World

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. SINGAPORE: The mandatory online theory test for e-scooter and e-bike riders will be kept affordable, said Senior Minister of State for Transport Amy Khor in Parliament on Tuesday (May 11). For the first three months, the test will cost S$5. If the person fails on their first attempt, they can take the test for free a second time. "This is a discounted rate to encourage greater test take-up. Subsequently, the test will be chargeable at $10 for each attempt," said Dr Khor. Tests fees will be kept affordable to "minimise the financial impact" on riders of such devices, in particular those who ride for work, she said. The test...

It’s time to put to rest the myth that using coal, which Indonesia’s economy now relies on, can be a long-term resource for the country’s energy needs, says Greenpeace's Tata Mustasya. JAKARTA: Indonesia’s coal industry is running out of options. The pot of money for coal power is drying up. On Apr 22, South Korea announced it will no longer provide financial support for overseas coal projects. China seems to be the only country willing to provide the immense financial aid that Indonesia’s bloated coal industry needs to keep going. East Asia has historically been the source of finance for Indonesia’s coal industry, where pro-coal market controls and state support for intensive coal mining have made fossil fuels cheap and abundant. Coal makes up almost 40 per cent of the country’s en...

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. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped to a record high for the sixth consecutive session on Monday as investors bet on interest rates staying low to help a still-fragile U.S. economy, which in turned dragged the U.S. dollar to a 2-1/2-month low. NEW YORK: The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped to a record high for the sixth consecutive session on Monday as investors bet on interest rates staying low to help a still-fragile U.S. economy, which in turned dragged the U.S. dollar to a 2-1/2-month low. Oil prices pared earlier gains as concerns that rising COVID-19 cases in Asia will dampen demand outweighed the impact of the shutdown o...

FLAGSTAFF, Arizona: The Navajo Nation has by far the largest land mass of any Native American tribe in the country. Now, it's boasting the largest enrolled population, too. Navajos clamoured to enrol or fix their records as the tribe offered hardship assistance payments from last year's federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act. That boosted the tribe's rolls from about 306,000 to nearly 400,000 citizens. The figure surpasses the Cherokee Nation's enrolment of 392,000. But it, too, has been growing, said tribal spokeswoman Julie Hubbard. The Oklahoma tribe has been receiving about 200 more applications per month from potential enrollees, leaving Navajo's position at the top unstable. The numbers matter because tribes often are allocated money based on their number of...

Japan's economy likely shrank in the first quarter as the hit to consumption from coronavirus curbs offset the boost from robust global demand, a Reuters poll showed, highlighting the country's slow recovery from a pandemic-induced slump. TOKYO: Japan's economy likely shrank in the first quarter as the hit to consumption from coronavirus curbs offset the boost from robust global demand, a Reuters poll showed, highlighting the country's slow recovery from a pandemic-induced slump. An extension of state of emergency restrictions and slow vaccine rollouts are expected to keep growth feeble in April-June, analysts say, reinforcing views that Japan will lag other major economies in emerging from the doldrums. "Instead of staging a V-shaped recovery, Japan's economy may contract again in ...

The cryptocurrency dogecoin's value has surged over the past few months thanks to the alignment of several important factors, including extra capital from stimulus checks, the popularity of free-trading apps like Robinhood and the backing of billionaire SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. But one reason has been understated in media reports, Billy Markus, the software engineer who co-created the coin, tells CNBC Make It: the community that's formed around it over the past few years. Markus created dogecoin, based on the Doge shiba inu meme, in "about two hours" in 2013 as a parody of the better-known cryptocurrency bitcoin; the "absurdity of Dog Money," as he puts it, is by design. But investors aren't in it strictly for the memes, he says. "The crypto community can be pretty elitist and no...

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. SINGAPORE: Singapore must create new frontiers in the digital realm and seize opportunities in a growing green economy, said a government task force on how Singapore can chart its economic recovery in a post-pandemic world. The Emerging Stronger Taskforce also recommended that a new public-private partnership that it piloted be institutionalised and for Singapore to strengthen its ties with the region. These recommendations were laid out in a 118-page report issued on Monday (May 17) by the task force following a year of deliberations. Formed in May last year, the Emerging Stronger Taskforce said its vision for the Singapore econ...

As U.S. President Joe Biden contemplates course corrections after his first months in office, one change seems especially worthy of consideration: a shift to a more pragmatic, less ideological foreign policy. So far, Biden has centered his statecraft on the clash between democracy and autocracy. In his address to Congress late last month, he identified the country’s adversaries as “the autocrats of the world,” vowing that they “will not win the future. We will. America will.” Envisaging a twenty-first-century “battle between the utility of democracies … and autocracies,” Biden has called for a global “Summit for Democracy” to mobilize like-minded countries against illiberal challengers. This approach may help rally Americans around the flag, but it is a strategic mistake. America’s relat...

PRAYAGRAJ, India: Police are reaching out to villagers in northern India to investigate the recovery of bodies buried in shallow sand graves or washing up on the Ganges River banks, prompting speculation on social media that they were the remains of COVID-19 victims. In jeeps and boats, the police used portable loudspeakers with microphones asking people not to dispose of the bodies in rivers. "We are here to help you perform the last rites,” police said. On Friday, rains exposed the cloth coverings of bodies buried in shallow sand graves on the riverbank in Prayagraj, a city in Uttar Pradesh state. Bodies of suspected COVID-19 victims are seen in shallow graves buried in the sand near a cremation ground on the banks of Ganges River in Prayagraj, India, Saturday, May 15, 2021. (AP P...