Important Takeaways:
- White House officials are signaling that President Joe Biden will not imminently move to block Nippon Steel’s bid to acquire U.S. Steel amid mounting concerns over the political and economic consequences of nixing the deal, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.
- The White House last week had been preparing to announce that the president would formally block the Japanese company’s proposed $14.9 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel on national security grounds.
- White House officials have now indicated that such a decision is unlikely in the short term and may not be made until after the 2024 presidential election
- White House spokeswoman Saloni Sharma disputed that there had been a change of plans, saying an announcement was never imminent and that the president remains committed to waiting for a recommendation from an interagency review board, as the law requires.
- The delay of any announcement, however, comes as investors, Pennsylvania Democrats and some members of the steelworkers’ union warned that the deal’s collapse could spark an economic calamity for Pennsylvania’s beleaguered steel belt.
- The United Steelworkers union, which endorsed Biden for reelection and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in her presidential bid, has opposed the transaction from the outset.
- The proposed corporate acquisition has assumed outsize importance given its potential political impact on the 2024 election.
- Without Nippon Steel’s cash, U.S. Steel has warned that it might close some of its aging facilities in the Mon Valley.
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Important Takeaways:
- China is communist North Korea’s closest ally, but has refrained from major displays of support towards the Kim regime in the past year, particularly after Pyongyang published an excoriating screed against Beijing in May for backing a statement vaguely supporting the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. North Korean diplomacy has since trended towards Russia, signing a mutual defense treaty with Moscow in July during strongman Vladimir Putin’s first visit to North Korea in decades.
- China and North Korea nonetheless rely on each other significantly for ideological and economic support. Xi’s message hoping to “strengthen communication” with Kim arrives as North Korea escalates belligerent behavior against South Korea, flooding the country with a wave of trash-filled balloons over the weekend. China, in turn, faces growing economic challenges and resistance to its geopolitical agenda from the West.
- The South Korean news agency Yonhap described Beijing and Pyongyang as “relatively estranged” in the context of the founding anniversary message and the upcoming anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries. South Korean sources have reportedly not seen any indication that the two countries will plan any “grand celebrations” together to mark the occasion.
- While still close allies, North Korea and China have kept a diplomatic distance this year compared to those prior, which appeared to expand following China participating in a summit in Seoul alongside the governments of that country and Japan in May. The trilateral summit, the ninth of its kind in modern history, united the conservative governments of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio with the Communist Party and resulted in a joint statement that outraged North Korea.
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Important Takeaways:
- Japan urges 4 million to evacuate as lumbering Typhoon Shanshan threatens south with up to a meter (40 inches) of rain
- Japanese authorities on Thursday warned that a “life-threatening situation” was imminent for towns in Kyushu’s Oita prefecture and urged 57,000 people to take “live-saving actions” as it issued its highest typhoon alert. A Level 4 evacuation advisory, the second-highest alert, is in place for all of Kyushu, affecting 3.7 million residents.
- In central Aichi prefecture, a family of five were buried in a landslide when it destroyed their house late Tuesday, according to Gamagori City’s Crisis Management Division. Three people, a couple in their 70s and a 30-year-old man, died in the incident. Two women in their 40s were pulled out of the debris and survived, one with severe injuries.
- Slower storms can be more destructive, with strong gusts or rainstorms that pound the same areas for hours or days.
- Already, rainfall has reached over 0.5 meters (20 inches) in many areas and forecasters say totals could reach as high as 1 meter (40 inches) across some isolated and hilly regions.
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Important Takeaways:
- A Chinese military surveillance plane breached Japanese airspace off the country’s southwestern coast on Monday, marking what Japan’s defense ministry described as the first known incursion by China’s military into its territorial airspace.
- According to a ministry official, a Chinese reconnaissance aircraft briefly entered Japanese territory near Nagasaki Prefecture around 11:30 a.m. on Monday. In response, Japan’s Self-Defense Force put fighter jets on high alert and issued a warning to the Chinese aircraft.
- While Chinese planes frequently appear in international airspace around Japan, this incident represents the first confirmed entry of a military aircraft into Japan’s territorial airspace.
- Over the past two decades, Japan has increasingly faced foreign aircraft encroachments. Last year, Japan’s Self-Defense Force scrambled fighter jets to intercept foreign planes on 669 occasions — more than three times the number of such responses two decades ago.
- Of these 669 cases, 479 were in response to Chinese aircraft sightings, according to Japan’s Ministry of Defense.
- Military analysts suggest that Monday’s airspace violation could be a message from China challenging Japan’s delineation of its territorial border. China asserts control over a large continental shelf in the East China Sea, with its outer edge extending close to the Danjo Islands area, where the Chinese plane was spotted.
- The airspace violation is the latest in a series of recent events heightening tensions between Japan and China.
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Important Takeaways:
- Kishida’s resignation opens the door to a chaotic era
- The prime minister’s decision not to seek another term may set up Japan’s most exciting race for a leader in years.
- Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party will elect its new leader late next month, and in recent weeks, the momentum in Tokyo had been swinging one way: That the unpopular but famously stubborn Kishida would run, and win, as potential successors demurred and bided their time for a better opportunity.
- That momentum suddenly ran out Wednesday when the prime minister announced he wouldn’t seek another term as LDP head, effectively tendering his resignation and throwing the race for Japan’s next leader into chaos.
- Parallels are there to be drawn with Joe Biden, the US president with whom he deepened the bilateral alliance.
- This time, all bets are off — at least right now. Up against a weak opposition, the LDP almost always wins national elections.
- But potential challengers should take a tip from Kishida, known to be a voracious reader. One of the prime minister’s favorite books is reportedly Crime & Punishment. Dostoyevsky writes that “power is only vouchsafed to the man who dares to stoop and pick it up… one has only to dare.”
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Important Takeaways:
- A significant earthquake just hit the Los Angeles area, striking two miles southwest of Pasadena, California.
- According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the earthquake was magnitude 4.4 and felt through the nearby counties.
- The tectonic plate responsible for the LA quake is the same one responsible for the Japan quake last Thursday, sparking fears of a ‘megaquake.’
- Emergency response groups have warned residents to “be prepared for aftershocks.” The quake caused no injuries or major damage, and the National Weather Service said a tsunami was not expected.
- The quake comes less than a week after a 5.2 magnitude temblor hit southern California and was also widely felt in Los Angeles.
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Important Takeaways:
- Authorities in Japan urged people to avoid hoarding as anxiety over a possible megaquake triggered a spike Saturday in demand for disaster kits and daily necessities.
- In its first such advisory, the weather agency said a huge earthquake was more likely in the aftermath of a magnitude 7.1 jolt in the south on Thursday which left 14 people injured.
- At a Tokyo supermarket on Saturday, a sign was put up apologizing to customers for shortages of certain products it attributed to “quake-related media reports”.
- “Potential sales restrictions are on the way”, the sign said, adding bottled water was already being rationed due to “unstable” procurement.
- A magnitude-5.3 tremor rocked the Kanagawa region near Tokyo Friday, triggering emergency alarms on mobile phones and briefly suspending bullet train operations.
- Most seismologists believe the Friday jolt had no direct link to the Nankai Trough megaquake, citing distance.
- Sitting on top of four major tectonic plates, the Japanese archipelago of 125 million people sees some 1,500 quakes every year, most of them minor.
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Important Takeaways:
- The country’s meteorological agency said the chance of a major earthquake striking near the Nankai Trough is higher than usual, and estimated it could be as strong as magnitude 9.1.
- While it said the advisory – which is expected to be in place for a week – does not necessarily mean a megaquake will occur, it urged people in the region to be prepared for evacuation if one strikes.
- While there is no formal definition of a megaquake, they are commonly considered to be tremors with a magnitude larger than 8.0.
- These seismic incidents – also called megathrust earthquakes – often come in pairs and occur when one tectonic plate is forced under another.
- Japan’s largest ever tremor was in 2011, where a magnitude 9.0 quake struck in the Pacific Ocean 45 miles (72km) east of the Oshika Peninsula.
- More than 19,000 people died from the quake and ensuing tsunami, which also caused a major incident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Japan Meteorological Agency said the quake registered magnitude 7.1 and was centered in waters off the eastern coast of Japan’s southern main island of Kyushu at a depth of about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles).
- Seismologists were holding an emergency meeting to analyze whether the quake had affected the nearby Nankai Trough, the source of past devastating earthquakes.
- Seismology Department official Shigeki Aoki warned that strong aftershocks could occur for about a week.
- Japan sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a line of seismic faults encircling the Pacific Ocean, and is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries.
- An earthquake on Jan. 1 in Japan’s north-central region of Noto left more than 240 people dead.
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Important Takeaways:
- North Korea might have launched a hypersonic missile, South Korea has said, as intelligence agencies investigated a ballistic missile test that failed early on Wednesday
- The latest missile test came days after North Korea signed a comprehensive strategic cooperation treaty with Russia and as the US aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt arrived in Busan to take part in joint military drills with South Korea and Japan.
- Such missiles are seen as harder to detect because they can travel at speeds in excess of five times the speed of sound and are designed to be maneuverable, posing a challenge to regional missile defense systems.
- Tensions in the region have risen as Kim has accelerated North Korean testing of missiles and other weapons.
- The United States and South Korea have responded by expanding their combined training and trilateral drills involving Japan, and sharpening their deterrence strategies.
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