Rights group accuses China of 'systematic campaign of human rights violations' against Muslims
Worn to
Tokkōfuku
combat uniforms
Tracing its origins back to the heady days of motorcycle gangs in the 1970s, the style is making a comeback with youth in Japan
TOMOHIRO OSAKI
Staff writer
Updated 0037 GMT (0837 HKT) September 10, 2018
The Chinese government is conducting a mass, systematic campaign of human rights violations against Muslims in the far western region of Xinjiang, a new Human Rights Watch (HRW) report claims.
HRW's report comes after a United Nations committee last month raised alarm at the "numerous reports of detention of large numbers of ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities held incommunicado and often for long periods, without being charged or tried, under the pretext of countering terrorism and religious extremism."
Responding to those allegations, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying said they were "not true," and accused the UN body of relying on "unsubstantiated and irresponsible information." The Chinese government has not yet commented on the HRW report.
Swedish election: political uncertainty looms after deadlock
Far-right Sweden Democrats set to play kingmaker as vote leaves two main blocs both short of a majority
Sweden faces a protracted period of political uncertainty after an election that left the two main parliamentary blocs tied but well short of a majority, and the far-right Sweden Democrats promising to wield “real influence” in parliament despite making more modest gains than many had predicted.
The populist, anti-immigrant party won 17.6% of the vote, according to preliminary official results – well up on the 12.9% it scored in 2014, but far below the 25%-plus some polls had predicted earlier in the summer. It looked highly likely, however, to play a significant role as kingmaker.
The governing Social Democrats, led by prime minister Stefan Löfven, maintained their record of finishing first in every election since 1917, but saw their score fall to 28.4%, the lowest for a century, while the main centre-right opposition Moderate party also slipped to 19.8%.
THERE’S BEEN A lot of talk recently about allegiance and betrayal in the face of criminal prosecution. President Donald Trump, whose obsession with loyalty at all costs has earned him comparisons to mob dons of a bygone era, said recently that aiding federal prosecutors in exchange for leniency — “flipping,” as he called it — “almost ought to be illegal.” On Twitter, Trump went full Mafia, likening John Dean, the White House counsel who testified against Richard Nixon and his associates during the Watergate scandal, to a “RAT.”
But in the world of organized crime that Trump so uncannily evokes, breaking bonds of loyalty to collaborate with law enforcement, particularly when the betrayed are blood relations, is a profoundly painful choice — an act of courage with no happy ending. In Italy, the mob’s cradle, entire families have been brought down by the testimonies of pentiti, “repentant” members who chose to work with prosecutors in return for leniency and protection. In his riveting book, “The Good Mothers: The True Story of the Women Who Took on the World’s Most Powerful Mafia,” journalist Alex Perry explores the tragedy that often accompanies those choices, telling the story of four women who turned against their own families and stood up to the ’Ndrangheta.
A Spy Story: Sergei Skripal Was a Little Fish. He Had a Big Enemy.
This is how British officials now describe Mr. Skripal, a Russian intelligence officer they recruited as a spy in the mid-1990s. When the Russians caught Mr. Skripal, they saw him that way, too, granting him a reduced sentence. So did the Americans: The intelligence chief who orchestrated his release to the West in 2010 had never heard of him when he was included in a spy swap with Moscow.
But Mr. Skripal was significant in the eyes of one man — Vladimir V. Putin, an intelligence officer of the same age and training.
The two men had dedicated their lives to an intelligence war between the Soviet Union and the West. When that war was suspended, both struggled to adapt.
The military is back in Brazilian politics
More than 30 years after Brazil’s junta left power, the consensus that the military should stay out of politics has been broken, amid widespread dissatisfaction with the political class after several years of corruption scandals and economic turmoil.
The frontrunner in October’s general elections, Jair Bolsonaro – whose lurid far-right proclamationshave earned him the moniker “the tropical Trump” – is a former military officer who has made numerous laudatory comments about the junta that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985.
Giving a speech in parliament before voting in favour of the impeachment of the then centre-left president Dilma Rousseff in 2016, Bolsonaro announced that he was dedicating his vote to the memory of Colonel Brilhante Ustra, a former head of the military dictatorship’s internal intelligence agency, which was responsible for torturing Rousseff in the 1970s, when she was imprisoned for guerilla activities.
Worn to
be wild
Tokkōfukucombat uniforms
Tracing its origins back to the heady days of motorcycle gangs in the 1970s, the style is making a comeback with youth in Japan
TOMOHIRO OSAKI
Staff writer
Standing in the darkness of a quiet parking lot in the city of Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, 20-year-old construction worker Yusei Mizuno starts to change into a tokkōfuku combat uniform he hasn’t worn for two years.
The change in Mizuno is immediate. Gone is the smiling former motorcycle gang member with an apparent crush on K-pop act Twice. He’s now glaring at the camera with his lips closed tightly, offering up a look that’s a mix of James Dean at his peak and classic Dirty Harry.
A provocative statement has been stitched onto the right breast pocket of the jacket that simply says, “Kenka jōtō,” or “Bring it on.”
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