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Asia-Pacific
Channel NewsAsia

South Korea ruling party sweeps most seats in local elections but faces losing Seoul

The loss of Seoul would deliver a symbolic blow to South Korean President Lee Jae Myung despite his party’s broader gains. Election officials carrying the ballots for local elections arrive at a counting center in Seoul, South Korea, on Jun 3, 2026. (File photo: Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji) SEOUL: South Korean President Lee Jae Myung's ruling Democratic Party swept the majority of seats in local elections, early vote counts showed on Thursday (Jun 4), but looked set to lose the crucial Seoul mayoralty amid a controversy over a shortage of ballot papers. Opposition People Power Party (PPP) incumbent Mayor Oh Se-hoon was projected to clinch a narrow victory in the capital, leading Democratic Party challenger Chong Won-o by a razor-thin margin as of 8am local time (7am, Singapore time). National Election Commission (NEC) tallies at the same time showed Democratic Party candidates winning Busan and leading in 12 of 16 mayoral and provincial contests nationwide, though counting was still underway in some regions. The loss of Seoul, South Korea’s largest city and top political prize, would deliver a symbolic blow to Lee despite his party’s broader gains, complicating what had been expected to be a sweeping endorsement of his first year in office. CNA Games Guess Word Crack the word, one row at a time Buzzword Create words using the given letters Mini Sudoku Tiny puzzle, mighty brain teaser Mini Crossword Small grid, big challenge Word Search Spot as many words as you can Show More Show Less Analysts said control of the capital carries outsized political weight, and the result could temper the ruling party’s claim of a decisive national mandate even if it secures a majority of local governments. Even so, the Democratic Party’s overall performance suggests Lee retains significant nationwide support, buoyed by robust export growth due to an AI chip boom and an accompanying stock market rally that has helped underpin strong approval ratings. The vote was marred by disruption in parts of Seoul, where ballot papers ran out at multiple polling stations amid higher-than-expected turnout. The shortages, reported at more than a dozen polling stations, forced some voters to wait hours or leave without casting ballots, with voting extended at affected sites. The incident triggered protests by some voters and conservative groups, with PPP figures - before it became clear they were on track to retain the Seoul mayoralty - gathering outside the NEC to call for a halt to vote counting and a rerun of the race, arguing it had been “tainted”. The NEC apologised and said it would conduct a full investigation, but said the incidents did not constitute grounds for delaying the election or holding a rerun.

South Korea ruling party sweeps most seats in local elections but faces losing Seoul
Asia-Pacific
The Straits Times

Broadcom shares tumble after its AI chip forecast disappoints investors

SAN FRANCISCO - AI chipmaker Broadcom missed Wall Street expectations for second-quarter revenue on June 3 and its top executive left a previous 2027 sales forecast unchanged, sending its shares down nearly 13 per cent in extended trading. Second-quarter revenue of US$22.19 billion (S$28.5 billion) missed estimates of US$22.27 billion, as Broadcom races with Nvidia whose dominant graphics processing units remain the industry standard for artificial intelligence workloads. Broadcom also said it expects AI chip revenue of US$16 billion in its current third quarter, slightly below estimates of US$16.36 billion, according to analysts polled by Visible Alpha. Chief executive officer Tan Hock Eng said Broadcom now expects to ship more than 10 gigawatts’ worth of AI chips in 2027 - a slight increase from previous estimates - but stuck to the company’s long-range forecast of US$100 billion in sales from those chips. “Nothing slows down what was estimated prior - they just didn’t raise it,” Ben Bajarin, CEO of technology consultancy Creative Strategies, said of the long-range forecast. Rivals such as Marvell Technology are also making inroads with key hyperscale customers. At the end of May, Marvell said its custom chip business would surpass US$10 billion in revenue in 2029, and forecast second-quarter revenue above estimates. The boom in inference - the process by which models respond to user queries - has made custom chips crucial to the industry, driving more orders for advanced processors and intensifying competition. Broadcom’s ability to meet AI demand has also been tested by a strained supply chain. But company executives on the post-earnings call assuaged such concerns, saying Broadcom is “very comfortable” that it has secured supply for 2026 and 2027. “Today’s miss on revenue and subsequent post-market pull back (in shares) shows the market demands perfection for this chip rally to keep running,” said Ryan Lee, senior vice president of product and strategy at Direxion. Still, Broadcom has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI race. Analysts view its core business as robust due to its lead position in the custom chip market with Meta and Alphabet’s Google as its hyperscale customers. Big Tech firms are expected to spend more than US$700 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026, up from around US$400 billion in 2025. As the AI industry evolves rapidly, machine learning capabilities and requirements vary greatly from company to company, resulting in large cloud companies building their own processors to slash costs and personalize workloads. Broadcom plans to ship 10 gigawatts worth of compute capacity next year and plans “a lot more” in 2028, Tan said during the earnings call. “Q2 semiconductor revenue from AI of US$10.8 billion grew 143 per cent year-over-year, above our forecast, driven by increasing demand for custom AI accelerators and AI networking,” he said in a statement. REUTERS

Broadcom shares tumble after its AI chip forecast disappoints investors
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

NCLAT quashes Ligare Aviation's insolvency; loan from Religare Enterprises round-tripping of money

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has set aside insolvency proceedings against Ligare Aviation Ltd, holding that the NCLT erred in admitting the plea filed by Religare Enterprises without properly examining the nature of the underlying transactions, which was "only round tripping of money" and not "any genuine financial transaction". In a strongly worded order, the appellate tribunal said the material on record "clearly proves" that there was no financial debt disbursed by the financial creditor (Religare Enterprises) to the corporate debtor (Ligare Aviation) for consideration of the time value of money, a key requirement under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). Allowing appeals filed by Daiichi Sankyo Company, a Japanese global pharmaceutical company and a shareholder, NCLAT observed that the transactions in question were merely a "round tripping of money/layering of money" undertaken for "some undisclosed fraudulent purposes" and did not create any financial debt capable of triggering insolvency proceedings. "We have come to the conclusion that the materials on the record clearly proves that there was no financial debt which was disbursed by Financial Creditor (Religare Finvest) to the Corporate Debtor (Ligare Aviation) for time value of money…" said a two-member NCLAT bench. Moreover, the MoU for loan was a "sham one-pager document created dishonestly to give the colour of genuine transactions to fraudulent transaction," NCLAT noted its order passed on May 27, 2026. Religare Enterprises and Ligare Aviation are both group companies and related parties. A host of companies, including these two, were controlled by Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh, the two brothers who were ex-promoters of Ranbaxy Laboratories and Fortis Healthcare. In its 69-page-long order, the NCLAT also faulted the New Delhi-based Principal Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for admitting the insolvency plea filed by Religare Enterprises despite the absence of a genuine financial debt. "Adjudicating Authority (NCLT) has not even looked into the plea that the amount was immediately transferred and did not remain even for 24 hours with the corporate debtor," said NCLAT. The NCLAT noted that ₹3.6 crore transferred by Religare Arts Investment Management Ltd (RAIML) to Ligare Aviation on March 31, 2009, was remitted to Religare Finvest, a subsidiary company of Religare Enterprises, which was reflected in the bank transfer of the same day. "The bank transfer of 31.03.2009 further indicates various amounts received from different group companies and transmitted on the same day to other group companies of the group" said NCLAT. It was claimed that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was entered between RAIML and Ligare Aviation on March 30, 2009 under which an amount of Rs 5 crore was sanctioned with interest of 13 per cent. Following that MoU, RAIML transferred Rs 3.6 crore on March 31, 2009. Meanwhile, Daiichi Sankyo received an arbitral award of ₹3,500 crore on April 29, 2016, in Singapore from Singh Brothers and their various companies, which initiated proceedings for the enforcement of the foreign award before the Delhi High Court.

NCLAT quashes Ligare Aviation's insolvency; loan from Religare Enterprises round-tripping of money
Europe
The Guardian

Nvidia launches ‘superchip’ putting AI power into laptops and PCs

A new front has opened up in the battle for dominance in AI chips, as Nvidia said its latest development could replace the mouse and keyboard in how people use computers. The $5tn (£3.7tn) US semiconductor company has launched a “superchip” that puts AI capabilities into laptops and desktop computers, a move that will pit it against Intel, Apple, Qualcomm and AMD. The RTX Spark chip will be launched this year, and will be used by computer makers including Dell, Lenovo, Asus and HP, paired with Microsoft’s Windows software, according to the Nvidia chief executive, Jensen Huang. Speaking at the Computex conference in Taiwan, Huang said the chip would “reinvent the PC” for the AI era, after three years of collaboration between Nvidia and Microsoft. A combination of a microprocessor and a graphics chip, developed with help from Taiwan’s MediaTek, it is designed to run AI agents locally rather than relying on cloud computing. It will allow agents to navigate PCs autonomously, replacing humans’ traditional mouse and keyboard interactions. Because the chip is very powerful, computers will still be thin and light, the company said. The company’s foray into the consumer PC industry will open up a new business line, but this will take time, analysts said. Nvidia, which dominates the booming AI semiconductor market, is pushing beyond graphics cards into integrated chips that power the whole computer. Neil Shah, a co-founder of Counterpoint Research, compared the “RTX Spark moment” with the advent of the iPhone, ChatGPT and DeepSeek. “The RTX Spark looks to transform the traditional app-centric PC to a real useful agentic AI personal computer which will eventually be in every home in coming years as private edge AI agents become pivotal,” he said. The new chip and Nvidia’s Vera central processing unit (CPU) demonstrate the company’s growing focus on PC and CPU products. The Vera CPU is designed for AI agents and early adopters, including OpenAI, Anthropic and SpaceX. Susannah Streeter, the chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, said: “Nvidia’s latest push into AI-powered personal computers marks a bold attempt to extend its dominance beyond datacentres and into consumers’ everyday lives. The unveiling of the RTX Spark chip reinforces Jensen Huang’s vision of PCs evolving from simple productivity tools into hyperintelligent digital co-workers. “While strategically significant, investors are likely to view the move as a longer-term growth opportunity rather than an immediate earnings driver. For now, Nvidia’s fortunes still depend overwhelmingly on relentless global demand for AI infrastructure and datacentre computing power.”

Nvidia launches ‘superchip’ putting AI power into laptops and PCs
Europe
BBC Business

How 'confused' AI rollout hurts firms and baffles staff

When AI engineer Malcolm was working at a data analysis firm, executives wanted to use generative AI to categorise the customer database into a range of personas. A traditional machine learning model would have been much more appropriate, he argued, producing consistent, repeatable results. And it would have been much cheaper. "They still went ahead with Gen AI," says Malcolm (we have not used his real name). That meant a process that was less accurate and much more expensive, but it also allowed the organisation to say they were embracing AI. Malcolm's experience will be familiar to staff at other companies. More bosses are embracing AI and insisting their staff use it. In February, global consultancy Accenture reportedly told staff that promotions to top roles would require "regular adoption of AI tooling" and it would be tracking their usage of the AI platform it has developed. And in May, rival firm KPMG said it had developed a dashboard to track whether its US employees' meet a 75% usage target for its AI tools. The company says this is part of "a holistic effort… to help people move up the AI maturity curve." Other organisations are taking a less targeted approach to implementing AI but nevertheless expect it to transform how their workforces spend their days. The UK government is banking on AI to help "rewire" the state and boost efficiency across Whitehall. However, research by the civil servant union, the FDA, shows that while civil servants were open to the idea of using AI to improve productivity, there's doubt that management can handle the transformation. Less than a third of civil servants had been consulted on how the technology could be rolled out, the union found, meaning "change is being done to workers, not with them".

How 'confused' AI rollout hurts firms and baffles staff
Asia-Pacific
Channel NewsAsia

Indian police arrest hotel owner after deadly fire

NEW DELHI: Indian police have arrested the owner of a New Delhi hotel where a fire killed 21 people, as investigators probe safety failures. Police said owner Lavkesh Bajaj was arrested late on Wednesday (Jun 3), hours after the blaze gutted the building, killing at least nine Indians and several foreigners. Two foreigners have so far been identified - one a citizen of Liberia and another from Mozambique. Building fires in India are common due to a lack of firefighting equipment and routine disregard for safety regulations. People trapped on upper floors were seen jumping onto mattresses below as fire ripped through the Flourish Stay hotel in a densely packed neighbourhood of the city. Several residents were taken to hospital suffering from severe burns, as well as fractured bones after leaping onto the street. In a separate fire on Thursday morning, at least four people died in an intensive care ward in a hospital in Muzaffarpur in the eastern state of Bihar, district government official Subrat Kumar Sen said.

Indian police arrest hotel owner after deadly fire
North America
CNBC

Investors and labels are buying into the growing South Asian music business in the U.S.

When music executive Anjula Acharia began launching superstar actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas into Hollywood in the early 2000s, her label partner Jimmy Iovine — the name behind pop sensations such as Eminem and Lady Gaga — told her she was 20 years too early to bring South Asian talent to the U.S. Now, Acharia is the founder and CEO of 5 Junction, a joint label with Warner Music Group focused specifically on investing in South Asian artists in the U.S. "That sounded crazy, to think we were 20 years too early, but now, 20 years later, with the explosion of people like Diljit Dosanjh and Karan Aujla ... there's all these South Asian acts that are coming here and really selling out, particularly in the live arena," Acharia told CNBC. The South Asian music market in the U.S. has remained largely untapped, but as music becomes more globalized, as with the success of K-pop and Latin acts, South Asian talent is making a case to investors as the next big business opportunity, Acharia said. Global music revenues are reaching all-time highs, surpassing $30 billion in 2025, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. Spotify said last year that streams of Indian artists in international markets grew more than 2,000% between 2019 and 2023, and nearly 50% of royalties from Indian artists on the platform in 2024 were from listeners outside India. With South Asia's growing population and diaspora, it's set to be one of the fastest-growing segments within global music, according to Acharia. "We're in a different time, and I think digitally things travel just so much faster," she said. "A lot of big hits were made with samples from Indian music, so it's been in the zeitgeist for a long time — it's just not been given a face." As more labels look to the subcontinent, Acharia said the business is currently in a stage of experimentation, figuring out what works and how the fan bases will evolve. Warner Music Group is the third-largest music label in the U.S., holding roughly 17% market share by distribution ownership as of the first quarter of 2026, according to Billboard. "I think the business proposition is this global Indian fandom," she said. "How do we galvanize this audience and this fandom, and how do we serve it?" 5 Junction represents top artists such as singer and songwriter Rhea Raj, who told CNBC she's seeing South Asian music become more mainstream in the U.S. "We're seeing more artists at bigger festivals and at award shows, and I think the best of it's yet to come," Raj said. Raj and her sister, Lara Raj, of the girl group Katseye, are two of many South Asian artists in the U.S. building out fan bases that span backgrounds and ethnicities.

Investors and labels are buying into the growing South Asian music business in the U.S.
Asia-Pacific
The Straits Times

From nicknames to masked names: How to know if you’re paying the right person on PayNow from June 6

SINGAPORE – From June 6, PayNow users will no longer be able to use or see custom nicknames when sending or receiving money via the money-transfer platform. The move has prompted mixed reactions from the public: Some welcome the added protection against impersonation scams, while others – particularly freelancers and home-based business owners who rely on recognisable aliases – say it may confuse their customers. Here’s what you need to know about the upcoming change, why it is happening, and how it affects you. If you belong to the 30 per cent of PayNow users who are currently using a nickname, your payers will no longer see your nickname in the transactions from June 6. Instead, the name registered with your bank account will be partially displayed, with selected letters replaced with “X”. If you belong to the other 70 per cent who use your full name, your payers will see your partially masked name from June 6. In short, to combat scams, said the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS). Scammers have been exploiting customisable nicknames to impersonate legitimate businesses, government agencies or even friends and family members to trick victims into transferring money. Dropping the nickname feature removes one avenue scammers can use to deceive victims. ABS said the logic for the display name has factored in industry best practices, consumer feedback, and is centrally applied to provide consistency. The display format was also designed to strike a balance between offering privacy and giving users sufficient confidence that they are transferring money to the intended recipient. ABS also explained that “X” was chosen to hide certain letters because it has a visual resemblance to a cross-out mark, which generally represents something concealed or missing. No action is required. The change will be applied automatically to all retail PayNow users.

From nicknames to masked names: How to know if you’re paying the right person on PayNow from June 6
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

US House approves war powers resolution to halt military action against Iran

The US House of Representatives has approved a war powers resolution aimed at halting US military action against Iran, with a group of Republicans joining Democrats in defiance of President Donald Trump. | Photo Credit: Dado Ruvic The House approved a war powers resolution that would halt the US military action against Iran, defying President Donald Trump as a handful of Republicans joined with Democrats to end the three-month-long war that has reordered politics at home and abroad. House Speaker Mike Johnson had tried to prevent an outcome that would show the mounting opposition to the war, abruptly shutting down floor action two weeks ago when the war powers resolution was on the verge of approval. But displeasure has only grown as the conflict drags on and as Trump struggles to negotiate a quick resolution. The roll call on Wednesday was 215-208, and cheers erupted in the House chamber. “This reckless and costly war of choice needs to end today,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said earlier in the week. “All we need are a handful of Republicans to join us and we can end this reckless and costly war of choice -- a war that has cost the American taxpayer over USD 100 billion -- that’s extraordinary -- and left our country in a weaker position relative to Iran.” It’s the fourth time the House has tried to curb the US war against Iran, and the first time the House was able to pass the measure. The Senate advanced its own war powers resolution last month when a handful of GOP senators broke ranks with the Republican president in a rare show of political pushback from his party. Each time Democrats have pushed forward the war powers resolution, the vote tallies have inched higher as political unease with the US war swells. Trump had campaigned for the White House on a promise to end US entanglements abroad and focus more on domestic issues, but the war has shifted attention back to the Middle East. Johnson insisted Trump is “laser focused” on the domestic front, particularly ahead of the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress. The speaker said he spent three hours at the White House with the president this week as Trump is calling on allies to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz for commerce, especially the flow of oil. Since the US joined Israel in launching the February 28 strikes on Iran, Americans have seen gas prices spike at the pumps, adding to inflationary pressure on consumer spending. Iran has been able to interrupt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital channel for a large segment of the world’s oil, natural gas and related products such as fertilizer.

US House approves war powers resolution to halt military action against Iran