China is seeing a fresh fundraising boom for artificial intelligence-powered drug developers, with start-ups including a ByteDance spin-off raising hundreds of millions of dollars this week as investors rush to back domestic challengers to Anthropic and Isomorphic Labs. Anew Labs, a Shanghai-based AI drug discovery firm and former unit of Chinese tech giant ByteDance, has raised US$290 million at a valuation of US$1.5 billion, according to an informed source. Investors included prominent venture...
Read full articleMANILA, Philippines — Once seemingly a distant vision of the future, electrified vehicles are becoming an increasingly common sight on Philippine roads, especially among Filipinos who can afford to ditch their fuel-guzzling cars as an oil crisis drives up the cost of getting around. Since the year began, electrified vehicle sales in the country have more
In 2007, I wrote an article entitled “BP 22 Defanged,” where I observed that Batas Pambansa Blg. 22, the Bouncing Checks Law (BP 22), had been weakened by two developments: the Supreme Court’s policy preference for a fine rather than imprisonment (SC Administrative Circular Nos. 12-2000 and 13-01) and decisions requiring the prosecution to prove
Motorists should brace for another round of big-time increases in pump prices to be implemented in the coming week, as the Middle East crisis continues to disrupt the global petroleum market.
Japan is adding a fresh layer of uncertainty to global financial markets by potentially triggering a new bout of turmoil in bond markets and dampening the appetite for risk assets, as Tokyo’s pursuit of increased defence spending stokes concerns about fiscal discipline and sends sovereign bond yields to multi-year highs. The nation’s 10-year bond yield hit 3.03 per cent this week, a level not seen in three decades, while 30-year bond yields traded at 4.1 per cent, also nearing a 30-year high....
TAT's Nihao Month 2026 targets Chinese tourists with Meituan promotions, cultural events, and KOL trips to boost engagement.
Hong Kong shopping mall operators are extending a strategy used during this year’s Fifa World Cup into the Asian Games, leveraging major sporting events to draw visitors and support tenant sales as retailers face competition from Shenzhen, overseas shopping and online spending. Sino Group is among the landlords expanding the strategy beyond tournament broadcasts. It has projected foot traffic across its four malls to increase during its Asian Games campaign, with selected merchants forecast to...
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) has opened a new P74.4-million rice processing facility in Cabanatuan to improve postharvest processing in Nueva Ecija, the country’s top rice-producing province. The facility, inaugurated on Thursday, includes a multi-stage rice mill that can process 4 to 5 tons per hour, along with three recirculating dryers, each
MANILA, Philippines — Philippine production at Japanese automotive giant Toyota may slow in 2026 as weak demand weighs on vehicle sales, putting the automaker on track to fall short of its banner production year in 2025. According to Toyota Motor Philippines senior vice president Sherwin Chua-Lim, output from the company’s Santa Rosa plant in Laguna may
MANILA, Philippines — Philippine meat importers are pushing back against the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) bid to reclassify frozen pork jowls as swine meat, a move that would raise the tariff on the imported cut to up to 40 percent. In a June petition to the Tariff Commission, the DA noted that retailers and food
MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Stock Exchange director Ma. Vivian Yuchengco urged the Securities and Exchange Commisison (SEC) to revoke term-limit rules for broker-directors, asserting that shareholders should determine the tenure of their elected representatives on the board. In a statement, Yuchengco reiterated her opposition to SEC Memorandum Circular No. 17, Series of 2026, which caps broker-directors’
MANILA, Philippines — The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) is on track to activate P23.5 billion worth of transmission projects this year as it works to strengthen the country’s grid network further. Breaking it down, NGCP assistant vice president Leonor Felipa Cynthia Alabanza said the grid operator is spending around P11 billion to finish
MANILA, Philippines — Philippine debt could climb to as much as 70.7 percent of gross domestic product by 2027 under a severe downside economic scenario, according to a sensitivity test that flagged the government’s growth assumptions as still too optimistic. The estimate is not a forecast but forms part of the alternative growth scenarios developed by