Asian stock markets have fallen sharply as soaring prices in America triggered fears the Federal Reserve will take tougher action to rein in inflation.

At the same time the US dollar strengthened to 135 Japanese yen for the first time in over two decades.

It comes as official figures showed on Friday that US inflation hit a more than 40-year high last month.

A warning about Covid-19 infections in Beijing also added to investor concerns about global economic growth.

On Monday, Japan's benchmark Nikkei index ended the day down by just over 3%. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng closed 3.4% lower, while the Kospi in South Korea finished down 3.3%.

The Australian stock market was closed for the Queen's birthday public holiday.

Global oil prices have also slipped with Brent crude falling by around $2 to just over $120 per barrel.

At the same time the Indian rupee has fallen to a new record low as it dropped below 78 to the US dollar.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin fell below $25,000 to its lowest level since December 2020.

On Friday, official data showed that prices in the US increased faster than expected last month, as rising energy and food costs pushed inflation to the highest level since 1981.

The annual inflation rate rose to 8.6% in May, the Labor Department said, after easing in April.

That confounded hopes that inflation had peaked, and instead put investors on alert that the Federal Reserve may take more robust action to tackle the issue.

The central bank is due to make its next policy announcement on Wednesday.

Markets currently see an 80% chance that it will raise its main interest rate by half a percentage point again.

Last month, the Federal Reserve announced its biggest interest rate increase in more than two decades, lifting its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point to a range of 0.75% to 1% after a smaller rise in March.

The rising cost of living has been squeezing households and putting pressure on policymakers to bring the issue under control.

A major issue in the US is the rising cost of fuel. On Saturday, as the price of petrol averaged more than $5 a gallon for the first time, according to the American Automobile Association.

However, investors are worried that the Fed and other major central banks may take aggressive action to contain rising prices and cause a sharp economic slowdown if interest rates are raised too high and too quickly.

Investors are also wary of the spread of Covid-19 in China after Beijing's most populous district of Chaoyang announced on Sunday that three rounds of mass testing would be carried out to control a "ferocious" outbreak - 166 confirmed cases so far - that emerged at a bar in a nightlife and shopping area last week.

This has spurred concerns of more lockdowns, which threaten to slow the city's economic recovery, just a short time after restrictions were eased.

Researchers at Ruhr-University Bochum investigated ways to make copper and silver release even more ions than they normally would as a result of corrosion, a process that helps prevent the growth of bacteria or kill them completely.

In a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, the scientists describe the use of a so-called sputtering system with which the thinnest layers or tiny nanopatches of the metals can be applied to a carrier material. Depending on the sequence or quantity in which the individual metals are applied, different surface textures are created. If a precious metal such as platinum is also applied, silver corrodes even faster and releases more antibacterial ions.

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“In the presence of a more noble metal, the baser metal sacrifices itself, so to speak,” researcher Alfred Ludwig said in a media statement. This phenomenon is called the principle of the sacrificial anode.

The effectiveness of such sacrificial anode systems against bacteria has already been demonstrated. However, whether viruses can also be rendered harmless in this way has not yet been investigated in detail.

“This is why we analysed the antiviral properties of surfaces coated with copper or silver as well as various silver-based sacrificial anodes, and also examined combinations of copper and silver with regard to possible synergistic effects,” virologist Stephanie Pfänder said.

The team compared the effectiveness of these surfaces against bacteria with the effectiveness against viruses.

Surfaces with sacrificial anode effect, especially nanopatches consisting of silver and platinum as well as the combination of silver and copper, efficiently stopped bacterial growth.

Yet, a different picture emerged with SARS-CoV-2: thin copper layers significantly reduced the viral load after only one hour. On the other hand, sputtered silver surfaces had only a marginal effect, and silver nanopatches did not impress the virus either.

“In conclusion, we demonstrated a clear antiviral effect of copper-coated surfaces against SARS-CoV-2 within one hour, while silver-coated surfaces had no effect on viral infectivity,” Pfänder said.

June 13 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia will build a "green wall" along its borders by planting at least 16 million trees by 2030 to combat desertification, according to the presidential office of Mongolia.

To achieve the goal, professional agronomists have been appointed to all units of the General Authority for Border Protection, and trainings on planting and caring for trees have been provided to contract or conscript servicemen, the presidential office said in a statement on Monday.

The effort is part of Mongolia's national tree-planting campaign initiated by President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh, the statement said.

The campaign was officially launched last October with an aim to plant at least 1 billion trees by 2030 to combat climate change and desertification.

Almost 77 percent of Mongolian territory is affected by desertification and land degradation, according to the country's Ministry of Environment and Tourism.

At Asia Tech Singapore 2022, HE Bolor-Erdene Battsengel, State Secretary, Ministry of Digital Development and Communications, Mongolia, took to the stage to share her views on the changing roles of women in tech with fellow guest panellists.

Digital governance is a key agenda for many countries. What have been some initiatives rolled out?

Mongolia aims to build a digital nation. In this context, a number of basic system and structural changes have been made. For example, to accelerate digital transformation, the former agency named Communication and Information Technology Authority was reorganized this year into the Ministry of Digital Development and Communications. E-Mongolia platform has successfully launched an integrated e-government system. The E-Mongolia academy has also been established to further develop, improve and maintain the E-Mongolia System. The fundamental laws of digital governance, such as the Law on Public Information, the Law on Digital Signatures, the Law on the Personal Data Protection, and the Law on Cyber ​​Security, have also been approved by the Parliament of Mongolia.

Mongolia implemented the e-Mongolia platform a couple of years ago to digitalize public services. Can you tell us about the progress of this initiative and how this has impacted the lives of Mongolians?

We first introduced the E-Mongolia system on 1 October 2020. The main achievement is that today, it has become a large system that includes 656 services from 61 government organizations. In total, more than 12 million services have been provided online through this system. The system currently has 1.3 million users. That means one-third of the adult population uses the E-Mongolia platform. A total of 656 most demanded public services can be obtained from this system, from applying for a driver’s license to applying for a passport. Features such as offering services based on customer behavior have recently been added.

Mongolia is a vast and one of the least densely populated countries in the world. Can you tell us how this has been a challenge for 5G adoption and what is the 5G journey like so far?

Our country has approved a policy to introduce 5G networks in 2020. In 2021, 5G pilot tests were successfully conducted twice. This year, the Ministry of Digital Development and Communications and the Communications Regulatory Commission are preparing the spectrum management for the introduction of 5G in Mongolia. In addition, mobile operators are preparing to invest in 5G. It has also successfully completed a 5G readiness assessment with the support of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Our country has a large territory and a sparsely populated region. This situation poses the biggest challenge when building a 5G network. In other words, the investment for establishing a 5G network will require a lot. In addition, 5G requires more robust fiber optic infrastructure. The next big challenge is a small, but highly competitive market. For instance, Mongolia has more than 3 million citizens served by 5 mobile operators.

What are some plans in the pipeline for the Ministry of Digital Development and Communications of Mongolia?

As I mentioned, our country aims to become a digital nation. The government has announced that information technology is one of the priorities of the economy. The Ministry of Development was implemented within the government, and the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Innovation and Digital Development was established. Our ministry has also approved a digital nation strategy. The strategy has six sub-objectives: digital infrastructure, e-governance, cybersecurity, digital literacy and inclusion, innovation and production, and national development accelerator.

As I have said before, we have passed laws to accelerate the nation’s digital development to a new level. Emphasis will be placed on the implementation of these laws and the approval of compliance regulations.

Inner Mongolia has closed 49 cryptocurrency mining farms in total, but only four since September, according to the Inner Mongolia Daily, indicating either the process has been successful or the shutdown drive mandated by Beijing is slowing.

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As of last September, Inner Mongolia had shut down 45 farms, state-backed newspaper Science & Technology Daily reported at the time.

Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region on the northern border of China, is rich in coal and has cheap electricity. Local crypto mining farms accounted for 8% of the global Bitcoin mining hashrate, the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) said last May.

China started clamping down crypto mining last March, and some mining farms have relocated overseas.

But China’s mining hashrate started to rise again late last year and by January it had become the second-largest Bitcoin mining hub with 21% of the global hashrate, according to CCAF.

Miners are still operating secretly in China, either scattered in rural areas or leveraging relationships with local governments to conceal their mining sites.

Bitcoin’s price has been hovering around $30,000 for a month and just hit a 16-month low of $25,000 on Monday, according to CoinGecko.

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NINGWEI QIN

Ningwei is a Research Associate at Forkast. She previously worked for Caixin, Renmin Daily and CCTV. Ningwei holds a Masters degree from the University of Hong Kong.

The prices of imported Mongolian coking coal extended the rise as an optimism grew along with higher ceiling prices of a tender issued by a large state-run coke firm in Inner Mongolia.

On 7 June, the major coke firm asked for 10,000 tonnes of Mongolian raw coal supply with a ceiling price at 2,060 yuan per tonnes, delivered basis with VAT, climbing 180 yuan per tonnes compared with the preceding tender on 2 June.

The inflows of trucks hauling coal from Mongolia to China through Ganqimaodu border crossing retreated to 374 on 7 June, down from 395 trucks from the preceding day, partly affected by the fallout of infections detected earlier.

Mongolia’s border crossings reportedly will close to celebrate Naadam Festival starting from 11 July.

Mongolia has planned to export at least 36 million tons of coal in 2022.

A total of 166 Covid infections in China have been linked to a single bar in the capital Beijing, officials say.

A government spokesman described the outbreak as "ferocious".

All residents living in the area where the bar is located will be tested over the next three days.

The number of infections in the city is low by international standards but high for China, which is the world's only major economy still maintaining a "zero Covid" policy.

The outbreak was traced to a venue called the Heaven Supermarket Bar, in the well-known entertainment area of Sanlitun in Chaoyang district.

Two buildings housing hundreds of people in Chaoyang were put under strict lockdown on Sunday after a positive case was reported, a residential committee worker told Reuters news agency.

Some people in Beijing said they were sent texts telling them to report to authorities if they had recently visited Sanlitun's bars.

Chinese officials have reversed the relaxation of some Covid rules in Beijing because of the outbreak.

Most children in the capital will not return to school next week as originally planned, officials said.

The capital has reported 1,997 local Covid cases since 22 April.

China's overall policy of "zero Covid" remains in place and people catching Covid face quarantine or hospital.

Their close contacts also face the prospect of removal to quarantine and the area immediately around where they live being locked down again.

The city of Shanghai, the country's economic centre and a global trade hub, recently eased Covid curbs after a two-month lockdown.

The closure of Russian airspace has resulted in a number of problems for Finnish air carriers, including the need to re-route flights and the loss of around €1.5 ($1.58) million per month in air navigation fees, the Finnish newspaper Iltalehti reported this week, citing the head of air traffic control Matts-Anders Nyberg.

“Every month, we lose around €1.5 million in navigation fees due to the overflight ban,” Nyberg was cited as saying.

Russia closed its airspace at the end of February as part of retaliatory sanctions after a number of European countries, including Finland, banned Russian planes from their airspace in response to Russia's military operation in Ukraine. According to Nyberg, as a result, the number of flights from Finland and through Finland to Asia and back has dwindled since late February. Many flights from Amsterdam and Copenhagen to Asia previously passed through Finnish airspace, and Finland profited from the air navigation fees. Now, these flights have to be re-routed via the Caucasus or the North Pole.

The journeys themselves are now much longer – a flight to Tokyo, for instance, now takes 13 hours instead of nine – and Finland no longer receives the air navigation fees for Asia-bound planes that previously passed through Finnish airspace. Also, according to Nyberg, Russia is no longer paying fees for flights over the Gulf of Finland to Kaliningrad.

The closure of Russian airspace also damaged Finnair, the country’s largest airline, Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reports. Even the future of the carrier is in jeopardy, according to the news outlet. Because Helsinki is closer than other European hubs to the key cities of China, South Korea and Japan, Finnair has long relied on this advantageous geographic location for flights to Asia.

However, Finnair now has to fly around Russia, which greatly reduces its advantage over competitors, especially Chinese carriers, which can still use Russian airspace. With the average 40% increase in flight time, the company has to spend more on fuel, personnel and navigation costs. Finnair’s operating loss for the first half of 2022 already amounted to a record €133 ($140) million, and the company was forced to make major staff cuts and started leasing crewed aircraft to other airlines to reduce losses, the report states.

Mongolian court has sentenced N.Tuvshinbayar, a two-time Olympic medalist for 16 years in prison for murder of his best friend. N.Tuvshinbayar, 37, was charged for a drunken assault which caused a death of fellow wrestler in April, 2021.

The prosecutors submitted the case on 1 December, 2021 to the Khan-Uul District Court charging N.Tuvshinbayar with a criminal code which carries a maximum sentence of 12 years in jail. However, the victim E.Enkhbat, a fellow judoka and a best friend of Tuvshinbayar, died on 24 December, 2021 after retuning home from South Korea. Therefore, N.Tuvshinbayar re-charged for murder which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

E.Enkhbat was hospitalised unconsciousness at the intensive care unit of the National Centre for Treatment and Research on 2 April after the assault that appears to have caused serious brain damage. Shortly after that, the victim flew to South Korea for brain surgery.

Enkhbat’s career medals include a silver in the men’s under-100kg category at the International Judo Federation (IJF) Grand Slam in Baku in Azerbaijan in 2013 and a gold in the same category at the IJF World Cup in Jeju, South Korea in 2012.

After winning the Olympic gold medal at Beijing 2008, N.Tuvshinbayar competed in the same under-100kg category at London 2012, claiming a silver medal on this occasion. He was elected unopposed as President of the MNOC, which this year is celebrating its 65th anniversary, which occurred August last year. After the incident, N.Tuvshinbayar was removed from a position of the position.

A total of 10 electric double-deckers with 70 passenger seats began running at a main road connecting east and west of Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia.

To ease the traffic congestions and reduce the air pollutions, Ulaanbaatar municipal government is determined to introduce more electric vehicles on its roads.

According to the government’s plan, the city imported 10 units electric double-deckers and 36 units school buses from China. In addition, it will build four recharging stations and 15 sets recharging facilities. Another 40 buses will be added next year as part of the effort to improve the buses providing public transport service in the capital city.

Currently, Ulaanbaatar boasts over 900 units city buses. According to local bus operators, almost half of the city’s bus fleet is going to be replaced soon.