Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shot while giving a speech, has reportedly not survived the attack.



Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been shot and is reportedly showing no signs of life, according to local Japanese media.



Abe, who stepped down from his position as PM in 2020 due to health issues, was giving a speech in the city of Nara while campaigning for a national election when a gunman opened fire. Smartphone footage of the incident shows gunfire impacting around Abe as he is speaking, and security personnel appearing to pin a suspect down a few moments later.



Abe was rushed to hospital following the incident, but is reportedly showing no vital signs. However, his passing has yet to be officially declared.



Firearms and other weapons have been de-facto banned for half a century, with exceptions being made for hunting and sport shooting. Local Japanese media are reporting that police suspect the weapon used in the attack might be homemade.



Condolences have begun to pour in from world leaders, with Australia’s Prime Minister, Taiwan’s President and the United States Ambassador to Japan having issued statements.



“Horrified by this terrible news from Japan,” said former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Twitter. “Abe Shinzo is one of the great leaders of our times. Right now we must hope and pray that he pulls through.”



Shinzo had served two terms as PM to become Japan&#8217;s longest-serving premier.

Japan’s General Election Campaign

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shot

TOPLINE &#8211; Boris Johnson’s plan to ease restrictions in England has raised a fresh set of questions about worker safety and the timing of his new “stay alert” message, and has set the U.K. prime minister on a collision course with devolved nations Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland who are insisting their residents “stay at home” to beat coronavirus.



KEY FACTS



<ul><li>Johnson <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-address-to-the-nation-on-coronavirus-10-may-2020" target="_blank">addressed</a> the U.K. on Sunday night to announce a slight easing of restrictions in England, but saying it was not time to end the lockdown this week.</li></ul>



<ul><li>He unveiled a new message of “Stay alert, control the virus, save lives”, but the message is at odds with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland who are sticking with the original message of “Stay home, protect the NHS, save lives.”</li></ul>



<ul><li>WORK: People who cannot work from home “should be actively encouraged” to return to work this week. Later, the government said the changes would come into effect from Wednesday.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Johnson said this includes constructions and manufacturing workers, but his message has caused confusion over which professions would be allowed to return to work. Johnson also discouraged people returning to work in England from taking public transport, and said they should walk, drive or cycle instead.</li></ul>



<ul><li>SCHOOLS: From June 1, the youngest school pupils, including reception, and primary students up to age 11, could return to the classroom. Secondary school pupils who have key exams next year could “get time with their teachers” before breaking for summer.</li></ul>



<ul><li>BUSINESS: A phased reopening of shops could begin as early as June 1, while hotels and restaurants could open on July 1 at the earliest “provided they enforce social distancing,” Johnson said.</li></ul>



<ul><li>LEISURE: People in England were told they can have an unlimited amount of daily exercise and can play sports in parks with the same members of their household. People can also meet up with one member of another household in a park, but maintain a two metre distance.</li></ul>



<ul><li>TRAVEL: People who are travelling into the U.K. by air and other means will “soon” be put under quarantine. It is not yet known for how long, or when this will be enforced. But passengers from Ireland, and now France, are exempt from the rule.</li></ul>



WHAT TO WATCH FOR



The government will release 50-page guidance on the new rules on Monday afternoon.



ADDITIONAL INFO



For lockdown to be lifted altogether, the British government says that five tests need to be met: Ensuring the national health service can cope with the epidemic, a sustained fall in the daily death rate, a fall in the rate of infection or ‘R’, securing enough PPE to meet demand, and making sure that the risk of a second peak is low.



CHIEF CRITICS



There are a few, with most opposition centred on the government’s confusing messaging, short notice, lack of safety information for workers, and concerns that the new guidance leaves white collar staff protected, while factory and shop floor workers face the greatest risk.



The leaders of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are united in their opposition to Johnson’s ambiguous “stay alert” message. Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon simply reinforced the original “Stay Home, Protect The NHS, Save Lives” message that her nation is sticking with. Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford said his nation’s “stay at home” message&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/fmwales/status/1259547228139651074?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">remains</a>.



Unions have criticised Johnson’s speech as not being well thought through, and say that the government should be issuing mandatory instructions to workplaces to ensure worker safety, and not just guidance.



Len McCluskey, general secretary of the U.K.’s biggest union, Unite, said in a&nbsp;<a href="https://unitetheunion.org/news-events/news/2020/may/mccluskey-decisions-taken-now-will-shape-our-countrys-future-we-need-clarity-to-build-public-confidence/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a>: “People cannot get to work safely unless there is safe transport for them to use. Yet there is now a real risk that in a few hours&#8217; time, workers will be cramming onto public transport, putting at risk their lives and those of others.”



Meanwhile, teachers unions called Johnson’s plans “reckless.” General secretary of teaching union NASUWT told the&nbsp;i&nbsp;<a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/education/coronavirus-lockdown-restrictions-easing-schools-teachers-criticise-june-opening-2848500" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">newspaper</a>: “Signalling 1 June is more likely than not to create confusion if not some degree of chaos out there in the system.”



Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party, said the government’s plans raise “as many questions as answers.” He criticised the government’s lack of clarity around returning to work, that puts millions of people in a scramble to prepare for entering the workplace with just 12 hours notice.



<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">On a serious note the only change in that announcement was that they’re now sacrificing the working class out loud. JOIN. A. UNION.&mdash; Eve Livingston (@eve_rebecca) <a href="https://twitter.com/eve_rebecca/status/1259548880116604928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 10, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



KEY BACKGROUND



The U.K. went on lockdown on March 23, after scientific models published days earlier suggested that if left unchecked, coronavirus could lead to the deaths of 250,000 people. The government has maintained that it is being guided by science, but with the worst death toll in Europe at 32,000 coronavirus-linked deaths, Johnson’s government is facing serious questions from critics over its strategy, failure to source enough protective gear for health workers, and implement a large-scale testing scheme. With the number of daily deaths falling, ministers say the U.K. has moved through the peak of the epidemic.

gettyimages-1212480356-594×594

Boris Johnson’s Attempt To Ease England’s Lockdown Is Confusing. Here’s What We Know So Far

The selection of Hage Geingob as a future presidential candidate, during the party congress, has been widely seen as the end of the 50 years of liberation politics, which former President Sam Nujoma had dominated. A sigh of relief by the local and international business community—who feared a Zimbabwean-like land nationalization program and a confiscatory tax regime, had either of his opponents won—was heard across Namibia.
While he still has to face national and presidential elections in two years’ time, Namibia’s single-party dominant system is such that only a major political catastrophe would prevent Geingob from replacing President Hifikepunye Pohamba in 2015.
Geingob was Namibia’s prime minister since independence, in 1990, until suddenly being dismissed by Samuel Nujoma in 2002. He was banished to the political wilderness for five years before being re-appointed as prime minister by Pohamba in a transitional Cabinet that is notable for its promotion of technocrats.
Government insiders said that Geingob’s surprisingly easy victory over the more trenchant elements of the party, that has ruled Namibia since independence, would now see the country adopt a more developmental economy model. This is opposed to its current ‘mixed economy’ approach, whose success, to a large extent, would depend on oil and gas being discovered off the Namibian Atlantic coastline.
Geingob’s approach was not at variance with the ruling party’s official policies, his stress on an energy-based economy, which is needed to bring development to rural areas and address massive unemployment of more than 53%, was one that would see the state take on a more assertive role in developing the economy, according to analysts.
While the details still are not clear, chances are that Namibia under Geingob will adopt a policy of national champions as espoused by the Asian Tigers. This will boost local manufacturing and the development of so-called ‘energy corridors’ linking Namibia to its land-bound neighbors such as Botswana, Zambia and those further afield such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, amongst others.
“The Namibian government under Geingob is increasingly likely to look towards the other BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries for development partners because of the ongoing crises in the Euro and Dollar areas,” says Professor Andre du Pisani, head of the University of Namibia’s Economics department and a high-level government advisor.
The stress, he said, would be more on pragmatic politics and economic cooperation, rather than the ideological stance that has characterized much of SWAPO’s 50-year-long history as battler of imperial colonialists.
As a stable democracy blessed with good, if not super-abundant, resources supported by a strong mining industry; a world-class fisheries sector and good tourism potential—Namibia has never quite met high expectations because of a lingering ideological rift between moderates and hard-line nationalists that often saw executive decisions getting bogged down in turf battles.
Geingob has made much of the fact that while the country, and its ruling party, has adopted progressive policies over the past 22 years, where it most often failed was in implementing those policies. His political victory as a moderate has raised hopes that the economy would now get out of the blocks and overcome its political inertia.
And signs are that this time, this could actually happen. In what amounted to the biggest surprise over the outcome of the party’s congress, incumbent President Pohamba announced a sudden major Cabinet reshuffle two days later that firmly sidelined the hard-line factions without totally alienating them by re-assigning half of the 24 ministerial positions in a careful political balancing act.
Former regional government and housing minister Jerry Ekandjo, who is Geingob’s strongest opponent and a noted party hardliner and Nujoma loyalists, who backed by the party’s youth league had waged an increasingly nasty campaign for the presidential nomination, were re-assigned to the ministry of youth and sports instead.
Former justice minister and party secretary-general, Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana, who had hopes of becoming Namibia’s first female president, was thrown a political lifeline by being handed the politically powerful home affairs portfolio. This after she switched her support to Geingob during the congress, rather than supporting Ekandjo, whose political views she echoes.
And to keep everything in the family, Utoni Nujoma, who first backed Iivula-Ithana but then switched back to Ekandjo, was handed the justice portfolio.
He was replaced by technocrat Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah as foreign affairs minister.
Pohamba, who had taken over from Nujoma as his preferred candidate in 2004, has always labored under the perception that he was a mere figurehead doing Nujoma’s bidding; this amounted to his greatest political moment in the 50 years he has lived in Nujoma’s shadow: “Going out with a bang,” as he had put it to a political confidante.
His open backing of Geingob, which upset the other two candidates no end, has effectively allowed him to bestow his own legacy upon the party by helping to elect the first non-Oshiwambo person to the country’s most powerful office and so bring to an end to Nujoma’s domination of a party he helped found in 1960.
Geingob’s victory also saw moderates make a clean sweep of all the top offices in the party hierarchy; putting paid to a mooted plan to have the hard-line Ekandjo take over the presidency for one term in order to prepare the way for Nujoma’s son, Utoni, to have a clean run at the presidency in 2019.
In his closing speech to the congress, Pohamba, with uncharacteristic frankness, referred to a “watershed” moment in the party’s history. Although he did not say so, the message was clear after Nujoma had called for a female presidential candidate, allegedly to split the pro-Geingob vote and hand victory to Ekandjo, only to see Iivula-Ithana humiliated with a mere 10% of the vote as delegates deserted her in favor of Geingob.
All agree that the rising resource nationalism as espoused by the hard-line factions in the party had now been taken off the table, although questions remained how an even-handed Geingob would be in framing policies as future president, says Graham Hopwood, director of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a local think-tank.
“The question hanging over the Geingob candidacy is whether he will be able to distance himself from the interests of big business when making executive decisions and crafting policy,” Hopwood noted.
On the one hand, Geingob fought off Walmart’s proposed entry into the local market as not being in the interest of Namibia, but then also granted special tax status to French nuclear company Areva, a benefit that other uranium miners did not have, according to Hopwood.
This latter aspect is perhaps the most troubling aspect in an otherwise newly optimistic landscape: Geingob has admitted to receiving a $300,000 consultancy fee from Areva, albeit while still just a party backbencher in 2007.
But at least one can now expect that any future political debate over Namibia’s future would be centered on issues, rather than personalities, and that in itself amounted to major political progress, all agreed.

Tag: Prime Minister

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shot

Boris Johnson’s Attempt To Ease England’s Lockdown Is Confusing. Here’s What We Know So Far

The Tide Turns