World

TAIPEI: Taiwan's classic beef noodle soup has taken on a sweet and sour twist. Taipei chef Hung Ching Lung created a pineapple beef noodle soup at his eponymous restaurant Chef Hung, in what he says is a modest attempt to support Taiwanese pineapple farmers. The spiky fruit became a politically charged symbol after China banned the import of Taiwan's pineapples on Mar 1, citing pests. In response, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen kicked off a social media challenge called "Eat Taiwan's pineapples until you burst", calling on people to support the island's farmers. The campaign has kicked off a pineapple media frenzy, as Taiwanese politicians sought to demonstrate their support for farmers as well as Taiwanese agriculture. Politicians from the ruling Democratic Progressive Part...

Overall, the stock "has a pretty constructive setup heading into the earnings print," the firm's senior technical research analyst said Friday on CNBC's "Trading Nation." The department store operator's implied volatility — how far up or down its stock could swing after its earnings report on Friday — is higher than it has been in years, Piper Sandler's Craig Johnson told CNBC last week. "You had a little bit of a bullish flag that's formed," Johnson said, referencing Big Lots' stock chart. "The $64 level, which it's coming back up to retest, is a pretty big overhead resistance level, and any sort of break above that would be a nice indication of another leg higher starting to unfold." Big Lots shares ended trading up 1.5% on Friday at $63.54. "I'd also point out that the relative stre...

MANILA: The Philippines received its first batch of COVID-19 vaccine on Sunday (Feb 28), among the last in Southeast Asia to secure the critical doses despite having the second-highest number of infections and deaths in the region. A Chinese military transport aircraft carrying 600,000 doses of vaccine donated by China arrived in an air base in the capital in a late afternoon event beamed live on state-run TV. President Rodrigo Duterte and top Cabinet officials welcomed the delivery of the vaccine from China-based Sinovac Biotech in a televised ceremony that underscored their relief after weeks of delays, officials said. “That plane is carrying hope that we can finally return to our lives and light for our very dark journey,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said. Vaccinatio...

U.S. consumer spending increased by the most in seven months in January as the government doled out more pandemic relief money to low-income households and new COVID-19 infections dropped, setting up the economy for faster growth in the first quarter. WASHINGTON: U.S. consumer spending increased by the most in seven months in January as the government doled out more pandemic relief money to low-income households and new COVID-19 infections dropped, setting up the economy for faster growth in the first quarter. Despite the strong rebound in consumer spending reported by the Commerce Department on Friday, price pressures were muted. Inflation is being closely watched amid concerns from some quarters that President Joe Biden's proposed US$1.9 trillion COVID-19 recovery package could cause t...

This is Part 2 of the series Watch Out! Biden wants to save the planet. Click to read Part 1. In his January 27 “Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad,” US President Joseph Biden declares that his administration aims at “putting the climate crisis at the center of United States foreign policy and National Security.” Taken literally, this statement – as I think any sober observer of today’s situation in the US and internationally will agree – is a piece of insanity. Joe, please tell us you don’t mean it. Whatever one might believe about an oncoming climate apocalypse, the urgent domestic and international problems the Biden administration will face in the immediate months ahead have little or nothing to do with the temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere. They i...

BEIJING: China will invest more in coal to power its economy over the next five years, according to a government plan released Friday (Mar 5) that only modestly increased renewable ambitions. Environmentalists had been hoping China's five-year national development plan, unveiled at its annual parliamentary session, would give a roadmap for its goal of carbon neutrality by 2060. However the plan, announced by Premier Li Keqiang, had few details and signalled little urgency in cutting the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. The lack of a cap on total energy consumption was one of the notable exclusions. "Without the energy consumption control target, there's even less in this five-year plan to constrain emissions growth than in the previous ones," Lauri Myllyvirta, fr...