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Investigators probe Asahi, Kirin, Suntory and Sapporo breweries – which together control more than 90% of Japan’s beer marketJapanese authorities have raided the country’s four biggest breweries over suspicions they colluded to set the price of beer and other beverages – a practice media reports said could have forced drinkers to pay over the odds.Officials from the Fair Trade Commission this week searched the offices of Asahi Breweries, Kirin Brewery, Suntory Beer and Sapporo Breweries – which together control more than 90% of the domestic market. The quartet are suspected of violating the anti-monopoly law. Continue reading...

NGOs in Indonesian Borneo file class action lawsuit calling for government to better manage annual fires and The Indonesian government has been accused of “gross negligence” in a class action lawsuit over its handling of wildfires that have cloaked large parts of South-east Asia in a toxic haze, shuttered schools and caused a spike in respiratory illnesses.The lawsuit, filed by indigenous and civil society groups in the Indonesian part of Borneo, named President Prabowo Subianto and the governor of West Kalimantan among 10 defendants. The case seeks comprehensive recovery and rehabilitation measures that would include covering the healthcare costs of residents. Continue reading...

The Trump administration's seemingly flippant response to a new plague discovered in Russia left two political analysts stupefied Wednesday. Last week, the World Health Organization reported the discovery of a pneumonic plague in Russia after a 28-year-old lab worker died. Russian authorities have denied the cause of the lab worker's death, although the case has raised a specter of concern about another COVID-19-like plague spreading across the globe. In turn, Trump officials have been quick to dismiss concerns about the plague. For instance, Trump claimed that pneumonia has "gotten stronger" over the years and the administration "will help them." Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration is "watching and monitoring it closely."The answers from the administration officials stupefied former Obama administration staffers Tommy Vietor and Ben Rhodes, who discussed it on a new episode of their podcast, "Pod Save the World.""As we learned in COVID, transparency is your only friend when you're dealing with these types of things," Rhodes said. "And if you have these discrepancies between local authorities and the Kremlin, it makes you wonder what in the world you can trust, and that's concerning.""This is just highlighting, once again, that when you have a breakdown in geopolitical trust ... you just feel like this stuff happens and you hope it doesn't get worse because it doesn't seem like Trump, or Rubio, or the World Health Organization are going to share information to keep this thing in a box," Rhodes added. Vietor took issue with the way Trump communicates with the American public about it. "Trump is a g------- idiot," Vietor said.

President Donald Trump attempted Wednesday to distance himself from two political consultants who were recently exposed by The New York Times for their ties to a Russian-aligned government.Citing four sources familiar with the matter who requested anonymity, the Times reported Tuesday that James Blair and Chris LaCivita, whom the outlet described as two of Trump’s “top political advisers,” were in the Balkans over the “past few days” helping a “Russian-aligned government.” The two were in Republika Srpska — a partially self-governing political entity in Bosnia — just ahead of its elections, and were paid “hundreds of thousands of dollars each” to provide “election advice.” The revelation, the Times noted, was just the “latest example of Trump advisers profiting from far-right politicians abroad who have sought favor from the U.S. president while bucking the international community.”In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump disputed the Times’ characterization of his relationship with Blair and LaCivita, and vowed to “terminate” them should he feel their services constituted a conflict of interest.“Chris LaCivita and James Blair are outside consultants. They do not work for me, other than as outside consultants. They most likely have numerous clients, but for that, you would have to ask them,” Trump wrote. “They are allowed to do work for others, just like all consultants in Washington, D.C. I do not have any idea who else they work for but will, on reflection, ask them and, if there’s a conflict, I will terminate them, immediately! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

A glib rally comment by Donald Trump on Monday night that he would be fine with Iran bombing either Los Angeles or San Diego set off a call for his impeachment on MS NOW on Tuesday morning.Speaking in Grand Island, Nebraska, the American president made an off-the-cuff remark when talking about the cost of the war, telling the applauding crowd it was “a small price to pay for keeping the world safe – keeping our country safe."“They can take out a city,” he continued before adding, “Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay.”After sharing the clip on “Morning Joe,” the hosts said the president’s defenders were already dismissing the comment as a “joke” no one should take seriously.They were not amused.“President Trump last night in Nebraska, again, trying to justify the higher prices Americans are paying for fuel and other goods, while also just casually calling for Iran to attack two of the most populous cities in the United States, “ co-host Mike Brzezinski remarked.Co-host Joe Scarborough added, “Yeah. You know, there will be some, ‘Oh, he's just joking. He's just —.' Well, okay, well, great. Tell me then, please, what other American president in our history post-Civil War, have called for the destruction of entire cities — joking. If this is your joke, this is your idea of a presidential joke, joking about the killing of 10 million or so people? Is that, is that where we are?”“I don't get when the president of the United States says Iran can obliterate Los Angeles and San Diego — not funny — if you're an American who actually believes that presidents should do more than divide us,” he added.Co-host Willie Geist pointed out, “As you say, Joe, it goes without saying that if any other president, especially a Democrat, let's say Barack Obama, for example, or Joe Biden made that joke, there would be outrage across the board and maybe calls for impeachment.”“Well, of course there would be calls for impeachment,” Scarborough agreed, “if he called for the obliteration of, say, Jacksonville or Birmingham, or if it were a Democratic president calling for the obliteration of Republican cities. Of course, of course, there would be immediate calls for impeachment.” - YouTube youtu.be

The Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial board warned Monday that China is not living up to the rosy picture President Donald Trump painted after Chinese president Xi Jinping visited the White House. Xi's visit to the White House marked the first time a Chinese leader has set foot in America in more than a decade. Following the visit, the Trump administration put up pictures of Xi and Trump around the White House and Trump made fawning posts about his Chinese counterpart on his Truth Social account. However, the Wall Street Journal's editors noted there is evidence that China is not behaving like a newfound ally of the U.S. The editors issued a stark warning to Trump in a new editorial on Monday about the recent arrest of a Chinese spy on American soil. "The phrase of the hour in Washington is that the Trump Administration wants 'strategic stability' with China, and it’s a nice aspiration," the editorial reads in part. "But the Chinese Communist Party isn’t behaving like a force for peace in the world, and the latest evidence is Beijing’s alleged spying in the U.S. on the son of Taiwan’s president."The editorial pointed to the FBI's recent arrest of a 34-year-old woman who was charged with "[surveilling] the Taiwanese President’s son and his family—filming their home, vehicles," and reporting information back to someone connected to the Chinese Communist Party. China's interest in spying on a member of the Taiwanese president's family is easy to understand, the editorial argues. What's more difficult is the lack of pushback from the Trump administration. "Mr. Lai’s son appears to be living in the U.S. and working in Washington state. No doubt the Communist Party wants to collect information about Mr. Lai’s family that it could exploit to blackmail or harm the President and his party in Taiwan," the WSJ editors wrote. "And it is notable, if not a great surprise, that Beijing is brazen enough to think that it can get away with something like this in the U.S. homeland.""No matter President Xi Jinping’s pronouncements about steady relations with the U.S., what matters is Beijing’s conduct. China acts against U.S. interests around the globe, including on American soil.

President Donald Trump's critics sounded off on Monday after the president tried to shift blame for high gas prices onto a U.S. ally. Trump has repeatedly tried to blame Ukraine's attacks on Russian oil refineries for the surge in gas prices, especially diesel fuel. He attempted to cast blame on Ukraine again in a Truth Social post on Monday, suggesting that continued aggression between the two countries has done more to increase prices than Trump's disastrous war in Iran, which caused an economically damaging fight over the Strait of Hormuz. "What's driving up Gasoline is no longer the Strait of Hormuz, because Record Numbers of Barrels are coming out now on an almost daily basis, but the word, 'Refineries,' where Russia's are being blown up by Ukraine, and where ours are being closed up, in Blue States, like California, by the Dumocrats (sic)," Trump posted. The president's wild claim was posted at a time when the national average for a gallon of gas was $4.36 for regular and $6.23 for diesel. Political analysts and observers reacted to Trump's post on social media. "Here’s a thought. If it really is because of Ukraine’s response to the illegal Russian invasion, then why doesn’t Trump tell Putin to get back in his box and end the war? A war Trump said he would end on Day 1. Gas prices are all Trump’s fault, whichever way you look at it," Greg Bagwell, president of the U.K. Air & Space Power Association, posted on X. "Trump admits he is causing the diesel shortage (and global food insecurity), as U.S. military is funding Ukraine, supplying it with weapons and Intel to target Russia," Christine Duhaime, a fomer anti-fraud officer, posted on X. "When the President has to explain that it’s actually our proxy war in Eastern Europe, not our regime change war in the Middle East, that’s driving up the cost of living for hardworking Americans, it should be evident to everyone that our foreign policy does not serve the American people," Joe Kent, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, posted on X.

President Donald Trump's latest AI-generated fantasy about seizing Greenland contains an embarrassing flaw that critics were quick to seize on: the Arctic territory he's so eager to claim has no penguins.As The Daily Beast flagged on Monday, Trump shared a Truth Social post featuring an AI-generated image of himself standing in front of a snowy mountain vista filled with penguins draped in stars and stripes. The problem, as critics quickly pointed out, is that penguins live in the planet's southern half, thousands of miles from Greenland's Arctic home in the north. He also posted a second AI image showing himself towering over a colorful village, captioned "Hello, Greenland!"Greenlandic commentator Orla Joelson was quick to mock the president over the goof. "Trump, did you skip geography class at school?" he posted. "Antarctica looks lovely, though…"The gaffe comes just days after Trump signed a trilateral agreement with Greenland and Denmark at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Despite his earlier vow to accept nothing less than a takeover, the deal amounts to an expansion of a 1951 U.S.-Denmark treaty that already gave the American military a foothold on the island.The penguin mix-up is the latest example of Trump's growing fixation on artificial intelligence and its role in his foreign policy. A White House insider recently told TIME that Trump was fascinated by Elon Musk's Grok chatbot, peppering it with questions about his own presidency and legacy for hours during a December meeting with Musk, and reportedly leaned on it heavily before the operation that captured then-Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife.Last week, Trump also tried rebranding the technology itself. Cut off mid-question when a reporter asked who should be held accountable if AI agents commit crimes, he instead announced a new name."It's not AI, it's S.I.," Trump said. "You know what that means? Super Intelligence."Readers online were quick to roast the president's latest mistake, with one commenter joking that if this is "super intelligence," it can't even figure out where penguins live, while another quipped that Trump would simply import the birds and brand them "Trumpuins."