01-10-2020

ThURSDAY, OCTObeR 1, 2020
7
Tunisians fleeing economy, not
COVID, cause tension in Italy
Japan's Defense Ministry is seeking a record-high budget of nearly 5.5 trillion yen ($55 billion) for fiscal
2021 to fund more purchases of costly American stealth fighters and expand its capability to counter possible
threats in both cyber and outer space.
Photo : AP
Japan military seeks record
budget amid regional threats
TOKYO : Japan's Defense Ministry is
seeking a record-high budget of nearly
5.5 trillion yen ($55 billion) for fiscal
2021 to fund more purchases of costly
American stealth fighters and expand
its capability to counter possible threats
in both cyber and outer space.
The budget request made public
Wednesday is the first under new
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and
would be an 8% increase from the
current year, signaling a continuation
of his hawkish predecessor Shinzo
Abe's security policy. Japan's defense
spending has risen for eight
consecutive years since 2013, a year
after Abe took office.
The rise in spending came as Abe
pushed for Japan's Self-Defense Force
to expand its international role and
capability amid threats from North
Korea and China, both traditional and
nontraditional. Japan also faced
demands from President Donald
Trump that U.S. allies increase defense
spending, which Japan did in part with
costly American weapons purchases
that also bolster weapons compatibility
with American forces.
Purchases for missile deterrence are
among the most costly items in the
proposed 2021 budget and include
Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-35B stealth
fighters capable of short takeoff and
vertical landing for 26 billion yen ($246
million). Japan has plans to acquire 42
F-35Bs in coming years.
To accommodate the F-35Bs, the
Defense Ministry is seeking 3.2 billion
yen ($30 million) to reconfigure one of
its two helicopter carriers, Kaga, with a
heat-resistant flight deck. The other
flat-top Izumo has also been
configured.
The ministry is also seeking 58.7
billion yen ($556 million) for the
research into developing next
generation fighter jets to replace F-2s
retiring in the 2030s. Japan plans to
develop its own engine, but is also
considering co-developing some other
parts with the U.S. and Britain.
Japan's costly purchase of American
weapons has helped reduce its trade
surplus with the U.S., but has raised
concerns at home that it will set back its
fledgling local defense industry.
The 2021 budget request includes
funding for less traditional defense
such as the research and operation of
space and cyber units, as well as for new
electromagnetic warfare units.
The electromagnetic unit would be
headquartered at the Ground Self-
Defense Force's Asaka base, north of
Tokyo, and an unspecified number of
staff would be deployed at several army
bases across the country by March
2022, mostly in southern Japanese
islands including Okinawa - areas of
increased Chinese maritime and air
activity.
North Korea on virus threat:
'Under safe and stable control'
North Korea on Tuesday called on the
world's governments to "display
effective leadership" in the fight against
COVID-19 and said its own measures
against the pandemic, which it called
"preemptive, timely and strong,"
ensured it had the threat "under safe and
stable control."
Kim Song, the country's U.N.
ambassador, said a tightly administered
anti-pandemic effort in his nation had
been working. North Korea strictly
regulates foreign visitors - even more so
during the pandemic that's killed more
than 1 million people worldwide - and
filters all information through its state
propaganda apparatus, with details about
its approach to the coronavirus relatively
scant.
"(The) anti-epidemic situation in our
country is now under safe and stable
control," the ambassador said in a rare
live address at the U.N. General
Assembly, reports UNB. "A series of
state measures are now being taken to
block the virus inflow into the country,
and all people adhere strictly to antiepidemic
regulations while maintaining
the highest alert," he said.
Further, Kim said the government
"will not tolerate even a smallest bit of
slackness or concession, but further
strengthen the state emergency antiepidemic
measures until the danger of
the pandemic inflow is completely
eliminated."
Until Tuesday, all speeches at the U.N.
General Assembly over the past week
were virtual, delivered by world leaders
in prerecorded videos from their home
nations. The meeting concluded with a
smattering of speeches by officials based
at the United Nations - including Kim.
North Korean state media later
reported the nation's leader Kim Jong
Un had presided over a meeting of the
ruling Workers' Party's Politburo on
Tuesday. The Korean Central News
Agency said officials during the meeting
warned against complacency and
addressed unspecified problems in the
country's anti-virus campaign while
discussing ways to maintain a "streelstrong
anti-epidemic system."
North Korea has steadfastly said there
hasn't been a single virus case on its
territory, a claim widely disputed by
foreign experts.
Kim Song did not mention U.S.
President Donald Trump or the United
States directly in his speech. But he
spoke of "the maneuvers of hostile
forces" - a frequent euphemism for the
United States and South Korea - and
condemned the U.S. trade embargo
against Cuba as "economic genocide."
North Korea on Tuesday called on the world's governments to "display effective leadership" in the fight
against COVID-19 and said its own measures against the pandemic, which it called "preemptive, timely
and strong," ensured it had the threat "under safe and stable control."
Photo : AP
RAS JEBEL : Once it was just the
jobless young men who set off from
Tunisia's rocky northern beaches for
Sicily, usually defying their parents in
hopes of a better future, reports UNB.
Now Tunisian families, even those with
work or seemingly good prospects, are
following that path across 130 kilometers
(80 miles) of open water - nearly 10,000
since the beginning of the year and far
more than have left in recent memory.
The stretch of Mediterranean can be
dangerous, the chance of getting asylum
in Europe is near zero, and a long
quarantine in a ferry anchored offshore
will be followed by expulsion if they're
caught.
But many who leave from the Bizerte
coastline think the potential reward far
outweighs the risk. Those with relatives
in Europe are the ones with the new cars
and kitchen upgrades.
"My son is a month and a half old, and
if I get a chance to emigrate immediately,
I will go to make a better life," said Tarek
Aloui, a 27-year-old who has tried 10
times to reach Italy since 2014. He has
succeeded only once, last March at the
height of the coronavirus lockdown, and
was expelled almost immediately back
home, where he was jailed for six
months. He is undeterred.
"All Tunisian men, women and even
children want to leave this way," he
added.
Their arrivals have strained the ability
of Italy's southern regions to take them in
amid the coronavirus pandemic, given
Italy's quarantine requirements for
anyone arriving from outside the EU.
When a huge fishing boat of 450
Tunisians pulled into port in the Sicilian
island of Lampedusa on Aug. 30, some
residents took to the docks to protest,
shouting at them to go back. Italy's
former interior minister, the antimigrant
League leader Matteo Salvini,
criticized the government for letting
them in and noted wryly that most will
never be granted asylum because they
are fleeing the non-existent "famous
Tunisian war."
To keep new migrants safely isolated,
the Italian government has
commissioned five ferries for newcomers
to complete 14 days of quarantine, with
2,238 currently on board the ships. But
there are also centers on land for others,
and the interior ministry has lamented
that Tunisians, more than others, tend to
try to flee welcome centers and evade
quarantine requirements. Their escapes
have sparked protests by local residents
fearful of new infections after Italy's
brutal coronavirus outbreak, especially
since arriving migrants have been linked
to several dozen recent clusters.
Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese
has traveled to Tunis twice since July to
negotiate with the new government on
the need to stem the flow, including with
offers of assistance from Italy to better
patrol the coasts. She blamed the
increase in Tunisian arrivals on the
country's socio-economic problems that
have been exacerbated by COVID-19,
and has offered Italian assistance to
address them.
Once it was just the jobless young men who set off from Tunisia's rocky northern beaches for Sicily, usually
defying their parents in hopes of a better future.
Photo : AP
Azerbaijan and
Armenia brush
off suggestion
of peace talks
YEREVAN, Armenia (AP)
- Leaders of Azerbaijan and
Armenia brushed off the
suggestion of peace talks
Tuesday, accusing each
other of obstructing
negotiations over the
separatist territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh, with
dozens killed and injured in
three days of heavy fighting.
In the latest incident,
Armenia said one of its
warplanes was shot down by
a fighter jet from
Azerbaijan's ally Turkey,
killing the pilot, in what
would be a major escalation
of the violence. Both Turkey
and Azerbaijan denied it.
The international
community is calling for
talks to end the decades-old
conflict between the two
former Soviet republics in
the Caucasus Mountains
region following a flareup of
violence this week. It centers
on Nagorno-Karabakh, a
region that lies within
Azerbaijan but has been
under the control of ethnic
Armenian forces backed by
the Armenian government
since 1994 at the end of a
separatist war.
The U.N. Security Council
called on Armenia and
Azerbaijan Tuesday evening
to immediately halt the
fighting and urgently
resume talks without
preconditions. The U.N.'s
most powerful body strongly
condemned the use of force
and backed Secretary-
General Antonio Guterres'
earlier call to stop the
fighting, deescalate tensions,
and resume talks "without
delay."
Azerbaijani President
Ilkham Aliyev told Russian
state TV channel Rossia 1
that Baku is committed to
negotiating a resolution but
that Armenia is obstructing
the process.
Trump intel chief unveils
unverified Russian info
about Dems
WASHINGTON : The
Trump administration's top
intelligence official said
Tuesday that he has
declassified Russian
intelligence alleging damaging
information about Democrats
during the 2016 election even
though he acknowledged it
might not be true.
The announcement, just
hours before the first
presidential debate of this
November's election, drew
harsh criticism from
lawmakers who accused
National Intelligence Director
John Ratcliffe of politicizing
intelligence, reports UNB.
In a letter Tuesday to Senate
Judiciary Committee
Chairman Lindsey Graham,
R-S.C., Ratcliffe said that in
late July 2016, U.S.
intelligence agencies obtained
"insight" into Russian spycraft
alleging that Hillary Clinton,
who was running for
president, had "approved a
campaign plan to stir up a
scandal against" Trump.
But Ratcliffe added that
American intelligence
agencies do "not know the
accuracy of this allegation or
the extent to which the
Russian intelligence analysis
may reflect exaggeration or
fabrication."
The announcement was a
startling break from
convention given that the
nation's intelligence chiefs are
generally loath to publicly
discuss sensitive government
intelligence, particularly when
that information is
unconfirmed - as Ratcliffe
himself admits is the case
here. But Trump himself has
been eager to install loyalists
in the role of intelligence
director, and Ratcliffe and his
predecessor, Richard Grenell,
have authorized a series of
disclosures in recent months
aimed at undermining the
Russia investigation and
providing a political
advantage to Trump.
Graham signaled Tuesday
that he intended to ask former
FBI Director James Comey
about the issue when Comey
testifies before the committee,
which has been doing its own
inquiry into the origins of the
Russia probe.
Sen. Mark Warner, the top
Democrat on the Senate
intelligence committee, called
Ratcliffe's decision
"disturbing," especially this
close to a presidential election.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a
member of the intelligence
committee, accused Ratcliffe
of abusing his position as the
nation's top spy.
"His politicization of
intelligence, including
through selective releases to
political allies, damages the
country and undermines the
intelligence community he
purports to lead," Wyden said
in a statement. "Ratcliffe is
even willing to rely on
unverified Russian
information to try to concoct a
political scandal - a shocking
abdication of his
responsibilities to the
country."
Wyden said the information
being released amounted to
"rumint" or intelligence based
on rumors. Ratcliffe
responded with a second
statement claiming the
intelligence was not Russian
disinformation. He said he'd
be briefing Congress in
coming days about the
"sensitive sources and
methods by which it was
obtained."
Trump chose Barrett days after
Ginsburg's death, papers show
WASHINGTON : President Donald Trump offered to
name Judge Amy Coney Barrett his Supreme Court nominee
more than a week ago at the White House - and she accepted,
according to formal paperwork submitted to the Senate
ahead of her confirmation hearings, reports UNB.
Barrett tells the Senate Judiciary Committee that the White
House initially contacted her Sept. 19, the day after Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, creating the court vacancy.
Trump made the offer when she visited the White House on
Monday, Sept. 21, "and I accepted," she wrote.
That's days before Trump's formal announcement
Saturday, and as he kept Americans guessing up until the last
moment, suggesting he was still considering other nominees.
The judge's nearly 70-page questionnaire was submitted by
the White House to the Senate Tuesday as Barrett launched
day one of private meetings at the Capitol, drawing praise
from GOP senators but opposition from Democrats objecting
to her conservative views and fast-track confirmation before
the Nov. 3 election.