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Japan ex-prime minister Abe shot, taken to hospital – NHK

By
Kaniva Staff
-

By rnz.co.nz and is republished with permission.

Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe has been taken to hospital after being shot while delivering a speech in the city of Nara in western Japan, a government spokesman has confirmed.

Japanese former Shinzo Abe speaks for his party member candidate of the House of Councillors Election near Yamato Saidaiji Station in Nara Prefecture on July 8, 2022, just seconds before he is shot.

Japanese former Shinzo Abe speaks, just seconds before he is shot. Photo: AFP

Public broadcaster NHK says he appeared to have been shot from behind by a man with a shotgun.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said he did not know Abe’s condition. Kyodo news agency and NHK said Abe, 67, appeared to be in a state of cardiac arrest when taken to hospital.

Shots were heard and a white puff of smoke was seen as Abe made a stump speech for a Sunday upper house election outside a train station in the western city, NHK said.

A man suspected of shooting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Yamato Saidaiji Station in Nara Prefecture on July 8, 2022 is wrestled to the ground. 67-year-old Abe has reportedly been shot in the chest during a stumping tour in Nara in the morning on July 8.

A man suspected of shooting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is wrestled to the ground. Photo: AFP

An NHK reporter on the scene said they could hear two consecutive bangs during Abe’s speech.

Matsuno, told a briefing Abe had been shot at about 11:30 am local time, adding, “Such an act of barbarity cannot be tolerated.”

TBS Television reported that Abe had been shot on the left side of his chest and apparently also in the neck.

Abe served two terms as prime minister to become Japan’s longest-serving premier before stepping down in 2020 citing ill health.

But he has remained a dominant presence over the ruling Liberal Democratic party, controlling one of its major factions.

An aerial photo shows the site that former prime minister Shinzo Abe been shot in Nara City, Nara Prefecture on July 8, 2022.

An aerial photo shows the site that former prime minister Shinzo Abe been shot in Nara City. Photo: AFP

His protege, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, faces an upper house election on Sunday in which analysts say he hopes to emerge from Abe’s shadow and define his premiership.

Abe has been best known for his signature ‘Abenomics’ policy featured bold monetary easing and fiscal spending.

He also bolstered defence spending after years of declines and expanded the military’s ability to project power abroad.

In a historic shift in 2014, his government reinterpreted the postwar, pacifist constitution to allow troops to fight overseas for the first time since World War Two.

The following year, legislation ended a ban on exercising the right of collective self-defence, or defending a friendly country under attack.

Abe, however, did not achieve his long-held goal of revising the U.S.-drafted constitution by writing the Self-Defense Forces, as Japan’s military in known, into the pacifist Article 9.

He was instrumental in winning the 2020 Olympics for Tokyo, cherishing a wish to preside over the Games, which were postponed by a year to 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Abe first took office in 2006 as Japan’s youngest prime minister since World War Two. After a year plagued by political scandals, voter outrage at lost pension records, and an election drubbing for his ruling party, Abe quit citing ill health.

He became prime minister again in 2012.

Abe hails from a wealthy political family that included a foreign minister father and a great-uncle who served as premier.

…more to come

– Reuters

Middlemore Hospital data: Flu cases outnumber Covid-19 three to one

By
Kaniva Staff
-

By Rowan Quinn of RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission.

Flu is dwarfing Covid-19 when it comes to hospitalisations at one of the country’s busiest hospitals.

A security guard worked at Middlemore Hospital's emergency department on Thursday last week while symptomatic with Covid-19.

Photo: LDR / Stephen Forbes

Middlemore Hospital keeps some of the most detailed records of viral illnesses in the country, testing every respiratory patient who is admitted to a ward or examined in its emergency department.

Latest numbers show there are about three times as many flu cases as Covid-19 cases turning up to the hospital.

Te Whatu Ora’s population health director for Counties Manukau, Gary Jackson, said last week about 250 people were admitted with influenza.

There were an average of 10 Covid-19 cases a day being admitted and about 30 flu cases, he said.

Middlemore Hospital flu cases graph

Photo: Supplied / Middlemore Hospital

The flu season had started earlier and could run for longer than normal, up to eight weeks, he said.

Combined with a predicted Covid-19 surge, Jackson worried about the impact on the wider health system.

“Because it is getting overloaded with people who are unwell, the people who are still having their strokes and their heart attacks and their broken legs and so on are going to get delays in treatment … because the system is under such pressure,” he said.

“We get that every winter but this winter it is going to be exaggerated,” he said.

The flu surge was because the influenza strains had not been circulating as much during border restrictions, so people were more likely to catch it now it was back in the community, Jackson said.

In recent weeks the biggest increase was in children under 5, but also in people over 65.

Worry about more Omicron hospitalisations

Covid-19 data modeller Michael Plank said the next Omicron peak could see greater hospitalisations for Covid-19 too.

That was because more people over 70 were catching it than in the first wave, and they were more likely to need hospital level care.

Getting a fourth dose of the vaccine would help keep them safe, he said.

Jackson said even though New Zealand was no longer trying to eliminate Covid-19, people could still try to limit its impact.

“We can decide whether we want to live with it like the UK and get enormous waves and everybody just tries to ignore it and pretend it’s not there, or we can be a bit more clever about it and keep on doing things like wearing our masks and looking after each other,” he said.

“Every time someone avoids getting infected we lower the transmission rate.”

Tonga government rejects US nationals’ ‘held ransom’ claim as ‘false and misleading’

By
Kaniva Staff
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The Tonga government has vehemently denied claims made by three US citizens in Vava’u they had been threatened to pay $11,000 for Covid vaccination requirements.

Deputy and Acting Prime Minister Poasi Tei (L) and Mr Jonathan Brent Estren

The claims included allegation that the Tongan government would confiscate a US chartered aircraft and imprison the operators if they landed in Tonga.

It also claimed that His Majesty King Tupou VI had granted the US nationals approval to bring in a charter flight to Vava’u that would fly them to America.

The claims were made during a social media interview of Mr Jonathan Brent Estren earlier this week by Tongan social media reporter Setita Tu’i’onetoa. Estren is a citizen of the United States of America who has been residing in Vava’u since 2012.

Tonga’s Acting Prime Minister Poasi Tei had denied the allegations as ‘false and misleading’.

“This followed investigations conducted by the Attorney General’s Office here in Nuku’alofa and advice now being made available to Government by the Attorney General, Mrs Linda S Folaumoetu’i”, Hon Tei said in a statement this morning.

Mr Estren had claimed on the video interview that he and his colleagues were being prevented from leaving Vava’u by the Ministry of Health and were being held ransom to pay $11,000 for COVID-19 vaccination shots.

“The reports are not accurate and it is obvious, after checking with all stakeholders involved, that the passengers did not go through the proper procedures and did not get the proper authorization and it is not clear why they are demanding that the plane lands at Lupepau’u Airport, when the only authorized airport of entry, because of the current COVID-19 restrictions, is Fua’amotu International Airport,” Hon Tei said.

“Government has not given them authorization to allow flights from a foreign country to land in Vava’u during these restrictions. If they so wish to continue to proceed with getting a chartered flight they can be advised on the proper procedures to follow.”

The three expats are:

• Mr Estren, who married a Tongan and holds a valid Tongan passport.

• Ms Lee Elle Parker, who was Mr Esren’s spouse. She currently holds a valid Assured Income Visa which expires on April 4, 2024.

• Mr Joshua Charles Moa, who first came to Tonga on a visitor’s visa in 2004 and currently  holds an expired Tongan passport.

The Acting Prime Minister stated that the three need to follow proper procedures and processes before they can leave the country.

He denied any claims of government trying to detain them here in Tonga. Investigations have revealed that:

• The three passengers did not accept the conditions of the current State of Emergency here in Tonga. This included the condition put forward by the Ministry of Health to use Fua’amotu International Airport for chartered flights, as this is the only Airport of Entry for all  international flights, instead of Lupepau’u Airport in Vava’u.

• there is no mandatory declaration for vaccination to be made in Tonga to-date and thus their claims that they are being forced to vaccinate are false. Vaccination shots are free in Tonga and does not cost $11,000.

• anyone can leave Tonga for any destination as long as they meet travel and COVID-19 requirements of their destination country. If they do not meet those requirements then authorities in Tonga will not allow them to depart.

• Government has not given them any authorization to land a plane in Vava’u during the COVID-19 restrictions. No flight or plane is allowed to enter and land in Tonga without proper authorization granting them to do so.

• Ms Estren and his colleagues are free people in Tonga and are free to leave the country  provided they complete all travel requirements. They are not being arrested or kept against their will.

“Hon Tei said the false information presented by the three expats and the social media outlets were damaging to Tonga and her people”.

Our own home ‘will become our own grave’ if not taken care of, warns new President of  International health union

By
Kaniva Staff
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The new leader of an international health care body has warned Pacific Island peoples that their way of life and the environment in which they live has been severely damaged.  

Sione Tu’itahi

The situation was described as one of the factors which has contributed to the Pacific islanders’ alarming rate of health problems in New Zealand.

Tongan-based New Zealand health promoter Sione Tu’itahi, who was recently appointed the new President of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE), said the state of the Pacific island people’s health was devastating.  

Tu’itahi, who is the first Indigenous person to hold the position, said it was part of his role in the international body to promote the concept of a healthy planet and healthy human beings.

“The planet is like our own house. We live in our rooms. And if we do not take good care of it it could fall and kill us”, Tu’itahi told Kaniva News in an exclusive interview.

His comment came after Tongan nephrologist Dr Viliami Tūtone said the number of Tongan children orphaned in New Zealand due to their parents dying young because of diabetes-related conditions was expected to grow.

Dr Tūtone said Pacific islanders as young as 40 had died of diabetes, while others ended up on dialysis treatment at Middlemore Hospital.

Dr Tūtone said some Tongan orphans were as young as 10 years old.

“They have no mothers and the number is expected to grow”, he told Kaniva News.

Dr Tūtone said the Ministry of Health’s latest record for June 2022 showed 743 people were on dialysis at Middlemore hospital. He said 447, or 60 percent of those patients, were Pasifika. Breaking down the number for the Pasifika patients he said 184 were Samoans, 114 were Tongans, 88 were Cook Islanders, 31 were Fijians, 24 were Niueans and other ethnicities were six.

A review of evidence about health equity for Pacific Peoples in New Zealand in 2019 showed the Pasifika made up seven percent of the population of New Zealand.

The report  by the Pacific Perspectives Ltd,  highlighted some social changes which showed that 24 percent of Pacific peoples did not have enough money to meet their everyday needs. It said 40 percent  of Pacific peoples reported living in homes that were always cold and 10 percent reported having problems with damp and mould in their accommodation.

Self-care first

Tu’itahi said people must be reminded that their lives were in their own hands.

He said life was a journey which started from left to right.

“When the baby is born, he is on the left side of this journey”, the former Tongan  journalist said.

“That’s where life begins, at home, parents and the family and the places where they lived, churches, schools, the  plantation, the workplaces and seas.

“On the right side of the journey that’s where you find the hospitals and clinics for people who are sick”, Tu’itahi said.

In other words, living a healthy life started at the left side, not on the right side.

“If we are cautious on the left side we do not need to end up on the right side of the journey,” he said.

He said people should go to hospitals and clinics for necessary needs such as tests for pregnant women and the delivery of their babies and for healthy people to check their health.

Tu’itahi said young people nowadays ended up in hospitals for diseases which might have been avoided if they had looked after themselves.

“They were careless when they started their journey on the left side of life.

“This included eating wrong food, lack physical exercises, abusing of the body, living in unclean environment”.

Tu’itahi said these problems also cost the government huge amounts of money in building hospitals and special medical departments to look after people’s severe medical conditions caused by their lack of good care of their own lives.

“If we rely on the right side of this journey to cure our sicknesses and for the governments to provide us with medical assistance and medication the government could run out of money,” he said.

“Those are the monies that may have helped other important things for us including schools and housings.

“Look at the Covid pandemic. It caused a lot of distress in the health sector and nurses and doctors were affected because of working long hours.

“We also spent a lot of money in researches to get the right medication for the virus.

“If we do not look after our own home, make sure it is warm and clean and safe it will become our own grave”.

Tu’itahi said he was looking forward to working together with the community to improve their health and living.

Asked about his new role, Tu’itahi said he was honoured to take up the role, which was a “huge responsibility,” but which brought the opportunity to share leadership and work with  “wonderful leaders” from around the world.

IUHPE described itself as “a global professional non-governmental organisation dedicated to health promotion around the world”.

Four schools in lockdown after incident on Auckland’s North Shore

By
Kaniva Staff
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By RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission.

Armed police have been deployed to an incident on Auckland’s North Shore after some schools were placed in lockdown.

Police on the corner of Bardia Street and Lake Road in Belmont, Auckland.

Police on the corner of Bardia Street and Lake Road in Belmont, Auckland. Photo: RNZ

Takapuna Grammar, Belmont Intermediate, Bayswater Primary School, and Northcote Intermediate all went into lockdown just after 11am.

About 15 minutes later, the schools posted on Facebook saying the lockdown had lifted.

They said the lockdown was due to a police incident in the area.

Bayswater and Belmont’s posts said everyone was safe.

Belmont Intermediate principal Nick Hill sa

Takapuna Grammar said students were safely inside buildings as instructed by police and the Ministry of Education.

Northcote is yet to annouce it has lifted its lockdown.

Police confirmed there had been a lockdown.

Locals described seeing police cars speeding through the area.

Māori and Pasifika encouraged to get screened for bowel cancer

By
Kaniva Staff
-

By Ashleigh McCaull and Jamie Tahana of RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission.

A bowel cancer survivor says a campaign to encourage more Māori and Pasifika to get screened for the disease is a step in the right direction to lowering the death toll.

Associate Health Minister Peeni Henare at the bowel cancer screening campaign launch.

Associate Health Minister Peeni Henare says early detection is crucial in preventing more deaths Photo: Supplied

A campaign has been launched to focus on increasing uptake among Māori and Pacific people between the ages of 60 and 74.

More than 835,000 New Zealanders are eligible for the screening, but only about half are taking up the free, at-home screening.

Patrick Loloma Afeaki lost his wife in 2013. He said she was unaware she had cancer until it was too late.

“She was taken to the hospital, she didn’t know until it was too late… She was told that it’s already spread to her liver and most of the organs and that she was already on stage four,” Afeaki said.

Five years later, he himself was diagnosed with bowel cancer in its early stages.

“I was looking to see what causes cancer and what symptoms that you could detect, when that happens. And I realised that in early 2018 I had blood in my bowel motions, and I knew that there was a symptom of bowel cancer.

“I immediately told my family doctor who referred me to the hospital… I was given colonoscopy and they removed 24 polyps and one of them had cancer in it,” Afeaki said.

He then had four rounds of chemotherapy – and said he was lucky it had not yet spread to other parts of his body.

He was at a campaign launch on Auckland’s North Shore on Wednesday morning, saying it was important to make the conversation about bowel cancer screening more acceptable and less taboo.

“It’s a matter of educating people and listening to their whānau. Mum and dad were from the Islands, their children were born here. Mum and dad will listen to their children, their children [don’t] want to lose them,” he said.

Associate Minister of Health Aupito William Sio at the bowel cancer screening campaign launch.

Associate Minister of Health Aupito William Sio at the bowel cancer screening campaign launch. Photo: Supplied

Bowel cancer is the second-highest cause of cancer death in New Zealand, a country which has some of the highest rates of bowel cancer in the world.

More than 1200 people die from the disease every year, most of them Māori and Pasifika.

The screening programme is available across the whole country, and has detected over 1400 cancers and thousands of pre-cancerous polyps since it began in 2017. But its uptake could be wider.

The head of the Māori Health Authority, Riana Manuel, said at-home bowel screening could help save hundreds of lives.

“One of the biggest problems we have is that because we often present so late in the piece, that’s the reason why our prognosis is usually very poor. So if you put that into a context of those preventable deaths, 25 percent of them will be wāhine Māori and about 10 percent tāne Māori. So we’ve got a lot of work to do and it’s a reason to get motivated,” she said.

Wednesday’s campaign launch followed a government budget announcement that the screening age for Māori and Pacific people would be lowered from 60 to 50, starting with trials in Waikato and Tairāwhiti, then nationwide by July next year.

Associate Minister of Health Peeni Henare said the move to lower the age would help save more lives.

“This is an important step towards addressing a health inequity, as a higher proportion of Māori and Pacific people get bowel cancer before they become eligible for screening at age 60.”

More than $36 million will go towards the four-year shift that the government estimates will make an extra 60,000 people eligible for screening each year.

Henare said early detection was crucial in helping prevent further deaths

“People who are diagnosed with early-stage bowel cancer have a 90 per cent chance of long-term survival if they get timely treatment. Making sure our whānau access bowel screening means more of our mothers, fathers, aunties and uncles enjoying a life that would otherwise have been cut tragically short.”

More Tongan children will be orphaned in New Zealand by rising diabetes-related deaths

By
Kaniva Staff
-

There is an upward trend of Tongan children being orphaned in New Zealand due to their parents dying young because of diabetes-related conditions, an expert says.

Some Pacific Islanders, who were in their 40s, have died of diabetes, while others ended up on dialysis treatment at Middlemore Hospital.

Dr Viliami Tūtone, a Tongan nephrologist at the hospital said some Tongan orphans have been as young as 10 years old.

These children “have no mothers and the number is expected to grow”, he told Kaniva Tonga news in an exclusive interview.

“When patients are brought for dialysis their bodies have already been hugely affected by the damage to their vascular system and problems with the kidneys,” he said.

Dr Viliami Tūtone. Photo/Screenshot

Dr Tūtone said the Ministry of Health’s latest record for June 2022 showed 743 people were on dialysis at Middlemore hospital. He said 447 or 60 percent of those patients were Pasifika.

Breaking down the numbers for the Pasifika patients he said 184 were Samoans, 114 were Tongans, 88 were Cook Islanders, 31 were Fijians, 24 were Niueans and other ethnicities were six.

Dr Tūtone said the ” total number is huge”.

He said people should avoid eating fatty food and “consuming too much high-sugar soft drinks” which may lead to weight gain, diabetes, and cardiovascular conditions.

Dr Tūtone said “diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure”.

“Eating the right food and do more physical exercises could help many people avoid these chronic diseases”.

Call for change

The executive director of the Health Promotion Forum of New Zealand, Sione Tu’itahi, said the number was devastating.

Tu’itahi said the New Zealand Government spent about $80,000 a year to treat one patient on dialysis.

“This is apart from other problems, including distress caused to other members of the family who played the caring role and the negative impact on their health and their children’s education,” Tu’itahi said.

Tu’itahi called on Tongans to stay healthy and change their attitudes towards life.

Sione Tu’itahi. Photo/Screenshot

“In my role as executive role and Health Promotion of New Zealand, we are working closely with Dr Tūtone and Dr Viliami Puloka to assist all people in New Zealand including Tongans to fight against diabetes.”

Tu’itahi said people must eat the right food and think about how much they ate.

“Our lives are in our hands, not in the doctor’s hands,” Tu’itahi told Kaniva News.

It is estimated that more than 250,000 people in New Zealand have been diagnosed with diabetes, predominantly type 2.

“Within the New Zealand population, the prevalence of diabetes in Māori and Pacific populations is around three times higher than among other New Zealanders. Prevalence is also high among South Asian populations,” the Ministry of Health Website said.

According to the Tonga Health report Path to Good Health, Tonga has one of the most at-risk populations in the world for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes and obesity.

In the introduction to the report, Tonga Health Minister Dr Saia Ma’u Piukala said: “NCDs will continue to cripple our families, our communities and our nation unless we are strong and take decisive action.”

Under the headline: “How communities in Tonga work together for healthier, longer lives”, the World Bank said the kingdom had one of the highest rates of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the world.

These included cardiovascular disease, cancers, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases, account for approximately 80 per cent of deaths in Tonga

“Smoking, alcohol consumption, poor diet, and lack of physical exercise have all contributed to the ever-growing burden of disease.

“However, local communities are coming together to help construct national policies in order to reverse this trend”.

Fijians hoping for smooth power transfer if govt loses election

By
Kaniva Staff
-

By RNZ.co.nz

New research has found Fijians are concerned whether there’ll be a smooth transfer of power should the government lose in this year’s general elections.

The author of the Australian National University paper titled ‘Anticipation and Apprehension in Fiji’s 2022 General Election’, Dr Shailendra Singh, said the economy, including the rising cost of living and the national debt, will be key campaign issues.

The tourism industry, which makes up almost 40 percent of Fiji’s GDP, has been decimated by the closure of international borders due to Covid-19.

Shailendra Singh

Shailendra Singh Photo: USP

As a result almost 115,000 Fijians have lost their main source of income.

Dr Singh said against this backdrop of pressing economic and social issues there are concerns about a smooth transfer of power should Frank Bainimarama’s FijiFirst government lose at the ballots.

He said though the election may be intensely contested, the hope is for a smooth transfer of power should opposition efforts prevail, or risk the derailment of Fiji’s social and economic recovery.

Although campaigning is officially underway in Fiji the government is yet to announce a date for the election although the expectation is now for a November or December poll.

Auckland school closes after anonymous threat made

By
Kaniva Staff
-

By RNZ.co.nz

An Auckland boys’ secondary school has closed today after an anonymous threat.

Sacred Heart College in Auckland.

Sacred Heart school in Glen Innes has closed while police probe the threat. Photo: Google Maps

In a notice to the school community, Sacred Heart in Glen Innes said it received a threat on two individuals via social media today.

Headmaster Patrick Walsh said police advised him, given the nature of the threat, to close the school for the rest of the day as they continued their investigation.

He apologised for the inconvenience but said student safety was paramount.

Walsh said they would communicate further information to the community.

Police are treating a threat on Sacred Heart Boys’ College seriously.

They were made aware earlier today of a threat via social media to the school.

Inspector Jim Wilson said locals would notice an ongoing police presence in response to this incident.

“We are treating the matter seriously and are liaising with the school. The school has decided to close for the day out of precaution.”

Police probe after 69-year-old man found dead in apparent suicide

By
Kaniva Staff
-

The Police are investigating after a man died on Monday in what they had described as alleged ‘suicide’ while at Mu’a police custody.

Photo/Kaniva Tonga News

It said the deceased, was overly intoxicated, and was arrested and detained by Police on Sunday evening following a complaint and call for assistance from his wife.

“Police found the man dead in a police cell on the morning of Monday, 4th July in circumstances indicating suicide”, Commissioner Shane McLennan said.

McLennan described the situation as “regrettable incident”.

“We are allowing the Professional Standards investigation to take its course. Any negligence of duty is not acceptable and will not be tolerated, as it undermines the commitment of the majority of our police staff and importantly, the trust and confidence of the public that we serve,” Commissioner Shane McLennan said.

 An inquest will be held upon completion of the police investigation.

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