World

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...

SAN FRANCISCO/SEOUL: LG Energy Solution (LGES), a supplier for electric car makers Tesla and Lucid, said on Thursday (Mar 24) in Korea it plans to invest 1.7 trillion Korean won (US$1.4 billion) to build a battery factory in Arizona by 2024 to meet demand from "prominent startups" and other North American customers. This will be its first US factory to make cylindrical cells, a type of battery that has been used in Tesla and Lucid vehicles, LGES said. Construction will begin in the second quarter of 2022, with mass production to start in 2024 with production capacity of 11 gigawatt hours, LGES said in a statement. Earlier, Reuters reported that potential customers would include EV makers Tesla, Lucid and Proterra and Philip Morris, maker of IQOS heated-tobacco sticks, among others. The r...

Judging by the amount of public comment in English-language media, the world is on the brink of derangement about the state of gasoline prices. U.S. gas prices hit a record level earlier this month. Limiting “the pain the American people are feeling at the gas pump” was one of the main objectives President Joe Biden set out in responding to the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last month. The situation has even been blamed for the sinking of Sarah Bloom Raskin’s nomination to become vice chair of the Federal Reserve. That seems justified by public interest in the subject. Going by Google searches, concern is the highest it’s been in years. What’s curious is that much of the world doesn’t see things the same way. Look, for instance, at the major emerging market oil consumers, and wh...

SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong addressed the nation on Thursday (Mar 24), giving an update on Singapore's new phase and a "decisive move towards living with COVID-19". This is the Prime Minister's full address - My fellow Singaporeans, Our fight against COVID-19 has reached a major turning point. We will be making a decisive move towards living with COVID-19. The multi-ministry taskforce (MTF) will announce the changes after this broadcast. But let me set the context, take stock of our journey thus far and explain our plans moving forward. We have battled COVID-19 for more than two years now. Right from the start, we had one overriding aim: To protect lives, and prevent as many avoidable deaths as possible. We saw in other countries bleak images of people desperately seekin...

For decades, global finance firms eagerly catered to Russian firms, billionaires and the government. Then tanks started rolling into Ukraine. Citigroup Inc., which has thousands of staff and billions of dollars of assets in Russia, has said it will cut back much of its business in the country. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Deutsche Bank AG are also heading for the exit, with some financiers relocating to other hubs such as Dubai. They’re being followed by lawyers and other professionals. It’s perhaps the harshest and fastest exclusion in living memory of a major industrialized economy. The past few weeks have been a frantic dash to understand and implement sanctions that are being continually updated by jurisdictions including the U.S., U.K., Japan and the European U...

Facing crushing sanctions from the West over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Moscow is scrambling for fallback options in the East. After all, the past two decades have seen Russia’s bilateral trade value with Asia almost matching its historically robust economic relations with Europe. Largely shut off from the stock markets, tech sector and financial institutions of the West, Russia is pinning its hopes on revitalized ties with Asian partners. With close to half of Moscow’s financial assets frozen, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has hoped that “our partnership with China will still allow us to maintain the cooperation … where Western markets are closing.” Weeks earlier, Sergey Karaganov, a Kremlin adviser, had admitted that “China is our strategic cushion.” “We know that in any ...

Global tech funds are back in demand and investment inflows are surging as rising inflationary pressures and a selloff in bonds drive investors into a sector perceived as both cheap and resilient. According to Refinitiv data, tech funds have received inflows worth US$2.55 billion since March 16, after outflows worth US$6.86 billion in the first two months of this year. "Tech stocks have not seen a decline in fundamentals, so we see this rally as a rebound from over-cautious investors expecting the Fed would tighten policy too fast," said Amanda Agati, chief investment officer at PNC Asset Management Group. "Going forward, we have first-quarter earnings season just weeks away ... One of the standouts is expected to be tech, which has been the earnings workhorse during the pandemic," she ...

The commodity price spike that has been worsened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine isn’t an equal-opportunity dispenser of economic distress. The surging energy costs are causing headaches for governments around the world, but are especially painful for poorer nations that rely heavily on imported fuels. These countries don’t have the fiscal buffer enjoyed by wealthier peers, and can’t count on increased revenue from their own exports. Morocco, Thailand, Vietnam and Pakistan are some of the most-affected larger economies, based on energy import and gross domestic product data from the United Nations. Poorer families in those countries — and others — will find it tougher to buy basic goods, manufacturing sectors that support millions of jobs will be at risk, and some governments may even fi...