'Shocked' Fukushima evacuees say Tepco ruling fails to fairly compensate them for suffering

Abstract: A Tokyo court on Wednesday ordered the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant to pay a total of ¥21.34 million in damages to a group of evacuees from the March 2011 nuclear disaster. But the ruling by the Tokyo District Court, which was the 11th such decision against Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc., came as a shock to the evacuees, who claim the court has neglected their suffering. The lawsuit was filed in March 2012 by 42 former residents of Iitate, a village in Fukushima Prefecture, who claim their lives were affected by the Fukushima No.1 nuclear plant disaster in 2011. They were forced to evacuate from the prefecture due to evacuation orders that were only lifted later, in March 2017. They had sought a combined ¥1.68 billion from the utility for their psychological suffering. Presiding Judge Tetsuro Nakayoshi awarded compensation to 13 of the 42 plaintiffs whose damages were deemed more severe. The plaintiffs in general have been already compensated by the nuclear plant operator and had already found new homes, the court concluded. Only one pair was awarded the highest amount, of more than ¥3 million in damages, due to illness and required nursing care. In a written statement, Tepco offered a “sincere apology” to the residents of Fukushima Prefecture and others “for causing so much trouble,” and said they would examine the court’s decision and would consider ways to respond to it. Noboru Tanaka, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, explained that the Iitate residents in the lawsuit had been receiving settlement compensation worth ¥100,000 per month for the past 7 years from Tepco in an alternative dispute resolution. But the amount was not enough to compensate their losses and inconveniences caused in the process of evacuation, he said, adding that compensation for a car accident victim would usually be three times that. He said the ruling was deplorable given that the plaintiffs remain unable to restore their lives. “I’m shocked — even if we wanted to go back home, we can’t, but the court won’t understand it,” said Yasuo Suzuki, 65, one of the eight plaintiffs who appeared in court on Wednesday. He is still sheltered in an evacuation center in Tokyo. “I was hoping this ruling would help me pick up my life,” he said, “but it has left me puzzled.” According to Japan’s Reconstruction Agency, nearly 52,000 people remained displaced due to the 2011 disasters.

fukushima
tepco
courts
disasters
iitate
fukushima no . 1
nuclear energy


First overtime caps for big Japanese firms and mandatory use of paid leave to come into force April 1

Abstract: Most of the work style reform measures included in legislation enacted into law last year are set to take effect on Monday, effectively introducing the nation’s first compulsory caps on overtime hours at major companies. The reform, which will come into force with the start of the new fiscal year, will also oblige all companies to have their employees take at least five paid holidays a year in a bid to redress long work hours. Overtime will be limited to less than 100 hours a month per employee, and a total of 720 hours a year. Companies will face penalties if they fail to abide by the regulation. The overtime caps are scheduled to take effect for small and midsize companies in April 2020. According to the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, more than half of companies are concerned that labor shortages could hamper their ability to follow the overtime regulations. The ratio of job openings to job seekers in 2018 stood at 1.61 across the country on average, according to the labor ministry. As a result, many companies are facing difficulty in securing enough workers, industry sources said. The mandatory use of paid leave of at least five days annually will apply to workers who are given 10 or more paid holidays per year. According to the labor ministry, workers took an average of 51.1 percent of all paid holidays given to them in 2017. Although the government has set a target of increasing the rate to 70 percent by 2020, the goal is seen as being difficult to achieve, with many workers finding it tough to take paid holidays due to labor shortages. Monday will also mark the adoption of what is known as a white-collar exemption system, which will spare those described as “specialist” personnel with an annual income of more than ¥10.75 million — such as financial dealers and analysts — from work-hour regulations. It will allow employees to be paid based on their performance rather than the hours they work, paving the way for more flexible working styles and boosting overall productivity, the government claims. Consent from such workers is necessary for companies to adopt the system. Noting that the system effectively dispenses with the concept of overtime pay, however, the opposition argued in the Diet that it instead risks endorsing unpaid overwork.


Nissan overhauling board after two decades with Renault and Carlos Ghosn

Abstract: Nissan Motor Co. is set to adopt a new governance structure meant to prevent the recurrence of a concentration of power in the hands of a single executive. For the past three months, an external panel has been working on recommendations following the arrest of former Chairman Carlos Ghosn on charges of financial wrongdoing. The committee’s seven members will issue their findings later Wednesday, the 20th anniversary of the Japanese carmaker’s alliance with Renault SA that brought the executive to Nissan. Once Nissan’s board accepts the measures, it will have a governance structure that calls for decision-making based on consensus instead of the whim of one person. Among the panel’s proposals may be a recommendation to create separate governance committees to oversee nomination, audit and remuneration, with the majority of each body made up by independent directors, a person with knowledge of the proposals has said. “Nissan didn’t have any committees whatsoever, it was just Carlos Ghosn deciding it,” said Zuhair Khan, an analyst at Jefferies Inc. in Tokyo. “There needs to be a clear feeling that what is done is correct, and it has to be evaluated by people who have no conflict of interest.” As chairman of Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi, Ghosn enjoyed unprecedented power. Prosecutors say he used his position to falsify financial information and boost his compensation — charges he’s denied. He is free on bail and preparing for a trial that may begin later this year. Now, as tension between the partners eases, Nissan has gained more independence. The proposals discussed Wednesday also may include the appointment of an external director to head Nissan’s board, the person has said. The vacuum in Nissan’s governance created by Ghosn’s exit was becoming a hindrance for the world’s biggest auto alliance, with decision-making snarled until Nissan establishes a new structure, S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Margaux Pery wrote in a report last week. Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard also will chair the alliance board, which was reformed this month. While the biggest source of tension — the ownership imbalance — remains, it is solvable, said Motoki Yanase, an analyst at Moody’s Japan. Renault now has 43 percent in Nissan, which owns 15 percent of the French company. The French government is Renault’s most powerful shareholder. Detente is necessary because of the alliance’s value to both companies and third partner Mitsubishi Motors Corp. The scale and savings it brings outweighs the distrust that intensified with Ghosn’s arrest, especially as the carmakers face massive investment requirements in electric and self-driving vehicles, and renewed competition from Tesla Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc. “Nissan and Renault kissed and made up,” said Janet Lewis, an analyst at Macquarie Capital Securities (Japan) Ltd. “More than anything, it helps the employees stay focused on what they are doing.” The alliance was formed in 1999 after Renault agreed to salvage struggling Nissan, acquiring a major stake in the Japanese company in the process. More recently, Nissan’s growth has outpaced that of Renault, resulting in calls from within the Japanese company for a more balanced partnership structure. Mitsubishi joined in 2016. Put together, the alliance sold 10.8 million cars last year, an eighth of total global auto sales. Questions about the future of the union burst into the open after Ghosn’s arrest four months ago for underreporting pay and breach of trust. The executive was preparing to push for a full merger and was facing resistance from factions within Nissan, including from protege-turned-accuser Hiroto Saikawa, who’s been chief executive officer since 2017. While Nissan was swift to remove Ghosn as its chairman, Renault took more than two months to appoint a new CEO and a new chairman. Even with a more independent Nissan, the alliance will have to integrate more to compete. Renault and Nissan cooperate on technologies, manufacturing, supply-chain management, purchasing and human resources. The companies have cross-production activities in France, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, India, Russia, South Korea and Japan. The alliance has helped Renault and Nissan share expenses, and together the companies bring more heft to the table when negotiating purchasing terms with suppliers. They also benefit from each others’ geographic footprint: Renault is stronger in Europe, while Nissan provides links to China, where Renault only has a small presence, and the U.S., where the French carmaker is absent. “Without proper governance the alliance cannot be something stable and sustainable,” Khan said. “The transformation that’s going to happen in the automotive industry in the next few years is going to be a transformation that we haven’t seen in decades.”


Ukraine's integration into West dashed by war and corruption

Abstract: MOSCOW - Five years into Ukraine’s conflict with Russia, Moscow seems to have Ukraine pinned against the ropes. Ukraine’s ambition of joining the European Union and NATO is indefinitely stalled. It has no realistic way to reclaim control of Russian-annexed Crimea, or to end the war with Russia-backed separatists in the east. It’s no wonder a comedian is leading in the polls for Sunday’s presidential election. The Kremlin has long seen Ukraine’s plan to join NATO as a threat that must be fended off at all costs, and its calculations that the conflict in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region would scuttle the nation’s membership bid seems to have worked. “The Russian strategy is to keep the Donbass conflict smoldering for a long time and use it as an instrument to influence Ukraine’s internal political situation and also as a major obstacle to Ukraine’s membership in the EU and NATO,” said Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Penta Center, a Kiev-based think tank. “As long as the territorial problem of Crimea and Donbass remains, as long as the fighting in Donbass continues, it will be a decisive argument against letting Ukraine join the EU and NATO,” he said. In February 2014, Ukraine’s former Russia-friendly president was ousted by mass protests sparked by his refusal to sign an association deal with the EU. Moscow saw his ouster as a Western-staged plot and responded by quickly annexing Ukraine’s Crimea, a move seen by most countries as illegal, and backing a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine has since signed an association deal with the EU and won a much-coveted visa-free travel deal with the bloc. But its hopes for joining the EU appear as elusive as ever, and that has contributed to public disenchantment and eroding the popularity of President Petro Poroshenko. The U.S. and the EU have maintained strong political support for Ukraine, most recently over Russia’s seizure of Ukrainian ships and their crews in November. But both NATO and the EU have made it clear they are not going to put Ukraine on a track to membership anytime soon. Asked last week when the EU and NATO could open the doors for Ukraine, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said curtly “that is still not on the table for us.” Stefan Meister, an analyst at the German Council on Foreign Relations, said that German leaders feel that opening the path to NATO for Ukraine would further strain relations with Russia and fear that the commitment for mutual defense of alliance members could lead to open conflict with Russia if Ukraine were to join. “There is more or less a consensus on this with the allies,” he said. Meister added that the EU is still dealing with integrating its youngest members — including Romania and Bulgaria — and putting Ukraine on that path now would be unworkable. “I think it’s something where people just say we will create problems for ourselves,” he said in a telephone interview from his office in Berlin. Western allies also have been increasingly exasperated with the slow pace of Ukraine’s institutional reforms and efforts to combat corruption. Earlier this month, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, issued an unusually harsh statement criticizing a Constitutional Court ruling that absolved Ukrainian officials of the obligation to prove legitimate the origin of their assets. She called that a “serious setback in the fight against corruption in Ukraine.” “It is increasingly clear that Ukraine’s once-in-a-generation opportunity for change, for which such a high price was paid five years ago … has not yet resulted in the anti-corruption or rule of law reforms that Ukrainians expect or deserve,” she said. In a spat reflecting the tensions, Ukraine’s top prosecutor claimed that Yovanovitch had given him a list of people his office shouldn’t prosecute — a claim the U.S. State Department rejected as false. While Putin may have succeeded for now in impeding Ukraine’s closer integration into Western alliances, Russia has paid a high price for annexing Crimea and backing rebels in eastern Ukraine. The U.S. and the EU have hit Moscow with several waves of economic and financial sanctions, restricting its access to global financial markets and cutting supplies of key energy and defense technologies. In 2015, France and Germany brokered a peace agreement that reduced the scope of fighting in eastern Ukraine that has left about 13,000 dead. The Minsk deal required Ukraine to grant sweeping autonomy to the rebel regions, effectively allowing them to run their own affairs — a provision that was broadly rejected by Ukraine’s political forces. A political settlement has stalled and regular clashes have continued. The conflict in the east and rampant official corruption aren’t the only problems in Ukraine worrying the West. Last week, ambassadors of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations sent a letter to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, voicing concern about the threat posed by extreme right groups ahead of the elections. International human rights organizations have long raised alarms about the rise of the ultra-right groups, who have targeted gay and women’s rights activists and Roma encampments around the country. The state-sponsored glorification of leaders of Ukraine’s World War II-era nationalist movement — which included an insurgent army that sided with the Nazis — has angered Israel and Poland. Tensions have also simmered between Ukraine and Hungary over the alleged violation of ethnic Hungarians’ rights in western Ukraine, following the adoption of an education law that practically eliminated the use of Hungarian and other minority languages. Ukraine’s media freedom record has drawn rebukes too. Earlier this month, Austria strongly criticized Ukraine’s refusal to grant entry to a reporter as an “act of censorship” defying European values. Ukraine shot back, accusing Austria of being too friendly to Russia. “Ukraine looks more like a source of tensions and conflict, both geopolitically and economically, than an equal and attractive partner,” said Andriy Yermolayev, director of the New Ukraine research center. “A full-fledged membership in the EU and NATO is just a beautiful political utopia.”

ukraine
russia
eu
nato
crimea
petro poroshenko
france
germany
u.s .


'Second disaster' warned in Mozambique as cholera and other diseases threaten

Abstract: BEIRA, MOZAMBIQUE - Cyclone-ravaged Mozambique faces a “second disaster” from cholera and other diseases, the World Health Organization warned on Tuesday, while relief operations pressed into rural areas where an unknown number of people remain without aid more than 10 days after the storm. Some 1.8 million people in Mozambique need urgent help after Cyclone Idai, the United Nations said in an emergency appeal for $282 million for the next three months. The cyclone was “one of the worst weather-related catastrophes in the history of Africa,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters in New York. He raised the specter of hunger, saying the storm inundated Mozambique’s breadbasket on the eve of harvest. The death toll remained at least 761 in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi, and authorities have warned it is “very preliminary.” More bodies will be found as floodwaters drain away. Emergency responders raced to contain deadly diseases such as cholera, which authorities have said will break out as more than a quarter-million displaced people shelter in camps with little or no clear water and sanitation. Many wells were contaminated by the floods. People are living in tent camps, schools, churches, roads and other impromptu places on higher ground. Many have little but their clothes, squatting over cooking fires and picking their way around stretches of increasingly dirty water or simply walking through it, resigned. The World Health Organization said it is expecting a “spike” in malaria cases in Mozambique. The disease-carrying mosquitoes breed in standing water. WHO also said 900,000 oral cholera vaccines were expected to arrive later this week. Cholera is caused by eating contaminated food or drinking water and can kill within hours. Cases of diarrhea have been reported. “We must not let these people suffer a second disaster through a serious disease outbreak or inability to access essential health services. They have suffered enough,” Dr. Djamila Cabral, the WHO representative in Mozambique, told reporters in Geneva. She said people in camps were living in “horrific conditions” and that about 55 health centers had been severely damaged. Aid continued to arrive, including much-needed air support. The World Food Program received $280,000 from the European Union to support the deployment of a U.N. Humanitarian Air Service helicopter that will deliver assistance to the two worst-hit districts in Zimbabwe, Chimanimani and Chipinge. The United States said it had donated nearly $3.4 million in emergency food assistance to the World Food Program, whose director was touring Beira on Tuesday. A field hospital was being set up in Beira and another is arriving later this week, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said. A sanitation system to serve some 22,000 people has arrived and a water purification unit to serve some 25,000 people is expected to arrive on Wednesday, the organization said. Bit by bit, the scale of the destruction became clearer. The cyclone reportedly destroyed all houses in the village of Metuchira, home to nearly 38,000 people, the U.N. humanitarian agency said. Amid the relief efforts, grieving people in Mozambique struggled to bury the dead. “Efforts are underway to improve management of dead bodies, as mortuary facilities were either destroyed and/or lack enough facilities and capacity,” the U.N. humanitarian agency said.

mozambique
cholera
disease
aid
cyclone idai
who
wfp


Kenya plans to close massive Dadaab refugee camp, home to 230,000: U.N. document

Abstract: NAIROBI - Kenya plans to shut a refugee camp that is home to nearly a quarter of a million people, mostly Somalis, in the next few months, according to an internal U.N. document seen by AFP Tuesday, The three-decade-old Dadaab camp in eastern Kenya would be closed by the end of August under the Kenyan plan, it said. A United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) document dated Feb. 28 said the Kenyan government had sent a note verbale informing it of “plans to close the Dadaab camps within a six-month period. The note, which was dated Feb. 19, asked UNHCR “to expedite relocation of the refugees and asylum-seekers residing therein.” In the document, the UNHCR said it was committed to working with the government on voluntary repatriation to countries of origin, relocating refugees to other parts of Kenya and resettlement to third countries. An aid worker in Dadaab, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to AFP that all international organizations were aware of a plan to close the camp, but the “government is keeping it low profile.” Dadaab was considered the world’s largest refugee camp, with at its peak some 580,000 refugees. The largest camp is now Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh, home to some 600,000 Rohingya refugees who have fled neighboring Myanmar. Dadaab now shelters some 230,000 people, the vast majority of them Somalis who fled across the border following the outbreak of civil war in 1991. Many have lived there ever since. In May 2016 the government unilaterally decided to close the camp, saying it was a terrorist training ground for al-Shabab Islamist militants based in Somalia. Tens of thousands of refugees returned to Somalia under a repatriation package. However, many encountered drought, hunger and dire conditions in a country where 5 million lack enough food and where African and Somali forces are still fighting al-Qa-da-aligned Shabab militants. Amnesty International said it had documented government officials threatening refugees and telling them they had to leave, “raising serious questions about whether returns were voluntary. Then in February 2017 Kenya’s High Court ruled the plan to close the camp was unconstitutional, violated Kenya’s international obligations and amounted to the persecution of refugees. The court also said the forced repatriation violated the 1951 United Nations Convention on refugees. Since sending troops into neighboring Somalia in 2011, Kenya has come under repeated attack from al-Qaida-linked Shabab militants. The government has presented Dadaab as a security risk, saying Somali Islamists inside the camp planned the Shabab attacks at Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall in 2013 and the Garissa university attack in 2015, though it has not provided evidence. The latest effort to shut it comes shortly after the January 15 attack on the Dusit hotel and office complex in Nairobi that left 21 dead. At least 12 suspects were arrested in Dadaab in connection with the attack.

kenya dadaab refugees unhcr al-shabab somalia al-qaida


Shadowy group claims responsibility for North Korean Embassy raid as Spanish judge seeks extradition of intruders

Abstract: MADRID - A Spanish judge plans to request the extradition from the United States of members of a shadowy group he suspects of forcing their way into the North Korean Embassy in Madrid and trying to persuade an official there to defect, a judicial source said on Tuesday. The judge believes a group of 10 intruders identified themselves during the assault as human rights campaigners, according to a Spanish High Court document. The group’s leader contacted the FBI a few days later to pass on information about the raid, the document said. A judicial source said the judge believes all the identified suspects went to the United States after the raid and that he would request their extradition to Spain, where they could face up to 28 years in prison. State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said the U.S. government was not involved in the raid, which Spanish High Court documents said involved a Mexican citizen who is a U.S. resident and a U.S. citizen, as well as South Korean citizens. “The United States government had nothing to do with this,” Palladino told a regular news briefing, stressing that the United States called for the protection of all embassies. He referred questions about the investigation to Spanish authorities. The State Department did not respond immediately to a request for comment about the extradition request. The FBI said in a statement it was “our standard practice to neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation,” adding that the agency had a strong working relationship with Spanish law enforcement partners. Spain’s Interior Ministry had previously said police were investigating an incident at the embassy on Feb. 22 but gave no details, except to say that a North Korean citizen had been injured and that no one had filed a complaint. A Mexican citizen who is a U.S. resident, identified as Adrian Hong Chang, led the group, the Spanish High Court said in the document, based on the investigation of the incident. The Adrian Hong Chang named by the court is a longtime activist who helped co-found the refugee aid organization Liberty in North Korea (LINK), and later led an organization preparing for an “imminent, dramatic change” in North Korea, according to NK News, a website that monitors North Korea. He has usually gone by Adrian Hong in his professional affiliations and in op-eds about North Korea penned for numerous American publications. LINK said Hong was a co-founder as a college student but had not been involved with the organization for more that 10 years. The court identified the U.S. citizen as Sam Ryu. The group stole computers, hard disks and pen drives, it said. It was not clear how the court knew that Hong had contacted the FBI. Three of the intruders took an embassy official into the basement and encouraged him to defect from North Korea. They identified themselves as members of a group which campaigned for the “liberation of North Korea,” the document said. A dissident organization called Cheollima Civil Defense acknowledged on its website late on Tuesday that it was behind the incident but said it was not an attack and that the group had been invited into the embassy. Cheollima, also known as Free Joseon, said no one was gagged or beaten and that no governments were involved. It said identifying individuals involved would “aid and abet the regime in Pyongyang.” It did not acknowledge any of the names in the court documents. The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Cheollima Civil Defense had carried out the raid. The paper quoted unidentified sources as saying last week that the group shared information about the raid with the FBI. A source familiar with official U.S. government reporting on the incident said that, while they were not 100 percent positive, U.S. government experts found it plausible that Cheollima Civil Defense carried out the raid. The source did not want to be otherwise identified. The Spanish court document gave a detailed account of the intruders’ movements before as well as during the intrusion, including their stay in a hotel and purchases of knives, balaclava masks and fake guns. While in Madrid, Hong Chang also applied for a new passport at the Mexican Embassy, the investigation found, and used the name “Oswaldo Trump” to register in the Uber ride-hailing app. There was no immediate comment on the matter from South Korea’s Foreign Ministry. Spain’s Interior Ministry and Mexico’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment. The embassy raid occurred shortly before the Feb. 27-28 summit in Hanoi between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump. The Mexican, Hong Chang, said he carried out the raid voluntarily and did not identify his companions, the court document said. Sung-Yoon Lee, a North Korea expert at Tufts University in the United States, said he was shocked that the names should have been revealed in the Spanish documents. He said this could put the lives of members of the group at risk from North Korean reprisals. “It seemed clear to me that the FBI had initially taken the position that the intel assets the group had retrieved at the embassy warranted the protection of the identities of the group,” he said. “That the Spanish government has not redacted the names of the persons implicated is also quite shocking,” he said. “Observing this extraordinary situation unfold, who in the future would collaborate with the United States government were they ever to come into possession of high-value intelligence on North Korea obtained illegally?” Lee said. The FBI declined to comment when asked about the risk of North Korean reprisals. According to the court document, the group kept embassy staff tied up for several hours and then searched the premises for arms before leaving, at which point they separated into four groups and headed to Portugal. Hong Chang then flew from Lisbon to New York. In Spain, the High Court has the power to investigate criminal offenses, after which formal accusations are launched.

north korea
rights
fbi
spain
south korea
u.s .


U.S. Vice President Mike Pence wants to see astronauts back on the moon within five years

Abstract: CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday called for landing astronauts on the moon within five years, an accelerated pace that would aim to put Americans on the lunar south pole. Pence said NASA needs to achieve that goal “by any means necessary.” Speaking at a meeting of the National Space Council in Huntsville, Alabama, he said NASA rockets and lunar landers will be replaced by private craft, if required. “It’s time to redouble our effort,” he said. “It can happen, but it will not happen unless we increase the pace.” Now, the earliest possible landing on the moon by NASA isn’t until 2028, Pence said. He acknowledged talent — and money — will be necessary to pull it off earlier. Pence warned that if NASA can’t put astronauts on the moon by 2024, “we need to change the organization, not the mission.” The space agency must transform into a leaner, more accountable and more agile organization, and must adopt an “all-hands-on-deck approach,” he said. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine assured Pence that NASA will do everything possible to meet the deadline. Some outside experts were skeptical of the new timeline. “I will be astonished if this happens,” said Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, noting that a lunar lander still needs to be designed, built and tested. “That is a hard challenge on a five year time scale even without political budget infighting,” he wrote in an email. This summer marks the 50th anniversary of the first manned moon landing. Since Apollo astronauts last walked on the moon in 1972, no country has made a serious attempt to send humans back to the lunar surface. For decades, NASA has flip-flopped between the moon and Mars, a victim of changing presidential administrations. More recently, President Barack Obama targeted Mars as astronauts’ next big destination, while President Donald Trump has favored the moon. In order to get astronauts on the moon by 2024, Bridenstine said the space agency’s new giant rocket will be needed, but its development and pace will need to be faster. Two weeks ago, he said NASA was considering using private rockets instead to launch its new Orion capsule around the moon without a crew on a test flight next year. But on Tuesday, he expressed confidence that the Space Launch System (SLS) would be ready for the job. He also stressed the need for an outpost with astronauts near the moon to serve as a stepping-off point for lunar landings. Pence leads the National Space Council. The advisory group held its fifth meeting at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, right next door to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, where the Saturn V moon rockets were developed decades ago and where the Boeing-built SLS is now managed. This longtime rocket know-how is why Huntsville is nicknamed Rocket City. It took just eight years for NASA to accomplish everything to put astronauts on the moon in July 1969. It was unacceptable, Pence said, that SLS delays and cost overruns point to a 2028 target date — nearly two decades after the SLS program began. The vice president instructed NASA to aim to land on the moon’s south pole, where considerable amounts of ice could be used for drinking and making rocket fuel. “The exploration of the heavens in this still new century will go forward with or without the United States. But Americans don’t do second place. Americans lead, and so we will,” Pence said to cheers and applause. Planetary scientist Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute said 2024 is feasible provided the accelerated effort is funded properly and commercial space systems are fully embraced. “The moon is a truly outstanding target, both for science and for getting our exploration legs back before we set out to further destinations like Mars,” Stern wrote in an email. But former NASA official Scott Hubbard said five years seems “awfully short to me,” given the lack of national security incentives like those that existed during Apollo and the Cold War race to beat the Soviets to the moon. Hubbard pointed out that both Bush administrations proposed similar far-reaching exploration efforts. “Those didn’t go anywhere and collapsed of their own significant financial weight,” he noted in an email. The University of Colorado at Boulder’s Bobby Braun said he’d like to review the budget and details for implementation “as those details matter.” He previously served as NASA’s chief technologist. “The United States aerospace community is certainly capable of achieving this goal if provided with stability of purpose and the resources to do so,” Braun wrote in an email.


Conservative-led U.S. Supreme Court wary of involving federal judges in electoral redistricting cases

Abstract: WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court’s conservative majority seemed wary Tuesday of getting federal judges involved in determining when electoral district maps are too partisan. In more than two hours of arguments over Republican-drawn congressional districts in North Carolina and a single congressional district drawn to benefit Democrats in Maryland, the justices on the right side of the court asked repeatedly whether unelected judges should police the partisan actions of elected officials. “Why should we wade into this?” Justice Neil Gorusch asked. Gorsuch and Justice Brett Kavanaugh pointed out that voters in some states and state courts in others are imposing limits on how far politicians can go in designing districts that maximize one party’s advantage. In light of activity at the state level, Kavanaugh asked if the country had reached the point where “this court and this court alone” must act. But there was no certainty that the justices would, in the end, shut courthouse doors to claims over excessive partisan gerrymandering, as the practice of designing districts for political gain is known. Kavanaugh, in particular, said he would not dispute the “problems of extreme partisan gerrymandering.” The cases at the high court mark the second time in consecutive terms the justices are trying to determine if they can set limits on partisan map-making. The court also could rule that federal judges should not oversee disputes over districts designed to benefit one political party. Democrats and Republicans eagerly await the outcome of cases from Maryland and North Carolina because a new round of redistricting will follow the 2020 census, and the decision could help shape the makeup of Congress and state legislatures over the next decade. Last year, the court essentially punted on cases from Wisconsin and the same Maryland congressional district that was before the court Tuesday. Partisan gerrymandering is almost as old as the United States. While the court ruled 30 years ago that courts could police overly partisan map-making, the justices have never struck down districts on the ground that they violated the rights of voters from the minority party. Supporters of limits on partisan redistricting say that it’s more urgent than ever for the court to intervene because partisan maps deepen stark political division in the United States and sophisticated computer programs allow map-makers to target voters on a house-by-house basis. They were disappointed last year when Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was open to reining in maps drawn for partisan ends, didn’t join the court’s four more liberal justices. Defenders of the maps that are being challenged want the court to defer to the other branches of government and bow out of partisan districting cases. Their chances may have been strengthened by Kennedy’s retirement. Complaints about partisan gerrymandering almost always arise when one party controls the redistricting process and has the ability to maximize the seats it holds in a state legislature or its state’s congressional delegation. That’s what happened in North Carolina, where Democrats hold only three of 13 congressional districts in a state that tends to have closely decided statewide elections. Republicans drew congressional districts that packed Democratic voters into the three districts that translated into landslide victories. Meanwhile, the map produced smaller winning margins for Republican candidates, but in more districts. In Maryland, Democrats who controlled redistricting in 2011 wanted to increase their 6-2 edge in congressional seats. So they drew a map that would flip to Democrats a western Maryland district where a Republican incumbent served for 20 years. Lower courts in both states struck down the districts as unconstitutionally partisan. And the governors of both states also are urging the Supreme Court to “end gerrymandering once and for all.” Since the maps were drawn, North Carolina has elected a Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, and Maryland now has a Republican chief executive, Larry Hogan. “The Supreme Court will soon hear arguments over whether politicians can be trusted to draw up their own districts. Take it from us: They can’t,” the governors wrote in an article published Monday in The Washington Post. Decisions in Rucho v. Common Cause, 18-422, and Lamone v. Benisek, 18-726, are expected by late June.

republicans
north carolina
brett kavanaugh
gerrymandering
u.s .
u.s. supreme court
neil gorsuch


U.S. Senate rejects Green New Deal in a Republican show vote

Abstract: WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Republican leaders forced a stunt vote Tuesday on a climate change measure they ridicule, seeking to corner Democratic presidential hopefuls over an expensive, economy-upending plan proposed by the party’s liberal left wing. The chamber easily rejected the Green New Deal, a proposal offered by progressive Democrats that would dramatically shift the United States away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy in an ambitious effort to zero out greenhouse gas emissions within a decade. It is less a hardened political policy than a blueprint of transformational action to combat the threat of climate change, and several Democrats running to challenge President Donald Trump next year have signed on to the non-binding plan. Six Senate Democrats are 2020 White House candidates, and the chamber’s Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sought to get them on record supporting what his party believes would be a multitrillion-dollar boondoggle. “I could not be more glad that the American people will have the opportunity to learn precisely where each one of their senators stand on the ‘Green New Deal’: a radical, top-down, socialist makeover of the entire U.S. economy,” McConnell said. The legislation introduced by McConnell failed to advance, with zero votes in support, 57 opposed, and 43 Democrats — including all six presidential candidates — voting “present.” Democrats accused the Senate’s Republican leadership of quashing debate and blocking any public hearings on climate change. “We need real action on climate change — not this kind of sham vote,” 2020 contender Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said. “Climate change is a global crisis, not a political game,” added Senator Elizabeth Warren, a liberal presidential candidate who supports the Green New Deal. The plan does not detail how America will wean itself off of fossil fuels, or how much the ambitious transformation will cost. Republicans are seeking to make climate change a wedge issue in the election. Trump himself mocked Democrats over the plan. “No planes. No energy. When the wind stops blowing that’s the end of your electric,” he told a laughing crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference this month. The plan’s champion is liberal first-term Reo. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a favorite target of conservatives.


Russian military deployment in Venezuela includes cybersecurity personnel, says U.S. official

Abstract: WASHINGTON - The Russian military contingent that arrived in Venezuela over the weekend, drawing U.S. condemnation, is believed to be made up of special forces, including “cybersecurity personnel,” a U.S. official told Reuters on Tuesday. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States was still assessing the Russian deployment, which Washington has called a “reckless escalation” of the situation in Venezuela. Two Russian air force planes landed outside Caracas on Saturday carrying nearly 100 Russian troops, according to local media reports, two months after the Trump administration disavowed President Nicolas Maduro. The Trump administration has recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country’s legitimate president and demands that Maduro step down. Russia has described this as a U.S.-backed coup against the socialist government. The U.S. assessment that the Russian contingent includes cybersecurity specialists and those from “related fields” suggests that part of their mission could be helping Maduro’s loyalists with surveillance as well as protection of the government’s cyberinfrastructure. Russia’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that the presence of “Russian specialists” in Venezuela is governed by a military-technical cooperation agreement between the two countries. But it did not provide further details. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in a phone call on Monday that Washington would “not stand idly by” as Russia backed Maduro, who has overseen a dramatic collapse of a once-bustling economy. John Bolton, U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, said on Tuesday that while Guaido asks for humanitarian aid to help his people, Maduro asks for Cuban and Russian goons to suppress the people of Venezuela. “The military ranks are seeing Maduro’s corruption, violence, and lack of support within Venezuela,” Bolton said in a message on Twitter. The United States and most Western countries have backed Guaido while Russia, China and Cuba are among those that have continued to support Maduro, who controls Venezuela’s state institutions including the military. On Tuesday afternoon the Lima Group of Latin American countries said in a statement it was concerned about the arrival of military airplanes in Venezuela. “We reiterate our condemnation of any military provocation or deployment that threatens peace and security in the region,” said the group formed in 2017 to pressure Maduro, which includes Brazil, Canada, Colombia and Peru. U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sent a letter to Pompeo on Tuesday urging him to determine if Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua should face mandatory U.S. sanctions for conducting significant transactions with the Russian defense and intelligence sectors.

russia
military
venezuela
cybersecurity
nicolas maduro
juan guaido
mike pompeo
john bolton
u.s .


U.S. to overhaul air safety oversight in response to two Boeing 737 Max crashes

Abstract: WASHINGTON/ADDIS ABABA - The U.S. aviation regulator will significantly change its oversight approach to air safety by July following two fatal Boeing Co Max 737 passenger plane crashes, according to written congressional testimony seen by Reuters. At a U.S. Senate panel hearing on Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) acting head Dan Elwell will say the agency’s oversight approach must “evolve” after the deadly crashes, according to the testimony. The aviation industry has been thrown into flux by a Lion Air crash in Indonesia last October that killed 189 people and an Ethiopian Airlines disaster on March 10 that killed 157, both involving Boeing’s 737 Max single-aisle plane. A spokesman for Ethiopia’s transport ministry, which is leading an investigation in Addis Ababa, told Reuters the preliminary crash report would very likely be released this week. The initial report will begin to paint a more detailed picture of what went wrong during flight ET 302’s six minutes in the air, likely with huge consequences for the plane’s manufacturer and the airline. Boeing’s best-selling jet, with orders worth more than $500 billion at list prices, has been grounded globally. Elwell will also say that the 737 Max will return to service “only when the FAA’s analysis of the facts and technical data indicate that it is appropriate.” The Max software is among the leading areas of focus for investigations into the two crashes. Elwell’s testimony discloses that Boeing first submitted a proposed upgrade to its anti-stall software — which aviation experts have identified as a potential factor in both crashes — to the FAA for certification on Jan. 21. Boeing is expected as early as Wednesday to unveil more details of the software upgrade to the Max’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, known as MCAS. The company did not comment on Tuesday on the upgrade, but said it would closely monitor the congressional hearing. Elwell will tell the panel that the FAA was “directly involved” in the review of MCAS, and that its certification was “detailed and thorough.” U.S. Transportation Department Inspector General Calvin Scovel will also testify to the panel on oversight changes. “While revamping FAA’s oversight process will be an important step, continued management attention will be key to ensure the agency identifies and monitors the highest-risk areas of aircraft certification,” said Scovel’s written testimony, which was seen by Reuters. According to Scovel, new FAA rules that took effect on March 12 require air carriers to train pilots for “specific abnormal flight conditions,” including stall recovery. But Scovel’s testimony says “despite requiring these training maneuvers to be practiced in flight simulators, simulators remain unavailable for some new aircraft, including the Boeing Max series.” Rep. Peter DeFazio, who chairs the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said he was sending a letter from lawmakers on Tuesday urging the FAA to engage an independent, third-party review of Boeing’s proposed changes to the 737 Max before it is returned to service. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is also examining the FAA’s certification process, chairman Robert Sumwalt will tell the Senate, according to his testimony seen by Reuters. Boeing is this week briefing airlines on software and training updates for the Max, with more than 200 global airline pilots, technical experts and regulators due in Renton, Washington, where the plane is built. As well as FAA approval, any Max software fixes will need a green light from governments around the world, a process that could take months. Boeing’s software fix for the 737 Max will prevent repeated operation of the anti-stall system and deactivate it altogether if two sensors disagree widely, two people familiar with pilot briefings told Reuters on Monday. Upgrading an individual 737 Max with Boeing’s new software only takes about an hour per plane, though the overall process could stretch on far longer as it is rolled out across the global fleet because of stringent testing and documentation requirements by engineers and regulators, according to a senior FAA official with knowledge of the process. Ethiopian and French investigators have pointed to “clear similarities” between the two crashes, putting pressure on Boeing and U.S. regulators to come up with an adequate fix. Boeing shares closed down slightly on Tuesday. They have lost about 12 percent and $29 billion in market value since the crash in Ethiopia. China’s civil aviation regulator has stopped taking applications for Max 8 airworthiness certification, a regulatory official said on Tuesday. Deutsche Lufthansa AG plans to buy a triple-digit number of either Boeing 737 Max or Airbus A320neo jetliners to expand its fleet, Chief Executive Carsten Spohr said on Tuesday. “We have not lost our trust in Boeing,” Spohr told reporters. “They’ve built wonderful aircraft over the decades, and I am sure they will fix the current issue.” Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Lufthansa. Ethiopian Airlines’ success over the past decade as it has expanded its Boeing-dominated fleet is emblematic of Ethiopia’s ambitions: to be a regional powerhouse with an Asia-style economic development model. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who took office a year ago and announced sweeping economic and political reforms, has said he wants to open the airline up to foreign investment as part of a partial privatization of state-owned enterprises. All of that could hinge on what the investigation reveals. Most crash investigations end up pinpointing a combination of factors.

737 max
aviation
faa
lion air
ethiopian airlines
airlines
u.s .
congress
ntsb
air accidents


How Boeing and the FAA plan to restore the public's faith in the 737 Max

Abstract: WASHINGTON/NEW YORK/DALLAS - After two deadly crashes in five months, Boeing Co. is embarking on a campaign to restore confidence in the 737 Max so that its best-selling jet can return to the skies. In Renton, Washington, the company is gathering customers and news media Wednesday to walk through the details of a software update designed to help pilots more easily avert conditions that investigators have linked to an October disaster in Indonesia. The stall-prevention software is also under scrutiny in a second deadly crash this month in Ethiopia. Meanwhile, in Washington, the Federal Aviation Administration will brief lawmakers on its oversight of Boeing’s fixes to the 737 Max — and how officials plan to scrutinize safety testing more closely in the future. The dual engagements underscore the high stakes for the U.S. aerospace giant and its chief regulator. Boeing needs to regain trust from customers, passengers and government officials from Washington to Beijing after a crisis that has badly tarnished the revamped version of the 737, its most profitable aircraft program. The FAA is defending its oversight of the 737 Max’s development and certification, even as it prepares to order safety fixes. “It was a huge wakeup call for both Boeing and the FAA,” said Richard Healing, a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board, who is now a safety consultant. “The question is whether or not they can actually convince everybody that they’ve done it right this time.” The plane-maker has developed an update to the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS, according to a company statement late Tuesday. A preliminary report last year about Lion Air Flight 610 indicated that the MCAS system forced the nose down repeatedly before the 737 Max 8 plunged into the Java Sea on Oct. 29. The crash killed 189 people. Boeing submitted a proposed certification plan for the software changes to the FAA on Jan. 21, according to the statement. After trying it out in flight simulators, the company conducted a test flight Feb. 7. That was followed by a “certification flight with the FAA” on March 12 — just two days after Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed near Addis Ababa, killing 157. Boeing plans a final submission of the MCAS software update by the end of this week. It’s possible the changes will get the 737 Max back in the air within weeks, said aviation consultant Robert Mann. There’s a risk that Chicago-based Boeing and the FAA will face a much longer road ahead before the jet, which debuted less than two years ago, can start flying again. The regulator is reviewing the software updates proposed by Boeing. Officials in China, Canada and the European Union — who grounded the plane before the FAA — have signaled that they intend to independently review the changes before restoring flights. That’s a break from historical precedent, in which aviation regulators in other countries typically follow the FAA’s lead and accept their findings, said Peter Goelz, a former managing director of the NTSB. “It may mean that there’s a staggered reintroduction of the aircraft into service,” Goelz said. “The FAA is going to have to embark on a mission to restore its credibility with the other regulatory bodies.” Putting the plane back in the air involves not just getting the technical details right. Swirling in the background are a probe by federal prosecutors and Congressional hearings, which start Wednesday at 3 p.m. in Washington before the Senate’s Subcommittee on Aviation and Space. Then there’s the challenge of winning over a potentially fearful public. Many travelers asked airlines to switch their reservations to planes other than the 737 Max after the Ethiopian Airlines crash and before the jet was grounded. While Boeing’s software fix appears close to approval by FAA, regulators and the company still need to convince ordinary passengers that it’s safe, said Mark Gerchick, a Washington lawyer who previously served as FAA’s general counsel. “It has to be pretty definitive,” Gerchick said. “People have to say, ‘Ah, I get it.’ It’s a question of public confidence.” Also looming is the accident investigation in Ethiopia. Investigators have yet to publish a preliminary report. If new facts emerge, they could complicate the plane’s future. While the 737 Max faces an uncertain outlook, there’s still plenty of enthusiasm on Wall Street for Boeing even after the 12 percent share decline since the Ethiopian crash. Citigroup Inc. resumed coverage of the company with a buy recommendation. Analyst Jonathan Raviv sketched out a path to $500 from the current share price of $370.38, based on the assumption of a 737 Max grounding that lasts months and ends with “a manageable fix.” But he also warned of a low-probability risk that shares would fall to as low as $220. With the software update, Boeing has “an opportunity to reassure the market that this product will be exactly what was promised, with some minor modifications and training procedure changes,” said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst at Teal Group. “But they have to explain it all very carefully and very transparently.” Boeing developed the 737 Max as an answer to Airbus SE’s success with the A320neo, an upgraded version of the European planemaker’s workhorse jet. Even in a best-case scenario for Boeing, the 737 Max will be playing catchup to the Airbus model for a long time to come. “The program will survive and it will be a player, but is it the A320neo’s equal?” said Aboulafia. “The question of whether it returns to be the A320neo’s equal depends on how they handle this.”


Can China keep its climate promises? Emissions target doable but cutting down on coal is real challenge

Abstract: PARIS - China can easily meet its Paris climate pledge to peak its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, but sourcing 20 percent of its energy needs from renewables and nuclear power by that date may be considerably harder, researchers said Tuesday. Tripling the share of nonfossil fuels will require a major overhaul of China’s recalcitrant power sector and the full deployment of a fledgling emissions trading system, they said in the journal Nature Communications. There is a lot at stake. If the world’s top carbon polluter fails to achieve these and other voluntary targets, the 2015 treaty’s cornerstone goal of capping global warming at “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) may remain out of reach. On current trajectories, the planet is set to warm twice that much by century’s end. China has also pledged to expand carbon-absorbing forests by 4,500 square kilometers before 2030, compared to 2005 levels. “China is on track to achieve its climate commitments,” said lead author Kelly Sims, director of The Fletcher School’s Climate Policy Lab at Tufts University. “It is not pulling back from implementing the Paris Agreement even though U.S. President Donald Trump signaled his intention to do so.” Over the last decade, China has positioned itself as a global leader on climate action, enacting a raft of policies to slow the growth of its carbon footprint and, eventually, make it shrink. Global warming, however, has not always been the main — or even the primary — target. “The vast majority of China’s policies have co-benefits for energy security, economic reform and reduced ground-level pollution,” Sims told AFP. More than a million — up to 2.8 million, according to a recent study — premature deaths in China each year are attributed to foul air. The only major climate policy exclusively aimed at reducing levels of carbon dioxide is China’s emissions trading scheme (ETS). Introduced in 2017, it is set to cover more than 1,700 power companies and some 3 billion tons in greenhouse gas emissions. China’s total emissions in 2018 topped 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide — well over a quarter of the world total. Driving up the price of carbon within the ETS and boosting the share of renewables in China’s electricity grid will both depend on revamping the country’s power sector, the study said. “The main challenge is completing power sector reform,” said Sims. “There is political resistance from owners of existing coal plants, and from the provinces with major coal production and coal use.” To assess China’s chances of meeting its carbon-cutting promises, Sims and colleagues canvassed 18 experts, and modeled the implementation of 14 climate policies. China has come in for sharp criticism from watchdog groups for not setting more ambition carbon-cutting targets. The Carbon Action Tracker, which evaluates the CO2 reduction efforts in relation to capacity, has labeled Beijing’s “highly insufficient.” “Discouragingly, a rise in coal consumption drove Chinese CO2 emissions to a new high in 2017, which will likely be exceeded again in 2018,” it noted. But the experts said that Beijing still has plenty of time to put its emissions curve on a downward track before 2030. “There is certainly room to be more ambitious in its peaking target,” Sims added. China is also under pressure to bring down — and account for — emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane, a byproduct of both natural gas and livestock production. “But China cannot stop climate change alone,” Sims said. “All of the major industrialized countries will need to reduce their emissions, and rapidly developing countries will need to implement alternative growth strategies with the help of wealthier countries.”


Thailand's opposition parties form alliance and demand junta step aside

Abstract: BANGKOK - Thailand’s opposition “democratic front” of seven parties on Wednesday said it had won a majority in the lower house of parliament after a messy election, and had the right to try to form a government after five years of military rule. But the opposition alliance would still be unable to elect a prime minister, as parliamentary rules, written by the ruling military junta, require backing from a majority of upper and lower houses combined. Parliament’s upper house, entirely appointed by the junta, is expected to endorse the pro-military party. With unofficial results of Sunday’s vote still delayed, the ruling junta showed no sign giving up on its goal to keep former army chief and coup leader Prayuth Chan-ocha as prime minister. The post-election standoff could raise tension just as the Southeast Asian country prepares for the elaborate coronation of its new king in May. Sudarat Keyuraphan, the main prime ministerial candidate of the Pheu Thai party ousted by the 2014 army coup, said the seven parties in the opposition alliance would take at least 255 seats in the 500-member House of Representatives. “We declare that the democratic front which opposes military rule commands the majority in the House,” Sudarat told reporters. The largest alliance in the lower house should be given the right to try to form a government, she added. “Parties in the democratic front gained the most trust from the people,” Sudarat said, adding that the alliance would start courting more parties on Wednesday. Pheu Thai’s secretary-general, Phumtham Wechayachai, told reporters the democratic front now included the Future Forward, Pheu Chart, Prachachart, Seri Ruam Thai, Thai People Power and New Economy parties. Missing was the Bhumjaithai Party, another key vote getter that has not yet aligned with either side. Responding to speculation that Pheu Thai would offer the top post to Bhumjaithai’s leader, Anutin Charnvirakul, to win him over, Phumtham said, “We haven’t made him that offer.” He added, “Premiership is something we will discuss later. … It’s not a pre-condition for us.” A fuller picture of the lower house make-up could emerge on Friday, when the election commission releases vote tallies for each constituency, used to determine the allocation of the other 150 party seats under a complex formula. After the news conference, the alliance’s party leaders petitioned the election commission to immediately release complete tallies, demanding transparency. Ittiporn Boonprakong, the commission’s chairman, said the votes were all counted in the open and announced at polling stations the night of the election. The pro-military Palang Pracharat party has also claimed the right to form the next government, based on its early lead in the popular vote, saying the count could still give it a majority. Its leader, Uttama Savanayana said Palang Pracharat was taking its time as there are six weeks until official results are published on May 9. “We’ve started talking to other parties, but there’s still time yet,” Uttama told reporters. “We’ll try to get as many seats as possible. We’re confident we can form a government.” Party secretary-general Sontirat Sontijirawong dismissed the claim by the democratic front. “Stop claiming to be on the side of democracy,” Sontirat said. “This election was democratic. Are the 7.9 million who voted for Palang Pracharat not democratic?” The partial count suggests Palang Pracharat could win enough elected lower house seats, combined with votes from the junta-appointed Senate, for Prayuth to stay on as prime minister. However, Prayuth could face parliamentary deadlock if the opposition controls the lower house, and would be vulnerable to a confidence vote.

thailand
elections
military
pheu thai
thaksin shinawatra
thanathorn juangroongruangkit
paryuth chan-ocha
sudarat keyurapha
future forward party


New Zealand allows 'intrusive' spy operations after Christchurch mosque shootings

Abstract: WELLINGTON - New Zealand’s intelligence minister said Wednesday he was allowing spy agencies to carry out “intrusive” activities following the Christchurch mosque shootings, which claimed 50 lives. The government this week ordered a judicial inquiry into whether the South Pacific nation’s intelligence services could have prevented the March 15 attack amid criticism the white supremacist gunman went unnoticed as they were too focused on Muslim extremists. Andrew Little — the minister responsible for the GCSB and SIS intelligence services — said he had signed powerful surveillance warrants as information-gathering continued in the wake of the attack. “I have given authority to the agencies to do intrusive activities under warrant, the number of those (warrants) I’m not at liberty to disclose,” he told Radio New Zealand. Little said intelligence services typically monitored 30 to 40 people but that number had now increased, although he was unwilling to reveal by how much. He said a warrant permitted anything from physical surveillance to the monitoring of telecommunications activity. “The whole gambit of what would otherwise be described as intrusive activity,” he told the New Zealand Herald. “The purpose of a warrant is to authorise and effectively make lawful what would otherwise be unlawful activity,” it reported. Little denied New Zealand had proved a “soft target” for the accused gunman, an Australian with apparent links to right-wing groups that reportedly moved to the country with the intention of carrying out an attack. Little said he maintained confidence in the intelligence services and until the inquiry into their actions was complete it was “premature” to say they had failed. “Until there’s a very microscopic look at what the agencies have been doing and whether they’ve missed anything, I can’t say for certain,” he told RNZ. “It’s important for me, the agencies, but ultimately for public confidence that we let that commission of inquiry do its job and reach its conclusions.” Meanwhile, police remained tight-lipped about two raids conducted by armed officers in Christchurch overnight. The raids took place at opposite ends of the city center, the first at 8 p.m. Tuesday and the second around 1 a.m. Police said the first operation was “in relation to an ongoing inquiry” but refused to say if either raid was linked to the Christchurch shootings.

new zealand
christchurch
surveillance
guns
immigration
terrorism
mass shootings
brenton tarrant


India shoots down satellite in missile test, becoming fourth member of 'super league,' says Modi

Abstract: NEW DELHI - India has shot down a satellite in space with an anti-satellite missile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Wednesday, hailing the test as a major breakthrough in its space program. Modi made the announcement in a televised address to the nation. He said India would only be the fourth country to have used such an anti-satellite weapon after the United States, Russia and China. Such capabilities have raised fears of the weaponization of space and setting off a race between rival powers. “Some time ago, our scientists, shot down a live satellite 300 km away in space, in low-Earth orbit,” Modi said, calling it a historic feat. “India has made an unprecedented achievement today,” he said, speaking in Hindi. “India registered its name as a space power.” Modi faces a general election next month. He went on Twitter earlier to announce his plan for a national broadcast, saying he had an important announcement to make. India has had a space program for years, making Earth-imaging satellites and launch capabilities as a cheaper alternative to Western programs. Brahma Chellaney, a security expert at New Delhi’s Centre of Policy Research, said the United States, Russia and China were pursuing anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons. “Space is being turned into a battlefront, making counterspace capabilities critical. In this light, India’s successful ‘kill’ with an ASAT weapon is significant.” No comment was immediately available from old rival Pakistan. There was also no immediate reaction from China’s foreign or defense ministries. China destroyed a satellite in 2007, creating the largest orbital debris cloud in history, with more than 3,000 objects, according to the Secure World Foundation. Ajay Lele, a senior fellow at the government-funded Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses in New Delhi, said India was spurred into the anti-satellite program by China’s test. Indian defense scientists have sought political approval for live tests but successive governments had balked, fearing international condemnation, an Indian defense official said. The United States performed the first anti-satellite test in 1959, when satellites themselves were rare and new. Bold Orion, a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile repurposed to attack satellites, was launched from a bomber and passed close enough to the Explorer 6 satellite that it would have been destroyed if the nuclear warhead had been live. The Soviet Union performed similar tests. In the 1960s and early 1970s, it tested a weapon that would be launched into orbit, approach enemy satellites and destroy them with an explosive charge, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. In 1985, the United States tested the AGM-135, launched from an F-15 fighter, destroying an American satellite called Solwind P78-1. There were no tests for more than 20 years, until 2007, when China entered the anti-satellite arena. The next year, the United States carried out Operation Burnt Frost, using a ship-launched SM-3 missile to destroy a defunct spy satellite. But Modi who is heading a Hindu nationalist-led government has taken a consistently strong position on national security, launching airstrikes last month on a suspected militant camp in Pakistan that led to retaliatory raids by Pakistan in a dramatic ratcheting up of tensions between the nuclear rivals. Lele said India had in all likelihood destroyed its own satellite in the three-minute test conducted Wednesday. “India has used a missile that had no warhead, so there is only a metal strip on top of the missile or a metal part and the missile shoots that metal into space, and because of the impact a kinetic energy gets generated that creates further impact,” he said. Tensions between India and Pakistan remain high. India’s big concern is China’s defense assistance to Pakistan including in its missile programs and analysts say the fear is that Islamabad turns to Beijing for help to neutralize any Indian advantage such as the latest test in space capabilities. “I don’t think Pakistan has acquired that level of accomplishment yet by itself, but Pakistan is no longer seen alone,” said Uday Bhaskar, director of Society for Policy Studies, another Delhi think tank. “Pakistan and China have a very deep strategic kind of partnership. So some kind of sharing of capabilities can’t be ignored.”


British fugitive tries to flee Australia on jet ski, 'possibly armed with a crossbow'

Abstract: SYDNEY - Australian police on Wednesday said they had apprehended a British suspected drug offender, who tried to flee to Papua New Guinea on a jet ski. Border police said they received a tip-off that “a man, possibly armed with a crossbow and carrying additional fuel and supplies, had been seen launching the jet ski” from a peninsula in the far northeast of the country. The suspect — “a 57-year-old U.K. national who was subject to an outstanding warrant for drug-related charges in Western Australia” — was caught on mud flats off an island just kilometers from the Papua New Guinea mainland. He had traveled roughly 150 kilometers (90 miles) across the Torres Strait. The man is currently awaiting extradition to West Australia. His jet ski was towed. “We have the ability to detect a range of border threats, including suspicious movements through the region,” the Australian Border Force’s Jo Crooks said. “Anyone who thinks they can either enter or leave Australia through the region without detection should think again,” she said.


Knives must be packed when brought on Japan's trains from April under new regulations

Abstract: Measures by the transport ministry to ban knives that are not properly packed from being brought aboard trains are set to begin from April. The ministry revised an ordinance to introduce the ban in response to a knifing rampage that occurred on a bullet train in June last year. But critics have questioned the effectiveness of the new restrictions, citing the difficulty of checking the baggage of all passengers. Any knife with a blade of over 6 centimeters will be required to be packed in such a way that it cannot be instantly put to use. The ministry listed examples of appropriate packing, such as keeping such knives in a case, a solid bag or a box after covering the blade with cardboard. Any knife with a blade of 6 centimeters or shorter, while not seen as posing a high risk, will be required to be kept in a bag, the ministry said. Similar restrictions will take effect next month for buses and taxis. In the June 9 incident, a knife-wielding man killed one passenger and injured two others aboard a Tokaido Shinkansen train.


Japan rebuts China and South Korea's protests over textbooks outlining stance on disputed islands

Abstract: Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Wednesday that the government “firmly rebutted” China and South Korea’s protests over its approval of elementary school textbooks that describe disputed island groups as Japan’s territory. “We received complaints from China and South Korea based on their own positions, but we firmly rebutted them,” Suga said at a regular news conference. “It is extremely important that descriptions of the nation’s territories and history are written correctly in textbooks so that children can understand them properly,” Suga said. “They are the results of screening conducted from a fair and neutral perspective based on academic discussions by experts.” The textbooks, which reflect the position of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government on territorial issues, are the first to be approved by the education ministry for the academic year beginning April 1, 2020. Their approval on Tuesday was based on guidelines adopted in 2017. All six social studies textbooks to be used by fifth- and sixth-grade students say that the South Korea-controlled Takeshima islets in the Sea of Japan, which Seoul calls Dokdo, and the Japan-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, claimed by China and Taiwan, are an “inherent part of Japan’s territory.” A ministry advisory panel tasked with screening textbooks urged some publishers to add a description saying that Japan has lodged protests with South Korea for its control over Takeshima, as well as the government’s position that there is “no dispute” over the Senkakus, according to the ministry. Seoul reacted sharply to the move Tuesday, releasing a statement saying it “strongly condemns the Japanese government’s approval” of the textbooks and summoning Japanese Ambassador Yasumasa Nagamine to lodge a protest. In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters, “China’s position on the Diaoyu Islands issue is clear and consistent,” using China’s name for the Senkaku Islands. “The Diaoyu Islands and their adjacent islets have been an inherent part of Chinese territory since ancient times. No matter what Japan says, this reality cannot be changed,” Geng said. Japan’s claim to Russian-held islands, called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia, has already been taken up in elementary school textbooks. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology revises the curriculum guidelines roughly every 10 years. The latest version, in 2017, said that all of the islands and islets in the three areas are Japan’s “inherent territories.” Amid Abe’s ambition to revise Japan’s pacifist Constitution, one of the social studies textbooks explains that some people are in favor of amending the supreme law, which has remained intact since taking effect in 1947, while others are opposed to the move. And given growing awareness over sexual minorities in the country, some health education textbooks mention people whose biological sex does not match their gender identity. In addition, all seven of the English textbooks that were submitted were endorsed. The language will be taught as an individual subject to fifth- and sixth-grade students from the 2020 academic year. The students are expected to learn more than 600 English words in the two years, and many textbooks are designed to encourage students to communicate with each other through group discussions. Some textbooks listed links to publishers’ websites that provide supplementary voice and video materials.

textbooks
disputed islands
schools
education
takeshima
senkakus
china-japan relations
mext
south korea-japan relations


2.55 million Tokyoites would need to evacuate in event of major flood caused by super typhoon

Abstract: If a super typhoon hits the Tokyo metropolitan area and causes floods that coincide with high tide, it would be necessary to evacuate 2.55 million of the capital’s residents and send many to places other than their local evacuation center, an estimate has shown. The estimate, released by a joint team of the central and Tokyo metropolitan governments on Tuesday, is based on a scenario in which the capital’s major rivers, such as the Arakawa and Edogawa, are massively flooded. Tokyo has 2,100 designated evacuation centers that are unlikely to be flooded, with a total accommodation capacity of 1.56 million people. But given that they will accommodate residents from their own localities, their capacity for evacuees from other parts of Tokyo would be limited to about a third of the 2.55 million, according to the estimate. The team will estimate how many Tokyo residents may be able to evacuate to nearby prefectures, such as Chiba and Saitama, while also asking companies and private facilities to accept evacuees. It also plans to work out measures to address the capacity shortage at Tokyo evacuation centers by the end of March 2020.


Kyoto University confirms flaws in Kumamoto quake paper published by its professor

Abstract: KYOTO - Kyoto University has confirmed flaws in four images used in a research paper compiled by Aiming Lin, a professor at the university, that was published October 2016 in the U.S. journal Science, the institution has said. The research paper was about a series of massive earthquakes that hit the prefecture of Kumamoto in April 2016. At a news conference Tuesday, the university said it had urged Lin to withdraw the research paper and that it also plans to penalize him. The paper argued that a magma chamber at Mount Aso, a volcano in Kumamoto, prevented a fault in the eastern part of Kyushu from being destroyed by the magnitude 7.3 main temblor that struck on April 16, 2016, two days after a magnitude 6.5 foreshock. After receiving a report pointing to possible issues with the article in August 2017, the university established a committee including participants from outside the institution to investigate the paper. The probe found that Lin used a graphic showing underground conditions from a research paper written by a University of Tokyo professor and others. However, the image was used upside down and showed an incorrect location for the focus of the earthquake. In addition, a map of Mount Aso and the surrounding areas was stretched in the east-west direction, and a cross-section image of the underground from the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience was incorrectly used. Lin told the investigation committee that the conclusion of the paper in question was not wrong. He also denied any intention to commit wrongdoing, claiming that he made a careless mistake and that he was not accustomed to using drawing software. At a news conference held in the city of Kyoto on Tuesday, Nagahiro Minato, executive vice president of the university, said that the committee was unable to confirm whether Lin had intentionally carried out the series of dubious acts, while noting that they amounted to a serious violation of the basic duty of care as a researcher.

kyoto university
universities
kumamoto
aiming lin
earthquakes


Anger erupts as WWII memorial in Malaysia calls Japanese troops 'heroes'

Abstract: KUALA LUMPUR - A newly restored World War II memorial in Malaysia sparked anger and calls for its demolition Tuesday after a sign described three Japanese soldiers honored as “heroes.” The Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia in the early 1940s was marked by brutality, and bitter memories still linger even after Tokyo made reparations and built friendships with its former enemies since the war. Funded by Japan, Malaysian authorities restored the long-neglected stone monument built in 1941 in Alor Setar, capital of the northern state of Kedah, in a bid to bolster tourism. It was originally built by the Japanese in honor of three soldiers who were killed while securing a strategic bridge to cut off British and other Allied troops. However, a sign that accompanied the restored monument inaugurated last week bore the title: “History Of Three Japanese Heroes Who Conquered The Alor Setar Bridge. Lim Swee Bok from the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) on Tuesday led some 15 supporters to the Japanese Consulate in the northern state of Penang and handed over a letter demanding the monument be torn down. “It only reminds us of the painful era of Japanese occupation,” Lim told AFP. The Japanese occupied Malaya — modern-day Malaysia and Singapore — for almost four years from December 1941. The Star newspaper Tuesday reported that MCA members had draped black cloth over the monument covered with the words: “Heroes monument for those who fought Japan.” The newspaper also published a photo of the monument surrounded by five large red banners bearing the slogans: “Japanese soldiers not heroes,” “Killing, raping and beheading locals” and “Japanese soldiers are cruel. Anger was also expressed online. On the Malay Mail newspaper’s Facebook page, reader Keke Lim said the Japanese were “aggressors who committed atrocities … and crime against humanity. Reader Lim Hong Meng said calling the soldiers heroes makes Malaysia a “laughing stock … especially in ASIA (which) suffered the cruelty and brutality of Japanese army.” Mohamad Asmirul Anuar Aris, the state tourism committee chairman, apologised for an “error in translation.” He said the sign has been taken down but rejected calls to demolish the memorial. “It has been there since 1941. Furthermore we are trying to bring more tourists to Kedah and it is part of our attempt to upkeep historical sites,” he told AFP.

wwii
malaysia
alor setar
conflict
imperial japanese army


South Korea assembly speaker again seeks Emperor's apology on 'comfort women' issue

Abstract: SEOUL - South Korean National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang has again asked for an apology from Emperor Akihito or Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the issue of so-called “comfort women,” a South Korean daily reported Wednesday. The term comfort women is a euphemism used to refer to women who provided sex, including those who did so against their will, for Japanese troops before and during World War II. In an interview with the Hankyoreh, Moon said what mattered most was a sincere apology, when it comes to the issue of South Korean comfort women who were forced into prostitution for Japanese troops. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the same day that Kenji Kanasugi, director-general of the Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, has made a protest to an executive of the South Korean Embassy, asking for an apology and retraction of the remarks. “It is terribly regrettable and I don’t even want to comment on it,” Suga said at a regular news conference. The South Korean parliamentary speaker said the fundamental problem would be solved if Japan’s prime minister or the Emperor, the symbol of Japan, apologized to former comfort women he referred to as “the grandmothers.” The speaker chose to express his views again despite the Japanese government having asked Moon for a retraction and apology for similar remarks he made previously on the issue. Moon told the newspaper that there was no statute of limitations on war crimes or crimes against humanity in the court of history.

south korea
comfort women
moon hee-sang
wwii
sex crimes
south korea-japan relations


Over 70% say Heisei Era was at least 'relatively good,' with younger Japanese most positive

Abstract: As Emperor Akihito prepares to abdicate on April 30, over 70 percent of respondents to a Kyodo News poll said the Heisei Era, which started in 1989, was “good” or “relatively good.” A new era will begin with Crown Prince Naruhito’s ascension to the throne on May 1. The mail-in survey, conducted from Feb. 6 to March 14, covered 3,000 individuals aged 18 or older across Japan. Valid responses were received from 1,930, of whom 50.4 percent were male and 49.6 percent were female. Asked about their impression of the era, 14 percent said it was “good” and 59 percent “relatively good,” while 3 percent and 23 percent said it was “bad” and “relatively bad,” respectively. By age, 29 percent of those under 30 — the largest group among all age brackets — said the Heisei Era was “good,” likely because that demographic didn’t live through the economic boom that preceded the stagnation during their youth. In contrast, only 10 percent of those aged 60 or over gave a positive assessment of the era. Although the era was viewed positively overall, despite a prolonged economic downturn, natural disasters and terrorist attacks domestically and abroad made a lasting impression. Memorable headlines Asked a multiple-choice question about the top domestic news event of the Heisei Era, 70 percent cited the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku that triggered a crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Shoko Asahara | KYODO For the top international news story, 44 percent cited the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.The deadly 1995 sarin nerve gas attack in the Tokyo subway system by the Aum Shinrikyo cult was cited by 50 percent, followed by the Great Hanshin Earthquake that hit Kobe and its vicinity earlier that year at 40 percent. Social change Some of the greatest social issues during the Heisei Era have involved the spread of the internet and gender equality. Fifty-seven percent of respondents said Japanese society has become less tolerant, while 41 percent disagreed. On the spread of the internet, 86 percent viewed it positively and 13 percent did not, with 61 percent of those under 30 having a favorable view — in contrast with only 23 percent of those aged 70 or older. Dissatisfaction with progress on gender equality during the Heisei Era was widespread, with 86 percent of respondents believing women had not achieved equality with men. Seventy-three percent of women and 71 percent of men said that, while there had been an improvement in women’s status, it was insufficient. The equal employment opportunity law came into force in Japan in 1986, but many women are still forced to abandon their careers to take care of their children and households. The percentage of women who thought there had been hardly any improvement in their status was 7 percentage points higher than men who felt the same about the status of women, while the percentage of men who said gender equality had been achieved was 9 points higher than the rate for women. While only 13 percent said the status of women was satisfactory, younger respondents appeared more satisfied with the level of female empowerment, with 18 percent of those in their 30s and younger viewing it as satisfactory compared with 10 percent among those in their 60s and older. Notable figures Junichiro Koizumi | KYODO In a question that asked respondents to pick up to three prime ministers that best represented the Heisei Era, 77 percent cited Junichiro Koizumi, who once said he would “break” his own Liberal Democratic Party, 38 percent said incumbent Shinzo Abe and 22 percent cited Noboru Takeshita, whose government introduced the consumption tax in 1989. In a similar question for sports figures, baseball player Ichiro Suzuki took first place followed by figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, and Mao Asada, a former figure skating world champion. For entertainers, boy band SMAP — which disbanded in late 2016 — came first, with its track “Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana” (“The Only Flower in the World”) cited as the most liked song of the era.


Former employee of trading house Sumitomo admits raping job-hunting student, say Tokyo police

Abstract: Tokyo police arrested a former employee of major trading house Sumitomo Corp. on Tuesday on charges that include the rape of a job-hunting university student. The man, Takuya Miyoshi, 24, has admitted to the charges, investigative sources said. According to the Metropolitan Police Department’s Chuo Police Station, Miyoshi is suspected of raping a woman in her 20s in her hotel room in the early morning hours of March 2 after getting her drunk at an izakaya pub in Chuo Ward. The student met with Miyoshi, a graduate of the same university, as part of her job-search efforts. The man is believed to have stolen the card key for the hotel room where she was staying when he escorted her to the room with his coworkers, for which he has also been charged with theft. He later intruded into the room alone. The student had filed an offense report with the police. According to Sumitomo, Miyoshi, who was in his first year at the company, was fired on March 6 for the alleged crime. “We would like to sincerely apologize to the victim,” Sumitomo said. The company also apologized to job-hunting students and related parties for causing trouble. It has since banned employees from consuming alcohol when meeting job-seeking students.


Woman stabbed to death in Tokyo apartment; police seek male suspect seen near site

Abstract: A woman died after being stabbed in the back with a knife in a Tokyo apartment on Tuesday according to police, who are searching for a man who was seen leaving the site. Tsugumi Terui, a 32-year-old day care worker, was found lying on the floor with the knife in her back. She was later taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, the police said. Furniture in her apartment in Suginami Ward was knocked over, they said, indicating a possible struggle. The entrance of the apartment was not locked and the lock on the terrace-side window was broken, possibly by the suspect. The police received a call at around noon from a neighbor who heard a woman calling for help in an apartment and are investigating sightings of a suspicious man in the area. The man, believed to be aged around 30 to 35 and with a height of around 160 to 165 centimeters, was wearing a dark coat, according to investigators. “It’s a peaceful neighborhood,” said a 56-year-old resident of the area, near Shimoigusa Station. “I’ve lived here for a while, but it’s the first time something like this has happened and it’s scary.”


Wife of marine in Okinawa works to support survivors of sexual assault by U.S. military personnel

Abstract: The spouse of an active duty Marine in Okinawa Prefecture is championing an initiative to provide support for people who have been sexually assaulted by members of the U.S. military. Adrian Perry is the co-founder of Survivors United, an organization created in 2018 that aims to support survivors of sexual assault who have been victimized by U.S. service members — whether they be civilians, foreign nationals, dependents of a service member or a service member themselves. “It makes me sad to think that one of our service members would come here and assault a Japanese or Okinawan person,” Perry said. “It’s such a violent and degrading and humiliating form of a crime.” Perry and her spouse were stationed in Okinawa from 2013 to 2016 and then relocated to Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina, before returning to Okinawa in October where they currently reside. After her family was forced to deal with such a case, years ago, involving an active duty service member in the U.S. military, Perry experienced firsthand how hard it is for survivors of sexual assault to find justice. The information she did find was “minimal” and “scattered,” she added. “When we were going through what we went through, I researched for anything — any kind of resource that could help me understand the military justice system, help me understand what my rights are, help me understand what my children’s rights were when it came time to testify, how they could be protected,” Perry said. “I needed help but I didn’t know where to go to get it.” Perry said she wants the organization’s website, which was created earlier this year, to become a “one-stop shop” for survivors looking to learn more about their legal rights and the resources available to them. “Who do they tell? Do they go to the base and report it? Are they going to be able to feel confident and secure enough to be able to walk onto a military base or call the military base?” she said. “Not everybody feels comfortable pursuing legal action.” Perry co-founded Survivors United with Kylisha Boyd, a survivor of sexual assault perpetrated by a member of the U.S. military. Together, they have been advocating on Capitol Hill in Washington for reform of the military justice system. Perry has also testified in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services during a hearing on child sexual abuse in the military. “For the most part I think that the Americans that come here, the service members, they’re all mostly very respectful and appreciate the culture as well,” Perry said. “However, there’s going to be a few bad apples.” The goal of Survivors United, Perry said, is to educate society on the reality and rampancy of sexual assault so that people can understand what survivors have to endure. She says that someday they may seek nonprofit status but, for now, the priority is to find connections in the community and a translator, so that they can provide services in Japanese as well as English. “Oftentimes survivors are silenced,” she said. “If I can reach the local community, I would be honored.”

okinawa
adrian perry
survivors united
u.s. military
women
u.s. bases
sex crimes


South Korea day trader gave 'peace stocks' a chance and cashed in on Kim-Trump summit collapse

Abstract: SEOUL - For Jung Jae-hoon, a 37-year-old day trader in South Korea, the botched Trump-Kim summit was a success: The volatility that rattled the market helped him earn a nice profit. Minutes before the market closed on Feb. 28, so-called peace stocks — a group of companies that stand to benefit from increased economic ties with North Korea — started to plunge on bets that U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un would fail to reach an agreement at their Hanoi summit. Jung seized the opportunity and bought shares in the group, adding some more the next trading day and selling them as they rebounded. In total, he invested about $300,000 and made as much as 10 percent from his bets. “It’s just like the cryptocurrency market,” he said in a phone interview from Ulsan, a southern portal city in South Korea. “There are at least 100 stocks known as peace stocks. They are mostly tiny, penny stocks. Many individual investors just trade peace stocks with little information on the issue, hoping for once-in-a-lifetime return.” The shares typically move on speculation for business with North Korea. Whenever there is increased news flow about the relationship with the reclusive regime — such as the Trump-Kim gathering last month — volatility and volume tend to surge. That’s just what happened with some of the biggest peace stocks. Trading in Hyundai Elevator Co., which holds a stake in a company that has the right to develop a tourism business in North Korea, surged to levels not seen since May of last year, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Train maker Hyundai Rotem Co. was the second-most bought stock among retail investors over the past year. Hyundai Elevator and Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. were also among the top 10, according to the data. In addition to Hyundai Elevator, Jung traded shares including Ananti Inc., a resort operator that counts U.S. investor Jim Rogers as an external director, and Good People Co., which until 2016 ran a factory in North Korea’s Gaeseong Industrial Complex. After selling peace stocks, he then went with the opposite bet, adding weapons makers such as Hanwha Aerospace Co., he said. For owners of peace stocks, it’s been a roller-coaster ride. When the United Nations imposed additional sanctions against North Korea back in August 2017, the regime responded by threatening to attack a U.S. base in Guam and launched of a missile. That boosted defense shares and tanked peace stocks. The mood changed in February 2018, when Kim’s sister and a series of high-ranking North Korean officials visited the South for the Winter Olympics, where some North Korean athletes participated. The positive events that followed — the historic summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Kim in April, the demolition of North Korea’s nuclear test site in May, and the first summit between Trump and Kim in June — boosted hopes for peace. That was enough to give traders other reasons to buy, while the broader market sank with chip-makers last year. “Retail investors have been into peace stocks as there’s been a lack of themes to give a boost to South Korea’s stock market since last year,” said You Seung-Min, chief strategist at Samsung Securities Co. “While it is uncertain whether the nuclear negotiations with North Korea will succeed or not, volatility for peace stocks will stay high depending on the media reports on the process.”

south korea
stocks
north korea
donald trump
kim jong un
shares
hyundai
u.s .
day trading