International
China overtakes Japan as world’s biggest car exporter
China overtakes Japan as world’s biggest car exporter
China became the world’s largest vehicle exporter last year, surpassing Japan thanks to its global leadership in electric vehicles, according to government figures released on Wednesday.
Giants from Japan, like Toyota and Nissan, have resorted to hybrid cars rather than EVs, showing far more caution than their Chinese rivals, like BYD.
According to data issued by the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association on Wednesday, the number of cars, trucks, and buses shipped increased by 16 percent to 4.42 million in the previous year.
But China exported almost 500,000 more — 4.91 million vehicles in total, as reported by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers this month.
China’s customs bureau put the number even higher at 5.22 million, a huge year-on-year rise of 57 percent, with one in three fully electric vehicles.
The country had already been shipping more vehicles than Japan on a monthly basis, but Wednesday’s data confirmed that it was also number one for a whole year.
Unlike Chinese firms, Japanese automakers including Toyota — re-confirmed on Tuesday as the world’s largest company by unit sales — also make huge volumes of vehicles in other countries.
In 2022, vehicle production in Japan excluding motorcycles totalled 7.84 million units, but overseas production was almost 17 million.
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Japanese manufacturers have long bet on hybrids that combine battery power and internal combustion engines, an area they pioneered with the likes of the Toyota Prius.
But they have vowed to up their game, with Toyota aiming to sell 1.5 million EVs annually by 2026 and 3.5 million by 2030.
The company is also hoping to mass-produce solid-state batteries that charge faster than conventional ones and give EVs more range.
Helped by strong government support, Chinese EV firms have stolen a march on more established rivals such as General Motors, Volkswagen and Toyota.
BYD in the fourth quarter of 2023 even snatched Tesla’s crown for most sales of all-electric vehicles, data this month showed.
On Tuesday BYD — it stands for “Build Your Dreams” — which also sells batteries to the likes of Tesla, BMW and Mercedes, said it expects net profit for last year to reach 29-31 billion yuan ($4.1-4.4 billion).
But China’s success in EVs has also landed its firms in hot water with regulators in Western markets worried about unfair competition for local automakers.
The European Commission is investigating Chinese state subsidies in a probe that could lead to the European Union imposing import duties.
To soothe concerns, BYD is planning to build more factories abroad including a $600 million plant in Brazil and another in Hungary.
“It’s kind of reminiscent of what happened to Japan in the 1980s, when they started exporting a lot of automotives,” said Christopher Richter, an auto analyst at CLSA.
“So the Japanese solved it by starting (to build) a lot of factories overseas… They build overseas four times more than what they export,” he said in October.
China overtakes Japan as world’s biggest car exporter
International
Ukraine receives bodies of 140 fallen soldiers from Russia
Ukraine receives bodies of 140 fallen soldiers from Russia
Ukraine has received the bodies of 140 soldiers killed while trying to defend the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson from Russian attacks.
The authority responsible for prisoner-of-war matters said on Telegram on Friday that five bodies were from the Sumy section in northern Ukraine.
Russia has no Ukrainian territories under its control in this area; however, at the beginning of March, units of allegedly Russian volunteers fighting on the side of Ukraine made advances from the Sumy region into Russian territory.
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Once the identities of the dead have been established, they will be handed over to their relatives, the authority said.
The authority, known as the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, thanked the International Committee of the Red Cross for arranging the return.
Ukraine has been fending off a Russian invasion for over two years.
Despite the ongoing fighting, both sides regularly exchange the bodies of fallen soldiers and prisoners of war.
It is not yet known whether and how many dead soldiers Russia has received in return.
Ukraine receives bodies of 140 fallen soldiers from Russia
International
Weeks after Iran’s attack, Israel discovers another massive surface-to-surface missile
Weeks after Iran’s attack, Israel discovers another massive surface-to-surface missile
Weeks after missiles sent by Iran on April 14 rocked several parts of Israel, another debris of a surface-to-surface missile has been found in the southern part of the country.
According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the debris that was found by hikers in southern Israel, has been successfully evacuated.
“The effects of Iran’s attack on Israel can still be seen weeks after it occurred.
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“Earlier today, our troops removed the debris of a surface-to-surface missile intercepted during the Iranian attack. At the beginning of the week, the debris was found by hikers in southern Israel.
A complex removal, the process was made possible through advanced preparation by the Home Front Command and assistance from the IAF. During the process, the missile debris was cleared of hazardous materials, ” the IDF said in a post on Friday.
This is not the first missile discovered in the south since the attack. Similar missiles were discovered nearby in the Dead Sea area immediately after the major attack that Tehran launched against Israel, which included more than 300 suicide drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles.
Weeks after Iran’s attack, Israel discovers another massive surface-to-surface missile
International
Nigerian man kills wife months after relocating to UK
Olubunmi Abodunde, a Nigerian living in the United Kingdom, reportedly beat his wife, Taiwo, to death with their son’s skateboard, according to the Daily Mail.
The couple, who had three children, arrived in the UK from Nigeria in 2022 and frequently feuded over reported relationships and financial disagreements.
According to the news outlet, 48-year-old Abodunde had been investigated by Suffolk Police several times for domestic abuse and was scheduled to stand trial for murder, but changed his plea to guilty on Wednesday after the jury was sworn in.
During the abuse, officers heard ‘a number of fringes’ inside the house, which Abodunde had entered despite bail restrictions imposed the day before that barred him from the residence due to another violent incident.
When they arrived 25 minutes later, they discovered Taiwo, 41, with her’skull bashed in’.
However, Judge Martyn Levett, sitting at Ipswich Crown Court, cautioned him that the only conceivable penalty was life imprisonment.
Suffolk Constabulary submitted itself to the Independent Office of Police Conduct, which confirmed that three officers were being investigated.
An IOPC spokesman said, “We advised two Suffolk officers that they are under investigation for potential breaches of the police standards of professional behaviour at the level of gross misconduct.
“We advised another officer that they are under investigation at the level of misconduct.”
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Abodunde has a history of mistrust and distrust towards his wife, accusing her of having affairs. He had been probed by police several times for alleged domestic abuse episodes prior to his wife’s murder.
He was detained on April 27 of last year, when police came to the couple’s house in Newmarket, Suffolk, and discovered Mrs. Abodunde with a split lip.
Later that day, he was released on police bail with the condition that he stay away from the marital residence and avoid approaching his wife.
However, after completing a night shift at Tesco, he returned home shortly after 9 a.m. to reportedly pick up his mobile phone.
At 9.20 a.m., two cops arrived to take Mrs. Abodunde’s testimony regarding the previous night’s incident, and they heard persistent banging inside.
But it wasn’t until 9.55 a.m. that they pushed their way in with permission from senior officers and discovered Mrs. Abodunde ‘clearly dead’ near the front entrance.
A post-mortem examination revealed that she had been throttled until unconscious, then stamped on until her ribs were fractured, before her husband used the skateboard to kill her off. The hits were so hard that the skateboard was ruined.
Prosecutor Simon Spence KC told the court that the hammering officers heard was most likely caused by Abodunde continuing to assault his wife after she was unconscious or dead.
Mrs. Abodunde worked as a care home assistant in Cambridge, but her husband, a civil engineer by training, was unable to find work and took shifts at Tesco and Wickes.
Following his arrest for the murder, Abodunde was taken to the hospital “because he appeared to have some sort of mental episode.”.
He later argued in a police statement that he had acted in self-defence, saying, “My wife has subjected me to physical abuse for a number of years.
“On November 28, we got into an argument. She ran at me with a knife. I grabbed the knife and cut my hand. I was defending myself.”
However, the court heard that, while he had a hand injury, no knife was found near his wife’s body.
Nneka Akudolu KC, defending, said the amount of violence was ‘completely out of character’ for her client and could have been influenced by the medicine he was on. However, she stated that no medical evidence would be supplied to back her assertion.
Following the court, Suffolk Police Detective Inspector Dan Connick stated, “This was an awful attack on a woman that has had a long-term impact on the community and, most importantly, on the victim’s family.”
“We are pleased that Taiwo’s family will no longer have to go through the pain of a trial.
“Our thoughts remain with Taiwo’s family and friends, and we hope this result will bring some small comfort to them.”
Nigerian man kills wife months after relocating to UK
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