World

NEW DELHI : Anger against Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's handling of a deepening economic crisis in the island nation of 22 million people spiralled into violence late on Thursday, as hundreds of protesters clashed with police for several hours. A severe shortage of foreign currency has left Rajapaksa's government unable to pay for essential imports, including fuel, leading to debilitating power cuts lasting up to 13 hours. Ordinary Sri Lankans are also dealing with shortages and soaring inflation, after the country steeply devalued its currency last month ahead of talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a loan programme. HOW DID SRI LANKA GET HERE? Critics say the roots of the crisis, the worst in several decades, lie in economic mismanagement by successive gov...

A job seeker visits a Job News USA career fair in Louisville, Kentucky, on June 23, 2021. A new Kentucky law cuts the maximum duration of unemployment benefits by more than half, to 12 weeks, during periods of low unemployment. Luke Sharrett | Bloomberg | Getty Images Cuts will put financial stress on unemployed individuals who can't find work quickly, forcing some into low-paid jobs outside their career fields, and present questions of racial equity since Black and Latinx individuals are often unemployed at higher rates, according to labor advocates. The moves are also short-sighted given the serious flaws in state programs exposed by the pandemic, critics said. "As long as we don't have a strong set of federal standards, states can keep chopping it away," according to Amy Traub, a seni...

JAKARTA: GoTo surged as much as 23 per cent in its stock market debut on Monday (Apr 11) after Indonesia's largest tech company raised US$1.1 billion in a keenly watched IPO, fuelling expectations of more offerings from the sector in Southeast Asia's largest economy. The initial public offering (IPO) is the world's fifth-largest this year, Refinitiv data showed, and came despite IPOs being pulled due to the Russia-Ukraine war and rising interest rates. PT GoTo Gojek Tokopedia Tbk was formed by last year's merger of ride-hailing-to-payments company Gojek and e-commerce leader Tokopedia, with its businesses straddling millions of small and mid-sized firms across the archipelago. "There was no perfect timing for this IPO, but our focus was on Indonesia, with a local investor audience," GoT...

:Shares on Wall Street took a breather on Friday after a tech-driven rally and U.S. Treasury yields rose to fresh heights as markets evaluated a world of elevated interest rates and the effects of Russia's war in Ukraine. The Nasdaq fell about 0.16per cent as technology and healthcare stocks pulled back, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 edged up about 0.5per cent, with energy and financial shares rising on oil price gains and bets on interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe was up 0.11per cent, adding a second consecutive week of gains for the first time in 2022. The pan-European STOXX 600 index also inched up 0.11per cent, but was down on the week. Share prices have been supported by global flash Purchasing Managers' Index (P...

BEIJING : China's manufacturing hub of Shenzhen is starting to get back on its feet after being hit by shutdowns in a recent COVID-19 outbreak, but many smaller firms worry about their near-term outlook, clouded by uncertain demand, Securities Times reported. Shenzhen's recent "war" on COVID-19 has hurt up to 93per cent of the local small and medium-sized companies surveyed by the state-controlled newspaper, with many suffering production disruptions due to shutdowns, interruptions in supply chains, and delays in order executions. Shenzhen allowed businesses and factories to restart operations on March 21 after authorities declared the latest outbreak had been brought under control. The city, which has grappled with multiple outbreaks so far this year, conducted three rounds of mass tes...

LONDON : Thousands of holidaymakers have seen their Easter getaways disrupted or cancelled because airlines and airports do not have enough staff to meet the recovery in demand as pandemic restrictions are eased in Europe. High rates of COVID-19 in Britain have caused staff absences for airlines and airports that were already struggling to recruit after workers deserted the industry during the pandemic. Low-cost carrier easyJet was one of the worst affected, saying it cancelled around 60 UK flights on Tuesday and expected to pull a similar number in the coming days. It cancelled more than 200 at the weekend and another 62 on Monday. Paul Charles, head of travel consultancy The PC Agency, said it could take at least two or three months to get through a nasty cocktail of staff shortages, ...

SINGAPORE: Measures put into place to enhance Singapore’s energy security will be extended to the end of June, the Energy Market Authority (EMA) announced on Thursday (Mar 30). These extensions are in light of the global energy crunch and the conflict in Ukraine, EMA said. “Global gas prices had increased significantly due to high demand and tight gas supply. The conflict in Ukraine has further exacerbated the risk of disruptions in gas and oil,” the agency said. As around 95 per cent of Singapore's electricity is generated from imported natural gas, consumers cannot be shielded from the global volatility and higher energy prices, it added. “EMA will monitor the situation and consider extending the measures further if necessary, depending on the global energy situation and its impact o...

In India, roadside restaurateurs are halving their palm oil use and moving into steamed snacks. Bakers in Ivory Coast want to cut the size of their standard baguette. Sandwiches from U.S. fast-food stalls are headed for fewer slices of bacon, pizzas for a more parsimonious sprinkle of pepperoni. With the world economy already shackled by shortages linked to COVID-19 and now reeling from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, prices of basics such as bread, meat and cooking oils have jumped across the world, sending shock waves through commodity markets and damaging the global food system. For the most vulnerable societies — think Yemen, which imports 90% of its food in the midst of a grinding conflict and depreciating currency — this poses a genuine risk of hunger. Elsewhere, it triggers worries ...

TAIPEI: Taiwan's spy catchers have launched probes into around 100 Chinese companies suspected of illegally poaching semiconductor engineers and other tech talent, a senior official at the island's Investigation Bureau told Reuters. That comes on top of seven prosecuted since the start of last year and includes 27 which have either been raided or whose owners have been summoned for questioning by the bureau, the official said. Home to industry giant TSMC and accounting for 92 per cent of the world's most advanced semiconductor manufacturing capacity, Taiwan possesses what China needs - chip expertise in spades. A global chip shortage and Beijing's avowed goal of achieving self-reliance in advanced chips - more forcefully promoted by Chinese President Xi Jinping after a trade war with th...

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida hopes to bridge the differences between Western and Southeast Asian approaches to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in a trip to Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and the U.K. While Europe, the United States and Japan have taken tough actions against Russia, many Southeast Asian nations are reluctant to impose sanctions due to their close relations with Moscow. Kishida is considering visiting the countries during the Golden Week holiday period, from the end of April to early May. The focal point of his visit would be how much cooperation he can elicit from the Southeast Asian countries, including on sanctions against Russia. The trip would be Kishida's second visit to other parts of Asia since he took office in October last year. On his first visit, in March, he went...