The ride-share smartphone app, which has faced a barrage of regulatory challenges around the world as well as a slew of recent negative revelations about its corporate culture, is returning to Taiwan with a new business model partnering with local car hire firms.

Uber suspended operations on the island in February after sparring with the government, which said it was illegally operating without proper registration as a taxi service and slapped it with massive fines.

Local media has reported that the company, which first launched in Taiwan in 2013, still owes about Tw$830 million ($27.4 million).

Uber has not confirmed that number, but on Thursday Taiwan general manager Likai Gu said that it was appealing against its outstanding fines.

In a statement that said its return to the island came after “constructive talks” with the government, the firm acknowledged that the new business model in Taiwan was a departure from its standard ride-sharing service.

“We want to partner with more legal transportation service partners in weeks and months to come, whether they be from rental car companies or the taxi industry,” Gu said.

Uber drivers now need to be affiliated with a licensed car rental company and obtain a professional driver’s license, in a move that the firm said was aimed at finding a service the government was comfortable with.

In January, authorities hiked the maximum possible penalty for Uber drivers to Tw$25 million — the highest in the world.

“We need to tailor our approach in every market given the circumstances,” Michael Brown, the firm’s regional general manager, told reporters at a press conference in Taipei.

San Francisco-based Uber has faced stiff resistance from traditional taxi drivers across the world, as well as bans in some places over safety concerns and tax issues.

However, the firm insists it is not a transport company like taxi operators, and that it is simply a platform connecting drivers and passengers.

The firm is also reeling from disclosures about a culture of sexism, cut-throat workplace tactics and covert use of law enforcement-evading software.

Geopolitical tensions also continued to weigh on investor sentiment, as ties between the US and Russia turn increasingly frosty over Moscow’s backing for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

But Trump’s praise for Chinese President Xi Jinping Wednesday raised hopes of easing friction between the two superpowers over dealing with North Korea’s nuclear programme.

And a surge in Chinese exports in March, the largest jump in two years, bolstered hopes that the world’s number two economy is getting back on track after a recent slowdown — it grew last year at its slowest pace in a quarter of a century.

The dollar slid after Trump told The Wall Street Journal that he was worried about its strength and said he favoured low interest rates.

“I think our dollar is getting too strong, and partially that’s my fault because people have confidence in me. But that’s hurting — that will hurt ultimately,” Trump told the paper.

Trump also reversed course on an earlier vow to label Beijing a currency manipulator and slap punitive tariffs on Chinese imports.

China for years was accused of keeping its currency artificially low to make its exports cheaper and more competitive compared to US goods.

“They’re not currency manipulators,” Trump said in the interview.

He went out of his way to praise Xi, saying he was “very impressed” following a meeting between the two leaders in Florida last week.

“I think we had a very good chemistry together. I think he wants to help us with North Korea,” Trump said in a Wednesday press conference.

The yen, seen as a safe-haven investment during times of uncertainty, jumped against the greenback following Trump’s interview.

Tokyo ended the day 0.6 percent lower while Sydney lost 0.7 percent. Hong Kong dipped 0.1 percent and Singapore fell 0.5 percent.

Shanghai inched up less than 0.1 percent, eking out thin gains after the release of stronger trade figures for March brightened the economic outlook, with a 16.4-percent jump in exports year-on-year marking a dramatic turnaround from the 1.3 percent year-on-year drop recorded in February.

A pickup in external demand, surging import prices, and a stable domestic economy boosted the figures, China’s government said.

The stronger yen hit exporters with Toyota falling 1.15 percent while smaller rival Mitsubishi Motors lost 2.45 percent.

Toshiba dropped 5.01 percent as speculation swirls over its plan to sell a prized memory chip unit to plug huge losses.

Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at forex firm OANDA, said investors would continue to pursue safe-haven options.

“Safe havens reign supreme with precious metals and US bonds rallying hard overnight…. Expect investors to continue to seek safe harbours as we head into the long weekend,” Halley said in a note.

Tensions continued to mount between Washington and Moscow with Russia using its UN Security Council veto on Wednesday to swat down a US-backed resolution demanding Syrian cooperation in probing last week’s suspected chemical attack.

Oil markets pared back gains which had followed a US missile strike in Syria on Friday that had raised speculation about the impact on exports from the crude-rich Middle East.

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.68 percent at 18,426.84 (close)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng: DOWN 0.1 percent at 24283.06 (close)

Shanghai – Composite: UP less than 0.1 percent at 3,275.96 (close)

London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.2 percent at 7,334.22 (open)

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0648 from $1.0671 at 2100 GMT

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2557 from $1.2544

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 108.91 yen from 109.07 yen

Oil – West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 17 cents at 52.94 per barrel

Oil – Brent North Sea: DOWN 19 cents at $55.67 per barrel

New York – Dow: DOWN 0.3 percent at 20,591.86 (close)

Last month the troubled airline posted its first annual net loss since 2008, citing intense competition as lower cost carriers, particularly from mainland China, eat into its market share.

It reported a $74 million net loss for 2016 and warned that 2017 would be similarly “challenging”, later saying it would slash staff costs by 30 percent.

Cathay announced a major restructuring programme in January, but it has not said how many jobs it intends to axe.

Its shares were up as high as 3.5 percent in Hong Kong at HK$11.30 ($1.45), but closed only slightly higher by 0.18 percent Thursday following the appointment of its new chief executive officer.

Current CEO Ivan Chu, who has been in the job for three years, will be replaced by the airline’s chief operating officer Rupert Hogg starting May 1.

“Rupert will lead the airline through its three-year corporate transformation programme with the aim of becoming more agile and competitive in the challenging market place,” Cathay chairman John Slosar said in a statement Wednesday.

Financial analyst Jackson Wong told AFP the airline had made the right move, but investors remain cautious, awaiting further details on its restructuring plans.

“They cut the CEO, that sends a signal to the investors that they are committed to reshaping the whole company,” Wong of Huarong International Securities said.

Shares in Cathay have fallen 29 percent since Chu was appointed CEO in 2014 despite an 11 percent gain in the benchmark Hang Seng Index in the same period, Bloomberg News reported.

Companies like China Eastern and China Southern Airlines are offering direct services to Europe and the United States from the mainland, while budget carriers like Spring Airlines have targeted regional travellers, undermining Cathay’s position.

The airline is also losing premium travellers as it comes under pressure from Middle East rivals which are expanding into Asia and offering more luxury touches.

The security improvement was described as being part of a broader effort to rid the leading social network of hoaxes, misinformation, and fake news by making sure people are who they claim to be.

“We’ve found that when people represent themselves on Facebook the same way they do in real life, they act responsibly,” Shabnam Shaik of the Facebook protect and care team said in a blog post.

“Fake accounts don’t follow this pattern, and are closely related to the creation and spread of spam.”

Accounts suspected of being bogus are suspended and holders asked to verify identifies, which scammers typically don’t do, according to the California-based social network.

In France, the new tactic has already resulted in Facebook taking action against 30,000 accounts believed to be fakes, Shaik said.

“We’ve made improvements to recognize these inauthentic accounts more easily by identifying patterns of activity — without assessing the content itself,” Shaik said.

“With these changes, we expect we will also reduce the spread of material generated through inauthentic activity, including spam, misinformation, or other deceptive content that is often shared by creators of fake accounts.”

Under pressure to stymie the spread of fake news, Facebook has taken a series of steps including making it easier to report such posts and harder to make money from them.

Facebook also modified its displays of trending topics to find stories faster, capture a broader range of news, and help ensure that trends reflect real world events being covered by multiple news outlets.

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg has sought to deflect criticism that the huge social network may have been used to fuel the spread of misinformation that affected the 2016 US presidential race.

Facebook last week unleashed a new weapon in the war against “revenge porn” at the social network as well as the messaging services Messenger and Instagram.

When intimate images shared on Facebook without permission are reported, confirmed and removed, the company will use photo-matching technology to prevent copies from being shared again on its platform.

Building of the park is on a “steady course” and marks the company’s long-term investment in Thailand, Alibaba said in an emailed statement to China Daily.

Under an agreement with the Thai government in December, Alibaba vowed to help develop the country’s e-commerce sector through providing training to small businesses and individuals, and exploring ways to enhance its logistics capabilities.

Alibaba said the hub is designed to provide a one-stop service connecting SMEs, manufacturers, service providers and logistic partners, complementing its existing investment in Lazada Group, a dominant regional e-commerce platform in which Alibaba holds a majority stake.

“We hope the park will empower Thailand’s innovative internet startups and boost the country’s technology ecosystem,” the statement added.

Under the agreement, Alibaba and its subsidiary Lazada will offer e-commerce training to 30,000 Thai SMEs to aid their access to both domestic and international e-commerce platforms and nurture software developers.

The deal also calls for Alibaba to advise the country’s postal service－Thailand Post－on shipping and logistics.

The Chinese online giant is marching into a region on the cusp of a digital shopping boom fueled by fast-growing mobile phone usage.

Consultancy eMarketer projects that e-commerce sales, excluding travel, will grow at a rate exceeding 15 percent in Thailand annually over the next four years, reaching $5.69 billion by 2020.

In a similar move, Alibaba in March established the first digital free trade zone dubbed Electronic World Trade Platform in Malaysia, offering small businesses lower barriers for entry and easier access to financing.

Five others were reported missing in the waters of a vast archipelago that relies heavily on boat transport but has a poor safety record.

In the first incident, a wooden boat in Majalengka district flipped over on a river as it carried 22 people who were mostly farmers heading to harvest their crops.

Nine people died and 13 survived, local police spokesman Yusri Yunus told AFP. Authorities were still investigating what caused the accident, he said.

In the second accident, two people died and rescuers were searching for five others missing after a passenger boat capsized in the sea off the coast of Sidoarjo district.

Six others survived the accident, which happened when the vessel ran into rough waters, said local disaster agency chief Abu Hasan.

Boat accidents are common in Indonesia.

In January, 23 Indonesian tourists were killed when a massive fire erupted in a boat carrying hundreds of people to an island north of Jakarta to celebrate the New Year.

Fast Retailing also cited upbeat demand at its China stores for net profit coming in at 97.2 billion yen ($891 million) in the six months through February, up from 47.0 billion last year. Revenue rose 0.6 percent to 1.02 trillion yen, it said.

But the company did not upgrade its 100 billion yen full-year profit forecast, meaning results for the rest of the year were likely to come in weaker than hoped.

Asia’s biggest retailer — a rival of Zara, Gap and H&M — pointed to strong demand for sweaters and its heat-retaining clothing brand, Heattech, for upbeat first-half results.

“On top of strong sales, we saw significant profit increase in the mainland Chinese” stores and in Southeast Asia, the company said in a statement.

Still, warmer-than-expected weather in December and January held back sales at Uniqlo’s Japanese locations.

Fast Retailing has adopted a back-to-thrifty strategy after company chairman Tadashi Yanai conceded last year that an ill-fated price rise had been a mistake that hurt sales.

In October, Yanai backed off his ambitious annual revenue goal — 5.0 trillion yen by 2020.

The last time Japan held a ceremony for an emperor’s abdication was in 1817, when Emperor Kokaku relinquished the Chrysanthemum Throne. The government will consider how to implement the plan by studying documents describing ceremonial manners for abdications in the past.

The abdication ceremony is planned to be held aside from a series of enthronement ceremonies for Crown Prince Naruhito. It may be treated as a state act that requires Diet approval to conduct, the sources said.

Of Japan’s 125 emperors, including the sitting 83-year-old, 58 have so far abdicated. But legislation currently only allows posthumous transfer of the throne.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government is now mulling legal changes to enable Emperor Akihito to hand over the throne to Crown Prince Naruhito, 57, following the Emperor’s rare video message last summer indicating his desire to step down due to his advanced age.

While the timing of the abdication has not been formally decided, the government is considering December, apparently having in mind the Emperor’s 85th birthday next December 23.

The Heisei Era, which designates the reign of the sitting emperor, is expected to last till the end of the next year, and a new era under his first son, Crown Prince Naruhito, will begin on the first day of 2019, according to the sources.

Japan’s gengo era name remains in use, with calendars and official documents often designating years by era name, with or without reference to the Gregorian date. By avoiding a new era to start in the middle of a year, the government is trying to avoid creating complications to people’s lives by the era name change.

The first emperor who abdicated is believed to be Emperor Kogyoku, who handed over the throne to Emperor Kotoku during the Taika no Kaishin political reform that put the Imperial house in control of Japan in the seventh century.

Japan started holding ceremonies for emperor abdications during the eighth century at the latest, and ceremonial practices were carried on to the latest abdication ceremony for Emperor Kokaku 200 years ago, according to the sources.

In such ceremonies, an agent reads out an emperor’s words explaining the reasons for his abdication with the retiring emperor attending.

The likely location for the abdication ceremony of Emperor Akihito is the Imperial Palace. The timing of the event will be either before or after Kenji to Shokei no Gi, a ceremony to hand down traditional properties, such as the sacred sword and jewels, to the new emperor, the sources said.

After the handing of properties ceremony, which marks the completion of the throne ascending procedures, the new emperor is to hold the Choken no Gi first audience ceremony to meet with the heads of the government-legislative, administrative and judicial systems.

The government is planning to hold those ceremonies by the end of 2018, and an enthronement ceremony, called Sokui no Rei, that formally announces the new emperor’s accession sometime in 2019.

In the case of the previous Imperial succession following the death of Emperor Hirohito, posthumously known as Emperor Showa, on January 7, 1989, the handing of properties ceremony was held on the same day and the first audience ceremony was held two days later, while the enthronement ceremony was held on November 12, 1990.