Zaphod comments

The 21-year-old Chinese woman, who was on a swim ring,

She is lucky that that thing did not deflate.

Japan must strengthen NATO ties to safeguard global peace,

That is so misguided, I am speechless. NATO (remember, the NA stands for North Atlantic, not Pacific) was the counterpart to the Warsaw Pact and should have been dissolved together with that when Soviet Union was dismantled, as so many people in my generation fully expected.

Instead, NATO has turned into a vehicle for US military adventures in Serbia, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya etc etc. And Kishida wants to join THAT?

Jiang Zhuojun, 29, who lives north of Tokyo, was arrested "on suspicion of vandalism and disrespect for a place of worship", a Tokyo metropolitan police spokesman told AFP.

I thought he had left the country. Did he really think he can live here and do that?

Quo Primum

Come on. This guy is a murderous monster who should, at the very least, have gotten life without parole.

Agree in principle, but I think the difference is that that he turned himself in. That is and should be reflected in the sentence. If he had run, I think the sentence would have been harsher.

TaiwanIsNotChina

Good to see allies stepping up to defend Free Ukraine!!!

The Zelenski government that has suspended elections, outlawed opposition parties, jailed opposition politicians and killed journalists (remember Gonzalo Lira?) represents freedom? In that case I am wonder how you define oppression.

six F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine

Norway, Denmark, and Holland... acting as convenient puppets for their US masters. If the US government is so determined to get WW3, why do they not fly their own jets in there?

"Make no mistake. Ukraine can -- and will -- stop Putin," Biden said forcefully to applause.

In what universe? Ukraine can only do what US funding allows them to do. And what does "stop Putin" is supposed to mean anyway? The great debater Biden fails to clarify.

 call for cease-fire

"Cease-fire" here means victory for Hamas, while hostages (including non-Israelis btw) are still rotting in Hamas "custody". Who with a smidgen of conscience can call for that?

Hamas can end the war at any time by surrendering and releasing the hostages.

Modi keeps India away from US neocon/neolib adventurism. Thumbs up to India.

WA4TKG

I used to work in quite a few Hostess clubs years ago…none of them were this type of rip off establishments, or I would never work there.

I still would not call this a rip-off. Obviously, there is a whole range of these places, with different price levels, but none of them are cheap. The prices in expensive Ginza hostess clubs have long been a part of local lore. This is one reason "girls bars" have become popular, which are fundamentally the same, except the girls stay at the counter instead of sitting on sofas next to the customer. They always post their prices right outside. But even there, I can see how a generous customer can reach a couple man yen in a few hours.

What surprise, ahem

The European elites are so determined from preventing the populist parties (which they mislabel as "far right" or worse) to take control that they resort to election engineering to prevent that. In case of France, they cobbled together a Frankenstein party of communists, extreme leftists, and conservatives to get a majority over the populists. Which fundamentally makes France ungovernable. Something similar is planned for Germany, where Scholz red-green coalition has already been a disaster for Germany.

RichardPearce

An occupying power cannot, by definition, engage in 'retaliatory strikes' on the population it is occupying.

There has been no "occupation" of Gaza for 20 years. And about the West Bank, ask yourself how that works out if the population that is being occupied consistently votes for parties that demand war on the occupier, even after any withdrawal.

Personally, I have long argued that the only solution to the conflict is to return Gaza to Egypt and the West Bank to Jordan, both of which are proper countries. Unsurprisingly, both the Egyptian and Jordanian governments are not interested...

GuruMick

The UN calls Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as "Occupied territories. "

If that is true, that only speaks to the partisanship of the UN. Technically, yes, you could call the West Bank and East Jerusalem that, ignoring all the details. But Gaza? How? There has been no Israeli military or other presence in Gaza since 2005. Gaza has been run first by the PA and then, after a bloody coup d'etat, by Hamas. Gaza was ethnically cleansed of any Jewish presence in 2005. In what world is that an "occupation"?

naitch

Title should read "Gaza's farming sector ravaged by ISRAELI OCCUPATION"

Reality check: Gaza was controlled by Israel until 2005, and there was no war, only sporadic attack on Israeli villages from islamists. Gaza was ethnically cleansed of Jews by Sharon (yep, the Israeli government), in exchange for a promise of peace by the Gaza administration (then the PA).

Instead of peace, Israel got Hamas and endless terrorism, up to murderous attack on Oct 7, which started this war.

So what "OCCUPATION" are you talking about?

If he has a house, he can not be that broke

Completely unnecessary technofix. Just go back to manual cars; these problems with "pushing the accelerator instead of the brake" only occur with automatic cars.

Laguna

Pretty hard to consume 93,000 yen in food and drinks if a place is ligit. Stupid of him to go there.

How do you define "legit"? Hostess bars are expensive, and the prices are no secret. His bill is not out of the ordinary.

Vice-Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa said Ukrainian missile and naval drone strikes had caused heavy damage to the Sevastopol base, a logistics hub for repairs, maintenance, training and ammunition storage among other important functions for Russia.

Actually it is more than that. It is and has been for hundreds of years the only warm water port and main base for Russian navy.

So ironically, he is making the case for Russia and against the US. There is no world in which any Russian government (and that has nothing to do with Putin) can accept Sevastopol as a Nato harbour and the Black Sea as a Nato lake. None. This would be as acceptable to Russia as Soviet missiles in Cuba are to the US.

So the whole push to drive Russia out of Crimea and get the Ukraine into Nato is simply a push to WW3.

wallace

If I am going up an escalator and I can view a female's underwear I divert my eyes.

Don´t really know what contortions you have to go to to get that "view"; never happened to me. Anyway, the obsession with upskirt photos is weird.

Ikkei Honma, 45, representative director of the firm, believes that submerging sake in Lake Saroma "could take the edge off the alcohol" to create a richer flavor, as the currents in the lake differ as it is connected to the Sea of Okhotsk.

What is that supposed to mean? Sounds like a gimmick.

Seems so many people have been sitting next to a corps on that day... spooky.

On second thought I assume the fact that he turned himself in makes the difference.

That is a triple murder and 30 years? The justice system here is confusing.

rainman1

My Visa Debit/Touch card , Taxi Apps and Suica pretty much cover life here.

Meaning that your life here is run by data, and the administrator of the data can see every little part of it (and can shut it down). Cash is freedom. That many young people so easily accept total control is sad.

In its closing argument, the defense pointed out that the analysis of bloodstains found in Sato's car revealed a DNA type that did not match either the two victims or Sato, insisting that someone else committed the crime.

Err what? Should that not blow up the whole case?

Would be great if there was really a technofix to protect children from porn, but sadly there is not. What this law means is once again an excuse for more media censorship.

She is 64 physically, but it seems mentally she is the age of the children or less.

Le Pen represents conservative and populist ideas, and nothing "far right". The misuse of these labels by the mainstream media is getting tiring.

Laguna

Forever. At a flea market, I bought a Meiji era 五銭円 note which apparently is still legal currency - if I had another 95, I'd have one yen and be able to use them.

I doubt it.... can you actually buy something for 1 yen?