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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40007710

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The Jan. 6 special committee requested in August that the National Archives, which is the custodian of the Donald Trump White Houses records, submit a long list of records from Trumps time in office and the aftermath of the Capitol riot.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Monday against the National Archives and a House special committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot in a bid to block Congress from obtaining certain documents related to the insurrection.

“The Committee’s request amounts to nothing less than a vexatious, illegal fishing expedition openly endorsed by Biden and designed to unconstitutionally investigate President Trump and his administration,” the lawsuit read. “Our laws do not permit such an impulsive, egregious action against a former President and his close advisors.”

The committee requested in August that the National Archives, which is the custodian of the Trump White House’s records, submit a long list of records from Trump’s time in office and the aftermath of the Capitol riot.

The request is part of the panel’s ongoing and intensifying investigation into how a mob of Trump’s supporters breached the Capitol on Jan. 6 trying to stop a Congressional joint session from certifying the 2020 presidential election result to Joe Biden.

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Trump has said he would assert executive privilege to shield the documents requested by the committee, but Biden, who legal experts said has the ultimate say over whether the information sought by the panel is covered by the executive privilege, determined that Trump’s effort to conceal the documents was neither in the best interest of the United States nor justified.

In an Oct. 8 letter to Archivist of the United States David Ferriero, White House Counsel Dana Remus demanded that the archivist turn over a subset of the required documents that Trump identified as privileged to Congress. Remus added that those documents should be submitted 30 days after Ferriero notified the former president.

Trump, however, claimed in the lawsuit filed in the DC District Court that Biden has an interest in preserving his executive privilege, saying it amounted to “a political ploy to accommodate his partisan allies.”

“As it relates to any materials being sought in situations like this, where fundamental privileges and constitutional issues are at stake and where a committee has declined to grant sufficient time to conduct a full review, there is a longstanding bipartisan tradition of protective assertions of executive privilege designed to ensure the ability to make a final assertion, if necessary, over some or all of the requested material,” the lawsuit read.

In addition to seeking documents from the Trump White House, the special committee also sent subpoenas to and asked depositions from several former senior officials in the Trump administration, including Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist who defied the subpoena and didn’t show up at the scheduled hearing last week.

Bannon’s no-show infuriated the Democrat-led panel, prompting it to set up a vote Tuesday to recommend criminal contempt charges against him.

In what could potentially be another blow to the former president, Democrat Bennie Thompson, who chairs the special committee, didn’t rule out subpoenaing Trump. 

Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump gather near the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., the United States, Jan. 6, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

Published : October 19, 2021

By : Xinhua

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40007709

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After more than 100 days in lockdown, residents of Australias most populous state of New South Wales (NSW) enjoy more freedom as the state reached its 80-percent vaccination rate target. However, people have been faced with new anxieties and challenges that come with re-adjusting to normal life.

After more than 100 days in lockdown, residents of Australia’s most populous state of New South Wales (NSW) enjoy more freedom from Monday, as the state reached its 80-percent vaccination rate target.

However, people have been faced with new anxieties and challenges that come with re-adjusting to normal life.

Mother of two, Sherry Lee, sent her twin boys in Year 1 back to school in Sydney on Monday morning for the first time since lockdowns ended. She packed three masks for each child and showed them how they should wear them, but this only did so much to put her worries to rest.

Prayut eyes reopening Thailand to foreign filmmakers after Crowe extols Phuket Sandbox

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“It’s great to have the kids back to school, but I don’t feel quite at ease. The reports that the Delta variant is more infectious for young people and kids than the previous variants made me feel stressed,” she told Xinhua.

Shelly Diane, a 25-year-old marketing specialist living in Sydney’s north, told Xinhua that it has been hard to feel the same sense of comfort she used to in public spaces, especially indoors.

Prayut eyes reopening Thailand to foreign filmmakers after Crowe extols Phuket Sandbox

“I went to a bar with my family, and you feel a bit claustrophobic being surrounded by so many people. It is hard to feel the same sense of safety. I was shocked and nervous when they didn’t check out vaccination at the door,” said Diane.

Dr. Suraj Samtani, clinical psychologist and postdoctoral fellow at UNSW Sydney’s Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA) told Xinhua it is understandable that people would feel anxious during these initial stages, especially when many rules and regulations are still up in the air and being adjusted.

“When you’ve gone to a venue and your vaccine passport wasn’t checked, that takes away that knowledge that you’re surrounded by vaccinated people,” said Samtani.

“It’s really important for people to have a sense of control so that they can manage their risk and level of anxiety.”

Thirty-three-year-old law student Ryan Leaney told Xinhua many everyday things, like getting a haircut, have become new points of anxiety.

“Honestly it was strange doing something so normal after such a long time, afterwards I felt quite overwhelmed and emotional.”

Samtani said this reaction is “normal”.

“People can feel overwhelmed because they’ve been living under so much uncertainty for so long and they’re just finally able to do something familiar.”

While non-essential workers are yet to return to their workplaces, after working from home for so long returning to physical workplaces will likely be a major point of anxiety for many.

Diane said she has been “dreading” the return to the office.

“I just feel really anxious about meetings in person and being in that professional environment, it is very different from having meetings online from the comfort of your own home.”

Leaney said that while he is excited to return to the classroom, he is nervous that his social skills have declined during lockdown.

“There’s that anxiety of like, ‘Am I ready to talk to a new people?'”

Australian mental health and suicide hotline, Lifeline, reported in October that demand for their service had seen an increase of 40 percent since pre-pandemic times.

“As we navigate the economic recovery from this pandemic, we must also support people’s mental wellbeing along the way,” said NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet while announcing a 130-million-Australian-dollar (about 96-million-U.S.-dollar) investment in the state’s mental health services.

Samtani said that going forward it would be important for people not to make their assessment of health risks based on the number of daily cases, and overcoming feelings of anxiety would be a gradual process.

“If a situation is safe and you have been avoiding it, it prevents you from learning that the situation is actually safe. And by putting yourself in a situation where you’re doing a small, achievable step, and repeating that several times… (you can) gradually build your confidence over time.”

“Avoidance leads to anxiety, and experience leads to confidence.” 

Prayut eyes reopening Thailand to foreign filmmakers after Crowe extols Phuket Sandbox

Published : October 19, 2021

By : Xinhua

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40007708

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The skyrocketing prices of daily needs have sandwiched the ordinary people, a wood buyer Yar Mohammad said, adding that the closure of borders and freezing Afghan assets abroad has caused economic problems for Afghans.

People are struggling to cope with the incoming winter in the war-torn and cash-strapped Afghanistan, as the majority of the country’s some 35 million population living under the poverty line and barely can bear the expenses of daily basic needs.

“The purchase of power is sliming day by day and people can’t afford to buy wood or other necessities to cope with the winter and keep their homes warm in the chilly season,” a wood buyer Yar Mohammad told Xinhua.

Bargaining with the wood seller in a local wood market here, Mohammad said that the skyrocketing prices of daily needs have sandwiched the ordinary people, adding that the closure of borders and freezing Afghan assets abroad has caused economic problems for Afghans.

Afghan men work at a wood market in Kabul, Afghanistan, Oct. 17, 2021. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

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“Borders are closed, banks don’t have normal activities and Afghanistan assets abroad have been frozen,” Mohammad said angrily.

The United States has reportedly frozen more than 10 billion U.S. dollars of Afghanistan since the Taliban took over the power of the country in mid-August, which led to an uncertain situation in Afghanistan where bank account owners have begun withdrawing their capital and local banks can not give more than 200 U.S. dollars each week.

Afghan men work at a wood market in Kabul, Afghanistan, Oct. 17, 2021. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

The country’s economic situation worsens with a high inflation rate, increasing unemployment and growing poverty.

The majority of people in Afghanistan do not have a central heating system in their homes and largely relying on the old-fashion heating system, the wood stove, to keep their home warm in the mountainous country.

“The business has flopped, the number of jobless people is on the rise and the economic situation is extremely unstable while the prices of fuel including petrol and diesel are going up day by day,” a coal seller Mohammad Sabir whispered.

Last year at this time, according to Sabir, his shop was full of coal buyers. But nowadays, rarely do locals ask for coal, although the price is not too high.

“The price of one-ton coal was 10,000 afghanis last year but this year it costs 11,000 afghanis,” Sabir said, adding the purchase of power of the people has been shrunk this year in comparison with last year.

According to Sabir, 1 U.S. dollar equals 89. 80 afghani nowadays, while in last year, 1 U.S. dollar exchanged to 72 afghani.

Afghan men work at a wood market in Kabul, Afghanistan, Oct. 17, 2021. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

Published : October 19, 2021

By : Xinhua

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40007686

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WASHINGTON – U.S. politicians from both parties on Monday remembered Colin L. Powell as a highly respected public servant, trusted adviser to presidents and statesman upon learning that the former secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had died of complications from covid-19.

“Many Presidents relied on General Powell’s counsel and experience,” former president George W. Bush said in a statement. “He was such a favorite of Presidents that he earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom – twice. He was highly respected at home and abroad. And most important, Colin was a family man and a friend.”

Powell served as secretary of state under Bush – a tenure that was marred by a 2003 appearance before the United Nations in which Powell cited faulty information in seeking to make the case for U.S. war against Iraq.

That episode was largely set aside Monday, however, as tributes poured in for a man whose career in public service began when he was a soldier in Vietnam.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/c/embed/0e0c1295-6825-453f-a080-a3874656fc69?ptvads=block&playthrough=false

Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., who served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War era long before heading to Capitol Hill, praised Powell’s military leadership.

“Simply stated, Colin Powell was a great general, a distinguished combat soldier, an outstanding statesman, and an inspirational leader whose transcendent presence served as a beacon and a rock to present and future generations,” he tweeted.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., celebrated Powell’s journey as a testament to the American Dream.

“It is hard to imagine a more quintessentially American story: A son of Jamaican immigrants who learned Yiddish from his boyhood neighbors in the Bronx becomes a four-star general in the United States Army and serves four presidential administrations, including as National Security Advisor, the youngest-ever Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the first Black Secretary of State,” he said in a statement.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I., said Powell “was resolute and honorable throughout his life and career, and America is fortunate to have benefitted from his leadership.”

In a tweet, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, remembered Powell as “a man of undaunted courage and a champion of character.”

“A statesmen & trailblazer, devoted to America and the cause of liberty, Colin Powell’s legacy of service & honor will long inspire,” Romney said.

Powell was the first African American to serve as secretary of state and as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was urged at several points to run for president but never mounted a bid.

“America needs more leaders like him at this moment, people willing to put nation over party and to call us together,” Sen. Christopher Coons, D-Del., said in a statement. “Colin was truly a class act, who loved our nation deeply and who worked diligently in service to our country in key diplomatic, national security and public service roles over several decades. His loss will be felt by all who served with and learned from him.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/c/embed/1cd8e932-c8b7-4327-89c5-e6dcb439ff14?ptvads=block&playthrough=false

Former vice president Richard B. Cheney also pointed to Powell’s role as a trailblazer.

“General Powell had a remarkably distinguished career, and I was fortunate to work with him,” Cheney said in a statement that noted Powell’s service in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, among other things. “Colin was a trailblazer and role model for so many: the son of immigrants who rose to become National Security Advisor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and Secretary of State.”

Jaime Harrison, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said he had been personally moved by Powell’s achievements.

“As a young Black man, I was inspired by Secretary Powell, who showed there is no limit to what we can be or achieve,” Harrison said in a statement.

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the only Black GOP member of the Senate, also credited Powell for having broken “countless barriers along the way.”

On Twitter, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., called Powell “a wise, decent & generous spirit” and noted that Powell got married on the same day that Leahy did.

“He & Alma were married on the same day that we were and most yrs on that day we’d talk with & tease each other,” Leahy said. “Our hearts are heavy & our thoughts are w/ Alma & their family.”

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the nation’s first Black defense secretary, called Powell “one of the greatest leaders that we have ever witnessed.”

“Alma lost a great husband, and the family lost a tremendous father, and I lost a tremendous personal friend and mentor,” Austin told reporters. “He always made time for me, and I could always go to him with tough issues. He always had great counsel. We will certainly miss him. I feel as if I have a hole in my heart.”

“Quite frankly, it is not possible to replace a Colin Powell,” Austin added, noting Powell’s trailblazing status as the first African American chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and as secretary of state.

Despite his controversial role in selling the Iraq War, Powell was broadly popular within the State Department for the attention he paid to the needs of the men and women of the Foreign Service.

On Monday, the American Foreign Service Association, the union that represents U.S. diplomats, released a statement calling Powell “a true patriot and public servant.”

“Few secretaries have devoted as much time and energy to ensuring that the professional career Foreign Service was properly staffed, resourced, consulted, and respected,” the AFSA said in a statement. “For that, Secretary Powell will always be remembered with great affection and appreciation.”

Remembrances of Powell were also shared by those with whom he worked around the globe.

Jack Straw, Britain’s former foreign secretary and Powell’s counterpart, called him “a brilliant diplomat because he always had time for people.” They last exchanged messages a month ago.

Powell was “indefatigable in the amount of work that he put in. My wife nicknamed him ‘the other man in her life'” because he used to call at 11 p.m., Straw said to the BBC.

He said that Powell regretted the way he presented the case for the invasion of Iraq: “He did regret it, as did I.”

“He felt rather personally that this had been a blight on an otherwise impeccable reputation,” Straw said, “but it is my belief that people will see his career in the balance and put that against all his other extraordinary achievements.”

“He could have been president,” Straw said. He said he and Powell talked “a number of times” about his decision not to run and that “the reason, he told me, … was because of his wife.”

Published : October 19, 2021

By : The Washington Post

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40007685

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The number of Covid-19 cases crossed 12.81 million across Southeast Asia, with 30,524 new cases reported on Monday (October 18), lower than Sunday’s tally at 32,979. New deaths are at 382, decreasing from Sunday’s number of 403. Total Covid-19 deaths in Asean are now at 272,673.

Cambodian Ministry of Posts and Telecommunication has officially launched the “StopCovid QR Vaccine” QR Code on Monday. The system makes it easier for the location of people involved in any positive cases of Covid-19, quarantine control, and presentation of information on vaccination of each individual. The ministry hopes that it will help contain and prevent the spread of Covid-19, and contribute to promoting the reopening of all sectors in the new norm

Meanwhile, Vietnamese government approved a national science-technology programme for promoting studies and production of human vaccines by 2030. Under the programme, the production of all domestic vaccines will meet international standards and sufficiently supply the National Expanded Programme on Immunisation. The country also looks forward to exporting its home-grown vaccines.

By 2025, Vietnam is expected to own production technologies of at least 10 vaccines and produce at least three. The figures will reach 15 and five by 2030. It will also promote the use of both latest and conventional technologies for producing vaccines against Covid-19, cancers and others.
 

Published : October 19, 2021

By : THE NATION

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40007683

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Protesters disrupted the flame-lighting ceremony for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics on Monday in Greece, approaching the just-lit torch with a Tibetan flag and a banner that read “No Genocide Games.”

Free Tibet, a London-based group that works to end China’s occupation of the region, identified the protesters as Chemi Lhamo, Jason Leith and Fern MacDougal. The protesters can be heard but not seen in video of the flame-lighting ceremony, which took place amid heavy security at the Temple of Hera in Ancient Olympia, where the torch traditionally is lit ahead of its journey across the globe.

“How can Beijing be allowed to host the Olympics given that they are committing a genocide against the Uyghurs?” one protester said, referring to reports of human rights violations committed by the Chinese government against the Uyghur and other Muslim minority populations of the Xinjiang region in northwest China.

According to the Associated Press, police threw the protesters to the ground and arrested them. Free Tibet added that Greek police arrested four other Tibetan activists while they were sitting in a car on a public road near the entrance to the ceremony.

The International Olympic Committee has generally steered clear of China’s human rights record, and in a speech Monday, IOC President Thomas Bach said the Games must be “respected as politically neutral ground.”

“Only this political neutrality ensures that the Olympic Games can stand above and beyond the political differences that exist in our times,” he said. “The Olympic Games cannot address all the challenges in our world. But they set an example for a world where everyone respects the same rules and one another.”

Beijing is hosting the Olympics for the second time. Its first Games, the 2008 Summer Olympics, also saw protesters disrupt the torch relay in numerous cities. The London leg was met by thousands of pro-Tibet protesters, and the torch was carried via bus at one point to avoid them. When the torch reached Paris, Chinese Olympic officials extinguished the torch numerous times to prevent protesters from doing the same with water or fire extinguishers. In San Francisco, thousands of people converged to protest the torch, forcing city officials to alter its route through the city.

On Sunday, police arrested two protesters at the Acropolis in Athens for attempting to raise a banner that referenced human rights abuses in China. According to Free Tibet, the protesters were released ahead of their trial in January.

Greek Olympic officials will hand over the torch to their counterparts from Beijing on Tuesday in Athens, and like Monday’s ceremony, Tuesday’s event will not be open to the public. Normally, the torch is paraded around Greece for a week before leaving for its worldwide relay, but Olympic officials canceled that this year, citing the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, the torch will arrive in Beijing on Wednesday.

Published : October 19, 2021

By : The Washington Post

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40007681

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KITAKYUSHU, Japan – Noodle chef Takashi Nakamoto moves so deftly as he boils, strains and arranges his signature plates of udon that its easy to overlook the brutal reminder of his former life: his missing left pinkie.

Over three decades, Nakamoto rose through the ranks of the Kudo-kai, a violent syndicate of the once-powerful yakuza, a Japanese criminal network whose membership has been chipped away by more-aggressive law enforcement.

That effort has also led to a greater number of defectors like Nakamoto, who are trying to reinvent themselves after a life within the family-like hierarchies of the yakuza, ruled by a strict code of loyalty. Members are often conspicuous, with full-body tattoos and pinkies amputated by the mob as punishment for wrongdoing.

For years, the yakuza operated somewhat openly. It was monitored by police with the understanding that the yakuza would take care of petty crime on its turf and leave ordinary citizens alone. But now, Japanese authorities are applying more pressure as the yakuza’s power begins to erode.

In 2015, while serving his last prison sentence, Nakamoto reflected on where he was going. He had lost faith in the organization and its future. It was time to leave.

“Even though I left the yakuza world, there is a lot I learned. And some of what is at the core is still the same,” said Nakamoto, 55, sitting in his udon restaurant in Kitakyushu, a city in southern Japan that is home to the Kudo-kai.

“I was willing to do everything and die for my organization,” he said, “and now I am just switching gears with that same mentality and putting that determination into living and working in normal society.”

Nakamoto, a former yakuza member, was able to open up his udon restaurant in the Fukuoka prefecture thanks to the trust he built with fellow vendors and the head of the shopping district. MUST CREDIT: Photo by Taro Karibe for The Washington Post.

But finding normalcy does not come easy for former yakuza members, who face social stigma and significant legal barriers. Some government programs offer financial support as members transition from mob life, but many doors remain closed.

Yakuza membership is plummeting – the result of a decade of intensifying crackdowns targeting organized crime and the yakuza’s reach into illegal activities including drug trafficking, money laundering and gambling.

There were about 70,300 known yakuza members in 2011, but that number had dropped to 25,900 by 2020, according to the National Center for Removal of Criminal Organizations. The exodus has made it feasible for longtime members like Nakamoto to leave the organization without fear of retribution for breaking the code of loyalty.

On Aug. 24, a Japanese court handed down what is believed to be the first death sentence of a yakuza boss, Kudo-kai leader Satoru Nomura, who was convicted of having a role in attacks on four civilians, including one who was murdered.

The verdict sent a wider message that times were changing for the yakuza.

After his sentencing, Nomura yelled at the judge: “You will regret this for the rest of your life.” (The verdict is now under appeal. Nomura’s lawyers later said the statement was not intended as a threat.)

“I think that the sentence has an impact on the yakuza world in that restrictions and regulations for yakuza as a whole will continue to become stricter,” said Garyo Okita, a former yakuza member who now writes semiautobiographical books and oversees film projects about Japanese crime groups. “Now that there’s a precedent of a death sentence, Kudo-kai won’t be seen as some extreme case, but all yakuza will be seen as the same threat.”

– – –

About a decade ago, yakuza groups had become so brazen and financially powerful that authorities across Japan enacted ordinances prohibiting any business or person from being associated with a yakuza member or activity.

The laws were designed to isolate the yakuza from society, said Noboru Hirosue, a prominent expert on criminal sociology and the yakuza.

That meant yakuza members could no longer open bank accounts, rent homes, get insurance or obtain cellphones. Okita, who left the largest syndicate, Yamaguchi-gumi, in 2014, said the crackdowns also restricted families of yakuza members and others in their social circles.

These changes led to the early retirements of elder yakuza leaders, and many underlings also stepped aside.

“The law had a huge impact on the yakuza world,” Okita said.

But Hirosue, who works as a probation officer at the Justice Ministry, said the changes have led to a rise in other criminal networks outside the yakuza. These groups have now moved into new schemes, including elderly fraud, cybercrime and ways to profit off legal drugs such as sleeping pills and morphine, he said.

“Now, the Japanese underworld has entered a new phase,” Hirosue said.

– – –

Motohisa Nakamizo, who left the Kudo-kai in 2011 when his boss retired, was hired at his parents’ real estate company. It was his first legitimate employment after about 30 years handling Kudo-kai drug trafficking.

But such opportunities are rare.

Local regulations bar former members from activities such as opening a bank account or signing a lease for at least five years after they leave the network.

According to Hirosue’s analysis of Justice Ministry employment figures for former yakuza members who register their defections with police, as few as 3% who left between 2010 and 2018 found jobs. Some who can’t find jobs return to their yakuza organization, but others join new gangs, he said.

“Coming out of prison or a yakuza organization, you have to think that for the first five years you’re not the same as everyone else. People often talk about starting from zero, but we are starting from minus, working toward zero,” said Nakamizo, 56, sitting in his office in Hakata, a city near Kitakyushu.

Nakamizo now hires former members at his real estate company as a part of a Justice Ministry program. Yet only about 10% of them make it through the first five years. The rest usually end up returning to crime.

“I wish society as a whole wouldn’t make prejudgments and [would] give these people a chance,” he said. “Otherwise, it will leave them with nowhere to go, and will make them take the wrong path.”

Many face an education gap that is difficult to overcome. For example, Ryuichi Komura left the Yamaguchi-gumi at age 38. His formal education ended at middle school, and he had served four prison sentences.

“I wanted to turn my life around,” he said. But his chances of finding a stable job were poor. He was interested in law, but as a former yakuza member, it was next to impossible for him to become an attorney.

Instead, he decided to take the test to become a judicial scrivener, a job similar to being a paralegal that has a 3% acceptance rate. It took him eight years of study, and on his seventh try, he passed. He was 46.

– – –

Twenty years ago, Kudo-kai members rammed a car into a tea shop in Kitakyushu. It was an act of revenge against the shop owner, Toshiyuki Tsuji, who, to prevent the gang from settling in the neighborhood, had bought a building the Kudo-kai wanted.

So when Nakamoto, the udon chef, tried to open up his restaurant in Tsuji’s shopping district – while he was still under the five-year ban – the cards seemed stacked against him.

But Nakamoto built individual relationships with other vendors, was honest about his time with the Kudo-kai, picked up trash from the street and volunteered for the shopping district’s festivals and events.

“Nothing will change if you just wait for the five years to pass just because there are restrictions,” he said. “You can’t just wait for people to come to you and help you, but you need to be the one to reach out first.”

Tsuji was impressed, and took a chance. As the head of the shopping district, Tsuji accepted Nakamoto’s request to open his udon restaurant.

“Even if someone is ex-yakuza, if someone comes to me, I would first talk with them, looking into their eyes to see if they genuinely want to start over, and their seriousness,” Tsuji said. “Everyone deserves the basic freedom to work.”

On a recent weekday, a steady flow of customers ate lunch at Nakamoto’s 13-seat restaurant, tucked in an alley between a hair salon and a laundromat. He still volunteers for festivals and sweeps the street without being asked.

His black long-sleeve shirt covers up his tattoos while he works. But he doesn’t hide his past: A newspaper article featuring his story is framed on the wall, and in the restaurant bathroom are Japanese comic books about an ex-yakuza boss turned devoted house husband.

Published : October 19, 2021

By : The Washington Post

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40007680

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U.S. and senior Haitian officials on Monday worked to free 17 members of an Ohio-based Christian aid organization who were kidnapped over the weekend in Haiti, while local unions and other groups launched a general strike to protest the worsening security situation and gang violence racking the Caribbean nation.

Analysts believe that 400 Mowaza, a gang notorious for mass kidnappings and ransoming of religious groups, is behind Saturday’s brazen abduction. The 16 Americans and one Canadian from Christian Aid Ministries were seized while on a trip to visit an orphanage.

“The welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad is one of the highest priorities of the Department of State,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement. “We have been in regular contact with senior Haitian authorities and will continue to work with them and interagency partners.”

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on Monday that President Joe Biden is receiving “regular updates” about the efforts of the State Department and the FBI to secure the release of the group. She said the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince is also “coordinating with local authorities and providing assistance to the families to resolve the situation.”

Psaki did not provide details about the identities of those who were kidnapped, citing privacy concerns.

The kidnapping thrust Haiti once more into the center of an international crisis. For months, the poverty-stricken Caribbean nation has been battling a surge in gang violence and kidnappings. A power struggle after the July assassination of President Jovenel Moïse has further eroded any semblance of rule of law.

Even before this weekend’s abduction, local unions and other organizations had called for a general strike Monday to protest the deteriorating security situation. The demonstration closed businesses, including gas stations, and some schools, and it left the streets of the Haitian capital largely deserted.

“General strike, no commercial activities, no public transport, no fuel, no schools, no life,” Giuseppe Loprete, chief of the International Organization for Migration’s Haiti mission, wrote in a tweet, which included a photo of a mostly empty road. “The population is exhausted. Instability, violence and chaos are pushing [people] to leave more than poverty.”

The 400 Mowaza gang controls parts of Ganthier in Croix-des-Bouquets, the area outside Port-au-Prince where the Christian Aid Ministries car was hijacked as the group returned from visiting an orphanage.

Haiti holds the grim status of having the world’s highest number of kidnappings per capita, with 400 Mowaza behind some 80% of abductions in recent months, according to Gédéon Jean, director of the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights in Port-au-Prince. The group is notorious for its use of rape, mass kidnappings and assassinations to control Haitian streets, businesses and power players.

Haitian authorities said Sunday that they sought to negotiate with 400 Mowaza’s reported second-in-command, Joly “Yonyon” Germine, who is in jail. The gang’s alleged leader, Wilson Joseph, is wanted by police for a long list of charges, including murder and kidnapping.

No group has yet publicly claimed responsibility for kidnapping the Christian Aid Ministries’ team or set a ransom for release. The U.S. government has a long-standing policy of not paying ransoms for American citizens.

Christian Aid Ministries said Sunday that the group included five men, seven women and five children, among them a 2-year-old.

Haitians both rich and poor have fallen victim to the kidnapping surge rattling the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation. Abductors typically set ransoms within 24 to 72 hours: Prices can vary from $100 to $1 million, depending on the hostage’s status.

Haitian politicians and police are too weak – or co-opted – to intervene. Many Haitians are consequently too afraid to leave their homes for work – if they have a job at all. A spike in hijackings of fuel trucks has led to a severe shortage of gas and electricity. Some victims of the gangs are specifically targeted; many more are chance bystanders.

The rise of gang violence and the demise of the rule of law has further traumatized – and desensitized – another generation of Haitians. Thousands have been displaced this year, forced to live in overcrowded and unhygienic temporary shelters. Others have undergone treacherous journeys to seek asylum in the United States, only to be returned to Haiti in a surge of deportations last month.

Christian Aid Ministries, based in Millersburg, Ohio, has worked in Haiti for years providing emergency services and running anti-poverty programs, as well as spreading its version of Christian teachings. Its American staff members returned last year after being pulled out for nine months because of the political unrest.

Haiti, formerly occupied by the United States and colonized by the French, is heavily dependent on international aid. Foreigners working in the humanitarian sector typically live in closed compounds and travel with security, among other safety precautions. Many countries and companies pulled out staff in recent months as the insecurity deepened.

In a statement issued Sunday, Christian Aid Ministries pleaded for its members’ release and said it was “praying for those who are being held hostage, the kidnappers and the families, friends and churches of those affected.”

Published : October 19, 2021

By : The Washington Post

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40007679

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Zalmay Khalilzad, who negotiated the U.S. withdrawal agreement with the Taliban under Donald Trump, has resigned as special envoy to Afghanistan, effective Tuesday.

The Biden administration, which kept Khalilzad in his job for another nine months, was expected to announce the resignation later Monday.

“I decided that now is the right time,” Khalilzad said in a resignation letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, “at a juncture when we are entering a new phase in our Afghanistan policy.”

Its parting of ways with one of the most senior Trump appointees remaining in the government had been widely seen as only a matter of time, although it was unclear whether he was asked to leave.

In a brief statement, Blinken thanked Khalilzad for his service and said that Tom West, Khalilzad’s deputy, would take over as the administration’s special representative.

In the wake of the frenzied U.S. exit from Afghanistan, Khalilzad has been the target of extensive criticism – including from the current administration – for an agreement seen as giving too much and gaining little.

But to the Afghan-born envoy, it was not a faulty agreement that led to August’s Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, but Washington’s decision – under both Trump and President Joe Biden – to press ahead with the withdrawal despite the Taliban’s failure to comply with most of its terms, according to people familiar with Khalilzad’s views who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

“The Talibs committed to not allow terrorist groups, including Al Qaida, [to] plan or carry out attacks against the security of the United States and our allies,” Khalilzad wrote in his letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. “They further agreed not to allow terrorists to recruit, train, or fundraise in the territories they controlled. They also agreed to negotiate directly with the existing Afghan government for a power sharing agreement and a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire.”

“As part of this package,” he wrote, “we agreed to withdraw our forces in phases over a 14-month period if the Taliban implemented their commitments.”

As part of the deal, signed on Feb. 29, 2020, by Khalilzad and senior Taliban official Abdul Ghani Baradar – now deputy prime minister in the interim Taliban government – the militants agreed not to attack U.S. troops if they kept to the timeline, which called for full withdrawal of “all foreign forces” by May 1, 2021.

Although Biden extended the deadline to Sept. 11, and completed the withdrawal on Aug. 31, that was the only aspect of the agreement that was fully realized.

U.S. intelligence has assessed that the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan retain strong bonds. Negotiations with the Afghan government, which began in September 2020, never gained any traction, a situation that Khalilzad, and both administrations, attributed in large part to foot-dragging by Ashraf Ghani, the former U.S.-backed president.

“The political arrangement between the Afghan government and the Taliban did not go forward as envisaged,” Khalilzad wrote. “The reasons for this are too complex and I will share my thoughts in the coming days and weeks, after leaving government service.”

Asking “what should the U.S. objective and strategy be in this new phase,” Khalilzad said he planned “to contribute to the discussion and debate about not only what happened but what should be done next.”

Whether under Biden or Trump, no one appeared more qualified for the job of pushing Afghanistan toward peace and negotiating with both the Taliban and the Afghan government than Khalilzad.

Born and raised in Afghanistan, he had gone to school with Ghani and the two traveled together to the United States as young students. As a Columbia University professor, he worked with the Jimmy Carter administration in the early days of U.S. covert support for Afghan mujahideen fighting against the Soviet Union’s occupation of Afghanistan.

He joined the State Department under the Ronald Reagan administration, again advising on policy toward Afghanistan. After the Soviet withdrawal, Khalilzad served under President George H.W. Bush as deputy undersecretary of defense for policy planning.

After work in think tanks and the energy sector, he served as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the United Nations under the George W. Bush administration. He spent the Obama administration years out of government.

Trump came to office vowing to “fight to win” in Afghanistan, after which he said the United States would withdraw completely.

It wasn’t until 2018 – as the Taliban had grown stronger rather than weaker on the ground, and withdrawal seemed further away – that Trump decided to negotiate with the militants and Khalilzad was asked to return to government.

Talks between him and Baradar began in November 2018, with the deal finally announced 16 months later.

After Biden’s inauguration, the new administration decided to keep Khalilzad in place while it reviewed Afghanistan policy. The envoy continued to try to push the Afghan government and the Taliban toward an agreement, to no avail.

Once the new withdrawal date had been announced, Khalilzad continued to negotiate the U.S. departure with the militants, and worked with regional governments in an unsuccessful effort to secure basing agreements for the United States to continue counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan without troops on the ground there.

Khalilzad also kept up the most direct line of contact with senior Taliban officials during the fraught U.S. evacuation effort.

Published : October 19, 2021

By : The Washington Post

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40007649

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As Halloween is around the corner, pumpkins, one of which weighs more than half a ton and claims to be the largest in Amsterdam and even in the Netherlands, are beginning to appear on the streets in central Amsterdam.

Alocal resident has created a neighborhood garden with no fewer than 80 pumpkins on his own initiative. The garden contains a pumpkin with a weight of 530 kg. The pumpkin was grown in the east of the country by a boy who won the Dutch pumpkin breeding championship, and is believed to be the biggest in Amsterdam and also in the Netherlands.

A woman takes pictures of a neighborhood garden with 80 pumpkins in central Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Oct. 16, 2021. (Photo by Sylvia Lederer/Xinhua)

A man takes pictures of a neighborhood garden with 80 pumpkins in central Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Oct. 16, 2021. (Photo by Sylvia Lederer/Xinhua)

Published : October 18, 2021

By : Xinhua