Fallout over handling of Epstein cases hangs over Trump
The fallout over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case continues to hang over US President Donald Trump, and his Attorney General Pam Bondi. POLITICO's Josh Gerstein spoke to Corin Dann.
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NZ Herald
33 minutes ago
- NZ Herald
Populist makes ground in Japan with nationalist, anti-immigration rhetoric
'Japan must be a society that serves the interests of the Japanese people,' Kamiya told his applauding audience. Kamiya founded the party and is one of its two sitting members in the upper house. Elected to a six-year term in 2022, he is not on the ballot this year. But he has crossed Japan to campaign on behalf of Sanseito's 54 candidates, a large number that reflects the new party's big ambitions. Opponents and many domestic media reports have accused him of being xenophobic, saying he is directing public dissatisfaction with high prices and stagnant wages at Japan's growing population of foreign residents. At campaign stops, small numbers of protesters hold up signs saying 'no hate' towards non-Japanese. But his message has clearly struck a chord with many voters. Polls before voting in yesterday's upper house elections showed Sanseito is likely to place third. This would be a strong showing in a nationwide election by a party that did not exist five years ago and that has drawn mainly young, male voters. Kamiya said he learned many of his emotional button-pushing themes and norm-breaking language from Donald Trump, saying in an interview that he was Japan's closest equivalent to the divisive US President. His success in turning himself into a lightning rod for supporters and critics alike has left many in Japan wondering if their country is belatedly seeing the angry right-wing populism that has transformed the US and other developed democracies. 'This could be an epoch-making election,' said Jiro Mizushima, a professor of political science at Chiba University who has studied populist parties in Europe. 'For the first time, a radical populist party that is openly chauvinist and against austerity is winning support.' Other political scientists play down the significance of Sanseito, whose name roughly translates to 'participate in politics'. They call it one of many flash-in-the-pan protest parties that Japan has seen in recent decades. Kamiya was hoping a big win will show that his party has staying power as a growing generational divide splits Japan's voters. Analysts say Sanseito and a gaggle of other, more moderate nationalist parties have drained support from the pragmatic and conservative Liberal Democratic Party, which has led Japan for most of the past seven decades. Sohei Kamiya takes a populist approach that highlights immigration. Photo / Ko Sasaki, the New York Times They say the assassination three years ago of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a longtime party leader who dominated Japan's nationalist right, opened space for the outspoken newcomers. 'The LDP has been unable to hold onto the revisionist and xenophobic element that used to be contained in the Abe faction,' said Koichi Nakano, a visiting scholar at the Weatherhead Programme on US-Japan Relations at Harvard University. That loss is reflected in opinion polls, which show that support for the governing coalition has continued to slide. If the Liberal Democrats do poorly, there are widespread expectations that Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba will be forced to resign, though his successor would still most likely come from within the party, which remains the largest. Many voters have turned to Sanseito and other nationalist parties that have fed on anger about the status quo. To varying degrees, these parties rail against similar issues: the price of staples like rice rising while wages have remained flat; a tax burden that forces young people to pay for Japan's ageing population; and an over-reliance on the US, an ally whose threats of tariffs have stirred feelings of betrayal. The hottest of the hot-button issues, though, has been a rapid increase in foreign residents, whose number reached 3.8 million last year. While only 3% of Japan's population of 124 million, the number has risen by a third in three years as workers from other parts of Asia have come to fill jobs left vacant by the decline in the country's working-age population. On social media, immigrants have been blamed for disrupting Japan's prized social order, and for a host of misdeeds like not paying hospital bills and driving on the wrong side of the road. While police statistics show that non-Japanese commit crimes at roughly the same rate as Japanese nationals, populist candidates and supporters have seized on crimes by foreigners to argue that immigration should be restricted. 'We don't want to exclude all foreigners, but Japan should be for the Japanese,' said Yoko Kiba, 47, a hospital worker who came to hear Kamiya speak during the campaign stop in the southern city of Kagoshima. Seeking to address such discontent before the election, Ishiba announced last Tuesday that his Government would create a new office to address the crime issue and promote 'harmonious coexistence with foreign nationals'. In addition to wanting to limit immigration, Kamiya has opposed the use of some vaccines and criticised gender equality for 'going too far'. But his core message is that Japan has put the interests of foreigners over those of its own people. Kamiya, a boyish former Self-Defence Force reservist, warned in his Kagoshima speech of a different foreign threat: global capital, which he said has hijacked the economy. 'Under globalism, multinational companies have changed Japan's policies for their own purposes,' said Kamiya, 47, who did not name any companies, though his party's candidates have mentioned Chinese investors buying forests and other real estate. A survey found 28% of voters in Japan are most concerned about the high prices of rice and other foods. Photo / Chang W. Lee, the New York Times 'If we fail to resist this foreign pressure, Japan will become a colony!' He has called for a more equal relationship with the US by building a fully fledged military — and by refusing to cave in to Trump's market-opening demands, despite his professed admiration for the American president. 'President Trump would treat a more independent Japan with more respect,' Kamiya told the crowd, who stood on a paved square dusted with grey ash from the active volcano. His party's other headline-grabbing policy has been the call to eliminate a 10% national consumption tax, imposed to help pay the costs of Japan's growing population of retirees. In his speech, he said the tax placed an unjust economic burden on working-age citizens. This message appealed to many spectators, who said they felt alienated by the governing party's focus on older voters. 'Sanseito speaks from the younger people's perspective,' said Yuka Matsuki, 23, who recently quit her job at a retail store. 'It gives us hope that things will get better in the future.' In an interview, Kamiya said his positions were shaped by his experiences as an exchange student in Canada and by helping his father run the family supermarket, which went bankrupt. He later became involved in local politics and joined the governing Liberal Democratic Party, which he quit because he considered it too focused on fundraising. Five years ago, he started Sanseito, which shuns big donors, instead funding itself by asking supporters to become paying subscribers to its website. In elections in 2022, the party won its first seat in the upper house, which Kamiya now holds. He is not up for re-election until the next upper house contest in 2028. Sanseito gained one more seat last month when a lawmaker left another small opposition party to join it, and it won three seats in a lower house election last year. Recent polls show Sanseito with about 6% of the national vote, enough to give it between 10 and 20 of the 124 seats up for grabs. It often polls neck and neck with the Democratic Party for the People, a more moderate right-wing party that has also attracted younger voters. Kamiya hopes the momentum will help Sanseito grow into a larger national movement. He wants to create a Japanese cousin of Trump's 'America first' movement, though he will not follow Trump in every regard. 'Sanseito's vision is close to 'America first,' but not its leadership style,' Kamiya said. 'Trump's egotism is just too self-centred for Japanese.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Written by: Martin Fackler Photographs by: Ko Sasaki, Chang W. Lee ©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Trump says he will help Afghans stuck in the UAE
By Doina Chiacu , Reuters US President Donald Trump. Photo: Getty Images/CNN Newsource US President Donald Trump has said he would help Afghans detained in the United Arab Emirates for years after fleeing their country when the United States pulled out and the Taliban took power. Trump, a Republican who promised a far-reaching immigration crackdown, suspended refugee resettlement after he took office in January. In April, the Trump administration terminated temporary deportation protections for thousands of Afghans in the US. "I will try to save them, starting right now," Trump said in a post on Truth Social that linked to an article on the Afghans held in limbo there. Trump cited news website "Just the News" as saying that UAE officials were preparing to hand over some Afghan refugees to the Taliban. Reuters has not confirmed the report. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The UAE, a close security partner of the United States, agreed in 2021 to temporarily house several thousand Afghans evacuated from Kabul as the Taliban ousted the US-backed government during the final stages of the US-led withdrawal. Nearly 200,000 Afghans were brought to the US by former President Joe Biden's administration since the chaotic US troop withdrawal from Kabul. Canada agreed in 2022 to resettle about 1000 of the Afghans still held in the UAE after a US request. It is unclear how many remain in the Gulf country. Some countries have forced Afghan refugees to return to Afghanistan. Nearly 2 million Afghans were returned from Iran and Pakistan in the past seven months, the United Nations said last week. Germany on Friday deported 81 Afghan men to Afghanistan amid a tightening of refugee admissions. Some other European countries are pushing to tighten asylum rules in the bloc. In the United States, Democrats have urged Trump to restore temporary protected status for Afghans, saying women and children could face particular harm under the Taliban-led government in place since 2021. Refugees include family members of Afghan-American US military personnel, children cleared to reunite with their parents, relatives of Afghans already admitted and tens of thousands of Afghans who worked for the US government during the 20-year war. Shawn VanDiver, president of the #AfghanEvac advocacy group, urged Trump to follow up on his post with action. "President Trump has the authority to do the right thing. He should instruct DHS (Department of Homeland Security) and the Department of State to expedite processing, push for third-country partnerships, and ensure that we never again leave our wartime allies behind," he said in a statement. -Reuters
Otago Daily Times
3 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Half-smiles as Trump offers Ukraine limited aid
There was rejoicing when US President Donald Trump announced that he was going to let Ukraine have weapons after all, but it was conspicuously contained joy. Half-smiles and sighs of relief were plentiful; cheers were absent or faked. The Ukrainians were relieved because this is the first time they will be getting weapons actually ordered by Trump. The stop-go dribble of arms that the US has sent Ukraine at intervals in the past five months was really the tail-end of Joe Biden's last package, although Trump had to approve each shipment. What Trump is willing to send now remains unclear, but at least it's on his own initiative and $US10 billion has been mentioned. And Ukrainians don't care that the money will really be provided by other Nato members, who will buy the weapons from the US but pass them on Ukraine's armed forces. What does concern Ukrainians is that Trump's threatened "secondary tariffs" (more accurately secondary sanctions) on countries like India and China that are still buying cut-rate Russian oil and gas and supporting Moscow's war economy will not start for 50 more days. That gives Russian President Vladimir Putin 49 more days to bomb Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with impunity, and Trump is notorious for shifting his deadlines to later dates. (Taco, as they say — "Trump always chickens out".) Moreover, Trump warned Ukraine not to attack Moscow in return. So, the Russian reaction to Trump's apparent change of heart was relief that it wasn't worse. It is mostly "hot air", wrote Konstantin Kosachev, a senior Russian politician, on Telegram. "A lot can change in 50 days — on the battlefield and in the mindset of those in power, both in the US and in Nato." That's mostly correct, but not so much about Nato, most of whose other members have privately concluded that the United States under Trump is no longer a trustworthy ally. That leaves them dreadfully exposed if Russia conquers Ukraine and they become the next item on Putin's agenda. The historical division of labour within the Nato alliance has left the Europeans lacking in key military categories like aerial surveillance, satellite data and nuclear deterrence. Trump imagines that the recent commitment of most Nato countries to spend 5% of GDP on defence — twice or more than they were spending two years ago — was a response to his demands. It was really a decision to achieve strategic independence from the United States. They have realised they are on their own. Their problem is that it will take at least five years of strenuous effort to reach that goal, and until then they will still need US support — which explains the fake adulation and fulsome flattery they offer Trump at every opportunity. Boot-licking is hard work, and they probably can't keep it up for five years, but every month makes a difference. Most European decision-makers understand that a Russian victory in Ukraine must be avoided at all costs, and that they must therefore do whatever they can to keep Trump on side. Is that really possible? Not if the slide of the United States into a "soft fascism" accelerates. Not if China invades Taiwan and panics the US into a global war. Not if Putin dies or is overthrown, only for an even more ruthless and reckless ruler to take his place. The negative possibilities are big and plausible — but so are less disastrous outcomes. It is still possible to draw a credible scenario in which the current stalemate in Ukraine endures for another year or so and then reaches an "in-place" ceasefire like the one that has lasted in Korea for 72 years. It is possible that the US can be kept in Nato long enough for the European members plus Canada to get their act together and become an independent strategic body. It is possible that China will retain its half-hearted loyalty to the international rule of law and not become another rogue state. It is likewise possible that the United States, having spent some time under a capricious and authoritarian government, will return to its democratic roots, which run very deep. Regime change in Russia might reawaken the desire for democracy that was so prominent in the late 1980s and early '90s. It's not over until the fat lady sings. It's not even over after the fat lady sings. We are heading into a period where all bets are off because climate change will change all other calculations, and the only rational response will be co-operation on a global scale. No promises, but despair is rarely the right move. — Gwynne Dyer is an independent London journalist.
