The full-scale introduction of automated gates that do not require interviews by immigration officers will shorten waiting times at immigration control. The ministry is also aiming to strengthen counterterrorism measures ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics by reassigning immigration officers who mainly carry out immigration procedures for arriving and departing Japanese nationals to procedures for foreign nationals.

The facial recognition system will read photo data stored on an IC chip embedded in a person’s passport, comparing it with a photo taken at immigration facilities to verify the person’s identity. A passenger needs to hold their passport over a reader, which then takes their picture. If the person in the two photos is recognized as the same person, the passenger can pass through the gate. There is no age limit for passengers, and prior procedures are not necessary. Immigration examinations using the system are expected to be completed in about 15 seconds.

Three automated gates of this kind will be introduced at Haneda Airport in October, ahead of other airports, and will be used for immigration procedures for Japanese passengers arriving from abroad. In the next fiscal year, the automated gates will be gradually introduced at Narita, Haneda, Kansai and Chubu airports, which deal with about 90 percent of incoming and outgoing Japanese passengers. The ministry hopes to use the automated gates for immigration procedures for Japanese people arriving in and leaving from Japan.

According to the ministry, 2,680 immigration officers had been slated to conduct immigration procedures and other duties in fiscal 2016, with 80,440,737 people arriving in or departing from Japan in 2016. Of them, about 30.93 million were Japanese nationals who used Narita, Kansai, Haneda and Chubu airports. The four airports also dealt with about 34.67 million incoming and outgoing foreign passengers, with the number expected to further grow.

If automated gates are used for more immigration procedures for Japanese passengers, the ministry hopes to increase the number of officers handling immigration procedures for foreign nationals and strengthen border control measures to prevent terrorists from entering Japan.

The government has aimed to shorten waiting times at immigration control to within 20 minutes or less. However, the average waiting time was up to 35 minutes at Kansai and 28 minutes at Narita and Chubu in 2016, falling short of that goal.

In 2007, automated gates using fingerprint authentication were introduced in Japan. However, passengers need to register their fingerprints in a prior application, so the usage rate among Japanese travelers was just 8 percent in 2016. The facial recognition system does not require prior procedures, which likely will help widen the use of automated gates equipped with a facial recognition system.

In order to introduce the facial recognition system, the ministry will revise ministerial ordinances that are relevant to the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law.

Xi spoke in a televised address after swearing in new Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam as pro and anti-Beijing protesters clashed close to the ceremony.

Lam was selected by a pro-China committee, as were her predecessors, and is already being cast by critics as a China stooge in a city where many are angry at Beijing’s tightening grip on the freedoms of nearly eight million people.

Xi said that any threats to the authority of China’s communist party government “cross the red line and are absolutely impermissible”.

The warning comes after the emergence of young activists calling for self-determination or even full independence for Hong Kong, which has infuriated Beijing.

He added that Hong Kong had “more extensive democratic rights and freedoms than at any other time in its history”.

Lam took her oath of office under China’s national flag at the city’s harbourfront convention centre, before shaking hands with Xi.

Her inauguration comes a day after Beijing’s foreign ministry declared that the document signed by Britain and China which initiated the handover “is no longer relevant”.

The Sino-British Joint Declaration gave Hong Kong rights unseen on the mainland through a semi-autonomous “one country, two systems” agreement, lasting 50 years.

There are growing fears that those freedoms are now under threat from an assertive Beijing, with Chinese authorities accused of interfering in a range of areas in Hong Kong, from politics to media and education.

Pro-China protesters targeted a small march by activists in memory of the victims of Beijing’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown Saturday morning as officials gathered for the swearing in.

As the pro-democracy campaigners prepared to carry a makeshift coffin towards the convention centre, as they do each year, a man ran across the street and kicked it.

Flag-waving pro-China protesters then blocked the march as police struggled to separate the two sides.

Democracy campaigners were taken away in police vans and released soon after.

Lam’s swearing in by Xi is deeply symbolic for frustrated activists who have been pushing for fully free leadership elections for the city, with mass pro-democracy “Umbrella Movement” rallies bringing parts of the city to a standstill in 2014.

Those protests were sparked by a Beijing-backed political reform package which said Hong Kong could have a public vote for leader, but that candidates must be vetted first.

The proposal was voted down in parliament by pro-democracy lawmakers and the reform process has now stalled.

Lam has made no commitment to revisit it soon.

The failure of the democracy movement to win concessions has led some young campaigners to call for self-determination or even independence for the mainland, which has infuriated Beijing.

“Choose Love,” read one banner in the about 100-strong crowd outside Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office and near the Reichstag building housing the lower house.

Champagne corks popped and whoops, cheers and whistle blasts went through the crowd braving summer rain as news broke that lawmakers inside the chamber had passed the historic bill.

Among those celebrating from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community was Soeren Landmann of the “Marriage for All” initiative.

“I got married one year ago in Scotland because we were not allowed to do it in Germany,” he told AFP.

“I am inconceivably happy that a couple that would like to get married won’t have to go abroad for it anymore, and that they can now get married here in a very normal way.”

Inside the chamber, where supporters threw confetti, the 393-226 vote spelt a victory especially for Greens party politician Volker Beck, 56, a veteran gay rights campaigner who was ending a 23-year career as a lawmaker Friday.

“Today a bastion has fallen,” he told German news agency DPA on the move to allow full marriage rights rather than the civil unions introduced in 2001.

He greeted the speedy vote, which was forced by leftist parties three months before September 24 elections, saying it “spares us an election campaign fought on the backs of lesbians and gays”.

– ‘Vote for love’ –

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The law was pushed by centre-left Social Democrats, Greens and the far-left Linke party but also supported by 75 conservative lawmakers after Merkel allowed them to vote their conscience.

Merkel herself said she voted against the measure, based on the belief that a marriage is between a man and a woman.

The view was shared by Berlin Archbishop Heiner Koch, who voiced regret about the “watering down” of a sacred institution.

Marriage as enshrined in the German constitution aimed to protect those “who as mother and father give life to their children”, he said.

Most Germans however favour the change, which follows similar laws in many western democracies, with about three-quarters of Germans support, according to recent surveys.

The Lesbian and Gay Association, which has pushed for the reform since 1990, greeted the outcome, declaring that “Germany has voted for love”.

“This is a historic day!” it said in a statement. “Not only for lesbians and gays, but also for a more just and democratic society.”

Marriage would from now be based “not on gender but on love, committment and the promise to be there for each other in good times and in bad”.

The next step would be to achieve full societal acceptance that guarantees everyone the right to “be different, at any time, in any place, without fear and the threat of hostility”.

Klaus Wolter, 48, who lives in Singapore, went missing last Wednesday after telling the hotel he was staying at that he wanted to trek up Mount Sibayak, an active volcano in North Sumatra province.

Scores of rescuers began scouring the volcano — which last erupted over a hundred years ago — the day after he set off, in a frantic search which lasted eight days, and at one point included a helicopter.

Wolter’s body was found on Thursday near a waterfall several kilometres away from where he was last seen.

The rescue team took hours to retrieve the body due to the rough terrain, the head of the local search and rescue mission office, Budiawan, said.

“The wife of the victim has confirmed that it is her husband,” Budiawan, who goes by one name, told AFP.

There have previously been fatalities among tourists climbing volcanoes in Indonesia.

In 2010, an Italian tourist was killed after falling into a ravine when climbing Mount Rinjani, the second-highest volcano in Indonesia.

First lady Peng Liyuan has made headlines for her dress sense and charm as she meets members of the public, while Xi is sticking to more formal visits, including a massive military parade and a meeting with police trainees.

The couple arrived in the bustling financial hub Thursday to mark 20 years since the city was handed back to China by Britain, at a time when tensions are high over Beijing’s encroaching influence on the semi-autonomous city.

Peng’s curated image shows Beijing’s desire to boost its soft power on the global stage, with state media lauding her “public diplomacy” as spreading “kindness and goodwill”.

The wives of Chinese presidents have traditionally been far less prominent publicly than their counterparts overseas, particularly US first ladies.

Xi is not scheduled to meet regular citizens during the three-day trip to Hong Kong, a task that has been taken on by his celebrated soprano singer spouse who visited a kindergarten and elderly home in the first two days.

She has received a warm welcome on social media, even on traditionally sceptical forums.

“Although I’m not a fan of Xi, his wife is definitely more than presentable,” one user commented on the website of the usually anti-China Apple Daily website.

Others called her “dignified and noble” and “a real beauty.”

Peng emerged from the plane Thursday holding hands with Xi, wearing a high-collar white striped jacket paired with a beige skirt and an upswept hairstyle.

Later that day she visited kindergarten students and handed out gifts as they played.

On Friday, as Xi oversaw a massive military parade in rural Hong Kong, Peng visited an elderly home wearing a dark-coloured belted dress adorned with a flower brooch as residents praised her for being “smart” and “pretty”.

But some observers criticised the visits as exploiting more vulnerable members of society to stage a show.

“Little children don’t understand what’s happening, only that a stranger auntie is giving them presents,” one social media user commented on Facebook.

“Brainwashing starts from kindergarten. How scary,” another said.

Peng was a well known folk singer and rose to superstardom performing at gala shows belting out patriotic lyrics.

She has rarely performed since Xi rose to the presidency, instead accompanying him on trips abroad and speaking at events on health and philanthropy within China.

She performed in Hong Kong at the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the 1997 handover, wearing a lavish pink and red gown.//AFP

Cai Guo-Qiang is best known for designing the 2008 Olympic Games “giant footprints” – the amazing fireworks display that lit up the Beijing sky during the opening ceremony. Two billion people around the world witnessed the spectacle.

But it isn’t his only claim to fame.

In the semi-biographical documentary film “Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-qiang”, the 59-year-old New York-based artist reveals his dream project.

The “Sky Ladder” is one of Cai’s Projects for Extraterrestrials. Courtesy of Cai Studio/Netflix

The film shows Cai – in a fishing village in his hometown of Quanzhou in Fujian province – igniting a 500-metre ladder of rope and gunpowder. The structure shimmers as it’s carried into the sky by a huge hot-air balloon.

This is the “Sky Ladder” of the title, one of his Projects for Extraterrestrials begun in 1990. Using fireworks, Cai is exploring the links between humankind and an unseen world.

The “Sky Ladder” stayed grounded three times before it finally rose above that fishing hamlet. Bad weather and security concerns prevented planned launches in Beijing, Bath in England and Los Angeles in the United States.

“People tried to persuade me to quit, but I persisted because this was a tribute to my 100-year-old grandmother,” Cai said at the documentary’s screening during the recent Shanghai International Film Festival.

His grandmother was there to see his dream project take flight. She’d been the first in his family to believe in his abilities. More than 1,000 other people watched the movie with her in its first screening on the Chinese mainland.

The film has been streamed on Netflix to around 190 countries since last October.

One of Cai Guo-Qiang’s massive fireworks creations rises from a river barge to promote the opening

of an exhibition of his art in Shanghai.  Courtesy of Cai Studio/Netflix

The documentary, directed by Oscar winner Kevin Macdonald (“One Day in September”), traces Cai’s journey from his early days in Quanzhou.

In one scene, he has an emotional conversation with his ailing father. There’s also a clip from an old black-and-white movie in which he played the villain.

Cai described the shoot as “amazing, yet confusing”.

“For quite a long time, Kevin couldn’t figure out how to develop the story,” he explained. “He and his crew just followed me around for two years, always asking me questions.”

Cai chose Macdonald from a list of directors the producers provided. “Kevin had never been to China and knew very little about me and my art, so I immediately said I wanted him.

“I didn’t want someone who’d talk too much about my prizes or achievements. I wanted someone to tell my story through the perspective of an ordinary onlooker.”

The documentary idea emerged during a chat with Xiong Xiaoge, a renowned investor and founding partner of IDG Capital, during a flight to Russia in 2014.

Xiong, who was impressed by Cai’s art, brought on board fellow investors Wendi Deng, a Chinese-American businesswoman, and Liu Dejian, chairman of Fujian-based tech firm Netdragon Websoft.

Cai said he’s happy to see the documentary so well received. The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) and ranking site Rotten Tomatoes both give it high scores.

For the future, Cai plans to continue painting and producing his “gunpowder art”. “I feel I’ve been lucky,” he said. “I can do what I want to do.”

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a press briefing that Beijing has lodged a formal protest with Washington and urged the US government to “uphold its solemn commitment to the One-China principle”.

“Taiwan is an indispensable part of China’s territory and we firmly oppose this arms sale to Taiwan,” Lu said.

His comments come after China’s embassy in the United States slammed the sale, saying it was a “wrong move” that would hurt relations between the two countries.

“The wrong move of the US side runs counter to the consensus reached by the two presidents in Mar-a-Lago and the positive development momentum of the China-US relationship,” the embassy said.

“It will harm the mutual trust and cooperation between China and the US.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with his US counterpart Donald Trump at the billionaire’s luxury resort in Florida in April.

Relations between the two countries had appeared to improve since the talks, with Trump hailing an “outstanding” relationship with Xi.

But there are signs the honeymoon might be over with Trump criticising China for not doing enough to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions and the US slapping sanctions on a Chinese bank accused of laundering North Korean cash.

The Trump administration says the temporary ban is necessary to block terrorists from entering the country, but immigrant advocates charge that it illegally singles out Muslims.

The 90-day ban on visitors from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, and 120 day ban on refugees, will allow exceptions for people with “close family relationships” in the United States.

But activists said the government has defined that too narrowly, excluding relationships with grandparents and grandchildren, aunts and uncles and others.

And many were concerned about a possibly chaotic rollout of enforcement of the ban, like that in January when it was first announced.

Immigration rights activists and lawyers were waiting to help arrivals at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and other airports to be sure those from the six countries with valid US visas were allowed in after the ban went into effect at 8 pm Thursday Eastern time (0000 GMT Friday).

The Department of Homeland Security, which was heavily criticized for mishandling many arrivals when the ban was first attempted in January, promised a smooth rollout this time.

They stressed that anyone with a valid visa issued before the ban begins would still be admitted, and that all authorized refugees booked for travel before July 6 will also be allowed.

“We expect business as usual at the ports of entry starting at 8 pm tonight,” said a DHS official. “Our people are well prepared for this.”

The Trump administration insists the ban was necessary to protect the country from terror threats, and to give immigration authorities more time to tighten vetting of travelers and refugees.

“As recent events have shown, we are living in a very dangerous time, and the US government needs every available tool to prevent terrorists from entering the country and committing acts of bloodshed and violence,” a senior administration official told reporters Thursday.

– Trump claims political victory –

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But implementing it, even with exceptions, was also claimed as a political victory by Trump, after Federal appeals courts twice blocked his order saying it violated Constitutional protections of religion and overshot his own presidential powers.

Immigrant rights groups and Democrats in Congress continued to label trump’s order “illegal” and said the exemptions provided in a Supreme Court ruling on Monday remained unfair.

According to guidelines issued by the State Department, people with “close family relationships” would be exempt from the ban. It defined that to include parents, spouses, children, sons- and daughters-in-law, siblings and step- and half-siblings.

But “close family” does not include grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers-in-laws and sisters-in-law, fiances and any other “extended” family members, the guidelines say.

People with formal relationships with a US entity — who have for instance been offered a job or been accepted to study or lecture at a university — will also qualify for visas during the ban. But a hotel reservation, even if already paid for, does not qualify.

– ‘Redefining family’ –

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Democratic legislator Bennie Thompson blasted the government for a “lack of preparation and transparency” in putting into place the ban.

“Just hours before the president’s unconstitutional and misguided travel ban takes partial effect tonight, administration officials briefing Congress were unwilling or unable to provide meaningful answers about how they determined whom the ban would affect,” said Thompson, the senior Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee.

Rama Issa, executive director of the Arab American Association of New York, said the government is redefining what a family is.

“I was raised by my grandparents, so the idea of grandparents not being part of a family is very foreign to me,” she said at Kennedy International, preparing to help arrivals after the ban takes effect.

“I’m engaged to get married. I have family who lives in Syria today — not only my father, but my aunts and uncles who I would love to be at this wedding, and unfortunately are not going to be able to be here.”

Analysing satellite photographs, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative said Beijing’s Fiery Cross Reef base in the Spratly Islands now has 12 hardened shelters, four more than seen in February, with retractable roofs that can house missile launchers.

At Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reef bases, China has expanded its communications and radar arrays with multiple radar towers on each.

And new construction of “very large underground structures, four at each reef, is underway, which AMTI said a likely designed to house munitions and other essential goods.

“Major construction of military and dual-use infrastructure on the ‘Big 3’ … is wrapping up, with the naval, air, radar and defensive facilities that AMTI has tracked for nearly two years largely complete,” the group said.

“Beijing can now deploy military assets, including combat aircraft and mobile missile launchers to the Spratly Islands at any time.”

AMTI, part of the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, said the air bases on the three islands, and a fourth on Woody Island in the Paracel Islands, allow Chinese military aircraft to operate over almost the entirety of the South China Sea.

In December AMTI reported that large anti-aircraft guns and other defense systems had been installed ont he islands.

China claims nearly all of the South China Sea despite partial counter-claims from Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam.

But the United States has warned it against militarizing the region or threatening international sea lanes.

“We oppose China’s artificial island construction and their militarization that features in international waters,” US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in Sydney in early June.