TOKYO - The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.

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Japan, U.S. make 1st joint forex intervention in 15 yrs, further moves eyed

TOKYO - Japan and the United States said Monday they conducted coordinated yen buying late last week in their first joint market intervention in 15 years to stem the currency's recent fall to a 40-year low against the U.S. dollar, warning they could act again.

The intervention during New York trading on Friday came after the yen hit 163.99 to the U.S. dollar on July 23, its weakest level since 1986, amid mounting fears about Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's expansionary fiscal policy and how it will be funded.

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Japan to use over 20 bil. yen from reserve funds to address quake: Takaichi

KUMAMOTO, Japan - The Japanese government will tap over 20 billion yen ($130 million) from its reserve funds to support areas hit hard by a massive earthquake in the southwestern prefecture of Kumamoto nearly a week earlier, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Monday.

Takaichi's Cabinet will give the green light Tuesday on the use of fiscal 2026 budget's reserve funds, which total about 1 trillion yen, she told reporters in Kumamoto, the capital of the prefecture, after visiting areas devastated by last Tuesday's magnitude-7.1 temblor and exchanging views with Gov. Takashi Kimura.

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Democratic-led U.S. states sue Trump administration over new tariffs

WASHINGTON - A coalition of 25 Democratic-led U.S. states on Monday sued President Donald Trump's administration over its new tariffs of up to 12.5 percent on goods from 60 trading partners, arguing that he had no legal authority to impose them.

The lawsuit filed in the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York claimed that the administration "cannot use forced labor as a pretext to continue its illegal tariff scheme."

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Japan ruling party leaves decision on tax cut proposal to policy chief

TOKYO - Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Monday decided to leave the decision on a proposal to cut the consumption tax on food to its tax policy chief after the idea faced opposition from fiscal hawks.

At the party's tax and social security research commissions, most members supported the plan as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who also heads the LDP, seeks to cut the consumption tax on food to 1 percent from 8 percent for two years starting next April to ease the impact of inflation.

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Nissan logs 1st net profit in 2 yrs in April-June on restructuring efforts

YOKOHAMA - Nissan Motor Co. said Monday it returned to profitability for the first time in two years, posting a net profit of 3.76 billion yen ($24 million) in the three months through June as it presses ahead with restructuring measures.

The figure marked a turnaround from a net loss of 115.76 billion yen a year earlier, as the carmaker cut labor, production, development and purchasing costs while a weaker yen also boosted the bottom line.

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Myanmar's Suu Kyi meets Red Cross envoy in rare outside contact

YANGON - Myanmar's military-backed government said Monday that Arnaud de Baecque, the International Committee of the Red Cross' resident representative to Myanmar, has met with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest in the capital Naypyitaw.

Several photos were released, including one of the meeting Monday morning and others of Suu Kyi receiving and cutting a birthday cake, believed to have been taken on her June 19 birthday.

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Kuwait in talks with Arab neighbors on pipeline to bypass Strait of Hormuz

KUWAIT CITY - Kuwait is in talks with Saudi Arabia and other Arab neighbors to build a new pipeline for crude oil exports that would bypass the Strait of Hormuz, Kuwait's oil minister said Sunday.

Speaking in an interview with Kyodo News in Kuwait City, Minister of Oil Tariq Sulaiman Al-Roumi said the country's oil exports have "completely stopped" due to Iran's effective closure of the strait, and that rebuilding some attacked oil storage tanks would take "at least a year."

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3 lions at western Tokyo zoo die of suspected heat-related causes

TOKYO - Three lions at a zoo in Tokyo have died since late July of suspected heat-related causes amid sweltering summer temperatures, the metropolitan government said Monday.

The three lions were among 16 in captivity at Tama Zoological Park in Hino in western Tokyo. They were found to have suffered from severe dehydration and multiple organ failure.