HONG KONG (REUTERS) – One of the young leaders of Hong Kong’s 2014 “Umbrella” pro-democracy street protests was sent back to jail on Thursday (May 16) after losing an appeal against a prison term for contempt of court. Joshua Wong, 22, was sentenced to three months in jail in January last year for disobeying a court order […]
Millions of North Koreans are being forced to rely on meagre rations after the nation’s worst harvest in a decade. The country is 1.36m tonnes of food short following a series of weather disasters, compounded by longstanding international sanctions. A UN assessment found North Koreans had been surviving on just 300g (10.5 oz) of food […]
TOKYO (Reuters) – The euro and yen steadied against the dollar on Thursday, after U.S. officials said President Donald Trump was expected to delay implementing tariffs on imported cars and parts by up to six months to give trade negotiators more time. The euro was 0.1% higher at $1.1208 , having bounced overnight from a […]
BEIJING (BLOOMBERG) – United States President Donald Trump’s call for the Federal Reserve to mirror its Chinese counterpart misses the mark because Beijing’s main defence against trade-war fallout will come from the finance ministry, not the central bank. If tariffs begin to really hurt China’s growth this year, there’s plenty of direct fiscal firepower left […]
BEIJING (Reuters) – New home prices in China grew at a solid pace in April as Beijing sought to boost economic activity, though rapidly rising prices may prompt some cities to tighten policies to contain a potential bubble. Beijing has repeatedly called on local governments to take more responsibility in keeping the frothy market under […]
Presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto’s vehement insistence on rejecting the upcoming election results – on grounds of alleged vote-rigging – could thrust Indonesia into a tense political stand-off, which some fear may lead to civil unrest in the world’s third-largest democracy. Mr Prabowo, who ran against incumbent Joko Widodo a second time, is expected to lose […]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration’s second package of aid for U.S. farmers hit by the trade war with China is expected to total $15 billion to $20 billion and involve direct payments, the agriculture secretary said on Wednesday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is still finalizing the plan, which is likely to prioritize hog […]
GAINDAWAS, India — Swati Yadav had lost count of the number of village campaign stops she had made since her morning began — was it 27, or 28? She was doggedly stumping for a parliamentary seat through 100-degree temperatures in the northern Indian state of Haryana this month. But the biggest struggle in many places […]
(Reuters) – The U.S. economy is expanding at a 1.1% annualized rate in the second quarter, based on weaker-than-expected April data on retail sales and industrial output, the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GDPNow forecast model showed on Wednesday. This was slower than the 1.6% pace estimated by Atlanta Fed’s GDP program on May 9. Earlier on […]
SINGAPORE – Two travellers from Singapore, who were on a ship that left the Republic on Monday (May 13), died of natural causes while on a cruise in nearby waters. The passengers – aged 61 and 75 years old – were on cruise ship Voyager of the Seas, operated by Royal Caribbean Cruises. A spokesman […]