By Kirsty Needham SYDNEY (Reuters) – Bank of China chairman Ge Haijiao has travelled to Papua New Guinea (PNG) as the world’s fourth-largest bank seeks an operating licence in the Pacific Islands nation, which is seeking to boost China trade while expanding U.S. defence ties. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week travelled to…
SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki and South Korean Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho will meet on June 29 in Tokyo for the next bilateral meeting, almost two months after the first talk between the two countries’ financial leaders in seven years. Japan’s top financial diplomat Masato Kanda and South Korea’s Deputy Minister for…
By Steve Holland COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden predicted on Thursday Sweden will join NATO “soon”, speaking at the U.S. Air Force Academy days after he hinted at a possible deal to overcome Turkey’s opposition to admitting the Nordic country to the alliance. Biden, in a flag-waving commencement address in Colorado…
By Guy Faulconbridge MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Thursday it had uncovered an American espionage operation that compromised thousands of iPhones using sophisticated surveillance software. Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab said dozens of its employees’ devices were compromised in the operation. The FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said in…
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia said on Thursday it planned to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) including a potential ban on deep fakes and realistic-looking but false content, amid concerns the technology could be misused. The move comes on the heels of a meeting of top AI executives earlier this week when they raised the “risk of…
By Jamie McGeever (Reuters) – A look at the day ahead in Asian markets from Jamie McGeever. Asian markets are looking for a positive end to the week on Friday following a solid rally on Wall Street the day before, as the U.S. debt ceiling vote passed its first congressional hurdle and hopes rose that…
(Reuters) – Australian No. 2 supermarket chain Coles Group Ltd said on Friday it would take an additional provision of A$25 million ($16.96 million) to compensate underpaid salaried employees. Coles said in a statement that it intends to conduct a further remediation on the available records of days and hours of work of its salaried…
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s economy grew 0.3% in the first quarter from the previous quarter, revised central bank data showed on Friday, matching its earlier estimate in April. The expansion in the country’s gross domestic product during the January-March period followed a 0.3% contraction in the last three months of 2022, which was the…
By Junko Fujita and Ankur Banerjee TOKYO/SINGAPORE (Reuters) -As foreigners pile into Japan’s steepest stock market rally in years, local investors have been furiously cashing out or even betting against what many see as the beginning of a long-overdue era of profitability and returns. The Nikkei share average’s closed out its best month in 2-1/2…
By Rodrigo Campos and Jorgelina do Rosario NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) -A bill backed by debt justice campaigners and civil society groups advocating on behalf of economically distressed countries could alter past and future sovereign debt restructurings covered by New York state law – and Wall Street is watching. With a week left in this year’s…
