A seventeen-year landmark study finds that group meditation decreases US national stress

World Journal of Social Science publishes study showing that group practice of the TM and TM-Sidhi techniques by √1% of a population decreased multiple stress indicators in the U.S.. Scientists call for a group to create world peace.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MAHARISHI INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: SIZE OF THE MIU TM AND TM SIDHI GROUP (BLUELINE), EIGHT INDICES OF STRESS IN THE UNITED STATES REPRESENTED BY THE LINES IN DIFFERENT COLORS, AND THE US STRESS INDEX, THE MEAN OF ALL EIGHT VARIABLES INDICATED BY THE RED LINE. view more 

CREDIT: MAHARISHI INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Every year during 2000 to 2006 there were tens of thousands of stress-related tragedies in the U.S.. Official statistics from the FBI and Centers for Disease Control indicate that there were 15,440 murders, 93,438 rapes, and 86,348 child and adolescent deaths from accidents each year to give a few examples. The current study is the longest and most comprehensive of 50 studies to demonstrate what has been named the Maharishi Effect, in honor of Transcendental Meditation (TM) and Maharishi International University (MIU) founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

The results can be seen in the chart below. The blue line indicates that during the Baseline period of 2000 to 2006 the size of the TM and TM-Sidhi group located at Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa increased to reach the √1% of the U.S. population (1725 people) and stayed there for five years during the Demonstration period from 2007 to 2011. All stress indicators immediately started decreasing. In the Post period when the size of the group size began to decline the rate of decrease in stress slowed and then it reversed and began to increase.

(See Image 1) 

IMAGE 1: Size of the MIU TM and TM Sidhi group (blueline), eight indices of stress in the United States represented by the lines in different colors, and the US stress index, the mean of all eight variables indicated by the red line.

Lead author Dr. David Orme Johnson said: “What is unique about this study is that the results are so visually striking and on such a large scale. We see reduced stress on multiple indicators at the predicted time for the entire United States over a five-year period. And when the size of the group declined, national stress began increasing again. Clearly, the group was causing the effect.”

Co-author Dr. Kenneth Cavanaugh commented: “This study used state-of-the-art methods of time series regression analysis for eliminating potential alternative explanations due to intrinsic pre-existing trends and fluctuations in the data. We carefully studied potential alternative explanations in terms of changes in economic conditions, political leadership, population demographics, and policing strategies. None of these factors could account for the results.”

The fact that all variables started decreasing only after the square root of one percent of the U.S. was reached indicates a phase transition. Like when water does not turn to ice until 32◦ F is reached, national stress did not start decreasing until the U.S. √1% transition threshold was achieved.

The chart shows that in 2013 when the size of the TM and TM-Sidhi group quickly dropped all stress indicators abruptly increased. Apparently, the rapid drop in national coherence shook the nation.

The scientists used regression analysis to estimate how many deaths and events were reduced by the meditator group. For example, image 2 shows the red dotted line representing the Baseline trend projected into the Demonstration and Post periods. During the Demonstration period drug-related deaths (the black line) fell to 14% below their Baseline trend and were another 15 % lower during the Post period, for a total of 79,941 fewer drug deaths. The chart also shows that in the absence of the coherence creating group drug deaths eventually returned to their Baseline level.

(See Image 2)

IMAGE 2. The red dotted line is the number of Drug Deaths forecasted from the Baseline trend. The black line is the actual number of Drug Deaths. Similar analyses were conducted for all variables and the results are displayed in the Table.

TABLE: RESULTS OF REGRESSION ANALYSES. The first column shows the number of events per year during the Baseline period (Intercept). The second column shows the change per year during the Baseline (Slope). The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth columns show the thousands of events averted during the Demonstration, during the Post periods, the total events averted, and percent change, respectively. The last column shows the estimated total events averted by each individual participant in the MIU TM and TM-Sidhi group.

(See Table)

The finding that the effect was holistic, causing all variables to move up and down together, supports the theory expressed by both Maharishi from the Vedic perspective and by quantum physicist and MIU president Dr. John Hagelin from quantum field theory that the TM and TM-Sidhi groups are creating coherence in collective consciousness from the unified field level of natural law. This is big. It is evidence of the existence of the unified field from a completely different approach than using particle accelerators and detecting gravity waves.

This discovery of the unified field is more than just an intellectual knowledge. It is arguably the most immediately highly practical technological discovery in the history of science. The invention of the wheel mobilized humanity. The printing press, radio, the telephone, the internet, and satellites increased our ability to communicate with each other across vast distances and time. The discovery of DNA opened our minds to the subtle mechanics of natural law underlying the evolution and growth of all life forms. These are among the greatest scientific discoveries of all time. But what discovery can reduce human suffering as comprehensively as group meditation?

The paper reviews the many concepts of collective consciousness as they have occurred throughout history in the sciences and humanities. None have practical applications as Maharishi’s does and none have been so empirically verified.

The paper discusses Maharishi’s theory, which holds that every individual automatically contributes to collective consciousness and reciprocally, collective consciousness influences every individual. This is universally true whatever the form of government—democracy, republic, monarchy, communism, or dictatorship.

It is essential for every individual to use evidence-based technologies to reduce their own stress and at the same time, the responsibility of every government to provide these technologies to everyone.

The paper summarizes the hundreds of studies showing that practice of TM increases coherence in the individual, as indicated by such measures as increased brain coherence, decreased anxiety, depression, and anger, increased creativity, increased IQ and emotional and social intelligence, and decreased PTSD symptoms, prison recidivism, drug and alcohol addictions, and sickness rates in all categories of disease. More coherent individuals form a more coherent society.

A grant for 75 million dollars from the Howard and Alice Settle Foundation provided stipends for participants to be in the group and provided funding to bring several hundred visiting TM-Sidhi experts from India to further augment the MIU group. Dr. Orme-Johnson commented: “This is a lot of money, but the savings from the 10% reduction in crimes would save over 200 billion dollars, not to mention all the other savings from reducing other sources of stress in the country.”

The paper concludes with a call to create a permanent √1% group for the whole world, 8,000 participants practicing the TM and TM-Sidhi program together in one place. And as an engineering safety factor, a √1% group on every continent is needed. The world is so interconnected, no one is safe until everyone is safe, all living in harmony. This is easily within reach of any government or the world's wealthiest citizens. The person who does it will be remembered as the greatest leader in history.

(See Image 3)

IMAGE 3: GROUP MEDITATION AT MAHARISHI INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY. Since 1979 twice daily group meditations have been held at MIU in Fairfield, Iowa for the purpose of creating coherence in the U.S. and world collective consciousness.

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JOURNAL

World Journal of Social Science

DOI

10.5430/wjss.v9n1p1 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Field-Effects of Consciousness: A Seventeen-Year Study of the Effects of Group Practice of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Programs on Reducing National Stress in the United States

The world's largest turbulence simulation unmasks the flow of energy in astrophysical plasmas

Peer-Reviewed Publication

DOE/PRINCETON PLASMA PHYSICS LABORATORY

 

IMAGE: HALO-LIKE SOLAR CORONA. view more 

CREDIT: NASA

Researchers have uncovered a previously hidden heating process that helps explain how the atmosphere that surrounds the Sun called the “solar corona” can be vastly hotter than the solar surface that emits it.

The discovery at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) could improve tackling a range of astrophysical puzzles such as star formation, the origin of large-scale magnetic fields in the universe, and the ability to predict eruptive space weather events that can disrupt cell phone service and black out power grids on Earth. Understanding the heating process also has implications for fusion research.

Breakthrough

“Our direct numerical simulation is the first to provide clear identification of this heating mechanism in 3D space,” said Chuanfei Dong, a physicist at PPPL and Princeton University who unmasked the process by conducting 200 million hours of computer time for the world’s largest simulation of its kind. “Current telescope and spacecraft instruments may not have high enough resolution to identify the process occurring at small scales,” said Dong, who details the breakthrough in the journal Science Advances.

The hidden ingredient is a process called magnetic reconnection that separates and violently reconnects magnetic fields in plasma, the soup of electrons and atomic nuclei that forms the solar atmosphere. Dong’s simulation revealed how rapid reconnection of the magnetic field lines turns the large-scale turbulent energy into small-sale internal energy. As a consequence the turbulent energy is efficiently converted to thermal energy at small scales, thus superheating the corona.

“Think of putting cream in coffee,” Dong said. “The drops of cream soon become whorls and slender curls. Similarly, magnetic fields form thin sheets of electric current that break up due to magnetic reconnection. This process facilitates the energy cascade from large-scale to small-scale, making the process more efficient in the turbulent solar corona than previously thought.”

When the reconnection process is slow while the turbulent cascade is fast, reconnection cannot affect the transfer of energy across scales, he said. But when the reconnection rate becomes fast enough to exceed the traditional cascade rate, reconnection can move the cascade toward small scales more efficiently.

It does this by breaking and rejoining the magnetic field lines to generate chains of small twisted lines called plasmoids. This changes the understanding of the turbulent energy cascade that has been widely accepted for more than half a century, the paper says. The new finding ties the energy transfer rate to how fast the plasmoids grow, enhancing the transfer of energy from large to small scales and strongly heating the corona at these scales.

The new discovery demonstrates a regime with an unprecedentedly large magnetic Reynolds number as in the solar corona. The large number characterizes the new high energy transfer rate of the turbulent cascade. “The higher the magnetic Reynolds number is, the more efficient the reconnection-driven energy transfer is,” said Dong, who is moving to Boston University to take up a faculty position.

200 million hours

“Chuanfei has carried out the world’s largest turbulence simulation of its kind that has taken over 200 million computer CPUs [central processing units] at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) facility,” said PPPL physicist Amitava Bhattacharjee, a Princeton professor of astrophysical sciences who supervised the research. “This numerical experiment has produced undisputed evidence for the first time of a theoretically predicted mechanism for a previously undiscovered range of turbulent energy cascade controlled by the growth of the plasmoids.

“His paper in the high-impact journal Science Advances completes the computational program he began with his earlier 2D results published in Physical Review Letters. These papers form a coda to the impressive work that Chuanfei has done as a member of the Princeton Center for Heliophysics,” a joint Princeton and PPPL facility. “We are grateful for a PPPL LDRD [Laboratory Directed Research & Development] grant that facilitated this work, and to the NASA High-End Computing (HEC) program for its generous allocation of computer time.”  

The impact of this finding in astrophysical systems across a range of scales can be explored with current and future spacecraft and telescopes. Unpacking the energy transfer process across scales will be crucial to solving key cosmic mysteries, the paper said.

Funding for the paper comes from the DOE Office of Science (FES) and NASA, with computer resources provided by the NASA HEC together with the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE Office of Science user facility, and the NSF-sponsored Computational and Information Systems Laboratory. Co-authors of the paper were researchers at PPPL, Princeton and Columbia Universities, and the NASA Ames Research Center.

PPPL, on Princeton University's Forrestal Campus in Plainsboro, N.J., is devoted to creating new knowledge about the physics of plasmas — ultra-hot, charged gases — and to developing practical solutions for the creation of fusion energy. The Laboratory is managed by the University for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, which is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit energy.gov/science.

---

JOURNAL

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.abn7627 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Reconnection-driven energy cascade in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence

Winter storm strands Canadian family in RV in Texas

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IMAGE SOURCE,ANNICK RUEDI

Image caption,

Annick Ruedi and her daughter, Émeline, enjoying more pleasant US weather before this week's winter storm descended on their RV.

By Kayla Epstein

BBC News, New York

Annick Ruedi and her young daughter headed south this year in the hopes of experiencing a more pleasant winter.

"The goal always was to spend Christmas in gorgeous southern Texas," said the Ottawa resident. "To finally escape the heaps of snow and freezing cold temperatures we have every year in Canada."

But mother nature had other plans. Like tens of millions of other people, they have been swept up in a historic winter storm that has brought brutally cold temperatures to much of North America.

The storm has wreaked havoc on highways, dumped multiple feet of snow on unsuspecting regions, and cancelled thousands of flights amid the chaos of holiday travel season.

• Deadly storm knocks out power for 1.5 million

Now, Ms Ruedi, 47, and Émeline, 9, are sheltering inside their rented RV trailer on Texas' Mustang Island State Park. The small spit of land, which sits on the Gulf of Mexico not far from the city of Corpus Christi, saw temperatures on Friday afternoon drop below freezing with a biting wind chill on top.

IMAGE SOURCE,ANNICK RUEDI

Image caption,

Annick Ruedi's RV trailer parked near an overcast and windy Mustang Island beach.

Outside their recreational vehicle, enormous waves crashed and palm trees bowed from the wind.

Ms Ruedi, a marketing specialist who works remotely, had rented the RV so her daughter could experience the wonders of the US. The two had embarked on their American adventure in October, making their way through the states of Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida before arriving in Texas this month.

When they first got to South Padre Island in Texas this week, they hoped to take advantage of the pleasant weather that's typical for this time of year. Instead, they encountered gale-force winds and temperatures that froze their faces the moment they stepped outside.

"In one night I used a whole tank of propane," Ms Ruedi told the BBC. "It's so cold you really go through the propane very easily. In a camper it's not very well insulated."

At first, she tried to find a hotel room or Airbnb, but her search was in vain. Ms Reudi then decided to drive to Mustang Island on Thursday in the hopes of finding better conditions.

They did not.

IMAGE SOURCE,ANNICK RUEDI

Image caption,

Annick and Émeline Ruedi don Santa hats to fight the chill on Texas' Mustang Island beach.

"The Gulf of Mexico was rocking last night!" the National Weather Service's Corpus Christie station tweeted on Friday. Their buoys recorded waves as high as 16 feet, and winds as high as 45 miles per hour. The city of Corpus Christi planned to open multiple warming centres, and warned residents that the wind chill could send temperatures into the single digits Fahrenheit.

Mustang Island's official website shows two happy beachgoers in their swimsuits. Instead, Ms Ruedi and her daughter donned multiple layers while inside their camper and closed the curtains on their windows shut to trap heat.

"I was clever enough, I packed our winter gear from Canada just to be on the safe side," Ms Ruedi said. She added that they'd got enough supplies and had found a sense of community among other travellers at the park.

With their winter getaway not going as planned, young Émeline was disappointed - not that it was cold, but that it wasn't cold enough.

"No!" she declared, when the BBC asked if she wanted the storm to end. "We want the cold because I like the snow!"

Hockey Canada paid out $2.9 million in settlements this fiscal year, using player registration fees

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Hockey Canada didn't reveal a reserve fund that an auditor said should be on the books

Ashley Burke · CBC News · Posted: Dec 22, 2022 

Hockey Canada CEO Scott Smith, second from right, and the entire board of directors announced they would resign after a former judge's review of the organization's shaky leadership recommended they do so. Newly released audited financial statements reveal Smith was terminated without cause. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

Hockey Canada used players' registration fees to pay for $2.9 million in settlements this fiscal year — including one related to a high-profile sexual assault allegation against members of the 2018 World Juniors team — according to newly released financial records.

The new financial statements confirm that the controversial National Equity Fund was used to pay out all of the settlements this fiscal year.

The only money going into the fund comes from players' registration fees, the records show.

"During the past year, the Organization has come under extreme public and media scrutiny with regards to its management and governance of litigation settlements and the use of player registration fees," wrote BDO Canada, the company conducting the audit.

"... The organization is susceptible to lawsuits from various sources. As a result of this risk, the Organization has obtained insurance coverage which is supplemental by holding funds in reserve to cover uninsured claims."

• CBC EXPLAINS
  Crisis on ice: What you need to know about the Hockey Canada scandal

Hockey Canada has been embroiled in controversy since May, when it reached a settlement with a young woman who filed a $3.5 million lawsuit alleging a group of eight Canadian Hockey League players sexually assaulted her in 2018 in a hotel room in London, Ontario.

Hockey parents were outraged to learn that their registration fees were going into the National Equity Fund without their knowledge — and that the reserve fund was used to pay out millions of dollars in sexual abuse claims over the years.

Hockey Canada told MPs that it used the National Equity Fund to settle the London case, the board of directors "approved the maximum amount of the settlement, and the settlement offer was made and accepted."

The new audited financial statements suggest the settlement in that case was less than $3.5 million.

CBC News asked Hockey Canada how many settlements it paid out over the fiscal year. Hockey Canada didn't say. A spokesperson said that $2.9 million is an "aggregate figure for the legal settlements reached during the fiscal year."

CEO Scott Smith terminated 'without cause'

The financial records also reveal Hockey Canada's CEO Scott Smith was "terminated without cause."

Smith and the entire board of directors announced they were stepping down after a report commissioned by the organization found serious problems with accountability and transparency.

The financial statements show that, for the first time, Hockey Canada has had to include a previously undisclosed fund — the Participants Legacy Trust Fund — in its audited financial report, which showed its balance was $7.5 million as of June.

Hockey Canada's auditors stated on the front page of the financial statement that the fund "was not disclosed in the prior year."

The Legacy Trust Fund only came to light in the fall when the Globe and Mail learned of its existence through court documents. The newspaper revealed the fund was created in 1999 and the hockey organization was using player registration fees to build another large financial reserve which could be used to pay out for sexual abuse allegations and other claims.

Andrea Skinner, interim chair of the Board of Directors at Hockey Canada, told MPs in October that the Legacy Trust fund "is not a Hockey Canada asset" and that's why "it doesn't show up in Hockey Canada's financials." (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

During a Commons committee appearance in October, Hockey Canada's now former board chair Andrea Skinner told MPs that the Legacy Trust Fund had been "fundamentally mis-described in the media" and was not used to settle claims. Skinner said the fund "is not a Hockey Canada asset" and that's why "it doesn't show up on Hockey Canada's financials."

But once the organization made the auditor aware of the fund this year, the auditor determined it should be on the books because Hockey Canada controls it.

"The Trustees of the Legacy Trust are appointed and terminated by the Organization," wrote BDO Canada.

The fund is meant to respond to claims dated prior to September 1995 associated with some of Hockey Canada's member branches and the Canadian Hockey League, in the event the National Equity Fund doesn't have enough money, the financial statements said.

'It sets the record straight'

Kate Bahen, managing director of Charity Intelligence Canada, reviewed the latest audited financial statements and past statements dating back to 2008.

Bahen said Hockey Canada's audited financial statements during those years never disclosed the Legacy Trust Fund. 

"It goes to show the previous management wasn't forthcoming with information," said Bahen.

"It sets the record straight. Hockey Canada's previous management stated it was not part of its books and the auditors said yes, it is part of your books by virtue of control."

Hockey Canada's move to open up its books comes after a review the organization commissioned from retired Supreme Court justice Thomas Cromwell recommended the organization do so.

Before that, Hockey Canada did not post its audited financial statements online. The only way to obtain them was by filing requests under the Access to Information Act.

Bahen continues to call on the federal government to require not-for-profits like Hockey Canada that receive millions in federal funding and tax breaks to post their audited financial statements online.

Leaked internal documents show Amazon will likely continue to slow growth next year amidst cost-cutting and anticipation of a severe economic downturn


Amazon's executives are preparing for an uncertain economy by cutting costs and increasing profit margins

.Eduardo Munoz Avarez/AP

Eugene Kim
Thu, December 22, 2022 at 10:55 AM MST·2 min read


Amazon's economists expect the company's growth to slow as cost cuts continue.


They said Amazon's growth and profitability have historically been "negatively correlated."


The forecast was part of an internal 12-page macroeconomic analysis created in November.

Amazon is cutting costs across the board in anticipation of a severe economic downturn.

SELF FULFILLING PROPHECY; AUSTERITY CREATES THE DOWNTURN

That likely means Amazon's revenue growth will also slow down, according to an internal macroeconomic report obtained by Insider.

The report, put together by Amazon's economic, finance, and science teams, is part of the company's internal research into the broader macroeconomic landscape. The 12-page study touched on topics of a recession possibility, inflation forecast, and their impact on Amazon's overall business, as Insider previously reported.

The November report indicated the company is now cutting costs to focus on profitability and sales will grow at a slower pace than before.

"Acceleration in business growth is associated with profit margin deceleration, and vice versa. There is a clear tradeoff between the interplay of profit seeking and growth, rendering it difficult to achieve both objectives simultaneously," the report said.

"As our pendulum swerves to cut costs in pursuit of higher profit margins, this may undermine our ability to grow at a faster pace in the near — or mid-term," it added.

The report also showed Amazon's economists put the odds of the US economy going into a recession in the next six months at 30%, far lower than other estimates that all but guaranteed a recession next year.

In an email to Insider, Amazon's spokesperson said the company's leadership team disagreed with its own economists.

"The document in question does not reflect the company's position on the economy and where it's headed. Our CFO Brian Olsavsky shared our thinking on our most recent earnings call, and our CEO shared his thoughts in a Dec. 6 interview at the Dealbook event. This document simply reflects the thoughts of some of our economists," the spokesperson said.

During Amazon's most recent earnings call in October, CFO Brian Olsavsky painted a more dire picture and said the company is tightening its belt and pausing hiring due to the "uncertain economy."

"The continuing impacts of broad-scale inflation, heightened fuel prices and rising energy costs have impacted our sales growth as consumers assess their purchasing power and organizations of all sizes evaluate their technology and advertising spend," Olsavsky added during the call.

PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY

Indian weapons buyer approves $10B fund to equip military


TAUSEEF MUSTAFA

Vivek Raghuvanshi
Fri, December 23, 2022 

NEW DELHI — India’s weapons buyer on Thursday approved a 843.28 billion rupees ($10.18 billion) budget for the acquisition of major weapons and platforms, most of which the government will spend locally in a bid to bolster the domestic defense manufacturing sector.

The Defence Ministry said in a statement that its Defence Acquisition Council backed the so-called acceptance of necessity proposal, which will see about 97.4% of the funds used to procure indigenous materiel. That type of proposal is the first stage for buying arms, per government regulations.

“This unprecedented initiative will not only modernise the armed forces but also provide a substantial boost to the defence industry to achieve the goal of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ or self-reliant India,” the ministry said.

The government is now expected to issue fresh tenders, followed by the selection of bidders, field trials of prototypes and existing systems, and ultimately the awarding of a contract. The induction of new arms would begin after 2030.

Under this latest budget, India is seeking light tanks, mounted gun systems, ballistic helmets for infantry troops and so-called futuristic infantry combat vehicles, the ministry said. The Army estimates it needs a total of 1,750 futuristic infantry combat vehicles, 350 light tanks and about 800 mounted gun systems.

No local company in India has ever built tanks, futuristic infantry combat vehicles, or 155mm/52-caliber mounted gun systems with fully indigenous technology.

The Indian Air Force is seeking air-to-ground next-generation anti-radiation missiles, long-range guided bombs, range-augmentation kits for conventional bombs, and advanced surveillance systems.

The Defence Acquisition Council also granted approval for new naval programs for anti-ship missiles, underwater autonomous vehicles and multipurpose vessels.

Similarly, the agency approved the procurement of an unspecified quantity of fully indigenous next-generation offshore patrol vessels for the Coast Guard.

In the 2021-2022 financial year, India bought 702. 21 billion rupees worth of locally made armaments from domestic defense contractors. During the 2022-2023 financial year, India has spent about 845.98 billion rupees on locally sourced materiel.

Japan Begins Defense Upgrade With 26% Spending Increase for 2023


Isabel Reynolds
Fri, December 23, 2022 

(Bloomberg) -- Japan will hike its defense spending by more than a quarter in 2023 to ¥6.82 trillion ($51.4 billion) as it begins a five-year program to toughen its security posture amid rising threats from China, North Korea and Russia.

The plans include acquiring missiles capable of striking neighboring countries, and the development of a new jet fighter with the UK and Italy. Japan will also stockpile ammunition, and bolster its Self-Defense Forces’ ability to quickly deploy troops and equipment to southwestern islands, where tensions with China are high.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s cabinet approved the budget plan Friday after the government announced the security overhaul last week — abandoning a decades-old cap on defense spending of 1% of gross domestic product after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine spooked the public. The US welcomed the plans, but China and North Korea protested, while South Korea urged transparency.

Kishida’s spending plans also triggered a fight within his ruling Liberal Democratic Party over how to fund the expanded defense budget. While he vowed not to issue more bonds, construction bonds would be used to fund some purchases of ships and submarines, the Asahi newspaper reported Thursday without saying where it got the information.

The slump in the yen against the dollar over recent months means Japan’s cash won’t go as far when purchasing equipment from overseas. The ministry plans to bolster domestic capacity to produce ammunition and stockpile longer-range missiles. It will also seek to promote sales of domestically made equipment abroad.

Funds will also be earmarked for research and development of uncrewed aerial and underwater vehicles.

Japan’s shopping list includes more than ¥200 billion to acquire Raytheon Technologies Corp’s Tomahawk cruise missiles, which can be fired from ships, and about another ¥50 billion for air-to-surface missiles from Lockheed Martin Corp. and Norway’s Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, according to documents provided by the Defense Ministry.

The following are some of the other items included in the budget:

¥2 trillion for maintenance of equipment, almost double the previous year’s figure


About ¥1 trillion for ships and planes to be used to quickly deploy troops to other parts of the country


¥828 billion for ammunition, about 3.3 times the amount spent the previous year


¥269 billion to improve working conditions for SDF personnel


¥250 billion to purchase 16 Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets


¥100 billion for joint development of the next-generation fighter with the UK and Italy


¥58.5 billion for research into hypersonic missiles

Tomahawks part of Japan's record defense spending next year




 Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attends a news conference at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo, on Dec. 16, 2022. Japan's defense spending will jump 20% to a record 6.8 trillion yen ($55 billion) next year as the country prepares to deploy U.S.-made Tomahawks and other long-range cruise missiles that can hit targets in China or North Korea under a more offensive security strategy. 

(David Mareuil/Pool Photo via AP, File)


MARI YAMAGUCHI
Fri, December 23, 2022 

TOKYO (AP) — Japan's defense spending will jump 20% to a record 6.8 trillion yen ($55 billion) next year as the country prepares to deploy U.S.-made Tomahawks and other long-range cruise missiles that can hit targets in China or North Korea under a more offensive security strategy.

The planned purchase of Tomahawks at 211.3 billion yen ($1.6 billion) is a centerpiece of Japan's 2023 budget plan approved Friday by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's Cabinet and shows his government's determination to rapidly arm itself with more strike capability under the new strategy.

Additionally, Japan will pay the United States 110 billion yen ($830 million) for equipment and software needed to launch Tomahawks, as well as fees for the technology transfer and staff training in the coming year, defense officials said.

The hefty budget plan, pending parliamentary approval, is the first installment of a five-year, 43-trillion-yen ($325-billion) military spending plan under the new defense buildup plan also announced last week. The new spending target follows the NATO standard and will eventually push Japan’s annual budget to about 10 trillion yen ($73 billion), the world’s third biggest after the United States and China.

The budget plan comes a week after Kishida's government announced Japan's new National Security Strategy, stating its determination to possess controversial “counterstrike capability” to preempt enemy attacks and nearly double its spending within the next five years to protect itself from growing risks from China, North Korea and Russia and escalating fear of a Taiwan emergency.

The strategy is a historic change from Japan’s exclusively self-defense policy since the end of World War II. China, with its rapid arms buildup, increasingly assertive military activity and rivalry with the U.S., presents “an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge” to the peace and security of Japan and the international community, the strategy stated.

Tomahawks will be deployed over two years from 2026 to 2027 on advanced Aegis radar-equipped destroyers with vertical launch systems for ship-to-surface attacks, defense officials said.

Japan will also buy more foreign-developed standoff missiles for launch from warplanes — a 500-kilometer- (310-mile-) range Joint Strike Missile from Norway for F-35A fighters, and Lockheed Martin’s Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile with a range of about 900 kilometers (560 miles), for upgraded F-15s.

Japan will spend 94 billion yen ($710 million) next year to work on upgrading and mass production of Type-12 land-to-ship guided missiles develped by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for deployment within the next few years.

To reinforce strike capability and range, Japan is adding eight more F-35Bs at 143.5 billion yen ($1.08 billion) capable of short takeoffs and vertical landing on either of the two formerly helicopter carriers Izumo and Kaga that are being retrofitted so they could be operated jointly with the U.S. military.

Over the next five years, Japan will spend about 5 trillion yen ($37 billion) on standoff, or long-range missiles, with deployment beginning in four years. Annual spending for 2023 on long-range ammunition alone will be tripled from this year to 828 billion yen ($6.26 billion).

Japan will develop other types of arsenals, such as hypersonic weapons and unmanned and multi-role vehicles for possible collaboration with the F-X next-generation fighter jet Japan is developing with Britain and Italy for deployment in 2035. The Defense Ministry is also developing arsenals designed for defending remote southern islands, including a Japanese-controlled East China Sea island disputed with China.

Japan in using strike-back capability needs to fully rely on the United States to detect early signs of attacks and determine targets because of a lack of high levels of intelligence and cybersecurity, experts say.

To address the concern, Japan will spend about 100 billion yen ($7.6 million) next year also to beef up cybersecurity to protect Japanese defense technology and industry.

Japan will also spend 220 billion yen ($1.7 billion) to build two compact destroyers to be equipped with Aegis radars to strengthen the country's missile interception capability as a deterrent to advanced missiles.

Another key purchase is unmanned aerial vehicles for assaults and reconnaissance. Defense officials said they plan to test a number of foreign-developed UAVs, including Turkish-made Bayraktar used in Ukraine, as well as those from Israel, the United States, as well as home-developed Fuji Imvac.

Japan says counterstrike capability is indispensable and constitutional if it’s in response to signs of an imminent enemy attack. But experts say it is extremely difficult to conduct such an attack without risking blame for striking first. Opponents say strike capability goes beyond self-defense under Japan’s pacifist post-WWII constitution, which limits use of force strictly to defending itself.

That principle, however, was eased in 2015 by then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s constitutional reinterpretation allowing Japan to defend its ally, the United States, in what is known as collective self-defense, providing a legal basis for Japan to build up its military and expand the roles it performs

Bloody property disputes a dark side of Mexico real estate

SIMILAR TO THE VAUGHN ROAD CONDO SHOOTING LAST WEEK IN TORONTO



Police stand guard outside the house where three people were killed, in Mexico City, Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022. Actor Andrés Tirado, his musician brother Jorge Tirado and an uncle whose name was not released were found dead Sunday, Dec. 18, all with their throats slashed. Prosecutors said the apparent motive was an ownership dispute over the property. 

(AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)More


Fri, December 23, 2022

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A grisly pre-Christmas killing of two young men and their uncle at an early 1900s house in Mexico City cast attention on the dark side of the capital’s booming real estate market, fed by a lack of legal documents and gangs that illegally seize properties.

Actor Andrés Tirado, his musician brother Jorge Tirado and an uncle whose name was not released were found dead Sunday, all with their throats slashed. Prosecutors said the apparent motive was an ownership dispute over the property.

In another case, a young woman on Tuesday posted a desperate video on social media from a rooftop on the city’s south side in which she can be heard screaming: “Police! Help! They have kidnapped me!”

Police said the woman told them relatives had erected a metal door to prevent her from leaving her home, trapping her inside with four children. Police said a dispute over property ownership was behind the alleged abduction and that an investigation was underway into the illegal takeover of the property.

Authorities have known for years there are armed, violent gangs that specialize in taking over houses. The trend is enabled by the fact that many properties — perhaps as many as one-fifth of homes — have no legal papers or have titles listed in the names of dead people who left no will.

According to a 2021 report by the city government's public policy evaluation agency, the percentage of homes in the capital that are occupied by squatters, that have ownership in legal dispute or that had owners who died without a will rose from 10.9% in 2010 to 19.9% in 2020.

Mexico has a costly, inefficient, antiquated and corruption-riddled legal system.

In 2019, Mexico City prosecutors said in some of the 311 active property-seizure cases that year, notary publics, lawyers or real estate firms had falsified papers to force out legitimate owners.

Because it costs so much to have a will drawn up in Mexico, many people do not do so, often leaving those who inherit homes with problems in protecting their rights.

That appears to have been the case in the killings of the Tirado brothers and their uncle. The elderly brother of the uncle's wife died recently after a long illness, but his nurse who had cared for him continued to live on the ground floor of the house in the thriving Roma neighborhood, made famous by the Oscar-winning 2018 movie “Roma.”

Prosecutors gave the following account:

The nurse tried to claim the house was hers based on her supposed romantic relationship with the deceased man. The man's sister moved into the upstairs to prevent the nurse from seizing the home.

The Tirado brothers came to live with their aunt and uncle in August, in part to protect them. The nurse had brought her daughter and son-in-law to live on the ground floor, and the Tirados apparently feared they could become violent.

What followed was a tense, five-month coexistence, with one family downstairs and one upstairs.

The downstairs family “began to act in such a manner that it progressed to this type of violence,” prosecution spokesman Ulises Lara said.

The nurse, her daughter and son-in-law have been ordered jailed pending trial on kidnapping charges. One of the men who may have carried out the killings — also believed to be related to the nurse — has been arrested on drug charges, but is under investigation in the case.

In other cases, gangs have simply forced their way into a property and kicked the occupants out. The city estimates there are 23 home seizure gangs operating in Mexico City, some of them linked to drug gangs and others to quasi-political groups.

“A problem we have in practically the entire city is the problem of property takeovers,” Mexico City prosecutor Ernestina Godoy said in 2019.

In 2016, for instance, a police operation evicted a violent group of squatters from a house in the upscale Condesa neighborhood that the group had seized years before. After the building was recovered, police found underground bunkers and tunnels dug beneath the structure. Weapons and stolen goods were also recovered.

The building was so badly damaged it had to be torn down, in the midst of rising prices and rents and a housing shortage in the city.