JAPAN
Canine nursing home touted
A new nursing home has everything seniors could want, from a hair salon and 24-hour medical care to comfy beds and a swimming pool to keep those legs in shape — all four of them. The facility in a Tokyo suburb is throwing open its doors to aging dogs of all shapes and sizes, with the promise of a comfortable retirement for the elderly canines and their equally wrinkly human owners. Aeonpet Co, a unit of major shopping mall operator Aeon, billed its nursing home as just the ticket for a pet-loving nation which also has a rapidly aging population. “Many pets are getting old, while their owners are also aging. This is a serious social issue,” company president Akihiro Ogawa said during a media tour on Wednesday. “I hope this business will provide part of the solution for this problem.” Owners who worry about their pet’s future after they die need not fret — the pool has dog-sized life jackets and there is a CT scanner for thorough medical checkups, and when those beloved pets are not getting a shampoo and trim, the home offers memory games to help ward off dementia and comforting care during the final stage of life. There is an interview to make sure owners are not just trying to get rid of old pets, with costs ranging from ¥100,000 (US$1,000) a month for small pets to double that for bigger dogs. The nursing home is to open next week.
JAPAN
Teary lawmaker goes viral
A video clip of a weeping politician accused of dubious spending on trips to hot springs has gone viral, leaving many outraged and puzzled. The video shows Ryutaro Nonomura, 47, a Hyogo Prefectural lawmaker, bursting into tears, uttering nonsensical phrases and banging on his desk. “To change Japan and society,” he said in a choked voice, stopping mid-sentence, sometimes sobbing so loud he was shouting. “I’m putting my life on the line.” One site showing the video drew nearly 640,000 views as of yesterday. His press conference on Tuesday followed a Kobe Shimbun report this week that raised questions about Nonomura’s visiting hot springs 106 times last year, using public money. Such visits are not illegal and had been reported to the assembly office, but totaled ¥3 million. Calls are rising for Nonomura to give an explanation. Hyogo legislators get ¥500,000 a month for expenses, including travel, but the spending is supposed to be for official travel, research and other costs related to activities of elected office. Nonomura, who does not belong to a major political party, was found to have gone on other day trips, racking up expenses, including visits to Tokyo and the southwestern city of Fukuoka. Of his 195 day trips, ones to the hot-springs resort town of Kinosaki were the most frequent. Nonomura’s behavior has been widely seen as extreme, perhaps even a sign of illness.
CHINA
Ancient gene aids Tibetans
A new study says a gene that helps Tibetans cope with the thin air there came from an extinct relative of humans. Researchers say they found the Tibetan version of that gene in DNA from Denisovans, a poorly understood group known only from 50,000-year-old fossils in a Siberian cave. Other studies have found Denisovan DNA in modern populations, but the new study says the Tibetan high-altitude gene is virtually absent outside of Tibet. Researchers believe the Denisovans passed it on by interbreeding with ancestors of today’s humans, but that it remained rare except in people who faced the high altitudes of Tibet. For them, it would confer a survival advantage, which would make it more common over time.
UNITED STATES
Boy, 11, kept in cage
A Californian couple have been arrested for allegedly keeping their 11-year-old autistic son in a metal cage designed for an animal, police said on Wednesday. The boy has been taken into protective custody with his younger siblings following their parents’ arrest, police spokesman Bob Dunn said in Anaheim, southeast of Los Angeles. The cage, which had a mattress inside, was of the type normally used to house a pet, he said, adding that there were “varying reports” of how long the boy had been caged, “from several years to several months to several hours.” “Perhaps because of some of the outbursts that occurred because of his autism ... the family was having difficulty coping with that and controlling that,” Dunn told KTLA TV. “Putting him in that cage may have been a way for them to try to, in their way, control what was going on,” he said. The boy and his siblings — a boy and a girl, aged 10 and eight — were in good physical condition. “Other than perhaps living in that cage, there was no other signs of any type of abuse that were visible to the officers,” Dunn said.
UNITED STATES
Taggers graffiti sow, piglets
Vandals broke into a Maryland petting zoo this week and painted graffiti on a sow and her piglets, police said on Wednesday. The taggers used blue veterinary antiseptic spray to paint “Hello my pretty” on the 295kg, three-year-old sow at the Green Meadows Petting Farm in Monrovia, Maryland. Each of the 11 seven-day-old piglets had a letter spraypainted on it, but farmer Ken Keyes, the Green Meadows owner, is not sure what word or words they might be. More graffiti painted on a wall said “Urbana Rules,” a likely reference to nearby Urbana High School, Keyes said. “I think it was high-school kids,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a middle-aged couple that said ‘let’s go tag some pigs.’” The vandals also stole a tortoise named Henrietta. Keyes filed a report with the Maryland State Police, who are investigating along with Frederick County Animal Control.
UNITED STATES
Dieting elephant loses twins
A pregnant Asian elephant named Tess that was part of a much-publicized weight loss program has miscarried twin calves halfway through her gestation, Houston Zoo officials said on Tuesday. “In Asian elephants, twins may share a common blood source which can compromise the health of the calves. Twins can also present complications in delivery and compromise the health of the mother,” Dennis Schmitt, an elephant reproductive expert, said in a statement released by the zoo. Last month, the zoo said it was putting the then-roughly 3,500kg Tess on a weight loss and exercise regimen, which included a lower-calorie diet and a daily 3.2km walk, in an effort to help her cut 227kg.
UNITED STATES
Accused, 12, not fit for trial
Doctors say one of two 12-year-old girls accused of stabbing a classmate to please a fictional online horror character is not competent to stand trial. Attorneys said on Wednesday that a doctor for Wisconsin and a doctor hired by the girl’s defense agree that she is not mentally competent. Prosecutors have asked for further evaluation and a hearing on the matter, and the judge has agreed. Authorities have said the two girls plotted for months to kill their friend to curry favor with the specter known as Slender Man. A criminal complaint says they lured her to a wooded park west of Milwaukee on May 31 and stabbed her 19 times. The victim is now recovering at home.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was