World

watch now Beijing's new trade blocks against Taiwan affect about 0.04% of their two-way trade, making them more political than economic. Beijing took action against Taiwan following U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the island earlier this month despite warnings from Beijing. That included suspensions of imports of Taiwanese citrus, frozen fish, sweets and biscuits and exports of natural sands to Taiwan. Taiwan is a self-ruled democracy, but Beijing considers the island part of its territory and a breakaway province. China says Taiwan has no right to conduct foreign relations and warned for weeks against Pelosi's visit. What trade numbers show Taiwan's exports to mainland China were worth $113 billion last year and its imports from China amounted to about $82 billion, excluding...

Let's get you up to speed with the day's stories. Google Chrome users should install the latest security updates immediately, following reports that hackers are exploiting a "high-severity vulnerability" flaw, the Singapore Computer Emergency Response Team (SingCERT) said on Friday (Aug 19). The high-severity vulnerability is "being exploited in the wild" and can be found in devices belonging to ordinary users. The issue is linked to "Intents", a feature that enables launching applications and web services directly from a page. Apple is warning of a flaw that is allowing hackers to seize control of iPhones, iPads and Mac computers, and is urging users to install emergency software updates. It released patches to fix what it described as a vulnerability that hackers already knew about ...

Singapore has come a long way in its fight against COVID-19, and is now learning to live with the virus, the Prime Minister said. “With each infection wave, we have managed the impact better,” he said, adding that the latest wave is now subsiding. “In many other countries, when a wave happens, cases shoot up furiously and then crash down suddenly, like a rollercoaster. And when cases shoot up like that hospitals come under a lot of pressure. “In Singapore, our waves grow as well as tail off more gradually. And this suggests we have been effective in slowing down disease transmission. We have spread out the impact and prevented our hospitals from being overwhelmed,” said Mr Lee, noting that Singapore has had fewer than 1,600 COVID-19 related deaths. “Every death is one too many. But if ...

The US–China technology rivalry became overt when a dispute erupted over 5G and Huawei after Washington designated Huawei as an embargoed company on its “Entity List” in May 2019. At the center of the dispute are standards underpinning the fifth generation (5G) of mobile network technology. China is overtaking the United States — the traditional mastermind of international standards in information and communications technology — in setting the standards for 5G. Chinese companies hold one-third of the world’s 5G-related “standard-essential” patents — patents that claim an invention must be used to comply with an industry standard. Holding 5G patents is important because 5G extends beyond conventional mobile communication in emerging technological sectors. Autonomous cars, artificial inte...

Cloud and data centres, the chip industry's strongest sector, may be its next problem: Signs are showing growth could slow in what has been a pillar during the COVID-19 era as consumers signed up for cloud-based entertainment and companies retooled their offices. Analysts say the cloud market has rarely had to weather a prolonged economic downturn since it rose to prominence in the last decade as more businesses adopted the technology, making it harder to predict if it's recession proof or it will be hit in an economic downtown. As 40-year-high inflation weighs on consumers and economists debate recession signals, advertisers have been tightening their purse strings, say Big Tech companies. “Investors are worried it's the next shoe to drop," said Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon, adding t...

HONG KONG :China Tourism Group Duty Free Corp is aiming to raise up to $2.16 billion through a new listing in Hong Kong, according to a term sheet reviewed by Reuters, in what will be the largest share sale in the city so far this year. Shanghai-listed China Tourism is planning to sell 102.76 million shares priced between HK$143.50 and HK$165.50 ($18.30 and $21.10) each, the term sheet said. The offer has already been fully subscribed, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the matter with media. China Tourism, which has built the largest duty-free retail network in China, did not respond to a request for comment on the deal's launch or subscription rate. The launch of the deal...

SEOUL: South Korean officials will meet US counterparts this week to express "concerns" about the Inflation Reduction Act, which restricts who can receive US subsidies for the production of electric vehicles and where firms can source battery materials. President Joe Biden signed into law this month a US$430 billion Bill, seen as the biggest climate package in US history. The law requires that EVs be assembled in North America to qualify for tax credits, ending subsidies for several EV models, and that a percentage of critical minerals used in batteries come from the United States or an American free-trade partner. Automakers like Hyundai Motor face short-term competitive disadvantage to manufacturers of EVs that receive tax credits in the United States, while industry sources said Kore...

SINGAPORE: Bubble tea lovers in Southeast Asia spend US$3.66 billion a year on the beverage and similar “new tea” drinks, with Singapore having the highest spending power despite its smallest population among the region's six key markets. This was found in a study which provides analyses and insights into the business dynamics behind bubble tea. Jointly conducted by venture outfit Momentum Works and digital payments solution firm qlub, the report also found that the average price of bubble tea in Singapore is double that of other countries in the region. "(This makes) it a great entry point for premium brands,” Momentum Works said in a news release on Tuesday (Aug 16), adding that there are currently more than 60 active brands of bubble tea chains. The largest market in the region is I...

NEW YORK : Global equity markets rose while U.S. Treasury yields fell on Friday as investors tempered their expectations of the scale of the Federal Reserve's interest rate raising cycle as falling oil prices helped to cool inflation. Market sentiment has been buoyed by U.S. Labor Department data this week showing a slowdown in consumer and producer prices in July following a series of interest rate hikes by the Fed. "With inflation now backing off, all the managers who stayed in cash and didn't believe we could move off the June lows are now being forced back into the market," said Thomas Hayes, chairman at Great Hill Capital. The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 50 countries, was up 1.1 per cent. The pan-European STOXX 600 index gained 0.16 per cent. U.S. Treasury yiel...

NEW YORK :U.S. shares fell sharply and the dollar surged on Monday as fears mounted that central bank efforts to tame rising consumer prices with inflation-busting interest-rate hikes will weaken the global economy and lead to a recession. Earlier in Europe the benchmark STOXX index for regional shares closed down 1 per cent after Russia's Gazprom said it would halt natural gas supplies to Europe for three days at the end of the month. Oil at first fell 4 per cent as traders bet a slowdown would dent demand. But the latest disruption to energy supplies in Europe heightened concerns about the continent's economic outlook after hawkish signals from European Central Bank policymakers. Russian natural gas supplies to Europe are down around 75 per cent year on year. A closely monitored reces...