World

An appeals court on Thursday unanimously rejected a bid by former President Donald Trump and two of his adult children to avoid being compelled to answer questions under oath by investigators for New York Attorney General Letitia James as part of her civil investigation of Trump Organization business practices. The decision was the latest legal loss for Trump in his efforts to limit the probe by James, who is focused on allegations that the Trump Organization illegally manipulated the stated valuations of different real estate assets for financial gain. In addition to Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr., and his daughter Ivanka Trump must comply with subpoenas issued by James seeking their testimony, according to the four-page order by a panel of four judges in the Appellate Division of the ...

BEIJING: New bank lending in China tumbled in April from the previous month as the COVID-19 pandemic jolted the economy and weakened credit demand, central bank data showed on Friday (May 13), after it pledged to step up support to ward off a sharper slowdown. Chinese banks extended 645.4 billion yuan (US$95.14 billion) in new yuan loans in April, down about 80 per cent from March and falling short of analyst expectations, according to the People's Bank of China data. Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted new yuan loans would fall to 1.52 trillion yuan in April from 3.13 trillion yuan the previous month and against 1.47 trillion yuan a year earlier. "Lending was much weaker than expected last month as lockdowns weighed on credit demand. This should nudge the PBOC to announce further ...

BEIJING : Plunging demand for soyoil in China is expected to cut consumption of the oilseed in the world's biggest user as lockdowns to prevent the spread of COVID have shuttered restaurants and canteens, according to traders and analysts. China is the world's top consumer of edible oils, with millions of restaurants guzzling about half of the country's roughly 17 million tonnes of soyoil, made from crushing soybeans, consumed each year to fry food. But a two-month lockdown in Shanghai, China's largest and wealthiest city, and anti-COVID-19 movement curbs in several other major cities have cut soyoil consumption, which will carry over to demand for soybeans. Demand for all edible oils in the 2021/22 marketing year beginning last September is set to drop 8.45 per cent from a year ago to ...

KYIV: Russian forces were conducting an all-out assault on Tuesday (May 24) to encircle Ukrainian troops in twin cities straddling a river in eastern Ukraine, a battle which could determine the success or failure of Moscow's main campaign in the east. Exactly three months after President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian forces into Ukraine, authorities in its second-largest city Kharkiv re-opened the underground metro, where thousands of civilians had sheltered for months under relentless bombardment. The move was evidence of Ukraine's biggest military success in recent weeks: Pushing Russian forces largely out of artillery range of Kharkiv, as they did from the capital Kyiv in March. But the decisive battles of the war's latest phase are still raging further south, where Moscow is attemp...

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan authorities imposed a nationwide curfew and deployed the army on Monday (May 9) after dozens of people were hospitalised when government supporters armed with sticks and clubs attacked protestors, AFP reporters said. The US ambassador to Sri Lanka condemned "the violence against peaceful protestors today, and call on the government to conduct a full investigation, including the arrest & prosecution of anyone who incited violence". Sri Lankans have suffered months of blackouts and dire shortages of food, fuel and medicines in the island's worst economic crisis since independence, sparking weeks of overwhelmingly peaceful anti-government protests. But on Monday the biggest clashes since the start of the crisis erupted in Colombo when supporters of the family of Preside...

SINGAPORE: A driver was fined S$5,000 on Wednesday (Jun 1) for smuggling two reticulated pythons into Singapore through Tuas Checkpoint. The two pythons were euthanised after they were found to have severe, chronic and irreversible health conditions. Pulenthiran Palaniappan, 51, was sentenced after pleading guilty to one count of importing a protected species without a permit. Two more charges of failing to take reasonable steps to ensure the pythons were not transported in a safe manner were considered for sentencing. The reptiles were seized on Apr 7 by Immigration and Checkpoints Authority officers who inspected a Malaysia-registered container truck driven by Palaniappan. They were found hidden in cloth bundles in a Styrofoam box concealed in an overhead compartment above the drive...

SINGAPORE: Southeast Asian fintech platform Grab Financial Group announced on Monday (May 23) that it will be launching a new brand - GrabFin - for its digital payments, insurance, lending and wealth management offerings, as well as an investment product for Singapore-based Grab users. GrabFin offers Grab users a "single entry point" to payment, investment and insurance services on its app, said the ride-hailing giant in a media release. "GrabFin also represents Grab’s commitment to empower Southeast Asia with greater financial access," it added. The release also said that the brand will offer everyday financial services that are simple to activate, which are "fractionalised" so that more people can access them and flexible to allow consumers to choose how they use the products with no ...

LONDON : The United States announced a record-sized release of emergency crude oil reserves in March without consulting partners in the International Energy Agency, leaving them scrambling to match with releases of their own, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Unilateral action by Washington to address global supply or price issues risks undermining the U.S. relationship with the IEA, the world's energy watchdog that normally oversees international releases from emergency stockpiles, and could raise questions about the continued relevance of the group. The Paris-based IEA, which groups together 31 mostly industrialized countries, was established after the 1973 oil price shock to ensure continuous energy supplies to its members in the event of an embargo, war, or devastati...

MUMBAI: India's huge diamond-polishing industry has furloughed around 250,000 of its roughly two million workers because of sanctions on Russia hitting supplies, a trade union said Thursday (May 19). The South Asian nation cuts and polishes 90 per cent of the world's diamonds, with Russian diamond miners such as Alrosa traditionally accounting for 30 to 40 per cent of India's imported rough gems. "This problem has started ever since the Russia-Ukraine war began," Ramesh Zilariya, president of the Diamond Workers' Union Gujarat, told AFP. "Western countries like the United States and Europe have stopped accepting Russian diamonds that have been polished in India," he said. Workers were furloughed this month in the western state of Gujarat, the main hub of the industry, Zilariya added, a...

IMPACT ON SINGAPORE HOUSEHOLDS, BUSINESSES With the Federal Reserve set to hike rates a few more times this year, this will continue to put upward pressure on interest rates in Singapore in the short- and medium-term, said Mr Christopher Wong, Southeast Asia portfolio strategist at Fidelity International. These higher interest rates may be felt by Singapore households and businesses. “Households may be impacted by the rising cost of mortgage and other loans on top of the general rise in cost of living that they are currently already facing,” he said. The ongoing upward trajectory for US interest rates is likely to drive further upside for domestic rates in the coming months, and that may translate to higher cost of debt for both households and businesses, added IG's Mr Yeap. But he sa...