Selasa, 30 April 2019
Japanese emperor Akihito abdicates in historic ceremony - Guardian News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph7HVnU3CjA
2019-04-30 09:45:39Z
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Japan’s Emperor Akihito announces abdication in final address to his people - USA TODAY
Japan’s Emperor Akihito has announced at a ceremony that he is abdicating, in his final official address to his people.
In the ceremony at the palace on Tuesday, Akihito also thanked his people for their support during his 30-year reign as emperor.
He said it was fortunate for him that he could fulfil his duties with full trust and faith in his people.
Akihito’s reign ends at midnight Tuesday, after which his son, Crown Prince Naruhito, ascends the throne as new emperor.
Naruhito’s ascension will be formalized at a separate ceremony on Wednesday.
President Donald Trump expressed his appreciation for Akihito and Empress Michiko and used the occasion to "recognize the tremendous importance" of the U.S.'s relationship with Japan.
"Emperor Akihito welcomed five United States presidents to Japan and reigned from the end of the Cold War to the present day," Trump said in a statement. "Our bilateral relationship was critical to navigating the global challenges of those times."
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https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/04/30/japans-emperor-akihito-abdication/3624648002/
2019-04-30 08:45:00Z
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Japan's Emperor Akihito and the future of Facebook: 5 things you need to know Tuesday - USA TODAY
Japanese emperor becomes first to abdicate in 200 years
Japan's 85-year-old Emperor Akihito announced his abdication in his final official address to his people Tuesday, ending his three-decade reign. Akihito, the son of Japan’s wartime emperor Hirohito, is the first emperor to abdicate in 200 years. In 2016, Akihito told the nation he was concerned about his age and declining health and wanted to abdicate while he was still capable. With no legal framework to allow a reigning emperor to abdicate, the Japanese government had to pass a one-time law allowing it. The throne will pass on Wednesday to Prince Naruhito, 59, the elder of Akihito's two sons, who will receive the Imperial sword and jewel as proof of his ascension.
Beleaguered Zuckerberg to weigh in on the future of Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg is expected to lay out his vision for the future of Facebook when the CEO gives the keynote address at the company's annual conference for software developers. The speech, a must-watch in the tech industry, comes in the wake of repeated privacy and security scandals that have damaged the company’s reputation since the 2016 presidential election. Last week, the company reported that it may face a fine of up to $5 billion from the Federal Trade Commission for its mishandling of people's personal data. USA TODAY also reported on complaints from the black community that Facebook users' posts have been censored and accounts banned for speaking out about racism.
Trump, Pelosi to meet on infrastructure during all-out war over investigations
Democratic leaders will head to the White House Tuesday for their first meeting with President Donald Trump since the longest government shutdown in American history. The ostensible purpose is infrastructure, but they'll first have to swerve around an all-out war underway about testimony and subpoenas stemming from Robert Mueller’s report. Members of the Trump administration plan on stonewalling Congress as House Democrats turn their attention to the aftermath of the Mueller report, while Trump has promised that he plans to fight "all the subpoenas."
Mnuchin hopes for ‘substantial progress’ in US-China trade talks
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer traveled to Beijing to resume talks Tuesday to try to end a yearlong trade war between the U.S. and China, the world's two largest economies. A Chinese team is scheduled to visit Washington next week for another round of discussions. Mnuchin said: “We hope to make substantial progress in these two meetings.” The two sides are locked in a standoff over the Trump administration’s charges that Beijing steals technology and forces foreign companies operating in China to hand over trade secrets. China is pushing to make its companies world leaders in advanced industries like robotics and artificial intelligence.
McDonald’s dials back late night menu
McDonald's will slim down its late night offerings in an attempt to streamline service for customers in the wee hours starting Tuesday. Popular staples like the Big Mac, Chicken McNuggets and fries will still be served, but the chain’s Signature Crafted Recipes, buttermilk-crispy-chicken sandwiches, Filet-O-Fish, and premium salads will discontinued after midnight as the fast-food giant transitions to a pared down menu until 5 a.m. This will not impact the daytime menu and the popular All-Day breakfast items.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/04/30/trump-emperor-akihito-facebook-5-things-you-need-know-tuesday/3615843002/
2019-04-30 08:08:00Z
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Emperor Naruhito is ready to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne. What can Japan expect from its new ruler? - CNN
In February he explicitly vowed to continue his father's legacy, particularly in breaking down the barriers between the emperor and his subjects.
"I want to earnestly fulfill my duties by always being close to the people, and sharing with them their joys and sorrows," he said.
Hironomiya Naruhito Shinno, better known as Crown Prince Naruhito, was born in Tokyo in February 1960, the eldest child of Emperor Akihito who abdicated Tuesday and his wife Michiko.
Those who know Naruhito, describe him as "modest, charming and astute," says Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asian Studies at Temple University in Japan.
He became the first Japanese royal to study abroad, spending two years at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, writing a thesis on medieval mercantilism on the River Thames, before returning to Tokyo and his alma mater, Gakushuin University, for doctoral studies.
The easygoing personality and sense of humor of the anglophile Naruhito shines through in his book "The Thames and I: A Memoir of Two Years at Oxford."
Now he must emerge from his father's shadow and establish himself as a modern leader.
Naruhito, who has already assumed some of his father's duties, will usher in the "Reiwa" era -- whose name includes the character for "harmony" -- when he ascends the throne on May 1.
"It is his reign name to shape through his actions and gestures," says Kingston, adding that Naruhito's challenge in defining his era will be to avoid getting "co-opted by Japan's right-leaning politicians."
Strict traditions
The Chrysanthemum Throne is the oldest hereditary monarchy in the world, and records show the royal male line to be unbroken for 14 centuries. Naruhito himself is a direct descendant of Japan's first emperor Jimmu, circa 660 BC.
The only child of Naruhito and his wife Masako is a daughter, Aiko, and women are barred from the throne. This means that the new emperor's brother, Akishino, will become first in line to the throne while Akishino's 12-year-old son Hisahito -- the only male member of that generation of Japanese royals -- will be second.
Other imperial traditions have been loosened, especially in regard to marriage.
Akihito became the first emperor to marry a commoner, after meeting Michiko in 1957 during a tennis match in the scenic mountain town of Karuizawa.
The couple also broke with tradition to play an active part in raising their four children, including the future emperor.
Naruhito followed suit in 1993 by marrying career diplomat Masako Owada, despite her reservations at becoming part of the rigorously traditional and hidebound Imperial Household.
Masako, under tremendous pressure to produce a male heir to continue the unbroken line, suffered a miscarriage in 1999 before giving birth to Aiko two years later.
Imperial Household doctors diagnosed her as suffering from a "adjustment disorder" caused by stress, which can cause depression.
Naruhito has been deeply protective of his wife. Even when they were courting, he promised to shield her from the scrutiny and rigors of imperial life.
The new emperor is "something of a maverick," Kingston says, citing Naruhito's controversial remarks in 2004, when he suggested that Imperial Household bureaucrats were to blame for his wife's condition due to "their obsessive focus on her producing a male heir."
Jeremy Yellen, an assistant professor in the Department of Japanese Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, says that in the new era he expects Naruhito "will continue to be very protective of his wife, Princess Masako, and his family."
Until Emperor Hirohito renounced his divine status in the wake of Japan's Second World War defeat and subsequent occupation by the United States military, Japanese emperors were seen as demigods.
Hirohito's son Akihito, in contrast, denounced militarism and opposed revisionist accounts of the war years.
Naruhito has indicated that he will continue his father's legacy, Yellen says.
"I find it highly likely that he will follow many of the precedents that made his father such a success with the media. Although the issue may not be as important to him as it was to his father, I believe that he will continue Emperor Akihito's rejection of revisionist views of Japan's wartime past."
At birthday press conferences in recent years Naruhito has made it clear that he shares his father's views about Japan's war responsibility and his unwavering commitment to pacifism.
"I myself did not experience the war," he said on his 55th birthday in 2015. "But I think that it is important today, when memories of the war are fading, to look back humbly on the past and correctly pass on the tragic experiences and history Japan pursued from the generation which experienced the war to those without direct knowledge."
New direction
However, Kingston says the anti-war message may not resonate as strongly with the current generation, who have no memories of the war or of post-war privations.
Instead, many look at the changing geopolitics of the region, particularly the rise of China.
"Millennials... see Asia as a threatening and often hostile neighborhood," he says.
Naruhito, whose birth name means "a man who will acquire heavenly virtues," seems likely to keep pushing for societal change. He has a particular interest in clean water and water conservation, and Kingston says this is likely his best chance of defining himself independently of his beloved 85-year-old father, who took over the throne in 1989.
"In order to emerge from his father's long shadow, climate change might become Naruhito's signature cause, drawing on his longstanding interest in water-related environmental issues to champion disaster resilience and sustainable development."
Naruhito has "already apprenticed extensively in the role of consoler-in-chief," says Kingston, paying frequent visits to the Tohoku region which was devastated by the 2011 tsunami.
He also "lends support to various causes supportive of the vulnerable and marginalized," Kingston says.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/30/asia/new-japan-emperor-naruhito-intl/index.html
2019-04-30 07:26:00Z
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Emperor Naruhito is ready to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne. What can Japan expect from its new ruler? - CNN
In February he explicitly vowed to continue his father's legacy, particularly in breaking down the barriers between the emperor and his subjects.
"I want to earnestly fulfill my duties by always being close to the people, and sharing with them their joys and sorrows," he said.
Hironomiya Naruhito Shinno, better known as Crown Prince Naruhito, was born in Tokyo in February 1960, the eldest child of Emperor Akihito who abdicated Tuesday and his wife Michiko.
Those who know Naruhito, describe him as "modest, charming and astute," says Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asian Studies at Temple University in Japan.
He became the first Japanese royal to study abroad, spending two years at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, writing a thesis on medieval mercantilism on the River Thames, before returning to Tokyo and his alma mater, Gakushuin University, for doctoral studies.
The easygoing personality and sense of humor of the anglophile Naruhito shines through in his book "The Thames and I: A Memoir of Two Years at Oxford."
Now he must emerge from his father's shadow and establish himself as a modern leader.
Naruhito, who has already assumed some of his father's duties, will usher in the "Reiwa" era -- whose name includes the character for "harmony" -- when he ascends the throne on May 1.
"It is his reign name to shape through his actions and gestures," says Kingston, adding that Naruhito's challenge in defining his era will be to avoid getting "co-opted by Japan's right-leaning politicians."
Strict traditions
The Chrysanthemum Throne is the oldest hereditary monarchy in the world, and records show the royal male line to be unbroken for 14 centuries. Naruhito himself is a direct descendant of Japan's first emperor Jimmu, circa 660 BC.
The only child of Naruhito and his wife Masako is a daughter, Aiko, and women are barred from the throne. This means that the new emperor's brother, Akishino, will become first in line to the throne while Akishino's 12-year-old son Hisahito -- the only male member of that generation of Japanese royals -- will be second.
Other imperial traditions have been loosened, especially in regard to marriage.
Akihito became the first emperor to marry a commoner, after meeting Michiko in 1957 during a tennis match in the scenic mountain town of Karuizawa.
The couple also broke with tradition to play an active part in raising their four children, including the future emperor.
Naruhito followed suit in 1993 by marrying career diplomat Masako Owada, despite her reservations at becoming part of the rigorously traditional and hidebound Imperial Household.
Masako, under tremendous pressure to produce a male heir to continue the unbroken line, suffered a miscarriage in 1999 before giving birth to Aiko two years later.
Imperial Household doctors diagnosed her as suffering from a "adjustment disorder" caused by stress, which can cause depression.
Naruhito has been deeply protective of his wife. Even when they were courting, he promised to shield her from the scrutiny and rigors of imperial life.
The new emperor is "something of a maverick," Kingston says, citing Naruhito's controversial remarks in 2004, when he suggested that Imperial Household bureaucrats were to blame for his wife's condition due to "their obsessive focus on her producing a male heir."
Jeremy Yellen, an assistant professor in the Department of Japanese Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, says that in the new era he expects Naruhito "will continue to be very protective of his wife, Princess Masako, and his family."
Until Emperor Hirohito renounced his divine status in the wake of Japan's Second World War defeat and subsequent occupation by the United States military, Japanese emperors were seen as demigods.
Hirohito's son Akihito, in contrast, denounced militarism and opposed revisionist accounts of the war years.
Naruhito has indicated that he will continue his father's legacy, Yellen says.
"I find it highly likely that he will follow many of the precedents that made his father such a success with the media. Although the issue may not be as important to him as it was to his father, I believe that he will continue Emperor Akihito's rejection of revisionist views of Japan's wartime past."
At birthday press conferences in recent years Naruhito has made it clear that he shares his father's views about Japan's war responsibility and his unwavering commitment to pacifism.
"I myself did not experience the war," he said on his 55th birthday in 2015. "But I think that it is important today, when memories of the war are fading, to look back humbly on the past and correctly pass on the tragic experiences and history Japan pursued from the generation which experienced the war to those without direct knowledge."
New direction
However, Kingston says the anti-war message may not resonate as strongly with the current generation, who have no memories of the war or of post-war privations.
Instead, many look at the changing geopolitics of the region, particularly the rise of China.
"Millennials... see Asia as a threatening and often hostile neighborhood," he says.
Naruhito, whose birth name means "a man who will acquire heavenly virtues," seems likely to keep pushing for societal change. He has a particular interest in clean water and water conservation, and Kingston says this is likely his best chance of defining himself independently of his beloved 85-year-old father, who took over the throne in 1989.
"In order to emerge from his father's long shadow, climate change might become Naruhito's signature cause, drawing on his longstanding interest in water-related environmental issues to champion disaster resilience and sustainable development."
Naruhito has "already apprenticed extensively in the role of consoler-in-chief," says Kingston, paying frequent visits to the Tohoku region which was devastated by the 2011 tsunami.
He also "lends support to various causes supportive of the vulnerable and marginalized," Kingston says.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/30/asia/new-japan-emperor-naruhito-intl/index.html
2019-04-30 07:04:00Z
52780276918359
Senin, 29 April 2019
ISIS Releases Video Said to Be of Leader - The New York Times
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Islamic State released a video on Monday of a man it said was Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the group’s mysterious and reclusive leader, which would mark the first time he has showed his face while addressing his followers since the early days of the terrorist group’s rampage through Iraq and Syria.
In an 18-minute video released by an Islamic State media group and distributed by the SITE Intelligence Group, the man identified as Mr. al-Baghdadi sits on the ground in an Arab-style sitting room, speaking calmly to a group of unidentified followers with an assault rifle at his side.
He acknowledges that the group has lost its so-called caliphate in Iraq and Syria, a territory the size of Britain that it ruled as an extremist proto-state. But he said that the group’s battle with the West and its allies was far from over.
[Read about how ISIS lost Baghuz.]
“Truthfully, the battle of Islam and its people with the crusader and his people is a long battle, and the battle of Baghuz finished and manifested in it was the brutality and savagery of the nation of the cross toward the nation of Islam,” the man said, his beard grayer than when he addressed his followers from a mosque in the Iraqi city of Mosul when the group was near the summit of its power. “At the same time, it showed and manifested the courage, fortitude and persistence of the nation of Islam.”
According to SITE, the video was the first time Mr. al-Baghdadi has been shown in a video since July 2014, when he gave a sermon in Mosul.
In the video, SITE says, he praises the attackers who carried out the bombing attacks in Sri Lanka last week, saying they were revenge for the loss of Baghuz, the Islamic State’s last territory in Syria, which it lost to American-backed forces a month ago.
[Where ISIS ruled in Syria, fear and uncertainty still reign.]
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Sri Lanka attacks, which killed at least 250 people.
While Mr. al-Baghdadi has not been seen in several years, he has been heard from. Last August, the Islamic State released an audio recording said to be of him.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/world/middleeast/isis-baghdadi-video.html
2019-04-29 17:07:47Z
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After Sri Lanka blasts, government targets the niqab veil - Fox News
KATTANKUDY, Sri Lanka – As Sri Lanka's long civil war ended in this once-contested region along its eastern coast, Muslim women eager to show their piousness began wearing the black niqab veil to hide their faces.
Now in the wake of Easter suicide attacks launched by Islamic State group-linked militants that killed over 250 people, Sri Lanka's president has used his emergency powers to ban the practice previously unheard of in the island nation off the southern coast of India.
The ban, which took effect Monday, has been touted as a security measure. However, it criminalizes a practice more associated with an ultraconservative form of Islam previously unknown on the island, one that more closely adheres to the strict beliefs more common in Saudi Arabia.
It also focuses public attention on women who practice their religious beliefs peacefully, while the government and foreign diplomats say IS-linked militants armed with explosives still roam the island.
"As we have seen in Afghanistan and elsewhere, Muslim women will become a convenient cover for military action," wrote Nimmi Gowrinathan, a professor at the City College of New York. "Sri Lanka's pain from the Easter attacks should not be used to promote failed policies."
The niqab is a black veil made of thin fabric, often with a small opening from which a woman's eyes can peer out. It's far more concealing than the hijab, a scarf covering the hair that some Muslim women wear.
Most Islamic scholars and experts say a woman is not religiously required to cover her face with a niqab. However, strictly orthodox Sunni Muslims known as Salafists who advocate a literal return to centuries-old Islamic law believe women must cover their faces.
Such ideas previously were unknown in Kattankudy, a city 220 kilometers (135 miles) northeast of the capital, Colombo. But gradually, foreign money and ideas have entered the area.
The population grew more conservative, reflected in the current construction here of a massive copy of Jerusalem's famed Al Aqsa mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam. The alleged mastermind of the Easter bombings, Mohammed Zahran, also preached an increasingly extremist version of Islam in Kattankudy glorifying the killing of nonbelievers.
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe acknowledged to The Associated Press in an interview that authorities wanted to investigate the role of foreign money in the Easter attacks, saying in particular that money from Saudi Arabia had been going to religious organizations.
"Saudi Arabia or the Middle East has been the source of many of those funds and some of it has gone into these extreme organizations," Wickremesinghe told the AP on Thursday. "These are what we are investigating."
The Saudi government did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, who like other government officials faces widespread criticism over security agencies' failure to stop the bombings despite having specific prior warnings, banned the practice on Sunday. Under Sri Lanka's emergency regulations, invoked after the bombing, the measure took effect Monday.
Sirisena "has taken steps to ban . all forms of face covers that may hinder one's identity been ascertained, as a threat to national security and public safety," an English-language statement from his office read. "This directive specifies the need for one's face been clearly visible for ascertaining their identify as its main criterion."
The statement added that Sirisena "issued this directive to ensure national security and a peaceful and reconciled society, where no ethnic group or community would be subjected to discomfort."
However, such a measure wouldn't have stopped the suicide bombings of the three churches and three hotels on Easter, as all were carried out by men. But some Muslim women acknowledged the need to follow the government's laws amid the ongoing crisis.
"It's good (the ban on face covering) but some people will feel some hurt because that's the Islamic culture," Fathima Musthaque said. "When they are dressing (without covering their face), they get a guilty feeling."
She added: "All Muslims are not a terrorist. The terrorists are doing this kind of work and it has affected all . not only Muslims, but all the Sri Lankan people."
On Monday, the first day of the ban, Associated Press journalists briefly saw only one woman wearing the niqab on the streets. However, many shops and businesses remain closed as the threat of more attacks remains. In Kattankudy, few women were on the street.
Neighborhood hijab shops sold colorful scarves as well as ones that are simply black, some called "Dubai style." Their shelves bore alcohol-free perfumes named after the Burj Kahlifa, the world's tallest building in Dubai, as well as one called Zam Zam, the name of a well in Mecca that Islamic tradition holds appeared by God's hand to quench the thirst of one of Ibrahim's children.
Two teenage salesmen, who gave their names only as Adhnan and Atheek for fear of reprisal for talking to journalists, said they sold at least five niqabs a week. They disagreed over whether they'd asked their own wives to wear the niqab. Adhnan said his mother had worn it since Sri Lanka's long civil war ended after getting a "deeper understanding of religion."
"I don't want anyone to look at my wife," he added.
___
Associated Press writer Rishabh Jain contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/after-sri-lanka-blasts-government-targets-the-niqab-veil
2019-04-29 15:47:11Z
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