DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH
Medical school in Japan manipulating exam scores to fail women Tokyo Medical University found itself as the center of a scandal on Thursday, being accused by multiple media reports of having systematically skewed entrance exam results to favor male applicants. Separate reports by the Yomiuri newspaper, public broadcaster NHK and Kyodo news all said that the school had been cutting womenʼs scores by up to 10 percent over concerns that female doctors quit working when they start families. Although Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has declared it a priority of his to create a society "where women can shine," but that has yet to manifest itself in reality. In Japan, although many women have university degrees, they still face discriminatory hiring practices and lower wages, coupled with long working hours andlittle domestic help from their husbands.
Jerusalem Gay Pride held amid threats from hardline groups Some 30,000 people are expeted to take part inJerusalemʼs annual gay pride paradeon Thursday under heavy police security. At least 2,500 police officials will be deployed to protect the parade participants from hardline religious groups. In 2015,an ultra-Orthodox zealot stabbed to death a gay pride marcherand injured several other people. Organizers say the theme of the march is to honor elderly members and pioneers of Israelʼs LGBT community, but a new government law on surrogacy parenthood rights has overshadowed the event. The bill expanded surrogacy rights to single females, but excluded single men. At least 100,000 people took to the streets to protest the law thateffectively prevented gay couples from having a child through surrogacy.
176/2018 • 03 AUGUST, 2018
Pope Francis makes seismic shift to Catholic Church policy Death penalty:
The Vatican has announced that it will pursue the worldwide abolition of the death penalty. Pope Francis has argued that capital punishment denies the dignity inherent in all humans.
EU reaps healthy yield from US-China soybean spat EU chief Juncker last week grandly promised US President Trump that Europe would buy more US soybeans and gas. In return the US would step back on car tariffs. But is the EU offering anything more than todayʼs reality? European Commission figures released this week showed that 37 percent of the EUʼs soybean imports in June came from the US, compared with 9 percent in July 2017. It sounds impressive and while the EU has traditionally been the second-biggest buyer of US soyabeans, it remains a distant second to China, which bought $12.3 billion (€10.2 billion) of US soybeans in 2017 compared with $1.6 billion exported to the EU. Furthermore, one
month does not a summer make. "Possibly as soon as late next month we expect China to resume purchases of US soybeans although less than in previous years," Michael Magdovitz, an oilseeds analyst at Rabobank International, told DW. He added that even if the EU bought soybeans only from the US, it would add about 10 million tons of demand and offset only about 35 percent of the 27 million tons of demand lost from China if Beijing put a total stop to American purchases. The EU heralded the rise as "the first concrete follow-up to the EU-US joint statement agreed in Washington between European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and US President Donald Trump."
Fabled Nazi gold train: Is the hunt over? The two amateur historians had boundless faith that they would one day find the legendary "treasure train" believed to be hidden by Nazi troops in an underground mountain tunnel as the Germans fled the area between Wroclaw and Walbrzych in southwestern Poland at the end of WW II. Two years after grabbing the attention of the international media with their spectacularly ambitious hunt, Andreas Richter ended the joint search with
Piotr Koper. ʼ95 percent sure it existsʼ Itʼs over, Richter told the DPA press agency, arguing that while he hadnʼt lost belief in the trainʼs existence – "I am 95 percent sure it exists" –, he was frustrated by "inaccuracies" in the excavation procedure. The initial excavation didnʼt go deep enough, he said, adding that a second attempt never materialized because his partner kept on postponing. At some point, Richter was fed up.
Zimbabwe election fuels further political crisis On July 30, Zimbabwe held its first presidential election since autocratic ruler Robert Mugabe (pictured casting his vote) was forced to step down following a brief military takeover in November last year. Many hoped the vote would usher in a new, peaceful and democratic era in the African country after years of repression under Mugabe, who ruled the country from 1980 to 2017. The controversial vote, which EU observers criticized for an "unlevel playing field and lack of trust" in the run up to the election, saw the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF) secure the most seats in the countryʼs parliament. But fraud claims and a delay in issuing official results sparked violent protests in the country.
Church sex scandals shake Indiaʼs Kerala state Wracked by a rash of sex scandals, the church is facing one of its lowest moments in the southern state of Kerala. Four priests of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church are currently facing charges of raping and blackmailing a woman in a cycle of abuse and threats lasting almost 20 years. The woman told police that her ordeal began while still a minor in the 1990s when an Orthodox priest at a church forced her into sex.
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