World

HONG KONG/HANOI :TikTok has been conducting tests so users can play games on its video-sharing app in Vietnam, part of plans for a major push into gaming, four people familiar with the matter said. Featuring games on its platform would boost advertising revenue as well as the amount of time users spend on the app - one of the world's most popular with more than 1 billion monthly active users. Boasting a tech-savvy population with 70 per cent of its citizens under the age of 35, Vietnam is an attractive market for social media platforms such as TikTok, Meta Platforms Inc's Facebook and Alphabet Inc's YouTube and Google. TikTok, which is owned by China's ByteDance, also plans to roll out gaming more widely in Southeast Asia, the people said. That move could come as early as the third quar...

BRUSSELS: The European Commission said on Thursday (May 12) it would work with EU governments to help Ukraine export millions of tonnes of grain stuck in the country because the Russian navy is blocking Ukrainian ports. Ukraine was the world's fourth-largest grain exporter in the 2020/21 season, International Grains Council data shows, selling 44.7 million tonnes abroad, mainly to China, Africa and Europe. It is also one of the biggest producers of sunflower oil. Before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb 24, 90 per cent of the grains and sunflower oil were shipped out through Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea - a route now closed off. Problems with getting the grain out of Ukraine threaten to cause a food crisis, especially in poorer regions like Africa. "20 million tonnes of grains have to l...

China's crude oil imports from top supplier Saudi Arabia soared 38 per cent in April from a year earlier, hitting the highest monthly volume since May 2020, according to Reuters' calculations based on official Chinese customs data. Saudi shipments amounted to 8.93 million tonnes last month, equivalent to 2.17 million barrels per day (bpd), according to data from the Chinese General Administration of Customs. The hefty purchases, with trades completed mostly in February, compared with 1.61 million bpd in March and 1.57 million bpd a year earlier. Imports from second-largest supplier Russia rose a more modest 4 per cent last month from a year earlier, with cargoes booked before western governments toughened sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine in late February. Russian oil arrival...

WASHINGTON: The United States will share technologies used to make COVID-19 vaccines through the World Health Organization (WHO) and is working to expand rapid testing and antiviral treatments for hard-to-reach populations, President Joe Biden said on Thursday (May 12). The US will contribute an additional US$200 million to a global health fund for future pandemic preparedness at the World Bank, he said, bringing its total contribution to $450 million. "We are making available health technologies that are owned by the United States government, including stabilised spike protein that is used in many COVID-19 vaccines," Biden said in his opening speech for the second global COVID-19 summit. The summit, jointly hosted by the United States, Belize, Germany, Indonesia and Senegal, is being h...

If the Supreme Court chooses to repeal Roe v. Wade — effectively removing nearly 50 years of federal protections for abortion — it could be catastrophic for the economy, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned on Tuesday. Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey asked Yellen what the economic consequences of overturning the ruling would be during a Senate Banking Committee hearing, NBC reports. "I believe that eliminating the right of women to make decisions about when and whether to have children would have very damaging effects on the economy and would set women back decades," Yellen, who is the first woman to lead the Treasury, said. Yellen added that research has shown how having access to abortion has allowed women to plan "fulfilling and satisfying" lives, in addition to impro...

Gina Raimondo, Secretary of Commerce, at the WEF in Davos, Switzerland on May 25th, 2022. "Friend-shoring" refers to working with countries that possess a "strong adherence to a set of norms and values about how to operate in the global economy and how to run the global economic system," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen outlined in a speech in April. "It is a huge national security issue and we need to move to making chips in America, not friend-shoring," Raimondo told CNBC exclusively at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday. While the CHIPS (Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors) for America Act was passed in January 2021, Congress has yet to agree on a bill that would appropriate resources for its various programs, despite bipartisan support for ...

Select’s editorial team works independently to review financial products and write articles we think our readers will find useful. We earn a commission from affiliate partners on many offers, but not all offers on Select are from affiliate partners. Using your rate of return, the Rule of 72 is a simplified formula that measures the effect of compound interest on your investment dollars. As a refresher, compound interest is calculated on your principal amount, plus your accumulated interest. It essentially pays interest on top of interest and is a huge perk of investing in the market since your interest earned is automatically reinvested, earning you even more. Luckily, there's a mathematical shortcut to help you estimate the future value of an investment. The Rule of 72 is a quick way to...

Some businesses use overseas call centres, many of which are located in India and the Philippines, because the labour costs in these countries are much lower. Forum threads discussing +65 calls said they could also be from legitimate companies that use cloud-based Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services to make voice calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of a regular phone line. VoIP calls are cost-effective and can intentionally spoof a +65 number to make them appear more legitimate locally. Mr Kevin Reed, chief information security officer at cybersecurity firm Acronis, said VoIP calls work using “from” and “to” entries. “They resemble ‘from’ and ‘to’ on plain old letters – sender can write almost anything there and receiver may not even check the ‘from’ part becau...

WASHINGTON: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating 109 childhood cases of a mysterious form of hepatitis, including five reported deaths, the agency said Friday (May 6). It is part of an unexplained global phenomenon involving hundreds of cases, with Indonesia this week also reporting three deaths. Britain on Friday announced its case count had increased to 163, the majority aged under five, with no deaths. "Investigators both here ... and around the globe are working hard to determine the cause," said Jay Butler, deputy director for infectious diseases for the CDC. Health authorities think the cases might be linked to a wave of type of virus called adenovirus, but are trying to confirm the theory. Ninety percent of the US cases have involved hospitalizatio...

According to a new survey by Cisco, 75% of respondents said they save money on food and entertainment through hybrid work schedules. D3sign | Moment | Getty Images Hybrid work arrangements are popular these days for many reasons — and one of them is that they can save workers thousands each year. A new survey by the tech conglomerate Cisco — which was conducted this year among more than 6,000 respondents from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Philippines — showed that 86% of workers saved money by working partly from home in the past year. Average savings reached more than $7,500 a year, with 85% of respondents saying they believe they can maintain these savings over the long term through hybrid work schedules. This may be why "only 5% said that they wanted to go back ...