Trump says he will meet Xi at Osaka G20 summit after defiant China hits U.S. with new tariffs

Abstract: WASHINGTON/BEIJING - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he would meet Chinese President Xi Jinping next month as the trade war between the world’s two largest economies intensified, sending shivers through global markets. China announced earlier it would impose higher tariffs on a range of U.S. goods, including frozen vegetables and liquefied natural gas, a move that followed Washington’s decision last week to hike its own levies on $200 billion in Chinese imports. The U.S. Trade Representative’s office said later it planned to hold a public hearing next month on the possibility of raising duties of up to 25 percent on a further $300 billion worth of imports from China. Cellphones and laptops would be included in that list but pharmaceuticals would be excluded, the office said. The prospect that the United States and China were spiraling into a no-holds-barred dispute that could derail the global economy has rattled investors and led to a sharp selloff on equities markets in the past week. A gauge of global stocks shed a further 1.9 percent on Monday, its biggest one-day drop in more than five months. China’s yuan currency fell to its lowest level since December and oil futures slumped. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 600 points Monday as investors sought shelter from an escalating trade war between the U.S. and China. The selling was widespread and heavy, handing the benchmark S&P 500 index its biggest loss since January. The sell-off extended the market’s slide into a second week. The losses so far in May have now erased the market’s gains from April. Technology companies, which do a lot of business with China, led the way lower. Chipmakers were among the biggest decliners. Apple also took heavy losses, tumbling 5.8 percent. Farming equipment maker Deere drove losses in the industrial sector. Trump, who has embraced protectionism as part of an “America First” agenda, said he would talk to Xi at a Group of 20 summit in late June. “Maybe something will happen,” Trump said in remarks at the White House. “We’re going to be meeting, as you know, at the G20 in Japan and that’ll be, I think, probably a very fruitful meeting.” The Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councilor Wang Yi, said during a trip to Russia that China-U.S. talks were not a “one-way street” and needed to be conducted on the basis of equality, according to China’s Foreign Ministry. “Both countries’ negotiating teams have the ability and wisdom to resolve each other’s reasonable demands, and in the end reach a mutually beneficial, win-win agreement,” he said. The comment period on the planned new tranche of U.S. duties — which covers 3,805 product categories — is much shorter than in previous rounds and could potentially leave Trump in a position to trigger those tariffs by the time he meets Xi. Trump said later Monday he was optimistic about resolving the dispute. Speaking at a White House dinner, Trump noted that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who was attending the event, returned from trade talks in China two weeks ago. “He just got back from China. We’ll let you know in about three or four weeks whether of not it was successful. … But I have a feeling it’s going to be very successful,” Trump said. U.S. farmers are among those most hurt by the trade war, with soybean sales to China plummeting and U.S. soybean futures hitting their lowest level in a decade. Trump said on Monday his administration was planning to provide about $15 billion to help farmers whose products might be targeted. Farmers, who are a core political constituency for Trump’s Republicans heading into the 2020 presidential and congressional elections, are growing increasingly frustrated with the protracted trade talks and the failure to reach an agreement. “What that means for soybean growers is that we’re losing,” Davie Stephens, president of the American Soybean Association, said in a statement. China said on Monday it planned to set import tariffs ranging from 5 percent to 25 percent on 5,140 U.S. products on a $60 billion target list. It said the tariffs would take effect on June 1. “China’s adjustment on additional tariffs is a response to U.S. unilateralism and protectionism,” its Finance Ministry said. “China hopes the U.S. will get back to the right track of bilateral trade and economic consultations and meet with China halfway.” In the middle of the negotiations last week, Trump hiked tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods to 25 percent from 10 percent. The move affected 5,700 categories of Chinese products, including internet modems and routers. Sources have said talks stalled after China tried to delete commitments from a draft agreement that its laws would be changed to enact new policies on issues from intellectual property protection to forced technology transfers. Beijing said on Monday it would never surrender to external pressure. Its state media kept up a steady drum beat of strongly worded commentary, reiterating that the door to talks was always open but vowing that China would defend its national interests and dignity. State television said in a commentary the effect of the U.S. tariffs on the Chinese economy was “totally controllable.” Trump has said he is in no rush to finalize a deal with China. He again defended the move to hike U.S. tariffs and said there was no reason why American consumers would pay the costs. Economists and industry consultants, however, maintain that it is U.S. businesses that will pay the costs and likely pass them on to consumers. U.S. tariffs last year triggered retaliation by China, which imposed 25 percent levies on $50 billion worth of U.S. products including soybeans, beef and pork and lower tariffs on a list of $60 billion in goods. Goldman Sachs economists said in a research note new evidence showed the costs of Washington’s tariffs on China last year had fallen entirely on U.S. businesses and households, with no clear reduction in prices charged by Chinese exporters. They said the effects of the tariffs had spilled over noticeably to the prices charged by U.S. producers competing with goods affected by the levies.

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xi jinping
tariffs
donald trump
trade war
larry kudlow


As the world hands out subsidies, U.S. states start hitting drivers of electric cars with higher fees

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO - The rest of the world is handing out subsidies and incentives to speed up adoption of electric cars. But in nearly half of U.S. states, driving a battery-powered car requires paying additional fees. To date, 24 states have imposed special fees on electric vehicles, according to a national association of state legislatures. The money usually comes in the form of higher registration costs that can range up to $200 per year. More states are poised to follow. Last week, one Illinois legislator even proposed a $1,000 annual registration fee for electric cars. It’s a sharp reversal. When the new wave of plug-in cars hit the market in 2010, the federal government and a clutch of states adopted financial incentives to juice sales, seeing the vehicles as a way to fight global warming. Now even some states with incentives — most notably California, home to roughly half of all electric cars in the country — are turning to fees as a way to ensure that electric drivers pay their fair share to maintain roads and bridges. States typically support that infrastructure through gasoline taxes. “My feeling is that people using the system should pay for the system,” said Iowa Rep. John Forbes, a Democrat who backed recent fee legislation even though he and his wife drive a Chevrolet Bolt, one of about 1,000 electric cars in his state. To EV advocates, fees to offset lost gas taxes look like a solution to a problem that does not yet exist. Some of the states that have imposed fees, such as Idaho and North Dakota, have fewer than 1,000 battery-powered cars on the road. The amount of tax revenue lost as a result remains minimal to EV supporters, who see the fees — at least in some states — as part of a broader political pushback against alternative energy technologies. “I suspect that behind a lot of these state efforts, there is a bit of an oil-industry push to slow the increase of EVs in the market,” said Simon Mui, a senior scientist and EV advocate with the Natural Resources Defense Council. He pointed to support for the fees from the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group that drafts model legislation and has often backed fossil-fuel interests. An ALEC spokesman did not respond to requests for comment. Frank Macchiarola of the American Petroleum Institute lobbying group said the federal tax code “unfairly favors” EV owners. “Like other consumers, electric vehicle drivers, who also cause wear and tear on our roads and bridges, should pay their fair share to help support American infrastructure projects,” he said. API hasn’t lobbied any states to adopt the fees. Elsewhere there are generous incentives to car buyers willing to go electric, with sales rising rapidly as a result. Norway, for example, exempted electric car sales from taxes and offered drivers such perks as free parking in many cities; electric cars accounted for more than half of sales in the country in March. China’s incentives and mandates have been powerful enough to boost sales to more than 1 million electric cars in 2018 alone. Although U.S. sales are rising, EVs still represent a small fraction of the vehicles on the roads. By the end of last year, 565,032 battery-powered cars were registered nationwide, according to a tracking website sponsored by an auto-industry trade group. California, the headquarters and biggest market for electric automaker Tesla Inc., had 273,656. No other state has crossed the 100,000 mark. The U.S. government offers a $7,500 tax credit to EV buyers, but that incentive phases out once an individual automaker sells 200,000 EVs. Both Tesla and General Motors Co., maker of the Bolt, have already passed that milestone. If EV sales grow as expected in the U.S., it could take a significant bite out of gasoline tax revenue. So could fuel-mileage improvements in gasoline-powered cars. Together, those two forces could cut annual gasoline tax revenues by 61 percent by 2040, compared to what receipts would otherwise be, according to a recent study by BloombergNEF. But the problem won’t set in until the late 2020s, said Nick Albanese, a BloombergNEF analyst specializing in advanced transportation. For the immediate future, he said, increasingly efficient gasoline cars will pose a bigger threat to tax receipts than EVs. “We’re not really starting to see significant impacts, even in states like California where there’s been more EV adoption,” Albanese said. “Because of how slowly passenger vehicle fleets turn over, this won’t be a problem for a substantial amount of time.” To EV fee supporters, that simply means state governments should start preparing now. In Iowa, for instance, the legislature asked the state’s Department of Transportation to project how much gas tax revenue could be lost as electric car sales grow. The resulting study estimated that fully electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids would likely cost the state’s Road Use Tax Fund just $317,000 in lost receipts in 2018. But by 2030 the losses could reach as high as $45 million. Gas taxes are expected to pump $656 million into the fund during the current fiscal year. “We want to make sure we’re ahead of the curve, so that five or 10 years out, we’re not seeing a shortfall,” said Forbes, who serves on the transportation committee of Iowa’s House of Representatives. Iowa’s legislature passed a bill this spring that would phase in a $130 annual fee for electric cars and a $65 fee for plug-in hybrids. If signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds, it would bring in an estimated $185,000 next year. Iowa last raised its gasoline tax in 2015. Forbes and his wife bought their Bolt in 2017, and he likes the car’s snappy acceleration. He also drives a Chevy Suburban SUV, since the electric sedan can’t easily accommodate their two Great Danes. “I got some pushback from a few people on this bill, saying, ‘Hey, I’m doing the right thing for the environment,'” Forbes said of the fee on EVs. “In the end, if we don’t have good infrastructure to drive our vehicles on, our economy is going to suffer.”


China's arsenal limited in the trade war against the United States

Abstract: BEIJING - Beijing’s latest retaliation against U.S. tariff hikes — an increase on $60 billion of U.S. imports from June 1 — could leave China running low on ammunition in the trade war. After China’s retaliatory move was announced late Monday, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative prepared to hit China with new tariffs, releasing a list of about $300 billion worth of Chinese goods, including children’s clothing, toys, mobile phones and laptops, that Trump has threatened to hit with a 25 percent tariff. If Trump proceeds with the tariffs, it would see almost all imports from China covered by punitive import duties. Under a process outlined by U.S. officials, the new tariffs would not take effect until late June at the earliest. But that could come just as Trump meets with Xi on the sidelines of a Group of 20 leaders meeting June 28 and 29 in Osaka, raising the stakes in an already escalating trade war. China imports almost four times less than it exports to the United States, and Beijing already levies punitive charges on almost all U.S. goods arriving in China — $110 billion out of an annual total of $120 billion. So if Beijing does up its tariffs to as high as 25 percent on a range of U.S. products, including liquefied natural gas, chemicals, fruit, vegetables and seafood, it may limit its room for maneuver. China has a variety of options, including tariffs. “Tariffs are a self-inflicted wound. You are raising the import costs of your own producers,” said Robert Lawrence, a professor of trade and investment at Harvard University. However, in the middle of a trade war “economic considerations are secondary,” he said, because “it is much more about posturing, bargaining and politics. Can China be seen to be passively accepting these measures from the United States?” Cars and auto parts from the U.S. face the prospect of a 25 percent hike in duties. Announced by Beijing in December, the measure was suspended at the beginning of the year but can easily be reactivated. The sector, crucial for the U.S. economy, also represents an important electoral base for President Donald Trump. Another option would be devaluing the yuan. Trump regularly accuses the Chinese central bank of lowering its currency rate to support exporting firms, but is it an option? Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist for IHS Markit, says no. “It is not a realistic strategy for China to try to mitigate a 25 percent tariff by allowing further declines in the yuan,” he said. “A key priority for the Chinese government since 2015 has been to stabilize the exchange rate and prevent large capital outflows, in order to protect its foreign exchange reserves. “Therefore the Chinese government is unlikely to want any potentially destabilizing decline in the yuan, which could trigger renewed large capital outflows.” Beijing could also aim to penalize businesses. That could make life difficult for U.S. companies in the country in the form of regulatory requirements or customs blockages. These measures “will get a lot of support in China, but will further undermine business confidence” abroad, said Jake Parker of the U.S.-China Business Council. If Beijing goes for that option, it would constitute an “escalation,” according to Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “If you do that, then you run the risk that the Trump administration decides to do a ‘ZTE,'” referring to when Washington last year banned all sales of electronic components to the Chinese telecom giant, jeopardizing its very existence. The White House accused the firm of violating embargoes against Iran and North Korea. Trump finally agreed to reconsider the decision. Another option would be calling for product boycotts. The Chinese could be encouraged not to buy American flagship products, such as the iPhone. Amid frosty relations with Japan in 2012 or South Korea in 2017, boycott campaigns led to a 50 percent collapse in sales for both countries’ car brands in one month. However, such a measure would also penalize the millions of Chinese employed by American companies and their local partners. Yet another tool would be a snub of Boeing. China is key to Boeing, to whom it sells a quarter of its planes. The editor of the nationalist newspaper Global Times — controlled by the Chinese government — pondered the possibility that the country would reduce its Boeing orders, although the U.S. aircraft manufacturer said it was “confident.” At the end of March, Beijing nevertheless finalized a firm order for 300 aircraft from European giant Airbus when President Xi Jinping visited France. Finally, Beijing could make moves on debt. China is the largest holder of U.S. debt (about $1.2 trillion), but selling a big part of it would be risky because any destabilization of the markets could undermine the value of Treasury bonds held by Beijing.

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smartphones
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Japan's current account surplus shrinks first time in five years

Abstract: The surplus in the current account shrank for the first time in five years in fiscal 2018 to ¥19.41 trillion as China’s economic slowdown curbed growth in exports and higher oil prices boosted imports, government data showed Tuesday. The surplus in the current account, one of the widest gauges of international trade, logged a year-on-year decrease of 12.4 percent in the fiscal year ended in March, according to a preliminary report by the Finance Ministry. The goods trade surplus tumbled 84.4 percent to ¥706.8 billion on slower growth in exports, becoming the largest driver contributing to the drop in its current account. The escalating trade spat between the United States and China is expected to keep pressure on Japan’s exports, with the latest data showing the surplus in the current account fell more than 10 percent in March from a year earlier. The current account will be able to stay in surplus for the time being, supported mainly by primary income as goods trade will continue struggling amid the U.S.-China trade war, said Masato Koike, an economist at the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute. Primary income reflects how much Japan earns from foreign investments. Exports grew 2.6 percent to ¥80.32 trillion last fiscal year, but the increase was down from 10.6 percent the previous year on falling exports to China. Imports expanded 8.0 percent to ¥79.61 trillion, driven by a rise in prices of commodities including crude oil and liquefied natural gas. Among other key components, the primary income account registered a surplus of ¥21.07 trillion, up 3.9 percent from the previous year. The travel surplus jumped 23.3 percent from a year earlier to ¥2.49 trillion as the number of foreign travelers to Japan hit a record 31.63 million in fiscal 2018. But overall services trade marked a deficit of ¥637.8 billion due to a fall in income from marine transport services. In March alone, Japan posted a current account surplus of ¥2.85 trillion, marking the 57th consecutive month of black ink but down 10.6 percent from a year earlier. Primary income registered a surplus of ¥2.06 trillion, goods trade logged a surplus of ¥700.1 billion and services trade ran a surplus of ¥345.1 billion.


Bayer says Monsanto probably kept files on influential people across Europe

Abstract: FRANKFURT, GERMANY - Bayer said on Monday its Monsanto unit, which is being investigated by French prosecutors for compiling files of influential people such as journalists in France, likely did the same across Europe, suggesting a potentially wider problem. French prosecutors said on Friday they had opened an inquiry after newspaper Le Monde filed a complaint alleging that Monsanto — acquired by Bayer for $63 billion last year — had kept a file of 200 names, including journalists and lawmakers in hopes of influencing positions on pesticides. On Sunday, Bayer acknowledged the existence of the files, saying it does not believe any laws were broken but that it will ask an external law firm to investigate. “It’s safe to say that other countries in Europe were affected by lists. … I assume that all EU member states could potentially be affected,” Matthias Berninger, Bayer’s head of public affairs and sustainability, told journalists on Monday. While he did not say there had any illegal activity and added it was up to the external law firm to evaluate the conduct, Berninger said there were signs Monsanto had not played fairly in the use of private data. “There have been a number of cases where—- as they would say in football — not the ball was played but the man, or woman, was tackled,” Berninger, who joined Bayer in January, said on a conference call. “When you collect nonpublicly available data about individuals a Rubicon is clearly crossed,” regardless of whether data privacy laws were actually violated, he added. He repeated an apology issued by Bayer over the weekend. French public-sector research institutes Inra and CNRS on Monday said they would file criminal complaints over mishandling of personal data, after finding that some of their researchers and executives featured on the Monsanto stakeholder lists. Bayer said in its initial statement on Sunday that “Currently, we have no indication that the preparation of the lists under discussion violated any legal provisions.” It added, “Bayer will ask an external law firm to investigate the project Monsanto commissioned and evaluate the allegations. The law firm will also inform all of the persons on the lists of the information collected about them. Work with the PR agencies that were commissioned by Monsanto for the project at the time has been suspended, it said. Bayer already faces potentially heavy costs from U.S. class-action lawsuits in which plaintiffs argue that Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller causes cancer. Bayer shares have shed more than 40 percent since a first adverse U.S. judgment on Roundup last August, leaving the company with a market capitalization smaller than the price it paid for Monsanto. Shareholders delivered a rare rebuke to CEO Werner Baumann’s management team at Bayer’s annual general meeting last month, with a majority voting against ratifying the executive board’s business conduct in 2018.

europe monsanto pesticides roundup bayer


NHTSA scraps proposal to require car safety systems to prevent unintended acceleration

Abstract: DETROIT - The U.S. government is withdrawing a proposal to require all passenger vehicles to have safety systems to prevent unintended acceleration. The government said Monday the rule isn’t needed because the auto industry has installed systems voluntarily. The industry opposed the rule. It was proposed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2012 after a series of unintended acceleration problems with Toyota vehicles. The agency says all 2018 passenger vehicles have systems that override the throttle if a driver presses the gas and brakes at the same time, and it doesn’t expect any automakers to remove the brake-throttle override system in the future. But Jason Levine, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety, said it will take years to find out whether automakers installed the systems because of the pending rule. “With no requirement, the control system can disappear from future models or be sold as a luxury with no recourse for consumers,” Levine said. The move comes as the administration of President Donald Trump pushes to reduce or eliminate regulations, which Trump considers an unnecessary burden on industry. “NHTSA does not find that there is presently a safety need for a BTO (brake-throttle override) requirement,” the agency said in the withdrawal notice, which was posted Monday on a government website. The rule also would have required vehicles to return to idle if a driver stops pressing the gas pedal. But NHTSA wrote that it needs a broader understanding of safe design of vehicle electronic control systems to make a decision on that. Override systems would have been required in passenger cars, trucks and buses weighing less than 10,000 pounds. Most large trucks and buses weigh more than that, however. The proposed rule was an outgrowth of investigations in 2010 into claims that electronic defects were causing unintended acceleration in some Toyota models. An investigation by NHTSA and a separate study by NASA ruled out electronic defects in high-speed crashes and determined that in some cases drivers had inadvertently pressed the brake and gas pedal at the same time or that gas pedals had become trapped by floor mats. One accident that gained attention was the August 2009 high-speed crash of a Lexus near San Diego that resulted in the deaths of four people. Investigators determined that the driver, a veteran California highway patrolman, had applied the brake of the loaned car but was unable to override the accelerator, which was trapped by a floor mat. In February 2011, Toyota Motor Corp. recalled 2.17 million vehicles in the United States to address accelerator pedals that could become entrapped in floor mats or jammed in driver’s-side carpeting, prompting NHTSA to close its investigation. The agency also fined Toyota $50 million for not recalling millions of vehicles in a timely fashion. The rule was aimed at minimizing the risk that drivers would lose control of their vehicles as a result of either accelerator-control system disconnections or accelerator-pedal sticking or floor-mat entrapment, the safety administration said at the time.

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Uber hits fresh headwinds as shares extend losses after disappointing debut

Abstract: NEW YORK - Uber shares went into a fresh skid Monday — more bad news for the global ride-hailing giant, which endured steep declines in its hotly anticipated market debut last week. Shares in Uber tumbled 10.75 percent to close at $37.10 on the second day of trade on the New York Stock Exchange. Valued at some $82 billion in one of the biggest initial public offerings (IPOs) in the technology sector, Uber’s debut Friday was a major disappointment, losing 7.6 percent. The two-day meltdown left the Silicon Valley star with a cumulative loss of more 17.5 percent while ride-hailing rival Lyft has plunged 33 percent since its March debut. Jay Ritter, a University of Florida professor of finance specializing in IPOs, said it was highly unusual for a high-profile company like Uber to fall so quickly. “But it’s a very difficult company to value, and I expect that there will be big upswings and downswings in the future,” Ritter said. Still, Ritter said the rocky opening is not necessarily an indication of the long-term value of Uber. “If a year from now its value goes up to $100 billion people will be no longer talking about the first two days of trading,” he said. Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi urged employees to look past the rough patch on Wall Street and stay focused on better days ahead, according to an internal email obtained by AFP. “Remember that the Facebook and Amazon post-IPO trading was incredibly difficult for those companies,” Khosrowshahi said in the message. “And look at how they have delivered since. Our road will be the same.” He noted that Monday was a tough day for the stock market overall, not just for the San Francisco-based ride-share company with visions of becoming the “Amazon of transportation.” Khosrowshahi acknowledged that there were versions of Uber’s future in which the company does not prosper as hoped, but warned against being distracted by pessimistic voices in the market. “Sentiment does not change overnight, and I expect some tough public market times over the coming months,” he said in the email. “We will be judged long-term on our performance, and I welcome that.” Richard Windsor, an analyst who writes the Radio Free Mobile blog on technology, said Uber and Lyft have been pressured by their high valuations and intense competition. Uber and Lyft “are currently engaged in a life or death struggle to become the dominant ride-sharing platform in the USA,” Windsor said. “Until this fight is settled, there is very little reason to invest in either company as while they slug it out rock bottom prices and incentives for drivers will continue to plague profitability.” Lyft shares Monday fell nearly six percent to $48.15, extending the steady decline for Uber’s smaller U.S. rival. Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities said he expected the “valuation digestion process” to take some time and that he remained upbeat on Uber despite competition with Lyft and the long path to profitability. “We believe there is a large enough ocean for two boats as the ridesharing market domestically in the U.S. is roughly $1.2 trillion and $5.7 trillion globally,” Ives said. “We expect ridership, drivers, and the monetization opportunities for Uber to increase markedly over the coming years. A core tenet of our bull thesis on Uber is around the company’s ability to morph its unrivaled ride-sharing platform into a broader consumer engine.” Uber and Lyft face additional troubles, highlighted by last week’s protests from some drivers in the U.S., and regulatory roadblocks in many parts of the world. Thousands of Uber and Lyft drivers turned off their apps in a US-wide strike last week over revenue-sharing formulas and working conditions. Ride-share companies maintain that drivers are able to thrive and maintain work flexibility, and that their business model would not work if drivers were treated as wage-based employees.

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Dollar slightly firmer above ¥109.60 in late Tokyo trading

Abstract: The dollar was slightly firmer above ¥109.60 in Tokyo trading late Tuesday after recouping overnight losses in overseas trading, helped by renewed optimism over trade negotiations between the United States and China. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥109.67-67, up from ¥109.64-64 at the same time Monday. The euro was at $1.1238-1238, up from $1.1229-1230, and at ¥123.25-26, up from ¥123.11-12. The dollar moved around ¥109.20 in early trading, carrying over its weakness from foreign trading following reports about China’s retaliatory duties on imports from the United States in a further escalation in their trade dispute, traders said. Dollar buying intensified later in the morning, aided by optimistic comments from U.S. President Donald Trump on the outlook for trade negotiations with Beijing, sending the dollar above ¥109.60 around noon. According to U.S. media reports, Trump said at a dinner party at the White house on Monday that he thinks that the U.S.-China trade negotiations will be successful. The dollar was also propped up by buying by Japanese importers, a rise in U.S. stock index futures and the resilience of the Nikkei 225 stock average, traders said. After the buying ran its course, the dollar mainly fluctuated around ¥109.60-70 in the afternoon. “Rise-averse sentiment weakened, but the dollar lacked buying incentives to rise above ¥110,” a currency broker said. “Some market players hurriedly moved to buy back the dollar against the yen after seeing a relatively small decline in Tokyo stocks and the dollar’s firm downside,” another currency broker said. “Unless a specific schedule of the next trade talks between the United States and China is decided, the dollar is unlikely to stage a sharp recovery (versus the yen),” an official of a Japanese bank said.


Nikkei falls for seventh day, briefly slips below 21,000

Abstract: The Nikkei 225 average fell Tuesday due to worries about an intensifying U.S.-China trade dispute, extending its losing streak to a seventh session for the first time in three years and a month. The key gauge lost 124.05 points, or 0.59 percent, to end at 21,067.23 after briefly sinking below 21,000. The Nikkei last fell for seven consecutive sessions in the period to April 6, 2016. On Monday, the Nikkei dropped 153.64 points. The Topix, which covers all first-section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, closed down 6.16 points, or 0.40 percent, at 1,534.98 following an 8.28-point slump Monday. The market opened sharply lower, with the Nikkei briefly plunging more than 400 points to slip below the 21,000 line for the first time since March 28, in the wake of a tumble in U.S. equities overnight amid an escalation of the U.S.-China trade row. The Chinese government announced Monday that it will raise tariffs on U.S. products to up to 25 percent on June 1 in retaliation for last week’s tariff hike by the United States. Also on Monday, the United States announced details of additional tariffs on all imports from China. The Nikkei gradually cut losses but remained in negative territory throughout Tuesday. Ryuta Otsuka, strategist at the investment information department of Toyo Securities Co., said the Nikkei’s resilience came after investors repurchased stocks in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s statement, at a dinner party at the White House on Monday, that he thinks U.S.-China trade negotiations will be successful. Otsuka also noted that the Nikkei was “supported by apparent purchases of exchange-traded funds by the Bank of Japan.” The index, however, failed to end on the plus side due to an absence of news eagerly awaited by investors, such as on a resolution to the U.S.-China trade war, Otsuka said. An official of a bank-affiliated securities firm said the Nikkei’s downside was limited as Shanghai stocks fell only slightly, with a view spreading among Chinese investors that the United States and China will reach a trade agreement. Falling issues outnumbered rising ones 1,139 to 931 in the first section, while 70 issues were unchanged. Volumes increased to 1.733 billion shares from 1.420 billion Monday. Tire company Bridgestone suffered a decline of 2.95 percent. Brokers said the company came under selling pressure after announcing on Monday a 22.8 percent year-on-year decline in its operating profit for January-March. Among other major losers were automakers Isuzu and Mazda, as well as camera maker Konica Minolta. On the other hand, electronic parts producer Taiyo Yuden jumped 5.24 percent, supported by a rosy earnings outlook for this business year. Also on the sunny side were textile maker Toray and hydraulic equipment manufacturer KYB.


Nissan considers buying stake in Chinese electric carmaker

Abstract: Nissan Motor Co. is looking to invest in a Chinese electric car startup to provide it with a greater footprint in the world’s biggest market for new-energy vehicles, according to sources familiar with the matter. Nissan wants to buy a stake of as much as 25 percent in a Chinese electric vehicle maker, and it has narrowed the potential targets to startups including WM Motor Technology Co., Zhejiang Hozon New Energy Automobile Co. and CHJ Automotive Co., according to the sources, who asked not to be named as the plan isn’t public. The plan signals that Nissan is looking to push ahead with ambitions in the electric vehicle space started when Carlos Ghosn still helmed the carmaker. While Ghosn was arrested in November on charges of financial misconduct, throwing Nissan’s alliance with Renault SA into turmoil, the Japanese carmaker can’t afford to take its eye off the Chinese market, with rivals including Volkswagen AG and Tesla Inc. doubling down there. Nissan was expected to report its weakest annual operating profit in a decade Tuesday, amid a slowdown in U.S. sales and an aging model lineup. A spokesman for Nissan declined to comment, as did representatives for the three Chinese electric vehicle companies. Before his ouster, Ghosn was pushing for greater integration between Nissan and Renault, which he brought together two decades ago when the Japanese company was foundering. Nissan Chief Executive Officer Hiroto Saikawa at one point raised the possibility of bringing another manufacturer into the pact, possibly by acquiring Chinese electric vehicle or connected services companies, according to email correspondence between the CEO and Ghosn seen by Bloomberg. While Nissan is a global force in electric vehicles — its Leaf is the No. 1 electric car by cumulative sales — the Chinese market is dominated by local manufacturers such as Beijing Electric Vehicle Co. and BYD Co. A relationship with an innovative local contender could help Nissan better appeal to Chinese buyers. Nissan is seeking to act before potential acquisition targets become too big and expensive, according to one of the sources. The company is shying away from players whose cars may clash with Nissan’s own offerings in the electric vehicle space. The carmaker considers Chinese startups to be more agile than established manufacturers, making them better suited to potentially disrupt the industry, they said. Nissan’s technology experts are currently assessing the potential targets as part of a due diligence process, the sources said. Nissan’s code name for the China electric vehicle project is “Hermes,” they said. Zhejiang Hozon, which plans to start delivering its second mass-produced car by end of this year, won a manufacturing permit from China’s economic planing body, the National Development and Reform Commission, in 2017. The Shanghai-based carmaker said last month it raised 3 billion yuan (¥47.8 billion) in a B round of financing, bringing the total it has gathered to 7 billion yuan, according to its website. CHJ, set up by entrepreneur Li Xiang in Beijing, started taking orders last month for Leading Ideal ONE, its first electric SUV model with range-extending system that uses gasoline to power long-distance drives. Li previously founded companies including China’s premier car-buying portal, Autohome Inc. WM, founded by Volvo Cars veteran Freeman Shen, makes the Weltmeister EX5 electric sport utility vehicle. The Shanghai-based company is aiming to become the first electric car startup to post a full-year profit, counting on its know-how from the supply chain to manufacturing and sales, Shen said last month, without providing a time frame. While China’s electric car sales keep rising, many industry observers are predicting that just some of the country’s electric vehicle startups will survive as the boom has led to overcapacity in manufacturers. The number of registered electric vehicle makers in China has more than tripled over the past two years to more than 480.

china nissan carmakers renault acquisitions ev


Embattled Japanese regional lender Suruga reportedly to tie up with Shinsei Bank

Abstract: Struggling regional lender Suruga Bank is seeking support from Shinsei Bank, according to sources with knowledge of the matter. A comprehensive tie-up between the two, including a capital partnership, will be announced as soon as Wednesday, the sources said Monday. The tie-up is expected to help Suruga make progress in its business reconstruction, after public trust in the lender was tarnished by its involvement in fraudulent loans for real estate investment, analysts said. Electronics retailer Nojima Corp., which has recently acquired an equity stake of slightly less than 5 percent in Suruga, has offered to back up the struggling bank. Suruga apparently aims to map out a concrete business reconstruction plan by the time it holds a general shareholders meeting in late June. Also on Wednesday, Suruga is set to release its earnings for the business year to March and the results of its full-scale investigations into the issue of fraudulent loans. The bank, based in Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture, is considering receiving fresh capital from Shinsei Bank and forming a broad tie-up on services for individuals, including housing loans, the sources said. Shinsei, which has been strengthening its retail operations, believes it can enjoy synergy benefits from tying up with Suruga, the sources said. Nojima has strength in sales of digital home appliances. By working with Suruga, the electronics retailer hopes to expand its “fintech” (financial technology) operations. Following the revelations last year of a series of irregularities related to loans for investment in shared houses and other real estate, Suruga was ordered by the Financial Services Agency to suspend some of its operations for the half-year through last month.

scandals
banks
financial results
shinsei bank
suruga bank
nojima


Uniqlo, GU brand's Fast Retailing says 460,000 online accounts were accessed in Japan hack

Abstract: Fast Retailing Co. said hackers may have gained access to the personal information of about half a million users of its Uniqlo and GU brand e-commerce portals. Hackers accessed at least 460,000 accounts registered on Fast Retailing’s Japanese shopping websites, the company said in a statement Monday. Users’ personal information, purchase history and parts of credit card numbers may have been accessed, the Tokyo-based retailer said. The hack occurred from April 23 to May 10, and the company is still investigating. There have been no reports so far of information being used by a third party, the company said. Fast Retailing has taken measures to block the unauthorized access and invalidate the passwords of the affected accounts. It also asked all affected customers to reset their passwords to access the company’s online stores. The casual clothing store operator said identification numbers and passwords previously leaked from other website operators may have been used in the unauthorized access. “We deeply apologize to our customers and pledge to prevent this from happening again,” the company said in a statement. Consumer data security has become a growing concern for corporations as e-commerce proliferates, with an increasing number of retail and services companies reporting incidents. Last year, Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. and Marriott International Inc. were among those reporting that hackers had accessed customers’ personal information. The Fast Retailing incident was limited to the Japanese websites and the breach was a list-based attack, the company said. Such access can happen when customers use the same ID and password combinations on multiple websites. The company advised users to change their passwords. Fast Retailing has been investing heavily to build up its e-commerce operation. Internet sales made up 10 percent of its domestic sales in the first half of the company’s current fiscal year. It doesn’t disclose the total number of online users.

internet
hacking
uniqlo
fast retailing
gu


Nissan projects weakest profit in a decade as Carlos Ghosn woes linger

Abstract: YOKOHAMA - Nissan Motor Co., trying to rebuild its tarnished reputation over failed corporate governance following the criminal investigation of two former executives, cut its operating profit outlook by a sharp 28 percent for fiscal 2019 to its lowest in a decade. At a news conference Tuesday at Nissan’s headquarters in Yokohama, CEO Hiroto Saikawa said operating profit is projected to sink to ¥230 billion from ¥318 billion in fiscal year 2018. Net income is estimated to dip to ¥170 billion from ¥319 billion. “The most urgent priority is shaking off the weak performance,” Saikawa said. The earnings announcement was confirmation that management is under heavy pressure to turn the company around. Following the fiscal year 2018 trend, Nissan projected sales would continue to increase in Japan and China but decline in North America and Europe. Saikawa also weighed in on Nissan’s status in its alliance with Renault SA. The Nikkei newspaper reported last month that the French automaker had proposed an integration of the two firms to Nissan in mid-April. Nissan rejected the proposal, the newspaper reported. Saikawa acknowledged that differences of opinion exist between him and Jean-Dominique Senard, Renault’s chairman, but he said they agree on the prioritization of restructuring Nissan’s profitability. As for his course of action, Saikawa reiterated that he would not be stepping down. “As I have said, I want to forge ahead with overhauling the company. … There are no changes to that,” he said. Saikawa unveiled a series of reform plans dubbed “New Nissan Transformation.” He vowed to improve the carmaker’s market share in the United States, where vehicle sales fell to 1.4 million units in fiscal 2018. The plans include expanding electric vehicle sales both domestically and abroad, reshuffle all core models and introduce more than 20 new models. Saikawa touched on the Carlos Ghosn saga, but largely distanced himself from the scandal and promised a fresh start. Nissan has cut ties with the former executive after it said an internal probe found he and a former executive, Greg Kelly, engaged in financial misconduct. Ghosn was arrested and indicted on charges of underreporting his compensation and aggravated breach of trust. Both men deny any wrongdoing. Ghosn has been credited with transforming the company from the verge of bankruptcy to a global titan under his leadership. “Many issues explained here today have to deal with a negative legacy inherited from the previous structure,” Saikawa said. “I would like to apologize for making customers, shareholders and relevant parties worried.”

scandal
nissan
carmakers
carlos ghosn
financial results
ceo


Takeda expects net loss in fiscal 2019 due to cost of Shire buyout

Abstract: Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. said Tuesday its profit declined in the business year ended March and it expects to book a net loss of ¥383 billion in the current year due to costs related to its buyout earlier this year of Irish drugmaker Shire PLC. But Japan’s largest drugmaker said its core operations continued to fare well, with such key products as ulcerative colitis and multiple myeloma treatments posting higher sales. In the 2018 business year, Takeda’s group net profit fell 41.6 percent to ¥109.13 billion. Without the effects of the takeover of Shire, the company said it saw a 67.4 percent rise in net profit. Takeda and other major Japanese pharmaceutical companies have sought to improve their competitiveness in the global market through acquisitions of foreign firms. Takeda has aggressively bought European and U.S. drugmakers to expand its product lineup and development pipeline. With the acquisition of Shire, Takeda projects its sales in the year to March 2020 will climb 57.4 percent to ¥3.30 trillion. If achieved it would be the first Japanese pharmaceutical company to record sales of over ¥3 trillion. The net loss forecast for the current business year will mainly result from a write-down of Shire’s inventories. Without the Shire-related costs, Takeda’s sales and profit would likely be higher from the previous year, it said. The ¥6.2 trillion takeover of Shire was completed in January, making it the biggest-ever Japanese acquisition of a foreign firm.


Lixil announces board candidates, rejects ex-CEO's proposal

Abstract: Major housing equipment maker Lixil Group Corp. has announced eight candidates for its board of directors to be submitted to a general meeting of its shareholders in June. Former Lixil President and Chief Executive Officer Kinya Seto, a current board director and Lixil shareholder, who is at odds with Chairman and CEO Yoichiro Ushioda, has asked the company to include eight people, including himself, in its list of director nominees. But the list does not include Seto. On Monday, Seto, who aims to return as CEO after being removed from that post and as president last autumn, expressed anger and said that he still intends to realize his shareholder proposal. None of the eight people on the Lixil list have ever been appointed to the board. Seven are from outside of the company. Only two of the eight people proposed by Seto, including former Supreme Court Justice Kaoru Onimaru, are on the company’s list. The management feud between Ushioda, who is from Lixil’s founding family, and Seto appears likely to escalate further. Talking to reporters in Tokyo on Monday, Seto said he will continue to call for all eight people he proposed to be appointed to the Lixil board. The current board consists of 12 directors. Ushioda has expressed his intention to resign as board director May 20. In addition, President and Chief Operating Officer Hirokazu Yamanashi and the head of the nomination committee that decided the company’s eight director candidates will also step down from the board. Foreign institutional investors have criticized Seto’s ouster as president and CEO, and demanded that Lixil dismiss Ushioda, saying the procedures related to the dismissal showed that the firm’s governance system is not functioning. Ushioda has voiced his intention to quit as chairman and CEO in June. Also on Monday, Lixil said it incurred a group net loss of ¥52.1 billion in the year to March due to poor performance at an Italian subsidiary. This year, Lixil expects to return to the black with a net profit of ¥15 billion as it plans to eke out a profit by selling a domestic building materials unit.

financial results
lixil
kinya seto
yoichiro ushioda


In setback for Apple, U.S. Supreme Court lets App Store antitrust suit proceed

Abstract: WASHINGTON - A divided U.S. Supreme Court has given the go-ahead to an antitrust lawsuit accusing Apple Inc. of forcing consumers to overpay for iPhone software applications, a decision that could lead to billions of dollars in damages and put the company’s lucrative way of selling apps at risk. In a 5-4 ruling, the justices upheld a lower court’s decision to allow the proposed class action lawsuit to proceed. The consumer plaintiffs claim Apple monopolized the market in violation of federal antitrust law by requiring that apps be sold through its App Store and extracting an excessive 30 percent commission on purchases. Apple’s shares fell 5.8 percent to $185.72 on Monday. The ruling came on a day when Apple shares already were trading lower because of concerns over a full-blown U.S.-China trade war. The Cupertino, California-based technology company, backed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration in the case, argued that it was only acting as an agent for app developers, who set their own prices and pay Apple’s commission. Monday’s ruling, written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, did not resolve the merits of the claim against Apple. But if the plaintiffs win at trial, Mark Rifkin, a lawyer representing them, said that “the overcharges paid by consumers since Apple’s monopoly began will be measured in the billions of dollars.” In a statement, Apple said, “We’re confident we will prevail when the facts are presented and that the App Store is not a monopoly by any metric.” The dispute hinged in part on how the justices would apply a 1977 Supreme Court precedent. In that case, the court limited damages for anti-competitive conduct to those directly overcharged rather than indirect victims who paid an overcharge passed on by others. Kavanaugh explained from the bench that the 1977 precedent was “not a get-out-of-court-free card for monopolistic retailers,” an apparent allusion to the popular board game Monopoly. “Apple’s theory would provide a roadmap for monopolistic retailers to structure transactions with manufacturers or suppliers so as to evade antitrust claims by consumers and thereby thwart effective antitrust enforcement,” Kavanaugh wrote in the ruling. Apple has said the consumers were indirect purchasers, at best, because any overcharge would be passed on to them by developers. The iPhone users who sued countered that they pay Apple — not an app developer — whenever buying an app from the App Store, and were therefore direct victims of the overcharges. Siding with the consumers, Kavanaugh, a conservative appointed by Trump, joined the court’s four liberal justices to rule against Apple. Dissenting from the decision, conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch said the decision is “not how antitrust law is supposed to work” because it gives a green light to the exact type of case that the court had previously prohibited. Gorsuch also was appointed by Trump. Apple had avoided much of the antitrust scrutiny faced by other technology firms including Facebook, largely by arguing that it does not have a dominant position in the many markets in which it operates, from smartphones and laptops to streaming music services. The lawsuit, along with complaints over App Store policies lodged with European officials by rivals such as music-streaming platform Spotify, could draw Apple into the broader public debate over the market power of large tech companies. The legal setback for Apple comes as investors are looking to the company’s services business, including its App Store, to fuel growth as iPhone sales slow. Rifkin said he was gratified by the court’s decision, which “reaffirmed the straightforward principle that consumers who purchase a monopolized product directly from the alleged monopolist may sue the monopolist to recover the full amount of the overcharge they are forced to pay by reason of the monopoly.” Apple said in its statement, “Developers set the price they want to charge for their app and Apple has no role in that. The vast majority of apps on the App Store are free and Apple gets nothing from them.”

u.s .
apple
apps
supreme court
apple store
brett kavanaugh


Saudi Arabia says oil facilities near Riyadh attacked by explosive-laden drones

Abstract: RIYADH/DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - Saudi Arabia said explosive-laden drones had struck oil pumping stations in the Riyadh region on Tuesday in what it called an act of terrorism two days after Saudi oil tankers were sabotaged off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. The energy minister of the world’s largest oil exporter said the attack on two oil pumping stations had not disrupted oil production or exports of crude and petroleum products. Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih, in comments run by state media, said the two recent attacks threatened global oil supplies and proved the need to counter “terrorist groups behind such destructive acts” including the Iranian-backed Houthi militias in Yemen. Houthi-run Masirah TV earlier on Tuesday cited a military official saying the Houthis had launched drone attacks on “vital Saudi installations.” A Saudi-led military coalition has been fighting the Houthis in Yemen for four years. Tuesday’s attack and the operation against commercial vessels off the coast of the UAE on Sunday took place as the United States and Iran exchanged angry words over sanctions and the U.S. military presence in the region. The UAE has not revealed details on the nature of the attack on ships near Fujairah, a bunkering hub lying just outside the Strait of Hormuz, or blamed any party or country. Iran was a prime suspect in the sabotage on Sunday although Washington had no conclusive proof, a U.S. official familiar with American intelligence said on Monday. Iran has denied involvement and described the attack on the four commercial vessels as “worrisome and dreadful.” It has called for an investigation. The U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia said Washington should take what he called “reasonable responses short of war” after it had determined who was behind the attacks near Fujairah. “We need to do a thorough investigation to understand what happened, why it happened, and then come up with reasonable responses short of war,” Ambassador John Abizaid told reporters in the Saudi capital Riyadh in remarks published on Tuesday. “It’s not in (Iran’s) interest, it’s not in our interest, it’s not in Saudi Arabia’s interest to have a conflict.” Washington has increased sanctions on Tehran, saying it wants to reduce Iranian oil exports to zero, after quitting the 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and global powers last year. The U.S. Maritime Administration said last week that Iran could target U.S. commercial ships including oil tankers sailing through Middle East waterways. Tehran has called the U.S. military presence “a target” rather than a threat. A fifth of global oil consumption passes through the Strait of Hormuz from Middle East crude producers to markets in Asia, Europe, North America and beyond. The narrow waterway separates Iran from the Arabian Peninsula. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards threatened last month to close the Hormuz chokepoint if Tehran was barred from using it. U.S. President Donald Trump wants to force Tehran to agree a broader arms control accord and has sent an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers to the Gulf in a show of force against what U.S. officials have said are threats to U.S. troops in the region.

u.s .
yemen
terrorism
saudi arabia
oil
iran
sanctions


The moon has become 'skinnier' over the past several hundred million years, study says

Abstract: WASHINGTON - The moon is steadily shrinking, causing wrinkling on its surface and quakes, according to an analysis of imagery captured by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) published Monday. A survey of more than 12,000 images revealed that lunar basin Mare Frigoris near the moon’s north pole — one of many vast basins long assumed to be dead sites from a geological point of view — has been cracking and shifting. Unlike our planet, the moon doesn’t have tectonic plates; instead, its tectonic activity occurs as it slowly loses heat from when it was formed 4.5 billion years ago. This in turn causes its surface to wrinkle, similar to a grape that shrivels into a raisin. Since the moon’s crust is brittle, these forces cause its surface to break as the interior shrinks, resulting in so-called thrust faults, where one section of crust is pushed up over an adjacent section. As a result, the moon has become about 150 feet (50 meters) “skinnier” over the past several hundred million years. The Apollo astronauts first began measuring seismic activity on the moon in the 1960s and 1970s, finding the vast majority were occurred deep in the body’s interior while a smaller number were on its surface. The analysis was published in Nature Geoscience and examined the shallow moonquakes recorded by the Apollo missions, establishing links between them and very young surface features. “It’s quite likely that the faults are still active today,” said Nicholas Schmerr, an assistant professor of geology at the University of Maryland who co-authored the study. “You don’t often get to see active tectonics anywhere but Earth, so it’s very exciting to think these faults may still be producing moonquakes.”

nasa
space
astronomy
moon
lunar reconnaissance orbiter


415.26 parts per million: CO2 levels in atmosphere hit historic high

Abstract: PARIS - Scientists in the United States have detected the highest levels of planet-warming carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere since records began, sounding new alarm over the relentless rise of man-made greenhouse gas emissions. The Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, which has tracked atmospheric CO2 levels since the late 1950s, on Saturday morning detected 415.26 parts per million (ppm). It was also the first time on record that the observatory measured a daily baseline above 415 ppm. The last time Earth’s atmosphere contained this much CO2 was more than 3 million years ago, when global sea levels were several meters higher and parts of Antarctica were blanketed in forest. “It shows that we are not on track with protecting the climate at all. The number keeps rising and it’s getting higher year after year,” Wolfgang Lucht, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), told AFP. “This number needs to stabilize.” But far from stabilizing, levels of CO2 — one of a trinity of greenhouse gases produced when fossil fuels are burned — are climbing ever more rapidly. Ralph Keeling, director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s CO2 Program, said the trend would probably continue throughout 2019 — likely to be an El Nino year in which temperatures rise due to warmer ocean currents. “The average growth rate is remaining on the high end. The increase from last year will probably be around 3 parts per million whereas the recent average has been 2.5 ppm,” he said. “Likely we’re seeing the effect of mild El Nino conditions on top of ongoing fossil fuel use.” The 2015 Paris Agreement calls on humanity to block the rise in Earth’s temperature at “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) compared to preindustrial levels, and 1.5 Celsius if possible. The last four years were the four hottest on record and, in spite of the Paris deal and increasing public awareness of the problem, mankind continues to break its own emissions records, year on year. Earth’s average surface temperature has already increased 1.0 degree since pre-industrial times due to man-made emissions. “All of human history has been in a colder climate than now,” said Lucht. “Every time an engine runs we emit CO2 and it has to go somewhere. It doesn’t miraculously disappear, it stays in the atmosphere. “Despite the Paris climate agreement, despite all the speeches and the protests — we are not seeing that we are bending the curve yet,” he added. While there is some disagreement over what would constitute “safe” atmospheric CO2 levels, there is a broad consensus that 350 ppm — a level surpassed in the late 1980s — would stave off runaway global warming. Lucht said: “350 ppm is a precautionary value because some of the consequences of being above 400 may still be evolving. But since we’re not on track anyhow, any value that we can manage to stabilise at is a win.” The 415 ppm threshold was first surpassed earlier this month and has already risen further. “I’m old enough to remember when passing 400ppm was a big deal,” Gernot Wagner, a research associate at Harvard University, said on Twitter. “Two years ago we hit 410ppm for the first time. By now, it’s 415ppm. And oh, the increase is increasing at an increasing rate!”

carbon
climate change
hawaii
environment
paris climate accord
mauna loa observatory


Trump urges judge not to fast-track his lawsuit over House subpoena

Abstract: WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday objected to a judge’s plan to fast-track his lawsuit seeking to block a congressional subpoena for information about eight years of his personal and business finances. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington proposed holding a trial on Tuesday, but Trump’s lawyers said that plan would deny the president a “full and fair” hearing. Trump’s lawyers said the hearing should only deal with his request for a preliminary ruling. Mehta will decide whether Mazars LLP, Trump’s long-time accounting firm, must comply with a subpoena issued by the House Oversight Committee seeking financial records for Trump and his company. The committee says it needs Trump’s records to examine whether he has conflicts of interest or broke the law by not disentangling himself from his business holdings as previous presidents did. Lawyers for Trump and the Trump Organization, his company, last month filed a lawsuit to block the House Oversight subpoena, saying it exceeded the constitutional limits of Congress’s investigative power. Trump argued that, rather than fulfilling its constitutional lawmaking duties, Congress was on a quest to “turn up something that Democrats can use as a political tool against the president now and in the 2020 election.” In Monday’s court filing, Trump’s lawyers said they need more time to collect evidence and develop their cases, and that his right to due process would be undermined by the judge’s accelerated timetable.

u.s .
congress
taxes
donald trump
trump organization


Sudan's military and opposition agree on transitional power structure as tensions mount

Abstract: KHARTOUM - Sudan’s military council and opposition groups said they had agreed on Monday to a power structure for the country’s transition but have yet to decide how long it will last or the make-up of transitional bodies. The apparent progress was offset by rising tension in the capital Khartoum, where paramilitary forces patrolled the streets into the evening, using tear gas and gunfire to disrupt protests blocking roads. Protesters said counterrevolutionaries were inciting violence in an attempt to sabotage a political deal. An opposition doctors’ group said three protesters had been wounded by gunfire, and several others by sticks or whips. The military-civilian balance of power and the length of the transition have been key sticking points in talks between the council and an alliance of protest and opposition groups since former President Omar al-Bashir was ousted on April 11. Those points will be addressed on Tuesday, according to Transitional Military Council (TMC) spokesman Lt. Gen. Shams El Din Kabbashi and Taha Osman Ishaq, a spokesman for the Declaration of Freedom and Change Forces opposition alliance. Protesters are pushing for a civilian-led transition and have kept up demonstrations against the council since military officers removed Bashir, who is now facing multiple criminal investigations. For a second day on Monday demonstrators blocked Nile Street, a major avenue running south of the Blue Nile, placing burning branches and stones across the road, as well as several other streets north and south of the river. In the morning, police and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) dismantled barricades and dispersed about 100 protesters who had blocked a road leading from Khartoum North to al-Mek Nimir Bridge and the centre of the capital. Later, RSF men fired gunshots to disperse protesters near Blue Nile bridge and thick clouds of tear gas were fired near Jumhuriya Street south of the river, where the RSF were seen beating a rickshaw driver as they patrolled in vehicles armed with sticks and guns, witnesses said. Protesters demanding a swift handover of power to civilians have been camped at a sit-in outside the Defense Ministry compound in central Khartoum since April 6, as the military has negotiated with the opposition alliance over the transition. Talks resumed on Monday, and both sides said they had produced agreement on the duties and authorities of sovereign, executive and legislative bodies. “We discussed the structure of the transitional authority and agreed on it completely, and we also agreed on the system of governance in the transitional period,” said Kabbashi. “We will continue tomorrow with talks on the ratio of participation on the sovereign level … and the length of the transitional period,” he said. “God willing, we will agree on these two points.” The Sudanese Professionals’ Association, which leads the opposition alliance, has accused the TMC of expanding its powers as talks over the transition have stalled, threatening a campaign of civil disobedience to up pressure on the military. “The situation now on public roads, bridges and in neighborhoods expresses the state of popular discontent with the procrastination and the consumption of time by the military council,” the SPA said on Monday. The TMC has said it is not seeking power and is open to further dialogue. General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the RSF and deputy head of the TMC, told a military meeting on Monday that the armed forces and RSF were working to protect “security and stability” in Sudan. Also on Monday, Sudan’s public prosecution said it had charged Bashir and others with incitement and involvement in the killing of protesters. Earlier this month, the public prosecutor ordered Bashir to be interrogated on charges of money laundering and financing terrorism. There has been no comment from Bashir, who is in prison in Khartoum.


Catapulting spider springs a surprise on unsuspecting prey, study finds

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Just when you thought spiders couldn’t get any more terrifying. A study published Monday has found that an arachnid species is capable of winding up its web to store up elastic energy, before releasing its grip and catapulting itself at furious speed toward its unsuspecting prey. The development places the triangle-weaver spider, or Hyptiotes cavatus, alongside humans as the other known species to amplify muscular energy with external devices, a feat people achieve with crossbows or ballistae. Researcher Sarah Han, a doctoral student at the University of Akron in Ohio, said she had been intrigued by the spider during her walks in the woods. “It did this interesting mechanism while hunting we didn’t really know that much about,” she said. “People had written about it in an observational way but no one had quantified it.” Han and colleagues observed the spiders under lab conditions, recording high-speed videos of them as they hunted flies. “The spider uses its muscles to wind back the web — like you use your arms to hold a bow string — then holds it in that position till a prey comes into contact with the web,” she said — maintaining tension on its anchor line for hours on end. “When the spider releases the web, both spider and web accelerate forward very rapidly. “The rapidly moving web tangles around the prey insect, starting the capture process from a distance.” The team’s paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), found that the spiders launched themselves forward at accelerations of up to 772.85 meters per second squared — or the equivalent of 400 body lengths in a second. They confirmed that the action was a result of latent energy stored in the silk being released, as opposed to just jumping using the power of its legs, by calculating the total power generated and finding it vastly exceeded the potential output of its muscle mass alone. The spider also maintained a fixed body posture after releasing its hind tarsal claw. According to the study, using a constructed device as a weapon offered numerous advantages, freeing the spider from the need to evolve specialized anatomy to generate and store energy. It also allowed Hyptiotes to attack their prey from afar, reducing the potential for taking damage — advantages that also led humans to develop power-amplifying weapons. According to Han, there could be more species of spiders using stored energy in silk to capture prey, an area for potential further study. Moreover, the team were unable to determine the spider’s “catch mechanism” for holding on to the web, which could yield practical applications for humans down the line. “It’s valuable in that understanding how it can hold such a large amount of energy compared to its body size,” said Han. “Maybe it’s come up with something novel that we can use.”


Holocaust survivor and WWII vet have emotional meeting in Michigan

Abstract: COMMERCE TOWNSHIP, MICHIGAN - A Holocaust survivor welcomed to her suburban Detroit home a former soldier whose U.S. Army unit liberated the German concentration camp where she was being held. Sophie Tajch Klisman (SOH’-fee TIHK’ KLIS’-mehn) on Monday greeted Doug Harvey with a hug and thanked the 95-year-old for taking part in the 1945 liberation of the Salzwedel camp, telling him: “You gave me my life.” Harvey said he “can’t take credit for the entire 15,000 guys in” his 84th Infantry Division, to which Klisman replied: “But you were one of them … and I’m very fortunate to meet you.” The two then went inside the 89-year-old Klisman’s house in Commerce Township and chatted with reporters about their experiences during World War II. Harvey, of nearby Sterling Heights, learned about Klisman, who is from Poland, while reading a recent article about her in a newspaper.

wwii
u.s .
poland
michigan
nazis
holocaust
sophie tajch klisman
doug harvey


Northwest Syria clashes kill 35 fighters and destroy health services in defiance of buffer zone, say monitor

Abstract: BEIRUT - Clashes on the edge of a jihadi bastion in northwestern Syria have killed 35 fighters in 24 hours, a monitor said Monday, after a regime bombardment on the region devastated health services. The northwestern region has come under increasing fire by the regime and its ally Russia in recent weeks, despite a months-old buffer zone deal intended to shield it from any government offensive. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Syria’s former al-Qaida affiliate, controls most of Idlib province as well as parts of neighboring Aleppo, Hama, and Latakia provinces. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 16 loyalists and 19 jihadis died from Sunday to Monday in clashes in the area of Jabal al-Akrad in Latakia province, which lies on the bastion’s northwestern edge. Russian and regime aircraft bombarded the area on Monday, while they also hit southern parts of the jihadi stronghold, said the Britain-based war monitor. Russian airstrikes hit a branch of the White Helmets rescue volunteers in the town of Kafranbel, rendering it unable to operate, the Observatory and a rescue worker said. At the White Helmets facility, an AFP correspondent saw a concrete roof had collapsed in on a bulldozer and other vehicles, and the ground was covered with rubble. “Two high-explosive missiles hit the center” just minutes after its personnel had headed out to the site of strikes in a nearby village, Oneida Zikra, the civil defense chief for the area, told AFP. To the south, rocket fire on Monday killed one child in the regime-held town of Suqaylabiyah in Hama province, the Observatory and the state news agency SANA said. Idlib’s 3 million inhabitants are supposed to be protected from a massive regime assault by a September buffer zone deal signed by Russia and rebel backer Turkey. But an uptick in air strikes and shelling displaced 180,000 people between April 29 and May 9 alone, the United Nations says. The Observatory says 119 civilians have been killed in the bombardment since late April. On Monday, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said 18 health facilities had been knocked out of service in a little over a fortnight, two of them hit twice. “Attacks on health facilities in northwest Syria continue to exact a devastating toll on the civilian population,” said OCHA spokesman for Syria David Swanson. “Such violence is appalling. Hospitals are and must remain a place of sanctuary and unequivocal neutrality,” he told AFP. U.N.-linked aid groups on Saturday said they had suspended activities in parts of the region, as the violence has jeopardized the safety of humanitarian workers. In a filmed interview released on Sunday night, HTS chief Abu Mohammad al-Jolani urged supporters to “take up weapons” to defend Idlib. The spike in violence signaled “the death of all previous agreements and conferences,” he said. In a joint statement on Monday, Britain, France and Germany said the military escalation in northwestern Syria “must stop. “The current brutal offensive by the Syrian regime and its backers on millions of civilians living in the area is not about fighting terrorism. It is about pushing forward the ruthless reconquest by the regime,” they said. Damascus has not announced a wide offensive, but analysts believe there could be a limited military operation. The civil war in Syria has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions since it started with the brutal repression of anti-government protests in 2011.

conflict
russia
syria
al-qaida
bashar assad
idlib
hama
white helmets


Venezuelan general calls for military uprising against Maduro

Abstract: CARACAS - A Venezuelan air force general has called on his country’s armed forces to rise up against President Nicolas Maduro, who remains in power with military support despite a sweeping economic crisis. “It’s time to rise up, it’s time to fight … it’s time that the armed forces became aware,” Gen. Ramon Rangel said in a video appeal issued Sunday on social media. Rangel — who appeared in civilian clothes and whose location is unknown — is the latest of several military figures to call on Venezuela’s military to abandon Maduro. Another Air Force general, Francisco Yanez, pledged his allegiance to opposition leader Juan Guaido on Feb. 2. Rangel did not, however, specifically call on the military to switch their allegiance to Guaido, who is recognized as interim president by much of the international community. The 35-year-old National Assembly speaker, who organized a failed uprising on April 30, has repeatedly called on the armed forces to abandon Maduro. A source close to Venezuela’s military told AFP that Rangel has not been on active duty “for years,” and at one point was manager of a Venezuelan state company in Cuba. The commander of the Air Force, Gen. Pedro Juliac, denounced Rangel as a traitor on Twitter. Juliac’s tweet carried a photo of Rangel with a cross over it, and the phrase: “Traitor of the people and of the Revolution.” “Those without morals will never be able to damage the country, let alone the Bolivarian military aviation. We will win — Long Live the Revolution.”

military
venezuela
juan guaido
ramon rangel . nicolas maduro


Trash found littering Mariana Trench floor in deepest-ever sub dive

Abstract: ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO - On the deepest dive ever made by a human inside a submarine, a Texas investor found something he could have found in the gutter of nearly any street in the world: trash. Victor Vescovo, a retired naval officer, made the unsettling discovery as he descended nearly 6.8 miles (35,853 feet/10,928 meters) to a point in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench that is the deepest place on Earth, his expedition said in a statement on Monday. His dive went 52 feet (16 meters) lower than the previous deepest descent in the trench in 1960. Vescovo, the Dallas-based co-founder of Insight Equity Holdings, a private equity fund, found the man-made material on the ocean floor and is trying to confirm that it is plastic, said Stephanie Fitzherbert, a spokeswoman for Vescovo’s Five Deeps Expedition. Plastic waste has reached epidemic proportions with an estimated 100 million tons of it now found in the world’s oceans, according to the United Nations. In the last three weeks, the expedition has made four dives in the Mariana Trench in his submarine, “DSV Limiting Factor,” collecting biological and rock samples. It was the third time humans have dived to the deepest point in the ocean, known as Challenger Deep. Canadian movie maker James Cameron was the last to visit in 2012 in his submarine, reaching a depth of 35,787 feet (10,908 meters). Prior to Cameron’s dive, the first-ever expedition to Challenger Deep was made by the U.S. Navy in 1960, reaching a depth of 10,912 meters.

pollution
u.s .
environment
plastic
trash
plastic waste
mariana trench


Inside the close naval encounters in the South China Sea

Abstract: ABOARD, THE USS BLUE RIDGE - The voice on the radio in the middle of the South China Sea follows a familiar script for Capt. Eric Anduze, who helms the USS Blue Ridge. It’s China on the phone. “They’ll contact us and they’ll go — ‘U.S. government vessel, this is Chinese Navy vessel’ number whatever — ‘we will maintain 5 miles from you and escort you as you make your transit,”‘ Anduze said, describing the English-speaking voice from a rival Chinese warship. The U.S. response is short: “Chinese vessel, this is government vessel one nine, copy, out.” From there on, silence, as the vessels of the world’s rival powers steam onward together. The ship-to-ship interactions are a regular potential flash point for the world’s two biggest militaries in contested waters. In September, a Chinese destroyer sailed within a football field’s distance of the USS Decatur in what the U.S. said was an “unsafe and unprofessional” maneuver. That hasn’t deterred future sailings — the U.S. sent two guided-missile destroyers within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of disputed islands earlier this month. Based in Japan, the Blue Ridge is a frequent traveler through the South China Sea, which Beijing considers its waters against an international community increasingly concerned by its encroachment. The area is home to key shipping lanes and fisheries that have sparked dispute between China and its neighbors. China has built up and mans artificial islands with buildings, communications towers, ports and runways to cement its claims in what many international observers say are military provocations. The U.S. says it travels the waters as if the expansive claims don’t exist, running through shipping lanes as the Blue Ridge does, or on so-called freedom of navigation patrols near the disputed islands. Those latter sailings are viewed by China as aggravating. The U.S. Navy allowed media outlets, including Bloomberg, an inside look at the sort of ship it’s using to sail through the disputed waters. The oldest operational warship in the U.S. Navy, the Blue Ridge is the flagship of the 7th Fleet, and docked in Singapore as part of a tour of southeast Asian port cities. The Blue Ridge is billed as one of the most technologically advanced ships in the world. It operates as a central information node for a fleet whose range stretches from the Indian-Pakistan border to the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean. Through its several computers flow a database the navy says gives it a “complete tactical picture of air, surface and subsurface contacts.” That’s what it does: it sails and it knows things. The ship is a small floating town of more than 1,000 sailors at any given time. There are beds and cafeterias, fitness centers and a post office. A miniature hospital has sick beds and an operating room, along with a dentist who can fill a cavity or pull a tooth — unless the waves get too rough. Up on deck, sailors can jog around a makeshift track around the ship, at about seven laps to a mile (1.6 km). Since February, Capt. Anduze said the Blue Ridge has been escorted by Chinese vessels about six times in an almost unremarkable and now routine manner. In Washington, the view is that China uses “coercive tactics” including its naval and paramilitary vessels to enforce claims in the South China Sea, the Pentagon said last week in its annual report on China’s military power. Those are targeted “in ways calculated to be below the threshold of provoking conflict,” though have escalated into near-misses with U.S. warships. Naval officials on the Blue Ridge declined to comment in detail on those more aggressive encounters, except to say nothing similar had happened with them as they passed through the South China Sea’s shipping lanes. “We have had ships that come about 3 to 3 miles away and then just navigate with us throughout the area,” Anduze said. Those interactions have been “very safe.”

china
u.s .
south china sea
u.s. navy
chinese navy
uss blue ridge


U.N. chief meets survivors of New Zealand mosque shootings, decries online hate

Abstract: CHRISTCHURCH - At a meeting with victims of the Christchurch mosque shootings, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Tuesday that hate speech is spreading online “like wildfire” and vowed the world body would lead efforts to extinguish the problem. Guterres visited the Al Noor mosque, one of two Muslim centers in the New Zealand city where a self-described white supremacist killed 51 people in a shooting on March 15 that the attacker live-streamed on Facebook. The U.N. chief is traveling the South Pacific to highlight the impact of climate change, but said he also wanted to show his support for Christchurch’s Muslim community during Ramadan. “I know there are no words to relieve the hurt and sorrow and pain, but I wanted to come here personally to transmit love, support and total and complete admiration,” he said. He told victims of the worst mass shooting in New Zealand’s modern history that there had been “a dangerous upsurge in hatred” as social media was exploited to promote bigotry. “Hate speech is spreading like wildfire in social media. We must extinguish it,” the Portuguese diplomat said. “There is no room for hate speech — online or offline.” He highlighted a previously announced plan for his special adviser on genocide prevention, Adama Dieng, to combat online extremism. He said Dieng’s mission was to “bring together a United Nations team to scale up our response to hate speech and present a global plan of action.” His remarks come as New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who hosted Guterres when he arrived in Auckland on Sunday, embarks on her own quest to tame social media in Paris this week. Ardern will co-host a meeting of world leaders and technology firms to promote a “Christchurch call” aimed at curbing online extremism. She has been highly critical of social media giants in the wake of the Christchurch killings, saying they should be “taking ownership and responsibility over their platforms.”

u.n. secretary general antonio guterres terrorism


Ex-top Trump aide McMaster says accepting North Korea nukes would push Japan to debate own deterrent

Abstract: Former U.S. national security adviser H.R. McMaster has said that the United States accepting North Korea as a de facto nuclear power would prompt Japan to debate whether or not it needed its own nuclear weapons, a claim that comes amid rekindled tensions on the Korean Peninsula. McMaster, in an interview published earlier this month with the Asahi Shimbun daily, was answering a question about the possibility of military conflict on the peninsula in 2017, when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un unleashed a spate of missile launches and conducted its most powerful nuclear test to date. U.S. President Donald Trump responded with vitriol, vowing to rain “fire and fury” on the North if Kim threatened the United States. Asked about the possibility of war, the retired lieutenant general said: “I do think that we were on a path that, if we were unable to alter it, that it was on a path to conflict.” McMaster noted that “it was very important for us to emphasize preparation for what could have been a preventive military action.” “What’s important is that we and our allies, the United States and Japan, and the United States and South Korea, are prepared for the worst,” he said. Preventive military action refers to strikes initiated to prevent an enemy from acquiring an attacking capability, with no immediate threat of attack from the enemy. North Korea, however, was already believed to possess nuclear weapons and powerful ballistic missiles, meaning any attack could have endangered allies Japan and South Korea, as well as U.S. troops based there. Over a period of five days earlier this month, North Korea conducted two launches of short-range missiles — part of what it said were military drills designed to bolster the nuclear-armed country’s “various long-range strike means.” Those moves, the first such tests in more than 500 days, were widely seen as intended to heap more pressure on Trump amid stalled nuclear talks with the U.S. According to the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies North Korea Missile Test Database, Pyongyang conducted a total of 22 missile launches in 2017, including the country’s first successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, Hwasong-14, as well as its even longer-range Hwasong-15. It also lobbed two intermediate-range Hwasong-12 missiles over Hokkaido in August and September of that year. “Some people have argued ‘Well, we should accept North Korea’s nuclear power and then deter North Korea,'” McMaster said. “The problem with that is the effect that a nuclear North Korea will have on the nonproliferation regime,” he added. “I think that there would be a debate in Japan about if Japan required a nuclear deterrent capability. There would be a debate in South Korea about that.” Japan — the only country to be attacked with nuclear weapons — adheres to the so-called three nonnuclear principles, which rule out the production, possession and introduction of nuclear weapons. Despite this policy, the idea that Japan could become a nuclear power in a relatively short time has persisted. Some observers have argued that Japan maintains the technology, raw materials and cash needed to produce nuclear weapons within as quickly as a year, if necessary Paul Leventhal, head of the Nuclear Control Institute, a nonprofit watchdog in Washington, told the journal Nature in November 2004 that many consider Japan to be little more than “a screwdriver away” from a nuclear weapon. “Most think it could get a bomb in a matter of weeks to months, if not days,” Leventhal said. Still, there is little public appetite for Japan acquiring its own nuclear arsenal, a fact that has constrained any push to even discuss the taboo issue. According to a 2017 survey by the Genron NPO, a nonprofit independent think tank, fewer than 1 in 10 Japanese believe Japan should have nuclear weapons, with nearly 75 percent against the idea.

u.s .
north korea
military
kim jong un
weapons
nuclear weapons
north korea nuclear crisis
asahi shimbun
donald trump
h.r . mcmaster


Japan to assign 100 personnel to new satellite monitoring unit

Abstract: The Defense Ministry will assign around 100 personnel to a unit to be created by fiscal 2022 to monitor space debris and satellites, according to sources. The Space Domain Mission Unit will track space debris such as used rocket parts and old satellites that pose a threat to working satellites orbiting Earth, the sources said Monday. The unit will also monitor satellites operated by other countries as Japan aims to establish in cooperation with the United States and Europe a system to detect “hunter-killer” satellites that attack other satellites. The members of the new unit will be stationed at the Air Self-Defense Force base in Fuchu, western Tokyo, and may be increased if joint operations with Japan’s allies grow in the future. Under the latest national defense guidelines outlined in December, Japan is looking to bolster its defense capabilities in new domains of warfare such as outer space and cyberspace at a time when countries such as China and Russia have been expanding military activities in space. The Defense Ministry plans to deploy ground radar in Yamaguchi Prefecture to help the unit gather information. The data from the radar will be shared with the United States. The ministry is considering stationing ASDF personnel with the U.S. Air and Space Operations as part of strengthened space cooperation with U.S. forces. The U.S. is looking to reinforce its space monitoring system as China and Russia are believed to be developing hunter-killer satellites, the sources said. The guidelines state that the new domains of warfare, including outer space, have the potential to “fundamentally change the shape of national security,” which has so far focused mainly on conventional ground, sea and air forces.

space
defense
satellite
self defense forces


Japanese astronomer names asteroid after Reiwa

Abstract: KOCHI - A Kochi astronomer has named the asteroid he found three decades ago after Reiwa, the name of the Japan’s new era. On May 5, Tsutomu Seki, 88, made a proposal to the International Astronomical Union to call the asteroid he found in the west of the Pleiades in 1989 as Reiwanohoshi, meaning the Star of Reiwa. The name Reiwanohoshi is expected to be approved in the next month or two. The Reiwa Era started May 1 when Emperor Naruhito ascended to the throne. “Initially, I didn’t mean to name it, but I decided as my astronomer friends encouraged me” to do so, said Seki, a resident of the city of Kochi. The 18-magnitude asteroid, which cannot be seen by the naked eye has an estimated diameter of some 10 kilometers. Seki, known as a comet hunter, has so far found 223 asteroids as well as six comets, including Comet Ikeya-Seki, found in 1965. In 1990, he named one of those asteroids Heisei after the era that ended April 30 after three decades in line with Emperor Emeritus Akihito’s abdication. Showa was an “era of war and defeat,” Seki said of the era which preceded Heisei. “I hope that the world will become peaceful in the era of Reiwa” after Heisei saw a series of natural disasters. Seki is planning to organize an astronomical observation event in autumn 2020, when Reiwanohoshi is expected to approach Earth.


Osaka welcomes UNESCO support for burial mounds as World Heritage Site

Abstract: OSAKA - Osakans on Tuesday welcomed a UNESCO advisory panel’s recommendation to add two clusters of ancient burial mounds in the prefecture to the World Cultural Heritage List. “We are happy that the ancient tumulus clusters were deemed appropriate as World Heritage sites,” Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura said. “We will do our best to realize Osaka’s first World Heritage site listing.” Some 150 people dressed in ancient-style clothing took part in an event to celebrate the panel’s recommendation in the city of Sakai, where some of the tombs are located. The recommended Mozu-Furuichi tumulus clusters include the keyhole-shaped Emperor Nintoku mausoleum in the city. The burial mound, officially called Daisen Kofun, is one of the three largest graves in the world, together with the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor in China and the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. Tomomi Matsunaga, 47, who has organized the Sakai Kofun festival to build momentum for the tombs’ listing, said local people still have much to do in preparation for the possible listing, as well as an expected influx of tourists to the area. She said she began selling accessories, snacks and other products related to the ancient tombs at a local cafe after finding that “there were no souvenirs related to them.” She feared people may find their visits to the sites unsatisfactory. Problems may arise if roads in residential areas that lead to the tombs fill up with tourists. “We want tourists to come, but we don’t want this to end in just moneymaking. We want to aim for a cycle in which we would use that money to arrange the environment around the ancient tombs and preserve them,” Matsunaga said. “Among the Mozu-Furuichi tumulus clusters are many massive tombs designated as mausoleums of emperors. Such tombs are strictly managed by the Imperial Household Agency and are conserved perfectly,” said Kazuo Ichinose, an archaeology professor at Kyoto Tachibana University. As people are unable to enter the tombs or their premises, Ichinose said it is crucial that virtual reality technology and other visuals are utilized to depict their history and significance. Since last fall, local operators have been providing sightseeing flights to allow people to see the tombs from the air, while the city of Sakai has been keeping the 21st floor of its nearby building open as an observation deck. Local authorities first proposed the tomb clusters as a World Cultural Heritage Site candidate to the Culture Affairs Agency in 2007. But the agency decided not to recommend them to UNESCO in 2013, 2015 and 2016, instead prioritizing the listing of other sites. It was not until 2017 that the Osaka sites were recommended, with the prefecture and its cities of Sakai, Fujiidera and Habikino having narrowed down the included tombs to 49 from 61 by excluding those that are not in good condition. “I would like to express my respect for the efforts made by the local people involved,” said culture minister Masahiko Shibayama while calling the recommendation “perfect” as it covered all 49 tombs Japan has sought to list. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the government will work to promote the listing at a meeting of the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO from June 30.

osaka
unesco
ancient tombs
world cultural heritage


Xi visit to Japan as state guest to be put off until next year: sources

Abstract: Japan and China are making arrangements for President Xi Jinping to visit Tokyo as a state guest next year, rather than this year as initially planned, due to a tight schedule, according to sources familiar with the situation. During his visit to China last October, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sounded out Xi about the possibility of visiting Japan in June for the Group of 20 summit in Osaka and then in the fall as a state guest, diplomatic sources said earlier. Xi is scheduled to visit for the G20 summit, but Beijing was reluctant to accept the proposal for him to visit Japan two times in the same year, making a request that Abe visit China instead, according to the sources. China plans to host a trilateral summit with Japan and South Korea later this year. Abe is now likely to visit China before receiving Xi as a state guest. Japan also has a series of events this fall in connection with the imperial succession, including the Sokuirei Seiden no Gi enthronement ceremony on Oct. 22 to proclaim Emperor Naruhito’s accession. A visit by a foreign leader as a state guest involves a meeting and banquet with the emperor, who ascended to the Chrysanthemum Throne on May 1. “It’s difficult to receive President Xi as a state guest before the year’s end because the schedule is tight,” a senior government source said. The postponement is also under consideration as Tokyo has apparently judged it can wait until next year to realize Xi’s visit, provided that Sino-Japanese relations keep improving. Despite outstanding issues related to territory and wartime history, Japan and China have been warming to each other while Beijing has been locked in a trade war with Washington. Abe last October became the first Japanese leader in nearly seven years to make an official visit to China.

shinzo abe
osaka
g20
xi jinping
emperor naruhito