From subs to missiles, US pushes Japan to 'get real' about China threat
NEW YORK -- As the U.S. military pulls assets out of the Middle East to focus on China, it is increasingly looking to allies and partners to join the effort to deter Beijing and maintain a "free and open Indo-Pacific."
No country is in a better position to help than Japan, which sits near the Taiwan Strait and hosts well over 50,000 American military personnel -- the U.S.'s largest forward-deployed force in the world.
But
Fukui nuclear unit becomes Japan's 1st to operate beyond 40-yr limit
FUKUI, Japan (Kyodo) -- An aging nuclear reactor in central Japan's Fukui Prefecture was restarted Wednesday, becoming the country's first nuclear unit to operate beyond the government-mandated 40-year service period introduced under new rules set after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
Kansai Electric Power Co. said it began operating the No. 3 unit at the Mihama plant for the first time in about 10 years, after completing final inspections. The reactor had stopped operations after the crisis at
After Grab: ASEAN's tech giants produce a new startup generation
SINGAPORE -- Gaurav Bubna was the head of a product team at Grab, developing custom mapping solutions to support millions of ride-hailing and food-delivery drivers navigating the congested and complex streets of Southeast Asia. Soon, he realized that the problem he was tackling for Grab and the opportunities it presented "were far more global."
So with two Grab colleagues, Bubna left one of the most powerful and successful tech companies in Southeast Asia to co-found his own startup.
NextBillion.ai, the Singapore-
LG pivots from phones to cars, taking aim at EV supply chain
SEOUL -- Next month will close one chapter and open another for LG Electronics as the South Korean company ends its money-losing smartphone business and starts an alliance in the fast-growing electric-vehicle supply chain.
LG will complete its exit from the phone business, which has spilled red ink for six consecutive years, by the end of July. During the same month, LG will spin off its EV drive system segment . Canada's Magna International, one of the world's leading auto parts suppliers,
As US exits Afghanistan, China prepares for threat of security void
NEW YORK -- Even as U.S.-China ties fray, Beijing is growing increasingly concerned over a security vacuum emerging in Afghanistan after America withdraws from the war-torn country.
With the Sept. 11 deadline for the Americans to withdraw getting closer, China will no longer be able to rely on a U.S. presence to quell some of the security threats posed by Afghanistan on its southwestern border.
"China was a key beneficiary of the U.S. force presence in Afghanistan, and
Bitcoin stumbles below $30,000 under weight of China crackdown
WASHINGTON -- While Asia slept, regulatory pressures in China continued to bear on bitcoin, dragging the price of the world's most traded cryptocurrency below $30,000 for the first time since January.
Bitcoin's price fell to just above $29,000 on Tuesday morning before stabilizing above $32,000 later in the day.
The digital currency is down more than 50% compared with an all-time high of nearly $65,0
China's Full Truck Alliance jumps 13% in Wall Street debut
NEW YORK -- Chinese digital freight startup Full Truck Alliance ended Tuesday up 13% in its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange after raising $1.6 billion from investors, suggesting a normalizing appetite for Chinese technology listings in the U.S. following a long period of policy uncertainty.
The company's American depositary shares -- previously priced at $19 apiece, at the high end of the marketed range -- opened at $22.50 and had settled to
Australia's first 'dark sky park' draws in stargazers
SYDNEY, Australia -- Gazing at the stars in wonderment has been part of the human experience since the dawn of time, and on a freezing cold night in Australia there may be no better place to do it than in the Warrumbungle mountain range 400 km northwest of Sydney.
From a chilly vantage point among the jagged peaks of the Warrumbungles, where the only light comes from a rising moon, the majestic Milky Way galaxy spreads across the dark southern hemisphere sky. Billions of stars twinkle in this swirl of gas
GlobalFoundries puts $4bn into Singapore expansion
SINGAPORE -- U.S. semiconductor giant GlobalFoundries will invest over $4 billion to expand its Singapore wafer plant and ramp up capacity as it attempts to tackle the global microchip shortage.
The privately held company owned by the United Arab Emirates' Mubadala Investment Company announced on Tuesday that by the first quarter of 2023 the investment will allow the Singapore facility to make around 1.2 million wafers a year, 450,000 more than it can currently produce.
When fully operational by 2
Ambani and Adani soar as Indian billionaires outpace Chinese peers
TOKYO -- Indian billionaires have grown richer amid the coronavirus pandemic, thanks to the country's resilient stock market, outpacing Chinese technology tycoons taken down a notch by a government crackdown.
Mukesh Ambani, head of oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries and the richest person in Asia, has seen his net worth grow 11% so far this year to $85.1 billion as of Tuesday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. This puts him in 12th place worldwide, ahead of such
