World

Good news for travelers from countries and territories including the U.K. and Pakistan. Amid the constantly changing pandemic situation and falling coronavirus cases in some parts of the world as inoculation campaigns pick up steam, Japan has relaxed its strict quarantine measures for about two dozen countries and regions. The changes will take effect Saturday. Following the latest revision, travelers from India, the Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Zambia will no longer be covered by a 10-day mandatory quarantine in government-designated facilities. Their stay in such facilities will be shortened to six days, and there is a requirement to undergo tests for COVID-19 on arrival and on the third and sixth days. Only those who test negative will be allowed to move to facilities of their choo...

:U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil Corp, along with Chevron Corp, is seeking to bulk up in the burgeoning renewable fuels space by finding ways to make such products at existing facilities, sources familiar with the efforts said. The two largest U.S. oil companies want to produce sustainable fuels without ponying up billions of dollars that some refineries are spending to reconfigure operations to make such products. Renewable fuels account for 5per cent of U.S. fuel consumption, but are poised to grow as various sectors adapt to cut overall carbon emissions to combat global climate change. Both Chevron and Exxon have massive refining divisions that contribute heavily to their overall carbon emissions. The companies have been criticized for a less urgent approach to renewable investments than E...

PHNOM PEHN: China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi is visiting Cambodia, where he is expected to meet with Prime Minister Hun Sen and other officials to discuss COVID-19 and other regional issues. Cambodia's foreign ministry said Wang's meetings on Sunday (Sep 12) and Monday would include discussions of trade and security as well. Wrapping up a visit to neighboring Vietnam on Saturday, Wang said China planned to donate 3 million vaccine doses to the country, which is under a lockdown to contain a COVID-19 surge. China is Cambodia’s biggest investor and closest political partner. Beijing’s support allows Cambodia to disregard Western concerns about its poor record in human and political rights, and in turn Cambodia generally supports Beijing’s geopolitical positions on issues such as its terri...

TOKYO : Toyota Motor Corp cut its annual production target by 300,000 vehicles on Friday as rising COVID-19 infections slowed output at parts factories in Vietnam and Malaysia, compounding a global shortage of auto chips. "It's a combination of the coronavirus and semiconductors, but at the moment it is the coronavirus that is having the overwhelming impact," Kazunari Kumakura, an executive at the world's biggest car maker, said after the company revised its production target. Unlike other big global automakers that were forced earlier to scale back production plans, Toyota had managed to avoid cuts to output because it had stockpiled key components along a supply chain hardened against disruption following northeast Japan's devastating earthquake in 2011. The Japanese carmakers' announ...

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden talked with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for the first time in seven months on Thursday (Sep 9), urging they ensure that "competition" between the two powers does not become "conflict", the White House said. During the call, Biden's message was that the United States wants to ensure "the dynamic remains competitive and that we don't have any situation in the future where we veer into unintended conflict", a senior US administration official told reporters. This was the leaders' first call since February, when they talked for two hours, shortly after Biden took over from Donald Trump. US-China relations went into a nosedive under Trump, who launched a trade war between the world's number one and two economies. Biden's administration, while urging ...

Following the chaotic exit of American forces and civilians from Afghanistan, the world is struggling to understand the implications of the humiliating U.S. defeat in the 20-year war. Pundits fear that the U.S. will eventually abandon its strategic allies and partners throughout the world — especially in East Asia and the Middle East — similarly to the way it did so in Afghanistan. They also accuse the U.S. of abdicating its leadership in upholding human rights and maintaining global stability. But these views are short-sighted, missing critical aspects of the emerging Biden doctrine. U.S. President Joe Biden’s foreign policy orientation reflects two seemingly contradictory perspectives in international relations. One is a political realism that emphasizes great power politics in world ...

In one of the first tests of the appetite of the business community for global gatherings, Germany's auto show in Munich this week has seen many major car companies like Toyota and Jaguar's Land Rover choosing to stay away. German airline Lufthansa has nevertheless seen demand for its regional flights between Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium jump 15 per cent in recent weeks, and rise 30 per cent for flights within Germany, chief executive Carsten Spohr said. Lufthansa is putting on more flights for business travellers in September, but it only expects a return to 90 per cent of pre-pandemic trips in the long term. COUNTING THE COST Pre-pandemic, airlines made the bulk of their profits from business travel because companies are more likely to book at short notice and are prepar...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC) expects top resort islands such as Langkawi, Pangkor, Redang, Tioman and Perhentian to achieve herd immunity by the end of August and be ready for reopening early next month. Tourism minister Nancy Shukri said that this would, however, also depend on a decision from the government and standard operating procedures being set. “The decision to reopen the tourism sector must be made after an in-depth study and with great care to prevent an outbreak which may cause the sector to be closed again. At the same time, MOTAC is updating and finalising the SOPs for the tourism sector," she said in a statement on Saturday (Aug 14). According to Nancy, she had a virtual session with 15 representatives from the tourism industry to...

Royal Dutch Shell plc said on Monday its subsidiary Sarawak Shell Berhad (SSB) has taken a final investment decision on the Timi gas development project offshore Malaysia, which will powered by solar and wind sources. The offshore wellhead project, developed with its partners Petronas Carigali and Brunei Energy Exploration, could see peak production of up to 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) and will move gas to the F23 production hub via an 80 kilometer-long pipeline, the company said in a release. The unmanned platform, about 200 km (124 miles) off the coast of Serawak, was a step towards Shell's commitment to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, Shell Upstream Director Wael Sawan said in the release. (Reporting by Ashitha Shivaprasad in Bengaluru, Editing by Louise Heav...

MUMBAI : India's trade with Afghanistan has dried up as borders and banks have closed since the Taliban took over the country, but industry officials said that the disruption was temporary and that it would be business as usual soon. New Delhi is one of the leading suppliers of essential commodities to Afghanistan, which exports mainly dry fruits to India. Shipments between the two countries were delayed or disrupted after Taliban insurgents started making military advances earlier this month, leading to the fall of the capital Kabul on Sunday, industry officials said. "There is a temporary glitch in trade as Afghanistan is witnessing a transition of power. But within a few days trade will restart," said Rahil Shaikh, managing director of Mumbai-based MEIR Commodities, which exports sug...