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Moody’s reminds Asia of risks of being Washington’s bankerTOKYO — If Pan Gongsheng gets tired of central banking, the People’s Bank of China governor may have a future in hedge fund management.In March, before the April chaos in US debt markets and last week’s US credit downgrade, Pan’s PBOC and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) displayed impeccable market timing, quietly reducing Beijing’s leverage to the dollar. So much so that Beijing is now only the No 3 holder of US Treasuries, leaving the dubious No 2 honor to the UK.As recently as 2019, China was the top financier…

Reuters  —  Portugal’s ruling center-right Democratic Alliance (AD) won a snap parliamentary election on Sunday but again fell short of the majority needed to end a long period of instability as the far-right Chega gained a record share of the vote. Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said the election result was a vote of confidence in his party, but with votes from abroad still to be counted Chega could supplant the center-left Socialists as the main opposition party, ending almost 40 years of dominance by the country’s two major parties. Continued political instability could delay structural reforms and major projects in…

GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization on Monday opened its annual meeting of government ministers and other top envoys facing one of the most serious crises of its 77-year history in the wake of Trump administration funding cuts and plans to withdraw the United States.The U.N. health agency this year has seen a plunge in its ability to carry out its sweeping mandate to do everything from recommend reductions in sugar levels in soft drinks to head the global response to pandemics like COVID-19 or outbreaks like polio or Ebola.Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has been grappling with a response…

WASHINGTON — The House Budget Committee advanced President Donald Trump’s multitrillion-dollar domestic policy package Sunday night, two days after a group of conservatives voted to reject it. The vote was 17-16 along party lines, with the four Republicans who opposed the bill in committee Friday voting “present.” The outcome is a positive sign for the massive party-line bill after a significant setback Friday, but it will still need changes before it secures the votes to pass the full House. And if it does, it will face plenty of challenges in the Senate, where Republicans have made it clear it won’t…

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — There’s a long way to go yet in Poland’s presidential election — but Sunday’s first round was a good day for candidates on the political right and far right and it flashed a big red warning signal for the moderate government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.Tusk’s candidate, liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, and a conservative opponent backed by the national conservative Law and Justice party, Karol Nawrocki, emerged ahead in a pack of 13 candidates. They were extremely close — Trzaskowski with 31.36% of the votes and Nawrocki with 29.54%, according to final results released Monday…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Get inspired by a weekly roundup on living well, made simple. Every night, Lauren Finney Harden and her husband would awaken to the cries of their first-born daughter, and a routine game of “paci pong” — where each parent takes turns retrieving the fallen pacifier — would ensue. After countless sleepless nights, the Atlanta mother of two said she decided to enlist the help of the “paci fairy,” who would come in the middle of the night to exchange her 18-month-old’s prized binky for a brand-new pack of stickers. And it worked. “I was shocked at…

BANGKOK (AP) — Three people were killed and several others injured when they were struck by lightning while visiting Cambodia’s famous Angkor Wat temple complex.They had been seeking shelter around the main temple of the UNESCO site when the lightning struck late Friday afternoon.Video posted on social media showed two ambulances arriving in the aftermath and onlookers and site officials carrying out some injured people and helping others out on foot. Other images showed multiple people being treated in the hospital. The day after the incident, Cambodia’s Minister of Tourism Hout Hak issued a statement telling people to take down…

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani police stepped up their search Monday for the suspect in the killing of a doctor from the country’s tiny Ahmadi minority, the latest in a string of deadly attacks targeting the community. The physician was gunned down at a private hospital where he worked in the eastern city of Sargodha on Friday; the gunman fled the scene. The Ahmadi religion is an offshoot of Islam but Pakistan declared Ahmadis non-Muslims in 1974. There are about 500,000 Ahmadis in Pakistan, a nation of 250 million. No one claimed responsibility for Friday’s killing but supporters of Tehreek-e-Labbaik…

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV and U.S. Vice President JD Vance met at the Vatican on Monday ahead of a flurry of U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to make progress on a ceasefire in Russia’s war in Ukraine.Vance, a Catholic convert, had led the U.S. delegation to the formal Mass opening the pontificate of the first American pope. Joining him at the meeting on Monday was Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also a Catholic, Vance spokesperson Luke Schroeder said. Pope Leo XIV meets with Vice President JD Vance, center, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, on the occasion of their…

Socotra, Yemen AP  —  On a windswept plateau high above the Arabian Sea, Sena Keybani cradles a sapling that barely reaches her ankle. The young plant, protected by a makeshift fence of wood and wire, is a kind of dragon’s blood tree — a species found only on the Yemeni island of Socotra that is now struggling to survive intensifying threats from climate change. “Seeing the trees die, it’s like losing one of your babies,” said Keybani, whose family runs a nursery dedicated to preserving the species. Known for their mushroom-shaped canopies and the blood-red sap that courses through their…