JAPAN   –  Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group will start a venture next month to create new businesses using “fintech,” an executive said, joining a global race in financial technology that threatens to unsettle traditional players.

Japan’s second-largest lender by assets said there were already 20 projects in the pipeline for the venture, utilizing blockchain technology and artificial intelligence programs in areas such as farming and travel. Daisuke Yamada, Mizuho’s chief digital innovation officer, said the challenges were cultural as well as technological, as truly new business models required a break from Japanese banks’ conservative, overly risk-averse attitudes.

For that reason, he said the bank would limit its stake in the yet-to-be named venture to less than 15 percent, though Yamada would be its president and the bank would send staff.(Reuters)[+]

US  –   Former U.S. President Barack Obama told an audience in Berlin that prosperous nations could not hide behind a wall to shield themselves from the turmoil and poverty afflicting other countries.

Speaking in a panel discussion on democracy with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in front of 70,000 people at a spot where the Berlin wall once stood, Obama spent 90 minutes talking about international and U.S. issues without once mentioning his successor Donald Trump. But in what appeared to be a reference to Trump’s vow to build a wall along the border with Mexico to keep out illegal immigrants and drugs, Obama said the world was shrinking due to globalization and technology. It was not possible to stay isolated from troubles abroad, he said.

“If there are disruptions in these countries, if there is bad governance, if there is war or if there is poverty, in this new world that we live in we can’t isolate ourselves,” Obama said. “We can’t hide behind a wall.”(Reuters)[+]

EGYPT  –    Egypt has blocked access to at least 21 news sites critical of the government, notably the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera, Huffington Post’s Arabic-language site HuffPost Arabi and the independent website Mada Masr.

The state-run news agency Mena announced late on Wednesday that 21 websites had been blocked because they were “spreading lies” and “supporting terrorism”. The full list of banned sites was not provided, but Mena added that legal action against the outlets was forthcoming. Al-Jazeera, which is partially owned by the Qatari royal family, has been frequently singled out as an enemy of the Egyptian state since the overthrow of former Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in 2013.

Qatar previously backed Morsi’s leadership, prompting the arrest and detention of journalists from Al-Jazeera following his ouster. Mada Masr was not reportedly included on this list, but access to its site inside Egypt is currently blocked without use of a virtual private network, or VPN.(The guardian)[+]