Women pilots fly against cockpit prejudices

Yahoo – AFP, Sonia WOLF, 19 July 2018

EasyJet wants 20 percent of its new cadet pilots to be women by 2020

When a stricken Southwest Airlines jet was expertly landed after an emergency descent in April, saving 148 lives, it was a surprise to some that a woman was at the controls.

Role models remain few and far between for women wanting to enter the cockpit, rather than serve the onboard drinks, despite a huge shortage of pilots worldwide.

"So often we're shown men as pilots, and women as cabin crew. This could be sending a message to young girls that if they want to work in aviation, it can't be as a pilot," according to the British Airline Pilots' Association.

But things are finally starting to change and a few airlines are trying to redress the gender imbalance.

Europe's biggest budget carrier easyJet, under an initiative named after pioneer aviator Amy Johnson, wants 20 percent of its new cadet pilots to be women by 2020.

Today, just three percent of professional pilots worldwide are women, according to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

The UN agency estimates that passenger numbers will double over the next 20 years, and that airlines will need to recruit 620,000 pilots to keep up with the demand.

Tammie Jo Shults is one of those few women.

Shults, one of the first female fighter pilots for the US Navy, performed heroics in safely bringing down her Southwest Boeing 737 after an engine blowout.

One passenger died in the incident.

'Top Gun' machismo

According to retired captain Kathy McCullough, "having someone in the spotlight who's a lady who does a great job just points out that it can happen and does happen and isn't really that much of a surprise".

Just over 5 percent of the global total of pilots are women

Nevertheless, McCullough said after Shults hit the headlines that her generation of female pilots were still waiting to pass the baton to another.

"Until we reach a tipping point, which is supposedly 20 percent, I don't think we'll see much in the way of a change," she told National Public Radio.

The "Top Gun" machismo attached to aviation runs deep.

Neither does commercial flying lend itself to a work-family balance, giving organisations such as the ICAO and the International Society of Women Airline Pilots an uphill challenge to entice more women into the profession.

The society says just over 7,400 pilots flying for commercial airlines are female, or 5.2 percent of the global total.

United ranks best with 7.4 percent. Ironically Southwest, Shults's employer, has just 3.6 percent.

It is not just employment practices that the International Society of Women Airline Pilots has to confront but passenger prejudices as well, according to former chairwoman Liz Jennings Clark.

Mistaken for cabin crew

A captain with Dutch low-cost carrier Transavia, 55-year-old Clark likes when possible to come out of the cockpit and say goodbye to her passengers at the end of a flight.

But she said that many still hand their litter to her, mistaking her for cabin crew.

Girls who want to grow up as pilots still lack role models, agreed Sophie Coppin, diversity officer at the French Civil Aviation University in Toulouse.

A few airlines are trying to redress the gender imbalance as more women become pilots

Among both students and their parents, "there is a conscious or unconscious suppression" of the idea of women as aviators, she said.

About 15 percent of the student pilots at the French university are women. Double that figure are training as air traffic controllers, another sector suffering an acute shortage of entrants.

There has, at least, been some progress since 1979 when Shults, 56, was at high school and attended a careers lecture on aviation by a retired colonel.

The Southwest pilot said she was the only girl in the class, and he started by asking her if she was lost.

"I mustered up the courage to assure him I was not and that I was interested in flying," she wrote in a book about female military aviators.

"He allowed me to stay, but assured me there were no professional women pilots."

EasyJet wants 20 percent of its new cadet pilots to be women by 2020

Just over 5 percent of the global total of pilots are women

A few airlines are trying to redress the gender imbalance as more women become pilots.

Champagne as historic commercial flight links Ethiopia and Eritrea

Yahoo – AFP, Chris STEIN, July 18, 2018

Passengers pose for a selfie aboard the Ethiopian Airlines plane -- the first flight from
Addis Ababa to Eritrea in a generation (AFP Photo/Maheder HAILESELASSIE TADESE)

Asmara (Eritrea) (AFP) - Ethiopia and Eritrea on Wednesday resumed commercial airline flights for the first time in two decades, with emotions spilling over into the aisles and onto the tarmac as families were reunited.

Two flights left Addis Ababa within minutes of each other and an hour and a half later touched down in the Eritrean capital Asmara, in the latest phase of a whirlwind peace process between the former foes that began just six weeks ago.

An AFP journalist on one of the flights reported passengers singing and dancing in the aisles, overwhelming flight attendants, before falling into the arms of long-lost family members upon their arrival.

"I'm super excited. You have no idea," said Izana Abraham, an Eritrean who was born in Addis Ababa -- a fact that saw him deported from his home country during a bloody war between 1998 and 2000. "This is history in the making."

Izana, 33, was going to visit his father. The two had been separated ever since his deportation until finally meeting in Dubai last year.

The airline wrote on Twitter shortly after take-off that "the bird of peace has just flown to Asmara."

"This day marks a unique event in the history of Ethiopia and Eritrea," the airline's chief executive Tewolde GebreMariam said at a ceremony inaugurating the historic flight.

"The fact that we are taking two flights at a time shows the eagerness of the people," said Tewolde.

Champagne was served to passengers in all classes, who toasted each other and posed for selfies during the flight.

Smiling flight attendants also handed out roses to passengers.

Ethiopian Airlines, one of Africa's fastest-growing carriers, has said it would initially operate a daily return flight between Addis Ababa and Asmara.

Map of Ethiopia and Eritrea (AFP Photo/Kun TIAN)

"With the demand we are witnessing, I think we're going to increase the frequency to twice a day, thrice a day and even more," said Tewolde.

He added the opening of Eritrean airspace to Ethiopian Airlines would also mean more efficient routes to the Middle East.

When the planes landed, passengers poured onto the tarmac where they danced together with a cheering crowd who welcomed them, waving the flags of the two nations.

Family members torn apart by the war sobbed as they were reunited.

"I am very excited. I can't explain my feelings," said Fasika Moges, who lived in Addis and met her sister Lula at the airport.

The pair had been separated since the war but, unlike many, Lula was able to afford a slow, indirect flight to Addis Ababa last year to visit.

Among the passengers on the first flight was former prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn, whose shock resignation in February was the first step in a series of seismic shifts in the politics of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.

"I knew one day it would happen," Hailemariam said of the peace with Eritrea.

'A man in a hurry'

Hailemariam was succeeded in April by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a 42-year-old former army officer and cabinet minister described by analysts as a "man in an extreme hurry".

After announcing the liberalisation of parts of the Ethiopian economy and releasing jailed dissidents, Abiy last month declared his intention to make peace with Eritrea after two decades of frozen relations.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (L) and President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea 

celebrated the reopening of Asmara's embassy in Addis Ababa on Monday (AFP 

Photo/MICHAEL TEWELDE)

Eritrea was once part of Ethiopia and comprised its entire coastline on the Red Sea until it voted for independence in 1993 after decades of bloody conflict.

A row over the demarcation of the shared border triggered a brutal conflict that lasted between 1998 and 2000, leaving 80,000 people dead before evolving into a bitter cold war.

Abiy stunned observers with his announcement that he would finally accept a 2002 United Nations-backed border demarcation. However he has yet to announce a pull-out of troops.

He then paid a historic visit to Eritrea, during which he and President Isaias Afwerki declared an official end to the war. Afwerki reciprocated with a state visit to Ethiopia just days later.

The emotional reunion has been welcomed by Ethiopians who share strong cultural ties with Eritreans and have been cut-off from friends and family on the other side during the long years of enmity.

On Monday Afwerki reopened Eritrea's embassy in Addis Ababa.

The rapprochement is expected to provide an economic boost to both nations, offering booming Ethiopia -- which currently channels its trade through Djiboutian ports -- access to Eritrea's coast.

Amnesty International has said the new peace should be a catalyst for change in Eritrea, one of the world's most isolated nations.

Since the end of the war, Isaias has used the threat of Ethiopian aggression to justify repressive policies, including an indefinite national service programme the UN has likened to slavery.

Maverick entrepreneur's space rocket fails at blast off

Yahoo – AFP, June 30, 2018

The launch was supposed to send the rocket carrying observational equipment 

to an altitude of over 100 kilometres (62 miles) (AFP Photo/JIJI PRESS)

Tokyo (AFP) - A rocket developed by a maverick Japanese entrepreneur and convicted fraudster exploded shortly after liftoff Saturday, in a major blow to his bid to send Japan's first privately backed rocket into space.

Interstellar Technologies, founded by popular internet service provider Livedoor's creator Takafumi Horie, launched the unmanned rocket, MOMO-2, at around 5:30 am (2030 GMT Friday) from a test site in Taiki, southern Hokkaido.

But television footage showed the 10-metre (33-foot) rocket crashing back down to the launch pad seconds after liftoff and bursting into flames.

No injuries were reported in the spectacular explosion.

The launch was supposed to send the rocket carrying observational equipment to an altitude of over 100 kilometres (62 miles).

The failure follows a previous setback in July last year, when engineers lost contact with a rocket about a minute after it launched.

Interstellar Technologies said it would continue its rocket development programme after analysing the latest failure.

The outlandish, Ferrari-driving Horie -- who helped drive Japan's shift to an information-based economy in the late 1990s and the early 2000s but later spent nearly two years in jail for accounting fraud -- founded Interstellar in 2013.

However, privately backed efforts to explore space from Japan have so far failed to compete with the government-run Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Audi boss arrested in diesel probe

Yahoo – AFP, June 18, 2018

Stadler's arrest is the most high-profile yet in the dieselgate crisis (AFP Photo/
CHRISTOF STACHE)

Frankfurt am Main (AFP) - Audi chief executive Rupert Stadler has been arrested in connection with parent company Volkswagen's "dieselgate" emissions cheating scandal, German prosecutors said Monday.

The dramatic development comes a week after Munich prosecutors raided Stadler's home after charging him with fraud and the falsification of documents that allowed diesel vehicles equipped with cheating software to be sold to European customers.

Prosecutors said the arrest was justified because of the "risk of concealment of evidence".

Audi confirmed the arrest to AFP, declining to give further details.

"For Mr Stadler, the presumption of innocence continues to apply," a spokesman said in a statement.

Stadler's arrest is the most high-profile yet in the dieselgate crisis, which started when the Volkswagen group admitted in 2015 to equipping some 11 million diesels worldwide with "defeat devices" designed to dupe pollution tests.

VW's luxury subsidiary Audi has long faced suspicions that its engineers developed the software used in the scam.

Audi's former head of engine development was taken into custody in September 2017.

German authorities earlier this month ordered the recall of some 60,000 Audi A6 and A7 cars across Europe to remove illegal emissions control software, using a different technique however than the one at the heart of dieselgate.

Former VW chief executive Martin Winterkorn stepped down soon after the scandal broke in September 2015, while successor Matthias Mueller was hastily replaced earlier this year.

Both are suspected of knowing earlier than they have so far admitted about the cheating, meaning they may have failed in their duty to inform investors in the car giant about the financial risks.

US prosecutors also indicted Winterkorn last month, saying he knew of the company's emissions cheating as early as May 2014 but decided to continue.

Present boss Herbert Diess has been accused of knowing about diesel cheating before it became public -- an allegation rejected by the firm last month.

The scandal has so far cost the VW group more than 25 billion euros ($29 billion) in buybacks, fines and compensation, and the company remains mired in legal woes at home and abroad.

Dutch may soon pay workers using pedal-power

Yahoo – AFP, 15 June 2018

The Netherlands has tens-of-thousands of dedicated bicycle paths criss-crossing
its flat polders and canals

Dutch employees using pedal power to get to work may soon be reimbursed for their efforts, as the Netherlands look at ways to fight ever-growing congestion on its busy roads and highways.

"Let's get out of our cars and onto our bikes," Dutch deputy infrastructure minister Stientje van Veldhoven said this week, as she announced new measures to push even more citizens from four wheels to two.

"I want to stimulate cycling with the aim of getting 200,000 extra people out of their cars to cycle three billion kilometres more on their bicycles," she said in a press release.

One innovative idea is to compensate employees for cycling to work, with Van Veldhoven proposing a reimbursement of 19 cents ($0.22) per kilometre cycled from home and back.

Van Veldhoven is to discuss the proposal and other ways of promoting bicycle use through fiscal rewards such as subsidies to buy bicycles "with major national employers and small and medium enterprises," her ministry said in a statement.

Bicycle-mad Netherlands already counts more than 22 million cycles in a 

country of 17 million

Bicycle-mad Netherlands already counts more than 22 million cycles in a country of 17 million, according to the umbrella BOVAG federation of Dutch transport dealerships.

The country also has tens of thousands of dedicated bicycle paths criss-crossing its flat polders and canals.

"Bicycles play an important role when it comes to reachability, quality of life and health," Van Veldhoven said.

"It reduces traffic jams and gives people forced to use cars more space," she said.

More than half of people's daily trips in the Netherlands are less than 7.5 kilometres and more than half live less than 15 kilometres from work.

"With the development of the electric bicycle, this distance can easily be covered," the ministry added, saying that some 100 million euros have been budgeted to increase bicycle roads and bicycle parking space.

The Netherlands has tens-of-thousands of dedicated bicycle paths criss-crossing its flat polders and canals

Bicycle-mad Netherlands already counts more than 22 million cycles in a country of 17 million

Dutch King Willem-Alexander on a bicycle at the opening
of theInternational Bicycle Congress 'Velo-City 2017'

VW says will pay 1 bn euro German fine over emissions cheating

Yahoo – AFP, June 13, 2018

Another billion down the drain over dieselgate (AFP Photo/HAROLD CUNNINGHAM)

Berlin (AFP) - Auto giant Volkswagen said Wednesday it would pay a one billion euro ($1.2 billion) fine imposed by German prosecutors for diesel emissions cheating.

"The Braunschweig public prosecutor issues an administrative order against Volkswagen AG in the context of the diesel crisis and imposes a fine of EUR1 billion on Volkswagen AG", the company said in a statement.

The German car giant said it had "accepted the fine" and would not lodge an appeal.

"Volkswagen AG, by doing so, admits its responsibility for the diesel crisis and considers this as a further major step towards the latter being overcome."

The prosecutors said the penalty was "one of the highest fines ever imposed on a company in Germany" and stressed that it was unrelated to civil cases seeking compensation or ongoing criminal investigations against the people involved.

The mammoth carmaker admitted in 2015 to fitting 11 million vehicles worldwide with "defeat devices" -- software designed to trick regulators into thinking cars met emissions standards.

In fact, output of harmful fine particulates and nitrogen oxides (NOx), which can cause respiratory and heart diseases, was far higher than legally permitted.

VW's admission had so far cost it more than 25 billion euros in buybacks, fines and compensation, and the company remains mired in legal woes at home and abroad.

VW's chief executive at the time of the diesel scandal Martin Winterkorn stepped down soon after the news broke, while successor Matthias Mueller was hastily replaced earlier this year.

Both are suspected of knowing earlier than they have so far admitted about the cheating, meaning they failed in their duty to inform investors in the car giant about the financial risks.

US prosecutors also indicted Winterkorn last month saying he knew of the company's emissions cheating as early as May 2014 but decided to continue.

The "dieselgate" saga has cast a pall over Germany's vaunted car industry, with suspicions of emissions manipulation since spreading to other companies.

Luxury carmaker BMW and Mercedes-owned Daimler have both had their offices raided by investigators searching for evidence of possible cheating.

In the spiralling scandal, Germany ordered Monday the recall of some 774,000 Daimler vehicles across Europe, citing illegal defeat devices.

VW said in its statement that prosecutors had found that "monitoring duties had been breached ... in the context of vehicle tests".

This had led to 10.7 million cars "being advertised, sold to customers and placed on the market with an impermissible software function" in the US, Canada and worldwide between mid-2007 and 2015, the company said.

Germany orders recall of 774,000 Daimler cars in Europe over emissions

Yahoo – AFP, June 11, 2018

It's Daimler's turn to be in the spotlight over alleged emissions cheating
(AFP Photo/Andrew CABALLERO-REYNOLDS)

Frankfurt am Main (AFP) - Germany ordered Monday the recall of some 774,000 vehicles from Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler across Europe, citing illegal "defeat devices" designed to conceal high levels of harmful emissions from regulators' tests.

"The federal government will order an immediate official recall because of illegal defeat devices," Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer said in a statement.

The move mostly affects Vito vans and diesel-powered versions of GLC 4x4s and C-class sedans, Scheuer added.

Daimler boss Dieter Zetsche was summoned Monday for crunch talks with Scheuer over emissions irregularities in the firm's vehicles.

"Daimler says the applications in the motor control software the federal government has found fault with will be removed at the greatest possible speed and in cooperative transparency with the authorities," Scheuer said.

So-called defeat devices were at the heart of Volkswagen's "dieselgate" scandal, in which the world's largest carmaker admitted in September 2015 to installing them in 11 million vehicles worldwide.

Vehicles kept to legal emissions limits for harmful substances like nitrogen oxides during lab tests, only to exceed them as much as 40 times in on-road driving.

The scandal has so far cost the world's largest carmaker over 25 billion euros ($29.5 billion) in fines, buybacks and compensation, and senior executives are under investigation over their roles in the cheating.

Other German carmakers have also been forced to recall vehicles to fix manipulated software, although none has so far admitted to mass cheating as Volkswagen did.

Zwolle to get ‘world’s first’ plastic bike path as trials start in September

DutchNews, June 8, 2018

Artists impression: KWS

Zwolle is to get what it says is the world’s first plastic cycle path – a 30 metre long stretch of ‘road’ made of recycled plastic which will be used to test if the technology is suitable to be rolled out in more places. 

The Zwolle bike path will be open to cyclists in September and a second stretch of track will be opened elsewhere in Overijssel province later in the year, civil engineering group KWS said in a website statement. 

The plastic road concept was launched by KWS in 2015 and since 2016, the company has further developed the project with plastic pipe maker Wavin and the Total oil and gas group. 

The two pilots will consist of 30 meter long bicycle paths made of hollow prefabricated elements so that water drainage and pipes can be inserted. Their exact location still has to be decided. 

‘These pilots mark an important step towards the developing process and success of the plastic road,’ KWS said. 

‘The objective is to create a road with a smaller ecological footprint than traditional road systems. When the elements reach their end of life expectancy they can be recycled again, contributing to a circular economy and cleaner environment,’ the company said.

Related Article:

Dutch company launches plan for recycled plastic roads

Court clears the way for Rotterdam to ban old petrol and diesel cars

DutchNews, June 6, 2018

Traffic is a major source of inner city pollution. Photo: Depositphotos.com

The highest Dutch administrative court has cleared the way for Rotterdam to ban old diesel and petrol cars from the city centre. 

The outgoing administration had announced plans to ban diesel-powered cars built before 2001 and petrol cars from before July 1992 but were successfully challenged in court by motorists. 

Now the Council of State has found in favour of the city and it will be up to the new, six-party council executive to decide when to implement the ban. 

Meanwhile, motoring organisation ANWB on Wednesday called on the cabinet to draw up rules for city environmental zones, saying motorists are becoming lost in a jungle of bans and restrictions. 

Amsterdam and Utrecht have already banned cars from their city centres and Nijmegen, Leiden, Arnhem and Maastricht are among the other cities where environmental zones could be on the cards. 

Minister

Junior transport minister Stientje van Veldhoven had said earlier she would draw up a set of regulations before the summer, but that deadline may now not be met, the AD reported.

‘I want clarity for both motorists and local authorities,’ the minister told the paper. ‘And it has always been my intention to come up with specific agreements before the summer. These agreements will also cover specific cases, such as invalid cars.’ 

In Amsterdam there is mounting irritation at the spread of Cantas and other mini vehicles, which were originally meant for people with disabilities. They are now proving popular with youngsters because they are not subject to parking restrictions.

First Saudi women get First Saudi women get driving licences

Yahoo – AFP, June 4, 2018

A Saudi woman test-drives a car during an automotive exhibition for women in
the capital Riyadh on May 13, 2018 (AFP Photo/FAYEZ NURELDINE)

Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi Arabia on Monday began issuing its first driving licences to women in decades, state media reported.

"The first group of women today received their Saudi driving licences," the official Saudi Press Agency said.

"The general directorate of traffic started replacing international driving licences recognised in the kingdom with Saudi licences," it added.

The move comes as Saudi Arabia, the only country in the world where women are not allowed drive, prepares to lift its decades-long ban on female drivers on June 24.

SPA said authorities started swapping international licences for Saudi ones in multiple locations across the kingdom, with women applicants made to undergo a "practical test".

It did not specify the number of licences issued.

The move is part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's far-reaching liberalisation drive as he seeks to modernise the conservative petro-state.

The self-styled reformer, who recently undertook a global tour aimed at reshaping his kingdom's austere image, has sought to break with long-held restrictions on women and the mixing of the genders.

But casting a shadow on the reforms, Saudi Arabia last week said it detained 17 people for "undermining" the kingdom's security, in what campaigners have dubbed a sweeping crackdown against activists.

Rights groups have identified many of the detainees as women campaigners for the right to drive and to end the conservative Islamic country's male guardianship system.

Authorities said eight of the detainees had been "temporarily released" until their investigation is completed.

Nine suspects, including four women, remain in custody after they "confessed" to a slew of charges such as suspicious contact with "hostile" organisations and recruiting people in sensitive government positions, according to SPA.

Authorities accused the detainees of "coordinated activity undermining the security and stability of the kingdom".

Previous reports in state-backed media branded some of the detainees traitors and "agents of embassies".

Campaigners have dismissed the reports as a "smear" campaign. The crackdown has also sparked a torrent of global criticism.

#UPDATE Saudi Arabia has begun issuing its first driving licences to women in decades, state media reports say https://t.co/s9KFH59Rt0 pic.twitter.com/nKUJ0eJYsr

— AFP news agency (@AFP) June 4, 2018

Sales of e-bikes take off, as do internet bike sales, says ABN Amro

DutchNews, May 30, 2018

Dutch consumers are buying more e-bikes and increasingly fewer traditional bikes, according to a study published on Wednesday by ABN Amro. 

Sales of e-bikes soared by 75% over the past seven years and one-third of all new bicycles are now powered by a battery,  the study said. Sales of traditional bikes, meanwhile, have fallen back 37% since 2010. 

ABN Amro is forecasting bike sales 3% higher in 2018. 

More bikes are also being sold online. In 2013, fewer than one in 10 bikes was bought online but that has now risen to over 25%. 

The total Dutch bike fleet is probably over 22.7 million by now – 1.3 bikes for every man, woman and child in the country –  roads lobby group Bovag said recently. 

‘We can’t give exact numbers because bikes don’t have number plates and are not registered centrally,’ a spokesman said.

MH370 search to end next week: Malaysian minister

Yahoo – AFP, Patrick Lee, May 23, 2018

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared in March 2014 with 239 people onboard
while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing (AFP Photo/Manan VATSYAYANA)

Kuala Lumpur (AFP) - The search for flight MH370 will end next week, Malaysia's transport minister said Wednesday, more than four years after the plane disappeared and triggered one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries.

The Malaysia Airlines jet vanished in March 2014 with 239 people -- mostly from China -- on board, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

No sign of the jet was found in a 120,000 square kilometre (46,000 square mile) sea search zone and the Australian-led hunt, the largest in aviation history, was suspended in January last year.

After pressure from family members, the former Malaysian government struck a deal with US exploration firm Ocean Infinity to restart the search in January on the condition it would only be paid if the Boeing 777 or its black boxes were found.

The firm stood to make up to $70 million if successful but did not find any sign of the jet despite scouring the seabed with some of the world's most hi-tech search equipment.

Malaysia's Transport Minister Anthony Loke, part of the new government that came to power following May 9 elections, said the hunt was officially meant to finish in April but had been extended, and would come an end next week.

"The search will continue until May 29," he told reporters.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad had said earlier that the contract with Ocean Infinity was being reviewed, as his administration seeks to cut costs after accusing the allegedly corrupt former regime of leaving the public finances in bad shape.

Grace Nathan, a Malaysian lawyer whose mother Anne Daisy was on the plane, said the news was not a surprise but said the government should leave the "no find, no fee" offer on the table in case a company wants to take on the search in future.

Relatives of passengers of MH370 urged the Malaysian government to undertake 

a "comprehensive review" of all matters related to the plane's disappearance 

(AFP Photo/Manan VATSYAYANA)

"We can't tell (the government) what to do but for me and the families... finding the plane is important for many reasons," she told AFP.

'Comprehensive review'

In a letter to the new administration released before the end of the search was announced, Voice370 -- a group representing families of those on the plane whose members include Nathan -- urged the government to undertake a "comprehensive review" of all matters related to the plane's disappearance.

It also called for "an investigation into any possible falsification and/or elimination of records related to MH370".

The new hunt was in an area of about 25,000 square kilometres in the southern Indian Ocean, north of the former search area.

The ship conducting the hunt, Seabed Constructor, was a Norwegian research vessel carrying 65 crew, including two members of the Malaysian navy as the government's representatives.

It used eight autonomous drones, equipped with sonars and cameras, that scoured the waters for wreckage and can operate in depths up to 6,000 metres (20,000 feet).

Only three confirmed fragments of MH370 have been found, all of them on western Indian Ocean shores, including a two-metre wing part known as a flaperon.

The jet's disappearance stands as one of the most enduring aviation mysteries of all time and has spawned a host of theories, with some blaming a hijacking or even a terror plot.

Mahathir himself revived one of the many conspiracy theories in March when he suggested the plane could have been taken over remotely to foil a hijacking.

Earlier this week, Australian investigators defended their findings that the plane was out of control when it plunged into the ocean, after a theory that a rogue pilot deliberately ditched the jet was revived in a book by a Canadian air crash investigator.

China says to cut auto import tariffs on July 1

France24 – AFP, 22 May 2018

The tariffs cut comes after China earlier this year also announced plans
to liberalise foreign ownership limits in the auto sector

China will cut tariffs on most imported cars to 15 percent from July 1, the finance ministry said on Tuesday following a thaw in trade tensions with the United States.

The planned reduction in import duties from 25 percent is a boon for international automakers but may come short of fulfilling US President Donald Trump's expectations of matching US tariffs of 2.5 percent.

The announcement came days after Vice Premier Liu He and US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin led negotiations in Washington that ended with an agreement to pull back from the brink of a trade war.

President Xi Jinping said in April that China would "considerably lower" tariffs on cars by the end of the year as part of a range of measures seen as an olive branch to Trump with the two countries embroiled in the trade spat.

The cut to 15 percent will likely be welcomed by automakers selling cars in China, with Toyota importing its Lexus brand and American giant Ford shipping in most of its Lincolns.

Earlier this year, China also announced plans to liberalise foreign ownership limits in the sector, which had forced most foreign carmakers into joint ventures with China's state-owned companies.

China currently restricts foreign auto firms to a maximum 50 percent ownership of joint ventures with local companies.

But the changes will end shareholding limits for new energy vehicle firms as soon as this year, followed by commercial vehicles in 2020 and passenger cars in 2022.