Nagasaki mayor warns of nuclear war 80 years after Nagasaki
Saturday's ceremony came a few days after the commemoration of the first atomic bombing, which targeted the Japanese city of Hiroshima 80 years ago on 6 August, killing an estimated 140,000 people.The Nagasaki bomb, bigger and more powerful, wiped out whole communities in seconds.The commemoration in the rebuilt city began with a moment of silence. Nagasaki's twin cathedral bells also rang in unison for the first time since the attack, in a message of peace to the world.As part of Saturday's ceremony, water offerings were made in a moving and symbolic gesture - 80 years ago victims whose skin was burning after the blast had begged for water.Today participants of different generations including a representative of the survivors offered water in a show of respect to those who perished in nuclear fire.
"On 9 August 1945 an atomic bomb was dropped on this city," Suzuki said in the declaration."Now, 80 years since that day, who could have possibly imagined that our world would become like this? Immediately cease from disputes in which 'force is met with force'."BBC visits the Korean survivors of the Hiroshima bombIn pictures: Nagasaki and Hiroshima rememberedBomb survivor Hiroshi Nishioka, 93, who was just 3km (1.8 miles) from the spot where it exploded, told the ceremony of the horror he had witnessed."Even the lucky ones [who were not severely injured] gradually began to bleed from their gums and lose their hair, and one after another they died," he said, as quoted by AFP news agency."Even though the war was over, the atomic bomb brought invisible terror."
Nagasaki resident Atsuko Higuchi, 50, told AFP it "made her happy" that the city's victims were being remembered."Instead of thinking that these events belong to the past, we must remember that these are real events that took place," she added.Among the bloodiest conflicts currently raging in the world are the war between Russia and Ukraine, and that between Israel and the Gaza-based group Hamas. There was controversy last year when Nagasaki declined to invite Israel to the annual commemoration, citing security concerns.This year the mayor said Israel had been invited, as well as Russia and its ally Belarus which had been shunned since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. An international agreement banning nuclear weapons, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, came into effect in 2021. More than 70 countries have ratified the treaty but nuclear powers have opposed it, arguing their nuclear arsenals act as a deterrent. Japan has also rejected the ban, saying its security is enhanced by US nuclear weapons.
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Telegraph
a minute ago
- Telegraph
Inside the minds of Trump and Putin, from diplomats who've been in the room
Donald Trump says that within two minutes of meeting Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, he will know 'exactly whether or not a deal can get done' to end the war in Ukraine. For the Ukrainians and Europeans, there is more than just a whiff of Munich about this summit, with neither party receiving an invitation for the crunch talks. In 1938, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Édouard Daladier and Neville Chamberlain agreed to carve up Czechoslovakia without representation from the Czech government. The concern is that this could happen once again with Mr Trump and his Maga acolytes busy discussing ' land swaps ' and criticising Volodymyr Zelensky for arguing that his constitution bars him from doing so. On the other end of the negotiation is Putin, an autocrat who believes Ukraine is a work of fiction and a mortal threat to his country. The Telegraph has spoken to a host of former officials and diplomats who have first-hand experience dealing with both the Russian and American presidents. Mr Trump characterised his goals for the high-stakes meeting as an opportunity to stare into his Russian counterpart's eyes to judge his plan to end the war in Ukraine. 'I'm going to see what he has in mind,' the US president told reporters. 'I may leave and say good luck, and that'll be the end,' he added. 'Probably in the first two minutes I'll know exactly whether or not a deal can get done,' the US president declared in the White House briefing room on Monday. If he is prepared to walk away at the slightest demonstration that Putin isn't ready to end the war – Mr Zelensky says Russia is gearing up for more conflict – then what does Mr Trump want? It has long been thought that he is desperate for a Nobel Peace Prize and has a particular grudge against Barack Obama for being decorated only eight months into his first term. The Norwegian Nobel Committee cited Mr Obama's 'extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples', which seemed to be more about Mr Obama's promise as an international leader than his actual accomplishments. Mr Trump is the self-styled 'president of peace'. 'As president, he has brokered peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Cambodia and Thailand, Israel and Iran, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, India and Pakistan, Egypt and Ethiopia, Serbia and Kosovo, and with the Abraham Accords,' the White House said. 'Trump and certainly [JD] Vance, they don't care about the future of Ukraine particularly,' Anthony Gardener, who served as Mr Obama's US ambassador to the EU, said. 'I'm convinced Trump does want to position himself as the person who, quote, unquote, brought a sort of form of peace to get a Nobel Peace Prize,' Mr Gardener added. Ending the bloodshed in Ukraine could do that. Others say he's looking for yet another deal to sell as a demonstration of business acumen. There are significant rare earth mineral deposits in eastern Ukraine. That territory is on the table, and Mr Trump has already made a play for it by signing an agreement with Mr Zelensky to be able to mine it. 'Trump wants to bag a win… period,' Mr Gardener said. In his office in the Kremlin, where Putin will be preparing for his meeting with Mr Trump, sits a bust of Catherine the Great. The significance of the monument should not be lost. As Russia's longest-serving female monarch, Catherine dragged the country into the 18th century and during her reign, doubled the size of its empire. David Liddington, a former deputy prime minister, said Putin also compares himself to Peter the Great, 'somebody who is going to restore Russia's greatness and grow Russia's territory, at least its effective empire'. And Putin is likely to double down on his positions, in an attempt to at least cement his control over the Ukrainian territory already seized by his invasion forces. He will leave little of the planning up to his aides, who are mostly believed to be yes men there for affirmation rather than assistance. 'President Putin is secretive, well-scripted and always eager to press an argument that reaffirms his positions rather than his willingness to settle. He reflects the attitudes of someone who's familiar with power play, intelligence and security considerations, not the transactional, commercial kind of negotiation playbook,' Margaritis Schinas, a former European Commission vice president, said. According to Bobby McDonagh, a former Irish ambassador to the UK, Italy and EU, Putin is 'utterly predictable'. 'He will relentlessly and ruthlessly pursue his very narrowly defined idea of Russian interests,' Mr McDonagh added. Those who have been in the room before say the Russian president will likely try to corner his American counterpart by demanding that the structure of their meeting plays out in a specific fashion. 'He prefers meetings structured in two parts: first, with delegations and interpreters that mainly serve as an audience to listen to his position on a particular subject, usually peppered with aggressive comments on those who think otherwise; then, a more closed – usually tête à tête – discussion of principals where he may show some margin of openness,' Mr Schinas said. It is in the latter section of the meeting in which Putin will try to hammer home any wriggle room he has made for himself. 'Putin will keep his eye on the strategic prize. He will look for opportunities to lessen the economic pressure on Russia and the Russian economy,' Mr Liddington said. The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office estimates that sanctions on Russia have deprived the Russian state of at least £333bn in war funds between February 2022 and June 2025. Any easing would give Putin a significant win. John Bolton, Mr Trump's former national security advisor, told The Telegraph that Putin will use his KGB skills to manipulate the US president. 'That's one reason why Putin really did not want Zelensky or the Europeans there. He doesn't want Trump to be distracted with all these other players,' Mr Bolton said. 'Putin will try to get Trump back into feeling that they're friends again. I think Trump has been disappointed that his friend, over the first six months of the administration, has not helped him reach this deal.' According to Mr Bolton, Putin has 'manipulated Trump on Ukraine really right from the beginning of the administration, but back before the disaster with Zelensky in the Oval Office.' The Russian president is 'going to try and get Trump back on side,' Mr Bolton said, adding: 'He's got to work fast.' 'The outcome will depend entirely on whether Trump resists Putin's known and entirely unacceptable demands,' Mr McDonagh added – referring to a stripped-back Ukrainian army, no prospect of them joining Nato and the recognition of Russian sovereignty over the Ukrainian regions of Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. The US president is much happier to consult with advisers on his positions in the meeting, but those don't bode well for Ukraine. Tulsi Gabbard, his intelligence chief, is known to not care much for Kyiv. Mr Vance and Pete Hegseth, the defence secretary, have vocalised the need for Ukraine to surrender territory. 'He likes to be surrounded by his team and advisers, allowing them space for contributions, but under no circumstances margin for decision,' Mr Schinas said. This means the US president is unlikely to listen to the European leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer, who are set to hold talks with him on Wednesday. There is one hope among the European and Ukrainian onlookers ahead of Friday. Is Mr Trump prepared to let himself be embarrassed at the hands of Putin? Will he attempt to emulate Ronald Reagan, the former US president credited for the invention of 'Make America Great Again'? Sir Julian King, Britain's last-ever European Commissioner, said: 'You can get unexpected outcomes. 'Reagan at Reykjavik blindsided his allies,' he said, referring to the 1986 summit between the US president and Mikhail Gorbachev which ushered in the end of the Cold War. 'But as they meet for the first time in years, with Putin's maximalist negotiating and Trump's unpredictability, anything could happen.' 'The one potential saving grace, Trump won't want to come out looking like a chump,' he concluded.
The Guardian
a minute ago
- The Guardian
Trump swallowing Putin's lies is a bigger threat to Ukraine than bombs
Wars do not have to be won. Total victories loom largest in the popular imagination because those are the stories nations always tell to sustain patriotic feeling. The fuller version of history is written in stalemates. That is worth remembering when Donald Trump meets Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. Both leaders have incentives to pretend that Ukraine's fate can be settled decisively without any Ukrainians at the negotiating table. That doesn't make it so. For the US president, this is a project of personal vanity. He promised to end the war within days of returning to the White House. The persistence of hostilities seven months after his inauguration is a rebuke to his self-image as the world's master dealmaker. Putin also once thought the war could be concluded swiftly. He launched his all-out invasion in February 2022 expecting Kyiv to fall within weeks. When Ukrainian resistance thwarted that plan, the Russian president switched to a long game of attrition, relying on superior troop numbers and aerial bombardment to degrade Ukraine's viability as a sovereign state. Russia's industrial base and public opinion have been fired up for perpetual war. Kremlin propagandists boast of the nation's limitless military stamina, while Russian commanders keep promising to break through enemy lines and initiate the long-awaited capitulation. Putin has to believe in the inevitability of Ukrainian defeat because any other scenario – even a ceasefire that allows him to hold territory captured so far – leaves the historic mission he set himself unfulfilled. He will harbour a vengeful grievance for as long as Volodymyr Zelenskyy is president of a country that is free to arm itself and pursue an independent policy of integration with other European democracies. Any border or treaty that prevents the Kremlin dictating Ukraine's strategic orientation is illegitimate in Putin's eyes. That won't prevent him signing bits of paper as a tactical expedient. The Russian president recognises that he has tested his American counterpart's patience. He has lost ground to Zelenskyy in the competition to shape Trump's explanation for why the war persists when he has called for peace. The Ukrainian president has bounced back from his televised humiliation in the White House in February, when he was harangued for ingratitude and blamed for inciting the invasion of his own country. Deft diplomacy, underwritten by Nato leaders pledging to pay Kyiv's military bills, bought a sliver of recognition from Trump that maybe things were more complicated than previously thought; that Putin was prone to 'bullshit'; that his professed interest in peace was contradicted by the volume of bombs he kept dropping on Ukrainian civilians. The Alaska powwow is happening because Trump started setting ceasefire deadlines and threatening Moscow with sanctions. Putin needed to offer some affectation of willingness to compromise. He calculated that the spectacle of a summit, combined with some artfully ambiguous signals around 'land swaps', would appeal to Trump's confidence in his own charisma and his belief that a deal is there for the doing. Putin will use the encounter to frame the conflict in terms that chime with Trump's warped and historically illiterate reading of the story. It is the version in which a devious, criminal Zelenskyy bamboozles a senescent Joe Biden into throwing away heaps of US treasure on a crazy, losing bet. The war is nearly won anyway, Putin will say. Ukraine cannot prevail, but can sucker its allies into throwing good money after bad. He will outline a future of lucrative commercial relations between two great powers whose potential friendship has been sabotaged by a roguish European province that hardly even counts as a proper country. He will make grotesque territorial claims, covering places not yet conquered by Russian troops, and present this as the bare minimum of a reasonable allocation of land to Moscow. He will insist on Ukrainian 'demilitarisation' – in effect guaranteeing the country's vulnerability to some future incursion – and call it essential for the sake of Russian security. We know these are the demands because Putin has been making them for months. He restated them earlier this month. Trump doesn't have to fall in a bromantic swoon at Putin's feet to make the summit a success for Russia. The damage will be done if he emerges from negotiations parroting talking points from the Kremlin script. The fear among Ukraine's European allies is that he will proudly outline a ceasefire proposal on terms that Zelenskyy cannot possibly accept – an unjust, unworkable partition of his country along lines drawn by the tyrant who invaded it. Putin will then claim that he tried to talk peace and only Ukrainian intransigence prolongs the war. Less bleak scenarios are conceivable. Trump's newfound scepticism about Putin might withstand corrosion by flattery. The Russian leader's confidence in an imminent battlefield breakthrough might prove misplaced – a symptom of the brittle, authoritarian ego that only gives audience to sycophants bearing good tidings. He might be overestimating Russia's economic resilience against sanctions. He might one day find ordinary Russians losing the will to sacrifice a generation of young men for a goal of national redemption that keeps receding over the horizon. When the domestic economic and political incentives change, Putin will get serious about a ceasefire. The task of Ukraine's allies is to hasten that moment by sustaining maximum military aid to Kyiv and financial pressure on Moscow. Even then, a settlement would realistically leave some Ukrainian land under de facto permanent Russian occupation, behind heavily fortified lines. It will be a stalemate backed with sufficient deterrents to turn a hot war cold. It could end up looking something like the demilitarised zone on the Korean peninsula, separating two sides that are technically still at war, although the armistice was signed in 1953 For now, the challenge for Zelenskyy and his allies is handling a US president who talks about war and peace in terms detached from any moral, historical or strategic context. Trump draws no meaningful distinction between a settlement that allows Ukraine to thrive as an independent state and one that satisfies the appetite of a Russian president bent on conquest. He values two kinds of deal – those that make him richer, and those that allow him to luxuriate in the status of a great dealmaker. If he thinks such benefits are available by abandoning American allies and interests there is no reason to think he wouldn't do it. That will be Putin's aim in Alaska. He has no intention of ending the war just because the White House demands it, but he knows he must pretend to want peace. And he knows his best hope of defeating Ukraine is to manipulate Trump into bullying Kyiv towards capitulation, while imagining that his own humiliation at Kremlin hands is some kind of personal victory. Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist
The Independent
30 minutes ago
- The Independent
Vietnam wants to be the next Asian tiger and it's overhauling its economy to make it happen.
Beneath red banners and a gold bust of revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi 's central party school, Communist Party chief To Lam declared the arrival of 'a new era of development' late last year. The speech was more than symbolic— it signaled the launch of what could be Vietnam's most ambitious economic overhaul in decades. Vietnam aims to get rich by 2045 and become Asia's next 'tiger economy' — a term used to describe the earlier ascent of countries like South Korea and Taiwan. The challenge ahead is steep: Reconciling growth with overdue reforms, an aging population, climate risks and creaking institutions. There's added pressure from President Donald Trump over Vietnam's trade surplus with the U.S., a reflection of its astounding economic trajectory. In 1990, the average Vietnamese could afford about $1,200 worth of goods and services a year, adjusted for local prices. Today, that figure has risen by more than 13 times to $16,385. Vietnam's transformation into a global manufacturing hub with shiny new highways, high-rise skylines and a booming middle class has lifted millions of its people from poverty, similar to China. But its low-cost, export-led boom is slowing, while the proposed reforms — expanding private industries, strengthening social protections, and investing in tech, green energy. It faces a growing obstacle in climate change. 'It's all hands on can't waste time anymore," said Mimi Vu of the consultancy Raise Partners. The export boom can't carry Vietnam forever Investment has soared, driven partly by U.S.-China trade tensions, and the U.S. is now Vietnam's biggest export market. Once-quiet suburbs have been replaced with industrial parks where trucks rumble through sprawling logistics hubs that serve global brands. Vietnam ran a $123.5 billion trade surplus with the U.S. trade in 2024, angering Trump, who threatened a 46% U.S. import tax on Vietnamese goods. The two sides appear to have settled on a 20% levy, and twice that for goods suspected of being transshipped, or routed through Vietnam to avoid U.S. trade restrictions. During negotiations with the Trump administration, Vietnam's focus was on its tariffs compared to those of its neighbors and competitors, said Daniel Kritenbrink, a former U.S. ambassador to Vietnam. 'As long as they're in the same zone, in the same ballpark, I think Vietnam can live with that outcome," he said. But he added questions remain over how much Chinese content in those exports might be too much and how such goods will be taxed. Vietnam was preparing to shift its economic policies even before Trump's tariffs threatened its model of churning out low-cost exports for the world, aware of what economists call the 'middle-income trap,' when economies tend to plateau without major reforms. To move beyond that, South Korea bet on electronics, Taiwan on semiconductors, and Singapore on finance, said Richard McClellan, founder of the consultancy RMAC Advisory. But Vietnam's economy today is more diverse and complex than those countries were at the time and it can't rely on just one winning sector to drive long-term growth and stay competitive as wages rise and cheap labor is no longer its main advantage. It needs to make 'multiple big bets,' McClellan said. Vietnam's game plan is hedging its bets Following China's lead, Vietnam is counting on high-tech sectors like computer chips, artificial intelligence and renewable energy, providing strategic tax breaks and research support in cities like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Danang. It's also investing heavily in infrastructure, including civilian nuclear plants and a $67 billion North–South high-speed railway, that will cut travel time from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City to eight hours. Vietnam also aspires to become a global financial center. The government plans two special financial centers, in bustling Ho Chi Minh City and in the seaside resort city of Danang, with simplified rules to attract foreign investors, tax breaks, support for financial tech startups, and easier ways to settle business disputes. Underpinning all of this is institutional reform. Ministries are being merged, low-level bureaucracies have been eliminated and Vietnam's 63 provinces will be consolidated into 34 to build regional centers with deeper talent pools. Private business to take the lead Vietnam is counting on private businesses to lead its new economic push — a seismic shift from the past. In May, the Communist Party passed Resolution 68. It calls private businesses the 'most important force' in the economy, pledging to break away from domination by state-owned and foreign companies. So far, large multinationals have powered Vietnam's exports, using imported materials and parts and low cost local labor. Local companies are stuck at the low-end of supply chains, struggling to access loans and markets that favored the 700-odd state-owned giants, from colonial-era beer factories with arched windows to unfashionable state-run shops that few customers bother to enter. 'The private sector remains heavily constrained," said Nguyen Khac Giang of Singapore's ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute. Again emulating China, Vietnam wants 'national champions' to drive innovation and compete globally, not by picking winners, but by letting markets decide. The policy includes easier loans for companies investing in new technology, priority in government contracts for those meeting innovation goals, and help for firms looking to expand overseas. Even mega-projects like the North-South High-Speed Rail, once reserved for state-run giants, are now open to private bidding. By 2030, Vietnam hopes to elevate at least 20 private firms to a global scale. But Giang warned that there will be pushback from conservatives in the Communist Party and from those who benefit from state-owned firms. A Closing Window from climate change Even as political resistance threatens to stall reforms, climate threats require urgent action. After losing a major investor over flood risks, Bruno Jaspaert knew something had to change. His firm, DEEP C Industrial Zones, houses more than 150 factories across northern Vietnam. So it hired a consultancy to redesign flood resilience plans. Climate risk is becoming its own kind of market regulation, forcing businesses to plan better, build smarter, and adapt faster. 'If the whole world will decide it's a can go very fast,' said Jaspaert. When Typhoon Yagi hit last year, causing $1.6 billion in damage, knocking 0.15% off Vietnam's GDP and battering factories that produce nearly half the country's economic output, roads in DEEP C industrial parks stayed dry. Climate risks are no longer theoretical: If Vietnam doesn't take strong action to adapt to and reduce climate change, the country could lose 12–14.5% of its GDP each year by 2050, and up to one million people could fall into extreme poverty by 2030, according to the World Bank. Meanwhile, Vietnam is growing old before it gets rich. The country's 'golden population' window — when working-age people outnumber dependents — will close by 2039 and the labor force is projected to peak just three years later. That could shrink productivity and strain social services, especially since families — and women in particular — are the default caregivers, said Teerawichitchainan Bussarawan of the Centre for Family and Population Research at the National University of Singapore. Vietnam is racing to pre-empt the fallout by expanding access to preventive healthcare so older adults remain healthier and more independent. Gradually raising the retirement age and drawing more women into the formal workforce would help offset labor gaps and promote "healthy aging,' Bussarawan said. ___ The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
