Via Daniel Mitchell of The Foundation for Economic Education, I focus most of my ire on the federal government because bad policy from Washington is the biggest threat to our nation’s freedom and prosperity. But we also get plenty of bad policy from other levels of government. I periodically focus on the foibles of states such as California, Illinois, and New York. Today, though, let’s contemplate the […]
CATANIA, Italy Almost 1,300 migrants arrived in Sicily on rescue ships over the weekend after crossing the Mediterranean, while a 16-year-old boy died on one of the ships, Italy’s Coast Guard said. Italy has seen migrants arriving by boat at a record-setting pace so far this year, with far more people braving the crossing from North Africa this year than in the previous three years, Italian figures […]
François Fillon put his future as French presidential candidate for the centre right in the hands of party leaders after mobilising tens of thousands of supporters at a rally in Paris. Mr Fillon said he was the victim of a “manhunt” but notably omitted to tell the crowd — mobilised as show of strength among grassroots Republicans — that he would fight on as Republican candidate despite […]
Every gram of CO2 counts as carmakers race to cut emissions before tough new rules kick in Global carmakers, stung by emissions scandals, are racing to hunt down every gram of harmful CO2 spewed out on the roads as tougher pollution rules kick in. Auto manufacturers gearing up for Europe’s biggest annual car show in Geneva are celebrating the end of the sector’s crisis. European sales have […]
Maritime security will head the agenda as Australia and other Indian Ocean nations meet in Jakarta, with Indonesia pushing governance in a bid to prevent another South China Sea. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will meet with President Joko Widodo for the second time in less than two weeks when he attends the 20th anniversary of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) summit in Jakarta this week. With […]
BEIJING The killing of the estranged half-brother of North Korea’s leader who had been living in the Chinese territory of Macau may be top news around the world, but for some Macanese legislators at China’s parliament it’s more a case of Kim Jong Who? Kim Jong Nam was killed on Feb. 13 at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Malaysian police believe he was assaulted by two women who […]
A historic change in party rules has handed Shinzo Abe the possibility of becoming Japan’s longest-serving prime minister in more than half a century. The revision, which would allow Mr Abe to stay in power until 2021, marks a stunning turnaround for a country long known for its revolving door of prime ministers to becoming one of the most stable governments among the group of seven leading […]
Award-winning British artist and designer Zoe Bradley is not your average couturier. She rarely meets her clients for fittings of their gowns, her pieces are commonly only worn once, and some have been “thrown away” after use. This is because Bradley works exclusively in paper. Such is her pedigree that her clients for one-off commissions have included the likes of enigmatic Icelandic pop singer Björk and late […]
HP Inc’s new Customer Welcome Centre in London. Image: HP Inc/Jonny Back Photography George Brasher is a 26-year HP veteran who has worked in a variety of roles in the company’s printer and PC divisions over the years and is now HP Inc’s managing director for the UK and Ireland. ZDNet caught up with him at the company’s brand-new million-pound Customer Welcome Centre (CWC) in London, to […]
Via Nicholas Eberstadt of CommentaryMagazine.com, On the morning of November 9, 2016, America’s elite—its talking and deciding classes—woke up to a country they did not know. To most privileged and well-educated Americans, especially those living in its bicoastal bastions, the election of Donald Trump had been a thing almost impossible even to imagine. What sort of country would go and elect someone like Trump as president? Certainly not […]
Standard Life is in late-stage discussions to acquire Aberdeen Asset Management in an all-stock deal that would create the UK’s largest money manager with £660bn of assets and be worth around £11bn. The companies confirmed the talks on Saturday evening in a joint statement that said a deal would “leverage Standard Life and Aberdeen’s combined strengths to create a world class investment company”. They added that Standard Life […]
DUBAI // It was the first time for thousands to see rock legends Guns N’ Roses live but for many, the experience was marred by hours spent entering and leaving the venue. Some fans reported delays of two hours because access to the Autism Rocks Arena from the Al Ain Road was clogged. Others walked up to seven kilometres along the motorway after abandoning gridlocked taxis. Fans […]
Plot twists, accusations and 25,000 pages of evidence — a snapshot of the case that will determine Nawaz Sharif’s fate. Panama Papers leaked; Sharif family under spotlight — Feica/Dawn. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) makes 11.5 million secret documents available to the public for the very first time. The documents, coming from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, contain confidential attorney-client information for more than 214,488 […]
KUALA LUMPUR Malaysia on Saturday expelled the North Korean ambassador to the country, declaring him “persona non grata” and asking the envoy to leave Malaysia within 48 hours. The move comes nearly three weeks after Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was murdered at Kuala Lumpur’s airport with a toxic nerve agent. U.S. and South Korean officials have said […]
By Minami Funakoshi | TOKYO TOKYO U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is due to visit Japan, South Korea and China this month to discuss North Korea on his first trip to the region since he took up his post, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Tillerson’s trip would come as the United States and China try to put relations on an even keel after a rocky start […]
With its high growth rates and huge potential, battery demand is a key focus for metals markets. If 2016 was all about lithium, then 2017 should see cobalt start to attract greater attention. Prices have already accelerated to levels last seen in 2011, as rising demand from the core portable electronics meets relatively stagnant supply growth. And while risks remain — technological on the demand side and […]
In a bill aimed at encouraging asylum seekers to leave voluntarily, Austrian lawmakers are considering halting the provision of food and accommodation to migrants who are denied asylum and refuse to leave the country. Austria took in roughly 90,000 asylum seekers in 2015, more than 1 percent of its population, as it was swept up in Europe’s migration crisis when hundreds of thousands of people crossed its […]
You can’t fire Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnold Schwarzenegger fires you! That’s because the former California governor has just quit NBC’s The New Celebrity Apprentice after wrapping up its season last January. What’s more, the Terminator star blames the show’s forerunner, current president of the United States and number one critic of the show, Donald Trump for the show’s less than impressive ratings. It’s not exactly a surprising reaction from the […]
KUALA LUMPUR Malaysia on Saturday rejected claims it may have violated sanctions imposed by the United Nations on North Korea, after a Reuters report this week said North Korea-linked firms were running an arms network in the country. “Malaysia categorically rejects any such insinuation,” the country’s foreign ministry said in a statement. The statement said Malaysia has provided required responses to queries raised by the United Nations […]
Evan Spiegel gazed out over the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, where onlookers were recording him with his company’s retro-cool, video-enabled sunglasses, then rang the opening bell on Snap’s first day as a public company. Breaking the tech titan’s dress code in his suit and tie, he grinned and, unlike his biggest rival, made no grand proclamations about his company’s world-changing potential. Nearly five years […]
BEIJING Ri Jong Chol, a suspect in the murder of the estranged half-brother of North Korea’s leader, said in Beijing that he was a victim of a conspiracy by Malaysian authorities attempting to damage the honour of North Korea. Ri, a North Korean, accused Malaysia of using coercion to try to extract a confession from him, he told reporters outside the North Korea embassy in Beijing on […]
As NPR pointed out in 2015, “every new automatic device that enters our lives, from automatic doors to escalators, has had to face this awkward moment where people are skeptical and maybe scared.” When the first public railway opened in England in 1825, for example, people thought the human body wasn’t made to withstand travel at speeds of 30 miles per hour for long periods […]
DUBAI // What was once a wide, empty terrace at Ranches Primary School has been transformed into a peaceful outdoor garden where children as young as five can meditate and grow fruits and vegetables. Early years pupils visit the Rooftop Mindful Garden at least twice a day to calm their minds and nurture plants as part of a health awareness education programme the school is piloting with […]
In just six short months, the Dubai Opera has made a seismic contribution to the emirate’s cultural scene, living up to its early promise by staging dozens of diverse musical and stage spectacles. But inside certain cultured camps, there may be the somewhat legitimate claim that, despite the name, we have not seen a whole load of opera. The opening weekend’s fleeting Rossini and Bizet productions forgotten […]
