World

Singapore to allow New Zealand, Brunei visitors in first border easing
23Aug By Desk TeamNo Comments
Singapore, World

Singapore to allow New Zealand, Brunei visitors in first border easing

Singapore on Friday said it would reopen its borders to visitors from New Zealand and Brunei from next month, in the city-state's first steps towards resuming leisure travel since it sealed its borders to control Covid-19 outbreaks. The city-state, which currently only allows official and business travel to selected countries, also said it would allow students to travel for study overseas if distance-learning was not available. The measures would take effect on Sept. 1, with various restrictions, the health ministry said. Singapore sealed its borders in March and subsequently went into a two-month lockdown as mass outbreaks in cramped migrant worker dormitories emerged. Those lockdown measures were lifted in June and the travel and tourism hub — facing its worst recession in history — ...
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California state controller asks CalPERS to investigate CIO’s exit
23Aug By Desk TeamNo Comments
China, World

California state controller asks CalPERS to investigate CIO’s exit

The California State Controller Betty Yee has called for the board of the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest public U.S. investment fund, to launch an inquiry into the abrupt exit of its chief investment officer. REUTERS: The California State Controller Betty Yee has called for the board of the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest public U.S. investment fund, to launch an inquiry into the abrupt exit of its chief investment officer. Yu Ben Meng, a U.S. citizen born in China, resigned from his position at the US$400 billion fund last week, saying he needed to focus on his health and family. In a letter sent to CalPERS' Board President Henry Jones on Monday, Yee called for a "swift and thorough inquiry" to determine w...
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Robinhood valuation surges to US$11.2 billion after latest funding round
23Aug By Desk TeamNo Comments
Market, World

Robinhood valuation surges to US$11.2 billion after latest funding round

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. Robinhood Markets Inc, the fintech startup credited with helping popularize trading among millennials, said on Monday it has raised US$200 million from investment firm D1 Capital Partners at a valuation of US$11.2 billion. REUTERS: Robinhood Markets Inc, the fintech startup credited with helping popularize trading among millennials, said on Monday it has raised US$200 million from investment firm D1 Capital Partners at a valuation of US$11.2 billion. Robinhood is one of the hottest fintech startups in Silicon Valley, having consistently raised large sums at higher valuations from several marquee investors including Sequoia Capital, Ri...
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China needs “explosive” buying to meet US farm import target
23Aug By Desk TeamNo Comments
China, World

China needs “explosive” buying to meet US farm import target

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. With nearly seven months gone, an ambitious US$36.5 billion target for Chinese imports of U.S. farm goods this year may not be quite out of reach, but it's looking like a big, big stretch. BEIJING/CHICAGO: With nearly seven months gone, an ambitious US$36.5 billion target for Chinese imports of U.S. farm goods this year may not be quite out of reach, but it's looking like a big, big stretch. By end-May, imports were running behind 2017 levels - rather than 50per cent ahead as needed - and while orders for China's main farm import, soybeans, have started to pick up, scorching levels of buying would be needed to hit the mark. Add i...
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Berkshire slashes Wells Fargo, JPMorgan stakes; adds Barrick Gold
22Aug By Desk TeamNo Comments
World

Berkshire slashes Wells Fargo, JPMorgan stakes; adds Barrick Gold

REUTERS: Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway said on Friday (Aug 14) it has sold shares of some of the largest US banks, slashing its stakes in Wells Fargo & Co and JPMorgan Chase & Co and exiting an investment in Goldman Sachs . In a regulatory filing detailing its US-listed investments as of Jun 30, Berkshire also disclosed a new 20.9 million share investment worth US$563.6 million in Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp , one of the world's largest mining companies. Investors monitor Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire's quarterly filings to see where Buffett and his portfolio managers Todd Combs and Ted Weschler see value. Shares of Barrick have benefited from rising gold prices, which set a record last week, and rose 3.2 per cent in after-hours trading following Berkshire's disclosure. ...
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Vietnam reports 6 more COVID-19 infections, 2 deaths
22Aug By Desk TeamNo Comments
China, World

Vietnam reports 6 more COVID-19 infections, 2 deaths

HANOI: Vietnam's health ministry reported six new COVID-19 infections and two more deaths on Monday (Aug 10), bringing the total number of cases in the country to 847, with 13 fatalities. Most of the new cases, including an 8-year-old boy, are linked to the central city of Danang, where the new outbreak began late last month. The ministry said more than 182,000 people are being quarantined in the country, including 5,139 at hospitals, 28,408 at centralised quarantine centres and the rest at home. Aggressive contact tracing, targeted testing and strict quarantining had helped Vietnam halt an earlier contagion, but it is now racing to control infections in Danang and beyond after a new outbreak was detected there on Jul 25. On Friday, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc warned that...
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Facebook executive in India files police complaint after report on content practices
22Aug By Desk TeamNo Comments
USA, World

Facebook executive in India files police complaint after report on content practices

NEW DELHI: A top Facebook executive in India has filed a police complaint in New Delhi saying she is receiving death threats after a media report said she and the U.S. social network company allegedly favoured Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party. Ankhi Das, Facebook's top public-policy executive in India, in her complaint to Delhi police, as reported by Indian media, said the threats followed a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report that said she opposed applying Facebook's hate-speech rules to a politician from Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and some other Hindu nationalist individuals and groups. Das said that after the WSJ report last week some individuals online had "intentionally vilified" her due to their political affiliations and were engaging in abuse. "I am extremel...
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Philippines records 39 COVID-19 deaths, 2,110 new cases
22Aug By Desk TeamNo Comments
World

Philippines records 39 COVID-19 deaths, 2,110 new cases

MANILA: The Philippines on Sunday (Jul 26) reported 39 deaths related to the novel coronavirus and 2,110 additional infections. Its total deaths now stand at 1,932, with 80,448 confirmed cases, the Department of Health said in a bulletin. 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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Why Japan, South Korea and China can’t put the past behind them
22Aug By Desk TeamNo Comments
China, World

Why Japan, South Korea and China can’t put the past behind them

Aug. 15 marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. How can we understand where Japan has come from, where it is today and where it is going? To answer these questions, it’s important to reflect on just how much the world has changed since Japan’s surrender. A good place to start is the 70th anniversary in 2015, arguably the low point in Sino-Japanese relations. To mark the occasion, the Advisory Panel on the History of the 20th Century and on Japan’s Role and World Order in the 21st Century released its report Aug. 6. It acknowledged Japan’s aggression in East Asia, writing that Japan “lost sight of the global trends, and caused much harm to various countries, largely in Asia, through a reckless war.” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reified much of the report in his Aug. 14 stateme...
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The U.S.-China relationship is a Shakespearean tragedy
22Aug By Desk TeamNo Comments
China, World

The U.S.-China relationship is a Shakespearean tragedy

The one common and peculiar aspect of most Shakespearean tragedies is the fact that the catastrophic events and unfolding misfortunes seem almost inevitable. While characters within the play are well aware of the fact that things are quickly going from bad to worse, it seems almost impossible to change the course of events. Unfortunately, the current U.S.-China relationship seems to be showing the same tendency. Many Shakespearean tragedies were caused by accidents, which in turn were a result of carelessness and miscommunication. U.S.-China relations have never been smooth and peaceful, and have in the past experienced various ups and downs and dangerous crises such as the 1999 bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade and the 2001 military aircraft collision incident, among others. Th...
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