Author: News Desk

Emiratis dominated this year’s list of the Top 100 CEOs in the region, with Dr. Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Managing Director and Group CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), and HH Shaikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, Chairman of Dubai Airports and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group, coming second and third respectively. According to Forbes, this year’s list consists of leaders from 26 nationalities. Banking and financial services is the most represented sector on the list with 27 CEOs,…

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was clinging to power on Wednesday, gravely wounded by the resignation of ministers who said he was not fit to govern and with a growing number of lawmakers calling for him to go. Johnson’s finance and health secretaries quit on Tuesday, along with several in more junior roles, saying they could no longer stay in government after the latest in a series of scandals blighted his administration. With mounting calls for Johnson to go, he showed his determination to stay in office by appointing businessman and education minister Nadhim Zahawi as his new finance minister,…

The secretary general of oil producers group OPEC, Mohammad Barkindo, has died, the boss of Nigerian National Petroleum Corp (NNPC) announced on Wednesday. Barkindo, 63, a veteran of the oil industry, was due to step down at the end of this month after six years in the top job at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). “We lost our esteemed Dr Muhammad Sanusi Barkindo,” NNPC CEO Mele Kyari wrote on Twitter, adding that he died late on Tuesday. The death is a “great loss to his immediate family, the NNPC, our country Nigeria, the OPEC and the global…

China is fighting nascent COVID-19 flare-ups across the country with mass testing and fresh restrictions, including in weary Shanghai where new cases have been linked to a building which houses a karaoke lounge that was operating illegally. Pressure is mounting on officials to avert a wider spread and disruptions similar to the painful and costly isolation that Shanghai, China’s most populous city, suffered in April and May. “Several Chinese areas are facing local outbreaks and infections have emerged at the community level in Shanghai, to which we should attach great importance,” city health official Zhao Dandan told reporters on Wednesday.…

Ukrainian defenders fought desperately to withstand a major Russian offensive in the Donetsk region, with the enemy laying down heavy artillery fire to pave the way for ground forces to advance, a senior Ukrainian official said on Wednesday. After Russian forces on Sunday took control of Lysychansk, the last bastion of Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk, Ukraine’s military braced for an assault on Donetsk, with the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk both in the Russian line of fire. Donetsk and Luhansk comprise the Donbas, the industrialised eastern part of Ukraine that has seen the biggest battle in Europe for generations. There…

Tentative calm returned to global markets on Wednesday, with the euro steadying after dropping to a two-decade low and oil back above $100 a barrel following a near 10% plunge a day earlier. The single currency traded at $1.025, a fraction above its weakest level since late 2002 touched overnight as fears of a slowdown and rising commodity prices weighed. Government bond yields across the euro area nudged up too, and European stocks also making gains, while Brent crude bounced almost 3% after slumping on Tuesday 9.5% to its lowest in 2-1/2 months. The broad Euro STOXX 600 rose 1.9%, with…

Oil prices rose on Wednesday, clawing back some of Tuesday’s heavy losses as supply concerns returned to the forefront and outweighed lingering worries over a global recession. Brent crude futures rose by $1.62, or 1.58%, to $104.39 a barrel at 0839 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude climbed $1.04, or 1.05%, to $100.54 a barrel after closing below $100 in the previous session for the first time since late April. Both contracts on Tuesday recorded their largest daily drop since March on recessionary fears and other bearish pressures which also kept a lid on Wednesday’s price rise. Oil prices…

G20 foreign ministers travel to the resort island of Bali this week for a meeting that will be overshadowed by the war in Ukraine, with Russia’s attendance creating rifts in the bloc as host Indonesia tries to mediate. The Group of 20 includes Western countries that have accused Moscow of war crimes in Ukraine and rolled out sanctions, but also countries like China, Indonesia, India and South Africa that have not followed suit. The gathering will be the first time that foreign ministers from some of the world’s top economies meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov since Russia invaded Ukraine…

Voyager Digital said on Wednesday it had filed for bankruptcy, a week after the crypto lender suspended withdrawals, trading and deposits to its platform as it sought additional time to explore strategic alternatives. In its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing on Tuesday, New Jersey-based Voyager estimated that it had more than 100,000 creditors and somewhere between $1 billion and $10 billion in assets, and liabilities worth the same value. Chapter 11 bankruptcy procedures put a hold on all civil litigation matters and allow companies to prepare turnaround plans while remaining operational. “The prolonged volatility and contagion in the crypto markets over the…

India’s consumer protection authority has banned hotels and restaurants from levying a service charge on bills. The order came after authorities said there had been an increase in complaints by customers being forced to pay the charge. Restaurants often add a 5% to 15% tip to a customer’s bill under a “service charge” category. But new rules say restaurants can no longer “add service charge by default or automatically” to the bill. The new guidelines also bar restaurants from collecting tips from customers “under any other name” or “deny service or entry to customers who refuse to pay a tip”.…