[Graphic News] Global views on economy turn sharply negative

　Public attitudes about the economy have become bleaker as the coronavirus pandemic continues to weigh globally, according to a Pew Research Center survey released recently. 　Overall, a median of only 31 percent of adults across the surveyed nations assess their country’s current economic situation as good, while more than two-thirds say conditions are bad. 　In Germany, while the majority continue to view the economy positively, the percentage who view it negatively has more than dou

World BusinessSept. 10, 2020

GM to make electric vehicle, supply batteries for Nikola

General Motors formed its second major electric vehicle partnership in less than a week, this time a $2 billion deal with startup Nikola. GM will take an 11 percent ownership stake in the Phoenix company and will engineer and build Nikola's Badger hydrogen fuel cell and electric pickup truck. The Badger is expected to be in production by the end of 2022. GM also will help with cost reductions for Nikola's other vehicles including heavy trucks, and the company will use GM's battery system and

World BusinessSept. 8, 2020

'Diversity is strength': WTO candidate

More diversity would strengthen the World Trade Organization, a WTO leadership candidate said, suggesting that placing an African or a woman such as herself at the top could send a "very powerful message". Amina Mohamed of Kenya, one of eight candidates vying to become the WTO's next director-general, said the organisation, as it battles with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, would benefit from better reflecting all those around the world who contribute to global trade. &quo

World NewsSept. 8, 2020

[Graphic News] LG Chem becomes No. 1 EV battery supplier in 2020

　LG Chem became the largest supplier of electric vehicle batteries in the first seven months of this year, data showed. 　Based on the global usage of EV batteries, LG Chem’s market share stood at 25.1 percent in the January-July period, compared with 10.6 percent a year earlier, according to market tracker SNE Research. 　The data showed that 13.4 gigawatt-hours of energy from LG Chem’s EV batteries was used in the January-July period, compared with 6.8 gigawatt-hours a year ear

World BusinessSept. 8, 2020

NATO demands Moscow reveal Novichok programme

  BRUSSELS (AFP) --NATO on Friday called for an international probe into the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and demanded Moscow reveal its Novichok nerve agent programme to the global chemical weapons watchdog.    After an emergency meeting of NATO's ruling council, alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg said all countries were united in condemning the "horrific" attack on Navalny.    Germany, where Navalny is being treated, briefed the other

World NewsSept. 4, 2020

Neymar one of three PSG stars to test positive for Covid-19

PARIS (AFP) - Neymar was one of three Paris Saint-Germain stars to have contracted the coronavirus, a well-placed source told AFP on Wednesday, after the Champions League runners-up announced several positive tests. "Three Paris Saint-Germain players have confirmed positive Sars CoV2 tests and are subject to the appropriate health protocol," PSG said in a statement. "All of the players and coaching staff will continue to undergo tests in the coming days." When contacted b

World NewsSept. 3, 2020

US preparing for Nov. 1 rollout of first coronavirus vaccine: report

WASHINGTON -- The United States is getting ready to start distributing its first new coronavirus vaccine just before the presidential election, a news report said Wednesday, raising questions over the viability of what it said may be a politically-motivated target date. The report from California-based publishing firm McClatchy said the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has sent a letter to governors of each state, asking them to eliminate hurdles for vaccine distrib

World NewsSept. 3, 2020

Ethnic Mongolians in China protest switch to Mandarin schooling

BEIJING (AFP) -- Tens of thousands of people in an ethnic Mongolian region of northern China have joined rare protests and school boycotts against a new curriculum they fear will wipe out their minority culture, residents said Tuesday. The sudden policy change in Inner Mongolia means all ethnic minority schools in the remote region will now be required to teach core subjects in Mandarin rather than Mongolian, echoing similar moves in Tibet and Xinjiang to assimilate local minorities into the d

World NewsSept. 1, 2020

UN agency laments summer's 'deep wound' to Earth's ice cover

GENEVA (AP) -- The United Nations weather agency says this summer will go down for leaving a "deep wound" in the cryosphere -- the planet's frozen parts -- amid a heat wave in the Arctic, shrinking sea ice and the collapse of a leading Canadian ice shelf. The World Meteorological Organization said Tuesday that temperatures in the Arctic are rising twice as fast as the global average, provoking what spokeswoman Clare Nullis called a "vicious circle." "The rapid decline

World NewsSept. 1, 2020

Germany sees strong economic rebound, no second virus lockdown

FRANKFURT AM MAIN (AFP) -- Germany is in a V-shaped economic recovery and should avoid a new phase of lockdowns, the economy minister said Tuesday, despite a resurgence of coronavirus cases. German GDP is expected to fall 5.8 percent in 2020, a narrower recession than the 6.3 percent drop projected earlier, Peter Altmaier said, signalling that the country is emerging from the worst of the crisis. Altmaier said Germany "can and will" avoid lockdowns like Germans lived through in Mar

World BusinessSept. 1, 2020

Tesla announces plans to sell up to $5b in new stock shares

DETROIT (AP) -- A day after its 5-for-1 stock split took effect, Tesla is announcing plans to sell up to $5 billion worth of common shares. The electric car and solar panel maker says in a filing with securities regulators that it intends to sell up to 10.03 million shares and use the proceeds for unspecified general corporate purposes. The sales would be made "from time to time" and Tesla says the actual amount of the offering can't be determined at present. The stock would be so

World BusinessSept. 1, 2020

Who's next? Abe's party maneuvers to pick Japan's next PM

TOKYP (AP) -- With Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announcing his plans to step down due to health reasons, members of his ruling party are furiously maneuvering ahead of an internal vote that will ultimately decide his successor. Executives of Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party met Tuesday and decided that the Sept. 14 vote for party leader -- and with it almost assuredly prime minister -- will be limited to lawmakers and not broader members of the party. Some younger lawmakers had ca

World NewsSept. 1, 2020

Japan's Suga hopes to succeed PM Abe, race heats up: media

TOKYO (Reuters) -- Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga will join the race to succeed his boss Shinzo Abe as prime minister, local media said on Sunday, as the competition heats up to succeed Japan’s longest-serving leader. Suga, a longtime lieutenant of Abe’s in a key supporting role, had denied interest in the top job but attracted attention with a series of interviews, to Reuters and other news organisations, in the days before Abe’s abrupt resignation for

World NewsAug. 30, 2020

'7 bullets, 7 days': Protesters march for Blake in Kenosha

KENOSHA (AP) -- With chants of "One person, one vote!" and "No justice, no peace!" a crowd of about 1,000 demonstrators gathered outside a Wisconsin courthouse Saturday to denounce police violence and share messages of change, a week after an officer shot Jacob Blake in the back and left the 29-year-old Black man paralyzed. The diverse group of protesters also chanted "Seven bullets, seven days!" -- a reference to the number of times Blake was shot last Sunday --

World NewsAug. 30, 2020

Trump to visit Kenosha in wake of racial unrest

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- US President Donald Trump will travel next week to the Midwestern city where African American Jacob Blake was shot multiple times in the back by a white policeman, sparking a nationwide wave of protest. Trump will meet police in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesday and "survey damage from recent riots" triggered by Blake's shooting last weekend, White House spokesman Judd Deere said Saturday. Blake took at least half a dozen shots in front of his small children as he tr

World NewsAug. 30, 2020

Japan's Abe says he's resigning for health reasons

Japan's longest-serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said Friday he intends to step down because a chronic health problem has resurfaced. He told reporters that it was "gut wrenching" to leave so many of his goals unfinished. Abe has had ulcerative colitis since he was a teenager and has said the condition was controlled with treatment. Concerns about Abe's health began this summer and grew this month when he visited a Tokyo hospital two weeks in a row for unspecified health checkups

World NewsAug. 28, 2020

Search for bodies as Afghan floods kill more than 160

CHARIKAR (AFP) -- Rescue workers were searching Thursday for bodies in the debris of collapsed houses after flash floods fuelled by torrential rains killed at least 162 people in Afghanistan. At least 100 people died in the city of Charikar north of Kabul when flooding overnight on Tuesday caused hundreds of buildings to collapse. Abdul Ghayor, a labourer who was working in the capital, said he had rushed back to Charikar to look for his family only to find his house had been swept away. &q

World NewsAug. 27, 2020

Russian police launch initial 'check' into Navalny case

MOSCOW (AFP) -- Russian police announced on Thursday they had begun a preliminary examination of opposition leader Alexei Navalny's illness after the Kremlin dismissed German doctors' findings that he was apparently poisoned. Transport police in Siberia said they have started "a pre-investigation check" into what led to Navalny's hospitalisation in the city of Omsk to establish "all the circumstances" and decide whether to open a criminal probe. The 44-year-old polit

World NewsAug. 27, 2020

[Graphic News] Samsung maintains No. 1 spot in global DRAM market in Q2

　Samsung Electronics maintained its dominant status in the global DRAM market in the second quarter of the year, a report showed, as the pandemic drove demand for server chips. 　The South Korean tech giant’s market share in the global DRAM market stood at 43.5 percent in the April-June period, down 0.6 percentage point from three months earlier, while its revenue increased 13.8 percent to $7.4 billion over the cited period, according to data from market researcher TrendForce. 　Its

World BusinessAug. 27, 2020

China cosies up to EU as US tensions high

ROME (AFP) -- China's foreign minister on Tuesday kicked off a tour of a Europe still reeling from coronavirus, as he seeks to shore up economic and diplomatic relations in light of tensions with the US. Donald Trump's administration has stepped up anti-China rhetoric in the run-up to the US presidential election on November 3, despite ongoing trade talks. On his first European stop in Rome, Wang Yi shied away from naming Washington explicitly, but lamented "provocation and damage from e

World NewsAug. 26, 2020