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☆ Regional Banks Can’t Catch a Break
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Telis Demos | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Western Alliance said its deposits recently rose. Photo: patrick t. fallon/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesRegional bank stocks were further discounted this past week. It isn’t hard to find some positive indicators for regional banks’ business right now. For one, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Thursday said that its plan to make up for losses in the deposit insurance fund would charge banks based on their amount of uninsured deposits above $5 billion at the end of last year—which tilts the cost toward larger banks. That could help smaller banks offer more-competitive deposit rates.

☆ Thai Voters Back Pro-Democracy Parties in Blow to Military
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( Feliz Solomon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Move Forward leader Pita Limjaroenrat said Sunday the party’s success surpassed his expectations. Photo: jack taylor/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesThailand’s pro-democracy parties emerged as the biggest winners in nationwide elections held on Sunday—a repudiation of the pro-military establishment that has kept a grip on power since a coup in 2014. Move Forward, a relatively new party popular among progressive young voters, won 151 seats out of 500 in the Lower House of Parliament. Pheu Thai, a party linked to a political movement that has long been the army’s chief rival, came in second with 141 seats. Despite its weak showing, the military could still have a say in who forms the next government.

☆ Indian Tech’s Promise of Rivaling China Is Falling Apart
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Megha Mandavia | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Technology-education company Byju’s is the most highly valued Indian startup—on paper. Photo: manjunath kiran/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesThe Indian edtech company Byju’s was the poster child of the Asian country’s startup boom, attracting a lofty valuation while meeting the needs of millions of students across the country as the pandemic hurt their access to schools and education. It is now turning out to be a symbol of everything that went wrong with India’s promise of creating internet companies to rival such Chinese titans as Alibaba and Tencent. The country’s hot startup ecosystem, which lured such investors as SoftBank and Tiger Global, is facing questions on financial accountability and discipline, expensive acquisitions, heady valuations and whether investors overestimated India’s total addressable market, or TAM. Public listings have been delayed, and layoffs are now almost a daily occurrence.

Under current guidelines, single women are barred from freezing their eggs, with assisted reproductive technologies only available to married women with fertility issues. In recent months, some provinces have extended childbirth benefits for unmarried women, and in the southwestern province of Sichuan province single women are increasingly undergoing IVF treatments in private clinics. SOCIAL STIGMALike many Chinese women, Xu spent her twenties and early thirties focused on career development, but was constantly reminded of women's fertility decline with age. "I think society should stop this stigma and recognise the diverse circumstances of single women, as well as their courage and independence." "I hope that all single women can achieve bodily autonomy and reproductive autonomy, and that everyone is allowed to have the space for making independent choices," she said.

☆ Russia's war on Ukraine latest: EU to discuss sanctions on Chinese and Iranian firms
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

May 10 (Reuters) - European Union states hold a first discussion on Wednesday on proposed new sanctions over Russia's war in Ukraine that would target Chinese and Iranian firms and allow export curbs on third countries for busting existing trade restrictions. GRAIN EXPORTS* The United Nations said inspections resumed on Tuesday of outbound vessels under a deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of Ukraine grain, which Moscow has threatened to quit on May 18 over obstacles to its own grain and fertilizer exports. CONFLICT* The governor of Russia's Voronezh region said on Wednesday that two drones attempted to attack a military facility in his region, but failed. * Russia's air defence forces shot down an "enemy" drone in the Kursk region bordering Ukraine, its governor said, adding that falling debris damaged a gas pipeline and a house. * Arman Soldin, a 32-year-old video journalist for Agence France Presse (AFP) in Ukraine, was killed on Tuesday by Grad rocket fire near Chasiv Yar, in eastern Ukraine, AFP said on Twitter, citing AFP colleagues who witnessed the incident.

☆ FBI Disables Malware Russia Allegedly Used to Steal Documents from NATO Allies
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Aruna Viswanatha | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters in Washington. Photo: mandel ngan/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesU.S. authorities said they disabled a piece of malware Russia’s intelligence agency has allegedly used for two decades to steal documents from NATO-allied governments and others, in an operation that highlights the FBI’s increasing efforts to go beyond arresting hackers and find new ways to disrupt cyberattacks. In an affidavit filed in federal court in Brooklyn unsealed Tuesday, a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent said the bureau had identified a long-running cyber espionage campaign by officers in a unit of Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, to take documents from other governments’ defense and foreign ministries, journalists and others, and route them through infected computers in the U.S. to cover their tracks.

☆ Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Is Coming Back, This Time as a Film Without the Angels
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Alyssa Lukpat | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The 2018 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Photo: timothy a. clary/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesVictoria’s Secret is reinventing its lingerie-clad fashion show as a feature-length film with more diverse models, years after the company had been criticized for glorifying skinny body types. The lingerie seller is reviving its famous fashion spectacle for the first time since 2018, but this time there will be no “Angel” models in wings. Victoria’s Secret said Tuesday that it will present its new show as a pretaped film available on streaming services this fall.

☆ UBS Refreshes Management Team to Integrate Credit Suisse
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Margot Patrick | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Credit Suisse CEO Ulrich Körner will take charge of operational continuity and client focus. Photo: fabrice coffrini/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesUBS said it would integrate Credit Suisse with a freshly composed executive team that includes Credit Suisse’s chief executive and a new chief financial officer. The Swiss banking giant said it is evaluating all options for Credit Suisse’s Swiss business, which some politicians in the country want to be spun off into a separate unit or divested. The merger of the two banks is one of the largest ever by assets.

☆ California May Bill You for Slavery
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

California Governor Gavin Newsom Photo: patrick t. fallon/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesNo progressive idea is too wild to be adopted these days, especially in California. The latest example is the Golden State’s new plan to redistribute hundreds of billions of dollars as racial “reparations.”A nine-member committee created by Gov. Gavin Newsom and his Democratic Legislature voted Saturday to recommend that the state make cash payments to black Americans who claim to be descendants of slaves. Although California’s 1849 Constitution banned slavery, the committee claims the state government was complicit in the enslavement of blacks in southern states.

☆ Israeli Airstrikes Kill Three Palestinian Commanders in Gaza
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Dov Lieber | Aaron Boxerman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Israeli military said the airstrikes were part of a new operation against senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad commanders. Photo: mohammed abed/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesTEL AVIV—Three Palestinian militant commanders were killed Tuesday in targeted Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip that left a total of at least 12 dead and 20 injured, including civilians, said Israeli military and Palestinian health officials. The Israeli military said the airstrikes on the Palestinian enclave were part of a new operation against senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad commanders who it blames for recent rocket fire into Israel, coordinating militant activities in the occupied West Bank and acquiring money and guns.

☆ An A.F.P. journalist was killed by rocket fire near the intense fighting in the area around Bakhmut.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Anushka Patil | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A video journalist working for Agence France-Presse, the French news agency, was killed by rocket fire near the town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine, A.F.P. Some of the heaviest battles of the war are being fought in and around the nearby city of Bakhmut. The journalist, Arman Soldin, 32, and four colleagues were with Ukrainian soldiers when they came under a Grad rocket attack on Tuesday afternoon, the agency said. Mr. Soldin is the 17th journalist to be killed in Ukraine since 2022, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. His death came just two weeks after a Ukrainian journalist was killed and an Italian journalist injured in an attack on their way to the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine.

Capvision said in a statement soon after the broadcast that it would resolutely abide by national security rules. The CCTV report was the first clear indication of the national security scope of recent police action against several consulting firms. "The state security organ and other authorities will intensify law enforcement against activities that endanger national security, such as illegal consulting," the state-owned Global Times said. The revisions will see all documents, data, materials and items "related to national security and interests" given the same protection as state secrets. The law does not define China's national security or interests.

☆ Arman Soldin: AFP journalist killed in rocket fire near eastern Ukraine's Bakhmut
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Helen Regan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —A French journalist working for the international news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) was killed by rocket fire near the embattled city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday. “We are devastated to learn of the death of AFP video journalist Arman Soldin in eastern Ukraine today,” AFP said. Their reporting team was with Ukrainian soldiers when they came under fire around 4:30pm local time on Tuesday, according to AFP. “The whole agency is devastated by the loss of Arman,” said Fabrice Fries, CEO of AFP, according to the news agency. In their obituary, AFP wrote that Soldin celebrated his 32nd birthday on March 21 from Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine.

BEIJING, May 8 (Reuters) - The Global Times, a hawkish Chinese state media tabloid, on Monday criticised a letter of protest sent to it by South Korea's embassy in China, the latest public spat amid worsening ties between the Asian neighbours. The South Korean embassy "expressed strong regret over a series of unreasonable slanderous articles" from the Global Times, in a letter of protest published Friday on its website. In its editorial, the Global Times slammed the embassy's "brutal interference in (its) independent reporting". South Korea's embassy in China did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a similar incident last December, China's ambassador in South Korea criticised Korean media for stoking anti-China sentiment.

☆ U.S. Think Tank Reports Prompted Beijing to Put a Lid on Chinese Data
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Lingling Wei | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Officials in Beijing have become increasingly concerned about data security as a result of Western online sleuthing. Photo: Wang Zhao/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesA recent campaign to restrict overseas access to China-based data sources was partly triggered by a drumbeat of U.S. think tank reports on sensitive Chinese practices that alarmed Beijing, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. Increasingly worried about perceived Western threats, Beijing in recent weeks expanded an anti-espionage law and stepped up pressure on foreign companies specializing in collecting information, such as auditors, management consultants and law firms. In addition, access to Chinese databases including Shanghai-based Wind Information has tightened for foreign think tanks, research firms and other nonfinancial entities.

☆ Syria Readmitted to Arab League, Bringing Assad Back Into the Fold
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Summer Said | Benoit Faucon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Arab League foreign ministers at an emergency meeting in Cairo on Sunday. Photo: khaled desouki/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesArab leaders agreed to bring Syria back into the Arab League after more than a decade of isolation, complicating American efforts to isolate President Bashar al-Assad and signaling a waning of U.S. influence in the Middle East. In an emergency meeting in Cairo, the group voted to immediately readmit Syria to the group of 22 Arab nations that coordinate on regional matters. While many Arab officials remain disdainful of Mr. Assad, they say international policies isolating Syria have proven to be counterproductive over time, strengthening the influence of Iran, which backs Syria.

Prince Albert of Monaco said in an interview with People magazine that he and his wife, Charlene, would be attending. King Felipe VI of Spain, who ascended to the throne in 2014 after his father’s abdication, will attend, according to the Spanish news media. Crown Prince Fumihito of Japan and Crown Princess Kiko, on behalf of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, will attend, according to the Japanese news media. Credit... Clodagh Kilcoyne/ReutersSeveral members of Britain’s government will attend, as will about 100 heads of state from around the world, according to Buckingham Palace. British RoyalsImage Prince Harry, center, will be present at the coronation, though his wife, Meghan, and their children, will remain in California.

☆ Sudan Power Battle Reignites Violence in Restive Darfur
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Nicholas Bariyo | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Brick houses in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, where clashes have been most intense. Photo: -/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesThe battle for power between Sudan’s top two generals has reignited intercommunal violence in the country’s Darfur region, a gold-rich area still scarred by what is widely considered the first genocide of the 21st century. The World Health Organization says at least 221 people have been killed in West Darfur, near Sudan’s border with Chad, since fighting erupted on April 15 between the military, led by Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto head of state, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo , Gen. Burhan’s deputy.

☆ South Korean Prosecutor Calls for Crypto Entrepreneur Do Kwon to Face Charges in Home Country
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Jiyoung Sohn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Crypto entrepreneur Do Kwon has been detained in Montenegro since March. Photo: stringer/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesSEOUL—The South Korean prosecutor leading the investigation into crypto entrepreneur Do Kwon said he believes extraditing him to his native country would be the best way to bring justice to victims of the TerraUSD cryptocurrency crash, which wiped out some $40 billion from digital currency markets. South Korea is vying with U.S. prosecutors to extradite Mr. Kwon from Montenegro, where he has been detained since March, and charge him in connection with the failed TerraUSD and Luna cryptocurrencies. Mr. Kwon, who is a South Korean citizen, was the co-founder of Terraform Labs, the company behind the two failed cryptocurrencies.

☆ Singapore’s Moment Is Here. Will It Last?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Nathaniel Taplin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Private rental costs in Singapore rose 30% in 2022, according to official data. Photo: roslan rahman/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesSingapore, Hong Kong’s longtime rival, is having a moment as Hong Kong struggles with the fallout from its political crackdown and China sends decidedly mixed signals on its own openness to foreign capital. The Southeast Asian city-state is also dealing with the sudden downsides of success: namely an epic surge in housing prices. To keep the march it has stolen on Hong Kong it will need to tame its housing market—and demonstrate that it truly is neutral territory in the intensifying competition between the U.S. and China.

☆ Maersk Earnings Weighed Down by Sharp Drop in Freight Rates and Volumes
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Costas Paris | Dominic Chopping | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The container ship Maersk Batam is loaded in the Port of Southampton, on the south coast of England. Photo: adrian dennis/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesA.P. Moller-Maersk on Thursday posted a sharp drop in first-quarter net profit as inventory corrections in Western economies sent shipping demand falling, pushing freight rates and volumes lower. The Danish shipping giant said it expects the destocking effort, the result of an enormous inventory buildup last year that left retailers swamped with goods, to wind down by the end of the second quarter but that trade volumes are still contracting.

☆ Foreign Firms in China Squeezed by U.S. Disclosure Demands, Beijing’s Security Clampdown
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Elaine Yu | Dan Strumpf | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Mintz Group’s Beijing office was raided by authorities, who detained five of the company’s workers. Photo: greg baker/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesHONG KONG—Foreign companies in China are walking a tightrope between their need for business intelligence to comply with proliferating U.S. sanctions and mounting concerns about the risks of carrying out the due diligence required for business on the ground. Authorities recently questioned staff at consulting firm Bain & Co.’s Shanghai office and detained the Beijing-based workers for U.S. due-diligence company Mintz Group. The news has put companies that conduct due diligence and business intelligence in China on heightened alert, with details about the visits scant and uncertainty swirling around what triggered them.

☆ Canada Passes Law Aimed at Exposing Forced Labor in Supply Chains
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Richard Vanderford | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Canada now joins a growing number of countries trying to stamp out the sale of goods made with forced labor. Photo: geoff robins/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesCanada will take on forced labor with a new law requiring companies to report on their efforts to stop tainted goods from entering their supply chains. Canada’s House of Commons on Wednesday approved legislation known as Bill S-211 that will go into effect in January and mandate large companies to report on parts of their supply chains where forced labor might be occurring. The legislation also will require companies to report their due-diligence procedures connected to forced labor.

☆ Qualcomm Hit by Smartphone Demand Woes
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Asa Fitch | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Qualcomm has been whipsawed in recent quarters by flagging handset sales. Photo: josep lago/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesMobile-phone chip maker Qualcomm gave a gloomy sales outlook as it signaled the market for smartphones was more turbulent than expected. Qualcomm, which sells communication and data-processing chips crucial in phones from Apple and Samsung , has been whipsawed in recent quarters by flagging handset sales even as it sees growth in newer markets for its chips, including the automotive industry.

☆ The Gas-Guzzler Business is Still Trucking
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Stephen Wilmot | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A Ford F-150 under production at the company’s plant in Dearborn, Michigan. Photo: jeff kowalsky/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesDetroit has a rocky road ahead, but it also has cash to navigate it. First-quarter results from General Motors, Ford and Chrysler-owner Stellantis beat expectations across the board, but investors weren’t impressed. They are more focused on Tesla ’s price war in electric vehicles and the U.S. Federal Reserve’s rate increases, which are pushing up consumers’ monthly vehicle payments.

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