World

As major companies look at drastic ways to cut carbon emissions from corporate travel, airlines are bracing for a major hit to business-class travel, a key revenue driver, industry executives and experts say. Several companies, such as HSBC, Zurich Insurance, Bain & Company and S&P Global, have already announced plans to quickly cut business travel emissions by as much as 70%. Some are considering a carbon budget as they come under growing pressure from environmental advocates and investors to reduce indirect emissions that contribute to climate change. Flights account for about 90% of business travel emissions. That makes it the lowest-hanging fruit for companies setting reductions targets. The airline industry last week committed to reaching “net zero” emissions by 2050 at a meeting ...

:Saudi Arabian human rights group ALQST accused the Premier League of being driven only by money and employing 'profoundly inadequate' criteria for assessing human rights considerations in the wake of Newcastle United being acquired by a Saudi-led consortium. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) - chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman - now owns 80per cent of the club, with the rest divided between RB Sports & Media and PCP Capital Partners, whose chief executive, Amanda Staveley, led the takeover. While fans are hopeful that the takeover will help turn the Premier League club's fortunes around, several human rights groups have questioned the Premier League for allowing the move to go through, pointing to Saudi Arabia's poor human rights record. "For Saudi Arabia, the deal ...

In these pandemic times, the digital tools that connect people in the absence of travel have, by necessity, led to our voices taking precedence over our bodies. Fewer domains have felt the effects of this disembodiment more acutely than the performing arts. In Japan, as in many parts of the world, theaters are still struggling to find funding, facilitate live productions, run rehearsals, conduct outreach programs and fulfill the many activities that make up the community-based art form. Despite these setbacks the Kyoto Experiment (KEX) performing arts festival is going ahead with its October program. With the pandemic as its backdrop and social distancing still in effect, the theme for its 12th edition is “moshi moshi?!” a common expression used to answer the phone in Japan. Moshi moshi ...

An overpass during the rush hour in the north district of Qingdao City, in China's Shandong province. Cheunghyo | Moment | Getty Images Three of Asia's largest economies will spend an estimated $12 trillion to achieve net-zero carbon emissions in their transport industries, according to Dutch bank ING. China, Japan and South Korea account for almost two-thirds of all carbon dioxide emissions in Asia-Pacific, and approximately a third of global emissions, said the bank. Both Japan and South Korea have pledged to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and China by 2060. Net-zero emissions refer to removing more greenhouses gases from the atmosphere than produced. The $12.4 trillion cost estimate is "equivalent to more than 90% of China's 2020 GDP," according to Robert Carnell, ING's Asi...

Japan’s first Family Mart convenience store sits on a busy stretch of road in Sayama, Saitama Prefecture, without much fanfare. Aside from an assortment of flowers that sit on display next to a Showa Era (1926-89) telephone box near the entrance, it looks just like any other of the franchise’s 17,000-plus outlets nationwide. An extensive array of food, drinks and household items sits on the shelves, while a freshly cooked batch of the chain’s signature fried chicken sits in a warming cabinet on the counter. Two rival franchises — 7-Eleven and Lawson — also operate in the neighborhood a short distance away. When it opened in September 1973, the Family Mart store in Sayama was something of an experiment at the time. When Family Mart opened its first store in Japan in September 1973, the...

"I used to upvote posts in his Weibo fan forum and buy products he promoted," Chen, 16, told AFP in a busy downtown shopping district. "It was pretty exhausting trying to keep him trending at number one every day." Fans power China's lucrative idol economy, previously forecast by state media to be worth 140 billion yuan (S$30 billion) by 2022. In a country where young people have few other means of influencing public life, full-time fan content creators – dubbed "zhanjie" or "station sisters" – can propel a star's rise from obscurity by creating viral images of them. Critics say fan culture is an exploitative industry aimed at profiting from minors, built on artificially inflated social media engagement – something the government wants to eliminate through the new regulations. Authori...

The hit Netflix series Squid Game from South Korea has gone viral across the world and online by morphing childhood games popular before the digital era such as "Red Light, Green Light" into deadly survival challenges. The playground game where players stop and go at a tagger's command is one of six kids games with fatal consequences depicted in the gory thriller named after a South Korean variation of tag played in the 1970s and 80s using a board drawn in the dirt. In the "Red Light, Green Light" episode, the show's first, players are shot for failing to stand still at the red light call. The Squid Game is the last one the 456 cash-strapped contestants on the show, ranging from a North Korean defector to a fund manager charged with embezzlement, must compete in for a prize of 45.6 billi...

SINGAPORE: Panasonic is laying off 700 workers in Singapore as it moves to shut its refrigeration compressor manufacturing operations in the country. This is due to the "challenging global business outlook" and Panasonic's "long-term business strategic review of the refrigeration compressor business portfolio", said the Japanese firm in a media release on Thursday (Sep 23). Operations of the affected unit will cease by the end of September next year. The layoffs represent about one-third of its workforce in Singapore. Panasonic said it will consolidate the compressor manufacturing operations to existing facilities in Malaysia and China. Casting operations will be done at its Malaysian factory in Melaka. The company's research and development department will continue to operate in Singa...

TAIPEI: The Royal Navy said a British warship was sailing through the Taiwan Strait on Monday (Sep 27), a move that challenges Beijing's claim to the sensitive waterway and marks a rare voyage by a non-US military vessel. "After a busy period working with partners and allies in the East China Sea, we are now en route through the Taiwan Strait to visit Vietnam and the Vietnam People's Navy," read a tweet from the official account for HMS Richmond, a frigate deployed with Britain's aircraft carrier strike group. Local media said it was the first time a British warship had transited through the narrow waterway separating Taiwan and mainland China. The British navy survey ship HMS Enterprise transited through the strait in 2019. The UK's defence ministry did not respond to a request for com...

SEATTLE : Boeing Co showcased efforts to boost efficiency in its aircraft on Monday, a week after rival Airbus staged a similar conference, as global aviation faces growing political pressure to cut emissions and demands by environmental groups for curbs to air travel. The U.S. planemaker is just one of many companies in the industry playing up its efforts to make its products more environmentally friendly, though there is debate over the speed at which new technology will be adopted. Boeing's event at its flight test hangar in Seattle was anchored by an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 flying demonstrator equipped with potential upgrades like a drag-reducing warning light and cabin sidewalls made from recycled carbon fiber. "Many of our improvements come with a lot of small things at once," B...