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Rebecca Cheptegei was preparing to go to church from her home in the highlands of western Kenya. Her ex-boyfriend called a friend of his to ask if he could borrow a lighter. He said he had «an emergency» and was heading out of town, the friend, retired runner Dennis Masai Chepkongin, told Reuters at his home in the Mount Elgon region, where Cheptegei lived. «He became very secretive when I asked him why,» Chepkongin said, adding that he declined the request.

BEIJING — China's retail sales, industrial production and urban investment in August all grew slower than expected, according to National Bureau of Statistics data released Saturday.

OpenAI's new financing round is expected to come in the form of convertible notes, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter, who said its $150 billion valuation will be contingent on whether the ChatGPT-maker can upend its corporate structure and remove a profit cap for investors. The details of the conditions of the $6.5 billion funding, which have not been previously reported, shows how far OpenAI, the most valuable AI startup in the world, has come from a research-based non-profit, and the structural changes it's willing to make to attract ever more investment to fund its expensive pursuit of artificial general intelligence (AGI). The outsized funding round has seen strong investor demand and could be finalized in the next two weeks, given the rapid growth of OpenAI's revenue, sources added.

Chinese banks extended 900 billion yuan ($126.86 billion) in new yuan loans in August, up 246% from July but short of analyst expectations, data released by the People's Bank of China (PBOC) showed on Friday. Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted new yuan loans would reach 1.02 trillion yuan last month, versus 260 billion yuan the previous month, but lower than the 1.36 trillion yuan a year earlier. «Both broad credit and bank loan growth slowed in August, coming in below expectations,» Leah Fahy at Capital Economics said in a note. «While stronger government spending should give the economy a boost over the coming months, that doesn't seem likely to be helped by any pickup in private credit demand.»

Biden administration on Friday locked in steep tariff hikes on Chinese imports, including a 100% duty on electric vehicles, to strengthen protections for strategic domestic industries from China's state-driven excess production capacity. The U.S. Trade Representative's said that many of the tariffs, including a 100% duty on Chinese EVs, 50% on solar cells and 25% on steel, aluminum, EV batteries and key minerals, would go into effect on Sept. 27. The USTR determination, published on Friday but first reviewed by Reuters, showed a 50% duty on Chinese semiconductors, which now include two new categories — polysilicon used in solar panels and silicon wafers — are due to start in 2025.

Vialto, which used to be part of PwC, is planning to restructure $1.5 billion of debt loaded onto the business in a private equity buyout after running into financial difficulty following its separation from the Big Four firm, the Financial Times reported on Friday. The firm is in talks with creditors, including Pimco and Blackstone, to reorganise its capital structure after cost overruns caused by rating agency downgrades, the newspaper reported. PwC sold its global mobility business to U.S. private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice in 2022 in a $2.2 billion deal to raise capital to invest in faster-growing areas of its consulting business, the report said. The firm was renamed to Vialto after the buyout, it added.

Amazon and Walmart's Flipkart violated local competition laws by giving preference to select sellers on their shopping websites, according to confidential reports seen by Reuters. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) in 2020 ordered an investigation into Amazon and Flipkart for allegedly promoting certain sellers with which they had business arrangements and giving priority to certain listings. In a 1027-page report on Amazon and a separate 1,696-page report on Flipkart, both dated Aug. 9, the CCI investigators said the two companies were found to have created an ecosystem where preferred sellers appeared higher in search results, elbowing out other sellers.

unemployment benefits increased marginally last week, pointing to a still-low level of layoffs even as the labor market slows. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 230,000 for the week ended Sept. 7, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 230,000 claims for the latest week. Last week's data included the Labor Day holiday.

NaBFID) plans to raise 530 billion rupees ($6.31 billion) from the debt market this fiscal year, its top executive told Reuters on Thursday. The bank has already raised 90 billion rupees and the rest will be raised depending on the infrastructure lender's disbursement pattern, said Rajkiran Rai, NaBFID's managing director. NaBFID has already sanctioned 200 billion rupees of its target of 1 trillion rupees for the 12 months through March 2025, Rai said.

Interest rates have remained elevated globally as many countries prioritize inflation management. However, they now stand on the verge of an easing cycle.

United Nations Security Council seats for African states and one seat to be rotated among small island developing states, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield will announce on Thursday. The move comes as the U.S. seeks to repair ties with Africa, where many are unhappy about Washington's support for Israel's war in Gaza, and deepen relations with Pacific Islands nations important to countering Chinese influence in the region. Thomas-Greenfield told Reuters she hopes the announcement will «move this agenda forward in a way that we can achieve Security Council reform at some point in the future,» describing it as part of U.S. President Joe Biden's legacy.

Adani Group, has been arrested by Odisha’s Vigilance Directorate for allegedly attempting to bribe an Indian Administrative Officer (IAS). Rambhav Gattu, the Chief Manufacturing Officer (East) of Ambuja Cement in Chhattisgarh, was taken into custody after he attempted to offer Rs 2 lakh in cash to the collector of Bargarh district, Aditya Goyal.

U.S. consumer prices rose marginally in August, but underlying inflation showed some stickiness, which could discourage the Federal Reserve from delivering a half-point interest rate cut next week.

gasoline and distillate demand weakened, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday. Crude inventories rose by 833,000 barrels to 419.1 million barrels in the week ending Sept. 6, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 987,000-barrel rise.

Bond yields, which ended at 6.82% were down by three basis points, since its previous close at 6.85%, Clearing Corporation of India data showed.

Amazon Web Services, said on Wednesday that it plans to spend 8 billion pounds ($10.45 billion) in the United Kingdom over the next five years to build, operate and maintain data centres. The company expects the investment project to contribute 14 billion pounds to the country's gross domestic product by the end of 2028 and to support more than 14,000 jobs at British businesses. The project represents a step-up in the pace of Amazon's investment in Britain. Since 2022 AWS has invested 3 billion pounds in facilities in London and Manchester.

PricewaterhouseCoopers' China unit, the audit major is likely to tap senior partner from the United Kingdom to run its business in the East Asian country as fallout from collapsed property developer Evergrande continues to mount, reported The Financial Times quoting its souces.

Having begun offloading shares in BofA in mid-July, Berkshire Hathaway has now sold almost $7bn of stock in the second-largest US bank, according to a report by Reuters. However, Buffett's conglomerate currently remains BofA's largest shareholder with a stake of about 11.1%. Berkshire Hathaway first invested in Bank of America in 2011 when the group bought $5bn of preferred stock in the then-beleaguered bank through a private deal.  Shares of Bank of America were up 1.7% at $39.4 at the time of publication,  while year to date the stock is up 17.1%, according to data from MarketWatch.

BEIJING — China on Monday reported its consumer price index rose by 0.6% year on year in August, missing expectations as transportation and home goods prices, as well as rents declined.

Ukraine's foreign ministry said on Saturday it was deeply concerned by reports about a possible impending transfer of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia. In a statement emailed to reporters, the ministry said the deepening military co-operation between Tehran and Moscow was a threat to Ukraine, Europe and the Middle East, and called on the international community to increase pressure on Iran and Russia. CNN and the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Iran had transferred short-range ballistic missiles to Russia, citing unidentified sources.

Indian tax authorities are seeking dues of $101 million from education-technology company Byju's, once the country's biggest startup which is now undergoing an insolvency process, claim documents reviewed by Reuters on Friday showed. Backed by General Atlantic, Byju's was valued at $22 billion in 2022, but has seen its fortunes dwindle due to many regulatory issues and more recently a dispute with U.S. lenders who are demanding $1 billion in unpaid dues, triggering the company's insolvency that led to an assets freeze.