Bitcoin hit a record high above $106,000 on Monday after President-elect Donald Trump suggested he plans to create a US bitcoin strategic reserve similar to its strategic oil reserve, stoking the enthusiasm of crypto bulls. Bitcoin, the world's biggest and best known cryptocurrency, hit a high of $106,533 and last traded up 2.6 percent at $103,917 at 12:15 GMT (9:15 p.m. in Korea). Smaller crypto ether was up 0.4 percent at $3,918. "We're in blue sky territory here," said Ton

World Business Dec. 16, 2024

SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son will announce a $100 billion investment in the United States over the next four years during a Monday visit to US President-elect Donald Trump's residence, Mar-a-Lago, CNBC reported. Son will also promise in a joint announcement with Trump to create 100,000 jobs focused on artificial intelligence and related infrastructure, with the money to be deployed before the end of Trump's term, CNBC said, citing sources. The funding could come from various source

World Business Dec. 16, 2024

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz unveiled 650 million euros ($685 million) of new military aid as he came to Kyiv on Monday, vowing Berlin would remain Ukraine's biggest backer in Europe at a crucial moment in the war, with Donald Trump set to return to the White House. The visit, his first to Kyiv since the early months of Russia's invasion in 2022, comes weeks after his governing coalition collapsed, setting him up for a tough election battle in February. The political turmoil in Europe

World News Dec. 2, 2024

BENGALURU (Reuters) -- Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has been indicted by US prosecutors for his alleged role in a $265 million scheme to bribe Indian officials, sending shockwaves across his eponymous $142 billion ports-to-soybeans business conglomerate. Here is what you need to know about the US indictment. THE MAJOR US INDICTMENT Gautam Adani, one of world's richest people, faces his biggest challenge after being charged with seven others for alleged bribery related to power supply dea

World News Nov. 22, 2024

Kyiv said on Tuesday it struck a Russian arsenal near the town of Karachev in the Bryansk region, over 110 kilometers from Ukraine, in what two Ukrainian media outlets reported was a first strike with US-supplied ATACMS missiles. There was no official confirmation from Ukraine about what weapon was used. The military's general staff and military intelligence agency did not immediately reply to requests for comment. Reuters and other outlets reported on Sunday that Kyiv was granted permissio

World News Nov. 19, 2024

The number of North Korean troops stationed inside Russia could grow to 100,000, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday. Kyiv and its Western allies say North Korea has supplied Russia with weaponry and troops to bolster its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. "Now, Putin has brought 11,000 North Korean troops to Ukraine's borders. This contingent may grow to 100,000," Zelenskiy said in a virtual address to the European Parliament. South Korea's spy agency said l

World News Nov. 19, 2024

Microsoft-backed OpenAI said on Friday night it is facing an issue that has resulted in its popular chatbot ChatGPT being unavailable. The company said in a statement on its website that it was investigating the issue and working to restore functionality as soon as possible. Over 19,403 users had been impacted by the outage as of 7:13 p.m. ET, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.com. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reuters)

World Business Nov. 9, 2024

Investigators searched the offices of US streaming giant Netflix in France and the Netherlands as part of a preliminary investigation into tax fraud laundering, a French judicial source said on Tuesday. French paper Marianne, which first reported the searches, said investigators specializing in financial crime and corruption raided the company's offices in central Paris on Tuesday morning. The French investigation, carried out by the PNF, a special financial crime prosecution unit notorious

Industry Nov. 5, 2024

India's capital territory of Delhi is keen to use artificial rain to fight air pollution this year, its Environment Minister Gopal Rai said on Tuesday, as deteriorating air quality in the region led to an increase in respiratory illnesses. Large swathes of north India battle pollution each winter as cold air traps dust, vehicle emissions and smoke from farm fires in the breadbasket states of Punjab and Haryana, shrouding the national capital and its suburbs in a toxic haze. Cloud-seeding --

World News Nov. 5, 2024

McDonald's posted a steeper-than-expected drop in quarterly global sales, hurt by muted demand across key markets, including Europe and the United States where it is expected to face more weakness as the burger giant reels from a deadly E. coli outbreak. Shares of the company were down 2.4 percent before the bell on Tuesday even as it beat profit estimates. Global sales fell 1.5 percent in the third quarter, the biggest decline in four years, compared with analysts' average estimate of

World News Oct. 29, 2024

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -- NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte confirmed on Monday that North Korean troops have been sent to Russia and that North Korean military units have been deployed to the Kursk region. "The deepening military cooperation between Russia and North Korea is a threat to both Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic security," Rutte told reporters after NATO officials and diplomats received a briefing from a South Korean delegation. Ukrainian forces staged a major incursion into Kur

North Korea Oct. 28, 2024

ROME -- US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday there is evidence that North Korean troops are in Russia, and it remained to be seen what they would be doing there. "There is evidence that there are DPRK troops in Russia," Austin told reporters in Rome, using North Korea's formal name - the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "What exactly they are doing? Left to be seen. These are things that we need to sort out," Austin added. Ukrainian President Vo

Defense Oct. 23, 2024

KISELJAK, Bosnia (Reuters) -- At least 14 people died in floods in Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday and many others were missing as torrential rain and landslides destroyed homes, roads and bridges across the center of the country, officials said. The municipality of Jablanica, about 70 kilometers southwest of the capital Sarajevo, where the deaths were reported, was completely cut off after road and railway links were destroyed. Bosnia's inter-ethnic presidency -- a Bosniak, Serb and Croat

World News Oct. 4, 2024

In the wake of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's killing, Hezbollah faces the enormous challenge of plugging the infiltration in its ranks that allowed its arch enemy Israel to destroy weapons sites, booby-trap its communications and assassinate the veteran leader, whose whereabouts had been a closely guarded secret for years. Nasrallah's killing on Friday came barely a week after Israel's deadly detonation of hundreds of booby-trapped pagers and radios. It was the culmination of a rapid

World News Sept. 29, 2024

Indian police have detained around 100 striking workers and union leaders protesting low wages at a Samsung Electronics plant in southern India, as they were planning a march on Monday without permission, police officials said. The detention marks an escalation of a strike by workers at a Samsung home appliance plant near Chennai city in the state of Tamil Nadu. Workers want higher wages and have boycotted work for seven days, disrupting production that contributes roughly a third of Samsung

World News Sept. 16, 2024