Guided tours resume at the remote Hawaii leprosy settlement of Kalaupapa.

Tours and religious pilgrimages draw visitors to Kalaupapa, an isolated peninsula cut off by 2,000-foot (600-meter) cliffs. It traditionally has only been reachable by boat, small plane, mule ride or hours-long hike. Right now, travel to the area is only allowed by plane, Kalaupapa National Historical Park said in a news release.

Hawaii banished leprosy patients to Kalaupapa for over a century, starting in 1866 during Hawaiian Kingdom rule. The exile policy was only lifted in 1969.

More than 8,000 people died there, most of them Native Hawaiian. Saint Damien, a Catholic priest from Belgium who cared for patients in the late 19th century and was canonized by the church in 2009, also died there after contracting the disease.

Damien’s devotion to the ailing has inspired people worldwide, as has the work of Saint Marianne, a German-born nun who cared for the ill for decades before she died of natural causes on Kalaupapa in 1918. The church canonized her in 2012.

Today, the peninsula is governed by the state Department of Health while the the National Park Service operates the historical park.

Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, is spread by direct, person-to-person contact, although it’s not easily transmitted. It can cause skin lesions, mangle fingers and toes, and lead to blindness. It’s been curable since the development of sulfone drugs in the 1940s, and people treated with drugs aren’t contagious.

Patients are free to leave, but many have chosen to stay because it has become their home. Six patients, all cured, live there now. Privacy for these patients means guided tours are the only way visitors may travel to Kalaupapa.

Tours are available through Kalaupapa Saints Tour, founded by patient Meli Watanuki. Seawind Tours will operate the tours on Watanuki’s behalf, CEO Randy King said.

All visitors must be at least 16 years old and have a Department of Health visitor permit, which Seawind Tours will facilitate.

Audrey Mcavoy, The Associated Press

Every evening, Everlyn Ayo left her village in northern Uganda, trekking with thousands of other children known as “night commuters” hoping to escape the horrors of Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army.

The messianic Kony, whose case is finally being heard by the International Crime Court (ICC) from Tuesday, led one of the world’s most barbaric insurgencies, massacring and mutilating tens of thousands of people across the region, kidnapping children and turning them into child soldiers and sexual slaves.

Ayo saw the brutality first hand when Kony’s forces attacked her school in Nwoya district when she was around five years old.

“The rebels raided the school, killed and cooked our teachers in big drums and we were forced to eat their remains,” she told AFP from her home in the nearby city of Gulu.

Twenty years ago, Kony became the first person ever issued with an arrest warrant by the ICC, though his war crimes hearing will be in absentia since he has never been caught.

Ayo, now 39, will be among those following the case on her radio, thousands of miles from the sterile courtroom in The Hague.

After her school was attacked, Ayo’s family sent her to relatives in a remote village.

But that was also considered dangerous, and so she became a so-called night commuter, one of the emblematic features of a conflict that raged through much of the 1990s and 2000s.

Every night, she would walk around five kilometres, joining thousands of other children trekking through forests and jungle to stay in towns or shelters where they hoped there was less risk of being kidnapped by Kony’s army.

“We would leave the villages at 4:00 pm because the distances were long and we feared the villages at night. In the morning, we had to wait for daylight at around 8:00 am to return,” Ayo said.

The shelters were sporadically guarded by government troops, though they would often abandon their posts, themselves fearful of Kony’s fanatical forces.

“We were so many children that even if you did not cover yourself at night, you did not feel cold because we were squeezed together,” Ayo recalled.

Each morning, after walking for hours, they would find new horrors.

“Many times, on our return to the village, we would find blood-soaked dead bodies. Seeing all that blood as a child traumatized my eyes.

“For many years now, I do not see well, all I see is blood.”

Justice?

Wilfred Lalobo, 60, showed AFP a monument built in Lukodi, just outside Gulu, for 69 people killed in an attack by Kony’s forces on May 19, 2004.

“When the rebels arrived, the government troops were few, and they fled,” he said.

“Then they started killing civilians. Some people were stabbed with bayonet, others hacked and the rest burned alive in their houses.”

“On that day, my four-year-old daughter, Akello Lalobo was among those killed. My brother’s wife and six other relatives of mine were also killed,” Lalobo added.

Kony’s trial will be closely followed here, particularly by those who have sought to rebuild the region’s many shattered lives.

Stella Angel Lanam was 10 when she was captured by the LRA, which indoctrinated her into becoming a child soldier. She spent nine years in captivity.

Now 38, she is director of the War Victims and Children Networking Initiative, which offers counselling, training and other support in the region.

Lanam said the trial was a comfort, offering some justice to Kony’s many victims.

“Even though we have passed through a lot, we cannot lose hope,” she said.

“Will the government or Kony repair me back to the way I was? No. But at least I will get justice.”

Ayo worries that the world has too quickly forgotten the extreme trauma suffered at the hands of Kony’s forces.

She hopes he will one day see real justice.

“Joseph Kony should be punished severely in a way that the world will never forget,” Ayo said.

‘All I see is blood’: Kony survivors recall horrors ahead of trial

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has announced a decision to resign from his post, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK reported on Sunday.

According to NHK, Ishiba has made this decision in order to avoid a split within his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

Survey results all incumbent LDP deputies and representatives of regional party organizations on the issue of staging early elections of the party chairman are slated to be revealed on Monday.

Ishiba-led LDP failed at the summer parliamentary elections in July and did not secure the majority in both houses of the parliament. It led to numerous calls within Ishiba’s party for him to resign from the post of the country’s prime minister.

"Amid growing calls for Ishiba to take responsibility for the election result, the LDP had been expected to decide on Monday whether to hold a special leadership contest," NHK reported.

"Ishiba met former Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide and Agriculture Minister Koizumi Shinjiro at his office on Saturday," according to the #Japanese broadcaster.

"Sources say Suga and Koizumi told Ishiba that party unity is more important than anything else and suggested he step down before Diet members submit documents on a special leadership election," NHK added.

Lawyers flag urgent need for better funding of federal trade, sanctions agencies.

In a letter to the Finance Department ahead of the coming fall budget, the Canadian international trade and investment lawyers call for more funding for departments and agencies responsible for administering trade and tariff programming.

The Aug. 22 letter says that in response to tariffs and shifting trade policies, Canadian and global companies have restructured supply chains, shifted investments and adjusted sourcing strategies.

These businesses rely on Canada’s trade institutions to navigate new tariffs, economic sanctions and export controls, as well as secure permits, respond to enforcement actions and resolve disputes.

The letter says the surge in trade activity requires stronger institutional capacity to deliver timely and effective oversight, decisions and guidance.

It argues that funding has not kept pace to support the institutions responsible for implementing Canada’s trade policy goals.

The letter says the speed and scale of change have left critical parts of the federal government “under-resourced and increasingly unable” to meet the needs of Canadians.

“Canadian businesses and workers face mounting challenges in a fast-changing global economy,” the letter says.

“Targeted investments in trade-related institutions are critical to protecting Canada’s economic resilience and ensuring timely, responsive support for stakeholders.”

Among the signatories are William Pellerin of McMillan LLP, Wendy Wagner of Gowling WLG and Helen Byon of EY Law LLP.

The letter comes as the federal Liberals seek ways to find savings across government to fund new priorities like defence and housing.

The letter cites several examples of the growing federal strain:

— the Canada Border Services Agency’s Special Import Measures Act investigations directorate is on pace this year to receive the highest number of dumping and subsidy complaints in more than 20 years;

— the border agency’s recourse directorate, which is responsible for redetermining the assessment of duties on imports, is increasingly exceeding a one-year statutory time-frame;

— the Canadian International Trade Tribunal faces an unprecedented volume of proceedings and a growing backlog in decision-making;

— the sanctions bureau at Global Affairs Canada, which administers Canada’s sanctions on Russia and other jurisdictions, has a large inventory of sanctions permit and delisting applications;

— and the Finance Department’s international trade policy division has experienced a notable increase in requests for duty and surtax remissions, often requiring complex and time-sensitive assessments.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 7, 2025.

Jim Bronskill, The #Canadian Press

After largely ignoring suffering in #Gaza, Israeli media start to report on #Palestinian hardships.


For most of the past two years, television stations in Israel have paid little attention to suffering in Gaza, giving viewers a steady stream of stories about Israeli heroism, the agony of hostages’ families and the deaths of soldiers in combat.

But that is changing. In recent months, some Israeli stations have begun to share graphic images of malnourished children and a few deeply reported stories about the difficulties of daily life for Palestinians.

This subtle shift comes as Israel faces unprecedented global outrage over the ongoing war, and it reflects deep divisions over whether the military offensive should be halted, though the growing protests and the media coverage have had little effect on Israel’s policies.

“It’s not just truly caring about the situation in Gaza, but also from an Israeli perspective, are we acting correctly in a way that serves the aims of this war?” said Eran Amsalem, a communications professor at Israel’s Hebrew University.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has largely ignored a mass movement calling for an end to the war that is focused on returning the hostages. After the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas and two years of regional fighting, appeals on behalf of Palestinians have even less traction.
The shock of Oct. 7

The first images from the war were of Hamas-led militants storming the border and marauding through Israeli army bases and farming communities. Footage out of Gaza showed people celebrating as hostages were paraded through the streets, bloodied and beaten.

Around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed, and 251 taken hostage. Forty-eight remain in Gaza, around 20 of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefires or other deals.

It was the worst attack ever carried out on Israel’s homefront and still dominates local newscasts. In the early months, Israelis rallied around the flag after what some referred to as their 9/11, while international media quickly shifted focus to the invasion of Gaza.

“During most of the war, the Israeli media really reported very little on the suffering in Gaza or the hunger or destruction,” said Raviv Drucker, a prominent Israeli news anchor. “If they did report it, it’s only from the Israeli perspective,” he explained, in terms of how effective it was in destroying Hamas.

Israel has barred international journalists from Gaza since the start of the war, outside of visits organized by the military. The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists says it’s the deadliest conflict for reporters the group has ever documented, with at least 189 Palestinian journalists killed by Israeli fire.

“It’s a strange war, because it’s the 21st century, and everyone has a phone to broadcast,” Drucker said. “But there’s no one on the ground, so you can’t say, ‘There’s someone on the ground that I trust.’”
The perils of highlighting Gaza suffering

Some newscasters who have highlighted the humanitarian catastrophe have faced backlash.

Yonit Levi, a prominent news anchor known for her cool demeanor, made an uncharacteristic comment during a report in July about international media coverage of the famine.

“Maybe it’s time to understand that this is not a failure of public diplomacy, but a moral failure, and to start from there,” she said. Levi, who declined to speak to The Associated Press, was called a “Hamas spokesperson” by an analyst on the pro-Netanyahu Channel 14, and a right-wing activist accused her of “spitting in the face of Israeli soldiers.”

Commentators from right-wing outlets, including Channel 14, regularly cheer the killing of Palestinians and the demolition of their homes, saying there are no innocent civilians in Gaza and that the military should act with even greater force.

The offensive has killed over 64,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. Its figures are seen as reliable by U.N. agencies and many independent experts. Israel disputes the figures but has not provided its own.

Zvi Yehezkeli, an Arab affairs correspondent for Israel’s i24 TV, welcomed the killing of five journalists in an Israeli strike on a hospital last week, accusing them — without evidence — of working with Hamas to disseminate fake news harmful to Israel. “Better late than never,” he said.

The Israeli military has said none of the journalists, including Mariam Dagga, who worked for the AP and other publications, were suspected militants, and it denies targeting them.
Signs of change

Still, the coverage has slightly shifted in recent weeks, with some longer stories about Palestinians appearing in major outlets.

Israeli journalists have given more airtime to the starvation crisis fueled in part by Israel’s 2 1/2 month ban on all humanitarian aid — including food and medicine — earlier this year.

Mainstream TV news programs now feature a few interviews with Palestinians in Gaza, though digitally altered to preserve the safety of those who speak to Israeli media despite pressure from Hamas. But those stories are still far outweighed by a focus on domestic issues.

Nir Hasson and his colleagues at Israel’s left-leaning Haaretz newspaper have reported extensively on the Palestinians both before and during the war, in articles that are frequently critical of Israel’s conduct. But it’s an outlier in the current media landscape.

“After Oct. 7, there’s no doubt that something was broken, and it became completely illegitimate to deal with the pain of the other side,” Hasson said.

“But I think the Israeli public is more mature than the media gives them credit for,” he added. “I think the public has an ability to listen. I think the media is censoring itself too much.”

Melanie Lidman, The Associated Press

South Korea says it has reached a deal with the U.S. for the release of workers in a Georgia plant.

Kang Hoon-sik, chief of staff for President Lee Jae Myung, said that South Korea and the U.S. had finalized negotiations on the workers’ release. He said South Korea plans to send a charter plane to bring the workers home as soon as remaining administrative steps are completed.

Foreign Minister Cho Hyun is to leave for the U.S. on Monday for talks related to the workers’ releases, South Korean media reported.

U.S. immigration authorities said Friday they detained 475 people, most of them South Korean nationals, when hundreds of federal agents raided Hyundai’s sprawling manufacturing site in Georgia where the Korean automaker makes electric vehicles. Agents focused on a plant that is still under construction at which Hyundai has partnered with LG Energy Solution to produce batteries that power EVs.

Cho said that more than 300 South Koreans were among the detained.

The operation was the latest in a long line of workplace raids conducted as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. But the one on Thursday is especially distinct because of its large size and the fact that state officials have long called the targeted site Georgia’s largest economic development project.

The raid stunned many in South Korea because the country is a key U.S. ally. It agreed in July to purchase US$100 billion in U.S. energy and make a $350 billion investment in the U.S. in return for the U.S lowering tariff rates. About two weeks ago, U.S. President Donald Trump and Lee held their first meeting in Washington.

Lee said the rights of South Korean nationals and economic activities of South Korean companies must not be unfairly infringed upon during U.S. law enforcement procedures. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry separately issued a statement to express “concern and regret” over the case and sent diplomats to the site.

Video released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Saturday showed a caravan of vehicles driving up to the site and then federal agents directing workers to line up outside. Some detainees were ordered to put their hands up against a bus as they were frisked and then shackled around their hands, ankles and waist.

Most of the people detained were taken to an immigration detention center in Folkston, Georgia, near the Florida state line. None has been charged with any crimes yet, Steven Schrank, the lead Georgia agent of Homeland Security Investigations, said during a news conference Friday, adding that the investigation was ongoing.

He said that some of the detained workers had illegally crossed the U.S. border, while others had entered the country legally but had expired visas or had entered on a visa waiver that prohibited them from working.

Kang, the South Korean presidential chief of staff, said that South Korea will push to review and improve visa systems for those traveling to the U.S. on business trips for investment projects.

Hyung-jin Kim, The Associated Press

Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba resigns,

TOKYO — Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced Sunday that he will resign, following growing calls from within his party to take responsibility for a historic defeat in July’s parliamentary election.

Ishiba, who took office in October, said he was stepping down as prime minister and as the head of his conservative Liberal Democratic Party.

Ishiba, a 68-year-old centrist, had resisted demands from opponents further to the right within his own party to resign. He argued that he wanted to avoid a political vacuum at a time when Japan faces key domestic and international challenges, including U.S. tariffs, rising prices and growing tensions in the Asia-Pacific.

Ishiba explained at a news conference Sunday night that he had intended for some time to take responsibility for his party’s summer election loss, but was first determined to make progress in tariff negotiations with the United States. He described it as matter of the national interest.

“Who would seriously negotiate with a government whose leader says he is stepping down?” Ishiba said.

He said the moment had arrived with an order by U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday to lower tariffs on Japanese cars and other products from 25 per cent to 15 per cent.

“Having reached a milestone in the U.S. tariff negotiations, I decided now is the time to make way for a successor,” Ishiba said.
Pressure from the party

The resignation came one day before Ishiba’s party was to decide whether to hold an early leadership election, which would have amounted to a virtual no-confidence motion against him if approved.

He said he made the “painful decision to resign” to avert that step because “it would cause a critical division within the party, and that is absolutely not my intention.”

Ishiba said he would instead start a process to hold a party leadership vote to choose his replacement, which is expected to be held in October. He is to remain as prime minister until a new leader is elected and endorsed by the parliament.

Ishiba’s leadership that lasted only one year underscores the instability of Japan’s minority government.

A maverick who won the leadership in his fifth attempts, Ishiba said he regrets he could not live up to voters’ expectations for change. “As a result, I failed to go my own way, and I wonder how I could have done better,” he said.

He said he is not going to run in the next leadership race, even though he regrets leaving behind unfinished business, such as measures for salary increases, agricultural reforms and further strengthening Japan’s security. He asked his future successor to tackle the issues he cherished.
Loss after loss

In July, Ishiba’s ruling coalition failed to secure a majority in the 248-seat upper house in a crucial parliamentary election, weakening his government. The loss followed a defeat in the more powerful lower house, where the party-led coalition lost its majority in October, only two weeks after Ishiba took over.

Liberal Democratic lawmakers who support the prime minister said those who lost seats were largely ultra-conservatives who were linked to corruption scandals before Ishiba took office. Public polling showed that pressure on Ishiba to resign had the reverse effect and caused his support to grow.

Calls for Ishiba to step down grew after the Liberal Democratic Party last week called for a “complete overhaul” of the party following its losses.

Taro Aso, a conservative heavyweight known for his anti-Ishiba stance, and a minister and several deputy ministers in the Ishiba Cabinet requested an early vote, prompting others to follow suit.

Former Health Minister Norihisa Tamura said on a talk show of the public broadcaster NHK earlier Sunday that the best way to heal party divisions and move forward is for Ishiba “to settle” the dispute before Monday’s vote. The party has already been distracted from necessary work on economic measures and on figuring out ways to gain opposition support in the next parliamentary session, Tamura said.

Possible candidates to replace Ishiba include Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, as well as ultra-conservative former economic security minister Sanae Takaichi and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, a moderate and the protege of former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Lacking a majority in both houses, the next party leader will have to work with the main opposition parties to get bills passed, experts say, or else face constant risks of no-confidence motions.

The opposition parties, however, are too splintered to form a coalition to topple the government.

Voters say they want to see the party move forward and get down to work but they worry about uncertainty.

Office worker Takahiro Uchi welcomed Ishiba’s resignation, as he hopes for change, “but at the same time, there is also uncertainty and concern about who will take over next.” Masataka Nishioka, who works for a dental equipment company, said, “I really hope for a kind of politics that makes life easier for everyone.”

Mari Yamaguchi, The Associated Press

AP video journalist Ayaka McGill in Tokyo contributed.

#Russia’s ambassador to Germany, Sergey Nechayev, has emphasized the importance of thoroughly completing the investigation into the explosions of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines. He warned that failure to identify and hold accountable all those involved would set a troubling precedent for the future.

"If this crime - the explosion of Nord Stream - is not fully resolved and the perpetrators, including those who ordered it, are not identified, it could establish an undesirable precedent," Nechayev stated. He reiterated Russia’s insistence that the investigation be concluded comprehensively and transparently.

Referring to the numerous media reports speculating about private divers, Nechayev dismissed these versions as unconvincing. "We are eager to see official results of the investigation, properly documented and made public. This transparency is crucial," he stressed. He also noted that many in Germany understand the significance of this matter.

Nechayev pointed out that such developments impact broader issues, including energy cooperation with Russia. He highlighted that the ongoing uncertainty hampers efforts to restore relations, which in turn causes socio-economic harm to Germany.

Earlier, the German newspaper Die Zeit reported that investigators may have identified all the saboteurs involved in the incident. According to the publication, arrest warrants have been issued for six Ukrainian nationals. A seventh suspect, believed to have died in December 2024 during military operations in eastern Ukraine, is also linked to the case. German authorities detailed that the sabotage team comprised a skipper, a coordinator, an explosives expert, and four divers, who arrived at the Baltic Sea site aboard the yacht Andromeda from Rostock.

On September 26, 2022, the explosions caused extensive damage to three Nord Stream lines and the uncommissioned Nord Stream 2. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has stated that Moscow is convinced the attack was carried out with US support. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has launched a case over an act of international terrorism.

Lisbon funicular cable disconnected before deadly crash: inspectors.

Inspectors investigating the deadly streetcar crash in Lisbon, Portugal, found that two cabins lost stability after the cable linking them disconnected before the funicular came off its rails and killed 16 people Wednesday, including two Canadians.

The Portuguese government’s office for air and rail accident investigations said in a preliminary technical report that the cabins had travelled not more than about six metres, when they suddenly lost the balancing force provided by the cable connecting them.

The office explained that the second cabin turned the other way around while the first cabin kept accelerating in speed despite the brakeman’s efforts to stop the car.

The second cabin then rolled to the left in the direction of travel, eventually losing control and crashing against the wall of a building.

A Quebec couple were identified as victims of the crash that also injured 21 others. Andre Bergeron and Blandine Daux were archeologists, who worked in Quebec’s Culture Department.

Portuguese police said five of the victims were from Portugal, three from the United Kingdom, two from #Canada, two from South Korea, one from the United States, one from France, one from Switzerland, and one from Ukraine.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2025.