SAMSUNG Philippines last week announced an addition to its mid-range Galaxy M Series phones available in the country, the M53 5G.

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Tuesday the central bank should maintain its ultra-loose monetary policy, brushing aside opposition calls that the policy be tweaked to target Japan’s rising cost of living.

OAKLAND, CA —  Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday said it would stop selling technology that guesses someone’s emotion based on a facial image and would no longer provide unfettered access to facial recognition technology.

META, MICROSOFT and other tech giants racing to build the emerging metaverse concept have formed a group to foster development of industry standards that would make the companies’ nascent digital worlds compatible with each other.

SHARES ended lower on Wednesday amid fears of further tightening by the Federal Reserve, with its chief set to speak to the US Congress overnight, and ahead of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) policy meeting on Thursday, where it is expected to hike rates anew.

THE PHILIPPINES’ telecommunication regulator has ordered local internet service providers to block the websites of groups identified with the Maoist movement.

INCOMING tax bureau chief Lilia C. Guillermo on Wednesday said she would enforce the collection of the unpaid estate tax of the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, as ordered by the courts.

THE PHILIPPINES on Wednesday said it had detected 32 more infections involving the highly contagious Omicron subvariant BA.5, bringing the total to 43.

THE next administration must ramp up investment in irrigation, starting with the retrofitting of dams to boost their capacity to capture more rainwater, Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar said.

THE National Capital Region (NCR) Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board has approved a P1,000 increase in monthly pay for domestic workers in Metro Manila, the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) said.

THE Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) and advocacy coalition Better Internet PH (BIP) said the incoming administration can get the ball rolling on attracting investment by passing internet connectivity legislation within its first half-year in office. 

LONDON — Soaring food prices pushed British consumer price inflation to a 40-year high of 9.1% last month, the highest rate out of the Group of Seven (G7) countries and underlining the severity of the cost-of-living crunch.