Nearly 70 years after he produced Hong Kong’s first plastic duck, toy industry veteran LT Lam’s factories in China now churn out everything from Transformers to Play-Doh. But with costs rising in China and the industry fragmenting because of technological advances and changing consumer tastes, the 93-year-old worries that Hong Kong could lose its decades-long role at the heart of the global toy industry. “We started with […]
By Gul Yusufzai | QUETTA, Pakistan QUETTA, Pakistan Ten labourers were gunned down in southwestern Pakistan on Saturday while working on link roads to connect outlying towns to the country’s $57-billion Chinese “Belt and Road” initiative, security officials confirmed. The attack on the Pakistani labourers took place some 20 kilometres from the emerging port city of Gwadar in Baluchistan province that forms the southern hub of the […]
By Ben Blanchard | BEIJING BEIJING China welcomes all countries to participate in this weekend’s forum on China’s new Silk Road plan, the Foreign Ministry said on Saturday, after the United States warned China that North Korea’s attendance could affect other countries’ participation. Two sources with knowledge of the situation said the U.S. embassy in Beijing had submitted a diplomatic note to China’s foreign ministry, saying that […]
If you are an investor wanting a safe, unexciting asset to make a bit of money, avoid South Africa’s rand. It is not that you cannot make money trading the currency. You very much can, and you might make it big and quickly. The problem is you can also lose much more than you gain and at a frightening pace. To play the rand, investors need not […]
By Michelle Nichols | UNITED NATIONS UNITED NATIONS North Korea made a global appeal in a letter released on Friday for states to reconsider enforcing U.N. sanctions on the Asian nation as Washington seeks to step up pressure on Pyongyang to end its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The United Nations Security Council first imposed sanctions on North Korea in 2006 and has strengthened the measures in […]
Thailand has given social network operator Facebook until next Tuesday to block illegal content from its site, or face charges under the Computer Crime Act. The country, which has strict lese majeste laws, has detained several social media users since last month, after warning netizens against liking and sharing posts by three of the monarchy’s known critics who are all based overseas. Facebook has 42 million users […]
Dole, the only former Republican presidential nominee who endorsed Trump before the GOP convention last summer, is a savvy Washington insider who most recently attracted notice for his lobbying on behalf of Taiwan. Dole’s efforts led to a stunning call between Trump and Taiwan’s president, angering China. Dole’s retainer for the Taiwan work, which includes direct lobbying, is $25,000 a month, per federal disclosures. Both Epstein and […]
WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump has responded to the new South Korean president’s advocacy of talks with North Korea by saying he does not oppose discussions, but reiterated that the circumstances must be right, according to a transcript of an NBC interview. Moon Jae-in’s advocacy of engagement with North Korea has appeared to contrast with the approach of the United States, South Korea’s main ally, which has […]
The yield on Chinese five-year government bonds hit its highest since 2014 on Friday, as tight liquidity and a regulatory crackdown on leveraged investment caused a rarely seen inversion of the yield curve. Bond yields, which move inversely to price, have been on the rise since last October as the People’s Bank of China moves to discourage the use of borrowed money for bond investment. The bond […]
Profits take a hit at Entertainment One. FT Opening Quote is your early Square Mile briefing. You can sign up for the full newsletter here. Efforts to strengthen Entertainment One’s film division will hit its full-year profits by almost £50m, the company announced today, after it renegotiated one of its main distribution agreements, writes FastFT. Entertainment One is best known for producing television programmes such as Peppa […]
We recommend viewing the full-size version of today’s infographic by clicking here. Everyone knows that the U.S. Federal Government has roughly $20 trillion of debt. A question we often get, however, is who exactly owns all these treasuries? And if it’s held abroad by countries like China, what portion do they hold? Today’s infographic comes from TitleMax, and it looks at who owns U.S. debt internationally, as well as the debt […]
Tech Times reported in February that China has increased its budget for its planned space programs and that the country is already designing an advanced and recoverable spacecraft that will be capable of landing on the moon. Now China has already begun preparations for its planned lunar laboratory in collaboration with the European Space Agency by locking in eight volunteers to live and work in a simulated space environment inside […]
Beijing is enjoying an unusually long run of clear blue skies thanks to widespread industrial closures ahead of the most important international event hosted by President Xi Jinping. The “New Silk Road” summit has attracted 29 national leaders from four continents and also prompted a nationwide security clampdown, as authorities try to ensure that it proceeds without a hitch. More than 80 other countries, including North and […]
By Ayesha Rascoe | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The United States and China will expand trade in beef and chicken and increase access for financial firms, as part of a plan to reduce the massive U.S. trade deficit with Beijing, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Thursday. The deals are the first tangible results of trade talks that began last month after U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese […]
This image shows the stage of the Microsoft Build developers conference in Seattle, Washington on May 11, 2017, where the tech giant unveiled new hardware for “mixed reality” computing Microsoft on Thursday debuted hardware for reaching into virtual worlds powered by its technology as it looked to “mixed reality” as the next big computing platform. An update coming to Windows 10 operating system later this year will […]
Michael Dell at Dell EMC World Image: Asha McLean/ZDNet Although Dell EMC operates in approximately 180 countries, not all of the products and services from the company’s bag of tricks are available everywhere. When it comes to Australia, however, Michael Dell told ZDNet that Australia is pretty high up on the priority list, giving local organisations access to almost the entire Dell EMC stack ahead of many […]
While China growth has been slowing, and monetary conditions tightening, few (if any) have predicted any prolonged deflation (let alone a recession), yet overnight – for the first time ever – the $1.7 trillion Chinese bond market inverted, flashing a warning signal to the world that something is wrong. Early on Thursday, the five-year yield rose to 3.71%, breaking above the 10-year yield for the first time […]
By Ju-min Park and Christine Kim | SEOUL SEOUL South Korea’s new president launched international efforts to defuse tension over North Korea’s weapons development on Thursday, urging both dialogue and sanctions while also aiming to ease China’s anger about a U.S. anti-missile system. Moon Jae-in, a liberal former human rights lawyer, was sworn in on Wednesday and said in his first speech as president he would immediately […]
Moon Jae-in’s presidency of South Korea began with admirable pledges to handle an unpredictable and belligerent next-door neighbour, North Korea, and tackle economic problems. He will also tackle broader regional tensions, China’s outrage at the United States THAAD missile defence system in South Korea and rising fears over that same northern neighbour‘s nuclear programme. But one other challenge may be almost as crucial in determining the success […]
For the 3rd month in a row, US Producer Prices have risen at a faster rate than The Fed’s mandate. April healdine PPI rose 2.5% YoY – the most since Feb 2012, and well above the highest anayst estimate, despite disinflationary credit impulse pressures from China being seen in industrial metals. The biggest driver is surging costs for investment advice! Core PPI (ex food and energy) rose […]
SEOUL North Korea demanded on Thursday the handover of “terror suspects” who plotted to kill leader Kim Jong Un with a biochemical substance, repeating accusations it made last week that U.S. and South Korean spies were behind the plan. The North’s KCNA news agency last week accused the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and South Korea’s National Intelligence Service of a plot to assassinate its “supreme leadership” with […]
Skywatchers are in for a wonderful treat on May 10, Wednesday, from the May full moon, also known as the Flower Moon. The nighttime spectacle happens at 5:42 p.m. Eastern time, where the moon appears in the constellation Libra and shows off its moment of fullness afterwards. While everyone in the Northern Hemisphere won’t be able to see the moon in this full display, those in the […]
By James Pearson and Ju-min Park | SEOUL SEOUL Like many other Americans who came to teach at the foreign-funded Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), Kim Hak Song was a Christian missionary who raised money from a church to come to North Korea. Kim had been running PUST’s experimental farm before he was detained on Saturday, travelling by train from Pyongyang to China’s border town […]
Authored by Whitney Webb via TheAntiMedia.org, When the U.S. overthrew the Taliban in the wake of 9/11 as part of its newly launched “war on terror,” it set the stage for the explosive growth of Afghanistan’s dying opium industry. A few short months before the invasion took place, the Taliban made headlines for having “dramatically ended the country’s massive opium trade” after the leader of the fundamentalist […]
