that the HLA types of more than 95 percent of Japanese people can be covered by sourcing iPS cells created from people of 12 different HLA types. “We’d like to carefully check the effectiveness and the safety of the (lower rejection risk) cells so as to actually deliver them to patients,” Hotta said.

ips
kyoto university
transplants
genetics


Osaka's governor-mayor duo quit in audacious bid to swap posts in name of merger referendum quest

Abstract: OSAKA - In a highly unusual, controversial and politically risky move with local and national implications, Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui and Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura resigned their posts in protest Friday, in order to run for each other’s positions in snap elections next month. Frustrated with what they say are continued moves by Komeito to block their efforts to merge the city of Osaka’s 24 wards, both leaders resigned in the hope of gaining popular support for their proposal in next month’s polls. Their ultimate goal is to have Osaka’s assemblies approve a merger plan, which would then trigger a referendum on the issue later this year. A similar merger referendum, held in May 2015, was narrowly voted down. “In November 2015, Yoshimura and I won office by telling Osakans our party, Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka) wanted to put the merger plan to them one more time. We cooperated with Komeito in a committee to make this happen, but it became impossible to realize. We want to keep our campaign promise. So, we decided to resign and hold our elections on April 7, the same day as the Osaka prefectural and municipal assembly elections,” Matsui told reporters at a Friday evening news conference. The decision to attempt a title swap was made for several reasons, including the way Japan’s election laws work. Simply resigning and running again for the same position would mean another election for governor and mayor would have to be held in November, when the current terms for the positions were due to expire. This way, Matsui said, there won’t be a need to hold two elections in the same year because the snap poll would ensure their new terms start from April. Yoshimura admitted it could be a tough election, noting the Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito, and the Japan Communist Party, remain opposed to Osaka Ishin’s plan. “We’ve accomplished about 90 percent of what we promised voters in November 2015. But the merger plan, the top priority, has yet to be realized,” he said. At a separate news conference in Osaka Friday, Mitsuyoshi Hanaya, secretary-general of the LDP’s Osaka chapter, said his party wanted a governor and mayor it could support, one who is opposed to Osaka Ishin’s long-held quest for a merger. “We’ll put an end to the merger plan,” Hanaya said. Friday’s move ends a yearslong and often tense political marriage between the Matsui-led Osaka Ishin and Komeito, which was needed to form a majority in the municipal and prefectural assemblies. Attention now turns to who might run against Matsui and Yoshimura — and who will support them. On Friday, the Osaka chapters of the LDP and Komeito were meeting to discuss election strategies, whether an LDP-backed candidate might be officially endorsed by Komeito, and whether other opposition parties might also rally around a single “anti-Osaka Ishin” candidate. There is concern among Osaka Ishin members about the Osaka Municipal Assembly election in particular. Losing just four seats to the LDP would give Komeito the choice of tying up with either Osaka Ishin or the LDP to form a majority, assuming Komeito keeps its seats. The double election is also expected to impact July’s Upper House election. Nippon Ishin no Kai, the national party also headed by Matsui, holds a total of 11 seats, including five up for re-election. At Friday’s news conference, Matsui also said Nippon Ishin would field candidates against Komeito in the next Lower House election. Nippon Ishin is a staunch supporter of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to revise the Constitution, and Abe and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga are close to Matsui in particular. A loss by Matsui or Yoshimura, or losses by Osaka Ishin in the municipal or prefectural assembly, could spell trouble for the five Upper House Nippon Ishin candidates — and for Abe’s relationship with the party.

osaka
ichiro matsui
hirofumi yoshimura
elections
osaka ishin no kai


Ex-adviser Steve Bannon says Abe was 'Trump before Trump,' urges him to play hardball with China

Abstract: Steve Bannon, the controversial former chief strategist for U.S. President Donald Trump, on Friday credited Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for pioneering a global “nationalist” movement while urging him to form a united front with Washington against an “expansionist” and “predatory” China. Bannon was in Tokyo to address dozens of lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in a gathering held at its headquarters in Nagatacho — the political center of Japan. In the speech, Bannon — often hailed as the key architect of the 2016 presidential campaign that catapulted Trump into America’s highest office — reflected on how his team was “inundated” with calls from governments all over the world the moment the real estate mogul accomplished the “most unexpected victory in the history of the United States.” And before his inauguration, there was one foreign leader Trump agreed to meet: Japan’s prime minister. “Prime Minister Abe is a great hero to the grassroots, the populist, and the nationalist movement throughout the world,” Bannon told the LDP gathering. And before there was Trump and other right-wing populists, Prime Minister Abe was the first nationalist leader to win an election in an industrialized democracy and successfully govern as a nationalist, Bannon said. “Prime Minister Abe was Trump before Trump,” he declared, eliciting laughter from some LDP lawmakers. The bulk of Bannon’s 40-minute speech was spent unleashing a bitter diatribe against China, which he argued is posing a threat to “Japan, the United States and the Pacific.” He branded it a “hegemonic” and “totalitarian” power that thrives on technologies it “stole” from Japan and the U.S., while alleging that Chinese people are “oppressed,” “tortured” and “abused” by high-echelon officials within the Chinese Communist Party. “The defenders of the CCP say, ‘China is not expansionist … It’s always their neighbors that are expansionist,’ ” Bannon said. “That is quite simply a lie.” “The radical cadre in the CCP is the most geopolitically ambitious, aggressive, expansionist power in world history,” he said, explaining how China’s trademark “One Belt, One Road” initiative preys on infrastructure-hungry developing countries by lending them money that “in no way can be paid back,” to put them under Beijing’s control. Bannon sought to rally support from LDP lawmakers by emphasizing that against such a backdrop, Japan must stand firm and fight China’s assertive rise in solidarity with a Trump-led America. If the “strong, robust” combination of Japan and the U.S. is realized, he said, “there is nobody in the Pacific that can stand up to that. China is a paper tiger.” Citing recent signs of Beijing’s economic slowdown, he added: “We have the opportunity to bring them to their knees now. The way to do that is a united Japan and United States.” At the onset of the LDP’s meeting with Bannon, LDP lawmaker Katsuyuki Kawai, who serves as a special foreign policy adviser to Abe, credited Bannon with his “deep insight” into the inner workings of the Trump administration even though he’s no longer part of it. Kawai claimed he was able to prepare for the sudden resignations in the past of some key figures within the administration thanks to Bannon, who, according to the lawmaker, had predicted for him these exact personnel changes in advance. So what predictions did Bannon have to offer LDP lawmakers? Trump, he said, is going through “hell” at the moment as Democrats ratchet up efforts to investigate him over his campaign and business dealings. But still, with his “successful” negotiations against China and the “continuation of the peace process and the denuclearization process” in North Korea, Trump “will not only win in 2020 but he will win by more electoral votes than he won in 2016,” Bannon said.