SoftBank Group Corp. said it returned to profitability in the latest quarter, as the Japanese tech giant benefited from a rebound in its domestic telecom business and a weakening yen. SoftBank Group Corp. said it returned to profitability in the latest quarter, as the Japanese tech giant benefited from a rebound in its domestic telecom business and a weakening yen. The company's operating profit came in at ¥252.5 billion ($2.3 billion) for the three months ended in September, compared with a loss of ¥223.5 billion a year earlier.

Seven employees at a Starbucks in Memphis were fired on Tuesday after seeking to unionize their store. This is one of several dozen Starbucks stores where workers have filed for union elections since December.
A Starbucks spokesman said the employees had violated company policies related to safety and security. The union seeking to organize the store accused Starbucks of retaliating against the workers for their labor activities.
The firings relate at least in part to the interview that workers conducted at the store with a local media outlet.
Reggie Borges, a company spokesman, said in an email that Starbucks fired the workers after an investigation revealed violations. He cited a photograph on Twitter showing that store employees had allowed media representatives inside the store to conduct interviews, in which some of the employees were not wearing masks. “That is a clear policy violation, not to mention the lack of masks,” Mr. Borges wrote.
Among the violations, Mr. Borges said, were opening a locked door at their store; remaining inside the store without authorization after it had closed; allowing other unauthorized individuals inside the store after it had closed; and allowing unauthorized individuals in parts of the store where access is typically restricted.
He also wrote that one employee had opened a store safe when the employee was not authorized to do so and that another employee had failed to step in to prevent this.
Two of the terminated employees said that some of the supposed violations were common practices at the store and that employees were not previously disciplined over them. They said, for example, that off-duty employees frequently went to the back of the store to check their schedules, which are posted there. Mr. Borges said that this was uncommon when a store is closed.
One of the former workers, Beto Sanchez, said he was the employee accused of opening a store safe without authorization. He said that as a shift supervisor, he was normally authorized to open the safe and that he had done so to help a colleague on the evening of the media interview, when he was not on duty. He wondered why he had been fired over the violation rather than disciplined some other way. Sanchez wondered why he had been fired over the violation rather than disciplined some other way.
The union that represents workers at two stores in Buffalo and that is helping to unionize Starbucks workers across the country, filed unfair labor practice charges over the firings. The union said in a statement that “Starbucks chose to selectively enforce policies that have not previously been consistently enforced as a pretext to fire union leaders.”
The union accused the company of retaliating against unionizing workers.
A judge for the National Labor Relations Board found last year that Starbucks had unlawfully disciplined and fired two employees seeking to unionize a store in Philadelphia. Starbucks has appealed the ruling.
A petition seeking a union vote at the store says 20 employees there would be eligible for membership.
Wilma Liebman, who headed the labor board under President Barack Obama, said that to prove that the firings constituted unjust retaliation, the board’s general counsel would have to show that the workers were engaged in union activity and that the union activity was the only reason or the main reason for the decision to fire them.
One question in resolving the latter issue is whether Starbucks typically terminates employees, whom it refers to as partners, over similar infractions.
"We fire partners who let unauthorized people or partners in the store after hours and/or violate policies like letting others handle cash in the safe when not authorized to do so," wrote Mr. Borges, the spokesman. "This is a common, understood policy by partners as it brings an element of safety and security risk that crosses a number of lines."
He did not provide data on the number of employees fired for such violations in a typical year.
China failed to purchase the promised volume of American airplanes, soybeans, energy, services and other products before the end of last year, data released Tuesday morning showed.
In a trade agreement signed with former President Donald J. Trump in January 2020, Chinese leaders committed to buying an additional $200 billion worth of American goods and services over 2017 levels by the end of 2021.
In order to reach those targets, China would have needed to purchase at least $227.9 billion of U.S. exports in 2020 and $274.5 billion in 2021, for a total of $502.4 billion over the two years, said Chad Bown, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. This would have been a huge increase in U.S. exports to China and would have supported American jobs.
But China did not come close, Mr. Bown said in an analysis of the trade data published Tuesday, buying only $288.8 billion, or 57 percent, of the American exports it promised. However, China did not come close, Mr. Bown said in an analysis of the trade data published Tuesday, buying only $288.8 billion, or 57 percent, of the American exports it promised.
That volume was actually below the 2017 levels that had served as a baseline for the agreement, Mr. Bown said. In other words, China bought none of the additional $200 billion of exports that it pledged to purchase, he said.
The data released today confirms that China has not met the purchase commitments they made under the Phase One agreement,” Adam Hodge, assistant United States Trade Representative for media and public affairs, said in a statement. “We have engaged the PRC on its shortfalls for months, but have not seen real signs towards making good on the purchase commitments and our patience is wearing thin.”
The Biden administration has been carrying out negotiations with Chinese officials about the trade deal and said that it intends to hold China to its commitments. But it has not yet clarified what action it will take if China does not comply with the agreement.
The trade agreement included an enforcement mechanism in case one side failed to follow through on meeting its commitments. In that scenario, the trade deal called for both governments to carry out talks; if those talks were unsuccessful, tariffs could be imposed.
Many American companies have complained that tariffs on Chinese products are already high. And in conversations with the Biden administration, Chinese leaders have cited a clause in the trade deal that calls for consultations between the governments “if a natural disaster or other unforeseeable event outside the control of the Parties delays a Party from timely complying with its obligations.”
Mr. Trump, who imposed stiff tariffs on Chinese goods in an attempt to force a trade deal, had said the purchases would lower the U.S. trade deficit with China. Mr. Trump viewed the gap between what America imports and what it exports as evidence of economic weakness, and he promised that his trade deal would generate an export boom, particularly in farm country, heading into the 2020 election.
But trade data released Tuesday morning show that the results never materialized.
U.S. goods exports to China did grow substantially in 2021 from the previous year, rising 21.4 percent to $151.1 billion in 2021. But American demand for imports from China also surged, and the U.S. deficit with China widened 14.5 percent from the previous year to reach $355.3 billion. This resulted in an increase of the trade deficit with China by $50 billion.
While purchases of products like soybeans, medical supplies and semiconductors were strong, sales of autos and airplanes were weak, and service exports, like tourism and education, were badly hurt by the pandemic, according to Mr. Bown’s tracking.
China made more progress on other commitments in the trade deal, like removing technical barriers to American agriculture, strengthening protections for intellectual property and opening its financial sector.
Officials in both governments have pointed to the unusual circumstances of the pandemic as a reason for the shortfall, including factory stoppages, shipping disruptions and swings in consumer demand.
But signing something that was problematic, if not unrealistic, from the start, shows some degree of bad faith on both sides, Mr. Bown said.
"Scott Paul, the president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, which represents manufacturers and workers, said that commodity purchases were never the solution to fixing a lopsided U.S.-China trade relationship," he said. "Until more fundamental issues in that relationship were addressed — like Chinese subsidies, intellectual property theft and lax labor and environmental laws — the massive trade gap would remain."
He said that the results of the Phase 1 trade deal with China are disappointing.
Unlike Mr. Trump, Mr. Biden has made no concrete promises to lower the trade deficit. But he has pledged to spur a revival in American manufacturing and reduce the country’s dependence on imports.
To accomplish this, the Biden administration has thrown its weight behind a massive legislative package that would pour nearly $300 billion into research and development and manufacturing, including major investments in the chips sector, in addition to an infrastructure bill that has already been signed into law. This would help to create jobs and improve the economy.
Mr. Hodge said that the trade deal that Mr. Trump signed in 2020 "did not address the core problems" with China's state-led economy, and that the United States would continue its "efforts to shape the environment around China."
"That included 'building resilience and competitiveness at home, diversifying markets, limiting the impact of Beijing’s harmful practices, working with allies and partners, and using the full range of tools we have to defend American economic interests,'" he said.