Wall Street stocks climbed Wednesday as the United States (US) Federal Reserve (Fed) chief stressed the need to combat decades-high inflation, but elsewhere equities and oil prices tumbled on mounting recession fears as central banks hike interest rates.Wall Street was moderately higher in late morning trading, while European and Asian markets closed in the red, a day after healthy gains.Federal Reserve boss Jerome Powell began two days of testimony to US lawmakers on Wednesday, warning that

Manila has suspended oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea (SCS), Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's spokesman said Wednesday, as it tries to strike a deal with Beijing on a joint energy project.Drilling off the Philippines was allowed to resume in October 2020 when Duterte – who has taken a softer approach than his predecessor to Beijing's claims over most of the waterway – lifted a 2014 moratorium.It was hoped that Duterte's decision would fast-track talks with B

The decision by many multinational corporations to exit Russia, after decades of engagement between global business and Russia’s state-dominated economy, indicates that investors can no longer rely on the regime to enforce the rule of law. Russian President Vladimir Putin, once regarded as a modernizing autocrat, is now clearly driven by personal obsessions rather than any rational cost-benefit calculation.

Blocking the Russian central bank’s foreign-exchange reserves was a brilliant move. Disconnecting some Russian banks from the SWIFT financial messaging system was helpful. And pursuing the offshore wealth of Putin’s cronies is appropriate. But none of these sanctions have stopped the Russian invasion of Ukraine for one reason, and none of them will.The reason is simple: Russia continues to export oil and gas.

As I write, Russia’s army has entered Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. It is clear now that the threat of sanctions did not dissuade Russian President Vladimir Putin from launching his invasion.

United Nations (UN) climate change summit host Boris Johnson, on Sunday hailed a last-ditch agreement to tackle global warming but said he was disappointed it did not go further on tackling use of high-polluting coal.Nearly 200 countries on Saturday pledged to speed up the fight against rising temperatures, after two weeks of non-stop negotiations.British Prime Minister Johnson called the 11th-hour deal "truly historic" and said it signalled "the beginning of the end for coal p

Asian energy officials on Wednesday disputed a call from the International Energy Agency (IEA) for no new oil, natural gas and coal investments for the world to be able to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, viewing that approach as too narrow.The IEA, which has previously championed the oil and gas industry, this week outlined a path to net-zero emissions that suggested stopping new investments in oil, gas and coal supply, retiring coal-fired plants in advanced economies by 2030, and ba

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he is willing to deploy military ships to the South China Sea to assert the country's claim over oil deposits in a contested part of the waterway.Duterte, who has embraced China since taking power in 2016, has faced growing domestic criticism for his reluctance to confront Beijing over its activities in Philippine-claimed waters. Tensions spiked last month after hundreds of Chinese vessels were detected at Whitsun Reef in the Spratly Isl

United States (US) President Joe Biden has announced that he will withdraw American troops from Afghanistan by 11 September, finally ending his country’s longest war ever. The move was indicative of a broader shift by the US away from the Middle East – one that has been a long time coming. Will anyone take its place in the region?

A giant container ship, almost as long as New York's Empire State Building is high, got stuck during a sandstorm Tuesday in Egypt's Suez Canal, causing a traffic jam of cargo ships through one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.Here is what we know so far:What Happened?The 400-metre (1,300-foot) long, 200,000-tonne MV Ever Given, from the class of so-called "megaships", veered off course in the canal while a gale-force dust storm hit Egypt's Sinai Desert and m