World leaders and tech execs pledge to curb online violence

Abstract: PARIS - Facebook, Google, Twitter and other tech companies joined a dozen countries in a global pledge Wednesday to step up efforts to keep internet platforms from being used to spread hate, organize extremist groups and broadcast attacks. World leaders, led by French President Emmanuel Macron, and tech executives gathered in Paris to compile a set of guidelines dubbed the “Christchurch Call,” named after the New Zealand city where 51 people were killed in a March attack on mosques. Much of the attack was broadcast live on Facebook, drawing public outrage and fueling debate on how to better regulate social media. Facebook said before the meeting that it was tightening rules for livestream users. The White House later said it is not endorsing the pledge, citing respect for “freedom of expression and freedom of the press.” In a statement, it said it will “continue to be proactive in our efforts to counter terrorist content online” while also protecting free speech. In the agreement, which is not legally binding, the tech companies committed to measures to prevent the spread of terrorist or violent extremist content. That may include cooperating on developing technology or expanding the use of shared digital signatures. They also promised to take measures to reduce the risk that such content is livestreamed, including flagging it up for real-time review. And they pledged to study how algorithms sometimes promote extremist content. That would help find ways to intervene more quickly and redirect users to “credible positive alternatives or counter-narratives.” Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter issued a joint supporting statement, outlining in further detail actions they would take individually or together to combat abuse of technology to spread extremist content. They include making it easier for users to flag up inappropriate content, using enhanced vetting for livestreaming and publishing transparency reports on material that’s removed. The Christchurch Call “is a global response to a tragedy that occurred on the shores of my country but was ultimately felt around the world,” said New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern, who has played a leading role pushing for globally coordinated efforts to eliminate online extremism. “Fundamentally it ultimately commits us all to build a more humane internet, which cannot be misused by terrorists for their hateful purposes,” she said at a news conference with Macron. The French and New Zealand governments drafted the agreement — a road map that aims to prevent similar abuses of the internet while insisting that any actions must preserve “the principles of a free, open and secure internet, without compromising human rights and fundamental freedoms.” The call was adopted by U.S. tech companies that also included Amazon, Microsoft and YouTube, along with France’s Qwant and DailyMotion, and the Wikimedia Foundation. Countries backing France and New Zealand were Britain, Canada, Ireland, Jordan, Norway, Senegal, Indonesia and the European Union’s executive body. Several other countries not present at the meeting added their endorsement. The meeting in Paris comes at a pivotal moment for tech companies, which critics accuse of being too powerful and resistant to regulation. Some have called for giants like Facebook to be broken up. Europe is leading a global push for more regulation of how the companies handle user data and copyrighted material. The tech companies are offering their own ideas in a bid to shape the policy response. Unlike previous official attempts to regulate the internet, “the Christchurch Call is different in that it associates all actors of the internet,” including the tech companies themselves, Macron said. He said he hopes to get broader support for the agreement in coming months, with technical questions to be discussed by June. The Christchurch Call was drafted as 80 CEOs and executives from technology companies gathered in Paris for a “Tech for Good” conference meant to address how they can use their global influence for public good — for example by promoting gender equality, diversity in hiring and greater access to technology for lower income users. Ardern and Macron have insisted that the Christchurch guidelines must involve joint efforts between governments and tech giants. France has been hit by repeated Islamic extremist attacks by groups who recruited and shared violent images on social networks. Free speech advocates and some in the tech industry bristle at new restrictions and argue that violent extremism is a societal problem that the tech world can’t solve. Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, a member of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that while “a higher level of responsibility is demanded from all of the platforms,” it is necessary to find a way to not censor legitimate discussion. “It’s a hard line to draw sometimes,” he said.

violence
facebook
google
christchurch call
jacinta ardern
eu
amazon.com
hate crimes
christchurch mosque attack
livestreeaming


Tokyo stocks turn lower on refueled trade war concerns

Abstract: Stocks turned lower on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Thursday, weighed down by rekindled concerns over an escalation of the U.S.-China trade conflict. The 225-issue Nikkei stock average finished down 125.58 points, or 0.59 percent, at 21,062.98. On Wednesday, it rose 121.33 points. The Topix index of all first-section issues fell 6.60 points, or 0.43 percent, to end at 1,537.55, after a 9.17-point jump the previous day. The market opened lower as a sense of caution spread after U.S. President Donald Trump signed on Wednesday an executive order forbidding U.S. companies from using telecommunications equipment made by foreign companies deemed national security threats. The order apparently targets Chinese information technology giant Huawei Technologies Co., brokers said. But stocks displayed some resilience around the midmorning as investors moved to hunt bargains. In the afternoon, the market struggled for direction. “Stocks resisted falling further amid growing expectations for Trump to delay his auto tariff decision and for U.S.-China ministerial-level trade talks to be resumed,” said Hiroaki Kuramochi, chief market analyst at Saxo Bank Securities Ltd. Media reports said Wednesday that Trump is considering putting off his decision on whether to slap fresh tariffs on cars and parts from the European Union and Japan by up to six months. The delay is expected to be announced Saturday, the current deadline for the decision. Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told a Senate subcommittee meeting that he would visit Beijing in the near future to restart the ministerial-level trade talks. The market was also supported by the Shanghai market’s continued rise, an official of a bank-affiliated securities firm said. But investors refrained from active buying due to a dearth of powerful incentives, a market source said. Falling issues outnumbered rising ones 1,227 to 845 in the TSE’s first section, while 68 issues were unchanged. Volume decreased to 1.46 billion shares from the previous day’s 1.52 billion shares. Mega-bank group Mitsubishi UFJ sagged 3.59 percent because its net profit forecast for the year through March 2020 and no announcement of a share buyback plan disappointed investors, brokers said. Dentsu suffered a 8.49 percent loss, after the advertising giant released dismal January-March earnings figures. Other losers included cosmetics maker Shiseido and Sumitomo Chemical. On the other hand, KDDI rose 2.25 percent after the mobile phone carrier said it will buy back shares. Among other winners were restaurant chain Skylark and realtor Sumitomo Realty & Development. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key June contract on the Nikkei average went down 110 points to end at 21,050.


Forecast of a cooler summer in Asia may add to expected LNG glut

Abstract: Don’t count on a summer heat wave to rescue Asia’s liquefied natural gas prices. Weather forecasts signal lackluster demand in the largest importing region, raising prospects a global glut will deepen. Temperatures across North Asia this summer will be cooler than a year ago, according to seven meteorologists surveyed by Bloomberg. This suggests the record heat in Japan and South Korea, which triggered a buying frenzy and catapulted prices to their highest since 2014, is unlikely to be repeated. LNG prices in Asia have slumped about 40 percent so far this year as the three biggest consumers — Japan, China and South Korea — have slowed spot buying after a mild winter and amid brimming stockpiles. Meanwhile, new projects from Australia to the U.S. have left the market amply supplied. “A cooler summer would mean that additional demand isn’t there, creating even more potential excess supply,” said Fauziah Marzuki, an analyst at BloombergNEF based in Singapore. While forecasters were split on whether temperatures in North Asia would be above or below historical averages, the overall expectations are that they will be milder and less volatile than last summer, which saw a price spike in June. A cooler-than-normal summer could also push spot prices in Asia down to parity or even a discount to Europe, reversing their typical premium, according to Robert Sims, an analyst at Wood Mackenzie Ltd. “We expect the real recovery will need to wait until winter this year,” Sims said by email. Japan and South Korea recorded their hottest days ever last year. Temperatures peaked at 41.1 degrees Celsius (106 degrees Fahrenheit) in Kumagaya, a city north of Tokyo, and 40.7 degrees Celsius in the northeastern South Korea town of Hongcheon. Meanwhile, the escalating trade war between the U.S. and China could be a wildcard for prices in Asia. Beijing said Monday it will boost tariffs on American LNG imports to 25 percent from June 1, which could lead to Chinese players seeking to swap or sell cargoes. “The continuation of El Niño conditions for a second straight year would support a cooler summer than what was observed in 2018,” said Todd Crawford, chief meteorologist at The Weather Company. “We expect another relatively active typhoon season, and the associated clouds/rain may limit the overall magnitude of heat.”


JR East shinkansen ALFA-X prototype hits 320 kph in test run in northeastern Japan

Abstract: MORIOKA, IWATE PREF. - A prototype of Japan’s new shinkansen conducted a trial early Thursday, reaching 320 kilometers per hour, the maximum speed for existing shinkansen models. The prototype, dubbed ALFA-X, is designed to travel at 360 kph when it is put into service by the spring of 2031, according to the operator East Japan Railway Co. Thursday’s test run by JR East was the first shown to the media since the trials began last Friday. The company will continue the tests every week through March 2022 to collect data, and it is hoped speeds of 400 kph will be reached. Thursday’s test started around 1 a.m. after the company closed JR Morioka Station on the Tohoku Shinkansen line in northeastern Japan. The 10-car train was completed this month, costing around ¥10 billion ($91 million). It features two long nose-shaped heads, measuring about 16 meters for the No. 1 car and 22 meters for the No. 10 car. JR East will study pressure and sound differences between the two noses when the train enters tunnels. Existing trains, such as the E-5 series Hayabusa shinkansen, have noses measuring about 15 meters. The company will also test the train’s emergency brakes, anti-derailment functions in the event of an earthquake and new equipment to avoid vehicle vibrations. JR East is planning to introduce the train once Tokyo and Sapporo are linked by bullet train after the Hokkaido Shinkansen line, currently operating between Shin-Aomori and Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto stations, is extended to Sapporo. “Tests are going well so far. We will keep working to ensure that the next-generation shinkansen has appropriate safety and environment performances,” said Kazunori Koyama, a division chief of JR East’s Morioka branch.

jr east
shinkansen
morioka
iwate
tohoku
bullet trains
rail


Daiwa targets younger investors with new online brokerage unit

Abstract: Daiwa Securities Group Inc., Japan’s second-biggest brokerage, unveiled plans to start a unit focused on mobile services as early as next year to win younger clients. Daiwa and larger rival Nomura Holdings Inc. face pressure to appeal to new investors as older clients pull money to spend on their retirement. The firms have traditionally focused on a face-to-face approach, which is costly to maintain at a time when retail business profitability is weakening. The fully owned unit, named Connect, will target young generations in addition to people who are starting to build wealth, Tokyo-based Daiwa said in a statement Wednesday. It plans to allow clients to trade stocks in small lots and at the lowest fee in the industry, according to the release. “We want to offer competitive services at competitive fee levels,” Chief Executive Officer Seiji Nakata said in an interview. The group’s main securities arm has digital services of its own, but its share in Japan’s online retail market has been small. Until now, Daiwa had been hesitant to create a separate, low-fee online brokerage within the group because it was concerned that it would “cannibalize” its existing digital business, Nakata said. The firm now believes that customers who use mobile services won’t necessarily be the same as those who tap the existing online platform, he said.


Nissan to keep Hiroto Saikawa as CEO and name Renault chief Thierry Bollore to board, say sources

Abstract: Nissan Motor Co. plans to keep Hiroto Saikawa as its CEO and newly appoint Thierry Bollore, CEO of its alliance partner Renault SA, to its board, pending shareholder approval in June, sources said Thursday. In a management revamp following the arrest of former Chairman Carlos Ghosn for alleged financial misconduct last November, Nissan plans an 11-member board with six of them outside directors, in line with proposals made in March by its committee set up to enhance corporate governance. Among the members, Renault, the Japanese automaker’s top shareholder, will be represented by Bollore and Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard, who joined Nissan’s board in April, the sources said. From Nissan, three officials, including Saikawa and Chief Operating Officer Yasuhiro Yamauchi, will join the board. Sadayuki Sakakibara, a co-chairman of the governance committee and former chief of Keidanren, the powerful business lobby also known as the Japan Business Federation, had been floated as a candidate to serve as chairman of the board but the idea has now been shelved, the sources said. Nissan, which decided on the candidates at its extraordinary board meeting on Wednesday, is set to launch the new board after securing approval from shareholders at its regular annual meeting in June. Nissan said on Tuesday its group net profit hit a nine-year low in the year through March and forecast it would nearly halve in fiscal 2019, just as differences with Renault over how to shape the future of their alliance following the ouster of Ghosn adds to its woes. Nissan has been struggling in the U.S. market in recent years, with Saikawa acknowledging that the automaker was overstretching to meet targets, such as by relying on incentives. Since the arrest of Ghosn in mid-November, Nissan has faced the task of stabilizing its alliance with Renault and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. in the absence of the once-feted auto tycoon, who built and led an auto group that was the world’s second largest last year in terms of vehicle sales. However, Saikawa indicated talks on a merger between Nissan and Renault could become a source of tension. Saikawa disclosed that Senard is in favor of business integration with Nissan. But Saikawa said it is not necessary and “risks damaging Nissan’s power to create value.”

hiroto saikawa
renault
thierry bollore
carlos ghosn
scandals
carmakers


Japan's mega-banks see challenging year ahead as profit drivers wane

Abstract: Japan’s biggest banks have warned investors of a tough year ahead. The nation’s three mega-banks have been relying on the healthy status of borrowers and sales of so-called cross-shareholdings for earnings as rock-bottom interest rates crimp lending profitability. Results on Wednesday showed they are losing those benefits at a time when the economy is weakening, trade tensions are escalating and the Bank of Japan’s extraordinary monetary easing looks set to stay. “The business environment is very uncertain and tougher than last year,” Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. President Jun Ohta said at a news briefing in Tokyo on Wednesday, dismissing the notion that his bank’s profit target is conservative. Sumitomo Mitsui, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and Mizuho Financial Group Inc. all posted net income projections that missed analysts’ estimates, as rising bad-loan costs and diminishing gains from sales of stock holdings put a dampener on earnings prospects in the year ending March 2020. While both Mizuho and MUFG are expecting profit to increase this year, to ¥470 billion ($4.3 billion) and ¥900 billion respectively, that’s only after they booked large writedowns that hurt results in the previous period. Sumitomo Mitsui sees net income slipping about 4 percent to ¥700 billion. “Signs of an economic slowdown have been emerging in Japan and overseas,” Mizuho Chief Executive Officer Tatsufumi Sakai told reporters. The bank is seeking to cut a further 30 branches in the next five years, on top of 100 reductions previously targeted. Sakai said Mizuho’s profit target reflects a likely decline in gains from stock selling and an uptick in credit costs that were “very low” last year. The banks have been paring their stakes in corporate clients in response to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to urge firms to improve governance. A stock market rally since Abe took office in 2012 has helped them book gains from the sales. Sumitomo Mitsui, the only one of the three bank stocks to rise this year, said it plans to buy back as much as ¥100 billion of shares. Its shares slipped 0.2 percent at 9:23 a.m. in Tokyo after climbing as much as 0.7 percent. MUFG slid 2.7 percent and Mizuho lost 1.1 percent. The lenders trade at half the book value of their assets or less, and Bloomberg Intelligence sees little chance of improvement. The banks are replenishing loan provisions that they had drawn down and booked as profits in recent years amid a dearth of corporate bankruptcies. But Sumitomo Mitsui’s Ohta and MUFG CEO Kanetsugu Mike were quick to say that the increase in bad-loan expenses doesn’t mean they expect a wave of defaults. “We don’t have room for more provision clawbacks,” Ohta said. “Given the uncertain environment, we expect a normalization of credit costs.”

banks
mizuho
stocks
mufg
smbc
financial results


Mizuho says it will close 130 domestic bank branches over next five years

Abstract: Mizuho Financial Group Inc. on Wednesday announced a new business plan featuring stepped-up structural reform measures. The plan calls for reducing the number of domestic branches by 130, instead of the previously set goal of 100, through integration or scrapping. The company had 500 domestic branches in fiscal 2017. Mizuho also aims to post ¥900 billion in consolidated real net business profit in fiscal 2023, the final year of the plan. “We aim to shift to next-generation financial operations by pushing reforms of our business and finance structures, and our corporate foundations,” Mizuho President Tatsufumi Sakai said at a news conference the same day. The plan spans a period of five years, compared with the three years for past business plans by the major banking group. Mizuho intends to accelerate reforms in the first three years and reap the results in the final two. Mizuho maintained its target of cutting the number of employees by 19,000 by fiscal 2026. But Sakai stressed that the bank will try to achieve the goal as early as possible.


Line Pay ¥30 billion campaign will allow users to send free ¥1,000 to all their friends

Abstract: The messaging app giant Line Corp. said Thursday it will launch a ¥30 billion reward campaign next week to increase usage of its Line Pay service as the cashless war heats up among tech firms in Japan. The company is rolling out what it claims is Line’s largest reward campaign, which runs between May 20 to 29. During the period, users can give a free ¥1,000 to their Line friends in the messaging app without incurring any costs. A condition is that they must be Line Pay users and have their identification confirmed through designated processes. They can only send the ¥1,000 “Line Pay bonus” to the same user once but can effectively send it to as many friends as they want, the company said. Additionally, a user can only receive a bonus one time. Line Pay is a digital payment service provided on Line’s messaging app platform, which allows users to pay with a QR code or bar code at stores. They can also send digital money to other users through Line. With this campaign, Line aims to get more users to become active Line Pay users. “The payment aspect has been a focus of cashless, and many providers have been running various programs. We are competing in that field, too,” said Jun Masuda, chief strategy and marketing officer at Line. “At the same time, we are always thinking about how we can take advantage of Line (in the cashless movement): We believe it’s people’s connections within Line, and it can be well applied to money transfer.” Line has about 80 million active users in Japan, of which about 32 million are registered Line Pay users, according to the firm. Due to the government push to spread cashless payment, an increasing number of digital payment services have emerged recently. To attract consumers, they have been investing billions of yen. PayPay Corp., a smartphone payment provider under SoftBank Corp. and Yahoo Japan Corp., has launched ¥10 billion campaigns in which shoppers receive 20 percent rebates when they shop with PayPay. Masuda said ¥30 billion is an “appropriate” amount of investment to promote the service given that the public is in a celebratory mood with the new Reiwa Era. The campaign, which effectively awards ¥1,000 each to 30 million people, is available only to Line users in Japan. It will end once the reward amount reaches ¥30 billion even if it comes in the middle of the campaign period.

line
line pay
apps
cashless
softbank
social media


Suruga Bank says fraudulent housing loans could top ¥1 trillion

Abstract: Suruga Bank said Wednesday it has extended over ¥1 trillion ($9.1 billion) in confirmed and suspected fraudulent housing loans. In an attempt to restore trust among investors and clients following revelations last year of a spate of financing scandals, the regional lender also said it will form a business tie-up with Tokyo-based Shinsei Bank in the field of personal loans, among other services. The bank based in Shizuoka Prefecture asked an outside lawyer in October to conduct full-fledged investigations into its loans provided for the purchase of investment real estate after it admitted to falsifying documents to smooth the process of examining customers’ repayment abilities. About 38,000 properties, including “share houses,” where bathrooms, kitchens and other facilities are used in common by tenants, were subject to the probe. The lawyer’s team concluded that about 60 percent of the combined balance of the loans, worth ¥1.8 trillion, is suspected to be fraudulent. “I sincerely apologize that so many cases of wrongdoing have been found,” Suruga Bank President Michio Arikuni said at a news conference in the city of Numazu. In addition to Shinsei Bank, the regional bank has decided to form a business alliance with electronics retailer Nojima Corp., seeking to jointly carry out credit card services. Suruga Bank is expected to consider capital alliances with the two partners, aiming to overhaul its business model that has heavily relied on loans for real estate investment. Arikuni said Suruga Bank is open to building business partnerships with other companies. In the business year ended in March, the bank said Wednesday it incurred a group net loss of ¥97.15 billion, the first annual red ink in 17 years, compared with the previous year’s profit of ¥6.99 billion. For the current fiscal year, the bank expects to post a net profit of ¥10.5 billion.

suruga bank
banks
scandals
shinsei bank
nojima
financial results


Nationwide student strike begins in Brazil over education budget cuts

Abstract: RIO DE JANEIRO - Students and teachers from hundreds of universities and colleges across Brazil began a nationwide demonstration on Wednesday in “defense of education” following a raft of budget cuts announced by President Jair Bolsonaro’s government. Classes were suspended in numerous establishments as demonstrations took place in 17 of Brazil’s 27 states, local media said, with particularly large ones in major cities like Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia and Belo Horizonte. The biggest demonstrations are planned for the end of the day, though. In the capital Brasilia, federal troops were deployed in front of the ministry of education in case of trouble. The protest movement was sparked by Education Minister Abraham Weintraub recently slashing federal university subsidies by 30 percent. Several chief education officers claimed the budget cuts would compromise the ability of federal universities to function, and threatened to paralyze them. Then the sudden suspension of the payment of masters and doctorate scholarships in the sciences and human sciences last week threw oil on the fire. “Secondary school pupils, university students, researchers, teachers and other education employees will take to the streets in every state” to protest against the budget cuts, the National Student Union (UNE) had announced on Tuesday. Despite the cuts affecting only federal institutions, the protest movement has been joined by many private universities such as Rio’s Pontifical University, which voted last week to join the nationwide demonstration.

students
brazil
education
teachers
jair bolsonaro


German biscuit heiress apologizes for claim that Nazi forced laborers were treated 'well'

Abstract: BERLIN - An heiress of the Bahlsen biscuit empire in Germany has apologized for claiming her company treated forced laborers “well” during World War II, and said she should learn more about her firm’s history. Verena Bahlsen, who owns a quarter of the company, said she “deeply regrets” comments she made about people forced into working at the biscuit factory during the war under Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime. “It was a mistake to amplify this debate with thoughtless responses. I apologize for that,” she said in a statement on the Bahlsen family’s website. “Nothing could be further from my mind than to downplay national socialism or its consequences.” The 25-year-old had dived headlong into controversy first with her unashamed claim of being a capitalist who “wants to make money and buy yachts with my dividends. As critics reminded her on Twitter that her company profited from forced laborers during Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime, she hit back, telling newspaper Bild that “we paid forced laborers as much as Germans and treated them well. Her comments drew a furious outcry from politicians and historians alike. The Nazi Forced Labour Documentation Centre, based in Berlin, said her case illustrated a lack of understanding about the plight of those made to work against their will by Hitler’s regime. On social media, there were calls to boycott Bahlsen’s products, while others had urged the wealthy heiress to do a year of civic service to gain a better understanding of social realities. “I also recognize that I need to learn more about the history of the company whose name I carry,” added a contrite Bahlsen in her statement. “As the next generation, we have the responsibility for our history. “I expressly apologize to all whose feelings I hurt.” Founded by Verena Bahlsen’s great grandfather at the end of the 19th century, the biscuit company employed around 200 forced laborers, mostly women, between 1943 and 1945. Claims were made against Bahlsen by victims after the war, but they were rejected because of the statute of limitations.

nazis
germany
verena bahlsen
adolf hitler
wwii
wartime labor


Critics decry long-distance video counseling for migrant teens in U.S. custody

Abstract: HOMESTEAD, FLORIDA - The U.S. government is providing long-distance video counseling to teens housed at the country’s largest child migrant detention center as officials struggle to accommodate increasing numbers of minors illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Some mental health experts and human rights advocates say that’s the wrong way to help refugees coping with trauma after a perilous journey and while being held away from their families. A private company contracted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to run the center in Homestead is piloting the program and has hired clinical counselors and case managers in Texas, about 1,600 miles (2,575 km) away. Counselors are often the first to hear reports of rapes or beatings that children suffered either in their home countries or at the hands of gangs as they journeyed north from impoverished villages in Guatemala’s western highlands, Honduras or El Salvador. Some teenage girls have arrived at the facility pregnant. “Migrant children already find it extremely hard to communicate their feelings and trust professionals,” said Martha Vallejo, a clinical social worker in Miami who has counseled minors after their release from migrant detention centers. “How can they feel at ease talking to someone behind a screen?” Case managers are also using video conferencing to talk with children and their relatives before the minors are released from custody. One of Homestead’s residents, a 17-year-old Guatemalan boy who learned shortly after arriving in the U.S. that he had tuberculosis, told Amnesty International researcher Brian Griffey that is how he communicated with his case manager. Elena Reyes, director of Florida State University’s Center for Child Stress & Health, acknowledged that long-distance counseling is increasingly being used in remote locations where there aren’t enough providers. But she said it was hard to imagine that there isn’t a larger pool of bilingual applicants who could provide in-person counseling at the Homestead facility, located about 30 miles (48 km) south of Miami. Comprehensive Health Services, the government contractor, said it was enlisting counselors and case managers in Texas to work remotely with the clients because they have not gotten enough applicants from the Miami area. The contractor holds frequent job fairs, said Health and Human Services’ spokesman Mark Weber. The head of a local nonprofit organization, which is part of a national network of child trauma professionals, said the company had not contacted them. Claudia Kitchens, Kristi House’s director, said the group already sends specialists to two smaller child migrant shelters in the area. It has an office 3 miles (5 km) away from the facility. Providing services through teleconferencing is not completely new: The federal government previously had used it to conduct court hearings for migrant teens. Telehealth counseling has also been expanded to treat active-duty soldiers or veterans dealing with depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. But the Homestead facility is the only one of 168 child migrant facilities nationwide using it for counseling. Homestead has the country’s largest child migrant facility in the nation, with 2,200 minors, and officials say capacity may grow to 3,200. A 1997 court agreement setting conditions for the detention of minors generally bars the government from keeping them for more than 20 days. But some children have told lawyers and congressional delegations they have been held there for months. Over the past year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has jailed more than 100 of those teenagers who turned 18 while being held at the center. The government recently awarded Comprehensive Health Services $341 million to expand the Florida center in a no-bid contract. The company was bought last year by Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm DC Capital Partners, which consolidated four companies to form the conglomerate Caliburn International. The conglomerate recently added former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly to its board of directors. Democratic U.S. representatives from Florida have asked a government watchdog agency to investigate the contract. House members have said children at the facility are kept in “prison-like” conditions. They are allowed 10-minute phone calls to family members twice a week. Some of the minors have said they are unhappy about being prohibited from hugging or touching one another, lawyers who met with them told The Associated Press. Employing a remote method of counseling is yet another affront, migrant advocates said. “A lot of the children we spoke to had not even seen a cellphone,” said J.J. Mulligan, an attorney with the Immigration Law Clinic at the University of California, Davis, who has visited the facility. “Asking them to share the most intimate traumas with a stranger over a computer screen seems completely tone-deaf and incapable of offering the mental health they desperately need.” Democratic Florida U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch said he was concerned that the government already had increased the number of children each counselor treats: now 20 instead of the previous 12. “The question is whether you can use technology to meet the ratios,” Deutch said. “The most important thing is, are these kids taken care of the way they need to be?”

teens
homestead
florida
immigration
john kelly
democrats
u.s .
abuse
sex crimes


Sudanese forces clear protesters with gunfire; transition talks suspended indefinitely

Abstract: KHARTOUM - At least nine people were wounded on Wednesday when Sudanese forces used live ammunition to clear demonstrators from central Khartoum, a protest group said, and talks aimed at establishing a body to lead Sudan to democracy have been suspended indefinitely. A spokesman for the Sudanese Professionals’ Association (SPA), which spearheaded months of protests that led to the military’s removal of President Omar al-Bashir last month, said: “We hold the military council responsible for attacking civilians. “They are using the same methods as the previous regime in dealing with rebels,” SPA spokesman Amjad Farid told Reuters. There was no immediate comment from the military on Wednesday’s violence or an SPA statement that nine people were wounded. The Transitional Military Council (TMC), which took over after overthrowing and jailing al-Bashir, has said it would not tolerate the continued closure of main Khartoum roads and bridges by protesters but promised not to use force to disperse the sit-ins. The TMC has accused demonstrators of expanding a protest site set up last month outside the Defense Ministry to other parts of the capital, disrupting movement. Early on Wednesday the military announced a committee to investigate the targeting of protesters after at least four people were killed in violence in Khartoum on Monday. Weeks of street protests that precipitated the end of al-Bashir’s 30-year rule on April 11 have continued as the opposition demands that the military hand over power to civilians. A Reuters witness and Sudanese witnesses said that troops in military vehicles using the logo of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fired extensively as they tried to clear demonstrators on al-Mek Nimir Avenue in central Khartoum, near the Foreign Ministry. “People were walking towards the barricades and they (security forces) were firing shots at them,” a 20-year-old demonstrator, who asked not to be named, said, showing a handful of empty bullet casings and referring to road blocks set up by protesters. The violence took place hours before the TMC was due to meet representatives of the umbrella opposition group Declaration of Freedom and Change Forces (DFCF) to try to hammer out a final deal for the transitional period. But a senior DFCF leader said the TMC has indefinitely suspended the talks. “No date has been set for the talks to resume,” the source told Reuters. The two sides, which have held talks for several weeks, announced early on Wednesday they had agreed on the composition of a legislative council and the duration of the transition. Some demonstrators expressed caution over the prospects for an agreement that would satisfy their demands for a handover of power to civilians, and for security forces to be held to account for the deaths of demonstrators. “We are still sticking to our plan,” said Altaj Blah, a protester in central Khartoum. “The barriers are there and they are not moving until our demands are met,” he said. In the agreement announced early on Wednesday the two sides said the transition would last three years — a compromise between the military council’s proposal of two years and the opposition DFCF’s preference for four. The TMC said the DFCF would have two-thirds of the seats on a transitional legislative council while parties outside the alliance would take the rest. Elections would be held at the end of the three-year transition. On Monday after security forces tried to clear some protest sites, at least four people, including three protesters and a military police officer, were killed in an outburst of violence. They were the first deaths linked to the protests for several weeks. DFCF members blamed security and paramilitary forces, while also voicing suspicions that groups linked to al-Bashir might be fomenting unrest to undermine the chances of a political accord.


FAA chief faces harsh questioning over Boeing 737 Max airliner fiasco

Abstract: WASHINGTON - The nation’s top aviation regulator assured Congress on Wednesday that the Boeing 737 Max, grounded after two deadly accidents, will only return to flying when a government analysis shows that it is safe. The Federal Aviation Administration is under scrutiny for how it relied on Boeing to certify the Max and then didn’t ground the plane until after the second crash, in March. Acting FAA chief Daniel Elwell told the House aviation subcommittee that his agency “welcomes scrutiny that helps make us better.” Elwell listed several reviews of the FAA’s handling of the matter, adding, however, that only the FAA would decide when the Max is safe enough to allow back in the air. “In the U.S., the 737 Max will return to service only when the FAA’s analysis of the facts and technical data indicate that it is safe to do so,” Elwell said. House Aviation subcommittee Chairman Rick Larsen said he expects answers about the FAA’s certification of the Max, the role of Boeing employees in assessing key features on the plane, and FAA’s role in developing pilot training for the plane. “The FAA has a credibility problem,” he said. Larsen added a note of economic urgency to the grounding of the Max, Boeing’s best-selling plane and one that is built in his home state of Washington. He said Congress must help make the public feel safe about flying because “if they don’t fly, airlines don’t need to buy airplanes,” and “then there will be no jobs” in aircraft manufacturing. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., criticized Boeing for pilot manuals that didn’t mention a new automated flight-control system implicated in both accidents, and for a design that pitched the plane’s nose down based on readings from a single sensor that could fail. The two plane crashes, in Ethiopia in March and in Indonesia last October, killed 346 people. DeFazio, who heads the full Transportation Committee, also said Boeing hasn’t yet provided documents that he and Larsen requested, saying he hoped the company would provide them voluntarily and soon. “Boeing has yet to provide a single document,” he said. “We’ve got to get to the bottom of this.” Boeing is already the subject of a criminal investigation by the Justice Department. Boeing customers Southwest Airlines and American Airlines and their pilot unions have received subpoenas related to that investigation; United Airlines, which also flew the Max until it was grounded in March, declined comment, although its pilot union confirmed that it too has received a subpoena. The Transportation Department’s inspector general and a Senate committee are looking into the FAA’s relationship with Boeing, and the House subcommittee is likely to follow a similar path. The hearing before the House panel is expected to cover the FAA’s review of a flight-control system on the Max that was not present on earlier versions of the 737. In both accidents, the automated flight system pushed the nose of the plane down and pilots were unable to regain control. The Dallas Morning News reported that American Airlines pilots pressed Boeing in November — shortly after the first Max crash — on potentially grounding the planes and pushed for a quick software fix from the plane maker. “We don’t want to do a crappy job of fixing things, and we also don’t want to fix the wrong things,” a Boeing employee responded, according to a recording reviewed by the newspaper. Elwell was scheduled to be joined at the House hearing by Robert Sumwalt, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. No Boeing representative was scheduled to testify. Across Capitol Hill, a Senate committee was scheduled to hear from President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the agency on a permanent basis. The nominee, Stephen Dickson, is a former military and airline pilot and Delta Air Lines executive. In testimony prepared for the confirmation hearing, Dickson said safety would be his top priority if he is confirmed, and that making sure the FAA keeps its standing as the world’s top safety agency would be a major part of that. U.S. aviation has an enviable safety record over the past decade, Dickson said, but the industry is only as good as the last takeoff or landing. The FAA has not had a permanent director since January 2018.

faa
boeing
737 max
aviation
congress
u.s .
air accidents


Stopping soil erosion is a matter of urgency, otherwise starvation will follow, scientists warn

Abstract: ROME - The world’s food production is in jeopardy because the fertile layer of soil that people depend on to plant crops is being eroded by human activities, scientists said Wednesday. Climate change is likely to make it worse even as demand from a growing population is soaring, they said. Soil erosion happens naturally, but intensive agriculture, deforestation, mining and urban sprawl accelerate it and can reduce crop yields by up to 50 percent, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. The FAO also said the equivalent of a soccer field of soil is eroded every five seconds, and the planet is on a path that could lead to the degradation of more than 90 percent of all the Earth’s soils by 2050. “We’re approaching a critical point at which we need to start acting on soil erosion or we are not going to be able to feed ourselves in the future,” said Lindsay Stringer, professor at England’s University of Leeds, on the sidelines of a three-day conference on soil erosion co-organized by the FAO. Erosion degrades soil, making it less able to withstand stresses such as changes in rainfall and longer droughts, said Richard Cruse, professor at Iowa State University. A repeat of weather conditions like those experienced in 2012, including drought and famine in the Horn of Africa and hurricanes in the United States, “could really cut our food supply in a way that we haven’t experienced,” he said. Yet policymakers are too caught up in day-to-day issues to focus on soil erosion, he added. “They have to deal with poverty, health, roads, things that are of immediate effect. Soil erosion is long-term. It’s like sands through an hourglass. We know what’s happening, but we’ll worry about it tomorrow.” It is not hopeless, said Stringer, whose research in Kenya found that using manure as fertilizer or growing more than one crop on the same plot of land are simple and inexpensive actions that improve both soil quality and crop yield. However, other proven methods to reduce erosion, such as building terraces and engaging in agroforestry — planting trees on cropland — can be too expensive for farmers, she said. Ownership of land is key here, Cruse said. “In my conversation with farmers, they tell me: ‘If I own my own land and I’m farming, conservation is an investment. If I have to use these practices on rented land, it’s a cost.’ “ Governments can give incentives to farmers through subsidies and other means, because good soil benefits the wider society, while things would worsen if nothing is done, said Jean Poesen from Belgium’s KU Leuven university. “Ninety-five percent of our foods come from soil. Can you imagine how the food section of a supermarket would look like if we had no soils? There would be nothing on the shelves,” he said. “Once the soil is gone . . . people end up with hard, bare rock, and nothing grows. Then you have to migrate or start a fight with your neighbors and conquer.”

food
climate change
agriculture
u.n .
forests
environment


Nebraska farmer trapped in machine cuts off own leg with pocket knife to save his life

Abstract: WASHINGTON - A U.S. farmer in his 60s whose leg was horrifically sucked into a corn hopper sawed off the limb with a pocket knife to save his life. Kurt Kaser, 63, a life-long farmer in the central state of Nebraska, said he was working alone last month when he got out of his truck and mistakenly stepped into “that little hole” of the hopper. “It just sucked my leg in and I was trying to pull it out, and it kept pulling,” he told the local ABC affiliate in Omaha, KETV. “I about gave up once and just said the heck with it … and then I felt it jerk me again. I thought, well, I was going in,” Kaser added. He realized that his only option was to “cut it off” using the small knife in his pocket. “So I just started sawing on it,” he said, matter-of-factly. After performing the grisly life-saving task, Kaser crawled to his house to phone for help, reports said. The first to arrive was his son, Adam, who happens to be a member of the local rescue squad, the Omaha World-Herald reported early Wednesday. After a week in the hospital and two more in rehabilitation, Kaser was back home last Friday, optimistic that he will be walking normally again, the newspaper said. “I was in a hurry and didn’t pay attention,” he said, hoping his story can serve as a warning to other farmers. Local media showed images of Kaser in a wheelchair, his bandaged left leg amputated below the knee. The incident — shared widely on social media — prompted comparisons by moviegoers with Danny Boyle’s 2010 film “127 Hours,” in which James Franco plays real-life adventurer Aron Ralston, who amputated his own arm after being trapped in a canyon for five days. “Reminiscent of Aron Ralston. What a horrifying ordeal to have to go through,” tweeted Ron Terrell, a morning news anchor for Oklahoma-based Fox 23. “Between 127 Hours and this story, I am going to start carrying a hacksaw,” one Twitter user observed. Over on Facebook, Mike Walker, owner of Missouri-based Black Sky Radio, thought the drama was more reminiscent of horror film “Saw,” an even more grisly take on self-amputation. “I think I would have attempted to break every bit of whatever had me gorilla style before I went all ‘Saw’ on my parts,” he posted.


Scientists launch push to beat cancer's ability to adapt against treatments

Abstract: LONDON - Cancer scientists in Britain are launching what they call the world’s first “Darwinian” drug development program in a bid to get ahead of cancer’s ability to become resistant to even the newest treatments and recur in many patients. While not abandoning the search for an ultimate cure, the “anti-evolution” project will re-focus on turning cancer into a disease controllable with drugs for many years. This would be a little like HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, the scientists told reporters at a briefing. “Cancer’s ability to adapt, evolve and become drug-resistant is the cause of the vast majority of deaths from the disease and the biggest challenge we face in overcoming it,” said Paul Workman, chief executive of Britain’s Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) — a charity and research institute which will lead the new Centre for Cancer Drug Discovery. The center, funded with £75 million ($96.5 million) from the ICR, will “seek to meet the challenge of cancer evolution head on,” Workman said, by blocking its process of evolution. Teams at the new center will initially focus on two possible paths to doing this. The first, known as “evolutionary herding,” involves selecting an initial specific treatment that forces cancer cells to adapt in a way that makes them highly susceptible to a second drug, or pushes them into an evolutionary dead end. The second will explore a possible new class of drugs to target cancer’s ability to evolve and become resistant to treatment. These potential drugs would be designed to block the action of molecules called APOBEC proteins, found in the body’s immune system. Researchers hope a new class of APOBEC inhibitors could be developed and given alongside targeted cancer treatments to try and keep cancer at bay for much longer. Combination therapies using multiple current or new treatments will also be explored, Workman said. Olivia Rossanese, a specialist in cancer drug discovery who will head the new center’s biology team, said the idea was to build a global hub of expertise in anti-evolution therapies so scientists could “stop playing catch-up” with cancer. “This Darwinian approach to drug discovery gives us the best chance yet of defeating cancer,” she said, “because we will be able to predict what cancer is going to do next and get one step ahead.”


Modern humans split from Neanderthals far earlier than thought, study suggests

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Scientists seeking to unlock the mysteries of human evolution have in recent years relied on increasingly sophisticated DNA techniques that provide “molecular clocks” to date the remains of our ancient ancestors. But a new analysis that instead examines fossil teeth provides an alternative approach — and one that yields a significantly earlier date for the hotly debated divergence between anatomically modern humans and Neanderthals, our nearest relatives. The study, by Aida Gomez-Robles from University College London, proposes that the two species’ last common ancestor may have lived 800,000 years ago. The new timeline is between 200,000 to 400,000 years earlier than current estimates. If correct, it would rule out Homo heidelbergensis, another extinct species, as the last common ancestor between Homo sapiens and the Neanderthals, as some scientists presently posit. According to Gomez-Robles, whose paper was published in Science Advances on Wednesday, recent research on hominin teeth has shown that although size varied greatly across human species, the shape of teeth was more homogeneous and evolved at stable rates across the board. She examined the molars and pre-molars of around 30 fossils thought to be early Neanderthals from the Sima de los Huesos cave site in Spain as well as of seven other extinct hominin species in order to determine how much they changed over time. A 2014 study using luminescence techniques and paleomagnetism was said to have reliably dated the cave site, in the Atapuerca Mountains, to 430,000 years ago, hinting that sapiens and Neanderthals had already gone their separate ways before this time. Using computer modeling, she found that early sapiens and Neanderthals would have had to have diverged 800,000 years ago for the Sima teeth to have had time to achieve their particular features, barring strong environmental factors that caused the species to evolve faster. “The major implication is Homo heidelbergensis cannot be the last common ancestor between modern humans and Neanderthals,” she said. The findings may not put an end to the long-standing debate, not least because of its variance with some of the DNA-based dating, which also relies on assumptions about how quickly genetics change over time. Gomez-Robles said that while no method is perfect, studying anatomical variation “gives us a more accurate picture” partly because it is still not possible to extract DNA from most ancient fossils. Moreover, differing timelines could point to growing body of evidence that there are no clean splits between species. “When we are talking about the divergence between Neanderthals and modern humans, or between any two species, that is not something that happens at one specific moment of time,” she said. “And something that we know today as well is that, you know, there was a hybridization between Neanderthals and modern humans” she continued. “So this is also adding noise to all these studies.” Gomez-Robles’ work was praised by Mirjana Roksandic, a biological anthropologist at the University of Winnipeg who recently co-authored a paper that described H. heidelbergensis as non-Neanderthal. “She is pinpointing a time when Neanderthals must have moved their own way, and that is a very, very significant result,” said Roksandic. “Teeth are born fossils, they carry so much information. They’re just absolutely brilliant that way,” she added. The new methodology was also described as “useful” by Harvard anthropologist Bridget Alex, who nevertheless added that it raises the tension between genetic change against physical and physiological changes in evolution, which may not occur at the same rate. But the study was criticized by Susan Cachel, a professor in human evolution at Rutgers University, who asked, “If the ancestors of anatomically modern humans and Neanderthals do not come from the taxon Homo heidelbergensis, then where do they come from? Some unknown, shadowy ancestor?” Cachel added that “there is an astonishing amount of dental variation in living humans,” which she said undercut one of the key assumptions used by Gomez-Robles’ statistical model, pointing to the example of how some Native Americans have a distosagittal ridge, known as the “Uto-Aztecan premolar.” This trait “is globally very rare and geographically restricted, must have appeared within the last 15-20,000 years — since the divergence between Native Americans and their ancestral population,” she said. “I therefore question the idea that rates of dental evolution are invariably slow.”

neanderthals evolution history archaeology paleontology


Congress has no right to 'do-over' of Russia probe, says White House counsel

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Congress has no right to conduct a “do-over” of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, the White House said in a letter blasting House Democrats’ “sweeping” requests for documents as an effort to harass political opponents. The May 15 letter from White House counsel Pat Cipollone to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler says the committee’s main probe of President Donald Trump’s presidency serves no legitimate legislative purpose. It was drafted in response to a March 4 request for documents from Nadler, who is running a congressional investigation into allegations of obstruction of justice, public corruption and other abuses of power. “The White House will not participate in the committee’s ‘investigation’ that brushes aside the conclusions of the Department of Justice after a two-year-long effort in favor of political theater pre-ordained to reach a preconceived and false result,” said the 12-page letter from Cipollone. Cipollone’s letter was the latest instance of the Trump administration’s efforts to impede some 20 congressional investigations into his turbulent presidency, his family and his personal business interests. In an intensifying constitutional clash with political risks for both sides headed into the November 2020 elections, Nadler blasted back, rejecting the White House position as “preposterous.” Nadler, who heads the committee that would handle any impeachment proceedings against Trump, told CNN: “This is the White House claiming that the president is king … No president, no person in the United States is above the law.” In his letter, Cipollone asked House Judiciary to narrow its “sweeping” request and provide a legislative purpose for it, adding that many documents would be entitled to be withheld under the legal doctrine of executive privilege. The documents requested relate to everything from the contents of Trump’s meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin to his communications with former White House counsel Donald McGahn, the firings of former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and former FBI Director James Comey, and possible pardons for Trump associates who pleaded guilty to crimes stemming from the probe. Democrats also want a full, unredacted Mueller report, six years of Trump’s individual and business tax returns, and explanations for some of the administration’s key policy decisions on health care and separating migrant families. They have issued subpoenas and Nadler’s committee has voted to recommend a contempt of Congress charge against Attorney General William Barr for refusing to give lawmakers the unredacted Mueller report and underlying evidence. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Wednesday that he expects a House tax committee subpoena for Trump’s tax returns to end in a court fight, suggesting he will not provide the documents by a Friday deadline. A House Intelligence Committee deadline for its subpoena seeking the unredacted Mueller report and related material arrived on Wednesday and was expected to pass unmet, a congressional source said. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump has sued to block a congressional subpoena for financial records from his accounting firm, while the White House has directed McGahn not to cooperate with a Judiciary Committee subpoena for records. Democrats are now considering contempt resolutions against other top administration officials and plan to vote on them, possibly all at once, and perhaps in June. “We don’t want to do it just individually,” said No. 2 House Democrat Steny Hoyer. The administration “cannot be allowed to simply say to the Congress ‘we’re not going to answer your questions, we’re not going to give you documentation,’ ” he added. Twenty House Democrats, including Nadler, are expected to participate in a public reading of the 448-page redacted Mueller report, beginning at noon (1700 GMT) on Thursday until sometime early on Friday, according to the Washington Post. The Mueller report described numerous links between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and various Russians. But it found insufficient evidence to establish that the campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Moscow. It also described numerous attempts by Trump to impede Mueller’s probe, but stopped short of declaring that the president committed a crime.

congress
russia probe
robert mueller
pat cipollone
jerrold nadler
donald trump
u.s .
steve mnuchin


Climate change, pollution, epidemics, quakes: Growing threats put human survival in doubt, U.N. warns

Abstract: GENEVA - Increasingly complex, growing and related risks, from global warming to pollution and epidemics, threaten human survival if left to escalate, the United Nations warned on Wednesday. A biennial assessment report on how the world is dealing with disasters said the past could no longer be relied on as a guide to the future, with new risks emerging “in a way that we have not anticipated.” It identified a range of major threats to human life and property, including air pollution, diseases, earthquakes, drought and climate change. There is also growing potential for one type of disaster to produce or exacerbate another, as when heavy rains trigger mudslides after wildfires, warned the report, launched at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Geneva. “If we continue living in this way, engaging with each other and the planet in the way we do, then our very survival is in doubt,” said Mami Mizutori, special representative of the U.N. secretary-general for disaster risk reduction. Extreme weather events have doubled over the last 20 years, causing economic losses that are making it “an uphill battle” to maintain development gains in low and middle-income countries, she added in a statement. Meanwhile, the gap between how well rich and poor cope with wild weather and other threats is widening due to poorly planned urbanization, environmental degradation and population growth. That “complex cocktail of risk” is destroying homes and displacing people, or pushing them to migrate in search of a better life, Mizutori said. A report to be published by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre on Thursday shows that about 265 million people have been uprooted by disasters since the center began collecting data in 2008, more than three times as many as those forced from their homes by conflicts and violence. Mizutori told the disaster conference Wednesday that science carried out on climate change and the decline of ecosystems made it clear the world needed to change rapidly to stay safe. “But crisis need not defeat us — it is an opportunity to transform,” she added. Maarten van Aalst, director of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, said it was possible to plan for complex situations, such as a heat wave leading to power cuts for people who need to use air conditioning to avoid falling sick. “We are seeing more surprises — but not all surprises need to be surprises,” he said. Kamal Kishore of India’s National Disaster Management Authority said the evacuation of 1.2 million people in the path of Cyclone Fani this month showed a global target to substantially lower deaths in disasters by 2030 could be met. India had drastically cut mortality from powerful storms in the past two decades, he told journalists, but the coastal state of Odisha still suffered crippling damage from Fani to its power grid, roads, telecommunications and aviation services, he noted. “Is that a sustainable situation?” he asked. He said more robust infrastructure was needed and building more resilient systems would be the next step for his country. The Global Assessment Report 2019 showed governments have started to produce data and advance towards the seven global targets set in the 2015 Sendai Framework, which aims to alleviate disaster risk and impacts. Those targets focus on reducing mortality, numbers of people affected and economic losses from disasters by 2030 — but progress, while encouraging, is insufficient, Mizutori said. Ricardo Mena of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) said that of 197 U.N. member states, 116 have so far reported information to a database to monitor the targets. Mizutori said a little less than half of all states had put in place a national strategy for disaster risk reduction — another Sendai target, intended to be met by the end of 2020. She called for stepped-up efforts to craft such plans. The assessment report warned that failure to act more urgently to manage intertwined risks could slow or even reverse progress towards U.N. sustainable development goals, which include eradicating poverty and hunger. To prevent that happening, more investment is needed to avert disasters and protect vulnerable people from their worst effects, said Mizutori. The UNDRR report said development aid used for things such as early warning systems, building stronger schools and hospitals, and helping farmers grow hardier crops in drought-prone areas was “miniscule” compared with funding for disaster response. About $5.2 billion was spent on reducing disaster risk between 2005 and 2017, representing just 3.8 percent of total humanitarian spending — or less than $4 for every $100 spent, the report noted. The Climate Centre’s van Aalst called for more investment in forecasting systems to work out which people in a country or community would likely be hardest-hit by a weather disaster — and in ways to ensure they get warnings and help ahead of time. “It’s not something we don’t know how to tackle — it’s just putting our minds to it and doing it,” he said.

climate change
pollution
disasters
disease
u.n .


Joe Biden expands lead for 2020 U.S. presidential nomination despite lack of millennial support

Abstract: NEW YORK - Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has expanded his lead over a wide field of candidates for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination by 5 percentage points since he entered the race in late April, according to a monthly Reuters/Ipsos poll. The poll released on Wednesday found 29 percent of Democrats and independents said they would vote for Biden in the state nominating contests that begin next year. That is up from 24 percent who said so in a poll that ran in late April, days before Biden announced his bid. Biden led the field among all major demographic groups except millennials (ages 18-37), who favored U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont over Biden 18 percent to 16 percent. Biden, 76, remains in the strongest position for the top of the ticket despite questions about his age and centrist positions. He also has faced criticism over his unwanted touching of women and his treatment of law professor Anita Hill three decades ago during Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ confirmation hearing. The monthly survey showed 29 percent of women who identify as Democrats and independents said they backed Biden, up 4 points from last month. And among registered Democrats, those who supported other candidates still listed Biden as a top alternative if their choice dropped out of the race, according to the poll. “That means that there is not a significant anti-Biden block of voters split between the other candidates,” said Chris Jackson, a polling expert at Ipsos. “At this moment, Joe Biden is a clear front-runner in the Democratic primary,” Jackson added. The Democratic nominee will likely face Republican President Donald Trump in the November 2020 election. Besides Biden, 13 percent of Democrats and independents said they would vote for Sanders. None of the other candidates received more than 6 percent support in the poll. With more than a month until the candidates square off in the first televised debates and 18 months before the 2020 presidential election, the American public appears to be selecting candidates they know best. Less than 20 percent of Democrats said they were familiar with many of the candidates, including U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Wayne Messam, mayor of Miramar, Florida. In comparison, more than 84 percent said they were familiar with Biden and Sanders. However, Biden probably is not leading on name recognition alone, said Kyle Kondik, a political analyst at the University of Virginia Center for Politics. “It’s not valuable if people know you but don’t like you,” Kondik said. “We saw that for (former Florida Gov.) Jeb Bush in 2015. He had good name ID — everyone knew his family name — but he wasn’t polling as well as Biden is now because Republicans didn’t like him.” The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online in English throughout the United States from May 10-14. It gathered responses from 1,132 Democrats and independents and has a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of 3 percentage points. Respondents were asked to pick from 23 potential Democratic nominees, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is expected to announce his plans this week. The poll did not include 89-year-old Mike Gravel, a former U.S. senator from Alaska, who is running.

joe biden
democrats
bernie sanders
surveys
donald trump
u.s .
2020 u.s. presidential election


Trump to pitch plan to make U.S. immigration more merit-based and border ports tighter

Abstract: WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday will outline an immigration plan aimed at hardening border ports of entry and making the legal migration system based more on a proficiency in English and employment, senior administration officials said. Trump’s immigration proposal, the product largely of senior advisers Jared Kushner and Stephen Miller and economic aide Kevin Hassett, is an effort to provide a framework for Republicans to rally around. While its chances of approval by Congress seem distant, the plan will give Republicans an outline they can say they favor as Trump and lawmakers look toward the November 2020 presidential and congressional elections, where immigration will likely be a key issue. The Trump plan would keep legal immigration steady at 1.1 million people per year, but would prioritize high-skilled people with jobs and fewer family members, the officials told reporters at a White House briefing. It would harden the border by building more of Trump’s coveted southern border wall and improve inspections of goods and people at ports of entry to fight drug smuggling. It would propose an increase in fees collected at the border to pay for border security infrastructure. “Our goal in the short term is to make sure that we are laying out what the president’s policy is in terms of what he’s looking for from immigration reform, and we would like to see if we could get the Republican Party to come together on these two pillars, which we think is a very, very logical, very mainstream point of view,” said one official. The Trump plan would give a preference to immigrants proficient in English and with degrees or training and job offers, the officials said. It does not address some of the hot-button issues in the immigration debate, such as what to do about the surge of people crossing the southern border from Mexico. Nor does it deal with the “Dreamer” children of illegal immigrants or immigrants in the country under Temporary Protected Status, both of whom are priorities of Democratic lawmakers. Instead, Kushner and others looked at the legal migration systems of Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand for clues on how to shift U.S. policy more toward attracting skilled workers and less on uniting extended families. After studying the systems of the other countries, they found that 12 percent of migration to the United States was based on employment and skill, compared with 63 percent for Canada, 57 percent for New Zealand, 68 percent for Australia and 52 percent for Japan. Trump will propose ending the diversity lottery system, which offers applicants from countries with low immigration rates the chance to move to America, and would allow 57 percent of green cards, which grant permanent legal residency, to be based on employment.

immigrants
donald trump
jared kushner
mexico
u.s .
u.s.-mexico border
steve miller


Rebels hope to kill off May's Brexit deal in 'last-chance' vote

Abstract: LONDON - Brexit-supporting rebels in British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party said on Wednesday they would vote down her European Union divorce deal when she brings it back to Parliament next month. Britain had been due to leave the EU on March 29 but Parliament has three times rejected the withdrawal agreement May struck with Brussels. The United Kingdom is now scheduled to leave, with or without a deal to smooth the exit, by Oct. 31. Defeat in the vote would likely spell the end of May’s divorce deal and probably her prime ministership. May will bring a Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB), which implements the departure terms, to parliament for a vote in the week beginning June 3, Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay said, just as U.S. President Donald Trump begins a divisive state visit to Britain. “I have talked to colleagues, some of whom voted for it last time, and they think it is dead and they will vote against it this time,” Peter Bone, a Conservative lawmaker and Brexit supporter, told Talk Radio. “It seems absurd to bring it back. It is the same thing again, again and again.” May, who became prime minister in the chaos that followed the 2016 referendum in which Britons voted 52 percent to 48 percent to leave the EU, is under pressure from some of her own lawmakers to set a date for her departure. As well as the Brexit deadlock, the Conservative Party suffered major losses in local elections this month and is trailing in opinion polls ahead of the May 23 European Parliament elections. Asked if she would resign if the bill was defeated, May told reporters she was sure members of Parliament (MPs) would remember to respect the referendum result. “When MPs come to look at that (bill), they will recognize that we have a duty in parliament to deliver on the result of the referendum and deliver Brexit,” she said. Lawmakers from the upper house of parliament had earlier asked Barclay if this was “the last chance saloon” for May’s divorce deal. “If the House of Commons does not approve the WAB, then the Barnier deal is dead in that form,” Barclay told them, referring to the EU’s Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier. Barclay said that would leave Parliament with the choice of revoking the decision to leave the EU or exiting without a deal, the default position if no divorce agreement can be reached. “If the House (of Commons) has not passed the Withdrawal Agreement Bill then there are growing voices in Europe, not least the French, who want to move on to other issues,” he said. Nearly three years after the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU, politicians still disagree about when, how or even if the divorce will take place. Brexit supporters fear May’s deal will keep the United Kingdom trapped within the EU’s orbit for years and that it could ultimately pull the British province of Northern Ireland toward the bloc. Before her deal was defeated the last time, by 344 votes to 286 on March 29, May had promised to resign if it was passed. It was voted down first in January and again in mid-March. A sticking point has been the Irish backstop, an insurance policy aimed at avoiding post-Brexit controls on the border between Northern Ireland and EU-member Ireland. “If the prime minister brings the withdrawal bill to the Commons for a vote, the question will be ‘what has changed’?” asked Nigel Dodds, parliamentary leader of the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which props up May’s minority government. “Unless she can demonstrate something new that addresses the problem of the backstop then it is highly likely her deal will go down to defeat once again,” Dodds said. A majority of members of the European Research Group, a large Brexit-supporting faction in the Conservative Party, will vote against May’s deal, said Owen Paterson, a former minister. As positions harden in Parliament, with many wanting to either leave the EU without a deal or to stop Brexit altogether, May has turned to the opposition Labour Party, led by veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn, to negotiate a way out of the impasse. But after more than four weeks of talks, the two party leaders appear no closer to agreeing a common position, with Labour saying May had not shifted her position and warning a future Conservative leader could rip up any deal they struck. “We have serious concerns about negotiating with a government that is in the process of disintegration and what has been said about what might happen if a new Tory (Conservative) leadership is in charge,” a Labour spokesman said. However, the spokesman said while the party could not back May’s deal as it stood, he did not rule out abstaining in the vote, which might allow it to muster enough support to pass.


Chinese probe reveals secrets of moon's dark side

Abstract: PARIS - Scientists on Wednesday said they could be a step closer to solving the riddle behind the moon’s formation, unveiling the most detailed survey yet of the far side of Earth’s satellite. In January, the Chinese spacecraft Chang’e-4 — named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology — became the first-ever craft to touch down on the far side of the lunar surface. Similar to other bodies in our solar system, the moon is believed to have gone through a phase during its formation when it was partially or entirely composed of molten rock. As it cooled, so the hypothesis goes, denser minerals sank to the bottom of the magma-ocean, while lighter materials gathered near the surface to form its mantle. The team landed its probe in the Von Karmen Crater in the Aitken Basin at the moon’s south pole — home to one of the largest impact craters known in the solar system. They detected materials such as olivine and low-calcium pyroxene that are rare elsewhere on the surface. Authors of the study, which was published in the journal Nature, suggest that these materials were ejected from the moon’s upper mantle when it was struck by a meteor. “Our results support the lunar magma ocean theory, and demonstrate that the magma ocean hypothesis can be used to describe the early evolution history of the moon,” Chunlai Li, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told AFP. Unlike the near side of the moon that always faces the Earth and offers many flat areas to touch down on, the far side is mountainous and rugged. The United States, Russia and China have all landed probes on the near side of the moon, though neither NASA’s Apollo missions nor the Soviet Union’s Luna probes have ever returned samples of the lunar mantle. Writing in a linked comment piece, Patrick Pinet, from France’s l’Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planetologie, said Li’s findings were “thrilling. The results “might also affect our understanding of the formation and evolution of planetary interiors,” Pinet wrote, saying that more research on the far side of the moon was “of the utmost importance.”

moon
nature
meteors
chunlai li
china
nasa
space


Philippines withdraws top diplomats from Canada in dispute over exported waste

Abstract: MANILA - The Philippines is withdrawing top diplomats from Canada after Ottawa missed a deadline to take back 69 shipping containers full of trash, the latest move in a long-running row stoked by threats from Manila’s outspoken president. Last month, President Rodrigo Duterte threatened Canada with war and said he would personally escort the waste containers by sea back to Canada. “We shall maintain a diminished diplomatic presence in Canada until its garbage is ship-bound there,” Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin said on Twitter on Thursday after the May 15 deadline expired. Locsin also took issue with Philippine diplomats for not doing enough to ensure Canada took back the trash, accusing them of acting in defiance of their president to preserve friendly relations. Canada’s foreign ministry was not immediately available for comment after office hours. Its embassy in Manila referred Reuters’ queries to its foreign ministry. The volatile 74-year-old Duterte, known for his grandstanding and often hollow threats towards Western powers, has also said he would dump the trash in front of Canada’s embassy in Manila. Canada says the waste, exported to Manila between 2013 and 2014, was a commercial transaction not backed by its government. It has since offered to take it back and the two countries were in the process of arranging the transfer. The Philippines has made several diplomatic protests to Canada in the wake of a 2016 court ruling that the garbage be returned. The consignments were labelled as containing plastics to be recycled in the Philippines, but were filled with diapers, newspapers and water bottles instead.


Princess Kako plans visit to Austria and Hungary for her first official overseas trip

Abstract: Princess Kako, the youngest daughter of Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko, is planning to visit Austria and Hungary in September in her first official overseas trip, the Imperial Household Agency said Thursday. The 24-year-old princess is expected to attend memorial events and also make courtesy visits to the presidents of the two countries as Japan marks this year the 150th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties with them, the agency said. The princess, a niece of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, graduated this spring from the International Christian University in Tokyo where she majored in psychology. She also studied at Leeds University in Britain for nine months from September 2017. Her parents visited Austria and Hungary in 2009.

princess kako
austria
hungary
emperor naruhito
empress masako
royalty
imperial family


'Nothing has changed': Ex-Ryukyu official reflects on effort to reduce Okinawa's U.S. base burden

Abstract: NAHA, OKINAWA PREF. - A former official of the now-defunct Ryukyu government is disappointed that U.S. bases remain concentrated in Okinawa Prefecture despite a proposal made before its 1972 reversion to Japanese control. The prefecture on Wednesday marked the 47th anniversary of its return to Japanese administration from U.S. rule, which took place nearly three decades after Japan’s defeat in World War II. “Nothing has changed,” said Kamenosuke Taira, 82, who was involved in making a proposal calling for the reduction of U.S. bases while he was a Ryukyu government official. While the rest of Japan recovered its sovereignty in 1952 upon the effectuation of the San Francisco peace treaty with victorious powers, Okinawa was under U.S. control until the reversion. Over the subsequent two decades, campaigns demanding Okinawa’s return to Japan intensified as crime and accidents involving U.S. service members occurred one after another. Ahead of Okinawa’s return to Japan on May 15, 1972, as agreed on at a 1969 meeting between Prime Minister Eisaku Sato and U.S. President Richard Nixon, the Ryukyu government made the proposal over the bilateral Okinawa reversion agreement. “We strongly hope Okinawa will be returned as peaceful islands without a military base,” the proposal said, calling for an unconditional and full return to Japan. Nevertheless, the Sato-Nixon agreement said that U.S. bases in Okinawa would remain. “We thought there would be no hope for Okinawa’s future if the reversion was made as agreed,” Taira said. On Nov. 17, 1971, Chobyo Yara, chief executive of the Ryukyu government, went to Tokyo to submit the proposal to the Diet. But the reversion accord was railroaded through a special committee of the House of Representatives that day. Voices of protest rang around the venue for a ceremony marking the reversion, held six months later in Naha, the prefectural capital. Looking back at the ceremony he attended, Taira said: “Tears welled up as I saw a crowd of protesters in rain gear. I recall it each time I go by the venue.” During the two decades leading up to the reversion, U.S. Marines were transferred to Okinawa from such areas as Gifu and Yamanashi prefectures. Okinawa continues to host a majority of the U.S. bases in Japan. “We wanted to live under a Constitution that guarantees human rights,” Taira said.

okinawa
kamenosuke taira
u.s .
history
u.s. bases
occupation
ryukyu kingdom


Japanese government seeks public comment on plan to bring foreign trainees into hotel sector

Abstract: The government on Thursday started soliciting public comments over its plan to allow foreign nationals who come to Japan under the government-sponsored Technical Intern Training Program to work directly for hotels for up to five years, officials said. Those workers could eventually apply for a new visa under a system for blue-collar foreign workers, allowing them to stay for an extended period of time. Currently, foreign workers who have what is called a Type 2 trainee visa can apply for the new long-term working visa without passing any examination. However, the hotel industry is not covered by the transition system, which prompted the industry to call for a revision of the system. The new blue-collar visa system was launched in April for 14 industries, including the hotel industry, to bring in more foreign workers as part of efforts to ease the nation’s acute labor shortage. Comments can be submitted until June 14 via a government website .

foreign trainees
hotels
foreign workers
immigration
jobs


Concerned about escalating Iran-U.S. tensions, Japan offers to work with Tehran as minister visits

Abstract: Japan on Thursday expressed concern about a tense standoff between Iran and the United States over an international nuclear deal and offered to work with Tehran to defuse tension in the Middle East. “We are concerned that the situation in the Middle East is getting extremely tense,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at the outset of their meeting in Tokyo. Zarif traveled to Japan, a key U.S. ally that has maintained amicable ties with the Middle Eastern nation, at a time when U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is ramping up pressure on Iran through tighter sanctions and an apparent show of force by leaving the 2015 nuclear accord. During a separate meeting with Foreign Minister Taro Kono, the Iranian foreign minister called the “escalation” of the situation by the United States “unacceptable” and said Tehran has exercised “maximum restraint” despite the development. Tehran last week reacted to Washington’s moves by announcing the suspension of some commitments under the deal, which was designed to curb Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Zarif told Kono that Iran remains committed to the deal and sought international support to maintain the accord, but added “(We) will certainly defend ourselves and respond to any threat against our national security.” Kono also expressed his concern to Zarif about the situation and promised to “spare no efforts to ease tensions and try to resolve outstanding issues.” The two agreed on the importance of maintaining the nuclear deal, with Kono saying, “It is essential to maintain this scheme, not only for our bilateral relations but also for the international nonproliferation regime and peace and stability in the Middle East.” According to the Foreign Ministry, Abe also expressed hope that Iran will keep its commitments under the deal. On May 8, Iran announced it plans to keep more enriched uranium than allowed under the nuclear deal initially sealed with the United States, France, the U.K, Germany, Russia and China. Tehran has set a 60-day deadline to negotiate new terms. Tension has also grown with Washington sending an aircraft carrier strike group to the Persian Gulf. For energy-scarce Japan, Iran has been a source of oil imports, but this month the United States ended waivers granted to Japan and other buyers in a bid to choke off Tehran’s oil revenue.

iran
mohammad javad zarif
sanctions
taro kono
u.s .
nuclear weapons
iran nuclear deal
iran-japan relations


Osaka's Tobita Shinchi red light district to be closed for G20 summit to 'avoid causing disruption'

Abstract: OSAKA - A major red light district in Osaka will be closed during the Group of 20 summit in late June, the first such occurrence in 30 years, a local restaurant association said Thursday. All 159 members of the Tobita Shinchi association will not operate during the June 28 and 29 gathering as the association seeks to “avoid causing disruption in the area,” one of its officials said. The association also determined that workers at member businesses would have problems commuting as large-scale traffic restrictions will be in place during the two-day gathering of world leaders. “We hope people will say they are glad they held the meeting in Japan,” said the official. The last time the district in Nishinari Ward was closed was during the funeral for Emperor Showa on Feb. 24, 1989, according to the association. Tobita Shinchi, formerly known as one of the largest quarters of licensed brothels in Japan, houses many such businesses that advertise themselves as being Japanese-style restaurants.

osaka
tobita shinchi
g20
sex
prostitution


'Culture of fear': Report alleges low pay and overwork for laborers at Tokyo Olympics sites

Abstract: A report released by a global union federation Wednesday demanded better conditions for laborers working on the construction of Tokyo Games facilities after several “alarming” cases of suspected labor violations were uncovered. The report from Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI), titled “The Dark Side of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics,” is based on interviews with construction workers and documents how low pay, overwork and poor access to grievance mechanisms are creating a “culture of fear” among crews working on Olympic projects. BWI, headquartered in Geneva, is seeking an end to “dangerous patterns of overwork,” citing the example of construction workers at the National Stadium and Olympic Village who reported being required to work up to 26 and 28 consecutive days, respectively. “The Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics was Japan’s opportunity to address some of the long-running gaps within the construction industry in Japan, however, these problems have just got worse,” BWI General Secretary Ambet Yuson said. “Wages remain low, dangerous overwork is common, and workers have limited access to recourse to address their issues,” Yuson said. According to the report, the nation’s construction sector is facing an “acute labor shortage,” with 4.3 positions vacant for every worker. At the same time, an increase in construction activity has been driven by the hosting of the 2019 Rugby World Cup and 2020 Games, as well as ongoing reconstruction efforts in prefectures hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. Among the findings, one case at the National Stadium was highlighted for being particularly grievous. The report cited the rejection of a complaint about a worker’s injury because it had been brought by a union and not the injured party. The alleged rejection “constitutes a serious violation of the right to be represented, a core component of the right to freedom of association,” the federation said in the report. The BWI sent a delegation to Tokyo last September to meet with key decision-makers and investigate the “conditions faced by workers in the construction of Tokyo 2020 Olympic facilities.” Their findings were further substantiated by interviews conducted in February by BWI and its Japanese affiliate, the National Federation of Construction Workers’ Unions, with workers involved in the construction of the National Stadium and Olympic Village. The report was sent Tuesday to the organizing committee of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Japan Sports Council — groups responsible for the construction of Olympic facilities. The 2020 organizing committee said Tuesday evening the report is “under review.” Through their “Global Sports Campaign for Decent Work and Beyond,” the BWI has been examining large-scale international sporting events for over 10 years to “improve working conditions and ensure safety and health for workers building all projects related to mega-sporting events.”

overwork
construction
bwi
national stadium
labor laws
abuse
2020 tokyo olympics


Chiba woman pleads guilty to complicity in husband's fatal abuse of 10-year-old daughter

Abstract: CHIBA - A woman pleaded guilty Thursday to complicity in her husband’s assaults on their 10-year-old daughter, who died in January, as her trial began in a case that has attracted national attention. Nagisa Kurihara, 32, is suspected of failing to stop her husband, Yuichiro Kurihara, 41, from assaulting their daughter Mia and following his instructions not to feed her from around Jan. 22. Mia was found dead inside the bathroom of their home in Noda, Chiba Prefecture, two days later. During the first court hearing at the Chiba District Court, prosecutors said the father had resumed his assaults and was injuring Mia by around July 2018, after her protective custody at a child welfare center ended the previous year. The mother did not report the assaults to police even though she sometimes intervened, the prosecutors said. As the father has not given any details or reasons for the alleged attacks, prosecutors are relying on the mother’s accounts to shed light on what went on inside their home. Nagisa Kurihara said during police investigations that she was also assaulted by her husband when she tried to stop his abuse of Mia and came to feel it was no use trying to stop him. Yuichiro Kurihara has been indicted over assaulting his wife around Jan. 1 in addition to allegations of abuse of their daughter that caused her death, including by depriving her of sleep and nutrition, among other related charges. His trial date has yet to be decided. Investigations into the case have uncovered how a child welfare center, her school and other local authorities failed to respond promptly to the girl’s repeated calls for help, and a member of the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child said it demonstrated a crucial lack of responsibility by the adults involved. In November 2017, Mia wrote in a questionnaire from her school in Noda that she was being “bullied” by her father, and was subsequently taken into protective custody at the child welfare center for seven weeks. But because she started expressing a desire to go home, the center concluded the abuse was not serious and ended her protection in late December that year. Mia then stayed with relatives for a time but returned to her parents’ home upon approval by the welfare center in February 2018. After her protective custody ended, no visits were paid to her home by officials of either the center or the school to verify her safety. It was also found that a local education board handed Yuichiro Kurihara a copy of Mia’s questionnaire, and that she was released from protective custody despite his suspected sexual abuse of her.

chiba
abuse
nagisa kurihara
yuichiro kurihara
noda
children
child abuse
mia kurihara


Chiba nursery teacher injured while protecting kids after car driven by 65-year-old plows into park

Abstract: CHIBA - A 30-year-old teacher at a nursery school was seriously injured while protecting a group of children from a car that crashed into a park in Chiba Prefecture on Wednesday. Wednesday’s accident occurred at around 10:25 a.m. as five 2-year-olds were playing in a sandbox along with two nursery teachers at the park in Ichihara, according to local police. After the car broke through the perimeter fence and plowed into the park, the teacher helped some of the children escape danger by pushing them out of the car’s path. She was then hit by the car, and suffered a broken right leg. None of the toddlers were injured in the incident. Police arrested the driver, Takashi Sensui, 65, on the spot. He claimed that he was trying to pay the parking fee at an exit of a coin-operated lot across the street from the park when the car suddenly started moving forward. He said he had his foot on the brake pedal, police sources said. “We were really shocked because we always take the children to the park,” said an official of a firm that runs the nursery school. “We are extremely relieved that the children are alright.”

chiba
children
ichihara
elderly
traffic accidents


Man who told police of his plan to stab Prince Hisahito to take psychiatric test, sources say

Abstract: A 56-year-old man arrested on suspicion of placing knives on Prince Hisahito’s desk in Tokyo last month will undergo a psychiatric examination to see whether he is mentally competent to take responsibility for his actions, sources close to the matter said Thursday. A court has granted Tokyo prosecutors’ request to keep Kaoru Hasegawa detained for the examination after he was apprehended April 29 for allegedly trespassing on the grounds of Ochanomizu University Junior High School three days earlier. Investigators say Hasegawa has admitted to placing the knives on the desk and has criticized the imperial system, telling them he intended to stab the 12-year-old. The young prince was not inside the classroom when the two fruit knives attached to an aluminum bar were found placed across his desk and the one next to it on April 26. The blades were painted pink, but no written message was left at the scene. Security cameras captured images of a man, believed to be Hasegawa, walking past the main gate of the university on the same morning and leaving less than an hour later. Police said the man claimed to be a plumber when he entered the junior high school. The incident occurred as Japan was preparing to celebrate the historic imperial succession, with Emperor Akihito abdicating April 30 and his son, Emperor Naruhito, ascending the throne a day later. The ascension promoted Prince Hisahito to second in line to the throne after his father Crown Prince Akishino, 53, the younger brother of the 59-year-old emperor.

ochanomizu university junior high school