BEIJING (Reuters) – It is China’s “priority” to stop Taiwan’s vice president and presidential frontrunner William Lai from visiting the United States next month, the country’s ambassador in Washington said on Wednesday, as Beijing steps up its warnings against the trip. China, which views Taiwan as its own territory, has stepped up military and political…
By Ryan Woo and Ellen Zhang BEIJING (Reuters) -An unusually public claim by a Chinese professor the country’s youth jobless rate might have hit close to 50% in March has stoked a debate about official data and a soft labour market, despite curbs on negative portrayals of the economy. The National Bureau of Statistics said…
By Raphael Satter WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp is expanding its suite of free security tools for customers, the software company said on Wednesday, following criticism that it was charging clients to protect themselves against Microsoft’s mistakes. The move follows a high-level hack that allowed allegedly Chinese spies to steal emails from senior U.S. officials…
By Andrew MacAskill LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces voters in very different parliamentary seats on Thursday and risks losing all three contests in what would be the worst one-day mid-term result for any British governing party in more than half a century. The votes are one of few remaining opportunities to gauge…
By Leah Douglas (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture is seeking to lower food prices and boost competition by joining with 31 states and Washington, D.C., to target price fixing and other anticompetitive behavior in the food and agriculture sectors. The USDA on Wednesday said it would coordinate with the bipartisan group of attorneys…
HONG KONG (Reuters) – A Hong Kong court sentenced a man to three months imprisonment on Thursday for allegedly insulting China’s national anthem by splicing a protest song onto a video clip of a Hong Kong athlete being presented a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. Magistrate Minnie Wat said a deterrent sentence was needed…
By Laurie Chen, Martin Quin Pollard and Kate Lamb BEIJING/JAKARTA (Reuters) – Days before a conference of foreign ministers this month, China told host Indonesia it was switching its representative due to “unexpected circumstances”, prompting a scramble in Jakarta to resize the traditional gift of a shirt for attendees. The planned recipient of the colorful…
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad on Thursday and set it on fire in protest against the expected burning of a Koran in Sweden. The demonstration was called by supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr, 48, an influential Shi’ite cleric who commands the loyalty of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Here are some…
By Akash Sriram and Hyunjoo Jin (Reuters) -Tesla CEO Elon Musk signalled on Wednesday that he would cut prices again on electric vehicles in “turbulent times”, even as his all-out price war on automaker rivals squeezes the company’s own margins. The company has slashed prices several times in the United States, China and other markets…
By Supantha Mukherjee STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Finnish telecom gear group Nokia on Thursday reported a drop in second-quarter profit due to a decline in margin as growth in sales of 5G gear in low-margin markets such as India failed to offset slowing demand in North America. Nokia and rival Ericsson have been hit by slowing orders…
