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(TOKYO) — Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has expressed his intention to step down due to his declining health, according to reports Friday by NHK and other Japanese media. The Prime Minister’s Office said the report could not be immediately confirmed, but that Abe was believed to be meeting top ruling officials at the party headquarters. The Liberal Democratic Party spokesman did not answer the phone. Concerns about Abe’s chronic health issues, simmering since earlier this summer, intensified this month when he visited a Tokyo hospital two weeks in a row for unspecified health checkups. Abe, whose term ends in September 2021, is expected to stay on until a new party leader is elected and formally approved by the parliament. He had abruptly resigned from his first stint in office in 2007 due to his health, which was fueling concerns about his recent condition. Abe on Monday became Japan’s longest serving prime minister by consecutive days in office, eclipsing the rec...

President accepts Republican presidential nomination in event staged at White House, raising ethical concerns Against a backdrop of a global pandemic, heightened racial tensions, and widespread unemployment, Donald Trump framed his Democratic rival Joe Biden as the real danger to the country’s safety and economic welfare in his address to the Republican convention on Thursday. Accepting the party’s presidential nomination ahead of November’s elections, Trump argued for more than an hour that his administration had accomplished everything it had set out to do and warned that a Biden presidency could be ruinous. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/32vpQlP

President hammers law and order, and risk posed by ‘radical left’ … school leaders in plea to parents ahead of pupils’ return … bank holiday chill forecast Good morning, Warren Murray here to get you out of the gate. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2YGZ1di

Study of two-thirds of British cases in hospital found six fatalities under 19, all with underlying conditions Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage The risk of severe illness and death to children from Covid-19 is vanishingly small, according to the biggest study yet of those admitted to hospital, which the researchers say should reassure parents as they return to school. The study included two-thirds of all patients admitted to hospitals across England, Scotland and Wales with Covid-19. Of these, 651 – less than 1% – were children and young people under 19. Six of these patients – less than 1% – died. All had severe underlying health conditions. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3lpztLw

Thousands of ritual statues are dunked into the sea off Mumbai each year – but coronavirus and pollution concerns are forcing change In the quiet housing estate of Angrewadi in the heart of Girgaon in south Mumbai, people are celebrating the 100th consecutive year of the Ganesh Chaturthi, the Hindu festival of the elephant-headed god of new beginnings. Statues of Lord Ganesh are brought into homes and put on display for offerings and prayers. On the 11th and final day of the festival, the ritual of Ganesh Visarjan takes place – falling this year on 1 September. The statues, normally made of soluble plaster of paris, are traditionally carried in a public procession with music and chanting, and are then immersed in either a river or the sea. Here, they slowly dissolve in a ceremony that dramatises the Hindu view of the ephemeral nature of life – but also causes widespread pollution. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3jkbknI

The two actors talk about their new film, Hope Gap, and along with co-star Josh O’Connor and director William Nicholson, share their thoughts on honesty, fidelity and the perils of talking at breakfast Bill Nighy would like you to know that he is not a professional agony uncle. “If I start talking as if I’m an expert on sexual relations, call a cab,” he says, down the phone, from under a tree, familiar drawl mixed with a snort. Same goes if you want to talk about faith. “I’ve had no contact with the supernatural or made any connections with other dimensions. I don’t have any answers. I don’t get out much. And, what with the pandemic, I obviously get out even less.” Trouble is, to discuss Nighy’s new film – about the abrupt end of a long marriage – is to wade immediately into Dear John territory. That is its point. “You hope it will unlock people’s lives, not to sound too grand,” says Nighy. “That it examines stuff. And there aren’t many bigger subjects than the attempt at love and ...

Violence against largely peaceful protesters is escalating, no matter how much officials downplay the terms they use There’s no fitting comparison for the sensation of tear gas. I can tell you that the chemical weapon, banned from use in war efforts, does indeed burn the skin, nose, and eyes – but the burning isn’t simple. It invades all sense of comprehensive thought with a primal and terrifying urgency. Surrounded by gas and the chatter of rubber bullet guns, and the ominous thrum of officers beating their riot shields with batons, the burning becomes more like a vice grip around your throat. It feels possible you may die there on the pavement in a cloud of smoke, possible you may call out for your mother, or more likely: “Milk! Milk, please!” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/32wTh71