World

LONDON : Regulators have little understanding of risks from banks creating digital marketplaces with tech companies and a framework is needed to spot potential contagion if things go wrong, the European Union's banking watchdog said on Tuesday. The European Banking Authority's warning is the latest sign that financial regulators are starting to pay more attention to Big Tech's increasing links with finance, such as in cloud computing. Finance and tech companies are coming closer together as banks set up digital marketplaces for products like payments and mortgages, as well as other financial and non-financial services, a process which has accelerated since the pandemic began. This means customers can make payments or buy things using their mobile phone which links directly to their bank...

GENEVA: Myanmar is facing the alarming prospect of an escalating civil war as an uprising against the military junta widens, the UN's human rights chief warned on Thursday (Sep 23). Michelle Bachelet told the United Nations Human Rights Council that time was running out for other countries to step up efforts to restore democracy and prevent a broader conflict. Myanmar has been in turmoil since Aung San Suu Kyi's government was ousted by the military in February, sparking a nationwide uprising that the junta has tried to crush. Attacks on troops have increased since lawmakers ousted by the generals called for a "people's defensive war" earlier this month. Bachelet said the human rights situation had deteriorated significantly as the effects of the coup "devastate lives and hopes across ...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. : The four would-be citizen astronauts poised to ride a SpaceX rocket ship around the globe as the first all-civilian crew launched into orbit said on Tuesday they were eager for liftoff on the eve of their flight, feeling only "the good kind" of jitters. "I was just worried that this moment would never come in my life. Let's get going, let's do it," said Sian Proctor, 51, a geoscience professor, artist and lifelong space enthusiast who was a 2009 finalist in NASA's astronaut candidate program before she was cut. Proctor also disclosed she and her flightmates received a telephone call from one of her personal heroes, former first lady Michelle Obama, wishing them well, an honor she said "would stay with me the rest of my life." The "Inspiration4" quartet are due for...

GENEVA: A US-backed Uyghur photo exhibit of dozens of people who are missing or alleged to be held in camps in Xinjiang, China, opened in Switzerland on Thursday (Sep 16), prompting Beijing to issue a furious statement accusing Washington of "low political tricks". The "Wall of the Disappeared" which also features interviews with camp survivors about alleged forced sterilisation, stands outside the United Nations in Geneva where a month-long session of the Human Rights Council opened this week. "It was important for us to bring faces to represent the statistics," said Zumretay Arkin, whose uncle is featured in the exhibit. "It's easier to forget about numbers but if people see faces, we hope they will grasp the urgency of the situation." Rights groups estimate one million Uyghurs and ot...

Select’s editorial team works independently to review financial products and write articles we think our readers will find useful. We may receive a commission when you click on links for products from our affiliate partners. The pandemic has flipped the real estate market on its head, and it has left many prospective buyers further away from becoming homeowners as they struggle to afford the rising costs. This unprecedented sellers' market is the result of a myriad of economic factors, including record low interest rates from the Federal Reserve, a lack of homes for sale and a slow down in the number of new homes being built due to labor shortages and rising costs of construction supplies. As a result, real estate prices have skyrocketed. In Q4 2019, the average home sale price was $384,6...

After a relatively slow start, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has embarked on a diplomatic offensive across Southeast Asia, the new theater of great power competition. Within a matter of weeks, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin as well as Vice President Kamala Harris visited key members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, specifically Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines. Against the backdrop of the withdrawal debacle in Afghanistan, the incidental timing of the visits also helped soothe lingering anxieties over American commitment to the region. By and large, the Biden administration seems determined to rally not only like-minded Indo-Pacific powers such as Japan, India and Australia, but also front-line ASEAN states, which share similar anxieties over a r...

LONDON :Some investors and campaigners expressed dismay on Friday at revelations that World Bank leaders pressured staff to boost China's score in an influential report that ranks countries on how easy it is to do business there. They also said the World Bank's subsequent discontinuation of the "Doing Business" series of annual reports could make it harder for investors to assess where to put their money. "The more I think about this, the worse it looks," said Tim Ash at BlueBay Asset Management, adding that the reports published since 2003 had become important for banks and businesses around the world. "Any quantitative model of country risk has built this into ratings. Money and investments are allocated on the back of this series." An investigation by law firm WilmerHale https://www...

SINGAPORE HOPES FOR "CONSTRUCTIVE RELATIONSHIP" BETWEEN CHINA, US In a joint press conference with Mr Wang on Tuesday, Dr Balakrishnan said that Singapore hopes that China and the United States will be able to have a “constructive relationship” despite "inevitable" competition. Singapore also hopes that both superpowers will be able to cooperate in areas that are “absolutely essential”, such as fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, and minimise confrontation when points of friction emerge, he added. “I remain optimistic that greater engagement between both China and the US will be positive, and that their relations with Southeast Asia will be conducted on the basis of mutual respect, on the equality of countries and on looking for win-win outcomes,” the Singapore minister s...

NEW YORK :Oil prices fell on Friday as energy companies in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico restarted production after back-to-back hurricanes in the region shut output. Brent crude futures fell 33 cents to settle at US$75.34 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 64 cents to settle at US$71.97 a barrel. For the week, Brent was up 3.3per cent and U.S. crude was up 3.2per cent, supported by tight supplies due to the hurricane outages. Friday's slump followed five straight sessions of rises for Brent. On Wednesday, Brent hit its highest since late July, and U.S. crude hit its highest since early August. "The reason oil prices reached such highs in the last few days was clearly supply disruptions and drawdowns in inventories, so now that U.S. oil production is returning, oi...

JAKARTA: Even as Indonesia wins cautious praise from some green groups for ambitious plans to cut carbon emissions, the world's biggest exporter of thermal coal shows no sign of weaning itself off the polluting fuel any time soon. Indonesia, the eighth-biggest carbon emitter, recently brought forward its goal for net zero emissions from 2070 to 2060 or sooner, ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in November, and joined a US-led Global Methane Pledge. It also plans to stop commissioning new coal-fired power plants and phase out coal for electricity by 2056 under a new, greener long-term economic vision. But - as with other coal producers such as Australia and India - Indonesia is wrestling with how to balance its environmental targets with the cost of pulling...