TAIPEI — Taiwanese staff working at the island’s representative office in Hong Kong will begin leaving the Chinese-run city from Sunday, a senior official said, after the government there demanded its officials sign a document supporting Beijing’s claim to Taiwan. Chinese-ruled Hong Kong has become another bone of contention between Taipei and Beijing, especially after […]
DHAKA — Busy with his brushes beneath a tarpaulin roof, Rohingya artist Ansar Ullah works on a mural depicting a giant vial of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine towering over the ramshackle homes of the world’s largest refugee settlement in Bangladesh. More than 700,000 Rohingya who fled Myanmar in 2017 live in Bangladesh’s refugee camps, where a vaccination drive […]
PARIS — French voters go to the polls on Sunday in regional elections that will test the appeal of far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s softened image less than a year before the next presidential election. Coming after a grueling year and a half of lockdowns, curfews and restrictions, Sunday’s first round is likely to prove dire for […]
By Peter Martin Australia’s top economists overwhelmingly back government measures to speed the transition to electric cars in order to meet emission reduction targets. An exclusive poll of 62 of Australia’s preeminent economists — selected by their peers — finds 51 back measures to boost the take-up of electric cars including subsidizing public charging stations, […]
ATLANTA/CHICAGO — Marching bands sparked loud cheers and quieter reflections about racial justice from crowds gathered on Saturday to mark Juneteenth as a new US federal holiday commemorating the end of the legal enslavement of Black Americans. President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., and Vice-President Kamala D. Harris on Thursday signed a bill making Juneteenth the 11th federally recognized holiday, just over a […]
The government expects to finish 29 flagship infrastructure projects worth P238.48 billion before President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s term ends in 2022. It has added 13 more projects for a total of 119 projects worth P4.73 trillion, presidential adviser for flagship infrastructure projects Vivencio B. Dizon told a televised news briefing on Friday. The National Economic […]
The Philippine central bank raised its balance of payment (BoP) projection for this year on expectations of an improved economic landscape here and overseas. It now expects the payment position to post a $7.1 billion surplus by year-end, which is lower than the $16-billion surplus last year but higher than the $6.2-billion surplus projection made […]
The Philippine central bank raised P100 billion from its auction of short-term securities on Friday even as rates rose on hints by the US central bank of a looming interest rate increase in 2023. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) fully awarded the 28-day bills from total bids worth P140.525 billion. The auction was 1.4 […]
The country’s outstanding foreign debt fell by 1.5% or $1.4 billion to $97 billion at the end of March from end-December, after the National Government redeemed maturing bonds and local banks settled their obligations, according to the Philippine central bank. Year-on-year, the country’s debt stock rose by $15.6 billion after borrowings worth $13.5 billion by […]
The Department of Health (DoH) reported 6,833 coronavirus infections on Friday, bringing the total to 1.35 million. The death toll rose by 110 to 23,385, while recoveries improved by 3,441 to 1.26 million, it said in a bulletin. There were 61,776 active cases, 1.2% of which were critical, 92.2% were mild, 3.7% did not show […]