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TOKYO :Japanese household spending in August rose 2.3 per cent from a year earlier, internal affairs ministry data showed on Tuesday, slightly better than the median market forecast for a 1.2 per cent rise.On a seasonally adjusted, month-on-month basis, spending inched up 0.6 per cent, versus an estimated 0.1 per cent uptick. To view the data on the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, click here: http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/kakei/index.html

OPENAI on Monday unveiled a new feature for ChatGPT, the leading generative AI model with 800 million weekly users, enabling it to interact with everyday apps like Spotify and Booking.com.Chief executive Sam Altman announced the new tool to a crowd of enthusiastic developers gathered in San Francisco for the company’s annual “Developer Day”.The new feature, Apps SDK, allows ChatGPT to interact with various apps to select music, search for real estate or explore hotel and flight booking sites.Initial partners including Booking.com, Canva, Coursera, Figma, Expedia, Spotify and Zillow launched Monday in markets where their services operate.Additional partners, including Uber, AllTrails…

Sir Keir Starmer has condemned plans for pro-Palestine protests two years to the day since the October 7 attacks on Israel, labelling them “un-British”.Writing in The Times, the prime minister said demonstrations set to take place at several universities today showed a lack of respect for others, claiming previous rallies had been used by some as a “despicable excuse to attack British Jews”.Follow latest updates on the Israel-Hamas warIn a statement marking the second anniversary of the Hamas attack, when 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken hostage, Sir Keir said the UK’s Jewish communities had “endured rising antisemitism”…

US INTEREST rates are in a good place for the Federal Reserve’s inflation fight, a senior central bank official said on Monday, pushing back against President Donald Trump’s calls for cuts.“Overall, given the state of the economy and financial markets, I view the current stance of policy as only slightly restrictive, which I think is the right place to be,” Kansas City Fed President Jeff Schmid told a conference in the city, according to prepared remarks.Schmid, who is a voting member of the Fed’s powerful rate-setting committee this year, said he had voted for a rate cut last month as…

Global production is expected to rise, with the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization projecting a record 556.4 million tonnes in the 2025 to 2026 season[MANILA] The Philippines plans to broadly extend its ban on rice imports until April to support farmers in the world’s biggest buyer of the grain, a move that’s likely to put further pressure on global prices.The South-east Asian nation will only allow inbound shipments for about a month in January, when it needs to bring in at least 300,000 tons of the grain from overseas, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr told lawmakers at a…

Defense contractor Science Applications International Corp said on Monday it had agreed to buy peer SilverEdge Government Solutions from private equity firm Godspeed Capital for $205 million in cash.The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of fiscal year 2026.Reston, Virginia-based SAIC provides government technical and enterprise IT services. In June, the company was awarded a $928 million five-year contract by the Department of Defense to provide engineering services in support of the U.S. Air Force’s TENCAP programme.Through its acquisition of cybersecurity, software and intelligence solutions provider SilverEdge Government Solutions, SAIC looks to expand its product portfolio with…

[SINGAPORE] Economists largely expect the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to keep policy settings unchanged in October, even as trade headwinds mount, and the US threatens fresh sectoral tariffs. While some analysts see room for a modest easing, most believe MAS will reserve its next easing move – possibly the final one for this cycle – for 2026.They expect such a move to involve flattening the slope of the Singapore dollar nominal effective exchange rate (S$NEER) policy band, rather than make changes to its width or where it is centred.

WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday ordered approval of a proposed 211-mile road through an Alaska wilderness to allow mining of copper, cobalt, gold and other minerals.The long-debated Ambler Road project was approved in the first Trump administration, but was later blocked by the Biden administration after an analysis determined the project would threaten caribou and other wildlife and harm Alaska Native tribes that rely on hunting and fishing.The gravel road and mining project, north of Fairbanks, Alaska, “is something that should’ve been long operating and making billions of dollars for our country and supplying a…

Rio Tinto said on Tuesday it will invest $733 million, alongside joint venture partners Mitsui Iron Ore and Nippon Steel, to develop new iron ore deposits at the West Angelas hub in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.Rio Tinto, which holds a $389 million share of the investment, said the West Angelas Sustaining project will maintain the hub’s annual production capacity at 35 million tonnes, extending mining operations for several years.The construction will create about 600 jobs, while around 950 full-time roles will be sustained once the project becomes operational. The company expects to mine its first ore in 2027.Mining major Rio…

Costco to sell weight loss drugs Costco now selling weight loss drugs Ozempic, Wegovy at a discount 03:19 Costco customers can now buy Ozempic and Wegovy at the discount chain’s drugstores.Novo Nordisk, the Danish pharmaceutical firm that makes the weight-loss drugs, announced Friday that Ozempic and Wegovy are available at Costco pharmacies across the U.S. A one-month supply of the drugs at the retailer will run $499, the same price they are listed for on Novo Nordisk’s direct-to-consumer website, as well as at CVS and Walmart. Ozempic and Wegovy typically retail for around $1,300 and $1,600, respectively, according to GoodRx, which compares drug prices…