(Reuters) - The U.S. government has approved the export of advanced artificial intelligence chips to a Microsoft-operated facility in the United Arab Emirates as part of the company's highly-scrutinized partnership with Emirati AI firm G42, Axios reported on Saturday, citing two people familiar with the deal. (Reporting by Devika Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Paul Simao) Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters .
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan have announced plans to work toward a merger that would form the world’s third-largest automaker by sales, as the industry undergoes dramatic changes in its transition away from fossil fuels. The two companies said they had signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday and that smaller Nissan alliance member Mitsubishi Motors Corp. also had agreed to join the talks on integrating their businesses. Automakers in Japan have lagged behind their big rivals in electric vehicles and are trying to cut costs and make up for lost time as newcomers like China's BYD and EV market leader Tesla devour market share. Honda's president, Toshihiro Mibe, said Honda and Nissan will attempt to unify their operations under a joint holding company. Honda will lead the new management, retaining the principles and brands of each company. They aim to have a formal merger agreement by June and to complete the deal and list the holding company on the Tokyo Stock Exchange by August 2026, he said. No dollar value was given and the formal talks are just starting, Mibe said. There are “points that need to be studied and discussed,” he said. “Frankly speaking, the possibility of this not being implemented is not zero.” A merger could result in a behemoth worth more than $50 billion based on the market capitalization of all three automakers. Together, Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi would gain scale to compete with Toyota Motor Corp. and with Germany’s Volkswagen AG. Toyota has technology partnerships with Japan’s Mazda Motor Corp. and Subaru Corp. News of a possible merger surfaced earlier this month, with unconfirmed reports saying Taiwan iPhone maker Foxconn was seeking to tie up with Nissan by buying shares from the Japan's company's other alliance partner, Renault SA of France. Nissan's CEO Makoto Uchida said Foxconn had not directly approach his company. He also acknowledged that Nissan's situation was “severe.” Even after a merger Toyota, which rolled out 11.5 million vehicles in 2023, would remain the leading Japanese automaker. If they join, the three smaller companies would make about 8 million vehicles. In 2023, Honda made 4 million and Nissan produced 3.4 million. Mitsubishi Motors made just over 1 million. “We have come to the realization that in order for both parties to be leaders in this mobility transformation, it is necessary to make a more bold change than a collaboration in specific areas,” Mibe said. Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi earlier agreed to share components for electric vehicles like batteries and to jointly research software for autonomous driving to adapt better to electrification. Nissan has struggled following a scandal that began with the arrest of its former chairman Carlos Ghosn in late 2018 on charges of fraud and misuse of company assets, allegations that he denies. He eventually was released on bail and fled to Lebanon. Speaking Monday to reporters in Tokyo via a video link, Ghosn derided the planned merger as a “desperate move.” From Nissan, Honda could get truck-based body-on-frame large SUVs such as the Armada and Infiniti QX80 that Honda doesn’t have, with large towing capacities and good off-road performance, Sam Fiorani, vice president of AutoForecast Solutions, told The Associated Press. Nissan also has years of experience building batteries and electric vehicles, and gas-electric hybrid powertrains that could help Honda in developing its own EVs and next generation of hybrids, he said. But the company said in November that it was slashing 9,000 jobs, or about 6% of its global work force, and reducing its global production capacity by 20% after reporting a quarterly loss of 9.3 billion yen ($61 million). It recently reshuffled its management and Uchida, its chief executive, took a 50% pay cut while acknowledging responsibility for the financial woes, saying Nissan needed to become more efficient and respond better to market tastes , rising costs and other global changes. “We anticipate that if this integration comes to fruition, we will be able to deliver even greater value to a wider customer base,” Uchida said. Fitch Ratings recently downgraded Nissan’s credit outlook to “negative,” citing worsening profitability, partly due to price cuts in the North American market. But it noted that it has a strong financial structure and solid cash reserves that amounted to 1.44 trillion yen ($9.4 billion). Nissan’s share price also had fallen to the point where it is considered something of a bargain. On Monday, its Tokyo-traded shares gained 1.6%. They jumped more than 20% after news of the possible merger broke last week. Honda's shares surged 3.8%. Honda's net profit slipped nearly 20% in the first half of the April-March fiscal year from a year earlier, as its sales suffered in China. The merger reflects an industry-wide trend toward consolidation. At a routine briefing Monday, Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said he would not comment on details of the automakers' plans, but said Japanese companies need to stay competitive in the fast changing market. “As the business environment surrounding the automobile industry largely changes, with competitiveness in storage batteries and software is increasingly important, we expect measures needed to survive international competition will be taken," Hayashi said. ___ Kurtenbach reported from Bangkok.
Given how much we use our iPhones to text, scroll through social media, and remind us of important events, it's easy to forget that, first and foremost, it's a telephone, albeit a very technologically advanced one. Whether you're a veteran power user or new to the brand, you've likely encountered a few surprising things about the iPhone while using it. As with any tech device, every now and then, your iPhone might do something you don't understand. When going through your iPhone's call logs, you'll come across things like incoming, outgoing, and missed calls. However, you might find one thing puzzling — the Canceled Call message that sometimes appears unexpectedly in an iPhone's call logs. While other call statuses that show up in an iPhone's call log are pretty self-explanatory, the Canceled Call message has caused more than a few people to scratch their heads and wonder what's going on. If this has happened to you, you might wonder if the person you're trying to reach has blocked your number or if your iPhone is experiencing some type of technical issue. The good news is that if you see Canceled Call in your iPhone's call logs, there's usually nothing to be concerned about; it just means a call was initiated but didn't go through. Have you ever called someone on your iPhone and hung up before they could answer or before their voicemail came on? If the answer is yes, the Canceled Call message has likely appeared in your iPhone's call logs, whether you noticed it at the time or not. This message doesn't mean there's anything wrong with your phone. When the right conditions are met, it'll appear in your call logs, whether you're using the futuristic iPhone 16 Pro or an older model. The Canceled Call status lets you know that a call was placed but wasn't completed. Something that often happens when we realize we've dialed the wrong number and quickly hang up. The person on the receiving end of your phone call won't see Canceled Call in their logs; instead, they'll see a Missed Call status, assuming the phone rang at least one time. If their network doesn't have time to register your call, they might not see anything at all. Canceled Call will also appear in your call logs if you call someone and get a busy signal. You may be asking yourself: How does a Canceled Call differ from an outgoing call? You'll see Outgoing Call in your call logs if you call someone and your iPhone dials the number, the recipient's phone rings, and connects. If your call doesn't go through all these stages, your iPhone will record it as a Canceled Call in your call logs.None
In an unexpected move that caught many off-guard, San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chair Nora Vargas announced her resignation barely a month after securing re-election for a second term. According to Voice of San Diego , Vargas stated "personal safety and security reasons" as the driver behind her decision—though no specifics were disclosed. The resignation of Vargas, who made history as the board's first Latina and bi-national chair, marks a pronounced disturbance within the local political scene. The ascension of Vargas in 2020 had dramatically altered the political composition of the board, shifting control from Republicans, who had long held sway to a Democratic majority. Recently, though, she faced a wave of online animosity and other threats—this sort of poisonous fervor being symptomatic of a prevailing discord in political settings, as corroborated by data from the University of San Diego's Violence, Inequality, and Power Lab, detailing a pervasive trend of harassment directed at elected officials. Vargas’s decision to resign has primed local politicians in her district to contemplate their bids for the soon-to-be-vacated position, anticipating the board's forthcoming decision on January 6 regarding a potential appointment or special election, as Voice of San Diego reported. Meanwhile, NBC 7 San Diego has revealed that while the San Diego County Sheriff's Office was unaware of any active threats directed towards Vargas or any other supervisor, a noted increase in contentious interactions within meetings and a decline in civility. Rachel Locke, from the aforementioned lab, provided data showing that between 66% and 75% of surveyed elected officials have been the subject of threats or harassment over the past five years—often regularly. Additionally, the now-outgoing supervisor had her share of controversy, notably on issues like the protracted cross-border sewage pollution. Her choice to delay the superfund designation for the Tijuana River Valley spurred discontent among constituents. "The community must be engaged and fully informed on the long-term consequences of a superfund designation, including potential impacts on property values and local investments," Vargas explained during a supervisors' meeting. Despite this, Laura Wilkinson Sinton of the advocacy group Stop the Sewage underscored the complexity of such problems, telling NBC 7 San Diego , "You know, there are a lot of problems, and they're not fixed in four years." The county's investment in private security for Vargas, which amounted to over $38,000 in October alone, and whether this is standard protocol for supervisors, remains under question. Vargas had committed to tackling significant issues such as housing, behavioral health, environmental justice, and economic prosperity before her re-election bid. With her impending departure, the evenly split bipartisan board faces the challenge of finding common ground for an interim successor, potentially setting up a snap election in the near future. Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer reaffirmed the board's dedication, assuring the public that they will "continue advancing our agenda to uplift all of our communities," as quoted by NBC 7 San Diego .