Most Asian markets rise as US rate cut bets temper Japan bond unease

Asian stocks mostly rose Tuesday following the previous day’s stutter, as more weak data helped solidify US interest rate cut optimism and tempered nervousness over rising Japanese bond yields.Expectations that the Federal Reserve will lower borrowing costs have provided a boon to markets in the past few weeks and saw them recover early November’s losses that had been stoked by fears of a tech bubble.Bets on the central bank easing monetary policy for a third successive meeting have been rising since a number of decision-makers said protecting jobs was a bigger concern for them than keeping a lid on elevated inflation.Those comments have been compounded by figures showing the economy — particularly the labour market — continues to soften while inflation appears to have stabilised for now.The latest round of data added to that narrative, with a survey of manufacturers by the Institute for Supply Management indicating that activity in the sector contracted for a ninth straight month.After a mixed day to start the week, most of Asia battled to end with gains, while Europe opened on a negative note.Hong Kong, Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei, Manila and Jakarta were all up, though Shanghai, Mumbai and Bangkok dipped with London, Paris and Frankfurt.Tokyo was flat after giving up early gains, following Monday’s losses that came on the back of comments from Bank of Japan boss Kazuo Ueda hinting at a possible interest rate hike this month.The remarks boosted the yen and provided a jolt to equities as the yield of Japanese two-year government bonds rose past one percent to their highest since 2008 during the global financial crisis. The Japanese unit eased slightly Tuesday as an auction of 10-year bonds received healthy interest.Ueda’s hint also helped pin back Wall Street after last week’s Thanksgiving run-up and dented overall risk sentiment, pulling bitcoin back down.The comments “could mark a de-anchoring of the carry trade, in which traders borrow yen at low cost to invest in riskier assets”, wrote City Index senior market analyst Fiona Cincotta.”A higher rate in Japan could suck liquidity out of the markets. Tech stocks and crypto are particularly sensitive to even the smallest shifts in liquidity.”Still, National Australia Bank’s Rodrigo Catril said Ueda also mentioned the need “to confirm the momentum of initial moves toward next year’s annual spring labour-management wage negotiations”.He said that “implies that the December meeting may be too soon to have a good understanding of the wage momentum for next year”.South Korean tech titan Samsung Electronics surged more than two percent in Seoul as it launched its first triple-folding phone, even as the device’s more than $2,400 price tag places it out of reach for the average customer.- Key figures at around 0815 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: FLAT at 49,303.45 (close) Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.2 percent at 26,095.05 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.4 percent at 3,897.71 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.1 percent at 9,697.50 Dollar/yen: UP at 155.81 yen from 155.50 yen on MondayEuro/dollar: UP at $1.1614 from $1.1608 Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3212 from $1.3211Euro/pound: UP at 87.91 pence from 87.87 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.1 percent at $59.37 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: FLAT at $63.16 per barrelNew York – Dow: DOWN 0.9 percent at 47,289.33 (close)

Le pape célèbre une messe en plein air à Beyrouth, moment fort de sa visite

Plus de 120.000 personnes sont attendues mardi à la messe en plein air présidée par Léon XIV à Beyrouth, moment fort de sa visite au Liban où il a délivré un message de paix et d’unité.Au dernier jour de son déplacement dans le pays meurtri par les conflits et une crise multiforme, le souverain pontife doit également se recueillir sur le site de la terrible explosion qui a dévasté le port de la capitale en 2020, faisant plus de 220 morts.Son voyage apporte un souffle d’espoir au pays, qui a connu une guerre meurtrière avec Israël il y a un an et craint un renouvellement des violences.Le pape s’est rendu mardi dans un hôpital psychiatrique tenu par des religieuses près de Beyrouth, où il a été accueilli par des applaudissements et des pétales de roses jetées sur son convoi.Visiblement émue, Marie Makhlouf, la mère supérieure des Soeurs franciscaines de la Croix, a remercié le pape, “père des oubliés et des marginalisés”.Elle a souligné les difficultés de son établissement à survivre en raison de l’absence d’aides et de l’effondrement des institutions étatiques du fait de la crise économique.”Nous ne pouvons pas oublier les plus fragiles, nous ne pouvons pas imaginer une société qui court à toute vitesse en s’accrochant aux faux mythes de bien-être, et en ignorant les nombreuses situations de pauvreté et de fragilité”, a déclaré Léon XIV en saluant le travail des religieuses.- Prière silencieuse -Le Liban est la seconde étape du premier déplacement international du pape américain, après une visite en Turquie marquée par le dialogue pour l’unité des chrétiens.Cette visite “nous a rendu le sourire (…) après toutes les difficultés que nous avons traversées”, a confié à l’AFP Yasmine Chidiac, qui attendait lundi le passage du convoi papal pour l’acclamer.Plus de 120.000 personnes se sont inscrites pour assister à la messe sur le front de mer, prévues à 10h30 (08H30 GMT)  et seront acheminées par bus, selon les organisateurs.Tôt le matin, des fidèles commençaient à affluer au centre de Beyrouth où se tient la messe, au milieu d’importantes mesures de sécurité.En dépit du rôle politique important que jouent les chrétiens au Liban, seul Etat arabe où le poste de président de la République est réservé à cette communauté, ces derniers ont vu leur nombre diminuer au cours des dernières décennies, notamment en raison de l’émigration des jeunes.Les autorités ont proclamé deux jours fériés à l’occasion de la visite du pape.Le chef de l’église catholique va également tenir une prière silencieuse sur le site de l’explosion du port de Beyrouth, le 4 août 2020, une catastrophe qui a profondément meurtri le pays.Il doit saluer certains proches des victimes et des survivants, qui, cinq ans après la catastrophe, continuent de réclamer justice.La déflagration, l’une des plus grandes explosions non nucléaires de l’Histoire, avait été provoquée par un incendie dans un entrepôt où était stocké sans précaution du nitrate d’ammonium malgré des avertissements répétés aux plus hauts responsables.L’enquête n’a toujours pas abouti, des responsables politiques ayant fait obstruction au travail du juge indépendant qui en est chargé.Lundi, le souverain pontife a appelé les chefs des différentes communautés religieuses libanaises, réunis à l’occasion de sa visite, à combattre l’intolérance et la violence. Il s’est également offert un bain de foule auprès de 15.000 jeunes au siège du patriarcat maronite à Bkerké, au nord de Beyrouth, qu’il a appelés à construire “un avenir meilleur”.”Vous avez l’enthousiasme nécessaire pour changer le cours de l’histoire!”, a lancé le pape aux jeunes qui l’ont accueilli avec ferveur.cmak-lar-at/vl

Pope Leo to hold Beirut mass, visit port blast site

Thousands of Lebanese faithful were making their way to Beirut’s waterfront ahead of Pope Leo XIV’s mass on Tuesday morning, the highlight of the Catholic leader’s visit to the capital expected to draw huge crowds.Before the service the pope was to pray at the site of a catastrophic port explosion on the final day of his Lebanon visit.The pontiff arrived from Turkey on Sunday on his inaugural visit abroad as pope and brought a message of hope, particularly to young people in Lebanon, whose faith in their beleaguered country has dwindled.His trip has been a welcome distraction in a nation still reeling from a war last year between Israel and militant group Hezbollah, with many fearing renewed hostilities.Pope Leo’s first stop on Tuesday was at a psychiatric hospital run by nuns near the capital, where he was greeted by hospital staff and patients to cheers, applause and shower of rose petals.An emotional Marie Makhlouf, mother superior of the congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of the Cross, thanked the pope for being “a father to the forgotten, the abandoned and the marginalised”.She also emphasised the tough conditions in which the facility works to help the “forgotten” despite the collapse of state institutions, particularly since Lebanon’s economic collapse, and a lack of support.Pope Leo paid tribute to the work of the hospital, saying that “what is lived in this place stands as a clear reminder to all.””We cannot forget those who are most fragile. We cannot conceive of a society that races ahead at full speed clinging to the false myths of wellbeing, while at the same time ignoring so many situations of poverty and vulnerability,” he said.More than 120,000 people have registered to attend the mass near Beirut’s waterfront. Large swathes of the city centre have been closed to traffic for the occasion, with soldiers deployed on nearby roads and people streaming towards the mass site since early morning.- Silent prayer -Before the service, Pope Leo is to hold a silent prayer at the site of the August 4, 2020 port explosion which killed more than 220 people, injured over 6,500 and devastated swathes of the capital.He will pay his respects to relatives of victims and survivors who are still fighting for justice in the wake of the disaster, one of the world’s largest non-nuclear explosions.Authorities have said the blast was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where tonnes of ammonium nitrate had been stored haphazardly for years after arriving by ship, despite repeated warnings to senior officials.Nobody has been held responsible for the disaster, with the investigation yet to yield results and political figures obstructing the judge’s work on the case.On Monday, the pontiff called on Christian and Muslim religious leaders gathered for an interreligious meeting to combat intolerance and violence.He also got a rock-star welcome from some 15,000 youth in Bkerke, the seat of the Maronite church, urging them to “be the source of hope that the country is waiting for”.

Race to get aid to Asia flood survivors as toll tops 1,200

Governments and aid groups in Indonesia and Sri Lanka worked Tuesday to rush aid to hundreds of thousands stranded by deadly flooding that has killed over 1,200 people in four countries.Torrential monsoon season deluges paired with two separate tropical cyclones last week dumped heavy rain across Sri Lanka and parts of Indonesia’s Sumatra, southern Thailand and northern Malaysia.Climate change is producing more intense rain events because a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, and warmer oceans can turbocharge storms.The floodwaters have now largely receded, but the devastation means hundreds of thousands of people are living in shelters and struggling to secure clean water and food.In Indonesia’s Aceh, one of the worst-affected regions, residents told AFP that survivors who could afford to were stockpiling supplies.”Road access is mostly cut off in flood-affected areas,” 29-year-old Erna Mardhiah said as she joined a long queue at a petrol station in Banda Aceh.”People are worried about running out of fuel,” she added from the line she had been in for two hours.The pressure has caused skyrocketing prices.”Most things are already sky-high… chillies alone are up to 300,000 rupiah per kilo ($18), so that’s probably why people are panic-buying,” she said.On Monday, Indonesia’s government said it was sending 34,000 tons of rice and 6.8 million litres of cooking oil to the three worst-affected provinces, Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra.”There can be no delays,” Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman said.But Alfian, a resident in Banda Aceh, told AFP the government had been “very slow, especially in ensuring basic necessities”.- Food shortage risk -Aid groups said they were working to ship supplies to affected areas, warning that local markets were running out of essential supplies and prices had tripled already.”Communities across Aceh are at severe risk of food shortages and hunger if supply lines are not reestablished in the next seven days,” charity group Islamic Relief said.A shipment of 12 tonnes of food from the group aboard an Indonesian navy vessel was due to arrive in Aceh on Tuesday.At least 659 people were killed in the floods across Sumatra, and 475 are still listed as missing. A million people have evacuated from their homes, according to the disaster agency.Survivors have described terrifying waves of water that arrived without warning.In East Aceh, Zamzami said the floodwaters had been “unstoppable, like a tsunami wave”.”We can’t explain how big the water seemed, it was truly extraordinary,” said the 33-year-old, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.People in his village sheltered atop a local two-storey fish market to escape the deluge and were now trying to clean the mud and debris left behind while battling power and telecommunications outages.”It’s difficult for us (to get) clean water,” he told AFP on Monday.”There are children who are starting to get fevers, and there’s no medicine.”The weather system that inundated Indonesia also brought heavy rain to southern Thailand, where at least 176 people were killed.Across the border in Malaysia, two more people were killed.- Colombo floodwaters recede -A separate storm brought heavy rains across all of Sri Lanka, triggering flash floods and deadly landslides that killed at least 410 people.Another 336 remain missing, and an official in the central town of Welimada told local reporters he expected the toll to rise, as his staff dug through the mud looking for victims buried by landslides.President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has declared a state of emergency to deal with what he called the “most challenging natural disaster in our history”.Unlike his Indonesian counterpart, he has called for international aid.Sri Lanka’s air force, backed by counterparts from India and Pakistan, has been evacuating stranded residents and delivering food and other supplies.In the capital Colombo meanwhile, floodwaters were slowly subsiding on Tuesday.The speed with which waters rose around the city surprised local residents used to seasonal flooding.”Every year we experience minor floods, but this is something else,” delivery driver Dinusha Sanjaya told AFP.Rains have eased across the country, but landslide alerts remain in force across most of the hardest-hit central region, officials said.burs-sah/fox

Foie gras et volailles festives investissent dans la publicité avant les fêtes

Les filières du foie gras et de la volaille haut de gamme misent sur des campagnes publicitaires d’envergure pour assurer leur présence sur les tables des fêtes de fin d’année et rattraper plusieurs années difficiles.Entre 2021 et 2023, l’offre de produits festifs issus de l’élevage de volaille a été fortement touchée par les épizooties de grippe aviaire dont la dernière en 2022 avait conduit à l’abattage de dizaines de millions de volailles. La production de foies gras avait alors chuté de près de moitié, à plus de 8.000 tonnes en 2022 contre 16.000 en 2020, avant de rebondir à près de 14.000 en 2024. En 2025, les professionnels du secteur annoncent des productions “stables” pour les filières du foie gras et des volailles festives (chapon, dinde, pintade…).Mais pour éviter de nouvelles saisons dévastatrices, la France a mis en place la vaccination obligatoire dans les élevages supérieurs à 250 canards depuis 2023. Elle est à ce jour le seul pays européen à l’avoir rendue obligatoire.La menace de la grippe aviaire n’a pas pour autant disparu: elle connait un rebond en Europe depuis début août avec 235 foyers recensé par la plateforme ESA, dont 24 foyers dans des élevages de volailles français.”Il n’y a pas eu de cas d’influenza aviaire dans les volailles festives, le produit sera donc bien sur les tables de fin d’année”, a cependant affirmé Patrick Pageart, trésorier d’Anvol, l’interprofession des volailles de chair, lors d’une conférence de presse le 25 novembre.En 2024, le retour des produits festifs en rayon s’est traduit par une hausse de leur consommation: +10,4% pour les achats de foie gras en volume et +5,4% pour les volailles.Cette année, la filière souhaite poursuivre la dynamique en mettant “tout en œuvre pour favoriser la demande”, a assuré Benoît Drouin, président du syndicat des labels avicoles (Synalaf).Les filières ont lancé d’importantes campagnes de communication à l’image du Cifog, l’interprofession du foie gras, qui a annoncé investir “deux millions d’euros dans la communication” lors d’une conférence de presse en novembre.- Réseaux sociaux -Avec deux spots publicitaires diffusés depuis la mi-novembre après quatre ans d’absence à la télévision et des collaborations avec des influenceurs culinaires sur les réseaux sociaux, le Cifog espère “donner envie de consommer” du foie gras.Dans le secteur de la volaille, le Synalaf a investi dans une “puissante campagne de rentrée” — confinancée par l’Union européenne — tandis que les acteurs de la filière encouragent également “les mises en avant des volailles festives dans les grandes surfaces”, comme l’a expliqué Yann Nédélec, directeur d’Anvol.La crise inflationniste en 2022 et 2023 a poussé les Français à changer leurs habitudes de consommation en optant pour des produits “alternatifs qui pouvaient être un peu moins chers”, observe Juliette Favre, experte en produits de grande consommation au sein du cabinet de conseil Circana, interrogée par l’AFP.Depuis 2024, la hausse de l’offre et le ralentissement de l’inflation ont permis “un recul des prix” du foie gras selon les chiffres de Circana: notamment, -2,8% sur les deux premières semaines de novembre 2025 par rapport à 2024. En revanche, pour les volailles entières en libre service hors rayon boucherie traditionnelle, les “prix sont presque stables” avec une légère inflation de 1,4% par rapport à novembre 2023.La filière du foie gras mise également sur des campagnes de communication pour répondre à la défiance d’une partie des consommateurs. Un rapport FranceAgriMer de 2023 soulignait que les 18-34 ans accordent moins de confiance au secteur notamment sur les questions de bien-être animal. Le Cifog multiplie ainsi les initiatives: participation à la campagne européenne “Teach Further” et diffusion, depuis 2024, d’une série de vidéos sur les réseaux sociaux dans laquelle vétérinaires et éleveurs décrivent les pratiques d’élevage et d’engraissement.”En dépit de tout ce qu’on peut dire sur le gavage, le foie gras ne baisse pas en quantité consommée”, souligne Christophe Burtin, spécialiste de l’alimentaire du cabinet de conseil français Kéa. Les achats de foie gras ont enregistré une hausse de 55,3% en volume sur les six premiers mois de 2025 par rapport au premier semestre 2024 selon les chiffres communiqués par le Cifog, qui affirme que “cette dynamique permet aux professionnels de la filière d’aborder la saison des réveillons avec sérénité”. 

Apple AI chief leaving as iPhone maker plays catch-up

Apple on Monday said the head of its artificial intelligence team is stepping down, and the effort is to be led by a veteran engineer from Google and Microsoft.The plan for Apple senior vice president of Machine Learning and AI Strategy John Giannandrea to retire early next year comes after the tech giant stumbled in efforts to show it was not being left behind on the technology.Giannandrea will serve as an advisor to Apple during his remaining time with the company, according to the iPhone maker.”We are thankful for the role John played in building and advancing our AI work,” Apple chief executive Tim Cook said in a post announcing the news.Researcher Amar Subramanya has joined Apple as a vice president and will lead in “critical areas,” including AI foundation models and machine learning, according to the company.Subramanya was most recently a corporate vice president of AI at Microsoft, prior to that spending 16 years at Google where he was head of engineering for the Gemini digital assistant before leaving, Apple said.Apple cited Subramanya’s experience integrating AI into features and products as “important to Apple’s ongoing innovation and future Apple Intelligence features.”Giannandrea joined Apple in 2018, heading the company’s AI efforts. Apple early this year delayed the release of an improved Siri digital assistant and is now promising it for next year.Meanwhile, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and other tech rivals have been releasing ever-improved AI models and features in a fierce race to lead in the technology.Apple has been under pressure to show it is not being left behind when it comes to artificial intelligence, with the potential to change how people engage with the internet and computers.Cook cited AI as “central to Apple’s strategy” and said Subramanya will bring “extraordinary AI expertise” to his role reporting to senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig Federighi.”Craig has been instrumental in driving our AI efforts, including overseeing our work to bring a more personalized Siri to users next year,” Cook said.On a recent earnings call, Cook touted the latest Apple devices and the tech giant’s custom chips and efforts to enhance products and services with artificial intelligence.

Concern as India orders phone manufacturers to preload govt app

India has ordered smartphone makers to pre-install a government-run cyber security app that cannot be removed, a move that has raised concerns about users’ privacy.The country has a massive 1.16 billion mobile phone users, according to government data from 2024, and authorities say the app will better protect them from fraud.Late on Monday, New Delhi gave manufacturers 90 days to comply with new rules saying the app “Sanchar Saathi” — meaning communication partner in Hindi — must be “pre-installed on all mobile handsets manufactured or imported for use in India”.The order, detailed in a press release, also asked phone makers to ensure the app was “readily visible and accessible to the end users at the time of first use or device setup and that its functionalities are not disabled or restricted”.The government said the app was designed to allow users to block and track lost or stolen phones.It also lets them identify and disconnect fake mobile subscriptions made in their name, among other functions.Government figures show the app has already helped trace more than 2.6 million phones. However, rights advocates and politicians have sounded the alarm over potentially serious consequences.Advocacy group Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) said Tuesday it was concerned about the new directive.The order “represents a sharp and deeply worrying expansion of executive control over personal digital devices”, it said in a statement on X.”The state is asking every smartphone user in India to accept an open ended, updatable surveillance capability on their primary personal device, and to do so without the basic guardrails that a constitutional democracy should insist on,” the IFF said.For devices that have already been manufactured and exist in the market across the country, the government mandated that “the manufacturer and importers of mobile handsets shall make an endeavour to push the App through software updates.”Cyber security analyst Nikhil Pahwa said the rules were “clearly” an invasion of privacy. “How do we know this app isn’t used to access files and messaging on our device, which is unencrypted on device? Or a future update won’t do that?” he said on X.”This is clearly an invasion of our privacy,” he added.Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s opponents in the Congress party demanded an immediate rollback of the order, calling the move unconstitutional.”Big Brother cannot watch us,” Congress politician KC Venugopal said on X.”A pre-loaded government app that cannot be uninstalled is a dystopian tool to monitor every Indian,” he added.”It is a means to watch over every movement, interaction and decision of each citizen.” In August, Russia issued a similar directive ordering manufacturers to include a new messaging platform called Max on all new phones and tablets, but rights advocates warned the app could be used as a powerful surveillance tool.