The Week (December 10)
“Fresh off her first solo state visit to Laos, Princess Aiko has become the face of a Japanese royal family facing 21st-century obsolescence.” Under current succession law, however, her male cousin Prince Hisahito of Akishino will succeed to the throne. The question is when Japan will be “ready for change.” As demonstrated by Japan’s election of “conservative Sanae Takaichi as its first woman prime minister in October,” public support exists “for the notion that Aiko, or ‘any other woman in the future,’ could be made royal successor, which has led to a grassroots effort to readdress the rules.”
Tags: 21st century, Aiko, Change, Grassroots, Hisahito, Japan, Laos, Obsolescence, Prime minister, Public support, Royal family, Succession, Takaichi, Throne
The Guardian (August 4)
“The Swiss stock market has plunged, the cabinet has held crisis talks and the country’s president, Karin Keller-Sutter, has been accused of mishandling a vital phone call with the White House after Donald Trump hit the country with a shock 39% export tariff.” Roughly one-sixth of Switzerland’s exports go to the U.S. and prior to the phone call “negotiators believed they had secured a 10% tariff on exports.” Instead, Switzerland now confronts “one of the steepest US duties – only Laos, Myanmar and Syria had higher figures, at 40-41%.”
Tags: 10%, 39%, Cabinet, Crisis talks, Exports, Keller-Sutter, Laos, Myanmar, Negotiators, Phone call, Plunged, Shock, Stock market, Swiss, Tariff, Trump
