1. Tougher Measures Against Covid-19 Commenced in Japan
2. A New Post from Musk Pulling Bitcoin Down
3. Iran is Preparing for a Strong Return to the Oil Market

Tougher Measures Against Covid-19 Commenced in Japan

Due to a barrage of objections from specialists who requested greater measures, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga was obliged to perform a policy U-turn on the nation’s third coronavirus state of emergency.

The miscalculation may only add to the prime minister’s troubles, as his administration has yet to devise a strategy for containing the coronavirus outbreak, with only two months until the Tokyo Olympics’ opening ceremony on July 23.

“Holding the Olympics should be welcomed by everyone, but that is not possible under the current situation. So, the Olympics must be canceled,” said Kenji Utsunomiya, a prominent lawyer who served as the former head of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations.

According to the Associated Press’ Mari Yamaguchi, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has increased the Covid-19 state of emergency from six to nine areas across the country. As a result, a state of emergency has now been issued in Hokkaido, Hiroshima, and Okayama, in addition to the three current zones, which include Tokyo.

“Infections are escalating extremely rapidly in populated areas,” Suga said. “As new variants continue to spread, we judged that now is a crucial time to stop the further spread of infections.”

In regions where the state of emergency is imposed, restaurants and bars are allowed to remain open until 20:00 at the latest, and alcohol sales are not allowed. Cultural and sports venues are asked to accept customers up to 50 % of their capacity.

Businesses that do not abide by the rules can be fined up to 300 thousand yen ($2 thousand 750).

A New Post from Musk Pulling Bitcoin Down

Tesla’s boss Elon Musk’s posts that confuse the crypto money market continue.

While the billionaire businessperson previously criticized Bitcoin for environmental reasons, in his last post, he signaled that Tesla could sell Bitcoins in his hand.

A Twitter user who goes by @CryptoWhale said, “Bitcoiners are going to slap themselves next quarter when they find out Tesla dumped the rest of their holdings. With the amount of hate @elonmusk is getting, I wouldn’t blame him…” Musk replied, “Indeed.”

Musk also reacted to several different users on Twitter who criticized his stance on cryptocurrency. After this sharing of Musk, Bitcoin declined to $45,000. Thus, a retreat of $4000 was recorded in the cryptocurrency compared to Friday.

Influential venture investor Fred Wilson, a founding partner of Union Square Ventures, tweeted Friday: “He’s playing games. It is hard to take anyone who does that seriously. I’ve lost enormous respect for him over the last year because of it.”

Wilson added, “Deep respect for what he does with his talents. Less for what he does with his tweets.”

Besides, Musk is pursuing dogecoin in greater depth. Last week, his aerospace company, SpaceX, revealed that dogecoin would be accepted as payment for the launch of the “DOGE-1 mission to the Moon.”

Iran is Preparing for a Strong Return to the Oil Market

According to a Bloomberg report, officials from the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) have reported that the country’s oil fields are undergoing overhaul operations and that relations with oil buyers are being re-established.

“In the most optimistic estimates, the country could return to pre-sanctions production levels of almost four million barrels a day in as little as three months,” the report said.

Iran is currently negotiating in Vienna with other signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal, including the United States, and the two sides have indicated that an agreement is nearby.

The country could return to pre-sanctions production of nearly 4 million barrels per day in as little as three months, according to the most optimistic projections.

The talks, if effective, could reactivate the nuclear deal that Donald Trump pulled the US out of in 2018. Of course, that would necessitate the US lifting all of the former president’s sanctions.

However, there are many obstacles to tackle. First, any agreement must remove all of the United States trade, transportation, and insurance barriers affecting Iranian entities. Even then, according to Mohammad Ali Khatibi, a former NIOC official, buyers may be hesitant.

“Our return may be a gradual process rather than swift and sudden — it can’t happen overnight,” Khatibi, also Iran’s former OPEC envoy, said in an interview. That’s partly due to the coronavirus pandemic having “significantly hurt demand,” he said.