By command His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Sa’adul Khairi Waddien, Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam, the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports hereby announced that His Majesty has commanded for Haji Feisal bin Haji Eusoff Patail to be removed as President of Football Association of Brunei Darussalam with immediate effect. Following this, legal action will be taken against him for challenging the authority of His Majesty.
This shall take effect from Saturday, 21st Jamadilawal 1446, Hijrah corresponding to November 23, 2024.
V of BTS is set to warm hearts this winter with a special collaboration alongside singer Park Hyoshin
(ANN/KOREA HERALD) – K-Pop sensation V of BTS is set to warm hearts this winter with a special collaboration alongside singer Park Hyoshin. The duo will release a jazz-inspired digital single titled Winter Ahead on November 29, as announced by Big Hit Music on Friday.
This marks a continuation of V’s annual tradition of gifting fans winter songs, following beloved tracks such as Snow Flower (feat. Peakboy) and Christmas Tree. Park Hyoshin’s involvement adds an extra layer of excitement, as the acclaimed vocalist brings his unique style to the project. V’s previous work on Christmas Tree earned him his first solo entry on the Billboard Hot 100, debuting at No. 79.
BTS is set to warm hearts this winter with a special collaboration alongside singer Park Hyoshin. PHOTO: Big Hit Music
In addition to the new single, V will unveil a fresh rendition of the holiday classic White Christmas on December 6. The reimagined duet will feature Bing Crosby, the legendary American singer and actor who originally popularised the song before his passing in 1977. This marks the first-ever “duet version” of the classic to include Crosby’s voice, promising a nostalgic yet innovative twist for fans worldwide.
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli air strike targeting the southern suburbs of Beirut, November 23, 2024. At least three new night-time strikes targeted the southern outskirts of the Lebanese capital Beirut late Friday November 22 into early Saturday, images from AFP and state media showed.
"Enemy military planes have targeted the southern suburb of Beirut by carrying out a strike near Ghobeiry," said national news agency Ani. (Photo by IBRAHIM AMRO / AFP)
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) – Five Israeli missiles struck a residential building in the heart of Beirut on Saturday, Lebanese state media reported.
“Beirut, the capital, woke up to a horrific massacre, as the Israeli enemy’s air force completely destroyed an eight-storey residential building with five missiles on Al-Mamoun Street in the Basta area,” the National News Agency reported.
AFP journalists heard at least three large explosions in the capital.
The strikes come after a day of bombardment in the capital’s southern suburbs as Israel fights the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
On Friday, air strikes on southern Beirut demolished an 11-storey building, as Israel kept up its bombardment of strongholds of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
The Lebanese health ministry said Israeli strikes in the south of the country killed five Hezbollah-affiliated paramedics.
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli air strike targeting the southern suburbs of Beirut, November 23, 2024. PHOTO: AFP
The Bosch plant in Hildesheim, Germany, is shown Friday, Nov 22, 2024. (Alicia Windzio/dpa via AP)
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Germany’s technology and services company Bosch said Friday it planned to reduce its automotive division workforce by as many as 5,500 jobs in the next several years in another sign of the headwinds hitting the German and global auto industries.
The company cited stagnating global auto sales, too much factory capacity in the auto industry compared with sales prospects and a slower than expected transition to electric-powered, software-controlled vehicles.
The news comes two days after Ford Motor Co. announced plans to drop 4,000 jobs in Europe, and with Volkswagen employees threatening work stoppages over what they say management has told them are plans to close as many as three factories in Germany.
Revenue at Stellantis, created through the 2021 merger of PSA Peugeot and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, tumbled 27 per cent in its most recent quarter that ended this fall.
The Bosch plant in Hildesheim, Germany, is shown Friday, Nov 22, 2024. PHOTO: AP
Auto sales have slowed this year in Europe as consumers stung by inflation hold back on spending, while automakers have sunk billions into developing electric cars only to see slower sales than expected and new competition from cheaper Chinese brands. The
German government abruptly cancelled purchase incentives at the end of last year, sending electric vehicles sales in that country down by 27 per cent over the first nine months of this year.
Some 3,500 of the job reductions at Bosch would come before the end of 2027 and would hit the part of the company that develops advanced driver assistance and automated driving technologies, as well as centralised vehicle software, said Bosch, which is headquartered in Gerlingen near Stuttgart. About half those job reductions would be at locations in Germany.
“The auto industry has significant overcapacities,” the company said in a statement. “In addition, the market for future technologies is not developing as originally expected … At the moment, many projects in this business area are being put off or abandoned by automakers.”
In addition, 750 jobs would be lost at a plant in Hildesheim, Germany by end 2032, 600 of those by the end of 2026. A plant in Schwaebisch Gmund would lose some 1,300 over between 2027 and 2030.
The reductions are still in the planning stage and final numbers would have to be agreed with employee representatives and carried out in what the company said would be a socially responsible way.
While automakers put their names on the cars they sell, most of the car is actually made by a series of suppliers
Some 230,000 people work for Bosch’s mobility division, out of a global workforce of 429,000. In addition to its business as an auto industry technology supplier Bosch makes factory and building equipment and software across a range of products including industrial boilers and waste-heat recovery systems, video security systems, and power tools.
FILE - The Anthropic website and mobile phone app are shown in this photo, in New York, July 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
(AP) – Amazon is investing an additional USD4 billion in the artificial intelligence startup Anthropic as major technology companies rush to fund generative AI.
This will bring Amazon’s total investment in Anthropic – which began last year – to USD8 billion. Anthropic said the Seattle-based tech giant will maintain its position as a minority investor in the startup, which former leaders of the Microsoft-linked OpenAI founded.
Under the deal, Amazon said the San Francisco-based Anthropic will now name Amazon’s cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services, as its “primary training partner.” It will also use two AWS chips to train and deploy its future foundational models, the advanced systems that underpin general-purpose AI services like ChatGPT and Google’s Bard chatbot.
FILE – The Anthropic website and mobile phone app are shown in this photo. PHOTO: AP
“We’ve been impressed by Anthropic’s pace of innovation and commitment to responsible development of generative AI, and look forward to deepening our collaboration,” Matt Garman, the AWS CEO, said in a statement included in Amazon’s announcement.
The relationship between Big Tech companies and AI startups has received scrutiny from regulators in the US and abroad. However, Amazon got some good news in September when Britain’s competition watchdog said Anthropic’s revenue and its combined market share with Amazon in Britain were not big enough to require an in-depth investigation under the country’s merger rules.
An employee watches an electronic signboard displaying the prices of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies at the lounge of Bithumb cryptocurrency exchange in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
NEW YORK (AP) — Bitcoin extended its streak of record highs after ticking above USD99,000 for the first time. The cryptocurrency has rocketed more than 40 per cent in just two weeks.
Now, bitcoin is at the doorstep of USD100,000, just two years after dropping below USD17,000 following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. The dramatic rally rolls on as industry players expect the incoming Trump administration to bring a more “crypto-friendly” approach toward regulating the digital currency.
An employee watches an electronic signboard displaying the prices of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies at the lounge of Bithumb cryptocurrency exchange in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. PHOTO: AP
Bitcoin was trading at USD99,526 Friday afternoon, according to CoinDesk.
As with everything in the volatile crypto markets, the future is impossible to know. And while some are bullish, other experts continue to warn of investment risks.
Here’s what you need to know.
Back up. What is cryptocurrency again?
Cryptocurrency has been around for a while now. But, chances are, you’ve heard about it more and more over the last few years.
In basic terms, cryptocurrency is digital money. This kind of currency is designed to work through an online network without a central authority — meaning it’s typically not backed by any government or banking institution — and transactions get recorded with technology called a blockchain.
Bitcoin is the largest and oldest cryptocurrency, although other assets like ethereum, tether and dogecoin have also gained popularity over the years. Some investors see cryptocurrency as a “digital alternative” to traditional money, but the large majority of daily financial transactions are still conducted using fiat currencies such as the dollar. Also, bitcoin can be very volatile, with its price reliant on larger market conditions.
Why is bitcoin soaring?
A lot of the recent action has to do with the outcome of the US presidential election.
Crypto industry players have welcomed Trump’s victory, in hopes that he would be able to push through legislative and regulatory changes that they’ve long lobbied for — which, generally speaking, aim for an increased sense of legitimacy without too much red tape.
Trump, who was once a crypto skeptic, recently pledged to make the US “the crypto capital of the planet” and create a “strategic reserve” of bitcoin. His campaign accepted donations in cryptocurrency and he courted fans at a bitcoin conference in July. He also launched World Liberty Financial, a new venture with family members to trade cryptocurrencies.
FILE – Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at the Bitcoin 2024 Conference, July 27, 2024, in Nashville, Tennesee, USA. PHOTO: AP
How of this will actually pan out — and whether or not Trump will successfully act quickly on these promises — has yet to be seen.
“This is not necessarily a short-term story, it’s likely a much longer-term story,” Citi macro strategist David Glass told The Associated Press last week. “And there is the question of how quickly can U.S. crypto policy make a serious impact on (wider adoption).”
One step Trump must take in the short-term is name a new head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which shares oversight of cryptocurrencies.
Gary Gensler, current chair of the SEC, has led the US government’s crackdown on crypto over recent years, penalising a number of companies for violating securities laws. But he’s also faced criticism from industry players in the process, like the chief legal officer of Robinhood, who described Gensler’s approach toward crypto as “rigid” and “hostile.” Gensler will step down in January when Trump takes office.
Adam Morgan McCarthy, a research analyst at Kaiko, thinks the industry is craving “just some sort of clarity.” Much of the approach to regulating crypto in the past has been “enforcement based,” he notes, which has been helpful in weeding out some bad actors — but legislation might fill in other key gaps.
Despite crypto’s recent excitement around Trump, McCarthy said that 2024 has already been a “hugely consequential year for regulation in the US” — pointing to January’s approval of spot bitcoin ETFs, for example, which mark a new way to invest in the asset.
Spot ETFs have been the dominant driver of bitcoin for some time now — but, like much of the crypto’s recent momentum, saw record inflows postelection. According to Kaiko, bitcoin ETFs recorded USD6 billion in trade volume for the week of the election alone.
In April, bitcoin also saw its fourth “halving” — a preprogrammed event that impacts production by cutting the reward for mining, or the creation of new bitcoin, in half. In theory, if demand remains strong, some analysts say this “supply shock” can also help propel the price long term. Others note it may be too early to tell.
What are the risks?
History shows you can lose money in crypto as quickly as you’ve made it. Long-term price behavior relies on larger market conditions. Trading continues at all hours, every day.
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, bitcoin stood at just over USD5,000. Its price climbed to nearly USD69,000 by November 2021, during high demand for technology assets, but later crashed during an aggressive series of Federal Reserve rate hikes. And the late-2022 collapse of FTX significantly undermined confidence in crypto overall, with bitcoin falling below USD17,000.
Investors began returning in large numbers as inflation started to cool — and gains skyrocketed on the anticipation and then early success of spot ETFs. But experts still stress caution, especially for small-pocketed investors. And lighter regulation from the coming Trump administration could mean less guardrails.
“I would say, keep it simple. And don’t take on more risk than you can afford to,” McCarthy said — adding that there isn’t a “magic eight ball” to know for certain what comes next.
What about the climate impact?
Assets like bitcoin are produced through a process called “mining,” which consumes a lot of energy. Operations relying on pollutive sources have drawn particular concern over the years.
Recent research published by the United Nations University and Earth’s Future journal found that the carbon footprint of 2020-2021 bitcoin mining across 76 nations was equivalent to the emissions from burning GBP84 billion of coal or running 190 natural gas-fired power plants. Coal satisfied the bulk of bitcoin’s electricity demands (45 per cent), followed by natural gas (21 per cent) and hydropower (16 per cent).
Environmental impacts of bitcoin mining boil largely down to the energy source used.
Industry analysts have maintained that clean energy has increased in use in recent years, coinciding with rising calls for climate protections.
KUALA LUMPUR, 22 Nov -- Bintang Bollywood Bertaraf Antarabangsa, Datuk Shah Rukh Khan menyampaikan ucapan pada Pembukaan Besar Bin Zayed International (M) Sdn Bhd di The Exchange TRX hari ini.
-- fotoBERNAMA (2024) HAK CIPTA TERPELIHARA
KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama) – Bollywood Icon Datuk Shah Rukh Khan, who is currently in Malaysia, thrilled attendees at the opening ceremony of Bin Zayed International (M) Bhd, a Dubai-based company opening in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.
Khan, the special guest at the grand opening of the Dubai-based company’s new venture, expressed excitement about returning to Malaysia after some time.
Datuk Shah Rukh Khan in his speech during the grand opening of Bin Zayed International (M) Sdn Bhd at The Exchange TRX. PHOTO: BERNAMA
“I know I am too small to be a friend but I think I am a friend of Malaysia and UAE. Thank you for coming together and it was so wonderful and warm to meet everyone here,” he said at the event held at The Exchange 106.
The actor, whose presence in the event brought smiles and happiness to the attendees, also applauded the global collaboration between the UAE and Malaysia with the expansion of global investment leader Bin Zayed International Group Of Companies (BZI) in the country.
He added that the expansion was important in fostering economic ties between both countries, noting that progress is only powerful when shared.
WHO's Director-General Tedros Adhanom is pictured before the group photo after attending the meeting on Sustainable Development and Energy Transition at the G20 Leaders' Meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on November 19, 2024. (Photo by Mauro PIMENTEL / AFP)
ISTANBUL (Bernama-AA) – World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced on Friday that the mpox virus continues to constitute an international public health emergency.
The WHO Emergency Committee met on Friday to discuss the virus, Tedros said in a statement on X, adding that it “advised me that the upsurge of mpox continues to constitute a public health emergency of international concern — I have accepted that advice.”
He emphasised that the decision was based on the increasing number of cases, the geographical spread, operational challenges on the ground, and the need to establish and sustain a consistent response among countries and partners.
WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom is pictured before the group photo after attending the meeting on Sustainable Development and Energy Transition at the G20 Leaders’ Meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on November 19, 2024. PHOTO: AFP
He called on affected countries to intensify their efforts and urged the international community to work together to bring an end to the outbreak.
The WHO declared mpox a global public health emergency in August for the second time in two years, following the spread of a new variant of the viral infection from Congo to neighbouring countries.
Mpox is a viral disease, formerly known as monkeypox, before the WHO renamed it in 2022 following complaints that the name was racist and stigmatising.
The zoonotic disease can be transmitted to humans through close physical contact with an infectious person or small wild animal, or via contaminated materials.
Common symptoms include rashes or lesions, along with a flu-like fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, general weakness, and swollen lymph nodes.
SYDNEY (AFP) – The United States expects that thousands of North Korean troops massing in Russia will “soon” enter combat against Ukraine, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said Saturday.
About 10,000 North Korean soldiers were believed to be based in the Russian border region of Kursk, Austin said, where they were being “integrated into the Russian formations”.
“Based upon what they’ve been trained on, the way they’ve been integrated into the Russian formations, I fully expect to see them engaged in combat soon,” Austin told reporters during a stopover in Pacific nation Fiji.
FILES – In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center left, meets soldiers during a visit to a western operational training base in North Korea Wednesday, March 6, 2024. PHOTO: KCNA via AP
Austin said he had “not seen significant reporting” of North Korean troops being “actively engaged in combat” to date.
South Korean government officials and a research group on Thursday said Russia has provided Pyongyang with oil, anti-air missiles and economic help in exchange for the troops Washington and Seoul have accused it of sending.
Kyiv has warned that Moscow, alongside the North Korean soldiers, has now amassed a 50,000-strong force to wrest back parts of the border region seized by Ukrainian forces.
Ukraine claimed swathes of Kursk in August during a lightning offensive even as its troops were thinly stretched in the Donetsk region, which has borne the brunt of nearly three years of fighting.
The Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Week Exhibition was launched on Saturday at RIPAS Hospital’s Lobby 5 by Acting Director General of Medical and Health Services at the Ministry of Health, Pengiran Dr Haji Md Khalifah bin Pengiran Haji Ismail.
Held in conjunction with World Antimicrobial Resistance Week (WAAW), the exhibition highlights the critical public health challenge posed by AMR and the collaborative efforts of multiple ministries to combat its spread.
Visitors can explore interactive booths showcasing how AMR affects human, animal, and environmental health, in line with the One Health Approach. The initiative aims to educate healthcare professionals and the public on the importance of addressing AMR through joint efforts.
Head of Infectious Diseases at RIPAS Hospital Dr Hajah Rosmonaliza binti Haji Awang Asli, emphasised that AMR awareness is vital for public health, requiring urgent action to mitigate its impact.
Acting Director General of Medical and Health Services at the Ministry of Health, Pengiran Dr Haji Md Khalifah bin Pengiran Haji Ismail and Head of Infectious Diseases at RIPAS Hospital Dr Hajah Rosmonaliza binti Haji Awang Asli tour the exhibition. PHOTO: LYNA MOHAMMAD
This year’s WAAW theme, “Educate. Advocate. Act Now,” underscores the need for collective action. Since 2018, Brunei’s multisectoral Brunei Darussalam AMR Committee (BDAMRC) has spearheaded initiatives to address AMR, including public education, medical talks, and collaborations with various sectors.
Ongoing activities include infographics shared on social media, media appearances on RTB’s Rampai Pagi, and a pet show featuring rabies vaccination and AMR discussions organized by the Ministry of Primary Resources and Tourism (MPRT). The Ministry of Development will host an environmental briefing and exhibition next week.
Dr Rosmonaliza noted that public awareness of AMR has significantly increased, as reflected in recent surveys. This progress aligns with global efforts led by organisations such as the WHO, WOAH, FAO, and UNEP under the Quadripartite framework.
The BDAMRC’s exhibition underscores Brunei’s commitment to tackling AMR as a pressing health and socioeconomic issue, integrating efforts across human, animal, and environmental sectors for a sustainable future.
WAAW, observed annually from November 18-23, continues to emphasize the interconnectedness of AMR’s impacts and the importance of coordinated global and local interventions. – LYNA MOHAMMAD
