TOKYO: Japan will look at the “economic security” aspects of any foreign acquisition of 7-Eleven, a government minister said as Canada’s Couche-Tard pursues a takeover of the world’s largest convenience chain. Alimentation Couche-Tard, which owns the Circle K brand, wants to buy the store owner’s parent Seven & i but the Japanese firm last year rejected an initial offer worth nearly US$40 billion from Couche-Tard. That led the Canadian company to make a revised bid reportedly 20 per cent higher. “Economic security is a new area … but, for example, I think the acquisition of 7-Eleven is majorly related,” Ryosei Akazawa,…
Author: Team_NationalNewsBrief
Takeshi Ebisawa faces a maximum punishment of life in prison after pleading guilty to six counts in a Manhattan court.A Japanese crime boss has pleaded guilty to conspiring to sell nuclear material from Myanmar to Iran along with drug trafficking and weapons offences, authorities in the United States have said. Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, a member of the yakuza, entered a guilty plea to six counts in federal court in Manhattan on Wednesday, the US Department of Justice said in a statement. He is set to be sentenced on April 9. According to prosecutors, Ebisawa in 2020 told an undercover agent…
An underwhelming year didn’t change how the San Francisco 49ers view quarterback Brock Purdy. Next season, Purdy is entering the final year of his rookie contract ( a four-year, $3.7M deal). On Wednesday, 49ers general manager John Lynch signaled they plan to extend their franchise QB.”Listen, I think what we know about Brock is he’s our guy,” Lynch told the media. “We have interest in Brock being around here for a long, long time.” 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan suggested he would prefer to sign Purdy soon, which would solidify his future with the franchise.”I plan on being here with…
For 20 years, I’ve been studying Western recruits to domestic and transnational terrorist organizations. I’ve interviewed jihadis, white-nationalist terrorists and eco-terrorists to understand their motivations and to prevent future violence. In my view, the appeal of some of the most crucial elements that ISIS offered to vulnerable or confused Western recruits — doctrinal certainty, identity, redemption and revenge — are as strong as ever, and will continue to resonate with people who can find it online.Most of us, as adults, live in a state of spiritual confusion and uncertainty. We rarely get to choose between good and evil but often…
Kevin O’Leary is talking about buying TikTok again, but this time with more specifics.The social media app is less than two weeks away from facing a potential ban, though the Supreme Court is set to rule on a pause on Jan. 10 after TikTok and its parent company, China-based ByteDance, asked the Court to hold the Jan. 19 deadline.In April, U.S. lawmakers passed a bill that forces ByteDance to sell TikTok, though the company has repeatedly said it is not for sale and would prefer to shut it down. Related: Meta Outage, Looming TikTok Ban Has Creators Questioning How Much…
The Starship rocket in December 2024 being prepared for its seventh flightSpaceX SpaceX’s next Starship test flight will be the most ambitious to date, and the first involving a new “block 2” version with a host of design updates. What is Starship? Starship is the most powerful rocket ever to fly. SpaceX aims to develop it into a rapidly reusable vehicle that can take large payloads into orbit, land back on Earth and launch another mission within hours. Somewhat confusingly, Starship is the name given to both the entire spacecraft, consisting of a Super Heavy booster and the ship it…
President Joe Biden has canceled a planned trip to Rome to meet with Pope Francis so that he can instead focus on federal response to the rapidly moving wildfires that are tearing through the Los Angeles area, the White House said Wednesday.White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement Wednesday that Biden made the decision after returning to Washington from a trip to Los Angeles to meet with law enforcement, fire and emergency personnel who are battling the fires.”President Biden made the decision to cancel his upcoming trip to Italy to remain focused on directing the full federal response in the…
Ports on the East and Gulf Coasts could close next week if dockworkers and employers cannot overcome their big differences over the use of automated machines to move cargo.The International Longshoremen’s Association, the union that represents dockworkers, and the United States Maritime Alliance, the employers’ negotiating group, on Tuesday resumed in-person talks aimed at forging a new labor contract.After a short strike in October, the union and the alliance agreed on a 62 percent raise over six years for the longshoremen — and said they would try to work out other parts of the contract, including provisions governing automated technology,…
President Joe Biden has marked Thursday, Jan. 9th as a national day of mourning to honor the death of former President Jimmy Carter. Biden called on the American people to assemble on Jan. 9 “in their respective places of worship” to pay homage to Carter. “I invite the people of the world who share our grief to join us in this solemn observance,” Biden said in a statement following Carter’s death. Biden said flags will be at displayed at half-staff at the White House and on all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and half-mast on…
Boss Tweed via Wikimedia Commons As Donald Trump re-enters the White House on a pledge to end national security state overreach, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is still hiding critical details on the Russia conspiracy investigation that engulfed his first term. In response to a Freedom of Information request filed by RealClearInvestigations in August 2022, the FBI on Dec. 31, more than two years later, released a heavily redacted copy of the document that opened an explosive and unprecedented counterintelligence probe of the sitting president as an agent of the Russian government. The Electronic Communication, dated May 16, 2017, claimed…