The mysterious death of a railway executive

Noir novelist David Peace takes a crack at solving the real-life Shimoyama death mystery from occupied Japan

By MARK SCHREIBER

FEBRUARY 5, 2022

Image: RNZ

Tokyo Redux by David Peace, Knopf, 464 pages, $28

One of the major incidents of the seven-year postwar occupation of Japan occurred in 1949. Sadanori Shimoyama, president of the newly reorganized Japan National Railways, disembarked from his company limousine and walked into a Tokyo department store around 9:30 am on July 5, supposedly to shop for a birthday gift for his wife.

Around 1:30 am the next day, Shimoyama’s mangled corpse was found on the Joban Line tracks in the northeast part of the city.

Did Shimoyama – who was under tremendous pressure from the military occupation to dismiss thousands of workers – commit suicide? Or was he abducted by a person or persons unknown and murdered? Contradictory autopsy findings and exhaustive investigations notwithstanding, the circumstances leading to his death have never been satisfactorily explained.

Tokyo Redux, the long-awaited third part of British crime writer David Peace’s Tokyo Trilogy, brings the investigation into the Shimoyama case back to life.

Harry Sweeney, an American investigator assigned to the occupation’s Public Safety Division, liaises with the Japanese civilian police and follows up on leads, in classic police procedural style.

While this is a work of fiction, the author incorporates numerous historical personages and facts gleaned from the actual case, in a manner resembling a Truman Capote-style non-fiction novel.

Sleepless and wilting in the oppressive summer heat, fueled mainly with infusions of whiskey, Sweeney runs an obstacle course of lies, callousness and greed. As far as the occupation’s major players are concerned, Shimoyama’s death matters only in how it can be harnessed to manipulate the media and wean the public away from left-wing causes.

Investigator Sweeney eventually cracks under pressure from his bosses and in a drunken rage metes out a vicious beating to an elevator operator in his hotel. Even then his bosses refuse to let him resign as they need him to keep a lid on events.

The unsolved case is pursued in two subsequent parts set 25 and 40 years later. Presented with those three snapshots of Japan’s postwar history, readers are challenged to connect the dots and make sense of what happened to Shimoyama in 1949.

The first two books in Peace’s Tokyo Trilogy involved the 1946 case of serial rapist-murderer Yoshio Kodaira (Tokyo Year Zero) and the robbery-murder incident at the Teigin Bank in 1948

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Image: Amazon

Taken together, the books have invited comparisons to the noir works of American crime author James Ellroy (author of The Black Dahlia), whose flawed protagonists also emit waves of negative energy.

Peace deserves credit for meticulous research into one of the most baffling incidents of the postwar period. His hypothesis concerning Shimoyama’s death is plausible, and the surprise at the end is eminently satisfying.

A translator, newspaper columnist and book collector, Mark Schreiber is the author of The Dark Side: Infamous Japanese Crimes and Criminals, He arrived in Asia in 1965 and currently resides in Tokyo.

Academic report unveils China’s high-tech bottlenecks

A research report was censored after it said China was hurt more than the United States in the tech war

By JEFF PAO

FEBRUARY 4, 2022

A man examines a semiconductor wafer at the 2020 World Semiconductor Conference in Nanjing city. Photo: AFP

China has seen bottlenecks in some of its high technology sectors, including artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors and aircraft engine industries, after the United States started decoupling from it a few years ago, according to a report published by a research team at Peking University.

The report pointed out that China would face a lot more difficulties obtaining key technology equipment, introducing advanced technologies and retaining talent as the US would create a “Democratic Technology Alliance” with technology-leading countries including the European Union, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.

An academic report published by Peking University’s Institute of International and Strategic Studies Photo: iiss.pku.edu.cn

The report, released at a sensitive time when the US was reviewing China’s commitment to the 2020 trade deal, was removed from the internet on Thursday after media from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the US reported it.


Some commentators said Beijing did not want to see any publications saying China would lose in a technology war with the US.

Since the Trump administration took office in early 2017, the US government has launched restrictions and imposed sanctions against Chinese technology companies.

The so-called US-China technology war escalated as Huawei’s chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada in December 2018 for allegedly breaking American sanctions on Iran.

Although Meng was released last September, the technology war between the two powers has not ended.

On September 29 last year, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, together with European Commission executive vice-presidents Margrethe Vestager and Valdis Dombrovskis, held the first meeting of the EU-US Trade and Technology Council in Pittsburgh.

The council aims to protect EU-US businesses, consumers and workers from unfair trade practices, in particular those posed by “non-market economies” that are undermining the world trading system.

The US also planned to set up a Democracy Technology Alliance with key democratic allies amid China’s rise in high-technology sectors. Last December, US President Joe Biden hosted a democracy summit with more than 100 countries and places, including Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, but did not invite China, Russia or Singapore.

On January 30, Peking University’s Institute of International and Strategic Studies published a research report titled The strategic competition between the US and China in technology areas: analysis and outlook.

The drafting of the report was planned by Wang Jisi, the head of Peking University’s Institute of International and Strategic Studies and a professor at the university’s School of International Studies, and done by five other researchers and PhD students.

One of Peking University’s science buildings. Photo: WikiCommons

According to the report, in recent years China has caught up with the US in terms of the number of scientific papers, but has significantly lagged behind the US in terms of the number of citations and originality.


China’s investments in fundamental scientific research have also been far lower than those of the US.

By 2025, the number of PhD students who studied science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects in China will be double that of the US, but many of the Chinese graduates will choose to stay and work in the US, said the report.

China has only started catching up in the AI sector over the past three years, while the US has already become a top education hub for those who want to study AI. At present, 34% of China’s top students in AI subjects have been staying in China, while 56% have moved to the US.

Also, 88% of Chinese students who studied AI subjects in the US have chosen to stay in America, while only 10% have returned to China.

The report said China had surpassed the US in terms of the number of patent applications, but the country’s patents had lower quality and transformation efficiency and narrower coverages across different areas than those in the US.


It said China had an advantage in 5G, harbor machinery and transportation industries, but lagged behind the US in the biotechnology, agricultural science, fine chemicals, industrial software, semiconductors, medical equipment and aircraft engine sectors.

It said the two powers had their own advantages in the computing, quantum information and AI sectors.

“The current US administration has not yet fully defined how the US will decouple from China, but it has formed some consensus on this topic in the semiconductor manufacturing and AI sectors. The US will only link with China in low technology and low value-added industries,” said the report, adding that the establishment of the Democratic Technology Alliance would further suppress China’s development.

“Both the US and China will be hurt by the decoupling, but now it looks like China will lose more.”

Taiwan’s newspapers were quick to jump on the report. 

Photo: WikiCommons

In conclusion, the report said China should continue to encourage international academic exchange and technology cooperation, boost investments in research and development and retain professionals in order to catch up with the US and maintain advantages.

On Thursday, the report was removed from the website of Peking University’s Institute of International and Strategic Studies after media from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the US started reporting about it on Tuesday and Wednesday.

It was widely cited by Taiwanese media on Friday, which marked the opening of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

It has remained unclear why Wang, who has in previous articles called for more dialogue between the US and China, published the report and removed it a few days later.

Some commentators said usually academic reports about technology sectors did not need to be approved by the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) before publication.

They said the release of the report showed that some top-tier Chinese academics felt the pressure of the US-China decoupling, but were not listened to by Beijing.

On Tuesday, Deputy US Trade Representative Sarah Bianchi told a virtual forum hosted by the Washington International Trade Association that China had failed to meet its commitments under a two-year “Phase 1” trade deal that expired at the end of 2021.

Bianchi said discussions were continuing with Beijing on the matter.

On January 27, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to revoke the operating license of China Unicom Americas under its Section 214 authority. It claimed the Chinese government could use the state-owned company to “access, store, disrupt, and/or misroute US communications, which in turn allow them to engage in espionage and other harmful activities against the United States.”

The move came after the license of China Telecom Americas was revoked last October.

“The FCC’s latest move is an unreasonable suppression of Chinese companies by further generalizing national security and abusing state power, seriously damaging the US business environment and harming the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies and global consumers, including US users,” China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a statement on Thursday.

“China is firmly opposed to this.”

On November 18 last year, Party General Secretary Xi Jinping said at a meeting of the CPC Central Committee’s politburo that an advisory group called the National Science and Technology Advisory Committee (NSTAC) was established in 2019 and had provided advice on the technological developments, human resources planning, carbon neutrality directions and even anti-epidemic measures.

The NSTAC last year submitted a secretive report focused on technology self-sufficiency to the central government.

Read: China defiant amid new US trade war threats

Read: China’s secret plan to become tech self-sufficient

Follow Jeff Pao on Twitter at @jeffpao3

China Unicom says no "specific facts or due process" behind U.S. ban

(Xinhua) 19:28, February 04, 2022

BEIJING, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- China Unicom said on Thursday that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) made its decision to revoke a license for China Unicom Americas without any due process or listing any specific facts.

The U.S. FCC decided to revoke China Unicom Americas' authority to provide telecom services in the United States late last month.

On Feb. 2 local time, China Unicom's U.S. unit received the order from the U.S. FCC to revoke the section 214 authority of China Unicom Americas, said China Unicom in a statement on its website.

The statement said that China Unicom Americas has always operated in accordance with U.S. laws and regulations, and over the past 20 years, it has provided customers with global comprehensive telecommunications services and solutions, and has become a trusted partner of its customers.

China Unicom Americas will actively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the company and its customers, the statement said, adding that China Unicom will closely follow the development of the situation. 

A satellite finds massive methane leaks from gas pipelines

Dan Charles
February 4, 2022 

Flared natural gas is burned off at a natural gas plant. Methane, the main ingredient in natural gas, can leak from natural gas plants and pipelines.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

There's new evidence, collected from orbiting satellites, that oil and gas companies are routinely venting huge amounts of methane into the air.

Methane is the main ingredient in natural gas, the fuel. It's also a powerful greenhouse gas, second only to carbon dioxide in its warming impact. And Thomas Lauvaux, a researcher with the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences, in France, says that there's been a persistent discrepancy between official estimates of methane emissions and field observations.

"For years, every time we had data [on methane emissions] - we were flying over an area, we were driving around, we always found more emissions than we were supposed to see," he says.

Researchers turned to satellites in an effort to get more clarity. The European Space Agency launched an instrument three years ago, called the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument

(TROPOMI), that can measure the methane in any 12-square-mile block of the atmosphere, day by day.

Lauvaux says that TROPOMI detected methane releases that the official estimates did not foresee. "No one expects that pipelines are sometimes wide open, pouring gas into the atmosphere," he says.

Yet they were. Over the course of two years, during 2019 and 2020, the researchers counted more than 1800 large bursts of methane, often releasing several tons of methane per hour. Lauvaux and his colleagues published their findings this week in the journal Science.

The researchers consulted with gas companies, trying to understand the source of these "ultra-emitting events." They found that some releases resulted from accidents. More often, though, they were deliberate. Gas companies simply vented gas from pipelines or other equipment before carrying out repairs or maintenance operations.

Lauvaux says these releases could be avoided. There's equipment that allows gas to be removed and captured before repairs. "It can totally be done," he says. "It takes time, for sure; resources and staff. But it's do-able. Absolutely."

The countries where bursts of methane happened most frequently included the former Soviet republic of Turkmenistan, Russia, the United States, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Algeria. Lauvaux says they found relatively few such releases in some other countries with big gas industries, such as Saudi Arabia.

According to the researchers, the large releases of methane that they detected accounted for eight to twelve percent of global methane emissions from oil and gas infrastructure during that time.

Steven Hamburg, chief scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund, which has focused on the problem of methane emissions, says that these massive releases are dramatic. But it's also important to remember the "ordinary" leaks that make up the other 90 percent of emissions from oil and gas facilities. "They really matter!" he says.

EDF is planning to launch its own methane-detecting satellite in about a year, which will take much sharper pictures, showing smaller leaks. Other organizations are developing their own methane detectors.

That new monitoring network will transform the conversation about methane emissions, Hamburg says. Historically, no one could tell where methane was coming from, "and that's part of the reason we haven't taken, globally, the action that we should. It was just out of sight, out of mind," Hamburg says. "Well, it no longer will be. It will be totally visible."

He thinks that will translate into more pressure on oil and gas companies to fix those leaks.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

European Union to toughen emissions test for hybrid cars -sources


Victoria Waldersee
Publishing date:Feb 04, 2022 


BERLIN — The European Union plans to toughen its method for measuring carbon dioxide emissions from plug-in hybrid cars, two sources familiar with the matter said, after criticism that current tests yield results up to four times below real-world emissions.

The new methodology could mean some carmakers, who in 2021 sold almost as many plug-in hybrids https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/self-charging-hybrids-outsell-diesel-europe-first-time-acea-2022-02-02 in Europe as they did battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), would need to sell more BEVs in order to meet EU emissions targets and avoid sizeable fines.

The revised test is likely to be enforced from around 2025, the sources said.

Data from fuel consumption meters – which under EU law must be built into new cars from 2021 – will be incorporated into the test, they said. This will show a more realistic picture of how much hybrid cars still rely on their internal combustion engine over the electric battery.

“The utility factor will be changed,” Petr Dolejsi, sustainable transport director of the European Automobile Manafacturers’ Association (ACEA) told Reuters, referring to the average estimate of how far a hybrid drives in electric mode.

“We are starting to collect the data from the vehicles…it is an ongoing process.”

A European Commission official said an amendment to its Euro 6 pollutant emission implementing rules revising the testing approach – called the Worldwide Light Vehicles Testing Procedure (WLTP) – to determine utility factors based on real-life data from fuel consumption meters was under discussion, but they were not in a position to give further details.

The amendment would next be discussed by the Motor Vehicle Working Group, consisting of stakeholders from industry, the government and consumer associations, on Feb. 9, the official said, with a decision expected this year.

Changing the test to better reflect real-world emissions backs the growing consensus https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/once-green-plug-in-hybrid-cars-suddenly-look-like-dinosaurs-europe-2021-04-12 among environmental groups and regulators that plug-in hybrids are not as green as once thought, and should not be treated equally to battery-electric vehicles when designing policy to encourage electrification.

REALITY VERSUS THEORY

Carmakers, still recovering their image after the 2015 Dieselgate scandal in which some used illegal software to cheat emissions tests, often release the results of their emissions tests at the start of the year. The official figures are not published by the European Commission until later.

Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Renault have said that they met their 2021 targets, bolstered by record electric vehicle sales.

Under the WLTP test implemented last year, carmakers pay inspectors to oversee them run a standardized test for all their vehicle types – from internal combustion engine to hybrid to battery-electric. This is done in their labs to come up with a figure for average carbon dioxide emissions per kilometer.

Targets for 2021 were around 95g CO2/km, varying slightly as each carmaker’s target is adjusted dependent on the average weight of their vehicles.

The WLTP testing process was designed based on actual data about how and where people tend to drive, from the distance and speed to road type – a significant improvement to the previous test which was based exclusively on theoretical models.

But studies by environmental think-tanks such as the International Council for Clean Transportation (ICCT) show that even the WLTP test is far from reality, particularly for hybrid cars, which rely on the combustion engine about twice as much as test results show.

The ICCT studies used actual emissions data from over 100,000 plug-in hybrids from sources like company car databases or consumer fuel-tracking websites.

Reasons for the ICCT outcome include the fact that plug-in hybrids are charged less often and have a shorter all-electric range than the test assumes. The real-world deviation is even higher for company cars, likely because drivers have less of an incentive to charge the vehicle – a cheaper option than refueling – if they are not themselves paying the price.

While the EU had voted to make it mandatory for carmakers to build fuel consumption meters into their cars from 2021, it was not yet clear whether this data would be incorporated into the emissions tests.

“Emissions have still been falling every year, and that’s a real success,” Peter Mock, Europe managing director of the ICCT, said. “But the big problem is the hybrids – that’s what’s deceptive.”

 (Reporting by Victoria Waldersee; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

Biden joins Pope Francis and the grand imam of al-Azhar in marking International Day of Human Fraternity

Feb 4, 2022

by Christopher White

 

Vatican

20211029T0832-POPE-BIDEN-VATICAN-1511115.JPG

U.S. President Joe Biden, accompanied by his wife, Jill, exchanges gifts with Pope Francis during a meeting at the Vatican Oct. 29, 2021. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

ROME — U.S. President Joe Biden joined Pope Francis and Sheik Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand imam of al-Azhar, in marking the International Day of Human Fraternity on Feb. 4, stating that faith demands respect for the dignity of every human person. 

“From the ongoing threat of the COVID-19 pandemic and the existential climate crisis to the rise of violence around the world, these challenges require global cooperation from people of all backgrounds, cultures, faiths and beliefs," said Biden in a statement. "They require us to speak with one another in open dialogue to promote tolerance, inclusion and understanding.” 

“In my life, faith has always been a beacon of hope and a calling to purpose even during the darkest of days," he continued. "Sacred teachings across faith traditions command that we love one another, serve and protect the most vulnerable and uphold the dignity of every person, which is what the International Day of Human Fraternity is all about.” 

The International Day of Human Fraternity was first established in 2019 on the occasion of  Francis' visit to Abu Dhabi, where the pope and the grand imam signed a landmark document on "Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together."

The document insists on the basic human right to freedom of religion, denounces terrorism and calls on world leaders to work together towards peace. When Biden visited Pope Francis at the Vatican last October, he was given a copy of the document, as one of the customary gifts the pope gives to world leaders. 

“On this day, we affirm — in words and in actions — the inherent humanity that unites us all,"  Biden said in his statement on Feb 4. "Together, we have a real opportunity to build a better world that upholds universal human rights, lifts every human being, and advances peace and security for all."

In his own video marking the occasion, Francis said that "We all live under the same heaven, independently of where and how we live, the color of our skin, religion, social group, sex, age, economic conditions or our state of health." 

"All of us are different yet equal, and this time of pandemic has shown that clearly. Let me say once again: we are not saved alone!" the said pope. 

20210201T1530-POPE-HUMAN-FRATERNITY-595766.JPG

Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmad el-Tayeb, grand imam of Egypt's al-Azhar mosque and university, sign documents during an interreligious meeting at the Founder's Memorial in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in this Feb. 4, 2019, file photo. The document was on "human fraternity" and improving Christian-Muslim relations. The Vatican announced that Pope Francis will participate in a virtual meeting Feb. 4 to mark the first celebration of the International Day of Human Fraternity. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

The pope's video was shared at the Human Fraternity and the Global Tolerance Alliance Roundtable in the United Arab Emirates on Feb. 4. 

Francis' outreach to the Muslim world has been a consistent theme throughout his nearly nine-year papacy. During his 2019 visit to Abu Dhabi, he became the first pope to celebrate Mass in the Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam, and his March 2021 visit to Iraq marked the first time a pope had ever traveled to the Shia Muslim-majority country. 

"We all live under the same heaven. Now is the fitting time to journey together, believers and all people of good will," the pope said during his 2022 Human Fraternity video message. "Do not leave it to tomorrow or an uncertain future."

"The path of fraternity is long and challenging," he said. "It is a difficult path, yet it is the anchor of salvation for humanity."

Christopher White

Christopher White is the Vatican correspondent for NCR. His email address is cwhite@ncronline.org. Follow him on Twitter: @CWWhiteNCR.

One Year Since Biden Pledged to Honor Tribal Sovereignty, He Ignores Tribes on Wolf Management

Wolves and the Milky Way

 (Photo/Alter-Native Media)

BY KEVIN J. ALLIS

 FEBRUARY 04, 2022

NATIVE NEWS

Guest Opinion. 

It’s been one year since President Biden reauthorized Executive Order 13175, which directed federal agencies to engage in consistent and meaningful Tribal consultation. This policy promised to be a tremendous step forward in securing Tribal sovereignty and achieving Indigenous representation in the decision making that impacts our ways of life, giving us a place at the table to prevent federal agencies from trampling on our culture.

In the year since he signed this executive order, the Biden administration has taken some laudable steps to consult with tribes, such as collaborating with tribes in the management of public lands and restoring protections to Bears Ears after hearing tribal input. Nevertheless, the administration has refused to engage in consultation on wolf management, shirking its responsibility when consultation is inconvenient and not politically pragmatic.

Wolf management has become a lightning rod political issue for the current administration. After President Trump removed the gray wolf from the Endangered Species List in 2020 without consulting tribes, and states like Idaho and Montana passed laws allowing hunters to kill 90 percent and 85 percent of wolves respectively, Tribal leaders urged the federal government to halt these hunts until Tribes could provide input on the delisting decision. But time and again, the federal government has ignored our demands, shrugging off the obligation to engage in Tribal consultation out of fear of alienating voters in purple states like Montana where wolf hunting is popular.

But what the Biden administration must recognize is that consultation on wolf management is critical to preserving our Nation-to-Nation ties. After all, Tribes have valuable traditional ecological knowledge about wolf management due to centuries of successful co-existence with the creatures. And any decision on wolf management has a significant impact on our ways of life: The wolf is central to Indigenous religious traditions and our land-based cultures. To remove federal protections and permit the decimation of the species without consulting Tribes on the matter is to deny us representation and silence our voices on a topic that is integral to the fabric of our communities.

Already, this season’s hunts have had devastating consequences. In Wisconsin, last February’s hunt killed 216 wolves – nearly 100 over the state quota– in just 60 hours, cutting the state’s wolf population by 33 percent. In Montana, an estimated 300 wolves have already been slaughtered. And legislation that allows hunters in Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana to lure wolves on the border of Yellowstone National Park with bait has led to the deaths of 20 Yellowstone wolves.

Wolves are being killed left and right without the input of the very tribes that hold these creatures sacred and have peacefully lived alongside the species for generations. The unmitigated slaughter of wolves taking place across the country without Tribal consultation infringes upon our sovereignty, excluding us from the room where decisions about our lands and cultures are being made.

The Biden administration has the power to pause these hunts in order to engage in consultation. An emergency wolf relisting would restore federal protections for 240 days, providing time for consultation to occur. Already, organizations representing some 200 Tribes – a third of Indian Country – have called on the Biden administration to authorize this emergency relisting. And a number of tribal leaders have requested a meeting with Secretary Haaland to discuss wolf management.

But Biden has ignored tribes calling for consultation. In response to the letter from 200 tribes demanding an emergency relisting, the federal government started a status review – a one-year process of re-evaluating the data to determine whether restoring wolf protections is warranted – but this decision allows wolves to continue to be killed en masse without any Tribal consent or input for a year. Likewise, Secretary Haaland has refused to respond to meeting requests from tribes to consult on wolf management. Despite the requirements of Executive Order 13175, in the past year we’ve seen no willingness from the federal government to engage in Tribal consultation on wolf management.

This failure to consult tribes signals that the Biden administration views consultation as a matter of convenience, not of nation-to-nation respect. But to honor the commitments of Executive Order 13175, the administration must consult tribes on all relevant decisions, even on polarizing topics like wolf management. I hope the administration will recognize the significance of consultation on each and every topic that impacts Tribes, and will respect our sovereignty by engaging in consultation on wolf management.

Kevin Allis is the former CEO of the National Congress of American Indians. Currently, he is president of Thunderbird Strategies.

LIKE THE BIBLE IT IS SCI FI

What can 'The Book of Boba Fett' teach Catholics about mystery and intimacy?

Feb 4, 2022
by Eric Clayton

Temuera Morrison, left, is Boba Fett and Ming-Na Wen is Fennec Shand in Lucasfilm's "The Book of Boba Fett," exclusively on Disney+. (Lucasfilm Ltd.)

Boba Fett's helmet is iconic.

The T-shaped visor, drawn from an era of knights and wizards, evokes legends of medieval warriors and mystical powers. The beaten-up metallic green paint hints at past battles won and lost, narrow escapes and countless deaths. The impenetrable nature of the helmet itself conceals the face of a man who makes his living hunting others for profit.

This is the helmet of the galaxy's most notorious bounty hunter.

"People like the bad guys," George Lucas confessed. That's why Fett was created in the first place, in 1978, part of the effort that would culminate in "The Empire Strikes Back," the sequel to the surprisingly successful "Star Wars." Fett would add another layer of scum and villainy to the galaxy — if not as a member of an advanced Stormtrooper unit, as Lucas originally planned, then as a solitary bounty hunter, in cahoots with Darth Vader and Jabba the Hutt.

The character was so mysterious. With only four lines of dialogue and six minutes and 32 seconds of total screen time across the entire original "Star Wars" trilogy, viewers could only guess at what the character behind that T-visor had seen, what the man himself was thinking.

Who was this guy, really? The helmet was all we had to go on.

Yet before we could get any answers, Boba Fett met an unceremonious end, knocked into the Sarlacc Pit by a half-blind Han Solo. As quickly as he appeared on the scene, Fett and all his mysteries disappeared into the sands of Tatooine. The year was 1983.

Mystery makes for good storytelling. It's an entry point for the rest of us to fill in the gaps, to imagine what might have been and what might yet come. It's probably one reason Boba Fett action figures were so popular: What Lucas left unsaid, the rest of us could act out in our living rooms.

I like the mystery of Boba Fett — and I know I'm not alone. In the run-up to the release of the latest live-action installment in the "Star Wars" franchise, "The Book of Boba Fett" — and in the days and weeks following its Dec. 29, 2021 premiere on Disney+ — more than a few writers have lamented the end of that mystery. You're taking away what made the character great, many claim. This is a story we don't need.

Others have expressed excitement at the prospect of learning more about the man beneath that iconic helmet, of having his post-"Return of the Jedi" story told. Finally, we meet Fett again in live-action, no longer a "Clone Wars"-era preteen or a comic book-bound antihero.

There are probably just as many sides to this debate as there are "Star Wars" fans. And of course, there's the shadow of the behemoth that is Disney, looming large over any unexplored character arc that might turn a profit. (Did we need all that backstory on Han Solo? No. Did I still see "Solo: A Star Wars Story" in theaters and completely enjoy it? Absolutely.)

I'm the target audience for "Star Wars" everything. As a result, I loved the live-action debut of the black-haired Wookiee, Black Krrsantan. I'm here for raising Rancors, blasting Sarlaccs and repurposing old Naboo starfighters. And I'm glad somebody got to go to Tosche Station.

But Easter eggs and fan service don't necessarily make for good storytelling. And I'm left returning to the question of whether delving into the mystery of Boba Fett was the right call.

The conclusion I've drawn is this: Mystery isn't a static character trait. It shouldn't be, at least.

Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) in Lucasfilm's "The Book of Boba Fett," exclusively on Disney+. (Lucasfilm Ltd.)


Even Disney's first live-action "Star Wars" television show, "The Mandalorian" — another Boba Fett-inspired spinoff, quasi-prequel and partial-interlude to the current series — began to unravel the mystery of its titular character, showing us the man beneath the Beskar armor. In that show, Din Djarin tried to keep his story mysterious, too, but eventually events forced him to remove his helmet and show us who he really was.

Mystery is either an invitation to know more, or a tactic to avoid intimacy. This is as true for fictional storytelling and Boba Fett as it is for real life and each of us.

Think of the people in your life who you consider mysterious. Are you content that they stay that way? Don't you really want to know more about them, their lives, their struggles, their hopes? Can they ever be good friends, if there are so many unanswered questions?

Maybe you're the one who is mysterious. Why? What are you afraid to share? What are you afraid others will think of you once the mystery evaporates? Is the mystery really a defining character trait, or just something you're hiding behind?

As people of faith, we are well acquainted with the idea of mystery. God, after all, is complete and utter mystery. So much of our lived experience, too, is clouded in mystery. Why is there suffering? What is my purpose? Does any of this mean anything at all?

Faith, though, demands that we enter into the mystery; we don't watch helpless on the sidelines. God desires that we take the risk; it is in that space of mystery that we come to know more of who God is —and who we are. We enter into the mystery of suffering and loss and hope and meaning with one another, too, knowing that we will never get all the answers, and yet trusting that the journey of sharing and carrying one another's stories is worth the effort.

Let's return to that iconic helmet. As opposed to Din Djarin in "The Mandalorian," Boba Fett has no problem removing his helmet. As a result, we see the face of Temuera Morrison, who plays Boba Fett, far more than we ever saw Pedro Pascal, who plays Din.

We see every expression on Morrison's face: the pain, the confusion, the hurt, the anger. We see ourselves, too, in those very human emotions. And the mystery slowly dissipates.

What's left in its place is just another person making their way in the galaxy, stumbling from one difficult decision to the next. Is he still compelling without the mystery? Well, is life still compelling without the mystery? The answer, I hope, is yes. Of course it is.

And of course, there is always more mystery to explore. All the Disney+ shows in the world can't tell us everything. (Though hopefully we'll reach a satisfying conclusion in the season finale this Wednesday, Feb. 9.)

As we enter more deeply into the mystery around us, as we unravel it slowly and yet never completely, I hope we aren't afraid to take a long, honest look at what's really in front of us: that which is all too human, often all too painful, and yet all too important to avoid confronting simply because we now must see it for what it truly is.

The Book of Boba Fett | Official Trailer | Disney+
Official trailer for "The Book of Boba Fett" (YouTube/Star Wars)

Eric Clayton  is the senior communications manager at the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States and the author of a forthcoming book on Ignatian spirituality and storytelling from Loyola Press. He lives in Baltimore with his wife and two daughters.

North Korean hacking group targets defense contractors



FEBRUARY 03, 2022 
BY GRANT GROSS

A North Korean hacking group appears to be targeting U.S. defense contractors in a new malware campaign using infected documents containing fake job listings.

The Lazarus Group, a sophisticated hacking group tied to North Korea's principal intelligence agency, has been sending malicious documents with fake job opportunities to aerospace and defense contractor Lockheed Martin, according to Malwarebytes Labs , a cybersecurity research firm.

The Lazarus Group, active since 2009, is blamed for the 2014 attack on Sony Pictures , the 2017 WannaCry ransomware campaign , and a handful of other high-profile cyberattacks.

Lazarus is an advanced and sophisticated hacking team "known to target the defense industry," Malwarebytes researchers wrote. "The group keeps updating its toolset to evade security mechanisms."

The Lazarus campaign, identified by Malwarebytes in mid-January, appears to be targeting specific companies using an attack method called spear-phishing , the cybersecurity firm said. The attack compromises the Windows Update process to evade antivirus protection, and it used an account on the GitHub software development platform to control the malware, the cybersecurity firm said.

It's unclear what the hackers were looking for in the targeted systems. Some cybersecurity experts suggest the motive could be espionage, while others believe the goal could be to steal credit card numbers and other personal information.

The group may be gathering information about people working at defense contractors, said Allan Buxton, director of forensics at Secure Data Recovery Services .

"Lazarus has its hands in a lot of different attacks, either attempting to profit from information gained or stealing funds directly," he told the Washington Examiner. "Targeting Lockheed reads more as an attempt either to gain information about an adversary or to discredit them and remove them from the opposition's use."

The attacks were likely looking for targets who had security clearances from Western governments, added Greg Otto, a researcher at cybercrime intelligence provider Intel 471 . "From there, they could possibly siphon sensitive information or discover credentials that would allow them to move further into sensitive computer networks," he told the Washington Examiner.

Targeted phishing campaigns can be very effective, given that they target people with email pitches tailored to their interests, some cybersecurity experts said. These spear-phishing attacks often appeal to the egos of the victims.

"A good deal of social engineering goes into a spear-phishing attack. If an attacker can convince the target that the message is legitimate, the attack is more likely to be successful," Otto said. "Given how easy it is to make messages seem legitimate, spear-phishing messages do have a higher rate of success than bulk phishing attempts."

But spear-phishing attacks can also be thwarted with employee training, noted Buxton. Training should include "teaching all staff to be suspicious of any unsolicited or unexpected communications, and giving them a means to validate any that they receive," he said.

An example of spear-phishing would be a finance department employee getting an email supposedly from the company's CEO authorizing a wire transfer. "Having a process in place to verify that request, independent from merely replying to the unsolicited email, effectively stops the fraud before it starts," he said.

Spear phishing is an "incredibly effective" method of attack, added Richard Ford, CTO of Praetorian , a security testing and consulting firm. "Phishing is one of the simplest initial entry points from an attacker," he told the Washington Examiner. "Often, it's all you need to execute a catastrophic breach."

Ford recommended companies take a "layered" approach to defend against spear-phishing, including employee training, email filters, browser isolation, and multifactor authentication.

"While end-user training is important, it's unfortunately not enough," he said. "Users tend to be very task-centric, and so a skilled attacker can usually get through. It's necessary but not sufficient."LinkedIn

• Emai

OUT OF SIGHT OUT OF MIND

Statue of white supremacist former US state governor moved out of sight

Theodore Bilbo was the Mississippi state governor in 1916-1920 and 1928-1932.

A statue of the late governor Theodore Gilmore Bilbo (Rogelio V Solis/AP)

By Emily Wagster Pettus, 

Associated Press
February 04 2022 

A statue of white supremacist former Mississippi governor Theodore Bilbo has quietly been moved out of sight in the US state’s Capitol.

It is a move praised by black politicians who say he never deserved a place of prominence.

Bilbo was a Democrat known for racist rhetoric.

He was the state governor in 1916-1920 and 1928-1932.

He was in the US Senate from 1935 until he died in 1947.

The statue has been in the state Capitol for decades.

A Legislative Black Caucus member, Democratic Representative Kabir Karriem, says it was “very offensive”.

In 2020, Mississippi shed another symbol of the past, retiring a Confederate-themed state flag.