Author: Admin

[SINGAPORE] The Republic’s retail sales rose 1.1 per cent in March, reversing February’s 3.5 per cent decline, data from the Department of Statistics (SingStat) showed on Monday (May 5).Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales rose 0.7 per cent year on year, compared with a decrease of 6.5 per cent in February.Retail sales growthYear on year: 1.1 per centYear on year, excluding motor vehicles: 0.7 per centMonth on month, seasonally adjusted: -2.8 per centMonth on month, seasonally adjusted, excluding motor vehicles: -1.2 per centBT in your inboxStart and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your…

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The HMD Key is the latest in a range of affordable smartphones from the manufacturer. It is clearly not aimed at power users who need high specs, but more at discerning, budget-conscious buyers. When the review unit was offered to Ausdroid, I had a few things on my plate at the time, so I thought it might be a good chance (during the school holidays) to get my youngest some hands-on time with her first smartphone. It is an affordable smartphone featuring a 6.52-inch HD display with a 20:9 aspect ratio and 60Hz refresh rate. It is powered by a…

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Seven months after his high-profile arrest, the trial of hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs is set to get underway on Monday.A three-time Grammy winner and one of the most influential hip-hop producers of the past 30 years – also known variously as Puff Daddy, P Diddy and “Love” in the years since he rose to fame in the 1990s – the rapper and founder of Bad Boy Records is now facing serious criminal charges in the US, as well as several civil lawsuits.He has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges, said his sexual relationships were consensual, and strenuously denied all…

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The 2025 Masters are underway, with the first round in the books and second-round play underway on Friday at Augusta National Golf Club. While stars like Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau are drawing plenty of attention as they battle for position at the year’s first major, the drama around who will make it to the weekend is just as intriguing.Only the top 50 players on the leaderboard, including ties, will advance to the third and final rounds on Saturday and Sunday. The tournament began Thursday with a field of 95 golfers. Among those in danger of missing the cut after…

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Moet Hennessy will cut its workforce by more than 10 per cent as the newly installed executives at LVMH’s weakest division seek to reinvigorate its performance. Jean-Jacques Guiony, Moet Hennessy chief executive, and his deputy Alexandre Arnault told staff at the wine and spirits division last week that they planned to cut the workforce back to 2019 levels.Current headcount of 9,400 would need to be reduced by about 1,200, Guiony said, adding that the division’s revenues were at 2019 levels even though costs had increased by 35 per cent since then. “This was an organisation that was built for a…

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[JAKARTA] Indonesia‘s economy grew 4.87 per cent in the first quarter from a year earlier, its weakest growth rate in more than three years, official data showed on Monday, compared with a 4.91 per cent growth rate expected by analysts in a Reuters poll.The January-March growth was the slowest since the third quarter of 2021 and down from 5.02 per cent in the previous quarter.On a non-seasonally adjusted, quarter-on-quarter basis, gross domestic product contracted 0.98 per cent, Statistics Indonesia data showed.Resource-rich Indonesia‘s economic growth has hovered around 5 per cent since the pandemic.President Prabowo Subianto, who took office last year, has pledged to lift…

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New episodes of season 2 of The Last of Us are premiering on HBO every Sunday night, and Ars’ Kyle Orland (who’s played the games) and Andrew Cunningham (who hasn’t) will be talking about them here after they air. While these recaps don’t delve into every single plot point of the episode, there are obviously heavy spoilers contained within, so go watch the episode first if you want to go in fresh. Kyle: We start this episode from the perspective of a band of highly armed FEDRA agents in 2018 Seattle, shooting the shit in a transport that somehow still has usable gasoline. Maybe…

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[HANOI] Vietnam’s prime minister said the nation’s economic growth target remains unchanged this year despite the many challenges it faces, as the threat of US tariffs creates uncertainty for exporters and businesses.“The global economy saw unprecedented movements in the past months, putting pressure on the management of the macro-economy,” Pham Minh Chinh said, addressing the National Assembly in Hanoi on Monday (May 5). Still, Chinh reiterated that the government will keep its target of at least 8 per cent growth this year and double-digit expansion in the coming years. Expansion slowed to 6.93 per cent in the first quarter from…

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