Month: July 2020

A Japanese journalist who was held in Syria for more than three years arrived home Thursday evening for a tearful reunion with his family after an ordeal he described as "hell."

Jumpei Yasuda, who was freed earlier this week and taken to Turkey, was reunited with his wife Myu, his parents, and other relatives at Narita Airport just outside Tokyo.

"I apologise for causing such trouble and worry, but thanks to all of you, I was able to come home safely," he said in a brief statement read to media by his wife.

He declined to appear before reporters, but said he would hold a press conference at a later date to discuss his experience.

Earlier, on board his flight to Tokyo, he gave a series of brief interviews to Japanese media and described his nightmarish time in captivity.

"It was hell," he said, sporting a long beard peppered with grey hair.

"Not only physically, but mentally as well. The thought each day that ‘I’m not being released today either’ left me losing control over myself bit by bit."

He spoke calmly, but appeared slightly overwhelmed and tired, if otherwise healthy.

"For about 40 months, I have not spoken a word of Japanese. Words don’t come to my mind easily," he said.

"I am happy that I am returning to Japan. At the same time, I have no idea what will happen now and how I should conduct myself. I am at loss and don’t know what to think."

His wife said he had greeted her at the airport with a shy smile.

"He is now eating rice balls and kimpira (a traditional dish) that his mother brought," she told reporters.

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"I felt a strong sense of happiness, of everyday, normal life," she added. "I want him to take a warm bath and sleep in a futon tonight."

Yasuda was kidnapped in Syria in June 2015, and was reportedly initially a hostage of the group previously known as the Al-Nusra Front, a former Al-Qaeda affiliate.

But the group’s current iteration, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, denied any involvement in his kidnapping in a statement earlier this week.

There was only sporadic news of Yasuda throughout his captivity, including a bizarre video that emerged in August showing him and a man identified as an Italian called Alessandro Sandrini.

Both men appealed for their release, dressed in orange jumpsuits, as masked, armed men stood behind them.

Yasuda gave his name as Omar and described himself as South Korean, but his wife confirmed that it was her husband in the video.

The video did not identify who was holding the men or what their demands were. There has been no word on the fate of Sandrini since.

Yasuda told journalists he believed he was held for all of his captivity in Idlib, a province in northwestern Syria that is one of the last parts of the country still held in part by rebels and jihadists.

The details of how Yasuda was freed have remained murky, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, saying a ransom was paid.

But Japan’s government has denied that.

In 2015, militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) beheaded Japanese war correspondent Kenji Goto and his friend Haruna Yukawa in Syria.

The Japanese government was criticised for what detractors saw as its flat-footed response to the crisis at the time, including apparently missed opportunities to free both men.

But other Japanese hostages who have been freed and made it home safely have faced heavy public criticism for what some have deemed reckless behaviour.

A scaled-down version of Emmanuel Macron’s plan to restore compulsory national service will be tested next year, but military involvement will be minimal after army chiefs dismissed the scheme as an extravagant “folly”.

The top brass feared the original plan for young people to serve in the armed forces for one month would offer little benefit while eating into the already stretched defence budget. 

They were also concerned that officers would be distracted from operational missions such as protecting France from terrorists and fighting Islamists in Africa. Mr Macron first mooted the idea in an apparent attempt to woo Right-wing voters during last year’s election campaign, when security was a major concern after a string of terror attacks. 

But he has now shifted the focus to community rather than military service. Generals have welcomed the decision to transfer oversight of the project from the defence ministry to the education ministry. 

Military involvement will be minimal and it will have little impact on the defence budget.

France abolished military service under a conservative president, Jacques Chirac, in 1997, but some 3,000 teenagers will take part in the month-long trial during the school holidays next year.

They will live together for two weeks, but instead of being lodged in former army barracks as first planned, they will be accommodated in holiday camps and school dormitories. 

The scheme will be extended gradually to include all 16-year-olds by 2026.  They will spend the first two weeks learning first aid, how to use a compass, read maps and inform emergency services of a natural disaster by radio. 

Teachers and military reservists will supervise the youngsters, with limited involvement of serving members of the armed forces.

“This will bring together teenagers from different backgrounds and give them a shared experience that will help to forge a sense of national identity and responsibility.”

The cost will be “far less” than an estimate of £1.5 billion per year reported by French newspapers in June, the official said.

Opposition politicians said it was typical of Mr Macron, who said he wanted to rule like Jupiter, king of the Roman gods, to announce a grand scheme only to be forced to back down.

Lydia Guirous, spokeswoman for the centre-Right Republicans, said: “When this government proposes something, the mountain often gives birth to a mouse. Two parliamentary reports have revealed how difficult it will be to put this into practice.”

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Ms Guirous said the government should be focussing on fulfilling Mr Macron’s pledge to reduce unemployment. Instead, unemployment rose slightly in the third quarter of this year, official figures showed last week.

Generals described the scheme as an expensive “folly” even before Mr Macron was elected.

A Senate report a month after the election said it would be “a colossal effort in terms of human resources, which we fear would absorb the energy of the armed forces.”

Teenagers wishing to extend the experience will have the option of spending three to twelve months serving with reserve armed forces, the fire brigade or community groups. The reduced military component is far from Mr Macron’s original election pledge to give all young people a taste of life in the armed forces. 

However, Gabriel Attal, the junior defence minister in charge of the project, insisted that it remained faithful to the president’s vision.

“This is not a return to military service, but soldiers will participate fully, as supervisors and instructors, with their proven organisational capability and ability to provide a national framework with working methods that facilitate the inclusion of all," he said. 

The scheme has been criticised for lacking focus.

Olivier Vial, head of the conservative students’ union UNI, told Le Figaro newspaper: “The risk is that it will turn into a huge party for teenagers… while diluting the resources that could have gone into the reserve armed forces.”   The Left-wing sixth formers’ union Fidl argues that compulsory service is unacceptable. 

Its vice-president, Marouane Majrar, said: “Commitment should be voluntary. If not, it becomes naff. To make it attractive, the government is selling it as free training in first aid and the Highway Code. That’s what we want for all young people, but without the military context.”

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Additional notes added by Dave Meltzer

Jinder Mahal’s title will be on the line when WWE comes to the Manchester Arena for next week’s episode of SmackDown.

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WWE announced today that AJ Styles would be challenging for Mahal’s WWE Championship on the show. In a storyline update, Shane McMahon revealed the news on his Twitter account: “Due to @JinderMahal vicious attack on @AJStylesOrg, he will defend the #WWEChampionship against AJ this Tues. in Manchester, UK on #SDLive.”

As part of his program with Mahal, Styles has defeated both Singh Brothers over the last two weeks. Mahal laid out Styles following Styles’ match with Samir Singh on Tuesday.

Mahal vs. Styles was always the planned direction, likely for the final pay-per-view of the year on December 17th in Boston. Their program has already started as the main event on the
SmackDown brand house shows.

Styles had been scheduled to face Rusev in a Survivor Series qualifying match to determine the final member of SmackDown’s men’s division team next week, but whether that will still happen at some point isn’t clear. The Usos defending their tag titles against Shelton Benjamin & Chad Gable is also set for SmackDown in Manchester.

Mahal vs. Brock Lesnar and The Usos vs. Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose in non-title champion vs. champion matches are currently scheduled for Survivor Series in Houston on November 19th.