Japan, S Korea, US concerned over N Korea’s cyber-fundraising

The allies say North Korea uses funds from its ‘malicious’ cyber-operations to finance weapons development.

Envoys from the three countries met amid continued weapons tests by the North

 [Jeon Heon-Kyun/AFP]
 7 Apr 2023

The United States, South Korea and Japan have expressed deep concern over what they described as North Korea’s “malicious” cyber-activities in support of its banned weapons programmes.

Cryptocurrency funds stolen by North Korean hackers have been a key source of funding for the country’s weapons programmes, according to the United Nations, with such theft reaching a record last year.

“We reiterate with concern that overseas DPRK IT workers continue using forged identities and nationalities” to evade UN sanctions and raise funds for missile programmes, the three countries’ envoys said in a joint statement on Friday, using the acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Kim Gunn, South Korea’s envoy, held talks with his US and Japanese counterparts this week and condemned North Korea’s continued weapons tests.

Japan’s envoy also “strongly condemned” the “unprecedented frequency and manner” of North Korea’s missile launches as a serious and imminent threat to regional security, Japan’s foreign ministry said. Japan on Friday announced a two-year extension of its trade ban on North Korea, with exemptions for humanitarian reasons.

The US and South Korea have been conducting a series of annual springtime exercises since March, including air and sea drills and their first large-scale amphibious landing drills in five years.

North Korea has reacted furiously to the exercises, calling them a rehearsal for invasion.

In response, it has unveiled new, smaller nuclear warheads, and fired an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking anywhere in the United States. It has also tested what it called a nuclear-capable underwater attack drone.

As Pyongyang continues to develop its military arsenal, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has also called for raising awareness over the continued human rights abuses in the country.

In its first publicly released report on the situation last week, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said North Korea executes its citizens for drugs, religious activities and sharing South Korean media.

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North Korea executes people for sharing S Korean media: Report

Kyrgyz eco-activist’s ‘trashion’ tackles a burning problem

REUTERS
7 April, 2023 

Kyrgyz artist and environmental activist Cholpon Alamanova poses for a picture in her workshop in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan March 30, 2023. Alamanova and her team of more than 80 women use the Kyrgyz traditional patchwork sewing technique, kurak, in order to recycle the textile waste, usually burned in landfills, into colourful blankets, clothes and accessories. REUTERS/Pavel Mikheyev

BISHKEK (Reuters) – A Kyrgyz environmental activist has found a way to combat toxic fumes choking her city by literally turning trash into treasure, sewing clothes out of waste that would otherwise be burnt in a landfill or someone’s stove.

Garments are a major industry in the Central Asian nation of 7 million, but manufacturers often discard scrap material in landfills outside the capital, Bishkek, to be burned or scavenged to heat people’s homes.

Those fumes make the air even more toxic in Bishkek, which is already one of the world’s most polluted cities, thanks to its widespread use of coal.

But artist Cholpon Alamanova came up with a solution that makes use of a traditional patchwork sewing technique called kurak to recycle the textile waste into colourful blankets, clothes and accessories.

In doing so, her workshop has become part of a global “trashion” trend promoting the use of recycled, used, thrown-out and repurposed elements to create garments, jewellery and art.

The task engenders a warming feeling that motivates her to keep doing it, says Alamanova, while helping to keep alive the tradition.

“Every single item that we make with students imparts a very pleasant feeling that at least for a tiny bit, we have made Kyrgyzstan cleaner, and helped maintain the purity of its air, water and land,” she added.

Her team, which has grown to more than 80 women aged between 25 and 79, has processed 300 kg (661 pounds) of fabric within a few months, winning public acclaim for fighting pollution while popularising kurak.

Works by Alamanova and her students, displayed at an art show in neighbouring Kazakhstan last month, have inspired Kazakh women to follow suit, with one of her Kazakh students vowing to start a similar project there.

(Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Kyrgyz artist and environmental activist Cholpon Alamanova sews in her workshop in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan March 30, 2023. Alamanova and her team of more than 80 women use the Kyrgyz traditional patchwork sewing technique, kurak, in order to recycle the textile waste, usually burned in landfills, into colourful blankets, clothes and accessories. 

 A seamstress works on a piece in the Kyrgyz traditional patchwork sewing technique, kurak, in a workshop in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan March 30, 2023. Kyrgyz artist and environmental activist Cholpon Alamanova and her team of more than 80 women use the Kyrgyz traditional patchwork sewing technique, kurak, in order to recycle the textile waste, usually burned in landfills, into colourful blankets, clothes and accessories. 

A man searches for recyclable materials as smoke billows from burning garbage at a landfill in the outskirts of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan March 31, 2023. 

An aerial view shows smoke billowing from burning garbage at a landfill in the outskirts of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan March 31, 2023. 

REUTERS/Pavel Mikheyev

South Korea to Offer $5.3 Billion in Financing to Support Battery Investment in North America

By Reuters
April 7, 2023

An employee walks past the logo of LG Energy Solution at its office building in Seoul, South Korea, November 23, 2021. 

REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

By Heekyong Yang

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea on Friday said it will provide 7 trillion won ($5.32 billion) in financial support for its battery makers seeking to invest in infrastructure in North America over the next five years to help firms cope with the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act.

Government support will include lowering lending rates and insurance premiums by as much as 20% as well as providing more loans and tax credits for Korean firms' battery and material production facilities in the region, the industry ministry said.

The U.S. Treasury Department last week unveiled stricter electric vehicle (EV) tax rules, requiring automakers to source a certain percentage of critical minerals for EV batteries from the United States or a U.S. free-trade partner to qualify for new U.S. federal incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act.

The act requires 50% of the value of battery components to be produced or assembled in North America to qualify for a $3,750 credit and 40% of the value of critical minerals sourced from the United States or a free trade partner also for a $3,750 credit.

"Both the government and businessmen should cooperate to find solutions together to effectively cope with situations changing rapidly after the Inflation Reduction Act," Trade Minister Lee Chang-yang said while presiding over a meeting with major battery cell makers and materials firms.

In November, South Korea launched the government-backed battery alliance to better source key metals dominated by China to bolster battery supply chain stability.

South Korea's LG Energy Solution Ltd (LGES), Samsung SDI Co Ltd and SK On comprise three of the world's five biggest EV battery cell makers, commanding more than a quarter of the global market and supplying the likes of Tesla Inc, Volkswagen AG and General Motors Co.

In March, LGES said it would resume a stalled U.S. battery project with a $5.6 billion investment in Arizona to qualify for federal incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act.

($1 = 1,316.2200 won)


(Reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

Virgin Orbit Bankruptcy Casts Shadow Over Japan's Space Dreams

By Reuters

|

April 7, 2023, 

Virgin Orbit Bankruptcy Casts Shadow Over Japan's Space Dreams

More

FILE PHOTO: Cosmic Girl, a Virgin Boeing 747-400 aircraft sits on the tarmac with Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne rocket attached to the wing, ahead of the first UK launch tonight, at Spaceport Cornwall at Newquay Airport in Newquay, Britain, January 9, 2023. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls/File Photo

By Eimi Yamamitsu

TOKYO (Reuters) - The bankruptcy filing by Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit Holdings Inc has dealt a blow to Japan's hopes of building a domestic space industry, with plans for a Kyushu-based spaceport designed to attract tourism on hold for lack of funding.

Oita prefecture, home to Japan's largest number of hot springs, partnered with Virgin Orbit in 2020 to create its first Asian spaceport at Oita Airport using a Boeing 747 for horizontal rocket launches.

Founded by British billionaire Branson, Virgin Orbit had marketed itself as a military and intelligence satellite launch platform for the U.S. and its allies, including Japan, at a time when both Washington and Tokyo see China's rise as a space power as a concern.

The original aim was to launch small satellites from Oita as early as last year, but that never occurred, in another setback in Japan's attempt to become a player in the crowded market for commercial satellite launches after two recent rocket launch failures.

Two Japanese companies, ANA Holdings unit All Nippon Airways Trading Co and little-known Japanese satellite development start-up iQPS Inc emerged among the top six creditors when Virgin Orbit filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday.

ANA, owed $1.65 million, had been a key partner for the Oita spaceport, entering a provisional deal with Virgin Orbit in 2021 for 20 flights of its LauncherOne rocket there. ANA said it was hopeful Virgin Orbit, which has said it is seeking a buyer, would be able to restructure and resume business.

Fukuoka-based iQPS had paid a $5.2 million deposit to launch its small, lightweight constellation satellites weighing under 100 kilograms (220 pounds), representing a major portion of the $17.2 million Series A funding it had raised in 2017.

"We were disappointed when we heard the announcement as we had hoped the situation would improve," iQPS said of the bankruptcy filing. "We pray that Virgin Orbit will resume their business for the development of the global space industry."

TOURISM HOPES

Oita prefecture had estimated the spaceport, similar to Virgin Orbit's Cornwall, England facility, would produce economic benefits worth about 10.2 billion yen ($77.4 million) in the region over the five years from the initial launch

With expectations of about 240,000 tourists visiting the site, local businesses created alien-related souvenirs, from alien passports to "E.T." bicycles.

Locals are still hopeful that a spaceport will eventually emerge. "It is possible that some other company will buy Virgin Orbit. Also, there are other companies and competitors besides Virgin Orbit that are considering horizontal launches, so Oita still has many options to reenter into a contract with them," said Kunio Ikari, an economics lecturer at Oita University.

Oita prefecture said that its efforts to attract a spaceport remains unchanged, while declining to comment on Virgin Orbit or the current status of the project. Oita Airport also declined to comment.

While Japan has big ambitions for space – Tokyo has said it hopes to put one of its astronauts on the lunar surface in the latter half of the 2020s – it has also had some other recent setbacks.

Japan's medium-lift H3 rocket failed in March following an aborted launch the month before, in a blow to its efforts to cut the cost of accessing space and compete against Elon Musk's SpaceX.

The Japanese space agency's solid-fuel Epsilon rocket, which was set to carry iQPS' small satellites, also failed after launch in October.

After the unsuccessful launches, some experts are urging Japan to shift the focus of its space industry.

"Japan is concentrating too much on launches," said Jun Nagashima, cyber and space expert and adviser at Nakasone Peace Institute. "With SpaceX coming out with affordable rockets that can be used repeatedly, it would be better for Japan to compete in different activities and areas in space."

($1 = 131.7900 yen)

(Reporting by Eimi Yamamitsu and Nobuhiro Kubo; Additional reporting by Kantaro Komiya; Editing by Jamie Freed)

THEY EAT WHALES TOO
Vending machine in remote Japan town sells meat from intruding bears

Irene Wang
Thu, April 6, 2023

A vending machine menu offering Asian Black Bear meat, Akita Beef and dried mountain stream fish is seen in front of a Soba Noodle restaurant in Semboku

A display screen of a vending machine for placing the order for Asian Black Bear meat is seen in front of a Soba Noodle restaurant in Semboku

By Irene Wang

SEMBOKU, Japan (Reuters) - A remote Japanese town has taken to selling bear meat from a vending machine, sourcing its supply to Asian black bears, listed as a vulnerable species, caught in traps or in the mountains by hunters.

Bear attacks are an increasing problem in parts of rural Japan due to a shortage of food in the forests that brings the animals into inhabited areas to forage.

"The bears can be dangerous when they come into town, so hunters will set up traps or shoot them," said Daishi Sato, who placed the vending machine outside his "soba" noodle shop near the railway station in Semboku, 400 km (250 miles) north of Tokyo in Akita prefecture.

Asian black bears are listed as vulnerable, but not critically so, and it is legal to eat bear in Japan. Meat from trapped bears is tastier since the blood is drained immediately, according to Sato.

Vending machines throughout Japan offer everything from drinks, snacks and surgical masks to more exotic fare such as edible insects and whale meat.

"Bear meat isn't very common so we want tourists who come to visit the town to buy it," Sato said.

He sells seven to 10 packs of 250 grams costing 2,200 yen ($16.75) each in an average week.

Last year, 75 people were injured in Japan in encounters with bears and two were killed, according to government data. One of the deaths was in Akita.

($1 = 131.3300 yen)

(Reporting by Irene Wang, Writing by Elaine Lies; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Nick Macfie)

Buenos Aires airport turns into unofficial homeless shelter

By VICTOR R. CAIVANO and NATACHA PISARENKO

TODAY

1 of 10
Homeless men sleep below a photo of the Perito Moreno Glacier at the Jorge Newbery international airport, commonly known as Aeroparque, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, April 6, 2023. More than 100 homeless people sleep every night in a common area of the Aeroparque.

 (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — At the start of the long Easter weekend, the airport in Argentina’s capital is eerily quiet before dawn, hours before it will fill with travelers. About 100 people who sleep inside the facility are getting ready to start their day.

One of them is Ángel Gómez, who has been living in the Jorge Newbery International Airport for two years and has seen how the number of people joining him has soared.

“After the pandemic, this became a total invasion,” Gómez said early Thursday as he sat next to a sign advertising the Perito Moreno glacier, an iconic tourist attraction in the Patagonia region.

As passengers and staff start arriving early in the morning, dozens of people are still sleeping, some on chairs and others on the floor. Some have blankets, but many sleep directly on the floor, strewn across the airport with their few possessions close by.

The airport, known colloquially as Aeroparque, has practically become a homeless shelter at night. Once passengers start arriving, some of the overnighters head off to spend the day at soup kitchens, though others hang around the airport grounds begging for change at traffic lights and some stay seated in chairs blending in with the travelers.

It’s a stark reflection of the rising poverty in a country where one of the world’s highest inflation rates is making it difficult for many to make ends meet.

“If I pay rent, I don’t eat. And if I pay for food, I’m on the street,” said Roxana Silva, who has been living at the airport with her husband, Gustavo Andrés Corrales, for two years.

Silva gets a government pension of around 45,000 pesos, which is equivalent to about $213 at the official exchange rate and about half of that on the black market.

“I don’t have enough to live on,” Silva laments.She said that she and her husband take turns sleeping so someone is always watching their possessions.

More and more Argentines are finding themselves in Silva’s situation as inflation worsens, hitting at an annual rate of 102.5% in February. Although Argentina has been used to double-digit inflation for years, that was the first time the annual rise in consumer prices reached triple digits since 1991.

The high inflation has been especially pronounced for basic food items, hitting the poor the hardest. The poverty rate rose to 39.2% of the population in the second half of 2022, an increase of three percentage points from the first six months of the year, according to Argentina’s national statistics agency, INDEC. Among children under age 15, the poverty rate increased more than three percentage points to 54.2%.

Horacio Ávila, who runs an organization devoted to helping homeless people, estimates the number of people without a roof in Argentina’s capital has soared 30% since 2019, when he and others carried out an unofficial count of 7,251 people in this city of around 3.1 million.

Amid the increased cost of living and diminishing purchasing power, more people started to look to the airport as a possible refuge.

Laura Cardoso has seen this increase firsthand in the year she has been living in the airport “sleeping sitting up” on her wheelchair.

“More people just came in,” Cardoso said while accompanied by her two dogs that she says make it difficult for her to find a place to live because no one wants to rent to her. “It’s packed with people.”

Mirta Lanuara is a new arrival, living in the airport only about a week. She chose the airport because it’s clean.

Teresa Malbernat, 68, has been living in the airport for two months and says it’s safer than being in one of the city’s shelters, where she says she was robbed twice.

The Argentine company that operates the airport, AA2000, says it “lacks police power” and “the authority to evict these people” while also saying it has the obligation to ensure “non-discrimination in the use of airport facilities.”

For Elizabet Barraza, 58, the sheer number of homeless people living in the airport illustrates why she’s choosing to emigrate to France, where one of her daughters has been living for five years.

“I’m going there because the situation here is difficult,” Barraza said as she waited to board her flight. “My salary isn’t enough to rent. Even if they increase the salaries, inflation is too high so it isn’t enough sometimes to rent and survive.”

“I don’t want to come back,” Barraza said.

POSTMODERN ANTI-COLONIAL STRUGGLE

After Burkina Faso ousts French, Russia’s Wagner may arrive

By SAM MEDNICK
TODAY

 Supporters of Capt. Ibrahim Traore parade wave a Russian flag in the streets of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Oct. 2, 2022. Just weeks after Burkina Faso's junta ousted hundreds of French troops, there are signs that the West African country could be moving even closer to Russia, including the mercenary outfit, the Wagner Group.

 (AP Photo/Sophie Garcia, File)

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — Just weeks after Burkina Faso’s junta ousted hundreds of French troops, signs appeared that the West African country could be moving closer to Russia, including the mercenary outfit, the Wagner Group.

One signal was Burkina Faso authorities requested in February, nearly $30 million in gold from its mines to be handed over for “public necessity.”

It’s unclear what the gold was used for but some suspect the gold could be used to hire mercenaries from the Wagner Group that already is entrenched in other troubled African countries like Mali and Central African Republic.

“It might be a coincidence that the Burkinabe demanded the purchase of the gold right after they kicked out the French and started moving closer to the Russians,” said William Linder, a retired CIA officer and head of 14 North Strategies, an Africa-focused risk advisory. “Still, it strikes fear among investors that the state will renege on existing agreements and disadvantage established industrial miners to pay for Russian military contractors.

Burkina Faso’s government denies hiring Wagner mercenaries but the government is expecting Russian instructors to come train soldiers on how to use equipment recently purchased from Russia, said Mamadou Drabo, executive secretary for Save Burkina, a civic group that supports the junta

“We asked the Russian government because of the bilateral collaboration between Burkina and Russia, that they send us people to train our men,” he said, adding that the instructors will teach soldiers about weapons, military techniques as well as culture.

The sale of arms and bilateral military cooperation agreements between Russia and some African countries have in some instances been a precursor to the deployment of Wagner’s mercenary troops, said a report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

Observers say countries using Wagner Group fighters often refer to them as Russian instructors. Wagner, founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian millionaire businessman with ties to President Vladimir Putin, has had about 1,000 forces in Mali for more than a year.

In January, Burkina Faso ordered the departure of some 400 French special forces based in the country, cutting military relations with France amid soaring jihadi violence that’s killed thousands and plunged the once peaceful nation into crisis.

In addition to ejecting the special forces, in February the government told all French military personnel working with Burkina Faso’s army and administration to leave, severing a military accord with France dating back to 1961, according to a confidential document by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs seen by The Associated Press.

Anti-French sentiment in the former colony has grown since junta leader Capt. Ibrahim Traore seized power in September. Earlier this month, two French journalists were expelled from the country without reason. In March, French broadcaster, France 24, was suspended for interviewing a top jihadi rebel and months earlier the government suspended French broadcaster Radio France Internationale for having relayed an “intimidation message” attributed to a “terrorist,” according to a statement from the junta.

The anti-French sentiment coincides with increasing Russian support, including demonstrations in the capital, Ouagadougou, where hundreds of protesters have waved Russian flags.

France has had troops in West Africa’s Sahel region since 2013 when it helped drive Islamic extremists from power in northern Mali. But it’s facing growing pushback from populations who say France’s military presence has yielded little results as jihadi attacks are escalating. Burkina Faso’s junta says it has nothing against France but wants to diversify its military partners in its fight against the extremists and, notably, has turned to Russia.

“That’s what we’ve seen happening in country after country. We saw it in CAR, Mali. It’s just been dominos,” said Sorcha MacLeod, member of the United Nations working group on the use of mercenaries.

“There’s a vacuum now where France used to be (and) Russia has imperialist ambitions in Africa,” she said. “It’s destabilizing for the region.”

If Wagner mercenaries arrive in Burkina Faso the risk increases of human rights atrocities, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, she said. Rights groups and communities have already accused the junta of committing more extrajudicial killings against civilians since Traore came to power in September.

Wagner Group mercenaries have established a foothold for Russia in at least half a dozen African countries. Earlier this year, the group was designated a significant transnational criminal organization by the United States and was sanctioned by the European Union for human rights abuses in Central African Republic, Sudan and Mali. African countries have often paid the Russian group for its mercenary fighters by granting Wagner access to natural resources, such as mining concessions.

Western countries say the use of Wagner mercenaries in Africa is a red line. French President Emmanuel Macron called the Wagner group “criminal mercenaries” and “the life insurance of faltering and putschist regimes.”

Burkina Faso’s government said it has no plans to contract Wagner. Instead it’s working to secure the country from jihadis by recruiting and arming tens of thousands of volunteer fighters, which it refers to as its own Wagner force.

“We already have our Wagners. The (civilian volunteers) who we are recruiting are our first Wagners,” said Traore during an interview on state media in February.

But for much of Burkina Faso’s population, this provides little comfort. Like Wagner, the volunteers who fight alongside Burkina Faso’s military, have been accused by civilians and rights groups of committing atrocities such as extrajudicial killings and abductions of people alleged to be working with the jihadis. An investigation by The Associated Press into a video circulating on social media, determined that Burkina Faso’s security forces killed children in a military base in the country’s north.

Many locals say they’d rather work with Western countries like France, than turn to forces like Wagner. But they say the French are unwilling to sell them the weapons they need, leaving them little choice.

“The French have everything, aircrafts, everything, but they don’t help us,” said a soldier who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. “They are here for their own business.”

___

Associated Press reporter Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed.

King Charles III supports probe into monarchy’s slave ties


 (Britta Pedersen/dpa via AP, File)
Britain's King Charles III stands in front of the plane after arriving at Berlin Airport in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, March 29, 2023. King Charles III for the first time has signaled support for research into the British monarchy’s ties to slavery. A Buckingham Palace spokesperson made the announcement Thursday, April 6 after a document showed an ancestor of his with shares in a slave-trading company.

LONDON (AP) — King Charles III for the first time has signaled support for research into the British monarchy’s ties to slavery after a document showed an ancestor with shares in a slave-trading company, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said Thursday.

Charles takes the issue “profoundly seriously” and academics will be given access to the royal collection and archives, the palace said.

The statement was in response to an article in The Guardian newspaper that revealed a document showing that the deputy governor of the slave-trading Royal African Company transferred 1,000 pounds of shares in the business to King William III in 1689.

The newspaper reported on the document as part of a series of stories on royal wealth and finances, as well as the monarchy’s connection to slavery.

Charles ascended to the throne last year after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. His coronation is planned for May 6.

Charles and his eldest son, Prince William, have expressed their sorrow over slavery but haven’t acknowledged the crown’s connections to the trade.

The king has said he’s trying to deepen his understanding of “slavery’s enduring impact” that runs deep in the Commonwealth, an international grouping of countries made up mostly of former British colonies

During a ceremony that marked Barbados becoming a republic two years ago, Charles referred to “the darkest days of our past and the appalling atrocity of slavery, which forever stains our history.” English settlers used African slaves to turn the island into a wealthy sugar colony.

The research into the monarchy’s ties to slavery is co-sponsored by Historic Royal Palaces and Manchester University and is expected to be completed by 2026.

ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY

Arizona Supreme Court rejects bid to reschedule execution

By JACQUES BILLEAUD

yesterday

 Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, center, delivers her state of the state address at the Arizona Capitol in Phoenix on Jan. 9, 2023. The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that state law doesn’t require Gov. Katie Hobbs to carry out execution of a prisoner who is scheduled to be put to death on April 6 for his conviction in a 2002 killing. 

(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Supreme Court declined Wednesday to reschedule an execution initially set for this week that looked unlikely to be carried out after Gov. Katie Hobbs’ office said the state wasn’t prepared to enforce the death penalty.

In an order, the court rejected setting a May 1 execution date for prisoner Aaron Gunches for his murder conviction in the 2002 killing of Ted Price near the Phoenix suburb of Mesa. The execution was originally scheduled for Thursday.

Hobbs, who has ordered a review of Arizona’s death penalty protocols due to the state’s history of mismanaging executions, had vowed not to enforce any death sentences until there’s confidence the state can enforce the death penalty without violating the law.

In late March, the state Supreme Court rejected a request from Price’s sister, Karen Price, to order Hobbs to carry out the execution. The court concluded Hobbs wasn’t required to do so.

Price’s sister and his daughter, Brittany Kay, have since filed a lawsuit that seeks to force Hobbs to execute Gunches.

Colleen Clase, an attorney for Karen Price who focuses on crime victims’ rights, did not respond to an email and text request for comment Wednesday.

Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell had also asked the court to extend the execution warrant by 25 days. Representatives from her office also did not respond to an email request seeking comment.

Gunches had pleaded guilty to a murder charge in the shooting death of Ted Price, who was his girlfriend’s ex-husband.

Lawyers for Hobbs have said the state lacks staff with expertise to carry out an execution, was unable to find an IV team to carry out the lethal injection and doesn’t currently have a contract for a pharmacist to compound the pentobarbital needed for an execution. They also said a top corrections leadership position that’s critical to planning executions remains unfilled.

An email requesting a response from the governor’s office was also unanswered.

Some requirements for carrying out executions under the state’s death penalty protocol have not been met in Gunches’ case.

The corrections department said the warrant of execution issued by the state Supreme Court wasn’t read to Gunches. And Gunches wasn’t moved to a special “death watch” cell where he would be monitored around the clock and remain until his execution.

Arizona, which currently has 110 prisoners on death row, carried out three executions last year. That followed a nearly eight-year hiatus brought on by criticism that a 2014 execution was botched and because of difficulties obtaining execution drugs.

Since then, the state has been criticized for taking too long to insert an IV for lethal injection into a condemned prisoner’s body and for denying the Arizona Republic permission to witness the three executions.

Gunches, who is not a lawyer, represented himself in November when he asked the Supreme Court to issue his execution warrant, saying justice could be served and the victim’s families could get closure. In his last month in office, Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich asked the court for a warrant to execute Gunches.

Gunches then withdrew his request in early January, and newly elected Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes later asked for the warrant to be withdrawn.

The state Supreme Court rejected Mayes’ request, saying that it must grant an execution warrant if certain appellate proceedings have concluded and that those requirements were met in Gunches’ case.

Gunches switched courses again, saying now that he wants to be executed and asked to be transferred to Texas, where, he wrote, “inmates can still get their sentences carried out.” Arizona’s high court denied the transfer.

Future of Borges estate in limbo as widow doesn’t leave will

By DANIEL POLITI

yesterday

Maria Kodama, widow and heiress of Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges attends a press conference at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, July 30, 2012. Kodama has died on Sunday, March 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini, File)

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — The rights to the works of the late Jorge Luis Borges, considered Argentina’s most internationally significant author of the 20th century, have fallen into limbo because his widow died last month without a will.

The revelation this week surprised the country’s literary circles, because Borges’ wife, Maria Kodama, devoted much of her life to fiercely protecting his legacy. She set up a foundation under the writer’s name, but did not detail plans for what should happen after she died, even though she was battling breast cancer.

“If there really is no will, it’s surprising,” said Santiago Llach, a writer who is a specialist on Borges’ work. He said the announcement by Kodama’s longtime lawyer, Fernando Soto, that there was no will “generated buzz on social media and elsewhere.”

Borges died in 1986 at age 86 and left Kodama, a translator and writer whom he had married earlier that year, as his only heir. They never had children. She died March 26, also aged 86.

A day after Soto made his announcement, five of Kodama’s nephews went to court Tuesday to declare themselves her heirs, seeking to get ownership to all of her possessions, including the rights to Borges’ works and what are thought to be several valuable manuscripts.

Soto said he did not know that Kodama hadn’t arranged for a will to be drawn up. “It’s amazing,” he said.

“She didn’t like to talk about those issues,” the lawyer added. “She didn’t talk about her death.”

Soto said he once asked Kodama about what would happen with Borges’ rights after her death and “she told me she had everything arranged and it would be ‘someone stricter than me.’”

He recalled that Kodama said she would call on universities in Japan and the United States to “take care of the works,” but didn’t say what schools she had in mind. Soto noted she often gave talks at both Harvard University and the University of Texas.

Borges’ widow led a life apart from her family.

“She denied the existence of her family,” Llach said. “I have writer friends who knew her nephews and asked about them and she denied their existence. It was quite striking.”

Soto said he was “surprised to find out she had nephews,” adding that “it was a big relief because I didn’t want the state to keep everything.”

According to Argentine law, if there is no will and no natural heirs, a person’s estate is taken over by the state.

Some people have raised the possibility that a Kodama will may be found once an inventory of all her possessions is carried out, but Soto said he considers that as “absolutely impossible.”

“She would have never done that, she would have never written a will on her own,” he said.

Llach said that if in fact there is no will, the question becomes whether “it was just a simple oversight, a punk gesture of ‘I don’t give a damn about all of that,’ or perhaps also a way of repairing a non-relationship with her nephews and family.

In this April 20, 1980 file photo, Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, accompanied by his secretary Maria Kodama, arrives in Madrid, Spain to receive the Spanish literary prize "Miguel de Cervantes." Kodama has died on Sunday, March 26, 2023.