World

JAKARTA: Indonesia reported on Tuesday (Jul 13) a record increase of coronavirus infections, as authorities unveiled plans to order liquid oxygen and tens of thousands of concentrators from abroad to treat patients suffering from the coronavirus. The Southeast Asian nation is fighting a devastating new virus outbreak fueled by the highly contagious delta variant that has stretched parts of the health system to breaking point. The COVID-19 task force announced 47,899 new cases, the sixth daily record in the past 10 days and up about sevenfold from a month ago, with total infections now topping 2.6 million. It also reported 864 new deaths on Tuesday, taking total fatalities to over 68,000. With hospitals overflowing in parts of densely populated Java island, demand for medical oxygen h...

Despite tens of billions of dollars in rental relief being made available to tenants who are behind on their housing payments, the number of eviction filings is already ticking up in some states just days after the Covid-19 eviction moratorium lapsed, housing attorneys say. While over $46 billion in rental relief was allocated by the federal government, just $3 billion has made it out. Each state has its own program and process for disbursing the aid. However, tenants face an uphill battle when it comes to getting the relief, since they have to overcome multiple barriers, says Caitlin Cedfeldt, staff attorney at Legal Aid of Nebraska. Cedfeldt represents tenants in eviction cases and helps them access financial assistance. The most basic barrier, at least in Nebraska, is that many tenan...

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday held its benchmark interest rate near zero and said the economy continues to progress despite concerns over the pandemic spread. As expected, the Federal Open Market Committee concluded its two-day meeting by keeping interest rates in a target range between zero and 0.25%. Along with that, the committee said in a unanimously approved statement that the economy continues to "strengthen." Despite the optimism about the economy, Chairman Jerome Powell said the Fed is nowhere near considering a rate hike. "Our approach here has been to be as transparent as we can. We have not reached substantial further progress yet," he said. "We see ourselves having some ground to cover to get there." "Substantial further progress" on inflation and employment is the benchmark...

A National Park Service worker replaces a flag at the Washington Monument which reopened today following a six month closure due to COVID-19 safety measures, in Washington U.S., July 14, 2021. Kevin Lemarque | Reuter The U.S. economy is expected to post another roaring growth spurt in the second quarter, before a slow and steady dose of reality starts to sink in. Gross domestic product is projected to accelerate 9.2% for the April-to-June period, according to a FactSet survey. The Commerce Department will release its first estimate for second-quarter GDP on Thursday. In a pre-pandemic world, that would have put annualized growth at its fastest level since the second quarter of 1983. However, the current circumstances and the outsized policy response they generated make this merely the thi...

The government bond market rally that had sent U.S. Treasury yields under 1.2per cent and the entire German curve negative fizzled out on Tuesday, though there were more problems in China as internet giant Tencent took another battering. LONDON: The government bond market rally that had sent U.S. Treasury yields under 1.2per cent and the entire German curve negative fizzled out on Tuesday, though there were more problems in China as internet giant Tencent took another battering. Rising bank shares helped Europe's main markets make a steady start but the real action was elsewhere. A Chinese state media outlet branding online games "spiritual opium" was enough to send Tencent tumbling as much as 10per cent in Asia, hot on the heels of its worst month in nearly a decade. The panic als...

related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery. 2 related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery. HONG KONG: HSBC and Standard Chartered are declining to extend new loans to buyers of property in two uncompleted Hong Kong residential projects developed by China's Evergrande Group, three mortgage brokers said on Wednesday. One of the brokers told Reuters that Bank of East Asia had taken a similar step. The move by the banks emerged after a Chinese court froze a US$20 million bank deposit held by Evergrande this week and a Chinese city regulator briefly suspended sales from two of its projects. The three brokers said the banks had halted lending to two residential projects in Hong Kong that were scheduled for completion in Augu...

Sir Richard Branson's successful spaceflight is a culmination of substantial progress and marks a new chapter for space tourism, says a UK professor of business studies. DUBLIN: With British billionaire Sir Richard Branson’s successful flight to the edge of space, he and his company Virgin Galactic have firmly established themselves in the history books as space tourism pioneers. While not the first tourist to enter space, 70-year-old Branson is the first to make his journey with a commercial spaceflight company, marking a giant leap for the space tourism industry being championed by some of the world’s most famous billionaires. Unlike its rivals, Virgin Galactic launched its spacecraft from a carrier craft – not from the ground. Branson and three Virgin Galactic mission specialist...

China's new bank loans rose more than expected in June from the previous month, while broad credit growth also picked up substantially, as the central bank seeks to shore up slowing growth in the world's second biggest economy. BEIJING: China's new bank loans rose more than expected in June from the previous month, while broad credit growth also picked up substantially, as the central bank seeks to shore up slowing growth in the world's second biggest economy. Chinese banks extended 2.12 trillion yuan (US$327 billion) in new yuan loans in June, up from 1.5 trillion yuan the previous month, data from the People's Bank of China showed on Friday. Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted new yuan loans would rise to 1.8 trillion yuan in June. The Chinese economy has largely rebounded t...

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A man wearing a protective face mask walks by 14 Wall Street in the financial district of New York, November 19, 2020. Shannon Stapleton | Reuters A volatile environment for government bonds is reflecting a highly uncertain future for the U.S. economy, pointing to both slower growth and stubborn inflation. After a burst higher earlier this year that scared markets, Treasury yields have fallen back sharply as investors have switched their focus from worries about price increases to the potential that the rapid burst in post-pandemic activity could start to slow down. In the 1970s, the mix of higher prices and lower growth was called "stagflation," a pejorative that has garnered little attention since then as inflation has remained tame over the past few decades. However, the word is coming...