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Japanese voters could unleash political turmoil as voting got under way on Sunday in a tightly contested upper house election, with rising prices and immigration concerns threatening to weaken Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s grip on power.Opinion polls suggest Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and coalition partner Komeito may fall short of the 50 seats needed to retain control of the 248-seat upper house of parliament in an election where half the seats are up for grabs.The polls show smaller opposition parties pushing for tax cuts and increased public spending are set to gain, among them the right-wing Sanseito, which vows…
Chinese tech giants from ByteDance and Huawei Technologies to Alibaba Group Holding are playing an increasingly important role in Dubai’s burgeoning tech industry, as the emirate seeks to diversify its economy beyond its historical reliance on oil.Central to that transformation is the Dubai Internet City (DIC) – a tech park near the upscale neighbourhood of Palm Jumeirah, a palm tree-shaped archipelago – which hosts global Big Tech companies including Microsoft, Google and Amazon.com, along with their Chinese rivals.ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, occupies multiple floors in a DIC tower with stunning coastline views. A visit by TikTok CEO Chew Shou…
When Michael Watson boarded an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner from New Delhi to Dubai in early June, he didn’t expect to swear off the aircraft type for good. But days later, another Dreamliner operated by the same airline crashed just 30 seconds after take-off from Ahmedabad, killing all but one of the 242 people on board as well as 19 others on the ground.Watson, a retired British teacher and frequent flier in Asia, says he now avoids the 787 altogether because “I have a bad feeling about them now” and that he is willing to pay more to fly…
ISLAMABAD: The prices of essential kitchen items have witnessed an increase during this week past against the previous week owing to third successive increase in petrol and diesel prices, revealed a survey carried out by Business Recorder here on Saturday. Within the past one and half month, the government has increased the price of High Speed Diesel (HSD) oil mainly used for transportation purposes from trains to trucks, buses and trailers by Rs29 per litre and petrol mainly used by private and small vehicles by Rs19 per litre. The increase in fuel prices has played a major role in escalating…
When Colby Porter began Mandarin classes in sixth grade in Syracuse, New York, he was studying alongside 20 of his peers. By his final year of high school, only two other students remained, and the school had fewer than 25 Mandarin learners in total.Soon after he graduated in 2020, the programme was shut down entirely due to dwindling enrolments and budget cuts during the Covid-19 pandemic.The situation at Porter’s school is not unusual in the United States and other countries in the Global North. While data is scarce, the available figures suggest that interest in learning Mandarin – once globally…
Scott Bessent, US treasury secretary, during a Bloomberg Television interview in New York, US, on Monday, June 30, 2025. Victor J. Blue | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesTreasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently urged President Donald Trump not to fire Treasury Secretary Jerome Powell, warning of the potential economic, political, and legal consequences of such a move, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal.Bessent reportedly told Trump that removing Powell before his term is up next spring could spur a negative response in the financial markets and push the central bank into uncharted legal and political territory, the Journal…
PARIS (AP) — Paris is reviving the spirit of U.S.-French entertainer and civil rights activist Josephine Baker with a new mural.Fifty years after her death, Baker now gazes out over a diverse neighborhood of northeast Paris, thanks to urban artist FKDL and a street art festival aimed at promoting community spirit.Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Baker became a megastar in the 1930s, especially in France, where she moved in 1925 as she sought to flee racism and segregation in the United States.In addition to her stage fame, Baker also spied on the Nazis for the French Resistance and marched alongside…
KARACHI: Pakistan government announced on Saturday a 50% cut in port handling, vessel, and storage charges for dry bulk exports at the Karachi Port, a step that Maritime Minister Junaid Anwar Chaudhry believes will reduce the carbon footprint of trade logistics and foster sustainable growth. The move is expected to benefit exporters of dry bulk goods and reduce emissions through faster and less congested port activities. Chaudhry announced the major reduction in port charges “as part of a broader strategy to decarbonise the maritime sector and improve energy efficiency in port operations”, according to a ministry statement. “By lowering operational…
The one-two punch of strong earnings and tame inflation helped propel the S & P 500 to a positive week — despite the latest tariff news on Friday putting a slight damper on the action. The broad index added 0.59% for the week led by technology, utilities and industrials, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq outperformed, jumping 1.51%. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the week slightly in negative territory, down 0.07%, after falling 142 points Friday on a report that President Donald Trump was pushing for between 15% to 20% tariffs in any deal with the European Union. The main…
Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Saturday announced the launch of a mega dam project on the Tibetan Plateau, in what is expected to be the world’s largest hydroelectric facility.The massive project, located in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo River, has raised concerns about water supply and environmental impact downstream in India and Bangladesh.Li attended the dam’s groundbreaking ceremony in Nyingchi, a southeastern city in the Tibet autonomous region, state news agency Xinhua reported on Saturday.The Yarlung Tsangpo becomes the Brahmaputra River as it leaves Tibet and flows south into India’s Arunachal Pradesh and Assam states, and finally into…