(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market has moved higher in two of three trading days since the end of the four-day losing streak in which it had plummeted more than 2,710 points or 5.6 percent. The Nikkei 225 now rests just above the 48,650-point plateau and it may pick up speed on Wednesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive on an improved outlook for interest rates. The Europe...
(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market has moved higher in two of three trading days since the end of the four-day losing streak in which it had plummeted more than 2,710 points or 5.6 percent. The Nikkei 225 now rests just above the 48,650-point plateau and it may pick up speed on Wednesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive on an improved outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion. The Nikkei finished barely higher on Tuesday following mixed performances from the financial shares, technology stocks and automobile producers. For the day, the index rose 33.64 points or 0.07 percent to finish at 48,659.52 after trading between 48,511.95 and 49,182.32. Among the actives, Nissan Motor accelerated 1.24 percent, while Mazda Motor added 0.49 percent, Toyota Motor shed 0.65 percent, Honda Motor perked 0.19 percent, Softbank Group cratered 9.95 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial fell 0.31 percent, Mizuho Financial jumped 1.90 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial collected 0.18 percent, Mitsubishi Electric dipped 0.19 percent, Sony Group stumbled 2.64 percent, Panasonic Holdings climbed 1.01 percent and Hitachi was unchanged. The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened mixed on Tuesday but then trended to the upside throughout the session, ending near daily highs. The Dow surged 664.18 points or 1.43 percent to finish at 47,112.45, while the NASDAQ added 153.59 points or 0.67 percent to end at 23,025.59 and the S&P 500 climbed 60.76 points or 0.91 percent to close at 6,765.88. The strength that emerged on Wall Street reflected renewed optimism about the outlook for interest rates following recent dovish comments from Federal Reserve officials as well as the latest U.S. economic data. The Commerce Department said retail sales in the U.S. increased less than expected in September, while the Conference Board also released a report showing a substantial deter...
(MPL/Capitol) From nostalgic returns to his Liverpool childhood to a crazed Glastonbury fantasia, these are songs written with real purpose and a master’s finesse The rock legend in the autumn of their years who chooses to release a new album is well advised to get themselves an angle. If the music that made you legendary was written and recorded long ago – and is highly unlikely to be displaced i...
(MPL/Capitol) From nostalgic returns to his Liverpool childhood to a crazed Glastonbury fantasia, these are songs written with real purpose and a master’s finesse The rock legend in the autumn of their years who chooses to release a new album is well advised to get themselves an angle. If the music that made you legendary was written and recorded long ago – and is highly unlikely to be displaced in the public’s affections by anything you do now – it’s good to have something that suggests a sense of purpose, beyond just adding to an already vast back catalogue for the sake of it. We’ve recently seen it with Bob Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways , rooted in its jawdropping 17-minute survey of American political history, Murder Most Foul; and with Bruce Springsteen’s Only the Strong Survive , with its canny covers of soul and R&B classics. And an angle is clearly something that has occurred to Paul McCartney, too. From its title referencing a road in the suburb of Liverpool where McCartney spent his early childhood, to the circumstances of its launch – the first single Days We Left Behind was premiered not on YouTube or Spotify but BBC Radio Merseyside – his 27th studio album has been presented as a nostalgic look back at what you might call his pre-Fab years. Continue reading...
Box office hit films are four times more likely to star a talking animal than a woman over 60, according to a new survey by Age Without Limits. The anti-ageism campaign studied the 100 highest performing films released in the UK in 2023, 2024 and 2025, and found that while five starred an older woman, about 20 featured creatures who chat. Meanwhile six starred a male actor called Chris – of which ...
Box office hit films are four times more likely to star a talking animal than a woman over 60, according to a new survey by Age Without Limits. The anti-ageism campaign studied the 100 highest performing films released in the UK in 2023, 2024 and 2025, and found that while five starred an older woman, about 20 featured creatures who chat. Meanwhile six starred a male actor called Chris – of which Chris Pratt accounted for half. However, while two of the remaining Chris instances (Pine and Hemsworth) headlined big budget blockbusters, the sixth – Christian Friedel – was co-lead in an acclaimed arthouse film: Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest (2024). Friedel is known only to his friends as Chris. The five films starring an older woman that made the top 100 chart in the UK over the three year period were Allelujah (2023), My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 (2023), Book Club: The Next Chapter (2023), The Substance (2024) and Freakier Friday (2025). Lower down on the box office chart, a number of titles starring older women – including Hard Truths, I’m Still Here and Thelma – further suggest that such movies can also be critical successes. The second highest-grossing film of 2025 in the UK, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, would have made the cut had its star, Renée Zellweger, been three years older. The time period also coincides with a period marked by the death or retirement of a number of popular female British actors, such as Maggie Smith, Joan Plowright and Glenda Jackson, as well as Judi Dench and Vanessa Redgrave. Jackson’s final film, The Great Escaper, appears not to have made the cut as she was the co-star, opposite Michael Caine’s lead. View image in fullscreen Rare casting … Candice Bergen, Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton and Mary Steenburgen in Book Club: The Next Chapter. Photograph: Landmark Media/Alamy Commenting on the survey, Emma Thompson, 67, said: “Women are half the population and we get older. So where are the stories about us? The older we get, the more i...
Vice-chancellors have said they may need to cut hardship support for impoverished students and reduce outreach activities aimed at disadvantaged groups if the dire funding struggles at universities continue. The anonymous poll of leaders by Universities UK (UUK) revealed the extent of the budgetary quagmire facing higher education, with more than two-thirds prepared to cut staff jobs by compulsory...
Vice-chancellors have said they may need to cut hardship support for impoverished students and reduce outreach activities aimed at disadvantaged groups if the dire funding struggles at universities continue. The anonymous poll of leaders by Universities UK (UUK) revealed the extent of the budgetary quagmire facing higher education, with more than two-thirds prepared to cut staff jobs by compulsory redundancy if difficulties continue over the next three years, while nearly 90% said they were looking at hiring freezes or voluntary redundancies. Vivienne Stern, UUK’s chief executive, said: “If we want to retain world-class universities that deliver for students, employers and the economy, a serious conversation is needed about how degrees are funded and whether the governments’ share matches the value universities deliver for society.” But the suggestion of further cuts in support for students, at a time when record numbers are living at home and working part-time to cope with rising prices, could make higher education inaccessible for those who most need it, experts said. Nearly a third of vice-chancellors said they would cut hardship funding for current students if necessary, while more than half said they were prepared to cut access and outreach activity, aimed at encouraging students to go to university, over the next three years. Lee Elliot-Major, a professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said: “A retreat from access and hardship funding risks pulling up the ladder on a whole generation at a time when growing numbers of students are facing unprecedented financial pressures and increasing uncertainty about the value of a degree. “It would represent a huge waste of human potential at precisely the moment the country can least afford it. We’re in real danger of returning to an era in which university once again becomes the preserve of those advantaged enough to afford it.” Katy Hampshire, director of programmes at the Sutton Trust, which campaigns t...
A Scottish government policy designed to encourage datacentres to build in Scotland could lead to a massive volume of carbon emissions being ignored, according to an analysis by a Scottish charity. “Green datacentres” are at the heart of Scotland’s ambitions to develop economically. Enshrined in national policy, they are part of a larger, UK-wide effort to attract big AI investment to Scotland. Bu...
A Scottish government policy designed to encourage datacentres to build in Scotland could lead to a massive volume of carbon emissions being ignored, according to an analysis by a Scottish charity. “Green datacentres” are at the heart of Scotland’s ambitions to develop economically. Enshrined in national policy, they are part of a larger, UK-wide effort to attract big AI investment to Scotland. But Scotland appears to have no clear definition of what a “green datacentre” is. This means that current AI developments might call themselves “green” while their impact on the climate are ignored, according to Action to Protect Rural Scotland (APRS), an Edinburgh-based charity. The Green MSP Ariane Burgess, representing Highlands and Islands, said: “We urgently need transparency around what constitutes a ‘green datacentre’ and how their huge energy demands will be accommodated by our grid infrastructure. “So far, the answers we’ve been getting out of the Scottish government have not provided any clarity,” she said. More than a dozen datacentres in Scotland are in the process of getting planning permission, including an AI growth zone in Lanarkshire, near Glasgow, which claims to be backed by £8.2bn in private investment. Collectively, they stand to use roughly 6.2GW of power – one-and-a-half times more than the peak power use of all of Scotland in the winter. In April, Fintan Slye, the chief executive of the UK’s National Energy System Operator (Neso), encouraged datacentre developers to build in Scotland, where they could take advantage of its greater proportion of renewable energy, with fewer grid constraints. “If in the audience you have a big datacentre and you want to go to Scotland, please come talk to me, we will help you,” Slye said to a conference in London, reported by the Financial Times. APRS said that calling a datacentre project “green” and presenting it as aligned with Scotland’s goals, even if it had significant emissions, could allow developers to receive f...
Indonesia’s Trade Vice Minister Dyah Roro Esti Widya Putri says the government is finalizing a centralized export agency for palm oil, coal, and ferroalloys. Speaking to Bloomberg’s Stephen Engle at APEC in China, she stated the plan is moving to execution despite policy shifts that have unnerved investors. (Source: Bloomberg)
Indonesia’s Trade Vice Minister Dyah Roro Esti Widya Putri says the government is finalizing a centralized export agency for palm oil, coal, and ferroalloys. Speaking to Bloomberg’s Stephen Engle at APEC in China, she stated the plan is moving to execution despite policy shifts that have unnerved investors. (Source: Bloomberg)
Global markets and major trading partners can expect updates on Indonesia’s new commodity export policy within weeks as the government works on the legal and structural rollout of its new centralized export agency, according to a trade ministry official. Vice Minister of Trade Dyah Roro Esti Widya Putri said the new government entity — called Danantara Sumberdaya Indonesia — is moving from concept...
Global markets and major trading partners can expect updates on Indonesia’s new commodity export policy within weeks as the government works on the legal and structural rollout of its new centralized export agency, according to a trade ministry official. Vice Minister of Trade Dyah Roro Esti Widya Putri said the new government entity — called Danantara Sumberdaya Indonesia — is moving from concept to execution. She was speaking in a Bloomberg TV interview on Saturday at the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Suzhou, China. “This is very new, it’s still under progress” in terms of legislation and the setting up of the entity, Roro said. “We are going to see how this progresses over the next few weeks to come.” President Prabowo Subianto last week announced the government would take direct control of exports of some of Indonesia’s most important commodities. Officials have said Danantara Sumberdaya will start by taking over export management of palm oil, thermal coal and some nickel products, markets that Indonesia dominates. Prabowo cited a need for better oversight of shipments, estimating the resource-rich nation loses up to $150 billion annually from “leaks” caused by practices such as under-invoicing. Total state revenue in Southeast Asia’s largest economy last year was just under $160 billion. While key details are still being worked out, there’s set to be an initial transition period where exporters will be required to report their sales of these strategic commodities to Danantara Sumberdaya from June 1. The entity is expected to take control of export contracts, shipping and payments at a later date once new teams and systems are in place. Such sweeping changes have unnerved investors, who worry Indonesia could be drifting away from the market-friendly and fiscally disciplined approach that has underpinned its economic stability. Why Indonesia’s Export Controls Are Spooking Markets: Explainer Indonesia Plans to Beat Global Trading Gia...