The post-pandemic recovery in Asia’s hotel industry is patchy. While international tourist arrivals in some countries surpassed 2019 levels some time ago, most markets have yet to experience a full return to pre-Covid levels. According to CBRE, only three of the 13 major markets in the Asia-Pacific region – Japan, Vietnam and South Korea – welcomed more overseas tourists in the first half of 2025 ...
The post-pandemic recovery in Asia’s hotel industry is patchy. While international tourist arrivals in some countries surpassed 2019 levels some time ago, most markets have yet to experience a full return to pre-Covid levels. According to CBRE, only three of the 13 major markets in the Asia-Pacific region – Japan, Vietnam and South Korea – welcomed more overseas tourists in the first half of 2025 than in the corresponding period in 2019. All three have cheap currencies that made them more affordable for travellers, CBRE said. The Thai baht, by contrast, has risen to its strongest level against the US dollar in five years. Thailand suffered a succession of blows last year. The high-profile kidnapping of a Chinese actor, the deadly earthquake in Myanmar that damaged skyscrapers in Bangkok, the border conflict with Cambodia, severe flooding in the south of the country, and a seemingly never-ending political crisis contributed to a 7.2 per cent fall in tourist arrivals last year. This was the first annual decline in a decade outside the pandemic. Advertisement Vietnam, which is “firing on all cylinders”, according to JLL, welcomed 21.2 million tourists last year, a record high. Its biggest source market, moreover, was China. While Chinese tourist arrivals in Thailand fell 33.6 per cent to 4.5 million, they rose 41.3 per cent in Vietnam to 5.3 million. An ambitious economic and structural reform drive in Vietnam has accentuated Thailand’s long-standing infrastructure investment gap. Although Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy is a popular holiday destination, secondary cities have failed to develop the urban infrastructure needed to support growth. Advertisement “While Vietnam is at a much earlier stage in the [development] cycle, it already has 12 international airports. Airlift is everything,” said Bill Barnett, managing director of C9 Hotelworks.
Retail sentiment has turned sharply bearish for SPY and QQQ on Stocktwits. Wall Street traders weigh mega-cap earnings, Trump’s tariff threats on Canada, and the Federal Reserve’s upcoming policy decision. Safe-haven flows into gold and silver signal growing risk aversion across markets. Power stocks remain in focus amid extreme winter weather, which is boosting electricity demand. U.S. stock futu...
Retail sentiment has turned sharply bearish for SPY and QQQ on Stocktwits. Wall Street traders weigh mega-cap earnings, Trump’s tariff threats on Canada, and the Federal Reserve’s upcoming policy decision. Safe-haven flows into gold and silver signal growing risk aversion across markets. Power stocks remain in focus amid extreme winter weather, which is boosting electricity demand. U.S. stock futures were lower early Monday, as investors gear up for an earnings-heavy week (Tesla, Microsoft, Meta, Apple) amid trade tensions between the U.S. and Canada and looming government shutdown fears. Traders are also watching for the Federal Reserve’s first policy decision and a potential ruling on the validity of tariffs, later this week. Over the weekend, President Donald Trump warned of 100% tariffs on Canadian exports if they were to go ahead with a free-trade deal with China. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has responded, saying that Ottawa has “no intention” of pursuing such an agreement. As of 3:00 a.m. ET on Monday, the S&P 500 and Dow futures fell 0.1%, and the Nasdaq and Russell 2000 futures were down 0.2%. Meanwhile, retail sentiment toward the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), an exchange-traded fund that tracks the S&P 500 Index, was back to ‘extremely bearish’ from 'bearish’ last week, and the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) ETF, which tracks the Nasdaq 100 Index, has remained ‘bearish,’ amid high message volumes. Both SPY and QQQ were among the top trending tickers on Stocktwits at the time of writing. Safe-haven demand pushed gold to record highs above $5,100 an ounce, and silver continued its rally after recently clearing $100 an ounce. Silver stocks such as Hecla Mining (HL), First Majestic Silver (AG), and Avino Silver & Gold Mines (ASM) were garnering heavy retail attention on Stocktwits. Trending Stocks To Watch Meta Platforms (META): Sued by an international group of plaintiffs for misleading privacy claims regarding WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption. The stock could fac...
Ethereum Prepares For Quantum Era With New Security Team And Funding Authored by Amin Haqshanas via CoinTelegraph.com, The Ethereum Foundation has made post-quantum security a central focus of the network’s long-term roadmap, announcing the formation of a dedicated Post Quantum (PQ) team. The new team will be led by Thomas Coratger, a cryptographic engineer at the Ethereum Foundation, with support...
Ethereum Prepares For Quantum Era With New Security Team And Funding Authored by Amin Haqshanas via CoinTelegraph.com, The Ethereum Foundation has made post-quantum security a central focus of the network’s long-term roadmap, announcing the formation of a dedicated Post Quantum (PQ) team. The new team will be led by Thomas Coratger, a cryptographic engineer at the Ethereum Foundation, with support from Emile, a cryptographer closely associated with leanVM, according to crypto researcher Justin Drake. “After years of quiet R&D, EF management has officially declared PQ security a top strategic priority,” Drake said in a Saturday post on X. “It's now 2026, timelines are accelerating. Time to go full PQ.” The researcher described leanVM, a specialized, minimalist zero-knowledge proof virtual machine (zkVM) , as a potential building block of Ethereum’s post-quantum strategy . EF backs post-quantum push with developer sessions, funding Drake outlined several near-term steps aimed at preparing the ecosystem. A biweekly developer session focused on post-quantum transactions is set to begin next month, led by Ethereum researcher Antonio Sanso. The sessions will concentrate on user-facing protections, including protocol-level cryptographic tools, account abstraction pathways and longer-term work on aggregating transaction signatures using leanVM. The Ethereum Foundation is also backing its push with new funding. Drake announced a $1 million Poseidon Prize to strengthen the Poseidon hash function, alongside another $1 million initiative known as the Proximity Prize, both aimed at advancing post-quantum cryptography . Ethereum prepares for quantum era. Source: Justin Drake On the engineering front, Drake said multi-client post-quantum consensus development networks are already live, with multiple teams participating and coordinating through weekly interoperability calls. Furthermore, the foundation will host a dedicated post-quantum event in October, followed by a post-quantum ...
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Chinese state media have warned the Communist Party to be vigilant against officials who “do nothing but wait for a power transition” – a clear reference to next year’s national party congress. The China Organisation and Personnel News, affiliated with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, published a commentary on Friday titled “Preventing Officials from Sitting Around and Doing No...
Chinese state media have warned the Communist Party to be vigilant against officials who “do nothing but wait for a power transition” – a clear reference to next year’s national party congress. The China Organisation and Personnel News, affiliated with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, published a commentary on Friday titled “Preventing Officials from Sitting Around and Doing Nothing but Waiting for a Power Transition”. It cited a communique issued after the fifth plenary session of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), held earlier this month, which said the anti-corruption watchdog would “resolutely correct” such behaviour. Advertisement The five-year term of the Central Committee, the party’s highest political-executive organ, is expected to end next autumn at the 21st National Congress of the Communist Party of China Officials at all levels have become increasingly risk-averse as the party tightens its grip on discipline amid a sweeping anti-corruption campaign. Advertisement Speaking at the CCDI’s plenary session, President Xi Jinping said, “This year, local governments will begin their leadership reshuffles, and we must promote truly loyal, reliable, consistent and responsible officials.”
Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr said his team won a "bizarre, sad" game at the Minnesota Timberwolves in a "sombre atmosphere" after the fatal shooting of an intensive care nurse by immigration agents in Minneapolis. The death of 37-year-old Alex Pretti on Saturday was the second time in less than a month an American citizen has been killed by federal agents in the city, and has sparked ang...
Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr said his team won a "bizarre, sad" game at the Minnesota Timberwolves in a "sombre atmosphere" after the fatal shooting of an intensive care nurse by immigration agents in Minneapolis. The death of 37-year-old Alex Pretti on Saturday was the second time in less than a month an American citizen has been killed by federal agents in the city, and has sparked angry protests both locally and in other parts of the US. The Timberwolves held a minute's silence for Pretti before Sunday's game, which was punctuated by anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) chants from fans. An ICE operation in Minnesota ordered by President Donald Trump's administration has been going on for more than six weeks. ICE agents have the power to stop, detain and arrest people they suspect of being in the US illegally. Renee Good, another Minnesota resident, was shot and killed by an ICE agent on 7 January. "Honestly, what I felt was that [the Timberwolves'] group was suffering," said Kerr after the Warriors' 111-85 win. "It was one of the most bizarre, sad games I've ever been a part of. You could feel the sombre atmosphere. "Their team, we could tell they were struggling with everything that's been going on. And what the city has been through. So it was a very sad night." Warriors forward Moses Moody, who scored 19 points with eight rebounds and two blocked shots, said you could "feel the weight of the city" during the match, which had been postponed for 24 hours after Pretti's death. "I couldn't imagine too many different times where that large amount of people are together in the midst of a situation like this, so you definitely felt that," said Moody. Stephen Curry led the scoring for the Warriors with 26 points to climb level with Paul Pierce at 19th on the all-time scoring list - finishing the game with 26,397. Anthony Edwards scored 32 points and recorded 11 rebounds for the Timberwolves, who lost a fifth-straight match.