PARIS — Italy, Saudi Arabia and South Korea are battling it out in Paris on Tuesday for the right to host the Expo 2030 world fair, a five-yearly event that attracts millions of visitors and billions of dollars in investment. The three countries’ delegations have been in horse-trading overdrive over the past few months to win votes from the 182 member states of the Bureau International des Expositions, holding splashy lobbying events in the French...
SYDNEY — Australia will ban imports of disposable vapes in January, the Health Minister said on Tuesday, the first step in a crackdown aimed at curbing the growing popularity of these nicotine-filled devices with young people. The ban will be expanded in March to include all non-therapeutic vapes, including refillable devices, while importers of vapes for medical purposes will need permit from the Office of Drug control, Health Minister Mark Butler said in a statement....
DUBAI/JERUSALEM — Hamas said it had sought a new truce deal with Israel under which the Palestinian militant group would free hostages beyond the women and children it has already released from the Gaza Strip. The remarks by Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya late on Monday came as Israel expanded the roster of Palestinian detainees it could release in exchange for hostages — another signal that a revision of truce terms was being considered. “We hope...
SEOUL — After decades of satellite surveillance by foreign governments and analysts, North Korea has sent its first spy satellite on a global orbit with a message to the world: we can watch you too. On Tuesday North Korean state media said leader Kim Jong Un had reviewed spy satellite photos of the White House, Pentagon and US aircraft carriers at the naval base of Norfolk. North Korea last week successfully launched its first reconnaissance...
BEIJING/HONG KONG — US furniture company head Jordan England thinks his firm’s Chinese suppliers are among the best in the game, but geopolitics and a slowing economy have pushed him to source more products from Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and Mexico. “I’m looking to move away from it (China),” said Mr. England, chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder of Florida-based Industry West. “It was always ‘China plus one,’” he said, referring to the diversification strategy...
Environmental groups on Tuesday will ask a Norwegian court to block the development of three North Sea oil and gas fields, citing insufficient assessment of global climate impact from future petroleum use. The lawsuit filed by Greenpeace and its partner Nature and Youth concerns the Equinor-operated Breidablikk and Aker BP’s Yggdrasil and Tyrving fields, which hold combined reserves of some 875 million barrels of oil equivalent. The two NGOs in 2020 lost a case against Arctic drilling at Norway‘s top court, which concluded that parliament and the government had broad authority to award new oil acreage. But the Supreme Court also noted that the government should consider the...
CAIRO/JERUSALEM – An Israel-Hamas truce in the Gaza Strip stretched into a fifth day on Tuesday as the two sides completed the release of Israeli hostages and detained Palestinians and looked poised to free more as the pause in fighting was extended by two days. Hamas took about 240 hostages during an Oct. 7 incursion into southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli figures, prompting Israel to retaliate by bombing the coastal enclave and launching a ground offensive in its north. Israel said 11 Israelis had returned...
Spending online on Cyber Monday is set to exceed $12 billion, a record, as bargain hunters snap up deals on items including Barbie dolls, Lego sets, headphones and smart watches, according to preliminary estimates from Adobe Digital Insights. The estimate projects US shoppers will spend $12 billion-$12.4 billion on Cyber Monday, the biggest US online shopping day. A significant portion of this spending, around $4 billion, is expected to occur between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. EST, particularly from last-minute shoppers, it said. At the top end, this would represent an 9.7% increase compared...
HAMPTON COURT, England – Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced 29.5 billion pounds ($36.8 billion) of private sector investment in Britain at a gathering of global executives on Monday aimed at catapulting the country back to Europe’s top spot as a destination for foreign money. After the government last week offered permanent tax breaks for businesses to modernize plants and machinery, Mr. Sunak is hoping foreign investors will help speed up Britain’s moribund economy. Australian funds IFM Investors and Aware Super will pump 10 billion...
A US appeals court on Monday handed 3M, Corteva Inc. subsidiary E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co and other manufacturers of toxic so-called “forever chemicals” a big win in their fight against legal liability for the substances, rejecting a lower court’s ruling that would have allowed about 11.8 million Ohio residents to sue the companies as a group. The Cincinnati, Ohio-based 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a lower court’s approval of the massive class action, which included virtually every...
