Author: Journalist

European flags in front of the Berlaymont building, headquarters of the European commission in Brussels.The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) consultation on technical standards under the Regulation on the transparency and integrity of ESG rating activities closes on 20 June. The consultation was launched following adoption of the Regulation, which was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 27 November 2024, to bring about a common regulatory approach on the “integrity, transparency, comparability where possible, responsibility, reliability, good governance and independence of ESG rating activities.” ESMA is tasked with deliving the regulatory technical standards to make…

LABUBU is a little doll in a fleecy, bunny-eared onesie whose coffee-bean eyes hover above a smile lined by a row of serrated teeth. Ostensibly an elf, the creature is either cute or creepy, depending on whom you ask. But one thing is clear – it has become a monster of a business.The dolls have been caught on camera with celebrities such as Rihanna and K-pop superstar Lisa, typically dangling from the strap of a designer bag.Their popularity has propelled the stock of its owner, trendy toy retailer Pop Mart International, more than 180 per cent higher this year. Pop…

Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao asked crypto platforms to adopt a “will function” to enable users to distribute their digital assets in the event of their death.“This is a topic people avoid, but the fact is, humans cannot live forever,” CZ wrote on X. “Every platform should have a ‘will function’ so that when someone is no longer around, their assets can be distributed to designated accounts according to specified proportions,” he said.The call comes as Binance rolled out a new emergency contact and inheritance feature as part of its June 12 update, allowing users to designate…

Donald Trump “may decide he needs to take further action” to stop Iran enriching uranium, vice-president JD Vance said on Tuesday.Trump was “only interested in using the American military to accomplish the American people’s goals”, said Vance, who has taken a more isolationist stance on foreign policy than many other Republicans, in comments on X.Vance also wrote that the president “may decide he needs to take further action to end Iranian [uranium] enrichment”, referring to the process that can produce both nuclear fuel and weapons-grade material. “That decision ultimately belongs to the president,” he added.His comments came less than an…

Cryptocurrency multibillionaire Justin Sun could barely contain his glee.Last month, Sun publicly flaunted a $100,000 Donald Trump-branded watch that he was awarded at a private dinner at Trump’s Virginia golf club. Sun had earned the recognition for buying $20m of the crypto memecoin $Trump, ranking him first among 220 purchasers of the token who received dinner invitations.Trump’s much-hyped 22 May dinner and a White House tour the next day for 25 leading memecoin buyers were devised to spur sales of $Trump and wound up raking in about $148m, much of it courtesy of anonymous and foreign buyers, for Trump and…

[SINGAPORE] The following companies saw new developments that may affect trading of their securities on Tuesday (Jun 17):Singapore Airlines (SIA): The national carrier and its low-cost arm Scoot reported a 3.1 per cent year-on-year increase in passenger traffic in May, which eased from the previous month’s growth, according to its operating results on Monday. This figure is slightly ahead of the 2.8 per cent increase in passenger capacity in the same month a year ago. In particular, the budget carrier’s passenger traffic rose 1.4 per cent year on year, compared with SIA’s 3.5 per cent increase. Shares of SIA closed 1…

NEW YORK – Wall Street stocks rose on June 16 on hopes the Israel-Iran conflict will not spiral further, as markets began to look ahead to a Federal Reserve decision later in the week.Iran’s state broadcaster was briefly knocked off air by an Israeli strike after a barrage of Iranian missiles killed 11 people in Israel on the fourth day of an escalating air war. But US stocks spent the entire session in positive territory as oil prices retreated in the absence of a direct hit to oil infrastructure, a sign analysts took as indicating that worse scenarios had not…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the worldCrypto billionaire Justin Sun’s digital asset platform Tron is set to go public in the US, four months after market regulators agreed to pause a fraud investigation into several of his companies. Tron will go public in a reverse merger with Nasdaq-listed SRM Entertainment in a deal orchestrated by Dominari Securities, a New York-based boutique investment bank with ties to Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, according to two people briefed on the matter.The new venture will buy and hold the…

DWS has denied reports that the €25m fine it received earlier this year as part of a greenwashing investigation is linked to specific investment products, including its €20bn flagship fund, Top Dividende. The German asset manager issued a response following allegations published by public broadcasters WDR and NDR, and Süddeutsche Zeitung, that the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office cited Top Dividende and the DWS ESG Blue Economy fund as part of its case. A DWS spokesperson told IPE that the penalty, announced in April, “concerns a standard that relates to the organisation, and not individual products.” The spokesperson added that the…

10h06 ▪ 5 min read ▪ by Mikaia A. The dark hours of the markets sometimes lead us to examine the crypto-sphere from another angle. When gold rises and interest rates cause concern, some already foresee the collapse of digital assets. Yet, far from these pessimistic forecasts, Bitcoin holds strong. And so do its allies. Exchanges, these major strongholds, resist. Even better, Binance emerges revitalized, establishing itself as a crypto fortress that has not yet spoken its last word. In Brief Binance holds 60,000 BTC of unrealized profits, equivalent to nearly 6 billion. More than 250 million users trust Binance,…