World

UNITED NATIONS: UN chief Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday (Jun 8) that the consequences for the world of Russia's invasion of Ukraine are worsening, with 1.6 billion people likely to be affect. "The war's impact on food security, energy and finance is systemic, severe, and speeding up," the Secretary-General said, presenting the UN's second report into the repercussions of the conflict. He added that "for people around the world, the war is threatening to unleash an unprecedented wave of hunger and destitution, leaving social and economic chaos in its wake. Guterres said that while this year's food crisis is "about lack of access", next year's "could be about lack of food". "There is only one way to stop this gathering storm: The Russian invasion of Ukraine must end," he pleaded in a...

Solar energy stocks soared Monday after a report that the Biden administration will suspend tariffs on solar panel components from four countries. President Joe Biden declared a 24-month tariff exemption for solar panel products from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, and announced the use of the Defense Production Act to promote domestic production. The news was first reported by Reuters. The move comes as a Commerce Department investigation into the solar industry in Southeast Asia has added more hurdles to importing equipment. Shares of Sunrun jumped 5.9%, while Enphase Energy surged more than 5.4%. SolarEdge Technology and SunPower gained nearly 3%. Array Technologies popped about 18%. "We believe the announcement will be a clear positive for our coverage, particularly within...

The spider web rice fields in Flores, Indonesia. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization Food Price Index shows international rice prices creeping up for the fifth straight month to reach a 12-month high, according to the latest May data published last week. Tanutkij Wangsittidej Food prices have been on the rise in the past few months. And rice, a staple food in much of Asia, could be next, industry watchers said. The prices of many foods, ranging from wheat and other grains to meat and oils, have shot up. That's been driven by a slew of factors, including the rising cost of fertilizer and energy in the past year as well as the Russia-Ukraine war. Food export bans or serious disruptions have included those from India (wheat), Ukraine (wheat, oats and sugar, among others) an...

The Justice Department sued longtime Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn on Tuesday to compel him to register as a foreign agent because of lobbying work it says he performed at the behest of the Chinese government during the Trump administration. The department said it had advised Wynn repeatedly over the last four years to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, and is suing now because Wynn refused to do so. Though the Justice Department has ramped up efforts to criminally prosecute people who don't register as foreign agents, officials described this case as the first lawsuit of its kind in more than three decades. "Where a foreign government uses an American as its agent to influence policy decisions in the United States, FARA gives the American people a right to...

SAN SALVOR/NEW YORK : El Salvador's big bet on bitcoin, which the Central American nation has been buying since September, has soured in recent weeks as a cryptocurrency rout shaved over a third of the value of the government's holdings, Reuters calculations show. Under populist President Nayib Bukele, a vocal cheerleader for the currency, El Salvador went all-in on bitcoin, not just becoming the world's first country to adopt it as a legal tender but also sketching out plans for a volcano-powered crypto mining hub and plans to issue the first sovereign bond linked to the coin. With global borrowing costs on the rise and a big debt repayment on the horizon, El Salvador has other fiscal headaches than the impact of the currency's swoon. But the crypto slump has also closed some potential ...

LONDON: Tottenham's owners have invested £150 million (US$188 million) into the club as they try to satisfy boss Antonio Conte's demands for significant upgrades to his squad. Conte's side clinched qualification for next season's Champions League on Sunday as their 5-0 rout of Norwich sealed a fourth-place finish in the Premier League. But Conte has spent much of his time in north London hinting that Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy must provide him with major financial backing to sign "important players" as he looks to close the gap on champions Manchester City and Liverpool. Conte, who is under contract until the end of next season, has yet to pledge his long-term future to the club and it appears Tottenham's cash injection is designed to appease the notoriously demanding Italian. The ...

Aerial view of shipping containers and cranes at Qingdao Port on May 30, 2022 in Qingdao, Shandong Province of China. Han Jiajun | Visual China Group | Getty Images First, it was the pandemic. Then came the Russia-Ukraine war. With two major global crises back-to-back, there could be some lasting changes in supply chains and trade, experts warn. The war in Ukraine, in particular, has caused countries to think about the need for more dependable trading partners. "If the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted a need to shorten supply chains, the war in Ukraine underscores the importance to have reliable trading partners," said Peter Martin, research director at commodity research firm Wood Mackenzie. Energy prices soared this year as Russia's onslaught in Ukraine destabilized the markets and Western...

In this article MA For the first time since the start of the pandemic, global leisure and business flights have risen to levels not seen since 2019. That's according to the Mastercard Economics Institute's third annual travel report, titled "Travel 2022: Trends & Transitions," published yesterday. After analyzing 37 global markets, the report found that cross-border travel reached pre-pandemic levels as of March — a significant milestone for a travel industry that has been dominated by domestic travel since 2020. The data shows a "major recovery" is underway, said David Mann, chief economist for Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa at the Mastercard Economics Institute. "It is just pure evidence of just how strong the pent-up demand has actually been." Flights are back Global flight boo...

A WeRide robotaxi with health supplies heads to Liwan district on June 4, 2021, in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. Southern Metropolis Daily | Visual China Group | Getty Images BEIJING — While governments may be wary of driverless cars, people want to buy the technology, and companies want to cash in. It's a market for a limited version of self-driving tech that assists drivers with tasks like parking and switching lanes on a highway. And McKinsey predicts the market for a basic form of self-driving tech — known as "Level 2" in a classification system for autonomous driving — is worth 40 billion yuan ($6 billion) in China alone. "L2, improving the safety value for users, its commercial value is very clear," Bill Peng, Hong Kong-based partner at McKinsey, said Monday in Mandarin tr...

The Quad's MDA program may further militarize the Indo-Pacific region, where U.S. aircraft carrier USS Nimitz is seen here in a file photo leading a formation. Stocktrek Images | Stocktrek Images | Getty Images The Quad countries want to jointly monitor movements of ships and submarines in the Indo-Pacific using satellites, a move analysts warn could potentially lead to militarization of the region. "While the Quad as of now is not a security organization, it has the potential to quickly metamorphose into one," retired Maj. Gen. Dhruv Katoch of the Indian Army told CNBC. "If Chinese belligerence threatens ASEAN countries, then perhaps Southeast Asian countries too would be inclined to join such a grouping." The initiative's military nature is also underlined by the fact that the program i...