Latest from Japan Times
Japan Times
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Japan Times
Amid heated debate, no real plan for Israel's 'humanitarian city' in Gaza
An Israeli scheme to move hundreds of thousands of already uprooted Palestinians to a so-called "humanitarian city" in Gaza has led politicians to spar with the defense establishment, but officials say a practical plan has yet to be crafted. Even without a clear blueprint, opposition critics have denounced the proposal, with some likening the suggested site to a "concentration camp," which could lead to ethnic cleansing in the coastal enclave devastated by 21 months of conflict. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's administration has defended the project, saying it would offer civilians a safe haven while further weakening Hamas militants' grip on Gaza, but it remains unclear whether it is a concrete government policy.
Japan Times
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Japan Times
Putin, unfazed by Trump, will fight on and could take more of Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to keep fighting in Ukraine until the West engages on his terms for peace, unfazed by U.S. President Donald Trump's threats of tougher sanctions, and his territorial demands may widen as Russian forces advance, three sources close to the Kremlin said. Putin, who ordered Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in country's east between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops, believes Russia's economy and its military are strong enough to weather any additional Western measures, the sources said. Trump on Monday expressed frustration with Putin's refusal to agree a ceasefire and announced a wave of weapons supplies to Ukraine, including Patriot surface-to-air missile systems. He also threatened further sanctions on Russia unless a peace deal was reached within 50 days. The three Russian sources, familiar with top-level Kremlin thinking, said Putin will not stop the war under pressure from the West and believes Russia — which has survived the toughest sanctions imposed by the West — can endure further economic hardship, including threatened U.S. tariffs targeting buyers of Russian oil. "Putin thinks no one has seriously engaged with him on the details of peace in Ukraine — including the Americans — so he will continue until he gets what he wants," one of the sources said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation. Despite several telephone calls between Trump and Putin, and visits to Russia by U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, the Russian leader believes there have not been detailed discussions of the basis for a peace plan, the source said. "Putin values the relationship with Trump and had good discussions with Witkoff, but the interests of Russia come above all else," the person added. The White House did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Putin's conditions for peace include a legally binding pledge that NATO will not expand eastwards, Ukrainian neutrality and limits on its armed forces, protection for Russian speakers who live there, and acceptance of Russia's territorial gains, the sources said. He is also willing to discuss a security guarantee for Ukraine involving major powers, though it is far from clear how this would work, the sources said. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine will never recognize Russia's sovereignty over its conquered regions and that Kyiv retains the sovereign right to decide whether it wants to join NATO. His office did not respond to a request for comment for this story. However, a second source familiar with Kremlin thinking said that Putin considered Moscow's goals far more important than any potential economic losses from Western pressure, and he was not concerned by U.S. threats to impose tariffs on China and India for buying Russian oil. Two of the sources said that Russia has the upper hand on the battlefield and its economy, geared toward war, is exceeding the production of the U.S.-led NATO alliance in key munitions, like artillery shells. Russia, which already controls nearly one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, has advanced some 1,415 square kilometers in the past three months, according to data from the DeepStateMap, an open-source intelligence map of the conflict. "Appetite comes with eating," the first source said, meaning that Putin could seek more territory unless the war was stopped. The two other sources independently confirmed the same. Russia currently controls Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, plus all of the eastern region of Luhansk, more than 70% of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and fragments of Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Putin's public position is that those first five regions — Crimea and the four regions of eastern Ukraine — are now part of Russia and Kyiv must withdraw before there can be peace. Putin could fight on until Ukraine's defenses collapse and widen his territorial ambitions to include more of Ukraine, the sources said. "Russia will act based on Ukraine's weakness," the third source said, adding that Moscow might halt its offensive after conquering the four eastern regions of Ukraine if it encounters stiff resistance. "But if it falls, there will be an even greater conquest of Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy and Kharkiv." Zelenskyy has said Russia's summer offensive is not going as successfully as Moscow had hoped. His top brass, who acknowledge that Russian forces outnumber Ukraine's, say Kyiv's troops are holding the line and forcing Russia to pay a heavy price for its gains. The United States says 1.2 million people have been injured or killed in the war, Europe's deadliest conflict since the Second World War. Neither Russia nor Ukraine give full figures for their losses, and Moscow dismisses Western estimates as propaganda. Trump, since returning to the White House in January after promising a swift end to the war, has sought to repair ties with Russia, speaking at least six times by telephone with Putin. On Monday, he said the Russian leader was not "an assassin, but he's a tough guy." In an abrupt break from his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, Trump's administration has cast the war as a deadly proxy conflict between Russia and the United States, withdrawn support for Ukraine joining NATO and floated the idea of recognizing Russia's annexation of Crimea. Putin portrays the war as a watershed moment in Moscow's relations with the West, which he says humiliated Russia after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union by enlarging NATO and encroaching on what he considers Moscow's sphere of influence, including Ukraine and Georgia. Putin has yet to accept a proposal from Trump for an unconditional ceasefire, which was quickly endorsed by Kyiv. Recent days have seen Russia use hundreds of drones to attack Ukrainian cities. However, Trump told the BBC in an interview published on Tuesday that he was not done with Putin and that a Ukraine deal remained on the cards. The first source rejected Trump's assertion last week that Putin had thrown "bulls---" around, saying there had been a failure to transform positive talks with Witkoff into a substantive discussion on the basis for peace. A White House official said on Monday Trump was considering 100% tariffs on Russian goods as well as secondary sanctions on other countries that buy its exports as a means to drive Moscow to the negotiating table. China and India are the biggest buyers of crude. Despite existing sanctions and the cost of fighting Europe's biggest conflict since World War II, Russia's $2 trillion economy has performed far better than many in Russia or the West expected. The economic ministry forecasts a slowdown to 2.5% annual growth in 2025 from 4.3% last year. The second person said that Trump had little leverage over Putin and suggested that even if Washington imposed tariffs on the purchasers of Russian crude then Moscow would still find a way to sell it to world markets. "Putin understands that Trump is an unpredictable person who may do unpleasant things but he is maneuvering to avoid irritating him too much," the source said. Looking ahead, one of the sources said there was likely to be an escalation of the crisis in coming months, and underscored the dangers of tensions between the world's two largest nuclear powers. And, he predicted, the war would continue.
Japan Times
10 hours ago
- Business
- Japan Times
Italy's Chianti wine makers eye South America, Asia amid U.S. tariff threat
Producers of Italy's renowned Chianti wine have demanded a new export strategy backed by the EU targeting markets such as South America, Asia and Africa following U.S. President Donald Trump's threat of additional tariffs on European imports. Italy currently exports more wine to the U.S. than any other country, but producers are increasingly looking to diversify amid the trade uncertainty. "There is no point in feeling sorry for ourselves. It should be seen as an opportunity to accelerate a new export strategy, focusing on alternative and more stable markets," said Giovanni Busi, the president of Consorzio Vino Chianti, an association gathering the Chianti wine producers in the Tuscany region. Trump on Saturday threatened to impose a 30% tariff on imports from Mexico and the European Union starting on August 1, adding pressure on Italy, which exported €2 billion ($2.3 billion) worth of wines, spirits and vinegars to the U.S. last year, accounting for a quarter of its global sales, according to industry group Federvini. Busi identified South America, Asia and Africa as pivotal markets for Italian wine, citing Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay as regions with significant growth potential. He also noted increased demand in Asian markets, including China, Japan, Vietnam and Taiwan, emphasizing the need for targeted promotion and distribution strategies. "Africa and India are also areas where the wine consumption is beginning to spread," he added, encouraging structured efforts to penetrate these markets. Matteo Lunelli, CEO of Spumante sparkling wine producer Gruppo Lunelli, shared Busi's worries, highlighting opportunities in Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand and the Middle East, while also identifying Canada as a growing market. "The United States were our first country, now we need to pay more attention to other areas," Lunelli told daily la Repubblica on Monday. Producers of Prosecco, the wine made in the northeastern Veneto and Friuli regions, are deeply concerned about the prospect of new tariffs. They sell around 130 million bottles every year to the United States — around 30% of their total export — worth almost €500 million. "Prolonged uncertainty weighs on the strategic choices of companies; we hope for a final and reasonable decision," Consorzio Prosecco president Giancarlo Guidolin said in a statement. Meanwhile, across the Mediterranean, Spanish winemakers are also eyeing Canada as a potential market, along with Southeast Asia and Latin American countries, hoping reciprocal tariffs on American wines might generate a gap in the market. Carlos Villar, managing director of top Spanish winemaker Protos, said Mexico was already his primary market, and Brazil could open up if a European trade agreement with Mercosur is finally inked. Jose Luis Benitez, director of the FEV Spanish Wine Federation, said Mexico was a good short- to medium-term option, particularly for Spain's Ribera del Duero wines, but as a country that increasingly produces its own wine, would only take any surplus for so long. Canada was a good alternative, he said. "Canada has told Europe that it's interested in buying its wines because it won't buy in the U.S.," he said. "That's a gap that European wine could plug."
Japan Times
10 hours ago
- Japan Times
23-year sentence sought for senior member of 'Luffy' crime ring
Public prosecutors on Tuesday sought a 23-year prison term for Tomonobu Kojima, a senior member of a Philippines-based Japanese crime ring that allegedly masterminded a series of robbery and fraud cases across wide areas of Japan. In their closing argument in a lay-judge trial at Tokyo District Court, the prosecutors said that the cases in which Kojima, 47, was involved by recruiting perpetrators served as the origin of a series of "tokuryu" crimes committed by loosely organized groups of anonymous members. "The cases have led to many copycat crimes, and the defendant should be punished severely," the prosecutors stressed. The defense said that 11 years in prison would be appropriate for Kojima. The court is scheduled to hand down a ruling on July 23. At the first hearing of his trial on July 1, Kojima, who belonged to the group whose members called themselves "Luffy," pleaded guilty to all charges that he faced, including aiding robberies resulting in injury and committing fraud. In their opening statement, prosecutors said that the defendant recruited perpetrators via X, formerly Twitter. They said he was also in charge of managing the group's criminal proceeds, playing an important role within the group next to Yuki Watanabe, 41, one of its leaders. The defense argued that, while Kojima was instructed by Watanabe, who had shouldered Kojima's debt arising from failed investment, to find perpetrators of planned robbery cases, he was not aware of the details of the plan and that his degree of involvement in the crimes was low. According to the indictment, the defendant introduced to the group between October and December 2022 perpetrators of robbery cases in Tokyo and Yamaguchi Prefecture. Kojima has also been charged with swindling some ¥54 million in cash. Watanabe and two other senior figures in the group have also been indicted on charges, including robbery resulting in death over a fatal assault on an elderly woman in a Tokyo suburb in January 2023. It remains to be seen when the first hearing of their trials will start.
Japan Times
11 hours ago
- Climate
- Japan Times
How climate change is fueling wildfires in Europe
Wildfires have scorched hotspots in several Mediterranean countries this month, with blazes forcing thousands of people into lockdown in Catalonia in Spain, and encroaching on France's second-biggest city of Marseille. Here's what drives wildfires across Europe, and the situation so far this year. How bad is it this year? Wildfires have burnt 227,000 hectares of land since the beginning of the year — more than double the average for this time of year over the past two decades, according to the EU's European Forest Fire Information System. While far above average, it's not the highest in EFFIS' records, which go back to 2002. Europe had particularly bad fire seasons in 2003 and 2017, when blazes burnt more than 1.1 million hectares in each year — an area equivalent to the island of Jamaica. It's not yet clear if 2025 will be a record year, as that will depend on how the fire season evolves in the coming months. The number of fires in Europe has also surged this year so far, with 1,118 blazes detected as of July 8, versus 716 in the same period last year, EFFIS said. Heat waves in Europe earlier this month stoked blazes around the Mediterranean, including in Syria, where fires have burned through more than 3% of the country's forest cover, according to the U.N. In the Greek islands of Evia and Crete, wildfires this month forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes. But while Europe overall has seen a jump this year, scientists observing the fires say those in the Mediterranean region have, while destructive, so far been relatively isolated. What's driving it? Scientists say the Mediterranean region's hotter, drier summers put it at high risk of wildfires. Once fires start, plentiful dry vegetation and strong winds in the region can cause them to spread rapidly and burn out of control. Climate change exacerbates this risk, by creating hotter and drier background conditions. In the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, that has contributed to the fire season starting earlier in recent years, breaking records for the intensity of fires, and burning more land. Greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning coal, oil and gas, have heated the planet by about 1.3 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times. Europe has warmed at twice the global average since the 1980s, according to the World Meteorological Organization. That warmer baseline means higher temperatures can be reached during heat waves, which climate change is also making more frequent. This has been confirmed by the United Nations' global panel of climate scientists, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Rest of summer Countries are preparing for worse blazes. Warmer-than-average temperatures are forecast across Europe in August, EFFIS said, meaning fire danger will remain high across much of southern and eastern Europe. While Southern Europe is expected to see normal rainfall patterns, the rest of the continent is expected to be drier than normal in August, EFFIS said — potentially exacerbating fire risk in other regions. Governments are attempting to adapt. Greece has assembled a record high 18,000 firefighters this year, in anticipation of severe blazes, and has adapted its firefighting tactics and patrols to attempt to detect fires earlier and limit the damage, the government has said. Other factors exacerbate fire risk, including forest management. Shrinking populations in rural areas of countries including Spain, as people move to cities, have left smaller workforces to clear vegetation and avoid fuel for forest fires building up. The U.N. has urged governments to invest more in prevention, rather than focusing mainly on response after fires break out — and it has warned that climate change is expected to increase extreme fires globally by up to 14% by the end of the decade. Fire prevention can include setting controlled fires ahead of the summer season, to clear out fuel that blazes can feed on, and restoring wetlands and peatland ecosystems, the U.N. said.
