[News] News From Other Places!

Uchino Airi, a candidate in the Tokyo gubernatorial race, stripped during her official public television speech, asking viewers if they thought she was sexy. She asked them to add her as a friend on messaging app LINE and pledged to respond to everyone.

Here is a few video of Uchino's full speech, which was about 6 minutes long. She is running under the "Watch My Cute Political Speech Broadcast Party," so she clearly wanted to let people know she'd be giving an interesting TV speech.

Prederick wrote:

Soldiers storm Bolivian presidential palace in apparent coup attempt

It failed miserably. Here's the leader being arrested on live TV immediately afterwards.

Bolivian general arrested after apparent failed coup attempt as government faces new crisis

It was the armoured vehicles circling the Plaza Murillo - the normally tranquil central square in historic downtown La Paz – that initially set Bolivians on edge on Wednesday afternoon. By the time a phalanx of troops had marched on the presidential palace, the sense of collective confusion and shock was at fever pitch.

By 2.30pm, a small tank was repeatedly ramming the gates of the neoclassical building known as Palacio Quemado until troops forced their way in and, in an extraordinary scene, the coup leader – disgruntled former army chief Juan José Zuñiga – faced off against the president, Luis Arce.

Flanked by cabinet ministers and clasping a ceremonial baton, a symbol of his rank as head of state, Arce, 60, ordered Zuñiga to back down, telling him: “I am your captain … withdraw all of your troops right now, general.”

The heated exchange was filmed and lasted several minutes. It ended when Zuñiga turned and left via the same broken door through which he had entered, disappearing into a bulletproof army vehicle that sped away.

It may be remembered as the shortest attempted coup in the Andean nation’s tumultuous two centuries of existence. It lasted just three hours, during which time Arce rallied Bolivians to “mobilise” to defend democracy, apparently defused the mutiny in a one-on-one confrontation and appointed a new military command which ordered mutinous troops back to their barracks.

The unrest left Bolivians shocked and baffled.

But as soon as a semblance of normality returned, rumours began to swirl in the country of 12.5 million people, which has seen about 190 coups, as well as military dictatorships and revolutions, since it gained independence in 1825.

Just before he was detained on Wednesday, the alleged plotter Zuñiga sowed seeds of doubt, telling journalists – without providing evidence – that Arce had ordered him to stage a sham coup in a bid to boost the president’s flagging popularity.

The former commander, who was reportedly close to the government, had been sacked the day before the mutiny, according to Bolivia’s minister of government, Eduardo Del Castillo.

Zuñiga’s remarks were seized upon by the opposition, who demanded a parliamentary inquiry into claims that Arce had tried to orchestrate an autogolpe (self-coup).

A legislator for the Civic Community bloc, Alejandro Reyes, told the Observer there were “indications, evidence and statements that allow us to think that this [coup] has been premeditated, and could even involve the participation of the executive”.

In Arce’s defence, Deisy Choque, a legislator for the governing Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) party, warned that the coup might have been successful “had it not been for the position taken by the president, the ministers and Bolivian society as a whole in immediately repudiating these actions”. She claimed that Zuñiga’s words held little credibility as he had changed his story several times.

On Thursday, Arce strongly denied accusations that he was behind the attempted coup, saying: “We are never going to authorise weapons to be raised against the people. What the former army commander general did […] was to rise against the Bolivian people, attacking the democracy that has cost the Bolivian people blood. We are never going to do that. Never.”

On Friday, the government announced 20 further arrests, including a former Navy vice-admiral. About 200 military officers took part in the attempted coup, Bolivia’s ambassador to the Organization of American States said.

What is beyond doubt is that Arce is presiding over a flailing economy. Amid plummeting gas exports and dwindling foreign reserves, there are growing protests over rising food prices and the scarcity of fuel and US dollars, as well as deep divisions within his political party.

“Bolivia is going through multiple crises: political, economic, social and environmental, but above all institutional,” said Franklin Pareja, a political scientist at Bolivia’s University of San Andrés. “The government is in a very weak situation. It has no cohesion within its own party.”

Arce is embroiled in a bitter power struggle with former president Evo Morales, who helped elect him in 2020. Arce, a UK-educated economist, served as Morales’s finance minister and replaced him as the MAS candidate after Morales – the country’s longest-­serving democratically elected leader – was ousted in 2019 amid accusations of electoral fraud, which he denied.

Both men have said they plan to seek the presidency in next year’s election for the MAS. Morales was among the first to condemn the apparent coup attempt.

But in a video posted on X by Bolivia TV on Saturday, he is seen with supporters mockingly questioning the incident: “I don’t know what kind of coup it is? A coup with zero wounded, zero gunshots, zero deaths.”

However, some of his supporters have joined the chorus of doubters. Gerardo García, the MAS vice-president, accused Arce of making a “mockery of the country” and being the “intellectual author” of a sham coup.

Regardless of whether or not they are true, the rumours of a “self-coup” have “taken hold in the popular imagination”, said Pareja, and may be hard for Arce to shake. “If this backfires on him, the weakness and fragility of his government could deepen.”

HWASEONG, South Korea, July 8 (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics workers began a three-day strike for better pay on Monday, with their union pointing to further action should South Korea's biggest conglomerate continue to fall short of its demands.

The National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU), whose roughly 30,000 members make up almost a quarter of the firm's South Korean workforce, also wants an extra day of annual leave for unionised workers and changes to the employee bonus system.

Low participation and automated production means the strike is unlikely to have a significant impact on output at the world's biggest memory chipmaker, analysts said. Still, it signals a decline in staff morale at a pivotal point in the chip industry as tech firms embrace artificial intelligence.

The union's first industrial action last month involved coordinating annual leave to stage a mass walkout, which Samsung said had no impact on business activity. The firm said on Monday there was no disruption in production.

The union, which did not disclose last month's strike participation levels, said 6,540 workers will be striking this week, mostly at manufacturing sites and in product development. It said the strike includes workers who monitor automated production lines and equipment so operations could be affected.

Union officials said about 3,000 strikers attended a rally in the rain near Samsung's headquarters in Hwaseong, south of Seoul.

Union president Son Woo-mok disputed media reports of low participation, telling Reuters that the five-year-old union did not have enough time to educate members about the issues.

"Education about labour unions ... has not been enough. But I don't think this participation is low because our union is still young compared to other unions," he said.

Lee Hyun-kuk, the union's vice president, said there could be further strikes if Samsung does not improve its proposals.

Samsung's proposals include flexibility in pay and annual leave conditions but do not meet union demands of increased pay and leave, Lee told Reuters.

Union officials also want equality in the bonus system. They said bonuses for rank-and-file workers are calculated by deducting the cost of capital from operating profit, whereas those for executives are based on personal performance goals.

"I was telling people that I was proud to work at Samsung, but the truth is I am not," said Park Jun-ha, 20, an engineer at Samsung's chip packaging lines who joined the firm in January, adding that he was not satisfied with its "opaque" bonus scheme.

The union's membership has grown since Samsung pledged in 2020 to stop discouraging organised labour. Its growing voice is demanding attention just as Samsung struggles to navigate competition in chips used for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, analysts said.

Samsung's share price performance has lagged compatriot chip rival SK Hynix (000660.KS), opens new tab, with union officials blaming Samsung's AI woe on slow development in high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips that are in high demand for use in AI processors.

Even so, Samsung estimated a more than 15-fold rise in second-quarter operating profit on Friday, as rebounding chip prices driven by the AI boom lifted earnings from the year prior's low comparison base.

Its share price was up 0.2% in afternoon trade on Monday after rising as much as 1.72% earlier in the session to its highest since January 2021. Last week, it jumped 6.9% on preliminary quarterly earnings that exceeded analyst estimates.

When Luca was born in a Perth hospital two years ago, it flipped his parents’ world in ways they never expected.

With the joy came a shocking diagnosis: Luca had cystic fibrosis. Then Australia - Laura Currie and her husband Dante’s home for eight years - said they couldn't stay permanently. Luca, his parents were told, could be a financial burden on the country.

“I think I cried for like a week - I just feel really, really sorry for Luca,” Ms Currie says. “He's just a defenceless two-and-a-half-year-old and doesn't deserve to be discriminated against in that way.”

With a third of its population born abroad, Australia has long seen itself as a “migration nation” - a multicultural home for immigrants that promises them a fair go and a fresh start. The idea is baked into its identity. But the reality is often different, especially for those who have a disability or a serious medical condition.

It is one of few countries that routinely rejects immigrants’ visas on the basis of their medical needs - specifically if the cost of care exceeds A$86,000 ($57,000; £45,000) over a maximum of 10 years. New Zealand has a similar policy but Australia's is much stricter.

The government defends the law as necessary to curb government spending and protect citizens' access to healthcare. It says these visas aren’t technically rejected. But neither are they granted. Some can apply for a waiver, although not all visas allow it. They could also appeal the decision but the process is lengthy and expensive.

Campaigners see this as discriminatory and out of step with modern attitudes towards disability. And after years of fighting for it, they are hoping for change in the coming weeks, with an official review of the health requirements under way.

Laura Currie and Dante Vendittelli had moved from Scotland for jobs that Australia desperately needs. She is a nursery teacher and he is a painter-decorator. They had started their application for permanent residency before Luca was born. But now they feel like the life they built here and the taxes they paid meant little.

“It's like, we're here for you [Australia] when you need us, but when the roles are reversed and we need you, it's like, nope, sorry, you cost too much money, you go back to your own country.”

Facing an alarming rise in bear attacks, Japan wants to make it easier to shoot the animals in residential areas - but hunters say it is too risky.

In the year to April, there were a record 219 bear attacks in the country - six of them fatal, according to official data.

Deadly attacks have continued to occur in recent months, as bears increasingly venture into populated areas. Some are now even thought to see humans as prey.

Bear numbers have revived as Japan's human population ages and shrinks, especially outside cities. The consequences have been dangerous, although usually resulting in injury not death.

Under the current law, licensed hunters can fire their guns only after the approval of a police officer.

The government plans to revise the law at its next parliamentary session so the weapons can be used more freely. For instance, hunters will be allowed to shoot if there is a risk of human injury, such as when a bear enters a building.

But hunters are wary. "It is scary and quite dangerous to encounter a bear. It is never guaranteed that we can kill a bear by shooting," said Satoshi Saito, executive director of the Hokkaido Hunters' Association.

"If we miss the vital point to stop the bear from moving... it will run away and may attack other people," he added. "If it then attacks a person, who will be responsible for that?"

Hokkaido has come to exemplify Japan's growing bear problem.

The country's northernmost major island is sparsely populated - but its bear population has more than doubled since 1990, according to government data. It now has around 12,000 brown bears, which are known to be more aggressive than black bears, of which there are around 10,000 in Japan by experts' estimates.

Local governments have tried different strategies to keep bears away.

Some have turned to odd guardians - robot wolves, complete with red eyes and spooky howls, while elsewhere in the country they are testing an artificial intelligence warning system.

The town of Naie in Hokkaido has been trying to hire hunters for 10,300 yen ($64; £50) a day to patrol the streets, lay traps and kill the animals if necessary.

But there are few takers - it's a high-risk job, the pay is not attractive enough and many of the hunters are elderly.

"It is not worth the trouble because confronting a bear will put our lives on the line," a 72-year-old hunter from the area told The Asahi Shimbun newspaper, likening an encounter with a brown bear to "fighting a US military commando".

In May, two police officers in northern Akita prefecture were seriously injured by a bear while trying to retrieve a body from the woods after a suspected fatal bear attack.

"The bears know humans are present and attack people for their food, or recognise people themselves as food," local government official Mami Kondo said.

"There is a high risk that the same bear will cause a series of incidents."

As bear numbers have grown, more of them have moved from the mountains into flatlands closer to human populations. Over time, they have become used to the sights and sounds of humans, and less afraid of them.

There are also fewer humans around as young people move to big cities, leaving whole towns nearly empty. When bears do encounter humans, it can turn violent.

"Bears that enter urban areas tend to panic, increasing the risk of injury or death to people," said Junpei Tanaka from the Picchio Wildlife Research Center in Japan.

The government plans to revise the law at its next parliamentary session so the weapons can be used more freely. For instance, hunters will be allowed to shoot if there is a risk of human injury, such as when a bear enters a building.

But hunters are wary. "It is scary and quite dangerous to encounter a bear. It is never guaranteed that we can kill a bear by shooting," said Satoshi Saito, executive director of the Hokkaido Hunters' Association.

Wow, that’s quite a different way of thinking from (most) gun owners in a certain other country…