Authored by Konstantin Richter via Politico.eu, Last weekend, European leaders gathered in Rome for the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. They discussed, not for the first time, how to get the EU back on track. And they told each other they are still committed to the Union and believe in its future. (We’ve heard that one before, too.) But let’s just suppose that, when the […]
“We recognized the nature of the fight was going to change and that we had to ensure that authorities were down to the right level and that we empowered the on-scene commander,” General Votel said. He was speaking specifically about discussions that he said began in November about how the fights in Syria and Iraq against the Islamic State were reaching critical phases in Mosul and Raqqa. […]
The sleep revolution is not going to stop at the U.S. border. Now a few months out from its November debut, Arianna Huffington’s wellness startup, Thrive Global, is hiring additional journalists and preparing to expand to Italy, India and Eastern Europe. The expansions, joint ventures with Gruppo Espresso, The Times of India and The Antenna Group, respectively, fit into a strategy to “chronicle the culture shift around […]
Bank of Queensland (BoQ) has announced its results for the first half of the 2017 financial year, reporting a 6 percent year-on-year drop in statutory net profit after tax to AU$161 million. Interim cash earnings after tax for the six-month period came in at AU$175 million, down 2 percent on the prior corresponding period. For the six months to February 28, 2017, BoQ reported AU$252 million in […]
So much flip-flopping from Dennis Gartman in just the past week, it is enough to make one’s head spin. After missing Friday’s move lower, on Monday morning Gartman said he was actively looking to “re-establish net short positions” when S&P futures were sharply lower to which we said “at the rate the S&P is covering its opening losses, he should be able “find a point” where the […]
AMSTERDAM Elliott Advisors, the activist investor with a 3.25 percent stake in Akzo Nobel (AKZO.AS), said on Wednesday other shareholders owning almost a quarter of the Dutch paints and chemicals group want it to enter into talks with spurned U.S. suitor PPG Industries (PPG.N). Akzo has rejected a 24.4 billion-euro ($26.4 billion) takeover offer by PPG and declined to talk to the U.S. company to see if […]
KUALA LUMPUR Malaysia briefly prevented a North Korean ship carrying coal from entering its port in Penang because of a suspected breach of United Nations sanctions, a port worker and Malaysian maritime officials told Reuters on Wednesday The KUM YA, was carrying 6,300 metric tonnes of anthracite coal, according to a worker at Penang Port who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity. It was later allowed […]
This originally ran in our weekly newsletter Local Edition. You can join the conversation here. A few months ago, my son, Max, got me thinking about adaptation. “Everything is different!” the 9-year-old blustered from the back seat after his Kindle finished updating. “I can’t find anything now!” “That stinks,” I told him. But it’s also good practice, I said, for a skill that younger people figure out […]
If meat was handled in the same fashion as broadband in Australia, barbeques would be a lot less popular. Imagine a situation where there is a single government-owned cattle farmer, the weirdly spelled National BoviNe (NBN), and you know of its existence because there are always ads on TV and buses telling you to eat more meat, but consumers are told to continue purchasing meat from butchers, […]
HE Khalifa Al Mansouri, Undersecretary of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development, delivers welcome note on day one of the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit held at the Paris-Sorbonne in Abu Dhabi from March 27-30, 2017 Abu Dhabi, UAE, March 28, 2017 HE Khalifa bin Salem Al Mansouri, Undersecretary of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED), said that […]
After the biggest downturn in a generation, there are reasons to think the worst of the commodities slump might be over. The Financial Times’s Commodities Global Summit began on Tuesday in Lausanne, Switzerland. Here are the main talking points from the first day. There was no shortage of talk on Opec, which in November agreed its first reduction in supply in almost a decade. Executives from some of the world’s […]
By Josh Smith and James Mackenzie | KABUL KABUL Afghanistan plans to double the number of elite special forces from 17,000 troops, officials said, part of a long-term strategy to bolster units stretched and exhausted by persistent attacks from Taliban insurgents and other Islamist militants. Special forces, who represent a small fraction of the 300,000-strong armed forces, have been carrying out nearly 70 percent of the army’s […]
A typical office scanner can be infiltrated and a company’s network compromised using different light sources, according to a new paper by researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the Weizmann Institute of Science. “In the paper, “Oops! I Think I Scanned Malware,” we demonstrated how to use a laser or smart bulb to establish a covert channel between an outside attacker and malware installed on […]
Telstra has announced that it will be launching a new suite of managed security services and two new cybersecurity centres in Melbourne and Sydney. According to Neil Campbell, Telstra’s director of Security Solutions, the offerings will be ready for customers by July 19, with the aim to make the cybersecurity challenge easier for organisations to deal with. “We’re taking this opportunity to rethink and reinvent really our […]
During the 2016 United States presidential campaign, property tycoon and reality TV personality Donald Trump frequently promised that if he were elected, he would go to Washington and “drain the swamp”, removing career political hacks and bringing in new blood. When he was elected, however, in addition to packing the White House with relatives and controversial figures, he picked a long-time swamp-dweller for one of the most […]
Cuban president Raúl Castro is preparing to step down next year, Venezuela has cut millions of dollars in aid and Donald Trump’s election has cast a shadow over the nascent US-Cuba detente. Unnerved by the changes, Havana’s domestic reform drive has ground to a halt as the Communist party battens down the hatches. Marino Murillo, the senior official leading Cuba’s reforms, has not been heard in public […]
By Isabel Coles | MOSUL, Iraq MOSUL, Iraq Investigators are in the Iraqi city of Mosul to determine whether a U.S.-led coalition strike or Islamic State-rigged explosives caused a huge blast that destroyed buildings and killed more than 200 people, a U.S. military commander said. Conflicting accounts have emerged since the March 17 explosion in al-Jadida district in west Mosul, where Iraqi forces backed by U.S.-led coalition […]
Dawn is the time to see Angkor Wat. Waiting in the dark as the exquisite 11th-century temple is conjured out of the Cambodian jungle feels ridiculously thrilling. As the sun rises above the tall, minutely carved, lotus-like towers, and the ornate magnificence of the buildings is reflected in the great ornamental lakes, you get a sense of how 19th-century French explorer Henri Mouhot must have felt when […]
The Australian Federal Court has handed down its decision in Telstra’s proceedings against the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)’s final access determination (FAD) on wholesale copper pricing, with the judgment reaffirming the regulator’s decision. The ACCC’s FAD, published in October last year, cut the prices that the telecommunications giant can charge wholesale customers for use of its legacy copper network during the transition to the NBN […]
ABU DHABI // Two teams of UAE researchers are among the first to receive grants from a total of Dh45 million being awarded by the British government in the Arabian Gulf to tackle global challenges. Researchers at Masdar Institute of Science and Technology and Khalifa University are each receiving Dh1.8m for work on sustainability, in desalination and algae control. Eight grants are being given. Clare Grundy, deputy […]
Adriaane Pielou Holidaying on horseback is guaranteed to lift the spirits. The exhilaration you feel after spending time in the fresh air afforded by the countryside is enhanced by the fact that you can choose from a range of trips. Despite being a sporty kind of activity, a riding holiday can involve weeks crossing mountains and camping out each night. However, you can also choose undemanding meanders […]
The bagpiper striding across the bottle label wears flowing green tartan, a luxuriant black moustache — and a red turban. Bagpiper whisky, distilled by Diageo through its United Spirits subsidiary in India, is one of India’s most popular brands, available even in a tetra pak. But at Rs300 ($4.50) for a 750ml bottle, it is not a brand that will power a rapid return on Diageo’s £1.9bn […]
SEOUL South Korea’s family-run conglomerates are facing calls for a shakeup in their governance from a leading candidate in May’s presidential election, following the ouster of former President Park Geun-hye in a burgeoning influence-peddling scandal. The conglomerates known as chaebol have come under the reform buzz saw before, only to emerge bigger and stronger than ever. The country’s four biggest chaebol groups account for around half the […]
By Noel Randewich and Rishika Sadam Shares of Snap Inc jumped nearly 5 percent on Monday after several of the Snapchat owner’s IPO underwriters handed it badly needed “buy” ratings. Snap’s listing on March 1 was the largest by a technology firm in three years but trading has been volatile, with many investors critical of decelerating user growth. Snap has warned it may never become profitable. Analysts […]
