1 Trump threat to Toyota over Mexico plant (Sam
Thielman in The Guardian) Donald Trump has threatened Toyota with a “big border
tax” if it didn’t build cars meant for the US within the states, the latest in
a series of attacks on car manufacturers and the first time since his election
that he has threatened a foreign company.
The $1bn plant will be located Guanajuato, a state
in central Mexico, not Baja California, as Trump tweeted. Toyota plans to
increase capacity at an existing plant in Tijuana, Baja California, that makes
Tacoma pickup trucks.
Toyota plans to manufacture 200,000 Corollas at the
new plant. The Corolla is the second bestselling compact car in the US behind
fellow Japanese manufacturer Honda’s Civic. Trump’s latest threat follows a
similar one against General Motors over its plans to manufacture compact cars
south of the border for US export.
Jorge Guajardo, the former Mexican ambassador to
China, immediately lit into Trump: “If you think intentionally wrecking your
neighbor’s economy is what’s going to bring peace and stability to US you’re in
for a big surprise,” he tweeted.
Last month Trump threatened “retribution” against
companies outsourcing factory work to foreign facilities. “There will be a tax
on our soon to be strong border of 35% for these companies,” he tweeted, naming
car and air conditioner manufacturers in the same series of remarks.
But threatening car companies with taxation has
barely caused the market to blink. The US president cannot personally levy
taxes; that duty falls to state legislatures and the US House of
Representatives, which holds the “power of the purse”.
2 Samsung profit surges 50% (BBC) Despite the fiasco
with its flagship Galaxy Note 7 phone, Samsung Electronics is forecasting a 50%
surge in profits for the fourth quarter. The earnings estimate is higher than
analysts' predicted and would mark its highest quarterly profit since 2013.
In October, the world's largest smartphone maker had
to scrap the Note 7 after batteries caught fire and even replacement devices
went up in smoke. The strong results are due to Samsung's semiconductor and
display businesses.
The South Korean tech giant said it expected to post
9.2tn won ($7.8bn, £6.2bn) in operating profit for the months from September to
December. Demand for memory chip and displays is expected to remain high
throughout 2017, giving investors a bright outlook for the next year.
3 Worrying over social media ‘likes’ (Khaleej Times)
New research shows that a majority of people feel upset when their friends get
more likes than them. "Our relationship with social media has developed
into a vicious cycle. We want to go onto our favourite social platforms to tell
all of our connections about the positive things we are doing - that makes us
feel good," said Evgeny Chereshnev, head of Social Media at Kaspersky Lab.
"But the reality is that everyone is doing the
same thing, so when we log onto social media we are bombarded with images and
posts of our friends having fun. And it looks like they're enjoying life more
than us. It's easy to see why this is leaving people feeling down and why so
many people have considered leaving social media altogether.
"The difficulty is that people feel trapped
because so many of their precious memories have been stored on social media and
they don't want to lose access to these." The research, from Kasperky Lab,
also shows that as many as 41 per cent of people in the UAE admit to feeling
envious when they see the seemingly happier lives on social media.
Previous research has also demonstrated peoples'
frustration with social media as 78 per cent globally admitted that they have
considered leaving social networks altogether.51% in the UAE noted that their
friends’ holiday pictures have had a 'negative influence' on them and 65% admit
to feelings of unhappiness stemming from friends' posts.
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