Japan deported a New Zealand activist convicted of assault and obstruction after he attempted to stop the annual Japanese whale hunt.
Peter Bethune, 45, who clambered aboard a Japanese whaler in the middle of the Antarctic Ocean in February, was detained aboard the ship and arrested when it returned to Japan. Earlier this week, a Tokyo court sentenced the former member of conservation group Sea Shepherd to two years in prison, but suspended the sentence.
On Friday evening, Bethune was escorted by immigration officers onto an Air New Zealand flight bound for Auckland.
Japan each year hunts hundreds of mostly minke whales — which are not an endangered species — in Antarctic waters. US-based Sea Shepherd has been actively protesting Japan’s whaling trips for years, often scuffling with whalers at sea.
Japan conducts whale hunts in the region as part of a research program, an allowed exception to an international whaling ban, but Sea Shepherd and other critics say it is a cover for commercial whaling, noting nearly all the meat ends up in restaurants.
Bethune was convicted of several offenses, including assault for throwing bottles of rancid butter at whaling ships, trespassing, vandalism and possession of a knife. He slashed a protective net around the Shonan Maru 2 with a knife to board the ship from a Jet Ski.
In a tearful closing statement at his trial in June, Bethune apologized for the trouble and said he never intended to hurt anyone.
During earlier trial sessions, Bethune said he just wanted to confront the Japanese ship’s captain and hand him a US$3 million bill for the destruction of the Ady Gil, a Sea Shepherd vessel that sank when the two boats collided in January.
Sea Shepherd announced during the trial it would not let Bethune participate in further protests, but said on Thursday that was a tactic to help him avoid prison time and he’s free to rejoin.
Japan, Norway and Iceland hunt whales under exceptions to a 1986 moratorium by the International Whaling Commission. Japan’s whaling program involves large-scale expeditions to the Antarctic Ocean, while other whaling countries mostly stay along their own coasts.
Confrontations between Sea Shepherd boats and Japanese vessels have at times turned violent. Activists try to obstruct whaling ships by cutting them off, dangling ropes in the water to snarl their propellers, or throwing containers of rancid butter. The whalers have responded with water canons and sonic weapons to disorient the environmentalists.
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
‘TROUBLING’: The firing of Phelan, who was an adviser to a nonprofit that supported the defense of Taiwan, was another example of ‘dysfunction’ under Trump, a US senator said US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been fired, a US official and a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in another wartime shakeup at the Pentagon coming just weeks after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ousted the Army’s top general. The Pentagon announced his departure in a brief statement, saying he was leaving the administration “effective immediately,” but it did not provide a reason or say whether it was his decision to go. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Phelan was dismissed in part because he was moving too slowly to implement reforms to
RSS