NewsBytes

Sanae Takaichi becomes Japan’s first woman PM

Japan’s parliament elected ultraconservative Sanae Takaichi as the country’s first woman prime minister on Tuesday, a day after her struggling party struck a coalition deal with a new partner expected to pull her governing bloc further to the right. Takaichi replaces Shigeru Ishiba, ending a three-month political vacuum and wrangling since the Liberal Democratic Party's disastrous election loss in July. Ishiba, who lasted only one year as prime minister, resigned with his Cabinet earlier in the day, paving the way for his successor. Takaichi won 237 votes — four more than a majority — compared to 149 won by Yoshikoko Noda, head of the largest opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, in the lower house, which elects the prime minister. As the results were announced, Takaichi stood up and bowed deeply.

Hand and foot fossils found in Kenya for ancient human relative

Researchers have unearthed near Lake Turkana in northern Kenya fossils of hand and foot bones belonging to an extinct human relative dating to 1.52 million years ago, revealing that this species would have been able to grasp and manipulate objects such as stone tools and was fully bipedal. The fossils represented the first hand and foot bones unambiguously attributed to the species Paranthropus boisei. The researchers discovered a partial skeleton that included most of the hand, three foot bones, most of the teeth, a partial forearm bone and skull fragments. Considering the fragmentary nature of previous fossils of this species, the new discovery was revelatory. This species was a member of the human evolutionary lineage, essentially a cousin of Homo sapiens, which evolved much later.

US, Australia sign critical-minerals agreement as way to counter China

President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed a critical-minerals deal at the White House on Monday as the US eyes the continent's rich rare-earth resources when China is imposing tougher rules on exporting its own critical minerals abroad. The two leaders described the agreement as an USD 8.5 billion deal between the allies. Trump said it had been negotiated over several months. “In about a year from now we'll have so much critical mineral and rare earth that you won't know what to do with them," said Trump, a Republican, boasting about the deal. "They'll be worth USD 2.” Albanese added that the agreement takes the US-Australia relationship “to the next level.” Earlier this month, Beijing announced that it will require foreign companies to get approval from the Chinese government to export magnets containing even trace amounts of rare-earth materials that originated from China or were produced with Chinese technology. The Trump administration says this gives China broad power over the global economy by controlling the tech supply chain.

India has much to do on toxic cough syrup despite some progress: WHO

India has more work to do in halting sales of toxic cough syrup, despite some progress, a World Health Organisation official told Reuters, after at least 24 children died following consumption of a domestically-made medicine. The children died after taking the Coldrif cough medicine made by Sresan Pharma, which tests showed contained the toxin diethylene glycol in quantities nearly 500 times the permissible limit. They came just two years after global pledges to tighten the system following the deaths of at least 300 children around the world linked to similar toxins in syrup-based medicines made in India and Indonesia. But enforcement issues persist, the WHO said. "They have made some strides," said the official, Rutendo Kuwana, referring to a new Indian rule requiring medicine to be tested for contaminants like diethylene and ethylene glycol before export.