World

As soon as rumors started buzzing that soccer star Lionel Messi would transfer from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain in August, Miguel Schweizer decided to buy the French club’s fan token, $PSG, on a hunch that prices would spike. They did — but he didn’t hold the tokens for long. He sold them a few days later, betting the rally would be short-lived. His trade proved correct: prices were down 34% a week later, and 73% from when the tokens were issued after four months. “I would never keep them in my investment portfolio for the long term,” said Schweizer, 29, chief executive officer of Decrypto, a Buenos-Aires based exchange and wallet. “They’re trade opportunities.” For many hopeful fans, soccer club tokens have proved a disappointment, with prices quickly losing steam within days. It’...

According to the Office for National Statistics, 4.9 million people in Britain, or 1 in 13, were infected with Covid-19 as of March 26 — a record high since its survey began in April 2020. Bloomberg | Getty Images LONDON — A new omicron subvariant has been detected in the U.K. as the country faces a renewed surge in Covid-19 hospitalizations. The XE variant, as it is known, has so far been detected in 637 patients nationwide, according to the latest statistics from the U.K. Health Security Agency, which said there is currently not enough evidence to draw conclusions on its transmissibility or severity. XE contains a mix of the previously highly infectious omicron BA.1 strain, which emerged in late 2021, and the newer "stealth" BA.2 variant, currently the U.K.'s dominant variant. It is wh...

Oil prices tumbled 5% in volatile trading on Tuesday on demand concerns after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reduced its economic growth forecasts and warned of higher inflation. Prices fell despite lower output from OPEC+, which produced 1.45 million barrels per day (bpd) below its targets in March, as Russian output began to decline following sanctions imposed by the West, according to a report from the producer alliance seen by Reuters. Russia produced about 300,000 bpd below its target in March at 10.018 million bpd, based on secondary sources, the report showed. Brent crude declined 5.22% to $107.25, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude settled 5.2% lower at $102.56 per barrel. The IMF cut its forecast for global economic growth by nearly a full percentage point, citing...

Many governments in Asia remain ambivalent about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Japan, in contrast, has been full-throated in its support for the besieged country. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has applauded Tokyo, telling the Japan’s Parliament that “You were the first in Asia to put real pressure on Russia to restore peace.” Tokyo should use its influence and its political capital to persuade countries sitting on the fence to join it and support a global order that is under attack. There are multiple reasons that governments in Asia and elsewhere have refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. For some, there is anxiety about taking sides in a geopolitical contest between the West and Moscow (and China). There are doubts about the degree to which Western positions reflec...

Pods, operated by Carbfix, containing technology for storing carbon dioxide underground, in Hellisheidi, Iceland, on Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2021. Startups Climeworks AG and Carbfix are working together to store carbon dioxide removed from the air deep underground to reverse some of the damage CO2 emissions are doing to the planet. Photographer: Arnaldur Halldorsson/Bloomberg via Getty Images Online payments-technology provider Stripe is teaming up with several other companies, including Google parent Alphabet and Facebook parent Meta, to commit nearly $1 billion in spurring the carbon-capture market. On Tuesday the companies announced the creation of Frontier, which plans to purchase $925 million worth of permanent carbon removal from companies that are developing the technology over the next...

TOKYO :Japan's household spending rose for a second consecutive month year-on-year in February, helped by a flattering comparison with last year's sharp pandemic-induced slump but the consumer sector is now facing growing headwinds from soaring prices. Households cut spending from the previous month as pandemic curbs, rapid food and fuel price rises and the coronavirus kept wallets shut, casting a shadow over the world's third-largest economy. In a sign of trouble for consumer sentiment, real wage growth stagnated in February as global inflationary pressures weighed on household purchasing power. "Prices will outpace wage gains from now on, so consumption will be on a sluggish trend," said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute. "While service spending is exp...

A former police officer who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was found guilty on all six charges at trial in a verdict reached Monday. Thomas Robertson, who was an officer in Rocky Mount, Virginia, when he entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, was arrested last January and soon after fired by the city. The outcome was another win for the Justice Department, which is overseeing an unprecedented investigation into the hundreds of people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. Robertson was the second Jan. 6 defendant to take his case to a jury, after Guy Reffitt was convicted on all counts last month. In the Robertson case, jurors deliberated Friday afternoon and all day Monday before reaching a verdict just before 5:30 p.m. Jacob Fracker, a fellow police officer who Robertson called "son," testif...

HONG KONG :China is encouraging long-term investors to buy more equities and major shareholders of listed firms to increase their holdings when stocks slump, in a bid to stabilise a stock market rocked by a worsening COVID-19 outbreak. The government will also facilitate corporate financing in COVID-hit areas and urge state shareholders of listed firms to actively buy undervalued stocks, the country's securities watchdog said in a statement on its website late on Monday. China's benchmark CSI300 index fell 3.1per cent on Monday, the biggest drop in a month, as a lockdown in Shanghai and other parts of the country threatens economic growth. The market dipped further on Tuesday morning to a near four-week low, bringing this year's loss to 17per cent, as investors appeared unmoved by the a...

TOKYO :The Bank of Japan on Monday cut its assessment for most regional economies in the country and its governor warned of "very high uncertainty" over the fallout from the Ukraine crisis, underscoring heightening risks to the economic recovery. The downgrade highlights a growing concern among policymakers over the pain from rising commodity costs, and raises the chance that the central bank will cut its growth forecasts in fresh projections due this month. "There's very high uncertainty on how developments in Ukraine could affect Japan's economy and prices," BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda told a meeting of the bank's branch managers. A senior BOJ official also warned on Monday that excessive volatility in yen moves could hurt businesses, signalling the bank's alarm over the currency's s...

LVIV: US President Joe Biden said for the first time that Moscow's invasion of Ukraine amounts to genocide, as President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would "rhythmically and calmly" continue its operation and achieve its goals. "Yes, I called it genocide because it has become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of being able to be Ukrainian and the evidence is mounting," Biden told reporters as he prepared to board Air Force One on Tuesday (Apr 12). Biden has repeatedly called Putin a war criminal, but delivering a speech at an ethanol plant in Iowa earlier on Tuesday the US president escalated his rhetoric to accuse Russia of genocide. "We'll let the lawyers decide internationally whether or not it qualifies, but it sure seems that way to me." Russia ...