'Not realistic' for industry to operate without China-built ships: Mitsui O.S.K. Lines CEO
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines President & CEO Takeshi Hashimoto joins CNBC's JP Ong at the Energy Asia conference to discuss how the United States' proposed policies against China-built vessels will impact the industry.
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Politico
39 minutes ago
- Politico
‘We can't wait forever': GOP frustrated but unwilling to act on Trump's TikTok extension
President Donald Trump's latest move to keep TikTok alive is yet again frustrating congressional Republicans, many of whom object to China's continued involvement in the popular app but just want to be done with the whole drama. 'Not my favorite thing,' Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), along-time proponent of the ban, deadpanned, when asked about the president's plan to issue another extension. He spoke a day before the White House confirmed Trump signed a 90-day suspension of enforcement of the law requiring TikTok to divest from ByteDance, its China-based parent company, throwing another lifeline to the short-form video app. By Friday, some House lawmakers registered a note of resigned irritation. The extension — Trump's third since the law went into effect on Jan. 19 — is a unilateral decision not envisioned in the bipartisan law passed by Congress and upheld last year by the Supreme Court. Rep. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.), a member of the House Intelligence and China committees, told POLITICO. 'The national security concerns and vulnerabilities are still there, and they have not gone away. I would argue they've almost become more enhanced in many ways.' But Trump's extension of the TikTok law largely boxed out Republicans in both chambers who have shown little inclination — beyond stern words — to prevent him from making these postponements almost routine. Many GOP lawmakers saw themselves as granting the president space to cut a promised deal while the White House deals with urgent priorities, like trade negotiations and the Israel-Iran conflict. 'In light of everything going on, I think he did the right thing,' Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a China hawk who voted for the ban, told POLITICO of Trump. 'I have concerns about all kinds of things — that [the extension] is on the list — but it's not at the top of the list.' Though Trump has promised his TikTok negotiations areclosely tied to trade talks with China, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent testified last week to a Senate panel that TikTok's sale was not currently a part of the negotiations with China, raising a further potential obstacle to Trump inking a deal in the near future. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close ally of the president and longtime national-security hawk said earlier in the week: 'The sooner we get that issue solved, the better,' without offering any ideas for further enforcement. 'I just want finality,' Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told POLITICO. 'I want some certainty and just know that the Congress isn't being played when we make a decision [that the app] be sold.' Another member of the House China Committee, Rep. Zach Nunn (R-Iowa), told POLITICO, 'No more extensions. It's time to follow through.' Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), also a member of the China panel, noted in a post on X Thursday the law only allows one extension of the compliance deadline, adding, 'I was proud to support the ban of TikTok and believe the law should be implemented as written.' With their comments, the lawmakers echoed House China Chair John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), who in early June called for the U.S. to 'let [TikTok] go dark' to bring China to the table to negotiate. He reiterated that stance on Friday. 'Delays only embolden the Chinese Communist Party,' Moolenaar said in a statement to POLITICO. 'I urge the administration to enforce the law as written and protect the American people from this growing national security threat.' Still, observers say Republicans are not exercising their leverage to demand the White House enforce the law they helped write, for example by withholding funding or congressional oversight hearings. 'I keep reading that Republicans are 'frustrated' and 'impatient' about their TikTok law being ignored, but they should stop complaining to reporters and take it up with Trump,' said Adam Kovacevich, founder and CEO of the pro-tech Chamber of Progress. Among the Republicans being undercut by the president is his own secretary of state. Marco Rubio — who as senator was one of the loudest critics of TikTok's ties to China, and a huge backer of the app's ban — has been conspicuously silent as Trump has repeatedly granted more time to strike a deal for its sale. 'You have to decide what's more important, our national security and the threat that it poses to our national security,' Rubio told POLITICO in March 2023, as Congress was considering a ban. 'You have to weigh that against what you might think the electoral consequences of it are. For me, it's an easy balancing act. I mean, there is no balance. I'm always going to be for our national security.' A spokesperson for Rubio at the State Department did not respond to a request for comment. Democrats — even those who support keeping TikTok online — say Trump's approach is the wrong one. 'These endless extensions are not only illegal, but they also put TikTok's fate in the hands of risk-averse corporate shareholders,' Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) told POLITICO in a statement. 'This is deeply unfair to TikTok's creators and users. I'm prepared to work towards a solution, but Trump isn't coming to the table.'
New York Times
40 minutes ago
- New York Times
TikTok's Owner Wanted to Publish Books. Not Anymore.
When 8th Note Press launched in the summer of 2023, the small publisher had a big advantage over other new presses. It was started by the Chinese technology company ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, the wildly popular social media platform where viral endorsements can transform books into best sellers overnight. That was not enough, it seems, to build a successful publishing business. In late May, 8th Note Press began informing writers that it was shutting down and returning publication rights to the authors. News of the press's demise, which was reported earlier by the The Bookseller, came as a shock to authors who were swayed by the possibility that 8th Note could help engineer best sellers with elaborate marketing campaigns on TikTok. Instead, 8th Note has started taking down digital editions of their books, effectively unpublishing them. The literary agent Mark Gottlieb, who sold the debut novel 'To Have and Have More' to 8th Note, said the company was doing 'irreparable damage' to its authors by shutting down so haphazardly. While publishing imprints frequently come and go, the books and authors they publish are usually moved elsewhere within the parent company, rather than being taken out of circulation entirely. If a book is published then quickly disappears, it can be difficult to resell it to another publisher, Gottlieb said. 'They're wrecking careers in the process of doing this,' he said of 8th Note. 'If you're an author and this is your first book, what the history is going to show is that your book published and quickly went out of print.' 8th Note's precipitous fall was surprising, given its parent company's vast resources and reach. Just last year, the press seemed poised to expand. Last October, its executives announced a partnership with the publisher Zando to put out print editions of its books and distribute them to physical bookstores. The plan was to release 10 to 15 titles a year, with a focus on romance, romantasy and young adult fiction. Later, the imprint indicated to agents that it was expanding into science fiction and fantasy. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
41 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Footwear Firms Rejiggering Supply Chains Will See Long-Term Benefits
The threat of higher tariffs may have provided footwear firms with an unintended benefit as they took charge of rethinking their supply chains. That's because U.S. President Donald Trump's return to office for his second non-consecutive term had a built-in expectation that he would make good on his promise to raise tariff rates again. More from WWD Knitwear Brand PH5 Collaborates With Charles & Keith on Capsule Collection The Top Men's Shoe Collections From Pitti Uomo's Spring 2026 Edition May Swiss Watch Exports Slump After U.S. Tariff-led Surge And raise them he did. But this time, footwear firms were better prepared. The footwear industry was under siege in the aftermath of COVID, with shipments on pause amid ongoing supply chain issues. With Chinese production costs rising, some firms were already in the midst of strategizing where else to go even before Trump raised the duty rate on imports from China during his first term back in 2019. But the nature of producing footwear meant moving production to other locations was likely a multi-year process. In the years since COVID, production remains largely in China, although Vietnamese factories had become the go-to place for the manufacture of athletic performance shoes. Indonesia, India and Cambodia are now also growing their footwear production base, as is Mexico and other Latin American countries. Firms in the footwear sector began to move more aggressively their production to other locations outside of China once Trump won re-election in November. And they moved with quick speed to get ahead of any tariff increases. At Wolverine World Wide, less than 10 percent of products are expected to be sourced from China in 2025, down from the mid-teens earlier this year, as the company targets 'near zero' by 2026. Steve Madden Ltd. in May said it had already moved nearly all fall '25 shoe production for its core brands out of China, ahead of its prior mid-teens target for fall '25 and mid single-digits in spring '26. Crocs Inc. CEO Andrew Rees has expressed concern about Vietnam, where its sourcing for the U.S. market is at 47 percent. Vietnam is set to continue with the next round of trade talks with the U.S. later this month. In April, Trump unveiled his plan for global reciprocal tariffs, a move to get countries to re-negotiate their trade agreements with the U.S. Most of those tariffs are on pause through July 9, with the tariff rate set at a temporary 10 percent increase. The exception is China, which saw subsequent increases on some goods as high as 145 percent, but that's now on hold through mid-August as the U.S. and China fine-tune a framework for an agreement that would see duties rise to 55 percent from its current pause rate of 30 percent. Regardless of which trade agreements actually get done, the rethinking of footwear supply chains is expected to be beneficial for down the road. That's true whether tariffs go up or remain the same. And while higher duties impact corporate profits, not to mention higher costs to consumers, moving production to multiple locations allows for better flexibility in keeping goods closer to where they are needed. That's because supply chain 'disruptions are here to stay,' according to Venky Ramesh, AlixPartners' trade and tariff war room expert, who was part of a webinar hosted by AlixPartners. He also spoke about the need for firms to map sourcing and supply chain exposure as well as scenario planning so they can make informed decisions. Other participants also spoke about investing in trade law knowledge, logistics and operations, as well as looking at production components to see if different classifications are possible that could result in lower tariff rates. Best of WWD All the Retailers That Nike Left and Then Went Back Mikey Madison's Elegant Red Carpet Shoe Style [PHOTOS] Julia Fox's Sleekest and Boldest Shoe Looks Over the Years [Photos] Sign in to access your portfolio
