The high oil and commodity prices on the international markets and the rapid depreciation of the yen against the dollar resulted in inflation of more than two percent in the Asian country.

With an electorate upset about the rising cost of living, the Liberal Democratic Party (PLD) and its coalition partner Komeito are calling for a vote of confidence in the emergency measures promoted by the current government.

Led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the PLD is focusing on the feasibility of subsidies for low-income households and oil wholesalers, in the latter’s attempt to keep gas prices under control.

However, regular fuel prices have been rising, albeit slightly, for four weeks, according to reports from the Energy and Natural Resources Agency.

Led by Kenta Izumi, the Constitutional Democratic Party candidates are criticizing the government’s economic provisions from their opposition position. Instead, they encourage others like halving the current 10 percent consumption tax.

Incidentally, the Reiwa Shinsengumi party promised to abolish the levy, while the Social Democrats proposed keeping it at zero for three years.

In the current election campaign, the ultra-flexible monetary policy of Japan’s main financial institution, in contrast to that of its counterparts in the United States and Europe, has been strongly challenged.

According to Japanese experts interviewed by the Kyodo agency, when the economy is still in a recovery phase from Covid-19 and the debt is still on, it is unrealistic to cut the consumption tax and tighten the Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) strategy of the state’s finances grow.

Those vying for the 125 seats in the upper house of Japan’s parliament also have shared criteria over a potential pay rise, though speeches lack detail, the national press points out.

rgh/lcp

The FBI believes that Ignatova and her associates defrauded victims worldwide out of billions of dollars. According to the FBI, around 2014, Ignatova and her partner founded OneCoin in Bulgaria, which traded a virtual currency that never existed. The Bulgarian-born, who holds German citizenship, touted the project as a “bitcoin killer,” meaning it must compete with the world’s biggest cryptocurrency.

Ignatova made false claims and guarantees about OneCoin to encourage people to invest in OneCoin packages, he said. According to investigators, Ignatova and her partner also promoted OneCoin through a multi-level marketing strategy that encouraged OneCoin investors to sell additional packages to friends and family.

APA/AFP/Fbi According to the FBI, the wanted person is being watched by bodyguards

Ignatova took advantage of the cryptocurrency hype to attract new investors. While the company is said to have used many of the terms associated with virtual currencies, investigators believe that “OneCoins” were not mined in the usual way for cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, the value of “OneCoin” was determined by the company and not by market demand.

“OneCoin claimed to have a private blockchain,” said Special Agent Ronald Shimko, who is investigating the case at the FBI’s New York field office. “This is in contrast to other virtual currencies that have a decentralized and public blockchain. In this case, investors were simply asked to trust OneCoin.”

Billed in 2017

In October 2017, Ignatova was indicted in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York and a federal arrest warrant was issued for her. Investigators believe Ignatova may have received a tip that authorities are investigating her. She traveled from Sofia to Athens on October 25, 2017 and has not been seen since.

Investigations also in Germany

In Germany, the lawyer, who has a doctorate, is being investigated for money laundering and joint fraud in a particularly serious case. In May, a public search for her was also aired on the ZDF show “Aktenzeichen XY … unsolved”.

FBI agent Shimko hopes that the release of the 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list will bring more attention to the case. “There are so many victims all over the world who have been financially ruined by this,” Shimko said. “We want to bring them to justice.”

With 92 votes in favour, the decision ended Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s brief oneyear tenure; Foreign Minister Yair Lapid takes over until the next Executive is formed

REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool
Israel dissolves parliament and people must return to the polls on November 1; Yair Lapid takes over as interim prime minister

Israel is going to the polls for the fifth time in less than four years. The decision came on Thursday 30th after MPs dissolved Parliament and ended the Prime Minister’s short yearlong government. Naphtali Bennettwho led a coalition of eight parties (right, left and center) that included an Arab formation for the first time, something historic Israel. The dissolution was passed with 92 votes in favor and none against out of a total of 120 seats in parliament. Before voting, MEPs set November 1 as the date for the next legislative periods.

The main goal of the coalition was to end the 12 years of uninterrupted rule of rightwing Benjamin Netanyahu, but also to form an executive, which had been impossible after the previous three elections. Bennett will step down at midnight and be replaced by his coalition partner, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, who will lead the government in what is expected to be a bitter campaign against opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Naftali Bennett resigns after a year in power │AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP

Bennett, a former army commander and tech millionaire, won’t be running in the elections. Hours before the dissolution of parliament, he announced that he would no longer stand as a candidate in the next elections. In a statement Wednesday night, he said his government left behind a “prosperous, strong and secure country” and showed that parties from different ends of the political spectrum can work together. Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to return to power at the head of the rightwing Likud party, which opinion polls say is the strongest.

Ahead of the vote, the candidate, who was ousted just over a year ago by Bennett’s unlikely coalition of rightleft parties, said: “They promised change, they spoke of a cure, they conducted an experiment and the experiment failed .” “That’s what happens when you take a false right with a radical left and mix them up with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Joint List (Arab coalition).” Polls show that the Israeli political landscape remains highly fragmented, with 13 parties share the 120 seats of the Kneset.

Sudanese forces fired tear gas again at hundreds of people protesting against military rule in Khartoum on Friday, a day after one of the bloodiest days of protests of the year.

“The people want to overthrow Burhane” and “We demand revenge,” chanted demonstrators in the Sudanese capital near the presidential palace, some holding photos of victims of the crackdown.

At least nine Sudanese protesting General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane’s October 2021 coup were killed by security forces on Thursday, according to pro-democracy doctors. Most of the victims, including one minor, were fatally shot.

June 30th marked the anniversary of the 1989 coup by dictator Omar al-Bashir, who was overthrown by the army in 2019 after a popular uprising.

The army then agreed to share power with the civilian population. But on October 25, 2021, the head of the army, General Burhane, abruptly ended the fragile power-sharing regime by arresting his civilian partners, who have since been released.

Since that coup, 112 protesters have been killed and thousands injured by security forces, who regularly fire live ammunition into the crowd, according to the UN.

Because of this violence, and because they no longer want a military-civilian partnership, Sudan’s main civilian blocs and historical parties refuse to negotiate with the military.

Before the demonstrations on Thursday, UN special envoy Volker Perthes had hammered out that “the violence must stop”. Several embassies had demanded that “no more lives be lost” in a country where the army has almost always been in control since independence in 1956.

The United Nations and the African Union on Friday condemned “the excessive use of force by the security forces and the impunity” they enjoy and commented on Thursday’s crackdown.

In response to the coup, the international community suspended its financial aid, which accounted for 40% of Sudan’s budget. These sanctions did not bend the military, but brought down the economy with the collapse of the Sudanese pound and monthly inflation exceeding 200%.

The 68-year-old New Yorker is injured and hospitalized after being mauled by a grizzly bear while hiking in Wyoming

• Buffalo Senior Activated Personal Locator Beacon After Bear Attack
• Backpacker was flown from Wyoming to Montana for urgent medical care
• The man had bear spray, but a feral grizzly caught him before he could use it
• Yellowstone area, home to over 700 grizzly bears that have killed 8 people since 2010

By Adam Solomons For Mailonline

Published: 10:09 AM BST, 01 Jul 2022 | Updated at 10:26 AM BST, 1 July 2022

A New York senior has been flown to hospital after being severely mauled by a grizzly bear while backpacking near Yellowstone National Park.

The unidentified 68-year-old from Buffalo was struck blind by the beast and was unable to use the bear spray he was carrying.

Luckily, he was able to trigger his personal locator beacon and mobilize rescuers to the remote Wyoming wilderness where he was stranded.

Sheriffs and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department have not released the man’s identity or his current medical condition.

A mother grizzly and her bear cubs hike through the Alaskan wilderness

Francs Peak, southeast of Yellowstone National Park, is a 13,000-foot peak

He is currently being treated at a hospital in Billings, Montana after being airlifted from the Francs Peak area by a US Air Force rescue coordination team.

The area around the 13,000-foot summit of Francs Peak in the Washakie Wilderness is a well-known grizzly bear habitat.

Grizzly bears tend not to threaten humans often—but when they do attack, encounters are rarely easy to endure

The Yellowstone region, which spans parts of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, is home to more than 700 grizzly bears.

Grizzly bears in this area have killed at least eight people since 2010.

Among them was backcountry leader Charles “Carl” Mock, who was mortally mauled by a 400-pound male grizzly while fishing alone at a favorite spot on Montana’s Madison River.

And in March, 40-year-old father of four, Craig Clouatre, was killed in a bear attack in the Six Mile Creek area of ​​Paradise Valley in southern Montana.

Clouatre is survived by wife Jamie and their four children.

A US Air Force mountain rescue helicopter took the 68-year-old to a Montana hospital

More than 700 grizzly bears live in the region around Yellowstone National Park (pictured).

A crowdfunder for his family raised over $55,000 in just a few days.

Grizzlies are protected by federal law outside of Alaska.

Dense forests at higher elevations are a common home for bears, although dangerous encounters with humans are relatively rare.

Attacks have reportedly increased in recent decades as the grizzly population grows and more people move to rural areas near bear habitats.

Elected officials in the Yellowstone region are pushing to lift protections and allow grizzly hunting.

Officials near Yellowstone (pictured) have been pushing to allow grizzly hunting as populations swell

The news also followed reports that a 71-year-old woman from West Chester, Pennsylvania, was attacked when she accidentally approached a bison while she and her daughter were returning to their car in Yellowstone.

The woman suffered non-life-threatening injuries, according to the National Park Service, and was taken to a hospital in Cody, Wyoming.

Tourists were only recently allowed to return to Yellowstone after the park was devastated by record-breaking floods that permanently diverted rivers, undermined roads and bridges and inundated nearby towns in torrents of flowing water.

Park officials initially assumed the park would remain closed for months while they dealt with the damage, but then decided to open the park within two weeks of the flood waters receding.

During the floods and in the days that followed, park officials warned people to remain extra vigilant for wild animals that may have been displaced by the water.

Taipei, Taiwan – “Should I stay or go?” That’s a question many young people in Hong Kong are asking, 25 years after the city returned to Chinese rule.

At the handover in 1997, Beijing promised the former British colony 50 years of self-government and civil and political rights not found on the Communist Party-ruled mainland. But Beijing’s tougher crackdown on the city’s freedoms — including a national security law passed in 2020 that has virtually eradicated all dissent — has irrevocably changed the lives of Hong Kong people.

“The things that we thought would always be there gradually faded away, like the system itself, like freedom of speech, freedom of the press, all that, and we lost faith in our government,” said Iris, a 25-year-old Hong Kong native , who was born in the year of surrender.

“Overall, our generation is pretty hopeless about the future,” she said, requesting that only her first name be used. The office worker said many people in Hong Kong see their generation as “cursed”.

Hong Kongers born around the time of the handover grew up in an atmosphere of resistance to Beijing’s encroachments on their way of life. They were children at mass demonstrations against a proposed national security law in 2003 and teenagers during the 2014 Occupy Central protests sparked by Beijing’s refusal to allow direct elections for the city’s leader.

These demonstrations were followed by mass protests in 2019 against plans to allow extraditions to the mainland. The protests, which began peacefully before turning violent, escalated to calls for greater autonomy and even independence from Beijing.

Beijing responded the following year by enacting draconian national security laws outlawing vaguely defined acts of subversion, secession, terrorism, or collusion with foreign forces. Since then, most of the city’s political opposition have been imprisoned or forced into exile, dozens of civil society organizations have disbanded, and critical and independent media outlets have had to close. As part of a major overhaul of the electoral system, only candidates deemed “patriots” can contest seats in the city’s legislature.

Hong Kong’s Occupy Central protests in 2014 were sparked by Beijing’s refusal to allow direct elections for the city’s leader [File: Daniel J. Groshong/Bloomberg]

Against the background of dwindling freedoms, almost 60 percent of young people expressed the desire to emigrate in 2021, according to a survey by the Chinese University of Hong Kong. As a group, young Hong Kongers are more politically active than older residents. Polls from 2019 show that about 87 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds supported the pro-democracy protests and 63 percent said they personally attended.

Hong Kongers under the age of 25 have fewer opportunities to escape the city’s new political reality than older residents. While those born before the July 1, 1997 handover are eligible for a British National Overseas Pass, which since last year has offered a pathway to residency in the UK, younger residents will need to look for employment, study or family channels in order to to emigrate

“As someone born in 1997, sometimes you feel like your future has already been decided by people born before 1997 and you’re not part of the conversation about what your future is like,” said Anna, who asked to be identified only by her first name.

The 25-year-old political activist has been living in exile outside Hong Kong since helping run Telegram channels used in organizing the 2019 protests. Such activities have earned other protesters lengthy prison terms.

Anna said the decision has been difficult for her and her family – a decision not all young Hong Kongers are able or willing to make.

Gary Pui-fung Wong, a Leeds University lecturer whose research includes Hong Kong’s cultural history, said the combined pressure of being a Hong Kong native and a young person is a powerful mix.

Many people in their 20s are going through a transition period where they begin to think more seriously about their future careers and family prospects, Wong said. Even before 2019, this was difficult in Hong Kong, where renting — let alone buying — is unaffordable for most young people.

“Right now, they need to incorporate the city’s future into their own personal plan,” Wong told Al Jazeera.

“If Hong Kong’s integration into mainland China continues, this city may face fundamental changes, so they have to think about migration, especially with the UK and Canada opening up some options [university] Graduates move.”

Tens of thousands of people have fled Hong Kong due to the imposition of a draconian national security law and some of the world’s longest-running COVID restrictions [File:Justin Chin/Bloomberg]

For young Hong Kongers who have chosen to stay in the city, some have found purpose through the city’s local movement. The movement that has emerged over the past 15 years has sought to preserve the difference between Hong Kong and mainland China, whether it’s the Cantonese language, colonial-era architecture, or Cha Chaan Teng cafes serving hybrid western Cantonese cuisine serve.

Jen, a 25-year-old Hong Kong resident who runs a culture space and conducts research on Hong Kong culture, said exploring the city’s culture can allow for a degree of free speech, even when overt political activism is restricted.

“I think a lot of people are talking about moving somewhere else, but I feel like after 2019 a lot of people are also interested in exploring and understanding Hong Kong culture — or feeling the importance of it,” she told Al Jazeera.

“I have a feeling that something can be done [here], which offers space for various cultural events. We can’t have big protests or celebrate June 4th [the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square killings in Beijing], but that does not mean that everything has stopped. I want to continue with small things.”

Olivia, a media worker who was born around the time of the handover, said that as she mentally prepares for more draconian changes like the closure of her media outlet, she has found solace in her community.

“Even if we can’t make our voice [heard]we can still connect with people around us,” Olivia told Al Jazeera, asking to be addressed by her first name only.

Recalling a recent visit to a friend who is serving a sentence for his political involvement, she said she understood the importance of staying in Hong Kong to support her friends in difficult circumstances.

“Even if we can’t touch [when I visited], we could only see each other and talk to each other, we were connected. I can see him smiling,” she said. “I can hear his voice and that’s really important. It’s one of the reasons I’m still staying in Hong Kong.”