Deputy Secretary-General for ASEAN Economic Community receives Ambassador of Sweden to ASEAN.Deputy Secretary-General for ASEAN Economic Community, H.E. Satvinder Singh, received a courtesy call from the Ambassador of Sweden to ASEAN, H.E. Daniel Blockert. They discussed potential ways to further strengthen trade and investment relations between ASEAN and Sweden, including by exploring stronger cooperation on areas of shared priority.
Inflation rise in Spain: housing costs, transport and fuel price rises are the main drivers. However, the price of food and non-alcoholic beverages dropped in May 2024. Spain’s year-on-year inflation report for May was released on Thursday morning, coming in at 3.6%, which was in line with market expectations, according to the National Statistics Institute. However, it was above April’s 3.3%. This was mostly driven by increases in housing inflation, which saw a rise of 1.2 points, clocking in at 5.2%. A significant portion of this was due to electricity prices, which had reduced in May 2023, but spiked in May this year. Transport inflation also increased to 3.8%, boosted by increases in fuel prices, which fell less in May 2024 than in May 2023. Hotels, cafes and restaurants’ inflation also inched up 0.7%. Similarly, clothing and footwear inflation jumped up 2.3% this May, driven by stronger demand for new spring-summer collections.
However, food and non-alcoholic beverages prices dropped to 4.4%, mainly due to meat and fruits inflation slowing down in May 2024 from May 2023. Fats and oils’ prices also slowed down this May compared to the previous year. The year-on-year core inflation was 3%, in line with market expectations, but more than April’s 2.9%. On the other hand, the month-on-month inflation for May was 0.3%, which also met analyst forecasts, down from 0.7% in April.
Copyright Manu Fernandez/Copyright 2024 The AP. All rights reserved.
Wimbledon: Game set and match as prize money reaches record. Wimbledon’s total prize money fund will this year reach a record £50 million (€59 million) pounds, All England Club officials have revealed. The singles champions of 2024 will each earn £2.7 million (€3.2 million) and even a first-round competitor can gain some consolation from a prize of £60,000 (€71,000) when he or she gets knocked out. The total amount of prize money on offer is £5.3 million (€6.3 million) more than last year, an increase of 11.9%. The winners’ cheques are £350,000 (€414,000) each on 2023, representing a a 14.9% jump on last year.
Total prize money for the Championships over the past 10 years has doubled, up from £25 million (€29.6 million) in 2014 to this year’s award. Announcing the news, Deborah Jevans, Chair of the All England Club, said: “With this year’s Championships only days away, I am delighted to announce a record prize money fund of £50 million, with increases for players in every round and across every event. “I am particularly pleased that we have been able to increase prize money for the wheelchair and quad wheelchair competitions to £1 million for the first time. “Interest in attending Wimbledon has never been greater, with unprecedented demand for tickets through our public ballot and corporate hospitality. “A thriving, successful Championships gives us the opportunity to give back: to the sport, to our local community, and to strategically invest for the future.”
Copyright Kirsty Wigglesworth/Copyright 2023 The AP. All rights reserved
We can’t disagree. The gated residence offers “unparalleled privacy and elegance,” the listing notes.
The interiors are defined by tall ceilings and “an inviting and spacious atmosphere.”
The open kitchen features high-end appliances and flows to several dining areas. Upstairs, there’s a large primary suite with a private balcony, a walk-in closet, and an en suite bath.
Other highlights include a media area, a custom gym, and a downstairs office perfect for “remote work, music making, or study,” according to the listing.
Out back, there’s a covered patio, pool and spa, and space for entertaining.
When not dabbling in real estate, the Australian-born Wilson has a smashing acting career. She’s had standout roles in the “Pitch Perfect” franchise, “Bridesmaids,” and many a rom-com, including “How To Be Single,” “Isn’t It Romantic,” and “Senior Year.” She recently penned a memoir, “Rebel Rising.”
Photo by Darcy Hemley – © Rebel Wilson
Bangkok to Beijing by train: Thailand expands rail network for epic train trip. Train travel between Bangkok and Beijing is inching closer as Thailand prepares to expand its rail network. The Southeast Asian nation will run a trial service between Bangkok and Laos’ capital of Vientiane between July 13 and 14, according to the State Railway of Thailand. When up and running, the new link will improve transport between the two countries and China, Ekarat Sriarayanphong, an official at the railway agency, said in a statement.
The launch of the Thailand-Laos connection will mean it’s possible to travel by train from Bangkok to China’s capital via stops in Vientiane and the southern Chinese city of Kunming, where there is a separate semi-high speed service to Beijing. The roughly 2,000-mile journey, though the area’s mountainous terrain adds to the distance, will take almost a full day. That compares with just short of five hours for a non-stop flight.
There’s already a high-speed train operating between China and Laos that offers a route for Thai goods to be transported via rail to Kunming, according to a Nikkei report. That’s helped reduce delivery times to China to 15 hours from the two days it takes for trucks to carry freight along the mountainous route, it said. Thailand is looking to improve its connectivity with China, its top trading partner, to help boost economic growth that’s lagging behind regional peers.
Thailand expands rail network for epic train trip (File Photo/Photographer: Valeria Mongelli/Bloomberg
The liberal party of Prime Minister Alexander De Croo OpenVLD lost dramatically in Belgium’s regional, national and EU elections on Sunday. The right-wing New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) emerged as the biggest winner of elections in Belgium on Sunday, with the extreme-right pro-separatist Vlaams Belang in second place.
The country voted in regional, national and European elections, dubbed “super Sunday”. At the national level, the nationalist N-VA led by Bart De Wever received 18.6% of votes, up by more than 2% compared to 2020, while Vlaams Belang, at 15.4%, saw a 3.5% jump, according to the preliminary results published by broadcaster VRT.
De Wever, who held a speech celebrating his party’s win, said that his party is “the leading people’s party [of Flanders]”.
“Flanders has chosen to preserve prosperity. More than ever, Flanders has opted for autonomy. Self-government is the best cure.”
There was a big gap between the far-right and the smaller parties: the far-left Pvda/PTB, left-wing Vooruit and the Christian-Democrats CD&V are all expected to get around 9% of the vote. Liberal OpenVLD of Prime Minister Alexander De Croo – who took office in 2020 – lost dramatically: it’s now expected to get 5.8%.
De Croo, speaking on election night, said it is a “difficult night” for his party.
“We have lost this election. I was the face of the campaign. This is not the result that we hoped for. I take full responsibility,” he said.
Both Flanders and Wallonia have their own governments, parliaments and budgets. N-VA remains the biggest party in Flanders with 24.5% of the vote, despite polls in the past weeks which suggested that it might be overtaken by Vlaams Belang, which scooped 22.8% of the vote in the Flemish-speaking northern region of Belgium. In Wallonia, which is traditionally more left-wing than the north, the liberal MR party polled almost 30% of the votes, followed by the Socialist Party at 22.6% and centrist Les Engagees at 21%. The French-speaking green party Ecolo has lost significantly. In Wallonia it got 7.5% percent of the votes: compared to 15% at the last election. Government formation in Belgium is often complicated by the need to find compromise on a national level. This process took a record 541 days after elections held on 13 June 2010.
Copyright Geert Vanden Wijngaert/Copyright 2017 The AP. All rights reserved.
Issues with Prince Harry and Prince Andrew have ‘brought King Charles and William closer’, with royal sources saying any sense of ‘rivalry’ between the monarch and future heir are now behind them
King Charles III and Prince William are closer than ever amid friction with other members of the royal family, sources have claimed. The King is said to have dispelled any notion of a rivalry with his elder son, who was front and centre at D-Day commemorative events this week as both the monarch and Kate, the Princess of Wales, continue with their respective cancer treatments.
Duties are being spread amongst an increasingly small number of working royals due to health issues, the departure of Harry and Meghan from the UK for the US after and the withdrawal of Prince Andrew from public life amidst scandal. As a result, William has found his diary full of public engagements, not least in France this week where he joined leaders from across the world including US president Joe Biden to remember the D-Day fallen.
Sources have suggested that Charles might once have disliked allowing his son to be more visible in public – but with cancer treatment and the ever-smaller number of working royals to hand, he has been happy to change his thinking. A friend of the King says that in recent years, Charles has consulted his son on tricky family issues involving the likes of Prince Andrew and Harry and Meghan. Their joint efforts to tackle these issues is said to have boosted both their personal and working relationship.
Britney Spears has shared the entire contents of a “cursed” videotape that features in horror movie, The Ring. The 2002 supernatural horror stars Naomi Watts as a journalist named Rachel Keller, who discovers a creepy videotape that kills the viewer seven days after watching it.
On the recording are strange and scary images which come to life as the movie progresses, until dead girl Samara crawls out of the screen with long and bedraggled wet hair. Spears, 42, shared the whole contents of the scary tape as a reel to her Instagram page, which boasts 42 million followers, on Wednesday (5 June).
“Does anybody remember this movie where they hold this little girl captive too long and she finally comes out of the TV walking on her hands and knees and destroyed half the nation?” she wrote in a caption alongside the eerie footage.
DreamWorks/ The Ring / Getty Images
Almost three months after Jim Demetriades hoisted his extravagant Los Angeles compound known as Villa Theos on the market with an impressive $85 million price tag, the veteran tech entrepreneur has now put another smaller house he owns right next door up for sale, asking a smidge under $12.5 million.
The founder and CEO of Kairos Ventures has owned his larger property in the Beverly Hills Post Office area since 2000. That’s when he and his then-new wife Nancy paid $8.4 million for a single house and then began piecing together a gated collection of red brick and stucco structures that cost tens of millions of dollars to assemble and feature a total of 13 bedrooms and 16 baths in 28,000 square feet, all of it resting on two parcels of land spanning over 2 acres.
Along the way, in 2005, the native of Greece doled out around $6.5 million more for the house next door, a contemporary structure originally built in 1956 and previously owned by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Records show the legendary Lakers basketball center acquired the place for roughly $2.2 million in the early 1990s and subsequently added an indoor sports court and a gym with a spa and a steam room. The six-time NBA MVP resided there until summer 2001, at which time he sold the place for $500,000 more than he originally paid.
Sited atop a promontory in the desirable Beverly Crest neighborhood, on almost an acre of land overlooking sweeping city lights and ocean vistas, the four-bedroom, five-bath home is hidden away behind a lengthy gated driveway. Inside, a little more than 6,300 square feet of renovated living space boasts soaring ceilings and vast walls of glass providing seamless indoor/outdoor environs.
Mr. Sermsak Pongpanit, Minister of Tourism and Sports, presided over the opening ceremony. Joing him at the event were Miss. Niracha Banditchat, Vice Governor of Phang-Nga Province, Ms. Thapanee Kiatphaibool, Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), Mr. Lertsak Ponklin, President of Phang-Nga Tourism Association, and officials and figures from the Thai public and private sectors.
Mr. Sermsak said, “The Thailand Travel Mart Plus, organised in line with the government’s “IGNITE Thailand” vision, has played a crucial role as a premier showcase of Thai tourism. I am confident that this year’s event will further affirm its well-earned recognition as a must-attend B2B tradeshow that provides a valuable business platform for sellers and buyers.”
This year, in its 21st edition, the TTM+ presents the theme ‘Amazing Thailand: Your Stories Never End’, the latest marketing communication campaign recently launched by the TAT. The dynamic theme shines a spotlight on Thailand’s direction towards delivering meaningful travel experiences.
