Author: Press Room

WASHINGTON: US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi met in Vienna this week, Washington and Beijing announced on Thursday (May 11), as the two powers seek to maintain communication amid soaring tensions, especially over Taiwan. The two held eight hours of talks stretching over Wednesday and Thursday in the Austrian capital, ending an unofficial pause in high-level contacts since the United States shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon that had travelled across the country in January and February. Both sides described the previously unannounced meeting as “candid, substantive and constructive”, covering topics including the Russian…

By Darlington ChukwunyereMy name is Funke Afolabi, from Ondo State Nigeria, and I reside here in Lagos with my husband. I had been married for 15 years, no issue to show for it. I was so frustrated and concerned as I was nearing menopause; but to my amazement, my husband was not so bothered at all.My husband’s family began mounting so much pressure on him to take a second wife, but he refused. This made them to turn the whole table around my neck stating and fuming that I was the cause of their son’s inability to accept marrying another…

On the 75th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, it seems apt to think about how the events of 1948 have shaped not only the history of the Palestinian people, but also their present colonial reality. For Palestinians, the Nakba is a “ghostly matter” – to use a phrase first introduced by sociology professor Avery Gordon. It has become a psychic force that ceaselessly haunts the present. Haunting, as Gordon explains, is one of the ways in which oppressive forms of power continue to make themselves known in everyday life. The Nakba – the displacement of 750,000 Palestinians from their ancestral…

Kansas’ Democratic governor on Friday vetoed Republican legislation that would have provided a financial boost to anti-abortion pregnancy centers and prevented officials fighting outbreaks of contagious diseases from prohibiting public gatherings or ordering infected people to isolate themselves.The two measures were part of a wave of conservative policies passed by GOP-controlled state legislatures this year, including ones in Kansas rolling back transgender rights and establishing new restrictions on abortion providers. But Gov. Laura Kelly’s two vetoes will stand because lawmakers have adjourned for the year, barring any attempt at overriding them.The anti-abortion measure would have granted up to $10 million…

President Biden is set to welcome Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other top congressional leaders to the White House on Tuesday for a pivotal round of discussions about the nation’s taxes, spending and debt as a potentially catastrophic government default rapidly approaches.The talks come just weeks before the United States is expected to run out of cash to pay its bills unless the nation’s borrowing cap is lifted. Like previous moments of brinkmanship, the discussions have echoes of 2011 and 2013, when congressional Republicans refused to raise the debt ceiling unless a Democratic president agreed to curb federal spending and reduce…

Latest news on ETFsVisit our ETF Hub to find out more and to explore our in-depth data and comparison toolsDespite many seeing them as the ideal hunting ground for stockpickers, falling markets have done little to dent UK appetite for passive funds in the past year. Trackers took in nearly £10bn in net retail sales in 2022, meaning they now represent some 21 per cent of the industry assets monitored by the Investment Association.This popularity, built during the previous decade, is understandable when you consider the good returns passives have delivered for much of that time. They also tend to offer a…

A UK government push to persuade local authority pension funds to plough billions of pounds into levelling up projects may conflict with trustees’ duty to secure the best returns for pensioners, one of Britain’s largest town hall schemes has warned.Gordon Ross, chief investment officer of LGPS Central, told the Financial Times that any required target to invest in projects aimed at regenerating needier areas of the country “may not always align” with schemes’ investment obligations. LGPS Central, which invests on behalf of a pool of eight local authority pension funds in the Midlands, has a combined £55bn of assets.His comments…

Tamadoge, one of the top projects in the Web3 industry, has partnered with the viral meme coin project from SpongeBob. The partnership will allow the Tamadoge community to access SpongeBob’s exclusive token airdrop known as SPONGE, which launched on the Bitget cryptocurrency exchange.Tamadoge partners with SpongeBobThe SPONGE token witnessed significant gains earlier this month after gaining over 70%. The token has attracted much interest, and it has also secured top CEX listings. The Tamadoge project was only launched recently, and it allows players to mint and raise their non-fungible tokens (NFTs) known as Tamadoge pets.The partnership between Tamadoge and the SpongeBob meme…

On Thursday, three years and 100 days after the Trump administration declared the coronavirus a public health emergency, the Biden administration will allow the emergency declaration to expire, ushering in a new era when the government will treat Covid-19 like any other respiratory ailment.If the coronavirus pandemic was a war, the United States is about to officially enter peacetime.But interviews with senior federal and state health officials — including the secretary of health and human services and the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration — make clear that while the United States has greatly improved its capacity to fight…

Now Hiring signs are displayed in front of restaurants in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on March 19, 2022.Stefani Reynolds | Afp | Getty ImagesSince the onset of Covid-19, labor shortages have plagued major economies and intensified inflationary pressures, but economists expect this trend to finally abate this year.Central banks around the world have been tightening monetary policy aggressively for over a year in a bid to rein in sky-high inflation, but labor markets have by and large remained stubbornly tight.Last week’s U.S. jobs report showed that this remained the case in April, despite recent turmoil in the banking sector and a…