Author name: admin

Nissan looks set to step back from merger talks with rival Honda, two sources said on Wednesday, calling into question a $60 billion tie-up to create the world’s No.3 automaker and potentially leaving Nissan to drive its turnaround alone. Talks between the two Japanese automakers have been complicated by growing differences, according to multiple people familiar with the matter, all of whom declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Reuters reported earlier that Nissan could call off talks after Honda sounded it out about becoming a subsidiary. Nissan baulked as this was a departure from what was originally framed as a merger of equals, one of the people said. Source link

After months on the free agent market, Pete Alonso is reportedly returning to the New York Mets. The All-Star first baseman agreed to a two-year, $54 million deal on Wednesday, according to multiple media reports. Alonso is set to make $30 million this year (including a $10 million signing bonus), then will have a player option worth $24 million for 2026, per the reports. The New York Post and USA Today reported that Alonso turned down a three-year offer from the Mets (worth $71 million, per USA Today) before accepting the two-year contract. He rejoins a Mets roster bolstered by the free agent arrival of outfielder Juan Soto on a record 15-year, $765 million deal. Alonso, 30, is coming off his fourth All-Star season in his six major league campaigns (all with the Mets), but his power numbers were down. He finished with 34 homers and 88 RBIs while batting.240 with a.329 on-base percentage and a.459 slugging percentage. He added four home runs and 10 RBIs while going 12-for-44 (.273) in 13 playoff games as the Mets reached the National League Championship Series. Alonso produced 40 homers and a major-league-high 131 RBIs in 2022, then posted 46 homers and 118 RBIs in 2023. He enjoyed his best season while capturing NL Rookie of the Year honors in 2019, when he socked a major-league-best 53 homers and drove in 120 runs while hitting.260/.358/.583. Over 846 career games, Alonso owns a.249/.339/.514 batting line with 226 home runs and 586 RBIs. Source link

In the last few months, a debate over the current state of Japan’s education system and who should foot the bill for rising education costs has engaged many in the political center of Nagatacho. With the Liberal Democratic Party-led minority government lacking the numbers to pass its budget for the upcoming fiscal year, the opposition Nippon Ishin no Kai has promised support should the government consider its proposals for free high school tuition, free day care for children 2 years old and under, and free school meals. On Wednesday, the coalition put forward a plan to make public school tuition free, with costs of up to ¥118,800 yearly subsidized for all families regardless of income. Ishin still demanded more monetary intervention for private education, of up to ¥630,000 per year, from the upcoming fiscal year. Source link

KYIV – North Korean ballistic missiles fired at Ukraine by Russian forces since late December have been far more precise than salvos of the weapons launched over the past year, two senior Ukrainian sources told Reuters. At a time when Moscow’s burgeoning ties with Pyongyang are causing alarm from Washington to Seoul, the increase in accuracy — to within 50-100m of the intended target — suggests North Korea is successfully using the battlefield to test its missile technology, the sources said. A military source, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive information, described a marked improvement in the precision in all the more than 20 North Korean ballistic missiles that hit Ukraine over the past several weeks. A second source, a senior government official familiar with the issue, confirmed the findings. Source link

Tokyo Electron reaffirmed its annual outlook and outlined plans to build a ¥104 billion ($681 million) plant, suggesting it expects sustained artificial intelligence spending. The company, one of a handful of key chip gear-makers globally, revealed that expansion after posting better-than-expected earnings. The supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and Samsung Electronics brought in operating profit of ¥199.6 billion in the December quarter from sales of machines used to prepare, etch and clean silicon wafers that are ultimately cut into memory or logic chips. That was up 51% from the previous year and compares with the average of analyst estimates of ¥174 billion. Closely watched as an indicator of future spending on chips used for artificial intelligence development, Tokyo Electron did not hike its outlook, as compatriot Advantest did a week earlier. Indications from supply chain players have been mixed, as Dutch lithography supplier ASML Holding NV reported a surprisingly high number of orders while Arm Holdings and Advanced Micro Devices gave cautious forecasts that added to doubts about the sustainability of the free-spending trend in the market. Source link

Japanese rice fish detect ultraviolet rays from sunlight directly with the pituitary gland and turn their bodies black for protection, a team has found. The findings by the team, including University of Tokyo associate professor Shinji Kanda and Okayama University assistant professor Keita Sato, were published in the U.S. journal Science recently. Recent research had found that vertebrates including fish have receptor proteins that can detect light in cells other than those in their eyes, but their purpose was unknown. The team suspects that animals with almost translucent bodies may have yet more systems to detect light directly. The surface of Japanese rice fish’s body has pigment cells that receive a hormone from cells in the pituitary gland and synthesize melanin. Cells in the gland contain the so-called Opn5m receptor protein. The team succeeded in observing the release of melanocyte-secreting hormone from Opn5m by shining light with the same wavelength as ultraviolet A on Japanese rice fish. Source link

The consortium proposing to take Seven & I Holdings private has tapped Citigroup and Bank of America for financing, adding to a growing group of players in the potentially record-breaking management buyout bid, people familiar with the matter said. The two U.S. banks’ role in the bid would be to refinance the debt of Seven & I’s U.S. unit, one of the people said. The company had debt of ¥2.7 trillion ($17.8 billion) as of November, 56% of which belongs to the overseas convenience store operations, according to the company’s financial results. Banks typically pass on such debt to outside investors. Thai conglomerate CP All — which holds the Thai franchise for 7-Eleven — is also weighing plans to take an equity stake in the management buyout of about ¥500 billion, the people said, joining a plan hatched by Seven & I’s founding Ito family and Familymart operator Itochu last year. Source link

Naomi Osaka is starting to get her pink back. Osaka returned to the tour a year ago after 15 months away from tennis, during which time she gave birth to her daughter, Shai. Her first year back was anything but smooth as she failed to advance beyond the quarterfinals in any tournament, but now, the former world No. 1 says she feels more like herself on the court. As TikTokers would say: she’s reclaiming her pink. Source link

The number of criminal cases reported to police in Japan increased for the third year in a row in 2024 according to data released in a report by the National Police Agency on Thursday, mainly due a rise in the number of cases of investment fraud and scams via social media. A survey released in the same report also found that an increasing number of people feel that Japan has become less safe in the past decade. According to the data, there were 737,679 crimes reported to police in 2024, up 4.9% from the year before, although this was lower than the number before the pandemic in 2019. Source link

A former employee of Nomura Holdings has been arrested on suspicion of fraud, local media reported, weeks after Japan’s biggest brokerage vowed to take remedial steps following a separate criminal case. The 30-year-old man is suspected of defrauding a client of about ¥10 million ($65,000) by selling fake savings products, Kyodo reported, without saying where it got the information. Tokyo police suspect the person used the Nomura brand to swindle a woman in her 70s, the Nikkei newspaper reported. Nomura representatives weren’t immediately able to comment when contacted. Source link