TOKYO: Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba hit out at “biased” media reports related to a party scandal, as a fresh survey suggested that his ruling coalition could fall short of a majority in elections on Sunday.
This would be the worst result for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) — which has governed Japan for almost all of the past seven decades — since it last lost power from 2009 to 2012, as well as a major blow to Ishiba himself.
Adding to Ishiba’s woes is the continuing fallout from a slush fund scandal within the LDP that angered voters and helped torpedo his predecessor, Fumio Kishida.
Ishiba promised to not actively support LDP politicians caught up in the scandal running in the election, although they are still standing.
But according to media reports, the party has still provided 20 million yen ($132,000) each to district offices headed by these figures.
“It is truly frustrating that such reports come out at a time like this,” Ishiba said in a campaign speech on Thursday. “Those candidates will not use the money.”
“We cannot be defeated by those with biased views,” he added.
Opposition leaders pounced on Ishiba’s comments, including Yoshihiko Noda, a popular former prime minister who heads the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP), the second-biggest in parliament.
“However you look at it, it is cash to secretly endorse them. Mr. Ishiba is making excuses that no one understands,” Noda, 67, said in a campaign speech.
“He is angry with these reports? What are you saying? It is the Japanese people who are angry.”
Ishiba, 67, only became party leader — on his fifth attempt — last month and took office as prime minister on October 1, calling snap elections within days to shore up his position.
LDP members picked the self-confessed defense “geek” as party leader, believing that his popularity among ordinary voters would restore the party’s fortunes.
The fan of trains, 1970s pop idols and making military models promised to create a “new Japan (that) will drastically change the nature of Japanese society.”
He pledged to revitalize depressed rural regions and to address the “quiet emergency” of Japan’s falling population by supporting families with policies like flexible working hours.
But he has rowed back his position on issues including allowing married couples to take separate surnames, and only named two women ministers in his cabinet.
Friday’s new poll by the Yomiuri Shimbun daily suggested that the LDP and its coalition partner Komeito might struggle to get the necessary 233 lower house seats needed for a majority.
Ishiba has set this threshold as his objective, and missing it would undermine his position in the LDP and mean finding other coalition partners or leading a minority government.
In voting districts, only 87 of the LDP’s 266 candidates are ahead of their rivals, while 133 are in neck-and-neck battles, many of them against CDP candidates, the top-selling Yomiuri said.
The LDP was also set to lose dozens of seats determined by proportional representation under Japan’s hybrid electoral system, the paper added.
“Regardless of what the election results are, Ishiba’s longevity as prime minister is in question,” said Rintaro Nishimura at think-tank The Asia Group.
Japan PM on defensive as election prospects dim further
https://arab.news/2rq92
Japan PM on defensive as election prospects dim further
- Fresh survey suggest that Shigeru Ishiba’s ruling coalition could fall short of a majority in elections on Sunday
- Adding to Ishiba’s woes is the continuing fallout from a slush fund scandal within his Liberal Democratic Party
11 charged in Russia-based plan to defraud US health care of $10.6 billion
- Prosecutors said the multinational crime group bought dozens of medical equipment companies from prior legitimate owners to perpetrate the fraud
- Russia-based Imam Nakhmatullaev organized the group, and got partners from Estonia, the Czech Republic and the US to run the scheme
NEW YORK: US federal prosecutors charged 11 people Friday in a Russia-based scheme to bilk Medicare — the American health insurance program for the elderly and disabled — out of $10.6 billion through fraudulent billing for expensive medical equipment.
The “transnational criminal organization” orchestrated a “multi-billion-dollar health care fraud and money laundering scheme” that included purchasing dozens of medical equipment companies from prior legitimate owners to perpetrate the fraud, according to the indictment dated June 18.
More than a million Medicare recipients had their personal information stolen and used by the defendants to file for billions of dollars in claims from Medicare and its supplemental insurers, prosecutors said in the filing.
The claims were filed through medical equipment providers that the group had purchased, but no equipment was ever sent out for the payments.
Medicare paid “approximately $41 million as a result of the fraudulent submissions” and supplemental insurers are estimated to have paid out $900 million more between 2022 and 2024, prosecutors wrote.
The scheme was organized by Imam Nakhmatullaev, who is based in Russia, officials said, and managed the other defendants who were in Estonia, the Czech Republic and the United States.
The fraud was identified after “hundreds of thousands of Americans reported their concerns to Meidcare and its contractors after receiving explanation of benefit forms that reflected them purportedly receiving” equipment that they neither sought or received, the indictment said.
As US inflation edges up, Trump renews criticism of Fed chief, calling him ‘stubborn’
- Speaking at an event at the White House, Trump called central bank chair Jerome Powell “a stubborn mule and a stupid person” for refusing to cut interest rates
WASHINGTON: The US Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure logged a mild uptick Friday while spending weakened, triggering another tirade by President Donald Trump against the central bank chair for not cutting interest rates sooner.
“We have a guy that’s just a stubborn mule and a stupid person,” Trump told an event at the White House, referring to Fed Chair Jerome Powell. “He’s making a mistake.”
With Powell’s term as Fed chief coming to an end next year, Trump hinted at his choice of successor: “I’m going to put somebody that wants to cut rates.”
The president’s remarks came after government data showed the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index climbing 2.3 percent last month from a year ago in May.
This was in line with analyst expectations and a slight acceleration from April’s 2.2 percent increase, but still a relatively mild uptick.
Excluding the volatile food and energy sectors, the PCE price index was up 2.7 percent, rising from April’s 2.6 percent uptick, the Commerce Department’s report showed.
But consumer spending declined, after Trump’s fresh tariffs in April dragged on consumer sentiment. PCE dropped by 0.1 percent from the preceding month, reversing an earlier rise.
While Trump has imposed sweeping tariffs on most US trading partners since returning to the White House in January — alongside higher rates on imports of steel, aluminum and autos — these have had a muted effect so far on inflation.
This is in part because he held off or postponed some of his harshest salvos, while businesses are still running through inventory they stockpiled in anticipation of the levies.
But central bank officials have not rushed to slash interest rates, saying they can afford to wait and learn more about the impact of Trump’s recent duties. They expect to learn more about the tariffs’ effects over the summer.
“The experience of the limited range of tariffs introduced in 2018 suggests that pass-through to consumer prices is intense three-to-six months after their implementation,” warned economists Samuel Tombs and Oliver Allen of Pantheon Macroeconomics in a note.
They flagged weakness in consumer spending, in part due to a pullback in autos after buyers rushed to get ahead of levies.
And spending on services was tepid even after excluding volatile components, they said.
“There has also been a clear weakening in discretionary services spending, notably in travel and hospitality,” said Michael Pearce, deputy chief US economist at Oxford Economics, in a note.
This reflects “the chilling effect of the plunge in consumer sentiment,” he added.
Between April and May, the PCE price index was up 0.1 percent, the Commerce Department report showed.
As a July deadline approaches for higher tariff rates to kick in on dozens of economies, all eyes are also on whether countries can reach lasting trade deals with Washington to ease the effects of tariffs.
For now, despite the slowing in economic growth, Pearce said risks that inflation could increase will keep the Fed on hold with interest rates “until much later in the year.”
6.1-magnitude quake hits off southern Philippines
- Quakes are a near-daily occurrence in the Philippines, which is situated on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin
MANILA: A magnitude-6.1 earthquake struck deep off the coast of the southern Philippines on Saturday, the United States Geological Survey said.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the quake, which the USGS reported occurred at a depth of 101 kilometers (63 miles) about 70 kilometers from the nearest areas of Davao Occidental province.
“The shake was not that strong, but the tables and computers here at the office shook for (about five seconds),” Marlawin Fuentes, a provincial rescuer from the tiny island of Sarangani, told AFP.
No tsunami alert was triggered.
Quakes are a near-daily occurrence in the Philippines, which is situated on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.
Most are too weak to be felt by humans, but strong and destructive ones come at random with no technology available to predict when and where they might strike.
Brazil strikes deal with Musk’s Starlink to curb criminal use in the Amazon rainforest
- Starlink will begin requiring identification and proof of residence from all new users in Brazil’s Amazon region starting in January
- Starlink, which first arrived in the region in 2022, has enabled criminal groups to manage mining operations in remote areas
BRASILIA: Brazil’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office announced Friday a deal with Elon Musk’s Starlink to curb the use of its services in illegal mining and other criminal activities in the Amazon.
Starlink’s lightweight, high-speed Internet system has rapidly spread across the Amazon, a region that for decades struggled with slow and unreliable connectivity. But the service has also been adopted by criminal organizations, which have used it to coordinate logistics, make payments and receive alerts about police raids.
It’s the first agreement of its kind aimed at curbing such use following years of pressure from Brazilian authorities.
Starlink, a division of Musk’s SpaceX, will begin requiring identification and proof of residence from all new users in Brazil’s Amazon region starting in January. The company will also provide Brazilian authorities with user registration and geolocation data for Internet units located in areas under investigation.
If a terminal is confirmed to be used for illegal activity, Starlink has committed to blocking the service. The deal is for two years and can be renewed.
Illegal gold mining has contaminated hundreds of miles of Amazon rivers with mercury and disrupted the traditional lives of several Indigenous tribes, including the Yanomami. Starlink, which first arrived in the region in 2022, has enabled criminal groups to manage mining operations in remote areas, where logistics are complex and equipment and fuel must be transported by small plane or boat.
“The use of satellite Internet has transformed the logistics of illegal mining. This new reality demands a proportional legal response. With the agreement, connectivity in remote areas also becomes a tool for environmental responsibility and respect for sovereignty,” federal prosecutor André Porreca said in a statement.
Illegal gold miners and loggers have always had some form of communication, mainly via radio, to evade law enforcement. Starlink, with its fast and mobile Internet, has significantly enhanced that capability, Hugo Loss, operations coordinator for Brazil’s environmental agency, told The Associated Press in a phone interview.
“They’ve been able to transmit in real time the locations of enforcement teams, allowing them to anticipate our arrival, which seriously compromises the safety of our personnel and undermines the effectiveness of operations,” Loss said. “Cutting the signal in mining areas, especially on Indigenous lands and in protected areas, is essential because Internet access in these locations serves only criminal purposes.”
Jair Schmitt, head of environmental protection for the agency, said what’s also needed is tighter regulation on the sale and use of such equipment.
The AP emailed James Gleeson, SpaceX’s vice president of communications, with questions about the deal, but didn’t immediately receive a response.
Tech firms warn ‘Scattered Spider’ hacks are targeting aviation sector
- Neither company has gone into detail about the intrusions or commented on any potential links between the incidents and Scattered Spider
WASHINGTON: Tech companies Google and Palo Alto Networks are sounding the alarm over the “Scattered Spider” hacking group’s interest in the aviation sector.
In a statement posted on LinkedIn on Friday, Sam Rubin, an executive at Palo Alto’s cybersecurity-focused Unit 42, said his company had “observed Muddled Libra (also known as Scattered Spider) targeting the aviation industry.”
In a similar statement, Charles Carmakal, an executive with Alphabet-owned Google’s cybersecurity-focused Mandiant unit, said his company was “aware of multiple incidents in the airline and transportation sector which resemble the operations of UNC3944 or Scattered Spider.”
Neither executive identified which specific companies had been targeted, but Alaska Air Group-owned Hawaiian Airlines and Canada’s WestJet have both recently reported being struck by unspecified cyber incidents.
Neither company has gone into detail about the intrusions or commented on any potential links between the incidents and Scattered Spider.
The loose-knit but aggressive hacking group, alleged to at least in part comprise youngsters operating in Western countries, has been blamed for some of the most disruptive hacks to hit the United States and Europe in recent memory.
In 2023, hackers tied to the group broke into gaming companies MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment, partially paralyzing casinos and knocking slot machines out of commission.
Earlier this year, the group wreaked havoc at British retailers. More recent targets include the US insurance industry.
