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Hawaii-born Akebono Taro, Japan’s first foreign-born sumo wrestling grand champion, dead at 54
Tokyo — Hawaii-born Akebono, one of the greats of sumo wrestling and a former grand champion, has died. He was 54. He was the first foreign-born wrestler to reach the level of “yokozuna” – or grand champion – in Japan.
“It is with sadness that we announce Akebono Taro died of heart failure earlier this month while receiving care at a hospital in the Tokyo area,” the family said in a statement obtained from the office of Hawaii Gov. Josh Green.
Akebono grew up on the rural side of the Koolau mountains from Honolulu and was born Chad Rowan.
He moved to Tokyo in the late 1980s and won his first grand championship in 1993.
At the prime of his career he was a real giant, reported at the time to weigh 500 pounds and stand 6-feet-8.
Reuters Photographer / REUTERS
The United States ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, posted his condolences on social media.
“I was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Akebono, a giant in the world of sumo, a proud Hawaiian and a bridge between the United States and Japan,” Emanuel posted.
“When Akebono became the first-ever foreign-born grand champion, sumo’s highest rank, in 1993, he opened the door for other foreign wrestlers to find success in the sport. Throughout his 35 years in Japan, Akebono strengthened the cultural ties between the United States and his adopted homeland by uniting us all through sport.”
Akebono was an 11-time grand tournament winner. He retired in 2001.
The family’s statement said friends and family will hold a “private celebration of his life.” He is survived by his wife, daughter and two sons.
Four men were arrested and charged with kidnapping migrants who had been smuggled into the United States and demanding their relatives pay ransom for their release, officials said Monday.
The men have pleaded not guilty after they were arraigned on an indictment, the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles said. A fifth man has been charged in the case but remains a fugitive, prosecutors said in a statement.
The defendants took the four migrants from an Arizona gas station last year and later held them hostage at a house in California, prosecutors said. The suspects allegedly used one of the hostage’s cellphone to demand ransom money from the victim’s family member in exchange for their release.
Three of the hostages were later moved to a motel where one escaped through a second-story bathroom window and ran to a nearby store, the statement said. One of the suspects followed him and “body-slammed the victim, placed him in a chokehold, and punched him repeatedly in the face in an attempt to re-kidnap him,” the statement said.
U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles
The defendants were identified as Miguel Angel Avila, 22, of Hemet; Omar Avila Salmeron, 41, of South Los Angeles; Jose Jaime Garcia, 20, of San Jacinto; Gabriel Michel Becerra, 22, of Palmdale; and Jose Alfredo Moreno Gonzalez, 21, of Oak Hills. Becerra is currently a fugitive.
“These defendants allegedly preyed upon victims who sought to emigrate to our country by demanding ransom from the victims’ families in exchange for their release,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada of the Central District of California said in a statement.
On March 23, 2023, Avila, Garcia, and Becerra allegedly drove one of the hostages to a gas station, where they took $11,000 in cash from the victim’s brother in exchange for the victim’s release.
Migrants seeking to cross into the United States are frequently kidnapped by gangs and drug cartels in Mexico, and are also known to be vulnerable to kidnappings in the United States.
Washington — The 13 U.S. service members killed in a suicide bombing in Kabul in 2021 will be honored posthumously Tuesday in a congressional Gold Medal ceremony at the Capitol that comes three years after the chaotic U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is hosting the ceremony and will be joined by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, along with family members of those killed in the attack, which took place at the Kabul airport.
President Biden has faced fierce criticism over the deadly evacuation, which Republicans are highlighting this week. And they’ve drawn attention to Vice President Kamala Harris’ role in the withdrawal as the Democratic presidential nominee is about to take on former President Donald Trump in their first debate Tuesday night.
On Monday, Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee released a report on the Afghanistan withdrawal that accused Mr. Biden of ignoring repeated warnings because he “prioritized politics and his personal legacy over America’s national security interests.” Democrats on the committee said the report was “based on cherry-picked facts, inaccurate characterizations, and pre-existing biases,” while pointing to former President Donald Trump’s role in kickstarting the withdrawal process during his administration.
Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery with family members of the 13 service members last month, and while he was there, a campaign staffer and a cemetery official had a dispute over political activity and photos on the grounds of the national cemetery.
Some, including Harris, viewed the visit was seen as overtly political, but several Gold Star family members defended the former president in videos released after the cemetery visit. And a few family members criticized Harris in a recent Trump campaign ad, in which they thanked Trump for the attention he’s paid their families.
“President Trump has called,” one of the family members says during the advertisement. “President Trump shows up.”
Washington — Abortion is one of the issues that could drive voters’ decisions in the November election, the first presidential contest held since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago and paved the way for 22 states to restrict access to the procedure. Going into the 2024 election, the two presidential nominees, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, have talked about their views of and stances on abortion and and what the future might hold for abortion access if elected.
Democrats are hoping the issue of abortion access will galvanize voters to elect Harris, while Republicans have sought to frame the issue as one best left to the states, while facing questions about whether a federal abortion ban would be on the table if former President Donald Trump were elected to a second term.
An August CBS News poll found that 60% of voters believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and among women likely voters who want abortion to be legal, 76% support Harris.
Here is where Trump and Harris stand on abortion.
Donald Trump’s stance on abortion
Trump has throughout the campaign had shifting views on abortion, frustrating social conservatives and anti-abortion rights groups that are pushing for a nationwide ban. The Republican nominee has repeatedly taken credit for the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in June 2022 and touted that three of the justices he appointed to the high court voted to unwind the constitutional right to abortion.
He has said the court’s landmark decision means the issue is now left up to voters in the states.
“My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation, or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land,” he said in a video posted to social media in April.
Trump has stopped short of backing a federal abortion ban, but said during a March radio interview that “people are agreeing on 15, and I’m thinking in terms of that.”
Still, as Democrats, including Harris, have sought to tie Trump and Republicans to abortion restrictions enacted in 22 states after Roe was reversed, the former president has attempted to counter their attacks.
“My administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights,” he declared on social media on Aug. 23, the morning after Harris delivered a speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination that claimed Trump’s second-term agenda includes limiting access to birth control, outlawing medication abortion and banning abortion nationwide.
The former president has also criticized some of the most restrictive state laws on abortion — namely a six-week ban in place in Florida, where he lives — and said he favors exceptions in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is at risk. The former president called Florida’s ban a “terrible thing and a terrible mistake.”
He reiterated in an interview with NBC News in September that six weeks is “too short” and said he is “going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.”
Trump’s comments earned him swift backlash from conservatives, who criticized him for supporting a proposed amendment to the Florida Constitution that is on the November ballot. The measure would prohibit laws that restrict abortion before fetal viability, generally considered to be between 22 and 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Trump quickly backtracked amid the fallout and said he would be voting “no” on the abortion amendment, which, if defeated in November, would leave Florida’s six-week ban in place.
Kamala Harris’ stance on abortion
Harris has made abortion rights a focal point of her campaign and has worked to connect abortion restrictions enacted in more than 20 states to the Republican nominee, calling them “Trump abortion bans” in speeches from the trail.
In her keynote address at the Democratic National Convention accepting the party’s presidential nominee, the vice president pledged to sign into law legislation that restores the federal right to abortion — if such a bill is passed by Congress.
“Ours is a fight for the future and it is a fight for freedom, like the freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do,” she said during a campaign event in Savannah.
Harris’ campaign website pledges that if elected president, “she will never allow a national abortion ban to become law. And when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom nationwide, she will sign it.”
Access to IVF
Access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) services became a campaign issue after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in February that frozen embryos created during the IVF process could be considered children. The decision threatened the availability of IVF services in Alabama and thrust access to fertility treatments into the national conversation, including among the presidential candidates.
Donald Trump’s stance on IVF
Trump announced last month a new plan that would require the federal government to pay for IVF treatments or mandate insurance companies cover costs associated with IVF, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars per cycle.
Kamala Harris’ stance on IVF
Harris, though, has pinned the blame for any threats to fertility treatments on Trump, calling him the “architect of this entire crisis.” The vice president said the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling is a “direct result” of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe.
Harris has repeatedly said she supports a woman’s right to make decisions about her body and family-planning, and lamented in her convention speech that since Roe’s reversal, she has heard stories of couples who have had their IVF treatments cut off.