Micronesia Financial News

Two members of the House of Representatives have introduced legislation aimed at mitigating the risks to the United States financial system due to El Salvador adopting Bitcoin as legal currency.

MAGA star Donald Trump wants to Make America Greater Again. In sq kms, that is. We all know of the US annexing nearly 13 lakh sq km of Mexican territory after winning the war with Mexico in 1848; buying 76,800 sq km in present day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico — the area known as Gadsden Purchase — from Mexico in 1854; buying Alaska from Russia in 1867; annexing independent Hawaii in 1898; procuring 117 sq km of Guantanamo Bay to set up a US detention camp in 1903, which the Cuban communist government has considered illegal since it came to power in 1959. There's, of course, the United States of America itself, carved out of lands not 'owned' by anyone when it was occupied by Native Americans, then turned into a British colony, and ultimately an independent nation state in 1776 according to Westphalian sovereignty norms invented in 17th century Europe. But less well known is America's territorial losses. The Panama Canal Zone, which it acquired in 1904 from private and public Panamanian owners, was returned to Panama in 1979, formally ceding its control in 1999. In Oceania, Japan-occupied Marshall Islands, which the US occupied after WW2, got its independence in 1979. The same 'transition' model was followed with Federated States of Micronesia and Palau, both of which officially gained independence from US 'trusteeship' in 1990 and 1994, respectively.

The draft resolution 'Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine' tabled by Senegal was overwhelmingly adopted in the 193-member General Assembly on Tuesday. India was among the 157 nations that voted in favour, while eight Member States — Argentina, Hungary, Israel, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea and the United States voted against it.

Negotiators are gathering in South Korea in what’s billed as a final push.

Three sailors were rescued from a deserted island in the Pacific Ocean after writing out the word “HELP” in palm leaves on the beach. After a week on the island, their signal for help was finally spotted by a U.S. Navy plane assisting in the search for the missing men.

Survivor: Micronesia champion, Parvati Shallow, disclosed her new romantic relationship via Instagram, marking her connection with Canadian comedian Mae Martin. The 41-year-old Survivor winner and the 36-year-old comedian posted a series of snapshots from a photo booth on their respective Instagram profiles, officially sharing their affectionate bond. In her Instagram post, Martin proudly presented the photo strip in front of a Christmas tree, exclaiming, «Parv’s here, she’s queer, Happy New Year.» The images captured the couple sharing kisses, embracing warmly, and even featured a playful video of them on a ferris wheel, with Shallow winking at the camera.

India voted in favour of five resolutions relating to the situation in the Middle East, including one that condemned Israeli settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and abstained on one resolution. The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) of the UN General Assembly approved six draft resolutions on November 9 all by recorded votes, relating to the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question.

global Internet outage just for a single day? Have you ever thought about it? According to a new report, if the internet goes down globally for even just a single day, it would cost $43 billion, with the US and China making up almost half of the sum together, which is $21 billion. If an internet outage occurs just for a single day, the US alone would face huge losses of around $11 billion. China is estimated to lose nearly $10 billion, according to the VPN service provider AtlasVPN. Meanwhile, the UK would lose around $3 billion, and Japan is expected to lose approximately $2.7 billion.

By Kate Abnett and Valerie Volcovici

By David Brunnstrom and Michael Martina

By David Brunnstrom

Gambia and Uzbekistan last year. The WHO flagged contamination with unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol, which are considered toxic to humans when consumed and can prove fatal, in samples taken from a batch of cough syrup made by QP Pharmachem Ltd, based in the northern Punjab state. However, the company denied wrongdoing and told Reuters it planned to appeal against the suspension.

G20 ministerial in Goa and Chennai, ministers from 14 countries including the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, Vanuatu, Colombia, have under the banner of the High Ambition Coalition called on G20 hosts India and other members to agree on measures such as phasing out fossil fuel use to ensure that average increase in global temperature does not exceed 1.5°C compared to the 1850s. “We urge you, as leaders of the G20, to accelerate your efforts to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions, to expand your cooperation and lead the way in phasing out all fossil fuels and in transitioning to a green sustainable energy future where access to energy is guaranteed for all,” the ministers wrote in an open letter to the G20.

India has significantly improved its passport ranking by rising 5 spots from last years and is now ranked 80th in the latest Henley Passport Index. Owning to this, Indians can travel to 57 destinations completely visa free or visas on arrival arrangements.  However, it is to be noted here that India has scored poorly in mobility.

Fishing gear plastic formed nearly three-quarters of the plastic debris documented through underwater visual surveys of coral reefs across the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans, new research published in the journal Nature said. Revealing the extent of plastic pollution on coral reefs, an international team of researchers from the California Academy of Sciences (US), University of Sao Paulo (Brazil), University of Oxford (UK), and other collaborators found that debris increased with depth and is correlated with proximity to marine protected areas. The team conducted more than 1,200 visual surveys across 84 shallow and mesophotic reef ecosystems located in 14 countries. Mesophotic, or 'twilight zone', coral reefs exist between 30 and 150 metres deep. Of the total debris, 88 per cent was macroplastics larger than about five centimetres. Human-derived debris was found in nearly all locations studied, including some of the planet's most remote and pristine coral reefs, such as those adjacent to uninhabited islands in the central Pacific. The lowest density of plastic pollution was seen in the Marshall Islands, a coral island group in eastern Micronesia (Oceania), while the highest was recorded at Comoros, an island chain off the southeast coast of Africa, at nearly 84,500 items per square kilometre.