Foreign workers: Should they stay or should they go? By Philip Brasor

As the rest of the world debated the ramifications of U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel ban on persons from seven Muslim-majority countries last week, Japan was notably silent.

Economic advantage: Former Ambassador to Switzerland Takaji Kunimatsu is impressed by the European nation's approach to immigration. The Swiss government spends money on language lessons and vocational training in fields that benefit the country. When immigrants break the law, they are subject to deportation. | KYODO

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is currently going out of his way to placate the new American leader for the sake of national interests, but in any case there was little he could add to the discussion. Japan has never universally welcomed immigrants, especially refugees. The local media, which covered the travel ban with detachment, didn’t bother to make any relevant connections to Japan’s situation, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any.

The Wet Wipes Box Says Flush, but the New York City Sewer System Says Don’t By Matt Flegenheimer

 

With its sewer system under siege, tallying millions of dollars in equipment damage across its underground maze, New York City is confronting a menace that has gummed the gears of plumbing networks around the world: the common wet wipe.

 

Michael Brady, a worker at the Newtown Creek plant in Brooklyn, raking wipes and other waste into a bin for disposal. ( Credit Karsten Moran for The New York Times)

 

In recent years, the intersection of evolving hygienic sensibilities and aggressive industry marketing has fueled the product’s rise. Wet wipes, long used for baby care, have grown popular with adults.

Some of the products are branded as “flushable” — a characterization contested by wastewater officials and plaintiffs bringing class-action lawsuits against wipes manufacturers for upending their plumbing.

The most important political issue of the moment? Ed Miliband’s kitchens By Owen Jones

The puerile nature of political discourse in modern Britain crowds out the issues that matter to ordinary people.

 

‘This will not be an election about issues, but will mostly consist of making Miliband look a bit weird and thus unsuitable for No 10.’ (Photograph: Russell Cheyne/Reuters)

 

The problem with an open sewer is you cannot escape the stench. The Daily Mail is that open sewer, along with a sizable chunk of Britain’s Tory-dominated oligarch-owned “free press”. Let’s just have a quick recap about the level of political discourse we have reached in Britain. The big political controversy of the moment is not the national scandal of low pay or child poverty, not the housing crisis, the lack of secure work, food banks – you name it. No: it’s the kitchen arrangements of the leader of the opposition. The first outrage was that Ed Miliband’s kitchen was too drab. But then came the knockout blow: he has two kitchens.