World

CELEBRATING WOMEN OF THE YEAR Despite their diverse backgrounds across Southeast Asia, the Lazada Forward Woman of the Year Award recipients all share several things in common – the grit needed to build a business from scratch, the resourcefulness needed to deal with the unexpected, and the willingness to share their skills with their staff and communities. For example, take former university physics lecturer Farica Edgina Yosafat. The 36-year-old knew that her e-commerce venture on Lazada – a mother and baby product shop called Berry Baby – had the potential to succeed, but it needed a skilled team to bring it places. Ms Yosafat trained her staff in data analytics, marketing and product listing, empowering them with new skills as well as pushing her business forward. Her experience and ...

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's public transport was crippled Wednesday (Mar 2) as buses ran out of diesel, officials said as the country's foreign exchange crisis worsened with no dollars to import fuel. The Private Bus Owners' Association said they were able to operate only about a quarter of their fleet of 20,000 vehicles, while drivers reported queuing for seven hours to top up fuel. "I could not run the bus for two days because there was no diesel," said 51-year-old bus driver Sarath. "I have been in the diesel queue for seven-and-a-half hours." Many commuters were seen using their own motorcycles and small cars Wednesday after bus operators warned of drastically scaled back schedules. One of Sri Lanka's biggest fuel suppliers, Lanka IOC, put up prices by as much as 12 percent on Saturday w...

WASHINGTON : The surge in crude oil prices past $100 a barrel has raised a big question: Will this latest spike in the notoriously volatile oil market help to speed the global transition from fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources to fight climate change? The answer is probably not. On the one hand, energy analysts say, soaring prices for gasoline, diesel and other products made from crude oil will drive cost-conscious consumers more quickly into electric vehicles and boost investment in competing clean technologies like hydrogen. But at the same time, these high prices will also drive more drilling of oil and gas around the globe, as fossil fuel companies rush to cash in, sowing the seeds for the boom to turn to bust. That will make oil abundant and affordable again. That is a pattern...

BEIJING/SHANGHAI :China's foreign exchange regulator has questioned banks over their exposure to the Russian-Ukraine crisis, following concerns Washington may sanction financial institutions or even block them from the U.S. dollar settlement system, sources said. The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) last week asked lenders whether they had business involving Russian peers and how they managed risk control, seven banking and policy sources said on condition of anonymity. The SAFE has not responded to Reuters' request for comments. One source said the aim was to enable regulators to better prepare and prevent systemic risk. The sources said the regulator enquired about business and risk control management with respect to operations in regions including Belarus and the sepa...

MILAN : Having sold its motorway business in Italy, Atlantia is investing in smart traffic technology to help drive development of cleaner transport and open up new markets such as the United States. Controlled by the Benetton family, the infrastructure group is seeking to finally put behind it a dispute triggered by the deadly collapse of a motorway bridge operated by its Autostrade per l'Italia business in Genoa in 2018. It sold that business and has started using some of the 8 billion euro ($8.7 billion) proceeds expected in the coming months from the transaction to expand into smart traffic tech. In January, it bought Siemens Yunex Traffic division for 950 million euros - a move that made it the only major motorway operator in Europe with a smart traffic business. Now, as first mov...

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. Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi first came up with the idea for Brex when they participated in Y Combinator, a tech start-up accelerator. While their original idea was to build a virtual reality company, they quickly realized how difficult it was for start-ups and small businesses to secure financing from traditional banks. Instead, they created Brex, a business credit card that didn't just consider credit scores for approval but also looked at how much money a business has raised, its existing cash balances and its revenue. Looking at ...

LONDON : Nickel prices lurched higher to hit their daily limits in London and China on Thursday with the large moves fuelled by thin trading conditions. Industrial metals have rallied as disruptions from the Russia-Ukraine conflict and higher energy costs triggered concerns over global supply. Efforts by major Chinese nickel producer Tsingshan Holding Group to reduce its short positions spurred LME nickel prices to rocket to record highs above $100,000 a tonne on March 8, after which trading was suspended for six sessions. One trader said the dominant short position remained, although it was unclear whether Tsingshan was back in the market seeking to cover some of its short position. He added that an illiquid market would make such efforts harder and could be driving the sharp gains. ...

As a busy tour guide in St. Petersburg, Vsevolod Gavrilov never paid much attention to the day’s headlines, instead tracking travel influencers on social media platforms and messaging his friends on the Telegram app. But since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, the 37-year-old said he had been trying to find “credible” news sources due to Russian moves to block numerous global and local news sites, along with social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. “Most news sources are blocked, and those that are not blocked don’t look credible. Telegram channels have become one of the few ways to find out information,” said Gavrilov, who follows pro-Russia, Ukrainian and independent news channels. Russian officials accuse the West of spreading false information about Russia’s invasion o...

China has warned the U.S. against trying to build what it called a Pacific version of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), while declaring that security disputes over Taiwan and Ukraine are "not comparable at all.” China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his annual news briefing Monday that the "real goal” of the U.S.’s Indo-Pacific strategy was to form Asia’s answer to NATO. China has often accused the U.S. of trying to form blocs to suppress its growth — a complaint that’s likely to attract greater attention after Russian President Vladimir Putin cited similar grievances before his invasion of Ukraine. "The perverse actions run counter to the common aspiration of the region for peace, development, cooperation and win-win outcomes,” Wang added. "They are doomed to fail.” Compla...

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. For many people, getting out of debt as quickly as possible is a major priority — especially if you've carried the debt for several years and have been getting crushed by high interest charges. So if you're this close to getting rid of your balance once and for all, you might be wondering if it's a good idea to use savings from an emergency fund to pay off your debt for good. Why paying off debt can feel so urgent Many people aim to pay off debt as soon as possible because paying down your balance means saving on interest charges. "Good" deb...