One of the EU’s most senior officials has called for a ceasefire in the verbal hostilities over Brexit with Theresa May, warning that looming talks could become “impossible” if calm is not restored. The intervention by Donald Tusk, European Council president, marks a concerted effort to defuse escalating tension between Brussels and London after the UK prime minister accused EU officials of trying to sabotage her election […]
Better known for his role in Danny Boyle’s Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire, Dev Patel has proven equally adept at drama and comedy. Patel joined the cast of Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom, as well as starred alongside acting royalty in the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. This year, he’s starring alongside Jeremy Irons in The Man Who Knew Infinity, and Lion, with Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara. Lion is based […]
Cameron Mackintosh speaks with all the ease – but with little of the arrogance – of someone who has made a billion dollars doing what he loves. “I was a lucky boy to be born when I was,” he says. Coming from the third richest man in the British music industry, it is perhaps the understatement of the century. The run of stage smashes he produced in […]
Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth’s stalwart companion during six decades on the throne, is to step down from his public duties from the autumn, Buckingham Palace announced on Thursday. The Duke of Edinburgh’s decision was taken with the support of the Queen, the statement said. London was earlier gripped by speculation of an imminent announcement after reports senior staff of the royal household had been called to the […]
Pop superstar Ed Shereen is set to return to Dubai with a one-night only gig at the Autism Rocks Arena on November 23. The 26-year-old British singer has had a massive year on the billboards with multiple songs topping the charts. The hit maker is known for songs such as Thinking Out Loud, Photograph, Shape of You, and Castle on the Hill. Sheeran was last in the […]
HONG KONG Hong Kong’s next leader, Carrie Lam, vowed on Thursday to heal political and social divides, pledging to return the global financial hub to its “normal course of development”. Lam takes office on July 1 after being selected in March amid widespread concern that Beijing’s meddling had sealed her victory and denied the freewheeling former British colony a more popular leader. The former civil service chief […]
Sign up to receive FirstFT by email here The Federal Reserve said it believed the recent slowdown in US growth was likely to prove temporary as it stayed on course for a further increase in short-term interest rates as soon as June. The US central bank kept its target range for the federal funds rate at 0.75 per cent to 1 per cent following its latest two-day meeting. In […]
Islamabad: Days after the Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered the formation of a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to probe the Panama Papers case, involving Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his children, the premier’s daughter took to social media to dismiss the leaks. Maryam Nawaz Sharif provoked a new debate on social media on Wednesday by challenging the authenticity of the Panama Papers and the journalists who exposed […]
Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for May 4, 2017, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun. Aarti Jhurani rounds up 10 things to do today in the UAE. Want to see your event listed here? Email us with the details and contact information at [email protected] newslide Abu Dhabi Film screenings Catch […]
Theresa May has formally launched her election campaign with an attack on “European politicians and officials”, whom she accused of threatening Britain and trying to sabotage her attempt to win re-election. Standing on the steps of Number 10, Mrs May set out to inflame Brexit tensions, claiming that events of recent days showed that “there are some in Brussels who do not want these talks to succeed”. […]
Prototype of the hand that sees. Credit: Newcastle University A new generation of prosthetic limbs which will allow the wearer to reach for objects automatically, without thinking—just like a real hand—are to be trialled for the first time. Led by biomedical engineers at Newcastle University, UK, and funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the bionic hand is fitted with a camera which instantaneously […]
The law justifying Britain’s Brexit bill is hotly contested, the variables in the calculation are legion and the negotiation has yet to start. But there can be no doubt that the EU’s €100bn demand to settle Britain’s exit dues is one of the biggest political dangers in the Brexit process. The Financial Times estimated the bill using the EU’s negotiating guidelines, the more detailed draft mandate for […]
BEIRUT A bomb blast killed at least four people and wounded many more in a rebel-held town in northern Syria near the Turkish border on Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said. The explosion hit the town of Azaz, which has long been an important base for rebels, including groups backed by Turkey. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which […]
Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for May 3, 2017, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun. Aarti Jhurani rounds up 10 things to do today in the UAE. Want to see your event listed here? Email us with the details and contact information at [email protected] newslide Al Ain Cultural tour Spend […]
A forest with beetle-killed trees as seen from Mt. Fraser, British Columbia. Credit: Themightyquill/Wikimedia Commons The mountain pine beetle has destroyed more than 40 million acres of forest in the western United States. That amounts to an area the size of Washington state that is strewn with conifers left for dead. The beetles introduce a fungus that prevents critical nutrients and water from traveling within a tree. […]
LONDON In his first day as a newspaper editor, former finance minister George Osborne taunted British leader Theresa May over her snap election strategy and “unrealistic” Brexit stance. Carrying a bundle of newspapers as he arrived at the offices of the Evening Standard, London’s daily metropolitan newspaper, Osborne said his editorship would provide “the straight facts and the informed analysis”. Osborne, 45, was dismissed last year as […]
Brussels is rushing out proposals to impose EU control on the City of London’s lucrative euro-clearing market, forcing UK operators to either relocate or be policed by European authorities. In a provocative regulatory salvo fired as Brexit talks begin, the European Commission is preparing to issue legislative proposals in June that would heavily restrict London’s ability to host one of its flagship financial businesses. The commission’s power […]
LONDON A surfer who went missing off the coast of Scotland has been found 13 miles from land after spending more than 30 hours in the water, British coastguard said on Monday. The man, named by the BBC as 22-year-old Matthew Bryce from Glasgow, was reported missing after he set off to go surfing on Sunday morning from a beach near Campbeltown off the Scottish west coast, […]
PANAMA CITY (AFP) – The co-founder of the law firm at the center of the Panama Papers scandal says the fallout has set off a “thriving” boom in the creation of tax shelters in the United States. Juergen Mossack, who partnered with Ramon Fonseca to create the Panamanian firm Mossack Fonseca, said in a document obtained on Thursday (April 21) by AFP that after the Panama Papers […]
The Panama Papers investigation into the offshore secrets of the rich and famous has been awarded a prestigious Pulitzer prize. The prize was given to the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), together with two US titles, McClatchy and the Miami Herald. The judges cited a series of stories from the Panama Papers and the “collaboration of more than 300 reporters on six continents to expose […]
Theresa May’s critics have attacked the British prime minister for having “no plan” over Brexit in the wake of a leaked account of a private dinner that heightened tensions between Brussels and London. A report published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung portrayed last Wednesday’s dinner between Mrs May and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker as a disaster. According to the FAZ, commission officials were astonished at Mrs […]
22 February 2016 – Journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia posted the first major hint that the biggest scandal in Maltese history was about to break. “It’s traditional to eat lamb on Easter Sunday, so Konrad Mizzi and his estranged wife Sai Mizzi Liang will be getting theirs from New Zealand, courtesy of their fixer Brian Tonna, who has a desk at the Auberge de Castille”. […]
A Doha court on Sunday upheld the death penalty in the retrial of a Qatari man convicted of murdering a 24-year-old British female teacher. Badr Hashim Khamis Abdallah al-Jabr was found guilty of stabbing Lauren Patterson and then burning her body in the Qatari desert in October 2013. “The defendant was fully aware of the consequences of his actions,” Doha’s court of cassation ruled. It said that […]
DUBAI // A new boarding school in the emirate will compete with some of the best and most exclusive in the world as it prepares to open its campus this year. The first of three planned boarding houses at the Swiss International Scientific School’s Al Jaddaf campus is being built and on track for completion before the academic year starts in September. Consisting of 50 en-suite rooms […]
