When North Korean traders give Li Jian long lists of the goods they want to buy, he checks the items against a 236-page Chinese translation of the UN sanctions imposed after Kim Jong Un’s regime conducted a sixth nuclear weapons test in September. “If it’s on the sanctions list, we can’t provide it,” Mr Li said from his office in downtown Dandong, the Chinese border city through which […]
Julien Pain was tired of preaching to the choir. After spending several years debunking viral fakes for France 24’s Les Observateurs, Pain was on the lookout for a format that would expand the reach of his fact-checking. “I realized I was only reaching people who agreed with me,” says Pain. “And people who didn’t check their information wouldn’t be reading my fact-checking.” Since September, he has taken […]
22 April 2017 In line with its core values of supporting the community in the Sultanate and developing employment opportunities for Omani youth, Sohar Islamic, Bank Sohar’s Islamic Banking Window, recently participated in the 3rd Intercollegiate Career Fair. The event was organised by Waljat College of Applied Sciences (WCAS) in association with number of colleges in the country and held under the auspices of Dr. Younis Bin […]
LONDON Britain’s Theresa May appeared on course to win a crushing election victory in June after opinion polls put support for her ruling Conservative party at around 50 percent, double that of the opposition Labour party. May’s decision to call a June 8 election stunned her political rivals this week and a string of polls released late on Saturday suggested the gamble had paid off, with one […]
Dubai-based Najibi Investments has announced that its development arm, Sanad Capital, is set to submit phase two of its AED1 billion ($270 million) ‘Active Lifestyle’ project in Australia, which comprises a 200-room hotel. The Sunshine Coast Council has recently approved phase one of the project and bulk earthworks are set to begin within the coming months, Najibi said in a statement. Sanad Capital announced the ACTVE project […]
In this photograph taken on Monday, April 10, 2017, Luminar CEO Austin Russell gestures while looking at a 3D lidar map on a demonstration drive in San Francisco. Russell, now 22, was barely old enough to drive when he set out to create a safer navigation system for robot-controlled cars. His ambitions are about to be tested five years after he co-founded Luminar Technologies, a Silicon Valley […]
By Leika Kihara and Francesco Canepa | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON International Monetary Fund members on Saturday dropped a pledge to fight protectionism amid a split over trade policy and turned their attention to another looming threat to global economic integration: the first round of France’s presidential election. Concerns that far-right leader Marine Le Pen and far-left rival Jean-Luc Mélenchon, both critics of the European Union, could top the […]
By Brian Ellsworth | CARACAS CARACAS Venezuela’s opposition prepared to march in silence on Saturday to honor a dozen people killed in three weeks of protests demanding that the government of President Nicolas Maduro hold delayed elections and address a growing economic crisis. Twelve people have been killed in a renewed wave of demonstrations this month in incidents primarily involving security forces or armed civilians. Another eight […]
Elon Musk, the co-founder and chief executive of Electric carmaker Tesla, announced plans for a semi-truck via Twitter Tesla founder Elon Musk said Thursday the electric car startup is set to launch its first semi-truck in September, moving for the first time into that segment. Musk made the announcement in a tweet, offering few details about the plan, although he has spoken in the past about moving […]
By Chris at www.CapitalistExploits.at Market dislocations occur when financial markets, operating under stressful conditions, experience large widespread asset mispricing. Welcome to this week’s edition of “World Out Of Whack” where every Wednesday we take time out of our day to laugh, poke fun at and present to you absurdity in global financial markets in all its glorious insanity. While we enjoy a good laugh, the truth is that the first step to […]
22 April 2017 Doha – Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), in collaboration with the Embassy of the United States of America in Doha, will be hosting Terry Jones – a world-renowned entrepreneur and speaker – on Tuesday April 25th for a lecture on innovation, digital relationships, and leadership in the wired age. This is part of the Embassy’s speaker series, which brings out experts on various topics […]
Theranos, the embattled blood-testing start-up, set up a secret company to buy off-the-shelf machines, allowing it to hide the fact that it was generating patient results using commercial equipment rather than its own flawed devices, according to an investor lawsuit. Partner Fund Management, which invested $96.1m in Theranos in 2014, alleges the company created a wholly owned subsidiary, Protegic Procurement, to “secretly” buy the commercially available analysers, […]
Why Lower Manhattan? The bottom tip of Manhattan island was where New York began – with Dutch fur trappers finding it a handy harbour and trading site. Today, the trading is done on the New York Stock Exchange and in the giant office towers that compete for skyline space. But among the gleaming glass are remnants of a past that goes back much further than it does […]
Len Blavatnik, the billionaire investor, has been cleared of fraud claims related to his $19bn buyout of Lyondell Chemical, according to a ruling from a US federal bankruptcy judge issued late on Friday. Mr Blavatnik combined Basell, his chemicals business, with Lyondell in 2007 to create LyondellBasell (LBI), funding the transaction with more than $20bn of debt. The business quickly collapsed from the combination of the financial […]
Two pillars — Trump and China — have supported a bounteous few months for global portfolio investors. But the hope invested in both is starting to fade, casting a bearish tinge over what nevertheless remains a largely optimistic picture. In the case of Donald Trump, expectations that the US president would act swiftly to push though tax reforms, deregulation and bold infrastructure investments are starting to ebb […]
A Qatari hunting party kidnapped in southern Iraq in 2015 has been freed and was being handed over to a Qatari delegation in Baghdad on Friday, a senior interior ministry official told AFP. Sources close to the negotiations said their release was part of a far-reaching regional deal involving the release of prisoners and the evacuation of civilians in neighbouring Syria. “The interior ministry has received the […]
It turns out several leading US banks do not require case-sensitive passwords, which could make it easier for someone to access your account. A thread on Reddit on Friday pointed out that Wells Fargo, the third largest bank in the US, doesn’t require its customers to enter a case-sensitive password. Other users confirmed the issue, whereas other banking customers began checking their own accounts and noted that […]
Within the US fixed income market, investors are sending a clear message about the prospect of higher interest rates. In recent weeks, investors have pushed back against a string of leveraged loan transactions, with a handful of deals pulled as money flows into the sector have shrunk. The stumbles underline a diminished appetite for richly valued, floating rate loans, seen as providing investors with some protection from […]
ABU DHABI // The capital is the safest cities in the world, according to a 300-strong online index. Compiled by Numbeo.com, a database of user-contributed information, the Crime Index Rate puts the capital in 288th place among 288 cities in terms of crime, meaning it is the safest city on the planet. Dubai is in 279th place. Sheikh Saif bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of […]
CARACAS A man was killed in a protest in the Venezuelan capital on Thursday night, an official said on Friday, marking the ninth death in a wave of sometimes violent demonstrations against President Nicolas Maduro’s government. Melvin Guaitan died of a bullet wound in the slum of Petare, municipal mayor Carlos Ocariz said via Twitter. Local media reported looting and street clashes with security forces in poor […]
The Federal Reserve appears to believe that the size of its balance sheet matters, but not that bigger is better. The question is, why not? As the Fed pushes ahead with plans to shrink its stock of about $2.5tn of Treasuries and $1.8tn of mortgage-backed securities to “normal”, it is puzzling that officials haven’t provided a compelling case for why the move is either necessary or desirable. […]
Good morning. Program changes are same old The swashbuckling Murdochs now look as milquetoast as old media rivals whom they upended and disdain. With the belated firing of Bill O’Reilly, the monarchical lords of 21st Century Fox turned 1990s with their initial programming decisions. Yes, you can easily make dumb decisions when you’re king of any media hill and a financial juggernaut. But the initial post-O’Reilly programming […]
Dubai-based retailer Marka has announced that it is opening the first Reem Al Bawadi outlet in Abu Dhabi as part of its ongoing expansion plans for its flagship brand. The new restaurant brings Reem Al Bawadi to Dalma Mall and will offer a total capacity of 243 covers, with 111 seats inside and 132 seats outside. The venue, which will open this spring, also features a TV […]
France has launched an anti-terror investigation after a policeman was killed and two other officers injured in an apparent Islamist attack in Paris on Thursday that threatens to disrupt the country’s presidential election. French authorities said the suspected gunman had been shot dead in the assault on the Champs-Élysées shortly before 9pm local time. One civilian was also injured in the attack. “We are convinced that the […]
