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TOKYO — Japan's newly appointed economy minister, Ryosei Akazawa, said on Wednesday that Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba expects the Bank of Japan to make careful economic assessments when raising interest rates again. "Our top priority is to ensure that Japan completely exit from deflation," said Akazawa in his first news conference as the economy minister. "It will take some time to achieve the full exit." "Ishiba's (previous) comments on the need for monetary policy normalization have conditions attached," said Akazawa, a close ally of Ishiba. The government wants the BOJ to share its view that the exit from deflation is Japan's top priority and to make careful decisions on whether to raise interest rates further, he said. The minister also stressed the administration would closely communicate and coordinate with the BOJ to decisively beat deflation. The BOJ raised rates in July, but kept policy steady at the September meeting, saying it could afford to spend time eyeing the fallout from global economic uncertainties.

SINGAPORE — China's commerce ministry said on Wednesday it has asked the World Trade Organization to rule on Canada's imposition of steep tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles as well as steel and aluminum products. Following the lead of the United States and European Union, Canada began imposing on Tuesday a 100% levy on EVs shipped from China, having also announced in late August a 25% tariff on Chinese steel and aluminum products. "China has raised a litigation to the WTO over Canada's unilateral and trade protectionist measures, and will conduct anti-discriminatory probe into these restrictive measures," the ministry said in a statement. The ministry repeated its strong opposition to the tariffs, which it says will "disrupt and distort global industrial and supply chain."

GENEVA — The volume of Switzerland's glaciers shrank again this summer, compounding the negative impact of climate change after a devastating two-year run that depleted the ice by more than 10%, scientific experts reported Tuesday. The cryosphere observation team at the Swiss Academy of Sciences reported that high temperatures in July and August, combined with the heat-absorbing impact of reddish-yellow dust blown northward from the Sahara Desert onto Swiss glaciers, led to a loss of 2.5% of their volume this year. The shrinkage came despite "extremely favorable" conditions through June, the academy said, thanks to 30% more snowfall in the preceding winter compared to average levels, meaning that the glaciers had an extra layer of protective covering of snow — before temperatures rose. "August saw the greatest loss of ice recorded since measurements began," the academy said in a statement summarizing the findings. "The retreat of the glacier tongues and their disintegration continue unabated as a result of climate change," it said, adding that the 2.5% loss of volume was higher than the average levels over the last decade. Experts at the Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland network, known as GLAMOS, said that more than half of the glaciers it monitored completely lost their snow coverage throughout the summer. Several topmost measurement points on glaciers, such as Plaine Morte and Gries in the south and Silvretta in the east, recorded melt rates of a meter or more, the network said in a report for the Swiss Academy of Sciences. GLAMOS cited three factors: "very high" average air temperatures in July and August; good weather in those months in which there was no fresh snow; and southwesterly winds in the winter and spring that dumped the Saharan dust onto the Alps, causing a warming effect on the ice. Switzerland is home to the most glaciers of any country in Europe, and saw 4% of its total glacier volume disappear last year. That was the second-biggest decline in a single year on top of a 6% drop in 2022.

Washington — Vice Presidential hopefuls Tim Walz and JD Vance squared off Tuesday night in what may be the last debate of the 2024 presidential campaign. It was the first encounter between Minnesota's Democratic governor and Ohio's Republican senator, following last month's debate between the tops of their tickets, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.  No more debates are on the political calendar before Election Day. Tuesday's confrontation came as the global stakes of the contest rose again as Iran fired missiles at Israel. The vice presidential hopefuls sparred over the violence in the Middle East, climate change and immigration. Here are some takeaways from Tuesday's debate.  Mideast in turmoil  Iran's ballistic missile attack on Israel on Tuesday elicited a contrast between the Democratic and Republican tickets on foreign policy: Walz promised "steady leadership" under Harris while Vance pledged a return to "peace through strength" if Trump is returned to the White House.  The differing visions of what American leadership should look like overshadowed the sharp policy differences between the two tickets.  The Iranian threat to the region and U.S. interests around the world opened the debate, with Walz pivoting the topic to criticism of Trump.  "What's fundamental here is that steady leadership is going to matter," Walz said, then referenced the "nearly 80-year-old Donald Trump talking about crowd sizes" and responding to global crises by tweet.  Vance, for his part, promised a return to "effective deterrence" under Trump against Iran, brushing back on Walz's criticism of Trump by attacking Harris and her role in the Biden administration.  "Who has been the vice president for the last three and a half years and the answer is your running mate, not mine," he said. He pointedly noted that the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, happened "during the administration of Kamala Harris."  Vance and Walz punch up  Vance and Walz trained the bulk of their attacks not on their on-stage rival, but on the running mates who weren't in the room.  Both vice presidential nominees sought to convey a genial mien as they lobbed criticism at Harris and Trump, respectively.  It was a reflection of the fact that most voters don't cast a ballot based on the vice president, and on a vice presidential nominee's historic role in serving as the attack dog for their running mates.  Walz pointedly attacked Trump for failing to meet his pledge of building a physical barrier across the entire U.S.-Mexico border at the country's southern neighbor's expense.  "Less than 2% of that wall got built and Mexico didn't pay a dime," Walz said.  Underscoring the focus on the top of the ticket, during a back-and-forth about immigration, Vance said to his opponent: "I think that you want to solve this problem, but I don't think that Kamala Harris does."  Climate change  In the wake of the devastation of Hurricane Helene, Vance took a question about climate change and gave an answer about jobs and manufacturing, taking a detour around Trump's past claims that global warming is a "hoax."  Vance contended that the best way to fight climate change was to move more manufacturing to the United States, because the country has the world's cleanest energy economy. It was a distinctly domestic spin on a global crisis, especially after Trump pulled the U.S. out of the international Paris climate accords during his administration.  Walz also kept the climate change focus domestic, touting the Biden administration's renewable energy investments as well as record levels of oil and natural gas production. "You can see us becoming an energy superpower in the future," Walz said.  It was a decidedly optimistic take on a pervasive and grim global problem.  Immigration  The two running mates agreed that the number of migrants in the U.S. illegally is a problem. But each laid the blame on the opposing presidential nominee.  Vance echoed Trump by repeatedly calling Harris the "border czar" and suggested that she, as vice president, single-handedly rolled back the immigration restrictions Trump had imposed as president. The result, in Vance's telling, is an unchecked flow of fentanyl, strain on state and local resources and increased housing prices around the country.  Harris was never asked to be the "border czar" and she was never specifically given the responsibility for security on the border. She was tasked by Biden in March 2021 with tackling the "root causes" of migration from the Central American countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador and pushing leaders there and in Mexico to enforce immigration laws. Harris was not empowered to set U.S. immigration policy — only the president can sign executive orders and Harris was not empowered as Biden's proxy in negotiations with Congress on immigration law.  Walz advanced Democrats' arguments that Trump single-handedly killed a bipartisan Senate deal to tighten border security and boost the processing system for immigrants and asylum seekers. Republicans backed off the deal, Walz noted, only after Trump said it wasn't good enough. 

Iran launched around 200 missiles into Israel on Tuesday, the latest in a series of escalating attacks in a yearslong conflict between Israel and Iran. We talk to Alex Vatanka, the founding director of the Iran program at the Middle East Institute. Tim Walz and JD Vance met for their first and possibly only vice presidential debate Tuesday to argue their case before the election. And Claudia Sheinbaum was sworn in Tuesday as Mexico’s first female president in more than 200 years of Mexico's history as an independent country.

Washington — Iran's brazen missile attack on Israel has heightened tensions across the Middle East, with some analysts predicting a powerful Israeli response. What is less certain is whether this will be a one-off exchange or ignite a series of tit-for-tat strikes that could engulf the entire Middle East in conflict. "It could go either way," said Shaan Shaikh, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "At every exchange, the actors – Iran and Israel – have options to escalate or de-escalate. There is no predetermined path that they must choose." James Jeffrey, a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey and Iraq, said Iran's military capabilities are more limited than Israel's. "At the end of the day, military strength can be decisive," Jeffrey, who served as a special envoy for Syria engagement, told VOA. In a statement released Tuesday, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it crried out the attack in retaliation for the Israeli killings of three key figures: Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh and an Iranian commander. Involving nearly 200 ballistic missiles, this was Iran's second and largest direct attack on Israel from its own territory. In April, Iran fired more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel in response to an Israeli attack on an Iranian diplomatic base in Syria. But unlike its measured response in April, Israel is expected to respond more forcefully to the latest strike. In a video statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iranian leaders made a "big mistake" and warned that they will "pay for it." Why now? Prior to the latest attack, Iran's muted response to a series of Israeli strikes on Iranian officials and proxies in recent months had raised doubts about Tehran's willingness to confront a stronger adversary. That may be so, but Iranian officials could not sit back and watch one of their key allies, Hezbollah, decapitated by Israel, Shaikh said.  "They need(ed) to push back both to protect Lebanese Hezbollah and also to show to their other proxy groups and allies across the region that they will defend their interests," Shaikh said in an interview with VOA. The Iranian strike follows Israel's ground incursion into southern Lebanon on Monday, after weeks of airstrikes that have killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon and crippled Hezbollah's leadership. Israel has described the operation as "limited, localized and targeted," aimed at pushing Hezbollah forces away from the border area and eliminating its military infrastructure. Following Iran's attack in April, the Biden administration reportedly persuaded Israel to respond with restraint. Whether a similar diplomatic effort will be mounted or is desired remains uncertain. The stakes appear higher this time. President Joe Biden said he directed the U.S. military to help Israel shoot down the Iranian missiles, adding, "Make no mistake: the United States is fully, fully, fully supportive of Israel." Jeffrey, the former envoy, said that following the April attack, the understanding between Israel, the U.S. and Iran was: "This is the last time, Bubba. If you do this again, there will be a serious retaliation." The question now is how far each side will test the limit of the other's tolerance. Shaikh, the CSIS analyst, warned that the longer the conflict drags on, the more political pressure each side will face to "engage with more firepower, and that's a concern." Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, said the attack gives Netanyahu "an opportunity to deal really quite a big blow to Iran." "Whether he will be restrained by the United States or not, we just don't know," Landis said in an interview with VOA. 

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Justice has launched a review and evaluation of the 1921 race massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said. The massacre started on May 31, 1921, when white attackers killed as many as 300 people, most of them Black, in Tulsa's prosperous Greenwood neighborhood, which had gained the nickname "Black Wall Street." In announcing the review on Monday, Clarke said the department aims to have it finalized by the end of the year. "When we have finished our federal review, we will issue a report analyzing the massacre in light of both modern and then-existing civil rights law," said Clarke, who oversees the Justice Department's civil rights enforcement efforts. The review will be conducted under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, which allows the Department of Justice to investigate death-resulting civil rights crimes that occurred on or before Dec. 31, 1979. The massacre started after a Black man was accused of assaulting a white woman. "We have no expectation that there are living perpetrators who could be criminally prosecuted by us or by the state," Clarke said. "Although a commission, historians, lawyers and others have conducted prior examinations of the Tulsa Massacre, we, the Justice Department, never have." Clarke said the department is examining available documents, witness accounts, scholarly and historical research and other information related to the massacre.

ATHENS, Greece — Hundreds of firefighters and volunteers in southern Greece battled a wildfire for a third day that has killed two people and devastated a large forested area, prompting pledges of assistance from other European Union countries. Two waterbombing aircraft from Italy joined the firefighting effort late Tuesday after Greece requested help through the 27-country bloc's emergency civil protection mechanism. A third plane from Croatia was also expected. The Greek fire service said more than 400 firefighters, assisted by 22 aircraft, were engaged against the blaze in the rugged mountains of Corinthia in the Peloponnese region. The authorities were optimistic that progress had been made as the main front of the blaze was out, leaving a large number of scattered fires. However, it remained unclear whether that success could be expanded on before winds whipped up and spread the blaze again. Greece's minister for climate change and civil protection, Vassilis Kikilias, said so far up to 5,000 hectares (12,300 acres) had been affected by the blaze. "The situation is very difficult," he told a press conference. "We didn't expect that at this time of year ... there would be so many wildfires and that they would be so difficult to handle." While wildfires are common in the summer, this year the season started much earlier than usual, in April, and has extended well into the fall. The fire service said a total of 41 wildfires broke out all over the country over the past 24 hours. Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said firefighters had been hampered in their initial response Sunday by the difficult terrain and poor road network. "During the first, crucial stage of the fire, firetrucks had great difficulty approaching (the blaze) because of the narrow roads," he said. "The many ravines and the gale-force winds blowing that day greatly impeded" the firefighting effort, Marinakis added. Officials ordered another village be evacuated as a precaution Tuesday, a day after half a dozen similar orders were issued. A major highway that was closed overnight as flames swept close by was reopened on Tuesday. The blaze destroyed a historic church in the mountains and reportedly damaged buildings outside the threatened villages, but the fire service was not immediately able to provide further details. The two victims were identified as local residents who got trapped late Sunday by the fast-advancing blaze. Greece, like other southern European countries, is plagued every summer by destructive wildfires that have been exacerbated by global warming. Over the past few months, the fire service has had to cope with more than 4,500 wildfires — which Kikilias said was the highest number ever recorded in a single fire season. This year's had been flagged as the most dangerous season in two decades after the countryside was left parched by a protracted drought and early summer heat waves. Still, Greece's big investments in extra waterbombing aircraft, warning drones and other equipment have led to most blazes being extinguished shortly after they broke out.

Nigeria has started a nationwide initiative for blood donations as the country faces a huge blood shortage. Authorities say Nigeria gets only a quarter of the annual blood donations it needs, leaving patients and hospitals in desperate need of blood in emergencies. Timothy Obiezu reports from Abuja.

Djibouti — Two vessels carrying migrants from Africa sank in the Red Sea off the coast of Djibouti, killing 45 people, the U.N. migration agency said Tuesday. The boats had departed from Yemen carrying 310 people, the International Organization for Migration said. Thousands of migrants from African, Middle Eastern and South Asian countries seeking a better life in Europe attempt irregular migration every year. Smugglers pack vessels full of desperate people willing to risk their lives to reach continental Europe. The U.N. agency, which was assisting search and rescue efforts, said on the social media platform X that 32 survivors were rescued. Djibouti's coast guard said the tragedy struck some 150 meters off a beach near the northwest Khor Angar region. It said a joint rescue effort was under way, which began early Monday. It said 115 survivors were rescued. "We remain committed to finding the missing persons and ensuring the safety of the survivors," the agency said in a statement posted on social media, with images of white body bags.

NEW YORK — CBS News said Tuesday that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has declined to participate in an interview with "60 Minutes" for its election special, which will go forward next Monday with Democratic opponent Kamala Harris alone. Television's top-rated news program regularly invites the two presidential contenders for separate interviews that air back-to-back on a show near the election. This year, it is scheduled for Monday instead of its usual Sunday time slot. Asked for comment, the former president's campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said, "Fake news," adding that there were discussions, but nothing was ever locked in. "60 Minutes" said Trump's campaign had initially agreed to an interview before telling CBS that the former president would not appear. The network said its invitation to sit for an interview still stands, and correspondent Scott Pelley will explain Trump's absence to viewers. Vice President Harris will appear in a pretaped interviewed with Bill Whitaker. There are currently no other scheduled opportunities for voters to compare the two candidates together. Harris and Trump previously debated on Sept. 10. Although Harris has accepted an invitation from CNN for a second debate later this month, Trump has not accepted. The interview special is scheduled to air Monday instead of the usual "60 Minutes" time slot because CBS is showing the American Music Awards on Sunday. Trump's interview with "60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl prior to the 2020 election proved contentious, with the former president ending the session early and his campaign posting an unedited transcript of the session. CBS News was hosting Tuesday's vice presidential debate between Republican Ohio Sen. JD Vance and Tim Walz, Minnesota's Democratic governor.

washington — With a parliamentary election in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq scheduled for October 20, interest is growing among major political parties for candidates who are women or members of ethnic and religious minorities.  Whatever the outcome of the election, the region's quota system has guaranteed 30 seats for women and five for Turkmen, Christians and Armenians out of a total of 100 seats in parliament.  The quota system has provided an incentive for political parties, especially the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), to reach out to active members of those minority communities and women who are popular among voters.  Roshna Jamil, a female candidate in Halabja city, told VOA that the quota system might secure some representation for women in parliament, but it comes at a cost of increased intervention from established political parties.  "Women should not rely on the quota system forever, because if it continues like this, political parties will nominate women as a strategy to win more seats," Jamil told VOA.  According to United Nations Women, the U.N. entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women, women's voices are missing from decision-making "in every region of the world." The organization said that in 2024, women held only 27% of seats in national parliaments and 35.5% of seats in local governments.  In Iraq, women were largely absent from the political arena until 2004, when the country's constitution required female representation in the parliament to be not less than a quarter.  But in the north of the country, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has boasted of taking bolder steps to bring women to power, such as appointing a female speaker of the parliament in 2019.  Despite the progress, women would be unlikely to achieve significant representation in the parliament without the quota system. In the region's most recent election in 2018, only 13 of the 35 women who were elected received enough votes to have entered the parliament without it.  According to the Irbil-based Middle East Research Institute, the lack of support for female candidates is related to "the progress of gender equality in Kurdistan overall."  Haider Nimat, head of the PUK electoral department in Sharazoor, told VOA the nomination of more capable women to run for political positions will help narrow the gender gap in the region, adding, "We want to provide an opportunity to them … and we are giving more importance to those who can win a seat on their own."  According to data provided by Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission, nearly 2.9 million people from the region's four provinces are eligible to vote in the election. The total number of candidates is 1,191 people — 368 of them women.  For Jamil in Halabja, the campaign period is a good time to raise awareness of women's rights.  She said her message for voters was to trust female candidates because "there are dozens of women who are more capable than men to govern."  She told VOA, "As a woman, I have come to compete with all candidates regardless of their gender. I'm not settling for the quota system which, I think, is only a temporary solution."  Sazgin Muslih, a Turkmen minority candidate running to win a seat in Kifri town for the Iraqi Turkmen Front, shared Jamil's frustration about political involvement from the PUK and the KDP, which he said have more resources to help their preferred candidates win.  "We want the Kurdish parties not to interfere in the affairs of the [minority] communities, although these parties support their own candidates," he said. "If the Kurdish parties do not interfere, 80% of the Turkmen of Kifri are with us."  In its first election in 1992, the Kurdistan Regional Parliament allocated five quota seats for Christians. In 2005, that quota increased to 11 seats for Christians, Turkmen and Assyrians.  However, the Iraqi Federal Court in a surprise move in February abolished all the seats following a complaint by the PUK, which had argued that the KDP controlled minority parties in the parliament.  The Iraqi high court decision prompted a political boycott from the minority parties and the KDP that lasted until late May when the court decision was reversed, and five seats were returned to the system.  This story originated in VOA's Kurdish Service. 

MELBOURNE, Australia — A code of conduct will be enforced on the online dating industry to better protect Australian users after research found that three-in-four people suffer some form of sexual violence through the platforms, Australia's government said on Tuesday. Bumble, Grindr and Match Group Inc., a Texas-based company that owns platforms including Tinder, Hinge, OKCupid and Plenty of Fish, have agreed to the code that took effect on Tuesday, Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said. The platforms, which account for 75% of the industry in Australia, have until April 1 to implement the changes before they are strictly enforced, Rowland said. The code requires the platforms' systems to detect potential incidents of online-enabled harm and demands that the accounts of some offenders are terminated. Complaint and reporting mechanisms are to be made prominent and transparent. A new rating system will show users how well platforms are meeting their obligations under the code. The government called for a code of conduct last year after the Australian Institute of Criminology research found that three-in-four users of dating apps or websites had experienced some form of sexual violence through these platforms in the five years through 2021. "There needs to be a complaint-handling process. This is a pretty basic feature that Australians would have expected in the first place," Rowland said on Tuesday. "If there are grounds to ban a particular individual from utilizing one of those platforms, if they're banned on one platform, they're blocked on all platforms," she added. Match Group said it had already introduced new safety features on Tinder, including photo and identification verification to prevent bad actors from accessing the platform while giving users more confidence in the authenticity of their connections. The platform used artificial intelligence to issue real-time warnings about potentially offensive language in an opening line and advising users to pause before sending. "This is a pervasive issue, and we take our responsibility to help keep users safe on our platform very seriously," Match Group said in a statement on Wednesday. Match Group said it would continue to collaborate with the government and the industry to "help make dating safer for all Australians." Bumble said it shared the government's hope of eliminating gender-based violence and was grateful for the opportunity to work with the government and industry on what the platform described as a "world-first dating code of practice." "We know that domestic and sexual violence is an enormous problem in Australia, and that women, members of LGBTQ+ communities, and First Nations are the most at risk," a Bumble statement said. "Bumble puts women's experiences at the center of our mission to create a world where all relationships are healthy and equitable, and safety has been central to our mission from day one," Bumble added. Grindr said in a statement it was "honored to participate in the development of the code and shares the Australian government's commitment to online safety." All the platforms helped design the code. Platforms that have not signed up include Happn, Coffee Meets Bagel and Feeld. The government expects the code will enable Australians to make better informed choices about which dating apps are best equipped to provide a safe dating experience. The government has also warned the online dating industry that it will legislate if the operators fail to keep Australians safe on their platforms.