Latest news with #DavidStanway
The Star
3 days ago
- Business
- The Star
Indonesia to require e-commerce platforms to collect tax on sellers
The ministry will notify a platform if it meets the criteria, which will be based on site traffic and total transaction value over the past 12 months. -- PHOTO: AFP JAKARTA (Reuters): Indonesia's finance ministry will require e-commerce platforms to collect and pass on an income tax on sales made by small- and medium-sized sellers, according to new regulations published on Monday. Platforms that meet certain criteria must withhold and pass on a 0.5% tax on sales made by sellers with an annual turnover of between 500 million rupiah to 4.8 billion rupiah (US$30,800 to $296,000). They must also share the sellers' information with tax authorities. The ministry will notify a platform if it meets the criteria, which will be based on site traffic and total transaction value over the past 12 months. While the directive is effective immediately, platforms will be given a month to comply. Reuters reported exclusively last month on the plan to impose the tax. The tax office has said the rules are intended to tackle the "shadow economy". Indonesia's e-commerce association idEA has said its members would comply, but expressed concern over the implementation timeline, with the regulation set to impact millions of sellers. Indonesia's main e-commerce operators include ByteDance's TikTok Shop and Tokopedia, Sea Limited's Shopee, the Alibaba-backed Lazada, Blibli and Bukalapak. South-East Asia's largest economy has a booming e-commerce industry, with last year's estimated gross merchandise value of US$65 billion expected to grow to US$150 billion by 2030, according to a report by Google, Singapore state investor Temasek and consultancy Bain & Co. ($1 = 16,240 rupiah) (Reporting by Gayatri Suroyo; Editing by David Stanway) - Reuters
New Straits Times
01-07-2025
- Business
- New Straits Times
Standard Chartered Bank faces US$2.7 billion lawsuit over alleged role in 1MDB fraud
KUALA LUMPUR: Liquidators seeking to recoup misappropriated funds from Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund 1MDB have filed legal proceedings against Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore over the bank's alleged role in enabling fraud that led to over US$2.7 billion in financial losses. The move is the latest in a wide-ranging effort to recover money belonging to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), from which US investigators say about US$4.5 billion was stolen in a complex, globe-spanning scheme. Liquidators from financial services firm Kroll, which filed the lawsuit in the High Court of Singapore, said they were seeking to hold Standard Chartered accountable for its role in allegedly enabling fraud to be committed against 1MDB. Three companies in liquidation linked to 1MDB say Standard Chartered permitted over 100 intrabank transfers between 2009 and 2013 that helped conceal the flow of stolen funds. They also allege the bank chose to overlook obvious red flags in relation to the transfer of funds, resulting in the losses, the liquidators said. "According to this lawsuit, the transfers demonstrate serious breaches and control failings which ultimately enabled the theft of public funds by people operating at the highest levels of the Malaysian government during that period," the liquidators said. (Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by David Stanway)
Japan Today
02-05-2025
- Business
- Japan Today
Global nuclear fusion project crosses milestone with world's most powerful magnet
By David Stanway A much-delayed nuclear fusion project involving more than 30 countries is ready to assemble the world's most powerful magnet - a key part of efforts to generate clean energy by smashing atoms together at super-high temperatures. The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project, based in southern France and backed by the United States, China, Japan, Russia and the European Union, needs the magnetic system to create an "invisible cage" to confine super-hot plasma particles that combine and fuse to release energy. ITER said late on Wednesday that the final component of the system - the central solenoid - had been completed and tested by the United States, and assembly was now underway. "It is like the bottle in a bottle of wine: of course the wine is maybe more important than the bottle, but you need the bottle in order to put the wine inside," said Pietro Barabaschi, ITER's director general. The magnet was originally scheduled for completion in 2021, but has been beset by delays. "To be behind schedule by four years after 10 years of effort shows just how troubled this project is," said Charles Seife, a professor at New York University who writes about nuclear fusion. Barabaschi said the "crisis" was now over and construction was proceeding at the fastest pace in ITER's history. The start-up phase of the project will begin in 2033, when it is scheduled to start generating plasma. He said ITER proved that countries could still cooperate despite geopolitical tensions. "They have a very, very strong cohesion of objectives and for the time being I see no sign of a withdrawal from anyone." Fusion investment has been growing, with dozens of initiatives currently underway. Several private start-ups have said they can build commercial fusion reactors within a decade. Barabaschi said he was sceptical but supportive of the dozens of ventures in development across the world. "We already know that we can get fusion," he said. "The question is, are we going to get fusion in such a way that it would be cost-effective? "I am quite sceptical that we will be able to achieve this within, say, one or even two decades. Frankly speaking, it will take more time." © Thomson Reuters 2025.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Global nuclear fusion project crosses milestone with world's most powerful magnet
By David Stanway SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A much-delayed nuclear fusion project involving more than 30 countries is ready to assemble the world's most powerful magnet - a key part of efforts to generate clean energy by smashing atoms together at super-high temperatures. The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project, based in southern France and backed by the United States, China, Japan, Russia and the European Union, needs the magnetic system to create an "invisible cage" to confine super-hot plasma particles that combine and fuse to release energy. ITER said late on Wednesday that the final component of the system - the central solenoid - had been completed and tested by the United States, and assembly was now underway. "It is like the bottle in a bottle of wine: of course the wine is maybe more important than the bottle, but you need the bottle in order to put the wine inside," said Pietro Barabaschi, ITER's director general. The magnet was originally scheduled for completion in 2021, but has been beset by delays. "To be behind schedule by four years after 10 years of effort shows just how troubled this project is," said Charles Seife, a professor at New York University who writes about nuclear fusion. Barabaschi said the "crisis" was now over and construction was proceeding at the fastest pace in ITER's history. The start-up phase of the project will begin in 2033, when it is scheduled to start generating plasma. He said ITER proved that countries could still cooperate despite geopolitical tensions. "They have a very, very strong cohesion of objectives and for the time being I see no sign of a withdrawal from anyone." Fusion investment has been growing, with dozens of initiatives currently underway. Several private start-ups have said they can build commercial fusion reactors within a decade. Barabaschi said he was sceptical but supportive of the dozens of ventures in development across the world. "We already know that we can get fusion," he said. "The question is, are we going to get fusion in such a way that it would be cost-effective? "I am quite sceptical that we will be able to achieve this within, say, one or even two decades. Frankly speaking, it will take more time."
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
South Korea's deadly fires made twice as likely by climate change, researchers say
By David Stanway SINGAPORE (Reuters) -South Korea's worst ever wildfires in March were made twice as likely as a result of climate change and such disasters could become even more frequent if temperatures continue to rise, scientists said on Thursday. Fires in the country's southeast blazed for nearly a week, killing 32 people and destroying around 5,000 buildings before they were brought under control in late March. The fires burned through 104,000 hectares (257,000 acres) of land, making them nearly four times more extensive than South Korea's previous worst fire season 25 years ago. The hot, dry and windy conditions were made twice as likely and 15% more intense as a result of climate change, a team of 15 researchers with the World Weather Attribution group said after combining observational data with climate modelling. South Korea normally experiences cold dry winters and rapid increases in temperature in March and April, making it vulnerable to fires at that time of year, said June-Yi Lee of the Research Center for Climate Sciences at Pusan National University. This year, average temperatures from March 22-26 were 10 degrees Celsius higher than usual in the southeast, and patterns of low and high pressure to the north and south generated the powerful winds that helped the fire spread, she told a briefing. "This year, the size of the impact was very extreme … because of the dry weather, the heat and the high temperatures - a perfect storm of conditions," she said. The weather that drove the fires could become even more common if global warming continues on its current trajectory and rises another 1.3 degrees by 2100. "The models project on average a further increase of about 5% in intensity and a further doubling of the likelihood of similarly extreme events," said Clair Barnes of the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London (ICL). The blazes also raised concerns that South Korea's extensive tree planting programme since the 1970s had made the country more fire-prone, and forest management needs to adjust to meet the challenges of extreme heat, said Theo Keeping at ICL's Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires. "Once a wildfire event is extreme enough, it can't be put out with drops from planes and helicopters or from spraying water from the ground … so we need to manage risk before these events happen," he said.
