Japan finance minister calls for vigilance against FX volatility
"I told the meeting that based on the existing G20 foreign exchange commitments, we should continue to be cautious about excessive volatility driven by speculative movements," he told a press conference after the first day of the meeting.
Japan's currency this week touched its weakest level since early April against the dollar and a one-year low against the euro, as polls showed Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's coalition was in danger of losing its majority in the upper house.
Kato also said he had expressed concerns to his G20 counterparts about the impact of U.S. tariffs on global economies and financial markets.
"Tariffs are not an appropriate measure to correct the current account imbalance," he said, adding that G20 should address the issues of imbalance though calm and constructive dialogue.
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The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Supermarket giant offering all loyalty scheme members better rates on travel money this summer to save you cash
M&S has launched a click & collect for travel money as well as better rates for Sparks customers. Jet-setters can now pre-order cash from the country they are travelling to and pick it up in 560 of the chain's stores. 1 Over 50 currencies are available to choose from with some - such as euros and US dollars -available to order and collect on the same day. However, you may have to wait a week to get more exotic cash such as the Japanese Yen. Plus, the beloved British brand said Sparks loyalty customers can get better rates than those not signed up for the scheme. At the time of reporting, a non Sparks customer who converts £100 into euro, will get €112.43. But a Sparks customer will get €112.66 back. Meanwhile, if you convert £100 into dollars, you will get $132.07 back as a non loyalty member. But a Sparks customer will get $132.34. Katherine Carlson, director of financial services at M&S, said: 'We want to be able to reward our Sparks customers for their loyalty and what better way to do so than helping their money go further on holiday. "And with customers now able to pick up their travel money in more of our stores than ever before, it has never been easier to get ready for your holiday with M&S." She added: "Offering our customers the very best products, services and rewards are a key part of the transformation of our financial services offering and this is just the latest step in that journey.' If you are keen to exchange cash before your holiday, it is important to shop around at a few different places to ensure you are getting the best rate. For example, you can also exchange cash your local Post Office and other supermarkets like Asda and Morrisons offer the service too. M&S launches first-of-its-kind store It is free to sign up for a Sparks card and it also unlocks lots of other offers including a free Birthday treat. Last week, the home of the Percy Pig said the rewards scheme was fully back following its cruel cyber attack. The chain said it would issue a host of "thank you" treats to those who missed out on the birthday freebie. Eager customers will be able to choose between one of two of M&S' bestselling food products. These could include Percy Pigs or a Swiss Truffle Assortment Box, a Bouquet of Flowers or bottle of Prosecco, a punnet of Grapes or a packet of Outrageously Chocolatey Round Biscuits. Sparks birthday treats were among the casualties of the cyber attack for those who had a birthday over the spring and early summer. M&S cyber attack M&S is picking up the pieces from a vicious cyber attack which occurred in April and cost the firm £300million in lost profits. For weeks the beloved retailer was unable to process online orders and store shelves were left bare. Online shopping has since returned across England, Scotland and Wales. Earlier this month, three teenagers and a woman were arrested in the UK as part of an investigation into attacks, which also targeted Co-op and Harrods. They have since been released on bail. More M&S news This week, the chain opened its first ever air-side shop in London 's Heathrow airport. It means jet setters can now stock up on iconic M&S food after going through security. It is located at Gate A in Terminal 5 of the busy London airport. A second store also opened at Gate B, selling gifts such as its popular biscuit tins as well as prepackaged food. HISTORY OF M&S M&S was founded in 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in Leeds. The first official Marks and Spencer store opened in Manchester in 1901. Throughout the 1920s, M&SA gre rapidly, opening more and more stores across the country. The retailer made its reputation in the early 20th century by selling only British-made products. It began textile sales in 1926 and started selling food from 1931. The St Michael trademark was introduced in 1928 as a guarantee of quality and value. This was initially used only for a small range of textiles but was extended over the years to cover all goods sold by M&S. M&S introduced its first in-store cafe in 1935 in the Leeds store. It provided cheap, hygienic, and nutritious mass catering. By 1942, M&S opened 82 cafes across its estate. At the outbreak of the Second World War, M&S had 234 stores. By 1945, over 100 of these had been damaged by bombs, and 16 had been completely destroyed. BY 1960, M&S pioneered in the sale of fresh poultry following the invention of the cold-chain process. In the 1970s and 1980s, M&S pushed into international markets including the US, Canada and France. In 1979, M&S introduced the Chicken Kiev to its food halls across the UK. In 1992, Percy Pigs were launched. The Autograph range of clothing was introduced in 2000, and the St Michael brand was slowly phased out. In 2019, the group announced 110 store closures as part of its plans, affecting several longstanding high-street shops. In September 2020, M&S partnered with Ocado to allow for home delivery of the chain's full food range. M&S has recently announced new stores and is freshening up a swathe of others in a boost for shoppers.
BBC News
3 hours ago
- BBC News
Starlink react afta network glitch, as Musk order shutdown of Starlink satellite service for territory wey Ukraine retake from Russia
Billionaire Elon Musk don tok sorry afta Starling bin experience outage wia service bin go off and users no fit access am. Plenti users bin compain of how dem no fit use dia Starlink as dia internet no work again and dem wondr wetin cause am. Starlink confam say tru tru dia network go off and dem bin dey work to bring am back and solve di issue. "Starlink dey currently for network outage and we dey actively implement solution." Di new generation of Starlink owned by SpaceX satellites dey provide fast internet around di world. Di satellites dey provide broadband internet around di world, especially for remote places, wey include some kontris for Africa and challenging environments like Ukraine and Yemen. Dem also dey use am to connect remote areas of di UK to fast internet. For 2022, tests bin show say Starlink fit deliver internet speeds four times faster dan di average internet, according to di Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Howeva, afta di Starlink network go off Musk say dem dey work to restore am and e no go happun again. "Service go dey restored shortly. Sorry for di outage. SpaceX go remedy root cause to ensure say e no happun again," Musk tok for X. Wetin cause Starlink outage? According to Michael Nicolls, VP of Starlink Engineering, na internal software service bin cause di outage wey make network go off. E say dem don restore di network and dem dey work to find wetin cause am so e no go happun again. "Starlink don dey mostly recova from di network outage, wey last for about 2.5 hours. Di outage na sake of failure of key internal software services wey dey operate di core network," Nicolls tok for X. Starlink for dia own reply say dem sabi how important e dey to dey connected, and dem beg say make pipo no vex for di kasala. How big Starlink presence be for Africa? Starlink dey operate for more dan 20 African kontris, wit Somalia, wey dey suffer from Islamist insurgency - give am10-year licence on 13 April, two days bifor Lesotho decide to give dem too. Starlink dey provide high-speed internet services to remote or underserved areas, e be a potential game-changer for rural areas wey no fit access traditional forms of connectivity such as mobile broadband and fibre. Dis na beco Starlink, instead of relying on fibre optics or cables to transmit data, dey use a network of satellites for low Earth orbit. Becos dem dey closer to di ground, dem get faster transmission speeds dan traditional satellites. Nigeria na di first African state to allow Starlink to operate, for 2023. Di company since dat time don grown into di second-biggest internet service provider for di most-populous kontri for Africa. But Starlink no still get any presence for South Africa - di most industrialised nation for di continent. Enterprising locals bin don find way to connect to di service by using regional roaming packages wey dem bin buy for kontris wia di service bin dey available. Starlink end am last year while Icasa bin also warn local companies say anybody wey dem catch, wey dey provide di service illegally fit face hefty fine. Yet wit an estimated 20% of South Africans not having access to di internet at all - many in rural areas - e fit dey beneficial for both Starlink and di goment to reach a compromise. For Starlink e fit bring more market, while satellite broadband fit help di goment achieve dia goal of providing universal internet access by 2030. Report say Musk order shutdown of Starlink satellite service for Russia-Ukraine war A Reuters report say during a pivotal push by Ukraine to retake territory from Russia for late September 2022, Elon Musk bin give order wey disturb di counteroffensive and reduce Kyiv trust for Starlink. Di report say Starlink na di satellite internet service wey di billionaire provide early for di war to help Ukraine military maintain battlefield connectivity. According to three pipo wey dey familiar wit di command, dem tell Reuters say Musk bin tell one senior engineer for di California offices of SpaceX, di Musk venture wey dey control Starlink, to cut coverage for areas wey include Kherson, a strategic region north of di Black Sea wey Ukraine bin dey try to reclaim. "We gatz do dis," Michael Nicolls, di Starlink engineer, tell colleagues as e receive di order, one of dis pipo tell Reuters. Di report say staff bin obey, di three pipo tell Reuters, say dem deactivate at least hundred Starlink terminals, dia hexagon-shaped cells go dark for internal map of di company coverage. Di move bin also affect oda areas wey Russia seize, including some of Donetsk province inside east. According to di report, sake of Musk order, Ukrainian troops suddenly face communications blackout, according to wetin one Ukrainian military official, advisor to di armed forces, and two odas wey experience Starlink failure near di front lines. Soldiers bin panic, drones wey dey survey Russian forces bin go dark, and long-range artillery units, wey dey rely on Starlink to aim dia fire, struggle to hit targets. As a result, di Ukrainian military official and di military advisor say, troops bin fail to surround a Russian position for di town of Beryslav, east of Kherson, di administrative center of di region of di same name. Meanwhile, Ukraine counteroffensive bin succeed to reclaim Beryslav, di city of Kherson and some additional territory wey Russia don occupy. But Musk order, wey neva dey previously reported, na di first instance of di billionaire actively shutting off Starlink coverage ova a battlefield during di conflict, Reuters report. Reuters report say Musk and Nicolls no respond to dia requests for comment. But one SpaceX tok tok pesin say through mail say wetin di news agency bin report dey "inaccurate" and refer reporters to X post earlier dis year wia di company say: "Starlink dey fully committed to provide service to Ukraine." Di office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and di kontri Ministry of Defence no respond to Reuters requests for comment. Starlink still dey provide service to Ukraine, and di Ukrainian military rely on am for some connectivity.
Reuters
3 hours ago
- Reuters
Exclusive: US diplomats asked if non-whites qualify for Trump refugee program for South Africans
WASHINGTON, July 25 (Reuters) - In early July, the top official at the U.S. embassy in South Africa reached out to Washington asking for clarification on a contentious U.S. policy: could non-whites apply for a refugee program geared toward white South Africans if they met other requirements? President Donald Trump's February executive order establishing the program specified that it was for "Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination," referring to an ethnic group descended mostly from Dutch settlers. In a diplomatic cable sent July 8, embassy Charge d'Affairs David Greene asked whether the embassy could process claims from other minority groups claiming race-based discrimination such as "coloured" South Africans who speak Afrikaans. In South Africa the term coloured refers to mixed-raced people, a classification created by the apartheid regime still in use today. The answer came back days later in an email from Spencer Chretien, the highest-ranking official in the State Department's refugee and migration bureau, saying the program is intended for white people. Reuters was unable to independently verify the precise language in the email which was described to the news agency by three sources familiar with its contents. The State Department, responding to a request for comment on July 18, did not specifically comment on the email or the cable but described the scope of the policy as wider than the guidance in Chretien's email. The department said U.S. policy is to consider both Afrikaners and other racial minorities for resettlement, echoing guidance posted on its website in May saying that applicants "must be of Afrikaner ethnicity or be a member of a racial minority in South Africa." Chretien declined to comment through a State Department spokesperson. Greene did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. The internal back-and-forth between the embassy and the State Department - which hasn't been previously reported - illustrates the confusion in how to implement a policy designed to help white Afrikaners in a racially diverse country that includes mixed-race people who speak Afrikaans, as well as whites who speak English. So far the State Department has resettled 88 South Africans under the program, including the initial group of 59 who arrived in May. Another 15 are expected to arrive by the end of August, one of the sources said. Trump, a Republican who recaptured the White House pledging a wide-ranging immigration crackdown, placed an indefinite freeze on refugee admissions from around the world after taking office, saying the U.S. would only admit refugees who "can fully and appropriately assimilate." Weeks later, he issued an executive order that called for the U.S. to resettle Afrikaners, describing them as victims of "violence against racially disfavored landowners," allegations that echoed far-right claims but which have been contested by South Africa's government. Since the executive order, U.S. diplomats working to implement the program have been deliberating internally about which racial groups could be considered eligible, one of the sources said. In the July 8 cable, Greene laid out a summary of the different ethnic and racial groups in the country before seeking guidance on eligibility. In addition to Afrikaners and mixed-race South Africans, Greene mentioned indigenous South Africans known as the Khoisan people. He said that members of the Jewish community had also expressed interest, but that in South Africa they are considered a religious minority and not a racial group. "In the absence of other guidance, [the U.S. embassy] intends to give consideration to well-founded claims of persecution based on race for other racial minorities," Greene wrote. At least one family identified as coloured has already traveled to the U.S. as refugees, two people familiar with the matter said. The cable forced the administration to clarify its position on whether the policy is for whites only, and if it does include other aggrieved minorities, who would qualify, two of the people familiar with the matter said. Chretien, a conservative who wrote op-eds promoting the Heritage Foundation's "Project 2025" plan to overhaul the federal government, is the senior official at the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. During the apartheid era, which ended with the first democratic elections in 1994, South Africa maintained a racially segregated society with separate schools, neighborhoods and public facilities for people classified as Black, coloured, white or Asian. Blacks make up 81% of South Africa's population, according to 2022 census data. Coloured South Africans make up 8%, and Indians 3%. Afrikaners and other white South Africans constitute 7% of the population but own three-quarters of the privately held land in the country. When asked about the program in May, Trump said he was not giving Afrikaners preferential treatment because they are white. "They happen to be white, but whether they are white or Black makes no difference to me," he said. In response to a request for comment, a White House official said the administration's policy reflected Trump's executive order. 'We will prioritize refugee admissions for South African citizens, including Afrikaners and other racial minorities in South Africa, who have been targeted by the discriminatory laws of the South African government," the official said. The assertion that minority white South Africans face discrimination from the Black majority has spread in far-right circles for years and been echoed, opens new tab by white South African-born Elon Musk, a U.S. citizen who served as a top White House aide during the first four months of Trump's administration. The South African government has rejected the allegations of persecution and a "white genocide." There is no evidence to back up claims of widespread, race-based attacks in the country. During a combative Oval Office meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in May, Trump showed a printed image of a Reuters video taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of what he falsely presented as evidence of mass killings of white South Africans. The South African Chamber of Commerce said earlier this year that 67,000 people were interested in the program.
