News Headlines - 01 August 2018
▽U.S. lawmakers demand tech firms to do more to fight election interference | Reuters
U.S. lawmakers demanded that technology firms do more to fight “shocking” foreign efforts to influence U.S. politics on Wednesday, a day after Facebook Inc identified an influence campaign tied to November’s elections and despite President Donald Trump’s denunciation of the issue as a “hoax.”
... Senator Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said... the committee had called executives of Facebook, Twitter Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google to testify on Sept. 5 “to hear the plans they have in place, to press them to do more, and to work together to address this challenge.”
▽Japanese bond yields rise sharply after tweaks to BoJ policy
Japan’s 10-year government bond yield was poised on Wednesday to record its steepest jump in two years, following the Bank of Japan’s decision to tweak its stimulus programme to allow more flexibility in the fixed income market.
The yield jumped 6.8 basis points in recent trading to 0.124 per cent. It would mark the biggest rise since August 2016 for the paper, which has faced a significant jolt of volatility over the past two weeks.
The BoJ said on Tuesday that it would double the range it allows yields on the10-year Japanese government bond to move to 20 bps on either side of zero. Bonds initially rallied on the news, sending the yield on the 10-year down on Tuesday by the widest margin in more than two years.
▽Japan, Russia at odds over Tokyo's missile defense plan - The Mainichi
In response to Russia's deep-seated concern about the deployment, Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said it is "purely for national defense."
The friction over the installation of two land-based Aegis Ashore stations, which Japan sees as necessary to protect its territory from North Korean ballistic missile strikes, re-emerged as Onodera and Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono met their Russian counterparts Sergei Shoigu and Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.
Japan’s government said Wednesday it’s doing its utmost for the rescue of a Japanese journalist believed to be held in Syria after a video of a man appearing to be him was posted on the internet.
Freelance journalist Jumpei Yasuda was last heard from in Syria in June 2015.
It is thought he is being held by the Al-Nusra Front, a former al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria.
▽England's Freemasons to allow women - if they were once male | Reuters
England’s Freemasons are to admit women to their secretive society - but only if they were previously male masons... The all-male United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) has published a new gender reassignment policy which states that “a Freemason who after initiation ceases to be a man does not cease to be a Freemason.”... A woman who becomes a man will also be allowed to apply to become a Freemason, the policy said.
