Author: admin@primenews

Rain or shine, Mohammad Shukkur Ali, a rickshaw puller in his 50s, shows up for work on the streets of the Bangladesh capital Dhaka. The work is already punishing as it requires massive physical effort. But this year, the heat has made things even worse. Temperatures in the city hit 40.6C (105.8F) in April – a record high. But Mr Ali, who lives with his wife and two children in a rented room, says he has no choice but to endure the discomfort. “I need to work because we are poor,” he said. Mr Ali works eight-hour shifts every day…

PayPal is rolling out its first stablecoin as it attempts to capitalize on the “emerging potential” of US dollar-backed digital tokens for consumer payments. The stablecoin, PayPal USD, is fully backed by the US dollar and is “designed to reduce friction” for payments within virtual spaces and provide faster, cheaper transfers of money across borders. For now, the use case for the new token appears limited to crypto-related and other “web3” applications. But PayPal is betting on a future in which digital currency is more mainstream and merchants may request payment in stablecoins to avoid credit card processing fees. Similarly, crypto holders can send…

A senior official at the Federal Reserve is pushing back against growing hopes on Wall Street that the central bank could be nearly done raising interest rates. In a pair of speeches on Saturday and on Monday, Fed Governor Michelle Bowman warned that multiple rate hikes could be required to get inflation back to healthy levels. “We have made progress in lowering inflation over the past year, but inflation is still significantly above” the Fed’s 2% target, Bowman said on Monday at an event in Atlanta. Bowman, one of the more hawkish members of the Fed’s rate-setting committee, highlighted that the job market…

Tesla’s chief financial officer, Zach Kirkhorn, stepped down from his position, effective Aug. 4, the automaker announced Monday morning in a regulatory filing. Tesla’s chief accounting officer Vaibhav Taneja was appointed as the new CFO and will hold both roles concurrently. Shares of Tesla were trading down about 1% on the news. Kirkhorn will stay on with Tesla through the end of the year to assist in the transition, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Kirkhorn had served as CFO since March 2019 and had worked for Tesla since 2010. “As I shift my responsibilities to support this transition, I…

Days of heavy rain have caused severe flooding in China’s leading grain-producing region in the northeast, killing 14 people and raising concerns about food security as floodwater inundated farmlands. Torrential rains brought by the aftermath of Typhoon Doksuri have battered northern China since late July, displacing more than a million people and killing at least 30 people in the outskirts of Beijing and the surrounding Hebei province. As the storm moved further north, another 14 deaths were reported Sunday in the city of Shulan in Jilin province. Among the dead were three local officials, including the city’s deputy mayor, who were washed away by floodwater…

China is facing a growing international backlash after one of its coast guard vessels used a water cannon against a Philippine boat in the South China Sea on Saturday, an incident analysts say escalates an already tense situation and could see the United States and its allies speed up plans for joint patrols in the waterway. Video from the Philippines showed a large Chinese Coast Guard ship spraying a much smaller Philippine boat that was attempting to deliver supplies to a garrison of Philippine marines on Second Thomas Shoal, a South China Sea feature in Manila’s exclusive economic zone that China calls Renai…

Beijing on Monday praised ongoing talks aimed at finding a formula for peace in Ukraine, after a Chinese envoy attended a weekend summit in Saudi Arabia that was slammed by Russia as “doomed to fail.” China said the two-day meeting, which took place in the Gulf kingdom’s port sea city of Jeddah, helped “to consolidate international consensus” on finding a peaceful solution to the conflict, Reuters reported, citing a Chinese foreign ministry statement. The talks brought together more than 40 nations, including Ukraine, the United States, European states, and the BRICS group of countries – perhaps none as closely watched as China, Russia’s most powerful…

London’s Brick Lane, well known for its street art, has become a talking point after one of its walls was covered by slogans extolling Chinese Communist Party ideology. Online videos showed a group of people had spray painted the big red Chinese characters on a white background overnight at the weekend. The “core socialist values”, composed of 12 two-character words, are some of the most common political slogans under President Xi Jinping’s rule. Political propaganda in the form of red block characters on a white wall are a familiar sight in China. The Brick Lane slogans have sparked debate online…

At least 30 people have been killed and 100 injured when a train derailed in southern Pakistan, a police spokesman has confirmed. Several carriages of the Hazara Express overturned near Sahara railway station in Nawabshah, about 275km (171 miles) from the largest city Karachi. Wounded passengers were moved to nearby hospitals. Rescue teams are trying to free people from the twisted wreckage. Accidents on Pakistan’s antiquated railway system are not uncommon. Videos posted on social media showed dozens of people at the site of the accident, with some passengers climbing out of the overturned carriages. One passenger who survived told…

The organisers of the World Scout Jamboree in South Korea have ended the event early because of an incoming typhoon. Several countries including the UK had already left the international event, blaming high temperatures and poor sanitary conditions at the camp. UK Scouts chief executive Matt Hyde said he felt let down by organisers and UK activities had been set back years. The site had become a health risk, he added. Attended by more than 40,000 young people, the World Scout Jamboree has been plagued by problems from the very start. Hundreds had fallen ill amid 35C (95F) heat, with local media…