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Hideki Matsuyama opened the PGA Tour season in record-breaking style last weekend at the Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii. The Japanese star will ride a wave of birdies to Honolulu this week as he tries to make it a two-week sweep at the Sony Open in Hawaii, beginning Thursday at Waialae Country Club. Matsuyama won The Sentry on Sunday with a 35-under-par 257, the lowest 72-hole score in relation to par in PGA Tour history. He became the seventh player to win both of the tour’s Hawaii events, having previously captured the Sony Open in 2022. Source link

Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing reported strong growth in revenue and operating profit for the three months through November, as robust demand across Japan, North America and Europe helped offset sustained slowdown in China. Operating profit rose 7% to ¥157.6 billion for the three months ended November from a year earlier, with sales increasing to an all-time high of ¥895.2 billion, largely in line with analysts estimate. Cooler winter weather in Japan boosted clothing sales and stronger brand recognition pushed up overseas sales, Fast Retailing said. The results shows the company is on track to establish strong footholds for sales growth in new markets, in addition to Japan and China where it currently makes the majority of its revenue. For China, where sales and profit declines extended into the latest quarter, the company is closing under-performing stores and revamping bigger and better-located outlets to drive sales. The company kept its full-year forecast unchanged. Higher sales in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region are expected to drive a 5.8% increase in the company’s operating profit to ¥530 billion for the fiscal year ending August from a year earlier, it said in October. The stock jumped 54% last year while the benchmark Topix index rose 18%. Fast Retailing plans to raise salaries for new hires by 10% to ¥330,000 a month and those of new store managers by 5.1% to ¥410,000 a month, it said earlier this week. The stronger-than-expected sales growth in Japan in the first quarter may persist through the second quarter due to cooler winter weather and offset potential revenue shortfalls from dampened buying sentiment in mainland China, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Catherine Lim and Trini Tan. The main challenges are China sales, the company’s limited ability to reduce discounts and address stock shortages across all regions, said Chelsey Tam, an equities analyst at Morningstar. Source link

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba expressed an eagerness to visit China as soon as possible during a meeting with the secretaries-general of the ruling parties on Thursday. The meeting comes before a delegation from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, Komeito, visits China from Monday through Wednesday for talks with the Chinese Communist Party. The delegation will be led by LDP Secretary-General Hiroshi Moriyama and his Komeito counterpart, Makoto Nishida. The Japanese ruling coalition and the Chinese Communist Party last held a meeting in October 2018. The Japanese delegation is expected to deliver a letter from Ishiba to Chinese President Xi Jinping if they meet, people familiar with the matter said. Ishiba told Moriyama and Nishida that he hopes Japan and China will continue dialogue at various levels. Source link

The NFL said it is continuing preparations to hold the playoff game between the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams in Los Angeles on Monday despite a series of devastating wildfires in the region, but could change the location of the game to Glendale, Arizona, if necessary. Raging wildfires surrounded Los Angeles on Wednesday, killing at least five people, destroying hundreds of homes and stretching firefighting resources and water supplies to the limit, as more than 100,000 people were ordered to evacuate. “The NFL’s priority is the safety of the Los Angeles community,” the league said in a statement. Source link

Ringing in the new year with a tale of joy is Jewel, featured here last February. Now rechristened Bingo, the beautiful tabby-calico mix was adopted in October by Tara Podias, an American living in Tokyo. The two met at an ARK adoption fair and were drawn to each other from the get-go. Bingo settled in quickly. “When she first got home, she was nervous, but by nighttime she was playing with her toys and eating her food, and the next morning she climbed on my belly to snuggle,” says Podias. In the past few months, Bingo has been basking in cuddles and curling up under the blankets. She and Podias are nearly inseparable. “She’ll climb into my lap anytime, no matter where we are in the house,” says Podias. “And when I take showers or leave the house, she waits by the door and meows.” There’s also lots of action. Bingo loves to zoom back and forth between the living room and kitchen “like a little speed racer.” Source link

Berlin – Sales of new electric vehicles in Germany plunged last year, official figures showed Monday, as a slow switch to battery-powered cars deepened the woes of the country’s flagship auto industry. Just 380,609 EVs were registered in 2024 in Europe’s largest auto market, 27.4% fewer than in the previous year, the KBA federal transport authority said. After years of growth, demand for battery-powered cars lost momentum as the German economy struggles and key subsidies are withdrawn. Source link

Seven & I Holdings’ profit has declined 24% on broader retail weakness despite some signs of recovery at its convenience stores in Japan and North America, which could make it harder to stave off investor pressure to engage with a takeover approach from Alimentation Couche-Tard. Operating profit was ¥128.4 billion ($812 million) during the three months to the end of November, compared with ¥169 billion a year earlier, the company reported Thursday. Analysts were projecting, on average, profit of ¥132 billion. The mixed results mean that Seven & i will probably face challenges convincing investors that it can turn around its all-important convenience store business. The retailer has been spurred into radical action to fend off Couche-Tard’s approach, embarking on a separation of its domestic supermarkets and retail business in order to focus on its convenience-store operations. Source link

The government plans to convene parliament for this year’s ordinary session starting Jan. 24, it was learned Thursday. The plan was conveyed by Junichi Ishii, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s Diet affairs chief in the House of Councilors, to his counterpart from the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Yoshitaka Saito, at their meeting the same day. The first day of the ordinary session, which will run for 150 days until June 22, will feature the government’s four key speeches, including a policy address by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. Question-and-answer sessions are expected to follow on Jan. 27 to 29. On Tuesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi will formally present the plan at executive meetings of both Diet chambers’ steering committees. The government is expected to submit 59 bills during the ordinary session, including legislation to introduce active cyber defense, or preemptive action to prevent cyberattacks, Ishii said at the meeting with Saito. Meanwhile, the LDP and CDP officials agreed to hold another hearing of the Upper House’s political ethics panel on Jan. 20 on a political funds scandal involving LDP factions. The hearing will be attended by two lawmakers who belonged to a faction once led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Source link

Las Vegas – Chinese companies have turned out in force again at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, with their prospects overshadowed by the threat of steeper tariffs from incoming U.S. President Donald Trump. XPeng’s “flying car” and TCL’s AI-enhanced television were just a few of the products offered by Chinese companies that have won attention at CES, the annual Las Vegas tech conference. The potential for Trump’s trade policies to roil the global tech industry has loomed large over the event. Source link

Having successfully worked to get his candidate elected in the U.S., Elon Musk is setting his sights on Europe. In a series of posts on his X social media platform in recent weeks, the billionaire backer of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has honed in on Germany and the U.K., criticizing the respective governments, questioning laws they’ve enacted and casting doubt on their economic competence. He’s personally insulted each country’s political leader, calling Chancellor Olaf Scholz a “fool,” Germany’s president a “tyrant” and accusing Prime Minister Keir Starmer of being “complicit in the rape of Britain.” Source link