Raphael Stevens

A woman, wearing a face mask as a prevention against Covid-19 walks along the promenade at Marina Bay in Singapore on May 4, 2020.Roslan Rahman | AFP | Getty ImagesSINGAPORE — Singapore’s government on Thursday said it will start easing Covid-related restrictions as the number of daily infections has declined.The Southeast Asian country last month tightened social-distancing measures to curb a rise in local Covid-19 infections. Those measures, which include no dining-in at food and beverage outlets and smaller social gatherings, were in place since mid-May.Starting Monday, Singapore will allow social gatherings of five people — an increase from the current two-person limit.Limits on event attendees and operating capacity at venues such as public libraries and museums will also be relaxed, the government said.We will have to learn to live with the virus and then try our best to minimize transmission and minimize the risk of large clusters breaking out.Lawrence WongSingapore Finance MinisterThere will be further easing of restrictions from June 21. Activities such as dining-in, as well as some mask-off activities at gyms and fitness studios, will be allowed to resume with some social-distancing measures in place.However, work from home will remain the default for those who can do so, said the government.Local infections in Singapore have fallen to single-digit levels in recent days. Overall, the country has reported more than 62,000 cases since early last year with 34 deaths as of Wednesday, health ministry data showed.But Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, who co-chairs Singapore’s Covid taskforce, said the country must be prepared to see more cases as it opens up. He added that the country has to continue with its vaccination and testing effort to mitigate large clusters of infections within the community.”We will have to learn to live with the virus and then try our best to minimize transmission and minimize the risk of large clusters breaking out,” Wong said at a media briefing Thursday.Vaccination progressSingapore said around 2.5 million people have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. That’s about 40% of the population.From Friday, the country will allow those from 12 to 39 years old to register for vaccination.Wong said Singapore aims to have 50% of its population fully vaccinated by August. By October, that number would reach 75% or more, he added.Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said vaccinated people who get Covid-19 have suffered less severe symptoms than those without vaccination.Ong said that of all the cases since April 11, around 9% of unvaccinated, infected people required supplemental oxygen or intensive care. Less than 1% of fully vaccinated people who were infected needed supplemental oxygen or intensive care, he added. More

In this articleSGRE-ESWind turbines in Brandenburg, Germany.Patrick Pleul | picture alliance | Getty ImagesSo-called “green” hydrogen production using onshore wind turbines could achieve price parity with fossil-based hydrogen by the year 2030, according to a white paper from Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy.In a statement on Wednesday the firm — a major player in wind turbines — also said that green hydrogen produced using wind from the offshore sector could achieve price parity by 2035.The above scenarios were dependent on having “appropriate policy frameworks and market mechanisms in place,” the statement said. Siemens Gamesa’s white paper outlines four key areas to help drive costs down: increasing renewable energy capacity; creating “a cost-effective demand-side market for green hydrogen”; the development of a supply chain; and support for infrastructure.”It took three decades for wind and solar to reach grid parity with fossil fuels, and we cannot afford to wait that long for green hydrogen to reach price parity with fossil-based hydrogen,” Andreas Nauen, the company’s CEO, said.Described by the International Energy Agency as a “versatile energy carrier,” hydrogen has a diverse range of applications and can be deployed in sectors such as industry and transport.It can be produced in a number of ways. One method includes using electrolysis, with an electric current splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen.If the electricity used in the process comes from a renewable source, such as wind or solar, then some call it “green” or “renewable” hydrogen.Currently, however, the vast majority of hydrogen generation is based on fossil fuels, and green hydrogen is expensive to produce.In recent times, a number of major industrial firms have announced plans to integrate green hydrogen into their operations.In addition, major economies such as the European Union have laid out plans to install at least 40 gigawatts of renewable hydrogen electrolyzers by 2030.Efforts are also being made to drive costs down. On Monday the U.S. Department of Energy launched its Energy Earthshots Initiative and said the first of these would focus on cutting the cost of “clean” hydrogen to $1 per kilogram (2.2 lbs) in a decade.According to the DOE, hydrogen from renewables is priced at around $5 a kilogram today. “Clean hydrogen is a game-changer,” U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm said Monday, adding that it would help to “decarbonize high-polluting heavy-duty and industrial sectors.”On Wednesday Ben Gallagher, who is lead analyst for emerging technologies at research group Wood Mackenzie, sought to highlight how the environment surrounding green hydrogen appeared to be changing.”An increasingly dynamic low-carbon hydrogen market has seen a deluge of government support, corporate commitments, announced projects and even bystander intrigue over the past 18 months,” he said.”We believe this activity amounts to a paradigm shift which will see green hydrogen — hydrogen created from the electrolysis of water using renewable energy — emerge as a key element of the energy transition,” he added. More

A patient wearing an oxygen mask is wheeled inside a COVID-19 hospital for treatment, amidst the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Ahmedabad, India, April 26, 2021.Amit Dave | ReutersIndia’s daily reported death toll from the coronavirus crisis reached a record high on Thursday, with more than 6,000 people succumbing to the disease.That surpassed a record number of daily fatalities reported by the United States this year.India’s health ministry data showed 6,148 Covid-related deaths were recorded over a 24-hour period, as daily reported cases remained below 100,000 for the third consecutive day.The fatalities rose after one of India’s poorest states, Bihar, revised its total Covid-19 related death toll on Wednesday from about 5,400 to more than 9,400, accounting for people who died at home or in private hospitals, Reuters reported.India is fighting a devastating second wave of outbreak that started in February and accelerated in April and early May, which overwhelmed the country’s health-care infrastructure. The sector struggled with shortages of beds, oxygen and medication while many doctors and other health-care workers succumbed to the disease.While cases peaked in early May, government officials have sounded the alarm over a potential third wave that could hit the country later this year.Experts say that ramping up the vaccination program is the way forward for India, both to bring its economy out of the Covid crisis and to mitigate the effects of a third wave. But the rollout, which began in January, faced problems including a vaccine shortage, resulting in less than 5% of the population so far receiving both doses.The government estimates that more than 2 billion doses of vaccine could be available by December as more vaccine candidates are expected to receive regulatory approval. Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week said that India will provide free Covid-19 vaccines to all adults.India has reported more than 29 million cases and over 353,000 deaths since the pandemic began last year. More

Workers unload boxes containing the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine, donated by China, at the Damascus International Airport on April 24, 2021, in the Syrian capital.Loua Beshara | AFP | Getty ImagesU.S.-China competition may be heating up on another front: Covid-19 vaccine diplomacy.China has been a major Covid vaccine supplier to much of the developing world, an effort that some experts said could bolster Beijing’s global influence and deepen its ties with other nations.But a health governance and policy expert told CNBC on Thursday that the U.S. is now catching up, with the White House laying out plans to donate millions of Covid vaccine doses overseas and it appears President Joe Biden intends to do more.”We’re going to see that China is going to face a more formidable competitor,” Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”In the last few months, China has been “almost the only primary player” sending Covid vaccines to other countries, said Huang, who is also a professor at Seton Hall University’s School of Diplomacy and International Relations.That’s especially so when India halted vaccine exports to prioritize its domestic needs and Russia’s supply overseas remains very limited, he explained.Several reports have pointed to the U.S. ramping up its effort to share Covid vaccines globally.Biden is reportedly set to announce in a speech at the G-7 summit on Thursday that the U.S. will buy 500 million more doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to share with COVAX, a global vaccine-sharing initiative.  CNBC also reported on Wednesday that the administration is negotiating with Moderna to secure additional vaccine doses to supply to the world.Origins of Covid-19Relations between the U.S. and China had been off to a rocky start under the Biden administration. The two sides have clashed on several issues, including the origins of the coronavirus, which was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan.Biden last month said he’s ordered a closer intelligence review of the pandemic’s origins, including whether the virus had escaped from a Chinese laboratory. In response, China accused the U.S. of a political “blame game.”  Huang said the issue of Covid-19’s origins has become so politicized that it’s likely to stoke further U.S.-China tensions if additional evidence emerges to support the possibility that Covid-19 had originated from a laboratory incident.Without China’s cooperation, such “smoking gun” evidence may not be found, said Huang. Yet, in the West, the theory that the virus came from a lab has become an increasingly “credible, if not mainstream, explanation” of the pandemic’s origin, he said.      More

SINGAPORE — The public listings for two of Southeast Asia’s tech giants will likely pave the way for more high-growth businesses to emerge from the region, said venture capital firm 500 Startups.Contrary to concerns that regional heavyweights may “gobble up” smaller start-ups and stymie innovation, Vishal Harnal told CNBC that “couldn’t be further from the truth.” Rather, he said, the initial public offerings of Grab and GoTo could boost the ecosystem and produce more billion-dollar start-ups.Singapore-based ride-hailing company Grab announced in April that it would go public through a special purpose acquisition company merger valued at $39.6 billion —  the largest ever blank-check deal. Meanwhile, the newly-merged Indonesia on-demand platform GoTo Group confirmed to CNBC that it would go public this year.”While there will be (mergers and acquisitions), while these companies will acquire smaller start-ups, they’re going to invest in far more companies than they acquire, and it’s going to lead to a lot more billion-dollar companies — or unicorns — being born as a result of that,” Harnal told “Street Signs Asia” Monday.They’re going to invest in far more companies than they acquire, and it’s going to lead to a lot more billion-dollar companies.Vishal Harnalmanaging partner, 500 StartupsThat’s because the founders of successful companies will have newfound liquidity to invest in the ecosystem, either actively or as angel investors — those who invest in early stage businesses. Meanwhile, staff who have seen their employers grow from seed funding to IPO may be more inclined to build their own companies.Harnal likened the process to that which played out in China among its famous tech stocks known collectively as BAT – Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent.A passenger takes a ride on a Gojek motorcycle taxi in Jakarta on May 24, 2018.Bay Ismoyo | AFP | Getty ImagesAccording to 500 Startups research, out of the nearly 150 active and former unicorns created in China, 40% were invested by BAT companies. In total, BAT companies have invested in 915 tech companies since going public.In contrast, there was less than half that number of mergers and acquisitions, with just 14 occurring in companies worth more than $1 billion.”We saw this happening in China with BAT – Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent. Now in Southeast Asia, we’ve got the equivalent, GSG – Grab, Sea and GoTo,” Harshal said, referencing the Singapore-based internet giant Sea Group.”The more money that companies like GSG spend in educating the ecosystem, in ensuring technology adoption, and investing in expanding the internet economy,” he said. “The more inroads it creates for newer start-ups to build companies and leverage on those companies that now exist.” More

In this articleGMEGameStop said Wednesday that it has appointed former Amazon executive Matt Furlong as its new CEO.It has also picked another former Amazon executive, Mike Recupero, as chief financial officer.GameStop’s stock was down more than 12% in extended trading after the company announced its new leadership and its fiscal first-quarter results, which showed sales up 25% and a narrower loss than it reported a year ago.Furlong will start his new role on June 21. He has worked for Amazon for nearly nine years, most recently leading the growth of its Australia business. Prior to that, he served as a technical advisor to the head of Amazon’s North America consumer business and worked for Procter & Gamble.Recupero began his career at Amazon 17 years ago. Most recently, he was the chief financial officer of its North American consumer business. He previously held similar roles within Amazon’s prime video, European consumer and advertising units.The video game retailer is in the early days of trying to turn around its business. It has named a fresh slate of executives to lead its shift from being a brick-and-mortar retailer to an online player that can fend off competitors such as Walmart, Sony and Microsoft. The company needs to find a strategy to grow its sales. Its stock has also gotten a boost from a Reddit-inspired trading frenzy.Over the past few months, it has hired three former Amazon executives, Jenna Owens, its new chief operating officer; Matt Francis, its first chief technology officer; and Elliott Wilke, its chief growth officer. It also tapped Chewy co-founder Ryan Cohen to lead its e-commerce efforts. It named Cohen chairman at a shareholder meeting Wednesday.Cohen took a stake in GameStop last year. In January, he and two other former Chewy executives were named to the retailer’s board as part of an agreement with the company’s management.GameStop said in the spring that outgoing CEO George Sherman would step down July 31 or earlier, pending the appointment of a successor.Read GameStop’s earnings release here and its CEO and CFO press release here. More

A former Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairman is calling for more regulation of stablecoins, or cryptocurrencies created to be pegged to other assets like fiat money.Timothy Massad, who led the commission during much of the Obama administration’s second term, told CNBC’s Jim Cramer that investors would benefit from more transparency in the wake of Tether Limited’s settlement with the New York attorney’s general office in February.Tether Limited is the company that issues tether, the most valuable stablecoin and third-most valuable cryptocurrency behind bitcoin and ethereum.”We need a better framework of regulation for tether and other stablecoins,” Massad, a senior fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, said Wednesday on “Mad Money.” “We need a better framework so that we can just be sure that there can’t be a run on something like this.”Tether and a related company, Bitfinex, agreed to an $18.5 million settlement with prosecutors to close a probe into allegations that the firms, owned by Ifinex, moved money to cover up an $850 million loss.The New York attorney general alleged the company misrepresented the status of its reserves sometime in 2018 and 2019. While the companies admitted to no wrongdoing, Tether was ordered to submit quarterly disclosures on its reserves. It produced its first report in March.That March report revealed some opaque uses of the money that was invested into the coins. According to the report, Tether held 13% of its assets in secured loans and 15% in commercial paper, or unsecured short-term debt, Massad noted.”We have no idea what kind of loans those are or who they are to” and “we don’t know what kind of paper they’re buying,” he said. “It’s all a concern, so I think we need more disclosure, here.”Questions for Cramer? Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBCWant to take a deep dive into Cramer’s world? Hit him up! Mad Money Twitter – Jim Cramer Twitter – Facebook – InstagramQuestions, comments, suggestions for the “Mad Money” website? [email protected] More