Japan exports post first drop in eight months as US tariffs hit autos
Japan’s exports fell for the first time in eight months in May, data showed on Wednesday (Jun 18), indicating that sweeping US tariffs were threatening the country’s fragile economic recovery, Reuters reported.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and US President Donald Trump have yet to reach a trade deal.
Tokyo is scrambling to find ways to get Washington to exempt its automakers from 25 per cent automobile industry-specific tariffs, which are dealing a heavy blow to the country’s manufacturing sector. It also faces a 24 per cent ‘reciprocal’ tariff rate starting in Jul 9 unless it can negotiate a deal with Washington.
Total exports by value dropped 1.7 per cent year on year in May, data showed, smaller than a median market forecast for a 3.8 per cent decrease and following a 2 per cent rise in April.
Exports to the United States plunged 11.1 per cent last month from a year earlier, while those to China were down 8.8 per cent, the data showed, according to Reuters.
The tariff threat had driven companies in Japan and other major Asian exporters to ramp up shipments earlier this year, inflating levels of US-bound exports during that period.
Hundreds flee into Azerbaijan and Armenia from Iran
More than 600 people of 17 nationalities have fled into Azerbaijan from Iran in the five days since the start of the air war between Israel and Iran, an Azerbaijani source with knowledge of the situation said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
Armenian news agency Armenpress reported separately that India has evacuated 110 of its nationals from Iran via Armenia.
The flight from Iran has been prompted by surprise attacks that Israel began last Friday, to which Iran has responded with missile and drone attacks. U.S. President Donald Trump warned residents of Tehran on Monday to evacuate immediately.
From Tehran to the crossing into Azerbaijan is a road journey of about eight hours, while reaching the Armenian border takes over 10 hours.
Azerbaijani foreign ministry spokesperson Aykhan Hajizadeh said more than 1,200 citizens from 51 countries had requested permission to cross from Iran into Azerbaijan, according to Reuters.
US pulls out of two more bases in Syria, worrying Kurdish forces
U.S. forces have pulled out of two more bases in northeastern Syria, visiting Reuters reporters found, accelerating a troop drawdown that the commander of U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces said was allowing a resurgence of Islamic State, Reuters reported.
Reuters reporters who visited the two bases in the past week found them mostly deserted, both guarded by small contingents of the Syrian Democratic Forces - the Kurdish-led military group that Washington has backed in the fight against Islamic State for a decade.
Cameras used on bases occupied by the U.S.-led military coalition had been taken down, and razor wire on the outer perimeters had begun to sag.
A Kurdish politician who lives on one base said there were no longer U.S. troops there. SDF guards at the second base said troops had left recently but declined to say when. The Pentagon declined to comment, according to Reuters.
It is the first confirmation on the ground by reporters that the U.S. has withdrawn from Al-Wazir and Tel Baydar bases in Hasaka province. It brings to at least four the number of bases in Syria U.S. troops have left since President Donald Trump took office.
Israeli tanks kill 59 people in Gaza crowd trying to get food aid, medics say
Israeli tanks fired into a crowd trying to get aid from trucks in Gaza on Tuesday, killing at least 59 people, according to medics, in one of the bloodiest incidents yet in mounting violence as desperate residents struggle for food, Reuters reported.
Video shared on social media showed around a dozen mangled bodies lying in a street in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. The Israeli military, at war with Hamas-led Palestinian militants in Gaza since October 2023, acknowledged firing in the area and said it was looking into the incident.
Witnesses interviewed by Reuters said Israeli tanks had launched at least two shells at a crowd of thousands who had gathered on the main eastern road through Khan Younis in the hope of obtaining food from aid trucks that use the route, according to Reuters.
"All of a sudden, they let us move forward and made everyone gather, and then shells started falling, tank shells," said Alaa, an eyewitness, interviewed by Reuters at Nasser Hospital, where wounded victims lay sprawled on the floor and in corridors due to the lack of space.
