New US government figures have revealed that the wealthiest 1% of Americans now own over one-third of the country’s wealth, prompting renewed calls from progressives for systemic reforms to tackle the highest economic inequality of any major developed nation in the world.
After decades of conflict and military occupations, Afghanistan has yet to emerge from its ongoing humanitarian crisis. The main culprits at this juncture are the poor governance of the ruling Taliban as well as the remarkably hostile policies of the United States and its allies, which are, in effect, waging economic warfare against one of the poorest nations on Earth.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has shown how vulnerable the world is to a truly global catastrophe. But another, bigger catastrophe has been building for many decades, and humanity is still lagging far behind in efforts to address it.” So begins Come Heat or High Water, the 2020 World Disasters Report published Tuesday by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
Running the Shingetsu News Agency, a recurring theme among some of our critics is that they feel that our news service is politically biased. It’s now time to clear the air. We are guilty as charged. We are indeed politically biased… and so is every other news agency on Earth.
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported in the first half of November 2019.
Technology journalist Tim Hornyak rejoins What’s the Rumpus to discuss electric cars and other vehicles of the future.
Last month, Japanese billionaire and founder of clothing website “Zozotown” Yusaku Maezawa announced that he would be SpaceX’s first tourist passenger. Yesterday, Maezawa held a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, in which he outlined his goals for his circumlunar mission.
Threats to humankind do not only come from within, and while it may still sound like science fiction to many, the possibility of a sizable asteroid impacting Earth remains a major concern for the space and national security communities. Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi recently reminded the public of this fact, and furthermore called for an international effort to detect and deflect incoming celestial bodies. Given the advanced capabilities of the Russian space program, Moscow would be a much welcome partner in such an enterprise.
