Trump to Launch World Liberty Financial Crypto Platform on Monday

Russia’s communications watchdog Roskomnadzor plans to spend 59 billion rubles (RM2.8 billion) over the next five years to upgrade its internet traffic-filtering capabilities, the Russian edition of Forbes reported on Tuesday.

The money will be used to upgrade hardware used to filter internet traffic, as well as block or slow down certain resources, Forbes reported, citing documents.

Russia passed a law in 2019 to enable the country to cut itself off entirely from the internet, in what it calls a campaign to maintain its digital sovereignty. Following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin forced out several foreign social media and internet companies, although many services remain accessible via virtual private networks, or VPNs.

The system upgrades will allow Russian authorities to better restrict access to VPNs, according to the document.

New equipment has been purchased yearly since 2020 as traffic volumes grow, Roskomnadzor’s press service said, according to Forbes.

The Biden administration recently hosted representatives of several major tech companies, including Amazon.com Inc, Alphabet Inc’s Google and Microsoft Corp, to discuss government-funded internet censorship evasion tools, Reuters reported last week.

Source: The edge markets

Tropical Storm Francine forced some oil drillers to halt production and evacuate crews as it barreled through the Gulf of Mexico and was expected to strengthen to a Category 2 hurricane as it heads toward the coast of Louisiana.

Strong winds and a dangerous storm surge are expected along the state’s shoreline, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory issued at 1am in Houston on Tuesday. Francine is “anticipated to be just offshore of the coasts of northern Mexico and southern Texas through Tuesday and make landfall in Louisiana on Wednesday,” the centre said.

The system, located 690km south-southwest of Cameron, Louisiana, saw winds accelerate to 105kph from 80kph on Monday. A hurricane watch is in effect for communities along part of the Louisiana coast.

Chevron Corp, Exxon Mobil Corp and Shell plc are among the companies taking measures like evacuating workers from vulnerable installations, suspending drilling activities and shutting in some wells. The storm’s forecast path intersects with fields that account for roughly 125,000 barrels of crude and 300 million cubic feet of natural gas on a daily basis, according to Bloomberg calculations using government data.

Gas supply to Cameron LNG also fell about 41% from the previous day, according to data compiled by BloombergNEF.

On its expected track, Francine may rake nine major platforms, including Enchilada, Cerveza, Perdido and Hoover. That said, the storm probably won’t have a large impact on overall energy production, Chuck Watson, a disaster modeller with Enki Research, said in a social media post.

Meanwhile, the US Coast Guard declared Port Condition X-Ray at Houston, Galveston and other key Texas harbours, a warning that rough weather is expected within 48 hours. One upside to Francine as it moves ashore is that it will bring much-needed water to the parched Mississippi River, temporarily raising the fortune of shippers before dry conditions set in again.

This will be the third storm to hit the US mainland this year. As Francine nears the coastline, it could encounter cross winds, or wind shear, that would threaten to weaken it. Still, the storm is currently forecast to make landfall with 100mph winds, which would make it a Category 2 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.

The hurricane centre is tracking two other disturbances in the central Atlantic Ocean with the potential to become tropical storms. Both are hundreds of miles or more from populated areas.

Source: Theedgemarkets

Canadian gross domestic product in the third quarter is likely to fall well short of the Bank of Canada's forecast, possibly coming in at less than half the estimate, with growth flagging and joblessness still rising, economists said.

In July, the BoC had forecast Canada's annualized GDP in the third quarter would grow by 2.8%, led by falling borrowing costs, growth in exports and increase in household spending.

Economists' lower expectations for growth reflect constrained consumer spending in recent weeks and the difficulty of Canada's growing ranks of immigrants to find jobs.

A slide in growth projections, especially if substantial, could force the central bank to make larger interest rate cuts than previously envisioned to prevent the economy from slipping into recession in the coming quarters, according to a half dozen economists interviewed by Reuters.

"I think it's looking less likely that the Bank of Canada's Q3 projections are actually going to take hold," said Andrew DiCapua, a senior economist at Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

In the third quarter ending Sept. 30, Canada will probably record gross domestic product growth of around 1% to 1.5% on an annualized basis, DiCapua said, adding it looked more likely that the bank would be making deeper cuts.

A slew of disappointing economic indicators coming from Statistics Canada on GDP and the labor force have pushed economists to update their models.

Last month, Statscan said economic growth in June was flat and is likely to be unchanged for July. The labor force survey last week showed that unemployment hit 6.6% in August, a seven-year peak, excluding the pandemic period. The number of hours worked by employees in August also contracted, hitting income levels.

"We have seen months and months for now that essentially the labor market has flattened out, no growth," said Pedro Antunes, chief economist at Conference Board of Canada, an independent think tank.

"That's suggesting a very weak growth for Q3," he said, adding that bank's forecast could fall short by half or more.

Household spending in Canada, which contributes 57% to the GDP, slowed to 0.2% in the second quarter as higher interest rates put a damper on consumer purchases. High mortgage costs and rent increases have eaten into disposable incomes.

Population growth at a faster rate than economic expansion also bloated unemployment numbers, with a tepid economy failing to absorb a huge influx of immigrants. That dynamic has put pressure on growth, with per capita GDP contracting for five quarters in a row.

DOWNSIDE RISKS

Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem conceded last week that while the bank said it saw growth strengthening, there were some downside risks to the expected pick-up.

The BoC, after keeping its key policy rate for over two-decade high of 5% for a year, trimmed it by a quarter point three times in a row since June, bringing it down by 75 basis points to 4.25%.

David Doyle, head of economics at Macquarie, said the jobs data reinforces the risks to BoC's growth outlook and the potential for a 50 basis point rate cut in October.

The central bank is also likely to be wrong with its outlook on the output of the Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) pipeline and growth and vehicle exports, said Randall Bartlett, senior director of Canadian economics at Desjardins.

The bank had said in its monetary policy report from July that export growth is expected to rise over the second half of the year, led by TMX and motor vehicle exports which would boost GDP.

"We really think the Bank of Canada was overly optimistic in those two sectors in particular," he said.

Desjardins is tracking a third quarter GDP of 1% against the central bank's 2.8% forecast, Bartlett said.

Source: Theedgemarkets