World

Commentary: Hong Kong and Singapore air travel bubble could be a game-changer
1Nov By Desk TeamNo Comments
Asia, China, Market, Singapore, World

Commentary: Hong Kong and Singapore air travel bubble could be a game-changer

The air travel bubble between both countries is a landmark agreement that signals the start of a gradual recovery for Asia’s international passenger traffic, says Brendan Sobie. SINGAPORE: The air travel bubble announced by Hong Kong and Singapore on Oct 15 marks the first significant positive development in several months for both aviation hubs, Singapore Airlines (SIA) as well as Cathay Pacific. Both the Changi Airport and Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) are currently at about 1.5 per cent of normal passenger traffic levels. Passenger traffic at SIA Group and Cathay Pacific Group are at even lower levels – down almost 99 per cent in recent months. Traffic has been essentially stalled at the current paltry level for the last three months, following a very slight uptic...
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Singapore’s foray into space: Boldly going where no little red dot has gone before
1Nov By Desk TeamNo Comments
China, Market, Singapore, World

Singapore’s foray into space: Boldly going where no little red dot has gone before

The efforts of the country’s budding space industry are giving the Republic a larger stake in the space race than many people may think. The programme Why It Matters looks at the opportunities and obstacles. SINGAPORE: Over the past four years, Singapore-based start-up Transcelestial has made a device called Centauri, about the size of a shoe box. Its aim: To provide internet connectivity that is around 1,000 times faster, or more, than now. It just needs to connect to a satellite using laser communications — no, make that a global satellite network the company wants to put into space. Working from home at the speed of light, however, “isn’t even scratching the surface of the capability” of laser-linked satellites, says Transcelestial co-founder Rohit Jha. He is looking into connec...
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Japan to offer free coronavirus vaccinations to all citizens
1Nov By Desk TeamNo Comments
World

Japan to offer free coronavirus vaccinations to all citizens

The government plans to offer vaccinations against the new coronavirus free of charge to all citizens in Japan, according to sources. The government is set to shoulder all costs to secure by the end of June next year sufficient supplies of coronavirus vaccines that are currently being developed in Japan and abroad. It will spend ¥670 billion from its reserve funds under fiscal 2020 supplementary budgets to secure COVID-19 vaccines. The policy of providing free coronavirus vaccinations will be unveiled at a meeting of a health ministry advisory panel as early next week, the sources said Wednesday. With the envisaged free vaccinations, the government aims to encourage the public to get COVID-19 vaccinations promptly soon after the vaccines are developed. The government also hopes to prep...
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ETNAM appreciates US Senate for introducing resolution that calls atrocities on Uyghurs as genocide
31Oct By Mike TrudellNo Comments
China, World

ETNAM appreciates US Senate for introducing resolution that calls atrocities on Uyghurs as genocide

East Turkistan National Awakening Movement (ETNAM) has lauded the US Senate for introducing a resolution that recognizes China's atrocities against Uyghurs as a genocide."US Senators Robert Menendez, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and John Cornyn introduced a bipartisan resolution to designate human rights abuses perpetrated by the People's Republic of China against the Uyghur people and other Turkic peoples in Occupied East Turkistan as a genocide," the ETNAM said in a statement.As per the statement, Menendez and Cornyn were joined by Senators James Risch, Marco Rubio, Ben Cardin, and Jeff Merkley."The resolution would hold China accountable under the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and begin the process t...
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Older Americans are selling the stock market, slowly but ceaselessly, to junior generations
31Oct By Desk TeamNo Comments
Market, World

Older Americans are selling the stock market, slowly but ceaselessly, to junior generations

Trevor Williams Baby boomers own an outsize helping of the market and are constantly reducing it, a process with significant implications for the supply and demand for equities, the interpretation of fund-flow statistics and the kinds of stocks likely to perform better and worse in coming years. A breakdown of household-stock and stock-fund ownership by generation shows more than half is possessed by baby boomers, those born between World War II and the mid-1960s. Millennials, now the largest generation, lack the size and financial wherewithal to absorb very much of the ongoing boomer liquidation in real time. The good news, such as it is, might be that stock ownership is so concentrated at the upper end of the wealth strata that most of these holdings don't need to be sold by their well...
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Floods claim five lives in Vietnam and two in Cambodia
31Oct By Desk TeamNo Comments
World

Floods claim five lives in Vietnam and two in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH: Elderly residents and small children clung to inflatable tyres as soldiers and police used rope lines to get them to safety from rising floodwater on Saturday (Oct 10) in Cambodia's western province of Battambang. Hundreds of families in three Cambodian provinces - Pursat, Battambang and Pailin - have been forced to evacuate amid extreme rainfall ahead of the arrival of a tropical depression across the Mekong region. "A two-year-old child and 57-year-old man have drowned in the flood," Seak Vichet, a spokesman for the Cambodian national committee for disaster management told AFP on Saturday. Authorities do not yet have a clear picture of the extent of the damage or people affected but expect the situation to worsen on Sunday. In central Vietnam almost a metre of rain ha...
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Rolls-Royce launches US$6.4 billion plan to cope with COVID-19 cash crunch
30Oct By Desk TeamNo Comments
World

Rolls-Royce launches US$6.4 billion plan to cope with COVID-19 cash crunch

LONDON: British aerospace giant Rolls-Royce, facing plunging demand as the coronavirus pandemic sparks an air transport crisis, launched plans on Thursday (Oct 1) to shore up its finances by up to £5.0 billion (US$6.4 billion). The company, whose products power Airbus and Boeing aircraft, is strengthening its balance sheet to help navigate the damaging fallout from the ongoing global health emergency that has grounded jets worldwide. Rolls-Royce said in a statement that the package would comprise a £2 billion rights issue of shares, a bond offering of at least £1 billion, a new £1 billion loan facility, plus state support from UK Export Finance for an extension of an existing loan guarantee of up to £1 billion. "These steps will provide the group with improved financial resilience a...
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India’s coronavirus infections rise to 7.43 million
30Oct By Desk TeamNo Comments
World

India’s coronavirus infections rise to 7.43 million

MUMBAI: India's cumulative tally of COVID-19 infections stood at 7.43 million on Saturday (Oct 17), having risen by 62,212 in the last 24 hours, health ministry data showed. But the number of active infections slipped below 800,000 for the first time in 1.5 months, which the ministry called a significant achievement. India has recorded the world's second-largest number of cases after the United States and worries have been high that there may be further spikes during the ongoing festival season. Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram
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Pentagon chief stresses stronger alliances to counter China, Russia
30Oct By Desk TeamNo Comments
China, Market, World

Pentagon chief stresses stronger alliances to counter China, Russia

WASHINGTON: US Defense Secretary Mark Esper revealed a new initiative on Tuesday (Oct 20) to strengthen and expand US alliances with "like-minded democracies" to counter Russia and China. Esper said the Pentagon would systematically monitor and manage its relationships with partner countries, aiming to find ways to coordinate militaries and also to advance US arms sales. The initiative, called the Guidance for Development for Alliances and Partnerships(GDAP), came just two weeks before the presidential election that, if President Donald Trump loses, could see Esper replaced in January. It also came after nearly four years of Trump's efforts to restructure and even dismantle alliances, including threatening NATO. "America's network of allies and partners provides us an asymmetric ad...
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