News Headlines - 02 November 2018

▽Japan aims to open door wider to blue-collar workers | Reuters

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet approved draft legislation on Friday to open the door to more overseas blue-collar workers in sectors grappling with labor shortages, a controversial policy shift in immigration-shy Japan... Immigration has long been taboo as many Japanese prize ethnic homogeneity, but the reality of an aging, shrinking population is challenging such views.
Despite misgivings in Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), parliament is likely to adopt the revisions in the face of intense pressure from businesses battling the tightest labor market in decades, although opposition parties could delay.

▽2 ASDF fighters make contact midair, causing minor damage - The Mainichi

Two Air Self-Defense Force F-2 fighter jets came into contact midair Friday over the sea off southwestern Japan, the ASDF said, but despite suffering minor damage both aircraft managed to return to base.
The incident between the fighter jets, which fly out of the Tsuiki Air Base in Fukuoka Prefecture, occurred about 200 kilometers west of the base at around 3:55 p.m.

▽Japanese journalist apologizes, recounts days as hostage in Syria | Reuters

Jumpei Yasuda, a Japanese journalist held by militants in Syria for more than three years, said on Friday he told his captors to deafen him if they suspected he was eavesdropping on their conversations.
Yasuda, 44, said it was one of the darkest moments before his release last month, ending what he called 40 months of physical and psychological “hell”.

▽Khashoggi murder: Body 'dissolved in acid' - BBC News

A top Turkish official, presidential adviser Yasin Aktay, has said he believes Jamal Khashoggi's body was dissolved in acid after being cut up.
The "only logical conclusion", he said, was that those who had killed the Saudi journalist in Istanbul had destroyed his body "to leave no trace behind"... No forensic evidence has been provided to prove his body was dissolved.

▽Football: Documents Show Secret Plans for Elite League of Top Clubs - SPIEGEL ONLINE

Today, in November 2018, the Super League idea appears to have fresh impetus: According to the draft of a confidential term sheet that Real Madrid received just a few days ago from a consulting firm, 16 top clubs are to sign a document to establish such a league. According to the document, the league would begin operating in the 2021 season. One of the 16 clubs named in the document is FC Bayern Munich.