Author: ALJAZEERA

United States President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Brendan Carr, a Republican known for his criticism of Big Tech, to lead the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Carr, who has served as an FCC commissioner since 2017, will end the “regulatory onslaught” that has held back job creators and innovators, and ensure that the communications agency delivers for rural areas, Trump said in a statement on Sunday. “Commissioner Carr is a warrior for free speech, and has fought against the regulatory lawfare that has stifled Americans’ freedoms, and held back our economy,” Trump said. Carr, who has echoed Trump’s concerns about censorship…

US President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is planning to kill a $7,500 consumer tax credit for electric-vehicle purchases as part of broader tax-reform legislation, Reuters news agency has reported, citing two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Ending the tax credit could have grave implications for an already stalling electric vehicle (EV) transition in the United States. And yet representatives of Tesla – by far the nation’s largest EV seller – have told a Trump transition committee that they support ending the subsidy, said the two sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, one of…

Medan, Indonesia – Halimah Nasution used to feel as if she had it all. For years, she and her husband Agus Saputra made a good living renting out supplies for weddings, graduations and birthdays. Even after splitting their earnings among several of their siblings, the couple in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province took in about 30 million rupiahs ($1,917) each month. Spending about one-quarter of their takings each month, the couple belonged to the upper reaches of Indonesia’s middle class, officially defined as those with monthly outgoings of between two million rupiahs ($127) and 9.9 million rupiahs ($638). Then the COVID-19…

Kolkata, India – For the past several years, Manpreet Singh has been dreaming of going abroad for higher studies. The 22-year-old Sikh, a resident of Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh state, chose Canada as his destination as that is where many of the Sikh diaspora is settled. But the current diplomatic tension between India and Canada has put a damper on those plans, leaving him disappointed. Singh is now planning to go to Europe and complete his education. “Canada was always on the top of my list for foreign education as several people of our community are settled there, and I…

Micro-blogging site says it now has more than 15 million users, up from nine million in September.Social media platform Bluesky has gained more than one million new users since the US presidential election, benefitting from an exodus of people unhappy with the direction of X under billionaire owner Elon Musk. The micro-blogging site said on Wednesday that it had topped 15 million users, up from about nine million in September. Started by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey in 2019, Bluesky has gained a reputation as a refuge for left-leaning users disaffected by X’s rightward turn under Musk’s stewardship. Some Bluesky users…

Australia’s Qantas, Jetstar, Virgin Australia halt flights following eruption of Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki.Several airlines have cancelled flights between Australia and Indonesia’s Bali after a nearby volcano spewed ash up to 10km (6 miles) into the sky. Jetstar and Virgin Australia said on Wednesday that all flights to and from the Indonesian resort island’s capital Denpasar had been cancelled due to the eruption of Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki. “Due to volcanic ash caused by the Mount Lewotobi eruption in Indonesia, it is currently not safe to operate flights to and from Bali,” Jetstar said in a statement. Qantas said a…

Donald Trump’s return as president of the United States for the second time has boosted equity markets on bets of lower corporate tax, favourable tariffs and deregulation, lifting shares of banks, locally focused small-cap companies and Trump Media. His promise to make Tesla CEO Elon Musk head of a government efficiency commission after the billionaire backed Trump throughout his electoral campaign led to a 12.5 percent surge in the shares of the electric carmaker. Wall Street’s main indexes opened at record highs, while the small-cap Russell 2000 index jumped about 4.8 percent to its highest in nearly three years. “Business animal spirits…

When Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on January 20 next year, one of the first things economists expect him to do is enact at least some of the tariffs he promised while on the campaign trail. As a candidate, Trump said he would impose 10 percent to 20 percent tariffs across the board on imports, and 60 percent on imports from China. Economists expect him to start with tariffs targeting a few countries, including China and other trading partners such as Canada, Mexico and the European Union. “He will at least threaten…

The Fed will have to navigate a changing economic landscape with the election of Donald Trump as the next US president.The United States Federal Reserve has cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point as policymakers took note of a job market that has “generally eased” while inflation continues to move towards the central bank’s 2 percent target. “Economic activity has continued to expand at a solid pace,” the central bank’s rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee said on Thursday. The statement followed a two-day policy meeting in which officials lowered the benchmark overnight interest rate to the 4.5…

EXPLAINERAs a second Trump administration looms, intense jockeying for key spots in his forthcoming cabinet has begun.Who’s in? And who’s out? Donald Trump is carefully considering his cabinet picks following his historic presidential election victory over Democratic nominee Kamala Harris on Tuesday. Trump had reportedly avoided detailed cabinet discussions until after the election results were clear. In one early announcement, he said on Thursday that helping him manage that team will be Susie Wiles, who managed his election campaign and will now serve as his chief of staff. “Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected. Susie…