Tag: All Regions

In the summer of 2021, Insider has learned, [Peter] Thiel began providing information as a “confidential human source,” or CHS, to Johnathan Buma, a Los Angeles-based FBI agent who specializes in investigating political corruption and foreign-influence campaigns. Charles Johnson, a longtime associate of Thiel’s and a notorious figure in the far-right movement that Thiel has subsidized for a decade, told Insider in a statement that he helped recruit the billionaire as an informant by introducing him to Buma. A source…

Al Jazeera, whose footage was cited by Israel to claim a failed rocket launch by Gaza fighters caused the al-Ahli Baptist hospital explosion, did their own investigation into Israel’s claims and found they were without merit. An Al Jazeera digital investigation found no grounds for the Israeli army’s claim that the strike on the al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza was caused by a failed rocket launch. pic.twitter.com/DQsrBXfwmL — Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 19, 2023 Key points: – They discovered…

Japanese electronics manufacturer Casio disclosed a data breach impacting customers from 149 countries after hackers gained to the servers of its ClassPad education platform. Casio detected the incident on Wednesday, October 11, following the failure of a ClassPad database within the company’s development environment. Evidence suggests that the attacker accessed customers’ personal information a day later, on October 12. The exposed data includes customer names, email addresses, countries of residence, service usage details, and purchase information such as payment methods,…

U.S. military forces in Iraq were targeted on Wednesday in two separate drone attacks, with one causing minor injuries to a small number of troops even though the U.S. military managed to intercept the armed drone, a U.S. official said. The official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, did not say who was suspected of the attacks on the al-Asad air base and the al-Harir air base. But Washington is on heightened alert for activity by Iran-backed groups…

STOCKHOLM – Finnish telecom gear group Nokia on Thursday said it will cut up to 14,000 jobs in a new cost reduction effort after third-quarter sales fell by a fifth, taken down by sales of next-generation 5G equipment. Nokia and rival Ericsson have grappled with slowing demand for 5G equipment in markets such as the United States and the European Union, trying to offset some of the weakness with higher sales to India, a low-margin market. Nokia is targeting savings…

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Wednesday broadly eased sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector in response to a deal reached between the government and opposition parties for the 2024 election – the most extensive rollback of Trump-era restrictions on Caracas. A new general license issued by the U.S. Treasury Department authorized OPEC member Venezuela, which had been under crushing sanctions since 2019, to produce and export oil to its chosen markets for the next six months without limitation. U.S. Secretary…

BENGALURU – Grand Centrex Limited (GCL) said on Wednesday that it will list in the US by merging with a blank-cheque firm in a deal that values the Singapore-based video game distributor at US$1.2 billion (S$1.65 billion). Special purpose acquisition companies (Spacs) have largely fallen out of favour following a bumper 2020, after they drew intense scrutiny from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The poor stock performance of some companies that went public via a Spac merger have…

SEOUL – South Korean authorities arrested Kakao’s chief investment officer (CIO) for alleged stock price manipulation in a high-profile takeover battle over K-pop agency SM Entertainment. Bae Jae-hyun was arrested early on Thursday, according to the Seoul Southern District Court which issued the warrant. Internet giant Kakao won a controlling stake in SM after an intense bidding war with Hybe, the label behind hit boy group BTS. Financial regulators accused the executive, along with two others working at Kakao and…

SINGAPORE – Keppel Corporation has raised a 1.4 billion yuan (S$262.8 million) initial investment from an undisclosed global institutional investor, capturing opportunities in China’s sustainability transition. Together with 160 million yuan of a sponsor stake by Keppel, the total 1.6 billion fund (S$306 million) marked the closing of its China-focused sustainable urban renewal programme, said the company on Thursday. About 3.9 billion yuan worth of assets are expected to be under Keppel’s management “when fully leveraged and invested”. Both parties…

NEW YORK – US stocks fell on Wednesday as underwhelming earnings and ongoing fighting in the Middle East weighed on investor optimism. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1 per cent to 33,665.08. The broad-based S&P 500 sank 1.3 per cent to 4,314.60, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 1.6 per cent to 13,314.30. The yield on the popular 10-year US Treasury rose above 4.9 per cent for the first time since 2007, as traders prepared for the likelihood…

A hacker has leaked an additional 4.1 million stolen 23andMe genetic data profiles for people in Great Britain and Germany on a hacking forum. Earlier this month, a threat actor leaked the stolen data of 1 million Ashkenazi Jews who used 23andMe services to find their ancestry info and genetic predispositions. 23andMe told BleepingComputer that this data was obtained through credential stuffing attacks on accounts using weak passwords or credentials exposed in other data breaches. However, the company says there is no evidence of…

SANTIAGO, Chile — The Israeli government has suspended all sales and supplies of defense and security hardware and related services to Colombia. The move followed a heated exchange on X, formerly known as Twitter, between Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Israeli Ambassador in Bogota Gali Dagan about the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip. Petro had refused to condemn the Hamas raid. When Dagan urged Petro to speak about the attack on Israel, Colombia’s president replied with a message that…

The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is calling on the UK government to reduce the current cap on individual per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water from 100ng/l to 10ng/l, warning that levels above this pose a significant risk to public health. The RSC’s call follows new analysis revealing that more than a third of water courses tested in England and Wales contain medium or high-risk levels of PFAS, which have been linked to a range of serious adverse…

Things may take a positive turn only if the US economy achieves a soft landing, boosting the outlook for manufacturing and capital expenditures, the technology cycle bottoms out, and disinflation in Asia accelerates to provide scope for easing monetary policy in 2024, the IMF said. However, medium-term prospects are uncertain due to geo-economic fragmentation, with de-risking policies of major economies creating a potentially significant impact on growth, it said. While inflation is expected to ease in 2024, IMF advised central banks to ensure that inflation remains durably at appropriate…

HONG KONG – Hong Kong’s BC Technology Group is exploring the sale of its crypto platform OSL, one of only two exchanges licensed under digital-asset rules the city introduced in June, people familiar with the matter said. BC Technology has gauged interest in OSL from possible buyers such as industry players and funds, and a HK$1 billion (S$175.13 million) valuation has been suggested, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information. Shares of BC Technology slumped as…

U.S. President Joe Biden will visit Israel on Wednesday for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and make clear Israel has the right to defend itself, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Tuesday. Blinken said after lengthy talks with Netanyahu that Biden will reaffirm solidarity with Israel, which has widely been expected to launch a ground assault in Gaza. Israel has vowed to annihilate the Hamas movement that rules Gaza after fighters burst into Israel on Oct 7,…