By Philip Pullella | VATICAN CITY VATICAN CITY Pope Francis said on Saturday that Christmas had been “taken hostage” by dazzling materialism that puts God in the shadows and blinds many to the needs of the hungry, the migrants and the war weary. Francis, leading the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics into Christmas for the fourth time since his election in 2013, said in his Christmas Eve […]
The haiku is a powerful poetic form derived from the original Japanese style, with its structured three lines of five, seven and five syllables. David Lanoue, haiku poet and author, defines it as: “A one-breath poem that discovers connection.” They’re beautiful but not something you expect to find many of in the FT. However, in a fit of experimentation earlier this year, we created an algorithm that […]
Australia’s cybersecurity capabilities and researchers will be showcased to global players in the United States in February, in a delegation sent to the RSA Conference in San Francisco led by Special Adviser to the Prime Minister on Cyber Security Alastair MacGibbon and recently appointed CEO of the Australian Cyber Security Growth Network Craig Davies. According to Nicola Watkinson, Austrade’s senior trade and investment commissioner for North America, […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Dubai saw a 11 per cent surge in the total volume of traded goods in the first nine months of 2016, rising as high as 70.82 million tons of commodities. Imports had the lion’s share at AED 594 billion (46.81 million tons and 12% increase), while exports and re-exports accounted for AED 109 billion (11.84 million tons and 8% increase) and AED 249 […]
A round up of some of 2016’s most significant corporate events and news stories. Smartphone sales © EPA A bright start to the year for Samsung Electronicswent up in smoke, after it took the unprecedented decision to axe its Galaxy Note 7 line, following a spate of safety issues that saw the smartphone banned from aircraft, writes Nic Fildes. The 2016 Galaxy Note iteration won substantial praise […]
The vote for Brexit will change the course of Britain’s history, Philip Hammond announced last month. The UK chancellor may be a strident advocate for a soft departure from the EU but he has also been keen to paint a positive picture of the country’s economy, saying the UK’s fundamental strengths will “ensure our future success”. Financial markets are sceptical. The economy may have confounded doom laden […]
Kuwait’s foreign trade surplus shrank 20 percent from a year earlier to KD1.39 billion ($4.56 billion) in the third quarter of 2016, data from the Central Statistical Bureau has showed. However, the latest figure was up from KD1.2 billion reported in the previous quarter as low oil and gas prices continue to affect the local economy. Kuwait is seeking to plug a budget deficit officially projected at […]
Qatar Airways has marked its seventh anniversary in Melbourne, Australia, by announcing plans to introduce its superjumbo A380 aircraft from the end of June 2017 to meet rising passenger demand. The 517-seater A380 aircraft will increase Qatar Airways’ current daily capacity by 44 percent on this route to meet the growing travel and trade demand, the airline said in a statement. Qatar Airways Group CEO Akbar Al […]
By Rodrigo Campos | NEW YORK NEW YORK The year-end stocks rally on the heels of the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president was built on expectations of reduced regulations, big tax cuts and a large fiscal stimulus. Now signs are emerging from the Trump camp that harsher trade policies that could jeopardize the honeymoon are likely in the offing, and investors would be well advised […]
“The boundaries of uncertainty have increased [for fixed-income markets],” says Dan Ivascyn, chief investment officer at Pimco, the bond specialist that invests more than $1.5tn. “Rates certainly can go higher.” What is clear for bond investors is that they face a true test of their convictions in 2017 after an end to 2016 that challenged the consensus of low inflation and rates that, at one point, drove […]
On April 7, 14 large blue letters quietly disappeared from the outer walls of an office building in an exclusive neighborhood in northern San Salvador. One by one, the letters came down from the blue and beige stucco walls, leaving behind faint traces of the name of the law firm that had been working there just days before: M-O-S-S-A-C-K-F-O-N-S-E-C-A. Employees of the El Salvador branch of Mossack […]
A hundred years ago, an arms race between the dominant global superpower the (British Empire) and a rising power (Kaiser Wilhelm’s Germany) culminated in the mass slaughter of World War One. The deep mistrust between the United States and the People’s Republic of China has all the potential to spawn a traumatic chapter in international relations. Despite its “pivot” to Asia, the Obama White House was cautious […]
The renminbi’s seemingly endless grind lower against the US dollar has been one of the financial stories of 2016, triggering a wave of capital outflows from China that Goldman Sachs estimates may have totalled $1.1tn since August 2015. The once closely controlled Chinese currency has tumbled 6.5 per cent to an eight-year low of Rmb6.945 against the greenback this year, taking its slide since August 2015 to […]
Submitted by Federico Pieraccini via Strategic-Culture.org, Understanding the objectives and logic that accompany the expansion of nations or empires is always of paramount importance in helping one draw lessons for the future In this series of four articles I intend to lay a very detailed but easily understandable foundation for describing the mechanisms that drive great powers. To succeed, one must analyze the geopolitical theories that over […]
Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for December 22, 2016, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun. newslide Abu Dhabi Art exhibition See the exhibition Flamboyant Impressions, in which German photographer Andreas Denstorf presents Platux photo art, which is based on multidimensional images that include separations, reflections, overlays and colours. Pictured: Nature […]
Each year at the Ira Sohn conference a group of the world’s best known hedge fund managers present their top ideas for what to buy in the stock market. The event is so closely followed by investors that it is not unknown for shares in companies that are picked to start rising before presenters have even left the stage. More recently, however, some of these celebrity investors […]
If any global sound is on the verge of blowing up in 2017, it’s the pan-African mélange known as afrobeats. Or, depending on who you ask, afropop, afrofusion or afropolitan – but not to be confused with political Fela Kuti-style afrobeat (singular), nor with any of the traditional music that has tended to find its way into the “world music” section of western music shops. Rather, this […]
What a difference a year makes. Having ended 2015 as the worst performing sector on the S&P 500, energy stocks are on track to become this year’s biggest winners as this month’s rally in crude prices further extended the sector’s gains. Despite falling 0.1 per cent on Friday, the S&P 500 energy index is still up more than 25 per cent this year, making it the top […]
Wall Street treaded water in light pre-holiday trading on Friday, with the three major indexes on track to post weekly gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which came within spitting distance of the historic 20,000 mark earlier this week, looked set to record its seventh straight weekly gains. “There’s really nothing to move the market one way or another,” said Mohannad Aama, managing director at Beam Capital […]
Christmas is almost here (and so is Hanukkah), and so it is time for the Long View to revisit the offices of Hindsight Capital LLC once more. Hindsight Capital, for the uninitiated, is the hedge fund that beats all others year in and year out because it is endowed with 20/20 hindsight; it can see the future. The returns to clairvoyance are potentially infinite, so it has […]
Thousands of men, women and children from Myanmar’s Rohingya minority have fled the country over what the army is calling a crackdown on insurgents. A Wall Street Journal article examines the intensification of a long-simmering conflict between Yangon and the Rohingya Muslims, who are denied citizenship in the predominantly Buddhist Southeast Asian state. Here is a short history of the Rohingya people. 8th Century: The Rohingya, a […]
Experience a gastronomical culinary experience that has satisfied UAE audiences for nearly two decades 23 December 2016 Dubai, UAE: Award winning Indian Restaurant, Gazebo has opened five new outlets recently in Khalidiyah Mall Abu Dhabi, Al Twar and Business Bay, Al Shamkha Abu Dhabi and in Ajman. According to Irfan Gaya, Managing Director of Gazebo, the restaurant was initially set up to fill the gap in the […]
How long ago it seems — that post-referendum panic in the UK stock market. The pound plunged and the crowd ran into “safe havens” in the form of government debt, ditching those risky, tricky shares. On July 13, this column pointed out the folly of this strategy. At that moment, buying and holding the UK government’s 10-year bond guaranteed an annual return of just 0.9 per cent. […]
BEIJING China told its companies on Friday they need to pay attention to the latest U.N. sanctions on North Korea, especially those related to coal, to avoid any unnecessary economic losses. The U.N. Security Council imposed new sanctions on North Korea last month aimed at cutting its annual export revenue by a quarter, after Pyongyang carried out its fifth and largest nuclear test so far in September. […]
