World

During her just-concluded visit to Taiwan, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed that America would not abandon the island, doubling down on support for the democratically elected government in Taipei, despite heightened threats of military action by China. Pelosi made her comments on Wednesday at a joint press conference with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. Beijing, which regards Taiwan as part of its territory, was enraged. After her arrival, China’s military announced joint air and sea drills near the island, including test launches of conventional missiles in the sea east of Taiwan. The US ambassador to China was also summoned by Beijing to rebuke him over Pelosi’s “egregious” trip, state media reported. Vice-Foreign Minister Xie Feng voiced “strong protests” over...

HONG KONG: Alibaba Group is cutting over a third of staff in its in-house deals team, four people with knowledge of the matter said, after Beijing's sweeping regulatory crackdown sharply slowed the Chinese e-commerce behemoth's dealmaking pace. Alibaba plans to reduce its strategic investment team of more than 110 people, mainly based in mainland China, to about 70, said two of the people, adding the company has already informed a bulk of staffers of their redundancy. The job cuts mainly involve mid-level and senior people in the mainland, said the two people, declining to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media. The company's deals team also has staff in Hong Kong, they added. Alibaba did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Alibaba and its main rival T...

MOSCOW: The bickering over a turbine Moscow says is to blame for a reduction of gas flows via Nord Stream 1 has put into focus the equipment the pipeline needs to operate. At the heart of the tussle lies SGT-A65, a Siemens Energy turbine that is 12 metres long and weighs 20 tonnes, and needs to be transported back to Gazprom's Nord Stream Portovaya compressor station after undergoing maintenance. The turbine is stuck in transit in Germany, with Russia pointing to outstanding issues around its transport and sanctions, while Germany is blaming Moscow for deliberately holding up the process. The Kremlin on Tuesday said a second turbine at the compressor station has some defects. Siemens Energy declined to comment. WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? President Vladimir Putin says the West has unleashed ...

HONG KONG: Barclays is seeking a Chinese banking partner to set up an asset management joint venture in the country, two people with knowledge of the matter said, as part of British lender's plans to expand its footprint in the world's second-largest economy. Barclays' majority-owned China asset management venture will be set up via its unit Barclays Investment Managers (BIM), which currently has operations in Europe and Japan, the people said. If successful, Barclays will join a string of other Western financial firms who have started or are in the process of launching operations in China's lucrative US$4.3 trillion bank-dominated asset management market. The China expansion plan also comes as Barclays is gradually expanding its presence in Asia, reversing a pullback from the region si...

BANGKOK: Secretary of State Antony Blinken holds talks Sunday (Jul 10) in Thailand as part of a renewed US effort to engage Southeast Asia, a key area of competition with China, and as he seeks new ideas on how to restore democracy in Myanmar. Blinken is visiting Thailand, America's oldest ally in Asia, days after a stop by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who has embarked on a more extensive tour of Southeast Asia in which he has highlighted Beijing's lavish infrastructure spending. The United States has identified China, with its authoritarian system and burgeoning technological and military resources, as its pre-eminent global rival but both nations have recently sought to lower the temperature, with Wang and Blinken meeting Saturday for an unusually long five hours in Bali. Blinken...

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell speaks during a news conference following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) in Washington, July 27, 2022. Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters It seems the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates, delivered Wednesday, and the subsequent press conference held by Chairman Jerome Powell, was something of a Rorschach test for viewers. In reality, the ink blots that observers claimed to see were not quite as subjective as many suggested. Rather, most of what was in the Fed's statement, or discussed by the nation's top central banker, was written in black and white. The statement's first line acknowledged that spending and production were slowing. It further noted that the Fed was likely to keep raising rates to tame inflation....

HOW HARD IS IT TO LEARN CANDLE MAKING? Sarah: Essentially, making a candle in itself is not easy but it’s not hard either. What’s difficult is understanding fragrances; learning how to blend and balance scent notes to get a great throw. Developing scents with a partner is interesting too because the same ingredient can have different profiles for us and it’s hard to articulate that to someone else. Sometimes reaching a consensus means shoving scented paper strips under all our friends' noses and passive-aggressively demanding honesty. Candle-making regularly makes a fool of us – there’s so much that could go wrong at any turn. Cheyenne: We used the wrong type of wax for the first two months and wasted so much time and money, but the stupid stories don’t end in the learning stage. I think...

The ASEAN-Japan Centre in Tokyo, established by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states and Japan, produced a series of documentary videos that take a closer look at women from ASEAN countries who are active in Japan. There are about 500,000 women from ASEAN in Japan, and these videos introduce one from each of the 10 member states. Their reasons for coming to and staying in Japan vary. However, each one is working hard to accomplish her dream. Although the pandemic has reduced opportunities to communicate with the people around us, make new friends and know their thoughts, we decided to create these AJC videos to show how women from ASEAN are continuing to try despite knowing their efforts may never draw attention back home. Let’s take a look at how the journeys of thes...

Select’s editorial team works independently to review financial products and write articles we think our readers will find useful. We earn a commission from affiliate partners on many offers, but not all offers on Select are from affiliate partners. As Americans continue to feel the financial pressure of record-high inflation, household debt is on the rise. According to the Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit, released Tuesday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, U.S. household debt surpassed $16 trillion in the second quarter of 2022, reflecting a 2% jump from the previous quarter. The report also revealed an uptick in delinquencies regarding debt from sub-prime and low-income borrowers, suggesting that harder times may be on the horizon for those who are already struggling...

The entrance to the Pine Tavern is viewed on August 9, 2021, in Bend, Oregon. George Rose | Getty Images What a difference a year makes. Oregon climbed 17 spots to finish at No. 18 in the CNBC America's Top States for Business rankings for 2022, the biggest improvement of any state. Last year at this time, Oregon's economy had contracted by 2.8% after the Covid pandemic dealt a body blow with its financial health heavily reliant on international trade and tourism. No state fell further in last year's rankings as it struggled to rebound. It did rebound, and then some. The state's economy snapped back to grow 5.8% in 2021 as trade and tourism return. Also rebounding in a big way: the state's revenue. Payments during tax season this year jumped 70% from an already strong 2021, according to t...