Japan government approves $140bn stimulus
Japan’s minority government signed off Friday on a $140-billion stimulus drive aimed at putting more money in consumers’ pockets after the ruling party’s worst election result in 15 years.The October 27 contest saw voters — angry over corruption in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and inflation — deprive new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s coalition of a majority in parliament’s lower house.The package worth 21.9 trillion yen ($141.8 billion) includes handouts of around 30,000 yen for low-income households, fuel and energy subsidies, and assistance to small businesses, according to the government.The overall business impact was expected to be 39 trillion yen.”To enhance the vitality of Japan as a whole, we will strengthen the growth of the national and regional economies and raise wages for all people, of all generations,” top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters.To pay for the package, the second in as many years, the government will table a supplementary budget by the end of the year in the lower house.But views about the move among people on the streets were mixed.Voter Katsuhiro Hirakawa, 63, accused politicians of making “whatever decisions they want without listening to the voices of us ordinary citizens”.Authorities should “think carefully about why they need more tax revenue, or how they can reduce wasteful spending, before making decisions on budgets”, he told AFP in Tokyo.And Hisaki Sato, 46, wanted more help for the middle class, adding: “We’re now living in an age when not only low-income households but middle-income families are in need of more stimulus measures.”The middle class is “home to many people who are contributing directly to the economy, so I want the government to cherish them as well”.- Debt mountain -To win enough lawmakers’ support, Ishiba agreed to include the lifting of an income tax threshold pushed by the opposition Democratic Party for the People (DPP).The smaller party says this will ease labour shortages and boost consumer spending by encouraging part-time staff to work longer hours and earn more.But critics worry that this will reduce tax revenues by trillions of yen and increase Japan’s huge debt pile, which equates to more than 200 percent of gross domestic product.With the Bank of Japan expected to keep hiking interest rates, this debt mountain will also cost more and more, SMBC Nikko Securities economist Yoshimasa Maruyama said.Tax cuts “must be accompanied by a permanent source of revenue to fill the gap”, Maruyama wrote in a research note.Ishiba, 67, has promised to revitalise depressed rural regions and to address the “quiet emergency” of Japan’s shrinking population with measures to support families such as flexible working hours.Going forward, businesses worry that the need to curry favour with opposition parties means Ishiba will avoid reforms needed to improve Japan’s competitiveness.There are also concerns that the government may pressure the Bank of Japan to go slow on raising interest rates, even if this leads to a weaker yen.- Rice prices soar -Government data Friday put headline inflation last month at a modest 2.3 percent, but it showed rice up nearly 60 percent year-on-year, revealing the pain for ordinary Japanese.The price of the staple rocketed because of hot weather and water shortages and after a “megaquake” warning in August led to hoarding. Record inflows of hungry tourists were also blamed.Separately, Ishiba has promised to spend 10 trillion yen through 2030 to boost Japan’s semiconductor and artificial intelligence sectors and help the nation regain its tech edge.After dominating tech in the 1980s, “Japan had quite a long period of almost just sitting back and observing a lot of this innovation,” particularly in artificial intelligence, said Kelly Forbes at the AI Asia Pacific Institute.”What we have seen in the last maybe two to three years is Japan really waking up to the potential” of such developments, she told AFP.
Most markets track Wall St gains, bitcoin closes on $100,000
Most markets gained Friday after a bounce on Wall Street, while bitcoin continued its march higher to move within touching distance of the $100,000 mark.Rising geopolitical tensions tempered the atmosphere and lifted oil again after Russia hit Ukraine with a new-generation intermediate-range missile and sent a warning to the West.The gains in equities followed a retreat in most regional bourses Thursday after a forecast-topping earnings report from chip titan Nvidia still fell short of investors’ hopes and sparked worries that a tech-fuelled surge in markets may have run its course.However, all three main indexes on Wall Street ended on a positive note with observers saying traders had dialled back their gloom over Nvidia as they digested pledges by the firm over production of its keenly anticipated Blackwell line-up.Investors also took heart from comments by Chicago Federal Reserve chief Austan Goolsbee, who said he saw interest rates coming down more as the US central bank makes progress in bringing inflation down to its two percent target.He pointed out that regarding the jobs market and prices “things are getting close to where we want to settle”, adding that “it follows that we will probably need to move rates to where we think they should settle, too”.”If we look out over the next year or so, it feels to me like rates will end up a fair bit lower than where they are today,” he said.The remarks helped temper recent worries that the Fed will have to scale back its rate plans if US President-elect Donald Trump pushes through his promised tax cuts and import tariffs, which some warn could reignite inflation.The gains in New York filtered through to Asia.Tokyo climbed as the government prepared to announce a $140 billion stimulus package to kickstart the country’s stuttering economy, while Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Wellington, Mumbai, Bangkok, Taipei and Jakarta also rose.However, Hong Kong and Shanghai sank on a sell-off in tech firms caused by weak earnings from firms including PDD and Baidu. Manila also slipped.London and Paris opened higher while Frankfurt also advanced even after data showed Germany’s economy grew less than initially thought in the third quarter.Bitcoin, meanwhile, set a new record high of $99,505.44.While it later eased back slightly, there is a broad expectation that it will soon burst through $100,000 as investors grow increasingly hopeful that Trump will pass measures to deregulate the crypto sector.Bets on an easier environment for digital units in a Trump White House have seen bitcoin soar more than 40 percent since his election victory this month, while it has more than doubled since the turn of the year.Adding to the positive vibes was news that Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler — who oversaw measures to rein in cryptocurrencies — intends to leave when Trump takes office on January 20, Bloomberg reported. Oil prices extended the previous day’s gains on rising Ukraine worries after Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the conflict had characteristics of a “global” war and did not rule out strikes on Western countries.His comments came after Moscow test-fired a new missile at its neighbour, which Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky called a major ramping up of the “scale and brutality” of the war.Both main crude contracts extended the two percent gains seen Thursday when natural gas prices also hit their highest level in a year.- Key figures around 0810 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.7 percent at 38,283.85 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.9 percent at 19,229.97 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 3.1 percent at 3,267.19 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 0.7 percent at 8,202.86Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0487 from $1.0476 on ThursdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2574 from $1.2587Dollar/yen: UP at 154.72 yen from 154.54 yenEuro/pound: UP at 83.40 pence from 83.20 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.7 percent at $70.56 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.6 percent at $74.65 per barrelNew York – Dow: UP 1.1 percent at 43,870.35 (close)
Rétractation de Takieddine: face aux juges, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy reconnaît avoir possédé un téléphone au coeur de l’enquête
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy avait initialement contesté posséder un téléphone au coeur de l’enquête sur la rétractation de Ziad Takieddine de ses accusations de financement libyen de la campagne 2007 de son époux Nicolas Sarkozy. Mais face aux juges début juillet, l’artiste s’est “souvenue” de la ligne, tout en écartant toute infraction.Le 9 juillet, l’épouse de l’ex-chef de l’Etat (2007-2012) a été mise en examen par deux juges parisiens pour recel de subornation de témoin et association de malfaiteurs en vue d’une escroquerie au jugement en bande organisée.Dans ce dossier judiciaire ouvert mi-2021, Nicolas Sarkozy a été mis en cause en octobre 2023, soupçonné d’avoir avalisé des manœuvres pour obtenir fin 2020 une volte-face temporaire de Ziad Takieddine, principal témoin à charge dans cette affaire retentissante dont le volet principal sera jugé début 2025.Au total, une douzaine de personnes sont mises en cause à des degrés divers.Au cœur des investigations, un téléphone surnommé “43 97”. Les juges suspectent qu’il a servi au couple Sarkozy pour échanger discrètement avec “Mimi” (Michèle) Marchand, ex-papesse de la presse people et ancienne amie de la mannequin, également mise en cause.Devant les policiers en mai, la chanteuse de “Quelqu’un m’a dit” avait nié détenir cette ligne ou connaître les initiatives présumées pour innocenter son mari.Acculée par les questions des enquêteurs sur les incohérences de sa version, la chanteuse avait lâché: “J’essaie d’échafauder des explications”.Mais le 9 juillet, selon ses déclarations aux juges dont l’AFP vient d’avoir connaissance, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy a fini par reconnaître avoir “utilisé ce téléphone par ellipse, parfois. C’est la police qui me l’a dit, parce que je ne m’en souvenais pas”.”Cette ligne n’est pas une ligne occulte comme je l’ai lu dans la presse”, elle avait été “ouverte pour mes enfants” qui l’ont aidée, comme la police, à rafraîchir sa mémoire, s’est aussi rappelée l’artiste de 56 ans.Elle a justifié son utilisation car sa ligne principale aurait été bloquée à l’étranger, son téléphone habituel se serait cassé “en faisant de l’ElliptiGO” (un vélo elliptique) ou encore car ses messageries auraient été piratées.- “Acerbes” -Mais si Carla Bruni-Sarkozy a reconnu l’évidence de la possession du “43 97”, la mannequin a persisté à contester être l’autrice et la destinataire des SMS échangés avec Mimi Marchand qui semblent en lien avec cette opération dite “Sauver Sarko”.”Le 18 octobre 2020, vous apprenez que Mimi Marchand part au Liban” rencontrer Ziad Takieddine, “le 22 octobre vous lui demandez à son arrivée si tout va bien, et le 1er novembre, vous recevez un long message de compte rendu. Comprenez-vous que nous nous interrogeons ?”, lance l’un des juges.Carla Bruni-Sarkozy conteste alors avoir lu ce dernier message, mais le juge prouve techniquement le contraire. “Dont acte. Je n’ai aucun souvenir”, poursuit la mannequin.”Est-ce Nicolas Sarkozy le destinaire final ?” du compte-rendu, lui demande-t-on. “Je ne l’ai pas lu et je ne l’ai fait lire à personne”, atteste encore Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.”Comment expliquez-vous” que ce téléphone apparaisse à des dates “assez clefs ?” dans l’opération alléguée, interrogent plus tard les magistrats.”Pour moi, c’est une absolue coïncidence”, certifie l’artiste, coïncidence orchestrée d’après elle par Mimi Marchand, qui “ment”, qui “manipule” et pour qui elle nourrit désormais de “l’hostilité” assumée : “Quelqu’un qui est allé en prison, ce n’est jamais par hasard”, tacle Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.Sollicités par l’AFP, ses avocats Paul Mallet et Benoît Martinez ont répondu que cette ligne avait été ouverte “bien avant” l’opération objet de cette enquête et est “donc sans lien avec”.”Carla Bruni-Sarkozy apportera des éléments démontrant qu’elle (l’)a utilisée pour communiquer ponctuellement avec des proches, tout à fait étrangers à la procédure”, ont-ils ajouté.Alors que ce dossier va vers sa clôture, l’ex-président Sarkozy, dont l’avocat n’a pas répondu à l’AFP, tente d’obtenir de la cour d’appel de Paris la nullité de sa mise en examen et le dépaysement de l’information judiciaire. Carla Bruni-Sarkozy “exercera l’ensemble des voies de recours”, ont indiqué ses avocats.Egalement interrogée par l’AFP, Me Caroline Toby a indiqué que sa cliente Mimi Marchand “a pris connaissance avec étonnement des déclarations acerbes de Carla Bruni-Sarkozy à son endroit. Elle a toujours affirmé que ni elle ni son époux n’étaient impliqué de près ou de loin (dans les) faits reprochés. Elle ne comprend pas ce procès d’intention”.
Gabon forest elephant forays into villages spark ireFri, 22 Nov 2024 06:26:22 GMT
In heavily forested Gabon, elephants are increasingly wandering into villages and destroying crops, angering the local population who demand the power to stop the critically endangered animals in their tracks.”The solution to get rid of the pachyderms is to kill them,” said Kevin Balondoboka, who lives in Bakoussou, a mere scattering of wooden huts in …
Gabon forest elephant forays into villages spark ireFri, 22 Nov 2024 06:26:22 GMT Read More »
Japan government to approve $140bn stimulus
Japan’s minority government was set Friday to sign off on a $140-billion stimulus drive aimed at putting more money in consumers’ pockets after the ruling party’s worst election result in 15 years.The October 27 contest saw voters — angry over corruption in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and inflation — deprive new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s coalition of a majority in parliament’s lower house.Chief government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said Friday that the package — reportedly worth 21.9 trillion yen ($141.8 billion) — would be approved by Ishiba’s cabinet later in the day.”The package will have business impacts worth around 39 trillion yen and additional general account spending, which provide backing for the package, will be 13.9 trillion yen,” Hayashi said.”We aim to emerge out of the cost-cut style economy and transfer into the high added value creation economy,” he told reporters.It includes energy and fuel subsidies and cash handouts up to 30,000 yen ($194) to low-income households in the world’s fourth-biggest economy, according to the media.To pay for the package, the second in as many years, the government will table a supplementary budget by the end of the year in the lower house.To win enough lawmakers’ support, Ishiba agreed to include the lifting of an income tax threshold pushed by the opposition Democratic Party for the People (DPP).The smaller party says this will ease labour shortages and boost consumer spending by encouraging part-time staff to work longer hours and earn more.But critics worry that this will reduce tax revenues by trillions of yen and increase Japan’s huge debt pile, which equates to more than 200 percent of gross domestic product.The strain on Japan’s public finances is set to grow with the number of pensioners rising and the number of people working and paying into state coffers projected to decline.- ‘Quiet emergency’ -With the Bank of Japan expected to keep hiking interest rates, this debt mountain will also cost more and more, SMBC Nikko Securities economist Yoshimasa Maruyama said.Tax cuts “must be accompanied by a permanent source of revenue to fill the gap”, Maruyama wrote in a research note.Ishiba, 67, has promised to revitalise depressed rural regions and to address the “quiet emergency” of Japan’s shrinking population with measures to support families such as flexible working hours.Going forward, businesses worry that the need to curry favour with opposition parties means Ishiba will avoid reforms needed to improve Japan’s competitiveness.There are also concerns that the government may pressure the Bank of Japan to go slow on raising interest rates, even if this leads to a weaker yen.Government data Friday put headline inflation last month at a modest 2.3 percent, but it showed rice up nearly 60 percent year-on-year, revealing the pain for ordinary Japanese.The price of the staple rocketed because of hot weather and water shortages and after a “megaquake” warning in August led to hoarding. Record inflows of hungry tourists were also blamed.Separately, Ishiba has promised to spend 10 trillion yen through 2030 to boost Japan’s semiconductor and artificial intelligence sectors and help the nation regain its tech edge.The new stimulus package may include plans for the government to buy a 200-billion-yen stake in next-generation chip venture Rapidus, according to media reports.After dominating tech in the 1980s, “Japan had a quite a long period of almost just sitting back and observing a lot of this innovation, particularly when it comes to artificial intelligence”, said Kelly Forbes at the AI Asia Pacific Institute.”What we have seen in the last maybe two to three years is Japan really waking up to the potential” of such developments, she told AFP.
Most Asian markets track Wall St gains, bitcoin closes on $100,000
Most Asian markets gained Friday after a bounce on Wall Street, while bitcoin continued its march higher to move within touching distance of the $100,000 mark.Rising geopolitical tensions tempered the atmosphere and pushed oil higher after Russia hit Ukraine with a new-generation intermediate-range missile and sent a warning to the West.The gains in equities followed a retreat in most regional bourses Thursday after a forecast-topping earnings report from chip titan Nvidia still fell short of investors’ hopes and sparked worries that a tech-fuelled surge in markets may have run its course.However, all three main indexes on Wall Street ended on a positive note with observers saying traders had dialled back their gloom over Nvidia as they digested pledges by the firm over production of its keenly anticipated Blackwell line-up.Investors also took heart from comments by Chicago Federal Reserve chief Austan Goolsbee, who said he saw interest rates coming down more as the US central bank makes progress in bringing inflation down to its two percent target.He pointed out that regarding the jobs market and prices “things are getting close to where we want to settle”, adding that “it follows that we will probably need to move rates to where we think they should settle, too”.”If we look out over the next year or so, it feels to me like rates will end up a fair bit lower than where they are today,” he said.The remarks helped temper recent worries that the Fed will have to scale back its rate plans if US President-elect Donald Trump pushes through his promised tax cuts and import tariffs, which some warn could reignite inflation.The gains in New York filtered through to Asia.Tokyo climbed one percent as the government prepares to announce a $140 billion stimulus package to kickstart the country’s stuttering economy, while Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Wellington, Taipei and Jakarta also rose.Hong Kong, Shanghai and Manila slipped.Bitcoin, meanwhile, continued its heady run higher and broke $99,000 for the first time.While it eased back slightly soon after, there is a broad expectation that it will soon burst through $100,000 as investors grow increasingly hopeful that Trump will pass measures to deregulate the crypto sector.Bets on an easier environment for digital units in a Trump White House have seen bitcoin soar more than 40 percent since his election victory this month, while it has more than doubled since the turn of the year.Adding to the positive vibes was news that Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler — who oversaw a number of measures to rein in cryptocurrencies — intends to leave when Trump takes office on January 20, Bloomberg reported. Oil prices edged higher on rising Ukraine worries after Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the conflict had characteristics of a “global” war and did not rule out strikes on Western countries.His comments came after Moscow test-fired a new missile at its neighbour, which Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky called a major ramping up of the “scale and brutality” of the war.Both main crude contracts extended the two percent gains seen Thursday when natural gas prices also hit their highest level in a year.- Key figures around 0230 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 1.0 percent at 38,415.32 (break)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.2 percent at 19,561.61Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.4 percent at 3,355.75Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0470 from $1.0476 on ThursdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2585 from $1.2587Dollar/yen: DOWN at 154.42 yen from 154.54 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 83.18 pence from 83.20 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.4 percent at $70.39 per barrel Brent North Sea Crude: UP 0.4 percent at $74.49 per barrelNew York – Dow: UP 1.1 percent at 43,870.35 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 0.8 percent at 8,149.27 (close)