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SoftBank Group, OpenAI and Oracle are forming a half-a-trillion dollar venture in the United States that will develop artificial intelligence infrastructure with warp-speed-type support from the U.S. government. SoftBank Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son will be the chairman of Stargate, the new company being formed, while SoftBank will be responsible for financial management of the venture. Arm Holdings, a Nasdaq-listed subsidiary of SoftBank, will provide chip technology. Microsoft, Nvidia and Oracle will also be key vendors. Source link

Saturday night gave hundreds of millions of Americans a taste of what life without TikTok would look like, and at least one brand decided to keep the experiment going. Jolie Skin, which was previously spending about $150,000 a month on TikTok ads, is planning to pause its paid campaigns on the app temporarily, according to Founder and CEO Ryan Babenzien. Jolie, which makes water-purifying shower heads that are marketed as protecting skin and hair, is analyzing its advertising spend on the platform. Since Saturday night, traffic to the company’s website is down about 24%, but revenue is up 3%, according to Babenzien, who says he’s still looking into where the sales came from. Source link

Japan’s stock market is only now waking up to potential gains from record numbers of big-spending tourists. A growing number of companies, including a seller of vintage goods and a budget hotel chain, are poised for a strong 2025 as increased demand from foreigners boosts earnings outlooks. Japan welcomed almost 37 million inbound visitors in 2024, data released last week by the Japan National Tourism Organization showed. That’s almost a third of the country’s population. Those numbers are set to increase to 40.2 million this year, driven by the weak yen and the World Expo 2025 in Osaka, travel agency JTB predicts. As equity markets brace for an uncertain year under the Trump presidency, Japan tourism-related stocks appear to be a pretty safe bet. Source link

Kyoto-based Mitsufuji got its start nearly 70 years ago as a weaver of decorative belts for kimonos. One day soon, though, it could be spinning high-tech fibers to shield fighter jets from electromagnetic interference. The company, whose core business is making consumer-facing wearable gadgets, is one of dozens of small ventures that have caught the government’s eye in recent years as it looks for dual-use technologies to beef up its military capabilities. Cultivating a homegrown defense industry was a key plank of Japan’s ¥43 trillion ($275 billion) military build-up strategy launched in 2022 to counter escalating security threats from China, Russia and nuclear-armed North Korea. Source link

UNITED NATIONS – U.S. President Donald Trump “sees great promise in the United Nations if it focuses on its founding mission of international peace and security,” his nominee to be ambassador told the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday. Elise Stefanik, a member of the House of Representatives, is expected to be confirmed by the Senate as ambassador to the 193-member world body, a position that will be part of Trump’s Cabinet for his second term in office, which began on Monday. “If confirmed, I will work to ensure that our mission to the United Nations serves the interests of the American people and represents President Trump’s America First peace-through-strength foreign policy,” she said. Source link

Hiroshima police arrested a woman and her father on assault charges Tuesday after they allegedly bound the woman’s 3-year-old son and placed him in a cardboard box. 26-year-old Hitomi Kumagaya, who is unemployed, and her father, Kazuhiro Kumagaya, a 52-year-old part-time worker, both live in Hiroshima’s Minami Ward. The arrest warrant alleges that in the early hours of Sep. 5 last year, the suspects conspired to wrap the child’s mouth, arms and legs with tape before placing him inside a cardboard box at their apartment. According to Hiroshima Minami Police Station, the suspects took the unconscious child to a nearby doctor on Monday afternoon, prompting the physician to call emergency services. After being alerted by a child welfare center, police questioned the two, who admitted to using adhesive tape on the boy. The boy is currently hospitalized in a coma. While he has no visible external injuries, police are investigating whether the pair subjected him to repeated abuse. Hitomi Kumagaya lived with her father and her three children, including two preschool-age daughters who showed no apparent signs of mistreatment, according to police. Translated by The Japan Times Source link

Southern California faces several more tense days of heightened fire risk before the possible return of long-delayed rain this weekend, as gusty winds buffet a region exhausted by weeks of battling blazes. Tuesday saw a rash of small fires erupt across San Diego County, as winds raked terrain left dangerously dry by more than half a year without significant rain. More strong winds are expected to arrive Wednesday afternoon, with the National Weather Service issuing a fire weather watch through Thursday evening. But this weekend could bring much-needed rain, with up to 0.5 inches (1.3 centimeters) forecast for the drought-stricken Los Angeles area. “At this point, any increase in moisture and break in these winds is a good thing,” said Harry Weinman, a forecaster for the U.S. Storm Prediction Center. “The longer you have these persistent offshore winds, it just continuously dries out the fuels there.” Source link

When Ichiro Suzuki waved to the crowd and jogged in from right field at Tokyo Dome in his final moments as a major league player, there was no doubt his next stop was the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. When his name appeared on the ballot for the first time, the only question was whether or not the iconic, trailblazing Japanese outfielder would be a unanimous selection. Ichiro, who rose to global superstardom with the Seattle Mariners, was elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year on the ballot, but fell one vote short of becoming the second player voted in unanimously. Former New York Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera became the first player voted in unanimously in 2019. The development is historic for Japan, as Ichiro becomes the first Japanese player voted into the Hall of Fame Ichiro, one of the 33 members of MLB’s 3,000-hit club, is joined in the Class of 2025 by former pitchers CC Sabathia, who retired with 251 wins, and Billy Wagner, the all-time saves leader for the Houston Astros, who was in his 10th and final year on the ballot. Former sluggers Dick Allen and Dave Parker were elected via the Classic Baseball Era Committee in December. This year’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held in Cooperstown on July 27. Source link

Los Angeles – Fire-weary southern California was buffeted Monday by dangerous winds, with forecasters warning of an “extremely critical” risk in a region already staggering from the devastation of horrifying blazes. Firefighters continued to make progress snuffing out fires that ravaged 40,000 acres (16,000 hectares) in the Los Angeles area, after erupting on Jan. 7 and killing at least 27 people. But a return of the hurricane-force winds responsible for spreading those initial fires threatened more danger. Source link

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday declared that a global corporate minimum tax deal “has no force or effect” in the U.S., effectively pulling America out of the landmark 2021 arrangement negotiated by the administration of former U.S. President Joe Biden with nearly 140 countries. In a presidential memorandum issued hours after taking office, Trump also ordered the U.S. Treasury to prepare options for “protective measures” against countries that have or are likely to put in place tax rules that disproportionately affect American companies. The European Union, U.K. and other countries have adopted the 15% global corporate minimum tax, but the U.S. Congress never approved measures to bring the U.S. into compliance with it. The U.S. has a roughly 10% global minimum tax, part of Trump’s landmark 2017 tax cut package approved by Republicans. Source link