Business

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Wealth manager and banking group UBS will pay $25 million to settle fraud charges relating to an options trading strategy, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Wednesday.

UBS marketed and sold the “Yield Enhancement Strategy” to about 600 investors through its platform of domestic financial advisers from February 2016 through February 2017, the SEC said, adding its order found that UBS did not provide its financial advisers with adequate training and oversight in the strategy.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Chris Reese)

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(Reuters) – Xerox Holdings Corp Chief Executive Officer John Visentin passed away on Tuesday due to complications from an ongoing illness, the printer maker said on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Chavi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)

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TOKYO (Reuters) -Nissan Motor Co is recalling more than 300,000 SUVs in the United States over an issue in which the hood suddenly opens, obstructing the driver’s view and increasing the risk of a crash.

The Japanese automaker’s North American division said 322,671 Pathfinder vehicles for models between 2013 and 2016 are subjected to the recall.

The recall will also involve about 37,700 vehicles of the models in Canada, a Nissan spokesperson said on Wednesday, adding they are not sold in Japan.

Nissan said accumulation of dirt and dust on the secondary hood latch could cause it to stay open even if the hood is closed, potentially allowing it to pop up without warning, according to a filing to the U.S. regulatory body.

Nissan said a remedy is under development and it will send out interim notifications starting Wednesday.

(Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama. Editing by Gerry Doyle)

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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Chamila Nilanthi is tired of all the waiting. The 47-year-old mother of two spent three days lining up to get kerosene in the Sri Lankan town of Gampaha, northeast of the capital Colombo. Two weeks earlier, she spent three days in a queue for cooking gas — but came home with none.

“I am totally fed up, exhausted,’’ she said. “I don’t know how long we have to do this.’’

A few years ago Sri Lanka’s economy was growing strongly enough to provide jobs and financial security for most. It’s now in a state of collapse, dependent on aid from India and other countries as its leaders desperately try to negotiate a bailout with the International Monetary Fund.

What’s happening in this South Asian island nation of 22 million is worse than the usual financial crises seen in the developing world: It’s a complete economic breakdown that has left ordinary people struggling to buy food, fuel and other necessities and has brought political unrest and violence.

“It really is veering quickly into a humanitarian crisis,’’ said Scott Morris, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington.

Such disasters are more commonly seen in poorer countries, in sub-Saharan Africa or in war-torn Afghanistan. In middle-income countries such as Sri Lanka they are rarer but not unheard of: 6 million Venezuelans have fled their oil-rich home country to escape a seemingly unending political crisis that has devastated the economy.

Indonesia, once touted as an “Asian Tiger’’ economy, endured Depression-level deprivation in the late 1990s that led to riots and political unrest and swept away a strong man who’d held power for three decades. The country now is a democracy and a member of the Group of 20 biggest industrial economies.

Sri Lanka’s crisis is largely the result of staggering economic mismanagement combined with fallout from the pandemic, which along with 2019 terrorism attacks devastated its important tourism industry. The COVID-19 crisis also disrupted the flow of payments home from Sri Lankans working abroad.

The government took on big debts and slashed taxes in 2019, depleting the treasury just as COVID-19 hit. Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange reserves plummeted, leaving it unable to pay for imports or defend its beleaguered currency, the rupee.

Ordinary Sri Lankans — especially the poor — are paying the price. They wait for days for cooking gas and petrol — in lines that can extend more than 2 kilometers (1.2 miles). Sometimes, like Chamila Nilanthi, they go home with nothing.

Eleven people have died so far waiting for gasoline. The latest was a 63-year-old man found dead inside his vehicle on the outskirts of Colombo. Unable to get gasoline, some have given up driving and resorted to bicycles or public transportation to get around.

The government has closed urban schools and some universities and is giving civil servants every Friday off for three months, to conserve fuel and allow them time to grow their own fruit and vegetables.

Food price inflation is running at 57%, according to government data, and 70% of Sri Lankan households surveyed by UNICEF last month reported cutting back on food consumption. Many families rely on government rice handouts and donations from charities and generous individuals.

Unable to find cooking gas, many Sri Lankans are turning to kerosene stoves or cooking over open fires.

Affluent families can use electric induction ovens for cooking, unless the power is out. But most Sri Lankans can’t afford those stoves or higher electric bills.

Sri Lankans furious over fuel shortages have staged protests, blocked roads and confronted police. Fights have broken out when some try to jump ahead in fuel lines. Police have attacked unruly crowds.

One night last week, a soldier was seen assaulting a police officer at a fuel station in a dispute over gasoline distribution. The police officer was hospitalized. The police and military are separately investigating the incident.

The crisis is a crushing blow to Sri Lanka’s middle class, estimated to account for 15% to 20% of the country’s urban population. Until it all came apart, they enjoyed financial security and increasing standards of living.

Such a reversal is not unprecedented. In fact, it looks like what happened to Indonesia in the late 1990s.

The U.S. Agency for International Development — which runs aid projects for poor countries — was preparing to close up shop in the Indonesian capital Jakarta; the country didn’t seem to need the help. “As one of the Asian Tigers, it had worked its way off the aid list,’’ recalls Jackie Pomeroy, an economist who worked on a USAID project in the Indonesian government before joining the World Bank in Jakarta.

But then a financial crisis — triggered when Thailand suddenly devalued its currency in July 1997 to combat speculators — swept across East Asia. Plagued by widespread corruption and weak banks, Indonesia was hit especially hard. Its currency plummeted against the U.S. dollar, forcing Indonesian companies to cough up more rupiahs to pay back dollar-denominated loans.

Businesses closed. Unemployment soared. Desperate city dwellers returned to the countryside where they could grow their own food. The Indonesian economy shrank more than 13% in 1998, a Depression-level performance.

Desperation turned to rage, and demonstrations against the government of Suharto, who’d ruled Indonesia with an iron fist since 1968. “It very quickly rolled into scenes of political unrest,’’ Pomeroy said. “It became an issue of political transition and Suharto.’’ The dictator was forced out in May 1998, ending autocratic rule.

Although they live in a democracy, many Sri Lankans blame the politically dominant Rajapaksa family for the disaster. “It’s their fault, but we have to suffer for their mistakes,” said Ranjana Padmasiri, who works as a clerk at a private firm.

Two of the three top Rajapaksas have resigned — Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and Basil Rajapaksa, who was finance minister. Protestors have been demanding that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa also step down. They’ve camped outside his office in Colombo for more than two months.

Resignation, Padmasiri said, isn’t enough. “They can’t get away easily,’’ he said. “They must be held responsible for this crisis.’’

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Wiseman reported from Washington.

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BANGKOK (AP) — Shares skidded in Asia on Wednesday after another broad decline on Wall Street as markets remain gripped by uncertainty over inflation, rising interest rates and the potential for a recession.

U.S. futures edged higher while oil prices fell back.

A weaker-than-expected U.S. consumer confidence reading highlighted worsening consumer expectations due to persistently high inflation.

That “dragged equities lower as sentiment soured for risky assets,” Anderson Alves of ActivTrades, said in a commentary.

Investors are awaiting comments later in the day by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and other top central bankers, he said.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost 0.9% to 26,804.60 while the Kospi in Seoul fell 0.8% to 2,377.99. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong declined 2.4% to 21,891.43. The Shanghai Composite index sank 1.4% to 3,361.52.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gave up 0.9% to 6,675.57. Bangkok’s SET lost 0.5% and India’s Sensex was down 0.3%.

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 ended 2% lower at 3,821.55, while the Dow dropped 1.6% to 30,946.99. The tech-heavy Nasdaq slid 3% to 11,181.54.

The Russell 2000 gave up 1.9% to 1,738.84. The indexes are all on pace to for losses of 6% or more in June.

Roughly 85% of the stocks in the benchmark S&P 500 closed in the red. Technology, communications and health care stocks accounted for a big share of the decline. Retailers and other companies that rely on direct consumer spending also helped pull the index lower. Energy stocks, the only sector in the index to notch gains this year, rose as crude oil prices headed higher.

Conference Board reported that its consumer confidence index fell in June to its lowest level in more than a year, results that were much weaker than economists expected.

Investors face a pervasive list of concerns centering around rising inflation squeezing businesses and consumers. Supply chain problems that have been at the root of rising inflation were made worse over the last several months by increased restrictions in China related to COVID-19.

Businesses have been raising prices on everything from food to clothing. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February put even more pressure on consumers by raising energy prices and pumping gasoline prices to record highs.

Consumers were already shifting spending from goods to services as the economy recovered from the pandemic’s impact, but the intensified pressure from inflation has prompted a sharper shift away from discretionary items like electronics to necessities.

Central banks are raising rates to try and temper inflation after years of holding rates down to help economic growth but investors fear they could go too far and actually push economies into a recession.

Investors are awaiting remarks expected for midweek by central bank leaders including Fed Chair Jerome Powell and European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde. They will also get another update on U.S. economic growth on Wednesday when the Commerce Department releases a report on first-quarter gross domestic product.

Wall Street is also preparing for the latest round of corporate earnings in the next few weeks, which will help paint a clearer picture of how companies are dealing with the squeeze from rising costs and consumers curtailing some spending.

“All regions, countries, industries, and stocks are getting printed red with broad strokes. It is not looking pretty, and trading the bad news is good news theory could end in tears,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a report.

Energy stocks made solid gains as U.S. crude oil prices rose 2%.

In other trading Wednesday:

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which helps set mortgage rates, slipped to 3.15% from 3.19%.

U.S. benchmark crude oil slipped 69 cents to $111.07 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude lost 82 cents to $112.98 per barrel.

The dollar fell to 136.00 Japanese yen from 136.12 yen late Tuesday. The euro weakened to $1.0501 from $1.0522.

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By Alexandra Alper

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden’s administration added five companies in China to a trade blacklist on Tuesday for allegedly supporting Russia’s military and defense industrial base, flexing its muscle to enforce sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

The Commerce Department, which oversees the trade blacklist, said the targeted companies had supplied items to Russian “entities of concern” before the Feb. 24 invasion, adding that they “continue to contract to supply Russian entity listed and sanctioned parties.”

The agency also added further 31 entities to the blacklist from countries including Russia, UAE, Lithuania, Pakistan, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Uzbekistan and Vietnam, according to the Federal Register entry. However, of the 36 total companies added, 25 had China-based operations.

“Today’s action sends a powerful message to entities and individuals across the globe that if they seek to support Russia, the United States will cut them off as well,” Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Alan Estevez said in a statement.

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Three of the companies in China accused of aiding the Russian military, Connec Electronic Ltd., Hong Kong-based World Jetta, and Logistics Limited, could not be reached for comment. The other two, King Pai Technology Co., Ltd and Winninc Electronic did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Hong Kong is considered part of China for purposes of U.S. export controls since Beijing’s crackdown on the city’s autonomy.

Blacklisting of firms means their U.S. suppliers need a Commerce Department license before they can ship to them.

The United States has set out with allies to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin for the invasion, which Moscow calls a “special operation”, by sanctioning a raft of Russian companies and oligarchs and adding others to a trade blacklist.

While U.S. officials had previously said that China was generally complying with the restrictions, Washington has vowed to closely monitor compliance and rigorously enforce the regulations.

“We will not hesitate to act, regardless of where a party is located, if they are violating U.S. law,” Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration Thea Rozman Kendler said in the same statement.

(Reporting by Alexandra Alper; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey, Editing by William Maclean and Tomasz Janowski)

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FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Deutsche Lufthansa’s Swiss business said on Tuesday it would cut about 2% of its flights scheduled between August and October because of labour shortages, strikes and rising COVID-19 infections.

Swiss International said in a statement that it was “helping to ease the present pressures on both its own flight schedules and the Swiss system as a whole. This will minimize the risk of short-notice cancellations or schedule modifications.”

Destinations would remain reachable from Switzerland but frequencies would be cut, it added.

Airlines around the world, which slashed jobs during the coronavirus pandemic, are struggling to ramp up operations as demand returns.

Lufthansa Chief Executive Carsten Spohr earlier apologised to employees and customers for travel chaos caused by labour shortages amid soaring demand during the summer.

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger; editing by David Evans)

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HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong returned to China in 1997 after 156 years of British colonial rule. Here are some major milestones for the city’s financial markets:

HONG KONG DOLLAR TRADING BAND

The Hong Kong dollar was pegged to the U.S. dollar on October 17, 1983, with a trading band of between 7.75 and 7.85 per US dollar imposed since 2005. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the city’s de-facto central bank, regularly enters the market to buy or sell the currency to keep it within the band.

DUAL HONG KONG AND MAINLAND LISTINGS

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China became the first company to execute an IPO simultaneously in Shanghai and Hong Kong in 2006 when it issued A-shares and H-shares to raise US$21.9 billion, the largest deal in the world at the time.

STOCK, BOND AND WEALTH CONNECT

Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect was created in 2014 to provide mutual access between the equity markets of Hong Kong and mainland China. Two years later, the programme was expanded to Hong Kong and Shenzhen Stock Connect, which allowed mainland investors access to smaller companies in Hong Kong and international investors access to new economy companies listed in Shenzhen. The connect programmes now cover about 2000 stocks, according to Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). In May, China’s securities regulator agreed to include exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in stock connect programmes with Hong Kong.

In 2017, Bond Connect was launched to replicate the equity schemes and allow foreign investors to invest via Hong Kong in China’s multi-trillion bond market. The Northbound Bond Connect has become a major channel for foreign investors seeking access to China’s bond market. In September last year, China said it would permit its investors to trade offshore debt with the opening of the “Southbound” leg of its Bond Connect channel.

Wealth Management Connect launched in September 2021, linking China’s southern province of Guangdong with Hong Kong and Macau, to allow cross-border funds management. The programme enables residents of Hong Kong and Macau to buy mainland investment products sold by banks in the Greater Bay Area, while allowing residents of nine Guangdong cities to buy those sold by banks in the two offshore centres.

WEIGHTED VOTING RIGHTS

Hong Kong Stock Exchange announced in 2018 https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-hkex-regulation-idUKKCN1G70VS it would allow companies with dual-class shares – or weighted voting rights – if they are considered to be “innovative”, in a move designed to facilitate listings from emerging business sectors. The decision was described by the law firm Skadden as the most significant change to Hong Kong’s listing rules in 20 years.

WAVE OF SECONDARY LISTINGS

The weighted voting rights changes in 2018 prompted a wave of secondary – or homecoming listings – which kicked off with Alibaba Group in November 2019. The Jack Ma-founded e-commerce giant raised $12.9 billion in the deal that was the largest share sale in Hong Kong at the time for nine years. Since then, 18 companies have raised $42.3 billion, according to Refintiv data. The pace of homecoming listings has remained strong as Chinese companies trading in New York prepare contingency plans as U.S authorities press ahead with delisting firms that don’t meet regulators’ auditing requirements.

FUTURES

HKEX launched its MSCI A-share index futures product in 2021, an attempt to meet demand from investors in Chinese stocks for hedging tools at a time of surging volatility.

SPECIAL PURPOSE ACQUISITION CORPORATIONS (SPACs)

Hong Kong Stock Exchange allowed Special Purpose Acquisition Corporations (SPACs), known also as blank cheque companies, to start trading from January 1, 2022, in line with most other major markets in the world.

However, tight restrictions on the type of investors which could buy into the SPACs and banning retail participation dented demand for the products along with the current bout of market volatility.

Only two SPACs have listed since the start of the year.

(Reporting by Scott Murdoch; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree and Gerry Doyle)

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This week marks 15 years since the iPhone first went on sale and ushered in a new era: the age of the smartphone.

It’s hard to imagine today how different mobile access was before that evening of June 29, 2007. The internet in your pocket didn’t look like, well, the internet. Social media — and the ability for everyone to respond globally to everything — was in its infancy. And while older phones certainly had cameras, the quality – and the potential for instant editing and filtering and sharing that exists today — wasn’t there yet.

The modern smartphone has changed photography. To capture a snapshot of that change, we asked more than a dozen Associated Press photographers across the world who use iPhones — some of the most talented journalists in the business — to capture an image on their phone and submit it.

Here is what they came up with. But first: Some words from Enric Martí, the AP deputy director of photography who oversaw the project — and who had his doubts about it at the outset.

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I didn’t like this idea. At first.

You might call me a traditionalist. I’ve been a photographer for three decades and a photo editor for half that. I like negatives and the details they contain. I like physical things. I like full-on cameras. I liked the thought that went behind taking a 36-exposure roll of film and making tough choices about how to use each frame.

Sometimes I feel photography has almost lost the magic it had before the means to take a photo and share it with the world was in our pocket. Now, you can go for an assignment and easily take 3,000 frames.

And phones — everywhere, every day, millions of images. There is so much photography, and so much fake photography. You can buy a 99-cent app that removes people from photos. That’s not photography to me; to me, photography is documenting what’s really in the world.

But I’m changing my mind about phone photography — sort of. I’ve been trying for a while now to see and feel the positive side of this technological evolution, so I am not perceived as a “dinosaur.” This project has helped me in that regard.

The photographers whose work is shown here are pros. Colleagues. People I admire. People whose images — from our “work” cameras — I see and edit all the time. But they are also people with phones, and with cameras in their phones, and that vision — the one they use so well in covering the news — comes out in very interesting ways. I asked them to observe things, and they did — each in a unique way.

In the end, I decided to add a photo of my own to this as well. Why not? I take them anyway, every day, on the street. I stopped carrying my “real” camera a long time ago, but I always have my phone. Which is kind of the point.

You go through life having to change. The world is moving quickly. You have to adapt. What else are you going to do?

— Enric Martí, New York

YIRMIYAN ARTHUR, Kohima, India:

The phone is a tiny, constant companion that I rely on for moments that take me by surprise. You have to be quick to catch these fleeting moments. They may not return. My phone can sing you the life story of my children in pictures.

Yet a camera gives control that I don’t find possible on a phone. A lot of thought goes into building a narrative and expressing the idea embedded in the mind’s eye — even if, eventually, it is the eye behind the viewfinder. Catching the image of rain on a fast shutter would evoke a different feeling than seeing the image shot on a slow shutter speed. With a phone, I find it much harder to convert these ideas into images.

I use my phone on early morning runs, a time when the moon flirts with daybreak in my mountain town and the sky displays its glory. Even cloudy days aren’t dull here, and I’m thankful that I can capture such moments on my phone.

But this comes with a price. Instead of enjoying my front-row views, I’m looking into a screen. I feel increasingly dependent on this external memory keeper. It can feel intrusive. So I’m trying to convince myself to keep my phone in my pocket more, and just live the moment.

BRYNN ANDERSON, Atlanta:

Sometimes being a photographer with a larger camera can be intimidating to the person being photographed. Using a phone makes it easier for me to get intimate moments that might not happen. Being able to adjust the exposure to create dark shadows makes the iPhone my main camera in a pinch. If spot news occurs when I’m on vacation or out to dinner, I always have a quality camera to capture news.

ODED BALILTY, Tel Aviv, Israel:

Smartphones have come a long way in the last 15 years, but I don’t see them as a substitute for professional cameras.

Some great work has been shot on smartphones. But it’s a lot easier to cut corners and manipulate images on smartphones — something we should all keep in mind in a time of rampant disinformation. I’m more likely to trust an image if I know it was taken by a photojournalist using professional gear (nothing to do with the gear but with the photographer’s responsibility to the truth).

I don’t think there’s right or wrong. It just depends on which hat we wear on which day. It is a different tool that definitely has changed what we do. But it’s the photographer, not the device, that determines the quality of a photo.

In a world with so many cameras, there are also more photography consumers. And the good thing is that photography is more popular than ever.

WONG MAYE-E, New York:

The only time I don’t have my phone on me is when I am asleep, swimming or reading a book. It has become completely integrated in my life. Once, someone asked me how I separate life and my work (photography); when I thought hard about it, I realized that there was no separation because I photographed life.

I am a sentimental person. I love keeping memories. I photograph occasions in life that I want to remember; at work, I photograph life that happens for people. Sometimes it looks joyous and sometimes there is pain. The camera is just a tool that allows me to make snapshots of these moments. I have always done this with whatever camera that I have on me, and lately, while not at work, it has been my iPhone. I spend too much time staring at the screen, but because it’s right there in my hands at that moment, I find myself recording life in photos or video obsessively.

I own many cameras. I love all of them. But admittedly having the phone with me all the time, in its small unintrusive form, has allowed me to capture moments that don’t make anyone’s head turn. Right now, my phone album has 13,793 images on it. That is a lot of moments. It is, I guess, my visual diary.

NARIMAN EL-MOFTY, Cairo:

The iPhone’s camera has become more of a sketch pad and personal space of thoughts, ideas, and inspiration. It’s a place I can think of process for an upcoming story and keep this ongoing stream of thoughts visually with no judgement. It has this ease on the street because of its size and familiarity.

I felt like I was cheating when I used it for candid photos, and it never sat well with me. I like to manually control the whole camera to tell a story whilst physically being seen with the tool in my hand. People will then always have the right to react to me negatively or positively, and I‘m driven by that honesty.

Years ago, I had a heated conversation with an Egyptian policeman. He took my camera and said I was not allowed to take photographs of the streets of Cairo. The body of my SLR is a threat, seen as a weapon. I told him: That is the main reason I love having an SLR in my hand. There is a real interaction with the environment you’re photographing, a true reaction to you as a photojournalist on the ground. It is part of the skill set and the beauty of photojournalism. Rather than the idea of “stealing a picture” with my iPhone. I told the policeman I could’ve taken photos of him, and he would have never known. Governments have since caught up. Hence, if you’re detained and questioned, the first thing that is taken is the phone.

AARON FAVILA, Manila, Philippines:

The quality of the phone has become truly great in recent years. Now, I seldom bring a “real” camera during family trips. I have used the phone to shoot breaking news images so I can email them straight to the desk to be used as early photos for a story. I won’t replace it for professional work, but I’m confident that if something pops up in front of me, I can dig out the phone in my pocket and shoot pictures with good enough quality.

VADIM GHIRDA, Bucharest, Romania

This is a good example of an image that I couldn’t have taken on my camera. Most vendors and, frankly, most people in Romania get nervous if they realize a photojournalist is taking their picture even in the most mundane situations. It often leads to unpleasant interactions.

The smartphone, though, seems to be a magical stress-relief device. Even if people realize that you are a journalist, they no longer, in most situations, see you as a menace. They relate to you. In adverse situations, it can save the day.

DITA ALANGKARA, Jakarta, Indonesia:

Shooting with smartphones opens up more opportunities on the streets of Jakarta. People are so used to see others taking photos with their gadgets that they just ignore me. This gives me a whole new perspective to explore and easily get me to the nooks and crannies of a city of 10 million people — a place where a “real camera” would feel awkward to operate.

DAR YASIN, New Delhi

The photos now shot on the latest phones feel like digital art more than photographs. What you see with the naked eye is not what you get on your screen. And that for me is very unsettling. For example, the colors are oversaturated and look “touched up” when I have done nothing but pressed the shutter. The portrait mode produces blur but it’s not the same effect my regular camera gives me. These pictures definitely don’t evoke a similar thrill of a taking a good picture.

I’ll admit that there are instances when I love the pictures taken on my iPhone. There is no denying the phone captures those moments very well indeed. But it’s important to realize: The “pro” label on a phone doesn’t necessarily make every owner a pro photographer.

On the contrary. The photographs on a smartphone are a product of machine learning, with the machine thinking and manipulating for you. It is also true that the iPhone is kind of setting a new ‘standard’ of what a photograph should look like — and I’m not sure that’s a good thing.

KHALIL HAMRA, Istanbul, Turkey

I used my iPhone to take this picture, which is what I do when I see a beautiful view and I am not carrying professional cameras. But I mostly use the iPhone camera to capture family memories. In all cases, the use of the phone does not eliminate the need for professional cameras, neither in the beauty of the picture nor in the pleasure of capturing it.

Truth be told, every time I take a nice picture with my phone, I feel that something is missing and could have been better if I took it with my professional camera.

ARIANA CUBILLOS, Caracas, Venezuela

I do love taking pictures of my daughter and my pets with the phone and filters. Also, I take pictures with it when something grabs my attention and my cameras are packed in my bag. It helps me to remember the spot. It is an easy, light and fast tool.

Does the smart phone give you a different perspective? For me, totally. At the moment I take a picture, it feels flat on the screen. It is not the same as taking a picture looking through the viewfinder of a full camera, controlling light exposition and speed at the same time you take the photo.

EMILIO MORENATTI, Barcelona, Spain

For me, the use of the phone camera is just an alternative to my conventional camera, so I only use it on rare occasions and basically to photograph or capture on video family scenes or scenes with friends, with the simple idea of documenting banal moments.

Shooting with a camera is much more serious, and the result differs dramatically from shooting with a phone. Composing and capturing a scene through a viewfinder while pressing a shutter release is part of the essence of photography, and you can’t do that with a phone yet. The flat image that a phone gives you can’t compete with the photography you get from an SLR camera and a good lens, no matter how much phone photography lovers say otherwise.

NATACHA PISARENKO, Buenos Aires, Argentina

I use an iPhone instead of a camera on diverse occasions.

Sometimes it’s as a reflex, when I see something I want to keep at that moment during my daily life. Sometimes it’s just that I don’t have a camera at hand, even though I’d want to. Sometimes I use the phone camera when I want to send an image immediately by message or WhatsApp — a way to communicate something to someone through an image and no words. Sometimes it’s just something I want to keep.

The irony: My phone is so full that at the end, I scroll down the pictures erasing everything that does not mean that much to me. That way, I can keep using it as a camera or video recorder — and then erase it again.

RODRIGO ABD, Buenos Aires, Argentina:

The phone allows me to practice street photography, a branch of photography that I like because it allows me to always be attentive to the everyday without a precise news event to cover, and with only the intention of documenting the most banal moments of life. But at the end of the road will be a record of a vital moment in the life of society.

FELIPE DANA, Barcelona, Spain

Being a photojournalist, I try to always carry my professional camera with me in case I come across a nice scene or any breaking news. For a long time I considered the camera on my phone only usable in cases of emergency, when you really have no other option. But ever since the first iPhone appeared 15 years ago, phone cameras have come such a long way that I admit feeling a bit less anxious knowing that I always have a very capable camera in my pocket.

I will still always pick my professional camera when going on any assignment. But nowadays the photos taken with smartphones are becoming harder and harder to distinguish from those captured on pro devices.

J. DAVID AKE, director of photography, New York:

The iPhone makes it really easy, when I spot something I want to share with my family, to just reach into my pocket, grab the phone and make a frame. I still carry a professional high-resolution camera most places, but the ease of the iPhone to snap and share via text message means my family and friends get see what I see at almost the moment I see it.

When you travel a lot and are away more than you like, that instant connection matters.

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For more Associated Press photography (not shot on a smartphone), visit https://apnews.com/hub/photography

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TOKYO (AP) — Toshiba shareholders approved 13 nominated directors to its board Tuesday, as the Japanese technology giant struggles to restore its one-time glory and set a clear leadership direction.

Chief Executive Taro Shimada, who oversaw the annual shareholders’ meeting in Tokyo, said the majority had voted to OK that plan.

He promised shareholders Toshiba Corp. would forge ahead with clean energy, infrastructure projects, data services, devices and storage. He stressed the Tokyo-based company had boosted profits for the latest fiscal year, ended in April, to 194.7 billion yen ($1.4 billion), up from 114 billion yen the previous fiscal year.

By 2030, Toshiba is aiming for 5 trillion yen ($37 billion) in annual sales, up from about 3 trillion yen ($22 billion), now.

During the question-and-answer session, several shareholders got up to express concern about the future of Toshiba, saying its management appeared confused and its brand image negative.

Toshiba has been studying privatization as it tries to move ahead with the latest restructuring plan. Some potential investors are recommending Toshiba go private. At the meeting, several shareholders said they opposed privatization because Toshiba was involved in public works projects that widely affect society.

Toshiba has also set up a special committee to oversee the restructuring efforts, headed by Jerry Black, who joined the board as an outside director in 2019. Black, who has extensive experience in Japanese management, also spoke at the shareholders’ meeting, stressing his commitment to bring back a strong Toshiba.

In March, investors rejected a company-backed reform proposal to split Toshiba into two businesses. An earlier plan that also was scrapped had called for a three-way split.

The options will now be narrowed, and there was no clear indication at Tuesday’s shareholders’ meeting. But speculation is rife the bid will move forward because of the addition of those more likely to push for such a move, including Eijiro Imai, who works with Farallon Capital Japan, and Nabeel Bhanji, with Elliott Investment Management, a major investor in Toshiba.

Japan Investment Corp., owned partly by the Japanese government, and U.S. investment fund Bain Capital are reportedly among those trying to acquire Toshiba. Black has said Toshiba is working closely with the Japanese government in evaluating its options.

Toshiba, founded about 150 years ago, has been struggling since the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011. An earthquake and tsunami damaged a nuclear plant in northeastern Japan, sending three reactors into meltdowns and spewing radiation over an area that’s still partly a no-go zone. Toshiba is involved in decommissioning the damaged plant, which will take decades.

Former chief executive Satoshi Tsunakawa, who tried to lead Toshiba through reforms in recent years, has been replaced by Shimada, formerly with Siemens.

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Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

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