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Japans massive holdings of U.S. Treasurys can be a card on the table in negotiations over tariffs with the Trump administration, Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato said Friday. It does exist as a card, but I think whether we choose to use it or not would be a separate decision, Kato said during a news show on national broadcaster TV Tokyo. Kato did not elaborate and he did not say Japan would step up sales of its holdings of U.S. government bonds as part of its talks over President Donald Trump’s tariffs on exports from Japan. Earlier, Japanese officials including Kato had ruled out such an option. Japan is the largest foreign holder of U.S. government debt, at $1.13 trillion as of late February. China, also at odds with the Trump administration over trade and tariffs, is the second largest foreign investor in Treasurys. Kato stressed that various factors would be on the negotiating table with Trump, implying that a promise not to sell Treasurys could help coax Washington into an agreement favorable for Japan. Trump has disrupted decades of American trade policies, including with key security allies like Japan, by imposing big import taxes, or tariffs, on a wide range of products. A team of Japanese officials was in Washington this week for talks on the tariffs. The U.S. is due to soon begin imposing a 25% tariff on imported vehicles and auto parts, as well as an overall 10% baseline tariff. The bigger tariffs will hurt at a time when Japanese economic growth is weakening. Asian holdings of Treasurys have remained relatively steady in recent years, according to the most recent figures. But some analysts worry China or other governments could liquidate their U.S. Treasury holdings as trade tensions escalate. U.S. government bonds are traditionally viewed as a safe financial asset, and recent spikes in yields of those bonds have raised worries that they might be losing that status due to Trumps tariff policies. Yuri Kageyama, AP business writer
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Are you guilty of overusing the monkey covering its eyes emoji? Do you find it impossible to send a text without tacking on a laughing-crying face? Much like choosing between a full stop or an “x” at the end of a message, emojis have become their own form of languagecomplete with unspoken rules and hidden meanings (we all know exactly what were implying with the eyes emoji or the eggplant). But beyond adding subtext or flirtatious nuance, your go-to emojis might reveal more about you than you realize. According to a new study published in Current Psychology by researchers at Oklahoma State University, your emoji habits could offer surprising insight into your underlying personality traits. The study surveyed 285 undergraduates, all around the age of 20, about their use of 40 different emojis. Participants also completed questionnaires designed to assess their personality traits. The researchers were particularly focused on what’s known as the Dark Triad: psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism. The results showed that among men, frequent emoji use was associated with Machiavellian traits and higher levels of neuroticism. Women werent off the hook either: Heavy emoji use among female participants was linked to narcissistic tendencies. The researchers speculated that this connection between emoji use and the Dark Triad could be due to the way emojis are often used for self-promotion and image managementbehaviors commonly tied to narcissism. Overall, women used both positive and negative emojis more frequently than men, whether in text messages, social media posts, or replies and comments. However, six emojis stood out as being used more often by men. You can probably guess a few of them (hint: yes, the pile of poo made the list). While previous studies have suggested that emojis are most often used by introverts, the Current Psychology says otherwise. For both men and women, extroverts emerged as the most frequent emoji users. So the next time you’re about to send a string of fire emojis, just be sure you’re not accidentally outing yourself as a Machiavellian narcissist in the process.
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E-Commerce
Its a little past 10 a.m. and the heat is already blazing on the outskirts of the Western Indian city of Ahmedabad. Sapnaben Chunara, a 30-year-old mother of three, has just finished her morning chores. She seeks respite from the heat in the shade of a neem tree, a species that can withstand high temperatures and drought. Chunara spends most of the day outdoors in Vanzara Vas, a low-income neighborhood of about 800 families, because her tin-roofed house is even hotter. Indoor temperatures can be even higher, especially when outside they climb above 40 degrees Celsius (104 F). That was once rare but now happens regularly. And this year, high heat started three weeks earlier than in previous years, touching 43 degrees Celsius (109.40 F) in early April. Sometimes it gets so hot, I cant think straight, said Chunara, sporting a black smartwatch that contrasts sharply with her colorful bangles and sari. Chunara is one of 204 residents of Vanzara Vas given the smartwatches for a year-long study to find out how heat affects vulnerable communities around the world. The watches measure heart rate and pulse and track sleep, and participants get weekly blood pressure checks. Researchers also painted some roofs with reflective paint to reduce indoor heat and will compare them to homes without so-called cool roofs using indoor heat sensors. Along with the smartwatches, this will help them understand how much cool roofs can help poor households deal with Indias scorching summers. Chunara, whose home didn’t get a cool roof, said she’s happy to participate by wearing the watch, confident the results will help her family, too. “They might paint my roof as well and they might be able to do something that helps all of us in this area cope with the heat better, Chunara said. Killer heat is the new normal Cities like Ahmedabad have always had hot summers, but now they’re nearing the threshold beyond which exposure for more than a few hours can be fatal. In the summer of 2010, the city witnessed nearly 1,300 excess deaths how many more people died than would be expected which experts found were most likely due to high temperatures. An increasingly hot planet, due largely to burning fossil fuels such as coal and gas that release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, means already hot regions are getting even worse. A 2023 study estimated that if the global mean temperature continues to rise to just under 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), there would be a 370% rise in heat-related deaths around the world and most would happen in South and Southeast Asia and Africa. This is a big concern, and it also shows the heat divide between the poor and wealthy, said Abhiyant Tiwari, a climate expert with NRDC India and part of the group conducting the research in Ahmedabad. Following the 2010 tragedy, city officials, with help from public health and heat experts, devised an action plan to warn citizens when the heat is at dangerous levels and prepare city hospitals to respond rapidly to heat-related illness. The plan has been replicated across India and other parts of South Asia. The last two years have been the worlds hottest ever, and researchers hope their work can provide an additional line of defense for those who bear the brunt of increasing heat. Finding solutions to deal with heat The Ahmedabad study is only one part of a global research project examining how heat is affecting poor, vulnerable communities in four cities across the world. Researchers also are measuring heat impacts using smartwatches and other devices in Africa’s Burkina Faso, the Pacific island of Niue near New Zealand and in the Sonoran desert region in Mexico. More than 1.1 billion people about one-eighth of the world’s population live in informal settlements and poor neighborhoods that are particularly vulnerable, said Aditi Bunker, environmental health researcher associated with the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and Heidelberg University, Germany, who is leading the global project. Climate change and heat are ravaging populations. And now the question comes, what are we doing to address this? she said, referring to the motivation behind the research. In Ahmedabad, Bunker, along with researchers at the Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar and the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, is constantly collecting relevant health data. If they find that cool roofs effectively reduce indoor heat, they plan to paint the roofs of all the homes. Researchers hope their study leads to more use of solutions like cool roofs for poor, vulnerable populations around the world and that policymakers will factor in such solutions when deciding how their countries and communities can adapt to increasing heat exposure. For now, Vanzara Vas residents like Chunara and her neighbor, Shantaben Vanzara, said they will take any help they can get. Shantaben Vanzara said the heat has made her diabetes worse, but being part of the study has provided her family some respite. We dont get to sleep because of the heat,” she said. “After the roof got painted, we can sleep for a few hours a night at least. Chunara said temperatures used to be predictable. Now we dont know when or what will happen, she said. The only thing that we know for sure is that the heat is getting worse every year. This report has been edited to correct the name of NRDC India, previously incorrectly given as the Natural Resources Defense Council. ___ The Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. Sibi Arasu, Associated Press
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