German killer nurse Niels Hoegel gets life for 85 hospital murders

Abstract: OLDENBURG, GERMANY - A German nurse believed to be the most prolific serial killer in the country’s postwar history was handed a life sentence Thursday for murdering 85 patients in his care. Judge Sebastian Buehrmann called Niels Hoegel’s killing spree “incomprehensible.” The 42-year-old murdered patients selected at random with lethal injections between 2000 and 2005, when he was caught in the act. Hoegel has already spent a decade in prison following a previous life sentence he received for six other murders. The exhumation and autopsy of more than 130 bodies were necessary to build the case for the prosecution. Police suspect that Hoegel’s final death toll may be more than 200. But the court was unable to say for sure because of gaps in Hoegel’s memory and because many likely victims were cremated before autopsies could be performed. Buehrmann of the regional court in the northern city of Oldenburg said the number of deaths at Hoegel’s hands “surpasses human imagination.” He expressed regret that the court had not been “fully able to lift the fog” for loved ones about other likely victims. On the final day of hearings on Wednesday, Hoegel asked his victims’ families for forgiveness for his “horrible acts.” “I would like to sincerely apologize for everything I did to you over the course of years,” he said. Caught in 2005 while injecting an unprescribed medication into a patient in Delmenhorst, Hoegel was sentenced in 2008 to seven years in prison for attempted murder. A second trial followed in 2014-2015 under pressure from victims’ families. He was found guilty of murder and attempted murder of five other victims and given the maximum sentence of 15 years — called a life sentence in Germany. At the start of the third trial in October, Buehrmann said its main aim was to establish the full scope of the killing that was allowed to go unchecked for years. “It is like a house with dark rooms — we want to bring light into the darkness,” he said.


Americans call fake news big problem and blame politicians, but want journalists to fix it

Abstract: NEW YORK - Half of U.S. adults consider fake news a major problem, and they mostly blame politicians and activists for it, according to a new survey. A majority also believe journalists have the responsibility for fixing it. Differences in political affiliation are a major factor in how people think about fake news, as Republicans are more likely than Democrats to also blame journalists for the problem. The question of how to deal with made-up or misleading stories has embroiled politicians, civil-rights organizations and tech companies in the aftermath of misinformation campaigns by Russians and others aimed at undermining democratic institutions in the U.S . and Europe . A survey from the Pew Research Center, released Wednesday, finds that 68 percent of U.S. adults believe fake news affects confidence in government institutions. Misinformation was cited more often as a major problem than sexism, racism, illegal immigration or terrorism. Pew typically left the definition of “made-up news and information” open-ended, though some questions specified that it was information “intended to mislead the public.” As for who’s to blame for false information, 57 percent pointed the finger at political leaders and their staffs, while 53 percent said activist groups bore responsibility. Journalists and foreign actors such as Russia each got the blame from more than a third of survey participants, who were able to name multiple parties. Republicans were more likely than Democrats to report seeing made-up news and were more pessimistic that it could be fixed. Pew noted that Republicans tend to be more skeptical about the media and more likely to think coverage is one-sided. President Donald Trump, who often makes remarks that aren’t true, regularly accuses media organizations of making up news he doesn’t like. He has often criticized CNN and prefers Fox News. On Monday, he called CNN “fake news” in a tweet and even suggested a boycott of its parent company, wireless carrier AT&T. “He tends to see anything that’s politically inconvenient as made-up news or fake news,” said Nina Jankowicz, a fellow at the Wilson Center who studies Russian influence campaigns. “I wouldn’t be surprised if that kind of transferred to his followers as well.” Republicans take the idea of made-up news to “mean news that is critical of Trump,” rather than nonsense stories, said Yochai Benkler, a Harvard Law School professor who wrote a book on disinformation and right-wing media. Like Trump, 62 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said fake news is a big problem, compared with 40 percent of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents. Republicans were more likely to blame journalists for the fake-news problem, at 58 percent, while 20 percent of Democrats said journalists create made-up news. Republicans were far more likely to believe that journalists inserting their own views into stories was a big problem in keeping the public informed (60 percent, compared with 20 percent among Democrats). Roughly half of Republicans and Democrats alike said they have unknowingly shared fake news, and about 1 in 10 said they have shared stories they already knew were untrue. While the government has pressured Facebook, Google and other tech companies to rid their services of misinformation, the majority of those polled, 53 percent, said that journalists have the biggest responsibility to reduce made-up stories. Another 12 percent said that fell to government, and only 9 percent said tech companies had the duty. One-fifth said the public had the greatest responsibility to reduce fake news. “It’s surprising that people didn’t think the tech sector and the government should be responsible,” Jankowicz said, because journalism has its limits in its ability to stamp out wrong information. “As someone who specializes in responses to disinformation, I know that fact-checking doesn’t always work.” Readers are more likely to remember incorrect information than the correction, she said. The survey polled 6,127 U.S. adults from Feb. 19 to March 4 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 1.6 percentage points.

fake news
journalism
republicans
democrats
russia
u.s .
pew
media
donald trump


Trump reads from FDR's prayer to the U.S. on D-Day

Abstract: PORTSMOUTH, ENGLAND - President Donald Trump read from a prayer delivered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as he joined other world leaders and veterans Wednesday in marking the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Roosevelt went on national radio on June 6, 1944, to address the U.S. for the first time about the Normandy invasion. Trump, with images of an American flag and Roosevelt projected behind him, read to the crowd: “Almighty God, our sons, pride of our nation, this day, have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our republic, our religion and our civilization and to set free a suffering humanity.” Trump traveled to the southern coast of England Wednesday to pay respects to American service members and allies who helped rescue Europe from Nazi Germany. He sat in a VIP area with other world leaders and in between Queen Elizabeth II and first lady Melania Trump during the program, which focused on a telling of events leading up to D-Day. Some 300 World War II veterans also attended the seaside ceremony. A chilly breeze blew as Trump arrived for the event, the first of two he is attending to mark the 75th anniversary of the day when Allied soldiers, sailors and airmen conducted an invasion that helped liberate Europe from Nazi Germany. Trump joined in giving a standing ovation to a group of World War II vets who appeared on stage as the commemoration began. He was the second world leader to speak, following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the lineup. Trump appeared on stage alone and read from a folder for about 90 seconds, reciting just an excerpt of Roosevelt’s prayer. “Almighty God, our sons, pride of our nation, this day, have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our republic, our religion and our civilization and to set free a suffering humanity,” Trump read. After the event, Trump visited with American World War II veterans who were among Allied troops on D-Day. He had lunch and met briefly with German Chancellor Angela Merkel before heading to Ireland for an airport meeting with Prime Minister Leo Varadkar and to stay at his golf course in the village of Doonbeg, his first visit to the country as president. Varadkar greeted Trump on the tarmac before they went into their meeting inside the airport terminal. Trump and Merkel discussed Libya and conditions in West Africa during their roughly 10-minute meeting, the White House said. During a news conference Tuesday in London, Trump said he is grateful for the warm welcome he received from the British royal family and prime minister. He played down protests of his visit, describing the thousands of people who demonstrated in London as a “small protest.” Trump has used his speeches to emphasize a longstanding bond between the U.S. and Britain. He noted that more than 1.5 million Americans were stationed in England in advance of the invasion. Trump also sought to clean up a diplomatic spat, telling “Good Morning Britain” host Piers Morgan that he meant no royal insult when he used the term “nasty” in discussing the American-born Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle. The phrase generated a lot of media coverage and Trump has worked diligently to explain that he was speaking specifically on her comments about him, not about her. Trump said: “She was nasty to me. And that’s okay for her to be nasty, it’s not good for me to be nasty to her and I wasn’t.” He said the controversy did not come up when he spoke with Markle’s husband, Prince Harry, who he says “couldn’t have been nicer.” In the interview, Trump was asked if he wished he had served in Vietnam. “Well I was never a fan of that war I’ll be honest with you. I thought it was a terrible war,” Trump said. “I thought it was very far away.” Trump was then asked whether serving in the military generally was something he would have liked. Trump said he would not have minded at all and “I think I’m making up for it rapidly” because of increased defense spending under his presidency. While overseas, the president’s mind also appeared to be on matters back at home. He unleashed Twitter attacks on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, former Vice President Joe Biden and even actress and singer Bette Midler. A couple of the broadsides came in about 1 a.m. local time. After Dublin balked at holding a meeting in Doonbeg, a deal was struck for Trump and Varadkar to meet at the VIP lounge at Shannon Airport, hardly the grand setting usually afforded a meeting of world leaders.

d-day
donald trump
queen elizabeth ii
ireland
leo varadkar
wwii
u.s .
u.k .


Campaigning on welfare pledges, Danish center-left opposition wins election

Abstract: COPENHAGEN - Denmark appeared set to become the third Nordic country in a year to form a leftist government as voters in Wednesday’s parliamentary election rebelled against austerity measures and dealt a blow to right-wing nationalists. Danes looked to oust Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen in the election, paving the way for an attempt by Social Democratic leader Mette Frederiksen, 41, to become Denmark’s youngest-ever prime minister as her party led in seats together with the rest of the left-wing opposition. Following two decades of liberal economic reforms in Denmark, the vote marked a comeback for a Social Democratic Party, which was the main architect behind the cradle-to-grave welfare state when it was the traditional party of power throughout the 20th century. The leftist opposition bloc got 96 seats against 79 for the ruling Liberal Party and others on the right, the final vote count showed. The nationalist Danish People’s Party, which has supported Rasmussen’s minority government, appeared to have lost its edge with most mainstream parties backing a tougher stance on immigration. Support for the party plummeted to 8.7 percent from 21.1 percent in the 2015 election. Rasmussen, who has been prime minister since 2015 and also served from 2009 to 2011, said late Wednesday that he will announce his government’s resignation to Queen Margrethe on Thursday. Frederiksen’s promise to increase welfare spending after years of austerity along with her tougher stance on immigration went down well with voters in opinion polls ahead of the vote. The Nordic model has been the gold standard for welfare for many left-leaning politicians globally, including U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who has pointed to Denmark as a model for his vision of an ideal American future. But aging populations have prompted Nordic governments to chip away at the cradle-to-grave welfare state. “This has been a welfare election, and voters’ verdict has been completely clear. From now on, we make welfare the top priority in Denmark,” Frederiksen said in a speech after the final election result. Many Danes, who like their counterparts in other Nordic states pay some of the highest taxes in the world to underpin their welfare system, worry that further austerity will erode the universal health care, education and elderly services long seen as a given. Denmark, which is home to companies like container shipper Maersk, toymaker Lego and brewer Carlsberg, has seen economic growth above the European Union average in the past decade. In Finland and Sweden, the Social Democratic parties also formed governments earlier this year. In Denmark, the Social Democrats remained the biggest party, with support holding at 2015 levels, according to the vote count. Frederiksen will attempt forming a minority one-party government, she said Wednesday, but may find it difficult to combine her own party’s tougher immigration policies with the softer stance of most parties on the left. The Social Democrats have backed tougher legislation, including a ban on wearing the body-covering Islamic burqa and niqab face veil in public, as well as a “jewelry bill” that allows police to seize refugees’ valuables to help pay their costs. The parties Frederiksen will rely on include the Socialist People’s Party and the Social-Liberal Party, the latter which used to be headed by European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. Both parties looked to more than double their support. Both have campaigned for a more gentle immigration policy and greater efforts to combat climate change, echoing a surge in support for Europe’s Greens at European Union elections last month, surfing a global wave of climate activism. A new Danish far-right party, Stram Kurs (Hard Line), which wants Islam banned and hundreds of thousands of Muslims deported, did not gain any seats in parliament. Greenland and the Faroe Islands, which are part of the Kingdom of Denmark with wide autonomy, each have two of parliament’s 179 seats.

elections
denmark
lars lokke rasmussen
mette frederiksen
immigration
europe
poverty


As he arrives, Trump says Brexit will be fine for Ireland

Abstract: SHANNON, IRELAND - Donald Trump, arriving in Ireland for the first time as U.S. president on Wednesday, sought to reassure the country that Britain’s exit from the European Union would work out fine for its near neighbor. Prime Minister Leo Varadkar planned to use a meeting with Trump, who has been a vocal supporter of Brexit, to underline Ireland’s concerns over the departure, his deputy said. How to keep EU-member Ireland’s 500-km (350-mile) border with Northern Ireland open after Brexit and ensure it does not jeopardize two decades of peace in the British province is proving the most intractable issue in Britain’s tortuous efforts to leave the EU. Before meeting Varadkar, Trump said he expected the prime minister would ask him about Brexit and it would all work out “very well. “The way it (the border) works now is good, you want to try and keep it that way and I know that’s a big point of contention with respect to Brexit. I’m sure it’s going to work out well,” Trump told reporters. Deputy Prime Minister Simon Coveney told national broadcaster RTE earlier: “I think the focus of the discussion between the taoiseach (prime minister) and President Trump today will be on the impact of Brexit on Ireland. This U.S. administration and previous ones have consistently been supportive of the Irish peace process.” “It’s a big deal when a U.S. president comes to Ireland. The relationship between Ireland and the U.S. remains strong, even though we disagree on many policy areas with the current administration,” Coveney added, including Trump’s “blunt” views in favor of Brexit among those areas. Trump said in his remarks that the two countries had a great relationship, “as good as it’s been. Varadkar had opposed extending an invitation to Trump as a cabinet minister before changing his mind when he took over as prime minister in 2017. Trump’s meeting with the prime minister is part of a trip that will also include a stop-off at one of the president’s golf resorts. As in Britain where Trump began his European trip this week, there were expected to be some protests by anti-war and environmental demonstrators, but also a warm welcome in the tiny western village of Doonbeg where the hotel he bought five years ago supports local employment. Trump, who took part on Wednesday in events in southern England marking the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, will base himself at the luxury hotel overlooking the Atlantic Ocean for two nights. He will make a day trip from the hotel to France on Thursday for a D-Day commemoration there, before taking in a round of golf and returning to Washington on Friday.

brexit
ireland
donald trump
eu
leo varadkar
northern ireland
europe
u.s .
u.k .


Trump says was 'never a fan' of Vietnam War, and that Americans hadn't heard of country in 1968

Abstract: LONDON - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he has no regrets about being able to avoid serving during the Vietnam War, because he was not a “fan” of the highly unpopular conflict. “I was never a fan of that war, I’ll be honest with you. I thought it was a terrible war. I thought it was very far away,” Trump told interviewer Piers Morgan on ITV television while visiting Britain for ceremonies marking the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion in World War II. “You’re talking about Vietnam and at that time nobody had ever heard of the country,” Trump said. “This isn’t like ‘I’m fighting against Nazi Germany, we’re fighting against Hitler.’ ” Trump graduated from the Wharton School of Finance in 1968, becoming eligible for the draft to be sent to the war, which, despite his comment, was at a peak in that year, with around half a million U.S. soldiers deployed. It was also the year of the Tet offensive, a failed push by communist forces into U.S.-backed South Vietnam that left thousands dead and marked a turning point — electrifying the U.S. anti-war movement and eventually prompting the Americans to withdraw. Shortly after Trump left Wharton, a doctor diagnosed bone spurs in his heels, a condition enabling him to get a medical deferment from the draft. He had already received four previous deferments because he was studying. Trump, who at the time was a keen sportsman and had attended a military school before going to college, has offered a variety of explanations over the years for how and why he did not serve in Vietnam, instead going on to pursue a career in real estate. His avoidance of combat was hardly unusual among young Americans from wealthy families or those able to go to college. These include former Presidents George W. Bush, who served in the Air National Guard and was never sent abroad, and Bill Clinton, who received education deferments and has been accused of maneuvering to avoid the draft. Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden also received five student draft deferments during the war and was later given a medical exemption due to previous asthma as a teenager. Trump told Morgan that he would “have been honored” to be called up for a war that he supported and said that his administration’s extra funding of the Pentagon compensates for his lack of military service. “I think I make up for it right now,” he said. More than 58,000 Americans were killed in Vietnam, a fraction of the many more Vietnamese estimated to have died in the conflict.

vietnam
vietnam war
donald trump
southeast asia
u.s. military


Democratic rivals rebuke Joe Biden for not backing abortion rule repeal

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Joe Biden is under fire from his Democratic presidential rivals and women’s rights advocates for his defense of a decades-old prohibition on federal money paying for abortions. Most Democratic White House hopefuls reflect their party’s latest platform calling for the outright repeal of the Hyde Amendment, which traces back to a compromise made when Biden was a young Delaware senator in the years after the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling legalized abortion nationwide. But a Biden campaign spokesman said Wednesday that the former vice president supports the measure, though he “would be open to repealing it” if abortion access is further threatened by restrictive state laws, like those recently passed in Georgia and Alabama. The hedging prompted intraparty outcry, with top Democrats reaffirming their commitment to abortion rights and scrapping the Hyde Amendment. They generally avoided mentioning Biden by name, but the pushback marked the first significant instance in which virtually the entire crowded 2020 field united to critique Biden, who has emerged as an early Democratic front-runner . New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who has campaigned as an unapologetic feminist, tweeted “reproductive rights are human rights, period. They should be nonnegotiable for all Democrats.” On Capitol Hill, California Sen. Kamala Harris told The Associated Press she was “absolutely opposed to the idea that a woman is not going to have an ability to exercise her choice based on how much money she’s got.” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, while campaigning in Indiana, told reporters: “This isn’t about the politics, this is about what’s right. The Hyde Amendment should not be the law.” Other presidential candidates including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke and former Obama administration official Julian Castro also voiced support for ending the Hyde Amendment. Biden’s abortion views came under scrutiny recently after video emerged of a conversation between him and a South Carolina activist that appeared to suggest he backed the Hyde Amendment’s repeal. His campaign said Biden thought the activist was asking about the so-called Mexico City rule, which prohibits U.S. foreign aid to non-American organizations that provide abortion services. The campaign said Biden supports ending the Mexico City rule but backs the Hyde Amendment for now. That would change, it said, “if avenues for women to access their protected rights under Roe v. Wade are closed.” Biden, a Roman Catholic, has long been a supporter of the once-bipartisan Hyde Amendment, which President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1993. It bars the use of federal funds for abortion other than in cases of incest, rape or to save the life of the mother. That position aligns the former vice president with the man he’s trying to unseat next year, President Donald Trump. Campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said Wednesday that “President Trump opposes taxpayer funding of abortions and supports the Hyde Amendment.” Biden has said in the past he agrees with his church’s opposition to abortion personally but doesn’t think the government should impose his views on others. After the Supreme Court decided the Roe v. Wade case, Biden originally worried the decision “went too far,” though he later became a staunch defender of it. “I’ve stuck to my middle-of-the-road position on abortion for more than 30 years,” he wrote in his 2007 book “Promises to Keep.” “I still vote against partial birth abortion and federal funding, and I’d like to make it easier for scared young mothers to choose not to have an abortion, but I will also vote against a constitutional amendment that strips a woman of her right to make her own choice.” As a party, Democrats didn’t expressly state opposition to the Hyde Amendment until 2016. The Democratic platform that year also introduced a specific mention of Planned Parenthood, as it was adopted amid a rash of Republican-run state legislatures trying to strip Medicaid financing for the women’s health giant whose services include abortion and abortion referrals. Abortion rights supporters also condemned the Hyde Amendment on Wednesday. “To support the Hyde Amendment is to block people — particularly women of color and women with low incomes — from accessing safe, legal abortion,” Kelley Robinson, executive director of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a statement. “As abortion access is being restricted and pushed out of reach in states around the country, it is unacceptable for a candidate to support policies that further restrict abortion.” Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said Biden’s position “further endangers women and families already facing enormous hurdles and creates two classes of rights for people in this country, which is inherently undemocratic.” Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Hawaii Democrat, said in an interview Wednesday that she was “very disappointed” in Biden’s position and urged Democratic presidential candidates to “come together” in full support of abortion rights. “This is why there are going to be a lot of women and others who are going to be asking Biden, ‘Where exactly are you on the issue of a woman’s right to choose?’ ” Hirono said.

democrats
joe biden
abortion
u.s .
roe v wade
2020 u.s. presidential election


Front-running Democrat Joe Biden is campaigning for U.S. president on his terms

Abstract: NEW YORK/ATLANTA - Just six weeks into his presidential campaign, Joe Biden is running as the Democrat to beat, charting a distinct path through the primary states, taking positions that may rile the party base and working with a single goal in mind: not being lumped in with the rest of the field. While most Democrats crowd an Iowa dinner this weekend, he won’t be on the campaign trail. While most Democrats tout their support of abortion rights, Biden is offering a more nuanced, middle-ground position. And while most Democrats are preparing to battle one another, Biden is focused on U.S. President Donald Trump. Biden’s moves suggest a candidate looking beyond the Democratic primary to the general election, laser-focused on issues that could shore him up with swing voters in key battleground states even if it spurs consternation from some Democrats now. At the moment, the strategy seems to be working as Biden enjoys a sizable lead in most early polls. But that could change with the first presidential debate of the season just weeks away. “You are still running for the Democratic Party nomination, and you have to respect where the party is … and avoid pitfalls,” said Karen Finney, a key adviser in 2016 to Hillary Clinton, who navigated a fraught relationship with Democrats’ left flank to win the nomination but went on to lose the election. “It’s a very fine line he’s trying to walk.” There are fresh signs of the peril he faces atop the field. In a span of 24 hours this week, a staffer appeared to cut short a question-and-answer session with New Hampshire voters after the candidate called China “xenophobic,” suggesting the campaign remains anxious about Biden’s tendency to go off script. Aides admitted the campaign published a climate policy proposal without properly sourcing some material, a sign of a potential lack of discipline that sank Biden’s previous White House bids. And Biden’s defense of his abortion views enraged fellow Democrats and left him uncomfortably close to Trump, whose campaign happily noted the president also opposes federal money supporting abortion. More broadly, Biden risks contending with the same air of inevitability that Clinton confronted in 2016, magnifying every misstep and turning some voters against her. “There are just places where he is out of step with the party,” Finney observed, citing his stance on abortion. “The question becomes whether there’s an assumption by this campaign that parts of the base might not like various positions but because people want to win, they’ll be willing to look past it.” Biden’s Democratic competitors have been reluctant to attack publicly. Even as they disagreed with Biden’s abortion views on Wednesday, they generally avoided referring to him by name. In private, however, rival campaigns are eager to complain that Biden hides from scrutiny. He’s among the only top-tier candidates yet to appear at a cable news town hall, and in contrast with many of his opponents, he rarely takes questions from groups of reporters after his campaign appearances. Some of Biden’s top-tier opponents acknowledge they fear voter backlash should they engage the popular Biden more directly. They expect to debate policy differences, but most want to avoid the kind of scorched-earth attacks that fueled Trump’s rise during the 2016 Republican primary. Only groups like the Progressive Change Campaign Committee — which backs Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren — have called Biden out aggressively. The group this week tweeted a picture of Biden’s schedule for June that features 10 days of campaigning — several days are limited to invitation-only fundraisers. “You can hide for a few weeks during the primary, but you can’t hide from public engagement during the general election against Trump,” said PCCC co-founder Adam Green. At Biden headquarters, aides don’t deny a front-runner’s approach, but they dispute any characterization that the former vice president isn’t engaging voters. Days when he’s not on the campaign trail, they say, are devoted to meetings with policy advisers and campaign aides. Indeed, Biden has unveiled two comprehensive policy outlines — on education and climate — before the 40-day mark of his campaign, a faster clip than the gaggle of candidates who launched their bids in January and February. And they say Biden made it to all four early voting states faster than most of his top-tier rivals. Biden isn’t skipping large-scale Democratic events altogether. On Thursday, he’ll be in Atlanta at a Democratic National Committee event focused on minorities and voting rights. Later in June, he’ll spend two days at the South Carolina state party convention, an important stop ahead of the South’s first primary and the first nominating contest to feature a large black contingent. And allowing a press pool at fundraisers — something his opponents aren’t doing systematically — means any misstep is captured, even if not on camera. He’s attended house parties and lunchtime meet-and-greets and taken questions in New Hampshire and Iowa, even if not as much as barnstormers such as Warren or New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker. Scott Brennan, a former Iowa Democratic Party chairman, said Biden’s strength in early polls allows him to “get a pass” from some of the criticism for now. But he warned that Biden should be aware of a nebulous measure: “Whether voters feel like you’re accessible.” Then-Sen. Barack Obama skipped Iowa’s Hall of Fame dinner in 2007 — the same event Biden will miss this weekend. But Obama went on to win Iowa, largely because of his lengthy sessions answering questions from voters in more personal settings. In New Hampshire on Tuesday, voters offered a mixed assessment. Cynthia Tomai, a 51-year-old who is self-employed, said Biden has to play “catch up” to other candidates. “Would I like to see a little bit more aggressiveness in him?” Tomai said. “Yeah, I would. I think he does need to change his message a little bit.” Lloyd Murray, a 67-year-old military veteran and business owner, said Biden’s front-runner approach is smart. “I’m scared for him,” Murray said. “He’s known to make (gaffes) in the past. I want him to play it safe. He’s in the lead.”

democrats
joe biden
elections
u.s .
2016 u.s. presidential election


Two million Somalis could die of starvation amid drought, U.N. warns

Abstract: NEW YORK - A United Nations emergency relief coordinator says more than 2 million men, women and children could die of starvation in Somalia by summer’s end if international aid is not sent quickly to the drought-stricken African country. U.N. Undersecretary-General Mark Lowcock says about $700 million is needed after a rainless season that has killed both livestock and crops. He said Tuesday that the U.N.’s Central Emergency Response Fund has allocated $45 million to cover food shortages, water and daily necessities in Somalia as well as parts of Kenya and Ethiopia affected by droughts. Of a Somali population of 15 million people, more than 3 million are struggling just to meet minimum food requirements, he said, and the shortages are about 40 percent worse now than this past winter. “What was forecast to be an average rainy season in Somalia is now one of the driest on record in over 35 years,” he said. “Communities that were already vulnerable due to past droughts are again facing severe hunger and water scarcity and are at risk from deadly communicable diseases.” The U.N. aid complements efforts by governments of the three countries to assist their people, especially those with disabilities or who are internally displaced. Somalia’s humanitarian fund is currently depleted. If financial aid is delayed, the cost of saving lives on the margin of death are much higher, Lowcock said, adding that the option then is to turn to expensive, therapeutic feeding programs. “We could have a quick response now, which would be cheaper, reduce human suffering and more effective, or we can wait for a few months until we get all those horrible pictures on our TV screens and social media of starving kids,” Lowcock said. Lowcock, who heads the U.N. Office for Humanitarian Affairs, said that in past decades droughts came about every half a dozen years but recently they have hit every two or three years. “There’s not really any question in my mind that these more frequent droughts are related to global warming and climate change,” the U.N. official said. “So the only middle- and longer-term response is to look at alternative livelihoods — a different way to make a living.”


Russia effort in 2016 U.S. election was 'vast' and 'professional,' researchers say

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Russia’s efforts to sow misinformation on Twitter ahead of the 2016 U.S. election was more extensive and professional than earlier believed, security researchers said Wednesday. A report by the security firm Symantec said some of the accounts linked to Russia’s Internet Research Agency dated back as far as 2014 and that the manipulation effort involved a vast effort that included both automated “bots” and manual operations. “While this propaganda campaign has often been referred to as the work of trolls, the release of the dataset makes it obvious that it was far more than that,” said Gillian Cleary of Symantec’s Security Technology and Response team in a blog post. “It was planned months in advance and the operators had the resources to create and manage a vast disinformation network. It was a highly professional campaign.” Twitter said the Symantec analysis was based on its data released to researchers last year of some 10 million tweets. While the Russian campaign used Facebook and other channels, Twitter’s data availability makes it easier for independent researchers to study these campaigns. “Our singular focus is to improve the health of the public conversation on our platform, and protecting the integrity of elections is an important aspect of that mission,” a Twitter spokesperson said. “We’ve made significant strides since 2016 to counter manipulation of our service, which includes our release of data last fall related to previously disclosed activities to enable further independent academic research and investigation.” According to Symantec, the Twitter campaign was professionally orchestrated with accounts registered well in advance of their use, in many cases masquerading as news outlets or political organizations. “The operation was carefully planned, with accounts often registered months before they were used — and well in advance of the 2016 US presidential election,” Cleary wrote. “The average time between account creation and first tweet was 177 days.” While most accounts were automated, there were signs of manual intervention, such as posting original content or slightly changing the wording of reposted contented, in an attempt to make them appear more authentic and reduce the risk of their deletion, Symantec said. The campaign sparked real Twitter users to retweet many of the messages, with one generating over 6 million retweets and some were effective in organizing rallies. “Despite the fact that the accounts (were) comprised of fake personas and organizations, they nevertheless succeeded in mobilizing people to attend events,” Cleary wrote. “Besides its online activities, the campaign’s operators also organized rallies supporting positions on both sides of the political spectrum.”

russia
twitter
symantec
propaganda
facebook
social media
donald trump
2016 u.s. presidential election
fake news


Syria regime bombardment kills 10 during Eid, monitoring group says

Abstract: KAFR AWEID, SYRIA - Airstrikes and shelling by regime forces killed 10 civilians in Syria’s northwest on Wednesday, as residents marked the holiday of Eid al-Fitr, a war monitor said. Two children were among six people killed in regime strikes on the town of Kafr Aweid in the jihadi-held province of Idlib, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The victims’ relatives gathered at the town’s graveyard on Wednesday afternoon as an excavator dug a large pit in the ground. The scattered remains of one of the children were placed in a cardboard box before being buried, an AFP photographer said. The corpse of another was covered in an embroidered blue sheet. Another civilian died in regime shelling on the northern Hama countryside, also held by insurgents, said the Britain-based monitor. Regime airstrikes also hit a motorcycle in the Idlib town of Maaret al-Numan, killing a woman and her two children, said the Observatory. Wednesday’s attacks come amid an escalation in violence in parts of the country’s northwest held by Syria’s former al-Qaida affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. A September deal was supposed to avert a full-out regime offensive on Idlib province and adjacent areas, home to around 3 million people, nearly half of whom have been displaced from other parts of Syria. But the regime and its ally Russia have since late April ramped up deadly air strikes and rocket fire on the region, and fighters have clashed on its edges. The bombardment of Idlib province and neighboring areas has killed more than 300 people since late April, according to the Observatory. It also displaced nearly 270,000 people in May alone, according to the U.N. A total of 24 health facilities and 35 schools have been hit in the latest escalation, according to the U.N.’s humanitarian office. Analysts predict that President Bashar Assad and his allies will continue to chip away at the area, but not unleash a major assault that would create chaos on Turkey’s doorstep. The conflict in Syria has killed more than 370,000 people since it started in 2011.

syria
idlib
al-qaida
hayat tahrir al-sham
bashar assad
conflict
u.n .


Islamic State claims first presence in Mozambique, but police beg to differ

Abstract: MAPUTO - The Islamic State group has claimed it was involved in an insurgent clash in Mozambique for the first time, but analysts expressed doubt and police dismissed the claim outright. A jihadi insurgency has been growing in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado since 2017, with more than 200 people killed and many villages torched. According to SITE Intelligence, a company that monitors extremist activity, Islamic State issued a statement late Tuesday claiming involvement in an apparent gunfight with the Mozambique military in Cabo Delgado. “The soldiers of the Caliphate were able to repulse an attack by the Crusader Mozambican army in Metubi village, in the Mocimboa area,” said the statement, according to a SITE translation. “They clashed with them with a variety of weapons, killing and wounding a number of them. “The mujahideen captured weapons, ammunition, and rockets as spoils.” Insurgents regularly attack villages, kill local people — sometimes beheading them — and burn down houses despite a heavy police and military presence in the province that borders Tanzania. “There are Islamist groups in Mozambique that feel represented by IS,” Fernando Jorge Cardoso, an African specialist at the University Institute of Lisbon in Portugal, told AFP. “But this does not mean that there was a movement of armed men to this place. “It’s good for IS — because they can say that they are spreading, and it’s good for the local group — because they feel that they are part of a greater movement. It’s propaganda, but it has some meaning.” Another expert on the Mozambique insurgency, who declined to be named, said Islamic State ranks were unlikely to have any direct contact with local fighters. “Islamic State is not in Mozambique … but they might have links,” he said. “Islamic State are struggling to survive but want to give the idea that they are active in Africa.” Police on Wednesday dismissed the Islamic State claims, which came as Muslims worldwide marked the holiday of Eid al-Fitr after the holy month of Ramadan. “The security forces distance themselves from these reports,” police spokesman Orlando Mudumane told reporters in Maputo. “The information is not true. The police reiterate the readiness of the security forces to combat whatever wrongdoers do.” The police and government have a policy not to comment on any insurgent activity, even if attacks are confirmed by local people. Militant Islamists have targeted remote communities in gas-rich, Muslim-majority Cabo Delgado since October 2017, but the group’s identity and motives remain unclear. Using local sources, AFP tracked the unrest through May, recording 14 attacks and more than 40 deaths. Attacks have forced temporary closures of voting registration stations ahead of October elections. Lucrative gas fields off Cabo Delgado add an extra dimension to the insurgency as international exploration companies have been caught up in the violence. According to local sources, 16 people were killed in a highway ambush on May 31, in the highest single death toll of the insurgency. Attackers threw home-made explosives into a truck — a new tactic — and then opened fire.

islamic state
mozambique
cabo delgado
terrorism


97-year-old D-Day veteran parachutes into Normandy again

Abstract: CARENTAN, FRANCE - Parachutists are jumping over Normandy again, just as soldiers did 75 years ago for D-Day — but this time without being shot at. Engines throbbing, C-47 transport planes dropped group after group of parachutists, a couple of hundred in all — including a 97-year-old D-Day veteran, Tom Rice. “It went perfect, perfect jump,” Rice said after his jump. “I feel great. I’d go up and do it all again.” The jumpers were honoring the airborne soldiers who descended into gunfire and death ahead of the June 6, 1944, seaborne invasion . The landing zone for Wednesday’s operation was fields of wildflowers outside Carentan, one of the objectives of the thousands of paratroopers who entered occupied France from the sky dropped over Normandy in the D-Day prelude. Rice, of San Diego, jumped into roughly the same area he landed in on D-Day. He said it was dark when he touched down in 1944 and he can’t be sure exactly where he was. Rice jumped with the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division on that momentous day 75 years ago, landing safely despite catching himself on the exit and a bullet striking his parachute. He called the 1944 jump “the worst jump I ever had.” “I got my left armpit caught in the lower left hand corner of the door so I swung out, came back and hit the side of the aircraft, swung out again and came back, and I just tried to straighten my arm out and I got free,” he told The Associated Press in an interview. His jump on Wednesday was a different story. He came down in tandem with another parachutist, after preparing for six months with a physical trainer. Rice flew down with an American flag fluttering beneath him and landed to a wave of applause from the crowd of thousands that gathered to watch the aerial display. Other parachutists jumped with World War II souvenirs, some carrying items their grandfathers took into battle. Many spectators wore war-era uniforms, and music of the time played over loudspeakers. Robert Schaefer, a retired lieutenant colonel with the U.S. Army’s Green Berets who served in Afghanistan, carried whiskey, cigars and the dog tag and wallet his grandfather, George J. Ehmet, had with him when he fought as an artillery man in France. “I feel like I got to jump with my grandpa,” Schaefer said afterward. British parachutists jumped later Wednesday en masse over Sannerville. D-Day veterans were expected to be among them. The jumps were part of events marking the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion . Asked how his D-Day comrades would have felt about him jumping, Rice said, “They would love it.” “Some of them couldn’t handle it. Many of them are deceased. We had 38 percent casualties,” he said. With the number of D-Day survivors dwindling fast, Rice said, “I represent a whole generation.” Like many other veterans, he said he remains troubled by the war. “All the GIs suffer from same blame and shame,” Rice said. “It bothers us all the time for what we did. We did a lot of destruction, damage. And we chased the Germans out, and coming back here is a matter of closure. You can close the issue now,” he said.

d-day
normandy
france
tom rice
anniversaries
wwii
u.s .
history


Some little-known facts about D-Day: Inflatable tanks and 'fake news'

Abstract: PARIS - On June 6, 1944, more than 150,000 Allied troops invaded the northern French coast, marking the start of France’s liberation from its Nazi occupiers. It was a defining moment of World War II. Here are some little-known facts about “the longest day”: Threat of defeat With D-Day looming, the Allies prepared for the worst. Dwight Eisenhower, the supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe and a future U.S. president, prepared himself in advance for announcing a failure. He penned a statement on June 5 titled “In case of failure,” which said that “any blame or fault … is mine alone.” “My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. … The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do.” Allied forces quickly gained control of five points along an 80-kilometer-long (50-mile) front on beaches code-named Utah, Gold, Juno and Sword. But at Omaha, heavy casualties earned the beach the somber nickname “Bloody Omaha.” High cliffs there gave the Germans an immediate advantage. Americans were left waist-deep in rough seas as crashing water sank their landing craft, and some drowned. Of the 34,000 Americans deployed, 2,500 were killed or wounded. Some paratroopers drowned in “catastrophic” jumps, said French historian Jean Quellien, author of “The Battle of Normandy.” Heavy equipment weighing 30 to 40 kg (65 to 90 pounds) pulled them underwater. Inflatable tanks The British led a deception campaign, code-named Operation Fortitude, to try to fool the Germans into thinking the Allies planned to attack Scandinavia, then the Calais region in northern France, rather than Normandy. Inflatable tanks were positioned on the British coast facing Calais, and metallic lures were used to make it appear to German radar that a large force was about to land near Calais. Fake radio messages were leaked to German intelligence services. Even after the D-Day landings on June 6, the Germans believed a second attack was planned in the Calais region. Hitler eventually ordered troops to join the Normandy front. ‘Erotic adventure’ “When the Germans came, we told the men to hide. But when the Americans came, we had to hide the women!” The French joke refers to the “erotic adventure” which the U.S. military promised American soldiers fighting in France, historian Mary Louise Roberts writes in “What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American GI in World War II France.” Propaganda painted France as “a tremendous brothel inhabited by 40 million hedonists.” Readers of the military newspaper Stars and Stripes could learn the French for “You are very pretty,” “I am not married” and “Are your parents at home?” The German vocabulary section offered phrases such as “No cigarettes!” and “Line up!” Roberts explained. American promiscuity sparked outrage in cities like Le Havre and Reims, where sexual acts “took place in parks, cemeteries, streets and abandoned buildings.” More than 150 American soldiers were tried for rape, most of them black men, underlining the racial discrimination at the time, Roberts said. Tribal ‘code talkers’ Communicating through coded messages would have taken too long during the landings, and commanders couldn’t speak in English in case they were intercepted by the Germans. Instead, the Americans used Native American “code talkers,” especially the Navajo and Comanche, who worked in their indigenous languages. John Parker, son of code talker Simmons Parker, remembers that “bomber plane” was translated as “pregnant bird.” He said his father told him that in the Comanche language, “crazy white man” meant Hitler. Landing in … Indonesia In December 2018 Royal Mail, the British postal service, apologized after releasing a stamp commemorating D-Day’s 75th anniversary showing American troops landing in Indonesia, then known as Dutch New Guinea. “We would like to offer our sincere apologies,” Royal Mail said.

d-day military anniversaries wwii history


Islamic State claims Sinai attack that left 10 police officers dead

Abstract: EL-ARISH, EGYPT - Islamic militants attacked a checkpoint in Egypt’s restive northern part of the Sinai Peninsula on Wednesday, killing at least 10 police, security officials said. The attack took place as Muslims in the city of el-Arish were holding prayers marking the holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which follows the holy month of Ramadan, early in the morning. Two officers and eight conscripts were among those killed, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters. The Islamic State group, through its Amaq news agency, claimed responsibility for the attack. The officials said the militants attacked the checkpoint south of el-Arish and seized an armored vehicle to make their getaway, but a warplane chased them down in the desert, killing at least five. The Interior Ministry later released a statement saying eight police were killed in the attack. The discrepancy between the casualty figures could not immediately be resolved. Egypt has battled Islamic militants for years in the Sinai Peninsula in an insurgency that has occasionally spilled over to the mainland, striking minority Christians and occasionally tourists. The insurgency grew deadlier and militant attacks more frequent after the military’s 2013 ouster of an elected but divisive Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi. At the center of the campaign is an Islamic State affiliate, based in Sinai. The Egyptian militant group had sworn allegiance to IS at the height of its power in Iraq and Syria in 2014. IS has now been mostly defeated and all the territory it once controlled in both Syria and Iraq taken back and liberated. In Egypt, an all-out campaign by the military since early 2018 has mainly halted high-profile attacks by IS and other militants.

islamic state
sinai
egypt
terrorism
aamaq


Nepal Everest cleanup drive yields 11 tons of garbage and four bodies

Abstract: KATHMANDU - A Nepal government expedition to Mount Everest has removed 11,000 kilograms (24,200 pounds) of garbage and four dead bodies from the world’s highest mountain, officials said Wednesday. Tourism Department official Danduraj Ghimire said the cleaners spent weeks collecting food wrappings, cans, bottles and empty oxygen cylinders. Some of the garbage was flown to Kathmandu and handed over to recyclers in a ceremony Wednesday officially concluding the cleaning campaign. Officials called it a successful mission but said more trash still needs to be collected. Some is covered by snow and only is exposed when temperatures rise. Officials have not been able to estimate exactly how much garbage is on the mountain. Most was at Camps 2 and 3, at which climbers can rest along the way from the base camp to the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) summit. Ghimire said the four bodies were exposed by melting snow and were carried to base camp and then flown to a hospital in Kathmandu for identification. Climbers struggling to make it down the mountain alive sometimes are unable to carry out the bodies of teammates who have died. More than 300 climbers have died on Everest since it was first conquered in 1953. It is unclear how many bodies are still on the mountain, and officials said they have no records. Hundreds of climbers and their guides and porters spend weeks on Everest every spring, the best climbing season. A tent city rises at the base camp at 5,300 meters (17,400 feet) for three months between March and May.

nepal
garbage
mount everest
mountaineering
pollution


Putin and Xi hail burgeoning Russia-China ties

Abstract: MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday hosted Chinese leader Xi Jinping for Kremlin talks that reflected increasingly close ties between the two former Cold War-era communist rivals. Xi called Putin his “close friend,” noting that they have met nearly 30 times over the last six years. The trip marked Xi’s eighth visit to Russia since he took the helm in 2012. “We will strengthen our mutual support on key issues,” Xi said, sitting next to Putin in an ornate Kremlin hall. Relations between Russia and China have become increasingly close as they both face mounting tensions with the U.S. Moscow’s ties with Washington have declined sharply over the Ukrainian crisis, the war in Syria and the allegations of Kremlin meddling in the U.S. 2016 presidential elections, while China is engaged in a spiraling trade war with the U.S. “Protectionism and unilateral approaches are on the rise, and a policy of force and hegemonism is increasingly taking hold,” Xi said. Putin and Xi were meeting in Moscow as world leaders gathered on the south coast of England to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings. Putin, who attended 70th anniversary commemorations in France five years ago, has not been invited. Russia was not involved in D-Day but the Soviet effort was crucial in defeating the Nazis on the Eastern Front. The Russian leader emphasized that Moscow and Beijing have the same view on many global issues, particularly noting their shared opposition to Washington’s withdrawal from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, a key Cold War-era arms control pact. In a joint statement issued after the talks, Putin and Xi criticized the U.S. move, saying it will “undermine strategic stability.” They also voiced worry about the growing threat of an arms race in space, calling for a global ban on deployment of weapons in orbit. The two presidents underlined their shared approach to international crises, emphasizing the need to preserve a nuclear deal with Iran and promising to help advance the stalled talks on North Korea’s denuclearization. Also on Wednesday, Xi and Putin will mark the launch of a Chinese car factory south of Moscow and visit Moscow’s zoo, to which China has presented a pair of pandas. With a smile, Putin said that “we highly appreciate that friendly gesture.” Later this week, Xi will be the most prominent guest at Russia’s major investment conference in St. Petersburg on Friday.

russia
china
vladimir putin
xi jinping
trade war
u.s .
ukraine
donald trump


U.S. preparing to sell over $2 billion in arms to Taiwan, testing China, say sources

Abstract: WASHINGTON - The United States is pursuing the sale of more than $2 billion worth of tanks and weapons to Taiwan, four people familiar with the negotiations said, in a move likely to anger China as a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies escalates. An informal notification of the proposed sale has been sent to the U.S. Congress, the four sources said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the possible deal. The potential sale included 108 General Dynamics Corp. M1A2 Abrams tanks worth around $2 billion as well as anti-tank and anti-aircraft munitions, three of the sources said. Taiwan has been interested in refreshing its existing U.S.-made battle tank inventory, which includes M60 Patton tanks. The United States is a main arms supplier to Taiwan, which China deems its own and has never renounced the use of force to bring the self-ruled island under its control. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said in March that the United States was responding positively to Taipei’s requests for new arms sales to bolster its defenses in the face of pressure from China. The United States has no formal ties with Taiwan, but is bound by law to help provide it with the means to defend itself. China and the United States are engaged in a fierce trade war, with clashes over Taiwan and the South China Sea exacerbating tensions. A spokesman for the State Department, which oversees foreign military sales, said the U.S. government does not comment on or confirm potential or pending arms sales or transfers before they have been formally notified to Congress. The congressional notifications included a variety of anti-tank munitions, among them 409 Raytheon Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp.-made Javelin missiles worth as much as $129 million, two of the sources said. In addition, the notifications included 1,240 TOW anti-tank missiles worth as much as $299 million, one of the sources said adding that there were also 250 stinger missiles worth as much as $223 million in the notification. Stingers are often used in man-portable anti-aircraft weapons systems. In 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration rolled out a long-awaited overhaul of U.S. arms export policy aimed at expanding sales to allies, saying it would bolster the American defense industry and create jobs at home. Last week, the Pentagon announced it would sell 34 ScanEagle drones, made by Boeing Co. to the governments of Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam for $47 million. The drones would afford greater intelligence-gathering capabilities potentially curbing Chinese activity in the region. China claims almost all of the strategic South China Sea and frequently lambastes the United States and its allies over naval operations near Chinese-occupied islands. Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have competing claims. Last weekend, at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, China’s Defense Minister Wei Fenghe warned the United States not to meddle in security disputes over Taiwan and the South China Sea. Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told the meeting that the United States would no longer “tiptoe” around Chinese behavior in Asia.

taiwan
china
weapons
tsai ing-wen
south china sea
donald trump
patrick shanahan
u.s .


Exiled Uighur leader urges pressure on China as he receives U.S. award

Abstract: WASHINGTON - An exiled Uighur leader called for more concerted international pressure on China to end its mass detention of the ethnic group as he received a U.S. award. The National Endowment for Democracy, which is funded by the U.S. Congress to promote democracy worldwide, gave its annual award to the World Uyghur Congress as well as the Tibet Action Institute and ChinaAid, a Christian human rights group headed by pastor Bob Fu. The Democracy Award — whose statuette resembles the Goddess of Democracy erected by students in Tiananmen Square — was presented Tuesday night on the 30th anniversary of China’s crushing of the student protests, which left hundreds if not more dead. Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress, which says it represents the interests of Uighurs both under Chinese rule and overseas, said the award offered a morale boost to the group, which Beijing has branded a terrorist organization. “Maybe this award will bring more support for the Uighur cause from the international community,” Isa told AFP at the ceremony. “Some countries like the U.S. and European countries are speaking out. But many Muslim countries continue not only their silence but supporting the Chinese repression toward the Uighurs. It’s a real disappointment and shame because we are Muslims facing religious persecution,” he said. China has rounded up more than 1 million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim Turkic peoples in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, according to estimates cited by a UN panel. The United States has drawn parallels to Nazi Germany and denounced the “concentration camps.” But Isa said the United States should go further and impose sanctions on Chinese officials responsible for the policy, a step supported by a number of U.S. lawmakers. “Just speaking out on this issue isn’t good enough. We ask Western governments to take concrete action and sanction high-level officials,” he said. “Otherwise the Chinese will not stop and will continually expand these camps,” he said. China has denounced the Western criticism, calling it inaccurate and interference in its affairs, and was angered when the United States invited Isa to address a U.N. forum. China says it is providing vocational training to prevent the spread of Islamic extremism. But Isa said China is suppressing freedom of religion. He cited accounts that China has demanded that Uighurs not pray or fast during the holy month of Ramadan and has forced them to eat pork and drink alcohol, both forbidden by Islam. “If you refuse, they say you’re radicalized,” he said. Rep. Jim McGovern, presenting the award to Isa, described the camps as an “attempt to stamp out Uighur identity” and said Uighurs who are not detained “live in an open-air prison.” “It is long past time for the world to send a clear message that the Chinese government cannot perpetrate these abuses with impunity,” the Democratic lawmaker said.

uighurs
china
congress
rights
democracy award
dolkun isa
xinjiang
u.s .
discrimination


Japanese researchers win second prize in global competition for unmanned ocean exploration

Abstract: A team of Japanese researchers said Wednesday that it has won second place in a global competition for unmanned ocean floor exploration. “We were able to show the excellence of Japanese ocean research technology,” Takeshi Nakanishi of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) said at a meeting in Tokyo. Team Kuroshio includes officials from JAMSTEC, the University of Tokyo, the Kyushu Institute of Technology, Mitsui E&S Holdings Co., Yamaha Motor Co. and others. In the final round, held last November and December, the Japanese team took on eight European and U.S. contenders in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Greece. They competed on accurately mapping at least 250 square kilometers (96.5 square miles) of the sea floor. Team Kuroshio plans to use its prize of $1 million for further research activity. A U.S.-based international team won first place, with core members trained under a program financed by the Nippon Foundation.

oceans
jamstec
university of tokyo
awards


Metropolitan Expressway to have variable tolling during 2020 Games

Abstract: The central and Tokyo governments have agreed to introduce variable tolling on the Metropolitan Expressway during the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games in an attempt to curb daytime traffic and help facilitate the transportation of athletes and goods, sources close to the matter said Thursday. Under the plan, private vehicles using the radial expressway, which has multiple routes covering central Tokyo, between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. will be charged an additional ¥1,000, while the toll will be halved for any vehicles traveling between midnight and 4 a.m. Regular tolls will be maintained for the remaining hours. They also intend to close the route to private vehicles around the time of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Summer Games, the sources said. But the planned moves could face opposition as they would affect a large number of people over the span of several weeks. The Olympic Games will be held between July 24 and Aug. 9 next year, followed by the Paralympic Games between Aug. 25 and Sept. 6. Tokyo seeks to reduce traffic on the expressway during the games by as much as 30 percent. Private cars make up about 48 percent of the vehicles using the expressway. The central government estimates that traveling between the athletes village and the new National Stadium at around 5 p.m. would take about 80 minutes unless measures to mitigate traffic are taken. But the government believes the travel time can be halved if companies encourage employees to telework and shift work hours, and reduced to 20 minutes with the extra toll.


Abe equals Hirobumi Ito as Japan's third-longest-serving prime minister

Abstract: Shinzo Abe on Thursday equaled Hirobumi Ito, the nation’s first prime minister and a prominent statesman during the Meiji Era (1868-1912), as Japan’s third-longest-serving prime minister. Thursday marked the 2,720th day of Abe’s administration, including his first, short-lived stint in power from 2006 to 2007. “I’ve come this far thanks to strong support I’ve received from the public in the last five national elections, as well as various experiences I had during my first time” as the prime minister, Abe told reporters Thursday morning. “I will go ahead and fulfill my responsibility to resolutely deliver on each policy promise I’ve made to the public,” he added. Going forward, Abe’s chances of earning his place in history as the longest-serving prime minister hinge on how his ruling Liberal Democratic Party — as well as its coalition partner Komeito — fares in the crucial Upper House election in summer. If he survives the poll and lasts until Aug. 24, Abe will surpass Eisaku Sato, who served for a total of 2,798 days, to move into second place on the list. If his leadership continues until Nov. 20, Abe would become the longest-serving prime minister ever, beating the record by Taro Katsura, who was in office for a combined 2,886 days. Political observers largely attribute the longevity of Abe’s leadership to a relatively strong economy and a fragmented opposition that has failed to present a viable alternative to the juggernaut of the ruling coalition. But the type of political legacies secured by Ito and Sato — such as the drafting of the Meiji Constitution and the reversion of Okinawa to Japanese sovereignty, respectively — have so far eluded Abe. Many of his career-long ambitions, including revising the postwar Constitution, resolving the territorial dispute with Russia and repatriating Japanese nationals kidnapped by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s, remain unfulfilled. Still, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga on Thursday credited Abe with his “strong leadership” that he said has reinvigorated the economy, and his restructuring of foreign and national security policies. Opposition lawmakers are unconvinced. Kiyomi Tsujimoto, speaking to a gathering of her fellow Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan lawmakers, painted a different picture of Abe’s time in office over the past 6½ years, characterizing it as akin to a “nightmare.” “Over the past 2,720 days, things that no past administration ever dared to do have been carried out, including bulldozing unconstitutional legislation through the Diet,” Tsujimoto said in an apparent reference to the 2015 security laws that have significantly expanded the legal scope of overseas operations of the Self-Defense Forces. Some opposition lawmakers and scholars have argued the laws violate war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution. Tsujimoto also blasted the Finance Ministry’s falsification of official documents related to a shady 2016 sale of state land to nationalist school operator Moritomo Gakuen, which once had close ties with the prime minister’s wife, first lady Akie Abe. “The minister (in charge) doesn’t even resign. … It’s no exaggeration, I think, to say the past 2,720 days have been a nightmare.”

hirobumi ito
shinzo abe
eisaku sato
taro katsura
kiyomi tsujimoto


Sakai voters poised to decide key mayoral race for Osaka Ishin and LDP ahead of Upper House poll

Abstract: OSAKA - Voters in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, will head to the polls Sunday to elect a new mayor in a key local race ahead of next month’s Upper House election, with an Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka) candidate reportedly the frontrunner in a closely contested campaign. Three candidates are vying for the post, which was vacated in April after the previous mayor, Osami Takeyama, was forced to resign due to a political funds scandal. Takeyama had been a staunch critic of efforts by Osaka Ishin, the local political group affiliated with the national Nippon Ishin no Kai, to merge Osaka Prefecture’s cities and towns into a structure akin to Tokyo’s 23 wards. Hideki Nagafuji, 42, is officially backed by Osaka Ishin. He is a former member of the Osaka Prefectural Assembly and ran in the 2017 Sakai mayoral election won by Takeyama. Kyodo News and local Osaka media have reported that Nagafuji is a slight favorite to come out on top. Nagafuji has the support of Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura and Osaka Mayor Ichiro Matsui, who leads both Osaka Ishin and Nippon Ishin. Nagafuji has pledged to lead a clean and financially transparent administration if elected. “I will not take political donations from either business groups or professional associations and will have a tax expert check the political donation reports,” he said in announcing his candidacy. His main challenger is Tomoaki Nomura, 45, who is running as an independent but backed by a loose coalition of those who are opposed to Osaka Ishin and its merger plan. These include members of not only the major national opposition parties but also some members of the local chapter of the Liberal Democratic Party who are strongly against the merger plan. “Takeyama did the right thing by resigning, but approving an Osaka Ishin merger plan for Osaka city would lead to an eventual merger of Sakai and the prefecture as well, and a loss of local autonomy,” Nomura said at a rally earlier this week. A third candidate, Takashi Tachibana, 51, from The Association to Protect Citizens From NHK political group, is also running but considered a long shot. For the LDP in particular, Sunday’s race represents a difficult challenge. It comes two months after Osaka voters handed the local chapter larger than expected defeats in the races for governor, Osaka mayor, and in the Osaka Prefectural Assembly, where Osaka Ishin won a simple majority for the first time. The scale of April’s losses forced the LDP’s Osaka chapter, which long opposed the merger plan, to agree to it, a move that created dissent and division within the chapter as many local LDP members remain opposed to the plan. A loss by Nomura in the Sakai election would likely create further splits within the LDP Osaka chapter, giving a boost to Osaka Ishin’s candidates next month.

sakai
osaka
osaka ishin
ldp
osaka prefecture
elections
local government


Amid Iran-U.S. standoff, Abe to play mediator in Tehran in first visit for a Japan PM since revolution

Abstract: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit Iran from June 12, the government said Thursday, the first trip to the country by an incumbent Japanese prime minister in over four decades. Abe apparently hopes to mediate between the United States and Iran, and encourage dialogue between them in a bid to ease tensions. He is expected to stress the importance of an international nuclear deal reached in 2015, even as the United States has withdrawn from it and Tehran said last month it would suspend some of its commitments under the accord. The government outlined the plan at a meeting of members of a Lower House steering committee. Abe is scheduled to return to Japan on June 14. The trip comes after Abe secured backing last week from U.S. President Donald Trump for his efforts to reach out to Iran, with which Japan has maintained an amicable relationship. No sitting Japanese prime minister has visited Iran since the Islamic Revolution. The last leader to make the trip was Takeo Fukuda in 1978. Arrangements are being made for Abe to meet with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iranian supreme leader, and President Hassan Rouhani. Foreign Minister Taro Kono will also travel to Iran for talks with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, prior to Abe’s arrival, according to a Japanese government source. Abe’s trip comes as the countries celebrate their 90th year of diplomatic relations. Speaking at a joint news conference in Tokyo with Trump in late May, Abe suggested he wants to make efforts to facilitate discussions between Washington and Tehran “so that things will not go wrong and lead to a military clash” in the Middle East. Tensions have spiked in the region following Iran’s move to suspend some commitments under an international nuclear deal, in response to Trump’s decision last year to pull out of the deal and reinstate economic sanctions, while Washington has stiffened its stance on Tehran. In May, Iran said it will keep more enriched uranium than allowed under the nuclear accord and set a 60-day deadline to negotiate new terms. Washington has dispatched an aircraft carrier strike group to the Persian Gulf, and decided to send additional U.S. troops to the Middle East. Japan has backed the nuclear accord, initially reached between Iran and six other countries — the United States, France, the U.K., Germany, Russia and China — in 2015. The recent standoff has put Tokyo in an awkward position between security ally the United States, and Iran, which Japan has long relied on for oil imports. The United States has ended sanctions waivers for buyers of Iranian oil, including Japan.

iran
shinzo abe
donald trump
ali khamenei
u.s .
nuclear weapons
nuclear energy
iran nuclear deal
iran-japan relations


Rare Diet resolution passed to increase pressure on Hodaka Maruyama to quit over Russia war remarks

Abstract: The Lower House of the Diet on Thursday passed a rare resolution urging a lawmaker to quit over his controversial remarks that alluded to Tokyo waging war with Moscow to regain control of a group of disputed islands. The resolution by eight ruling and opposition parties against Hodaka Maruyama that was unanimously adopted at a plenary session of the House of Representatives states that he is “not qualified as a Diet member” and presses him to make a decision on his future as a Diet lawmaker. Maruyama, 35, was expelled from the opposition Nippon Ishin no Kai shortly after he made the remarks in May during a visa-free exchange program between Japan and Russia. He has so far defied pressure from opposition party lawmakers to resign, saying his future is “up to a judgment of eligible voters to be made in an election.” It is the first time that the Diet has adopted a resolution to press a lawmaker into resignation, according to the secretariats for both houses of the Diet. The motion is not legally binding. On a visit to one of four Russian-held islands off Hokkaido, the Lower House member, who represents a constituency in Osaka, asked the leader of a group of former Japanese residents about the recovery of the islands. “Do you think there is any alternative to war?” he said. A drunk Maruyama also expressed an urge to go to a bar near his lodging place on the island of Kunashiri, asking, “Are those places with neon signs bars? … Are there women?” adding, “I want to go out to grope breasts.” The resolution criticizes Maruyama for having made a series of “unthinkable remarks, including one that goes against pacifism enshrined in the Constitution.” His words “seriously hurt national interests,” the resolution said, adding that “the authority and integrity of the Lower House was undermined.” Maruyama’s retraction of the remarks and apologies did not dissuade six opposition parties, including Nippon Ishin, from jointly submitting a resolution urging him to quit. In a separate draft resolution the ruling bloc of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito initially took a more measured approach, calling on Maruyama to seriously reflect on his behavior. The ruling parties later decided to step up pressure and submitted the latest resolution that uses more severe wording, which was supported by the opposition camp. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been seeking to resolve a long-standing row over the disputed islands off Hokkaido and conclude a postwar peace treaty with Russia even though prospects appear slim for a quick breakthrough. The two countries remain apart over the islands, called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia. Abe told an Upper House session on Wednesday that Maruyama’s remarks “totally differ from the government’s policy that aims to seek resolution with diplomatic negotiations.” Japan maintains the islands were illegally seized by the former Soviet Union following Tokyo’s surrender at the end of World War II while Russia claims the seizure was a legitimate outcome of the war.

resolution
hodaka maruyama
russia
war remark
lower house


Speculation grows in Japan that Diet session will be extended to enable double election

Abstract: Speculation within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party over a possible extension of the current regular Diet session, a move that could result in a double election this summer, has grown ahead of the scheduled end of the 150-day session on June 26. The speculation has grown because the government is moving to submit a bill to revise the law on national strategic special zones in order to realize “super cities” where cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence will be fully utilized. It’s believed that it will be difficult to pass the legislation during the ongoing session without an extension. The move and the possible extension is apparently aimed at setting the stage for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to dissolve the House of Representatives and arrange an election for the same date as that of a triennial election this summer for the House of Councilors. Opposition parties, as well as Komeito, the coalition partner of the LDP, are cautious over the possibility of a double election. The government plans to adopt the super city legislation at a Cabinet meeting on Friday for submission to the Diet. “Now is not the time to say that there will be no extension of the current session, as a new bill is expected to be submitted to the Diet,” LDP Diet affairs chief Hiroshi Moriyama, who had previously sounded negative over the possibility of a Diet extension, said at a news conference Tuesday. In talks with reporters Wednesday, he went further, saying, “(An extension of the Diet session) will be decided if necessary.” Many LDP members see the latest remarks by Moriyama as being intended to rattle the opposition. Meanwhile, a government source said that Abe, also president of the LDP, apparently wants to keep the option of a Diet extension open. If the session ends without an extension, the Upper House election is likely to be set for July 21, informed sources said. But if it is extended, the election could take place in August, the sources added. Many LDP members believe that an extension will lead to a double election. “If a Diet extension comes into sight, we’ll inevitably switch to double election mode,” a senior LDP official said. Speculation over a possible dissolution of the Lower House and a double election grew as Abe held a series of meetings with key government and LDP officials this week, including LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai and Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, who doubles as finance minister. A Komeito official voiced concern, saying that the LDP is trying to use the super city legislation to extend the Diet session, while officials of major opposition parties expressed their anger. “The LDP should stop playing around with the Diet,” Kiyomi Tsujimoto, Diet affairs chief of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, told reporters Wednesday. “What we need to do now is convene budget committee meetings, rather than talking about a Diet extension,” said Keiji Kokuta, Diet affairs chief of the Japanese Communist Party.


Freed Japanese journalist Jumpei Yasuda has been attempting to obtain new passport for five months

Abstract: Journalist Jumpei Yasuda, who returned home last year after more than three years in captivity in Syria, has been attempting to obtain a passport for five months but the Foreign Ministry has yet to make a decision on his application. The 45-year-old freelance journalist said earlier this week that he has been told by the ministry that his application is still “under examination.” Government officials have confirmed the details. “I’m effectively banned from traveling overseas, as a decision to issue my passport has not been made for some time,” Yasuda said. The passport act stipulates that the government may decide not to issue a passport if a destination country denies entry to the applicant, or if it is deemed the applicant could harm the national interest. According to Yasuda, the ministry told him they are worried he might violate the act. He was deported from Turkey, from where he was released last October, and isn’t permitted to enter the country. Yasuda said his passport was stolen when he became a captive of a militant group in June 2015 after entering Syria to report on the Islamic State group. He said he was captured shortly after crossing the border with Turkey on foot. After returning to Japan, he applied for a new passport on Jan. 7. He was asked by the ministry to submit his travel plan in April and he explained that he and his family wanted to travel to India in May and Europe in June. Turkey was not included in the plan. Usually it takes about a week for an applicant to receive a passport and it is rare for the ministry to take five months to make a decision. “Restricting the freedom and rights of an individual requires adequate explanation,” said Doshisha University professor Takeshi Ogata. “There needs to be sufficient grounds if the ministry rejects the issuance.” A Foreign Ministry official said, “I can’t comment on the matter except to say it’s under examination.” In 2004, Yasuda was held by an armed group in Iraq while covering the conflict in that country, but he was released unhurt along with another Japanese man three days later. In the years since, Yasuda continued to cover the Middle East. A native of Iruma, Saitama Prefecture, he started his career in journalism in 1997 as a reporter for the Shinano Mainichi Shimbun, a local newspaper based in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, and became a freelance journalist in 2003.

journalism
journalists
jumpei yasuda
passports


No injuries reported after Yokohama Municipal Subway train derails

Abstract: A Yokohama Municipal Subway Blue Line train departing Shimoiida Station derailed early Thursday morning with about 130 people on board. No injuries were reported. The first train of the day went off the tracks at about 5:25 in the morning shortly after departing Shimoiida Station in the city’s Izumi Ward. A train driver noticed the train, consisting of six cars and bound for Azamino Station, had derailed immediately after leaving Shimoiida Station and contacted the subway’s command center, according to city officials. The train traveled for about 40 meters from the station before the driver stopped it by applying the emergency brake. Of the six cars, five came off the rails. The passengers walked through the tunnel and back to Shimoiida Station, the officials said. Citing city officials, public broadcaster NHK reported that temporary tracks were placed on top of the regular tracks to allow a work train to operate overnight. The officials said workers apparently forgot to remove the temporary track, which caused the train to run onto it and derail. All train services were temporarily suspended on the Blue Line, but partially resumed later. Upon returning to the station, passengers asked station personnel about alternative routes, with many directed to a nearby station operated by Sagami Railway, also known as Sotetsu. “It will take longer than usual to get to the office,” said a 43-year-old office worker who appeared to be perplexed.

yokohama
yokohama municipal subway
rail
kanagawa


Woman arrested over slaying of elderly parents at Fukuoka apartment

Abstract: FUKUOKA - A 59-year-old woman was arrested in Fukuoka on Thursday for allegedly stabbing her father and mother to death at their home, local police said. The three lived in the same residence. The woman is suspected of stabbing her parents, Masaru Oda, 89, and Roko Oda, 82, at their shared apartment. The two were pronounced dead at the scene. Her husband, who also lived with them, was out at the time and received a call around 1 a.m. from his wife who said she had killed her parents. He returned home to find them on the floor bleeding from the chest and contacted the authorities. A kitchen knife covered in blood was discovered in the apartment, police said. When investigators arrived, the woman was in a stupor and did not respond to their inquiries. She is currently in a hospital and is thought to have overdosed on medicine. Police said the suspect may be suffering from schizophrenia and her name will be withheld until a psychiatric evaluation can be made.


Japanese YouTuber given two-year jail term for assaulting wife over her critical comments on his videos

Abstract: OITA - A court sentenced a 44-year-old YouTube content creator in the city of Oita to two years in prison on Thursday for assaulting and confining his wife at their home after he found she had been posting defamatory comments on videos he had uploaded. The Oita District Court ruled that Ryoma Katori seriously injured his wife in March by punching and kicking her in the face while she was confined in their apartment in Oita with her wrists and ankles bound with adhesive tape. In handing down the sentence, which was not suspended, Judge Sadahiro Ariga said the defendant’s act “should be strongly criticized as he committed the crime after losing his temper.” According to a defense lawyer, Katori had been trying for more than six months to find out who had been posting negative comments, including “stupid” and “bald,” on his online videos. In March he realized it was his wife as she had requested a friend to post similar comments. Prosecutors had said the accused earned money by posting YouTube videos of sightseeing spots and restaurants in Oita Prefecture.


In a sign of warmer Japan-China ties, Abe and Xi expected to sign panda research pact at G20

Abstract: Japan and China plan to cooperate on breeding research for giant pandas by signing a memorandum later this month when their leaders meet on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, diplomatic sources said Wednesday. The signing is intended to showcase the continuing thaw in bilateral relations that have been frayed over territorial and historical issues and paves the way for China’s future lease of another giant panda at the request of Japan, they said. Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to make his first visit to Japan since he came to power in 2013 and a meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is being arranged on the fringes of the June 28-29 G20 summit. Both governments are weighing the possibility of the two leaders attending a ceremony where the memorandum is likely to be signed, according to the sources. The document will state that Japan’s Foreign Ministry and Environment Ministry and China’s National Forestry and Grassland Administration will cooperate over giant panda breeding. It will also enable the two countries to jointly cope with diseases and other breeding problems faced by giant pandas, including those already leased to Japan. Giant pandas from China are seen as symbols of bilateral friendship. There are now 10 giant pandas in Japan — including leased animals and their offspring. Three of them reside at the Ueno Zoological Gardens in Tokyo, six live at Adventure World in Wakayama Prefecture and one is a resident of Kobe Oji Zoo in Hyogo Prefecture. Most recently, the loan period for giant panda cub Xiang Xiang at Ueno Zoo was extended until the end of next year. Beijing has ownership of the cub, born in 2017 at the zoo, and the animal was originally due to be returned to China this month. The envisioned agreement “will add impetus to efforts to secure the lease of another giant panda,” a senior Foreign Ministry official said. Candidate zoos for a new giant panda have already been discussed and they include facilities in Miyagi and Hyogo prefectures. The first giant pandas came to Ueno zoo in 1972 to commemorate the normalization of bilateral ties. In 2011, China expressed a willingness to lease more giant pandas to Japan but it did not materialize as ties worsened, particularly due to a territorial dispute over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. Former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda brought the islands, which China claims and calls the Diaoyus, under state control in September 2012. But bilateral relations have been improving in recent months while Beijing is locked in a trade war with Washington. When Abe visited Beijing in October, he agreed with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to move forward talks to realize another giant panda lease to Japan.

china
g20
osaka
xi jinping
animals
endangered
china-japan relations
_g20news


FedEx again botches delivery of Huawei package to U.S.; China paper says retaliation threatened

Abstract: BANGALORE, INDIA - FedEx Corp. said on Sunday an operational error prevented a Huawei Technologies package from being delivered to the United States, just weeks after the U.S. delivery company said an error led to the Chinese firm’s packages being misdirected. China’s Global Times newspaper said in a tweet bit.ly/2ZB6isY later the company is likely to be added to China’s “unreliable entities list” due to the incident, which occurred days before U.S. President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping are due to meet in Japan to try to deescalate a trade war. Trade tensions between the United States and China have extended beyond tariffs, particularly after Washington put Huawei, the world’s biggest telecom gear maker, on a blacklist that effectively bans U.S. firms from doing business with the company. “The package in question was mistakenly returned to the shipper, and we apologize for this operational error,” FedEx told Reuters in an emailed statement. A company spokeswoman confirmed that the package was U.S.-bound but declined to say what it contained. China threatened in late May to unveil its own unprecedented hit-list of “unreliable” foreign firms, groups and individuals that harm the interests of Chinese companies. China did not single out any countries or companies, but said the list will apply to companies that flout market rules and the spirit of contracts, block supplies to Chinese companies for non-commercial reasons and “seriously harm the legitimate rights and interests” of Chinese companies, according to a report in state-run China National Radio. The commerce ministry will disclose more details of the list soon, the report said. China’s commerce ministry and FedEx did not respond to a request for comment on the likelihood of FedEx being added to the “unreliable” list. Global Times is published by the ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily. The U.S. Commerce Department said on Friday it was adding several Chinese companies and a government-owned institute involved in supercomputing with military applications to its own entity list that bars them from buying U.S. parts and components without government approval. China launched an investigation into FedEx earlier this month over Huawei parcels delivered to the wrong address, without giving details about the deliveries in question. China’s state news agency Xinhua had said at the time that the investigation into FedEx over misdirected mail should not be regarded as retaliation against the U.S. company, amid the trade spat. “FedEx can accept and transport all Huawei products except for any shipments to listed Huawei entities on the U.S. Entity List,” the company said on Sunday. Huawei, which said it was reviewing its relationship with FedEx after the mishandling of its packages earlier, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Sunday. The United States and China have been engaged in a trade fight for nearly a year on issues such as tariffs, subsidies, technology, regulations and cybersecurity, among others. A telephone call between Trump and Xi last week, as well as confirmation the two will meet in Japan on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit, have rekindled hopes of a detente.

fedex
huawei
china
donald trump
xi jinping
trade war
cybersecurity
u.s .


Mexico auctions narco safe houses, ranches and luxury flats with grisly histories

Abstract: MEXICO CITY - Houses with swimming pools and escape tunnels, a ranch surrounded by hectares of land and a luxury apartment with a grisly history were among the 27 properties Mexico had seized from drug traffickers and others were auctioned on Sunday. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador promised that the proceeds from the auction of properties and land, which had been seized by previous governments, would go to aid marginalized communities in the poor and violent state of Guerrero. The apartments auctioned on Sunday include one of a cartel leader who was killed there and disposed of by his brothers. In one of his first acts in office, Lopez Obrador enforced an austerity plan that included selling the presidential plane and other government-owned vehicles, and dismissed the presidential guard tasked with protecting the president. Mexican authorities said that in the coming months there would be more such events. In a similar auction at the end of May, Mexican authorities raised $1.5 million from the sales of a Lamborghini and other assets seized from criminals and at least one former politician.

mexico
auctions
drugs
andres manuel lopez obrador
gangs


Trump threatening to demote Fed chief, but says he has power to do so

Abstract: WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” news program that he has the power to demote Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell but has not threatened to do so. “I didn’t ever threaten to demote him,” Trump said. “I’d be able to do that if I wanted to, but I haven’t suggested that.” Trump has been pressuring the Fed to cut interest rates for months, a campaign that began last October when he said the U.S. central bank had “gone crazy” under Powell after several rate hikes. The Fed on Wednesday said it was ready to battle growing global and domestic economic risks with interest rate cuts beginning as early as next month. The central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged for now. A day later, Trump said that the Fed should have lowered rates sooner, but “you can’t win ’em all.” He added that eventually Powell “will do what’s right, perhaps. Let’s see what he does.” Bloomberg reported on June 18 that the White House counsel’s office in February had explored the possibility of stripping the Fed chairmanship from Powell and demoting him to a member of the Fed board of governors. In the “Meet the Press” interview recorded on Friday, Trump repeated that he was “not happy” with Powell’s actions. “No I don’t think he’s doing a good job.” Trump said former President Barack Obama had a Federal Reserve chairman “that kept rates very low. I had somebody that raised the rates very rapidly. Too much. He made a mistake.”

donald trump
federal reserve
jerome powell
interest rates
u.s .


Eurozone is likely going through period of 'Japanification,' ING Group says

Abstract: ZURICH - The eurozone’s anemic growth and inflation mean it’s probably already experiencing its own “Japanification,” and escape could prove hard if the Asian nation’s track record is any guide, according to ING Group. Europe’s situation has long left it open to comparisons with Japan in the 1990s. In a report Monday, ING lists similarities including an increase in government debt, a buildup of bad loans at banks, an aging population and huge monetary policy loosening. While Japan’s policy response to its crisis was slow, it also fell victim to bad timing, according to ING. Various chances of recovery were snuffed out by the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, then the bursting of the dot-com bubble and later the global financial crisis. That may well be the fate of the euro area, too, which last year appeared to be on the verge of unwinding stimulus only to be pushed back in the other direction. With global trade tensions weighing on sentiment and inflation expectations near a record low, the European Central Bank is facing the prospect of interest rate cuts or re-starting quantitative easing. “Without a strong recovery, it is difficult to escape the low growth, low inflation and subsequently low rates environment,” said Carsten Brzeski and Inga Fechner, economists at ING. “An economic upturn could quickly be over and monetary policy might not have enough ammunition up its sleeve, with interest rates remaining stuck at the zero lower bound for years to come.” The parallels mean Europe could be facing a ballooning of its central bank balance sheet in the years to come, and a major fiscal package could be needed. There is also the prospect of higher retirement ages to keep the labor force from shrinking. “For the eurozone, the most important lesson is probably not so much the root cause of Japanification but the desperate attempts to get out (of) it,” ING said. “There will not be much room for rate hikes in the coming years.”