Love hotels are big business in Japan. But not all stay open forever. As we begin our Journey Across Japan from Tokyo to Mount Fuji, we get lost in a quarry, stumble across an abandoned love hotel and taste Fish & Chip Pringles.
Saturday, October 31, 2020
Inside an ABANDONED Japanese Love Hotel
Love hotels are big business in Japan. But not all stay open forever. As we begin our Journey Across Japan from Tokyo to Mount Fuji, we get lost in a quarry, stumble across an abandoned love hotel and taste Fish & Chip Pringles.
Is it time to break up Facebook’s monopoly?
While the $800bn social media giant faces pressure to curb hate speech and disinformation, it has also been accused of stifling competition.
For years now, Facebook has been accused of not doing enough to curb the spread of hate speech and disinformation, failing to regulate content that pushes everything from coronavirus conspiracies to holocaust denial to genocide.
It has also been accused of crushing the competition, through acquisitions, copycat products and throttling news content providers.
Presidential campaigns gear up for post-election legal battles
A U.S. district court judge has ordered the United States Postal Service to speed up the delivery of ballots in Detroit. It's just one of the many election-related lawsuits filed this year, as 2020 shapes up to be one of the most litigated election years ever.
The Electoral College, explained
In the 2000 US presidential election, the Democratic candidate got half a million more votes than the Republican. The Democrat lost. Sixteen years later the same thing happened again. In the US, if you run for president, it does not actually matter how many people in the country vote for you. What matters instead is an arcane system for selecting America’s head of state called the Electoral College.
US Election: How TikTok is helping to shape America's presidential election - BBC World Service
Sophia Smith Galer enters the hype houses of TikTok to find out how political video could shape the US election.
Stanford study estimates 18 Trump rallies resulted in over 30,000 COVID-19 cases
The study said 18 Trump campaign rallies, which took place between June 20 and September 22, led to "more than 700 deaths" among attendees and those they infected afterward. "In response to the paper, Trump campaign spokesperson Courtney Parella said, 'Americans have the right to gather under the First Amendment to hear from the President of the United States,'"
Americans have the first amendment right to die for Donald Trump is what that statement says. Remember 15 cases will soon be zero, I like it when the numbers don't go up. That's why those cruise passengers will remain on board. We've turned the corner on the coronavirus as more than 225, 000 people have died. With almost 1,000 new infections reported on Friday.
Why Europe is praying for Trump to lose the US election
Almost four years of Donald Trump have left America's European allies in a state of shock. He's walked out of important treaties. He's lashed out against America's friends. He has cozied up to authoritarians. He's abandoned the most important international treaties of our time.
Election 2020: What has President Trump done to America? | The Economist
In the 2020 election, President Donald Trump will be judged on his handling of the covid-19 pandemic. But what else will be his legacy if he loses?
Six In The Morning Saturday 31 October 2020
Sean Connery: James Bond actor dies aged 90
Sir Sean Connery has died at the age of 90, his family has said.
The Scottish actor was best known for his portrayal of James Bond, being the first to bring the role to the big screen and appearing in seven of the spy thrillers.
Sir Sean died peacefully in his sleep, while in the Bahamas, having been "unwell for some time", his son said.
His acting career spanned five decades and he won an Oscar in 1988 for his role in The Untouchables.
Mahathir Mohamad says his remarks after French attack were taken out of context
Two-time Malaysian PM criticises Twitter and Facebook for removing his posts after the attack on Nice church
The Associated Press
The former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has stood by his widely condemned comments on attacks by Muslim extremists in France, saying they were taken out of context. He also criticised Twitter and Facebook for removing his posts.
Mahathir, 95, sparked widespread anger when he wrote on his blog on Thursday that “Muslims have a right to be angry and kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past”.
Twitter removed a tweet from Mahathir containing the remark, which it said glorified violence, and France’s digital minister demanded the company also ban Mahathir from its platform.
Why does liberal Tunisia still struggle with extremists?
Tunisia is held up as a model of the Arab Spring's success yet it is still a major source of violent radicals. Some in Europe may be marginalized but at home its youth are frustrated by the promises of democracy.
Though details are still emerging, French media have reported that the attacker who killed three people in Nice on Thursday recently arrived in Europe from Tunisia. That fact will stick in the mind of many in the city, where a truck attack by another Tunisian in 2016 claimed 86 lives.
For a country that is held up as a model democracy in the region, Tunisia is still struggling against radicalism, despite its success in sticking to democratic reform in the wake of the 2011 "Arab Spring."
Polish pro-choice campaigner helps women bypass abortion law
Seven years ago, Natalia Broniarczyk had an abortion despite stringent Polish legislation against it.
Now, she is helping other women do the same and taking part in mass protests against a further tightening of an already highly restrictive law.
"I'm angry," the 36-year-old campaigner told AFP as she prepared for the latest demonstration in Warsaw.
Protests have been raging nationwide since a ruling from the Constitutional Court on October 22 that would allow abortions only in cases of rape, incest and when the mother's life is at risk.
Shutdown in Kashmir after India’s new land laws
Residents, politicians denounce India’s new land laws as a ‘settler-colonial project’ that seeks demographic change.
Shops and businesses are shut in several parts of Indian-administered Kashmir in a general strike called to protest against new laws that allow Indians to buy land in the disputed region.
Pro-India politicians in Kashmir have also criticised the laws, which came into effect on Tuesday and allow any of its nationals to buy land in the region, and accused India of putting Kashmir’s land up for sale.
The shutdown call was made by a separatist group headed by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who condemned the new laws as part of New Delhi’s “policy of permanent demographic change”.
US election: Biden event in Texas cancelled as 'armed' Trump supporters threaten campaign bus
Matt Mathers
Joe Biden campaigners were forced to cancel an event in Texas on Friday as tensions flared in the key battleground state ahead of election day.
Local Democrats said they were forced to pull the plug on a gathering scheduled to take place in Pflugerville – a small city about 17 miles north of Austin – due to "security reasons".
It came as vice-presidential candidate, senator Kamala Harris, completed a whistle-stop three-city tour of the Lone Star state in a last-minute bid for votes.
Friday, October 30, 2020
We Ranked Our Top 11 Prefectures in Japan
All of the prefectures in Japan are beautiful, but we asked everyone choose their favourites - from Tokyo and Kyoto to Hokkaido and Fukuoka.
How far to the right is the US Supreme Court shifting?
The appointment of ‘originalist’ Justice Amy Coney Barrett raises concerns about right-wing domination of country’s highest court.
How America Helped Stop Covid-19. Just Not in the U.S. | NYT Opinion
We’ve all heard how U.S. leadership failed its citizens with its pandemic response. We had the playbooks, we had the money, we had the experts. We just … didn’t use them.
How long does immunity against the coronavirus last?
Immunity has been on everyone's lips since the pandemic began. Now, it's more pressing than ever, as infections rapidly rise in parts. Immunity depends on antibodies - proteins in the bloodstream that fight pathogens and viruses.
How Texas Republicans are Trying to Stop People From Voting
Texas Republicans have been suppressing the vote for years — but it’s especially bad in 2020. Democracy Docket founder Marc Elias details the numerous ways they’re trying to stop people from voting as the 2020 election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump approaches.
Berlin's 'new' BER Airport: A story of incompetence and corruption | DW News
By now, almost everyone has heard about Berlin's disastrous over-budget, off-schedule "new" airport. But few know the real story of what went wrong. DW's Joel Dullroy has been following the saga of BER - Berlin Brandenburg Airport - for years.
Six In The Morning Friday 30 October 2020
Australia must prepare for future shaped by extreme climate, bushfire royal commission report warns
Report into the apocalyptic 2019-20 bushfires says Australia must radically change its approach to fighting fires under new climate conditions
Australia’s bushfire disaster last summer was just a glimpse of what global heating will deliver to the country in the future, with major changes needed to the way the nation responds, according to the final report of the royal commission.
The royal commission has made 80 recommendations, including calls for a more co-ordinated approach and new legislation to allow the prime minister to declare a national state of emergency.
The wide-reaching recommendations cut across national and state-based responses, and say there needs to be standardised and consistent approaches. A national cabinet approach is also recommended.
Greece-Turkey earthquake: Huge 7.0-magnitude tremor felt across both countries
Turkish health minister says at least four people killed following major earthquake
A major 7.0-magnitude earthquake has rattled Greece's Dodecanese Islands, the US Geological Survey (USGC) has said, with the tremor felt miles away in the capital of Athens.
Initial estimates by the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) put the magnitude of the earthquake, which struck north of the eastern island of Samos at around 11:50 GMT, at 6.7.
Turkey’s health minister Fahrettin Koca said on Friday that four people had died in the incident, while video footage on social media showed buildings in the Turkish city of Izmir had been seriously damaged.
Warring sides in face-to-face talks over Karabakh
The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan on Friday sat down for talks in Geneva as mediators pressed ahead with a new effort to negotiate a ceasefire over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov "began a meeting" in Geneva, a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry in Yerevan told AFP.
Speaking to reporters late Thursday, the spokeswoman, Anna Naghdalyan, said securing a ceasefire and the introduction of verification mechanisms were a priority.
Terror in France reignites a national debate on the right to offend
Updated 1147 GMT (1947 HKT) October 30, 2020
For the second time in as many weeks, France is reeling from the devastation of a brutal knife attack that authorities are ascribing to an Islamist terrorist.
On Thursday, three people were stabbed to death at a church in the French city of Nice. While the investigation is still underway, French President Emmanuel Macron said after the incident that the country was under attack by "Islamist and terrorist madness."
Qatar refers officials behind women exams to prosecutors
Prime minister issues ‘sincerest apology’ to female passengers who were subjected to invasive examinations.
Qatar has referred several officials who were behind the forced and invasive physical examinations of female passengers at Hamad International Airport to prosecutors, saying “standard procedures were violated”, according to a government statement.
The incident on October 2 saw airport staff take women off several planes to examine them to check whether they were the mother of an abandoned baby.
U.S. judge delays extradition of 2 men accused of helping Ghosn escape from Japan
By Nate Raymond
A federal judge on Thursday granted a last-minute request to stop the U.S. government from turning over to Japan two men accused of helping smuggle former Nissan Motor Co Chairman Carlos Ghosn out of the country while he was awaiting trial on financial crimes.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston granted a request by lawyers for U.S. Army Special Forces veteran Michael Taylor and his son, Peter Taylor, to delay the transfer shortly before the two men were set to be placed on a flight to Japan.
The State Department informed them Wednesday it had approved Japan's extradition request. Talwani put on hold their transfer while she reviewed the Taylors' emergency petition challenging that decision.
Thursday, October 29, 2020
Exploring Japans Sumo Town at 6:30 am
Today we are exploring Japan’s sumo town right here in Tokyo. From the sumo stadium to the restaurants and training stables… today we are exploring Ryogoku!
Will Trump’s coronavirus strategy lead him to victory?
In the last days of the US election campaign, we look at the response to COVID-19 and its influence on the ballot box.
The power of the pharmaceutical companies | DW Documentary
How much is a human life worth? An innovative cancer therapy promises to save lives. But it is extremely expensive. Will the insurance companies pay for it? What is the manufacturer's return on investment? And do lobbyists drive up prices?
The Instagram aesthetic that made QAnon mainstream
At first glance, the images under the hashtags about child trafficking don’t look that different from anything else you’d expect to see on Instagram. They feature bright pastel colors with trendy fonts spelling out taglines like “wake up” and “get loud.”
What the people who see these hashtags — and the lifestyle influencers who often post them — might not know is that the hashtag is being used to bring QAnon ideas into the mainstream.
Knife attack in France's Nice leaves 3 dead and several wounded | DW News
France is on high alert after a suspected terrorist attack in the southern city of Nice. Police say a man armed with a knife killed three people and wounded several others at the Notre Dame basilica in the city center.
Six In The Morning Thursday 29 October 2020
Stabbing attack kills three people at a church in French city of Nice
A man wielding a knife on Thursday killed three people in an attack at the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Nice in southern France. A suspect has been arrested in the attack, which Nice’s mayor has described as an act of terrorism. Follow our liveblog below for real-time updates.
- At around 9am on Thursday, an unidentified suspect killed three people and injured several others at a church in central Nice. Two of the victims were killed inside the church and at least one them was beheaded, according to a police source. The third victim died while seeking help in a nearby bar.
- The suspect was wounded by police and has been hospitalised.
- Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi has described the attack as an act of terrorism, and said the suspect repeated the words “Allahu Akbar” as he was being treated for his wounds after being apprehended by police.
- France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the attack.
- President Macron was expected to arrive in Nice at around 1pm on Thursday.
- French lawmakers on Thursday observed a minute of silence to honour the victims in the attack.
Large Covid outbreak in China linked to Xinjiang forced labour
More than 180 cases traced to garment factory where Uighurs must take up work placements
Guardian staff
China’s largest coronavirus outbreak in months appears to have emerged in a factory in Xinjiang linked to forced labour and the government’s controversial policies towards Uighur residents.
More than 180 cases of Covid-19 documented in the past week in Shufu county, in southern Xinjiang, can be traced back to a factory that was built in 2018 as part of government “poverty alleviation” efforts, a campaign that researchers and rights advocates describe as coercive.
Under the initiative, Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in the far-western region are tracked and given work placements that they have little choice but to take up.
Coronavirus: Angela Merkel defends lockdown, warns of 'difficult winter' in Germany
With Germany heading for a month of partial lockdown, Merkel urged for solidarity in a turbulent speech in parliament. She faced vocal pushback from some lawmakers angry about being shut out of crisis talks.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel defended the government's decision to impose a limited lockdown in a tense speech to lawmakers in the Bundestag on Thursday.
Her speech in the lower house of parliament comes as Germany logged a new record in daily coronavirus cases with over 16,700 cases within 24 hours. An estimated 75% of cases cannot be traced anymore, making it difficult to contain the spread.
The fight to keep Indigenous Australian children out of jail
In Western Australia, Aboriginal children are almost 50 times more likely to be in youth detention than white children.
29 Oct 2020
“All you hear is keys, and doors opening, doors shutting. It’s all you can basically hear at night and through the day. Just hear keys, keys and keys, just shaking and shaking,” says a 13-year-old Australian boy.
The boy, who we will call Adam, has been imprisoned in Western Australia’s only youth detention centre, Banksia Hill, a dozen times.
Dr Fauci praises Australia’s coronavirus response and Melbourne’s face mask rules
America’s top Covid expert says Victoria lockdown and mask-wearing struck right balance between health and economy and he wished US adopted same mentality
America’s top infectious diseases expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, has praised Melbourne’s response to the coronavirus, saying he “wished” the US could adopt the same mentality.
In an interview hosted by the University of Melbourne and the Melbourne-based Doherty Institute, Fauci said Australia was “one of the countries that has done actually quite well” in handling the virus.
Japan's specialist cleaners find new purpose and demand in pandemic
BY TOMOHIRO OSAKI
STAFF WRITER
Trepidation soon gave way to excitement when Toru Koremura, president of a Tokyo-based cleaning company, took up the challenge of disinfecting the Diamond Princess — a cruise ship quarantined in the port of Yokohama that made global headlines earlier this year as a “petri dish” for the COVID-19 virus.
The 38-year-old cleaning specialist admits part of him was scared to delve into what was then considered one of the world’s biggest COVID-19 hotspots.
But in the end, what overcame his fear was the thought of what he and others tasked with decontaminating the vessel might be able to achieve: ridding the world of the notion that Japan was the source of the outbreak.
Wednesday, October 28, 2020
Why they left Tokyo for the Japanese Countryside
Pandemic in Prison: The San Quentin Outbreak
We investigate how a botched transfer between two California prisons led to one of the largest coronavirus clusters in the United States.
Using dogs to sniff out the coronavirus
US election: ‘Trump needs to be denied a second term’, says John Bolton - BBC Newsnight
Why is that hearing from a person whose a war monger, torture apologist, helped to continue Americas misery so he could have a larger pay day off of his book and enabler of Donald Trump seems
a little much at this point. Its not like this fool really cares. He just wants to remain relevant in conservative circles.
Who Is Donald J. Trump? Narrated By Julianne Moore | NowThis
Donald Trump is the only presidential candidate on the ballot who has publicly agreed that his own daughter is a 'piece of ass.' The bronze-gilded mogul is as notable for his multiple rape allegations and history of racist renting practices as he is for putting children in cages and shamelessly funding a campaign to execute 5 innocent Black teens.
The QAnon candidates: How the conspiracy cult got on the ballot
What's sad is that all this started on 4chan and was thrust into the mainstream media by that fool from North Carolina rushing to Washington D.C. and Comet Ping Pong to free children from sex tracfficing ring in a nonexistent basement. As its grown on the right Donald Trump supporters started showing up at his campaign Nurenberg rallies displaying signs supporting QAnon. Of course Donald Trump being the insecure narcist that he is couldn't denounce the movement because they "loved" him. Even when the given a chance to pretend to not he didn't embrace conspiracy theories he couldn't. Thus given a g sign to certain politicians that sought his favour to fully embrace QAnon and he played right along by endorsing them.
More than two dozen congressional candidates who have expressed support for the movement secured their name on November ballots
The QAnon delusion has entered the Republican mainstream.
A cult-like movement powered by a sprawling online conspiracy that believes Donald Trump will arrest prominent Democrats and defeat a cabal of satan-worshipping, child-trafficking lawmakers and celebrities has found an audience among dozens of candidates in local and federal elections across the US.
Supporters of the conspiracy – which traffics in antisemitic and racist tropes that have circulated for decades – have joined campaign rallies for the president and appeared on social media feeds from members of his inner circle, including his own Twitter page, which has shared several posts from QAnon-affiliated accounts.
The real winners (and losers) of the US-China trade dispute | DW explainer
Six In The Morning Wednesday 28 October 2020
Covid-19 deaths aren't rising as fast in Europe and US, despite soaring new infections. That doesn't mean the virus is less deadly
Updated 1305 GMT (2105 HKT) October 28, 2020
Europe is drowning in the second wave of the coronavirus epidemic. Infection rates are skyrocketing across the continent. Governments are imposing strict lockdowns. Economies are shutting down again. But there is a glimmer of hope: The virus, while still deadly, appears to be killing fewer people on average.
Recent case and fatality figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) show that while recorded Covid-19 cases are spiking in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany and other European countries, deaths are not rising at the same rate.
Anger towards Emmanuel Macron grows in Muslim world
Protests take place in several countries against French president in aftermath of crackdown
On the front page of a hardline Iranian newspaper, he was the “Demon of Paris”. In the streets of Dhaka he was decried as a leader who “worships Satan”. Outside Baghdad’s French embassy, a likeness of Emmanuel Macron was burned along with France’s flag.
Rage is growing across the Muslim world at the French president and his perceived attacks on Islam and the prophet Muhammad, leading to calls for boycotts of the French products and security warnings for France’s citizens in majority-Muslim states.
EU countries could receive Covid vaccine by April, as second wave ravages Europe
Hopes rise of jab as European countries suffer highest ever daily rates of infection
The delivery of potential Covid-19 vaccines to European Union countries could begin in earnest in April, the head of the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen says.
“The big numbers of supplies are due to start in April," Ms von der Leyen said, adding that in the best-case scenario companies could deliver up to 50 million vaccines a month to the EU.
The commission is proposing a series of new measures to fight the pandemic, saying the new spike in infections on the continent is “alarming".
Opinion: Erdogan and Khan are hypocritical about Macron's France
Turkish President Recep Erdogan and Pakistani PM Imran Khan have no right to talk about French secularism, as they have no regard for the sentiments of religious minorities in their own countries, says DW's Shamil Shams.
It feels strange to hear Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan talk about secular values and lecture French President Emmanuel Macron on racism.
There has been an outburst in Muslim countries against Macron's comments about Islamist terrorism in wake of the gruesome beheading of Samuel Paty, a teacher who was killed for showing students caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Erdogan, who likes to pose as the leader of the entire Islamic world, decried "rising Islamophobia" under Macron's watch.
Japanese media call on U.S. to review visa changes for journalists
The Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association on Monday called on the U.S. government to reconsider proposed changes to visa rules that limit how long foreign journalists can stay in the country.
The Japanese association, which represents 129 newspaper companies, news agencies and broadcasters, submitted its request in a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Under the proposed changes released by the department, representatives of foreign information media will no longer be able to remain in the country for as long as their work requires. Instead, their stay would be limited to 240 days, with an opportunity to extend only once for another 240 days, based on their activities.
Covid: Melbourne's hard-won success after a marathon lockdown
By Phil Mercer
BBC News
In early July, the nights were long and dark, and Australia's cultural capital was confronting the terrifying reality of another deadly wave of infections.
More than 110 days later, experts say it is emerging as a world leader in disease suppression alongside places including Singapore, Vietnam, South Korea, New Zealand and Hong Kong.
Raina McIntyre, a biosecurity professor at the University of New South Wales' Kirby Institute, told the BBC that Australia's response had been "light years ahead" of the US and the UK.
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