Author: Finance for Sight

BANGKOK: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with the interim leader of neighbouring Bangladesh on Friday, the first such meeting since a revolution in Dhaka ousted New Delhi’s long-term ally and soured relations. Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, 84, took charge of Bangladesh in August 2024 after India’s old ally Sheikh Hasina was toppled as prime minister by a student-led uprising and fled to India by helicopter. India was the biggest benefactor of Hasina’s government and her overthrow sent cross-border relations into a tailspin, culminating in Yunus choosing to make his first state visit last month to China –…

JERUSALEM: Israel is in talks with its main ally the United States to reduce tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump as part of a global salvo, according to the finance minister. Trump hit friends and foes alike with his sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs this week, making his announcement just a day after Israel lifted all of its remaining customs duties on US imports. Trump reserved some of the harshest duties for major trade partners, while goods from Israel, a top beneficiary of US military aid, were hit with a 17 percent tariff. “The Ministry of Finance is maintaining an ongoing…

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump unveiled the first “gold card”, a residency permit sold for $5 million each, aboard Air Force One on Thursday. Holding a prototype that bore his face and an inscription “The Trump Card”, the Republican president told reporters that the special visa would probably be available “in less than two weeks”. “I’m the first buyer,” he said. “Pretty exciting, huh?” Trump previously said that sales of the new visa, a high-price version of the traditional green card, would bring in job creators and could be used to reduce the US national deficit. Trump floats $5 million…

BANGKOK: Myanmar’s ostracised junta leader met the prime ministers of India and Thailand during a regional summit in Bangkok on Friday, a week after an earthquake devastated parts of his impoverished, war-torn nation, killing more than 3,100 people. Shunned by most world leaders since leading a 2021 coup that overthrew an elected government, Min Aung Hlaing’s rare foreign trip exploits a window opened by the earthquake to ramp up diplomacy. On the sidelines of the BIMSTEC summit, Min Aung Hlaing had two-way meetings with Thai premier Paetongtarn Shinawatra and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with recovery from the quake a…

WASHINGTON/OTTAWA: Countries around the world threatened to ratchet up a trade war with the United States on Thursday as President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs ignited fears of steep price increases in the world’s largest consumer market. The penalties announced by Trump on Wednesday triggered a plunge in world financial markets and drew condemnation from other leaders reckoning with the end of a decades-long era of trade liberalization. But there were conflicting messages from the White House about whether the tariffs were meant to be permanent or were a tactic to win concessions, with Trump saying they “give us great power…

GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes in the north of the territory killed at least 15 people Thursday, as the military warned residents to leave the area. Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the strikes targeted several homes in Gaza City’s Shujaiya neighbourhood. “There are still a number of people trapped under the rubble,” he said. AFPTV footage from Al-Ahli hospital in the north of Gaza City showed mourners gathered around bodies laid on the floor wrapped in white shrouds. Raed Jundia recounted surviving an Israeli strike on his home in Shujaiya. “We were about 70 to…

GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 25 people were killed Thursday in an Israeli air strike on a school serving as a shelter for people displaced by the war. Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP the death toll had risen to 25, with more than 100 others wounded in the strike on Dar al-Arqam School in the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood, northeast of Gaza City. The Israeli military when contacted did not provide an immediate response, but said in a statement that it had struck a “Hamas command and control centre in the area of Gaza City”. “The command…

BRUSSELS: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told NATO allies on Thursday that Washington remained committed to the alliance but expected them to spend far more on defence and would give them some time to do so. Rubio spoke as he met fellow NATO foreign ministers gathered in Brussels, with some European officials saying they were reassured by the renewed commitment to the alliance at a time of rising tensions over President Donald Trump’s new trade tariffs. The Trump administration’s words and actions over the past months have raised questions about the future of NATO, the transatlantic alliance that has…

DHAKA/COLOMBO/MUMBAI: Bangladeshi garment exporter Shahidullah Azim woke up on Thursday to the shock of U.S. President Donald Trump slapping a 37% tariff on his country’s exports, endangering an apparel hub already reeling from domestic political upheaval. “We knew something was coming, but we never expected it to be this drastic … This is terrible for our business and for thousands of workers,” said Azim, whose clients include North American and European retailers. Suppliers in Bangladesh’s garment industry, which counts Gap Inc and Vans parent VF Corp as clients, told Reuters they began seeking government support hours after Trump’s lightning bolt.…

HANOI/BANGKOK: Vietnam’s government said on Thursday it would set up a task force and other Southeast Asian nations said they plan to seek talks with Washington as they reel from being hit with some of US President Donald Trump’s heftiest tariffs. Countries such as Vietnam and Thailand are heavy exporters to the US, having benefited as Chinese and international manufacturers shifted production to their economies to avoid levies on China that Trump imposed during his first term. Six of the nine Southeast Asian countries listed by Trump were slapped with much bigger-than-expected tariffs of between 32% and 49%. By comparison,…