Homeless suffer as winter makes harsh Hungarian law harsher

Last year, Hungary made homelessness a criminal offence, leading to action against people living on the streets.

The Hungarian government made homelessness a criminal offence in October last year. And people living on the streets are being rounded up by the police.

Others have fled or gone into hiding, making them even more vulnerable to the harsh winter.

Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull reports.

DR Congo's people hope new leader will make changes

With poverty, corruption and high unemployment, the DRC’s new president faces many challenges.

There’s optimism in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as people welcome their new leader, in spite of the economic hurdles ahead and questions over the election that brought him to power.

The public is eager to see how Felix Tshisekedi will deal with high unemployment and corruption and fix poor services.

Al Jazeera’s Fahmida Miller reports from Kinshasa.

European stocks, U.S. stock futures rally to start of the year

European stocks and U.S. stock futures both rallied Thursday in the first trading day of 2020. The Stoxx Europe 600 SXXP, +0.86% gained 0.9% in early action — with banks, oil producers and insurers gaining ground — and futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average YM00, +0.55% added 159 points.

Tullow Oil: Guyana well oil pay below estimates

Tullow Oil PLC (TLW.LN) said Thursday that preliminary estimates indicate that the Carapa-1 exploration well on the Kanuku license offshore Guyana has encountered four meters of net oil pay, which is below pre-drill forecasts.

The oil-and-gas company said the well was drilled to a depth of 3,290 meters in 68 meters of water and will now be plugged and abandoned. A pay is a section of a reservoir that contains economically viable recoverable oil or gas.

Tullow has a 37.5% stake in the well while Repsol Exploracion Guyana, SA is the operator of the Kanuku block with a 37.5% stake. Total E&P Guyana BV holds the remaining 25%.

"We will now integrate the results of the three exploration wells drilled in these adjacent licenses into our Guyana and Suriname geological and geophysical models before deciding the future work program, Chief Operating Officer Mark MacFarlane said.

Write to Ian Walker at [email protected]

Turkey detains several over Ghosn's transit through Istanbul – NTV

ISTANBUL, Jan 2 (Reuters) – Turkish police have detained several people after the interior ministry launched a probe into the transit of ousted Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn, who after fleeing Japan stopped in Turkey on his way to Lebanon, broadcaster NTV said on Thursday.

Ghosn, one of the world’s best-known executives, has become Japan’s most famous fugitive after he revealed on Tuesday he had fled to Lebanon to escape what he called a “rigged” justice system. (Reporting by Daren Butler; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)

Singapore’s economy grew 0.8% in fourth quarter

SINGAPORE–Singapore’s economy grew faster-than-expected in the fourth quarter, but full year growth for 2019 slowed from a year earlier.

Gross domestic product grew 0.8% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, according to advance estimates released by the Ministry of Trade and Industry on Thursday. That compared with 0.5% median estimate in a survey of five economists by The Wall Street Journal.

For the full year, the economy grew at 0.7%, which was slower than the 3.1% growth in 2018.

Services output was up 1.4% on year in the fourth quarter, compared with 0.9% gain on year in the third quarter, the data showed.

Manufacturing output fell 2.1% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, after declining 0.9% in the third quarter.

The construction sector expanded 2.1% on year in the fourth quarter, compared with a 2.4% growth in the third quarter.

On quarter basis, the economy grew 0.1% on a seasonally adjusted and annualized basis in the October-to-December period. That compared with 2.4% on-quarter growth in the third quarter and a 0.4% median estimate in the WSJ survey.

Write to Ronnie Harui at [email protected]

D’o(ug)h! Twitter Users Cheesed Off Over Bill De Blasio’s Pizza Price Attack

Twitter users gave New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio a pizza their mind after he criticized Domino’s for selling pies at an above-normal price to people waiting for the Times Square ball drop on New Year’s Eve.

De Blasio sarcastically called the company “classy” for “jacking up your prices on people trying to celebrate the holidays.” However, he cited a New York Post article that quoted one reveler who said the $30 pizza was “absolutely worth it.”

Criticism of the former Democratic 2020 presidential candidate came thick and fast as people on social media pointed out the flaws with his attack:

South Korea Exports Fall At Slowest Pace In 8 Months

South Korea’s exports declined at the slowest pace in eight months in December, data from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy revealed on Wednesday.

Exports decreased 5.2 percent year-on-year in December. This was the smallest drop since April. Economists had forecast shipments to decline 6 percent after falling 14.4 percent in November.

Exports of South Korea to its biggest export destination, China, increased 3.3 percent, which was the first growth in 14 months. However, shipments to the US fell 0.4 percent.

Imports logged an annual decline of 0.7 percent versus the expected fall of 4.6 percent and November’s 13 percent decrease, data showed.

As a result, the trade surplus fell to $2.02 billion from $3.34 billion in November. The trade balance has posted surplus over the last 95 consecutive months.

In the whole year of 2019, exports plunged 10.3 percent reflecting weak global trade as well as subdued demand for semiconductors. At the same time, imports were down 6 percent.

The trade surplus totaled $39.1 billion in 2019, marking the 11th straight year that the economy registered a surplus.

The trade ministry expects a recovery in exports this year. Exports are forecast to advance 3 percent in 2020.

In order to revive economic growth, the central bank had reduced the interest rate twice in 2019, by 25 basis points each in July and October. The rate currently stands at a record low 1.25 percent.