Author: ALJAZEERA

Mukalla, Yemen – When Abdullah Salem raised his fare by 100 Yemeni riyals ($0.06) on a routine afternoon trip from the eastern outskirts of Yemen’s port city of Mukalla to the city centre, passengers pushed back immediately. “They shouted at me,” the 55-year-old driver told Al Jazeera as he prepared for another trip. “I told them it’s not my decision; it’s the government who have hiked fuel prices.”The Yemen Petroleum Company (YPC), controlled by the internationally recognised government, has announced a new round of fuel price hikes in areas under its administration, a move that analysts say could accelerate inflation…

The bloc currently imports more than half of its crude oil from the Middle East.Published On 8 May 20268 May 2026Southeast Asian leaders have agreed on measures aimed at reducing the impact of the Iran war on their economies, but conceded that the initiatives will take considerable time to come into effect.On Friday, leaders gathered in the Philippines for a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz dominating the agenda.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listMembers agreed to a regional fuel-sharing framework in a bid to ease the economic…

Southeast Asian leaders have gathered in the Philippines to coordinate a joint response to the fallout from the war on Iran, which has prompted a surge in energy prices across the region.Speaking at the opening of the gathering of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Friday, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said the United States-Israeli war on Iran had been felt “through higher living costs” and “threatened livelihoods” both in “our homelands and amongst our nationals in the Middle East”.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listMarcos said ASEAN, an 11-member bloc that includes the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore…

SpaceX pens a new deal with Anthropic as Elon Musk sues competitor OpenAI for allegedly backtracking on its mission.Published On 6 May 20266 May 2026Anthropic has reached a deal to tap the computing resources of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, marking a detente with its one-time critic and a boost for both companies in the high-stakes artificial intelligence race.Under the agreement announced on Wednesday, Anthropic will use the full computing power of SpaceX’s Colossus 1 facility in Memphis, Tennessee, which houses more than 220,000 Nvidia processors and will give the Claude chatbot maker 300 megawatts of new capacity within a month. That’s…

The United States is set to impose 25 percent tariffs on the European Union’s auto sector, a move that would reverse an agreement reached in August between Washington and the bloc.US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CNBC on Monday that the White House is “moving forward with this action”.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listEarlier this year, the US Supreme Court ruled that President Donald Trump could not impose his global tariffs through the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), limiting the president’s sweeping global tariffs.However, last year, Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on global automotive imports under…

Published On 4 May 20264 May 2026GameStop made an unsolicited $56bn bid to acquire e-commerce giant eBay—a company with a market value nearly four times higher—as the video game retailer seeks to boost profitability.eBay confirmed the offer on Monday and said that there had been no prior discussion or outreach with GameStop before receiving the offer.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listGameStop, which is worth roughly $12bn, is attempting to buy the online bidding giant in a deal that would consist of half cash and half stock buyout, with just around $9bn in cash and a debt load of…

Oil prices have failed to ease despite United States President Donald Trump’s announcement that the US will “guide” stranded vessels out of the Strait of Hormuz.Brent crude, the international benchmark, was essentially flat on Monday morning, as traders saw little hope of Trump’s plans resolving what the International Energy Agency has called the biggest energy disruption in history.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listBrent futures for July stood at $108.11 as of 05:00 GMT, down 0.06 percent.Trump said on Sunday that the US would “help free up” vessels stranded in the Gulf from Monday, but offered few details on…

Arrest of 39-year-old comes after Swiss company HiPP last month issued product recall over tainted baby food jars.Published On 3 May 20263 May 2026A man has been arrested in Austria over the discovery of rat poison in a popular brand of baby food, according to police.The arrest comes after the Swiss company HiPP last month issued a partial recall of its products after authorities found rat poison and an unspecified “toxic additive” in jars of baby food sold in Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listHiPP, which bills itself as the world’s top organic…

Roughly 500 labour groups across the United States have organised a widespread economic blackout calling for “no school, no work, no shopping” to mark May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day.The events, organised as part of an initiative called May Day Strong, were inspired by economic boycotts following ramped-up immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the deaths of US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in January.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listThe events are broad in scope but are overall efforts to protest government policies that prioritise the ultra-wealthy over working-class people.May Day Strong has a…

Gulf leaders gathered in Riyadh this week for their first in-person meeting since the outbreak of the US–Israel war with Iran. Alongside security concerns, they also discussed expediting longstanding joint projects.Under the umbrella of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), these initiatives span transport, energy, water security and defence. They aim to deepen economic ties and strengthen collective resilience.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listThomas Bonnie James, a Gulf studies expert at AFG College with the University of Aberdeen, said the significance of this moment lies in how these projects are being redefined. He said the Iranian strikes on key GCC…