US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Saturday told IMF chief Christine Lagarde that the US economy was "well-positioned for growth". (April 22)
Hope was fading Friday for 44 construction workers buried for days in the rubble of a building that collapsed in South Africa, with authorities saying rescuers are now faced with the challenge of moving thousands of tons of concrete with heavy machinery to see if there are any more survivors. The death toll rose to nine after a worker who was in critical condition died in the hospital, authorities said. Of the 28 workers rescued from the site, 21 were in critical condition or had life-threatening injuries following Monday's collapse of the five-story apartment complex that was under construction.
China firmly opposes the abuse of export control tools such as the U.S. entity list, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday, after the U.S. added 37 Chinese firms to a trade restriction list over national security concerns. China and Russia have the right to carry out normal economic and trade cooperation, and such cooperation should not be disturbed, spokesperson Lin Jian told a regular press conference. He said the United States continues to politicise economic and trade issues and further increase tariffs, abusing the so-called 301 tariff review process, "which is adding insult to injury."
Humans have made our planet warmer, more polluted and ever less hospitable to many species, and these changes are driving the spread of infectious disease.- Shifting transmission - Not all human adaptation of the planet increases infectious disease, however.
Growing hopes that the US Federal Reserve and other central banks are close to cutting interest rates helped push London and Frankfurt to new records, while Asian markets also chalked up healthy gains.The European Central Bank is expected to cut its rates in June.
Governments have to implement "serious and effective" policies in favour of families to tackle the issues of falling birth rates and aging populations, Pope Francis said on Friday, urging young people to have confidence in the future. Speaking at a conference on the growing demographic crisis, Pope Francis said the number of births was the first indicator of "a people's hope", and Europe was increasingly turning into "an old, tired and resigned" continent. "Effective policies are urgently needed, courageous, concrete and long-term choices ... There is a need for greater commitment from all governments so that the young generations are put in a position to realize their legitimate dreams," the Pope said.
Japanese auto giant Honda on Friday logged a record annual profit thanks to improving global vehicle sales, but issued a cautious outlook for the current fiscal year.On Friday, Honda said global vehicle sales were up, thanks largely to its vehicles' popularity in the United States.
Taiwanese chip giant TSMC said on Friday that April revenue jumped nearly 60 percent on-year, riding a huge wave of demand for the advanced semiconductors used in AI hardware.This compares with a 34.3 percent on-year jump in March.
Miss USA Noelia Voigt unexpectedly announced that she is resigning from her title to focus on her mental health.
Britain exited a shallow recession with better-than-expected growth in the first quarter, official data showed Friday, in a boost to embattled Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of this year's election.GDP shrank by 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023 after contracting 0.1 percent in the prior three months, the ONS confirmed Friday in unrevised data.
An upcoming Ukraine peace summit, ostensibly the most ambitious bid in years by neutral Switzerland to mediate a major conflict, is instead showing how Swiss economic and security interests increasingly align with Western Europe over Russia. This is the view of both Swiss advocates of closer cooperation with Western powers and nationalist opponents who say Switzerland is abandoning its neutral tradition and should limit the scope for foreign entanglements. Russia has not been invited to the June 15-16 talks taking place at a lakeside resort near the central city of Lucerne, which Switzerland agreed in January to host at the behest of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Taiwan's Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics maker, is expected to report on Tuesday that first-quarter profit more than doubled on robust demand for artificial intelligence servers and after coming off a low base a year ago. Net profit for January-March for Apple's top iPhone assembler likely came in at T$29.3 billion ($904.6 million), according to an LSEG consensus estimate of 15 analysts. That would represent a 129% increase from the same period a year ago when profit sagged after the company took a T$17.3 billion writedown related to its 34% stake in Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp. It would also mark a third consecutive quarter of profit growth.
The British economy bounced back strongly in the first three months of the year, bringing to an end to what economists termed a “technical recession”, official figures showed Friday. The Office for National Statistics said the economy grew by 0.6% in the first quarter from the previous three-month period, with broad-based strength across the crucial services sector in particular. Despite the quarterly increase, the British economy has barely grown over the past year.
Two passengers reportedly came to blows over a seat assignment. Flight attendants are winning praise for successfully defusing the fight.
The school board in Shenandoah County, Virginia, early Friday approved a proposal that will restore the names of Confederate military leaders to two public schools.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday reappointed Mikhail Mishustin as the country's prime minister after the previous stint on the job during which the low-key technocrat has shown a distinct lack of political ambitions. In line with Russian law, Mishustin, 58, who held the job for the past four years, submitted his Cabinet’s resignation on Tuesday when Putin began his fifth presidential term at a glittering Kremlin inauguration. Mishustin’s reappointment was widely expected by political observers, who noted that Putin has appreciated his skills and low political profile.
PARIS (Reuters) -Novavax on Friday erased doubts about its ability to remain in business and struck a licensing deal worth up to $1.2 billion with Sanofi for COVID-19 vaccines in exchange for a stake that doubles the U.S. drugmaker's market value. In February last year, Novavax raised doubts about its business viability after missing out on the COVID-19 vaccine windfall due to manufacturing issues that delayed filing for regulatory approval. Novavax said it would co-commercialize its COVID-19 vaccine with French drugmaker Sanofi and develop new COVID-19-influenza combination vaccines using Novavax's Matrix-M adjuvant.
Stocks in Asia traded higher Friday after a rally on Wall Street that pulled the S&P 500 back within 1% of its record. Benchmarks rose in Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney and China, where investors were focused on the release of April inflation figures. In Japan, the Finance Ministry reported a record current account surplus for the fiscal year through March, as strong auto exports whittled down its trade deficit and the nation racked up solid returns on overseas investments.
In the heart of Cotonou’s large Dantokpa market, Diane Makpenon's family corn shop is less busy than usual these days."Going to the market has become torture.
With Mammoth's 72 industrial fans, Swiss start-up Climeworks intends to suck 36,000 tonnes of CO2 from the air annually to bury underground, vying to prove the technology has a place in the fight against global warming.For the world to achieve "carbon neutrality" by 2050, "we should be removing something like six to 16 billion tonnes of CO2 per year from the air", said Jan Wurzbacher, co-founder and co-chief of Climeworks at the inauguration of the first 12 container fans at Mammoth.
French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu is putting in place a special task force to better protect victims and punish perpetrators of sexual violence in the army, he announced in an op-ed published by newspaper Le Monde. The task force, which is asked to review disciplinary proceedings and "come up with concrete recommendations to guide commanders", will be headed by the Inspector General of the Armed Forces and the Gendarmerie. The initiative aims to address the issue of sexual harassment and abuse within the military, an institution traditionally marked by silence around such issues which has come under increasing pressure after female soldiers this year started to call out sexual violence in local media.
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