Author: Reporter

Pacifist principles: Japan steps away from its post-war policy by exporting military aid to Ukraine

Pacifist principles: Japan steps away from its post-war policy by exporting military aid to Ukraine

Posted by | Apr 24, 2024

Japan’s Cabinet approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets to other countries on March 26. It is the latest step away from the pacifist principles the country adopted at the end of World War II. The controversial decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in a year-old project to develop a new fighter jet together with Italy and the U.K., but it is also part of a move to build up Japan’s arms industry and bolster its role in global affairs. Japan has long prohibited most arms exports under the country’s...

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Missing in Action: Thousands of Ukrainians live in agony as they search for loved ones who disappeared

Missing in Action: Thousands of Ukrainians live in agony as they search for loved ones who disappeared

Posted by | Apr 24, 2024

Iryna Reva stares at her phone, replaying the last video her 25-year-old son Vladyslav sent her from the front line before the volunteer soldier disappeared more than 19 months ago in a battle with Russian forces in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. Reva is one of the thousands of Ukrainians desperately seeking news of loved ones who have disappeared in the two years since Russia’s full-scale invasion began. According to Ukraine’s National Police, more than 30,000 people have been reported missing in the last 24 months. “Up to this day, I am searching for my son,” Reva said. “He is...

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Out of words: Muslim leaders tire of inaction by the White House and its outreach on the war in Gaza

Out of words: Muslim leaders tire of inaction by the White House and its outreach on the war in Gaza

Posted by | Apr 23, 2024

Osama Siblani was sipping his morning coffee at the office when his phone buzzed with a message from one of President Joe Biden’s advisers. As publisher of the Arab American News in Dearborn, Michigan, Siblani serves as an occasional sounding board, and the White House wanted to know what he thought of Biden’s recent conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. After months of mounting concerns over the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, Biden had publicly, albeit vaguely, threatened to cut U.S. assistance to Israel’s military operations in the Hamas-controlled territory. “This is baby steps,” Siblani said he responded....

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Three Abu Ghraib survivors hope for justice from U.S. court twenty years after their abuse

Three Abu Ghraib survivors hope for justice from U.S. court twenty years after their abuse

Posted by | Apr 23, 2024

Twenty years ago, photos of abused prisoners and smiling U.S. soldiers guarding them at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison were released, shocking the world. Now, three survivors of Abu Ghraib will finally get their day in U.S. court against the military contractor they hold responsible for their mistreatment. The trial began in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, and was be the first time that Abu Ghraib survivors were able to bring their claims of torture to a U.S. jury, said Baher Azmy, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights representing the plaintiffs. The defendant in the civil suit, CACI,...

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Response by cities to influx of migrants stirs simmering frustrations among Black residents

Response by cities to influx of migrants stirs simmering frustrations among Black residents

Posted by | Apr 23, 2024

The closure of Wadsworth Elementary School in 2013 was a blow to residents of the majority-Black neighborhood it served, symbolizing a city indifferent to their interests. So when the city reopened Wadsworth last year to shelter hundreds of migrants, without seeking community input, it added insult to injury. Across Chicago, Black residents are frustrated that long-standing needs are not being met while the city’s newly arrived are cared for with a sense of urgency, and with their tax dollars. “Our voices are not valued nor heard,” says Genesis Young, a lifelong Chicagoan who lives near Wadsworth. Chicago is one...

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UN estimates Ukraine needs more than a billion dollars to rebuild its scientific infrastructure

UN estimates Ukraine needs more than a billion dollars to rebuild its scientific infrastructure

Posted by | Apr 22, 2024

Ukraine will need more than a billion dollars to rebuild the scientific infrastructure that was damaged or destroyed during two years of Russia’s war on its neighbor, the United Nations’ cultural and scientific agency said. More than 1,443 scientific facilities, many attached to the country’s universities, have been damaged or destroyed along with 750 pieces of vital technical equipment, most of which is beyond repair, UNESCO said in an April report. The war, now in its third year, has also depleted the science sector of funds and dispersed Ukraine’s scientists, displacing many within the country and sending others into...

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