KBC Channel 1

Author: BBC News

  • Disney star and pop singer Coco Lee dies at 48

    Disney star and pop singer Coco Lee dies at 48

    Singer Coco Lee, who enjoyed pop stardom in Asia in the 1990s and 2000s, has died at the age of 48.

    Born in Hong Kong, Lee moved to the US as a child and released albums in Mandarin and English.

    She also voiced the lead character in the Mandarin version of Disney’s hit film Mulan, and performed a song from the soundtrack of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon at the 2001 Oscars.

    Her sisters said she had been in a coma since a suicide attempt at the weekend.

    Lee had been suffering from depression for a few years, older sisters Carol and Nancy wrote in a Facebook post.

    She tried to take her own life at home on Sunday and was taken to hospital, where she died on Wednesday, they wrote.

    Lee broke into the Mandopop scene in 1994 with two Mandarin albums. Within the next year, she released an English-language album as well as a third Mandarin album.

    “Not only did she bring us joy with her songs and dances in the past 29 years, she also worked hard to break new ground for Chinese singers in the international music scene and has been doing her utmost to shine for the Chinese,” Lee’s sisters wrote.

    She also sang the Mandarin version of the Mulan theme song, Reflection; while her song Before I Fall in Love is on the soundtrack to the 1999 Hollywood film Runaway Bride, starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere.

    Her performances included a Michael Jackson & Friends benefit concert in South Korea in 1999, and she was a judge on TV talent shows including Chinese Idol.

    This past New Year’s Eve, Lee said in an Instagram post that she had “faced major life changing hurdles”, and described 2022 as an “incredibly difficult year”.

    ‘Trademark bright smile’

    Her latest single Tragic was released on 14 February this year.

     

    In March, she said on Facebook that she had undergone pelvic and thigh surgery after triggering an old leg injury during dance practice late last year.

    In 2011, Lee married Bruce Rockowitz, former chief executive officer of Hong Kong-based supply chain giant Li & Fung. They have two daughters from his previous marriage.

    Rumours that they had split started to surface about three years ago, but Lee never addressed them.

    On Wednesday, Lee’s sisters wrote: “In addition to remembering Coco, I hope that you will share her trademark bright smile, honesty and kindness with everyone around you, and continue Coco’s wish that all those around her will feel her love and joy.”

  • Facebook owner Meta set to launch Twitter rival on Thursday

    Facebook owner Meta set to launch Twitter rival on Thursday

    Facebook owner Meta is launching its new app to rival Twitter and says it will go live on Thursday.

    The app, which is called Threads and is available for pre-order on the Apple App Store, will be linked to Instagram.

    Screengrabs show a dashboard that looks similar to Twitter. Meta describes Threads as a “text based conversation app”.

    The move is the latest in a rivalry between Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter owner Elon Musk.

    Last month, the pair agreed to a physical fight, though it is unclear how serious the two men were about actually holding a bout.

    “Thank goodness they’re so sanely run”, Mr Musk responded to a tweet about Threads, in an apparent fresh swipe at Mr Zuckerberg.

    Meanwhile, Twitter has said that the popular user dashboard, TweetDeck will go behind a paywall in 30 days time.

    The move is the latest push by Mr Musk as he tries to get users to sign up to Twitter’s subscription service, Twitter Blue.

    On Saturday, the multi-billionaire restricted the number of tweets users could see, citing extreme “data scraping”.

    It appears from Meta’s Threads app that it will be a free service – and there will be no restrictions on how many posts a user can see.

    “Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow” the description on the App Store says.

    Pictures show screengrabs from the app, that look almost identical to Twitter.

    It being a Meta app, Threads will also hoover up data on your phone, including location data, purchases and browsing history.

    Several apps that bear a striking resemblance to Twitter have sprung up in recent years – such as Donald Trump’s Truth Social and Mastodon.

    Another similar app, Bluesky claimed to have seen “record” traffic after Mr Musk’s move to restrict usage at the weekend.

    However, Threads could be the biggest threat faced by Twitter to date.

    Mark Zuckerberg has a history of borrowing other company’s ideas – and making them work.

    Meta’s Reels is widely seen as a TikTok copy, while Stories looks similar to Snapchat.

    Meta has the resources to compete with Twitter. Threads will be part of the Instagram platform, so it will also be connected to hundreds of millions of accounts. It’s not starting from zero, as other would-be rivals have had to do.

    Although Mr Musk has been praised in some quarters for his commitment to free speech, he has also alienated some users.

    Mr Zuckerberg will hope he can pull enough disenchanted users away from Twitter to create a genuine alternative.

  • Tesla delivers record number of cars after price cuts

    Tesla delivers record number of cars after price cuts

    Electric carmaker Tesla says it delivered a record number of vehicles in the three months to the end of June, after cutting prices to boost sales.

    It has lowered prices in markets including the US, UK and China to compete with rival manufacturers.

    This weekend, major Chinese car makers also reported a surge in sales in June.

    Earlier this year, Tesla boss Elon Musk said he believed pursuing higher sales, with lower profits, was the “right choice” for the company.

    On Sunday, Tesla said it delivered 466,140 vehicles in the second quarter, which was more than 80% higher than a year earlier.

    Meanwhile, the company said it had increased vehicle production to nearly 480,000 in the same period.

    “Tesla has made a strategic choice to be a volume manufacturer,” Bill Russo, the founder and chief executive of advisory firm Automobility, told the BBC.

    “This was the main contributor to the sales increase, as its mainly higher-volume Model 3 and Model Y benefitted from the price war,” he added.

    Dan Ives from investment firm Wedbush Securities told the BBC that “the price cuts in China have been a smart poker move that was massively successful for Tesla”.

    China is Tesla’s second largest market after North America.

    The firm been cutting prices in the world’s second largest economy, where it faces competition from local electric car makers.

    Over the weekend, Beijing based Li-Auto said its deliveries had hit an all-time high of 32,575 in June, marking its third consecutive monthly sales record.

    Meanwhile, deliveries by Shanghai-based Nio and Guangzhou-based Xpeng jumped to 10,707 and 8,620 respectively during the month.

    Tesla has also been grappling with increased competition in other parts of the world, and the impact of higher borrowing costs for customers.

    It has responded by cutting prices this year.

    In April, Tesla said it had no plans to stabilise the prices of its vehicles, even though repeated price cuts had dented profits.

    “We’re not ‘starting a price war’, we’re just lowering prices to enable affordability at scale,” Mr Musk wrote on his social media platform, Twitter.

    At the time Tesla said that its overall revenue had risen by almost a quarter in the first quarter from a year ago, as car sales increased.

    However, its profit for the same period dropped by 24%, because of price cuts and higher costs of raw materials and other commodities.

    The company is due to report its financial results for the second quarter on 19 July.

  • Crisis-hit Pakistan strikes $3bn IMF bailout deal

    Crisis-hit Pakistan strikes $3bn IMF bailout deal

    Crisis-hit Pakistan has reached a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over $3bn (£2.4bn) of funding.

    The deal, which still needs to be approved by the global lender’s board, comes after an eight-month delay.

    The South Asian nation is facing its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1947.

    To help secure the deal, Pakistan’s central bank raised its main interest rate to a record high of 22% on Monday.

    Pakistan’s economy, which was already struggling after years of financial mismanagement, has been pushed to the brink by a global energy crisis and devastating floods that hit the country last year.

    “The economy has faced several external shocks such as the catastrophic floods in 2022 that impacted the lives of millions of Pakistanis and an international commodity price spike in the wake of Russia’s war in Ukraine,” Nathan Porter, IMF’s mission chief for Pakistan said.

    “As a result of these shocks as well as some policy missteps… economic growth has stalled,” he added.

    Once agreed at staff level such deals are usually granted by the IMF’s Executive Board. The board is expected to consider the agreement in the coming weeks.

    “This deal gives Pakistan the economic breathing room that it so badly needs,” Michael Kugelman from the US-based Wilson Center think tank told the BBC.

    “The question is if it can use this IMF deal as an opportunity to pivot from immediate relief to a long-term recovery,” he added.

    Katrina Ell, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics, said: “High inflation coupled with limited foreign reserves and lacking macroeconomic stability take time and sustained fiscal discipline to overcome.”

    Pakistan’s annual inflation rate hit a fresh record high in May of almost 38%.

    The $3bn of funding, which will be spread over nine months, is higher than expected.

    Pakistan was awaiting the release of the remaining $2.5bn from a $6.5bn bailout package agreed in 2019, which expired on Friday.

    The nation of more than 230 million people has been struggling for years to stabilise its economy.

    This year the country’s foreign exchange reserves fell to a level that covered less than three weeks of imports.

    Deadly clashes between supporters of Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan and police have also rattled financial markets.

    In May, Mr Khan was arrested on corruption charges, in a move that has since been ruled as illegal by the country’s Supreme Court.

    Over the last year the Pakistan rupee has fallen by around 40% against the US dollar.

    Separately, donors from around the world have pledged more than $9bn to help Pakistan recover from devastating floods that hit the country in 2022.

    It had been estimated that it needed more than $16bn to recover from the disaster.

  • Sri Lanka: Five-day bank holiday for domestic debt restructuring

    Sri Lanka: Five-day bank holiday for domestic debt restructuring

    Sri Lanka began a five-day bank holiday from Thursday to allow the crisis-hit nation to restructure $42bn (£33.2bn) in domestic debt.

    The country is facing its worst economic crisis since it won independence from the British in 1948.

    There are fears that the government’s restructuring plan could lead to volatility in financial markets.

    Debt restructuring can involve the extension of the period over which a loan is repaid.

    “The government’s action to call an extended public holiday means it obviously saw the risk of bank runs,” Alex Holmes, a senior economist at Oxford Economics, told the BBC.

    Local media also quoted analysts as saying that the holiday was announced to provide a suitable buffer for any potential market reactions to significant financial announcements.

    Earlier this week, Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe reassured the public that that the restructuring would “not lead to a collapse of the banking system”.

    On Wednesday, Mr Wickremesinghe’s office said his cabinet had approved a restructuring proposal by the country’s central bank. The plan will be submitted to parliament for approval over the weekend.

    “(The) government expects the entire process to conclude while the markets are closed during these five days,” Sri Lanka central bank chief Nandalal Weerasinghe said.

    Mr Weerasinghe added that “local depositors are assured of the safety of their deposits and interests will not be affected”.

    The move to restructure domestic debt comes as the country is struggling to come out of its worst economic crisis.

    Last year, Sri Lanka defaulted on its debt with international lenders for the first time in its post-independence history.

    However, there have been several important lifelines extended to the country in recent months.

    The World Bank has just granted it $700m, following a $3bn bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

    The World Bank said in a statement on Thursday that it would provide support in a “phased approach”.

    The organisation added that it has allocated $500m to budgetary support, while the remaining $200m would be used to “provide better-targeted income and livelihood opportunities to the poor and vulnerable”.

    The IMF’s bailout in March, which was nearly a year in the making, was viewed as a massive lifeline for Sri Lanka.

    However, the bailout came with conditions, such as requiring the country to make “swift progress” on restructuring its debts.

    In March, the IMF said Sri Lanka had secured financing assurances from all its major creditors, including China and India, which paved the way for the bailout.

    The IMF has so far released around $330m in funds to Sri Lanka, with the rest due in disbursements over four years.

    The economic crisis

    Sri Lanka’s economy has been hit hard by the pandemic, rising energy prices, populist tax cuts and inflation of more than 50%.

    A shortage of medicines, fuel and other essentials also helped to push the cost of living to record highs, triggering nationwide protests which overthrew the ruling government in 2022.

    Sri Lanka’s central bank outlined the extent of the country’s economic crisis earlier this year.

    According to its latest annual report, “several inherent weaknesses” and “policy lapses” helped to trigger the severe economic problems that engulfed the South Asian nation.

    The central bank also forecast that the Sri Lankan economy would shrink by 2% this year, but expand by 3.3% in 2024.

    Its prediction is more optimistic than that of the IMF, which forecasted economic growth of 1.5% in Sri Lanka next year.

  • Madonna postpones tour after intensive care stay

    Madonna postpones tour after intensive care stay

    Madonna has postponed her world tour after being taken to a hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU) with a serious bacterial infection.

    According to her manager, the global popstar’s infection was “serious” and led to “a several day stay in the ICU”. He added a full recovery is expected.

    In a statement, Guy Oseary said Madonna’s health is improving, but she is still under medical care.

    Madonna, 64, was expected to launch her 84-date tour next month.

    She is believed to be receiving treatment at a hospital in New York City, US media reports.

    The pop icon aimed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of her breakout single, Holiday, by embarking on her first ever greatest hits tour.

    Dubbed the Celebration Tour, this would be the singer’s return to arenas and stadiums after her experimental, theatre-based Madame X shows in 2019 and 2020.

    Some of those performances were called off due to the star’s knee and hip injuries.

    “Sorry I had to cancel tonight,” the star wrote on Instagram after cancelling a 2020 performance in Lisbon, “but I must listen to my body and rest!”

    Madonna’s latest tour was due to start in Vancouver, Canada, on 15 July and end on 30 January in Mexico City.

    But the singer-songwriter’s manager said Madonna developed a “serious bacterial infection” on Saturday 24 June and all commitments would need to be paused as a result.

    She was due to begin the UK and Europe portion of her tour on 14 October, scheduled to begin and end at London’s O2 Arena.

    In announcing the tour back in January, she told fans: “I am excited to explore as many songs as possible in hopes to give my fans the show they have been waiting for.”

    Madonna’s greatest hits span several decades – including Into The Groove (1985), Like A Prayer (1989), to Vogue (1990) and Hung Up (2005) to name a few.

    It is likely that Madonna – who is intensely private about health matters – was in the final stages of a rehearsal regime in preparation for the tour.

    In 2009, she was awarded a Guinness World Record for the highest-grossing music tour by a female artist after completing her Sticky & Sweet Tour.

    American magazine Forbes lists her as the 45th richest self-made woman in the US with an estimated wealth of $580m (£460m) and says she has earned an estimated $1.2bn from tours.

    She has six children. Last week, she posted to her 18.9m Instagram followers to congratulate her twin 10-year-old daughters for completing elementary school.

    Madonna Louise Ciccone grew up in the city of Detroit, Michigan. In 1978, she moved to New York to pursue a career in dance and music.

    Earlier this year, her older brother Anthony Ciccone died aged 66 after struggling with alcoholism and homelessness.

  • Meta: Facebook owner launches virtual reality subscription service

    Meta: Facebook owner launches virtual reality subscription service

    Facebook owner Meta has launched a virtual reality (VR) subscription service as it tries to make that part of its business profitable.

    Meta says paying users will get access to two new games a month.

    For the first three months of the year, the parent company of Instagram saw a $4bn (£3.1bn) loss at its VR unit.

    Meta faces competition from firms including technology giant Apple, which unveiled its highly anticipated mixed-reality headset this month.

    On Monday, the company said the Meta Quest+ service, which costs $7.99 a month or $59.99 for an annual subscription, was compatible with its Quest 2, Quest Pro and upcoming Quest 3 headsets.

    In 2021, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg unveiled plans to build a “metaverse” – an online world where people can play games, work and communicate in a virtual environment, often using VR headsets.

    “Over time, I hope that we are seen as a metaverse company and I want to anchor our work and our identity on what we’re building towards,” Mr Zuckerberg said.

    In February last year, Meta unveiled several ambitious artificial intelligence projects, and Mr Zuckerberg described AI as “the key to unlocking the metaverse”.

    The company reported a profit of $5.7bn for the first three months of this year, surpassing market expectations.

    However, its Reality Labs division, which produces VR headsets and other products, reported a net loss of $4bn for the period.

    Earlier this month, Apple unveiled its Vision Pro mixed-reality headset, in its first major hardware launch in almost a decade.

    Apple’s headset, which will be released early next year in the US, will be priced at $3,499.

    That is considerably more than other headsets currently available in the market. Meta’s VR headsets are priced between $299.99 and $999.99.

  • PwC Australia splits business after tax leak scandal

    PwC Australia splits business after tax leak scandal

    PwC Australia says it will sell its government business for A$1 ($0.70; £0.50) after a scandal over the misuse of confidential government tax plans.

    The accounting giant has also announced the appointment of a new chief executive in the country.

    The move will allow the firm “to move forward with predictability and focus,” PwC Australia said in a statement.

    In January, it emerged that a former PwC Australia partner had leaked the classified information.

    The ex-partner, who was advising the Australian government, had shared drafts of corporate tax avoidance laws with colleagues, who used it to pitch to potential clients. The leaks occurred between 2014 and 2017.

    The company has said that no confidential information had been used to help clients pay less tax.

    However, politicians and officials have called for PwC Australia to be banned from being awarded government contracts until it satisfactorily responded to the scandal.

    Earlier this month, PwC Australia said it had identified 76 current and former partners linked to the scandal and handed their names to Australian lawmakers.

    On Monday, PwC Australia’s acting chief executive Kristin Stubbins told a parliament inquiry that employees who were found to have acted improperly would face “severe” consequences.

    “We have failed the standards we set for ourselves as an organisation, and I apologise on behalf of our firm,” she said.

    PwC Australia appointed Kevin Burrowes as its new chief executive on Sunday. He was previously PwC Network’s global clients and industries leader.

    “He will work with his colleagues and management team to re-earn trust with PwC Australia’s stakeholders,” said Justin Carroll, the chair of PwC Australia’s governance board.

    The company also said it would sell its Australian federal and state government business to private equity firm Allegro Funds, with the aim of reaching a binding agreement for the deal by the end of next month.

    The sale will create two independent firms without any “disruption in vital services to public sector clients,” PwC Australia said.

    PwC Australia’s government business has about 1,750 employees and accounts for around 20% of its annual revenue.

    In May, Tom Seymour, the previous chief executive of PwC Australia, stepped down after he admitted to being one of at least 67 recipients of the sensitive information at the centre of the scandal.

    Later that month, the company put nine partners on leave and overhauled its governance board.

    Australia’s Treasurer Jim Chalmers called the revelations a “shocking breach of trust”.

    For the current financial year, the Australian government is committed to contracts with PwC worth A$255m, according to official data.

    Since the scandal first emerged, major pension funds including AustralianSuper, as well as the country’s central bank, have said they would not sign any new contracts with PwC.

  • Facebook and Instagram to restrict news access in Canada

    Facebook and Instagram to restrict news access in Canada

    Meta has said it will begin to restrict news on its platforms to Canadian consumers after parliament passed a controversial online news bill.

    The bill forces big platforms to compensate news publishers for content posted on their sites.

    Meta and Google have both already been testing limiting access to news to some Canadians.

    In 2021, Australian users were blocked from sharing or viewing news on Facebook in response to a similar law.

    Canada’s Online News Act, which cleared the senate on Thursday, lays out rules requiring platforms like Meta and Google to negotiate commercial deals and pay news organisations for their content.

    Meta has called the law “fundamentally flawed legislation that ignores the realities of how our platforms work”.

    On Thursday, it said news availability will be ended on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada – before the bill takes effect.

    “A legislative framework that compels us to pay for links or content that we do not post, and which are not the reason the vast majority of people use our platforms, is neither sustainable nor workable,” a Meta spokesperson told Reuters.

    The company said the changes to news would not have an impact on other services for Canadian users.

    Google called the bill “unworkable” in its current form and said it was seeking to work with the government to find a “path forward”.

    The federal government says the online news bill is necessary “to enhance fairness in the Canadian digital news market” and to allow struggling news organisations to “secure fair compensation” for news and links shared on the platforms.

    An analysis of the bill by an independent parliament budget watchdog estimated news businesses could receive about C$329m ($250m; £196m) per year from digital platforms.

    Earlier this month, Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez told Reuters the tests being run by the tech platforms were “unacceptable” and a “threat”.

    In Australia, Facebook restored news content to its users after talks with the government led to amendments.

    On Thursday, Mr Rodriguez’s office said he had met both Google and Facebook this week and planned further discussions – but the government would move forward with the bill’s implementation.

    “If the government can’t stand up for Canadians against tech giants, who will?” he said in a statement.

    Media industry groups hailed the bill’s passage as a step towards market fairness.

    “Real journalism, created by real journalists, continues to be demanded by Canadians and is vital to our democracy, but it costs real money,” said Paul Deegan, president and chief executive officer of News Media Canada, a media industry group, said in a statement

    The Online News Act is expected to take effect in Canada in six months.

  • UK inflation unchanged in May as cost of living remains high

    UK inflation unchanged in May as cost of living remains high

    The UK’s inflation rate is remaining stubbornly high, with prices for food, dining out and other recreational activities continuing to rise.

    Inflation, which measures the pace prices rise at, was 8.7% in the year to May, the same rate it was in April.

    Price rises for flights and second-hand cars last month all contributed to prices remaining higher than expected.

    The Bank of England is expected to raise interest rates on Thursday in a bid to slow prices from rising as fast.

    Part of the Bank’s job is to keep inflation at a target rate of 2% – far lower than the current rate of 8.7%.

    It has been steadily raising interest rates since the end of 2021, which make the cost of borrowing money more expensive, in response to consumer prices soaring.

    This has led to concerns over loans, particularly mortgages, with homeowners facing large increases in repayments when fixed-term deals come to an end.

    Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said the government would “not hesitate” in its resolve to support the Bank, which is an independent institution, as it “seeks to squeeze inflation out of our economy”.

    Many households have also already been feeling the pinch of higher prices, in particular for food and energy for months.

    Food price inflation, which is the rate at which prices for groceries have risen compared to the year before, was 18.3% in May, down slightly from 19% in April.

    But Yael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG UK, said despite a “modest easing” of food price inflation, prices for all consumer goods continuing to rise at a fast pace piled the pressure on for more interest rate hikes.

    “More worryingly for the Bank of England, strong core inflation suggests that firms may now be passing on the rising costs from higher wage bills to consumers,” she said.