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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. For years, Yoram Ariely hadn’t touched most of his investments, preferring to ride the stock market’s ups and downs. Last Tuesday, he decided he had enough.

market’s recent decline as healthy. Stocks rose in Australia, Japan and South Korea in early Monday trade, with futures in Hong Kong also pointing to a higher open. The gains came after the S&P 500 jumped 2.1% Friday as the government avoided a shutdown, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 advanced 2.1%. The Golden Dragon index rose 2.7% with Chinese authorities set to announce measures to boost consumption on Monday. The dollar was steady.

China's State Council unveiled on Sunday a 'special action plan' to boost domestic consumption, featuring measures including raising residents' income and setting up a childcare subsidy scheme. The plan comes as levels of consumer demand have suffered various setbacks in recent years, due to factors like COVID-19 disruptions and a long property slump, chilling the propensity of households to spend and adding to deflationary trends. Expanding domestic demand It was issued to all regions and departments to «vigorously boost consumption, expand domestic demand in all directions, improve consumption capacity by increasing income and reducing burdens,» a report from the Council said. The plan comes a week after Chinese Premier Li Qiang's work report to the National People's Congress which focused on boosting household spending to cushion the impact of weak external demand. Pressure has been building on Chinese officials for consumer-focused stimulus measures to fend off deflationary pressures and reduce reliance on exports and investment.

Venezuelan gang to be imprisoned in El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele said Sunday, after US counterpart Donald Trump invoked wartime authorities to expel migrants. Trump signed an order invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 on Friday, but it was not publicly announced until Saturday. The wartime authority allows a president to detain or deport citizens of an enemy nation, but has been invoked only three times before during major international conflicts. Civil rights groups sued to block the order, with a federal judge Saturday granting a temporary suspension of the order, apparently as planes were already headed to El Salvador. «Today, the first 238 members of the Venezuelan criminal organization, Tren de Aragua, arrived in our country,» Bukele said on X. Bukele, in a meeting last month with US secretary of state Marco Rubio, had offered to house prisoners from the US in his country. He said in his post that the alleged gang members had been sent to the country's maximum security Terrorism Confinement Center. The detention and expulsion order will apply to all Venezuelan Tren de Aragua members who are over 14 and not naturalized US citizens or lawful permanent residents.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday the Trump administration is focused on preventing a financial crisis that could be the result of massive government spending over the past few years.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. President Trump has launched an unprecedented challenge to a geopolitical order that has prevailed for decades. One potential victim: the U.S.

Barron Trump, the youngest son of Donald Trump and Melania Trump, proved crucial to US President's 2024 election campaign, offering insight to the Republican nominee to gain the youth vote. He notably suggested podcast media appearances for his father and helped him with his stage presence and manners, although the two are said to have had quite an interesting relationship. The forthcoming book Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump's Return to Power by Axios reporter Alex Isenstadt reveals how co-campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita dedicated extensive efforts to securing Trump's strong debate performance. ALSO READ: 'The hardest thing has been...': NASA's Sunita Williams reveals what she’ll miss about space after returning to Earth

Housing demand continues to be strong and is expected to grow further on the back of tax incentives offered in the Budget and a recent repo rate cut, CREDAI President Boman Irani said. CREDAI is an apex body for private real estate developers. In an interview with PTI, Irani asserted that there are no signs of demand slowdown in the Indian housing market, rather it will continue to rise in the long-term horizon. However, he said there could be an impact in some markets that are «over-heated» but overall at pan-India level there are no concerns at all on the growth going up only. Short-term blips in a real estate cycle is not something that we need to worry about. We need to see long-term growth," he told PTI in Nashik, where CREDAI recently organised its two-day conference.

Catch all PM Modi Podcast Live Updates here Reportedly, Lex Fridman, known for his long-form discussions, prepared for the interview by fasting for 48 to 72 hours, as he noted that Prime Minister Modi observes multi-day fasts.Fridman had announced the interview with PM Modi on January 19, saying he planned to visit India for the first time.Narendra Modi's conversation with Lex Fridman marks the second time that the Indian PM has appeared in podcasts, since his last appearance with Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath.PM Modi Podcast Live: Lex Fridman and PM Modi's podcast is likely to be released around 5:30 pm IST, Sunday, March 16.PM Modi Podcast Live Updates: PM Modi said Fridman and he discussed about a wide range of topics, including his childhood, years in the Himalayas, and the PM's journey in public life.PM Modi Podcast Live Updates: Lex Fridman is a US podcaster and a computer scientist, who has previously done interviews with several notable politicians and leaders, including Ukraine President Zelensky and others.PM Modi Podcast Live:PM Modi last appeared in Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath's podcast.PM Modi Podcast Live: PM Modi wrote that his conversation with Lex Fridman was indeed a fascinating one, “covering diverse topics including reminiscing about my childhood, the years in the Himalayas and the journey in public life."

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. A prominent economist once told me that macroeconomic policy debates are all about the prime mover, to which other variables respond. The implication, he explained, is that “You can invert policy prescriptions simply by claiming a different forcing variable." A paper by Stephen Miran, published before he was nominated to chair US President Donald Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, does precisely this.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Less than two months after LTIMindtree Ltd named Venu Lambu as its chief executive-designate, Nachiket Deshpande, the company’s chief operating officer who was a frontrunner in the CEO race, has stepped down from his role. Deshpande, who joined India’s sixth-largest information technology (IT) services company in November 2022 after the merger of Larsen and Toubro Infotech (LTI) and Mindtree, will be take charge as LTIMindtree’s president of global AI services, strategic deals and partnerships, Lambu said in a letter to associates, which Mint has seen.

Xi Jinping has declined an invitation to visit Brussels for an summit to mark the 50th anniversary of EU-China diplomatic ties, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. Beijing told EU officials that Premier Li Qiang would meet the presidents of the European Council and Commission instead of Xi, the FT said, citing two people familiar with the matter whom it did not identify. The Chinese premier usually attends the summit when it is held in Brussels, while the president hosts it in Beijing, but the EU wants Xi to attend to commemorate half a century of relations between Beijing and the bloc, the newspaper said. Tensions between Brussels and Beijing have grown since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with the EU accusing China of backing the Kremlin, the FT said. Last year, the European Union also imposed tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle imports. «Informal discussions are ongoing, both about setting the date for the EU-China summit this year and the level of representation,» an EU official told the newspaper, while the Chinese ministry was quoted as saying it did not have any information to provide on the matter.

Nairobi international airport's departures area. They huddle for selfies in matching T-shirts, discussing how they'll spend the money from their new jobs in Saudi Arabia. Lured by company recruiters and encouraged by Kenya's government, the women have reason for optimism. Spend two years in Saudi Arabia as a housekeeper or nanny, the pitch goes, and you can earn enough to build a house, educate your children and save for the future. While the departure terminal hums with anticipation, the arrivals area is where hope meets grim reality. Hollow-cheeked women return, often ground down by unpaid wages, beatings, starvation and sexual assault. Some are broke. Others are in coffins. At least 274 Kenyan workers, mostly women, have died in Saudi Arabia in the past five years — an extraordinary figure for a young workforce doing jobs that, in most countries, are considered extremely safe. At least 55 Kenyan workers died last year, twice as many as the previous year. Autopsy reports are vague and contradictory. They describe women with evidence of trauma, including burns and electric shocks, all labeled natural deaths. One woman's cause of death was simply «brain dead.» An untold number of Ugandans have died, too, but their government releases no data.

Donald Trump launched a full-fledged large-scale military strikes against Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis on Saturday over the group's attacks against Red Sea shipping, killing at least 24 people at the start of a campaign expected to last many days. At least 21 people were killed after Trump ordered large scale military strikes against Houthis on Saturday. The action follows the group's attacks on Red Sea shipping, which Trump vowed to stop, warning that «hell will rain down» on the Houthis if they continue.

Strategic Bitcoin Reserve" in the United States is further proof of President Donald Trump's support for the cryptocurrency sector. Trump earlier this month signed an executive order establishing the reserve, which White House crypto chief David Sacks has likened to «a digital Fort Knox», comparing it to the stockpiling of gold bars at the US military base. Gold is held in reserves by countries worldwide as the metal is seen as a safe-haven asset, protecting against financial instability such as high inflation. The metal on Friday surpassed $3,000 per ounce for the first time, boosted by an uncertain economic outlook amid Trump's tariffs. Gold reserves can help also stabilise a country's currency, while bars are used as collateral for loans and transactions.

Trump on Saturday invoked the Alien Enemies Act for the first time since World War II, granting himself sweeping powers under a centuries-old law to deport people associated with a Venezuelan gang. Hours later, a federal judge halted deportations under Trump's order. The act is a sweeping wartime authority that allows non-citizens to be deported without being given the opportunity to go before an immigration or federal court judge. ALSO READ: Trump invokes the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act

Trump on Saturday invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, claiming the United States was being invaded by a Venezuelan gang called Tren de Aragua. This rarely used war-time law grants the president broad powers to expedite mass deportations, potentially advancing Trump's aggressive immigration crackdown. Trump asserted that Tren de Aragua was acting on behalf of Venezuela's government, describing the gang as a hostile force that poses a serious threat to the United States. «Over the years, Venezuelan national and local authorities have ceded ever-greater control over their territories to transnational criminal organisations, including TdA,» Trump's statement read. «The result is a hybrid criminal state that is perpetrating an invasion of and predatory incursion into the United States.» Hours after Trump’s proclamation, US District Court Chief Judge James E. Boasberg issued an emergency order blocking deportations under the 18th-century law. Boasberg intervened after reports emerged that the government had already begun flying deportees to El Salvador and Honduras for detention.

The attacks comes less than 24 hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin met with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff to discuss details of the American proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in the war with Ukraine. Putin told a press conference on Thursday that he supported a truce in principle but set out a host of details that need to be clarified before it is agreed. Kyiv has already endorsed the truce proposal, although Ukrainian officials have publicly raised doubts as to whether Moscow will commit to such a deal. Speaking to reporters in Kyiv on Saturday, after virtual talks between Western allies hosted by U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Zelenskyy voiced Ukraine's support for the 30-day full ceasefire proposal to discuss a longer-term peace plan, but said Russia would attempt to derail talks with conditions and «buts». Starmer has told allies to «keep the pressure» on Putin to back a ceasefire in Ukraine, hailing Ukraine as the «party of peace.» Starmer said Putin will «sooner or later» have to «come to the table.

According to State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce, the top diplomats «agreed to continue working towards restoring communication between the United States and Russia.» The statement gave no details on when the next round of US-Russia talks, which are being hosted by Saudi Arabia, would begin. Rubio also updated Lavrov on military activity in the Middle East, where US forces carried out deadly strikes Saturday against Huthi rebel targets in Yemen, the statement said. Despite recent tensions between President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, Kyiv has agreed in principle to a US-brokered 30-day unconditional ceasefire if Moscow halts its attacks in eastern Ukraine.

Skoda Auto's India unit is targeting 2026 sales of more than 100,000 vehicles, which will be more than twice its annual sales in recent years. That number may still seem small when compared with the sales volume of Maruti Suzuki, the local market leader that sells one and a half times as many cars and SUVs each month in India. But in a market where European automakers have long been pushed to the sidelines by their Japanese, Korean and local rivals, the Skoda target is a formidable one. Skoda and other European mass-market brands like Volkswagen, Renault and Citroen are trying to carve out a space for themselves in the crowded but fast-growing Indian market through strategic positioning and niche offerings with premium features, latest technology and competitive pricing. «The Indian automotive landscape is experiencing nuanced shifts, even with Japanese brands holding a strong lead. These shifts signal growing opportunities for global players to respond to evolving consumer preferences,» said Ravi Bhatia, president at Jato Dynamics.

consumer sentiment index nosedived to 57.9 in March, marking a 10.5% drop from February and falling short of economists’ forecasts. This reading—the lowest since November 2022—reflects growing anxiety over inflation and market volatility, exacerbated by President Trump’s aggressive tariff policies. The one-year inflation outlook surged to 4.9%, the highest in 16 months, while the five-year expectation hit 3.9%, a level unseen since 1993.