Briefly

JAPAN

Lower house approves record $836b budget

Japan's lower house of parliament on Tuesday approved a record 114.38 trillion yen ($836 billion) budget for the fiscal year 2023, with record allocations for social security costs while controversial defense spending has been factored in despite the country's grim fiscal health. The government's budget includes 6.82 trillion yen in defense spending. This is part of the government's plans to bolster its defensive capabilities, with the broader five-year plan drawing staunch criticism from the public, opposition parties and scholars. After passing the lower house, the budget will automatically come into effect 30 days after deliberations begin in the upper chamber of parliament.

UNITED STATES

Tesla, Musk sued over self-drive safety claim

Tesla and its Chief Executive Elon Musk were sued on Monday by shareholders who accused them of overstating the effectiveness and safety of their electric vehicles' autopilot and full self-driving technologies. In a proposed class action filed in San Francisco federal court, shareholders said Tesla defrauded them over four years with false and misleading statements that concealed how its technologies, suspected as a possible cause of multiple fatal crashes, "created a serious risk of accident and injury". The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began investigating the technologies.