Author: ALJAZEERA

The United States has designated Chinese corporate giants Alibaba, BYD and Baidu as companies that support China’s military, expanding its blacklist to some of the country’s best-known commercial brands.The Pentagon included the firms in an update on Monday that is likely to complicate the fragile detente under way between Washington and Beijing after years of rocky relations.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listChina’s embassy in Washington, DC, condemned the listing as “discriminatory” and an example of the US government “overstretching” the concept of national security.“Chinese companies that do business overseas have been strictly observing laws and regulations of their…

Tehran, Iran – In the popular Bastan market in the west of the Iranian capital, where the inviting smell of fresh bread and fruit mingle with the sight of colourful fabrics and clothing, the scene no longer holds its usual joy.Passersby wander among the vendors’ stalls, carefully turning goods over only to return them to their places.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list“Daily shopping trips have turned into something resembling a reconnaissance mission to find out the new prices,” says Mashhadi Firouz, a 63-year-old retiree, is reminiscing about his youth on this street when it was bustling with life.Firouz…

French energy giant TotalEnergies is embroiled in a lawsuit between seven US states and the federal government as the administration of President Donald Trump upends domestic energy policy, shutting down some wind energy projects while pushing fossil fuels.It has also raised questions about the predictability of the business and investment environment under a president who has peddled back many policies that were set up under his predecessor, President Joe Biden, a Democrat, including on investing in renewable energy.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listThe case is tied to two offshore wind farms that TotalEnergies had planned in the US.…

Anthropic is proposing that the world’s top artificial intelligence companies come up with a coordinated way to pause development of advanced AI systems, warning that the technology is improving so quickly that there’s a risk humans would lose control.The company behind the Claude chatbot said in a blog post on Thursday that, as cutting-edge AI gets increasingly faster at carrying out tasks, “it would be good for the world to have the option to slow or temporarily pause” its development.Anthropic said its internal research institute plans to explore the issue in collaboration with others and “take actions” to help build the…

Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman and other top OPEC officials visit the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.Published On 4 Jun 20264 Jun 2026Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud has met his Russian counterpart in St Petersburg and called for stability in global energy markets as OPEC+ grapples with disruptions caused by the wars in Iran and Ukraine, which have sent oil prices skyrocketing.OPEC+ has been mired with unprecedented challenges, with slashed oil exports, and the United Arab Emirates, an OPEC powerhouse for almost 60 years, left the oil cartel in April.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listOn Thursday, the Saudi…

Tehran, Iran – Iran is facing more energy constraints as its summer season begins, with the widespread use of air conditioning and other needs during hotter months contributing to an imbalance between supply and consumption.For decades, successive Iranian governments have kept utility bills well below supply costs for households and offices through a mix of implicit oil-and-gas subsidies, administered tariffs, state-controlled pricing, and sometimes direct financial support.The negative impacts of the war with Israel and the United States on the economy mean the government has fewer tools at its disposal to deal with an energy crisis this summer.Despite having the…

Veteran journalist’s dismissal comes after he reportedly accused management of ‘murdering’ influential news programme.By Reuters and The Associated PressPublished On 3 Jun 20263 Jun 2026US broadcaster CBS has fired Scott Pelley, a longtime correspondent for its 60 Minutes programme, after he reportedly said Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss was “murdering the show” and accused its new producer of having “slender qualifications” for the job.The firing on Tuesday deepened the turmoil at the most influential TV news programme in the US, days after a leadership overhaul.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listPelley, 68, criticised management on Monday during a fiery staff meeting…

US tech giant says fundraising drive includes deal to sell $10 bn of stock to Berkshire Hathaway.Published On 2 Jun 20262 Jun 2026Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has announced plans to sell $80bn worth of shares to fund its rollout of artificial intelligence.Alphabet said on Monday that the equity offerings would finance the rollout of AI infrastructure needed to meet “unprecedented customer demand”.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listThe US tech giant said the fundraising drive included a deal to sell $10bn of stock to Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate led for six decades by legendary investor Warren Buffett.The remaining $70bn will…

Jerome Powell says the US central bank is undergoing a ‘stress test’ like other institutions in the current era.Published On 1 Jun 20261 Jun 2026Former US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has warned against the politicisation of monetary policy amid President Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on the independence of the central bank.In a speech at an awards ceremony in Boston on Sunday, Powell said that the Fed had been undergoing a “stress test” like many other institutions in the Trump era.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listPowell said the US Congress had “wisely” chosen to insulate the central bank from political pressure and that…

A United States federal judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s nearly $1.8bn “anti-weaponisation fund” to compensate victims of alleged government “lawfare”.On Friday, US District Judge Leonie Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia blocked the Trump administration from “taking any further action” to set up or operate the fund while she hears legal arguments.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listThe judge, who was nominated to the bench by President Bill Clinton, scheduled a June 12 hearing about whether to extend the order blocking payouts.The Department of Justice announced the fund last week as part of an agreement to…