Average US tariffs now highest since 1910s: WTO and IMF
The figure, calculated by the two organizations, stands in contrast with the 2.4 percent rate in force at the time...
Economy
A day after Hezbollah’s rebuff, Lebanon cabinet meets again on the group’s disarmament
With Washington pressing Lebanon to take action on the matter, US envoy Tom Barrack has made several visits to Beirut...
Geostrategy
Geostrategy
Israeli restrictions on Palestinian flags ‘repressive’: Amnesty
Israel's new firebrand National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir ordered the police commander on Sunday to authorize officers to remove Palestinian...
- Amnesty called the new measures "repressive" and an "audacious attack on the rights to nationality, freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly"
- Itamar Ben-Gvir, the new National Security Minister who has ordered to remove Palestinian flags flying in public spaces, has a history of inflammatory remarks about Palestinians
Economy
UN bemoans ‘intolerable’ loss of 5 million children in 2021
United Nations, United States--An estimated five million children under the age of five died in 2021, the United Nations said Tuesday,...
- Nearly 2.3 million deaths in 2021 occurred in the children's first month, mostly due to being premature or from complications related to childbirth
- The global under-five mortality rate fell 50 percent since 2000, while mortality rates in older children and youth dropped 36 per cent
Business
EU warns TikTok chief to respect data privacy laws
TiKTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew held official talks for the first time with EU vice presidents Margrethe Vestager and...
- TikTok has come under fierce Western scrutiny in recent months over concerns about how much access Beijing has to user data
- Last month, TikTok admitted that ByteDance staff accessed data from the app to track journalists in a bid to identify the source of leaks to the media
Business
Meta to disallow ads targeted at teens based on gender
The company formerly known as Facebook is facing increasing pressure and fines to curb its practice of delivering narrowly targeted...
- Meta said that the changes reflected feedback from parents and experts and would comply with new rules in several countries on content geared at young people
- After a long legal tussle, Meta was handed a 390-million-euro ($413-million) fine last week as part of a years-long tussle with the European Union over advertising
Economy
Egypt detains three people for trying to steal 10-tonne statue
Egypt has detained three people for attempting to steal a millennia-old statue with a crane in the ancient southern city...
- The statement said that the Antiquities Authority in Aswan has proven the "antiquity (of the statue) and attributed it to Ramses II, with a weight of approximately 10 tonnes"
- Ramses II, one of the most famous pharaohs of the 19th dynasty, ruled for 67 years
Geostrategy
US Navy says seizes weapons en route from Iran to Yemen
DUBAI, UAE - The US Navy said Tuesday it had seized over 2,000 assault rifles smuggled on a fishing boat along...
- A grinding war has killed hundreds of thousands and pushed Yemen to the brink of famine.
- A UN-brokered ceasefire that took effect in April brought a sharp reduction in hostilities.
Geostrategy
Israel, Arab allies talk security at Negev Forum in Abu Dhabi
Around 150 representatives from Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Morocco, the UAE and the United States discussed boosting security cooperation through information...
- The US State Department described the two-day discussion in #AbuDhabi as "the largest meeting between Israel and its regional partners" since a 1991 Madrid conference.
- The Abu Dhabi gathering follows a visit last week to Jerusalem's Al Aqsa mosque compound by Israel's new right-wing national security minister, firebrand Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Geostrategy
Record cocaine seizures in Antwerp as Belgium battles drug gangs
The annual figure was released one day after an 11-year-old girl was shot dead in a gun attack on an...
- Seizures in 2022 were up from 89.5 tons last year. Across the Netherlands border, in nearby Rotterdam and Vlissingen, Dutch police battling the same gangs intercepted a further 52.
- The European drugs monitoring agency estimated in 2020 that the EU retail cocaine market was worth between 7.7 billion and 10.5 billion euros.
Geostrategy
2022 fifth warmest year on record, EU climate report says
The last eight years were the warmest. Average temperatures across 2022 -- which saw a cascade of unprecedented natural disasters...
- Pakistan and northern India were scorched by a two-month spring heatwave with sustained temperatures well above 40 degrees C, followed in Pakistan by massive floods.
- Large swathes of the Middle East, China, central Asia and northern Africa also saw unprecedented warmth averaged across the whole of 2022.
Market Report
Stocks mostly drop as traders track China, US rates
Major stock markets mostly dropped as warnings that US interest rates would continue to rise and remain elevated offset growing...
- Sentiment is still closely linked to the outlook for US monetary policy as the Federal Reserve battles to bring inflation down from four-decade highs.
- Policymakers appear determined to keep lifting borrowing costs until they achieve their goal of two percent inflation.
Most Read
Revenue from Saudi cinema may exceed $1bn by 2030KSA, UAE play well as e-gaming trends across GCCExclusive: Middle East’s retail sector rides on AR and hybrid shopping to become $600bn digital economyTECOM Group profit soars 13%UAE startups eye Saudi Arabia for growth, expansionSaudi Arabia leads GCC AI healthcare raceDisparity remains as Saudis, Emiratis see wealth gains
Average US tariffs now highest since 1910s: WTO and IMF
The figure, calculated by the two organizations, stands in contrast with the 2.4 percent rate in force at the time...
Economy
Company News
Latest News
Heavy battles in Gaza City on eve of new truce talks
Hamas has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of deliberately stepping up battles in Gaza City and far-southern Rafah to...
Geostrategy
China’s BYD signs deal to open electric car plant in Turkey
Istanbul, Turkey -- China's electric vehicle giant BYD on Monday signed a one-billion-dollar agreement with Turkey to open a plant in...
Business
Chip giant TSMC briefly joins trillion-dollar club
New York, United States -- Chip-making juggernaut Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. briefly surpassed $1 trillion in market capitalization on Monday as...
Business
Most Read
Geostrategy
Erdogan says may invite Syria’s Assad to Turkey ‘at any moment’
Erdogan's comments come after tensions have mounted over the past week after a mob went on the rampage, vandalising businesses...
- Turkey originally aimed to topple Assad's regime when the Syrian conflict erupted with the violent suppression of peaceful protesters in 2011
- But more recently, Ankara has shifted focus to preventing what Erdogan in 2019 dubbed a "terror corridor" from opening up in northern Syria
Geostrategy
‘Enough’: Israeli protesters demand Gaza truce
Large protests, also demanding elections, have taken place across Israel's commercial hub every Saturday night, with smaller ones throughout the...
- The demonstrators want Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a truce and hostage-release deal or else step down
- The nationwide "disruption day" began at 6:29 am to correspond to the start of Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel that started the war
Geostrategy
Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says 16 killed in strike on school
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said two of its workers were killed in a strike at Al-Bureij in...
- The ministry, which condemned the strike as an "odious massacre", said another 50 injured were taken to hospital from Al-Jawni school at Nuseirat in central Gaza
- Israel has carried out a military offensive that has killed at least 38,098 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to data from the Gaza health ministry