Business

Indonesia is gearing up to inaugurate its new capital Nusantara later this week, on the country's Independence Day. 

Amid delays and slow private investment, President Joko Widodo hailed the unfinished city as a "canvas on which to draw the future".  Yuka Royer takes a closer look at the 30 billion euro megaprojects and convroversies surrounding it. 

Global oil benchmarks Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate surged this Wednesday on the news that Hamas's political leader Ismail Haniyeh had been killed by a suspected Israeli strike in Iran. Fears over a regional escalation of the Israel-Hamas war are fuelling concerns over production and distribution of oil in a region that produces about a third of global supply. Also in this edition, we look ahead to the US Federal Reserve's next decision on interest rates.

On a five-day visit to China, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has vowed to "relaunch" economic cooperation with Beijing and "rebalance trade". She has also sought to position herself as a potential mediator between China and the EU as the two blocs butt heads, especially on the issue of Chinese electric vehicle imports. In this edition, we look at what could make Meloni's job harder.

As Venezuela's opposition contests the re-election of President Nicolas Maduro, we take a closer look at the South American country's economic challenges. Hyperinflation, which reached a peak in 2019, may have subsided but it has underlined issues with wealth inequality and dependence on the oil sector. In addition, Caracas is carrying a massive foreign debt load of around $150 billion.

As the US presidential election campaign is roiled by Joe Biden's decision to pull out of the race against Donald Trump, we look at the role Silicon Valley has been playing in the contest so far. Long a bastion of liberal values, the US tech scene is seeing an increase in backers to Trump and the Republican Party. Michael Fertik, founder and managing partner of Heroic Ventures, tells FRANCE 24 how this has happened and why so many venture capitalists are drawn to the MAGA (Make America Great Again) message. 

The world’s first AI beauty pageant has crowned a virtual Moroccan lifestyle influencer. But first, Spaniards are being pushed out of the property market as tourism breaks new records in the country. China is building more wind and solar power projects than the rest of the world combined. Plus, the UK economy grew faster than expected in May.

US energy generation is getting cleaner, with wind power becoming a bigger source of electricity in the US than coal. The Panama Canal’s administrator is building a billion-dollar water reservoir to compensate for drought. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell tells lawmakers that keeping interest rates elevated for too long could jeopardise economic growth. Plus, the "summer camp for billionaires" kicks off this week.

After the New Popular Front left-wing alliance won the largest number of seats in France's National Assembly, investors have been assessing what this might mean for the French economy. In this edition, we look at what the market reaction to the surprise result has been and take a closer look at the New Popular Front's economic programme.

The European Union has sharply raised import duties on Chinese electric vehicles to address what it sees as unfair competition.
Starting Friday, provisional tariffs of up to 37.6% will be imposed on China-made EVs coming into the EU, on top of the standard 10% tariff on imported cars. 

Meanwhile, China's BYD opened a new factory in Thailand, its first in Southeast Asia, as part of a push to expand its global reach. 
 

The energy required to power AI data centres has caused Google's greenhouse gas emissions to increase 48 percent since 2019. Meanwhile, General Motors is faced with a $146 million fine to settle allegations that its vehicles released more pollution than the carmaker reported. But first, Bolivia's president has announced that the country is lifting its ban on cryptocurrencies.