Japanese court convicts a US Marine in sexual assault, sentencing him to 7 years in prison
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It was one of a string of sexual assault cases last year in which the arrests of the suspects were initially withheld by local authorities on grounds of protecting the victims' privacy, triggering anger and criticisms of coverups.
Okinawa, where one of the fiercest battles of World War II was fought 80 years ago and under U.S. occupation until 1972, remains home to the majority of about 50,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan under a bilateral security pact. The island, which accounts for only 0.6% of Japanese land, hosts 70% of U.S. military facilities.
Frustration runs high on Okinawa because of its continued burden with the heavy U.S. presence that includes noise, pollution, aircraft accidents and crime related to American troops.
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There has been growing calls for a revision to the Status of Forces Agreement that gives the United States the right to investigate most accidents and crimes that occur on Japanese soil.
Japanese Prime Minister
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Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Ranger fired for hanging transgender flag in Yosemite and park visitors may face prosecution
Advertisement Joslin said their firing sends the opposite message: 'If you're a federal worker and you have any kind of identity that doesn't agree with this current administration, then you must be silent, or you will be eliminated.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Park officials on Tuesday said they were working with the U.S. Justice Department to pursue visitors and workers who violated restrictions on demonstrations at the park that had more than 4 million visitors last year. The agencies 'are pursuing administrative action against several Yosemite National Park employees and possible criminal charges against several park visitors who are alleged to have violated federal laws and regulations related to demonstrations,' Advertisement Joslin said a group of seven climbers including two other park rangers hung the flag. The other rangers are on administrative leave pending an investigation, Joslin said. Flags have long been flown from El Capitan without consequences, said Joanna Citron Day, a former federal attorney who is now with the advocacy group Public Employees For Environmental Responsibility. She said the group is representing Joslin, but there is no pending legal case. On May 21, a day after the flag display, Acting Superintendent Ray McPadden signed a rule prohibiting people from hanging banners, flags or signs larger than 15 square feet in park areas designated as 'wilderness' or 'potential wilderness.' That covers 94% of the park, according to Yosemite's website. Park officials said the new restriction was needed to preserve Yosemite's wilderness and protect climbers. 'We take the protection of the park's resources and the experience of our visitors very seriously, and will not tolerate violations of laws and regulations that impact those resources and experiences,' Pawlitz said. It followed a widely publicized instance in February of demonstrators hanging an upside down American flag on El Capitan to protest the firing of National Park Service employees by the Trump administration. Among the climbers who helped hang the transgender flag was Pattie Gonia, an environmentalist and drag queen who uses the performance art to raise awareness of conservation issues. For the past five years, Gonia has helped throw a Pride event in Yosemite for park employees. She said they hung the transgender flag on the iconic granite monolith to express that being transgender is natural. This year, Trump signed an executive order changing the federal definition of sex to exclude the concept of gender identity. He also banned trans women from competing in women's sports, removed trans people from the military and limited access to gender-affirming care. Advertisement Gonia called the firing unjust. Joslin said they hung the flag in their free time, as a private citizen. 'SJ is a respected pillar within the Yosemite community, a tireless volunteer who consistently goes above and beyond,' Gonia said. Jayson O'Neill with the advocacy group Save Our Parks said Joslin's firing appears aimed at deterring park employees from expressing their views as the Trump administration pursues broad cuts to the federal workforce. Since Trump took office, the National Park Service has lost approximately 2,500 employees from a workforce that had about 10,000 people, Wade said. The Republican president is proposing a $900 million cut to the agency's budget next year. Pawlitz said numerous visitors complained about unauthorized demonstrations on El Capitan earlier in the year. Many parks have designated 'First Amendment areas' where groups 25 or fewer people can protest without permits. Yosemite has several of those areas, including one in Yosemite Valley, where El Capitan is located. Park service rules on demonstrations have existed for decades and withstood several court challenges, said Bill Wade, executive director of the Association of National Park Rangers. He was not aware of any changes in how those rules are enforced under Trump. Associated Press journalist Brittany Peterson contributed reporting from Denver.
Business Insider
an hour ago
- Business Insider
Russian preschools are introducing patriotic and war-themed lessons to teach kids to 'love the Motherland'
A new Russian pilot program with 100 preschools aims to teach children as young as three to be "worthy citizens" and "cultivate respect for the culture and history of Russia," the country's education ministry said. The lesson series, called "Conversations about Important Things," is to be tested in schools for children from three to seven in the occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions, Moscow, Kaliningrad, and at least 17 other Russian oblasts and autonomous regions. On Tuesday, Russia's education minister, Sergey Kravtsov, said the classes would be tailored to young children with "colorful illustrations, interactive tasks, and game elements." "This will help children better absorb information, form correct ideas about important life values, and ultimately grow up to be worthy citizens of their country," Kravtsov said. While the education ministry said the program involves lessons on citizenship, morality, and families, it is also meant to foster a "love for the motherland." "Conversations about Important Things," which promotes Russia's national identity and past war actions, has been compulsory learning in high schools since 2022, the year that Moscow invaded Ukraine. The new push into preschools comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin said in October that he supported the program being rolled out to the country's "youngest children." Putin said he was disappointed, for example, that the Soviet Union's heavy losses in the Battle of Stalingrad were not discussed in children's textbooks about World War II. "All this shows that, of course, at the very earliest age we must instill certain basic things in a child," he said at a meeting with Russian teachers that month. "But everything, I repeat, must be within the bounds of reason." War-themed lessons for preschoolers The education ministry didn't specify what activities would be included in the pilot lessons. However, social media posts from some Russian preschools and kindergartens indicate that they've already voluntarily introduced some form of these programs. Novaya Gazeta Europe, an independent news organization founded by exiled Russian journalists, wrote in October that over 560 Russian preschools and kindergartens had posted about introducing "Conversations for Important Things" to their students. The outlet analyzed social media posts from over 10,000 kindergartens about war-themed lessons. It found that at least 19,000 of these activities were about supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In other posts seen by Business Insider on the Russian social network VKontakte, preschools and kindergartens uploaded photos of children video-calling a Russian soldier purportedly fighting in Ukraine and of students lining up in formation to honor the Russian flag. For example, one kindergarten in the Orenburg region said in October that it held a version of "Conversations about Important Things" to discuss the local farming industry. It posted a photo of young children holding up the region's coat of arms. Another preschool, in Kursk, said it invited a former helicopter pilot who fought in Afghanistan to speak to students. The post said he "read poems of his own composition about the exploits of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War and participants in a special military operation." In January, the city of Vologda also said in a statement that all of its kindergartens were planning patriotic and war-themed classes for "Conversations about Important Things." "Children will be told about the heroes of the Great Patriotic War, military professions, hero cities, monuments, awards for military exploits, and much more," the statement said, referring to World War II. One analysis by the independent Russian media outlet Agency found that the classes in Vologda discussed military awards, taught kids how to be bandaged, and included games about armored vehicles. Власти Вологды первыми в стране ввели еженедельные «Разговоры о важном» в детсадах Мэрия Вологды во вторник объявила о начале еженедельных занятий с детьми «Разговоры о важном» во всех 78 детсадах города, приурочив этот проект к Году защитника Отечества и 80-летию Победы в… — Новости «Агентства» (@agents_media) January 21, 2025 All of this comes as Russia goes all out to shore up local support for the war in Ukraine. Moscow has also sought to assimilate the population of occupied Ukrainian territories, offering parents cash sums to send their children to Russian-controlled schools. Public favor is especially key for the Kremlin, which relies on costly infantry assaults to fight against Ukraine — a tactic requiring a steady flow of fresh recruits from the civilian population. Ukrainian intelligence says that Russia has repeatedly hit its recruitment targets through hefty sign-up bonuses and payments made to families of wounded or killed soldiers. This year, Russia reportedly plans to recruit 343,000 new troops.
an hour ago
Trump administration revokes security clearances of 37 current and former government officials
WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration said Tuesday that it was revoking the security clearances of 37 current and former national security officials in the latest act of retribution targeting public servants from the federal government's intelligence community. A memo from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard accuses the singled-out individuals of having engaged in the 'politicization or weaponization of intelligence' to advance personal or partisan goals, failing to safeguard classified information, failing to 'adhere to professional analytic tradecraft standards" and other unspecified 'detrimental" conduct. The memo did not offer evidence to back up the accusations. Many of the officials who were targeted left the government years ago after serving in both senior national security positions and lower-profile roles far from the public eye. Some worked on matters that have long infuriated Trump, like the intelligence community assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election on his behalf. And several signaled their concerns about Trump by signing a critical letter in 2019 that was highlighted on social media last month by right-wing provocateur and close Trump ally Laura Loomer. The action is part of a broader Trump administration campaign to wield the levers of government against perceived adversaries, and reflects the president's continued distrust of career intelligence officials he has long seen as working against his interests. The revocation of clearances has emerged as a go-to tactic for the administration, a strategy critics say risks chilling dissenting voices from an intelligence community accustomed to drawing on a range of viewpoints before formulating an assessment. 'These are unlawful and unconstitutional decisions that deviate from well-settled, decades-old laws and policies that sought to protect against just this type of action,' Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer whose own clearance was revoked by the Trump administration, said in a statement. He called it hypocritical for the administration to 'claim these individuals politicized or weaponized intelligence.' Gabbard on Tuesday sought to defend the move, which she said had been directed by Trump. 'Being entrusted with a security clearance is a privilege, not a right," she wrote on X. "Those in the Intelligence Community who betray their oath to the Constitution and put their own interests ahead of the American people have broken the sacred trust they promised to uphold.' The security clearance suspension comes amid a broader effort by Gabbard and other Trump administration officials to revisit the intelligence community assessment published in 2017 on Russian election interference, including by declassifying a series of years-old documents meant to cast doubt on the legitimacy of its findings. Multiple government investigations have reached the same conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 election in sweeping fashion, including through a hack-and-leak operation of Democratic emails and a social media campaign aimed at sowing discord and swaying public opinion. But Trump has long resisted the assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin interfered in his favor, and his Justice Department has authorized a grand jury investigation that could bring fresh scrutiny to Obama-era officials. Security clearances are important not only for current government workers but also former ones whose private-sector jobs require them to retain access to sensitive information. Stripping clearances from such employees could make it hard for them to do their jobs, though it's unclear how many of the former officials still have or require one. On his first day of office, Trump said he would revoke the security clearances of the more than four dozen former intelligence officials who signed a 2020 letter saying that the Hunter Biden laptop saga bore the hallmarks of a 'Russian information operation.' He's also revoked the clearances of , and he attempted to do the same for .
