World

U.S. President Joe Biden formally introduced the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, or IPEF, this week during his first Asia tour, revealing Washington's long-awaited Asia-Pacific economic strategy. It comes five years after the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal signed by 12 countries in Asia-Pacific, North America and South America. With the U.S. withdrawal, the remaining countries went on to launch the CPTPP, or Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership — one of the world's biggest multilateral trade deals, and one that China requested to join. Since then, the U.S. has been largely absent in the region, made worse by its trade war with China. But the IPEF has broken the ice. Still, analysts and observers say the deal lacks "teeth" and...

SINGAPORE: Even before it had the usual cashless payment options, homeware e-retailer &glazed was already allowing customers to pay for their purchases using cryptocurrency. Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin were among those accepted at its checkout page since the start of the year, before other familiar options such as PayNow were added. Co-founder Lionel Lim made the less-typical decision, partly due to his interest in the burgeoning space. He invests in cryptocurrencies, and also holds a full-time job at a crypto exchange based in Singapore. Besides, having as many payment methods as possible would be the way to go for an online store, he said. “We want to make it as seamless as possible – to the extent that whatever you want to pay with, we got it,” he told CNA. So far, it seems very...

HONG KONG: The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) stepped into currency markets for the first time in 18 months, twice buying Hong Kong dollars to stop the local currency weakening and breaking its peg to the US dollar. The de facto central bank bought HK$1.586 billion (US$202 million) from the market in UStrading on Wednesday and a further HK$4.082 billion in Hong Kong trading on Thursday. The Hong Kong dollar is pegged to a tight band of between 7.75 and 7.85 versus the US dollar. It has been softening as US interest rates rise while a surfeit of cash in the local banking system keeps Hong Kong rates pinned down. One-month US dollar Libor, a benchmark lending rate, is around 0.8 per cent - its highest since April 2020 - while the Hong Kong equivalent, one-month Hibor, is under 0.2 pe...

NEW YORK :Oil prices rebounded from two days of losses in a volatile session on Thursday, bolstered by weakness in the dollar and expectations that China could ease some lockdown restrictions that could boost demand. Crude benchmarks continued their spate of wild swings, with both Brent and U.S. crude rising by nearly $5 a barrel in the span of a few hours, recovering from losses earlier in the week. "The market has been extremely volatile," said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston. "The market is reacting to all sorts of different headlines hour to hour, and the movement in oil markets on a day-by-day basis getting even more exaggerated." Brent crude futures for July settled at $112.04, a gain of $2.93 a barrel, or 2.7 per cent. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI)...

BEIJING/HONG KONG :China's property sales in April fell at their fastest pace in around 16 years as COVID-19 lockdowns further cooled demand despite more policy easing steps aimed at reviving a key pillar of the world's second-largest economy. Property sales by value in April slumped 46.6 per cent from a year earlier, the biggest drop since August 2006, and sharply widening from the 26.17 per cent fall in March, according to Reuters calculations based on data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Monday. Property sales in January-April by value fell 29.5 per cent year-on-year, compared with a 22.7 per cent decline in the first three months. A further cut in mortgage loan interest rates for some home buyers announced by Chinese authorities on Sunday did little to convi...

KUALA LUMPUR: United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has filed a lawsuit against Dr Mahathir Mohamad, saying that the former prime minister’s remarks about him are defamatory and malicious. Malaysian media reported that the suit is in regard to Dr Mahathir’s comments that Ahmad Zahid had sought his help to get his corruption charges dropped. The UMNO leader filed his statement of claim on Apr 20 at the Kuala Lumpur High Court, seeking an injunction to stop Dr Mahathir from repeating his remarks. The Star reported that the suit was scheduled for case management before High Court deputy registrar Nor Afidah Idris on Wednesday (Apr 27). Citing the court document, the Star said that Dr Mahathir uttered the alleged defamatory statements at an event by Parti ...

Xander Miller, 18, will graduate from Hastings High School in Hastings, Minnesota, this June, and he has big plans for his future. Rather than attend Minnesota State or get a liberal arts degree like his older brother, Miller is enrolled in Dakota County Technical College with a guaranteed job through Waste Management's apprentice program. "I did have plans to go to a four-year school," he said. However, "it didn't seem valuable enough to me to offset the cost." Miller will instead start as a part-time technician and then transition into a full-time employee complete with tools and a tuition reimbursement. Xander Miller, right, with his brother Andrew and mother Lisa. Source: Xander Miller More than two years into the pandemic, nearly three-quarters, or 73%, of high schoolers think a dir...

:Globalive Capital has entered into a spectrum and network sharing agreement with Telus Corp to bolster the Canadian investment firm's prospects of buying Shaw Communications Inc's wireless business, the companies said on Thursday. The agreement is conditional on Globalive's successful acquisition of Freedom Mobile Inc and does not involve financial investment from Telus. The sale of Shaw's wireless business, Freedom Mobile Inc, to a credible bidder is seen critical for Rogers Communications' to clinch its C$20 billion ($15.6 billion) bid for Shaw. Canada's antitrust agency has blocked Rogers' deal to buy Calgary-based Shaw on the grounds it would reduce competition in the wireless industry. The bureau also rejected the prospective buyers presented by Rogers-Shaw to sell Freedom Mobile ...

"[I'm an] entrepreneur first, then a baker. If you want to be a baker, then go work for someone else," says 19-year-old Justin Ellen, who has bringing in 6-figures with his cake business. When Justin Ellen received a "random" direct message on Instagram asking if he would like to be part of a Netflix show called "Is It Cake?" — he thought it was "very sketchy." It was only when they said there was an interview that he realized, "OK, it's legit," said the youngest contestant of the popular baking show. After a Zoom interview and a month of waiting, Ellen — who was 18 at that time — was picked to participate. It was very overwhelming, he admitted. "Because I was super young … and I realized I had to fly and stay in a hotel by myself. Filming was a whole month. I've never been away from my f...

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, U.S. President Joe Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrive for the Quad Leaders' Summit in Tokyo on May 24. Saul Loeb | Afp | Getty Images TOKYO — Security deals are important, but in Asia, money talks. Australia, India, Japan and the United States wrapped their second Quad Leaders' Summit on Tuesday in Tokyo, following a weekend visit by U.S. President Joe Biden to South Korea. The Quad countries and others in Asia made clear over the last five days that while things like maritime defense are important, real security has to heed Asian countries' economic wants and needs. The Quad is an informal security alignment of four major democracies that came about in response to China's rising strength ...