Category: Business & Economy

BAGHDAD — Hundreds of protesters attempted to storm Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses foreign embassies and the seat of Iraq’s government, early Saturday following reports an ultranationalist group burned a copy of the Quran in front of the Iraqi Embassy in Copenhagen. Security forces pushed back protesters, who blocked the Jumhuriya bridge leading to the Green Zone, preventing…

U.S. prosecutors have accused FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried of witness tampering and asked a federal judge to issue an order that would bar the former billionaire and other parties from making public statements likely to interfere with a fair trial. The prosecutors wrote to U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Thursday referencing a New York Times article titled “Inside the…

Fincantieri and Leonardo have signed a 190-million euro ($211.5 million) contract to maintain the Italian Navy’s Cavour aircraft carrier and the Andrea Doria and Caio Duilio Horizon-class destroyers. Work under the agreement will be conducted until 2028 by the Leonardo and Fincantieri joint venture Orizzonte Sistemi Navali (OSN). The companies will sustain the operational condition of each ship to maintain…

Backstory: Epstein continued socializing with A-listers despite conviction – media, New reports on Jeffrey Epstein demonstrate deep-going corruption of US ruling elite The U.S. Virgin Islands government is seeking at least $190 million in penalties from JPMorgan Chase in connection to its banking relationship with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. In a new legal filing on Friday, the USVI’s Attorney General…

SINGAPORE – DBS Bank has agreed to sell a 77.8 per cent stake in electronic payment services provider AXS to Tower Capital Asia, a private equity firm based in Singapore. The bank will retain a minority stake of 9.9 per cent in AXS, it said on Tuesday. It did not disclose the stake’s sale price. The deal is slated to…

NEW YORK – Standard Chartered is ramping up its bullish Bitcoin prediction, targeting as much as US$120,000 (S$161,000) by the end of 2024 – almost quadruple the current price – as increasingly cash-rich miners reduce their sales of the token. “Increased miner profitability per BTC mined means they can sell less while maintaining cash inflows, reducing net BTC supply and…

TAIPEI/BENGALURU – Taiwan’s Foxconn has withdrawn from a US$19.5 billion (SS26 billion) semiconductor joint venture with Indian metals-to-oil conglomerate Vedanta, it said on Monday, in a setback to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s chipmaking plans for India. The world’s largest contract electronics maker signed a pact with Vedanta last year to set up semiconductor and display production plants in Mr Modi’s…

  According to the company, Spain imported 7,673 gigawatt hours (GWh) of liquefied natural gas from Russia last month, which accounted for 26.8% of the kingdom’s total purchases. From January to June, Spain purchased 41,145 GWh of LNG from Russia, Enagas added. Russia is followed by Algeria and the United States. Algeria exported to Spain 21% of the total amount…

BENGALURU – Nearly 900 Amazon workers at a warehouse in Britain will stage a strike for three days in the coming week over a pay dispute, labour union GMB said on Saturday. The strike will take place from July 11-13 at Amazon’s warehouse in Coventry, for two hours during the morning and two hours in the evening on the three…

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Sunday said she agreed Washington will listen to Chinese complaints about security-related curbs on U.S. technology exports and might “respond to unintended consequences” as she ended a visit to Beijing aimed at reviving strained relations. Yellen defended “targeted measures” on trade that China’s leaders complain are aimed at hurting its fledgling tech industries. She…

From August, China is to restrict exports of gallium and germanium, two critical elements for making semiconductor chips. With China dominating the supply of both elements, exporters will now need special license to get them out of the country. The move has the potential to harm a range of western tech manufacturers that use these elements to make their products. The move is reportedly…

Nearly 70 IT security and privacy academics have added to the clamour of alarm over the damage the UK’s Online Safety Bill could wreak to, er, online safety unless it’s amended to ensure it does not undermine strong encryption. Writing in an open letter, 68 UK-affiliated security and privacy researchers have warned the draft legislation poses a stark risk to…

BEIRUT (AP) — A French court Tuesday upheld the freezing of the assets of Lebanon’s embattled central bank governor, rejecting his appeal to have them released, an official close to the investigation said. Several European countries are investigating central bank Gov. Riad Salameh and his associates over myriad alleged financial crimes, including illicit enrichment and laundering of $330 million. A…

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has slapped BNK Banking Corporation with a $247,500 fine for failing to meet its data reporting requirements to the APRA.  In a statement, the prudential regulator said BNK was 32 days late in filing statistical reports for the month ending Feb. 23 under the Economic and Financial Statistics program. This failure to report data by…

SHANGHAI – China’s major state banks have lowered their US dollar deposit rates for the second time in a month, seven banking sources with direct knowledge of the matter said, as the authorities step up efforts to arrest a slide in the Renminbi currency. Interest rates offered by the “Big Five” state-owned lenders on most dollar deposits are now capped…

James S. Crown On Sunday, James S. Crown died in an unusual single-car accident, reportedly on a motorsport racetrack at a “member-owned country club” in Aspen, Colorado. The Pitkin County Coroner’s Office said in a statement that “The official cause of death is pending autopsy, although multiple blunt force trauma is evident.” The Sheriff’s Office indicated that the earliest new…