World

GENEVA — UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese reiterated that the Israeli occupation forces are committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported.

Albanese said in press statements in Geneva that Israel seeks to make Gaza City “unliveable” by attacking the largest urban area in the Strip.

“Israel is bombing using unconventional weapons…trying to forcibly evacuate Palestinians who were seeking refuge there. Why? Because this is the last piece of Gaza that needs to be rendered unliveable,” she added. — BERNAMA-QNA

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GENEVA — Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, an independent commission of inquiry of the UN Human Rights Council said on Tuesday, reported German Press Agency (dpa).

Four of the five genocidal acts listed in the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide have been carried out, the three-member commission has determined.

The panel cited the following acts: killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately creating living conditions intended to destroy the Palestinian population in whole or in part, and measures aimed at preventing births.

Israel does not recognise the UN Human Rights Council as an authority and accuses it and its commissions of being fundamentally biased against Israel. The Human Rights Council is made up of 47 countries, each elected by the UN General Assembly for a three-year term.

The commission’s findings relate to events since Oct 7, 2023.

The experts said civilians are being killed by Israel, humanitarian aid is being blocked, health and education facilities are being systematically destroyed, and religious sites attacked.

Israel repeatedly stresses that its campaign in Gaza targets Hamas, not the civilian population. It says Hamas uses civilians as “human shields”. According to Israel, the war could end immediately if Hamas were to release the 48 remaining hostages and lay down its weapons. — BERNAMA-dpa

 

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BHP Group Ltd. said it will shutter one of its Queensland coal mines and slash about 750 jobs across the division, citing high state royalties and weak market conditions that have made low-margin operations unsustainable. 

The Saraji South mine — which BHP owns in a 50:50 venture with Mitsubishi Corp. — will be placed on care and maintenance from November, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. Other assets in the BHP-Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) portfolio — including Peak Downs and Caval Ridge — will not be affected, a spokesperson added. 

“These are necessary decisions in the face of the combined impact of the Queensland government’s unsustainable coal royalties and market conditions,” BMA Asset President Adam Lancey said. “The uncertainty this creates for our people and our communities is not taken lightly.” 

Queensland state’s coal royalties were hiked in 2022 to capture soaring prices for the steel-making ingredient, which touched record highs amid uncertainty over China’s import policy and Russian exports. The move attracted criticism from resources companies including Melbourne-based BHP and other major coal miners in the region, such as Stanmore Resources Ltd. and Coronado Global Resources Inc. 

At the same time, the world’s biggest miner has made efforts in recent years to move out of coal in order to pivot into energy-transition materials. BHP sold two metallurgical coal assets to Whitehaven Coal Ltd. for at least $3.2 billion in 2023, reducing the number of coal assets in the BMA portfolio to five — including Saraji.

BMA said it had an effective tax and royalty rate in Queensland of 67% in the 12 months to June, even as coking coal prices have fallen.

While iron ore remains the biggest earnings driver for BHP, copper and potash have become key priorities for the group, Chief Executive Officer Mike Henry said in an interview with Bloomberg TV last month. –BLOOMBERG

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TikTok’s US operations would be acquired by an investor consortium that includes Oracle Corp., Andreessen Horowitz and private equity firm Silver Lake Management LLC under a framework deal that President Donald Trump is set to discuss with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week. 

The tentative agreement, unveiled on Monday by senior US and Chinese officials after two days of talks in Madrid, would create a US-based version of the popular social media app, with Oracle, Andreessen and Silver Lake all holding stakes in the new venture, according to people familiar with the matter. 

Under the deal, ByteDance Ltd.’s stake in TikTok would be reduced to below 20% to satisfy a US national security law passed in 2024 that required the Beijing-based company to divest or face a ban of the app in the American market. If completed, with the blessing of Trump and Xi, the transaction would allow the video-sharing platform to keep operating in the US and remove a sticking point in US-China relations. 

The deal calls for Oracle to continue providing cloud services for TikTok in the US, a business that has become a steady source of revenue for the Austin-based company. Oracle already works with TikTok to host user data in the US and other countries as part of a multibillion-dollar partnership that TikTok has dubbed Project Texas.

Oracle shares rose as much as 5.9% in New York on Tuesday, before giving up most of those gains. The company’s stock is up 84% so far this year thanks to its ascendant cloud infrastructure business.

It’s unclear how much each prospective investor would acquire under the deal. Oracle, for instance, plans to take a small stake in the new venture, according to one of the people.

A senior White House official said that any details of the framework agreement should be regarded as speculation unless announced by the administration. Representatives for TikTok, Oracle, Andreessen and Silver Lake didn’t respond to requests for comment.  

The fate of TikTok’s lucrative recommendation software — which steers videos to users based on their viewing preferences — remains unclear. A Chinese official said after the talks that ByteDance would license its algorithm to the American operation, while the US side declined to offer details. The law signed last year by then-President Joe Biden stipulates that ByteDance cannot have any operational role, including with the algorithm, once a sale is completed.

Under the agreement, new outside investors would own 50% of TikTok’s US business in a unit that would be spun off from ByteDance. ByteDance’s existing US investors would own about 30% of the new business, cutting the Chinese firm’s stake to just below 20% and allowing it to meet the ownership requirements of the US security law.

The plan largely tracks with a proposal that had come close to an agreement with ByteDance earlier this year but was derailed when China withheld its approval following Trump’s decision in April to impose sweeping tariffs on the world’s second-largest economy. 

TikTok’s future became entangled in the broader negotiations between Washington and Beijing over trade. Had there been no agreement on TikTok, any in-person meeting between Trump and Xi later this year would have been off the table, according to a US official.    

On Tuesday, Trump told reporters he had “a deal on TikTok” with the Chinese as he departed the White House for a state visit to the UK, but declined to name the companies involved. “I’m going to speak to President Xi on Friday to confirm everything up,” he said. “We made a very good trade deal, and I hope good for both countries.”

Specific terms of the agreement, and whether it would satisfy the requirements of the national security law, remain unclear. But the will to challenge Trump legally or politically over his approach to TikTok has waned. The president has credited the app with boosting his popularity among younger voters and sealing his comeback election win in November. 

To buy time for the transaction to be completed, Trump postponed the deadline for ByteDance to divest TikTok’s US operations. Under the extension announced Tuesday — the fourth granted since January — the company has until Dec. 16 to forge a deal before a nationwide ban sets in.

Trump granted the reprieve even though the 2024 law allows for only one 90-day extension. That posture has defied bipartisan consensus behind the divest-or-ban provision — and has raised questions about whether the president’s repeated extensions have been legally sound. 

Tuesday’s extension means TikTok can continue operating in the US while the administration takes more time to strike an accord with ByteDance on a “qualified divestiture” to a non-Chinese owner. Partners like Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google can also continue hosting the popular video app in their online stores. 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview with CNBC that the deal was similar to the commercial terms that had been negotiated earlier in the year and indicated that he believed Trump and Xi would finalize the accord this week.

“This deal wouldn’t be done without proper safeguards for US national security,” Bessent said. “It seems as though we were also able to meet the Chinese interest.” –BLOOMBERG

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BLOOMBERG’S gauge of the dollar approached its lowest level since March 2022 ahead of the Federal Reserve decision where policymakers are expected to resume cutting interest rates to prop up a weakening labor market. 

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell for a third day, dropping 0.1%, as traders await the central bank’s announcement and further guidance on the pace of rate reductions for the remainder of the year. The euro and yen helped lead major peers higher versus the greenback. 

The Fed started its two-day meeting Tuesday amid signs of a weakening job market and mounting pressure from President Donald Trump to lower rates. Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s dovish speech last month at the Jackson Hole symposium has helped to boost expectations for rate cuts.

“It seems every day markets are pricing in more rate cuts from the Fed,” said John Doyle at Monex. “Total 75 basis points by the end of the year is the new base case.”

US job growth cooled notably in August with the unemployment rate rising to the highest level since 2021, fanning concerns the labor market may be on the cusp of a more significant deterioration. In addition, data released last week showed that US job growth was far less robust in the year through March than previously reported.

Swaps traders have fully priced in a quarter-point rate cut by the Fed later today, with a very small chance of half a point. Even stronger-than-expected retail sales released Tuesday failed to derail those bets — though it does suggest that a rate reduction is unlikely to exceed a quarter point. Market participants will also be watching the central bank’s dot plot, which shows how much more easing policy makers project in the months ahead.

Hedge funds added to option trades on Tuesday, betting the dollar would weaken further in coming months versus a range of currencies including the euro, yen and Australian dollar, according to currency traders familiar with the transactions who asked not to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly.

The euro advanced to a four-year high Tuesday as the European Central Bank is expected not to cut rates further, narrowing the gap between its key rate and the Fed’s. Meanwhile, the Swiss franc rose to the strongest level against the greenback since 2015. –BLOOMBERG

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POWER-HUNGRY industries across Asia are ramping up investments in the energy transition, according to engineering firm ABB Ltd., putting the high-polluting region on a tentative path to slashing emissions even as electricity demand surges.

Firms across sectors like data centers, oil and gas, and infrastructure spent money on clean technologies, renewables, and grid modernization among others, ABB found in a survey of thousands of participants. More than half of those polled reported a 20% jump in investment in the past year, outpacing the global average of 11%, and that spending will continue to rise, it showed. The report did not provide further details.

Asia expects to see power demand skyrocket in the coming years thanks to energy-intensive industries and growing populations in some countries. The region, which accounts for about half of global emissions, still relies predominantly on fossil fuels and moving to cleaner sources is crucial to its ability — and that of the world — to curb warming.

But there are numerous hurdles. Almost two-thirds of respondents said grid instability was one of many challenges, and hoped for more cross-regional collaboration on grid infrastructure, the survey showed.

Globally, investments in the energy transition went above $2 trillion for the first time in 2024, according to BloombergNEF. Spending on renewable energy development also reached a record $386 billion during the first half of 2025. Still, investment would need to average $5.6 trillion each year from 2025 to 2030, in order to get on track for global net zero by mid-century, according to BNEF.

The ABB poll, which was conducted between May and June, surveyed 4,085 organizations across 12 Asian countries, from 10 industries including data centers, the oil and gas sector, property and infrastructure and more. –BLOOMBERG

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BUKIT MERTAJAM — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (picture) has once again called on Islamic nations to stay strong and united in confronting the ongoing atrocities committed by the Israeli regime against the Palestinian people.

Returning to Malaysia this morning after attending the Extraordinary Arab-Islamic Summit in Doha, Qatar, Anwar said he delivered this message firmly during his national statement at the summit.

He stressed that only through comprehensive strength can the Muslim world stand resilient in the face of global challenges and uphold the dignity of the oppressed Palestinians.

“I have just returned from a special summit in Doha, where Islamic and Arab leaders convened to discuss the ongoing violence, brutality, and atrocities by the Zionist Israeli regime, which continues to kill civilians and destroy homes and infrastructure in Gaza and Palestine.

“Representing Malaysia, I conveyed a firm position that the Islamic world must be strong. Strong in our households, strong within our nations, strong economically, spiritually, morally, and in our national defence…we must build strength,” he said at the Himpunan Pendekar MADANI programme at Politeknik Seberang Perai today. 

Also present were Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek, Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz and Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Shamsul Azri Bakar, together with over 10,000 silat exponents from all over the country.

Meanwhile, Anwar reaffirmed Malaysia’s unwavering position of not recognising Israel, and rejecting any form of diplomatic or trade relations with the Zionist regime.

“I have made it clear, in front of Arab kings and Islamic leaders, that we cannot have diplomatic ties, conduct trade, or build friendships with a tyrannical state that continues to oppress the Palestinian people,” he said.

When delivering the National Statement at the summit yesterday, Anwar also condemned Israel’s latest air strikes on Doha and the ongoing massacres in Gaza, while urging the international community to take punitive actions against the Zionist regime.

He further demanded that humanitarian assistance via the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), currently sailing across the Mediterranean Sea with food supplies, medical aid, and messages of peace, be given safe passage to Gaza. — BERNAMA

 

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LONDON — Google has said it will invest £5 billion (US$6.8 billion) in the United Kingdom in the next two years to help meet growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) services, in a major boost for the government, reported PA Media/dpa.

The announcement, which comes as Google opens its new data centre in Waltham Cross in Hertfordshire, is expected to contribute to the creation of thousands of jobs, the US tech giant said.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the major investment into research and development, capital expenditure, and engineering is a “vote of confidence” in the UK economy.

It also follows reports that ChatGPT parent firm OpenAI and Nvidia will also unveil billions of dollars’ worth of investment into UK data centres this week, amid US President Donald Trump’s state visit.

On Tuesday, Google said it will pump £5 billion into capital expenditure, research and development, and related engineering over the next two years, which will include “pioneering” AI research in science and healthcare through its Google DeepMind operation.

The Silicon Valley firm said the investment will help the UK grow its AI economy and contribute to technological breakthroughs, improvements in cybersecurity and job creation.

Google predicted the investment will help to create 8,250 jobs annually at UK businesses.

Reeves will officially open the company’s first UK data centre in Waltham Cross on Tuesday, amid growing demand for Google’s Cloud, Workspace, Search and Maps services.

The Chancellor said: “Google’s £5 billion investment is a powerful vote of confidence in the UK economy and the strength of our partnership with the US, creating jobs and economic growth for years to come.”

“This Government is reversing decades of underinvestment that has held us back for too long, by slashing burdensome red tape, delivering bold reforms of the planning system and investing in better tech to unlock better jobs and opportunities.”

Google DeepMind co-founder and chief executive Demis Hassabis said: “We founded DeepMind in London because we knew the UK had the potential and talent to be a global hub for pioneering AI.”

“The UK has a rich history of being at the forefront of technology – from Lovelace to Babbage to Turing – so it’s fitting that we’re continuing that legacy by investing in the next wave of innovation and scientific discovery in the UK.” — BERNAMA-PA MEDIA/dpa

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GENEVA — Growth in global innovation funding has fallen to its lowest rate since 2010, UN projections showed Tuesday, as high inflation eats into research and development spending and as venture capital deals slump.

In its annual ranking of the world’s most innovative economies, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) placed Switzerland at the top of the list for the 15th consecutive year.

Sweden and the United States retained their second and third place positions for the third year running, while China edged its way one spot higher and into the top 10.

But while the ranking picture largely resembled that of recent years, the United Nations patent agency cautioned that global innovation funding growth had notably slowed.

“The fuel powering the engine of innovation, which is capital, which is financing, is not as abundant as before,” WIPO chief Daren Tang told reporters.

“After a decade of rapid expansion in R&D spending and venture capital investment, we are witnessing a shift,” he said in the foreword of the report.

The WIPO report said R&D spending growth slowed to 2.9 percent last year, down from 4.4 percent a year earlier, and it projected that growth would slow further this year, to 2.3 percent.

Business R&D expenditures, which represent over 70 percent of total global R&D, is projected to grow just 1.4 percent in 2024 and 2025, when excluding the China and the United States from projections — far below the 4.6-percent average of the past decade, WIPO said.

“If these estimates prove correct,” the report said, “they would be the lowest growth rates on record since 2010 — the year after the financial crisis and the ensuing Great Recession”.

It added that business R&D would be at the same level as the growth rate for total R&D expenditure, “a situation that has not been observed since the early 2000s”.

‘Not firing on all cylinders’

The global value of venture capital (VC) funding for new ideas for products and services meanwhile rose 7.7 percent last year.

But WIPO said that was largely driven by US-based megadeals and surging investment in generative AI.

Excluding such investments, VC values would have contracted, it said.

And the number of VC deals actually fell 4.4 percent globally for a third consecutive year, “signalling persistent investor caution outside a narrow set of sectors and geographies”, WIPO said.

“The global innovation engine is not firing on all cylinders,” Tang warned.

“Slower growth in R&D investments and declining VC activity reminds us that innovation requires sustained upstream and financial commitment,” he said.

But Sacha Wunsch-Vincent, head of WIPO’s department for economics and data analytics, said expected interest-rate cuts by central banks were expected to push down inflation, which could boost innovation spending.

“That’s good news, I think, for the future of innovation,” he told reporters. — AFP

 

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