In Fox town hall, U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg likens Trump's tweets to 'grotesque things'

Abstract: CLAREMONT, NEW HAMPSHIRE - Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg jabbed at U.S. President Donald Trump during a Fox News town hall Sunday, saying he understands why people and the media are “mesmerized” by his tweets because “it is the nature of grotesque things that you can’t look away.” Asked how he responds to Trump’s tweets and name-calling — including referring to Buttigieg as Alfred E. Neumann, the “Mad” magazine character — the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, responded, “I don’t care.” He said Democrats need to talk less about Trump and more about what they’ll do for the American people. Trump criticized Fox News earlier Sunday for “wasting airtime” on Buttigieg, saying Fox “is moving more and more to the losing (wrong) side in covering the Dems.” He added, “Alfred E. Newman will never be President.” Buttigieg said many Democrats were critical of his decision to participate in a town hall on Fox News, but added that he believes the party needs to meet voters where they are, whether it’s Fox News or visiting places where Democrats aren’t seen much. Buttigieg was asked about laws passed recently to ban or restrict abortion in states such as Alabama. He said he believes the right to have an abortion is “an American freedom” and that the government shouldn’t have a role in limiting it. “I think the dialogue has gotten so caught up on where you draw the line that we’ve gotten away from the fundamental question of who gets to draw the line,” he said. “And I trust women to draw the line.” Asked whether his position extends to the third trimester of pregnancy, Buttigieg said those late-term abortions make up a small percentage of abortions performed and asked the audience to put themselves in that woman’s shoes. Any woman making that decision has likely been expecting to carry the baby to term, he said, and received “the most devastating medical news in their lifetime,” forcing them to make “an impossible, unthinkable choice.” “And the bottom line is as horrible as that choice is, that woman, that family may seek spiritual guidance, they may seek medical guidance,” he said. “But that decision’s not going to be made any better medically or morally, because the government is dictating how that decision should be made.”

pete buttigieg
donald trump
twitter
2020 u.s. presidential election


U.K. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn moves closer to backing second Brexit referendum

Abstract: LONDON - Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn moved closer to fully backing a second Brexit referendum, saying the public should be given a choice on any deal to leave the European Union. Corbyn has previously said the country should be offered a vote on Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal. On Sunday, he seemed to echo his deputy, Tom Watson, who has been calling for a vote on any Brexit package, including one proposed by the Labour Party. “It would be reasonable to have a public vote to decide on that,” Corbyn said on the BBC’s “The Andrew Marr Show.” May blamed divisions within Labour on a second referendum for the collapse in Friday’s talks between the party and the government, though Corbyn said the prime minister’s refusal to soften her red lines were at fault. While the two sides failed to find an agreement on a customs union, they did find common ground on workers’ rights, which May said she would include in a “new and improved” deal this week. She will ask lawmakers to back her fourth attempt at passing a Brexit deal early in June. Writing in the Sunday Times, May said she will make “a bold new offer” to members of Parliament. She also said her Cabinet on Tuesday will consider a new series of indicative votes that could deliver a consensus in Parliament. Corbyn told Marr he would not give a blank check to May’s new plans, but will consider them very carefully. He was also doubtful whether another round of indicative votes could break the impasse. Corbyn also appeared to back away from his previous pledge to end freedom of movement after Brexit, saying a Labour government would instead be prepared to negotiate the issue of British and European workers having the ability to work in each others’ economies with the European Union. His comments come ahead of Thursday’s European Parliamentary elections, in which both the Conservative and Labour parties are trailing in the polls. The Tory party is currently polling at just 12 percent, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer newspaper, with voters protesting May’s failure to deliver Brexit three years after the referendum. The Brexit party, led by Nigel Farage, topped the poll with 34 percent, followed by Labour at 20 percent. Last week May agreed to chart a path for resigning if she can’t get her deal through Parliament on its fourth attempt. That has spurred Tory hopefuls who want to replace her, including former foreign secretary and bookies’ favorite Boris Johnson, who backs a no-deal Brexit. But on Monday, a group of 60 Tory MPs are set to launch a campaign seeking to stop May’s replacement from pursuing no deal, according to a person familiar with the plans. The so-called One Nation Caucus, led by Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd, will launch a declaration of 10 values on Monday, rejecting “narrow nationalism” and calling for the U.K. to be a leader on the global stage. The group also includes Nicky Morgan and Defense Minister Tobias Ellwood, who Sunday ruled out running for leader. He criticized colleagues who appear to be using Brexit to boost their own popularity, instead of working in the national interest. “Our focus must be to get Brexit across the line. Get that out the way, so we can then have a bigger, wider debate as to how we can earn the respect of the nation; to be a one nation, progressive party, center-right, fiscally responsible, able to take the nation forward,” Ellwood told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday. Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister) Philip Hammond will also warn leadership candidates against pursuing no deal this week. In a speech to the CBI, the U.K.’s premier business organization, on Wednesday, he will likely say that populism “is the ideology of easy answers” and that no Brexit solution is sustainable unless it commands a parliamentary majority, according to a person familiar with the speech. MPs have repeatedly voted against pursuing a no-deal Brexit.

jeremy corbyn
brexit
theresa may
eu
u.k .


Steve Bannon's presence raises hackles in France ahead of Europe polls

Abstract: PARIS - Political tensions soared in France Sunday a week ahead of tightly contested European elections, with the ruling party of President Emmanuel Macron expressing unease over over the presence of Donald Trump’s controversial ex-strategist Steve Bannon. The elections on May 26 in France will see Macron’s ruling centrist party face a tough challenge from the far-right National Rally (RN) of Marine Le Pen, formerly known as the National Front. Should Macron’s La Republique En Marche (LREM) party fall behind the RN in the polls, it would be a major blow for the president who supporters see as Europe’s centrist savior against the surge of the far right across the continent. Bannon had told the newspaper Le Parisien on Saturday he had chosen to come to France as its election was “by far” the most important of all the European parliament polls in EU member states. He described the poll as a referendum on Macron and his vision for Europe, predicting an “earthquake” next Sunday. The head of the LREM campaign, Stephane Sejourne, on Twitter accused Bannon of coming to Paris and staying at a luxury hotel with the aim of helping Le Pen’s party win. “It is an attack on the sovereignty of the election … it makes you want to throw up,” he fumed. Nathalie Loiseau, who heads the LREM list for the polls, commented: “He (Bannon) does not even hide his desire to interfere in our polls.” The number two on the list for the polls for Macron’s LREM party, Pascal Canfin, told Cnews that the RN was the “Trojan horse” for Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in a bid to destroy the EU. Canfin said the LREM will also, in an unusual move, ask the French TV channels organizing the final election debates this week to have an “anti-fake news” unit in place to prevent falsehoods being spread. Since his departure from the White House, Bannon has championed the cause of the European far right, having close contacts with Le Pen and Italian populist leader Matteo Salvini. Salvini on Saturday gathered Europe’s disparate nationalists for a unifying rally in Milan ahead of the polls but the gathering was shadowed by the corruption scandal which brought down Austria’s far-right coalition. But senior RN figure Nicolas Bay denied any interference by Steve Bannon in the French campaign. “We have led this campaign in a perfectly independent way without any foreign or outside influence,” he said. The election in France promises to be tight, with the latest polls either showing the RN slightly ahead or neck-and-neck with the LREM. “We should not minimize the consequences” of a victory of the RN in the elections, the head of Macron’s party Stanislas Guerini told Challenges magazine, saying it would weaken France in Europe.

steve bannon
france
eu
elections
emmanuel macron
donald trump
matteo salvini


Deutsche Bank anti-money laundering staff flagged Trump and Kushner transactions for watchdog: report

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Anti-money laundering specialists at Deutsche Bank AG recommended in 2016 and 2017 that multiple transactions involving entities controlled by U.S. President Donald Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, be reported to a federal financial-crimes watchdog, The New York Times reported Sunday. The newspaper, citing five current and former Deutsche Bank employees, said executives at the German-based bank, which has lent billions of dollars to the Trump and Kushner companies, rejected their employees’ advice and the reports were never filed with the government. The Times said the transactions, some of which involved Trump’s now-defunct foundation, set off alerts in a computer system designed to detect illicit activity, according to the former bank employees. Compliance staff members who then reviewed the transactions prepared so-called suspicious activity reports that they believed should be sent to a unit of the Treasury Department that polices financial crimes, according to the newspaper. The Times reported the bank employees viewed the decision not to report the transactions as a result of a lax approach to money laundering laws. They said there was a pattern of bank executives rejecting reports to protect relationships with lucrative clients, according to the newspaper. One employee who reviewed some of the transactions said she was terminated last year after raising concerns about the bank’s practices, The Times reported. The Times quoted a Deutsche Bank spokeswoman as saying investigators were not prevented from escalating activity identified as potentially suspicious. The spokeswoman described as “categorically false” any suggestion that bank staff were reassigned or fired in an effort to quash concerns related to any client. She also said Deutsche Bank has intensified efforts to combat financial crime. A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization said “the story is absolute nonsense.” “We have no knowledge of any ‘flagged’ transactions with Deutsche Bank. In fact, we have no operating accounts with Deutsche Bank,” she said. The newspaper said a Kushner Companies spokeswoman called any allegations of relationships involving money laundering “made up and totally false.” Officials at Deutsche Bank and Kushner Companies were not immediately available for independent comment. The Times said the nature of the transactions was not clear. At least some of them involved money flowing back and forth with overseas entities or individuals, which bank employees considered suspicious. The report surfaces at a time when congressional and New York state authorities are investigating the relationship between Trump, his family and Deutsche Bank, and demanding documents related to any suspicious activity. Trump has sued in court in an attempt to block U.S. House of Representatives subpoenas for his financial records that were sent to Deutsche Bank, Capital One Financial Corp. and the accounting firm Mazars LLP.

banks
donald trump
jared kushner
corruption
money-laundering


Tech billionaire stuns Morehouse grads with pledge to pay off their $40 million student-loan debt

Abstract: ATLANTA - A billionaire technology investor stunned the entire graduating class at Morehouse College when he announced at their commencement Sunday that he would pay off their student loans — estimated at $40 million. Robert F. Smith, this year’s commencement speaker, made the announcement while addressing nearly 400 graduating seniors of the all-male historically black college in Atlanta. Smith, who is black, is the founder and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm that invests in software, data and technology-driven companies. “On behalf of the eight generations of my family that have been in this country, we’re gonna put a little fuel in your bus,” the investor and philanthropist told graduates in his morning address. “This is my class, 2019. And my family is making a grant to eliminate their student loans.” The announcement immediately drew stunned looks from faculty and students alike. Then the graduates broke into the biggest cheers of the morning. Morehouse said it is the single largest gift to the college. Smith, who received an honorary doctorate from Morehouse during the ceremony, had already announced a $1.5 million gift to the school. The pledge to eliminate student debt for the class of 2019 is estimated to be $40 million. Smith said he expected the recipients to “pay it forward” and said he hoped that “every class has the same opportunity going forward.” “Because we are enough to take care of our own community,” Smith said. “We are enough to ensure that we have all the opportunities of the American dream. And we will show it to each other through our actions and through our words and through our deeds.” In the weeks before graduating from Morehouse on Sunday, 22-year-old finance major Aaron Mitchom drew up a spreadsheet to calculate how long it would take him to pay back his $200,000 in student loans — 25 years at half his monthly salary, per his calculations. In an instant, that number vanished. Mitchom, sitting in the crowd, wept. “I can delete that spreadsheet,” he said in an interview after the commencement. “I don’t have to live off of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I was shocked. My heart dropped. We all cried. In the moment it was like a burden had been taken off.” His mother, Tina Mitchom, was also shocked. Eight family members, including Mitchom’s 76-year-old grandmother, took turns over four years co-signing on the loans that got him across the finish line. “It takes a village,” she said. “It now means he can start paying it forward and start closing this gap a lot sooner, giving back to the college and thinking about a succession plan” for his younger siblings. Morehouse College president David A. Thomas said the gift would have a profound effect on the students’ futures. “Many of my students are interested in going into teaching, for example, but leave with an amount of student debt that makes that untenable,” Thomas said in an interview. “In some ways, it was a liberation gift for these young men that just opened up their choices.”

atlanta
morehouse college
student loans
u.s .
education
universities
roger f. smith


Regime poison gas use alleged as Syrian army fails to retake Latakia mountain

Abstract: AMMAN - Syrian rebels held onto a commanding position in a mountain range in the coastal province of Latakia, the ancestral home of Syrian President Bashar Assad, after government forces were forced to withdraw. They said the army’s attempt was the latest of several costly campaigns to seize Kubayna, after it mounted an offensive last month with Russian air power to retake main highways and trade arteries around Idlib and northern Hama now in rebel hands that have fragmented the country’s war-torn economy. The northwest represents the last big piece of territory held by rebels opposed to Assad. The coastal province of Latakia is home to the Assad family’s Alawite minority. “Whoever controls Kubayna ensures a large stretch of territory is effectively under their firing range. The regime wants it to protect its coastal villages from rebel fire,” said Major Youssef Hamoud, spokesman for the Turkey-backed group of mainstream rebels called the National Army. An official from Tahrir al-Sham, the latest incarnation of the former Nusra Front, which was part of al-Qaida, said poison gas was used in the army’s attack on their position on the mountain slopes in an attempt to regain control. Abu Baraa al-Shami, a fighter based there, told Reuters that several fighters suffered choking symptoms. The army denied the claim and said it was continuing to fight terrorism, with state media earlier saying the military had struck at al Qaeda terrorists in the last jihadi foothold in Latakia province that has long been a launching pad for drone attacks on the main Russian base of Hmeimim nearby. The eviction of jihadis from commanding positions in the mountains would bring the army closer to securing parts of Idlib and a main highway that connects the cities of Latakia and Aleppo. The fighting has continued even after Russia agreed with Turkey to a 72 hour halt following an upsurge in violence in northwest Syria that has sparked an exodus of tens of thousands to the safety of border areas with Turkey, residents and opposition sources have said. Russia’s defense ministry confirmed on Sunday a “unilateral ceasefire” in the Idlib buffer zone in a move the opposition said showed the failure by Moscow and the army after almost three weeks of intensive strikes to bring a rapid collapse in rebel lines. “They are facing stiff resistance in areas that had fallen to the army,” said Hamoud, adding many of their fighters from a nearby stretch of territory to the north protected by the Turkish army had joined their compatriots in fronts. The army has so far gained three significant areas, the last being the town of Hawayz on Friday after taking Qalaat al Madiq and the town of Kfar Naboudah. Two senior Western diplomats following Syria say the aim appears to be to take control of the main cities of Maarat al-Numan and Khan Sheikhoun on the main highways in Idlib. The campaign that began in earnest late last month has also killed dozens, destroyed hundreds of civilian homes, more than a dozen hospitals and food stores, according to opposition-based rescuers and Western aid agencies. Both Moscow and Damascus deny indiscriminate bombing of civilians and say they seek to crush radical Islamist groups.

syria
latakia
bashar assad
kubayna
russia
idlib
hama
al-qaida
conflict


Trump tweets that if Tehran attacks, it will be the 'official end of Iran'

Abstract: WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump issued an ominous warning to Iran on Sunday, suggesting that if the Islamic republic attacks American interests, it will be destroyed. “If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again,” Trump said in a tweet. Tensions between Washington and Tehran have been on the rise as the United States has deployed a carrier group and B-52 bombers to the Gulf over what it termed Iranian “threats.” This account has been met with widespread skepticism outside the United States. The White House has sent mixed signals in recent days, amid multiple U.S. media reports of infighting in Trump’s Cabinet over how hard to push Washington’s arch foe Iran. The Trump administration has ordered nonessential diplomatic staff out of Iraq, citing threats from Iranian-backed Iraqi armed groups, and sent an aircraft carrier and heavy B-52 bombers to the region. On Sunday, a Katyusha rocket was fired into Baghdad’s Green Zone housing government offices and embassies including the U.S. mission. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack. According to U.S. media reports, Trump’s long-hawkish national security adviser, John Bolton, is pushing a hard line on Iran, but others in the administration are resisting. Trump himself said recently that he has to “temper” Bolton. Iran’s foreign minister downplayed the prospect of a new war in the region on Saturday, saying Tehran opposed it and no party was under the “illusion” the Islamic republic could be confronted. “We are certain … there will not be a war since neither we want a war nor does anyone have the illusion they can confront Iran in the region,” Mohammad Javad Zarif told state-run news agency IRNA at the end of a visit to China. Iranian-U.S. relations hit a new low last year as Trump pulled the U.S. out of a 2015 nuclear deal and reimposed unilateral sanctions that had been lifted in exchange for Tehran scaling back its nuclear program. Saudi Arabia called Sunday for emergency regional talks to discuss the mounting Gulf tensions, saying that it does not want war with Iran but is ready to defend itself. It comes days after mysterious sabotage attacks on several tankers in highly sensitive Gulf waters and drone strikes on a Saudi crude pipeline by Yemen rebels who Riyadh claimed were acting on Iranian orders. King Salman invited Gulf leaders and Arab League member states to two emergency summits in Mecca on May 30 to discuss recent “aggressions and their consequences,” the kingdom’s official SPA news agency reported late Saturday. Saudi Arabia’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Adel al-Jubeir, said Sunday his country does not want to go to war with Iran but would defend itself. Saudi Arabia “does not want a war, is not looking for it and will do everything to prevent it,” he said. “But at the same time, if the other side chooses war, the kingdom will respond with strength and determination to defend itself and its interests.” Oil producing countries met Sunday in Saudi Arabia to discuss how to stabilize a volatile oil market amid the rising U.S.-Iran tensions, which threaten to disrupt global supply. Oil supplies are sufficient and stockpiles still rising despite massive output drops from Iran and Venezuela, said Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates said at the meeting in Jeddah. Qatar Sunday weighed in on the escalating tensions, saying it did not believe the U.S. or Iran wanted a war in the region. “U.S. President Donald Trump has said he does not want war, and I do not think Iran wants war or instability in the region,” minister of state for foreign affairs Sultan al-Muraikhi told AFP on the sidelines of a Qatar Fund for Development briefing. “I think if we move away from the childish regimes in the region, all troubles will be settled.” Muraikhi said Doha — which remains isolated by neighboring former allies in a long-running diplomatic dispute — has not yet received a formal invitation to either meeting. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt are among the countries that cut ties with Qatar in June 2017 over accusations it supports terrorism and seeks closer ties with Tehran. Four ships including two Saudi oil tankers were damaged in mysterious sabotage attacks last Sunday off the UAE’s Fujairah, near the Strait of Hormuz — a vital maritime route for oil exports which Iran has threatened to close in the event of a war. That incident was followed by drone strikes Tuesday claimed by Yemen’s Iran-aligned rebels on a major Saudi oil pipeline built as an alternative export route if the Strait of Hormuz were to be closed. Saudi Arabia accused Tehran of ordering the pipeline attacks, targeting “the security of oil supplies … and the global economy.”

iran
donald trump
iraq
john bolton
saudi arabia
uae
conflict
u.s .
middle east


Australia's prime minister set to form majority government

Abstract: SYDNEY - Prime Minister Scott Morrison looked set on Monday to form a majority government as vote counting from Australia’s weekend election allayed fears that his conservative coalition may have to rule in the minority following its shock victory. The coalition was returned to power in a stunning result on Saturday night, after opinion polls and odds-makers had tipped the opposition Labor Party to win. The outcome ranks as Australia’s biggest election upset since 1993, when Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating was returned to power. With 76 seats in the House of Representatives needed for majority rule, figures from the Australian Electoral Commission on Monday showed 84% of the votes had been counted, with the coalition on target to win 77 seats — an increase of four after going into the election as a minority government. The Labor Party was set to claim 68 seats, with independents and minor parties taking six. Winning at least 77 seats would also allow Morrison’s coalition to appoint the house speaker from its own ranks, rather from among independent or minor party lawmakers. As Morrison began finalizing his new Cabinet on Monday, the stock market welcomed the election result. Australia’s benchmark S&P ASX 200 index climbed 1.7 percent on the day — reaching its highest level since 2007, just before the global financial crisis. After being elected in 2016 with 76 seats, the power base of Morrison’s coalition was diminished through a series of by-elections late in its three-year term. One such defeat was triggered by the ousting last August of then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in an internal party vote. That move, which ended in Morrison becoming prime minister, caused widespread disgust among an Australian electorate sorely disillusioned by seeing another one of its leaders replaced without them having a say. Morrison had become Australia’s sixth prime minister in only eight years. Four such changes had been brought about by lawmakers voting to dump their party’s leader, two each from the coalition and the center-left Labor Party. Morrison’s predecessor, Turnbull, had himself become prime minister in 2015 through an internal party coup that dumped Tony Abbott as leader of the Liberal Party. Analysts had predicted that the coalition would pay dearly for that latest leadership switch, with Morrison expected to exit after one of the shortest terms as prime minister in Australian history. Most late surveys showed Labor leader Bill Shorten as having a small but clear lead over Morrison as preferred prime minister, 51% to 49%. Bookmakers had Labor at odds as short as $1.16 to $1 to win government, with the coalition as long as $5.50. As analysts tried to make sense of the outcome, several factors were highlighted. One of them was the strong and effusive campaigning of Morrison himself, praised by his treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, for having “crisscrossed the country with great energy, belief and conviction” while selling “our economic plan to the Australian people, a plan that resonated with them.” By contrast, Labor was said to have suffered by campaigning on a long and complex list of initiatives, including an ambitious plan for reducing greenhouse emissions and proposed changes to taxes on income from the stock market, which the coalition attacked as a “retirees’ tax.” While Shorten insisted after the defeat that it had been right to argue for “what was right, not what was easy,” his deputy leader, Tanya Plibersek, conceded that the party suffered from a campaign platform that was too cluttered. “Our policy agenda was big. It was bold. And I think perhaps we didn’t have enough time to explain all of the benefits of it to the people who would benefit,” Plibersek said. Labor’s campaign swung more toward policies than personalities, with Shorten, a 52-year-old former union boss, felt to lack sufficient charisma to win a popularity contest with the effervescent Morrison, a 51-year-old known for his love of family, church and football. One telling result came on Monday, when high-profile independent lawmaker Dr. Kerryn Phelps conceded defeat to the Liberal Party in the Sydney electorate of Wentworth — the seat vacated by Turnbull on his resignation from Parliament last year. While Phelps had wrested the seat from its traditional conservative base last August, she lost it back to the Liberals’ Dave Sharma only nine months later, suggesting a gulf in public sentiment between a by-election and a general election. “Clearly, the country decided it wanted to return a Liberal government,” Phelps told reporters. With Shorten announcing his resignation as Labor leader on Saturday night, the party began the task of finding a new leader on Monday.


China's Xi agreed to meet Dalai Lama in 2014, book claims

Abstract: NEW DELHI - Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to meet the Dalai Lama during a 2014 visit to India but a “cautious” New Delhi did not allow it to happen, a new book has claimed. The 83-year-old Buddhist monk has made India his home since fleeing the Tibetan capital Lhasa in 1959 — and has been a thorn in Beijing’s side ever since. “In 2014, when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Delhi for talks with Prime Minister Modi, I requested a meeting with him,” author Sonia Singh quotes the Dalai Lama as saying. “President Xi Jinping agreed, but the Indian government was cautious about the meeting, so it didn’t happen,” according to excerpts from the book published last Wednesday. In the book “Defining India — Through Their Eyes,” Singh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government was concerned about maintaining good relations with China. The Dalai Lama’s personal spokesman Tenzin Taklha said he didn’t have any comments to make, without either confirming or denying the contents in the book. The Dalai Lama set up a government-in-exile in Dharamsala in northern India and launched a campaign to reclaim Tibet that gradually evolved into an appeal for greater autonomy — the so-called middle way approach. India, which gave him asylum in 1959, has supported the Tibetan leader but of late the government has maintained a distance, citing diplomatic sensitivities. Singh, the editorial director of NDTV news channel, says the meeting had the “promise to change the course of China-Tibet relations” if it had been allowed to happen. The Dalai Lama is also quoted as saying he had “very good relations” with Modi, who is seeking a second term in the ongoing general election. “He is quite an active Indian prime minister, continuously visiting many countries. That, I admire at his age.” A global symbol of peace, the Dalai Lama was briefly hospitalized for a chest infection in New Delhi last month. The book was released Monday.

china
dalai lama
xi jinping
tibet
religion
rights


India's Modi set to sweep election, exit polls show

Abstract: NEW DELHI - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling alliance is likely to win a big majority in parliament after a mammoth general election that ended on Sunday, most exit polls showed, a far better showing than expected in recent weeks. Modi faced criticism early on in the campaign for failing to create jobs and for weak farm prices, and analysts as well as politicians said the election race was tightening with the main opposition Congress party gaining ground. But he rallied his Hindu nationalist base and turned the campaign into a fight for national security after tensions rose with Pakistan and attacked his main rival for being soft on the country’s arch foe. Modi’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is projected to win anything between 339-365 seats in the 545-member lower house of parliament followed by 77 to 108 for the Congress party-led opposition alliance, India Today Axis exit poll showed. To rule, a party needs to win 272 seats. Counting of votes recorded in hundreds of thousands of computerized machines will begin early on Thursday and results are expected by noon. According to another poll released by Times Now television, Modi’s alliance is likely to get 306 seats. A poll by Neta Newsx, though, forecast Modi’s group falling 30 seats short. Exit polls, though, have a mixed record in a country with an electorate of 900 million people — around two-thirds of whom voted in the seven-phase election. They have often gotten the number of seats wrong, but the broad direction has generally been correct, analysts say. With 3 out of 4 of the polls indicating a clear majority for Modi’s alliance, Indian equity markets are expected to rally sharply on Monday, while the Indian rupee is also likely to strengthen versus the U.S. dollar, according to market participants. A clear win would mean Modi can carry out reforms investors expect to make India an easier place for doing business, they said. “I expect a positive reaction from markets on both the rupee and equities,” said Sajal Gupta, head of forex and rates at Indian brokerage firm Edelweiss Securities. “Equity indices should have a rally of maybe 250-300 points,” said Gupta, adding the Indian rupee may test the 69 level against the U.S. dollar before retreating. Critics say Modi sought to win votes by stoking fear among the Hindu majority of the potential dangers posed by the country’s Muslims and Pakistan, and promoted a Hindu-first India. But his supporters say Modi and his allies are simply restoring Hinduism to its rightful place at the core of Indian society. Muslims make up about 14 percent of India’s 1.3 billion population. “The massive crowds and response at every rally of Prime Minister Modi were a clear indicator of their approval for his leadership, the performance of the past five years and the vision for the future,” Nalin Kohli, a spokesman of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party said. The Congress party led by Rahul Gandhi, the fourth generation scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that ruled India for decades following independence, focused on Modi’s failure to deliver on the promises he made to transform the economy and turn India into a manufacturing hub. Congress spokesman Sanjay Jha dismissed the poll projections, saying that an alliance led by his party would defeat the BJP when votes are counted on May 23. “Many of the pollsters, if not all of the pollsters, have got it wrong,” he said, adding that a polarized atmosphere and fear had kept voters from telling pollsters about their actual allegiance. Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal state and a bitter opponent of Modi, said the fight was not over. “I don’t trust exit poll gossip,” she said on Twitter. “I appeal to all opposition parties to be united, strong and bold. We will fight this battle together.” Voting began on April 11 and ended on Sunday in the world’s biggest democratic exercise. Although Modi’s party is poised to lose seats in northern Uttar Pradesh, which elects the most lawmakers out of all Indian states, the party’s return to power will be on the back of a strong showing in other northern heartland regions and two eastern provinces, CVoter’s polling showed.

india
elections
narendra modi
hinduism
rahul gandhi
bjp
religion


U.S. sends warship near South China Sea flash point as Beijing and Washington spar over trade

Abstract: The U.S. Navy has sailed a warship near the disputed Scarborough Shoal, a strategic flash point in the South China Sea claimed by China, in a move expected to stoke anger in Beijing as the world’s two biggest economies remain embroiled in a trade war. The USS Preble guided-missile destroyer carried out the operation Sunday, a U.S. military spokesman told The Japan Times on Monday. The Preble conducted a so-called freedom of navigation operation (FONOP), sailing “within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of Scarborough Reef in order to challenge excessive maritime claims and preserve access to the waterways as governed by international law,” said Cmdr. Clay Doss, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture-based 7th Fleet. China’s Foreign Ministry said Monday that it “strongly urges U.S. to stop such provocative actions.” Beijing has in the past blasted the U.S. FONOPs, saying that it will “take all necessary measures” to protect what it claims is its “national sovereignty.” The operation was the second FONOP this month in the waterway, after the U.S. sent the Preble and the USS Chung Hoon within 12 nautical miles of the Gaven and Johnson reefs in the Spratly chain. It also comes as Beijing and Washington face off in a protracted trade war in which both sides appear to be unwilling to bend — stances that could have a dramatic effect on the global economy. Scarborough Shoal, which is also claimed by the Philippines and Taiwan, is regarded as a potential powder keg in the strategic waterway. It was seized by Beijing in 2012 after an extended standoff with Manila. China later effectively blockaded the lagoon, which is rich in fish stocks, and routinely dispatches scores of fishing vessels and government-backed “maritime militia” ships to the area to continue its de facto blockade. Both China and the U.S. have in recent months ramped up their presence near the collection of outcroppings that barely rise above the water at high tide and lie just 230 km (140 miles) from the Philippine coast. Last month, the U.S. apparently sailed the USS Wasp amphibious assault ship in the area of the strategic reef. Filipino fishermen working nearby had initially spotted the massive U.S. vessel, media reports said. Washington has lambasted Beijing for its moves in the South China Sea, including the construction of man-made islands, some of which are home to military-grade airfields and advanced weaponry. The U.S. fears the outposts could be used to restrict free movement in the waterway — which includes vital sea lanes through which about $3 trillion in global trade passes each year — and regularly conducts FONOPs in the area. The U.S. says that its military operates in the region on a daily basis in accordance with international law. “The United States will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows,” Doss said. “That is true in the South China Sea as in other places around the globe. We conduct routine and regular Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPS) as we have done in the past and will continue to in the future,” he said, adding that the operations “are not about any one country, nor are they about making political statements.” China covets Scarborough Shoal for its strategic significance, experts say, as it would be the crowning jewel in a bid to solidify Beijing’s iron grip over the South China Sea. They say building at Scarborough would create a large “strategic triangle” comprising Woody Island in the Paracel Islands to the northwest and its Spratly islet outposts to the south, giving Beijing the ability to police an air defense identification zone over a vast swath of the South China Sea. The impact of such a strategic triangle — which would bring the entire region under Chinese radar, missile and air coverage — would be tremendous for both the United States’ and Japan’s strategic planning, some experts say, and could be a game-changer in regional power relations. But any decision by China to forcefully take over the collection of outcroppings for land-reclamation purposes would likely be met with resistance by the U.S., the Philippines and others. In an effort to push back against China’s behavior near Scarborough, the U.S. Navy sent a guided-missile destroyer within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of the site in January last year.

south china sea
china
scarborough shoal
military
philippines
u.s .
vietnam
disputed islands
south china sea ruling


'Slow-motion disaster' as Philippine coastal cities get that sinking feeling

Abstract: MANILA - When Mary Ann San Jose moved to Sitio Pariahan more than two decades ago, she could walk to the local chapel. Today, reaching it requires a swim. The main culprit is catastrophic subsidence caused by groundwater being pumped out from below, often via unregulated wells for homes, factories and farms catering to a booming population and growing economy. The steady sinking of coastal towns and islets like Pariahan in the northern Philippines has caused Manila Bay’s brackish water to pour inland and displace thousands, posing a greater threat than rising sea levels due to climate change. “It was so beautiful here before. … Children were playing in the streets,” San Jose said, adding: “Now we always need to use a boat.” Most of the former residents have scattered to other parts of the region. Just a handful of families remain in Pariahan, which had its own elementary school, a basketball court and a chapel before the water flowed in. These days just the flooded chapel, a cluster of shacks on bamboo stilts where San Jose lives with her family and a few homes on a bump of land remain. The children that live there commute 20 minutes by boat to a school inland and most of the residents eke out a living by fishing. The provinces of Pampanga and Bulacan — where Pariahan is located — have sunk between 4 and 6 centimeters (1.5-2.4 inches) annually since 2003, according to satellite monitoring. “It’s really a disaster that is already happening. … It’s a slow-onset disaster,” explained Narod Eco, who is part of a group of scientists tracking the problem. A chapel sits amid encroaching bay waters in Sitio Pariahan, Bulacan, in January. | AFP-JIJI Threat to lives By comparison, the U.N. estimates average sea level rise globally is about 3 millimeters per year. The creeping bay waters put people and property at risk, while the threat is amplified by high tides and flooding brought by the roughly 20 storms that pound the archipelago every year. Some areas have raised roads in an effort to keep up with the sinking, creating odd scenes where the street surface is at the height of door knobs on roadside buildings. At least 5,000 people have been forced out of the mostly rural coastal areas north of Manila in recent decades as the bay water has moved further inland, regional disaster officials said. The sinking is very likely permanent because the ground in the hardest hit areas is mostly clay, which sticks together after the water is pulled out. The fate of towns such as Pariahan provides a preview of the problems that may await some of the capital’s 13 million people. Sections of Manila along the shore of the bay are sinking too, with excess groundwater pumping being the most likely cause, said Eco, the researcher. The subsidence there though is at a slower rate than the northern coastal communities, potentially due to less pumping or differences in the soil, he added. A moratorium on new wells in the greater Manila area has been in place since 2004. But enforcing that ban as well as shuttering existing illegal wells, falls to the National Water Resource Board and its roughly 100 staffers who are responsible for policing the whole country. “We have insufficient manpower resources,” the board’s director Sevillo David said. “It’s a very big challenge for us, but I think we are doing the best we can.” Residents make their way across a flooded house in Mabalacat, Pampanga, in 2018. | AFP-JIJI Things will get worse The demand for water has soared as Manila’s population has nearly doubled since 1985, and the size of the nation’s economy has expanded roughly tenfold over the same period. This explosive growth has created a ravenous demand for water, especially in the agriculture and manufacturing industries to the north of the capital. “The sinking is a very serious threat to people, their livelihoods and cultures,” said Joseph Estadilla, a spokesman for alliance seeking to protect Manila Bay coastal communities. “This is only going to get worse in the near future,” he insisted. Manila and its surroundings are among several major cities, especially in Asia, under threat as the land collapses beneath them, though the causes for this vary. Cities such as Jakarta — which is sinking 25 centimeters (0.8 feet) each year — Bangkok and Shanghai risk being inundated within decades as a mixture of poor planning, more violent storms and higher tides wreak havoc. In Jakarta, a city of 10 million people that sits on a confluence of 13 rivers, half the population lacks access to piped water, so many dig illegal wells to extract groundwater. Yet in Pariahan the residents who remain are doing what they can to stay in a place they call home. San Jose explained: “Every year we raise (the floor) of our house. Now my head almost reaches the ceiling.”


Weather forces seven French fighter jets to make precautionary landing in Indonesia's Aceh

Abstract: BANDA ACEH, INDONESIA - Seven French navy fighter jets were forced to make an emergency landing in Indonesia’s northernmost province due to bad weather, an air force official said Sunday. The Dassault Rafale planes managed to land safely in Aceh province on the tip of the island of Sumatra Saturday after taking part in an exercise. They took off from their aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle in the Indian Ocean, 100 nautical miles west of Sumatra’s exclusive economic zone, Aceh air force base chief Hendro Arief said. The planes were diverted to the nearest air base, the Sultan Iskandar Muda air base in Aceh Besar. “We did a security and clearance inspection and coordinated with relevant parties. Everything was clear,” Arief said. The crews were all cooperative and none of them carried individual weapons, he added. Five of the jets returned to their carrier Sunday, while two others are still at the Indonesian air base.

indonesia
aceh
dassault rafale
charles de gaulle
air accidents


Japan adds 16 properties, including a gold mine and Kansai-area temples, to its national heritage list

Abstract: The Cultural Affairs Agency on Monday announced 16 additions to its Japan Heritage list of tangible and intangible cultural properties that have been preserved based on unique regional histories and traditions, including narratives. The list now contains 83 sets of properties in 46 of the country’s 47 prefectures, with only Tokyo lacking any listings. The latest additions, from 21 prefectures, include the first entries from Okinawa, Kagoshima and Iwate. The agency established the list in 2015 in an effort to promote tourism in the country by spotlighting the histories and traditions of its cultural properties. It plans to have the list include about 100 sets of properties by 2020. Among the new additions are gold-related properties in the prefectures of Miyagi and Iwate, including the Chusonji temple’s gold-covered Konjikido hall in Iwate’s Hiraizumi, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the Shishiori gold mine in Miyagi. The gold mine’s history was highly rated in particular. The new additions also include 33 Buddhist temples scattered around the Kansai region — such as Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto — for traditional self-purifying pilgrimages, as well as salt production-themed properties in Ako in Hyogo Prefecture, whose history and culture were recognized as attractive to visitors from abroad.

cultural affairs agency
japan heritage
cultural properties
tourism


99% of Pacific mega-quake predictions likely to prove wrong, survey of seismologists finds

Abstract: Japanese seismologists believe that nearly 99 percent of their predictions related to massive earthquakes in the Pacific off central and western Japan are likely to prove wrong, a survey conducted by Kansai University showed Sunday. While the government estimates there is a 70 to 80 percent chance of a magnitude 8 to 9 quake occurring along the Nankai Trough within the next 30 years, the survey underscores the difficulty of precisely predicting the timing, location and strength of imminent quakes, based on observational data. The survey covering 138 people, including members of the Seismological Society of Japan, received responses from 90 individuals. Respondents were asked whether a prediction could meet the required criteria necessary for it to be released: That there is abnormal activity in advance; that the abnormality is observable; that heightening risks could be quickly assessed; and that such an assessment could be announced immediately. The questionnaire found that, based on the respondents’ experiences, an average of 5.8 percent of predictions could meet the criteria, while only 19.7 percent of those were likely to contain accurate information. The massive earthquake off the coast of the Tohoku region in 2011 and other quakes have convinced many experts in Japan that it is impossible to predict earthquakes immediately before they occur. The government has also revised its quake countermeasures policy to reflect findings based on actual quake data rather than predictions. But Yoshinari Hayashi, a Kansai University professor who conducted the survey, said the difficulty of predicting quakes has not been fully recognized by government officials and the public. “We should first focus on preparing disaster mitigation measures for sudden earthquakes,” Hayashi said, noting it is a “mistake” to prepare for disasters based on the premise they can be predicted. Naoshi Hirata, who chairs the government’s Earthquake Research Committee, said, “I understand that expectations for earthquake predictions are high but they are currently difficult.” “Even if we don’t know when an earthquake will occur, we can alleviate the damage by utilizing measures based on scientific knowledge,” the University of Tokyo professor said. The Nankai Trough extends from off the coast of central Japan to the southwest. The quake could produce massive tsunami waves, resulting in over 300,000 deaths and economic damage totaling ¥220 trillion ($2 trillion), according to a government estimate.

surveys
earthquakes
nankai trough
disasters


South Korea to 'carefully review' Japan's call for arbitration on wartime labor

Abstract: SEOUL - The South Korean government will “carefully review” Japan’s request for arbitration in the dispute over compensation for laborers made to work during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. The South Korean Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that “our government today received an official letter from the Japanese side through a diplomatic channel asking for the convening of a mediation panel” based on a 1965 bilateral agreement that addressed problems of property and claims between the two nations. “The government will carefully review the Japanese side’s action in every aspect.” Earlier Monday, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said it has requested the establishment of an arbitration panel involving members of a third country as provided for under the accord, after months went by without Seoul responding to Tokyo’s move to seek a diplomatic solution. Relations between the two countries have become particularly tense since October, when South Korea’s top court ordered a Japanese steel-maker to compensate former Korean laborers for forced work. Since then, a number of similar rulings have been handed down on other Japanese companies. Despite the rulings, the companies have refused to comply in line with Tokyo’s position that the issue of compensation was resolved “finally and completely” under the accord. That has prompted some of the former laborers who have won cases against Japanese firms to begin proceedings to sell off assets held by the firms in South Korea, increasing a sense of urgency in Tokyo to act through the dispute settlement mechanism under the 1965 accord.

south korea
wartime labor
wwii
history
south korea-japan relations


Citing free speech, Japanese lawmaker who alluded to war with Russia refuses to resign

Abstract: A lawmaker said Monday he will not resign as a Diet member after opposition parties submitted a joint motion urging him to quit for alluding to Japan waging war with Russia to regain control of a group of disputed islands. “I definitely cannot resign even if the motion is passed,” Hodaka Maruyama said, calling the submission of a motion directed against a person’s remarks a “serious situation.” Talking to the media for the first time since Nippon Ishin no Kai expelled him last Tuesday, he said that the Diet, as a place for free speech, is “signing its own death warrant” with the motion. Maruyama drew flak for a comment made while accompanying former Japanese residents of the disputed islands off Hokkaido on a visa-free visit to one of them. While drunk, he asked one of the former residents, “Do you think there is any alternative to war (to recover the islands)?” “I entirely believe my remarks do not deviate from the principles of the Constitution,” Maruyama said Monday. Article 9 of the Constitution prohibits Japan from possessing military forces and other “war potential.” Maruyama also demanded an apology from Osaka Mayor Ichiro Matsui, the head of Nippon Ishin, who wrote on Twitter he “heard alcohol addiction causes mental damage,” apparently referring to reports of Maruyama causing problems after drinking in the past. “It is regrettable. I want him to correct his statement and apologize,” Maruyama said. “How was it ever determined that I have an alcohol addiction?” Maruyama’s latest remarks quickly met with fresh criticism. “How could he say something like that? The real issue here is that he does not feel shame even after making remarks that go against the principles of the Constitution,” said Keiji Kokuta, a senior lawmaker of the Japanese Communist Party. The controversy surrounding Maruyama’s initial remarks came as Japan is negotiating with Russia to resolve the long-standing territorial issue over the islands, which has prevented the two countries from signing a peace treaty since World War II ended. The islands, called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia, were seized by the Soviet Union following Japan’s surrender, which brought the war to an end in August 1945. Former Japanese residents of the islands have been visiting there under a visa-free exchange program between Japan and Russia. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made the return of the islands one of his top priorities and is seeking a breakthrough. He has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin several times to discuss the issue.

russia
disputed islands
hodaka maruyama
nippon ishin no kai
northern territories
southern kurils
conflict


In latest gaffe, LDP lawmaker compares 'frustrating' work with Saga Prefecture to 'dealing with the Koreas'

Abstract: Yaichi Tanigawa, 77, a Lower House member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party representing Nagasaki Prefecture’s No. 3 constituency, apologized Sunday for saying that working with Saga Prefecture over the delayed construction of a part of the Kyushu Shinkansen line “is like dealing with South or North Korea.” Tanigawa, a member of the ruling bloc’s committee dealing with the plan to create the Nagasaki spur, which will connect Fukuoka and Nagasaki prefectures by branching out from Shintosu Station in Saga Prefecture, made the remark Saturday while inspecting a tunnel construction site in Nagasaki Prefecture. The route in Nagasaki is already under construction and is expected to open temporarily in fiscal 2022, but Saga Prefecture has been opposed to the plan to build a bullet train line in the prefecture because of high construction and maintenance costs. While he was inspecting the tunnel, Tanigawa also said that in April, at the committee’s meeting in Tokyo, he told Saga Gov. Yoshinori Yamaguchi that he hopes the two can build a relationship “much like the one between Japan and Taiwan.” Saga Prefectural Government officials criticized the remarks, saying that “decisions on the construction plan can’t be made quickly” and the comments from Tanigawa were “extremely inappropriate.” Tanigawa’s remarks came after the LDP handed out a code of conduct to its lawmakers earlier this month, warning them to watch their mouths to prevent blunders from affecting their political careers. “What is this person saying … I can’t believe this,” Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan deputy head Renho tweeted Sunday. Tanigawa told reporters Sunday that his comments were inappropriate and that he wishes to revise them. Tanigawa said the lack of progress in construction is “frustrating” and that what he meant to say was that he wanted “both sides to work together by thinking about each other’s positions.” Yamaguchi told the Yomiuri Shimbun he hopes Tanigawa will “work together with Saga Prefecture sincerely. A calm discussion is necessary.”

gaffe
ldp
saga
yaichi tanigawa
kyushu shinkansen
north korea
south korea


Japan seeks arbitration with South Korea over wartime labor compensation

Abstract: Japan on Monday called for the setting up of an arbitration board over compensation issues involving wartime Korean laborers, claiming South Korea has violated a 1965 bilateral pact that was designed to settle all such issues involving Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula. Japan made the request based on Article 3 of the pact, which stipulates a three-member arbitration board can be formed to solve disputes over interpretation and implementation of the pact. The two countries will be obliged to observe any judgment the board reaches. The members would consist of one from each of the two countries and another from a third country. However, consent of the two countries is needed to convene such a powerful entity and Seoul can turn down Japan’s request. If Seoul disagrees, Japan can take the case to the International Court of Justice in the Hague, Japanese Foreign Ministry officials have indicated. Last year, South Korea’s top court upheld lower court rulings that ordered Japanese firms to pay compensation money to individual wartime laborers, which has allowed the complainants to seize assets belonging to those firms. Japan has blamed South Korea for violating the 1965 pact, which explicitly declared that all compensation issues involving Japan’s colonial rule had been “settled completely and finally.” South Korea — including its Supreme Court and government — is obliged to observe the 1965 pact, according to Japanese officials, who have also been urging Seoul to take “appropriate measures” to correct the situation for more than four months. The South Korean government, however, has yet to take any measures, citing the independence of the judiciary. “Currently there are no prospects that such actions will be taken,” Tokyo said in Monday’s statement. Based on the 1965 pact and related treaty, Japan normalized postwar ties with South Korea and provided what the treaty called huge “economic cooperation” consisting of grants worth $300 million and loans of $200 million over 10 years. The pact, in turn, obligates the South Korean government to pay any compensation money to individuals by using some of those funds. South Korea’s Supreme Court has, meanwhile, ruled the 1965 pact does not apply to “claims for consolation money” for “inhuman, illegal acts by Japanese firms that were directly linked to the illegal colonial rule.”

wartime labor
wwii
history
south korea-japan relations


Japan's MSDF kicks off second quadrilateral naval exercise in less than two weeks

Abstract: The Maritime Self-Defense Force has kicked off its second quadrilateral naval exercise in less than two weeks, with warships — including Japan’s largest flat-topped helicopter carrier Izumo — joining vessels from the Australian, French and U.S. navies in waters west of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The joint drills, which began Sunday and are scheduled to run through Wednesday, saw the Izumo and the MSDF destroyer Murasame link up with the French Navy’s Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier strike group, an Australian Navy frigate and submarine, and a U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer, the MSDF said in a statement. It comes on the heels of a multilateral exercise that saw the MSDF sail with ships from the U.S., India and the Philippines navies in the disputed South China Sea. The multilateral exercises are likely to be interpreted in Beijing as pushback over its moves in the South China Sea, where China has constructed a series of military outposts, some observers say. The waterway includes vital sea lanes through which about $3 trillion in global trade passes each year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims in the waters, where the U.S., Chinese, Japanese and some Southeast Asian navies also routinely operate. Japan has worked to bolster its presence in the South China Sea, deploying the Izumo and Murasame as part of the MSDF’s Indo-Pacific deployment this year, which began April 30 and runs through July 10. This is the first time the exercises, known as La Perouse, have been held, according to the U.S. Navy, though there are other naval exercises conducted in the region involving the U.S. and multiple militaries. “La Perouse shows that our maritime forces can work together well anywhere in the Indo-Pacific,” Vice Adm. Phil Sawyer, commander of the U.S. 7th Fleet, said in a statement. “It reflects our shared values, traditions and bonds as like-minded sea services.” MSDF Rear Adm. Hiroshi Egawa, commander of the Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture-based Escort Flotilla 1, praised the joint drills, saying they would aid Japan’s “Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy.” “The Japan-France-Australia-U.S. multilateral exercise is a great experience. I am looking forward to working with high-end navies together” to improve tactical skills and partnerships, Egawa said in the statement ahead of the exercises. “I believe this exercise will contribute to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.” Asked if the La Perouse exercises were intended as a message for China, a U.S. Navy spokesman told The Japan Times in an email that was not the case. “La Perouse is new, but we do multilateral and bilateral exercises like this throughout the year — Malabar, SEACAT, Talisman Saber are a few examples,” said Cmdr. Clay Doss, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s Yokosuka-based 7th Fleet. “None of them is a message to a specific country. All of them are about working with our allies and partners. The same is true for exercises in the South China Sea, which the U.S. Navy has operated in, and trained in, for decades.”

south china sea
china
military
france
australia
self defense forces


Torrential downpours continue to lash Kyushu

Abstract: Heavy rain continued to lash Kyushu on Monday after stranding more than 300 people on a mountain on Yakushima island over the weekend. The Meteorological Agency warned torrential rain may cause landslides and floods, and issued a caution on the threat of tornadoes and lightning strikes across Japan through Tuesday. Rainfall in Miyazaki Prefecture from Friday to Monday morning exceeded 400 millimeters, with the city of Nichinan logging 81.5 mm per hour by 5 a.m. — a record for May. On Sunday, 314 people descended the mountain on Yakushima island in Kagoshima Prefecture with the help of rescuers after rainfall of about 120 mm per hour caused a landslide, obstructing a hiking trail. The hikers spent Saturday night stranded there as a rescue operation involving police, firefighters and Ground Self-Defense Force members only started Sunday due to the weather conditions. No one was in a serious condition, according to local officials. Kagoshima Gov. Satoshi Mitazono on Monday visited the scene of the landslide on the island — a natural World Heritage site — and vowed to work for a swift recovery in a meeting with Yakushima Mayor Koji Araki, so that the town can soon start to welcome tourists again. “We will swiftly handle the situation and dedicate all of our strength to the recovery of the area by working together” with Yakushima town, the governor said. The island is known for its Jomon cedar tree and the 1,936-meter Mount Miyanoura, the highest peak of the Kyushu region. According to the weather agency, some areas of western and eastern Japan are expected to see more than 50 mm of rain per hour through Tuesday. In a 24-hour period through 6 a.m. Tuesday, rainfall of 200 mm is forecast in the Kinki and Shikoku regions.


Kin of Japanese abductees being held in North Korea seek early return of their loved ones

Abstract: Family members of Japanese nationals who were abducted by North Korea decades ago on Sunday called for progress in bilateral negotiations to bring home their loved ones at an early date. At a convention in Tokyo, the family members said they are running out of time due to the aging of abduction victims’ parents and urged the government to make good use of any opportunity to win the return of abductees. A cumulative total of about 13.4 million signatures collected across Japan in support of the families were shown at the gathering. More than 1,000 people attended the convention, but Shigeo Iizuka, the 80-year-old leader of a group of abductee families, was absent due to poor health. On his behalf, Takuya Yokota, 50, the secretary-general of the group and brother of abduction victim Megumi, said, “My father is in hospital and I feel keenly we’re running out of time.” “We want (the government) to negotiate strongly, demanding the return home of all victims all at once,” Yokota said. The signatures have been collected since the group of abductee families, the Association of Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea, was created in 1997. All of the more than 400 cardboard boxes containing lists of signatures kept by the government were made public for the first time in order to strengthen the momentum of the movement for the return of the abductees. Sakie Yokota, the 83-year-old mother of Megumi, expressed gratitude for the signatures. “In the hot weather and in the cold, many people made efforts and gave us a great deal of power,” she said. “The number (of signatures) accounts for about 10 percent of the population, and this is truly the will of the people,” Koichiro Iizuka, 42-year-old son of abductee Yaeko Yaguchi. “We want (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un to feel (the meaning of) this number and make a decision.” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who also attended the convention, reiterated his determination to hold a summit with Kim with no preconditions. “I’m determined to engage directly with Kim in order to break the shell of mutual distrust between Japan and North Korea,” he said. But Abe added, “Regrettably, it’s true that we don’t have a clear idea when a meeting between Japan and North Korea can be held.” Acknowledging that “it is not so easy” to resolve the abduction issue, Abe said: “The important thing is that all Japanese people are united and show their strong determination to achieve the early return home of all abduction victims.” “I myself will take every opportunity to act decisively,” he added. Akihiro Arimoto, the 90-year-old father of abductee Keiko, expressed his hope, saying, “I believe (Abe’s) remarks reflect his confidence of success.”

abduction
north korea
kim jong un
shinzo abe
politics


JR West conducts anti-terror drill ahead of G20 summit

Abstract: HIMEJI, HYOGO PREF. - West Japan Railway Co. conducted anti-terrorist drills on a bullet train and at a station ahead of next month’s Group of 20 summit in Osaka next month. JR West carried out the drills Monday in cooperation with the Hyogo Prefectural Police and the fire department in Himeji, based on a scenario that a weapon-wielding person had assaulted passengers aboard a Nozomi train on the Sanyo Shinkansen between Aioi and Himeji stations. Members of the train crew in protective gear tried to bring the attacker under control while other crew members helped injured passengers evacuate. Police officers stormed the train at Himeji Station and apprehended the suspect. Firefighters performed triage duties on a platform at the station, and an anti-riot police squad collected a bag left in the train by the attacker. “We could carry out the drills with a sense of tension in cooperation with police and fire authorities,” JR West Executive Officer Kuniaki Morikawa said after the exercise. “We’ll strengthen security further toward the G20 summit.” Also on Monday, Finance Minister Taro Aso at a meeting in Tokyo urged top customs officials from around the country to take thorough steps to prevent terror attacks in the run-up to the G20 summit, which will bring leaders of the world’s top 20 advanced and emerging economies to the city of Osaka on June 28 and 29. “A crucial time for customs authorities has come,” he said.


Court upholds 30-year prison term for Osaka murder

Abstract: OSAKA - The Osaka High Court has upheld a lower court ruling sentencing a man to 30 years in prison for murdering a man and injuring his three children at their home in Osaka Prefecture in 2016. The high court on Monday rejected appeals by prosecutors who had sought the death penalty and by the defense of 26-year-old Yuma Kobayashi, who argued he was mentally incompetent at the time of the slaying. The court found that Kobayashi broke into the home of 43-year-old carpenter Yukinobu Kawakami, who he did not know, in Kadoma early on Oct. 19, 2016, before fatally stabbing the man, who was sleeping on the second floor, in the chest and back about 30 times, and injuring his daughters, aged 22 and 20, and his 18-year-old son. In handing down the ruling, presiding Judge Hiroaki Murayama said Kobayashi did not entirely know what he was doing at the time of the murder, dismissing prosecutors’ argument that he was capable of taking full criminal responsibility. But Murayama also rejected the defense’s claim, saying, “It’s hard to recognize he was totally dominated by delusions” as he had cased the Kawakami house beforehand. In April last year, the Osaka District Court handed down a 30-year prison term for Kobayashi, while acknowledging he lost self-control due to paranoid schizophrenia.


Man gets reduced sentence for 2016 murders after mental examination

Abstract: A high court has scrapped a life prison term for a man and instead sentenced him to 25 years in prison for killing three of his relatives and attempting to murder a fourth in 2016. Following a psychiatric examination, the Tokyo High Court ruled Monday that Yoshitaka Ikeya, 34, was not fully competent and could not be held responsible for stabbing and killing his grandmother, Mari, 83, mother, Misako, 62, and older sister, Eri, 32, and injuring his father, Hisakatsu, 63, in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture. “The defendant was in a state of diminished capacity under the heavy influence of a delusional disorder,” presiding Judge Yoshifumi Asayama said, adding that Ikeya tried to kill his relatives and himself amid delusions he was being bullied at his workplace. Ikeya was sentenced to live in prison in July 2017 by the Hamamatsu branch of the Shizuoka District Court after concluding he was able to take full criminal responsibility for the attacks. His lawyers asked the high court to conduct a psychiatric examination on him. During the trial, they claimed Ikeya was mentally incompetent, but the high court rejected this argument and said the attack was premediated. Ikeya stabbed the three to death and injured his father with a knife at their home early on April 22, 2016, according to the ruling.

murder
courts
yoshitaka ikeya
mental health


Iraqi man fearing persecution for ties to Saddam party sues Japan for refusing refugee status

Abstract: OSAKA - A 29-year-old Iraqi man sued the government Monday, demanding the retraction of a decision in 2017 to reject his application for refugee status. The man filed the suit with the Osaka District Court, claiming he faces persecution in his home country as a son of a member of the Ba’ath Party, formerly led by toppled Iraq President Saddam Hussein, and that it is unjust not to grant his application. According to the lawsuit, an anti-Saddam faction persecuted his father after the former president fell from power in 2003, and the man’s uncle was killed on the street. Additionally, the complainant claimed he was kidnapped and held for half a year by an armed organization in 2012, during which he was tortured with iron bars and knives. The man, who declined to be named, came to Japan in January 2016 to escape the danger but returned to Iraq three months later because his visa expired. He returned to Japan on a visa in 2017 and applied for refugee status, as persecution of Ba’ath Party members continued after the Islamic State militant group gained power. The Immigration Bureau of Japan turned down his application, saying there is no persecution threat. “I can’t go back to Iraq. I want to stay safe in Japan,” said the man at a news conference in Osaka. He lives in Kyoto and works part time. According to the Justice Ministry, the number of applicants seeking refugee status fell about 47 percent to 10,493 in 2018 amid stricter rules, with 42 successful, up from 20 the previous year.

iraq
refugees
saddam hussein
ba'ath party


Japanese sculptor Tomonori Toyofuku dies at 94

Abstract: FUKUOKA - Tomonori Toyofuku, a sculptor known for his abstract works featuring many oval holes, died Saturday at a hospital in the city of Fukuoka, according to his assistant. He was 94. Born in Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, Toyofuku learned woodcarving under the late sculptor Chodo Tominaga after World War II, during which he served as a volunteer soldier in the Imperial Japanese Army. He moved to Milan in 1960 to continue his artistic career and lived there for more than 40 years. After moving back to Japan in 2003, he continued to travel back and forth between Italy and his home country. Toyofuku held many solo exhibitions in Japan and Europe, with some of his works now owned by the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome and Carnegie Hall in New York. He was honored by the Japanese government with the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1993.

tomonori toyofuku
fukuoka
milan
sculpture
obituary


Trump lifts steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada and Mexico

Abstract: WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Friday announced a deal to lift U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada and Mexico that had created friction between the neighbors and blocked a new North American free trade agreement. “I’m pleased to announce that we’ve just reached an agreement with Canada and Mexico and will be selling our product into those countries, without the imposition of tariffs,” Trump said at an event in the U.S. capital. His statement came moments after Canada released the text of the agreement between Ottawa and Washington in which they agreed to eliminate U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum, and Canada’s retaliatory measures, within no more than two days. Mexico confirmed it had reached a similar agreement with the United States. “Trump’s strategy has worked,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement, crediting the tariffs with reviving U.S. steel and aluminum manufacturers. The steep U.S. tariffs imposed last year — 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum — became a major stumbling block to ratifying a new North American trade pact negotiated last year by the three countries. Canada and Mexico initially were exempted from the tariffs Trump enforced using a national security argument, as part of his hard-line trade tactics. Once America’s neighbors were included, the levies drew retaliation with tariffs on a host of U.S. products. Even after the governments agreed to a revised free trade deal — the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) — the tariffs remained in place, but officials in Ottawa and Mexico City said they would not sign unless Washington removed the metals duties. Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there was a shared recognition that “these tariffs were harming workers and consumers on both sides of the border” and “didn’t make a lot of sense” in the context of a new free trade deal. “Obviously these continued tariffs on steel and aluminum and our countermeasures represented significant barriers to moving forward with the new NAFTA agreement,” he said, referring to the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement. “Now that we’ve had a full lift on these tariffs we are going to work with the United States on timing for ratification but we’re very optimistic we are going to be able to move forward well in the coming weeks,” Trudeau said. Mexican chief trade negotiator Jesus Seade likewise tweeted that the lifting of tariffs “clears the way towards ratification of USMCA.” Some key members of the U.S. Congress had said they would not agree to vote for the three-country free trade pact unless the Trump’s metals tariffs ended. “Hopefully Congress will approve it quickly,” said Trump. Democratic U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer applauded the decision to remove the metals tariffs, but said there are other concerns about the USMCA. “It is a good thing these tariffs will be lifted, and we should urge our allies to join us in preventing China’s predatory practices,” Schumer said in a statement. However, “There are still many other issues that are outstanding before Democrats would support the USMCA.” According to the agreement, Canada and Mexico will withdraw all complaints lodged against the United States at the World Trade Organization. The two countries also agreed to monitor imports of steel and aluminum to ensure metals that are sold at “dumped prices” — below the cost of production — are not purchased in or shipped through Canada and Mexico. In addition, they agreed to a provision to reimpose steep duties if imports of the metals “surge meaningfully beyond historic volumes of trade over a period of time.” The U.S. Trade Representative’s office said the agreement “provides for aggressive monitoring and a mechanism to prevent surges in imports of steel and aluminum.” “This agreement is great news for American farmers that have been subject to retaliatory tariffs from Canada and Mexico,” USTR said. U.Sl. tariffs on steel and aluminum from Europe remain in place, as does the EU retaliation. Some countries, including South Korea, accepted export quotas to avoid the tariffs.

tariffs
canada
mexico
trade
u.s.-japan relations


This Japanese toaster costs ¥30,000. It only makes one slice at a time

Abstract: Perfectly made toast isn’t just an obsession in Japan. It’s a business opportunity. Over the past few years, there’s been a quiet boom in the pursuit of expertly reheated bread, from high-end toasters and premium loaves, to cafes catering to connoisseurs seeking that satisfying crunch. Joining the fray is the next best thing for sliced bread, a toaster designed for just one task: making a single piece of toast, flawlessly. Made by Mitsubishi Electric Corp., better known for its workaday refrigerators and rice cookers, the Bread Oven hit store shelves last month, retailing for about ¥29,000 to ¥30,000 ($270). While that might seem expensive, the country’s consumers are already used to paying top price for toasters; the popular Balmuda, which debuted a few years ago, sells for about ¥23,000. “We wanted to focus on the single slice, and treat it with respect,” said Akihiro Iwahara, who is in charge of technical development at Mitsubishi Electric’s home-appliances division. “Our technology and know-how from rice cookers helped us come up with a way to trap and seal moisture.” That’s crucial. Balmuda’s toaster uses a small amount of water to keep bread from drying out. Mitsubishi Electric’s Bread Oven uses a different method, sealing a single slice inside a metal box and transferring heat through two plates at temperatures as high as 260 C (500 F). There’s nothing more enchanting than the perfect slice of toast, says Kaori Kajita, founder of the Japan Butter Toast Association, which sounds half-baked but actually exists. “You can’t help but be elated.” It helps that bread in Japan is tailored for toast. Called shoku pan , Japanese-style square bread has been around for years (think of a high-quality version of Wonder Bread). The toaster boom has its origins in the desire to have soft, chewy bread that tastes and feels like it came out of a baker’s oven, Kajita says. To satisfy the demand for dough, businesses are coming up with new products and services. Sakimoto, a small Osaka-based chain that specializes in shoku pan, takes reservations for their carefully baked loaves that cost around ¥900 apiece. Centre the Bakery, a cafe in Tokyo’s Ginza district, lets diners choose a personal toaster to take and use at their tables. Behind the toast boom is a broader shift in eating habits. Although a traditional Japanese breakfast might consist of rice, grilled fish and miso soup, it’s becoming less common these days. A slight majority of people —51 percent— actually prefer bread in the morning, according to data compiled by NRI Group. That includes people like Masahiko Shoji, 42, a university lecturer, who said he eats more bread since buying a Balmuda. He’s eager to try out Mitsubishi Electric’s new high-end gadget. “You can’t go back to a regular toaster,” he said. The Bread Oven is shaped more like a waffle maker. As a result, the clamshell design isn’t exactly forgiving when it comes to rolls or baguettes. It can handle cheese or even an egg on top, though, and the french toast is sublime. Clad in faux-wood veneer, the gadget is meant to be used at the dining table, not the kitchen counter. “Given Japanese tastes, there are a lot of people looking for a refined and delicate experience,” said Hiroaki Higuchi, general manager for marketing at Mitsubishi Electric’s home-appliance unit. “We’re not asking customers to get rid of their toasters, but to enjoy this as an entirely different category.”


Trump delays U.S. auto tariffs for six months, calls imports security threat

Abstract: WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday delayed tariffs on cars and auto parts imports for up to six months and directed U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to negotiate deals with Japan and the European Union to address what his administration perceives as a national security threat. If agreements are not reached within 180 days, Trump “will determine whether and what further action needs to be taken,” the White House said. The administration appears poised to use the threat of auto tariffs to pressure Japan and European countries into making concessions — possibly by seeking export restraints or quotas, a move that would be in violation of World Trade Organization rules — in respective trade negotiations. Trump made the announcement ahead of a planned meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on May 27 in Tokyo at which bilateral trade is likely to be a major focus. In a proclamation setting a six-month window for talks, Trump said he directed Lighthizer to negotiate deals “to address the threatened impairment of the national security with respect to imported automobiles and certain automobile parts from the European Union, Japan and any other country the Trade Representative deems appropriate.” Lighthizer will “update me on the progress of such negotiations within 180 days,” the president said. It is not clear, however, what the “further action” mentioned by the White House would entail. Trump and Abe have come to an understanding that the United States will refrain from imposing tariffs on automobile imports from Japan while negotiations are underway. The two governments launched negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement last month. Earlier Friday, economic revitalization minister Toshimitsu Motegi said in Tokyo that Lighthizer had confirmed the United States will not push Japan to restrain its automobile exports as part of a bilateral trade deal. Citing a draft executive order, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday that Trump will give Japan and the European Union 180 days to “limit or restrict” exports of automobiles and auto parts to the United States in return for delaying auto tariffs. Trump has threatened to impose additional tariffs of up to 25 percent on imported cars and parts. If he follows through, the new duties would significantly impact major car exporters such as Japan and Germany. Automobiles and auto parts accounted for about 75 percent of the U.S. trade deficit as of 2017. On Friday, Trump said a Commerce Department investigation has concluded that “automobiles and certain automobile parts are being imported into the United States in such quantities and under such circumstances as to threaten to impair the national security of the United States.” The department also found these imports are “weakening our internal economy,” and decried “protected foreign markets, like those in the European Union and Japan.” The department said “automotive research and development is “critical to national security,” and that “the U.S. defense industrial base depends on the American-owned automotive sector for the development of technologies that are essential to maintaining our military superiority.” American automakers and dealers, as well as U.S. business organizations, disputed Trump’s claim that imports of car and auto parts pose a threat to U.S. national security. “Cars are not a national security threat,” said the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade association representing 12 U.S. and foreign automakers, including General Motors Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. “We are deeply concerned that the administration continues to consider imposing auto tariffs,” the group said in a statement. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said Trump’s claim “is a misuse of the administration’s trade authorities,” and that “the continued threat of tariffs on cars and auto parts only creates more uncertainty weakening our economy.” The American International Automobile Dealers Association said that if Trump slaps 25 percent tariffs on imported cars and auto parts, he will be responsible for “a drastic tax increase on American consumers.” Such action could result in a loss of 2 million vehicle sales and jeopardize up to 700,000 American jobs, it said.

tariffs
donald trump
trade
shinzo abe
carmakers
u.s.-japan relations


On Huawei and autos, Trump aligns trade with U.S. security

Abstract: WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump is taking his trade wars into a new realm likely to both extend them and make them harder to resolve. With his crackdown on Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co. and a new directive targeting European and Japanese carmakers, his administration is displaying its penchant to invoke U.S. national security in the broadest way possible. In doing so Trump is exploiting a loophole in global trading rules and doing what his predecessors spent years urging China and others not to at the risk of opening a protectionist Pandora’s box. The administration’s willingness to bend the rules on national security grounds is evident in a proclamation Trump issued on Friday that labeled imported cars a threat to U.S. national security and called for reducing imports. It also delays the imposition of auto tariffs for 180 days while U.S. officials negotiate with the EU and Japan to reduce their exports of automobiles and parts to the U.S. The proclamation invokes a broad justification of national security that trade experts say could be applied to almost any product imported into the U.S., arguing that the growing foreign competition from foreign automakers has hurt America’s ability to innovate. The hit to sales of American-owned carmakers caused by competition from imported cars, it says, undermines domestic producers’ ability to invest in research and development “necessary for long-term automotive technological superiority.” “The lag in R&D expenditures by American-owned producers is weakening innovation and, accordingly, threatening to impair our national security,” the document says. “That’s huge,” said Douglas Irwin, a trade historian at Dartmouth College. “That’s a very interesting train of logic that hasn’t been heard before and can justify stopping imports of anything.” The autos move is aimed largely at long-time allies in the EU and Japan. Toyota Motor Corp. rebuked Trump over the declaration in an unusually strong-worded statement, saying Trump’s proclamation Friday that the U.S. needs to defend itself against foreign cars and components “sends a message to Toyota that our investments are not welcomed.” The company said it has spent more than $60 billion building operations in the country, including 10 manufacturing plants. But with its emphasis on technological superiority the U.S. auto move is not that different from the justifications the Trump administration is using in its trade war against China and the battle over key technologies embodied in its attack on Huawei. In a diplomatic campaign that has stretched from Australia to Europe, U.S. officials have for months urged allies not to buy Huawei’s 5G equipment for new networks because of spying fears. This week Trump issued an executive order that could effectively ban Huawei and Chinese sister firm ZTE Corp. from the U.S. market. The Commerce Department also placed Huawei on a blacklist that means U.S. suppliers will need licenses to sell the company’s components. Bill Reinsch, who as undersecretary of commerce in the administration of former U.S. President Bill Clinton headed the bureau responsible for both the Huawei and auto investigations, said the cases marked very different extremes of the Trump administration’s national security-driven trade policy. While U.S. intelligence officials have pushed for a crackdown on Huawei for years based partly on what they claim are its links to the People’s Liberation Army, it is hard to find anyone outside the administration who believes imported cars pose a threat. The sort of argument the administration is making about cars and research spending is one experts have made for decades about more sensitive industries such as semiconductors, Reinsch said. No one has ever seriously argued it should apply to cars, he said. Behind both the Huawei and auto cases lies the argument that U.S. national security depends on the nation’s economic security that Trump has advanced since becoming president and employed to impose steel and aluminum tariffs last year. Trump invoked the same statute used to justify the metals tariffs — Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 — to order an investigation into imported cars last year. The auto tariffs are opposed by both domestic and international car companies. If imposed, they would likely blow up trade negotiations launched with the EU and Japan. Trump is due to visit Tokyo later this month. Members of Congress from both parties also argue the president is abusing powers delegated to him by Congress to pursue a protectionist agenda. A group of steel importers are lobbying the Supreme Court to hear their constitutional challenge to Trump’s use of Section 232 with other business groups starting to join the fight. The invocation of national security is designed to exploit a loophole in global trading rules that allows countries to restrict trade in times of war. It also has caused a brewing fight between the U.S. and other members at the World Trade Organization that is expected to escalate in the coming months. Until the Trump administration the U.S. regularly lobbied other governments to adopt a narrow view of national security with regards to trade for fear that if everyone invoked the exemption it would render global rules useless. U.S. officials used that message with counterparts in Beijing for years, said Jude Blanchette, a China expert at the Crumpton Group, a Washington consultancy. China has long invoked national security to justify censorship of the internet and limit access by foreign firms to industries it deems strategic. “The U.S. now thinks in a maximalist way about national security,” Blanchette said. The Huawei escalation in recent days is just one reason why a recent breakdown in talks between the U.S. and China seemed unlikely to be resolved any time soon, he added. The Trump administration has from its early days rejected trade orthodoxy, insisting it is finally addressing global economic injustices that have hurt the U.S. for too long. In a speech to students at Harvard University last month, White House adviser Peter Navarro said Trump was rejecting “conventional fossilized wisdom” to take on China’s “deviant economic model” and other trade cheats such as Germany, which Trump has nominated as a target for auto restrictions. “America should be comforted by having a president who wakes up every day thinking about how to grow the economy faster and create jobs for Americans while protecting national security,” Navarro said.

huawei
trade
carmakers
china
tariffs
espionage
u.s.-japan relations


China newspaper says U.S.'s forced tech-transfer claims 'fabricated'

Abstract: SHANGHAI - The United States has “fabricated” accusations that China forces firms to hand over technology in exchange for market access, China’s top Communist Party newspaper said on Saturday, the latest salvo in a bitter trade war. China announced this week it would retaliate against a move by Washington to raise tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports amid complaints Beijing had done little to resolve U.S. concerns about the theft of intellectual property and the forced transfer of technology to Chinese firms. The People’s Daily said in an editorial China had never forced U.S. firms to hand over technology and the claim was “an old-fashioned argument used by some people in the United States to suppress China’s development.” “The U.S. argument about the ‘forced transfer of technology’ can be described as being fabricated from thin air,” it said. The United States had not yet been able to provide any evidence to back up the claims, the editorial said. It said the United States benefited substantially from voluntary technological cooperation, earning $7.96 billion in intellectual property use fees in 2016 alone. Washington’s “fragile nerves” were caused by China’s own rapidly growing research and development capabilities, the paper said. The increasingly acrimonious dispute between the world’s top two economies has rattled investors and roiled global markets. The United States said negotiations were likely to resume soon but China said no fixed date had been set yet and Washington needed to show sincerity in any new round of talks.


Toyota rebukes Trump for sending message that carmaker 'not welcomed' in U.S.

Abstract: SOUTHFIELD, MICHIGAN - Toyota Motor Corp. rebuked U.S. President Donald Trump’s declaration that imported cars threaten national security, signaling contentious talks are ahead for the White House and America’s key trading partners. In an unusually strong-worded statement, Japan’s largest automaker said Trump’s proclamation Friday that the U.S. needs to defend itself against foreign cars and components “sends a message to Toyota that our investments are not welcomed.” The company said it has spent more than $60 billion building operations in the country, including 10 manufacturing plants. Trump earlier Friday agreed with the conclusions of his Commerce Department, which investigated imports of vehicles and auto parts and found they harm national security by having led to a declining market share for “American-owned” carmakers since the 1980s. The White House set a 180-day deadline for negotiating deals with Japan, the European Union and other major auto exporters. Toyota said it remains hopeful that those talks can be resolved quickly, but warned that curbing imports would force U.S. consumers to pay more and be counterproductive for jobs and the economy. The company’s critique comes two months after its pledge to add $3 billion to a years-long U.S. investment plan. Representatives for other automakers were more diplomatic but also registered concern about the Trump administration’s saber-rattling. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group representing a dozen of the largest domestic and foreign carmakers with operations in the U.S., warned Friday that higher prices from tariffs could put 700,000 American jobs at risk. “We are deeply concerned that the administration continues to consider imposing auto tariffs,” the car lobby said in a statement. “By boosting car prices across the board and driving up car repair and maintenance costs, tariffs are essentially a massive tax on consumers.” The pushback by Toyota marks a break from years of attempting to work its way into Trump’s good graces. Days after drawing criticism from the then-president elect in January 2017 for planning to build Corolla cars in Mexico, Toyota announced a $10 billion, five-year investment plan. In August of that year, the company said it would join with Mazda Motor Corp. in building a $1.6 billion factory in Alabama. But all those efforts have done little to curb repeated threats by the White House to impose tariffs of as much as 25 percent on imported vehicles and auto parts. “Our operations and employees contribute significantly to the American way of life, the U.S. economy and are not a national security threat,” the company said.

toyota
carmakers
donald trump
trade
tariffs