Author: ALJAZEERA

Belgian authorities announce arrests of several people in connection with alleged bribery within the parliament.Police have arrested several people as part of a corruption probe targeting the European Parliament and Chinese tech company Huawei, Belgian authorities have said. The suspects, who are alleged to have been involved in “active corruption” within the European Parliament to benefit Huawei, were arrested following searches at 21 premises in Belgium and Portugal, Belgium’s Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement on Thursday. “The corruption is said to have been practised regularly and very discreetly from 2021 to the present day, under the guise…

Weakness in sentiment reflects a deterioration in expectations for the future across multiple facets of the economy, including personal finances, employment, inflation.Consumer sentiment in the United States has plunged to a nearly two-and-a-half-year low, and inflation expectations have soared amid worries that President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, which have ignited a trade war, would boost prices and undercut the economy. The deterioration in sentiment in March and inflation expectations reported by the University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers on Friday were across political party affiliations with consumers saying “frequent gyrations in economic policies make it very difficult for consumers to…

Tech giant says it expects new feature to be ‘less biased’ than previous third-party fact-checking program.Meta has said that its “Community Notes” feature intended to replace third-party fact checkers will use the open-source algorithm developed by Elon Musk’s X. Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced the moderation shake-up in January amid a flurry of moves by Big Tech to ingratiate itself with United States President Donald Trump’s administration. The move followed years of accusations by conservatives that fact-checking efforts often labelled legitimate viewpoints as misinformation for political or ideological reasons. While Meta’s announcement was welcomed by Trump and many conservatives,…

BoC also said it would ‘proceed carefully with any further changes’ to rates given inflationary pressures from tariffs.The Bank of Canada has trimmed its key policy rate by 25 basis points to 2.75 percent and raised concerns about inflationary pressures and weaker growth stemming from trade uncertainty and President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The bank on Wednesday also said it would “proceed carefully with any further changes” to rates given the need to assess both the upward pressures on inflation from higher costs and the downward pressures from weaker demand. The bank’s stance, which some economists said could be a signal…

The first major set of economic reports last week reflect the state of the United States economy during President Donald Trump’s first full month in office. The data reveal a spike in layoffs and slower hiring growth across both the public and private sectors, with looming cuts suggesting larger economic woes in the months ahead. The US economy added 151,000 jobs, according to the Labor Department report, which came out on Friday – well short of economist expectations showing a stall in economic growth. Approximately 7.1 million Americans are currently receiving unemployment benefits compared with 6.5 million this time last…

Taipei, Taiwan – As United States President Donald Trump kicks off a new trade war with China, analysts say he will face a much stronger and more prepared adversary in Beijing compared with his first term in office. Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has already imposed a 20 percent tariff on Chinese imports, citing Beijing’s alleged failure to curb the export of the deadly opioid fentanyl to the US. The tariff comes on top of previous duties imposed by Trump and former US President Joe Biden on more than $400bn worth of Chinese goods. After condemning…

US president says economy is in a “period of transition” amid uncertainty over his trade policies.United States President Donald Trump has declined to rule out the possibility that the world’s largest economy is headed for a recession amid market concerns over his “America First” economic agenda. In an interview with Fox News that aired on Sunday, Trump demurred when asked if he expected a recession this year. “I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing,” Trump said during…

Cryptocurrency falls as much as 6 percent as lack of plans for government purchases disappoints investors.United States President Donald Trump’s executive order to establish a Bitcoin strategic reserve and a stockpile of other digital assets has failed to impress crypto markets, with Bitcoin’s value plummeting following the announcement. Bitcoin fell as much as 6 percent following Trump’s order on Thursday, which did not include plans for the government to actively buy Bitcoin. After dropping as low as $84,900, the cryptocurrency was trading at about $87,700 as of 05:00 GMT. In a statement announcing the order, Trump’s crypto tsar David Sacks…

In October 2024, when director-producer Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions was gearing up nervously for the release of its Hindi-language film Jigra [Courage] in theatres, few knew that the 45-year-old production house, which has made some of India’s most loved films, had been struggling to survive. Since 2019, most of Dharma’s films had not done well, and only one of the four films they released in theatres in 2024 had recovered some money. Dharma’s net profits had plummeted, from $1.2m in fiscal year 2023 to $68,135 a year later. Its managers and directors had reportedly not been paid for months. And…

United States President Donald Trump has escalated his war of words with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, hinting at rocky negotiations as Canada seeks to deescalate a growing trade war. On Wednesday, Trump turned to his social media platform Truth Social to give his version of a midday phone call he held with Trudeau. “The call ended in a ‘somewhat’ friendly manner,” Trump said, without offering specifics. The Republican leader did, however, accuse Trudeau of doing too little to address fentanyl trafficking, an issue experts say is of minor concern along the Canadian border. Trump also openly questioned Trudeau’s role…