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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2016
World
Abe heads for New York for first talks with Trump T OKYO―Japan’s premier Shinzo Abe headed to New York Thursday for talks with Donald Trump, the first leader to meet with the president-elect whose campaign pledges provoked anxiety over US foreign policy.
The brash billionaire is set to receive Abe at his Trump Tower headquarters on Thursday evening, in an encounter that will be closely watched for hints on the long-standing security pacts that he has called into question. “I’m honored to meet with President-elect Trump ahead of other world leaders,” Abe told reporters. “I’d like to discuss with President Trump our dreams for the future.” Trump’s blithe comment during the campaign that the US might be “better off” with nucleararmed Asian allies has thrown into question the US security umbrella over Japan and South Korea. His later disavowal of the remarks has done little to restore confidence in Washington as the lone superpower ready to face down a rising China and a capricious North Korea. Trump has also talked about yanking thousands of troops from the region unless Tokyo and Seoul pay more of their hosting costs, despite the opportunity that would present to China and its ambitions for regional supremacy. “The Japan-US alliance is the cornerstone of Japan’s diplomacy and security,” Abe said before departing. “The alliance works only when there is trust.” “I’d like to build trust with Mr Trump and work together hand in hand for the peace and prosperity of the world.” Dozens of leaders including China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin have spoken with Trump by phone since his shock November 8 election victory. The New York Times said offices of foreign leaders were blindly dialing in to Trump Tower as they scrambled to get the future president on the phone, prompting a denial and an insistence the transition is proceeding smoothly. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was only the second to get through, in a call set up by sports legend Greg Norman who is golfing buddies with Trump, it emerged Thursday. The unconventional candidate has also stoked concerns in Europe―where the NATO alliance underwrites regional security―by warmly embracing Russian President Vladimir Putin. And he has also vowed to block the vast TransPacific Partnership free trade deal, which has been championed by Abe and US President Barack Obama. “I hope to share the importance of the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” Abe said before departing for the US ahead of the APEC summit of 21 Pacific Rim economies in Peru, where leaders will defend the tenets of free trade. The 12-nation TPP has been a key component of Obama’s “pivot to Asia” and envisaged as a counterweight to China’s expanding economic influence. Abe told parliament this week that a collapse of the pact could shift momentum toward a rival trade deal promoted by China. Despite the fault lines, the Trump camp made positive noises ahead of the meeting with Abe. It “shows Mr Trump’s commitment to the relationship” with Japan, Republican Devin Nunes, a member of the presidential transition team, told reporters after talks with an Abe aide in Washington to prepare for the meeting. Nunes called Japan “one of our most important, longest allies”, Kyodo News reported. AFP
Aborigines’ welfare ‘worsening’ SYDNEY―Imprisonment and self-harm rates have soared among Aboriginal Australians, an official report said Thursday as it slammed a lack of research into whether government programs were effective at addressing the issues facing the community. Aborigines―who make up about three percent of the total national population of 24 million―are among the most disadvantaged Australians. They suffer disproportionate levels of disease, imprisonment and social problems as well as significantly lower education, employment and life expectancy. The government-backed Productivity Commission report said that violence among Aboriginal families and hospitalizations for self-harm “have stagnated or worsened” in recent years. “Alarmingly, the national imprisonment rate has increased 77 percent over the last 15 years, and hospitalization rates for self-harm have increased by 56 percent over the last decade,” the Commission’s head Peter Harris said in a statement. Deputy chief Karen Chester told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation the report should serve as a wake-up call for Canberra to make sure “money is being spent not just in terms of bang for buck for taxpayers, but that we’re not shortchanging indigenous Australians”. “Of over a thousand policies and programs, we could only identify 34 across the whole of Australia that have been robustly and transparently evaluated,” she said. “At the end of the day, we can’t feign surprise that we’re not seeing improvement across all these wellbeing indicators if we’re not lifting the bonnet and evaluating if the policies and programs are working or not.” The report said family and community violence rates were unchanged between 2002 and 2014-2015, affecting around one in five of the adult indigenous population. While juvenile detention rates slipped, they still stood at 24 times that for non-indigenous youth. The report acknowledged some positives, including an improvement in mortality rates and an increase in the number of children finishing school. AFP
India eases cash rules for weddings
SPECIAL SHOOT. Indian Bollywood actors Hrithik Roshan and Jacqueline Fernandez are spotted at a special shoot at a studio in Mumbai on November 16, 2016. AFP
NEW DELHI―India announced new measures Thursday to allow farmers and marrying couples to withdraw more money from banks, as frustration mounted over a cash crisis triggered by the withdrawal of all high-value notes. The shock move last week, which saw 85 percent of the cash in circulation suddenly withdrawn, has led to huge queues forming outside banks as people rush to exchange old notes for new, and has thrown plans into disarray as the wedding season gets under way in the country of 1.2 billion people. The government has placed a weekly limit of 24,000 rupees ($350)on withdrawals as banks struggle to cope with a shortage of cash and many ATMs run dry. But Shaktikanta Das, secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs, said families planning a wedding would now be able to withdraw up to 250,000 rupees in one go. “Various representations were made to the government,” Das told journalists in New Delhi. “[We] decided that for marriage ceremonies, up to 250,000 rupees will be permitted to be withdrawn from the bank account and it has to be drawn... from the father, mother or the person getting married.” The sudden withdrawal of the two highest denomination notes―aimed primarily at tackling tax evasion―has created huge problems for families planning weddings in India where most people still use cash, even for large transactions. But that did not stop a mining tycoon from hosting a lavish wedding ceremony for his daughter on Wednesday, taking over a royal palace in the southern city of Bangalore at a reported cost of $75 million. Agriculture has also been hit hard as farmers struggle to buy seeds and fertilizer with the winter crop-sowing season now under way. AFP
Obama to pass torch to Merkel BERLIN―US President Barack Obama pays a farewell visit Thursday to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, widely seen as the new standard bearer of liberal democracy since the election of Donald Trump. On the last leg of his final European tour as president, Obama will underline shared values, try to ease fears about the future of the transatlantic partnership and thank Merkel for her friendship during his two terms, White House officials said. As Western leaders brace for potentially radical changes with Trump moving into the Oval Office in January, Obama wrapped up a visit to Athens Wednesday warning that globalization required a “course correction” to keep voters from drifting to extremes. “When we see people, global elites, wealthy corporations seem-
ingly living by a different set of rules, avoiding taxes, manipulating loopholes... this feeds a profound sense of injustice,” he said. After Trump’s shock victory, Merkel expressed a desire to maintain close ties with Washington. But in an extraordinary break with tradition for Germany, which long saw the US as its protector and closest partner, Merkel pointedly said cooperation must be based on shared democratic principles and respect for human dignity. Analysts said the meeting Thursday could be seen as a kind of passing of the torch from Obama to Merkel, whom he’s called “probably... my closest international partner”, for stewardship of the free world. Obama held the biggest rally of his 2008 campaign in Berlin, using the once-divided city’s
rebirth as a symbol of progress as he made a hopeful call for a world without nuclear weapons to 200,000 cheering fans at the Victory Column monument at sunset. He and Merkel, who took power in 2005, soon developed a strong partnership, despite rifts over revelations of NSA spying on Merkel’s mobile phone and Obama’s vocal opposition to Germany’s austerity-driven response to the European debt crisis. Germans at the Victory Column on a gray November day hours before Obama’s arrival said they were sad to see him go and anxious about what the Trump administration would bring. “We were so hopeful after George W. Bush left office,” said Thomas Schmidt, 54, a business clerk who recalled being “thrilled” when he watched Obama’s Berlin speech on television. AFP
COCKTAIL PARTY. Stylist Laura Duncan (L) and Dita Von Teese attend the Zuhair Murad cocktail party at Sunset Tower Hotel on November 16, 2016, in West Hollywood, California. AFP