Global Times - 07.08.2019

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Wednesday August 7, 2019 9

WORLD


Beat the heat


NRA grip on Washington faces test


Japan urged


to sign UN


nuke ban


The mayor of Hiroshima urged
Japan to sign a landmark UN
treaty banning nuclear weapons
as the city on Tuesday marked
74 years since being targeted in
the world’s first atomic attack.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
led commemorations at the
Peace Memorial Park in Hi-
roshima as residents offered
silent prayers, lit candles and
placed wreathes to remember
those killed in the August 6,
1945 bombing.
And mayor Kazumi Matsui
used the occasion to push the
Abe administration to sign the
UN treaty on the prohibition
of nuclear weapons (TPNW),
approved by more than 120
nations, but rejected by the US
and other nuclear-armed coun-
tries.
“I call on the government of
the only country to experience
a nuclear weapon in war to ac-
cede to the hibakusha’s [atomic
bomb victims] request that the
TPNW be signed and ratified,”
he said. “I urge Japan’s leaders
to manifest the pacifism of the
Japanese constitution by dis-
playing leadership in taking the
next step toward a world free
from nuclear weapons.”
The mayor urged world lead-
ers to come to the city to see the
memorial for themselves.
Japan remains the only
country to have experienced
atomic attack – against Hiroshi-
ma and Nagasaki, days ahead
of the country’s surrender on
August 15, 1945 to end World
War II.


AFP


Global privacy regulators joined
forces on Tuesday to demand
guarantees from Facebook on
how it will protect users’ finan-
cial data when it launches its
planned cryptocurrency Libra.
The watchdogs from Austra-
lia, the US, EU, the UK, Canada
and other countries issued an
open letter calling on Face-
book to respond to more than a
dozen concerns over how it will
handle sensitive personal infor-
mation of users of the digital
currency.
The letter follows a chorus
of warnings about Facebook’s
entry into the shadowy world of
digital banking, including at a
meeting last month of finance

ministers and central bankers
from the G7 group of most de-
veloped economies.
The watchdogs said that
Facebook and its subsidiary
Calibra “have failed to specifi-
cally address the information
handling practices that will be
in place to secure and protect
personal information.”
Facebook’s handling of user
data, highlighted by the Cam-
bridge Analytica scandal, had
“not met the expectations of
regulators or their own users,”
they said.
The social media giant’s lat-
est project faced similar risks,
they said, adding that the “com-
bination of vast reserves of

personal information with fi-
nancial information and crypto-
currency amplifies our privacy
concerns about the Libra Net-
work’s design and data sharing
arrangements.”
The regulators demanded
Facebook provide guarantees
that user information, such as
transaction histories, will not
be shared without explicit con-
sent and that all personal data
will be adequately secured by all
parties in the Libra Network.
Facebook announced the
launch of Libra in June, with
Calibra slated to run a digital
wallet and provide financial ser-
vices using blockchain technol-
ogy.

The currency is to be over-
seen by a Geneva-based Libra
Association of companies, and
Swiss authorities have also
pledged tight oversight of the
operation.
Libra is widely regarded as
a challenger to dominant glob-
al player bitcoin. Expected to
launch in the first half of 2020,
Libra is designed to be backed
by a basket of currency assets to
avoid the wild swings of bitcoin
and other cryptocurrencies.

AFP

Shedding support and beset by infight-
ing, the National Rifle Association of
America (NRA) faces a test of strength
after recent twin mass shootings, but
few believe it is prepared to loosen its
grip on Congress or President Donald
Trump’s administration.
Following the tragedies in El Paso,
Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, the president
urged Democrats and Republicans to
“come together” and enact stricter back-
ground checks.
But hours later, rather than proclaim
in a White House address that he wants
Congress to tackle the gun violence epi-
demic by imposing tougher restrictions
on firearms sales, Trump repeated what
many Democrats believe is an old trope
propagated by the NRA.
“Mental illness and hatred pulls the
trigger, not the gun,” Trump said, in


phrasing that echoed a talking point re-
peatedly used by the NRA and gun rights
advocates who say that “guns don’t kill
people, people kill people.”
Democrats have long demanded ac-
tion on background checks, but Repub-
licans – and the NRA – have steadfastly
resisted.
Trump’s televised remarks made no
mention of his earlier call.
“When he can’t talk about guns when
he talks about gun violence, it shows
the president remains prisoner to the
gun lobby and the NRA,” said House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The NRA has been among the most
powerful lobbying groups in US history,
and despite a series of high-profile crises
in recent months, it still wields tremen-
dous clout on Capitol Hill.
It spent $1.6 million in the first half

of 2019 lobbying members of Congress
against legislation that would expand
background check on people seeking to
purchase guns, CNBC reported, citing
disclosure reports.
The group also endorsed Trump’s
campaign in 2016 and spent some $
million in support of his election, ac-
cording to funding trackers.
But it has faced recent trials, includ-
ing the ouster of its president Oliver
North over a conflict about lavish NRA
spending, and the resignation last week
of three board members.
NRA finances are in turmoil. Con-
tributions to the group sank more than
$26 million, or 21 percent, from 2016 to
2017, NRA figures show.
It ran a deficit of $31.8 million in the
2017 reporting cycle, after racking up
a $14.8 million deficit in the prior year

when it spent big backing Trump, ac-
cording to an audit obtained by OpenSe-
crets.
“If the NRA ever had a weak point,
it’s right now,” moderate Republican
congressman Pete King told The Hill
newspaper Monday.
“They are weakened. And all of us,
including the president, should take ad-
vantage of that.”
Some Republicans are inching to-
ward advocating reforms.
Senator Lindsey Graham announced
Monday he is coauthoring red-flag leg-
islation, which would allow law en-
forcement agencies and relatives to
temporarily take guns from people they
suspect to be dangerous to themselves
or others.

AFP

Privacy watchdogs warn Facebook over Libra currency


 Trump echoes association’s stance in response to mass shootings


Page Editor:
wanghuayun@
globaltimes.com.cn

Japanese
macaques
rest in the
shade at
Ueno Zoo
to avoid the
heat in Tokyo
on Tuesday.
Fifty-seven
people
died due to
heat-related
medical
issues in
Japan last
week, the
government
said
Tuesday,
with the
number of
those taken
to hospitals
more than
tripling from
the previous
week’s 5,
to 18,347.
Photo: IC
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