Japan's failure to contain rising rice prices threatens Senate majority
The rice issue has dominated the campaign. The LDP, which has been in power almost continuously since 1955, pledged to revive rice production. Ishiba argued that "farmers must earn enough to live on and work without worry." Meanwhile, the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP, opposition) called for increased subsidies for rice growers and, like other parties, advocated scrapping the highly unpopular consumption tax on food products.
The LDP struggled to convince voters after failing to halt the surge in prices that had persisted for months, fueled by poor harvests, precautionary buying that began in summer 2024 following warnings of an imminent earthquake, a tourism boom and speculation by wholesalers. The crisis was further inflamed by criticism from the Trump administration over Japan's "700%" rice import tariff, a figure which is disputed by Tokyo.
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Local France
12 hours ago
- Local France
French government prepares new law to return colonial-era art
If approved, the law would make it easier for the country to return cultural goods in France's national collection "originating from states that, due to illicit appropriation, were deprived of them" between 1815 and 1972, said the culture ministry. It will cover works obtained through "theft, looting, transfer or donation obtained through coercion or violence, or from a person who was not entitled to dispose of them", the ministry added. The bill was presented during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, a government spokeswoman told reporters. The Senate is due to discuss it September. Former colonial powers in Europe have been slowly moving to send back some artworks obtained during their imperial conquests, but France is hindered by its current legislation. The return of every item in the national collection must be voted on individually. Wednesday's draft law is designed to simplify and streamline the process. France returned 26 formerly royal artefacts including a throne to Benin in 2021. Advertisement They were part of the collection of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum in Paris, which holds the majority of the 90,000 African works estimated to be in French museums, according to an expert report commissioned by French President Emmanuel Macron in 2018. A "talking drum" that French colonial troops seized from the Ebrie tribe in 1916 was sent back to Ivory Coast earlier this year. In 2019, France's then prime minister Edouard Philippe handed over a sword to the Senegalese president that was believed to have belonged to the 19th-century West African Islamic scholar and leader, Omar Tall. Other European states, including Germany and the Netherlands, have handed back a limited number of artefacts in recent years Britain faces multiple high-profile claims but has refused to return the Parthenon Marbles to Greece and the Kohinoor diamond to India, two of the best-known examples. The French draft law is the third and final part of legislative efforts to speed up the removal and return of artworks held in France's national collection. Two other laws -- one to return property looted by the Nazis, and a second to return human remains -- were approved in 2023.
AFP
17 hours ago
- AFP
Posts mislead on Toyota's hydrogen-powered cars
'Toyota has just changed the game! A WATER ENGINE That Will DESTROY the EV industry! In a groundbreaking move that could redefine the global automotive industry, Toyota has unveiled an engine powered by water – running on hydrogen produced through electrolysis!' This is how a Facebook post from June 21, 2025, begins. The post further claims that the supposed engine would not use lithium, would not require charging stations, and would emit only water vapor. 'With this move, Toyota is not just competing with electric vehicles but is announcing the end of the battery era,' reads another post from July 11, 2025. Similar claims appear in many other Facebook posts – for example here, here and here – shared thousands of times on the platform. The claim spread previously on other social networks such as Telegram -- here and here, TikTok, YouTube, as well as in online articles such as this one. False and misleading claims like the Bulgarian one are circulating in many other languages, including English, and have been seen by millions of users worldwide across social media platforms. In a race for zero emissions cars that pits electric vehicles (EVs) against hydrogen ones, the claim that water instead of fuel can be used to power cars, has resurfaced sporadically over the past decades, but has never been supported by factual evidence. A handful of Bulgarian inventors are sometimes mentioned in relation to the supposed creation of a water‑fuelled engine, but there is no verified evidence that such a technology has ever existed. Such claims fuel and accusations that the automotive and oil industries deliberately conceal "revolutionary" technologies to preserve their profits, either by buying up and hiding patents or by allegedly making their inventors , as explained in this article on the Bulgarian fact-checking platform (archive). The claim, however, is false. Toyota told AFP that the company is not developing a 'water engine' and described the claim as 'fake news.' Experts also explained that such a system would be inefficient and very difficult to implement in real-world conditions. The Japanese car manufacturer produces vehicles that use hydrogen as fuel; the vehicles are at specialized stations and are equipped with lithium-ion batteries. The claim was also debunked by the Australian fact-checking platform AAP FactCheck. Image Screenshots of Facebook posts spreading false information. Taken on 28 July 2025. The red crisscrossing lines were added by AFP Toyota is not developing a 'water engine.' 'We are indeed not developing anything that could be described as a 'water engine,' said Jean-Yves Jault, from the Toyota Motor Corporation, in an email to AFP on July 23. Jault described the claims as 'fake news", mainly in dubious Facebook posts likely created to generate engagement by spreading false but sensational content, and referred to a Forbes article that debunks the claim. The author of that article is Robert Rapier, a chemical engineer, who explains that water is not a fuel but a product of hydrogen combustion, which is the actual source of energy. 'The idea that water can power a car is absurd,' he writes. The process of electrolysis Electrolysis i when water is split into hydrogen and oxygen. The process requires a significant amount of electricity and is efficient only when there is a stable power source. Electrolysis does not release energy – it consumes it in order to produce hydrogen, which can later be used as fuel to power vehicles. T Experts say that water is not used as fuel who works with his students on hydrogen fuel cell projects, that the hydrogen used as fuel is not produced on board the vehicle. 'All of these vehicles generate electricity in fuel cells that use pure hydrogen preloaded in tanks,' he stated in an email from July 7. 'I am not aware of any such vehicle, and even theoretically it would be extremely inefficient and impractical,' he added. 'It is technically possible to use electrolysis to utilize residual energy from a moving vehicle, but it is economically unjustified,' said Prof. Dr. Eng. Boriana Tsaneva from the Technical University of Sofia in an email to AFP on July 7, 2025. According to her, this is due not only to the high cost and additional weight of the electrolysis cell and its control electronics but also the generation of an explosive gas mixture that cannot be stored and must be fed into the fuel system immediately after being produced and the negligible amount of usable energy generated when the gas mixture is burned. Water as a cooling medium (and byproduct?) The Toyota Mirai is a mass-produced vehicle that uses a hydrogen fuel cell to generate electricity, which powers an electric motor (archives here and here). The vehicle is refueled at high-pressure specialized stations, and the only by-product of converting hydrogen into electricity is water vapor. The vehicle does not have an electrolysis system to produce hydrogen from water. It is also equipped with a lithium-ion battery. As part of its long-term vision for carbon-neutral mobility, Toyota is pursuing a multi-pathway strategy that includes hydrogen fuel cells, hydrogen combustion engines, and the development of solid-state batteries Toyota also uses electrolysis to produce hydrogen at some of its facilities, but this process takes place externally and not inside its vehicles. Battery electric vehicles currently dominate the zero-emission market due to lower costs, better energy efficiency, and more developed charging infrastructure. However, hydrogen cars are seen by some car manufacturers, including Toyota, as a complementary solution for heavy-duty transport and long-distance travel, though their widespread adoption faces challenges from high costs and limited refueling networks. Industry analysts widely expect that zero-emission transport will involve a mix of technologies – with batteries remaining the main option for most passenger cars, while hydrogen may play a niche role in sectors like heavy trucks and industrial transport (archive). AFP has previously debunked other claims alleging the existence of cars that run on water here and here.
Local France
21 hours ago
- Local France
France to reopen property grant scheme
The timing of the resumption of the scheme runs in line with expectations after economy minister Éric Lombard told the Senate that it would be temporarily suspended because of a backlog of applications and suspicions about fraudulent applications. 'Once this has been sorted out, the process can continue (...) the government has every intention of restoring operations before the end of the year,' he said. On July 22nd, the Ministry of Housing indicated that around 5,000 fraudulent applications had been detected in relation to major renovations and approximately 8,000 fraudulent applications in relation to 'targeted' works. Advertisement The MaPrimeRénov' scheme was introduced in 2020 to help households pay for energy-related renovations. Specifically, the work would need to fit into one of four categories: heating, insulation, ventilation and energy audits. It had been due to undergo radical change, anyway – with financial aid for smaller-scale works phased out in favour of more extensive renovation work – but a decree issued in the closing days of Michel Barnier's short-lived government late last year meant it had something of a reprieve. For the past two years, the state's share of funding for the scheme has been steadily reduced. By 2024, it was already down €2 billion of the amount initially planned, falling from €4.5 billion to €2.3 billion. Meanwhile, the complexity of the scheme prevented all funds from being used. Only 350,000 renovation projects were carried out last year, compared to the 600,000 planned. The application window for new renovation grants will reopen on September 30th, 2025. Access to financial support will be restricted, and terms and conditions have been modified. MaPrimeRénov' Rénovation d'ampleur (major renovation) allows households, as part of a comprehensive renovation programme, to finance work on to improve comfort in summer and winter and save energy. The scheme helps cover home energy improvement work in the following six categories: thermal insulation of walls; thermal insulation of ground floors; thermal insulation of roofs; thermal insulation of exterior joinery; ventilation; heating or domestic hot water production. What about the new terms and conditions? The number of new applications accepted for MaPrimeRénov' Rénovation d'ampleur will be limited to 13,000 until the end of 2025. Initially, only very low-income households will be able to apply. Depending on the number of applications submitted, low-income households may then have access to this financial support again. Levels for 'very low-income' and 'low income' households are defined here . Furthermore, applications must be for improvements to the most energy inefficient properties – ones that are classified E, F, or G in energy performance diagnostics – known as diagnostic de performance énergétique (DPE). READ ALSO EXPLAINED: France's rules on energy ratings for property owners Advertisement In addition, a 10 percent subsidy bonus – that was applied to homes with pre-improvement energy ratings of F and G that would become at least D after work was completed – has been abolished. Finally, as of September 30th, the ceiling for expenses eligible for MaPrimeRénov' will be lowered from a maximum of €70,000 for work that would result in a gain of four or more DPE classes to between €30,000 and €40,000, depending on energy savings achieved through the renovation. It is currently still possible to submit an application for assistance for specific work, such as insulating the roof terrace of your home or installing a solar thermal heating system (the MaPrimeRénov' single-step process). Applications for MaPrimeRénov' Copropriétés are also still being accepted; the IT platform processing renovation applications for co-owned properties remains accessible. All complete and compliant applications submitted before the deadline will be examined based on the rules in force at the time of submission . Because the grant is means-tested it requires a recent French tax declaration for proof of income, which in effect rules out second-home owners and limits the scheme to those resident in France. There is no requirement, however, to be a French citizen.
