Japan plans to massively increase its defense budget over the next four years, climbing into the ranks of the highest-funded national militaries. Depending on developments–and future currency exchange rates–there is even the possibility that Japan could soon rank as the No. 3 military in the world as measured by its budget.
Japan construction companies have a long tradition of exploiting government budgets for public works in order to construct structures which citizens do not want and cannot afford. This tradition has found new expression in tunnels for underground highways being excavated in the Tokyo region with little public knowledge or input, and in spite of demonstrable safety concerns.
In recent years there has developed a shadowy competition for influence between Russia and France on the African continent, and Moscow seems to be winning.
The US House of Representatives passed a mammoth US$858 billion military spending bill, putting the US budget for weapons and war-making higher than the next nine countries combined. Also attached to the bill was unprecedented US taxpayer funding for Taiwan’s military.
France and the United Kingdom have ceased support for the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, the deadliest currently in operation. These withdrawals followed a decade of fruitless attempts to end hostilities between the West African nation’s government and its rebel Islamists.
As garbage islands floating in the Pacific Ocean have grown to the area of entire countries, Japan and other nations’ use of plastic fishing nets is believed to not only take a major toll on sea life, but is even threatening the future of the fishing industry itself.
Brazil President-Elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared last week that “the devastation [of the Amazon] will be a thing of the past.” He has his work cut out for him. Outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro presided over the destruction of an unprecedented proportion of the precious rainforest, crucial to human survival, during his four years in office.
Leading human rights organizations have urged European Union (EU) officials to “publicly and unequivocally denounce” Israel’s disregard for international law and its apartheid system during this week’s EU-Israel Association Council meeting.
During his wide-ranging plea for fundamental change delivered this week at the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced public relations and advertising firms for enabling the fossil fuel pollution currently destroying the planet.
The Horniman Museum and Gardens, based in London, has recently agreed to return all 72 of its artifacts that were forcibly taken from Benin City, now part of Nigeria, during a British military operation in 1897.
