USA Archives - Page 14 of 25

Philippines again suspends scrapping of troop pact with US amid China dispute

17Jun

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China, Market, USA, World

Philippines again suspends scrapping of troop pact with US amid China dispute

MANILA/WASHINGTON: The Philippines has again suspended a decision to scrap a crucial agreement governing the US troop presence in the country, its foreign minister said on Monday (Jun 14), amid continuing maritime pressure from China. The Pentagon welcomed the announcement from Manila - the third suspension of the decision covering the two-decade-old Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) that had been due to expire in August - but analysts said there would be disappointment in both countries that it was not renewed. Philippine Foreign Minister Teodoro Locsin said the suspension would be for a further six months while President Rodrigo Duterte "studies, and both sides further address his concerns regarding, particular aspects of the agreement". The Philippines is a US treaty ally and sever...

This is the median age of billion dollar start-up founders, according to new research

17Jun

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USA, World

This is the median age of billion dollar start-up founders, according to new research

With founders like Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey and Bill Gates, it may seem like billion-dollar start-ups are all started by 20-something college dropouts. But according to the new book, "Super Founders: What Data Reveals About Billion-Dollar Startups," the median age at which founders started their billion-dollar business is 34. The book's author, Ali Tamaseb, a partner at the tech venture capital firm DCVC, says he spent thousands of hours combing through internet archives, interviews and reviewing thousands of LinkedIn and Crunchbase profiles collecting data — 65 different data points, to be exact, like age, education and experience — on every unicorn start-up started between 2005 and 2018. "It took about four years," Tamaseb tells CNBC Make It. Tamaseb says he collected over 30,000...

COVID-19 pandemic relapse spells trouble for India’s middle class

16Jun

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Asia, Market, USA, World

COVID-19 pandemic relapse spells trouble for India’s middle class

NEW DELHI: Ram Babu moved from his village to the Indian capital New Delhi in 1980, to clean cars. Soon, he learned to drive and got a job as a tour bus driver. Decades later, he set up his own company, Madhubani Tours and Travels. In March 2020, a stringent nationwide lockdown to fight the coronavirus pandemic froze economic activity overnight. Babu's business collapsed, and he drove his family back to their village. “Since March last year, we haven’t earned a single rupee,” he said. “All of my three buses are standing still for more than a year. We are completely broken.” India’s economy was on the cusp of recovery from the first pandemic shock when a new wave of infections swept the country, infecting millions, killing hundreds of thousands and forcing many people to stay home. C...

Why France is a welcome security partner for Japan

16Jun

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Asia, China, Market, USA, World

Why France is a welcome security partner for Japan

This past week, French forces joined the Japan Self-Defense Force, Australian Defence Force and U.S. military for a multilateral amphibious exercise in Camp Ainoura, Sasebo. This marks the first time French ground forces have trained on Japanese soil in the postwar era. This training comes on the heels of two French naval vessels that made port in Kochi last month, en route to a joint maritime exercise with members of the so-called “Quad” (Australia, India, Japan and the United States). These activities are representative of the steps Japan is taking to diversify its portfolio of security partners, but many outside observers may now be asking the blunt but obvious question: Why France? Certainly, partnering with countries such as Australia and India makes sense given the centrality of J...

KL LRT collision: Full service resumes as track repairs completed

15Jun

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USA, World

KL LRT collision: Full service resumes as track repairs completed

KUALA LUMPUR: The Kelana Jaya Light Rail Transit (LRT) line has returned to full service following the conclusion of repair works on the tracks damaged by a head-on collision on Monday (May 24), Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong said. "I wish to announce that recovery works have been done up to the Public Land Transport Agency's (AP) strict requirement levels, that I can announce that the train service, which was previously forced to use a single track due to the incident, can resume operations on dual track," he said in a press conference at the KLCC station on Friday (May 28). A head-on collision involving two trains on Monday had left more than 210 passengers injured. Trains were subsequently running on a single track in seven stations in downtown Kuala Lumpur as recovery and re...

China touts success building a Tibet less focused on religion

13Jun

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Asia, China, USA, World

China touts success building a Tibet less focused on religion

China’s top leader in Tibet lauded the progress his country has made developing the region, touting an ethnic-assimilation campaign that has fueled international accusations of human rights abuses. “More and more believers have been trained from pursuing a good afterlife to living a good life in this life, and religion has been increasingly compatible with a socialist society,” Wu Yingjie, the Communist Party chief of Tibet, said at a press briefing in Beijing on Saturday. Wu also listed a wide array of ways the ruling party has transformed the region where most people are Buddhist — from building schools and paved roads to improvements in health care — as China marks the 70th anniversary on Sunday of an agreement giving it control of the region. The event puts a renewed focus on Tibet ...

Want to buy a ship? Oil tanker that received stolen fuel in Shell Bukom heist up for police auction

11Jun

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Asia, Market, USA, World

Want to buy a ship? Oil tanker that received stolen fuel in Shell Bukom heist up for police auction

SINGAPORE: Over the years, the police have auctioned off various items seized from crimes: Clothes, cameras, computers and, once in a while, a supercar or two. But the latest article up for sale is quite different – it is more than 100m long, weighs more than 3 million kg and, according to court documents, is valued at US$4.5 million (S$5.9 million). The item in question is the chemical oil tanker Prime South, which the police seized in 2018 after it was used to receive stolen marine gas oil worth an estimated US$7.1 million from Shell's Pulau Bukom refinery. The pilfering was part of the largest marine fuel heist from Shell's biggest petrochemical production and export centre in the Asia-Pacific. Not many items seized by the police and auctioned off are valued in the tens ...

Israel’s foreign policies won’t change much even as a new coalition looks set to take power, ambassador says

10Jun

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Asia, USA, World

Israel’s foreign policies won’t change much even as a new coalition looks set to take power, ambassador says

A new coalition may soon take power in Israel, but that doesn't signal a change in the country's foreign policies, according to Israel's ambassador to Singapore. "As far as foreign policy is concerned, we're about to see a continuation of previous policies of the government," Sagi Karni told CNBC's "Capital Connection" on Wednesday. That means Israel will still want to maintain and expand the Abraham Accords, engage with the rest of the world, and "see a change" in Gaza, he said. Israel's parliament, the Knesset, will be voting on a new government on Sunday. If successful, the coalition led by opposition party leader Yair Lapid will feature tech millionaire Naftali Bennett as prime minister, replacing Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving head of government. The coalition includes a...

Make-up’s ugly secret: The plight of India’s poor miners behind the beauty industry

10Jun

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USA, World

Make-up’s ugly secret: The plight of India’s poor miners behind the beauty industry

Mica is the mineral that gives a sparkle to an array of products, from eye shadow to lip gloss. But what consumers do not see is a deadly trade involving even children. The programme Undercover Asia investigates. JHARKHAND, INDIA: It sounds like an innocuous ingredient, a word among many hidden on the back of the packaging of your eye shadow palette. Mica: A mineral that can be ground down to make sparkly powders, and found in everything from eye shadow to lip gloss to foundation. Cosmetic companies value mica for its properties: Refractive, superfine and naturally occurring in different colours. It can be found all over the world, including India, which is known for having some of the world’s largest and finest deposits. But in India, there is a heavy price to pay for it, the progr...

10Jun

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USA, World

Israel faces greater dangers than Hamas

Israel and Hamas have taken to open warfare yet again. The sense of deja vu, as the militant group’s rocket attacks on Israeli territory are met by retaliatory airstrikes in Gaza, is compounded by Western politicians repeating an old formula: “Israel has the right to defend itself.” That’s undoubtedly true. And yet it’s equally clear that Israeli actions are unlikely to deter Hamas. Nor will re-establishing military superiority over a technologically primitive enemy obscure Israel’s new and acute vulnerabilities. The shocking images of lynch mobs and street fighting between Arabs and Jews within Israel underscore the fact that the most formidable threat to the country’s present and future stability is now internal. About one in five Israelis are Arabs, the descendants of Palestinians who...