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Toyota is investing in a Japanese startup that aims to mass produce lightweight rockets and someday vie with big players for a slice of the growing commercial space industry. Interstellar Technologies announced Tuesday that Toyota is contributing ¥7 billion ($44 million) through its subsidiary and research unit, Woven by Toyota, and the carmaker will gain a seat on the startup’s executive board as a result. It’s the latest sign of progress in the Japanese government’s push to nurture the country’s private space sector. But it’s still a challenge for fledgling companies to keep up in a fast-paced, competitive field increasingly dominated by giants like Elon Musk’s SpaceX. As the U.S. launches more than 100 rockets every year, and China several dozen, Japan’s successful space voyages are still in the single digits. Japan made three launches in 2023, Interstellar said in its statement. That leaves much room for improvement before it reaches its goal to launch 30 times annually by the first half of the 2030s. Japan will need a “structural transformation of the domestic space industry” to make good on that promise, said Interstellar. The firm aims to “leverage automotive industry expertise, including Toyota’s production methods, to transition rocket manufacturing into a high-quality, cost-effective, and scalable process,” it said. Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda hinted at the investment in a speech at CES in Las Vegas on Monday, saying that his company’s interest in rockets is part of a broader effort to innovate in transportation. He also indicated that Toyota hopes to vie with Space Exploration Technologies, more commonly known as SpaceX, Musk’s sister company to Tesla. “The future of mobility shouldn’t be limited to just cars. Or just one car company, for that matter,” Toyoda said. Toyota started working with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, in 2019 on a lunar rover to be used as part of NASA’s Artemis program to return astronauts to the moon. Astronauts will be able to ride without spacesuits in the Toyota rover and explore the lunar surface for longer periods of time, the U.S. State Department said in April after the two governments signed an agreement for the vehicle. For Toyota, the deal with Interstellar is one small step for many companies looking to take advantage of booming demand for spacecrafts able to carry satellites to orbit. The Japanese government in November began announcing recipients of its strategic fund, which will dole out ¥1 trillion over the next decade to a variety of startups, manufacturers and research institutions. While Japanese companies have been lauded for their satellites and precision instruments used to gather data in low Earth orbit, the nation’s geography is far from ideal for building an expansive network of launch facilities. What would have been Japan’s first commercial rocket, launched from its first commercial launchpad, in December failed a second time to make its inaugural voyage. Space One’s explosive blunders dealt a painful blow to Japan’s ambitions, and served as a reminder that trying to reach orbit isn’t for the faint of heart. “This is another way to expand mobility in land, sea and air,” Hajime Kumabe, Woven’s chief executive officer, told reporters at CES in Las Vegas. “Our craftsmanship expertise will be an asset to Interstellar’s rocket manufacturing.” Source link

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken kicked off talks with his counterpart in Japan on Tuesday, as the top American diplomat seeks to reassure a nervous Tokyo that their alliance will remain robust even after Donald Trump returns to the White House in less than two weeks. Blinken, fresh off his visit to Seoul, began talks with Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, which was to be followed by a courtesy call to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and later a meeting with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi. Speaking to reporters ahead of his talks with Iwaya, Blinken highlighted the need for continued momentum on boosting the alliance. Source link

Toyota Motor plans to move in the first 100 residents of a futuristic city at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan by as soon as this fall. The initial residents of Woven City will be composed mostly of the carmaker’s own employees and their families, and will gradually expand to about 2,000 residents as part of its initial phases, Toyota said Monday. “This year, residents will begin moving in as we slowly bring Woven City to life,” Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda said at a news conference at CES in Las Vegas. “We aim to accelerate the pace at which new technologies can be tested and developed at Woven City.” Toyoda debuted plans for the “living laboratory” five years ago as Toyota’s then-president, saying then it would be a fully sustainable city and real-world showcase for artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, self-driving cars and smart homes. But it won’t be open to the wider public for at least two years, and Toyota’s chair said it may never be profitable. “Will this Woven City make Toyota any money? Well, maybe not,” Toyoda said. “As global citizens, I believe Toyota has a responsibility to invest in our collective future.” A key part of Toyota’s broader Woven initiative is a new software platform and vehicle operating system it calls Arene, which is designed to speed up car development and lower costs. It plans to deploy the system this year and make it a core component of its next-generation EVs starting in 2026. Toyota appointed a new head of the wholly owned Woven subsidiary in 2023 as part of a shift from a research-heavy focus to become more involved in the production of next-generation vehicles. Source link

Los Angeles – World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler has withdrawn from the U.S. PGA Tour tournament at La Quinta, California, as he continues to recover from a hand injury suffered in a Christmas cooking accident. “After consulting with my medical team, I have made the decision to withdraw from next week’s American Express tournament to give my injury more time to heal,” Scheffler said in an Instagram post on Monday. “I am still hopeful to begin my 2025 season at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am.” Scheffler had already withdrawn from The Sentry, which was won on Sunday by Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama. He had planned to play in La Quinta in the tournament starting on Jan. 16. Scheffler’s manager had said in a statement this month that the U.S. golf star sustained a puncture wound to the palm of his right hand from a broken glass on Christmas Day. He needed surgery to remove glass fragments from the wound. Scheffler has just enjoyed one of the most successful seasons in PGA Tour history winning seven tournaments on the tour — the first player to reach that tally since Tiger Woods in 2007. He was voted the PGA Tour Player of the Year for the third consecutive year. Scheffler won his second Masters green jacket, Paris Olympic gold, the PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship and FedEx Cup playoffs and The Players Championship in 2024. Source link

Washington – Congress on Monday certified U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory, a formality that was remarkable for its contrast to four years ago, when the Republican summoned a mob to Washington that ransacked the U.S. Capitol. The president-elect spent much of his campaign facing prosecution over the 2021 insurrection, when his supporters — fueled by his false claims of voter fraud — rioted to halt the certification of his defeat to Joe Biden. But Trump, 78, was voted back into office in November and Monday’s ceremony went much more smoothly, even with a major winter storm blanketing the capital and much of the country in snow. Source link

Project Syndicate’s PS Quarterly regularly features predictions by experts on a topic of global concern, and as we look ahead to 2025, the international community’s aspiration to end poverty warrants closer attention. This past fall, the United Nations held its Summit of the Future and sought to give momentum to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), warning that the world is on track to meet only 17% of the targets enshrined in the internationally agreed 2030 Agenda. After the pandemic years, when tens of millions of people were pushed into poverty, the need for a renewed effort is obvious. But the fact is that most of the progress made against poverty occurred between 2000 and 2015 — the years of the Millennium Development Goals — raising questions about the feasibility of today’s targets, not to mention current approaches to development assistance. To assess the world’s prospects for tackling humanity’s oldest problem, we asked contributors to respond to the following proposition: “Progress toward the world’s 2030 poverty-reduction goals will continue to disappoint.” Only one-third of countries are on track even to halve their national poverty levels this decade, and forecasts suggest that more than 600 million people will still be living in extreme poverty by 2030. Billions more will continue to face severe material deprivations and the consequences of the climate crisis. Today’s world is characterized by the old dichotomy between developing and developed countries, and by a vast SDG financing gap — estimated at around $4 trillion per year. Source link

Running back Jahmyr Gibbs scored four touchdowns as the Detroit Lions claimed the top seed in the NFC for the first time with a 31-9 win over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. The heavyweight clash capped the final day of the NFL regular season, which also saw the Denver Broncos and Tampa Bay Buccaneers claim the final two playoff spots available. The Lions ended the first half with a 10-6 lead thanks to a 25-yard rushing touchdown from Gibbs in the first quarter. Source link

China’s efforts to entice more Taiwanese people to get permits to live and work on the mainland is prompting concern in Taipei that Beijing could be laying the groundwork to justify intervention in the self-governing island’s affairs, according to a senior Taiwanese official. China’s efforts to promote the residence permit have recently intensified, especially when it comes to targeting Taiwanese people who’ve never traveled to the mainland, said the official, who asked not to be identified discussing a sensitive matter. Taiwanese officials are concerned holders of this permit will be easier to convince to apply for China’s national citizen identification card and to swap their passports for those issued by Beijing, the official said. They worry that could in turn be used by the Chinese government to justify the need to “protect Chinese citizens” in Taiwan, said the official. Source link

BEIJING – One day before a key meeting of China’s anti-graft watchdog, the state broadcaster aired a program on how grassroots corruption is being crushed, dispelling any notion that China is losing its grip on graft. The first of four episodes of “Fighting Corruption for the People” ran on Sunday night, focusing on petty corruption cases including a northeastern primary school director profiting from kickbacks from on-campus meals and an official in rural Sichuan taking bribes from farm project contractors. Last year, China was rocked by a surge of corruption probes ensnaring individuals from a central bank deputy governor to a former chairman of its biggest oil and gas company, adding to unease in an economy struggling to secure a firm footing and a society grappling with a fading sense of wealth. Source link

NEW YORK – Even before taking office, Donald Trump has launched a diplomatic effort to end Russia’s war against Ukraine, calling for an “immediate ceasefire” after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris in early December. Trump is right to seek an end to the war. Despite a recent surge in U.S. military assistance and a greenlight for the Ukrainians to strike targets deep inside Russia, Ukraine continues to lose ground in the east, while suffering withering air attacks across its territory. Even if Russia cannot defeat Ukraine’s forces, a war that drags on indefinitely could eventually turn Ukraine into a failed state. Still, as Trump tries to push Ukraine and Russia toward a ceasefire, he should recognize that it is in his own political interest (as well as America’s national interest) to continue providing significant support to the Ukrainians and only to accept a deal that produces a sovereign, secure Ukraine. He should stop talking about ending assistance and start making the case to a reluctant but generally obedient Republican Party that continued aid is essential to getting a durable ceasefire and ultimately defeating the Kremlin’s effort to subjugate Ukraine. Any other outcome would pose a significant threat to U.S. interests worldwide and to Trump’s standing as a world leader. Source link