World

Taiwan is the "most dangerous" flashpoint in the relationship between the U.S. and China — but an outright conflict is not likely, said former Singapore senior diplomat Bilahari Kausikan. "During the U.S.-Soviet Cold War, which lasted for 40 years, nuclear deterrence kept the peace at least between the two principals. I think it will again keep the peace between the U.S. and China," Kausikan told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" on Wednesday. According to the nuclear deterrence theory, the possibility that a country could use its nuclear weapons to retaliate will deter an enemy state from attacking. Beijing claims Taiwan, a democratic self-ruled island, as a runaway province that must be reunited with the mainland — using force if necessary. The ruling Chinese Communist Party, which turns 100 on T...

TOKYO/SINGAPORE: Oil prices fell on Friday (Jul 16), heading for their biggest weekly drop since at least May as expectations of more supplies spooked investors, with OPEC likely to add output to meet a potential revival in demand as more countries recover from the pandemic. Brent crude for September was down 37 cents at US$73.10 a barrel by 6.50am GMT, heading for a 3.2 per cent fall this week after two days of heavy declines. This will mark Brent's biggest weekly drop since May. U.S. crude for August fell 35 cents to US$71.30 a barrel, on track for a decline of more than 4 per cent this week, its largest weekly drop since March. Discussions on supply policy within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and other producers, a group called OPEC+, ended without...

TUNIS: Ons Jabeur's landmark appearance in the last 16 of Wimbledon was hailed in her native Tunisia on Saturday (Jul 3) for helping lift the gloom of the country's political and health crisis. "Ons Jabeur has joined the greats," read the headline in Arabic-language newspaper Al Chourouk, propelling tennis to the front pages, a rare occurrence in a country where football is king. "It makes us dream! Fortunately, we have it to brighten up our days," said Sarra, a Tunisian Internet user. Another Twitter user Kamel said that Jabeur's achievement in becoming the first Tunisian woman to reach the last 16 at Wimbledon brought "the light that was so lacking in the dark sky of our country". "We have our official supplier of happiness, the only one who helps us to forget our gloomy news in ...

SINGAPORE: A migrant worker who choreographed and performed a sequence of Silambam - a traditional martial art form practised in India - took home the top prize at a talent competition on Monday night (Jul 5). Mr Ganesan Sandhirakasan came in first place with the most number of likes and views for his video on the @sg4mw TikTok account, beating 19 other shortlisted individuals to take home the prize money of S$1,000. The competition is part of the Tamil variety series Chill Pannu Maappi!, which is commissioned by the Ministry of Communication and Information and produced by Cosmic Ultima Pictures. Silambam has been practised in India since 4th century BC. The 33-year old migrant worker, who teaches Taekwondo, started practising martial arts at the age of 12 and won a silver medal f...

An illustration showing the cryptocurrency bitcoin with a price chart in the background. STR | NurPhoto via Getty Images Funding for blockchain start-ups topped $4 billion for the first time in the second quarter, despite a sharp slump in cryptocurrency prices. Companies in the nascent industry raised a record $4.38 billion, according to data from analytics firm CB Insights, up more than 50% from the previous quarter and a nearly ninefold increase from the same period a year earlier. Blockchain is the underlying technology behind most cryptocurrencies. It's essentially a digital ledger of virtual currency transactions which is distributed across a global network of computers. The largest financing round for a blockchain company in the second quarter was a $440 million investment in Circle...

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd likely saw a 38per cent surge in profit for the April-June quarter thanks to strong chip prices and demand spurred by a pandemic-led consumer appetite for electronics as well as recovering investment in data centres. SEOUL: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd likely saw a 38per cent surge in profit for the April-June quarter thanks to strong chip prices and demand spurred by a pandemic-led consumer appetite for electronics as well as recovering investment in data centres. Operating profit for the world's biggest memory chip and smartphone maker likely jumped to 11.3 trillion won (US$10 billion), according to a Refinitiv SmartEstimate drawn from 20 analysts and weighted toward those who are more consistently accurate. The South Korean tech giant's strong performance...

BEIJING: China's President Xi Jinping visited the Tibet autonomous region on Wednesday (Jul 21) and Thursday, according to the official Xinhua news agency, in his first recorded visit as leader of the nation. It was the first such visit by the country's top leader in more than three decades. In footage released on Friday by state broadcaster CCTV, Xi was seen greeting a crowd wearing ethnic costumes and waving Chinese flags as he left his plane, in a red carpet welcome as dancers performed around him. Although he arrived on Wednesday at the Nyingchi Mainling Airport in the southeast of Tibet, there was no mention of his visit in official media until two days later.​​​​​​​ After a "warm welcome by cadres and masses of all ethnic groups", Xi went to the Nyang River Bridge to le...

Vietnam’s embrace of Western vaccines – and distrust of Chinese ones – reflect the country’s zeitgeist, says a researcher. SINGAPORE: Two similar events and yet a world apart when it comes to popular sentiment. On Jul 7, Vietnam marked the delivery of 97,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to the country. The delivery ceremony was graced by the country’s Vice Minister of Health and the US Chargé d’affaires. The modest amount is the first batch of 31 million doses that the Vietnamese government has ordered from Pfizer-BioNTech, an American-German tie-up. Just two weeks earlier, a similar ceremony was held to mark the arrival of 500,000 Sinopharm doses donated by China. Vietnam’s Health Minister and Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam were present. On balance, there is a semblance of parity in...

LIMA: Socialist Pedro Castillo, expected to be confirmed as Peru's next president, is drawing up a "hybrid" Cabinet of technocrats and political allies, with a moderate in line to run the economy ministry, three sources close to the plans said. Castillo's centre-left adviser, economist Pedro Francke, who told Reuters on Tuesday that he has had dozens of meetings with businesses and investors to reassure them since the Jun 6 run-off election caused market jitters, is in the driving seat to be named to lead the economy portfolio, said two of the sources. Markets and investors are seeking clues to how Castillo, a political novice, will enact his pledged reforms, which include plans to redraft the constitution and hike mining taxes in the world's no 2 copper producer. The socially conse...

TOKYO: Asia's factory activity saw momentum weaken in June as some countries struggled with rising input costs and the reintroduction of curbs to combat a new wave of coronavirus infections, surveys showed on Thursday (Jul 1). Vietnam and Malaysia were particularly hard hit. Manufacturing activity shrank in those countries in June due to stricter coronavirus restrictions, clouding the outlook for a region lagging western economies in recovering from the pandemic. "The June PMI data show clearly the impact of the latest wave of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Vietnamese manufacturing sector, with company shutdowns in areas facing restrictions leading to sharp reductions in output and new orders across the sector as a whole," said Andrew Harker, Economics Director at IHS Markit. "While l...