QAnon: How dangerous are conspiracy theories?
As well as being convinced that Trump legitimately won the 2020 election and has been cheated out of a second term as president, QAnon Japan adherents believe that Japanese politics is dominated by foreigners who have sold off the nation s wealth to global capitalists through privatization. They also believe that ethnic Koreans are running the government.
Similarly, they believe that deep state is implementing a global human population reduction plan that has previously relied on war, illness and infertility to control population numbers.
Jun Okumura, an analyst at the Meiji Institute for Global Affairs, says there are some clear parallels with the emergence of QAnon and another cult that briefly shook Japan.
Chinese authorities plan to position their first homegrown semi-submersible oil rig in a deep-water field in the disputed South China Sea to show rivals how far it’s willing to go for energy security and possibly to expand its political clout, observers believe.
The platform built over the past 21 months will begin work at the Lingshui 17-2 gas field 150 kilometers away from China, domestic media outlets said January 18.
Jan 23, 2021
Back in 2008, when Joe Biden was on the campaign trail running for vice president, the Democratic senator from Delaware once told fundraisers that the world will “test the mettle” of Barack Obama.
Now that Biden has been inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States, it’s his turn to be tested.
Biden faces a host of daunting foreign policy challenges, from repairing fractured alliances to recommitting to global responsibilities.
Chief among the many conundrums is the growing China challenge. As the world’s second largest economy continues to challenge American power on the global stage, Biden inherits a massive trust deficit from Trump, and a U.S.-China relationship that has deteriorated because of an increasingly assertive China, but also by an ill-defined and inconsistently executed China policy.
Do Peoples Perceptions Shape Trust of Gene Editing in Agriculture and Food? 1/22/2021
Two ESF researchers received National Science Foundation funding from the Science, Technology and Society Program to explore how perceptions of gene editing in agriculture and food, and how it is regulated or governed, can facilitate or hinder its use.
New gene-editing techniques promise significant benefits within the agricultural sector but realizing the full potential of these technologies will depend on how it is governed, and whether the public accepts it. Previous public concerns and skepticism about GMOs in food might shape current discussions and concerns about gene-editing.
Jan 1, 2021
When U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” policy gets the boot on Jan. 20, it will be replaced by Joe Biden’s more outward-looking and cooperative approach in Asia one in which Japan is widely expected to play an integral part.
As Washington looks warily at China’s rise, it will aim for Japan to play a placeholder role as the Biden White House focuses immediately on reining in the coronavirus pandemic that has left about 340,000 dead in the U.S.
“They’ll have no choice but to take care of that damage first,” a senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity. “This will be less about (the Asia-Pacific region) being lowered in priority than about repairing that damage.”