News
Japan’s ex-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shot during campaign event
The country’s longest serving prime minister was delivering an election campaign speech when he was attacked in Nara.
Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has succumbed to his wounds after being shot while delivering an election campaign speech in the city of Nara, local media reported.
The NHK broadcaster and the Kyodo news agency reported Abe’s death on Friday, hours after the 67-year-old was shot in the chest and the neck.
Earlier, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had condemned the attack in the “strongest terms” and said he was praying “from the depths” of his heart Abe would survive.
The motive for the attack was not yet known, added Kishida, who cut short a campaign appearance in the northern prefecture of Yamagata and returned by helicopter to his official residence in the capital, Tokyo.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters Abe, who was in Nara campaigning ahead of Sunday’s election for the parliament’s upper house, had been shot at about 11:30am (02:30 GMT). “Such an act of barbarity cannot be tolerated,” Matsuno said.
Quoting Japanese police, NHK said Abe appeared to have been shot from behind with a shotgun and said its reporter on the scene heard “what sounded like a gun going off twice”. The broadcaster aired footage showing Abe collapsed on the street, with several security guards running towards him. Abe was holding his chest when he collapsed, with his shirt smeared with blood.
A 41-year-old male suspect has been taken into custody on suspicion of attempted murder, NHK said. The suspect, who was identified as Yamagami Tetsuya, was holding a gun, which police confiscated, it added.
“This is an outrageous attack,” Koichiro Matsumoto, Japan’s deputy cabinet secretary for public affairs, told Al Jazeera. “The government strongly condemns in its utmost terms.”
Shock and condemnation
Abe served as Japan’s prime minister from December 2012 to September 2020, making him the country’s longest-serving prime minister.
Hailing from a wealthy political family that included a foreign minister father and a grandfather who served as prime minister, Abe has been best known for his signature “Abenomics” policy, which featured bold monetary easing and fiscal spending. He also bolstered defence spending after years of declines and expanded the military’s ability to project power abroad.
But he failed to achieve his cherished goal of formally rewriting the US-drafted pacifist constitution because of poor public support, while his ultra-nationalism riled the Koreas and China.
Abe had been due to stay on until late 2021, giving him an opportunity to see out one final event in his historic tenure – the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. But in a shock announcement, he stepped down in August 2020, after a chronic health problem resurfaced. Abe has had ulcerative colitis since he was a teenager and has said the condition was controlled with treatment.
Despite stepping down, Abe has remained a dominant presence over the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), controlling one of its major factions.
An aerial view shows the site where Abe was shot during in Nara [Kyodo via Reuters]
The news of the shooting prompted shock and condemnation in Japan and worldwide. The United States Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said he was “saddened and shocked” by Friday’s shooting. “Abe-san has been an outstanding leader of Japan and unwavering ally of the United States,” he said in a statement.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also expressed his shock at the news. “Our thoughts are with his family and the people of Japan at this time,” he said on Twitter.
The shooting was especially “tragic and surprising” given Japan is one of the world’s safest countries, said Benoit Hardy-Chatrand, a professor at Japan’s Temple University.
“This is certainly not something we are used to seeing in Tokyo. We never have this kind of gun violence. [We have] one of the lowest rates of homicide in the world,” he told Al Jazeera.
“So this comes as a shock to everyone, especially considering the stature of the importance of the victim of Abe Shinzo, one of the most important post-war politicians for Japan.”
Culled from AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
News
‘I’ll bring my plane… I plan on keeping it for another four years’ – Biden on second debate with Trump
President Biden and former President Trump agreed to hold a second debate Sept. 10 hosted by ABC News.
The two candidates had already accepted an invitation earlier Wednesday to attend a CNN debate on June 27, and both confirmed later in the day on social media that they plan to attend the ABC debate in September.
“I’ve also received and accepted an invitation to a debate hosted by ABC on Tuesday, September 10th,” Biden posted on the social platform X. “Trump says he’ll arrange his own transportation. I’ll bring my plane, too. I plan on keeping it for another four years.”
Biden, of course, is referring to the presidential jet, Air Force One.
“It is my great honor to accept the CNN Debate against Crooked Joe Biden, the WORST PRESIDENT in the History of the United States and a true Threat to Democracy, on June 27th,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Likewise, I accept the ABC News Debate against Crooked Joe on September 10th.”
It marked a whirlwind few hours that started with Biden’s campaign publicly proposing two deabtes in June and September and ended with both candidates agreeing to a date and host.
ABC News had planned to host a GOP primary debate in New Hampshire, but it was canceled after Trump and Nikki Haley said they would not attend. Martha Raddatz of ABC co-moderated one of the 2016 presidential debates; the network did not host a debate in 2020.
The candidates have chosen to go around the Commission on Presidential Debates, the organization that has arranged the showdowns dating back to 1988.
Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon suggested working with outlets that hosted GOP primary debates in 2016 and Democratic primary debates in 2020 to avoid any perceptions of bias.
ABUJA, NIGERIA — Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Women Affairs says it is investigating a plan by a lawmaker in central Niger state to marry off some 100 female orphans of unknown ages later this month.
Speaker of the Niger State Assembly Abdulmalik Sarkin-Daji announced the mass wedding last week but called off the ceremony following widespread outrage.
Minister of Women Affairs Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, speaking to journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, condemned the plans.
Kennedy-Ohanenye said she had petitioned the police and filed a lawsuit to stop the marriages pending an investigation to ascertain the age of the orphans and whether they consented to the marriages.
“This is totally unacceptable by the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and by the government” of Nigeria, she said.
Last week, Sarkin-Daji announced his support for the mass wedding of the orphans, whose relatives were killed during attacks by armed bandits. He said it was part of his support to his constituents following an appeal for wedding funding by local traditional and religious leaders.
The mass wedding had been scheduled for May 24.
“That support I intend to give for the marriage of those orphans, I’m withdrawing it,” he said. “The parents can have the support [money], if they wish, let them go ahead and marry them off. As it is right now, I’m not threatened by the action of the minister.”
Despite national laws prohibiting it, forced or arranged marriage is a common phenomenon in Nigeria, especially among rural communities in the predominantly Muslim north, where religious and cultural norms such as polygamy favor the practice.
Poor families often use forced marriage to ease financial pressure, and the European Union Agency for Asylum says girls who refuse could face repercussions such as neglect, ostracism, physical assault and rape.
Raquel Kasham Daniel escaped being married off as a teenager when her father died and now runs a nonprofit helping children, especially less-privileged girls, get a formal education for free.
She said the ability of women to avoid forced marriage in Nigeria depends on their income and education.
“I was 16 when I lost my dad and I was almost married off, but then I ran away from home. And that gave me the opportunity to complete my education, and now I have a better life,” Daniel said.
“So, the reason why I prioritize education is to make sure that other girls have access to quality schooling so that it will help them make informed decisions about their lives. Education not only increases our awareness as girls about our rights but also enhances our prospects for higher income earning,” she said.
Thirty percent of girls in Nigeria are married before they turn 18, according to Girls Not Brides, a global network of more than 1,400 civil society groups working to end child marriage.
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