WORLD

Tokyo, Japan | Xinhua | An advisory panel for the finance minister on Monday proposed that the Japanese government end free-of-charge coronavirus vaccinations, highlighting concerns over a further increase of its financial strain. Japan’s Ministry of Finance convened a subcommittee meeting on Monday and asked a panel of experts to start …

Washington, U.S. | Xinhua | The U.S. central bank raised the benchmark lending rate by 0.75 percentage point last week, the fourth increase of that size and the sixth hike this year, bringing its key rate into a range of 3.75 percent to 4 percent, the highest in 15 years. The …

Geneva, Switzerland | Xinhua | United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on Saturday issued an open letter to Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer of Twitter, saying “ensure human rights are central to the management of Twitter”. The letter followed reports of Twitter’s massive layoff of staff on …

Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt | Xinhua | The 27th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) opened on Sunday in Egypt’s coastal city of Sharm El-Sheikh in hopes to turn global climate finance pledges into action. During his speech at the opening ceremony, Egyptian …

Rome, Italy | Xinhua | As winter approaches, European countries have been taking steps to soften the blow from an insufficient supply of Russian natural gas to the continent. Analysts say this year’s energy crunch may have impacts lasting for years. When gas supplies from Russia started to dwindle earlier …

Istanbul, Turkey | XINHUA | Chinese companies from a wide array of sectors have received “intense attention” at an international trade expo being held in Türkiye’s biggest city Istanbul, a Turkish business leader said on Friday. A total of 32 Chinese companies and business groups have participated the Independent Industrialists …

Cairo, Egypt | Xinhua | Egypt is counting on the upcoming 27th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) to obligate developed countries to honor their commitments to finance climate change projects and mitigate the effects of harmful climate changes, a COP official …

Los Angeles, USA | Xinhua |  The 18th Chinese American Film Festival and the Chinese American Television Festival kicked off here Friday evening. Several hundred elegantly gowned and tuxedoed Chinese and Hollywood celebrities and guests assembled in Sheraton Los Angeles San Gabriel for the cultural event, which aims to promote …

 COMMENT | DANIEL LITVIN  – Project Syndicate | The West’s dependence on China for so-called critical minerals once worried only a handful of experts and policy wonks. Now, the anxiety has gone mainstream, capturing headlines and becoming the subject of a BBC documentary series. But we have yet to answer …

New York, U.S. | Xinhua | The U.S. dollar’s rise compounds excruciating problems of debt sustainability for scores of low- and middle-income countries, propelling them to diversify reserve currencies, reported Foreign Affairs in mid-October. The dollar “is everyone’s problem, to paraphrase an aphorism from John Connally, the former U.S. Treasury secretary,” …