Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva urged his counterpart Nicolas Maduro Saturday against escalating Venezuela's border row with neighboring Guyana, as South American leaders nervously monitored the deepening dispute. "Lula emphasized the importance of avoiding unilateral measures that could escalate the situation," the Brazilian presidency said.
The French government has been flooded with applications from low-income households to lease a subsidised electric car from 100 euros ($109) a month, Environment Minister Christophe Bechu said on Friday. Some 90,000 people have applied to the scheme since the start of the month, Bechu said, whereas the government had only planned to subsidise the rental of 25,000 electric vehicles this year.
Record inflation, a sliding naira currency and weak financial structure are keeping investors wary of Nigeria, Africa's largest economy, with some companies even stepping away despite economic reforms under recently-elected President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Elected on the promise of a programme called "Renewed Hope", Tinubu has repeatedly called for "patience" from Nigerians as those reforms take root.
Deep in the desert along the border with Pakistan, India's most controversial billionaire is building the world's largest renewable energy park as he races to future-proof his coal-linked fortune.
Asian markets rose Friday following a tech-led rally on Wall Street that helped soothe traders' concerns that the Federal Reserve will likely not cut interest rates as early or by as much as hoped this year. In light of the latest data, traders have lowered their bets on a March interest rate cut to a little more than 50 percent, down from 80 percent last week.
Andrew Forrest, a blunt Australian billionaire who made his fortune in iron ore mining, stood out among the heads of emissions-spewing industries at the meeting of global elites in Davos. "I'm saying to the industrial world, if the crabby, backwards old mining industry can do it, so can everyone else," Forrest told AFP in an interview in the Swiss Alpine resort.
Japanese consumer inflation slowed again in December due to lower electricity and gas bills, government data showed Friday, ahead of a Bank of Japan policy decision next week. "Price increases for now are driven by external factors such as global inflation," she said ahead of Friday's data release.
The French government will temporarily ban almost all commercial fishing in the Bay of Biscay to protect dolphins, much to the dismay of the industry. On Thursday, the French government broadened the ban to all ships, regardless of origin, while promising to support fishermen and fishmongers.
New car sales in Europe rebounded by 13.9 percent in 2023 as electric vehicles overtook diesel for the first time, an industry group said on Thursday. Volkswagen remained in pole position among car manufacturers, with the group selling 2.8 million new cars in 2023, up by 18 percent on the previous year.
Indian-owned Tata Steel is to cut about 3,000 jobs at a plant in Wales, a source said Thursday, as the industry struggles to finance greener production of the metal. Towards the end of last year, the UK government provided £500 million ($634 million) to fund the production of "greener" steel at the country's biggest steelworks, while saying that 3,000 jobs were still at risk.
Economy
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