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JAKARTA — Sitting on the side of a Jakarta road anxiously waiting for his phone to ping, driver Muhammad Ridwan says it is now barely worth hurtling through thick smog every day to ferry passengers. A 30 per cent hike in fuel prices spurred hundreds of drivers of the most popular ride-hailing apps to hold protests across Indonesia as they struggle to make ends meet.

"I sometimes don't eat a proper meal the whole day to allocate my cash for fuel. If I don't have fuel, how can I work?" asked Ridwan, a contractor for Gojek — which alongside Singapore's Grab is among Asia's most valuable start-ups.

The drivers operate in an unregulated market and critics say the firms exploit them as "partners" or contractors, taking large cuts of their daily income.

To cut Indonesia's deficit during rising global inflation and soaring energy prices due to the war in Ukraine, President Joko Widodo slashed fuel subsidies.

It pushed the price of Petralite — Indonesia's cheapest fuel choice — from about 7,650 rupiah (50 cents) to 10,000 (67 cents) per litre.

'Cannot accept' cost 

On-demand drivers say the two ride-hailing giants have only hiked fares slightly — to the tune of 800 rupiah (5 cents) per kilometre — to cover the additional costs.

Both Gojek and Grab told AFP they imposed a rate change in line with government regulation.

Gojek, which earlier this year merged with e-commerce platform Tokopedia in a multibillion-dollar deal, said the objective of the rate change was to "support driver partners".

Grab said it was "designed to protect and maintain our driver-partners' welfare".

They both declined to disclose the rate increase but union leaders said it fell short of drivers' expectations.

"Drivers across Indonesia cannot accept the fare adjustment," said Igun Wicaksono, who heads a union of more than 100,000 drivers.

On a good day, drivers can earn up to 150,000 rupiah ($10). But where a refuelling stop once cost 20,000 rupiah ($1.35), it can now cost up to 35,000 rupiah ($2.35).

Drivers sometimes have to refuel twice in a shift, leaving them with a threadbare profit.

'Don't just throw promises' 

More competition from cheaper delivery apps is adding further pressure on Gojek and Grab drivers, leading to fears they won't be able to provide for their families.

"It significantly burdens me whenever I buy fuel these days," said 38-year-old Grab driver Iwan Nur Akbar, who had waited an hour for an order to ping on his phone.

"Thankfully I can still afford food for my family as we regularly get rice from government schemes," he said.

The gig economy, with its complex rewards-based system, has been in the spotlight globally in recent years with workers in several countries holding protests against their tech employers. 

Anger was already bubbling in Indonesia before the fuel price hike with claims of unfair practices and poor working conditions.

In July, one driver sewed his lips shut to signal how drivers' concerns on go unheard.

Gig drivers warn that the lack of action could result in mass protests across the country. So far, protests have been limited to a few hundred, and met with a huge deployment of around 8,000 police officers in Jakarta.

With Grab and Gojek accounting for more than four million drivers, that is a daunting prospect for the government.

"Don't just throw promises," said Gojek driver Saiful Ridwan, 38, referring to government assurances of help as he waited outside Jakarta's Pasar Senen wholesale market.

"Don't let poor people become poorer." 

BERLIN — Berlin on Friday took control of the German operations of Russian oil firm Rosneft to secure energy supplies which have been disrupted after Moscow invaded Ukraine.

Rosneft's German subsidiaries, which account for about 12 per cent of oil refining capacity in the country, were placed under trusteeship of the Federal Network Agency, the economy ministry said in a statement.

"The trust management will counter the threat to the security of energy supply," it said.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his government "did not take this action lightly but it was inevitable" for the "protection of our country".

The seizures come as Germany is scrambling to wean itself off its dependence on Russian fossil fuels, while Moscow has stopped natural gas deliveries to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

The German government's move covers the companies Rosneft Deutschland GmbH (RDG) and RN Refining & Marketing GmbH (RNRM) and thereby their corresponding stakes in three refineries: PCK Schwedt, MiRo and Bayernoil.

In a statement Friday, Rosneft denounced the move as illegal and "a violation of all the basic principles of a market economy".

The company was examining all possible measures to protect its shareholders, including taking court action, it added.

'Sufficient supply' 

Fears had been running high particularly for PCK Schwedt, which is close to the Polish border and supplies around 90 per cent of the oil used in Berlin and the surrounding region, including Berlin-Brandenburg international airport.

The region could have "found itself in a position, due to the refinery in Schwedt, where security of supply was no longer a given", Economy Minister Robert Habeck said at a press conference.

The refineries' operations had been disrupted as the German government decided to slash Russian oil imports, with an aim to halt them completely by year's end.

By taking control of the sites, the German authorities can then run the refining operations using crude from countries other than Russia.

New supplies of oil for Schwedt have been shipped in via the northeastern port of Rostock, with plans to also tap supplies imported through the Polish city of Gdansk.

The government plans to "strengthen" the pipeline between the Schwedt refinery and Rostock, while advancing discussions with officials in Warsaw about establishing a link — an option which was not available "so long as it was possible that any profits would go to Rosneft, to Russia", said Habeck.

"There is a good chance that there will be a sufficient supply of oil for the refinery to keep working," said Scholz. Already in early April, Germany took the unprecedented step of temporarily taking control of Gazprom's German subsidiary, after an opaque transfer of ownership of the company set alarm bells ringing in Berlin.

Russia's war in Ukraine has set off an energy earthquake in Europe and especially in Germany, with prices skyrocketing as Moscow dwindled supplies.

Germany has found itself severely exposed given its heavy reliance on Russian gas.

Moscow had also built up a grip over Germany's oil refineries, pipelines and other gas infrastructure through energy giants Rosneft and Gazprom over the years.

Energy deals with Russia were long seen as part of a German policy of keeping the peace through cooperation with Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime.

The cheap energy supplied by Russia was also key in keeping German exports competitive. As a result, the share of Russian gas in Germany had grown to 55 per cent of total imports before the Ukraine war.

But that approach has come back to haunt officials in Berlin, forcing Scholz's coalition to take drastic measures to ensure energy supplies are not disrupted in Europe's biggest economy. 

With winter approaching, Germany has fired up mothballed coal power plants. It is also putting two of its nuclear power plants on standby until April, rather than phasing them out completely as planned by year's end.

HONG KONG — Asian stocks mostly edged higher on Thursday, tracking gains on Wall Street as markets adjusted following a rout this week on higher-than-expected US inflation data.

The data showed US yearly inflation slowing less than expected and monthly inflation rising, stoking fears that the US Federal Reserve (Fed) would continue its aggressive tightening of monetary policy.

On Thursday, bourses in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta made cautious gains.

Markets in Shanghai and Seoul, however, were down at the close.

European stock markets rebounded somewhat at the open on Thursday.

Analysts said markets were bouncing back from the steep losses that followed the inflation data, and traders were pricing in an expected 75 basis-point interest rate hike by the Fed at a meeting next week.

The release of US producer price data also affected market sentiment, showing costs dropping for the second straight month, mainly driven by falling US fuel prices.

"Stock markets have stabilised a little after Tuesday's rout which saw risk assets pummelled across the board," said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA.

Tokyo — the previous day's biggest loser in Asia — closed up by 0.2 per cent, but investors there remained wary of the speed and degree of future US rate hikes, analysts said.

In Hong Kong, stocks closed 0.4 per cent higher on Thursday. 

On Wednesday, Wall Street stocks rose as investors prepared for next week's Fed decision, with the Dow rising 0.1 per cent and the S&P 500 gaining 0.3 per cent.

Any US interest rate hike tends to strengthen the dollar and Asian currencies remain at risk from the strong greenback.

On Thursday, the Australian dollar traded near a two-year low, with the yen at near 143 to the US dollar.

A day earlier, Japan's central bank conducted a "rate check" operation on the yen, a move seen as a precursor to possible intervention, and which served to bring the currency back from the 145 level that is widely seen as a threshold by the market.

'Front-running' predictions 

Global consumer prices have soared for months, exacerbated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine — which has hiked energy and food costs — and because of supply chain strains and Covid lockdowns in China.

Analysts say markets have been trying to "front-run" predictions of when inflation will peak.

"There appears to have been a tendency in recent months to front-run certain releases in the hope that it's going to prove to be the 'pivot' moment when everything starts to look up, central banks can ease off the brake and risk assets will have bottomed," said OANDA's Erlam.

All eyes are now firmly on the Fed's meeting next week, where another 75 basis-point rise is widely expected, after two consecutive increases of the same size.

Following the US inflation data, however, some analysts said it could rise by a full percentage point.

Aggressive interest rate tightening by central banks is slowing down major economies, as authorities attempt to stop them from overheating and tame sharp price rises.

On Wednesday, UK inflation slowed to 9.9 per cent in August, but remained close to 40-year highs.

The Bank of England is expected to institute another rate hike next week.

"[The UK inflation figure is] not exactly cause for celebration, nor is it likely the peak, but you have to take your wins where you can these days," said Erlam.

"The data also won't in all likelihood change the outcome of the BoE meeting next week, with 75 basis points now heavily backed but 50 also possible."

AMMAN — The country’s tourism income increased during the first eight months of 2022 by 161.6 per cent as it reached $3.645 billion compared with the figure achieved during the same period of the previous year, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported on Wednesday.

This increase has come as a result of a rise in the number of tourists arriving in Jordan as 3.175 million tourists visited the country in the January through August period.

In August, separately, tourism revenue posted an 82.4 per cent increase in comparison with the figure recorded in the same month last year, as it reached $822.4 million, according to the figures of Jordan Central Bank, cited by the Jordan News Agency, Petra. 

LUXEMBOURG — The European Union's second-highest court on Wednesday overwhelmingly upheld the EU's record fine against Google over its Android operating system for mobile phones, slightly reducing the fee for technical reasons.

In a statement, the EU's General court said it "largely confirms the commission's decision that Google imposed unlawful restrictions on manufacturers of Android mobile devices" in order to benefit its search engine.

The court, however, said the fine should be slightly reduced to 4.125 billion euros ($4.1 billion), instead of the 4.3 billion euros decided by the commission in 2018, after reviewing the duration of the infringement. 

The levy remains the EU's biggest ever despite Google's arguments that the commission's case was unfounded and falsely relied on accusations it imposed its search engine and Chrome browser on Android phones.

The company also pushed the case that the EU was unfairly blind to the strength of Apple, which imposes or gives clear preference to its own services such as Safari on iPhones

"We are disappointed that the Court did not annul the decision in full," a Google spokesperson said in a short statement. 

"Android has created more choice for everyone, not less, and supports thousands of successful businesses in Europe and around the world," it added.

The complainants welcomed the decision as it confirmed that Google "can no longer impose its will on phone makers", said Thomas Vinje, a lawyer representing the industry group FairSearch, whose original complaint launched the case in 2013.

"This shows the European Commission got it right," he added.

The commission said it "took note" of the decision and "will carefully study the judgement and decide on possible next steps".

The decision by the General Court is not necessarily the end of the story. Both sides can turn to the EU's highest court, the European Court of Justice, for a final say on the fine, which was the equivalent of $5 billion when levied.

The Android case was the third of three major cases brought against Google by the EU's competition czar Margrethe Vestager, whose legal challenges were the first worldwide to directly take on the Silicon Valley giants.

Since then, global regulators have followed suit, with Google facing a barrage of cases in the United States and Asia based on similar accusations.

Last year, South Korea fined Google nearly $180 million for abusing its dominance in a similar case targeting Android.

Vestager has already won against Google in its appeal of a separate case, a 2.4-billion-euro fine for the company for abusing its search engine dominance. As expected, the tech giant appealed that setback to the high court.

The EU, however, has lost recent cases involving the microchip industry. 

Vestager's team lost an appeal against a $1 billion fine imposed on Qualcomm in the same court in June. 

That followed another setback in January when the EU lost the court's backing for a 1.06-billion-euro fine on Intel.

Frustrated at the length of time it takes to pursue competition cases, Brussels has since adopted the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which puts a much tighter leash on the way Big Tech can do business. 

The new law, set to come into force next year, would set up a rulebook of do's and don'ts for Big Tech companies such as Google and Facebook. 

The DMA includes specific bans or limits on Google, Apple and other gatekeepers from promoting their own services on platforms.

WASHINGTON — US inflation likely slowed in August, largely thanks to falling gasoline prices, but not enough to satisfy policymakers, especially President Joe Biden, as high prices continue to inflict pain on American families and businesses.

The consumer price index, a key measure of inflation, is expected to have fallen in August compared to the prior month — the first decline since November 2020. The Labour Department was due to release the latest data on Tuesday.

The annual inflation pace also is likely to have improved to 8 per cent, according to a MarketWatch consensus forecast, from the blistering 9.1 per cent rate in June — the highest in 40 years.

Prices have been soaring for months, exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has impacted energy and food prices, as well as ongoing supply chain snarls amid COVID lockdowns in China.

While Americans will welcome relief at the pump, from the steady drop in gasoline prices, high costs for food and housing continue to strain family budgets.

"Risks remain skewed to the upside, due to an uncertain outlook for key inputs, including agricultural and energy commodities, as well as the pass-through of wage gains in a tight labour market," according to Barclays US analysts Pooja Sriram and Jonathan Hill.

They project a 1 per cent increase in food prices in the month, with housing up 0.6 per cent.

Inflation also has become a hot political issue just weeks away from key midterm congressional elections, and Biden has made fighting high prices his top domestic priority, so any relief will be welcomed at the White House.

"Inflation is way too high, and it's essential that we bring it down," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Sunday, echoing a comment she and other administration officials have made repeatedly to show their sympathy with the plight faced by consumers and firms.

Recession risk 

The Federal Reserve (Fed) views inflation as the biggest risk to the world's largest economy, and has moved aggressively to cool demand, increasing the benchmark lending rate four times this year, with a third consecutive three-quarter point hike widely expected next week.

The Fed actions increase the cost of borrowing for homebuyers and businesses, which tends to cool investment and spending.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said the central bank will do whatever it takes to ensure high prices do not become entrenched, even at the risk of tipping the economy into a recession.

"The clock is ticking," Powell warned Friday, pledging to "keep at it until the job is done".

Yellen acknowledged that there is "certainly a risk" of an economic downturn amid the rising lending costs, but she noted the US job market is "exceptionally strong" with nearly two vacancies for every worker looking for a job.

She cautioned that "we can't have a strong labour market without inflation under control".

Fed officials have said they are encouraged by easing price pressures, but not satisfied. A survey released Monday by the New York Fed Bank showed consumer inflation expectations fell sharply in August.

The strong job market — the unemployment rate was 3.7 per cent in August — also provides some comfort, giving policymakers room to maneuver, and potentially quell inflation without a steep increase in joblessness.

But the worker shortage remains a concern since it could fuel a dangerous wage spiral .