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Investment in Hong Kong’s commercial property more than tripled in the third quarter from a year earlier, making it the second-fastest growing market in the Asia-Pacific region amid rising confidence in the city’s bruised real estate sector, according to MSCI.Some US$4.9 billion was pumped into offices, data centres, retail spaces, hotels and senior housing in the September quarter, a year-on-year increase of 231 per cent, according to the data services provider, which compiled deals worth at least US$10 million. The investment was also the highest for any quarter since 2019, the New York-based company said.Malaysia was the region’s stand-out real…

LONDON (AP) — Following weeks of speculation, Britain’s unpopular Labour government will deliver its second budget later Wednesday since it returned to power in a landslide election victory in July 2024 after 14 years in opposition.Treasury chief Rachel Reeves, the first woman to hold the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer, is set to tell lawmakers that more tax-raising measures are necessary to plug a hole in the public finances. Reeves said much the same at her first budget a little more than a year ago. That budget, she had insisted, would be the one and only big tax-raising budget…

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The soil surrounding the gas facility in Ukraine was once pitch-black before it was burned to a rusty red by a massive Russian drone and missile assault.Scattered remnants of Shahed drones littered the reservoir designated for storing tanks of liquefied propane gas. Nearly a month after the Oct. 30 attack, several tanks lay empty and in ruins.“It hurts to look at all this (damage) because I saw firsthand (the facility’s) establishment, construction and development,” said Victor, who has worked there for 28 years and who cannot be named in full for security reasons. “But we have,…

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV is embarking on his first foreign trip, a pilgrimage to Turkey and Lebanon that would be delicate under any circumstances but is even more fraught given Mideast tensions and the media glare that will document history’s first American pope on the road.Leo is fulfilling a trip Pope Francis planned to make, to mark an important anniversary with the Orthodox church in Turkey. In Lebanon, he’ll try to boost a long-suffering Christian community as well as Lebanese of all faiths who are still demanding justice over the 2020 Beirut port blast.Leo, who spent 12…

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a matter of days, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll vaulted from being the leader of a military bureaucracy — where he’s been cutting red tape to quickly buy inexpensive drones — to a key negotiator in the Trump administration’s push to end the Russia-Ukraine war.The boyish Iraq War veteran, former venture capitalist and friend of Vice President JD Vance went from presenting President Donald Trump’s plan to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv to sitting down with Russian officials in the United Arab Emirates on Monday and Tuesday, heading up the latest phase of talks on a…

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has insisted his country remains neutral as a mediator in the escalating border row between Thailand and Cambodia, as criticisms mount over his peacemaking role.The backlash reflects how divisive the conflict has become, with some factions in Thailand and Cambodia viewing foreign-brokered truces as harmful to their interests. Analysts say Anwar is keen to avoid provoking such sensitivities, mindful of deep-seated distrust in Thai–Cambodian relations and Asean’s non-interference principle.Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Johannesburg on Saturday, Anwar said he had to “clear the air” following protests in…

SHANGHAI, CHINA – JUNE 08: Aerial view of skyscrapers standing at the Lujiazui Financial District at sunrise on June 8, 2022 in Shanghai, China.Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty ImagesAsia-Pacific markets were set to open higher Wednesday, tracking Wall Street gains on hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve could cut benchmark interest rates in December.Expectations rose after Bloomberg reported that White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett was being considered as the frontrunner to become the next Fed chair. Investors see Hassett as someone more likely to push the central bank toward a lower-rate environment favored by President Donald Trump.…

As China’s traditional spirits and premium wines grapple with declining consumption, a significant shift is under way across the beverage landscape. This three-part series examines the challenges faced by Maotai town as its once-coveted baijiu loses its lustre, the impact of economic shutdowns on European wine imports, and the rise of craft beer as a budget-friendly alternative for consumers seeking quality without breaking the bank.Marshall Su, a 30-year-old headhunter based in Shanghai, has long been a wine enthusiast. But these days, he is more likely to open a bottle at home than order one in a fancy Western restaurant.“It’s cheaper…

The great-power competition of the twenty-first century is no longer fought on battlefields or in oil markets; it now takes place within the microscopic circuits of semiconductors. These components, once treated as the invisible backbone of consumer electronics, have become the front line of today’s global geopolitical divide. What began as a tariff-driven trade dispute has evolved into something far more serious: a full-scale technological war centered on a component tiny in size but immense in strategic value — the semiconductor chip. As the saying goes, “Whoever controls chips controls the world.” Control here means holding the keys to the…

Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street. Market update : Stocks are higher on Wednesday, extending the S & P 500 ‘s win streak to three days and the recent rebound to more than 3%. However, there’s some lopsided action on the tape, with pressure in mega-cap AI stocks like Nvidia , AMD , and Oracle weighing on the Nasdaq. The concern is that Meta Platforms, one of Nvidia’s big customers, will strike a deal with Alphabet to…