Friday, 20 March 2020
Pressure on Juchiro increases as scandal grows
Japanese Prime Minister Ayeka Juchiro is facing increasing pressure to resign as the extent of the medical waste disposal scandal grows. On Thursday, journalists for NHK (
Nippon Hoso Kyokai, Japanese Broadcasting Corporation) reported that two landfills in the Fukushima prefecture showed elevated levels of radiation that could endanger landfill workers. While the government has since shut down the landfills and sent in teams from the Ministry of the Environment to locate the radioactive source material, NHK's reporting fingers previously-undisclosed illicit medical waste disposal in that region as well.
Juchiro, who has led the nation since 2012, was forced to reshuffle her cabinet after three ministers resigned on Sunday following the filing of criminal charges among administrators and officials in the Ministry of Health, Education and Welfare, for the improper disposal of radioactive medical equipment that resulted in a radiation accident in the northern city of Hachinohe that has hospitalized almost 300 people. While the constitution of her Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) forbids her from standing for another three-year term as president (party leader) when her current term expires in October, several people familiar with discussions among party grandees say that several senior politicians, such as Minister of Foreign Affairs Shozo Nomura, have begun preparing for early leadership campaigns among LDP members in the event that public and internal pressure upon Juchiro grows too great for her to continue in office.
Recent opinion polling puts approval rating for Juchiro's cabinet at 37 percent, down nearly nine points from polls taken last month, prior to the Hachinohe accident.
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Friday, March 20th, 2020
Bipartisan group working towards gun control legislation
Despite wariness about touching sensitive issues in an election year, a bipartisan group of senators are planning on forging gun control legislation that will be acceptable to both Republicans and Democrats. On Friday, senators Jasper Irving (R-IL) and Robert Starkey (D-MT), said that they have been meeting with senators from both parties, to begin hammering out a potential change to the nation's gun laws.
"It's early days," Irving told reporters. "We are still figuring out which areas [of firearm policy] where we can work together and which areas are ones where we can't."
The pair are unlikely front men for the initiative: Irving was elected to his seat in a blue state by less than 3,000 votes in 2016 and has shown his willingness to buck his party on several issues, while Starkey is retiring this year after being elected three times as a Democrat in Montana in part because of his pro-gun background as a rancher and veteran.
Among the other members of the group are William Wiley (D-WA), Dylan McNamara (R-MS), Robert Cantina (R-AK) and Chris Casey (D-CT). Reports indicate that the chief topic of discussions are proposals for universal background checks, a possible federal red flag law, and magazine limits on semi-automatic rifles.
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Man brings unemployed wife, new children back to public housing residence
March 20, 2020