World

SINGAPORE: There are provisions in place to support national athletes who are training to take part in competitions while they are enlisted in National Service, said the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY). "The priority as they undergo full-time NS is their NS duties," said MCCY on Thursday (May 26) in response to queries. "Within that, MINDEF has existing provisions such as leave and disruption, to support the training and preparation of our national athletes, taking into account the specific circumstances of the athlete, his sport, and subject to the SAF’s operational needs." The ministry added that together with SportSG, it will continue to work with the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) "on an ongoing basis" to support Singapore's national athletes. MCCY's response follows ...

HONG KONG/LONDON :TerraUSD, the so-called stablecoin which plunged in price this week, will be backed by reserves in future, its co-founder said in a tweet on Wednesday, in an attempt to steady the cryptocurrency by adjusting its complex pegging mechanism. Stablecoins are digital tokens pegged to the value of traditional assets, such as the U.S. dollar. They are popular in times of turmoil in crypto markets and are a common medium of exchange, often used by traders to move funds around and speculate on other cryptocurrencies. TerraUSD, also known as 'UST', slipped below its 1:1 peg to the dollar this week, roiling cryptocurrency markets already under pressure alongside tumbling stock markets. It dropped further to as low as 30 cents on Wednesday, before recovering to around 60 cents, acc...

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading. Walmart — Shares dropped over 11% after the big-box retailer reported quarterly earnings that significantly missed Wall Street's expectations. Walmart posted adjusted first-quarter earnings of $1.30 per share on revenue of $141.57 billion. Analysts had expected a profit of $1.48 per share on revenue of $138.94 billion, according to Refinitiv consensus estimates. Walmart cited cost pressures from rising fuel prices, higher inventory levels and overstaffing. Citigroup — The bank stock rallied 7.7% the day after a regulatory filing revealed that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway added more than 55 million shares to build a stake worth $2.95 billion in the first quarter. Shares of Citi have been underperforming the financial secto...

U.S. President Joe Biden (R) here seen reviewing an honor guard with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, released an economic framework during his visit to Japan last week. The IPEF came as a lifeline for India, which had stayed out of a China-centric pact consisting of Southeast Asian nations in 2020. Pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images Two years after walking out of a China-centric free trade pact in Southeast Asia, India is embracing the chance to become a founding member of another grouping — this one led by the U.S. The launch of the U.S.-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework in Tokyo during President Joe Biden's first official trip to Asia last week gives India a chance to make its own pivot to the Pacific. New Delhi's move to solidify its alliance with Washington come...

MILFORD, Mich. — General Motors and Lockheed Martin said Thursday they plan to produce an array of moon-roving vehicles for commercial space missions and services powered by the automaker's electric vehicle battery technology. The companies said they plan to test the batteries in space later this year, with the goal of having their first vehicle using the batteries on the moon in 2025. In addition to potential NASA bids, they hope to strike deals with private companies such as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Elon Musk's SpaceX. "The interest around the world is tremendous," said Derek Hodgins, Lockheed Martin's director of product strategy and sales for lunar infrastructure services, during a joint event here at the GM Proving Ground. The announcement marks the latest expansi...

The U.S. economy added 390,000 jobs in May, better than expected despite fears of an economic slowdown and with a roaring pace of inflation, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. At the same time, the unemployment rate held at 3.6%, just above the lowest level since December 1969. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for nonfarm payrolls to expand by 328,000 and the unemployment rate to edge lower to 3.5%. May's total represented a pullback from the upwardly revised 436,000 in April and was the lowest monthly gain since April 2021. "Despite the slight cooldown, the tight labor market is clearly sticking around and is shrugging off fears of a downturn," said Daniel Zhao, Glassdoor's senior economist. "We continue to see signs of a healthy and competitive job market...

BANGKOK : Thailand has no need to raise interest rates following the Federal Reserve's hikes in U.S. rates as domestic factors and the economic recovery will be the main issues determining policy, the central bank chief said on Thursday. The country's external position remains strong with low foreign debt and high international reserves, Bank of Thailand Governor Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput told reporters on the sideline of a business seminar. Capital movements had not been a problem yet, he said. However, the BOT will closely monitor baht volatility which has been driven by external factors, including the Fed's rate trend, as it may impact smaller businesses, Sethaput said. He declined to say whether the BOT had intervened over the baht that has been trading at its weakest level in alm...

BANGKOK: Fifty-nine Rohingya people have been discovered on a Thai island, saying they were abandoned by traffickers en route to Malaysia, a senior police officer said on Sunday (Jun 5). The group - among them five children - were found on Koh Dong island in the southern Satun province on Saturday, said lieutenant general Surachet Hakpan. Each year, thousands of the mostly Muslim minority Rohingya people, heavily persecuted in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, risk their lives in months-long expensive journeys to reach Malaysia over Thailand's seas. Police said they had been charged with illegal entry and could face deportation to Myanmar following a court case. "We are providing humanitarian assistance and will investigate whether they are victims of human trafficking or if they entered ille...

During the first four months of the year, investment in real estate development fell by 2.7% from a year ago. Pictured here is a project in Qingzhou, Shandong province, on May 15, 2022. CFOTO | Future Publishing | Getty Images BEIJING — The Chinese government faces a growing shortfall of cash, analysts say, as they predict an increase of debt to fill the gap. "The latest wave of Omicron and the widespread lockdowns in place since mid-March have resulted in a sharp contraction in government revenue, including land sales revenue," Ting Lu, chief China economist at Nomura, and a team said in a report last week. They estimate a funding gap of about 6 trillion yuan ($895.52 billion) — roughly 2.5 trillion yuan in decreased revenue due to tax refunds and weaker economic production, and another ...

Already, businesses are feeling ripple effects. More than half of the large companies and 60 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) polled by the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) last month said they have been negatively hit by the ongoing Ukraine war. The top two areas of impact were in the form of rising business costs and supply chain disruptions. “Businesses entered 2022 with greater optimism for recovery and growth. However, the war in Ukraine, as well as rising inflation and interest rates, have somewhat dented business outlook,” SBF’s chief executive officer Lam Yi Young said. Watson EP Industries noted that the Russia-Ukraine conflict has raised the price of plastic resins by as much as 20 per cent, given how the price of the raw material – a byproduct of petr...