Kenya patient free of Ebola as Congo and Uganda fight outbreak

Abstract: NAIROBI - Kenya remains free from Ebola as test results show that a sick woman does not have the deadly hemorrhagic fever, while neighboring Uganda and Congo battle a stubborn outbreak of the disease. Kenyan Health Minister Sicily Kariuki Monday announced that a patient isolated at the Kericho County Referral Hospital does not have Ebola. “The results of tests carried out by the Kenya Medical Research Institute laboratories on the 36-year-old lady currently admitted in the isolation unit of the Kericho County Referral hospital have been confirmed to be negative for the Ebola virus disease and other hemorrhagic fevers,” Kariuki said in a statement. The woman showed some symptoms of Ebola after traveling from Malaba on the Kenya-Uganda border, sparking fears that Congo’s current outbreak had spread to Kenya. The outbreak in eastern Congo has killed more than 1,400 people since August and last week it spread to neighboring Uganda, where two people died. Kenya’s health minister had earlier given assurances that all appropriate measures had been taken to prevent the spread of Ebola. “Precautionary measures have been put in place including isolation of the patient,” said Kariuki, while touring the Nairobi international airport to see how arriving passengers are screened for symptoms of fever. The two victims in Uganda were part of a Congolese-Ugandan family who are believed to have contracted the disease at a funeral in Congo that was attended by dozens of people. An expert committee of the World Health Organization on Friday said Congo’s Ebola outbreak is an “extraordinary event” of deep concern but does not yet merit being declared a global emergency. Speaking in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday that he accepted the decision. “From our side, I would like to pledge that we will continue mobilizing global and regional support to control this outbreak as soon as possible. It is not clean until the outbreak in (Congo) is finished,” he said, according to a statement from Uganda’s health ministry. The spread of Ebola in eastern Congo has been “very unpredictable, with up and down trends,” he said. In eastern Congo, health officials have begun offering vaccinations to all residents in the hotspot of Mabalako whereas previous efforts had only targeted known contacts or those considered to be at high risk.

kenya
ebola
congo
uganda
disease
sicily kariuki
africa


Scientists take peek behind those sad puppy dog eyes and find a unique muscle

Abstract: NEW YORK - What’s behind those hard-to-resist puppy dog eyes? New research suggests that over thousands of years of dog domestication, people preferred pups that could pull off that appealing, sad look. And that encouraged the development of the facial muscle that creates it. Today, pooches use the muscle to raise their eyebrows and make the babylike expression. That muscle is virtually absent in their ancestors, the wolves. “You don’t typically see such muscle differences in species that are that closely related,” said Anne Burrows of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, an author of the study released Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Dogs differ from wolves in many ways, from having shorter snouts, smaller sizes and more expressive faces. And unlike wolves, dogs heavily rely on human eye contact, whether to know when someone’s talking to them or when they can’t solve a problem, like hopping a fence or getting out the door. Burrows and her colleagues examined the eye muscles in the cadavers of six dogs and two wolves. They found dogs have a meaty eye muscle to lift their eyebrows and make puppy dog eyes. But in wolves, the same muscle was stringy or missing. The scientists also recorded 27 dogs and nine wolves as each stared at a person. Pet pooches frequently and intensely pulled back their eyebrows to make sad expressions, while the wolves rarely made these faces, and never with great intensity. The researchers believe dogs, over their relatively short 33,000 years of domestication, used this eye muscle to communicate, possibly goading people to feed or care for them — or at least take them out to play. And people, perhaps unwittingly, obliged. Dog experts not involved with the study were impressed. “The implications are quite profound,” said Brian Hare from Duke University and who edited the article. Hare wrote in an email that these muscles almost certainly developed because they gave dogs an advantage when interacting with people, and people have been unaware of it. “The proof has been in their puppy dog eyes all this time!” he said. Evan MacLean at the University of Arizona called the findings fascinating, but cautioned that the muscle difference could be an indirect effect of other changes rather than a specific response to human influence. Clive Wynne of the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University said: “Kudos to the researchers for thinking of a cool way to investigate an important aspect of dogs’ success” with humans. But he noted in an email that the study has a few snags, particularly the small sampling — only five dog breeds were examined and videos were mainly of Staffordshire bull terriers — and the lack of background information about each animal. “Did these wolves regularly meet people bearing gifts that might be worth asking for with an endearing face?” he asked. Burrows said she planned follow-up studies to examine more breeds.


Science suffers collateral damage as U.S.-China tensions rise

Abstract: BEIJING - A rise in U.S. visa denials for Chinese academics and intensified scrutiny of alleged links to Beijing over fears of potential espionage are having a chilling effect on long-standing research collaboration, researchers say. American and Chinese scientists have co-authored thousands of papers each year, far outpacing the output from scientific collaborations between any other two nations, according to a 2018 survey by academic database Nature Index. But it is getting tougher for researchers to work together on projects and share data for peer review, as American institutions tighten rules for accepting foreign funding and intensify vetting of foreign partners, several researchers said. The pressure is the result of a clampdown by Washington on what it describes as espionage and technology theft through academic contacts, with the White House warning last year that Chinese nationals studying or working in the United States could be manipulated or forced to “serve Beijing’s military and strategic ambitions.” In one of the latest countermeasures, the U.S. Department of Energy — which conducts advanced research on everything from supercomputers to nuclear weapons — blocked its scientists from participating in a foreign government’s talent recruitment programs, citing national security and competition concerns. Its order, seen by AFP, did not mention a specific country, but officials pointed to Beijing’s lucrative “Thousand Talents” program. The initiative offers non-Chinese, and Chinese working abroad, high pay to deliver top-level technology to China. The increased mistrust is bound to have an impact on research collaboration, academics and experts say. An increasing number of young Chinese scholars are told they cannot participate in a project for security reasons, said an official at Pennsylvania State University, who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the topic. “Research collaboration between China and the U.S. will be severely disrupted by the trade war-turned-technology war, which essentially is a talent war,” said Cao Cong, professor of innovation studies at Nottingham University’s China campus in the city of Ningbo. Beijing has committed billions of dollars in recent years to narrow China’s science and technology gap with the United States, Cao said. But China is still “heavily dependent” on the U.S. for technology transfers and training, he added, and the “cut off” will have an impact in coming years. The rising number of visa denials have prompted a warning from China’s Education Ministry that students and academics could have their study or research plans foiled by refusals or delays. One in eight Chinese applicants seeking U.S. visas for academic or research purposes between January and March this year had difficulties securing them, a marked increase from last year, ministry official Xu Yongji said. Star quantum physicist Pan Jianwei was unable to attend a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in February, where he was to collect the prestigious Newcomb Cleveland Prize, due to visa delays. “I waited for four months before I got a visa in March,” Pan said. When it finally arrived, the award ceremony had long passed. Yi Rao, a prominent Chinese neurobiologist who had worked at Harvard and Northwestern universities in the past, said his application for a U.S. visa to attend a workshop by the National Science Foundation was denied last July without an explanation. A State Department official said she could not discuss specific visa cases due to U.S. privacy laws. The State Department has said the increased scrutiny was prompted by rising numbers of students who were co-opted by foreign intelligence while in the United States. China is by far the biggest source of international students and scholars on U.S. campuses, with 360,000 attending last year. The cooling of ties is also complicating Beijing’s efforts to recruit top Chinese and foreign talent, after U.S. intelligence officials in December said the “Thousand Talents” program facilitated the theft of American technology and intellectual property. Tim Byrnes — an Australian physicist who won nearly 1 million yuan ($144,000) from the program in 2016 for a quantum computing lab at New York University’s Shanghai campus — said he now finds himself in a “precarious position.” “Possibly, some people awarded the ‘Thousand Talents’ might not be able to apply for grants in the U.S. in future due to fears of leaking intellectual property,” Byrnes said. Since it was launched in 2008, the program has attracted more than 7,000 Chinese and foreign researchers to China — mostly from the U.S. — according to its website. But Byrnes said he was not asked to share any of his findings with the Chinese government. “Everything we do is published in academic journals. Everything is disclosed not just to China but to the whole world,” he said. “But the current atmosphere of suspicion is threatening the openness of science.”


U.S. seen looking to question friend of Julian Assange jailed in Ecuador

Abstract: BOGOTA - U.S. investigators have received permission from Ecuador to question a Swedish programmer close to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange who has been held in jail for more than two months on suspicion of hacking, The Associated Press has learned. The interview with Ola Bini is set for June 27, according to an Ecuadorian prosecutor’s order provided to AP by someone closely following the case. Spokespeople at the U.S. Justice Department declined comment, but a person familiar with the case in the United States confirmed that U.S. authorities want to hear from Bini, who was arrested the same day that Ecuador evicted Assange from its embassy in London. Both people spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly discuss an investigation that is in progress. It’s not clear why American authorities asked to speak with Bini. But the previously unannounced request suggests for the first time that the Swedish programmer, who has not been charged with any crimes by Ecuador, is a potential witness or person of interest in U.S. investigations into Assange and WikiLeaks. Bini, 36, was arrested at Quito’s airport as he prepared to board a flight to Japan. Top Ecuadorian officials have alleged that he was part of a plot hatched with two unidentified Russian hackers living in Ecuador to threaten to release compromising documents about President Lenin Moreno. At the time, Moreno was toughening his stance against Assange, who had been living at the country’s embassy in London under asylum since 2012. Privacy groups have accused Ecuador of carrying out a witch hunt because of Bini’s friendship with Assange and his longstanding advocacy for digital privacy. Bini is believed to have traveled at least 12 times to meet with Assange at the London embassy. Prosecutors have 90 days to compile evidence and charge him. David Kaye, the United Nations’ special investigator on freedom of expression, has criticized his continued detention. “Nothing in this story connects Ola Bini with any crime,” Kaye said in April. An expert on secure communications, Bini arrived in Quito in 2013 after being transferred from Chicago to the Ecuador office of global tech firm Thoughtworks, which has guiding principles that stress social activism. Around the same time, Bini started to rethink his online habits and at one point gave up his Gmail account in favor of self-hosted email. Ecuadorian authorities have asked the U.S. government for assistance from code experts in analyzing more than 30 electronic storage devices that Bini was carrying when he was arrested. Assange, who has been detained in Britain since being kicked out of Ecuador’s embassy, is fighting an extradition request from the U.S. He faces an 18-count indictment in the Eastern District of Virginia that accuses him of soliciting and publishing classified information and with conspiring with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to crack a Defense Department computer password.

julian assange
ecuador
wikileaks
ola bini
u.s .


Mexico to target human smugglers in immigration crackdown

Abstract: CIUDAD HIDALGO, MEXICO - Mexico’s government on Monday highlighted the weekend “rescue” of nearly 800 migrants packed into semi-trailers, calling the operation a message that authorities are getting serious about combating human smuggling. Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said more than 150 of the 785 migrants found inside the double trailers of four semis Saturday in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz were children. On Saturday, Mexico’s immigration authority initially put the number at 791. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear. “We can’t allow human trafficking,” Ebrard said, contending that for many years it was tolerated by Mexican officials. “We might be experiencing one of the greatest human trafficking (situations) in the world.” His comments came as Mexico continued to roll out the deployment of some 6,000 national guardsmen to the southern border. Mexico is racing to lower the number of Central American migrants arriving at the U.S. border. The government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador promised to reduce the flow in order to avoid crippling tariffs on Mexican imports threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump. Military police, who will be among the initial agents of the newly created National Guard, began appearing along the Suchiate river in Ciudad Hidalgo across the border from Guatemala over the weekend. By Monday it appeared they were already having some impact. Tomas Leyva, a 65-year-old construction worker turned pastor from El Salvador, was preparing to board a raft back to Guatemala. He had re-entered Mexico by raft Sunday just days after being deported. When he tried to apply for asylum in Mexico they said he was ineligible because he had entered illegally. On Monday, Leyva planned to return to Guatemala and then cross to Mexico via the bridge and immigration controls. “Now the situation is more serious, more strict, because the soldiers who were there yesterday weren’t there before,” said Leyva, who fled San Salvador after a gang threatened his life. “What they’re doing is having an effect because they’re detaining a lot of people, but it’s not going to stop. There (in El Salvador) they say better killed by the gringos than by the gangsters.” Ebrard, the foreign affairs secretary, said Saturday’s human smuggling incident in Veracruz was a rescue because the migrants could have suffocated inside the trailers. Each of the migrants was paying $3,500 to be smuggled to the United States and some paid $5,000 to be entitled to a second attempt if caught, Ebrard said. He estimated the entire value of the truck caravan’s human cargo at more than $3.5 million (69 million pesos) and said the smugglers were going to pay roughly $500,000 to $800,000 in “commissions” to ensure the migrants’ free passage. Bribes are traditionally paid along the route to authorities, but also to organized crime groups that control territory, especially at Mexico’s northern border with the U.S. and charge smugglers for each migrant they cross. While caravans of thousands of Central American migrants walking up highways in southern Mexico drew the fury of U.S. President Trump last year, the bulk of the region’s migration has always existed in the shadows. And those who live at Mexico’s southern border believe sending national guardsmen there to make it more difficult for migrants to cross will only be a boon to the human smugglers. On Sunday, a guardsman working a highway checkpoint near the town of Comitan in southern Mexico said his orders under the new operation were to try to identify human smugglers, in addition to the usual mission of looking for drugs and weapons. The military presence there did not appear to be much greater than in previous weeks, but the soldiers were now wearing armbands indicating they were part of the National Guard. “We can turn the smugglers over to authorities if, for example, we stop a vehicle and the driver is carrying people without papers,” said the soldier, who declined to give his name, because he was not authorized to speak publicly. Ebrard also said the government has a message for the owners of trucks caught carrying migrants: They will no longer escape criminal charges by arguing they didn’t know their trucks were being used to smuggle. On Monday, Lopez Obrador said he would meet with his El Salvador counterpart, Nayib Bukele, in the southern Mexico city of Tapachula on Thursday to discuss cooperation. Ebrard said Mexico was meeting weekly with governments from Central America’s Northern Triangle — Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador — to exchange information about smuggling rings. But he said he also expected cooperation from the U.S. government. “The United States has to assume its responsibility in this, too,” he said. “The key part is who do they pay there (in the U.S.)? And the question is these trailers get to the border and what happens?”

mexico
immigration
human trafficking
andres manuel lopez obrador
donald trump
u.s .
refugees


As U.S. boosts pressure, Iran tests Trump's appetite for a fight

Abstract: WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump’s campaign vow to get the U.S. out of costly foreign entanglements is colliding with the messy reality of America’s commitments in the Middle East, where tensions are rising between Washington and Tehran after attacks on two tankers last week. The dilemma emerged again as the administration on Monday ordered another 1,000 troops to the region in response to what Trump officials say was Iran’s role in the latest strikes. The Tehran government has rejected those accusations. So far, the international response to the U.S. charges has been muted. With the rhetoric on both the American and Iranian sides rising, the relatively small deployment announced Monday appears calibrated to show the U.S. will push back on what it sees as Iran’s bad behavior without changing the balance of American power in the region. “Trump is very determined to avoid getting dragged into a military conflict if he can avoid it,” said Gary Samore, a former White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction in the Obama administration. The president seemed to reinforce that impression in a Time magazine interview published late Monday. “So far, it’s been very minor,” he said of the attacks. Asked if he is considering a military confrontation, he told Time, “I wouldn’t say that. I can’t say that at all.” Yet experts say that the broader Trump approach to foreign policy — exerting maximum pressure on adversaries to force concessions — raises the risk of an unintended conflict and has yet to pay off. From Tehran to Caracas to Pyongyang, U.S. efforts to force hostile regimes to back down have met stubborn resistance, despite threats or demands from officials including National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo. Before Bolton joined the Trump administration last year, he publicly advocated war with Iran to eliminate its nuclear program. And it was Pompeo who last year announced a lengthy list of demands Iran had to meet to enter talks with the U.S., only to have the president say he just wished officials in Tehran would call him to work things out. “If it was up to others like Bolton and Pompeo, they would advocate more aggressive action but I don’t see any sign Trump is spoiling for a fight,” Samore said. The mixed messages and a general distrust of American motives have fueled doubts about U.S. intentions toward Iran, even among allies. The situation has been exacerbated, analysts say, by Trump’s decision to withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear accord and his administration’s general skepticism of alliances and multilateral institutions. “Unfortunately, our great comparative advantage as a nation — building and working with alliances — has eroded, particularly with respect to Iran,” Brett McGurk, Trump’s former envoy to the global coalition to combat the Islamic State, wrote in a tweet Friday. “Key Western allies warned of this very circumstance and sequence of events when the U.S. began its maximum pressure campaign a year ago.” Trump may be even less willing to consider military force this week given he will symbolically kick off his re-election campaign Tuesday in Florida. Though he campaigned in 2016 on promises to get out of overseas conflicts, Trump has struggled to draw down troops in Syria and Afghanistan, and now is in the position of sending more forces to the Middle East as he tries to convince voters he deserves another four years in office. Sensing inconsistencies in Trump’s strategy, leaders in Tehran may even be trying to call the president’s bluff. Iranian officials have indicated the country may stop abiding by some elements of the 2015 nuclear accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in days, a move experts argue is a carefully calibrated bid to exert new pressure for sanctions relief on European nations that have urged Iran to remain in the deal. Short of war, possibilities of additional U.S. pressure include stepping up military escorts of tanker traffic in the Persian Gulf region to striking boats or facilities belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the U.S. has accused for being involved in the latest attacks. “There’s a lot of hysteria that holding Iran accountable has to be justified as a prelude to war,” said Ray Takeyh, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “We’re already in the midst of a low-intensity conflict that has managed to regulate itself.” Yet even some of Trump’s most stalwart of allies, such as Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, caution that the U.S. and Iran must not edge closer to conflict. McCaul said that American forces in the region are in a “defensive posture” to protect transit through the Strait of Hormuz and he warned that military action against Iran would be “very, very complicated.” “I don’t think anyone has the appetite for war, although we do have military plans, obviously, contingency plans, in the event that is to happen,” McCaul said on TV. “I would caution that Iran is about the size of Iraq and Afghanistan combined and it would be very, very complicated.”

iran
donald trump
military
conflict
iran nuclear deal
hormuz tanker attack


Trump campaign fires pollsters after mixed messaging and leaks

Abstract: WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign has parted ways with some of its pollsters after the leak of internal polling showing Trump trailing Democratic front-runner Joe Biden in some key battleground states. Trump and his aides first disputed the poll’s existence, then tried to discount its importance. The high-profile internal drama on the brink of Trump’s formal re-election launch could signal trouble ahead for the campaign if staffers are skittish about being candid with Trump. The episode is also a sobering reminder that for all of the Trump campaign’s efforts to professionalize its operation, much hasn’t changed.

donald trump
joe biden
u.s .
2020 u.s. presidential election


As Angela Merkel's coalition attempts to hang on, Greens ride to brink of power in Germany

Abstract: BERLIN - When the scruffy Greens marched into the German parliament nearly four decades ago in jeans and sneakers, they were sidelined and ridiculed. Today, the party has a legitimate shot at governing Europe’s largest economy. With Angela Merkel’s coalition hanging by a thread, the possibility of a Green chancellor is a hot topic in Berlin. The party overtook her Christian Democrat-led bloc in polls this month. Robert Habeck, the stubble-cheeked Green co-chairman, would defeat Merkel’s heir apparent in a contest to lead Germany. That raises the question of how the nation would be run by a party that in 1998 proposed tripling gasoline prices and, in 2013, suggested banning meat in canteens every Thursday. Even though the Greens now are a mainstream party for urban professionals, many investors still get the jitters. “The Greens are still in part a prohibition party that wants to use strict regulation to steer the economy,” said Carsten Brzeski, chief economist at ING Germany. “A Green-led government would be difficult for business to handle.” Worryingly for Merkel, the Green surge mirrors the CDU’s decline. Support for the environmentalist party held at 27 percent in an Emnid poll published Sunday, while the CDU-led bloc declined 2 percentage points to 25 percent. Merkel’s Social Democratic coalition partner stayed at a historic low of 12 percent. Three other major polls in June also put the Green party ahead. On Monday Habeck said that the boost in support is an incentive but that it is premature to discuss electoral strategies. Instead, his party will focus on its role as a proactive player in the opposition, he said. “There are no elections, we’re in the middle of a legislative period that is tough enough,” he told ZDF television. A Green government could have far-reaching implications in transport, energy and other industries and would “want to accelerate the coal phase-out,” said Coralie Laurencin, an energy analyst at researcher IHS Markit. That could mean a growing reliance on gas imports from Russia. The Green surge has been fueled by the party’s transformation from a group of eco-fanatics into a more palatable people’s party. They are also benefiting from disillusionment with the governing parties dragging their feet on issues from gender and income inequality to climate. Merkel’s protege and CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who is known as AKK, helped push centrist supporters into the Green camp when she played up conservative values to lure back voters from the far-right AfD. Days after hundreds of thousands of people participated in #FridaysForFuture pro-climate rallies, she ridiculed the movement, saying her children would not be allowed to skip school to protest. She further antagonized young Germans by proposing tougher internet regulation in response to a 20-something blogger who got over 14 million views for a video bashing CDU policies. Christian Democratic campaign strategists are concerned about a possible duel between AKK and Habeck, said a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified by name because the discussion is private. Whereas the Green party leader is known as a down-to-earth speaker who connects with mainstream voters, AKK has suffered a series of public mishaps. In a TV debate, AKK would most likely lose against Habeck, the person said. By now, the Greens also have experience showing they can juggle business with ecology. Between 1998 and 2005, they were a coalition partner in Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s government. And since 2011 Green Premier Winfried Kretschmann has governed in Baden-Wuerttemberg, a socially conservative state that is the heartland of Germany’s auto industry. Now in his second term, he cooperates with the CDU as his junior partner. Stumbling blocks The Greens still have a long way to go to be able to claim power. Merkel has pledged to ride out her term until 2021, and fall elections in the three eastern states of Brandenburg, Thuringia and Saxony could stall the party’s momentum. Above-average unemployment, reliance on coal and resistance to immigration create tough conditions for the party. “There are still many stumbling blocks waiting for the Greens,” said Manfred Guellner, head of polling institute Forsa. Still, the Greens are a force to be reckoned with and are likely to sway Merkel’s agenda. From family dinners to nightly talk shows, environmental topics have permeated public life in recent months and have become the No. 1 issue Germans care about, according to opinion polls. Already there are signs the ruling party is reacting. In an unusual mea culpa, Merkel last week acknowledged her government has done too little to combat climate change. Only days after the Green party began targeting online retailers for the amount of returned goods they destroy, Merkel’s administration announced tighter regulation along the same lines. Former fringe AKK took a different tack, reviving the alarmist strategy from years ago and underscoring concern about her suitability to succeed Merkel, whose centrist course has kept her in office for more than 13 years. “Those dreaming of a new government and voting for the Greens, need to know they may wake up with a left-wing party,” she told Bild am Sonntag newspaper. Yet it may too late to undercut the former fringe party. “The current polls don’t allow a government without the Greens,” said Sebastian Dullien, an economist at the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. “A Green chancellor has moved entirely into the realm of the possible.”

angela merkel
greens
germany
elections
environment


Joe Biden says he'll campaign and beat Trump in Texas and the Carolinas

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Democratic front-runner Joe Biden said Monday that he plans to campaign and win in states that have almost always supported Republicans in the past four decades, including South Carolina, Georgia and Texas. “We plan on campaigning in the South. I plan on — if I’m your nominee — winning Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina. And I believe we can win Texas and Florida, if you look at the polling data now,” the former vice president said at the Poor People’s Campaign forum in Washington. “It’s a marathon — it’s a long way off.” Georgia last backed a Democrat in 1980 when it voted for home-state former governor and incumbent President Jimmy Carter. Carter lost that election, but he carried Georgia, South Carolina and Texas in 1976, the last time all three states voted to send a Democrat to the White House. Biden was responding to a question about whether he plans to campaign in the South and the Sun Belt. He mentioned that he visited Alabama in 2017 to support Sen. Doug Jones, a Democrat who won in the traditionally red state. “I have no intention of walking away, if I’m the nominee,” Biden said. He also said that if he didn’t win the nomination, he would support the Democrat who did. “If I’m not the nominee, I have no intention of walking away, in trying to help whoever the nominee is to win those states,” he said. Biden, asked how he would get his agenda past Senate Republicans as president, said it’s not “naive to think we have to work together.” He said he intends to persuade Republicans to support his proposals, and if he cannot he’ll ask voters to throw them out of office. “You try to persuade. Doesn’t mean you can do it all the time,” he said. “You can shame people to do things the right way.”

joe biden
texas
democrats
south carolina
georgia
north carolina
florida
u.s .
donald trump
2020 u.s. presidential election


U.S. Supreme Court lets Virginia voting go ahead under redrawn map

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Virginians will elect members of the House of Delegates this year using a map seen as favorable to Democrats, according to a ruling Monday by the U.S. Supreme Court. The political boundaries are important because Republicans currently control the House with a 51-49 majority. Only four states are having legislative elections this year. Virginia is the only one where Democrats have a chance of flipping control of the House and Senate. The high court’s 5-4 decision was perhaps telegraphed by the fact that the justices previously allowed election planning to go forward with the new map. Virginia held its primary last week, and the November general election will be the last time the state uses this map because legislative districts will need to be redrawn to account for results from the 2020 census. The justices let stand a lower court decision putting the new map in place, saying the Republican-controlled state House did not have a right to represent the state’s interests in an appeal to the Supreme Court. The state could have decided to bring the case but did not, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote. “One House of its bicameral legislature cannot alone continue the litigation against the will of its partners in the legislative process,” she wrote. The four justices joining her were Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Neil Gorsuch, a lineup that included conservatives and liberals. Dissenting were Chief Justice John Roberts and justices Samuel Alito, Stephen Breyer and Brett Kavanaugh. The case stemmed from a map drawn by Republican lawmakers in 2011, after the last census, and used in the four elections since. Democratic voters sued in 2014, accusing Republicans of packing black voters into certain districts to make surrounding ones whiter and more Republican. A lower court ruled 2-1 last year that the previous map drawn by lawmakers improperly factored race into drawing 11 of the 100 House districts. After lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on a redistricting plan, the lower court chose a new map from a series of proposals submitted by a special master. Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, a Democrat, called the ruling a “big win for democracy in Virginia.” “It’s unfortunate that House Republicans wasted millions of taxpayer dollars and months of litigation in a futile effort to protect racially gerrymandered districts,” he said in a statement. The lawsuit challenging the original House lines was backed by the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, led by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. The group targets elections for governors and state legislators, court cases or ballot initiative to give Democrats more control during the next round of congressional redistricting after the 2020 Census. “With a new, fair map in place, all Virginians will now — finally — have the opportunity this fall to elect a House of Delegates that actually represents the will of the people,” Holder said in a statement. House Republicans said they are disappointed by the ruling and criticized the “shadowy organization funded by out-of-state interests” that funded the lawsuit. But Republicans said they still expect to maintain their majority based on their track record of “common sense” leadership. “Today’s ruling from SCOTUS will make victory in November even sweeter,” the House GOP caucus tweeted, adding in a statement: “We are confident that voters will opt for the leadership and results we have delivered over chaos, embarrassment, and unchecked Democratic control of state government.” The case is Virginia House of Delegates v. Bethune-Hill, 18-281.

virginia
elections
democrats
republicans
gerrymandering
u.s .
u.s. supreme court


In battleground state of Florida, Trump to launch re-election campaign

Abstract: WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday formally launches what may be an uphill battle to persuade voters to give him four more years in office, as he bets a strong American economy will outweigh voter concerns about his unorthodox style and polarizing policies. At an evening rally in Orlando, Florida, Trump, who has long made it known he is running for re-election, will begin making his case with gusto for a second term. The Trump of 2020 will most certainly bear a strong resemblance to the Trump of 2016 — brash and eager to bash his Democratic opponents and promote tough policies on trade and immigration. “We’re doing the best job that anybody’s done probably as a first-term president. I think I’ve done more than any other first-term president ever,” Trump told ABC News. Two-and-a-half years into his tenure, Trump sees plenty of positive factors, led by a growing economy with low unemployment. “If the economy stays strong, he is very likely to get re-elected,” said Trump confidant Newt Gingrich, a former Republican speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. But the aftermath of a probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, coupled with a presidential style marked by name-calling and eye-popping tweets, has undermined some Americans’ confidence in Trump ahead of the November 2020 election. He has also stirred division with his hard-line policies on immigration, and unsettled business and farm groups with his use of tariffs in trade disputes with China and some allies. A Reuters/Ipsos poll on June 11 gave Trump a 40 percent job approval rating, compared with 57 percent who disapproved. Other opinion polls have shown him running consistently behind his main Democratic challengers, such as former Vice President Joe Biden, in key battleground states. Republican strategists say the fundamentals favor Trump as he heads into the election but that he faces challenges given his bare-knuckled approach, which he refuses to temper. “His support with his base is as strong as it’s ever been for any Republican incumbent president. The challenge is adding to that and building the coalition he needs for re-election,” said Republican strategist Ryan Williams, a former adviser to 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Starting his 2020 push in Florida, which the former New York businessman considers his second home, shows how important the state is to Trump’s re-election hopes. The Republican president would like to recreate the state-by-state electoral map he assembled to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. That election win included victories in Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, and he thus far faces challenges in all those states, along with North Carolina. Democrats vow to win back industrial states like Pennsylvania and Michigan that flipped to Trump in 2016 after decades of voting Democratic in presidential elections, and they believe his behavior and policies will generate a strong turnout among Americans eager to turn him out of office. “He carried some states last time that put him over the top that he needs to go button down this time — and he needs to keep a close eye on Florida and North Carolina,” said Republican strategist Scott Reed. “But he’s in a position of strength because he has the presidential bully pulpit.” Trump campaign advisers wave off the polls at this stage, saying Trump had trailed in most polls in 2016 and still won. The advisers believe Trump’s chances will improve once Democrats go through their hard-fought nominating process and produce a nominee for him to face off against. Nobody is expecting Trump to change his behavior. Aides who had urged him early in his White House tenure to tone down his style are long gone. “The answer is not ‘you must be more presidential,'” said a Trump confidant. “Some things are never going to happen.” Some Trump advisers had urged the president to begin his campaign launch in New York with a nostalgic recreation of the scene from June 2015 when Trump and his wife, Melania, rode down an escalator at Trump Tower for his announcement speech. On his flight to Tokyo on May 24, Trump turned down the idea, based on input from the first lady, who thought he should do something new and was adamantly against the escalator ride, said a person with direct knowledge of the conversation.

elections
donald trump
u.s .
2020 u.s. presidential election


U.S. preparing to send more troops to Middle East, sources say

Abstract: WASHINGTON - The United States is preparing to send additional troops to the Middle East in response to mounting concerns over Iran, which Washington blames for attacks on oil tankers last week, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity. The officials did not say how many troops would be deployed or detail the timing of the deployment, which has not been previously reported. If confirmed, it would be in addition to the 1,500 troop increase announced last month in response to tanker attacks in May that it also blamed on Iran. The Pentagon declined comment. It was unclear when a new deployment might be announced. U.S. concerns about the threat to U.S. forces and interests in the region have increased steadily in recent weeks, particularly after the attacks on two oil tankers at the entrance to the Gulf on Thursday. The United States last week released a video it said showed Iran’s Revolutionary Guard were behind Thursday’s attacks near the Strait of Hormuz on the Norwegian-owned Front Altair, which was set ablaze, and the Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous. The U.S. military released additional imagery on Monday. “Iran is responsible for the attack based on video evidence and the resources and proficiency needed to quickly remove the unexploded limpet mine,” Central Command said in a statement. Iran strongly denies the accusations.

middle east
iran
oil
pentagon
u.s .
gas
shipping
hormuz tanker attack


Syrian insurgents shell government-held rural area, killing 12

Abstract: DAMASCUS - Syrian insurgents fired rockets into residential parts of the government-held northern province of Aleppo, striking a wedding party and killing at least 12 civilians and wounding 15, state media said Monday. The attack late Sunday took place in the village of Wadehi, south of Aleppo city, which abuts the last rebel-held enclave. Syria’s state TV Al-Ikhbariya said children were among those killed and some of the wounded were in critical condition. The TV said more rockets landed as people tried to escape from the scene of the attack. One woman told the TV that a missile landed in a room where four girls were, killing them. Another girl said her two sisters and one brother were killed in the strike. A doctor speaking to the TV station said three of the wounded were in critical condition. Images from inside an Aleppo hospital broadcast on al-Ikhbariya TV show men and children lying on stretchers, some with their heads bandaged, while others have what appears to be abdomen wounds. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported fatalities, saying four children were killed in the attack. Al-Ikhbariya TV said the military responded to the source of fire, areas controlled by insurgents in the nearby rebel stronghold. Fighting has raged over the last seven weeks in northwestern Syria as government forces press an offensive toward the last rebel stronghold in the country’s eight-year civil war. The violence has displaced hundreds of thousands inside the rebel enclave, which is home to 3 million people, most of them already displaced from earlier violence in Syria. At least 300 civilians were killed in government bombings, and over two dozen health facilities were put out of service following airstrikes. Separately, in eastern Syria’s town of Qamishli, a car bomb went off near the headquarters of the Kurdish security forces, leaving several people injured. Qamishli is run by Kurdish-led administrators and forces, but Syrian government troops hold pockets of territory there, including the airport. The area has largely been spared much of the violence that has wrecked Syria. But attacks, mostly blamed on Islamic State militants, have occurred recently in areas in eastern Syria after the extremists were kicked out of their last territorial enclave in Syria earlier this year. In a video by the Kurdish news agency Hawar, the explosion appeared to have damaged a number of cars nearby. Then authorities lifted the mangled car bomb from the area. The Observatory said seven were injured when a suicide bomber detonated the car bomb after failing to drive into the Kurdish security forces headquarters.

syria
aleppo
qamishli
conflict
bashar assad
kurds


Pentagon shares new photos and time-line of Gulf oil tanker attacks

Abstract: WASHINGTON - The Pentagon on Monday released new photos and a time-line that it said bolstered U.S. accusations that Iran was behind a pair of attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman last week. The report provides more details about the attacks that have heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran, which has denied involvement in the incidents. President Donald Trump said last week “Iran did it,” and U.K. officials said it is “almost certain” that Tehran was behind the attacks. A Navy explosives expert who briefed reporters at the Pentagon said a mine placed above the waterline on the Kokuka Courageous was an indication that the attackers intended to damage the ship but not sink it. “Iran is responsible for the attack based on video evidence and the resources and proficiency needed to quickly remove the unexploded limpet mine,” according to a statement accompanying the photos. Nevertheless, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an independent investigation because “it is very important to know the truth,” a statement that has won support from other nations. According to the Pentagon time-line and photos, here is how the June 13 attacks played out, with the time listed in Greenwich Mean Time (four hours ahead of New York): At 3:12 a.m. the destroyer USS Mason received a call from the M/T Front Altair reporting that it was attacked in the Gulf of Oman. A large fire was observed a few minutes later and the destroyer USS Bainbridge, 40 nautical miles away, moved to render aid. At 4:00 a.m., the M/T Kokuka Courageous reports being hit by an external projectile, taking on water and confronting a fire in its engine room. At 5:09 a.m. Iran’s Hendijan PGG and “multiple fast inshore attack craft observed within the area.” At 5:15 a.m. the Front Altair confirms major fire amidships. At 6:26 a.m. an unidentified Iranian patrol boat requests the M/V Hyundai Dubai hand over crew rescued from the Front Altair, a request the ship complies with. At 8:05 a.m. The Bainbridge approaches a Dutch tug, the Coastal Ace, which had rescued the crew of the Kokuka Courageous. The Iranian ship Hendijan PGG tried to get to the tug first, according to the Pentagon. At 8:32 a.m. The sailors rescued by the Coastal Ace are transferred to the Bainbridge. The Pentagon took the unusual step of identifying the source of the imagery — in this case a Navy MH-60R surveillance helicopter that can fly and hover as they gather delayed imagery at lower altitudes than drones or P-8 maritime patrol craft. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has suggested that Iran’s enemies may have been behind the attacks, essentially framing his country, and renewed calls for a regional dialogue. In a tweet on Friday he said, “Unilateral US actions —incl. its #EconomicTerrorism on Iran — are solely responsible for insecurity & renewed tension in our region.”

pentagon
oil
iran
shipping
u.s .
gas
hormuz tanker attack


Brain disease kills more than 100 children in India; lychee link suspected

Abstract: BIHAR, INDIA - More than 100 children in the Indian state of Bihar — home to some of the country’s worst health indicators — have now been killed by a brain virus potentially linked to lychees, officials said. The northern state, one of India’s poorest and home to almost 100 million people, is also in the throes of a major heat wave that is the country’s second-longest on record and has so far claimed 78 lives. Bihar has been struggling with an outbreak of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) since the start of June. Eighty-five children have now died in the state’s biggest government-run hospital — the Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH), in the city of Muzaffarpur — and 18 others at a private facility, according to municipal officials cited by the Press Trust of India. Most of the victims had suffered a sudden loss of glucose in their blood, health official Ashok Kumar Singh told AFP. Such outbreaks have happened annually during summer months in the same districts since 1995, typically coinciding with the lychee season. Several years ago, U.S. researchers had said the brain disease could be linked to a toxic substance found in the fruit. They also said more study was needed to uncover the cause of the illness, which leads to seizures, altered mental state and death in more than a third of cases. TV channels showed distraught parents sitting next to their children, several of whom were cramped on one bed. A doctor told a local TV channel that the SKMCH was ill-equipped to handle the rush of patients, most of whom were wheeled in semi-conscious. Known locally as Chamki Bukhar, the disease claimed a record 150 lives in 2014. Outbreaks of neurological illness have also been observed in lychee-growing regions of Bangladesh and Vietnam. Meanwhile, the state has been experiencing temperatures around 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) for several days, and authorities have imposed curfew-like restrictions. Severe heat there has killed 78 people — most of them aged above 50 — across three districts since Saturday afternoon, local official Sandeep Kumar told AFP. More than 130 others were undergoing emergency treatment for heatstroke in various hospitals. Authorities in Gaya district — which has borne the brunt of the heat wave — invoked an Indian law to prohibit residents from going outdoors for nonessential work. The district magistrate also banned construction work and any outdoor program between 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Heatstroke is usually caused by prolonged exposure to sun or from physical exertion in high temperatures. Daytime temperatures across large parts of India have hovered above 40 degrees Celsius for the past 32 days, just one short of a record 33-day period in 1988. Temperatures touched 50.3 degrees Celsius in the town of Churu in the northern desert state of Rajasthan recently, just below India’s record of 51 degrees. Heatstroke has left more than 36 people dead in southern India in recent weeks. Large parts of India are also reeling from drought, with annual monsoon rains late in coming.

disease
india
lychees
bihar
heat waves
acute encephalitis syndrome
u.s .


'Sing Hallelujah to the Lord': The unlikely anthem of Hong Kong protests

Abstract: HONG KONG - The Christian hymn “Sing Hallelujah to the Lord” has emerged as the unlikely anthem of Hong Kong’s protests against an extradition bill that have drawn millions of people onto the streets. Protests around the world often develop their own soundtrack, usually songs with lyrics of defiance and solidarity, aiming to keep crowds energized and focused. But the hymn taken up in Hong Kong hardly ticks those boxes. For the past week, the hymn has been heard almost nonstop at the main protest site, in front of the city’s Legislative Council, and at marches and even at tense standoffs with the police. It started with a group of Christian students who sang several Christian songs at the main protest site, with “Sing Hallelujah to the Lord” catching on among the crowd, even though only about 10 percent of Hong Kongers are Christian. “This was the one people picked up, as it is easy for people to follow, with a simple message and easy melody,” said Edwin Chow, 19, acting president of the Hong Kong Federation of Catholic Students. The students sang the songs in the hope of providing a cover of legitimacy for the protest. Religious gatherings can be held without a permit in the financial hub. “As religious assemblies were exempt, it could protect the protesters. It also shows that it is a peaceful protest,” Chow said. The hymn was composed in the U.S. in 1974 by Linda Stassen-Benjamin for Easter. Its five words are repeated over four stanzas in a minor key, which gives it an air of meditative solemnity. The protests over the past 10 days have been largely peaceful although police on Wednesday last week used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowds. “Stop shooting, or else we sing ‘Hallelujah to the Lord,'” read one protest placard after the rubber bullets were fired. Protesters say the religious song has often helped defuse tension with the police. “It has a calming effect,” said Timothy Lam, 58, a pastor at Grace Church Hong Kong, who has attended the protests with other churchgoers to promote peace. “The police had a lot of equipment, they were very tense and searching people. The students sang this to show they were peaceful,” Lam said of a confrontation last week. Hong Kong’s Beijing-backed government leader, Carrie Lam, has postponed the introduction of the extradition bill and apologized in the face of the huge show of opposition. Critics say the law would undermine Hong Kong’s independent judiciary and the rule of law, guaranteed by a “one country, two systems” formula under which the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Lam is Catholic and some protesters said they thought their adoption of “Sing Hallelujah to the Lord” might have helped sway her. “She is Catholic after all, it’s one of the main (reasons) we sing it,” said Jamie, an 18-year old student who is not Catholic.

hong kong
protests
carrie lam
china
hong kong extradition protests


Hong Kongers fearful of China's grasp look longingly toward 'democratic beacon' Taiwan

Abstract: YIMOU, LEE AND JESSIE PANG - For Hong Kong resident Yung Xiu Kwan, 67, a proposed extradition law that would allow people in the former British colony to be sent to mainland China for trial was the final straw. Yung is packing her bags and leaving the China-ruled city to set up a new life in proudly democratic Taiwan, fed up with what she sees as Beijing’s ever encroaching grip over the city that has led to an erosion of civil liberties. “Without freedom and democracy, it’s like being put in jail, like living in a concentration camp … without freedom, (I) would rather die,” said Yung, as she waved a Taiwan flag at a massive protest in Hong Kong on Sunday. “Taiwan can offer that because Taiwan has democratic elections and a constitution that safeguards democracy.” Hong Kong has been governed under a “one country, two systems” formula since its return from British to Chinese rule in 1997, allowing it certain freedoms, including an independent judiciary. Courts in mainland China are controlled by the Communist Party. Yung is joining thousands of people who have left for Taiwan in recent years, citing fears of Chinese erosion of one country, two systems, a concept Beijing hopes it can introduce one day in Taiwan. Beijing has never renounced the use of force to take over neighboring, self-ruled Taiwan, which it regards as a recalcitrant, breakaway province. While Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam indefinitely suspended the extradition bill, protest organizers said about 2 million people still took to the streets on Sunday to call for a full withdrawal and to demand that Lam step down. Some Hong Kong tycoons have started moving personal wealth offshore amid concerns over the legislation. The Hong Kong protests, which saw police use rubber bullets and tear gas, were the most violent to rock the city in decades and marked the biggest challenge the financial hub has posed to Chinese President Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012. Taiwan, overwhelmingly opposed to a “one country, two systems” formula for itself, has voiced support for Hong Kong. It has remained defiant amid escalating Chinese pressure, with many resolutely rejecting Beijing’s call for “reunification.” The extradition bill is the latest in a string of issues that have troubled ties between Hong Kong and Beijing, with Hong Kong people increasingly upset by an inflow of Chinese immigrants and sky-high property prices partly pushed by mainland investors. Many accuse China of extensive meddling, including obstruction of democratic reforms, interference with elections and of being behind the disappearance of five Hong Kong-based booksellers, starting in 2015, who specialized in works critical of Chinese leaders. Chan, 30, who declined to give his full name, said the rapid pace of Beijing’s encroachment on Hong Kong’s civil liberties had taken him by surprise. “It’s like there’s a burglar in my house and I’m the one who’s forced to leave because I couldn’t defeat him,” said Chan, who moved to Taiwan in 2016 and is planning to arrange for his parents to retire there. The number of people granted Taiwan residency from Hong Kong and neighboring Macao, a former Portuguese-run enclave also given special autonomy under Chinese rule, had more than doubled to 1,267 in 2018 from a decade ago, official data shows. The trend spiked in the two years following massive protests calling for full democracy in 2014 that paralyzed parts of Hong Kong for months. And it shows no signs of abating. There were around 400 such immigrants to Taiwan in the first four months of 2019, a 40 percent jump from a year ago. “I’m moving to Taiwan with my wife next year,” said Melvin Chu, a Hong Kong resident in his late 20s who joined Sunday’s rally, citing worries over political freedoms. “Things are getting worse in Hong Kong. We are worried for the next generation.” Some Hong Kong youth are so desperate to leave they have opted to join Taiwan’s compulsory military service for men under 36 in a bid to get residency, which comes at a price tag of $1.5 million Hong Kong dollars ($191,600). Taiwan politicians have wasted no time in showing their support for Hong Kong amid a heated presidential race in which candidates’ policies towards China are closely examined. Seeking a second term, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has repeatedly urged the Hong Kong government to respect the people’s will, while sounding the alarm over Beijing’s “trap” to absorb Taiwan. Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou, seeking an opposition party’s presidential nomination, promised to “open his arms” to Hong Kong immigrants looking to find “a new home for democracy and freedom” if he became Taiwan’s next president. “It’s a democratic beacon for Hong Kong,” Cheng Chung-man, a 32-year-old who works for a lawmaker in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, said of Taiwan at Sunday’s rally. “It gives Hong Kong people hope.”

hong kong
china
taiwan
democracy
protests
hong kong extradition protests


Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam apologizes for extradition bill but says she won't withdraw it

Abstract: HONG KONG - Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam personally apologized for backing a bill that would allow extraditions to China for the first time, her latest move to try and defuse protests that have rocked the city. “I personally have to shoulder much of the responsibilities,” Lam told reporters Tuesday. “I offer my most sincere apologies to all people in Hong Kong.” Still, Lam declined to resign or withdraw the bill — two key demands of protesters who have vowed to keep hitting the streets unless she goes. Instead, she said wouldn’t proceed with the bill unless all concerns could be addressed, and noted it’s “unlikely” that would happen during the current legislative session. Lam has been under pressure after a historic protest on Sunday calling for her to step down over a bill allowing extraditions to China for the first time. Protesters also want her to withdraw the bill completely, release all arrested demonstrators, stop calling the protests a “riot” and investigate police for excessive violence. The government announced earlier in the day that roads near the Central Government offices, which are next to Lam’s office, had “generally become accessible” and urged staff to return to work. The Executive Council that Lam oversees will be on recess Tuesday, the government said in a separate statement, adding that arrangements for her normal media session would be announced later. Hundreds of thousands of protesters wearing black flooded downtown Hong Kong on Sunday, prompting her to issue a statement apologizing for causing “substantial controversies and disputes in society.” Still, China said on Monday it continues to “firmly support” Lam and her government. The dispute has attracted attention around the globe to the embarrassment of China: Beijing has blamed foreigners for provoking the protests, and urged other nations to stop getting involved in what it regards as a domestic issue. Hong Kong’s police on Monday evening dialed back their categorization of the June 12 clashes with protesters near the city’s legislative building as a “riot,” which has certain legal ramifications. Dropping the description was among the major demands of Sunday’s demonstration. Only people who threw bricks and wielded metal poles against police officers might have committed riot offenses, police commissioner Stephen Lo told reporters. “Others who have participated in the same public order event but have not engaged in any violent act need not to worry about committing rioting offenses,” Lo said. He added that only five people had been arrested on riot-related offenses and that most protesters were “peaceful.” Lo last week classified afternoon clashes outside the Legislative Council as rioting. Lam herself also used the term in a video statement released by the government.

hong kong
carrie lam
china
protests
rights
hong kong extradition protests


China harvesting organs from Falun Gong members, expert panel finds

Abstract: LONDON - China is murdering members of the Falun Gong spiritual group and harvesting their organs for transplant, a panel of lawyers and experts said on Monday as they invited further investigations into a potential genocide. Members said they had heard clear evidence forced organ harvesting had taken place over at least 20 years in a final judgment from the China Tribunal, an independent panel set up by a campaign group to examine the issue. Beijing has repeatedly denied accusations by human rights researchers and scholars that it forcibly takes organs from prisoners of conscience and said it stopped using organs from executed prisoners in 2015. But the panel said it was “satisfied” that the practice was still taking place, with imprisoned Falun Gong members “probably the principal source” of organs for forced harvesting. Falun Gong is a spiritual group based around meditation that China banned 20 years ago after 10,000 members appeared at the central leadership compound in Beijing in silent protest. Thousands of members have since been jailed. It was less clear if the Uighur Muslim minority had been victims, the tribunal found, though it said they were vulnerable to “being used as a bank of organs. “The conclusion shows that very many people have died indescribably hideous deaths for no reason,” said the tribunal chairman, Sir Geoffrey Nice, in the judgment. Chinese government regulations say human organ donation must be voluntary and without payment, said a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in London. “We hope that the British people will not be misled by rumors,” said a spokesman in an emailed statement sent before the tribunal’s final judgment was released. The China Tribunal was set up by the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China, a campaign group, charged with examining whether crimes had been committed as a result of China’s transplant practices. The seven-member panel found it was “beyond doubt” that forced organ harvesting from prisoners has taken place “on a substantial scale by state-supported or approved organizations and individuals” in an interim judgment released in December. The panel said its findings were “indicative” of genocide but it had not been clear enough to make a positive ruling, particularly since some Falun Gong prisoners had been released and profit was also a likely motive. It noted that it was open to governments and international groups to investigate the issue further. Crimes against humanity and torture have been committed against both the Falun Gong and the Uighurs, it also found. Campaigners and Falun Gong members welcomed the ruling. “Organ trafficking is often overlooked in our sector but this heinous crime needs more attention and affects us all,” said a spokesman for the Human Trafficking Foundation. Jennifer Zeng, a Falun Gong practitioner who told the tribunal she had been given blood tests and medical checks while held in detention camp, said she hoped the hoped the tribunal’s findings would prompt action. “I hope more countries will pass laws to forbid their own citizens from going to China to do organ transplants,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “And I do hope the international world will figure out a way to stop the killing in China right now.”

international coalition to end transplant abuse in china


Hong Kong's youthful opposition movement is largely leaderless

Abstract: HONG KONG - The largely youth-driven movement of black-clad protesters challenging Hong Kong’s government over an unpopular extradition bill is a coalition operating without a clear leadership structure. And that adds to its appeal for supporters disaffected from the moneyed elites who run the former British colony, organizers say. The nearly 2 million Hong Kong residents who marched all day Sunday in a massive show of opposition to the bill, which would allow extraditions to mainland China, largely acted on their own, said Bonnie Leung, a leader of the Civil Human Rights Front, one of dozens of groups coordinating the protests. “It is civil society, from different walks of life, a lot of nameless people, a lot of different students’ unions, that are voluntarily and organically doing a lot of actions,” said Leung, whose group took responsibility for getting an official permit for Sunday’s march. The collection of student groups, political and non-governmental organizations, labor unions and teachers’ associations that helped run the demonstration, and a string of earlier ones, ensured the march was orderly, even though thousands loitered afterward in a continued protest that was still underway 24 hours later. “In this whole campaign, what we are trying to do is coordinate with different people,” Leung said in an interview. “They are talking about, ‘Oh, will that work, what won’t work?’ There are no real leaders and this I believe is a very healthy development and this is very good for our campaign.” For the many teens and 20-somethings who took to the streets, the protests are about far more than an extradition bill. They are about preserving the autonomy Hong Kong was promised when Britain ceded its colony to mainland China in 1997, a “one-country, two-systems” arrangement that was supposed to assure Hong Kong separate legal and economic status for 50 years after the handover. The marchers have drawn inspiration from earlier protests, especially the “Umbrella Movement” of 2014, when tens of thousands of mostly youthful demonstrators staged marches and sit-ins, snarling downtown traffic for weeks to demand a say in the election of Hong Kong’s leader — a demand that ultimately failed. Chief Executive Carrie Lam has insisted on forcing passage of the unpopular extradition bill — and she is now the main target of the demonstrations. She backed down Saturday, indefinitely suspending the bill’s passage, but that did not appease the protesters. The fluid, ad hoc nature of the movement was evident Monday as hundreds of youths lingered near Lam’s office building. A small but determined group vowed to continue demanding that Lam completely scrap the extradition bill, which if passed, could send some suspects in Hong Kong to China to face vague political charges, torture and unfair trials. That concern has grown with the increasingly authoritarian approach of today’s top Communist Party leader, President Xi Jinping. Others believed they needed to retreat and draw up a timetable for their demands, said Nathan Law, a leader of Demosisto, a pro-democracy group advocating self-determination for Hong Kong. “There is no long-term agenda, no leader. We all feel the same and want the same things, but we don’t have to follow any one person,” said one black-clad participant in his early 20s, who gave his name only as Jojo. One figure who has emerged as a potential opposition leader is Joshua Wong, a founder of Demosisto who, at just 17, became the face of the 2014 protests. He was released Monday after spending a month in prison related to those activities. He swapped the white shirt he was wearing upon his release for a black one — this movement’s chosen color. In an interview outside government headquarters, Wong was scathing in his criticism of Lam and her administration, especially police officers who used tear gas and rubber bullets to subdue protesters during clashes last week. The moves were like the ruling Communist Party’s bloody crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square 30 years ago, Wong said. “Carrie Lam just copied the model from Beijing and applied it in Hong Kong,” he said. That movement, too, was an unusually vehement expression of the power of numbers. It also involved many different groups both inside Beijing and elsewhere in China. The Chinese authorities ended the 1989 protests with a military assault that left hundreds, possibly thousands dead, a degree of violence still unthinkable in Beijing. But in Hong Kong, the authorities have sought to soothe anger over police use of forceful measures and to reassure the city of 7 million that their civil liberties are intact. As far as his contribution to the anti-extradition law movement, Wong said he had no further ambitions other than supporting those staying the course. But he does hope it may sway the leadership in Beijing. “I just want to back and support those who have been standing up against Xi Jinping,” Wong said. “They tried to ignore the voice of the people” he said of the Hong Kong authorities. “But when the voice becomes louder and louder Beijing can’t ignore it.”

hong kong
protests
china
rights
carrie lam
joshua wong
hong kong extradition protests


Cat filter goof leaves Pakistanis scratching their whiskers

Abstract: PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN - It was a mistake that had some people in Pakistan scratching their whiskers. A regional minister was giving a briefing that was livestreamed on social media last week when viewers noticed the officials had unexpected feline features. The cat filter, a social media feature applying drawn images onto people’s faces, was on. Social media was quick to pounce on the image . In a statement posted on Twitter, the ruling party’s social media team wrote it had determined “human error” by a hardworking volunteer caused the mistake. The team said the cat filter was removed “within a few minutes.” The team says actions have been taken to prevent “such an incident” in the future.


Palau changes ocean sanctuary plan to allow Okinawa-based fishing boats to operate

Abstract: KOROR, PALAU - The Pacific nation of Palau has amended plans to create a huge marine reserve so Japanese fishing boats still have partial access to its waters. Fish stocks are overexploited around the world, the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization warned this year, and Palau has long been regarded as a pioneer in ocean conservation. The island nation will close 80 percent of its exclusive economic zone — a 500,000 square kilometer (193,000 square mile) area roughly the size of Spain — to commercial fishing from next year. The remaining 20 percent was to be reserved for Palau fishing boats only, but President Tommy Remengesau said Japan — one of Palau’s major foreign aid donors — asked for the plans to be changed. In response, the government last week passed legislation that will allow some foreign long-line vessels into the area. Remengesau said the changes are to accommodate vessels from Okinawa, which have fished the waters for generations. “We’re close to Japan and we want to accommodate them where we can,” Remengesau said. Natural Resources Minister Umiich Sengebau said the changes will not undermine the sanctuary’s conservation value. “Japan has come out and actually endorsed the amendment and that’s good for Japan, but it was really something we want to do for Palau to have an industry that we can sustain,” he said. The country created the world’s first shark sanctuary in 2009 and will next year introduce a ban on reef-toxic sunscreens. Remengesau said his nation — renowned as one of the world’s top diving spots — was prioritizing tourism when he announced the plan in 2015. The tourist industry accounts for about 50 percent of the country’s economy, above the tuna fishing industry. Tokyo-based charity The Nippon Foundation has donated a patrol vessel to Palau to help prevent illegal fishing in the vast ocean reserve. Environment group Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy, which helped formulate the blueprint for the sanctuary, said it is examining the changes introduced last week. “While we are still working to fully analyze the legislation, we continue to support Palau as a world leader in ocean conservation,” said Ashleigh Cirilla, a senior manager at the group.


Japan has world's lowest proportion of working-age people, U.N. report says

Abstract: NEW YORK - Japan has the world’s lowest ratio of people of working age to those aged 65 or over, according to a U.N. report released Monday. While the ratio, a measure of the burden placed on the working population by the nonworking elderly, is falling worldwide, Japan stands out with just 1.8 people aged 25 to 64 for each person aged 65 or over, according to the report, called “World Population Prospects 2019: Highlights.” “Japan in 2019 has the lowest potential support ratio of all countries or areas with at least 90,000 inhabitants,” said the report from the United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs. In comparison, the ratio stands at 3.3 in Australia and New Zealand, and 3.0 in Europe and North America. Sub-Saharan Africa has a ratio of 11.7. By 2050, it is projected that 48 countries, mainly from Europe, North America, East Asia and Southeast Asia, will have support ratios below 2. “These low values underscore the potential impact of population aging on the labor market and economic performance as well as the fiscal pressures that many countries are likely to face in the coming decades in relation to the public systems of health care, pensions and social protection schemes for older persons,” the report said. John Wilmoth, director of the department’s population division, said that the changes in the support ratio over time are “inevitable,” pointing to longer life spans and smaller families. Describing Japan’s aging society as “partly a positive story,” he suggested the country take steps such as changing the retirement age and encouraging older workers to remain in the labor force to alter the support ratio in the long run. The report also indicated that the world’s population is expected to increase by 2 billion in the next three decades from the current 7.7 billion to 9.7 billion in 2050. The study concludes that the world’s population could peak around the end of this century at almost 11 billion. India is expected to surpass China as the world’s most populous nation around 2027. For the first time ever, the report indicated that in 2018 the number of people who are 65 and over outnumbered children under 5 around the globe, which is leading to the prospect of having twice as many elderly people as children under 5 in 2050. The number of people over 80 is expected to triple from 143 million in 2019 to 426 million in 2050.

aging
population
elderly
retirement
u.n .
surveys


Japan's Cabinet OKs new program focused on dementia 'coexistence and prevention'

Abstract: The Cabinet on Tuesday approved a new program for dementia that focuses on prevention and helping patients with the illness live more comfortably. The program is aimed at curbing growth in welfare spending at a time when Japanese society is rapidly aging. One in 5 people aged 75 or over are expected to have the disease by 2025. “While placing an emphasis on the viewpoint of people with dementia and their families, we will make coexistence and prevention the two wheels of a cart to strongly propel measures (against dementia),” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at a meeting of ministers in charge of the program. Whether the measures will be effective remains unclear due to a lack of scientific data about prevention methods for the illness, which involves memory loss and the decline of other mental faculties. The government initially sought to set a numerical target, aiming to reduce the number of dementia patients in their 70s by 10 percent over the next decade. But the plan was scrapped amid criticism from those with the disease and ruling party lawmakers that patients might be blamed for their own illness. Instead of defining prevention as “not getting the disease,” the new program defines it as “delaying the onset of dementia and slowing development of symptoms once patients develop them.” Because some studies suggest that social interaction and exercise can help mitigate symptoms, the program also calls for the establishment of more places for senior citizens to gather and workout, take part in leisure activities and dine together. While the government has been providing subsidies to municipalities that provide such gathering places, they have failed to attract enough people. The new program states the central government will create a guideline for promoting activities at such places and raise the participation rate of people aged 65 or over to about 8 percent from 4.9 percent in fiscal 2017. Among measures for helping patients’ lives, the program calls on public transportation operators to address issues including the removal of barriers that prevent patients from using them. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry estimates some 7 million people will suffer from dementia in 2025, when the country’s baby boomers will be aged 75 or older. Also on Tuesday, the government announced a series of measures to prevent car crashes caused by elderly drivers, including emergency brakes and vehicle-free zones around schools, following a string of crashes involving children. One in 4 people aged 80 or over drives a car every day, the government said in a survey published Tuesday, another challenge resulting from the country’s aging population. Japan has been rocked by several tragic incidents involving elderly drivers plowing into schoolchildren, and there are suspicions that the aging motorists had inadvertently pressed the accelerator instead of the brake. “We should not waste any time in ensuring that children’s journeys to school are safe,” Abe told Cabinet ministers. Tokyo will carry out an “emergency safety inspection” of school commuting routes by the end of September and promote the use of cars with emergency stopping devices to counteract accidental stepping on the accelerator. The National Policy Agency will also consider introducing a new category of driver’s licence for elderly people, allowing them to operate only cars equipped with emergency stopping devices, a Cabinet Secretariat official said. Details of these measures will be fleshed out by the end of March but officials have begun working on policies that can be carried out immediately, the official said.

dementia
prevention
elderly
aging society


Osaka vows to strengthen disaster measures one year on from quake

Abstract: OSAKA - School and municipal government officials in Osaka Prefecture reaffirmed Tuesday their commitment to beefing up anti-earthquake measures one year on from a magnitude 6.1 quake that struck the area and killed six people, including a girl walking to school. At Juei Elementary School in the city of Takatsuki, where 9-year-old Rina Miyake was crushed to death after a concrete wall at the school collapsed on her, Mayor Takeshi Hamada and staff of the city-run school placed flowers and offered silent prayers. “I have renewed my determination to never let something like this happen again,” Mie Sato, the school’s principal, said. The collapse of the substandard wall prompted municipalities nationwide to reassess the safety of concrete walls, while the serious traffic disruptions that followed the quake highlighted the challenges faced by disaster-hit urban areas. With a massive earthquake predicted to hit the region within the next 30 years along the Nankai Trough and trigger tsunamis, measures for protecting those stranded and foreign visitors have also been discussed. “We should not let the memory of the disaster fade, but rather devote our energies to building a more resilient city,” Hamada said in his address to Takatsuki officials at city hall. During a news conference, the mayor said the city will launch a new division within the board of education to ensure the safety of school facilities and promote education on disaster preparedness. The city plans to remove all concrete walls installed at public elementary and junior high schools by the end of March 2023. The powerful earthquake that hit Osaka Prefecture and its surrounding areas at 7:58 a.m. on June 18 last year injured more than 450 people across seven prefectures, according to local authorities. The concrete wall surrounding the school’s swimming pool, which killed the schoolgirl upon its collapse, was 3.5 meters high including its support structure, violating the standard height of up to 2.2 meters. The collapsed wall was removed in July last year and has been replaced by a metallic fence. A disaster prevention adviser had informed the school and the local education board about the dangers of the wall in 2015 but the board concluded in the following year there was no problem after doing its own inspection of the wall.


Japan distancing itself from U.S. claims of Iranian involvement in tanker attacks

Abstract: The government is avoiding taking sides in the dispute surrounding U.S. claims of Iranian involvement in Thursday’s attacks on two oil tankers, including one operated by a Japanese company, near the Strait of Hormuz. In order not to harm Japan’s traditional friendly ties with Iran, the government is also reluctant to take up the incident when it chairs a Group of 20 summit in the city of Osaka on June 28 and 29, a government source said. The United States has accused Iran of the tanker attacks, which occurred during a visit to Iran by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was there to mediate between the two countries. Tehran has called Washington’s accusations groundless. At a news conference Monday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga declined to answer a question about Tokyo’s view on the tanker attacks. “I refrain from answering with prejudice now,” Suga said. A senior Foreign Ministry official described the country’s unique ties with Iran as a “diplomatic asset.” “We can’t make any statement based on a presumption,” said the senior diplomat, adding that the U.S. government should disclose more information on the Hormuz incident. Another government source referred to the Iraq war, which the United States initiated after intelligence analyses of Iraq falsely pointed to the country possessing weapons of mass destruction. “We can’t unreservedly accept U.S. claims,” the source said. A former Cabinet member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party even suggested the possibility of a U.S. conspiracy behind the tanker attacks. Meanwhile, some members of the government are waiting to see the results of a third-party investigation proposed by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. However, any such investigation would likely take time, leaving the government to maintain an ambiguous position on the matter, observers say. The operator of the Japan-owned ship, the Kokuka Courageous, said Sunday in Dubai that the ship had arrived safely and had anchored off the coast of the United Arab Emirates with its crew all aboard. Damage assessment on the Kokuka Courageous and preparation for ship-to-ship transfer of its cargo will start after authorities in Sharjah, one of the UAE’s seven emirates, complete security checks, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement said. Thursday’s attacks, which also hit the Norwegian tanker Front Altair, have heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. and its Gulf allies after similar blasts in May struck four ships, including two Saudi oil tankers, off the UAE. The Front Altair is sitting off Sharjah’s Khorfakkan port, while the Kokuka Courageous is anchored off the emirate’s Kalba port, according to Refinitiv Eikon ship tracking data. “Our crew remain on board the Kokuka Courageous. They are safe and well,” Bernhard Schulte said in a statement. It said there is no fixed schedule for the transfer of the methanol cargo. The Kokuka Courageous’s 21 crew members were returned to the vessel by the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet after being rescued.

iran
oil
iraq war
shipping
u.s .
gas
terrorism
u.n .
hormuz tanker attack


Japan and France to unveil road map for cooperation amid China's rise

Abstract: Japan and France are planning to unveil a five-year road map in late June that deepens cooperation in areas ranging from maritime security to infrastructure assistance amid China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region, government sources said Monday. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and French President Emmanuel Macron are expected to announce the road map through 2023 when they meet in Tokyo during the French leader’s official visit to Japan from June 26, the sources said. Macron is scheduled to attend the two-day Group of 20 summit in Osaka, which starts June 28. Under the road map, Japan and France will deepen defense cooperation, assist developing nations in improving infrastructure and jointly cope with marine plastic waste. The two countries are also looking at cooperation in space and cyberspace — areas seen as new frontiers in warfare and defense — details of which may be included in the document, according to the sources. Japan views France as an important partner in realizing a free and open Indo-Pacific region. Tokyo is seeking to assist countries in building infrastructure to help them achieve economic growth and ensure debt sustainability. France, for its part, has island territories in the Pacific such as New Caledonia and is cautious about Beijing’s massive “Belt and Road” infrastructure initiative. Some developing nations are struggling with excessive debt burdens after borrowing heavily from China under the plan, critics say, which is seen as increasing the country’s economic influence. Tokyo and Paris are making arrangements to hold the first comprehensive maritime dialogue around this summer in France to tackle global challenges based on the road map, the sources said. The governments have been working to finalize the five-year plan, which follows a similar one for 2013 through 2018, ahead of Macron’s upcoming visit. In recent years, Japan and France have strengthened security cooperation. An agreement to share defense and other supplies between the Self-Defense Forces and French armed forces will become effective this month. “We hope that we will be able to open a new horizon for our bilateral relations as special partners through President Macron’s first visit since assuming his post,” Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasutoshi Nishimura said at a news conference Tuesday. Emperor Naruhito is scheduled to meet with Macron and host a lunch during the president’s stay in Tokyo, the government said.

japan
france
china
shinzo abe
emmanuel macron
osaka
g20


Photojournalist documents the 'unheard voices' of Japanese wives who went to North Korea

Abstract: An award-winning photojournalist has shed light on forgotten Japanese women who married Korean men and moved to North Korea during a 1959-1984 repatriation project. “They have been in different settings since arriving in North Korea. Some of them have lost contact with their relatives in Japan, while some still wrestle with their conscience about leaving their families back in Japan,” said Noriko Hayashi. “Each of their lives is equally irreplaceable. And as most of them are getting old, we do not have that much time left to hear what they have to say,” she added. Recording their unheard voices and photographing their present-day lives, Hayashi will publish a book, “Japanese Wives Who Moved to Korea,” on Thursday, timed to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the launch of the repatriation project. It brought 93,000 people — Koreans and their families including 1,830 Japanese wives — to the North, which was advertised as a “paradise on Earth,” with secure employment and housing. Hayashi, 35, visited North Korea 11 times between 2013 and 2018, meeting with nine Japanese wives. While North Korean guides or interpreters were present at each interview, Hayashi said she did not feel too constrained by them. Mitsuko Minakawa, who lives in North Korea’s southeastern port city of Wonsan, was among those interviewed. Born in Tokyo in 1939, Minakawa was raised in Sapporo, her father’s hometown, and met her Korean husband, Choe Hwa Jae, in 1958, when both were studying fisheries sciences at the prestigious Hokkaido University. Choe and Minakawa, who were expecting their first child, left Niigata for North Korea in 1960, despite strong opposition from her family. Learning the Korean language and raising four children, Minakawa supported her husband, a researcher at a fisheries research institute, by taking advantage of her fisheries sciences knowledge. “I believed I would have been able to return home probably in around three years and freely travel back and forth between the two countries,” Minakawa said, recalling her early days in the North. Another Japanese wife, Takiko Ide, born in 1927 in Miyazaki Prefecture, became acquainted with a Korean man, who was her co-worker at a local bus operator when she was around 15 or 16 years old. “I didn’t know he was Korean before we started living together,” she told Hayashi. “My mother didn’t want me to marry a Korean, but I couldn’t leave him” as they had already fallen deeply in love with each other, the book notes. The couple and their children moved to North Korea in 1961 without telling Ide’s Japanese family. “I wrote to my mother after arriving here, and I heard later she had collapsed upon reading it.” Ide raised four children, and her husband died in 1996. “They happened to love Korean men at a time when Koreans faced severe discrimination in Japan, and they have never changed their attitude even under such circumstances,” said Hayashi on the experiences of the two women. “They have remained fair, and I feel sympathy and respect for them.” It took Minakawa and Ide decades before being able to temporarily return home under a “homecoming program” for Japanese wives, which allowed 43 of them in total to come back in 1997, 1998 and 2000. On her homecoming, Minakawa told Hayashi, “I told my mother in front of her grave, ‘Your daughter has returned, although belated,’ and I apologized that I couldn’t be present at her death.” Her father had died before she left Sapporo. Ide’s mother, meanwhile, died at the age of 99 in 1998, two years before her daughter’s short return home. Ide, who also lived in Wonsan, passed away at 89 in 2016, less than a month after her last interview with Hayashi, during which she caressed an old picture of her husband, saying, “He is handsome, isn’t he?” While Minakawa and Ide may be lucky in the sense they could at least set foot in their motherland once again, Akiko Ota in Hamhung, a coastal city of North Korea, has given up her dream of a homecoming, rather than seeking to make it a reality. After meeting her Korean husband in 1963 at around the age of 20 while working as a nurse, Ota, an Ishikawa Prefecture native and now a mother of four, joined the repatriation project in 1967 to “provide education to our daughter.” “I didn’t know anything about North Korea, including its language, and I didn’t have much money . . . I just followed my husband,” Ota told Hayashi. She applied for the homecoming program, but there hasn’t been a third one since 2000. Asked by Hayashi if she thinks about Japan, Ota said, “Sometimes, but I have been obsessed with living . . . I have given up on returning home for a half-century.” While Japan and North Korea have many unresolved problems, including Pyongyang’s abduction of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s, “I hope the authorities will satisfy the Japanese wives’ longing for homecoming from a humanitarian perspective,” Hayashi said. Among nine Japanese wives Hayashi interviewed, three had died as of early June, and it is unknown how many Japanese wives are still alive. “I have visited and will continue visiting Japanese wives so I can leave proof of their earnest lives,” said Hayashi. “If nobody records them, they would be treated as if they have not existed.”

north korea
women
abduction
history
rights
north korea-japan relations


More than half of Japanese young people not interested in studying overseas, survey shows

Abstract: A government survey has found that over half of youths and young adults in Japan do not want to study abroad. The finding was included in the 2019 white paper on children and young people, which was adopted at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday. When asked whether they want to study abroad in the future, 53.2 percent of Japanese respondents said they do not, the highest figure among the seven nations covered in the study. Germany and Britain were a distant second and third, with 35.5 percent and 34.8 percent, respectively, saying they do not want to study abroad. Regarding whether they want to live abroad in the future, the proportion of people wishing to stay in their home country forever came to 42.7 percent for Japanese respondents, also the highest among the seven countries. The survey also found that Japanese youths taking part in volunteer work were more eager to study abroad. The share of people keen to study abroad reached 64.0 percent for those currently engaged in volunteering activities, and it was 41.7 percent for those who have volunteered in the past. The survey, conducted last November and December, received responses from about 7,500 people aged between 13 and 29 in Japan, South Korea, the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Sweden. In a separate government survey, which was also approved at the Cabinet meeting Tuesday, almost half of single people who wish to get married said they have been unable to find a suitable partner, with 61.4 percent of them stating they are not doing anything to change their situation. A lack of opportunities to meet an appropriate partner, not having the financial resources to get married, or lacking the social skills to get along with the opposite sex were cited as the main reasons in the survey, which was included in the annual report on Japan’s shrinking population. The Cabinet Office online survey of around 4,000 men and women aged between 20 to 40 years old, conducted last December, found that 46.8 percent of respondents said they had not been able to find a suitable partner despite a desire to tie the knot. The outcome prompted the government to recognize the need to continue measures supporting marriage amid the country’s aging society.

survey
survey
study abroad
teens
education
students
surveys


Emperor Naruhito to meet with Macron next week

Abstract: Emperor Naruhito will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, during the couple’s visit to Japan starting June 26, the Japanese government said Tuesday. The Emperor will also host a court luncheon in honor of the couple. Empress Masako will attend the events if her health permits, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasutoshi Nishimura told a news conference. This will be the first visit to Japan by Macron since he became president. He will also hold talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe before they attend the Group of 20 summit in Osaka on June 28 and 29. Macron is set to host his counterparts from the Group of Seven top economies in Biarritz, southwestern France, from Aug. 24 to 26.

emperor naruhito
emmanuel macron
france
royalty
imperial family