COMPANIES in the Group of Seven (G7) economies are failing to meet Paris Climate Agreement objectives, non-profit disclosure platform CDP and global management consultancy Oliver Wyman said on Tuesday, based on current corporate pledges to cut emissions.

Under the global 2015 Paris deal, countries agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions fast enough to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (°C) and aim to keep the rise below 1.5°C, which scientists say would avert some of its worst effects.

Across the G7, which consists of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, corporate emissions targets are overall on a 2.7°C warming trajectory, CDP and Oliver Wyman analysis showed.

“It is not acceptable for any country, let alone the world’s most advanced economies, to have industries displaying so little collective ambition,” Laurent Babikian, Global Director of Capital Markets at CDP, said in a statement.

“Momentum is growing, but as we approach COP27, we must get our 1.5°C goal off life support,” he added.

Collective emissions of US and Canadian firms are seen matching the pace of decarbonization required to restrict global warming to 2.8°C and 3.1°C, respectively, with the study stating that it is “largely the result of companies completely lacking targets, rather than targets that lack ambition”.

The study revealed that firms in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands had the most ambitious targets to lower emissions in the G7, as they align with 2.2°C on average, while France is at 2.3°C and the United Kingdom at 2.6°C.

“The analysis highlights big differences in ambition and willingness across companies to take a lead with their targets, and the urgent need to spread best practices further and faster,” Partner, Financial Services at Oliver Wyman James Davis said.

Nearly 200 countries will convene at COP27 climate summit in Egypt next November, after what has been for many a devastating summer of drought, heatwaves and other climate-linked extremes. — Reuters

LONDON — Liz Truss will replace Boris Johnson as Britain’s prime minister on Tuesday, traveling to see Queen Elizabeth in Scotland before appointing a new team of top cabinet ministers to tackle the economic crisis and draw her deeply divided party together.

Ms. Truss defeated rival Rishi Sunak in a vote of Conservative Party members for the party’s leadership, promising to deliver tax cuts and to help people with their energy bills and Britain faces a mounting energy crisis.

“Thank you for putting your trust in me to lead and deliver for our great country,” Ms. Truss said.

“I will take bold action to get all of us through these tough times, grow our economy, and unleash the United Kingdom’s potential.”

She will succeed Boris Johnson, who was forced to announce his resignation in July after months of scandals saw support for his administration drain away and ministers quit to force him out.

Mr. Johnson will give a speech outside Downing Street, then travel to Scotland to meet Queen Elizabeth at her Balmoral Castle residence to officially tender his resignation.

Ms. Truss will follow him and be asked to form a government by the monarch, before addressing the country herself and then starting appointments to her top team of ministers.

Long the front-runner to replace him, Ms. Truss will become the Conservatives’ fourth prime minister in seven years.

Since then, Britain has stumbled from crisis to crisis. Now there is the prospect of a long recession, and further increases in inflation, which hit double digits in July.

Although Britain is well-versed in choosing — and replacing — prime ministers, the choreography of the day will have an unfamiliar feel, with Queen Elizabeth meeting Mr. Johnson and Ms. Truss in Balmoral rather than Buckingham Palace.

The palace announced last week that the queen would appoint the new prime minister in Balmoral, where she spends her summers, due to mobility issues.

Queen Elizabeth, under whose reign there have been 14 prime ministers before Ms. Truss, has had to scale back her public appearances in recent months due to such issues, and also spent a night in hospital last October for an unspecified illness.

Ms. Truss therefore must travel to Balmoral to become prime minister, a round-trip of around a thousand miles, rather than the two-mile round-trip that prime ministers usually enjoy. — Reuters

SUPPLIERS of slot machines, baccarat table systems and other casino equipment are moving out of Macau to more welcoming markets, evidence of the damage China’s COVID Zero policy has wrought on the formerly bustling gambling hub.

With demand in Macau waning, Light & Wonder, Inc., a leading provider of products used in casinos, is relocating its expatriate staff to the Philippines, which has become its top market in Asia and where it is opening a new office. Another equipment maker from Japan is also shifting employees to the Philippines and Singapore.

The Japanese company is moving as many as 30% of its employees and has taken more than half of its inventory out of Macau due to supply-chain challenges, a person familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing information that wasn’t public. The person also asked for the company not to be named. It has seen revenue plunge about 90% in Macau as casinos shelved purchasing plans amid a prolonged industry slump.

Macau’s casinos aren’t buying any new equipment until they get licenses to continue operating at the end of the year, and without fresh sales, Light & Wonder is only getting limited revenue from maintenance and technical support, said Ken Jolly, the US company’s Asia vice president and managing director.

“The Philippine market has become a dominant market in Asia, and it makes sense for us to put more staff there,” Mr. Jolly said.

After well over a decade as the world’s pre-eminent casino center, Macau ceded that crown back to Las Vegas as COVID lockdowns and China’s travel bans choked off the usual flood of people coming in by air, sea and land. Prior to the pandemic, Macau’s gambling market — heavily reliant on mainland customers — was six times bigger than Vegas’, with annual revenue of $36 billion.

Macao Gaming Equipment Manufacturers Association Chairman Jay Chun said he knew of at least four multinational casino suppliers relocating manpower and resources overseas. The trend could accelerate after the government announced a cap of 12,000 gaming machines across the city for 2023 under a new casino law. There were already 17,000 machines in the market in 2019.

CRACKDOWN
Macau was under pressure even before the pandemic struck, with Chinese President Xi Jinping cracking down on high-rolling gamblers in the territory as part of a campaign against money-laundering, corruption and capital flight.

This June, a virus flareup prompted China to suspend quarantine-free travel with Macau for more than a month, a devastating blow to casino operators already bleeding millions of dollars. Tourist arrivals averaged a paltry 300 a day in July and gaming revenue dropped to a record low of $49 million in the month, when a lockdown also shuttered casinos for two weeks.

While social-distancing rules still apply at gambling tables, some restrictions have been peeled back. But people are staying away, fearful of getting trapped in a snap lockdown like those that have also enveloped Chinese cities such as Shanghai, Sanya and Chengdu.

For August, Macau’s gaming revenue was just $271 million, about 9% of pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, gaming revenue in Singapore returned to 70% of the level seen before COVID in the second quarter, while the Philippines and South Korea are both back to about 75%.

“Singapore and the Philippines are growing exponentially,” Mr. Chun said. “Macau has already lost its shine.”

G2E Asia, one of the world’s biggest gaming conferences, was held outside of Macau last month for the first time since the annual event started in 2007. As Southeast Asian casino operators and global suppliers gathered in Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands resort, representatives from gaming companies in Macau, where residents still need to undergo seven days of hotel quarantine when returning from overseas, were absent.

Macau is also revamping standards for electronic gaming machines, requiring manufacturers to design new software, which could be particularly costly and challenging for smaller suppliers. Some may decide not to update less popular machines as a result, Mr. Chun said. 

The shifting priorities of suppliers and fewer types of gaming machines could threaten Macau’s ambitions to develop a Vegas-style, entertainment-driven mass tourist market to counter China’s campaign against high rollers. Unlike premium gamblers who prefer table games, casual bettors tend to be attracted by slot machines, Mr. Chun said.

Slot machines accounted for about 5% of Macau’s gaming revenue in 2019, compared with more than 50% for the Las Vegas Strip.

To secure new licenses and as part of Beijing’s push to reduce Macau’s reliance on gambling, casino operators must commit to investing in non-gaming areas such as Chinese medicine and technology. That will force them to cut spending on low-yielding gaming machines, said Daniel Cheng, a former executive at gaming companies including Hard Rock International.

“Macau can’t expect normal services to resume as before,” said Mr. Cheng. “The Macau of old is a thing of the past.” — Bloomberg

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden spoke by phone on Tuesday to congratulate new British Prime Minister Liz Truss and both leaders promised to strengthen their relationship as they stand together against Russia.

“I look forward to deepening the special relationship between our countries and working in close cooperation on global challenges, including continued support for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russian aggression,” Mr. Biden said in a tweet.

The two leaders could meet as soon as the UN General Assembly later in September. Ms. Truss won a leadership race for the governing Conservative Party on Monday and took over from Boris Johnson as prime minister on Tuesday, as Britain faces its most daunting set of challenges in decades. Read full story

The prime minister’s office said in a statement that Mr. Biden and Ms. Truss discussed deepening cooperation on NATO and the US-Australia-Britain security agreement established last year as a counter to China. Ms. Truss looks forward to “working closely with President Biden as leaders of free democracies to tackle shared challenges, particularly the extreme economic problems unleashed by Putin’s war,” the statement said.

A White House statement said the two leaders discussed continuing close cooperation on Ukraine, addressing challenges posed by China, preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and “securing sustainable and affordable energy resources.”

The so-called special relationship between the United States and Britain has maintained solid continuity in recent years, despite frictions between then-President Donald Trump and then-Prime Minister Theresa May.

Washington and London have been aligned on helping Ukraine in its war against Russia and in countering China’s influence in the Pacific. But a trade deal that some British officials hoped could offset trade and economic upheaval after Brexit has yet to materialize under Mr. Biden. Read full story

A US official said the White House expects a lot of continuity from Mr. Johnson to Ms. Truss and that Mr. Biden and Ms. Truss are likely to be aligned on countering Russia’s invasion in Ukraine and China’s rising influence in the Indo-Pacific.

Mr. Biden got on well with Mr. Johnson, but he could have tensions with Ms. Truss over Northern Ireland.

As a member of parliament, she introduced legislation to undo the Northern Ireland Protocol, which was part of Britain’s withdrawal agreement from the European Union. It prioritized protecting the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, or Belfast Agreement, for peace in the British-run region.

Mr. Biden has been insistent that Britain do nothing that could endanger a quarter century of peace in Northern Ireland.

The White House statement said Mr. Biden and Ms. Truss “discussed their shared commitment to protecting the gains of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and the importance of reaching a negotiated agreement with the European Union on the Northern Ireland Protocol.”

The British statement said both leaders “agreed on the importance of protecting the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement.” – Reuters

NEW YORK – Fifty-eight stolen antiquities worth an estimated $19 million were returned to Italy by New York authorities in a ceremony on Tuesday.

The items, many on display at the city‘s Metropolitan Museum of Art for years, included “The Marble Head of Athena,” worth an estimated $3 million.

“We are privileged to return it today,” said Colonel Matthew Bogdanos, chief of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office’s antiquities trafficking unit, promising “many more seizures and many more repatriations” over the rest of the year.

The returned items also included a drinking cup called “White-Ground Kylix,” “Bronze Bust of a Man,” and vases, platters and other kitchenware. Some came from the collection of billionaire hedge fund manager Michael Steinhardt.

The antiquities were sold by convicted looters, including Giacomo Medici and Giovanni Franco Becchina, who used locals to raid unguarded sites in Italy, according to the Manhattan DA’s office.

The pieces are “part of our past, our ancestors,” Italian police General Roberto Riccardi said at the ceremony. “And they belong to the community. They will go back to the community to which they belong and to the future generations.”

Since the start of 2010s, Bogdanos’ antiquities unit has seized 4,500 pieces valued at more than $250 million, he said.

Bogdanos attributes the success to unprecedented cooperation.

“It’s happening now because … the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office formed the Antiquities Trafficking Unit, the only one of its kind in the world in which prosecutors, investigators and analysts are all on the same team.” – Reuters

SAO PAULO – Apple Inc said on Tuesday it will appeal a Brazilian order banning it from selling iPhones without a battery charger, pushing back on claims that the company provides an incomplete product to consumers.

The Justice Ministry fined Apple 12.275 million reals ($2.38 million) and ordered the company to cancel sales of the iPhone 12 and newer models, in addition to suspending the sale of any iPhone model that does not come with a charger.

In the order, published on Tuesday in the country’s official gazette, the ministry argued that the iPhone was lacking a essential component in a “deliberate discriminatory practice against consumers.”

The authorities rejected Apple‘s argument that the practice had the purpose of reducing carbon emissions, saying there is no evidence that selling the smartphone without a charger offers environmental protections.

Apple said it would continue to work with Brazilian consumer protection agency Senacon in order to “resolve their concerns,” while saying it would appeal the decision.

“We have already won several court rulings in Brazil on this matter and we are confident that our customers are aware of the various options for charging and connecting their devices,” Apple said.

The order comes a day before Apple is expected to announce its new iPhone model. – Reuters

BEIJING — More Chinese cities advised residents on Wednesday to avoid unnecessary trips for the upcoming holiday long weekend, adding to COVID policies that are keeping tens of millions of people under lockdown and exacting a growing economic toll.

Nanjing and Wuxi, major cities in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, recommended residents not leave town during the Saturday-Monday mid-autumn festival, echoing similar advisories made by other cities this month.

China reported a slight uptick in new cases for Sept. 6 to 1,695 — low by global standards — but its “dynamic zero” COVID policy to stamp out every infection chain means numerous cities have imposed various curbs on movement.

While successful in keeping case numbers down, the approach is weighing on the economy and fueling widespread frustration nearly three years into the pandemic.

Chinese authorities have not announced any plan to exit the policy that has all but shut China’s borders to international travel.

The latest advisories aimed at curbing COVID’s spread come just over a month before Beijing hosts a once-in-five-years congress of the ruling Communist Party, where President Xi Jinping is expected to secure a precedent-breaking third leadership term.

The southwestern city of Chengdu, where most of the 21.2 million residents remained on Wednesday in a lockdown that began last Thursday, has yet to announce a plan to end the strict curbs.

In Beijing, the suburban Yizhuang economic and technological development zone said Communist Party officials must not leave the city unnecessarily during mid-autumn festival or the week-long holiday in early October, while residents of the area were also advised to stay put.

“The whole zone … must strictly and assiduously implement various tasks for COVID prevention and control, in order to create a safe and stable social environment for the party congress,” it said in a statement.

Beijing reported 14 locally transmitted infections for Tuesday, the capital’s highest daily count since mid-June. All but two of the infections had been quarantined for medical observation before diagnosis, the city said on Wednesday.

In the latest gloomy barometer for the world’s second-largest economy, data released on Wednesday showed exports and imports lost momentum in August, significantly lagging forecasts, as inflation crippled overseas demand and fresh COVID curbs and heatwaves in China disrupted output. — Reuters

WASHINGTON – A document describing a foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities, was found in the FBI’s search last month of former President Donald Trump‘s Florida home, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

The Post report, which cited people familiar with the matter, did not identify the foreign government discussed in the document, nor did it indicate whether the foreign government was friendly or hostile to the United States.

An FBI spokesperson declined to comment on the report. Mr. Trump’s representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The FBI recovered more than 11,000 government documents and photographs during its Aug. 8 search at Mr. Trump‘s Mar-a-Lago estate, according to court records. Read full story

According to the Post report, some of the seized documents detail top-secret US operations that require special clearances, not just top-secret clearance.

Some of the documents are so restricted that even some of the Biden administration’s senior-most national security officials were not authorized to review them, the Post said.

The US Justice Department is investigating Trump for removing government records from the White House after he departed in January 2021 and storing them at Mar-a-Lago.

On Monday, a federal judge agreed to Trump‘s request to appoint a special master to review records seized in the FBI search, a move that is likely to delay the Justice Department’s criminal investigation. Read full story – Reuters

LONDON — The new British Prime Minister Liz Truss has selected a Cabinet where for the first time a white man will not hold one of the country’s four most important ministerial positions.

Ms. Truss appointed Kwasi Kwarteng — whose parents came from Ghana in the 1960s — as Britain’s first Black finance minister while James Cleverly is the first Black foreign minister.

Mr. Cleverly, whose mother hails from Sierra Leone and whose father is white, has in the past spoken about being bullied as a mixed-race child and has said the party needs to do more to attract Black voters.

Ms. Suella Braverman, whose parents came to Britain from Kenya and Mauritius six decades ago, succeeds Priti Patel as the second ethnic minority home secretary, or interior minister, where she will be responsible for police and immigration.

The growing diversity is in part thanks to a push by the Conservative Party in recent years to put forward a more varied set of candidates for parliament.

British governments have until a few decades ago been made up of mostly white men. It took until 2002 for Britain to appoint its first ethnic minority cabinet minister when Paul Boateng was appointed chief secretary to the Treasury.

Rishi Sunak, whose parents came from India, was Mr. Kwarteng’s predecessor in the finance job and the runner-up to Ms. Truss in the leadership context.

“Politics has set the pace. We now treat it as normal, this diversity,” said Sunder Katwala, director of non-partisan think-tank British Future, which focuses on migration and identity. “The pace of change is extraordinary.”

However, the upper ranks of business, the judiciary, the civil service and army are all still predominately white.

And despite the party’s diversity campaign, only a quarter of Conservative members of parliament are women and 6% from minority backgrounds.

TRACK RECORD
Nevertheless, the Conservatives have the best track record of political firsts among the main political parties, including appointing the first Jewish prime minister in Benjamin Disraeli in 1868.

This is despite the fact ethnic minority voters are much more likely to back the opposition Labor party and the ruling party has faced accusations of racism, misogyny and Islamophobia.

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologized in 2019 for describing Muslim women wearing burqas as looking like letter boxes.

The Conservatives have elected all three of Britain’s female prime ministers, Margaret Thatcher, Theresa May and now Truss. The first lawmaker of Asian descent, Mancherjee Bhownaggree in 1895, also came from the Conservatives.

Mr. Johnson assembled the youngest and most ethnically diverse Cabinet in history when he was elected prime minister in 2019. His three finance ministers included two men of South Asian origin and one of Kurdish background.

The changes followed a years-long effort by former leader and Prime Minister David Cameron.

When he took over in 2005, the party had just two ethnic minority members of parliament out of 196, and he set out to ensure that his party more closely resembled the modern Britain it hoped to lead.

The next year, Mr. Cameron introduced a priority list of female and minority candidates to be selected, many for safe seats in the House of Commons. Ms. Truss was a beneficiary of this push.

“A key part of ensuring the strength and resilience of any group, including a political party, is the avoidance of everyone thinking and acting in the same way — the avoidance of group-think,” said James Arbuthnot, a member of the party board’s committee on candidates when Mr. Cameron introduced the changes.

But Mr. Kwarteng has played down the significance of his ethnicity. He has said that, although he experienced racist insults growing up in the eighties, he does not see himself as a symbol of anyone other than his constituents in Spelthorne, which borders London’s south-west suburbs.

“I actually think that it’s not that much of a big deal,” he said after being appointed as the first Black Conservative front-bench minister. “I think once you’ve made the point, I don’t think it’s something that comes up that much.” — Reuters

TOKYO — Japan is investigating the possible involvement of a pro-Russian group following the failure of multiple government websites, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said on Wednesday.

More than 20 websites across four government ministries could not be accessed on Tuesday evening but were restored on the same day, Mr. Matsuno said.

The government has not identified any information leaks and was looking into whether the failure was caused by a denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, he added.

In a DDoS attack hackers attempt to flood a network with unusually high volumes of data traffic in order to paralyze it.

Japan’s digital agency said in a tweet that online application service on its e-Gov administrative portal was also experiencing signing-in problems.

The pro-Russian group “Killnet” said on social media it was responsible for the attack, public broadcaster NHK reported.

“We are aware that the (Killnet) hacker group suggested it was behind an attack, but at the moment we are still investigating the cause of the failure, including its involvement,” Mr. Matsuno said at a daily news briefing.

“We understand that the (Killnet) hacker group has threatened several countries of cyberattacks, and that some say they are linked to the Russian government. Given our position as the government, we will not respond to that,” he added.

The attack temporarily blocked access to websites, including the Digital Agency’s e-Gov administrative portal, NHK said. — Reuters