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Oil prices rose over 1% on Thursday on hopes for a trade deal between China and the US, the two biggest oil consumers worldwide.    Brent futures rose 86 cents, or 1.4% to $61.98 a barrel, while West Texas crude prices rose 97 cents, or 1.7% to $59.03 a barrel as of 11:20 GMT.   SEB analysts note that as the markets settle above $61 a barrel, it provides strong support, accompanied by optimism on tariffs as the US and China prepare to commence talks.   US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will meet senior Chinese officials on May 10 in…

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A militant Kurdish group announced on Friday that it had made “historic” decisions during its long-awaited congress earlier this week. The group, however, stopped short of saying whether it had resolved to disband and disarm as part of a new peace initiative with Turkey aimed at ending the four-decade insurgency.The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, held a congress in two locations in northern Iraq between May 5-7, according to a statement carried by the Firat News Agency, a media organization close to the banned group. The PKK said the historic decisions taken during the congress would…

Shares at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) recovered nearly 4,000 points on Friday after the index suffered its largest-ever plunge a day earlier, causing losses to the tune of Rs820 billion loss to equity investors following Indian drone attacks in major cities across the country. The benchmark KSE-100 index climbed 799.65, or 0.77 per cent, to stand at 104,326.46 from the previous close of 103,526.81 at 11:06am. At 4:31pm, the index recovered 3647.82, or 3.52pc, to stand at 107,174.63 from the last close. Mohammed Sohail, chief executive of Topline Securities, said that after falling sharply by 6pc yesterday, the stocks…

The Shuangjiangkou hydropower project in southwest China – which will be the world’s tallest dam when completed – began storing water on May 1, its developer said, taking it a step closer to getting up and running.The 36 billion yuan (US$4.9 billion) project in the Aba Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture, in Sichuan province, has been under construction for nearly a decade and will be used for power generation and flood control.It is situated upstream of the Dadu River, which flows from the eastern Tibetan Plateau into the Sichuan Basin.State-owned Power Construction Corporation of China (PowerChina) is building the project…

STOCKHOLM (AP) — The Stockholm City Council has rejected the U.S. Embassy’s demands that it comply with the Trump administration’s rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion policies.It’s the latest in U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to terminate such programs within the federal government — and beyond — in what he described in his inauguration speech as a move to end efforts to “socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.”Countries and cities across Europe have received similar outreach from U.S. embassies, including France, Belgium and the city of Barcelona, all of which lashed out at…

The US semiconductor giant has notified major Chinese customers, including leading cloud computing services providers, that it aims to release the modified H20 chip in July, two of the sources said.The downgraded H20 represents Nvidia’s latest attempt to maintain its presence in one of its most crucial markets, as Washington expands its efforts to restrict China’s access to advanced semiconductor technology.The H20, which had been Nvidia’s most powerful AI chip cleared for Chinese sales, was effectively blocked from the market after US officials informed the company last month that the product would require an export licence.Nvidia has formulated new technical…

International Steels Limited (ISL), a subsidiary of International Industries Limited, has completed and activated a 6.4-megawatt (MW) solar power project at its factory in Karachi. The listed steel maker shared the development in a notice to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday. “We are pleased to inform you that the 6.4MW solar power project at our Karachi factory has been successfully completed and is now fully operational. “This initiative aligns with International Steels Limited’s long-term sustainability strategy, reinforcing our commitment to energy efficiency, environmental responsibility, and cost optimisation,” read the notice. Incorporated on 03 September 2007 as a public…

Some of Asia’s richest families are cutting exposure to US assets, saying President Donald Trump’s tariffs have made the world’s largest economy much less predictable.One family office managing assets for Chinese billionaires exited its US holdings entirely and will shift the proceeds to Asia. A senior executive at one of Europe’s largest private banks said the scale of the recent sell-off from rich clients and institutions around the world is unprecedented over the past three decades and could be the beginning of a more persistent shift. A top bank executive in Asia got rid of 60 per cent of US…

Some of Asia’s richest families are cutting exposure to US assets, saying President Donald Trump’s tariffs have made the world’s largest economy much less predictable.One family office managing assets for Chinese billionaires exited its US holdings entirely and will shift the proceeds to Asia. A senior executive at one of Europe’s largest private banks said the scale of the recent sell-off from rich clients and institutions around the world is unprecedented over the past three decades and could be the beginning of a more persistent shift. A top bank executive in Asia got rid of 60 per cent of US…

LONDON (AP) — Two men were convicted Friday of cutting down the beloved Sycamore Gap tree in northern England in 2023 in an unexplained act of vandalism that caused widespread outrage.A Newcastle Crown Court jury found Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers guilty of two counts each of criminal damage for felling the tree and toppling it onto the ancient Hadrian’s Wall.The tree was not Britain’s biggest or oldest, but it was prized for its picturesque setting symmetrically planted between two hills along the ancient wall built by Emperor Hadrian in A.D. 122 to protect the northwest frontier of the Roman…