Author: Press Room

The Chinese and Hong Kong flags flutter outside the Exchange Square complex in Hong Kong on Feb. 16, 2021.Zhang Wei | China News Service via Getty ImagesAsia-Pacific’s leading index entered a bull market this week, fueled by a rally in Chinese stocks from optimism surrounding the nation’s reopening and the weakening of the U.S. dollar on prospects of a pivot in the Federal Reserve.The MSCI Asia Pacific index hit a high of 162.33 on Tuesday – roughly 21% higher than its 52-week low of 133.93 reached on Oct. 24, according to Refinitiv data. A bull market is technically defined as…

Hong Kong CNN  —  From salads to stews, the humble onion is a key ingredient in nearly every Filipino dish. But now, the vegetable costs almost three times more than chicken in the Philippines. Red and white onions were selling for as much as 600 Philippine pesos ($11) per kilogram (2.2 lbs) on Monday, compared to 220 pesos ($4) per kilogram for chicken, according to the country’s Department of Agriculture. Even beef brisket is 30% cheaper than onions by weight as the price of a kilogram of the allium has soared higher than the daily minimum wage. Joey Salceda, resident…

Sky News host James Morrow says the Albanese government will, in coming weeks, be hoping to regain momentum on the ‘yes’ campaign for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, but it’s clear it’s “rattled”. “Where once the government had the vibe momentum behind it, it is now getting tripped up by its refusal to let us in on how that vibe will actually operate in practice,” Mr Morrow said. “Even worse is the attempt to silence those pushing the ‘no’ case on the Voice by creating a self-reinforcing doom loop of virtue signalling. “The government will in coming weeks be hoping…

The leaders of Brazil’s three branches of government have issued a rare joint statement condemning the storming of government buildings by supporters of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. In a statement on Monday, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva joined the heads of the Supreme Court and the two houses of Congress to reject the acts of political violence that shook the capital, Brasilia, a day earlier. The leaders called for calm “in defence of peace and democracy” and said they “reject the terrorist acts and criminal, coup-mongering vandalism that occurred” in the statement shared on social media. Thousands of…

The French government is presenting new plans to update the pension system. Analysts expect some backlash from some workers.Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty ImagesFrench President Emmanuel Macron is going at it again: a new pension reform will be presented Tuesday, and is expected to face some backlash.Macron is serving his second term as France’s president but overhauling the pension system is a long-standing promise that dates all the way back to when he was first elected in 2017.France’s legal retirement age is currently 62 — lower than many developed markets, including much of Europe and the U.S. The public sector…

CNN  —  The entire town of Montecito, California, was told to evacuate as a storm battered the state Monday – the same day the community marked the five-year anniversary of a major mudslide that killed 23 people in 2018. Residents of Montecito – a small town of only about 8,200 locked between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean – fled their homes as heavy rains threatened to bring mudslides and debris flows like the ones that wrought havoc on the Santa Barbara County community five years ago. A community remembrance event had been planned to honor the lives…

Carbon Market Institute CEO John Connor says the government’s proposal to reform the safeguard mechanism climate change policy is a “good foundational package” however needs “more ambition, more transparency”.“It is important that we get going with this framework because Australia has had a fairly tortured history in this regard,” Mr Connor told Sky News Australia.“It’s important for business that we have some certainty as we move ahead.” Source: Sky News

In December last year, a Russian couple – Ivan Beerkus and his partner, Angela Nikolau – were investigated after photos of the pair at the top of Merdeka 118 went viral on social media platforms.  The posts drew the anger of Malaysians who commented that the duo were disrespecting another country’s rules by trespassing on an active construction site.  In response to local media reports that the Russian couple do not have records of entering or exiting the country, Malaysia’s Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said over the weekend that an investigation has been launched, without providing further details on…

The decision made by the state government, when it was elected seven years ago, was “to water down” the Youth Justice Act, says Queensland Opposition leader David Crisafulli. “Unless legislation changes, nothing will change,” Mr Crisafulli told Sky News Australia. “We now have a generation of repeat, hardcore young thugs and they know that their rights are greater than the rights of the victim.“We can throw police operations at it … no one doubts the courage, the bravery, the ticker of the police. “The problem for them … they just don’t have the laws to back them up. It is…

A federal judge on Monday blocked parts of a recently passed New Jersey law restricting where people in the state may carry guns, an early test of some states’ efforts to pass gun control measures in the wake of a US Supreme Court ruling last year expanding gun rights nationwide. US District Judge Renee Marie Bumb said that the state’s new restrictions violated the right to bear arms guaranteed by the Second Amendment of the US Constitution. The law banned carrying guns in public libraries, museums, bars and restaurants and on private property without the owner’s explicit permission, as well…