In news from Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he will temporarily halt construction work at the site of a proposed U.S. military base on the island of Okinawa. This announcement is the latest in a decades-long battle between Japan’s central government and the residents of Okinawa, the majority of whom oppose the new base. Okinawa already houses about 26,000 U.S. troops. On Friday, Prime Minister Abe said he decided to halt construction work and resume talks because the central government and the Okinawa region were locked in a stalemate.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe “If we had continued as we have been doing, which is the Japanese government and the Okinawan prefecture locked in an eternal battle of lawsuits, we would have reached a stalemate.”