Bloomberg (November 27)
“As China’s assault on the world’s automotive industry gathers speed, Japan’s national champions are emerging as some of the biggest victims. In China itself, the world’s largest car market, Japanese automakers are fighting for survival as local competitors flood showrooms” with EVs. Chinese carmakers are also “pushing into Southeast Asia, rapidly gaining ground in what has long been a stronghold for legacy brands like Toyota, Honda and Mitsubishi.” We’ve transitioned from “Made in Japan to Made in China,” with Japan’s share of global passenger car production essentially halved (from 21.6% to 11.4%) over the past 25 years while China’s share has rocketed from 1.4% to 38.4% in 2023.
Tags: Automakers, Automotive industry, Car market, Carmakers, China, Competitors, EVs, Honda, Japan, Legacy brands, Mitsubishi, Southeast Asia, Stronghold, Survival, Toyota, Victims
Financial Times (December 15)
“Evidence of a wave of Covid-19 deaths is beginning to emerge in Beijing despite official tallies showing no fatalities since an uncontrolled outbreak began sweeping through China’s capital this week. Staff at one crematorium in Beijing said they cremated the bodies of at least 30 Covid victims on Wednesday.”
Tags: Beijing, China, COVID-19, Crematorium, Deaths, Evidence, Fatalities, Official tallies, Outbreak, Uncontrolled, Victims, Wave
Washington Post (January 17)
“Nearly 400,000 Americans have now died of covid-19. It took 12 weeks for the death toll to rise from 200,000 to 300,000. The death toll has leaped from 300,000 to almost 400,000 in less than five weeks…. Yet these are, by and large, invisible deaths: Coronavirus victims who die in the hospital often spend their final days cut off from family and friends.”
Tags: Coronavirus, COVID-19, Death toll, Die, Family, Friends, Hospital, Invisible deaths, Victims
Chicago Tribune (April 10)
“The coronavirus crisis maddens in myriad ways, and for many victims one of the most vexing is the inability to get tested…. Broader-scale testing is beginning to occur, but the progress is unacceptably slow.” We need to ramp this up to provide “more detail about where exactly the pandemic has struck.” Until we do, “the country will never be able to defeat the coronavirus — and get the economies of Illinois and the rest of the country back on track.”
Chicago Tribune (March 6)
“We walk the Earth’s crust, we erect vast cities, we boast of our achievements. We see ourselves as the mistresses and masters of our fate.” With the coronavirus, however, “nature once again reminds us who’s boss.” The “little living form that now roils humanity is a virus” and it does not discriminate “in selecting its victims; great wealth has its privileges, but immunity from epidemics isn’t one of them.”
Tags: Achievements, Boss, Cities, Coronavirus, Earth, Fate, Humanity, Immunity, Nature, Victims, Wealth
Caribbean Business (October 1)
Although he “spent years hammering his predecessor, Barack Obama, both for playing golf and leaving Washington too often,” President Trump “appeared unconcerned with the optics of spending his Sunday afternoon watching The Presidents Cup at the Liberty National Golf Club as the crisis continued” in Puerto Rico. As victims of the hurricane clamor for help, President Trump is also expected to “present a trophy to the tournament’s winning team.”
Tags: Crisis, Golf, Golf Club, Hurricane, Obama, Optics, Predecessor, Puerto Rico, Trump, Unconcerned, Victims, Washington
Financial Times (December 31)
“After December’s No vote in the Italian referendum, the rise of Donald Trump and the British vote to leave the EU, it appears that the political landscape of the developed world is being redesigned by the victims of globalisation and technological change. Anger towards political elites is pervasive. Yet a few rage-free zones remain, of which Japan is the most conspicuous.” Japan’s “immunity from the populist political tide remains remarkable.”
Tags: Anger, Elites, EU, Globalisation, Italy, Japan, Political landscape, Populist, Referendum, Technological change, Trump, UK, Victims
Wall Street Journal (March 22)
“Europe seems determined to keep treating this as a policing problem, or at least as anything other than a call to bolster military efforts in Syria…. There’s a role for policing in a counterterror strategy, but also a limit. Brussels…can’t live in perpetual lockdown. Until the West is prepared to fight this terrorist threat at the source, Tuesday’s victims in Brussels won’t be the last.”
Tags: Brussels, Counterterror, Europe, Lockdown, Military, Policing, Strategy, Syria, Terrorist threat, Victims
New York Times (July 22)
“The comments from European leaders have been clear and tough, but words will count for little unless European Union foreign ministers enforce more stringent sanctions against Russia…. After the downing of Flight 17 and the brutish handling of the victims, it is time for Europe to hold Mr. Putin to his words.”
Chicago Tribune (November 5)
“The U.S. drone program has come under enormous pressure from critics who say it claims innocent victims. President Barack Obama has vowed to provide more transparency in how targets are chosen and more accountability for strikes. But the death of Mehsud shows the enormous value of this high-tech warfare…. An international threat who was most likely beyond the reach of conventional troops has been felled. His predecessor met the same fate by the same means.”
Tags: Accountability, High-tech, Mehsud, Obama, Strikes, Targets, Threat, Transparency, Troops, U.S.. Drones, Victims, Warfare
