Japan: Foreign-born residents sue government for alleged racial profiling

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Matthew (left), Syed Zain and Maurice have filed a lawsuit against state and local governments over alleged racial profiling,Reuters
By Kelly Ng
BBC News

Three foreign-born residents in Japan have sued the country’s authorities over alleged racial profiling.

The plaintiffs say they have suffered distress from repeated police questioning based on their appearances.

“There’s a very strong image that ‘foreigner’ equals ‘criminal’,” Pakistan-born Syed Zain told reporters.

The lawsuit filed on Monday aims to confirm that racial profiling is illegal and to seek 3m yen ($20,250; £15,740) in damages for each plaintiff.

This is the first such lawsuit in Japan, according to the men’s lawyer, Motoki Taniguchi.

Mr Zain, who is a Pakistan-born Japanese citizen, has lived in Japan for two decades, went to school there and is fluent in Japanese. The 26-year-old told a press conference on Monday that he has often been stopped, questioned and searched by police.

“The time has come to rethink the way police questioning is handled.” he said.

The UN defines racial profiling as “the process by which law enforcement relies on generalisations based on one’s race, skin colour, descent or national or ethnic origin, rather than objective evidence or individual behaviour, to subject people to stops, detailed searches, identity checks and investigations, or for deciding that an individual was engaged in criminal activity”.

Another one of the plaintiffs, Matthew, who is of Indian descent and a permanent resident in Japan, claimed that he has been questioned by the police at least 70 times since he arrived in Japan in 2002. He said he now avoids going out, Japanese newspaper The Manichi reported.

“I never knew what social withdrawal was until recently… I feel like every time I finish work, I’m hiding in my house,” he said. Reports said he declined to provide his last name for fear of harassment.

Maurice, an African-American who is a permanent resident in Japan, told the newspaper he has also been questioned by “regular Japanese people”, including some who have asked if he is overstaying his visa.

“Even if we lose… I want people to understand that this is an everyday occurrence, an everyday thing, and that we have to do something to prevent that for the future generations,” he told reporters.

The three men have filed their case against the National Police Agency, the Tokyo metropolitan government and the Aichi prefectural government at the Tokyo District Court.

It has come on the heels off a renewed debate on what it means to be “Japanese”, after a Ukrainian-born model was crowned Miss Japan last week. While some see her victory a nod for diversity, others have said she does not look like a “Miss Japan” should.

In December 2021, the US embassy in Tokyo warned citizens of “suspected racial profiling” of foreigners by Japanese police.

“The US Embassy has received reports of foreigners stopped and searched by Japanese police in suspected racial profiling incidents. Several were detained, questioned, and searched,” it said on Twitter then.

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Coroner rules COVID-19 patient’s death a medical misadventure, cannot confirm TCM pills’ link

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SINGAPORE: The death of a 61-year-old man who was suffering from COVID-19 and an allergic reaction to an unknown substance was ruled a medical misadventure by a coroner’s court on Wednesday (Jan 24).

Mr Koh Choon Lim died at Tan Tock Seng Hospital on Jul 29, 2022, two days after taking four capsules of Lianhua Qingwen Jiaonang to deal with the COVID-19 symptoms he was experiencing.

While the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) pills were flagged as a possible trigger for the allergic reaction in medical notes, State Coroner Adam Nakhoda said in his findings on Wednesday that this could not be conclusively confirmed in a post-mortem setting.

Mr Koh, a Singaporean who leaves behind his wife and children, died as a result of a mix of factors.

FINAL CAUSE OF DEATH

His final cause of death was anaphylaxis – a severe, life-threatening allergic reaction – and a COVID-19 respiratory tract infection, which his emphysema and coronary artery disease contributed to.

Emphysema is a lung condition that causes shortness of breath.

The coroner stated that smoking was considered the primary cause of Mr Koh’s emphysema – he was a regular smoker who smoked about 16 cigarettes a day.

He also had high cholesterol and hypertension, both of which may have contributed to his coronary artery disease.

WHAT HAPPENED

The coroner’s court heard that Mr Koh began to show symptoms of a COVID-19 infection on Jul 26, 2022.

He tested positive with a faint line that day and a starker line the next day, and had symptoms including a headache and a sore throat.

At about 11.30pm on Jul 27, 2022, Mr Koh took four of the TCM pills, which he had taken before.

The next morning, Mr Koh went to a clinic and saw a doctor, who assessed that Mr Koh was displaying symptoms of an anaphylactic reaction.

He administered injections to manage the symptoms and advised Mr Koh to go to an emergency department. The doctor told Mr Koh that anaphylaxis was a life-threatening condition which could rebound, and that it could be the difference between life and death if his condition deteriorated further.

Mr Koh declined and accepted the risks. He was monitored at the clinic for an hour, during which his symptoms improved. Despite this, the doctor again advised him to go to an emergency department, but Mr Koh did not want to be referred to one.

Later that afternoon, Mr Koh’s family members realised that he was exhibiting strange behaviour, appearing disoriented and unaware of his actions.

ADMISSION TO HOSPITAL

He was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital’s accident and emergency department at 7.30pm with a three-day-old COVID-19 infection, suspected anaphylaxis and an altered mental state.

He had mild swelling over his upper lip and eyelids, but he was not in respiratory distress, a CT scan of his brain was “unremarkable” and his airway was not obstructed, the coroner said.

Medical notes stated that the anaphylaxis was from an “unclear precipitant” but possibly was from the TCM pills and less likely due to a stroke.

Extensive test investigations were carried out and Mr Koh was admitted to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) in the early morning of Jul 29, 2022.

In the ward, he was stable and placed on four-hourly monitoring. However, Mr Koh was noted to be hyperactive, confused and restless.

He repeatedly removed his diapers and pants that nurses put on him, as well as the intravenous cannula in his arm, staining his clothes.

As Mr Koh was assessed to have a “high fall risk”, he was placed in restraints and a body vest.

The coroner found that it was clear that the nursing staff regularly checked on Mr Koh and observed him from the time he was admitted to the NCID ward up to about 7am.

Until this time, there was no acute deterioration in his clinical state, said the coroner.

However, evidence suggested that Mr Koh was not attended to between 7am and 7.45am.

At 7.45am, Mr Koh was found to be unresponsive and cardiopulmonary resuscitation was performed on him while a code blue team was activated. Code blue refers to a situation where a patient is in cardiac or respiratory arrest.

He was pronounced dead at about 8.30am.

CORONER’S COMMENTS

The coroner noted that while next-of-kin would wish for constant communication on the conditions of their loved ones, “this might not be practical in a hospital setting when staff have a number of patients they need to care for”.

He said the incidents that morning, including Mr Koh’s removal of his IV cannula and diapers and his placement in restraints and a geriatric chair, might be significant events to the family, but did not warrant a call to them from the hospital staff.

The coroner said the hospital’s decision to place Mr Koh in restraints and a body vest was not unreasonable.

As to why his condition had suddenly deteriorated, the coroner said he accepted an expert’s testimony that Mr Koh’s “anaphylaxis presentation was atypical”.

The coroner conveyed his condolences to Mr Koh’s widow and two sons who attended Wednesday’s hearing.

When asked if they had anything to say, the two sons raised a point from the findings that stated that each patient was given a call bell, which was placed on their bed.

There was no call bell affixed to the geriatric chair which Mr Koh was left in.

Mr Koh’s son took issue with a line in the findings that said a senior staff nurse may have decided not to give Mr Koh a call bell while he was in the chair in order to avoid triggering unnecessary false alarms as he was in a restless state.

The coroner said this was an issue with the hospital’s management and the family had to bring it up with the hospital if they had any concerns. It would not alter his findings in the case, he said.

A lawyer representing Tan Tock Seng Hospital was also at the hearing.

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Could war in Gaza ignite direct US-Iran confrontation?  – Asia Times

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Increasingly, there have been signs of Israel’s current military operations expanding violence beyond Gaza. Such prognoses became compelling after last week’s military strikes by the US and its allies on more than 60 locations under Houthi command and launch centers across Yemen, followed by Iranian strikes on Iraq, Syria and Pakistan.

The US has since re-designated the Houthis as global terrorists. This drift away from the hyperactive US shuttle diplomacy to contain this conflict has dangerous implications beyond this energy-rich but volatile region.

The US no longer has to worry only about the Houthis’ missile strikes on merchant vessels in the Red Sea that connects the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, accounting for 15% of global shipping and one-third of global container trade. 

What the West calls Iran’s “Axis of Resistance” – which includes the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and similar groups in Syria and Iraq – have been carrying out attacks on Israel and its allies to express solidarity with Palestine. The Houthis have been attacking merchant ships in the Red Sea since November to pressure Israel to allow the free flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza and for an early end of hostilities.

Of course, the Houthis’ promise to attack only Israel-linked shipping has not been possible, as it is never easy to identify a merchant ship with one nation even when it is legally identified by the flag of that country.

This crisis has caused severe disruptions, with shipping companies’ re-routing resulting in delays, uncertainties and fee increases. But what the United States has to worry about now is Iran’s direct military strikes, which have raised the specter of a possible direct US-Iran confrontation long in the making. At the least this new phantom threatens to derail diplomatic efforts to contain the conflict within Gaza.

Specter of military strikes

Weary of continued Houthi strikes in the Red Sea, several nations, including India, have taken measures to provide escorts, intelligence and rescues for merchant shipping in this theater. In December the United States constituted a nine-nation task force named Operation Prosperity Guardian. This has enormously increased the presence of warships in these waters, and yet the problems have not subsided.

Now, last week’s barrage of retaliation from the US and its allies has been followed by Iranian inland military strikes, first on Iraq and Syria and then inside Pakistan.

It appears that after bomb explosions in Kerman in southern Iran this month, Tehran is no longer relying only on its so-called proxies alone. President Ebrahim Raisi’s political deputy Mohammad Jamshaidi was quick to blame Israel and the US for the Kerman bombings, though Islamic State (ISIS) soon claimed responsibility for the attacks, which killed more than 100 people.

But can the United States, in the midst of a presidential election season and in the face of wars in Ukraine and Israel, afford a direct confrontation with Tehran and its allies? Especially so, when the Israeli war in Gaza has killed more than 24,000 Palestinians, galvanizing intransigence if not open pan-Arab support for Palestine? 

Not that the US has discarded diplomacy as its first choice, yet these expanding military strikes surely betray fatigue among its partners, thus complicating its diplomacy.

The US-led nine-nation Operation Prosperity Guardian, for example, has not been joined by several of its close Indo-Pacific allies. These include Australia, Japan and several of its Arab allies, including Saudi Arabia, which has been fighting the Houthis for decades.

The world’s largest trading nation, China, has not joined it either. Meanwhile, Iran launching direct strikes does not mean that Hezbollah and the Houthis have stopped shooting missiles, incrementally intensifying regional tensions. If anything, they remain keen on spreading it wider as well.

Expanding confrontation 

The Houthis, for example, have now taken it all the way from Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.  Also, more than Israel, last week’s US-led attacks were followed by the Houthis this week launching fresh attacks on US commercial vessels as well.

Together, these military attacks have reportedly impacted more than 50 countries’ shipping, disrupting global supply chains and igniting doomsday speculations.

Iran’s direct military strikes have triggered scenarios of a wider confrontation involving other nations. This Monday saw Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launch ballistic missiles at what it calls Israeli “spy headquarters” in Iraq’s Kurdish region and hit targets linked to ISIS in northern Syria.

Tuesday saw the IRGC using drones and missiles to hit at Salafi-Sunni insurgents of Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice) inside Pakistan, thereby involving a nuclear-armed state of South Asia.

The Pakistan Navy has also deployed its warships in the Arabian Sea, and last Sunday claimed to have rescued 21 crew members from a merchant vessel after a hijacking distress call.

Pakistan, which has been a close ally of the United States but also a close friend of China and Iran and a major stakeholder in the Middle East, has so far steered clear of the Gaza conflict, focusing on its own merchant ships and even clarifying that its naval deployments are not meant to counter the Houthis. 

But Iranian strikes in Balochistan have pulled Pakistan into this expanding confrontation.  A Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman responded by saying, “This violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty is completely unacceptable and can have serious consequences.”

It has forbidden the Iranian ambassador, on a visit to Tehran, to return to Islamabad. On Thursday, after the Iranian attacks in Balochistan, an IRGC colonel was shot dead in Iran’s Sistan-Balochistan region, with no clarity on who was behind the murder.

In December a senior IRGC adviser was killed by Israeli air strikes outside Damascus. Tensions could deepen further.

Iran-Pakistan tensions 

Jaish al-Adl, with sanctuaries in Pakistan, has been launching attacks against Iranian border guards since it was set up in 2012 and has previously claimed bombings and kidnappings of Iranian border police.

The leader of this Salafi-Sunni movement in southeastern Iran, Salahudin Farooqui, has been a vocal opponent of Iran’s support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. They are also known for being closely linked to the Kurdish freedom movement, which could potentially bring in Turkey as well.

On Tuesday, Iran’s IRGC launched an assault on two of Jaish al-Adl’s military bases inside Pakistan’s Balochistan province. This involved the use of missiles and drones targeting the two bases but also killed two innocent children and injuring three other girls. However, both the US and China – closest of friends of Pakistan – have advised restraint and dialogue.

Given Pakistan’s current politico-economic situation and its track record of non-action against India’s air strikes on Balakot in 2019 or the American operation against Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad in 2011, Islamabad is not expected to retaliate against Iran. Pakistan has troubles on its borders with Afghanistan and India as well.

Plus, as two Islamic republics, Iran and Pakistan have had an enduring history of working together on their shared challenge from these insurgencies on both sides of their 1,000-kilometer-long border.

Iran was the first country on August 14, 1947, to recognize the Pakistani state. Both have continued to make efforts to fight insurgencies and the drug trade jointly on their shared border regions.

Diplomacy on crutches 

So as war and diplomacy in West Asia race against each other, diplomacy surely seems to be in need of crutches if not yet on a ventilator. As the United States overstretches itself to address challenges at home and abroad, it needs to balance its military and diplomatic strategies to contain the war in Gaza.

On the positive side, it seems close to an early interim cessation of hostilities at least between Israel and Hezbollah by offering an economic aid package for Lebanon. But the Houthi violence now being joined by Iran’s adds to America’s troubles, though both the US and Iran can ill afford a direct confrontation.

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Cloned rhesus monkey created to speed medical research

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ReTro, the first cloned Rhesus monkeyZhaodi Liao, Nature
By Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent

Chinese researchers have cloned the first rhesus monkey, a species which is widely used in medical research because its physiology is similar to humans.

They say they could speed up drug testing, as genetically identical animals give like-for-like results, providing greater certainty in trials.

Previous attempts to clone a rhesus have either not led to births or the offspring have died a few hours later.

One animal welfare group has said it is “deeply concerned” by the development.

In mammals, sexual reproduction leads to offspring made up of a mixture of genes from their father and mother. In cloning, techniques are used to create a genetically identical copy of a single animal.

The most famous cloned animal, Dolly the sheep, was created in 1996. Scientists reprogrammed a cell from another sheep to turn them into embryos which are building block cells that can grow into any part of an organism. These embryos were then implanted into Dolly’s surrogate mother.

Writing in the journal Nature communications, the researchers say they have essentially done the same thing but with a rhesus monkey. They say that the animal has remained healthy for more than two years, indicating the cloning process was successful.

Dr Falong Lu of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences told BBC News that ”everyone was beaming with happiness” at the successful outcome.

But a spokesperson for the UK’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) said that the organisation believed that the animal suffering caused outweighed any immediate benefit to human patients.

Rhesus monkeys are found in the wild in Asia, with populations in Afghanistan through India, Thailand, Vietnam and China. They are used in experiments to study infection and immunity.

The first macaque monkeys were cloned in 2018, but rhesus monkeys are preferred for medical researchers, because of their genetic similarity to humans.

Zhong Zhong, one of the first two monkeys created by somatic cell nuclear transfer

Chinese Academy of Sciences

The problem with this method of cloning adult cells to become embryonic is that in most attempts, mistakes are made in the reprogramming, and very few end up becoming born and fewer still are born healthy – between 1 and 3% in most mammals. And it has proved harder still with rhesus monkeys, with no births until the research team succeeded two years ago.

They discovered that in failed rhesus attempts, the placentas, which provide oxygen and nutrients to the growing foetus, were not reprogrammed properly by the cloning process and so did not develop normally.

The researchers got around the problem by not using the part of the cloned embryo that goes on to develop into the placenta – the outer part. As the graphic below shows, they removed the inner cells – which develop into the body of the animal and inserted them into a non-cloned outer embryo – which they hoped would develop into a normal placenta.

Graphic of cloning process

The researchers used 113 embryos, 11 of which were implanted and achieved two pregnancies and one live birth.

They named the monkey “ReTro”, after the scientific method, called “trophoblast replacemement”, used to produce the animal.

The RSPCA said it had grave misgivings about the research.

“There is no immediate application for this study. We are expected to assume that human patients will benefit from these experiments, but any real-life applications would be years away and it is likely that more animal ‘models’ will be necessary in developing these technologies,” a spokesperson said.

“The RSPCA is deeply concerned about the very high numbers of animals who experience suffering and distress in these experiments and the very low success rate. Primates are intelligent and sentient animals, not just research tools”.

Dolly the sheep

Prof Robin Lovell-Badge, of the Francis Crick institute in London, who strongly supports animal research when the benefits to patients outweigh the suffering to animals, has similar concerns.

“Having animals of the same genetic make-up will reduce a source of variation in experiments. But you have to ask if it is really worth it.

”The number of attempts they had is enormous. They have had to use many embryos and implant them into many surrogate mothers to get one live born animal.”

Prof Lovell-Badge also has concerns that the scientists have produced only one live birth.

”You cannot make any conclusions about the success rate of this technique when you have one birth. It’s nonsense to ever propose you can. You need at least two, but preferably more.”

In response, Dr Falong Lu told BBC News that the team’s aim is to obtain more cloned monkeys while reducing the number of embryos used. He added that all ethical approvals had been obtained for the research.

“All animal procedures in our research adhered to the guidelines set by the Animal Use and Care Committees at the Shanghai Institute of Biological Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and the Institute of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology. The protocol has been approved by the Animal Use and Care Committee of the CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology”.

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Golriz Ghahraman: New Zealand MP resigns following shoplifting allegations

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Golriz GhahramanGetty Images
By Kathryn Armstrong
BBC News

A New Zealand MP has resigned following multiple allegations of shoplifting, which police are investigating.

Golriz Ghahraman, of the Green Party, is alleged to have stolen three times from two clothing stores – one in Auckland and the other in Wellington.

Ms Ghahraman said stress relating to her work led her to “act in ways that are completely out of character”.

“I have let down a lot of people and I am very sorry,” she added.

The former United Nations human rights lawyer made history in 2017 by becoming the first refugee to be sworn into the New Zealand government. She once held the party’s justice portfolio,

She fled Iran as a child with her family, who were all granted political asylum in New Zealand.

Ms Ghahraman’s resignation on Tuesday comes after CCTV footage emerged showing her allegedly taking a designer handbag from an Auckland boutique.

The 42-year-old, who has not been charged with any crime, said in a statement her actions had “fallen short” of the high standards of behaviour the public expect from elected representatives.

“It’s not a behaviour I can explain because it’s not rational in any way, and after medical evaluation, I understand I’m not well,” she said, adding that she did not want to make excuses for herself.

“The mental health professional I see says my recent behaviour is consistent with recent events giving rise to extreme stress response, and relating to previously unrecognised trauma.”

Responding to her resignation, Green Party co-leader James Shaw said that Ms Ghahraman had been subject to “pretty much continuous threats of sexual violence, physical violence, death threats since the day she was elected to Parliament”.

“That has added a higher level of stress than is experienced by most members of parliament,” he said.

“There have been police investigations into those threats almost the entire time that she has been a member of parliament, and so obviously if you’re living with that level of threat in what is already quite a stressful situation then there are going to be consequences for that”.

Fellow Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson said it was right that Ms Ghahraman resigned but that it was clear she was in distress and would continue to receive their support.

“We have seen the conversation over the past years, especially over the particular treatment of women with public profiles, and in addition, the particular treatment of women of colour with public profiles,” said Ms Davidson.

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Staff suspended after pushing and hitting dogs, says dog training firm Xavian and Pack

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Another video shows the other dog handler dragging a black Shiba Inu to place it next to another dog. The man then hits the animal on its flank and head as it cowers from him. 

“This was just witnessed this morning, we are not affiliated with any company or business, just witnessing the treatment by @xavian_and_pack on the poor furkids for a photo-op made us furious!” the video caption read.

Responding to CNA’s queries, animal welfare group Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) said on Tuesday morning that it was alerted to the video showing the trainers mishandling the animals. 

“Just like us, animals experience pain and distress. We appeal to pet owners to only use humane, science-based and force-free training methods. Positive reinforcement helps nurture a loving, enriching relationship with our pets,” said SPCA. 

The animal welfare group reminded pet owners and trainers to refrain from using violence or intimidation. 

“Hitting, hurting, or threatening animals can cause increased fear and anxiety, that could result in long-term health and behavioural issues.” 

SPCA also asked those who had negative experiences with the training provider in the video to contact them so that they could investigate the matter.

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Why Biden finally attacked the Houthis

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Since mid-November, the Houthis have been launching attacks against shipping in the Red Sea. The US sent a number of AEGIS destroyers to help protect international shipping, performing the dual role of intercepting Houthi drones and missiles and coming to the aid of distressed commercial ships. 

The British also sent one of its best ships, the HMS Diamond. However, something changed to cause the US and the UK to actually strike Houthi military sites in retaliation.

Serious doubts arose on both the British and US sides that they were not equipped to deal with swarms of Houthi UAVs and missiles. On January 10, US and British forces shot down 21 drones and missiles. British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said that doing this was unsustainable. What did he mean?

There are two answers to the question of why the situation with the Houthis was going out of control. The first answer relates to the number of missiles aboard a ship. US ships are relying on SM-2 missiles, part of the AEGIS system.

One expert estimates the number available as follows:

“The [AEGIS] destroyers have a complement of 96 VLS cells, while the [Ticonderoga class] cruisers have 122…. However, they need to fit a mixture of weaponry in those cells so they can’t all be used for air defense.

This weaponry includes the ESSM (quad packed into a single cell), the SM-2 (and its newer counterpart the SM-6), Tomahawk cruise missiles, ASROC anti-submarine missile(s) and SM-3 anti-ballistic missile(s).

The HMS Diamond.

The exact ratio of these weapons is largely dependent on the mission and the possible threats faced. However, at least 200 ESSM and another 100 or so SM-2 or SM-6 seems like a fair guess. Maybe a bit more.”

In short, each of the AEGIS has around 100 missiles. The British Sea Viper is the main air defense system the HMS Diamond relied on to fire at Houthi drones and missiles.

“Type 45 destroyers, also known as Daring-class destroyers, are specifically designed around the Sea Viper (PAAMS) air defense system. Each Type 45 destroyer is equipped with a 48-cell A50 Sylver Vertical Launching System. This system is designed to accommodate a mix of up to 48 Aster 15 and Aster 30 missiles,” the expert said.  

Neither the US nor the British ships can be reprovisioned at sea, so they have a limited ability to “stay in the fight” if it continues for any length of time.

As the January 10 Houthi attack demonstrated, the Houthis were increasing the number of daily attacks. How large an arsenal the Houthis had, therefore, was challenging US and British defense capabilities.

Missile defenses are very expensive. Each SM-2 missile costs US$2.1 million each. Sea Viper, which can either be an Aster 15 or Aster 30, costs either 1 million to 2 million pounds per shot. ($1.25 million to $2.5 million).

Nor does this take into account the challenge of replacing these missiles once expended. It not only will be more expensive but could take years of production time.

This leads to the second answer: what happened that was different than before? There are three possibilities. 

The first is that on January 10 the British ship HMS Diamond and US destroyers in the area were directly targeted by the Houthis. If this interpretation is correct, it meant that the Houthis decided to directly attack US and UK warships.

The second possibility was Houthi threats and the response by the US. On December 20, the Houthi leaders warned “they would strike US warships if the Iranian-backed militia was targeted by Washington.” 

On December 31, the Maersk container ship, the Singapore-flagged Hangzhou, issued a distress call saying it was under attack by four boats.  

“The small boats, originating from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen, fired crew-served and small-arms weapons at the Maersk Hangzhou, getting to within 20 meters of the vessel and attempted to board the vessel,” the US Central Command said. 

Helicopters from the USS Eisenhower carrier and the AEGIS USS Gravely destroyer sent helicopters to intercept the four ships. After they ignored warnings, three of the Houthi combat vessels were destroyed by gunfire and the fourth fled.

The Houthis response was “The American enemy bears the consequences of this crime and its military movements in the Red Sea to protect Israeli ships won’t prevent” the Houthis from “performing their religious, moral and humanitarian duty in support and aid of those who have been wronged in Palestine and Gaza.”

But the third reason is more important than shooting up some Houthi boats filled with commandos. In their attack on January 10, the Houthis fired ballistic anti-ship missiles at US and British warships. Previously, the Houthis relied on Kamikaze drones and anti-ship cruise missiles.

Drones are very slow flying and typically use either small gasoline motors and propellers or are battery-powered. The Houthis have four types of combat drones: Qasef-1, Qasef-2K, Sammad-2 and Sammad-3. 

The Qasef-1 drone.

The Qasef-1 and Qasef-2 are small loitering munitions based on Iran’s Ababil drone. Each carries a 30-kilogram warhead. Samad drones are longer-range. It is likely the drones used in the shipping lanes near the Bab-el-Mandeb straits are of the short-range variety.

Yemen has a number of different types of anti-ship cruise missiles.  On December 11, for example, the Norwegian tanker Strinda was hit by a Houthi anti-ship cruise missile.  It sustained some damage but survived.   

In the Ukraine war, a Neptune R360 anti-ship missiles sank Russia’s Black Sea flagship, Moskva. All these missiles are jet-powered and subsonic. This means they can be tracked by radar and destroyed with air defense missiles.

The problem is much more difficult if the missiles fired are ballistic missiles, meaning they are powered by a rocket motor.  This makes them much faster and gives defenders far less reaction time.

The Houthis have many different anti-ship ballistic missiles supplied by Iran. They present a serious problem in restricted sea lanes near the shoreline, which is the key problem facing allies in the Bab El-Mandeb strait.

It is likely the appearance of rocket-powered ballistic anti-ship missiles forced the US and UK to make the decision to finally strike the Houthis and not just stay on the defensive. 

The only other choice would be to stop protecting shipping in the Red Sea but that would negatively impact Europe, including the UK, and it would deprive Egypt of its top asset, the Suez Canal, with monthly revenues of around $750 million.

This article was originally published on his Weapons and Security Substack. It is republished with kind permission.

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Online personality Kurt Tay gets more charges, says he will make police reports after being heckled

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SINGAPORE: Online personality Kurt Tay has been handed 10 fresh charges of distributing obscene material online and threatening a person in a Telegram chat group.

Tay, whose real name is Tay Foo Wei, now faces a total of 11 charges – 10 for distributing intimate images or videos of a woman without her consent to others via Telegram, and one charge under the Protection from Harassment Act of making threatening, abusive or insulting communication.

The charges are for Tay sending photos and videos of the same woman to users on Telegram and to chat groups, showing the woman performing a sex act.

The distribution was without her consent and likely to cause her humiliation, alarm and distress, the charges state.

On top of two chat groups, Tay also allegedly sent the material to seven people in October 2023.

The names of the recipients and the chat groups cannot be published as the court has imposed a gag order on their names.

The victim is also protected by a gag order.

The sole harassment-related charge that Tay faces is for several statements he allegedly made in a Telegram chat group on Oct 18, 2023.

He purportedly asked if anyone knew where to hire a killer and that he wanted someone to die “ASAP”, including vulgarities in his message.

The court heard on Wednesday that Tay might face additional charges.

Tay’s lawyer told the court that his client has been “harassed and heckled by the public”, and that this has caused grief to his family.

Tay would be making police reports, the lawyer added.

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The problem of refugee camps in MENA region

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According to the UN, the Middle East and North Africa ( MENA ) region will account for 12 % of “forcibly displaced and stateless people” in 2024. War, humanitarian problems, and economic disasters will all contribute to this movement.

The Sudanese civil war and the fallout from normal catastrophe in Turkey, Syria, Morocco, and Libya are the latest causes of the number. The millions of people in Palestine who have been displaced since 1948 are not included in this portion.

Children make up 50 % of the more than 80,000 people living in the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan, where 20-year-old Arab girl Souad is pregnant.

It’s challenging to raise a kid in the tent. Souad informed the Wilson Center, a US-based coverage think reservoir, in June 2023 that there is limited access to basic tools like clothes and baby milk formula.

Za’atari was the fourth-largest capital in Jordan for a brief period in 2013 and was home to more than 200,000 Syrians at the time.

According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees ( UNHCR ), despite the fact that the population of the 11-year-old refugee camp has since decreased and there is still no sign of a truce in the neighboring Syria, Za’atari continues to be the largest camp for refugees in both the Middle East and the world. ( Most refugees do n’t reside in formal camps. )

According to the UNHCR, 131 million people are expected to become displaced worldwide by 2024.

According to the UNHCR, of the entire 131 million people who are expected to be displaced, 63 million are anticipated to experience internal displacement, and an additional 57 million does experience external displacement or become refugees. Women and children may make up the vast majority of those who have been displaced, just like Za’atari.

More than three-quarters of the migrants were housed in lower- and middle-income nations in 2022, with Turkey leading the way with 3.6 million people and Iran at 3.4 million. According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Lebanon has the highest rate of refugees per capita ( 1 in 8 ), followed by Jordan ( one in 14 ).

results of the civil war in Syria and Yemen

Syria, where the civil war started in 2011 and is still going on, is home to the majority of the migrants in the MENA area. Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, and North Africa are home to more than 5.3 million Syrian migrants. The most Palestinian refugees in Europe are also housed in Germany, where there are about 560,000 of them.

This excludes the roughly 6.8 million internally displaced people who are still living in Syria. In the MENA place, about three-quarters of those under UNHCR’s purview—millions from the civil war in Yemen and Syria—were internally displaced.

The “entrepreneurial” spirit of the refugees is frequently emphasized in Za’atari, which has a bustling business district known as the Sham Elysees ( a play on the Arabic word for Syria and the Parisian avenue Champs-Élysées ). However, Asia Amari, an 18-year-old camp native, told CNN in 2016 that” We are not living around; it’s just an life.”

A visit to Azraq, another Syrian refugee camp in Jordan, reveals a very unique tale than the one about thriving fair. Azraq, which was intended to serve as a model camp, has been described as” a heavily controlled, miserable, and half-empty enclosure of symmetrical districts that restricts economic activity, movement and self-expression.”

It has been referred to by refugees as an “outdoor incarceration” and by outsiders as a “dystopian problem.”

situation of Palestinians

In contrast, a distinct UN organization is in charge of the nearly 6 million multigenerational Arab immigrants. In addition to smaller amounts residing in various MENA nations, about 1.5 million Arab migrants are housed in camps in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan.

” Socioeconomic conditions in the camps are generally poor, with high population density, cramped living conditions, and inadequate basic infrastructure such as roads and sewers,” according to the United Nations Relief and Work Agency ( UNRWA ), which oversees the Palestinian refugee camps.

According to the think-tank Migration Policy Institute, for instance, the almost 488 000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are asynchronous and “have extremely limited exposure to public health care, education, or the official economy.” They reside in camps for almost 45 % of the time.

” In some Palestinian tents, when the spring rains come, natural sewage washes into people’s houses,” according to the non-governmental business Anera.

According to a Lancet study published in 2012, 31 % of Palestinian refugees living in these camps had chronic medical conditions, and 55 % had “psychological distress.”

Not only is gender-based violence a significant problem in these tents, but UNRWA claims that “violent clashes]among different groups ] are also]a regular occurrence.”

Another illustration of the appalling situations faced by Palestinians is Gaza, where both the poverty level and the proportion of people who rely on humanitarian aid are over 80 %. As of August 2022, the unemployment rate was 47 %.

According to Anera, 13 % of the youth community experienced hunger in 2017. And that was when Israel launched its massive war and bombing campaign.

Some refugees, like many Palestinians, still have a strong desire to go back to their home country, should the circumstances when again permit it to be safe for them to do so. Some, however, have the chance; for instance, fewer than 25, 000 Palestinian immigrants were able to return to the nation in the first eight month of 2023.

Others want to relocate to Canada, Europe, or another location, like Amari. But for the time being, they are confined to filthy tents.

Globetrotter created this post and gave it to Asia Times.

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PBOC, BOJ start 2024 on a razor’s edge

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TOKYO- Despite all the issues regarding the US Federal Reserve, the People’s Bank of China and Bank for Japan are the source of the actual play this season.

The task of stabilizing Asia’s largest economy and fending off negative forces without re-inflating property bubble falls to PBOC Governor Pan Gongsheng in Beijing. As Japan flirts with a recession, BOJ Governor&nbsp, Kazuo Ueda, is under pressure to end quantitative easing ( QE ) over in Tokyo.

Failure by either of the best policymakers could have unpredictable effects on the international economic order.

That is not to say that the Fed cannot slam markets in Seoul and New York with even the tiniest hint of budgetary action. The typical wisdom has swung with mind-boggling rate in recent days, from more level hikes to extreme easing in the coming months.

As Fed Chairman Jerome Powell chooses whether to applaud or upset investors, dangers abound. If you relax very soon, inflation may last forever. The Fed may increase the likelihood of a recession and potential bank problems if rates are cut too soon.

However, at the beginning of 2024, the difficulties authorities in Beijing and Tokyo are facing are much more complicated.

China is dealing with an intensifying real estate crisis, high rates of youth unemployment, negative pressures, and a Communist Party that is losing support from continent residents and overseas investors. In general, all of those pressures may support forceful price reductions.

When you add President Xi Jinping’s deleveraging directive, items become much more complicated. Since 2016, the transformation team at Xi has prioritized containing risks associated with a decade of excessive loans. China’s debt-to-GDP ratio increased from 180 % in 2011 to 256 % in 2017.

According to Logan Wright, chairman of China markets studies at Rhodium Group, this deleveraging plan “is the only reasonable starting point to discuss how China’s fundamental economic slowdown began.”

According to Wright,” China’s economic authorities cut record growth in half and made it much more difficult for Beijing to power the economy using its standard tools of credit-fueled investment by state-owned enterprises and regional governments” by reducing the growth of the shadow, or casual banking system.

According to Wright, “property developers continued to increase their own loans throughout the deleveraging promotion, building up an exceptional real estate bubble before it finally burst in late 2021, boosting China’s current&nbsp, financial grief.” Following the global financial crisis, the deleveraging strategy marked the end of China’s unparalleled credit growth.

According to Wright,” China perhaps may have experienced a fiscal crisis much sooner had Beijing never taken the aggressive steps it did targeting shadow banks starting in 2016, as its system became increasingly difficult to regulate and was already resembling parts of the US economic system before the 2007–2008 global economic crises.”

Vice Governor of the People’s Bank of China ( PBOC ) Pan Gongsheng is depicted here. Online, New Straits Times, and Screengrab

Pan naturally does n’t want to waste money trying to slow down China’s boom-and-bust cycles. Pan wants to prevent encouraging a relapse into poor banking and borrowing practices. Additionally, his team needs to be aware that Premier Li Qiang and Xi do n’t want the yuan to fall significantly below current levels.

However, slow economic growth and low consumer prices are also urging more financial aid. Particularly when international challenges are getting worse, as evidenced by the highest&nbsp, US yields, in nearly 20 years, among other indicators.

China’s economy experienced new signs of weakness in December as stock task remained subdued. The Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index for the country fell from 49.4 in November, the third consecutive month of recession and the biggest drop in six times. Data indicate that stress on China’s services industry is also getting worse.

All of this points to the need for more signal in the short term, placing pressure on Pan’s PBOC.

In his annual New Year speech on Sunday, Xi insisted that China’s market had” sustained the speed of treatment.” However, talk of a significant new macroeconomic paying jolt was absent. &nbsp,

While acknowledging that” some companies had a tough time, some people had problems finding work and meeting basic needs” in the face of “headwinds,” Xi made it clear that long-term economic stability continues to be the top priority.

According to Xi,” we may continue to act in accordance with the principles of establishing the new before abolishing the ancient, promoting stability through headway, and seeking development while maintaining balance.”

Investors may be encouraged by Xi’s intentional phrasing if he uses this five-year term, his third, to accelerate reforms to increase innovation and productivity. &nbsp,

Xi, for instance, emphasized how scientific developments were boosting China’s “manufacturing skill” in lithium batteries, solar photovoltaic cells, and electric vehicles.

Notably, Xi vowed to “double efforts to advance science and technology, build talents, and boost education.” New levels are being scaled with tenacious resolve, and new works and improvements are emerging every day, as Xi put it.

The decline in island China is also echoing throughout Asia. As best markets almost everyday experienced sharp gains in 2023, Hong Kong stocks lost approximately US$ 523 billion in market value. &nbsp,

In 2023, the MSCI World Index increased by 22 %. Hong Kong companies, on the other hand, dropped for the second year out of the previous six. As local require declined, the S&amp, P Global Taiwan Manufacturing PMI decreased from 48.3 in November to 47.1 in December.

Due to all of this, the central banks will be responsible for any efforts to address China’s slowing growth without escalating its disparities. Anyone can speculate as to how Pan threads these numerous needles or whether the PBOC also you. &nbsp,

Kazuo Ueda, the government of the Bank of Japan, is having trouble endingQE. Image: Screengrab / Online

The BOJ of Ueda, which is under intense pressure to leave QE, may become compared in a similar way. Profit-hungry banks are sick of eking out meager profits in a culture with negative interest rates.

However, a recession in Japan’s local economy is quite possible to have ended 2023. In the months of July and September, growth decreased 2.9 % quarter over quarter. Since then, there has n’t been much evidence that the fourth quarter was any stronger.

According to scholar Marcel Thieliant of Capital Economics, even though the third-quarter GDP decline “was only a blip,” we” also assume GDP growth to slow down quickly” this year.

This makes it extremely difficult for Ueda to transition away from its 24 years of zero interest rates, 22 years ‘ worth of QE, and an eight-year period of negative yield policies. It is obvious that high prices gives Team Ueda enough weapons to start “tapering.”

Core inflation is currently higher than 3 %, excluding fresh food and energy. We plainly see pretty resilient upward pressures in support prices, according to ING Bank economist Min Joo Kang.” It’s correct that cost-push inflation tends to be short-lived and could be transitory.

Japan Inc. may not be prepared for financial alcoholism, though. Banks, businesses, local governments, pension and healthcare resources, universities, assets, the postal savings method, and the growing number of seniors will all suffer significant losses if Japanese government yields increase to 2 % or even 3 %.

This “mutually assured death” active had previously prevented almost anyone from selling loan. Tokyo will have more trouble paying off the largest debt load in the developed world, which is currently at about 265 % of GDP, the higher provides go.

These contradictory factors raise concerns about the size of the currency’s most recent increases. According to researcher Ipek Ozkardeskaya at Swissquote Bandank,” The market’s place regarding the yen may n’t be clearer.” The most obvious industry in the forex markets right now is the long Japanese yen. It is almost to simple.

possibly incorrect. Before retiring in April to&nbsp, Haruhiko Kuroda, Ueda’s father, had a number of opportunities, pivot away from QE, or simply telephone that an leave might be in the cards. He did n’t. &nbsp,

To be sure, Kuroda prepared for a change in December 2022 by allowing yields to increase by as much as 0.5 %. International markets became chaotic as a result, prompting Kuroda’s staff to rush to acquire debt and signal that BOJ policy had not changed.

That was an error. Kuroda had plenty of opportunity to signal QE was finished over the course of the following several months as he prepared to leave BOJ office. &nbsp,

Markets were ready for a great statement, and the Tokyo creation was reluctantly preparing for one. Kuroda, who had spent the previous ten years elevating QE to new heights, also had enough political clout to start reversing his extreme asset hoarding.

Ueda has witnessed economic conditions deteriorate in the 269 weeks since taking the stick. The widely anticipated post-Covid boom&nbsp in China did n’t occur, the Fed kept tightening, and the Japanese GDP started to decline. Ueda’s ability to leave QE is constrained by all of this.

Ueda consistently confused bet for major BOJ action, with the exception of a few minor adjustments to allow 10-year yields to major 1 %. Local trends today make it extremely challenging for Ueda to tighten its financial straps. &nbsp,

According to Commonwealth Bank of Australia analyst Joseph Capurso, wage growth is “remains poor and weakening.” ” We anticipate that the dollar-yen’s upward momentum will pick back up later this year.”

Jerome Powell, US Federal Reserve Chair Photo: Xinhua

The BOJ’s decision-making process is influenced by what the Fed does in Washington. According to Marc Chandler, main market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex,” the question is when and how quickly Fed price reductions may be delivered.” &nbsp,

The swing of market sentiment has significantly shifted from the “higher for longer” mantra of the majority of last year to pricing in extreme easing, according to him, as a result of moderated price pressures and weaker growth impulses. &nbsp,

However, how Beijing and Tokyo control 2024 will continue to be the main topic of discussion in central banks circles. Additionally, neither the PBOC nor BOJ are currently aware of any surprises that may be in store for them in the coming 12 weeks.

William Pesek can be reached at @WilliamPesak on X, previously Twitter.

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