World

Airlines are bracing for potentially lengthy blockages of key east-west flight corridors after the European Union and Moscow issued tit-for-tat airspace bans and Washington did not rule out similar action in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Industry officials expect the Biden administration will ban Russia from U.S. airspace. The White House said on Monday while barring Russian flights was not off the table, it had yet to make a decision. “There are a lot of flights that U.S. airlines fly over Russia to go to Asia and other parts of the world and we factor in a range of factors,” White House spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters. The issue has been the subject of intense U.S. government discussions in recent days. A European official, who asked not to be identified, said the EU...

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. The Alaska Airlines Visa® Credit Card is a credit card offered by Alaska Airlines and Bank of America that gives consumers the opportunity to earn Alaska miles on their expenses as well as enjoy perks when traveling with the airline. While this is a relatively simple airline credit card, the beauty of the miles you earn lie in being able to book flights with Alaska's partner airlines which include: American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Fiji Airways and more. And while the airline is largely centered around airports o...

South Koreans head to the polls Wednesday to elect a new leader, but it’s unclear if a fresh face in the presidential Blue House will be enough to help repair ties with Tokyo, which have tumbled to their lowest point in decades. The two front-runners in the race — former prosecutor Yoon Suk-yeol of the People Power Party and the ruling Democratic Party’s Lee Jae-myung, a former governor of Gyeonggi province — remain neck-and-neck in their bids to become South Korea’s next leader. But how will the South Korea-Japan relationship fare under a Yoon or Lee administration? Two neighbors divided South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s time in office, a single five-year term that ends in May, has seen ties between the two neighbors deteriorate over a number of thorny historical issues related to ...

SINGAPORE: From Monday (Mar 7), canteens and coffee shops in Singapore will have three new options for accommodating groups of up to five diners. Here is what you need to know about these new options for implementing vaccination-differentiated safe management measures (VDS): WHO CAN DINE IN? There is no change to rules on who can dine in. Dining in at coffee shops and canteens implementing the new VDS options will continue to be limited to those who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19; those who have recovered from COVID-19 in Singapore; children under the age of 12; and those who are medically ineligible for all vaccines under the national vaccination programme. WHAT’S NEW? Prior to the introduction of the new VDS options, coffee shops and canteens had to conduct vaccination...

NEW YORK : The euro retreated from its overnight gains on Thursday following the European Central Bank's announcement it will phase out its stimulus in the third quarter, while the dollar strengthened after a strong U.S. inflation report. The statement from the ECB, which left the door open to an interest rate hike before the end of 2022 as soaring inflation outweighs concerns about the fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, briefly sent the euro higher, before market sentiment turned negative. "The euro got a double whammy, from what is still a relatively dovish ECB - lower growth obviously - and with the higher inflation the market is really starting to price in a rate differential between the dollar and the euro," said Boris Schlossberg, managing director of FX strategy at BK Asse...

Getty Images Interest rates are almost undoubtedly going up this month, for the first time in three years. The Federal Reserve is expected to raise its benchmark interest rate by 0.25% next week to curb inflation, which is running at a 40-year high. Additional hikes are likely later this year. American households will feel that policy impact in many ways, both positive and negative, according to financial advisors. "The Fed raising rates touches pretty much every single corner of the economy," said Andy Baxley, a certified financial planner at The Planning Center in Chicago. 1. Loans Higher interest rates translate to costlier financing for borrowers. That's true for mortgages, student loans, auto loans, credit cards, margin loans on investment accounts and other types of debt. "The hig...

COLOMBO : Car spare parts dealers in Sri Lanka's main city of Colombo are receiving a steady stream of customers looking for what is fast becoming a prized commodity in the island nation - side mirrors for Suzuki's compact Wagon R. The scramble for the humble product highlights rising economic risks for the South Asian country as imports slump, foreign exchange reserves plummet and a potential sovereign default looms. Suzuki's boxy, five-seater vehicle is hugely popular in Sri Lanka, given its low running costs. With some 30,000 of the cars sold over the past four years in a nation that has relatively high road crash rates, replacement side mirrors are commonly sought in the spare parts shops scattered across the suburb of Nugegoda. "Everyone is looking for Wagon R parts," said Supun De...

MELBOURNE : Australia on Friday cleared the way for millions of carbon credits to be sold to the private market instead of to the government, allowing developers of carbon abatement projects to potentially earn more for their emissions reductions. The surprise change in policy immediately hit the carbon market, with the price of Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) dropping 24per cent on the prospect of a sharp increase in the supply of credits, research firm RepuTex said. The government is now giving carbon abatement project developers, such as vegetation projects, the option of selling the ACCUs generated by their projects to the private market instead of selling them to Australia's Emissions Reduction Fund. "This will allow projects to take advantage of higher market prices over ti...

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine significantly strengthens the case of the critical nature of reinforcing a rules-based order, the central pillar of not only Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) vision. After World War II, international institutions and law were designed to prevent large states from dominating smaller states. It was hoped these institutions could stop the world from spiraling into another major disastrous conflict, not only in Europe but in the Indo-Pacific region as well. Today, we are seeing authoritarian states, specifically Russia and China, eschew international law and the stability that was brought about by the post–World War II rules-based order to create spheres of influence — extending into Ukraine, and likely other parts of Eastern Europe, in the case ...

This year, Equal Pay Day lands on March 15, which signifies how far into the year women must work to catch up to what men earned the previous year. On average, full-time working women earn 83 cents for every dollar paid to a man, which adds up to about $417,000 in lost wages over a 40-year career, according to the National Women's Law Center (NWLC). The NWLC estimates that it would take about 12 years of extra work for women to match men's earnings. These numbers, however, understate the severe impact the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has had on women's progress in the workplace. Women have lost more than 1.4 million net jobs since February 2020 and make up close to 70% of job losers since the start of the crisis. Women continue to bear the brunt of pandemic job losses, too, as more than on...