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TOKYO — Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan have announced plans to work toward a merger that would form the world's third-largest automaker by sales, as the industry undergoes dramatic changes in its transition away from fossil fuels. This combination of photos shows the logo of Nissan, left, and Honda, right, seen at the Pittsburgh International Auto Show in Pittsburgh, Feb. 15, 2024. The two companies said they had signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday and that smaller Nissan alliance member Mitsubishi Motors Corp. also had agreed to join the talks on integrating their businesses. Automakers in Japan have lagged behind their big rivals in electric vehicles and are trying to cut costs and make up for lost time as newcomers like China's BYD and EV market leader Tesla devour market share. Honda's president, Toshihiro Mibe, said Honda and Nissan will attempt to unify their operations under a joint holding company. Honda will lead the new management, retaining the principles and brands of each company. They aim to have a formal merger agreement by June and to complete the deal and list the holding company on the Tokyo Stock Exchange by August 2026, he said. No dollar value was given and the formal talks are just starting, Mibe said. There are "points that need to be studied and discussed," he said. "Frankly speaking, the possibility of this not being implemented is not zero." A merger could result in a behemoth worth more than $50 billion based on the market capitalization of all three automakers. Together, Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi would gain scale to compete with Toyota Motor Corp. and with Germany's Volkswagen AG. Toyota has technology partnerships with Japan's Mazda Motor Corp. and Subaru Corp. News of a possible merger surfaced earlier this month, with unconfirmed reports saying Taiwan iPhone maker Foxconn was seeking to tie up with Nissan by buying shares from the Japan's company's other alliance partner, Renault SA of France. Nissan's CEO Makoto Uchida said Foxconn had not directly approach his company. He also acknowledged that Nissan's situation was "severe." Even after a merger Toyota, which rolled out 11.5 million vehicles in 2023, would remain the leading Japanese automaker. If they join, the three smaller companies would make about 8 million vehicles. In 2023, Honda made 4 million and Nissan produced 3.4 million. Mitsubishi Motors made just over 1 million. "We have come to the realization that in order for both parties to be leaders in this mobility transformation, it is necessary to make a more bold change than a collaboration in specific areas," Mibe said. Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi earlier agreed to share components for electric vehicles like batteries and to jointly research software for autonomous driving to adapt better to electrification. Nissan has struggled following a scandal that began with the arrest of its former chairman Carlos Ghosn in late 2018 on charges of fraud and misuse of company assets, allegations that he denies. He eventually was released on bail and fled to Lebanon. Speaking Monday to reporters in Tokyo via a video link, Ghosn derided the planned merger as a "desperate move." From Nissan, Honda could get truck-based body-on-frame large SUVs such as the Armada and Infiniti QX80 that Honda doesn't have, with large towing capacities and good off-road performance, Sam Fiorani, vice president of AutoForecast Solutions, told The Associated Press. Nissan also has years of experience building batteries and electric vehicles, and gas-electric hybrid powertrains that could help Honda in developing its own EVs and next generation of hybrids, he said. But the company said in November that it was slashing 9,000 jobs, or about 6% of its global work force, and reducing its global production capacity by 20% after reporting a quarterly loss of 9.3 billion yen ($61 million). It recently reshuffled its management and Uchida, its chief executive, took a 50% pay cut while acknowledging responsibility for the financial woes, saying Nissan needed to become more efficient and respond better to market tastes, rising costs and other global changes. "We anticipate that if this integration comes to fruition, we will be able to deliver even greater value to a wider customer base," Uchida said. Fitch Ratings recently downgraded Nissan's credit outlook to "negative," citing worsening profitability, partly due to price cuts in the North American market. But it noted that it has a strong financial structure and solid cash reserves that amounted to 1.44 trillion yen ($9.4 billion). Nissan's share price also had fallen to the point where it is considered something of a bargain. On Monday, its Tokyo-traded shares gained 1.6%. They jumped more than 20% after news of the possible merger broke last week. Honda's shares surged 3.8%. Honda's net profit slipped nearly 20% in the first half of the April-March fiscal year from a year earlier, as its sales suffered in China. The merger reflects an industry-wide trend toward consolidation. At a routine briefing Monday, Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said he would not comment on details of the automakers' plans, but said Japanese companies need to stay competitive in the fast changing market. "As the business environment surrounding the automobile industry largely changes, with competitiveness in storage batteries and software is increasingly important, we expect measures needed to survive international competition will be taken," Hayashi said. Get local news delivered to your inbox!Women will for the first time make up a majority of state legislators in Colorado and New Mexico next year, but at least 13 states saw losses in female representation after the November election, according to a count released Thursday by the Rutgers Center for American Women and Politics. While women will fill a record number of state legislative seats in 2025, the overall uptick will be slight, filling about a third of legislative seats. Races in some states are still being called. “We certainly would like to see a faster rate of change and more significant increases in each election cycle to get us to a place where parity in state legislatures is less novel and more normal,” said Kelly Dittmar, director of research at the CAWP, which is a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. As of Wednesday, at least 2,450 women will serve in state legislatures, representing 33.2% of the seats nationwide. The previous record was set in 2024 with 2,431 women, according to the CAWP. The number of Republican women, at least 851, will break the previous record of 815 state lawmakers set in 2024. “But still, Republican women are very underrepresented compared to Democratic women,” Debbie Walsh, director of the CAWP, said. By the most recent count, 19 states will have increased the number of women in their state legislatures, according to the CAWP. The most notable increases were in New Mexico and Colorado, where women will for the first time make up a majority of lawmakers. In New Mexico, voters sent an 11 additional women to the chambers. Colorado had previously attained gender parity in 2023 and is set to tip over to a slight female majority in the upcoming year. The states follow Nevada , which was the first in the country to see a female majority in the legislature following elections in 2018. Next year, women will make up almost 62% of state lawmakers in Nevada, far exceeding parity. Women in California’s Senate will make up the chamber’s majority for the first time in 2025 as well. Women also made notable gains in South Dakota, increasing its total number by at least nine. At least 13 states emerged from the election with fewer female lawmakers than before, with the most significant loss occurring in South Carolina. Earlier this year, the only three Republican women in the South Carolina Senate lost their primaries after they stopped a total abortion ban from passing. Next year, only two women, who are Democrats, will be in the 46-member Senate. No other state in the country will have fewer women in its upper chamber, according to the CAWP. Women make up 55% of the state’s registered voters. Half the members in the GOP dominated state were elected in 2012 or before, so it will likely be the 2040s before any Republican woman elected in the future can rise to leadership or a committee chairmanship in the chamber, which doles out leadership positions based on seniority. A net loss of five women in the legislature means they will make up only about 13% of South Carolina's lawmakers, making the state the second lowest in the country for female representation. Only West Virginia has a smaller proportion of women in the legislature. West Virginia stands to lose one more women from its legislative ranks, furthering its representation problem in the legislature where women will make up just 11% of lawmakers. Many women, lawmakers, and experts say that women's voices are needed in discussions on policy—especially at a time when state government is at its most powerful in decades. Walsh, director of the CAWP, said the new changes expected from the Trump administration will turn even more policy and regulation to the states. The experiences and perspectives women offer will be increasingly needed, she said, especially on topics related to reproductive rights, healthcare, education, and childcare . RELATED STORY: 'Pro-family' GOP speaker doesn't want new moms to vote in Congress “The states may have to pick up where the federal government may, in fact, be walking away,” Walsh said. “And so who serves in those institutions is more important now than ever.”

NEW YORK (AP) — Brian Thompson led one of the biggest health insurers in the U.S. but was unknown to millions of the people his decisions affected. Then Wednesday's fatal shooting of the UnitedHealthcare CEO in a targeted killing on a midtown Manhattan sidewalk thrust the executive and his business into the national spotlight. Thompson, who was 50, ran the insurance arm of the giant UnitedHealth Group Inc. since 2021 and had worked at the company for 20 years. He previously led its Medicare and retirement businesses. As CEO, Thompson led a business that provides health coverage to more than 49 million Americans — more than the population of Spain. United is the largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans, the privately run versions of the U.S. government’s Medicare program for people age 65 and older. The company also sells individual insurance and administers health-insurance coverage for thousands of employers and state-and federally funded Medicaid programs. The business run by Thompson brought in $281 billion in revenue last year, making it the largest subsidiary of the Minnetonka, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group. His $10.2 million annual pay package, including salary, bonus and stock options awards, made him one of the company's highest-paid executives. The University of Iowa graduate began his career as a certified public accountant at Pricewaterhouse Coopers and had little name recognition beyond the industry. Even to investors who own its stock, the parent company's face belonged to CEO Andrew Witty, a knighted British triathlete who has testified before Congress. Thompson’s few moments of public attention stood in contrast to his role in reshaping the way Americans get health care. At an investor meeting last year, he outlined his company's shift to “value-based care,” paying doctors and other caregivers to keep patients healthy, rather than focusing on treating them when they get sick. “Health care should be easier for people,” Thompson said at the time. “We are cognizant of the challenges. But navigating a future through value-based care unlocks a situation where the ... family doesn’t have to make the decisions on their own.” Thompson also drew attention in 2021 when the insurer, like its competitors, was widely criticized for a plan to start denying payment for what it deemed non-critical visits to hospital emergency rooms. Story continues below video “Patients are not medical experts and should not be expected to self-diagnose during what they believe is a medical emergency,” the chief executive of the American Hospital Association wrote in an open letter addressed to Thompson. “Threatening patients with a financial penalty for making the wrong decision could have a chilling effect on seeking emergency care.” United Healthcare responded by delaying rollout of the change. Thompson was scheduled to speak at an investor meeting when he was shot around 6:45 a.m. outside the New York Hilton Midtown by a masked assailant who fled on foot, the New York Police Department said. Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said investigators were looking at Thompson's social media accounts and interviewing employees and family members. He said Thompson walked out of the hotel alone. “Didn’t seem like he had any issues at all,” Kenny said. "He did not have a security detail.” AP reporter Michael R. Sisak contributed to this report. This story corrects the style of the company’s name to UnitedHealthcare.This local librarian talks about our right to read

The Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Walson-Jack, has launched new policies and guidelines aimed at repositioning the civil service. The four transformative policies and guidelines include: Rewards and Recognition Policy and Guidelines; Incentives and Consequence Management Policy and Guidelines; Mentoring Framework; and the Protocol on the Use of Federal Government Secretariat. Walson-Jack, while speaking at a dinner in honour of newly promoted directors at the weekend, explained that these policies are integral to the Public Service Rules 2021 and the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan 2025 (FCSSIP-25). Each is strategically aligned with the reform pillars outlined in these frameworks to ensure coherence, sustainability, and measurable impact. The HCSF reiterated the critical role of the newly promoted directors in being at the forefront of driving the needed civil service reforms, especially as it concerns the actualization of the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Tinubu. She charged the 332 directors that their promotion heralds “the beginning of a more challenging and fulfilling part where your influence and impact will shape the future of our civil service.” “As newly promoted directors, you have reached the pinnacle that reflects not just your achievements, but the trust and expectation placed upon you by the Federal Civil Service and the nation,” she added, urging them to rededicate themselves to the principles of good governance, transparency, efficiency, and accountability. Mrs. Walson-Jack further charged the new directors to let their leadership inspire confidence among their subordinates and stakeholders, while imbibing the highest standards of public service. She added, “I urge you, therefore, to embrace this opportunity for growth and development. I would like to inspire you to reach new heights in your career.” The HCSF encouraged them to foster an environment of collaboration, inclusivity, and continuous learning, assuring them of her firm support. Meanwhile, the HCSF has unveiled three initiatives aimed at transforming Nigeria’s civil service as part of the activities marking her first 100 days in office under the theme Marching to Greatness: Celebrating 100 Days. The initiatives, which include Service-Wise GPT, an AI-driven assistant designed to enhance decision-making and efficiency among civil servants; GOVMail, a secure email platform for official communication; and the Nigeria Federal Civil Service Online Academy, which offers online courses for skill development. Walson-Jack said that these tools are essential for modernising the civil service, ensuring that it meets the needs of citizens effectively, and guaranteeing that the much-needed reforms in the civil service are technologically driven.S&P/TSX composite up almost 150 at closing, U.S. markets also higher

As TikTok bill steams forward, online influencers put on their lobbying hats to visit Washington