PUERTO RICO
Businessmen ‘defrauded US’
A group of businessmen who imported aluminum have been accused of defrauding the US of nearly US$27 million in unpaid taxes. US Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez said on Friday that Sultana Screens & Aluminum Sales Inc would buy aluminum from China and repackage it in Malaysia, creating fake invoices to pretend the product originated there. She said it would then import the aluminum. A federal grand jury indicted five men and three companies in the alleged scheme. They are also accused of conspiring to transfer nearly US$7 million to Malaysia.
FUEL
Indonesia raises prices
Indonesia announced a fuel price increase of up to 44 percent late on Friday, reducing the costly subsidies that have kept pump prices in Southeast Asia’s largest economy among the world’s lowest. The budget, approved on Monday last week, sets this year’s fuel subsidy at US$20.2 billion — nearly 4 percent of total economic output. The increase — the first in five years — will raise the price of gasoline from about US$0.45 to US$0.65 per liter and diesel fuel from US$0.45 to US$0.55.
CANADA
Hershey fined C$4 million
Hershey Canada Inc was fined C$4 million (US$3.8 million) on Friday after pleading guilty to its role in fixing the price of chocolate confectionery products. The Competition Bureau said the Mississauga, Ontario-based company admitted in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that it conspired, agreed or arranged to fix the price of chocolate confectionery products in 2007. The bureau said Hersey also admitted that in 2007 senior employees communicated with employees at Nestle Canada Inc, Mars Canada Inc and an independent distributor network to exchange pricing information.
OIL
Shell may sell oil blocks
Oil giant Shell announced on Friday it may sell more of its onshore oil blocks in Nigeria, where theft and sabotage have repeatedly cut into production in Africa’s largest crude producer. The British-Dutch firm, Nigeria’s biggest producer, also said the joint venture its Nigerian subsidiary operates was planning to invest US$3.9 billion on gas projects and pipeline work.
INTERNET
Google has to delete data
British authorities on Friday gave Internet giant Google 35 days to delete any remaining data “mistakenly collected” by its Street View cars when taking city snapshots for its map service. The Information Commissioner’s Office has issued Google with an enforcement notice demanding that it destroy four discs containing information it obtained from unsecured wireless networks. The office warned that failure to comply with the order would be considered a criminal offence.
COFFEE
Starbucks to hike US prices
Starbucks says it is hiking prices in the US starting on Tuesday. The Seattle-based coffee company says it is raising prices by 1 percent on average nationally. However, it says the price for many drinks, such as medium and large brewed coffees and Frappuccinos, will not change in most of its 11,000 US cafes.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Taiwan has enough crude oil reserves for more than 100 days and sufficient natural gas reserves for more than 11 days, both above the regulatory safety requirement, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, adding that the government would prioritize domestic price stability as conflicts in the Middle East continue. Overall, energy supply for this month is secure, and the government is continuing efforts to ensure sufficient supply for next month, Kung told reporters after meeting with representatives from business groups at the ministry in Taipei. The ministry has been holding daily cross-ministry meetings at the Executive Yuan to ensure
RATIONING: The proposal would give the Trump administration ample leverage to negotiate investments in the US as it decides how many chips to give each country US officials are debating a new regulatory framework for exporting artificial intelligence (AI) chips and are considering requiring foreign nations to invest in US AI data centers or security guarantees as a condition for granting exports of 200,000 chips or more, according to a document seen by Reuters. The rules are not yet final and could change. They would be the first attempt to regulate the flow of AI chips to US allies and partners since US President Donald Trump’s administration said it rescinded its predecessor’s so-called AI diffusion rules. Those rules sought to keep a significant amount of AI
A new worry has been rippling across the stock market lately: Entire businesses, not just their employees, might be thrown out of work. While most economists say fears of an artificial intelligence (AI) job apocalypse are overblown, seismic shifts have happened in the past after big tech breakthroughs. The IT revolution of the 1990s led to a surge in productivity that sped up the US economy for several years. It also rendered companies or even industries largely redundant — from travel agents and stockbrokers to classified advertising and newspapers, or video rental stores. Economists expect AI would deliver higher productivity,
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