Resurgent Japan military 'can stand toe to toe with anybody'
Updated 0734 GMT (1534 HKT) December 7, 2016
Seventy-five years after Japan unleashed one of the most devastating naval attacks in history on the US fleet at Pearl Harbor, the country has again established itself as one of the world's foremost military powers, experts say.
The resurgence comes despite a constitution imposed by the United States after World War II that limited the country's forces to defensive purposes only. In fact, analysts say, that defensive restriction has helped make Japan's military stronger than it might have been without it.
"Pilot for pilot, ship for ship, Japan can stand toe to toe with anybody," said John T. Kuehn, a professor of military history at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.
And it achieved this with a military budget that is only a fraction of others powers.
Despite climate change exodus, some Marshall Islanders head back home
After many young people fled in the face of worsening droughts, tropical storms, coral bleaching, coastal inundation and flooding, some are choosing to returnSurrounded by 750,000 square miles of ocean, the low-lying Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) is emblematic of the threat climate change poses to small island nations. This Micronesian country of coral atolls faces worsening droughts, tropical storms, coral bleaching, coastal inundation and flooding – all exacerbated by rising temperatures and sea levels.
In the face of such an existential threat, the country has also seen a mass exodus of its inhabitants: exact numbers are unclear, but anything between one-fifth to one-third of the population has migratedvisa-free to places like Hawaii, the Pacific Northwest and other parts of the US under an agreement called the Compact of Free Association. Northwest Arkansas alone saw an increase of nearly 300% in its Marshallese population between 2000 and 2010.
Some young Marshallese, however, are choosing to return after years living abroad, drawn back by the desire to help their homeland confront its challenges.
Indonesia earthquake today: Dozens dead and many missing after quake strikes Aceh province
No tsunami warning issued, but at least five aftershocks felt in hours after initial quake
Many buildings have been flattened and at least 52 people killed after an undersea earthquake struck off the coast of Aceh province in northern Indonesia, the site of the devastating quake and tsunami in 2004.
Residents were sent running into the streets after the 6.5-magnitude quake struck at about 5am local time (10pm GMT Tuesday), and remain reluctant to return home amid fears of aftershocks.
The US Geological Survey measured the quake at a depth of just 8.2km, 19km south-east of the coastal town of Sigli. Buildings shook in the provincial capital Banda Aceh.
Syrian army on verge of major victory in Aleppo
Troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad are about to score one of their biggest victories in the country's war. Rebels have been forced to flee from their last strongholds in the battleground city of Aleppo.
The Syrian army and its allies made key gains in the embattled city of Aleppo late on Tuesday. President Bashar al-Assad's forces pushed into rebel-held areas of the Old City, essentially driving opposition forces out of their last urban stronghold.
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that the seven new districts seized by regime troops included the strategic Shaar area, "the most important neighborhood in the heart of east Aleppo." The result, the watchdog said, was that rebels were being forced to fight "a war of attrition," swearing to never surrender as victory became less and less likely.
Later on Wednesday, SOHR announced that government forces had indeed retaken all of the Old City, but the news has not yet been confirmed by military sources.
Park's confidants quizzed over scandal |
South Korea's National Assembly started the second round of hearings to investigate a corruption scandal involving President Park Geun-hye on Wednesday.
Among 27 figures summoned by the parliament, 14 did not show up at the National Assembly, including Park's confidante Choi Soon-sil and her family members. The whereabouts of Choi's daughter Chung Yoo-ra and Woo Byung-woo, the ex-senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, also remain unknown. The parliament has issued orders of accompanying for Choi and 10 others to appear by 2:00 p.m. The order is issued to forcefully make a suspect or witness appear at a hearing when he or she refuses to attend without a justifiable reason. |
Pizzagate, the fake news conspiracy theory that led a gunman to DC’s Comet Ping Pong, explained
How Pizzagate went from the musings of 4chan trolls to the cause for a gunman at Comet Ping Pong.
Updated by
On Sunday, a man walked into a pizzeria in Washington, DC, with an assault rifle and fired one or more shots.
The scene, thankfully, was not another example of a mass shooting — no one was injured or killed. Instead, it was the result of a fake news story about Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign that proliferated on social media in the weeks before Election Day.
The totally false conspiracy theory claims that Hillary Clinton and her former campaign manager, John Podesta, ran a child sex ring at a pizzeria in DC, Comet Ping Pong. Over the past few weeks, Donald Trump supporters and white supremacists on social media have pushed the conspiracy theory — leading to headlines like “Pizzagate: How 4Chan Uncovered the Sick World of Washington’s Occult Elite” on fake news websites.
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