■RUSSIA
Retail sales rose 13.8%
Retail sales growth slowed last month as average wages rose at a slower pace. Sales climbed an annual 13.8 percent last month, compared with a revised 14.5 percent in May, the Moscow-based Federal Statistics Service said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. That was less than the 14.5 percent median forecast of 16 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Russia has entered its 10th consecutive year of economic growth, helping to boost wages and spending on food, clothes and other consumer goods. Average wages have increased sixfold since 2000. Wages increased an annual 11.7 percent last month, reaching 17,808 rubles (US$766.94), the Statistics Service said.
■AVIATION
SkyEurope to cut routes
Slovak low-cost airline SkyEurope plans to cut its routes this winter in the face of spiraling oil prices, the idnes.cz news Web site reported on Sunday, citing company officials. The airline is to cut flights from Prague to Sofia and Lisbon and from Slovakia’s Bratislava and Kosice to Irish and British destinations Dublin, Cork and Birmingham, the report said. The company, which flies to 41 European destinations, will also slash a planned route from the Czech capital to Larnaca, Cyprus. “We are canceling our longest flights that are understandably the most burdened by oil prices,” idnes.cz cited CEO Jason Bitter as saying. The company also plans to ground at least two from its 15 planes this winter, Bitter said. SkyEurope has been in the red since transporting its first passenger in 2002.
■ENERGY
Vopak obtains financing
Royal Vopak NV, the world’s largest oil and chemical storage company, said it got 745 million euros (US$1.2 billion) in financing for its Rotterdam liquefied natural gas terminal. Vopak got the financing from the European Investment Bank and a group of banks, the Rotterdam-based company said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. The company is building the 800 million euro terminal with Dutch gas distribution company Gasunie NV.
■AUTOMOBILES
Ssangyong to freeze facility
South Korea’s smallest automaker, Ssangyong Motor, will shut down its plant for almost three weeks this summer because of sluggish demand for its gas-guzzling SUVs, union officials said yesterday. The management and union at the Chinese-owned carmaker had agreed to the shutdown from July 31 through Aug. 17 at the plant in Pyeongtaek, union officials said. Workers will get 70 percent of their regular pay during the shutdown. The paint shop will be refurbished during this period. Ssangyong, owned by China’s Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (上海汽車工業), was the only automaker among the country’s five players to report a fall in vehicle sales last month, with sales plunging 67 percent from a year earlier.
■FASHION
Esprit deputy chair quits
Esprit Holdings Ltd, the Hong Kong-based worldwide retailer of its own-brand clothes, said John Poon (潘祖明) resigned as deputy chairman and chief financial officer on Sunday to “pursue other interests.” Paul Cheng (鄭明訓), a 71-year-old independent non-executive director, was to take over as deputy chairman immediately, Esprit said in a statement to Hong Kong’s stock exchange yesterday. Ernst-Peter Vogel, senior vice president for finance in Europe at the firm, was named deputy chief financial officer.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
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