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Nissan shares slid, heading for a two-day drop of 13%, on concern that the terms of the carmaker’s planned deal with Honda would give investors a lower stake in the proposed joint holding company. The stock fell as much as 6.7% on Monday in Tokyo. After initially soaring more than 60% since Dec. 17, a day before news of the deal broke, the stock tumbled on Friday as investor focus turned to the starting ratio for a Honda-Nissan tie-up. Shares were also vulnerable to profit-taking on the last trading session of the year. The ailing Japanese automaker aims to establish and list a joint holding company with Honda in August 2026, according to a Dec. 23 announcement. The exact terms of the arrangement are yet to be decided, but the share transfer ratio will take into account the carmakers’ stock prices, according to the companies. A Nikkei report on Friday estimated the Honda-Nissan share ratio at 5:1. Source link

Seoul – The emergency landing of Jeju Air Flight 2216 looked highly skilled, experts say, but all except two of the 181 people on board were killed when the Boeing 737-800 hit a wall and burst into flames. As South Korean investigators probe the causes of the country’s worst-ever aviation disaster on home soil, here’s a look at what could have gone wrong: The flight from Bangkok to southwestern Muan International Airport in South Korea was warned of a bird strike by the control tower as it came in to land. Source link

Washington – U.S. President Joe Biden announced $2.5 billion in additional security assistance for Ukraine on Monday as he uses his final weeks in office to surge military aid to Kyiv before President-elect Donald Trump takes power. “At my direction, the United States will continue to work relentlessly to strengthen Ukraine’s position in this war over the remainder of my time in office,” Biden said in a statement. Biden’s announcement includes $1.25 billion in military aid drawn from U.S. stockpiles and a $1.22 billion Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) package, the final USAI package of Biden’s time in office. Source link

The cast gathered in the recording studio, taking turns at the microphones as animated scenes from one of Japan’s most beloved television cartoons played on screens in front of them. Midori Kato, 85, was the only gray-haired head in the room. She closed her eyes, appearing to doze for a moment until it was her character’s turn. She stepped up to a microphone, her shoulders slightly stooped and her gnarled hands grasping the paper script. But when she opened her mouth to speak, it was with a cheerful, slightly nasal twang: the voice of a 24-year-old stay-at-home mother. To generations of Japanese, she is Sazae-san, the titular character of the world’s longest-running animated television series. Since “Sazae-san” began airing on Sundays at 6:30 p.m. in 1969, Kato has voiced the bossy but kind, absent-minded woman who is forever sheepish about some mishap. Kato was recently honored with a Guinness World Record for the longest career as a voice actor for the same character in an animated TV series. She is the only remaining member of the original cast, and its oldest. Source link

The Nikkei share average retreated on 2024’s last trading day on Monday from the five-month high hit in the last session, as investors locked in profits on the index that rose nearly 20% for the year. The 225-issue Nikkei index fell 0.96% to close at 39,894.54 after opening 0.11% higher. It ended at a five-month closing high of 40,281.16 on Friday after a three-session winning streak. The benchmark index finished at its best year-end level ever, topping the previous high of 38,915.87 on Dec. 29, 1989, when Japan was in the speculation-driven bubble economy. The index rose 19.22% this year, underpinned by a weaker yen and the central bank’s low-rate policy. In 2023, it had gained 28%. The broader Topix index eased 0.6% to 2.784.92. “Investors sold stocks today because they could not find clear reasons for the Nikkei to cross the 40,000 levels,” said Fumio Matsumoto, chief strategist at Okasan Securities. “But that does not mean investors are pessimistic about the market in the coming year. They may just want to avoid risks during the market close in Japan for the new year, which is longer than usual.” Japanese markets will reopen on Jan. 6 after closing for the New Year holidays starting Tuesday. Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing shed 1.59% to drag on the Nikkei the most. Chip-testing equipment maker Advantest fell 2.6%. Nissan slipped 5.73% to become the biggest loser in percentage terms on the benchmark. The carmaker surged 33.7% this month as merger talks with Honda surfaced. However, the stock ended the year 13.39% lower. Fujikura, which makes wire cabling for data centers, grew sixfold this year, becoming the top gainer in percentage terms on the Nikkei. Lasertec, which makes inspection equipment used in the production of semiconductors, fell 59% this year and was the Nikkei’s worst performer. Source link

Upstart financial firms that provide services such as early paycheck access or buy-now, pay-later plans have attracted rising interest from customers and investors alike. Fintechs raised nearly $24 billion globally in the first three quarters of 2024, according to data from CB Insights, and represent a growing competitive threat to traditional banks and asset managers. “We just have to be better, not just than our peer banks but everybody else that’s competing for our customers,” Banco Santander Executive Chair Ana Botín said at the Bloomberg Women Money & Power conference in London in December. “Accounts tend to be still with us, but payments and value added services are going to others,” Botin said. The incoming U.S. administration has made financial deregulation a policy priority for the next four years, and the future of the powerful Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is in question. In Europe, by contrast, policymakers continue to take a cautious approach to the industry. That asymmetry has made the U.S. an attractive market for fintech startups looking for both growth and sources of funding. Source link

London – Liverpool moved a step closer to a record-equaling 20th English top-flight title on Sunday as a 5-0 thrashing of West Ham opened up an eight-point lead at the top of the Premier League. Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo, Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Diogo Jota were on target for the rampant Reds in east London as they ended the year as huge favorites to deliver just a second league title in 35 years. Nottingham Forest is the surprise closest challenger in second, but Arsenal and Chelsea can close the gap when they are in action later in the week. Source link

As Japan’s economy struggles under the weight of the weak yen, the depleted currency has in parallel attracted record numbers of overseas visitors, with Tokyo emerging as a globally recognized red-light destination — with some drawing comparisons to Thailand’s Pattaya, long associated with sex tourism. Through social media, influencers have inadvertently popularized the seediest parts of Tokyo’s nightlife, often reinforcing harmful stereotypes of Japanese women as submissive, sexually permissive and exotic. These stereotypes, however, are not merely foreign misrepresentations: Japan’s own postwar legal framework and cultural conditions sustain and reinforce them. Tropes of Japanese women as both innocent and deviant can be traced back to 19th-century Orientalist views that cast Japan as mysterious and exotic — as outlined by Narrelle Morris, an associate professor at Curtin University in Australia, in a paper exploring Western fiction’s fetishization of Japanese women. Source link

Seoul – Investigators probing South Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol over his short-lived declaration of martial law said Monday they sought an arrest warrant for the suspended president after he failed to report for questioning. Yoon briefly suspended civilian rule this month, plunging South Korea into its worst political crisis in decades. He was stripped of his presidential duties by parliament over the action, but the country’s Constitutional Court ruling is hearing the case on whether to confirm the impeachment. Source link

Havana – With a focus on human rights, U.S. policy toward Latin America under Jimmy Carter briefly tempered a long tradition of interventionism in a key sphere of American influence, analysts say. Carter, who died Sunday at the age of 100, defied the furor of U.S. conservatives to negotiate the handover of the Panama Canal to Panamanian control, suspended aid to multiple authoritarian governments in the region, and even attempted to normalize relations with Cuba. Carter’s resolve to chart a course toward democracy and diplomacy, however, was severely tested in Central America and Cuba, where he was forced to balance his human rights priorities with pressure from adversaries to combat the spread of communism amid the Cold War standoff with the Soviet Union. Source link