Malaysia charged two men on Tuesday and moved to bring back another from Thailand as authorities sought to contain a wave of religiously charged provocations that has sharpened tensions in the multicultural country. Controversial preacher Zamri Vinoth, 41, and activist Arun Dorasamy, 56, both pleaded not guilty in separate magistrates’ courts to charges linked to social media posts that prosecutor...
Malaysia charged two men on Tuesday and moved to bring back another from Thailand as authorities sought to contain a wave of religiously charged provocations that has sharpened tensions in the multicultural country. Controversial preacher Zamri Vinoth, 41, and activist Arun Dorasamy, 56, both pleaded not guilty in separate magistrates’ courts to charges linked to social media posts that prosecutors said were capable of “causing public alarm”. The cases come as conservative groups push for the removal of Hindu temples said to have been built illegally on private land, reopening a long-running and politically sensitive dispute over places of worship, land ownership and minority rights in Muslim-majority Malaysia. Advertisement Zamri was charged in Kuala Lumpur under Section 505(b) of the Penal Code over an online post on February 3 related to a gathering involving what was described as an “illegal temple”, according to local media reports. The offence carries a maximum sentence of two years’ jail, a fine or both if convicted. Advertisement Arun, also known as Arumugam Dorasamy, was charged in Penang’s Jawi under the same provision over a social media post allegedly made with intent to cause public unrest.
The US is pushing to make permanent an international ban on tariffs on ecommerce, setting the stage for a debate on America’s global dominance of digital services and data flows at the World Trade Organization’s ministerial later this month. The WTO’s “moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions” has been renewed every two years since it was first instituted in 1998, back in the infan...
The US is pushing to make permanent an international ban on tariffs on ecommerce, setting the stage for a debate on America’s global dominance of digital services and data flows at the World Trade Organization’s ministerial later this month. The WTO’s “moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions” has been renewed every two years since it was first instituted in 1998, back in the infancy of digital commerce. The prohibition’s wording was vague by design back then but it’s understood to mean economic activity that’s now ubiquitous — from online purchases and social media to data transfers and video calls. The moratorium has divided nations for nearly three decades as economies including Brazil, India and South Africa argued they wanted to preserve domestic policy options rather than rubber-stamp it. Behind that vague justification are concerns including the hit to customs revenue as online services replace goods purchases, US Big Tech’s growing market share, and data sovereignty and security issues more recently tied to the boom of artificial intelligence. A draft WTO statement of support for the moratorium circulated in late February included the US, Singapore, Argentina, Japan, South Korea, Mexico and 13 others. The Trump administration wants it to be permanent, making it the most consequential issue facing the Geneva-based organization at its 14th biennial ministerial conference March 26-29 in Cameroon, known as MC14. “Now is the time, in our view, for the WTO to act and for the ministers to make the ecommerce moratorium permanent,” said Ambassador Joseph Barloon, President Donald Trump ’s point person at the WTO. “Businesses need that stability we think to really further digital trade, and just having that go from MC to MC to MC does not send the right signal. So that’s a key priority. ” In an interview with Bloomberg News on Friday, Barloon said the US currently has 22 co-sponsors. The European Union’s long-time support for a permanent extension rema...
J Studios/DigitalVision via Getty Images Investment Thesis It is common knowledge that REITs are great at providing generous distributions to shareholders, and therefore are a great option when it comes to income. But I must say I agree with that only to some extent, and I believe this dividend bias might actually erode the overall returns over the long run. Having said that, for this article, I a...
J Studios/DigitalVision via Getty Images Investment Thesis It is common knowledge that REITs are great at providing generous distributions to shareholders, and therefore are a great option when it comes to income. But I must say I agree with that only to some extent, and I believe this dividend bias might actually erode the overall returns over the long run. Having said that, for this article, I am going to compare general stocks against REITs, both from inside and outside the United States. I intend to approach this comparison with a broader view, more specifically, through ETFs. Therefore, I’m not going to use single REITs or stocks anywhere here, as I believe a strategy through stock/REIT picking is not fair or easily comparable, since each ticker has its own degree of risk, management, and concentration. All in all, my goal is to show that higher dividends, especially through REITs, have not translated into superior returns or even a lower volatility when compared to the broader equity market. And you’ll see that another reason for this underperformance comes from frequent equity dilution that REITs implement and investors overlook. What happens is that the so-great dividend yields mask the actual shareholder yield, which gets hurt due to the “negative” buybacks. Having said that, the decision of overweighting REITs based primarily on dividend appeal is actually very weak, whether for national or international real estate. And for those who have already read some of my articles on ETFs, you’ll probably guess that my opinion is that investors would be much better off with a globally diversified equity approach, and that is true. What History Has To Say Another quick note I would like to make before we dive in is: when we analyze a neutral global stock fund such as the Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund ( VT ), for example, we observe that real estate is already there in the holdings. It might be only ~2.2% of the total allocation, but it is there. So, in case ...
Old Mutual Group Ltd. reported record profit for a second year in 2025 as Africa’s largest insurer by assets saw gains in its general insurance and wealth businesses as well as elevated returns from its Malawian unit. The Johannesburg-based company’s adjusted headline earnings climbed 24% to 8.26 billion rand ($495 million). That trailed the median estimate of 8.31 billion rand in a Bloomberg surv...
Old Mutual Group Ltd. reported record profit for a second year in 2025 as Africa’s largest insurer by assets saw gains in its general insurance and wealth businesses as well as elevated returns from its Malawian unit. The Johannesburg-based company’s adjusted headline earnings climbed 24% to 8.26 billion rand ($495 million). That trailed the median estimate of 8.31 billion rand in a Bloomberg survey of analysts. The profit also received a boost from higher shareholder returns in South Africa, Old Mutual’s biggest market. Financial-services firms in the continent’s most industrialized nation are operating in an economy that has expanded at an average of less than 1% annually for more than a decade, leaving households and businesses highly price-sensitive while they juggle elevated living costs and borrowing expenses. Insurers, specifically, face claims pressure from crime, infrastructure constraints and volatile weather patterns that are pushing up losses and premiums. Nonetheless, improved performance at the state-run power utility has stabilized electricity supply following years of regular cuts, and the government’s focus on reviving infrastructure has helped continent’s biggest economy. Old Mutual’s headline earnings per share climbed 26%, boosted by a 700 million-rand stock-repurchase program in 2025, which contributed to a reduction in the weighted average number of ordinary shares. The company proposed a final dividend of 0.56 rand per share for the second half of the year, bringing its total payout for the year to 0.93 rand, slightly below the median estimate of 0.97 rand. Sign up here for the daily Next Africa newsletter, and subscribe to the Next Africa podcast on Apple , Spotify or anywhere you listen .
Yang Wei. Photo: VCG Beijing has quietly scrubbed the chief designer of China’s J-20 stealth fighter jet from its premier scientific academy, marking the latest high-profile disappearance in a widening anticorruption campaign targeting the country’s military-industrial complex. The name and biography of Yang Wei, former vice president of the state-owned Aviation Industry Corp. of China, were recen...
Yang Wei. Photo: VCG Beijing has quietly scrubbed the chief designer of China’s J-20 stealth fighter jet from its premier scientific academy, marking the latest high-profile disappearance in a widening anticorruption campaign targeting the country’s military-industrial complex. The name and biography of Yang Wei, former vice president of the state-owned Aviation Industry Corp. of China, were recently removed from the official online roster of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
甘肅省委常委、副省長雷思維涉嫌嚴重違紀違法受查 To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video 【有線新聞】甘肅省委常委、副省長雷思維涉嫌嚴重違紀違法受查。 中央紀委國家監委通報，雷思維正接受中央紀委國家監委紀律審查和監察調查...
甘肅省委常委、副省長雷思維涉嫌嚴重違紀違法受查 To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video 【有線新聞】甘肅省委常委、副省長雷思維涉嫌嚴重違紀違法受查。 中央紀委國家監委通報，雷思維正接受中央紀委國家監委紀律審查和監察調查。官方資料顯示，59歲的雷思維是甘肅靜寧人，早年在白銀有色集團任職，2018年起步入官場，歷任甘肅省生態環境廳黨組書記、嘉峪關市委書記等職務，到2023年1月升任甘肅省政府副省長。
Erik Isakson/DigitalVision via Getty Images It’s easy for investors to get caught up in the allure of the next big thing, be it the Metaverse, EVs, and, obviously, more recently, AI and the data center buildout. Unlike the bust that was the Metaverse, I don’t think AI will be a bust. Tech giants are in a race to build out their infrastructure to make their offerings more compelling than competitor...
Erik Isakson/DigitalVision via Getty Images It’s easy for investors to get caught up in the allure of the next big thing, be it the Metaverse, EVs, and, obviously, more recently, AI and the data center buildout. Unlike the bust that was the Metaverse, I don’t think AI will be a bust. Tech giants are in a race to build out their infrastructure to make their offerings more compelling than competitors. I can’t tell you who’s going to win that race between Google ( GOOGL ), Microsoft ( MSFT ), and Anthropic fighting for the superior offering, but I will tell you those helping build the vital pieces of that infrastructure might be the ultimate, unsung winners. Outside of the chip makers like NVIDIA ( NVDA ), Micron ( MU ), and AMD ( AMD ), I’ve been looking for other pick-and-shovel AI plays and came across Vertiv Holdings Co ( VRT ), which has soundly outperformed the broader market since their IPO in 2020. Over the last year, Vertiv is up over 200%, and YTD in 2026, Vertiv is up nearly 60%, which is again significantly beating the S&P 500 returns. While I admit it’s a pricey stock, I still think this company has room to grow, and I’m bullish on the company’s prospects after taking a closer look. Let’s dig into the details as I discuss the company, future opportunities as well as risks, the company’s financials, and finally valuation. The Company Despite only being a public company for a short time, Vertiv has an extensive history . The company was founded in Ohio in 1946 by Ralph Liebert, who later started the Liebert Corporation. The Liebert Corporation was the first in the industry to create computer room air conditioning. The Liebert Corporation was acquired by Emerson Electric ( EMR ) in 1987. Years later, in 2016, a private equity firm carved out that division and rebranded it as Vertiv. Vertiv went public via a SPAC in 2020. In today’s artificial intelligence age, data centers are critical, and so are those who support these data centers. That’s where Vertiv come...
Ethereum (ETH +1.49%) reached a new all-time high of $4,954 last August, as Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflows picked up and companies started buying it for their treasuries. But since then, the second-largest cryptocurrency has declined 58% (as of March 15). Are Ethereum's best days behind it? I wouldn't be too quick to write it off, and the current dip could actually be a good buying op...
Ethereum (ETH +1.49%) reached a new all-time high of $4,954 last August, as Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflows picked up and companies started buying it for their treasuries. But since then, the second-largest cryptocurrency has declined 58% (as of March 15). Are Ethereum's best days behind it? I wouldn't be too quick to write it off, and the current dip could actually be a good buying opportunity. Even after its recent downturn, Ethereum is still the top blockchain in a few key areas. It's the leading blockchain for stablecoins -- cryptocurrency tokens designed to maintain a stable value peg to another asset, such as the U.S. dollar. The stablecoin market is worth $316 billion, according to DefiLlama, and $164 billion of it is on Ethereum. Stablecoins provide one of the most likely real-world use cases for blockchain technology, as they're a fast, cheap way to send digital payments. Several financial institutions are exploring stablecoins, and Visa (V +0.92%) launched a stablecoin settlement feature at the end of last year. Ethereum is also the leader for tokenized real-world assets (RWAs). These digital versions of RWAs bring traditional financial assets, such as popular stocks, Treasuries, and corporate bonds, onto the blockchain. Ethereum is the distribution layer for $15 billion in RWAs, more than 5 times the amount on any other blockchain. Expand CRYPTO : ETH Ethereum Today's Change ( 1.49 %) $ 33.76 Current Price $ 2307.44 Key Data Points Market Cap $278B Day's Range $ 2242.08 - $ 2377.64 52wk Range $ 1398.62 - $ 4946.05 Volume 37B Stablecoins and RWAs could both be high-growth markets, and if they are, Ethereum should benefit. It's still important to be cautious about how much you invest in cryptocurrency, given its volatility. But you're not too late to start or add to a small Ethereum position.