Author: HeraldStar

The Inter-American Development Bank is aiming to attract private capital to Latin America by helping turn a pool of up to $500 billion of regional local loans into investable global assets, the lender said on Tuesday. ReInvest+, a partnership between the IDB Group and Brazil’s presidency of the COP30, seeks to convert performing loans already on local bank balance sheets into investment-grade, hard-currency securities by adding political and foreign exchange risk insurance. The move is designed to attract institutional investors who typically shy away from early-stage, unrated, and local-currency projects. “Up until now, we’ve asked investors to change their risk…

International Monetary Fund staff will visit Kenya from September 25 to October 9 to begin talks with the government on a possible IMF-backed programme, the Fund said on Wednesday. The East African nation’s $3.6 billion programme with the IMF expired in April and officials, including the governor of the central bank Kamau Thugge, have expressed interest in getting a new one that will include a lending component. “An IMF staff team will begin initial discussions in the coming days on a possible Fund-supported programme,” Haimanot Teferra, the IMF’s mission chief for Kenya, said in a statement. Kenya’s dollar bonds perked up after…

Oil prices inched up on Wednesday as an industry report showed U.S. crude inventories declined last week, adding to a sense in the market of tightening supplies. Brent futures rose 26 cents to $67.89 a barrel by 0810 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures also gained 26 cents at $63.67. “The market is expecting supply excess and stock builds globally in the last quarter of the year, but the focus recently has shifted back to Eastern Europe and the possible introduction of fresh sanctions on Russia,” said PVM Oil Associates analyst Tamas Varga. The stalled resumption of Kurdish oil…

Norwegian police said on Tuesday they were investigating a blast on a street in central Oslo and later conducted a controlled detonation of a second explosive device found on the site, adding that a suspect had been apprehended for questioning. There were no reports of injuries at the location, in the immediate vicinity of a university campus and some 500 metres (546 yards) from the royal palace and the Israeli embassy. In a rare step, authorities sent an emergency message to Oslo residents’ mobile phones, warning them about the blast. The second device found at the site appeared to be…

Typhoon Ragasa, the world’s most powerful tropical cyclone this year, barreled towards tens of millions of people in southern China on Wednesday after killing 14 people in Taiwan, leaving scores missing and lashing Hong Kong with ferocious winds and heavy rains. Some 129 people are missing in Taiwan’s eastern Hualien county, after a barrier lake overflowed and sent a wall of water into a town, the Taiwan fire department said on Wednesday, with Ragasa’s outer rim having drenched the island since Monday. Many residents in the tourist town of Guangfu complained there was insufficient warning from Taiwan authorities, who are used to…

By Syeda Duaa Zehra Naqvi Donald Trump’s recent call for the European Union to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on Chinese and Indian imports has reopened questions about the costs of transatlantic alignment. Presented as a way to pressure Russia, the proposal is seen in European capitals less as a strategy than as a trap. If taken up, it would destabilise trade flows, raise inflation, and erode Europe’s competitiveness, while leaving the United States largely insulated. More importantly, it would endanger one of the central pillars of global stability: the economic partnership between China and the EU. China…

As US President Donald Trump’s new $100,000 visa fee sets off panic and confusion, China has announced a new visa category to lure young science and technology talent. Beijing is adding a ‘K visa’ to its ordinary visa categories, available to eligible young science and technology professionals. China’s Premier Li Qiang has signed a decree to promulgate the decision to amend the regulation on the administration of foreigners’ entries and exits. According to a report by news agency Xinhua, the new rules will take effect on October 1. Compared to the existing 12 ordinary visa types, K visas will offer…

By Syeda Duaa Zehra Naqvi Donald Trump’s latest call for the European Union to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on Chinese and Indian imports has revived familiar tensions over trade, sovereignty, and the strategic direction of Europe’s economy. While the proposal is framed in geopolitical terms—designed to pressure Russia by targeting its major partners—the collateral damage would be felt most acutely in Europe’s automobile industry. At stake is not only the health of one of Europe’s most iconic sectors but also the broader trajectory of China–EU cooperation in a rapidly evolving industry. Interdependence in the Auto Industry China…

By Hadia Khan In the world of international diplomacy, sanctions are often portrayed as the civilized alternative to war. They are the instruments of pressure that states deploy when diplomacy fails but the use of force seems too extreme. Supporters of sanctions argue that they help contain aggressors, protect civilians, and deter human rights violations without the devastating consequences of armed conflict. But as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk recently reminded the world, sanctions are not neutral tools. They can either serve the cause of justice or become instruments of collective punishment that devastate ordinary lives.…

By Urooj Babar The latest round of U.S.–China economic and trade talks in Madrid has largely concluded, and the outcome is already clear from the tone of the press briefings. What emerges is not merely another episode in a long series of tactical skirmishes, but a sharper definition of the contours of interaction between the two sides. The era when tariffs alone dominated the agenda appears to be giving way to a broader, more structured set of negotiations that include investment flows, technology governance, and cooperative arrangements on sensitive issues. The Madrid session focused centrally on three interlinked themes: addressing…