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.DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli troops stormed one of the last hospitals operating in northern Gaza on Friday, forcing many staff and patients outside to strip in winter weather , the territory’s health ministry said. The army denied claims it had entered or set fire to the complex and accused Hamas of using the facility for cover. Kamal Adwan Hospital has been hit multiple times over the past three months by Israeli troops waging an offensive against Hamas fighters in surrounding neighborhoods, according to staff. The ministry said a strike on the hospital a day earlier killed five medical staff. Israel's military said it was conducting operations against Hamas infrastructure and militants in the area and had ordered people out of the hospital, but said it had not entered the complex as of Friday night. It repeated claims that Hamas militants operate inside Kamal Adwan but provided no evidence. Hospital officials have denied that. The Health Ministry said troops forced medical personnel and patients to assemble in the yard and remove their clothes. Some were led to an unknown location, while some patients were sent to the nearby Indonesian Hospital, which was knocked out of operation after an Israel raid this week. Israeli troops during raids frequently carry out mass detentions, stripping men to their underwear for questioning in what the military says is a security measure as they search for Hamas fighters. The Associated Press doesn’t have access to Kamal Adwan, but armed plainclothes members of the Hamas-led police forces have been seen in other hospitals, maintaining security but also controlling access to parts of the facilities. The Health Ministry said Israeli troops also set fires in several parts of Kamal Adwan, including the lab and surgery department. It said 25 patients and 60 health workers remained in the hospital. The account could not be independently confirmed, and attempts to reach hospital staff were unsuccessful. “Fire is ablaze everywhere in the hospital,” an unidentified staff member said in an audio message posted on social media accounts of hospital director Hossam Abu Safiya. The staffer said some evacuated patients had been unhooked from oxygen. “There are currently patients who could die at any moment,” she said. Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, denied the accusations. “While IDF troops were not in the hospital, a small fire broke out in an empty building inside the hospital that is under control,” he said Friday night. He said a preliminary investigation found “no connection” between military activity and the fire. The Israeli military heavily restricts the movements of Palestinians in Gaza and has barred foreign journalists from entering the territory throughout the war, making it difficult to verify information. “These actions put the lives of all of these people in even more danger than what they faced before,” U.N. spokesperson Stephanie Tremblay told journalists, and noted colleagues' reports of “significant damage” to the hospital. It should be protected as international law requires, she added. Since October, Israel’s offensive has virtually sealed off the northern Gaza areas of Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and leveled large parts of them. Tens of thousands of Palestinians were forced out but thousands are believed to remain in the area, where Kamal Adwan and two other hospitals are located. Troops raided Kamal Adwan in October, and on Tuesday troops stormed and evacuated the Indonesian Hospital. The area has been cut off from food and other aid for months , raising fears of famine . The United Nations says Israeli troops allowed just four humanitarian deliveries to the area from Dec. 1 to Dec. 23. The Israeli rights group Physicians for Human Rights-Israel this week petitioned Israel’s High Court of Justice, seeking a halt to military attacks on Kamal Adwan. It warned that forcibly evacuating the hospital would “abandon thousands of residents in northern Gaza.” Before the latest deaths Thursday, the group documented five other staffers killed by Israeli fire since October. Israel launched its campaign in Gaza vowing to destroy Hamas after the group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel in which militants killed around 1,200 people and abducted some 250 others. Around 100 Israelis remain captive in Gaza, around a third believed to be dead. Israel’s nearly 15-month-old campaign of bombardment and offensives has devastated the territory’s health sector. A year ago, it carried out raids on hospitals in northern Gaza, including Kamal Adwan, Indonesian and al-Awda Hospital, saying they served as bases for Hamas, though it presented little evidence. Israel’s campaign has killed more than 45,400 Palestinians, more than half women and children, and wounded more than 108,000 others, according to the Health Ministry. Its count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. More than 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians have been driven from their homes, most now sheltering in sprawling tent camps in south and central Gaza. Children and adults, many barefoot, huddled Friday on the cold sand in tents whose plastic and cloth sheets whipped in the wind. Overnight temperatures can dip into the 40s Fahrenheit (below 10 Celsius), and sea spray from the Mediterranean can dampen tents just steps away. "I swear to God, their mother and I cover ourselves with one blanket and we cover (their five children) with three blankets that we got from neighbors. Sea waters drowned everything that was ours,” said Muhammad al-Sous, displaced from Beit Lahiya in the north. The children collect plastic bottles to make fires, and pile under the blankets when their only set of clothes is washed and dried in the wind. At least three babies in Gaza have died from exposure to cold in recent days , doctors there have said, and the Health Ministry said an adult — a nurse who worked at the European Hospital — also died this week. Khaled and Keath reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Narions contributed to this report.
An online spat between factions of Donald Trump’s supporters over immigration and the tech industry has thrown internal divisions in his political movement into public display, previewing the fissures and contradictory views his coalition could bring to the White House. The rift laid bare the tensions between the newest flank of Mr. Trump’s movement – wealthy members of the tech world including billionaire Elon Musk and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and their call for more highly skilled workers in their industry – and people in Mr. Trump’s Make America Great Again base who championed his hard-line immigration policies. The debate touched off this week when Laura Loomer, a right-wing provocateur with a history of racist and conspiratorial comments, criticized Mr. Trump’s selection of Sriram Krishnan as an adviser on artificial intelligence policy in his coming administration. Mr. Krishnan favors the ability to bring more skilled immigrants into the U.S. Ms. Loomer declared the stance to be “not America First policy” and said the tech executives who have aligned themselves with the president-elect were doing so to enrich themselves. Much of the debate played out on the social media network X, which Mr. Musk owns. Ms. Loomer’s comments sparked a back-and-forth with venture capitalist and former PayPal executive David Sacks, whom Mr. Trump has tapped to be the “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar.” Mr. Musk and Mr. Ramaswamy, whom Mr. Trump has tasked with finding ways to cut the federal government, weighed in, defending the tech industry’s need to bring in foreign workers. It bloomed into a larger debate with more figures from the hard-right weighing in about the need to hire U.S. workers, whether values in American culture can produce the best engineers, free speech on the internet, the newfound influence tech figures have in Mr. Trump’s world, and what his political movement stands for. Mr. Trump has not yet weighed in on the rift, and his presidential transition team did not respond to a message seeking comment. Mr. Musk, the world’s richest man who has grown remarkably close to the president-elect, was a central figure in the debate, not only for his stature in Trump’s movement but his stance on the tech industry’s hiring of foreign workers. Technology companies say H-1B visas for skilled workers, used by software engineers and others in the tech industry, are critical for hard-to-fill positions. But critics have said they undercut U.S. citizens who could take those jobs. Some on the right have called for the program to be eliminated, not expanded. Born in South Africa, Mr. Musk was once on a H-1B visa himself and defended the industry’s need to bring in foreign workers. “There is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent,” he said in a post. “It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley.” Mr. Trump’s own positions over the years have reflected the divide in his movement. His tough immigration policies, including his pledge for a mass deportation, were central to his winning presidential campaign. He has focused on immigrants who come into the U.S. illegally but he has also sought curbs on legal immigration, including family-based visas. As a presidential candidate in 2016, Mr. Trump called the H-1B visa program “very bad” and “unfair” for U.S. workers. After he became president, Mr. Trump in 2017 issued a “Buy American and Hire American” executive order, which directed Cabinet members to suggest changes to ensure H-1B visas were awarded to the highest-paid or most-skilled applicants to protect American workers. The president-elect’s businesses, however, have hired foreign workers, including waiters and cooks at his Mar-a-Lago club, and his social media company behind his Truth Social app has used the the H-1B program for highly skilled workers. During his 2024 campaign, as he made immigration his signature issue, Mr. Trump said immigrants in the country illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country” and promised to carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history. But in a sharp departure from his usual alarmist message around immigration generally, Mr. Trump told a podcast this year that he wants to give automatic green cards to foreign students who graduate from U.S. colleges. “I think you should get automatically, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country,” he told the “All-In” podcast with people from the venture capital and technology world. Those comments came on the cusp of Mr. Trump’s budding alliance with tech industry figures, but he did not make the idea a regular part of his campaign message or detail any plans to pursue such changes.Starting in 2010, Tess Waresmith spent three years working on a cruise ship, first as a high-diver and acrobat, and then as a shopping guide for vacationers. For someone who had graduated from college a year earlier, it was a huge opportunity, Waresmith says. Not only was this a paying gig in an economy otherwise ravaged by recession, but food and living expenses on the ship were covered. “Over a couple year period, I thought to myself, ‘This is my chance to save as much as possible ,” Waresmith says. Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today After a couple years of dutifully socking away cash, a friend aboard the ship suggested that she could be doing more with her funds than let them sit in the bank. “He was just like, ‘Tess, you can use the money you’re hoarding to buy things that make you more money,’” she says. “I knew that investing was a thing, but I’d never thought about it from that frame.” Waresmith, now 36, took that advice and ran with it. She currently has more than $US1 ($A1.6) million in stocks, real estate and other investments. In 2021, she founded financial education firm Wealth with Tess , with the aim of helping others follow her path while avoiding some of the pitfalls. In those early years, Waresmith remembers one pitfall in particular. “With stock market investing, I was really afraid to do it wrong, so I hired a financial adviser, and they made a lot of really bad decisions on my behalf,” she says. “I was paying over 2 per cent in fees. They sold me an annuity better suited for people in their 50s. I was 26.” Here’s how she says you can avoid falling into a similar trap. Educate yourself: ‘It’s tough to identify red flags if you don’t have basic knowledge’ Waresmith did what a lot of experts might have suggested: hire a professional. But since she wasn’t too familiar with finance, Waresmith didn’t know that the advisor she chose was running a suboptimal strategy on her behalf. “It’s tough to identify red flags if you don’t have basic knowledge of investing. And when I say basic knowledge, I mean reading one or two books or taking one course,” she says. “You don’t have to have a Ph.D. in investing or be an analyst, but I didn’t really see red flags, because I wouldn’t have even been able to recognise them back then.” It took her a while to realize that her portfolio was lagging the market — both because her adviser had chosen underperforming mutual funds and because high fees were eating into her returns . Rather than charging a flat rate , her adviser charged a fee equivalent to 1 per cent of the value of her portfolio, plus a 0.25 per cent to use the adviser’s online investing platform. Some of the actively mutual funds her adviser chose came with expense ratios north of 0.75 per cent. The strategy, Waresmith eventually realised, was meant to make things more complicated than necessarily. “These were actively managed mutual funds and there were dozens of them,” she says. “It was way over-engineered.” Then there was the annuity, an often expensive financial instrument meant to provide income for retirees in exchange for fronting a lump sum of money. Waresmith put $US20,000 in — money she hasn’t been able to recoup. “When I turn 60, I’ll get a couple of bucks a month, or something from that,” she says. “It was a big mistake. No one should have sold me that.” Keep things simple: ‘Index funds are a great way to get started’ Once she realised she was being charged for an overly complex, underperforming plan, Waresmith cut ties with her adviser and endeavoured to keep things simple. Instead of paying an expensive adviser to manage expensive funds, she opened her own account and invested in low-cost index funds. The advantages of investing this way are well documented. Index funds aim to replicate the performance of a market index, rather than trying to outperform it. While some active managers manage to beat the market, the vast majority don’t. Over the 10 years that ended in June 2024, about 29 per cent of active funds survived and outpaced their average indexed peer, according to Morningstar . Funds that track popular indexes, such as the S&P 500, give investors exposure to a broad array of stocks and come with very low costs. “Index funds are a great way to get started and to understand the basics of the stock market and to get your money invested in a really diversified, low-fee way,” Waresmith says. Advice given in this article is general in nature. Always seek your own professional advice taking into account your personal circumstances before making any financial decisions.Sebastian Coe says new Ultimate Championship will be athletics ‘gamechanger’
Peer to Peer Insurance Market Look a Witness of Excellent Long-Term Growth - Worldwide Survey by 2030
The intersection of innovation and development in the commercial real estate sector has always been a dynamic and evolving landscape. Recently, in a groundbreaking event, Zhou Haichao, a prominent figure in the real estate industry, was invited to the Creative Course Classroom as a guest speaker to share insights on the future of commercial real estate. The event was hosted by Zhao Xiuchi, an esteemed expert in the field, who led a thought-provoking discussion on the latest trends and challenges facing the industry.
Barrick Gold (GOLD): A Top Gold Stock Under $30 with Strong Reserves and GrowthCustoms Authorities Discover 6 Giant Terror Ants Hidden in Lollipop Packaging - Alert Issued for Invasive Alien SpeciesThe FDA is expected to advise the PDUFA[4] goal date following the 60-day administrative review of the application. Kevin Richardson , Chief Executive Officer, Precision Medicine at Telix, stated, "We are pleased to be progressing the BLA for TLX250-CDx, which has been granted Breakthrough designation, and may therefore be eligible for priority review. Telix continues to target a full U.S. commercial launch in 2025 addressing a major unmet medical need for patients with suspected ccRCC." About TLX250-CDx TLX250-CDx (Zircaix® 1 ) is an investigational PET agent that is under development for the diagnosis and characterisation of ccRCC. Telix's pivotal Phase III ZIRCON trial (ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT03849118 ) evaluating TLX250-CDx in 300 patients, of whom 284 were evaluable, met all primary and secondary endpoints, including showing 86% sensitivity and 87% specificity and a 93% positive-predictive value for ccRCC across three independent radiology readers[5]. Telix believes this demonstrated the ability of TLX250-CDx to reliably detect the clear cell phenotype and provide an accurate, non-invasive method for diagnosing and characterising ccRCC. Confidence intervals exceeded expectations amongst all three readers, showing evidence of high accuracy and consistency of interpretation. About Telix Pharmaceuticals Limited Telix is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialisation of diagnostic and therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals and associated medical technologies. Telix is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia , with international operations in the United States , Europe ( Belgium and Switzerland ), and Japan . Telix is developing a portfolio of clinical and commercial stage products that aims to address significant unmet medical needs in oncology and rare diseases. Telix is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX: TLX) and the Nasdaq Global Select Market (Nasdaq: TLX). Telix's lead imaging product, gallium-68 ( 68 Ga) gozetotide injection (also known as 68 Ga PSMA-11 and marketed under the brand name Illuccix®), has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)[6], by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) [7], and by Health Canada [8] . No other Telix product has received a marketing authorisation in any jurisdiction. Visit www.telixpharma.com for further information about Telix, including details of the latest share price, announcements made to the ASX, investor and analyst presentations, news releases, event details and other publications that may be of interest. You can also follow Telix on X and LinkedIn . Telix Investor Relations Ms. Kyahn Williamson Telix Pharmaceuticals Limited SVP Investor Relations and Corporate Communications Email: [email protected] This announcement has been authorised for release by the Telix Pharmaceuticals Limited Disclosure Committee on behalf of the Board. Legal Notices You should read this announcement together with our risk factors, as disclosed in our most recently filed reports with the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including our registration statement on Form 20-F filed with the SEC, or on our website. The information contained in this announcement is not intended to be an offer for subscription, invitation or recommendation with respect to securities of Telix Pharmaceuticals Limited (Telix) in any jurisdiction, including the United States . The information and opinions contained in this announcement are subject to change without notification. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Telix disclaims any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any information or opinions contained in this announcement, including any forward-looking statements (as referred to below), whether as a result of new information, future developments, a change in expectations or assumptions, or otherwise. No representation or warranty, express or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained or opinions expressed in the course of this announcement. This announcement may contain forward-looking statements, including within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, that relate to anticipated future events, financial performance, plans, strategies or business developments. Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by the use of words such as "may", "expect", "intend", "plan", "estimate", "anticipate", "believe", "outlook", "forecast" and "guidance", or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on Telix's good-faith assumptions as to the financial, market, regulatory and other risks and considerations that exist and affect Telix's business and operations in the future and there can be no assurance that any of the assumptions will prove to be correct. In the context of Telix's business, forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, statements about: the initiation, timing, progress and results of Telix's preclinical and clinical trials, and Telix's research and development programs; Telix's ability to advance product candidates into, enrol and successfully complete, clinical studies, including multi-national clinical trials; the timing or likelihood of regulatory filings and approvals for Telix's product candidates, manufacturing activities and product marketing activities; Telix's sales, marketing and distribution and manufacturing capabilities and strategies; the commercialisation of Telix's product candidates, if or when they have been approved; Telix's ability to obtain an adequate supply of raw materials at reasonable costs for its products and product candidates; estimates of Telix's expenses, future revenues and capital requirements; Telix's financial performance; developments relating to Telix's competitors and industry; and the pricing and reimbursement of Telix's product candidates, if and after they have been approved. Telix's actual results, performance or achievements may be materially different from those which may be expressed or implied by such statements, and the differences may be adverse. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. ©2024 Telix Pharmaceuticals Limited. The Telix Pharmaceuticals®, Illuccix® and Zircaix® 1 names and logos are trademarks of Telix Pharmaceuticals Limited and its affiliates - all rights reserved.
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