PHILIPPINES: Following an off-the-scheduled 75 basis point rate hike to battle inflation, the Philippine central bank’s governor indicated on Friday that it “may or may not” boost interest rates at its policy meeting in August. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Felipe Medalla indicated in a phone message that the bank will be “data reliant.” The central bank, however, will remain …

SINGAPORE: Energy connectivity in Southeast Asia could benefit from a feasibility study conducted by Singapore and the United States. Amidst the US-Southeast Asia Clean Energy Roundtable in Singapore on Thursday, Tan See Leng, Singapore’s Second Minister of Trade and Industry, and US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm met (Jul 14). Friday, they issued a joint ministerial statement reiterating their commitment to …

JAPAN: As the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Japan, Prime Minister Lee has written to his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida to congratulate him on the LDP’s success. Two days after the killing of a senior LDP member and former prime minister Shinzo Abe, Japan’s conservative coalition government extended its majority in the upper house of …

INDONESIA: The upcoming harvest season is expected to keep inventories full, therefore the Indonesian palm oil industry is pleading with authorities to reduce export restrictions and levies so that it can sell produce that otherwise risks going to waste. Prices have fallen by nearly half since late April to their lowest level in over a year as the world’s largest …

CHINA: A record quarterly profit from Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing pushed the company’s share price to its highest level this year in Tokyo trade on Friday. One-day gains of 8.5% were the most since April 15, and it was expected to conclude at its best level since November 2021. China, Fast Retailing’s most important international market, had severe losses in …

US: The first photographs from the James Webb Space Telescope were made public by NASA on Tuesday. The images demonstrated the telescope’s enormous potential for uncovering the mysteries of the cosmos. The following are some of the things we’ve learned thus far. Advanced scientific devices, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, might occasionally fail to perform as expected. The Hubble …

TAIWAN: According to a government official, Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, would need permission from the Taiwanese government to invest in troubled Chinese semiconductor firm Tsinghua Unigroup (Jul 14). According to reports in Taiwan’s media, Foxconn Industrial Internet, a China-listed affiliate of Foxconn, aims to invest 9.8 billion yuan ($1.46 billion) in Unigroup as part of Foxconn’s strategy …

VIETNAM: Compared to the same period in 2021, dengue fever cases in Vietnam have more than doubled this year, the health ministry reported on Thursday (July 14), advising its hospitals to prepare for additional infections. There is no vaccination for dengue fever, a virus that is ubiquitous in Southeast Asia and causes symptoms similar to the flu. Internal bleeding can …

PHILIPPINES: Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, less than a year removed from receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for her work to safeguard free speech, is currently fighting to avoid jail time while her news site Rappler faces possible closure. A strong critic of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte and his bloody drug campaign, the intrepid veteran reporter refuses to be intimidated …

SCOTLAND: Vincent van Gogh, a Dutch post-Impressionist artist, painted a self-portrait behind another of his works. The discovery was uncovered by conservators at the National Galleries of Scotland during an x-ray inspection of Van Gogh’s 1885 painting “Head of a Peasant Woman” for an upcoming show, the organization announced on Thursday. According to the x-rays, this was the case “bearded …