BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was a very positive step, the European Union ambassador to China said on Tuesday, while urging greater efforts to achieve peace. Xi’s hour-long call with Zelenskiy for the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, fulfilled one of Kyiv’s long-standing goals,…
By Joe Cash BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s imports contracted sharply in April, while exports grew at a slower pace, reinforcing signs of feeble domestic demand despite the lifting of COVID curbs and heaping pressure on an economy already struggling in the face of cooling global growth. Inbound shipments to the world’s second largest economy fell…
By Leika Kihara TOKYO (Reuters) -Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Kazuo Ueda said on Tuesday the central bank will end its yield curve control policy and then start shrinking its balance sheet, once prospects heighten for inflation to sustainably hit its 2% target. Speaking in parliament, Ueda said Japan’s economy was picking up and inflation…
DUBAI (Reuters) – Dubai’s main airport registered a 55.8% increase in passenger traffic in the first quarter of this year compared to last year, reaching 95.6% of 2019 pre-pandemic levels, operator Dubai Airports said on Tuesday. Dubai International Airport (DXB), the world’s busiest international hub, welcomed around 21.3 million passengers in the first three months…
(Reuters) – A fire that broke out at Delek’s 83,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) El Dorado, Arkansas refinery has been extinguished with no injuries reported, a company spokesperson told Reuters by phone on Monday. “This evening a lightning struck a slurry tank at the El Dorado, refinery causing a fire. The fire was extinguished immediately,” the spokesperson said….
By Stephen Nellis (Reuters) – LinkedIn, the social media network owned by Microsoft Corp that focuses on business professionals, said on Monday it would cut 716 jobs as demand wavers, while also shutting down its China-focused job application. LinkedIn, which has 20,000 employees, has grown revenue each quarter during the last year, but it joins…
By Kantaro Komiya TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s consumer spending unexpectedly fell in March at the fastest rate in a year, while real wages marked a twelfth month of decline on persistent inflation, highlighting the challenges facing the economy in mounting a strong post-COVID revival. Tuesday’s government data also reinforce the uncertainties around the Bank of…
By Luc Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters) -Sam Bankman-Fried, who has long denied stealing from customers of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange, on Monday asked a U.S. judge to throw out criminal charges against him over the now-bankrupt FTX’s collapse. In a filing in Manhattan federal court, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers said many cryptocurrency exchanges collapsed during a broad…
By Devjyot Ghoshal, Juarawee Kittisilpa and Orathai Sriring BANGKOK (Reuters) – Kavita Wongyakasem runs a small business in Bangkok, owns a two-storey house on the outskirts of the Thai capital, drives a pick-up truck, and sends her two daughters to good schools. But every day is a desperate struggle to find the money to keep…
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Two Republicans on Monday asked a congressional watchdog to assess the Biden administration’s management of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and audit its modernization program, saying sales from the SPR have undermined U.S. energy security. Senator John Barrasso, ranking member of the Senate energy committee, and Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, head of the House…
