By MARI YAMAGUCHI

TOKYO (AP) — Japan paid tribute Friday to more than 3 million war dead as the country marked its surrender that ended World War II 80 years ago, as concern grows about the rapidly fading memories of the tragedy of war and the bitter lessons from the era of Japanese militarism.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba expressed “remorse” over the war — the first time a Japanese leader has used the word in a Aug. 15 address since former premier Shinzo Abe shunned it in 2013.

Ishiba called the war a mistake, but did not mention Japan’s aggression across Asia or apologize.

Moment of silence, peace pledge and chrysanthemum flowers

“We will never repeat the tragedy of the war. We will never go the wrong way,” Ishiba said. “Once again, we must deeply keep to our hearts the remorse and lesson from that war.”

He vowed to pass his peace pledge to next generations.

In a national ceremony Friday at Tokyo’s Budokan hall, about 4,500 officials and bereaved families and their descendants from around the country observed a moment of silence at noon, the time when Emperor Hirohito’s surrender speech began on Aug. 15, 1945. Participants later offered chrysanthemum flowers for the war dead.

Leader stays away from controversial Yasukuni Shrine

Just a block away at the Yasukuni Shrine, dozens of Japanese rightwing politicians and their supporters gathered to pray.

The shrine honors Japan’s 2.5 million war dead, including convicted war criminals. Victims of Japanese aggression, especially China and the Koreas, see visits to the shrine as a lack of remorse about Japan’s wartime past.

Ishiba stayed away from Yasukuni and sent a religious ornament as a personal gesture instead of praying at the controversial shrine.

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But Shinjiro Koizumi, the agriculture minister considered as a top candidate to replace the beleaguered prime minister, prayed at the shrine. He told reporters that he made the no-war pledge to the spirits. “It is important to not forget those who sacrificed their lives for their country,” he said.

Koizumi is the son of popular former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who outraged China when he visited Yasukuni as a serving leader in 2001.

Rightwing lawmakers, including former economic security ministers Sanae Takaichi and Takayuki Kobayashi, as well as governing Liberal Democratic Party heavyweight Koichi Hagiuda, also visited the shrine Friday.

A non-partisan group of 87 parliamentarians led by Liberal Democrat Ichiro Aisawa also prayed at Yasukuni, pledging “to uphold peace” in Japan and in the Indo-Pacific region.

Separately, Sohei Kamiya, head of the populist far-right Sanseito, prayed with 17 parliamentarians and 70 local assembly members from his party. He told reporters that the prime minister should visit Yasukuni.

China and South Korea urge Japan to face up to its wartime actions

China and South Korea reminded Japan of its wartime atrocities in their countries and elsewhere in Asia.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi criticized attempts in Japan to “whitewash and deny aggression, distort and falsify history and even seek to rehabilitate the accusations of war criminals.”

“Only by facing history squarely can we gain respect, only by learning from history can we forge ahead into the future,” he added.

In Seoul, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, ahead of an upcoming trip to Japan for a summit with Ishiba, called for the two U.S. allies to overcome grievances from Japan’s brutal colonial rule.

He said some historical issues remain unresolved, urging Tokyo to face up to “our painful history and strive to maintain trust between our two countries.”

Emperor shows ‘deep remorse’

Japanese emperors have stopped visiting the Yasukuni site since the enshrinement of top war criminals there in 1978.

Emperor Naruhito, in his address at the Budokan memorial Friday, expressed his hope that the ravages of war will never be repeated while “reflecting on our past and bearing in mind the feelings of deep remorse.”

Naruhito reiterated the importance of telling the war’s tragic history to younger generations as “we continue to seek the peace and happiness of the people in the future.”

As part of the 80th anniversary, he has traveled to Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Hiroshima, and is expected to visit Nagasaki with his daughter, Princess Aiko, in September.

Passing on history to younger generations amid revisionism

Hajime Eda, whose father died on his way home from Korea when his ship was hit by a mine, said he will never forget his father and others who never made it home. In a speech representing bereaved families, Eda said it is Japan’s responsibility to share lessons about the emptiness of the conflict, the difficulty of reconstruction and the preciousness of peace.

Several teenagers took part in the ceremony after learning about their great-grandfathers who died in the battlefields.

Ami Tashiro, a 15-year-old high school student from Hiroshima, said she joined a memorial marking the end of the battle on Iwo Jima last year after reading a letter her great-grandfather sent from the island. She also hopes to join in the search for his remains.

As the population of wartime generations rapidly decline, Japan faces serious questions on how it should pass its history to the next generation. The country has faced revisionist pushbacks since the 2010s under Abe, who pushed to correct a “self-deprecating view” of Japan’s wartime history and regain national pride.

Since 2013, Japanese prime ministers have stopped apologizing to Asian victims, under the precedent set by Abe.

Some lawmakers’ denial of Japan’s military role in massive civilian deaths on Okinawa or the Nanking Massacre have stirred controversy.

Naoya Endo, 64, came to Yasukuni in place of his late father who was among a few out of his unit’s 50 members who returned from Taiwan. He said he worries about the growing global tension and hopes there will be no war in his lifetime. He lamented that many Japanese have lost pride and a love of their homeland.

In an editorial Friday, the Mainichi newspaper called on Japan to work together with Asian neighbors as equal partners.

“It’s time to show a vision toward ‘a world without war’ based on the lesson from its own history,” the Mainichi said.

Associated Press journalists Mayuko Ono, Ayaka McGill and Reeno Hashimoto in Tokyo, Huizhong Wu in Bangkok and Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South Korea contributed to this report.

By WAFAA SHURAFA and SAM METZ, Associated Press

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — After waking early to stand in line for an hour under the August heat, Rana Odeh returns to her tent with her jug of murky water. She wipes the sweat from her brow and strategizes how much to portion out to her two small children. From its color alone, she knows full well it’s likely contaminated.

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Thirst supersedes the fear of illness.

She fills small bottles for her son and daughter and pours a sip into a teacup for herself. What’s left she adds to a jerrycan for later.

“We are forced to give it to our children because we have no alternative,” Odeh, who was driven from her home in Khan Younis, said of the water. “It causes diseases for us and our children.”

Such scenes have become the grim routine in Muwasi, a sprawling displacement camp in central Gaza where hundreds of thousands endure scorching summer heat. Sweat-soaked and dust-covered, parents and children chase down water trucks that come every two or three days, filling bottles, canisters and buckets and then hauling them home, sometimes on donkey-drawn carts.

Each drop is rationed for drinking, cooking, cleaning or washing. Some reuse what they can and save a couple of cloudy inches in their jerrycans for whatever tomorrow brings — or doesn’t.

When water fails to arrive, Odeh said, she and her son fill bottles from the sea.

Over the 22 months since Israel launched its offensive, Gaza’s water access has been progressively strained. Limits on fuel imports and electricity have hampered the operation of desalination plants while infrastructure bottlenecks and pipeline damage choked delivery to a dribble. Gaza’s aquifers became polluted by sewage and the wreckage of bombed buildings. Wells are mostly inaccessible or destroyed, aid groups and the local utility say.

Meanwhile, the water crisis has helped fuel the rampant spread of disease, on top of Gaza’s rising starvation. UNRWA — the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees — said Thursday that its health centers now see an average 10,300 patients a week with infectious diseases, mostly diarrhea from contaminated water.

Efforts to ease the water shortage are in motion, but for many the prospect is still overshadowed by the risk of what may unfold before new supply comes.

And the thirst is only growing as a heat wave bears down, with humidity and temperatures in Gaza soaring on Friday to 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit).

Searing heat and sullied water

Mahmoud al-Dibs, a father displaced from Gaza City to Muwasi, dumped water over his head from a flimsy plastic bag — one of the vessels used to carry water in the camps.

“Outside the tents it is hot and inside the tents it is hot, so we are forced to drink this water wherever we go,” he said.

Al-Dibs was among many who told The Associated Press they knowingly drink non-potable water.

The few people still possessing rooftop tanks can’t muster enough water to clean them, so what flows from their taps is yellow and unsafe, said Bushra Khalidi, an official with Oxfam, an aid group working in Gaza.

Before the war, the coastal enclave’s more than 2 million residents got their water from a patchwork of sources. Some was piped in by Mekorot, Israel’s national water utility. Some came from desalination plants. Some was pulled from high-saline wells, and some imported in bottles.

Every source has been jeopardized.

Palestinians are relying more heavily on groundwater, which today makes up more than half of Gaza’s supply. The well water has historically been brackish, but still serviceable for cleaning, bathing, or farming, according to Palestinian water officials and aid groups.

Now people have to drink it.

The effects of drinking unclean water don’t always appear right away, said Mark Zeitoun, director general of the Geneva Water Hub, a policy institute.

“Untreated sewage mixes with drinking water, and you drink that or wash your food with it, then you’re drinking microbes and can get dysentery,” Zeitoun said. “If you’re forced to drink salty, brackish water, it just does your kidneys in, and then you’re on dialysis for decades.”

Deliveries average less than three liters (12.5 cups) per person per day — a fraction of the 15-liter (3.3-gallon) minimum humanitarian groups say is needed for drinking, cooking and basic hygiene. In February, acute watery diarrhea accounted for less than 20% of reported illnesses in Gaza. By July, it had surged to 44%, raising the risk of severe dehydration, according to UNICEF, the U.N. children’s agency.

System breakdown

Early in the war, residents said deliveries from Israel’s water company Mekorot were curtailed — a claim that Israel has denied. Airstrikes destroyed some of the transmission pipelines as well as one of Gaza’s three desalination plants.

Bombardment and advancing troops damaged or cut off wells – to the point that today only 137 of Gaza’s 392 wells are accessible, according to UNICEF. Water quality from some wells has deteriorated, fouled by sewage, the rubble of shattered buildings and the residue of spent munitions.

Fuel shortages have strained the system, slowing pumps at wells and the trucks that carry water. The remaining two desalination plants have operated far below capacity or ground to a halt at times, aid groups and officials say.

In recent weeks, Israel has taken some steps to reverse the damage. It delivers water via two of Mekorot’s three pipelines into Gaza and reconnected one of the desalination plants to Israel’s electricity grid, Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel told The Associated Press.

Still, the plants put out far less than before the war, Monther Shoblaq, head of Gaza’s Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, told AP. That has forced him to make impossible choices.

The utility prioritizes getting water to hospitals and to people. But that means sometimes withholding water needed for sewage treatment, which can trigger neighborhood backups and heighten health risks.

Water hasn’t sparked the same global outrage as limits on food entering Gaza. But Shoblaq warned of a direct line between the crisis and potential loss of life.

“It’s obvious that you can survive for some days without food, but not without water,” he said.

Supply’s future

Water access is steadying after Israel’s steps. Aid workers have grown hopeful that the situation won’t get worse and could improve.

Southern Gaza could get more relief from a United Arab Emirates-funded desalination plant just across the border in Egypt. COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza, said it has allowed equipment into the enclave to build a pipeline from the plant and deliveries could start in a few weeks.

The plant wouldn’t depend on Israel for power, but since Israel holds the crossings, it will control the entry of water into Gaza for the foreseeable future.

But aid groups warn that access to water and other aid could be disrupted again by Israel’s plans to launch a new offensive on some of the last areas outside its military control. Those areas include Gaza City and Muwasi, where much of Gaza’s population is now located.

In Muwasi’s tent camps, people line up for the sporadic arrivals of water trucks.

Hosni Shaheen, whose family was also displaced from Khan Younis, already sees the water he drinks as a last resort.

“It causes stomach cramps for adults and children, without exception,” he said. “You don’t feel safe when your children drink it.”

Metz reported from Jerusalem. Alon Berstein contributed reporting from Kerem Shalom, Israel.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD, TRÂN NGUYỄN and NADIA LATHAN, Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Republicans ended a legislative session Friday without approving new congressional maps, but they still intend to satisfy President Donald Trump’s wishes for redistricting that bolsters their party ahead of the 2026 midterm elections as a multistate fight over control of Congress intensifies.

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After Democrats thwarted Texas Republicans’ redistricting plan with their absence during a special session, Gov. Greg Abbott, a Trump ally, was expected to quickly call another special session in Austin.

Meanwhile, California Democrats plan to release a proposal for new maps aimed at countering any Republican gains in Texas.

The nation’s two most populous states have been at the forefront of a partisan battle that has reached into multiple courtrooms and statehouses controlled by both parties, with the balance of Capitol Hill and Trump’s agenda at stake for the latter half of his second presidency.

Texas Democrats who left the state nearly two weeks ago have denied their Republican colleagues the required attendance to conduct business and vote on Trump’s redistricting agenda. But they have said they would to return to Austin for another session once California Democrats release a new plan that they’ve been shaping behind closed doors.

“Do not go very far, as I believe our governor will be calling us back for another special session very soon,” Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows said during a brief session Friday morning before lawmakers adjourned.

Burros said Abbott was expected to act at noon CDT.

Fight has gone national

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday that his state will hold a Nov. 4 special election to seek approval of redrawn districts intended to give Democrats five more U.S. House seats.

“We can’t stand back and watch this democracy disappear district by district all across the country,” Newsom said at what amounted to a campaign kickoff rally for the as-yet unreleased maps. “We are not bystanders in this world. We can shape the future.”

Newsom’s announcement marked the first time any state beyond Texas has officially waded into the mid-decade redistricting fight, though several governors and legislative leaders from both parties have threatened such moves. The Texas plan was stalled when minority Democrats went to Illinois, New York and Massachusetts on Aug. 3 to stop the Legislature from passing any bills.

Trump has urged other Republican-run states to redraw maps, even dispatching Vice President JD Vance to Indiana to press officials there. In Missouri, a document obtained by The Associated Press shows the state Senate received a $46,000 invoice to activate six redistricting software licenses and provide training for up to 10 staff members. Florida legislative leaders have suggested they will consider redistricting in the fall.

Newsom encouraged other Democratic-led states to get involved.

“We need to stand up — not just California. Other blue states need to stand up,” Newsom said.

House control could come down to a few seats in 2026

Republicans hold a 219-212 majority in the House, with four vacancies. New maps are typically drawn once a decade after the census is conducted. Many states, including Texas, give legislators the power to draw maps. California is among states that rely on an independent commission that is supposed to be nonpartisan.

The California map would take effect only if a Republican state moves forward, and it would remain through the 2030 elections. After that, Democrats say they would return mapmaking power to the independent commission approved by voters more than a decade ago.

In Los Angeles, Newsom and others depicted the looming battle as a conflict with all things Trump, tying it explicitly to the fate of American democracy.

“Donald Trump, you have poked the bear, and we will punch back,” said Newsom, a possible 2028 presidential contender.

Some people already have said they would sue to block the effort.

“Gavin Newsom’s latest stunt has nothing to do with Californians and everything to do with consolidating radical Democrat power, silencing California voters, and propping up his pathetic 2028 presidential pipe dream,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Christian Martinez said in a statement. “Newsom’s made it clear: he’ll shred California’s Constitution and trample over democracy — running a cynical, self-serving playbook where Californians are an afterthought and power is the only priority.”

California Democrats hold 43 of the state’s 52 House seats.

Lawmakers must officially declare the special election, which they plan to do next week after voting on the new maps. Democrats hold supermajorities in both chambers— enough to act without any Republican votes.

Nguyễn reported from Sacramento, California, Blood reported from Los Angeles and Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writer David Lieb in Jefferson City, Missouri, contributed.

Each Friday, City Limits rounds up the latest news on housing, land use and homelessness. Catch up on what you might have missed here.

Cuomo at a campaign event in June. (Flickr/Andrew Cuomo for Mayor)

On Saturday, Andrew Cuomo pitched a controversial proposal to cap incomes for people signing new leases in rent-stabilized units.

In an apparent dig at the mayoral election frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, who reportedly pays $2,300 a month for a rent-stabilized one-bedroom in Astoria, Cuomo said “rent stabilized units when they are vacant should only be rented to people who need affordable housing.”

“Otherwise what you are doing is abusing the system,” he added.

Nearly a million apartments in New York City are rent stabilized, housing 2.4 million New Yorkers.

Cuomo’s proposal, according to spokesperson Rich Azzopardi, would require that the yearly rent for a stabilized unit make up 30 percent or more of the household income. So if the rent was $2,500 a month (or $30,000 a year) the new tenants could make no more than $100,000.

The move was roundly denounced by his political opponents, tenant groups, and even some real estate insiders, who pointed out that people living in rent stabilized units already tend to be lower income and that the proposal might actually require new residents to be rent-burdened, meaning they spend at least a third of their income on housing.

Nevermind the fact that as governor, Cuomo signed the 2019 rent laws that eliminated provisions allowing rent hikes on wealthy families in stabilized units in the first place.

Here’s what else happened this week—

ICYMI, from City Limits:

New funding is expected to expand the number of supportive housing apartments for New Yorkers who cycle between shelter and jail, six years after the city pledged to create more of those units as part of its plan to close Rikers Island.

The City Council voted unanimously to pass a rezoning plan to build more housing in Midtown South, which officials say may reflect changing attitudes on new development.

The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) unveiled a restoration of the “Exodus and Dance” frieze by famed Harlem Renaissance sculptor Richmond Barthé, which has been on display at the Kingsborough Houses for decades.

ICYMI, from other local newsrooms:

State officials say they aren’t enforcing penalties against the developer of Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park—which failed to meet a deadline to build the remaining affordable housing the project pledged to deliver—because the company threatened to sue, Gothamist reports.

The Adams administration is secretly using a free internet program to give the NYPD access to camera feeds at NYCHA campuses, a New York Focus investigation revealed.

A program that displays public art in vacant city storefronts is opening an exhibit at NYCHA’s  Alfred E. Smith Houses on the Lower East Side, according to The City.

Politico factchecks Mayor Eric Adams’ claim of being the “most pro-housing administration” in city history.

The first city-funded homeless shelter for transgender New Yorkers opened in Queens, according to NBC New York.

To reach the reporter behind this story, contact Patrick@citylimits.org. To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org.

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The post Cuomo’s Plan to Means-Test Rent Stabilized Apartments, And What Else Happened This Week In Housing appeared first on City Limits.