Author: ALJAZEERA

Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong says most workers have seen wages outpace inflation.Singapore’s economy grew 4 percent in 2024, comfortably beating forecasts, according to preliminary government figures. Gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 4.3 percent in the October-December period, Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry said on Thursday, lifting full-year growth to its strongest performance since 2011, excluding the post-COVID-19 pandemic rebound in 2021. Officials in the Southeast Asian nation had in November forecast growth for the year at about 3.5 percent. Manufacturing, a major driver of the city-state’s export-reliant economy, expanded 4.2 percent in the last quarter, while construction and…

Medan, Indonesia – Winston, a medical doctor who lives and works in the capital of North Sumatra Province, is a self-proclaimed Apple fan. Currently the proud owner of an iPhone 15, Winson had been looking forward to upgrading to the latest model, the iPhone 16, released in September. Winston, however, has reluctantly given up on the idea since the Indonesian government banned sales of the iPhone 16 and the Google Pixel in late October, citing the tech giants’ failure to comply with the country’s Tingkat Komponen Dalam Negeri, or TKDN, policy, which requires phones to source at least 40 percent…

Taipei, Taiwan – The fatal crash of Jeju Air Flight 2216 in South Korea has highlighted the risks birds can pose to commercial airliners. Pilots told air traffic control that their aircraft collided with a flock of birds shortly before declaring Mayday and making an emergency landing at Muan International Airport, according to South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Footage of the crash on Sunday showed the twin-engine Boeing 737-800 making a belly-flop landing on the runway without its landing gear deployed. The aircraft then skidded across the tarmac before hitting a concrete wall and exploding into flames,…

Fire broke out on fifth floor of hotel near popular Khao San Road, fire department says.Three foreigners have died in a hotel fire in a popular tourist area of Thailand’s capital Bangkok, according to local authorities. The fire broke out on the fifth floor of the Ember Hotel on Sunday night, Bangkok’s Fire and Rescue Department said on Monday. One woman died at the scene and two men were pronounced dead in hospital, the fire department said. Seven others are receiving treatment in hospital, according to the fire authorities. The names and nationalities of the deceased were not immediately released.…

Seoul, South Korea – When Alex looked into the price difference between rhinoplasty, commonly known as a “nose job”, in the United States and South Korea, she thought that flying to the Asian country for the surgery was a no-brainer. “$30,000 or $6,000, the choice was clear,” Alex, who asked not to be referred to by her real name, told Al Jazeera, describing her decision to undergo the procedure in the country “known to be number one in plastic surgery”. But less than a year later, the entertainer found herself grappling with severe complications. The implant from her surgery had…

Plans, which include Mitsubishi, announced as Japan tries to gain foothold in electric vehicle market.Japan’s Honda and Nissan are planning a merger, which would create the world’s third-largest carmaker as the industry pivots away from fossil fuels. The company’s two presidents, Toshihiro Mibe of Honda and Makoto Uchida of Nissan, signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday, projecting the establishment of a holding company by August 2026, which could potentially position them third in the market after Toyota and Volkswagen. Honda, currently Japan’s second-largest carmaker, is widely viewed as the only national partner able to rescue Nissan, which has struggled…

The United States has long been Israel’s primary international backer, lending it vast political, diplomatic and financial support. This has only increased since Israel began its assault on Gaza last October, even as it gradually expanded the parameters of its war, in which it is widely accused by human rights groups of committing genocide. According to Brown University’s Watson Institute, the US government provided Israel with almost $18bn in weapons and military aid in the first year of Israel’s war. But Israel is also increasingly dependent on another source of funds: bonds, bought by states and municipalities across the US.…

Hsinchu, Taiwan – A crane bird flies across a silent rice paddy, the water slowly trickling in the background. It is a tranquil and stereotypical image of an East-Asian countryside. Little seems to suggest I am just a few kilometres removed from one of the hearts of the global economy. This is Hsinchu, a small city close to Taipei in Taiwan. It is what you could literally call the Silicon Valley of the world. Just a few kilometres from the tranquil rice paddies, gargantuan buildings rise from the ground, air conditioning humming permanently over the bustle of traffic. These are…

Washington, DC-based lender says Cairo agreed to raise tax-to-revenue ratio and accelerate divestment of state-owned firms.The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced that it has reached an agreement with Egypt to unlock about $1.2bn in funds to prop up the country’s troubled finances. The Washington, DC-based lender said on Tuesday that it reached the “staff-level agreement”, which is subject to approval by the Executive Board, after Cairo outlined steps to improve macroeconomic stability. Egyptian authorities agreed to raise the tax-to-revenue ratio by 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) over the next two years and accelerate the divestment of state-owned…

Committee on Foreign Investment in the US fails to agree on national security risks of proposed takeover of US Steel.A decision on whether to allow Nippon Steel’s proposed takeover of US Steel has fallen to United States President Joe Biden after a government panel failed to agree on possible national security risks. The failure of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) to reach a consensus on the $15bn deal on Monday increases the likelihood that Biden will block the takeover in his final days in office. Biden voiced his opposition to the acquisition during his ill-fated re-election…