WASHINGTON: TikTok must become a “US based company controlled by US investors” or will be banned in the United States, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Wednesday (Sep 30). Mnuchin’s comments come amid uncertainty over a US-brokered deal to reorganise ownership of the popular Chinese-owned video-sharing app which US officials have called a national security risk. […]

JAKARTA: Indonesia’s parliament on Tuesday (Sep 29) approved President Joko Widodo’s US$185 billion budget for 2021, which his finance minister described as both supportive for Southeast Asia’s largest economy and also the start of a fiscal consolidation. The budget, which has a smaller fiscal deficit than this year, was approved by acclamation in parliament. Advertisement […]

SHANGHAI: A deal China’s ByteDance has struck with Oracle and Walmart over the future of its video-streaming app TikTok is unlikely to receive Chinese government approval, state-backed newspaper Global Times said in an editorial. ByteDance has said it will create a US subsidiary, TikTok Global, that will be part-owned by Oracle and Walmart – which […]

NEW DELHI: An Indian court’s decision to stall the release of a Netflix series on four Indian tycoons facing fraud allegations “freezes free speech” and hurts the company financially, the US streaming giant has argued in a court filing seen by Reuters. Bad Boy Billionaires is a documentary series about liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya, Sahara group’s Subrata Roy, […]

SEOUL: A South Korean company has invented a battery-powered filtered face mask designed to reduce annoying problems associated with conventional designs, such as breathing difficulties and fogged-up glasses. LG Electronics’ PuriCare Wearable, which comes in one size and weighs as much as a pair of ski goggles, features two fans and high-efficiency particle air filters […]

SEOUL: You Young-sik has tried his luck running businesses, but when his convenience store, a sausage factory and a second-hand furniture shop all failed, he realised he had found a niche, one that he understood well: Helping people go out of business. You says he is now busier than ever, due to the resurgence in […]

TOKYO: Japan’s economy shrank more than initially estimated in the second quarter as capital expenditure took a hit from the coronavirus crisis, highlighting the challenge policymakers face in averting a deeper recession. Other data put that challenge in perspective, with household spending and wages falling in July as the broadening impact of the COVID-19 pandemic kept […]

BEIJING: ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming has long positioned himself as a global internet entrepreneur, largely eschewing Chinese government involvement, but US demands to sell his crown jewel TikTok are testing the boundaries with Beijing. A year ago, ByteDance was approached by the Chinese government with offers of help when TikTok, a short-video app with a huge […]