As night falls in Chile's Atacama desert, the world's driest, a drilling machine extracts brine to measure levels of lithium -- a crucial mineral for the global switch to cleaner energy, but harmful in its own way. Chile is seeking to retake its position as the world's top lithium producer, but environmentalists fear extraction in the Atacama desert will harm fragile ecosystems there.
The Kuwait-based Alshaya Group said on Wednesday it would cut jobs from its Starbucks Middle East franchise due to "challenging trading conditions" amid a boycott of Western brands over the Gaza war.
US lawmakers were set to vote Wednesday to end a long-running row over the federal budget with a giant bill to fund several major federal agencies through the fall, averting a partial shutdown due to start at the weekend.
The US Federal Reserve's progress in bringing down inflation is "not assured," the chair of the country's central bank told lawmakers in Washington Wednesday, on the first of two days of hearings in Congress. "But the economic outlook is uncertain, and ongoing progress toward our two percent inflation objective is not assured," he added.
Egypt secured an extra $5 billion in IMF loans on Wednesday, the two sides said, after the central bank hiked interest rates and allowed the pound to plunge by nearly 40 percent. The central bank described its move to hike interest rates Wednesday as an attempt to "accelerate the monetary tightening process in order to fast-track the disinflation path and ensure a decline in underlying inflation".
Thousands of angry farmers descended on the Polish capital on Wednesday to protest EU environmental rules and cheap imports from Ukraine and elsewhere outside the bloc.
Job gains in the US private sector picked up in February, payroll firm ADP said Wednesday, a sign that could give the Federal Reserve some pause as it mulls the timing of interest rate cuts. ADP said pay gains for those who changed jobs picked up for the first time in more than a year.
European and Asian stock markets mostly rose Wednesday before a UK budget and Fed testimony and on the eve of a eurozone rate decision, while bitcoin and gold remained elevated one day after striking record peaks.
The South African economy grew by 0.1% in the previous quarter, and some sectors like agriculture, fisheries and forestry decreased by 9.7% in quarter four.
It may have deadly animals and wild weather, but Palm Cove in Australia's northeast has been named the world's best beach, beating rivals in Hawaii, Greece and Fiji. "Recognition of Palm Cove as the world's number one beach by an award-winning travel magazine and website only validates what locals already know about Palm Cove," said James.
Economy
Load more
