BEIJING China’s first aircraft carrier will carry out drills in the Western Pacific, in what the navy called part of routine exercises, but amid renewed tension over self-ruled Taiwan that Beijing claims as its own. The navy said in a statement late on Saturday the Liaoning, along with its accompanying fleet, would conduct “exercises far out at sea”, without giving details of the location or route, in […]
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 […]
“The resolution that was passed by the U.N. yesterday is part of the swan song of the old world that is biased against Israel,” Mr. Netanyahu said at a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony honoring wounded soldiers and terrorism victims. “But, my friends, we are entering a new era and, as President-elect Trump said yesterday, that is going to happen a lot faster than people think.” Continue reading the […]
The Observatory on Social Media at Indiana University has launched a powerful new tool in the fight against fake news. The tool, called Hoaxy, visualizes how claims in the news — and fact checks of those claims — spread online through social networks. (via WSJ)
The Turkish Army and police won, but victory brought an Aleppo-like landscape. Two dozen acres of the old city have been cleared of the rubble so far, leaving a featureless circular gash on aerial maps. The damage is mostly invisible from street level though, because alleyways leading up to the most devastated areas have been walled up where they intersect with streets that have reopened for business. […]
A recent study shows that one in every six women diagnosed with breast cancer chose to have a double mastectomy. The results are worrying because many of the subjects do not seem to be properly informed regarding the risks and benefits of the radical procedure. A Difficult Choice In recent years, health specialists have noticed an increasing tendency among women diagnosed with breast cancer to have both […]
By Maher Chmaytelli | BARTELLA, Iraq BARTELLA, Iraq Several hundred Iraqi Christians flocked on Saturday to a northern town recently retaken from Islamic State, celebrating Christmas for the first time since 2013, their joy tainted with sadness over the desecration of their church. Once home to thousands of Assyrian Christians, Bartella emptied in August 2014 when it fell to Islamic State’s blitz across large parts of Iraq […]
ANKARA Turkish authorities are investigating some 10,000 people on suspicion of using social media to support terrorism, the interior ministry said on Saturday, part of a wide crackdown that has alarmed rights groups and some Western allies. Turkey, which faces security threats from Kurdish and leftist militants and Islamic State, has sacked or suspended more than 100,000 people following an attempted military coup in July. It says […]
ABUJA Nigeria’s army has captured a key Boko Haram camp, the Islamist militant group’s last enclave in the vast northeastern Sambisa forest that was its stronghold, President Muhammadu Buhari said on Saturday. Boko Haram has killed 15,000 people and displaced more than two million during its seven-year insurgency to create an Islamic state governed by a strict interpretation of sharia law in the northeast of Africa’s most […]
So it would appear. Bit Player Turns Star Shawn Harrington was one of the bit players in “Hoop Dreams.” A sophomore point guard at Marshall who moved from the junior varsity to the varsity during that glorious 1991 tournament run, he had his own star turn a few years later. After bouncing around several colleges — during which time he both got a degree and became a […]
ISTANBUL Turkey-backed rebels killed 68 Islamic State militants in clashes in northern Syria overnight, Turkish state media reported the military as saying on Saturday, as intense fighting around the town of al-Bab continued. Syrian rebels supported by Turkish troops have been laying siege to the Islamic State-held town for weeks, as part of the “Euphrates Shield” operation launched by Turkey nearly four months ago to sweep the […]
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 […]
The chief executive of Lockheed Martin Corp told President-elect Donald Trump on Friday that she was committed to driving down the cost of the company’s F-35 fighter jet, a day after Trump took aim at the cost of the F-35 in a Twitter post. CEO Marillyn Hewson said she spoke with Trump on Friday afternoon and assured him that she had heard his message “loud and clear” […]
That longstanding principle has largely collapsed since the victory by Mr. Trump, who campaigned on a strategy of breaking all the rules and has continued to speak in unmodulated tones. Continue reading the main story “In some ways, Trump is neutering the Obama administration,” said Douglas G. Brinkley, a professor of history and a presidential historian at Rice University in Houston. “They’ve avoided personally attacking each other, […]
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 […]
By Warren Strobel and Arshad Mohammed | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has asked two Cabinet departments for the names of government officials working on programs to counter violent extremism, according to a document seen by Reuters and U.S. officials. The requests to the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security involve a set of programs that seek to prevent violence by extremists […]
The already crowded malls around the UAE were even busier this weekend with Christmas shoppers scurrying to find last-minute presents, ranging from Santa costumes to appliances for cooking traditional dishes involving ox tongue. In the crowded aisles of Yas Mall’s Geant Supermaket, Leonanda Stegemann, a 44-year-old expat from South Africa, was examining cookers at the market’s Christmas corner. “I’m looking for a cooker because mine broke and […]
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 […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Saudi Arabia unveiled a $237 billion budget for 2017, an 8 percent increase from 2016, with projections of a record 33 percent decrease in the Kingdom’s national deficit. “Our economy is firm and it has sufficient strength to cope with the current economic and financial challenges,” said King Salman bin Abdulaziz.. “We have sought through this budget and its programs to improve the […]
By Lisa Barrington and Angus McDowall | BEIRUT BEIRUT Syrian rebels shelled Aleppo and air strikes resumed around the city on Friday as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies said the insurgents’ withdrawal from the city could pave the way towards a political solution for the country. A day after the last rebels left their remaining pocket of territory in the city, the Syrian Observatory for […]
Good morning. Here’s our morning roundup of all the media news you need to know. Want to get this briefing in your inbox every morning? Subscribe here. Most of us can feel unavoidably like Mongo in Mel Brooks’ “Blazing Saddles,” meaning a self-perception that “Mongo only pawn in game of life.” (YouTube) Yes, we all try to be philosophical but can lapse into merely being dim-witted, like […]
DUBAI // Two policemen were among five people jailed for three months for fighting at a nightclub in which two men were stabbed. A 41-year-old Emirati officer was convicted of attempting to kill a Jordanian salesman, 30, and a Syrian marketing manager, 27, on February 19. He denied the charges in Dubai Criminal Court. He and an Emirati inspector, 35, were both convicted of assaulting the Jordanian […]
Aamir Khan’s new film Dangal is a weighty biopic in more ways than one. One of Bollywood’s most acclaimed actors, he put on a staggering 27 kilograms to play the role of former wrestler Mahavir Singh – then shed it all in just five months to shoot scenes of a younger, fitter version of the character during his wrestling heyday. Dangal, which is now showing at UAE […]
By Wa Lone and Simon Lewis | YANGON YANGON Before entering the courthouse in the capital of eastern Myanmar’s Shan State, Maw Maw Oo said it was ominous that several blue police vans were already waiting in the parking lot. “But I don’t want to guess what the court’s decision will be,” she told a Reuters reporter by phone. Hours later she was jailed for a month […]
