The Fiji Times

China’s factory deflation steepens as demand wanes

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s factory gate prices fell at the fastest pace in seven years in May and quicker than forecasts, as faltering demand weighed on a slowing manufacturing sector and cast a cloud over the fragile economic recovery. As rising interests rates and inflation squeeze demand in the United States and Europe, China is...

OpenAI CEO visits South Korea as country seeks to encourage AI development

SEOUL (Reuters) – Open AI Chief Executive Sam Altman is set to meet with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, as the country seeks to encourage domestic competitiveness in artificial intelligence. After crisscrossing Europe last month meeting lawmakers and national leaders to discuss the prospects and threats of AI, Altman has travelled to Israel, Jordan,...

Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter target of EU crypto advertising complaint

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Meta Platforms’ Instagram, Alphabet’s YouTube, TikTok and Twitter could face regulatory action after European consumer group BEUC complained to the European Commission and consumer authorities that the online platforms allegedly facilitate the misleading promotion of crypto assets. U.S. regulators suing crypto platforms Coinbase and Binance, along with last year’s collapse of FTX,...

Dollar eases after jump in US jobless claims; Fed in focus

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The dollar retreated on Friday, dragged down by lower U.S. Treasury yields after a spike in weekly jobless claims raised hopes that a peak in U.S. interest rates was near, as the focus turned to the upcoming week packed with central bank meetings. The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment...

Kim Kardashian seeks secret of private equity success as rising rates bite

BERLIN (Reuters) -Reality star Kim Kardashian’s arrival at a gathering of the globe’s top deal brokers in Berlin failed to dispel their dark mood as the rising cost of money puts the brakes on the private equity industry. Flanked by bodyguards, Kardashian drew a crowd of hundreds of executives at the SuperReturn industry event, saying...

England looking to burst Smith’s bubble in Ashes, says Pope

(Reuters) – England’s Ollie Pope said they have to get Steve Smith out of his bubble during the Ashes series and will look for ways of making the Australian run machine as uncomfortable as possible at the crease. Smith batted for 5-1/2 hours against India in the World Test Championship final at the Oval before...

Watched by IMF, Pakistan to present budget amid economic, political crises

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan’s government will present its annual budget to parliament on Friday needing to satisfy the IMF to have any chance of securing the release of more bailout money, with the crisis-riven country due to hold elections by November. The risk of default on sovereign debt is rising, with the economy creaking under...

U.S. Congress to consider two new bills on artificial intelligence

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. senators on Thursday introduced two separate bipartisan artificial intelligence bills on Thursday amid growing interest in addressing issues surrounding the technology. One would require the U.S. government to be transparent when using AI to interact with people and another would establish an office to determine if the United States is remaining...

Binance.US suspends US dollar deposits after crackdown by regulators

(Reuters) – Crypto exchange Binance.US said on Thursday it is suspending U.S. dollar deposits and that its banking partners are preparing to pause fiat dollar withdrawal channels as early as June 13, just days after U.S. regulators sued Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao. The U.S. arm of the world’s largest crypto exchange said in...

Honduran president arrives in Shanghai

BEIJING (Reuters) – Honduran President Xiomara Castro arrived in China’s financial hub of Shanghai on Friday, state broadcaster CGTN said, on a visit that will run until June 14. She will meet President Xi Jinping to “jointly plan and lead” the future development of ties, the official news agency, Xinhua, said. (Reporting by Beijing newsroom;...

Two giant rubber ducks debut in Hong Kong in bid to drive “double happiness”

HONG KONG (Reuters) – A pair of Rubber Ducks made a splash in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour on Friday, part of an art installation dubbed “Double Ducks” by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, who says he hopes the ducks will bring happiness to the city. The inflatable yellow ducks, 18 metres (59 feet) high, will sail...

Four toddlers stabbed in France, government says suspect is Syrian refugee

ANNECY, France (Reuters) -Four toddlers and two pensioners were stabbed in a knife attack in the tranquil French mountain town of Annecy on Thursday and the government said the suspected assailant was a Syrian refugee. A video of the attack, taken by a bystander and verified by Reuters, showed the assailant jump a low wall...

Damaged reservoir can still provide water for big Ukrainian nuclear plant -IAEA

VIENNA (Reuters) – Water from the reservoir of a breached Ukrainian dam is still being pumped to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to cool reactors and other areas, though levels are at values earlier thought to make it impossible, the U.N. atomic watchdog said on Thursday. The plant, occupied by Russia since the early days...

Brazil top court justice hands Congress more time to pass bill curtailing Indigenous rights

By Anthony Boadle BRASILIA (Reuters) – A Brazilian Supreme Court justice on Wednesday asked for more time to study a case pitting the country’s Indigenous people against its powerful farm sector, a decision that is likely to give lawmakers more time to pass the measure favoring Big Agriculture. The decision by Justice Andre Mendonca, an...

Italian court convicts Swiss billionaire in asbestos deaths

ROME (Reuters) – An Italian court on Wednesday sentenced a Swiss billionaire to 12 years in jail after convicting him on charges of aggravated manslaughter related to the death of hundreds of people from exposure to asbestos. Judges in the city of Novara issued the verdict after more than seven hours of deliberations, according to...

Russia aims to block EU from hosting COP29 climate summit, emails show

By Kate Abnett and Riham Alkousaa BRUSSELS/BONN (Reuters) – Russia intends to block European Union countries from hosting next year’s U.N. international climate negotiations, according to internal emails seen by Reuters, a potential setback for EU-member Bulgaria’s competition with Azerbaijan and Armenia to draw the massive conference. Moscow’s intervention shows how geopolitical disputes since Russia’s...

Google, Meta use ‘bullying tactics’ against Canada news bill, PM Trudeau says

By Ismail Shakil OTTAWA (Reuters) -Alphabet’s Google and Meta Platforms are using “bullying tactics” against a Canadian push aimed at ensuring financial support for news publishers, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday. The proposed legislation is designed to compel internet giants like Google and Meta’s Facebook to negotiate commercial deals and pay publishers for...

Serbia’s PM Ana Brnabic says she is willing to resign amid opposition protests

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbia’s Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said on Wednesday she was willing to resign to test popularity of the ruling coalition, following weeks of opposition protests. For five consecutive weeks, tens of thousands of people have gathered for weekly anti-government rallies in Belgrade, blaming a culture of violence for the deaths of 18...

Macron returns to former minister to help break Lebanon deadlock

PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron appointed on Wednesday his former foreign minister as personal envoy to Lebanon just a year after he stepped down and having previously not been able to make any inroads in the political deadlock in the country. Macron led international efforts after a massive explosion that killed more than...

Mexico investigates troops over video of ‘execution’ of five men

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican prosecutors are investigating what the country’s president on Wednesday called an “execution” after soldiers were filmed beating and then shooting five men they pulled from a crashed pick-up truck. The investigation, confirmed by the defense ministry, follows the publication by media outlets on Tuesday of a video dated May 18...

Chile’s conservative assembly begins drafting new constitution

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – A new Constitutional Council dominated by conservative parties in charge of drafting Chile’s new constitution began its official duties on Wednesday, in the second attempt to replace the current text that dates back to the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship. The new council, elected on May 7, is a sharp shift from the predominantly...

Bahanaga Bazar, the rural Indian train station rocked by disaster

By Krishn Kaushik BAHANAGA BAZAR, India (Reuters) – Few trains stop at Bahanaga Bazar, the sleepy, small rural station in the Balasore district of Odisha state where India’s deadliest train accident in more than two decades happened. Three rooms, topped by a corrugated metal roof, and three platforms make up the station, which serves 14...

Blinken speaks with Senegal’s president, discusses recent unrest -US State Dept

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Senegal’s President Macky Sall on Wednesday, and the two discussed the political situation and recent unrest in the African country, a State Department spokesperson said. “Blinken expressed his condolences for those killed and injured during the recent violence. The Secretary reiterated the United States’...

Prince Harry: It would be injustice if court rules I’m not hacking victim

By Michael Holden and Sam Tobin LONDON (Reuters) -Prince Harry said on Wednesday he would feel a sense of injustice if London’s High Court did not conclude he was a phone-hacking victim, as he completed more than eight hours giving evidence against a British tabloid newspaper group. Harry, King Charles’ younger son, spent a day-and-a-half...

North American lobster industry confronts ‘ropeless’ traps after whale entanglements

By Lauren Owens Lambert MONHEGAN ISLAND, Maine (Reuters) – An emerging technology to fish for lobsters virtually ropeless to prevent whale entanglements is exciting conservationists, but getting a frigid reception from harvesters worried it will drive them out of business and upend their way of life. Injuries to endangered North Atlantic Right Whales ensnared in...

Ukrainians face homelessness, disease risk as floods crest from breached dam

By Viktoriia Lakezina and Max Hunder KHERSON, Ukraine (Reuters) – Ukrainians abandoned inundated homes as floods crested across a swathe of the south on Wednesday after the destruction of a huge hydro-electric dam on front lines between Russian and Ukrainian forces, with their presidents trading blame for the disaster. Residents slogged through flooded streets carrying...

Short of animals, Gaza Zoo fights to survive

By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA (Reuters) – Large paintings of a bear, an elephant and a giraffe decorate the outer walls of NAMA Zoo in Gaza City, but none of these wild creatures is represented live among those caged inside. Six years ago, the lone tiger died, and despite visitors’ frequent demands for a replacement, the...

Saudi crown prince, Blinken had ‘candid’ talks in Jeddah

By Humeyra Pamuk JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the early hours of Wednesday and discussed a wide range of bilateral issues, in an “open, candid” conversation, a U.S. official said. The top U.S. diplomat arrived in Saudi Arabia late on Tuesday...

Air India to send replacement plane for passengers stranded in Russia

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Air India said on Wednesday a reserve plane would take off from Mumbai on Wednesday for passengers whose flight on Tuesday was forced to land at an airport in Russia’s Far East because of engine trouble. One of the airline’s Boeing 777 widebody aircraft developed a technical issue with one of...

World

10th June

Chinese investors flock to Riyadh conference seeking new markets, capital